11-12-25 - *FULL SHOW* Ending the Shutdown; Sierra Club Troubles; Drone the Weeds

Now, the Bay Bridge spokesbirds. Otis, that lady just called us Bay Bridge spokesbirds. But we're also the Bay Bridge experts. Experts? We're the spokesbirds, Spike. We're also the experts. The red experts. It's simple. Don't drive in a lane with a red X. Only drive in lanes with a green arrow. Can't argue with that. Hatched your plan for smooth travel when crossing the bay at baybridge.com. Get traffic info and live cameras all in one spot. When the day is over, your bed shouldn't make things harder. Karoloha bed sheets are crafted from organic bamboo to deliver naturally breathable, moisture wicking, and irresistibly soft comfort, helping you stay cooler and comfier throughout the night. It's comfort that's gentle on skin and designed for better rest. Healthier qualities were proud to highlight through our partnership with the National Exema Association. Tonight, discover what Kariloha Bamboo Comfort feels like. Shop Kariloha now at Kariloha.com. That's C-A-R-I-L-O-H-A.com. Keraloha. Sleeping Better starts here. I'm Ross. This is Ross Kaminsky on the news with Tina Kotek. I'll say good morning to Gina exactly as she just... drank something so to make it as inconvenient. And sometimes there's little ice chunks in my water. Really? Every once in a while I'm like chomping on a piece of bikes. So good morning. Yeah, good morning. We've got a ton of stuff to do on today's show. I want to start with what Gina ended with there or almost ended with the government shutdown, which may be ending today, we hope. And we're going to talk about that more than once over the course of the show. I saw. A tweet yesterday from Jimmy Fala, who is just an incredibly funny dude. Fox News guy also has his own Fox News radio show somewhere. I haven't heard it. But anyway, very funny dude, former New York City cab driver turned comedian. And he put this out on X yesterday, which I thought really summarized it very, very well. Pro tip, if you're going to call it the Republican shutdown. You're not supposed to get mad that it's ending if you're a Democrat. If you're going to call it the Republican shutdown, you're not supposed to get mad that it's ending. So Democrats are mad that it's ending. And I think I'm not going to rehash all of that right now. But I do want to say one kind of forward-looking thing. And you've heard in the newscast just there, you hear the Democrats making this about extending Obamacare subsidies and in general, broadening this out into an issue about health care. Now, let me say that in the very short term, I think it's pretty obvious that Republicans won the shutdown battle. Does that mean they're going to win the war, though? I've got much bigger questions about that, right? They won the shutdown battle in the sense that Democrats went into it absolutely demanding. First, a permanent extension of temporary Obamacare subsidies. And I just want to be very, very clear about this for folks who have been misled by the news and maybe haven't heard me talk about it.

The Obamacare subsidies that they're talking about are not the regular subsidies that are in and have been in Obamacare since day one. What they're talking about are temporary subsidies that Democrats put in explicitly to be temporary. in the so-called American Rescue Plan that was passed only by Democrats, no Republican votes, when Joe Biden was president. It was a primary legislation that led to the massive inflation. So Democrats put in these things. as temporary, and now that they are expiring as written by Democrats, they're upset about it because some people who have been getting more of other people's money than they normally would want to keep getting more of other people's money than they normally would. So those are the expiring subsidies. It's not all of Obamacare. Okay, but so here's the thing. Democrats said we want a permanent extension. Republicans... Partly they said no, and partly they just, after that, they just ignored them. And then Democrats said, well, we want it for a year or then. And Republicans not only ignored them, but then Donald Trump made it clear that he's not going to back down at all. Not only did he say we're not funding food stamps, but for states that did send out some money, they said, you need to claw that back. And at that point, Democrats probably thought to themselves, all right, this guy's not messing around, some Democrats. He's not messing around. We're not going to win this negotiation. We're just going to hurt people if we keep the government closed, so we might as well open it. And enough of them thought that way that government hopefully will be open today after the House gets back and votes. But. So, so Republicans won the battle in the short term. Democrats clearly lost the shutdown battle. There's a lot of division within the party right now. And actually it would not surprise me at all to see Chuck Schumer decide perhaps to step down as party leader at the end of this Congress and maybe to announce that he won't run for reelection because he is, as one person said this morning, politically a dead man walking right now. But. But Democrats kind of stumbled into something that I think is going to serve them pretty well politically, and that is the health care issue. And here's the thing. Whenever you get government involved in a particular sector and the two sectors that come most to mind are health care and college education, where government gets involved in a way that causes people to think that other people are paying for their stuff, that other people are paying for their health care treatments, that other people are paying for their college, or that the loans are so cheap and take so long that it's almost like you're not paying for college.

Those two things, as far as major categories go, are and have for 20 years been the major sectors of our economy that have consistently increased fastest in price because there is nothing more expensive than when you make people think it's free or cheap. Because people then overconsume it and because the people who are providing it have a lot of incentive to just keep raising price as much as they can possibly get away with. That's especially true with colleges. So now you've got going back to health care, you've got a health care system and especially the health insurance system, even more than the health care system itself. The health insurance system is, it's very expensive. It's unpopular. And. Here's the thing. Republicans have not had since maybe Paul Ryan. And I know Paul Ryan isn't very popular with a lot of Republicans these days, but I'm still a fan. Not since Paul Ryan. Have they had someone willing to come out and aggressively say, here's what we need to do with health care. Here's the plan. Try to explain it to people. Rand Paul a little bit. He's a medical doctor. But mostly what you have is a bunch of Republicans with no idea. They've had 15 years to come up with an alternative to Obamacare. And if they've done it, they've been very quiet about it. And to the extent that Democrats now turn this issue into the issue for the next election, say, look how much your health insurance premiums have gone up. If Republicans are sitting there like, I'm going to, I'm going to, and no idea what to say, because they don't have the cahones to tell people the truth. And instead, you're going to find a few Republicans. Out there saying, oh, yeah, let's extend the subsidies for a while while we work out some other solution. No, no. The problem is government. And you're not going to fix it by adding more government. And it's also immoral to try to fix the cost, quote unquote, fix the cost of overly expensive health care. by subsidizing it, which means giving today's voters buying their votes with our children's future earnings. It's deeply, deeply immoral. So here's my advice for the Republican Party. Take a page out of Donald Trump's playbook. What do I mean by that?

Republicans way, way too often on issues like this where they think they have political risk, only propose these small, modest reforms. We're just going to nibble around the edges. Trump does not work that way. And Republicans should not work that way on this. What Trump will do is he will say something so, so crazy. So far out beyond what anybody is thinking about that he shifts the Overton window. If you haven't heard me talk about the Overton window in the past, just go look it up right now. O-V-E-R-T-O-N, Overton window. He shifts the Overton window dramatically. And then Trump almost never ends up where he said. But he could easily end up a lot further in that direction than anyone might have thought possible if the only way they ever talked about it to begin with was just a slight move in that direction. This is absolutely necessary with health care. We'll see if Republicans have the Cajonis and the wisdom to do it. All right, let's go back to Gina and find out a little more about what's going on in the world. Ross, I think you'll be touching on this story later this morning. The Columbine Valley police officer who falsely accused a Denver woman of theft will be facing disciplinary action. But what that will be is still unclear. Sergeant Jamie Milliman was recorded trying to serve a summons to Cressana Elser in late September, saying that he used to block safety cameras to track her before and after a package was stolen in Beaumar. It is locked in. There is zero down. I wouldn't have come here unless I was 100%. 100%. Elser was able to gather her own evidence from her phone and her vehicle to show that she never stole the package. The summons was dismissed. Breaking the law will soon cost more in Colorado Springs. In a five to four vote, the city council narrowly approved a $20 police tech surcharge. This will apply to traffic and municipal violations, but not to parking tickets. Police say the charge could raise about $540,000 a year to fund new body cameras, tasers, and other equipment. It's a slow start to the ski season, warm weather in the metro and in the high country. Breckenridge spokesman Max Winter says their team has worked hard to get their mountain open in time. Really, when we're trying to build a base for our early season terrain, we're really looking for good snowmaking windows. And so that means a wet bulb temperature of 27 degrees or less. We haven't exactly had the temperatures we've been looking for either. And so our teams have had to work really, really hard in this early season, getting our terrain ready to open. He says they expect more than a foot of snow to fall in the area over the next two weeks. And if you were ever curious, Pope Leo is revealing his all-time favorite movies. In an interview with variety, the Pope said his all-time favorite film is the 1946 holiday classic, It's a Wonderful Life. His favorite musical, the 1965 Oscar winner, The Sound of Music. Later this week, Pope Leo, the first pontiff, to be born in the U.S., will be meeting with a number of Hollywood celebrities as part of an ongoing Holy Year celebration. Your next update coming up in 15 minutes. I'm Gina Gondack on K-O-A. Dragon, did you put your trash out? I can't hear you. Hit the other button. Do that button right there. Yeah, and now turn yourself up a little bit. Yeah, that's better. Yeah, right, yeah. I almost forgot. Yeah. I pulled out of the driveway, made it up half a house, and went, wait a minute. Trash and recycling.

But what about the holiday for the Northern Lights? Oh, I didn't check. It might be sitting out there for a day and a half then. Crap. Yeah. So is your trash and recycling days on the same day? I don't even know when his is. And actually, I don't even know when mine is. Really? I just remind him every day. He tells me every day to put my trash out in a successful effort to confuse me. So your trash is just always sitting at the curb? I usually know, like, within a couple of days. So, yeah. No, you know what normally happens? And I couldn't tell you what day it is. Well, I could, but I'm pretending that I can't, is I'll go out and I'll see that my neighbors have their trash out. Yeah. And then I'll put my trash out. Well, Ross has a unique problem right now because he's building a house and is renting a house. So the house that he is renting has one trash day and the house of his building has a completely different trash day. Even though they're very near each other. Yeah. Yeah. That's confusing. I want to stick with you here, Gina, for a second on the story you just talked about with the Columbine Valley police officer. So I think you have the same information I have that this police, we don't know what the disciplinary action is going to be. No, they said that they will do some type of review and there will be disciplinary action, but there's no explanation of what that could be. And for those who missed the story, you know, we covered it on the show maybe two weeks ago. And it really bothered me. Basically, this cop shows up at this lady's house and says, we have you on camera and we know with 100% certainty that you did a porch pirate thing, that you stole an Amazon package off of this lady's porch. And the lady who was being accused said, I didn't. And not only that, but she said, if you just stick with me here for a second, I can show you the tracking from her, so she's got a Rivian, a super high-tech car. So she's got cameras and she could prove, she could overtly prove. prove that it wasn't her, that she just drove through that neighborhood, didn't stop, and it wasn't her. She did a great job gathering all the evidence that she needed because she was literally able to show, look, I was at a different house, not even near this house. She went to her tailor. Right. She went to her tailor. She just drove through the neighborhood and the cop said. Don't basically, I'm paraphrasing, don't waste your time. We know you did it. And if you're going to start, you know, trying to tell me you didn't do it, I'm not going to be courteous to you anymore. And what I was trying to figure out early on, and I wonder if you get any insights like reading between the lines. Do you get the sense that this was all him? Like he's the one who looked at the camera. He's the one because I don't see any mention in here of. Anybody else in the police department there, the Columbine Valley Police Department, having been part of the decision to do all this. Have you seen anything? That's the gray area that I'm not sure about of like, did he know exactly what the make and model of the car was, but didn't have the correct license plate or was there a license plate similar that was picked up? It really did feel like when he's talking to the body cam footage that he's doubling down on just continuing to say we know it's you. We know it's due. Right. So I don't I don't really know what that.

that line is, because obviously the flock cameras have been high debates, even in Denver. And we were talking with Mayor Mike Johnston about it too. And he was saying, well, you know, other counties, other areas aren't allowed to utilize them. It's just us and it's not going to third parties and things like that. So it's a really gray area of where it really lied, of how he had this information and showed up at her house and accused her of doing this. I think. He actually got her truck. But I don't think, I think the truck was just driving through the neighborhood. And he said, well, you were there around that time. And you've been in the neighborhood a lot. So we think you're casing the joint. And therefore, we know you did it. Yeah, with her car, she could prove that she didn't even stop. Right. Like that was how. She didn't even stop. Technology of cars nowadays. I don't root for people to lose their jobs. But the way this cop did this thing, it seems to me he should just. go. Like he's just not suited to the job and I think he should be made an example of. One other very quick thing I want to mention, as long as we're talking about these these flop cameras. I saw this story yesterday over at our news partners, KDVR Fox 31. Here's the headline. Boulder flock cameras help catch wanted fugitive with nearly 80 prior arrests. The Boulder Police Department said last week that Yeah, sometime recently, this flock safety that's the company alerted officers to a vehicle associated with a wanted fugitive. They found that the owner of the vehicle was wanted in Larimer County on multiple charges, had active warrants, had an extensive criminal history with nearly 80 prior arrests, including DUI, drug stuff, domestic violence, vehicle theft, and burglary. And they found the car near Pearl Street Mall in Boulder. And they found the dude. And they arrested the dude. And they found drugs and drug power and finalia and stuff like that. I mean, I don't care. I don't care if they find drugs on someone. But 80 arrests. open warrants for other things is a big deal. And this ties directly into the comment Gina made a moment ago about how these flat cameras are the subject of a lot of conversation. So, all right, we still have a ton of stuff to do on today's show. I'm going to take a quick break. Have a few words. Have a little more news. Keep it here on K-O-A. K-OA news time 630. I'm Tina Kotek. The federal government says step closer to reopening, maybe as soon as tomorrow. A House committee voting to send the latest measure to the full House for a vote later this afternoon. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warning of dire consequences if the measure fails. If this doesn't open, you might have airlines that say we're going to ground our planes. We're not going to fly anymore. That's how serious this is. Air traffic controllers have now gone without two paychecks. Many are calling out sick, leaving airports around the country short-handed.

Many Democrats say they'll vote against the funding bill unless it's amended to include an extension of Obamacare tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year and drive up health care costs for millions of Americans. Republican Congressman Buddy Carter willing to compromise. I agree. We're probably going to have to extend some of the subsidies temporarily to see if we can't get some of those premiums down. But long term, the Unaffordable Care Act is not working. The Senate promises to take a vote on that next month. A pact Douglas County School Board meeting last night with two controversial items on the agenda. One would change the contract renewal period for some charter schools from five to ten years. It failed on a four to three vote. It was also the first reading of a transgender athlete policy. It would prohibit biological males from participating in women's sports and vice versa. Dozen spoke some opposed to the ban. This is a less than one percent issue that is a fake culture war issue. It is a distraction from real issues like... student education and help. Others favor it. My daughter was a high school athlete. She told me just today. I never would have participated in sports. If I knew a boy was also going to participate. A final vote on the policy will be taken at a later date. Chad Bauer, K-O-A news. Colorado, one of seven states that missed a deadline this week to decide how rights to the Colorado River divvied up. Now the federal government could step in. Gary Wonker with the save, the Colorado points out that they're fighting. over a dwindling resource. And I think that is the cause of why this is taken so long and why it's a few times that are openly broken out into, you know, rhetorical fights. The current agreement expires next year. And Aurora topping the DoorDash Cheeseburger Index. At $14.54 compared to the national average of 18. Comparing cheeseburger prices, DoorDash Chief Analytics Officer Jessica Lax says Aurora ranked highly in the most of the company's affordability and resilience indicators. On Wall Street, Dow futures up 114 points this morning. S&P up about 25, NASDAQ up 162. In sports, the Nuggets improved to 8 and 2 after beating the Kings last night. They host the Los Angeles Clippers away tonight. And the abs, snatching their fourth straight win last night. night beating the ducks 4 to 1. Fox 31 pinpoint weather. Our stretch of 70 degree temperatures continues high temperature right around 70 today, dipping down into the mid-40s overnight tonight. Currently, we're at 44 in Denver. Our next update in 15 minutes, I'm Gina Gondack on K-O-A. Spectacular sunrise. Behind your heads, you had to turn around to see it before, but just amazing. That's the thing. I didn't get to see the northern lights last night, but the sunrises we get are pretty awesome. Is it, Dragon, is it too early to talk about cheeseburgers since Gina's talking about cheeseburgers? Gina started it. So yeah, you started it. I started it from a financial perspective, but if you just want to talk cheeseburgers, you can talk cheeseburgers. It's never, well, Dragon does clearly. Dragon, what's your question? Well, she had talked about in her newscast that the Denver region, Colorado has the lowest cheeseburger prices nationwide. So who has the best? cheeseburger here in Colorado. Since we have the lowest prices, what's the best one? Yeah, so it's like a DoorDash Cheeseburger Index is what they call it. I think you've heard of like the Hamburger Helper Index or whatever they do with that. And also the Big Mac Index comparing prices around the whole world, not just the country. So DoorDash looks at a cheeseburger, a soda and fries and then kind of compares the prices across multiple cities and they say that Aurora has the most affordable.

I think they said 1850 is the average price of a cheeseburger meal like that nowadays. Isn't that nuts? Yeah. The best cheeseburger, that's the bigger conversation. You would sit here in the Aurora, it was like 14 something. So we're $4 less, which is fantastic. But who has the best cheeseburger? Ooh, you know, I just thought of a thing. Now that I'm on six to nine instead of nine to noon, it'll be even easier to schedule to meet listeners for lunch. And we've talked about this in the past. Gina, would you be up for that? Sure. So, okay, why don't we do that? And I've actually sort of started down this road in the past, but I don't know that I followed through, or maybe just one time, just one time. But. Text us some ideas for where you think has the best cheeseburger. Text us at 56690. Please include Ross, Gina, or Dragon. That would help. Yes, please start your text with one of our names. So we know you're texting at us rather than the other radio station. And what we will do, the three of us as a committee with me as always being the junior member, what we will do is we will look for the best combination of... yummy burger and convenient location and pick a spot and we'll meet for lunch. Dragon, would you come to lunch? Unfortunately, I don't get off until after two. Oh, that's right. You're more difficult for me. Yeah, okay. Sorry, can I make this more difficult? Oh, yeah, you don't eat burgers. It's got to have a veggie burger. Got to have a veggie burger or some of them. Like, would you eat a salad? Would you eat a? Yeah, but if you can give me a burger place that also has a great veggie burger. Okay. All right. Why don't we make that part of the challenge? Yeah. Right? Or at least if you send a place and we're considering it, we'll rule it out then if it doesn't have a veggie burger or something like that. Okay. Or a good vegetarian option. Okay. It's not a veggie burger, but you're like, but they have this veggie sandwich or whatever. You don't mind eating with us troglodytes though who are significantly carnivorous? Can't. Yeah, no, that's fine. I don't mind that. Is your husband significantly carnivorous? Yes. Yep. Yeah. He cooks vegetarian because it's just easier. Yeah. When he goes out, yeah, he's always getting a meat meal. Yeah. See, I'm, um. My style in life generally is if there are some things that I need to do and some of the things are more enjoyable than the other things, I'll do the less enjoyable things first and then I'll do the more like deferred gratification. For example, for example, I will eat the cake. part of the cake first. Oh, yes. And then have the frosting. And the frosting, yes. Right? Which I think is what normal people do, right? Probably not, but that's what I do too. Yeah, okay. The majority of people do. Yeah, I think a lot of people do that. And so that's the same thing. For example, you know, I'll have a meal or I've got a steak or a brought worst or even a piece of fish or whatever. And then some vegetables. Eat the broccoli first. Eat the vegetables first. Yeah. Get it over with. Yeah. Get it over with.

Okay. I want to do a couple other things. Good ones already, by the way. Cherry cricket. That's one of the ones that's already tested in. A crown burger. Yeah. A couple of votes already. Crown burger? Do they have veggie burger? I don't know. Crown burger is really good. This is the thing and this is actually how the topic came up. A cheeseburger made with blue cheese. That's disgusting. But. Burgers are so, beef is so expensive. Like, I was in the supermarket yesterday, and I always look, because I'm me, I always look in that section all the way at the end of the meat where they put like the manager specials, right? And even the manager special ground beef, when it's on sale, is $6.5 a pound. And the rib eye steak on sale is like, $21 a pound. And meanwhile, and this is now, I'm not so much complaining. I am complaining about beef prices. But the other thing that's interesting for me, just as a consumer, is you can get these fantastic, they're called Durok, which is a particular kind of pig, but a Durok pork chop, really, really delicious. And those are, you know, not on sale, let's say, around $6 a pound. So beef. Like just ground beef, which is basically the cheapest beef, is even more than a great pork chop. And a steak, any, you know, sirloin, rabbi, New York strip are going to be anywhere from. Two to four times the price. And I do wonder just as a matter of economics, how much substitution is going on. And whether people are buying more chicken, more pork, more whatever, just not so many veggie burgers because veggie burgers. Yeah, Crown War. Bertrand, are you just telling me about a timing thing? Is that what you're doing there? Sure was, yeah. Yeah, I was trying to be professional on a semi-professional show. Didn't work. All right. So, all right, so let me do like almost one minute here on a thing. Westward has an interesting story. Marijuana lost with a whimper on Colorado Election Day. Now, you probably didn't hear about marijuana on the ballot because it wasn't on the ballot in very many places. But there's a small town, believe it or not, called Springfield. Like there's a Springfield everywhere in the world or everywhere in America. It's only 1,300 people in Baca County. They actually voted down having any kind of marijuana stuff in their town. And then the town of Craig, Colorado, they passed. by seven votes, 984 to 97. So with four people had voted the other way, it wouldn't have passed. A thing that allows, they already have marijuana, but it allows their city council to raise the marijuana sales tax by 4%. And that's going to be very interesting because what they say they want to do is to fund a library and a museum there. And the problem, like in so many other places, as Manitou Springs just lived through with the marijuana tax issue, is that.

it looks like they are going to base some semi-permanent spending on a declining revenue source, and they need to be very careful about that. We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back on K-O-A. KOA news time 647. I'm Tina Kotek. A vote is set for today on a bill that would end the longest government shutdown in history, but still delays and cancellations at airports are expected to get worse. The FAA has been ramping up flight cancellations since Friday due to the shutdown-related staffing issues. Locally, DIA is seeing 17 delays so far this morning, but 87 cancellations. The deal to reopen the government comes with what some are saying could be an industry killing change. The bill that passed the Senate on Monday includes a federal ban on hemp products containing more than 0.4 milligrams of THC. Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon says the move would effectively wipe out an industry that we have spent more than a decade creating. Americans' infant botulism outbreak is growing despite a nationwide recall of a certain baby formula. The FDA warned parents on Saturday that 13 babies in 10 states have gotten sick and needed to be hospitalized after drinking by heart hole nutrition infant formula. But now that number has grown to 15 babies in 12 states. All the infants are being treated with baby big, a special IV medicine designed to treat botulism. I'm Sarah Lee Kessler. New York City Mayor Alexa Ron Mundan. says he'll call President Trump before he takes office, even though Trump endorsed former governor Andrew Cuomo and threatened to cut federal funding if Zohran Mamdani won. And no jackpot winner in last night's Mega Millions lottery. That means the next estimated jackpot is at $965 million for Friday night's drawing. Your next update coming up in 15 minutes. I'm Tina Kotek on K-O-A. This is Ross Kaminsky on the news with Tina Kotek. That's Tina Kotek over there. Hi. Hi. We don't have our guest yet. So I actually want to just follow up with you for a second on that hemp story, which I think is a super interesting story because it's a bit. I think we grow some of that actually in Colorado, I think a fair bit. And it was a thing that former Senator Cory Gardner was very involved with. But Kentucky, they grow a ton of this stuff. And Rand Paul had put, had been trying to, oh, I see the phone ringing. I see the phone ringing. So we may have the guest here in a second. And maybe we'll, maybe we'll come back to the hemp story in a second. Yeah, let's. it. Let's do it that way. All right, Dragon, you can just, we got him? Let's do that. Okay, let's do this. I'm very happy to be joined by John Decker, who is the IHartMedia and 24-7 News White House correspondent. John, welcome back to K-OA. Good to have you here. It's good to be with you. Thanks for having me. We're day 30, day 43 of the government shutdown. And this could be the final day of the longest shutdown in U.S. history. The reason I say that there's a vote that's scheduled today in the House of Representatives on that legislation that's already passed the Senate that would reopen the federal government. So we'll see if that vote indeed happens today. The only thing I think that could be a fly in the ointment is that if not enough.

members get back to Washington because of the flight delays and cancellations that we've seen all over the country. So are you, is there a scheduled time already for this or is it kind of play it by ear and see when enough people are back? Play it by year. Play it by year. I think that's right. You know, I think that the expectation is that all of the members will be on the House floor for that vote. But, you know, you never know. And, you know, with a very narrow majority that Republicans have, that's the reason why I say this vote is scheduled for today. But it could slide into tomorrow if, you know, there are problems as it relates to air travel today. Speaking of air travel, John, I know there was one Congress member. I don't remember whose name was literally riding his motorcycle to D.C. in order to get there in time. And when we look at the shutdown and look at the impacts, obviously flights are the biggest thing that are impacting just average Americans. Do we have any expectation of, okay, a vote's a vote once it passes, it passes? But how long are the ripple effects? Because people are looking at their Thanksgiving travel and being like, what's going to happen here? Yeah, that's the big unknown. And I think that what we heard yesterday from the Transportation Secretary, that's Sean Duffy, when he was asked a similar question, is that I think he doesn't know the answer to that. He said it's not like flipping a switch. And for that reason, there could just, you know, certainly through the weekend, be some more delays and cancellations related to the government shutdown, even though the government has reopened. John, I suppose it doesn't matter much as long as the thing passes. But is there any chatter at all about any Republicans, like maybe Thomas Massie, who will vote no or any Democrats who might vote yes? And I will just mention to you, John, just for your own information, I see Steve Scalise on television right now saying he expects the vote to be tonight more like 7 p.m. Eastern Time, just so you know. Perfect. Well, no, I appreciate that. And thanks for telling me that. Yeah, I think Thomas Massie is going to be just among a very, very small handful of Republicans that vote against his legislation. He may be the only one. But someone like Jared Golden, he's a Democratic congressman who represents one of the two districts in Maine. I think he's going to be a yes vote. for agreeing to reopen the government, breaking away from his party. He's not running for re-election, number one, and number two, he represents a district that is overwhelmingly gone for President Trump in his three runs for president. John Decker, IHeart Media and 247 News White House correspondent. Thanks for doing that quick hit with us, John. Appreciate it. Thank you. Have a great day. Bye-bye. You too. You too. All right. We'll take quick break. We got a few words. We got Gina on the news. Keep it here on KOA. KOA news time 7 o'clock. I'm Tina Kotek. Well, it was the vote to set up the vote to reopen the government. AAs, four nays.

The eyes have it. The motion to report is agreed to. It happened early this morning in the House Rules Committee, and it teases up for a final House vote later today. That bill will keep the government operating through January and will fund some government agencies, including the Department of Agriculture through September, which of course controls those SNAP or food stamp benefits. Boxes, Lucas Tomlinson, the shutdown cut off some of that food assistance. The Supreme Court extended an order blocking full snap payments that will go out once the government reopens. Now, the bill does not include the subsidies to help millions of Americans pay for health insurance that Democrats have been fighting for. That's why Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries plans to offer an amendment to include health care subsidies, something he wishes Senate Democrats had fought for. They're going to have to explain themselves to their constituents and to the American people. The overwhelming majority of Senate Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, have waged a valiant fight over the last seven weeks. Eight Senate Democrats voted with Republicans this week to fund the government until the end of January. The lack of air traffic controllers still taking a toll on travelers with over 1,200 cancellations and more than 4,000 flight delays across the country yesterday. Nearly 100 of those were in and out of Denver. DIA already reporting 87 cancellations this morning. Aurora police want to expand their flock camera program. The cameras identify cars involved in crimes by their license plates. Chief Todd Chamberlain says privacy concerns about the cameras are unwarranted. They don't alert to every hit. They only alert to the hits where there's crime involved. They alert to a hit where somebody has taken your property and is now driving it around and most likely going to use it to victimize somebody else. Those flock cameras recently helped identify the driver involved in a deadly shooting on I-225. made an arrest in that case. But the use of the cameras has not been foolproof in September. A Columbine Valley police officer accused a woman of theft using flock camera images as evidence. She was able to prove she wasn't anywhere near the scene at the time. And now that officer who made the false accusation will be disciplined. The woman's story went viral after her ringed doorbell camera captured Officer Jamie Milliman, handing her a citation. for stealing a package, claiming he used a flock license plate reader to track her down. Turns out the woman had her own video captured from her dash cam, proving her innocence, and the police chief dismissed the citation. The town administrator says Officer Milliman will be disciplined. but won't say how. Brenda Stewart, K-O-A news. On Wall Street, the Dow, S&P, NASBAC, all pointing to a higher opening after a record-setting day yesterday. In sports, the Nuggets on the road taking on the L.A. Clippers tonight after beating Sacramento Kings last night, 122 to 108, the aft, getting ready to host Buffalo tomorrow night, notching their fourth straight win, beating the ducks four to one last night. Fox 31 pinpoint weather. Our stretch of 70s continues, high temperature again today.

the low 70s, dipping to the mid-40s overnight tonight. Currently, we're at 46. Our next update in 15 minutes, I'm Tina Kotek on K-O-A. Played connections and made one mistake. Ugh. Got through it though. Gina, do you do wordle or connections or any of you're a word person? Just have my 1,200 duolingo streak going on and cannot speak a lick of Spanish to you. So that is my entertainment. Wait, what does the streak mean like 1,200 days in a row of studying it? Yeah, yep. But studying it? is a loose term for me doing it. How does that program work? Like, how does it teach you? If you really want to dive into it, do a lingo laid off a majority of its staff and most of it's done by AI nowadays. So I'm learning how to say things like, where is the menu or I went to the store, not anything helpful or useful nowadays. And you pretty much do like 10 exercises. You can speak them, you can write them, you can match them, like match the word. So they do almost like a match game. It's really just turning off my brain for five minutes, and I'm definitely not learning anything. Okay, can you hit us with... No. No. Don't even try. Nope. Where can I get the best cheeseburger? Don't day. Stop. I don't know best. Cheeseburger. Mejor? Is it mehor? Is that right? I don't speak Spanish. I speak French and some Dutch, but I want to say Mejor. All right, what about a good, what about a good burger? Burger Bueno, Bueno Berg. I don't know. I don't know. I don't speak Spanish. Yeah, see. It's really bad. It's like you should not be using Duolingo. It's not as, unless you're. Oh my gosh. Can we ask the text line at 56690 Ross, Gino or Dragons and see if they could tell us how to say, where do I find? Yeah, how about this? We'll geneify it. Where can I get the best vegetarian burger? Yeah, okay, so that's what we need from listeners. Where can we get the best? That's what we need. Are you asking for it in Spanish? Yeah, in Spanish. Yeah, in Spanish. Not the answer to the question. I'm asking you to give us the question in Spanish. Although, although as long as we're going to waste people's time, and Gina has not yet been fully immersed in time wasting, we're just sort of tiptoeing into it. You are welcome to email the translation of the question, where can I get the best vegetarian burger in any land?

you want to send it to us in. And in fact, what you could do, oh, how about this? Send it to us in any language. And we'll try to guess what the language is. Don't tell us what the language is. Maybe it'll be something real tricky like Croatian or, right? I mean, there's got to be people listening who speak all kinds of languages. Are you going to try to speak it once they email it to? Probably not. Are you? Are you? No. No. Roskin Wood? Speak Australian. Not really. I can say Struth when I interview the Australian punter of the Denver Broncos. All right, let me do a little news story here while these cards and letters come in. Text us at 56690 with that question, not the answer to the question. Text us the question, where can I find the best vegetarian burger? In some, text us that question in some language other than English, and we'll try to figure out what language it is. Obviously, some will be easy, some not so easy. All right, there's some speculation going on out there right now, and it's just speculation, and he is publicly denying it, but of course he kind of has to. Denver public school superintendent Alex Marrero might leave Denver to go take the same job in Chicago. Now, I would have thought, right, and I know this is going to be a crazy thing to say, but I would have thought that given how unbelievably terrible the Chicago public schools are. that their goal would have been to try to make their school system better. So I don't know why they would want Alex Marrero, who would not seem to be the guy to do that. But in any case, the Denver Gazette says, after months of speculation and repeated assurances that he wasn't looking to leave. Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero is now one of two finalists for the top job at Chicago public schools. Marrero did not. deny or confirm that he is seeking the job. He said in his statement, while I have great respect for Chicago public schools and appreciate the professional recognition implied by recent speculation about my potential candidacy for superintendent, I want to be clear that my dedication remains firmly with Denver public schools where I am proud to continue serving as superintendent. Marrera went on to add, but when they signed their first check, I'm out of here. No, he did not add that. I just added that.

But I kind of think that's what's going on. The Chicago Sun Times and other outlets reported the tightly held secret, also noting that Chicago school board members signed non-disclosure agreements to keep the process confidential. During a public comment session on Monday, former Chicago schools board member, Dwayne Truss, criticized the lack of transparency. He said to the board president, we know each other somewhat, but please don't say the word transparency. because I might laugh for the rest of my time on the microphone here because this process of electing a CEO has been nothing but good old Chicago politics and backroom dealing. So what I would like to say regarding the concept of Chicago hiring Denver Public School Superintendent Alex Marrero away from Denver, what I want to say to that is yes, please, yes please. What I will note, however, in a moment of seriousness, is that... Denver Public School, the board, has just moved, was already very left, but now is even more left after recent elections. And one should not be assured that as bad as you might think Alex Marrero is, you should not feel highly confident that this new school board will actually choose somebody better. K-OA News Times 716. One person is injured after a possible road rage incident led to a shooting near Conifer. Jefferson County Sheriff's deputies were called to an area of Highway 285 south of Sourdough Drive just before 830 last night after shots were fired and one person was taken to the hospital. A portion of the highway was closed for several hours but has since reopened. A 27-year-old horse is dead. Two others are recovering from serious injuries after they were attacked by Mountain Lions on a ranch in Fort Susan Collins. Ranch owner Dennis White. tells Fox 31 he's never seen this before and he's concerned. It's a matter of time, I think, before something else serious happens with a human. And that's a little different cycle of life. He's lived on the property for 60 years and said he's never seen this many lions, even catching footage of one on his outdoor camera. Some top CEOs are expected to have dinner at the White House today with President Trump. It could include the CEOs of J.P. Morgan Chase, meta, Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Apple. It's the latest in a series of meetings Trump has held with business leaders. President Trump says the U.S. doesn't have enough talented people to fill jobs requiring certain skills. In an interview on Fox News, Trump said the HB1 skilled worker visa program is needed in the U.S. to bring in talent. When Fox News host, Laura Ingram, said we have plenty of talented people. here in the U.S. Trump replied, no, you don't, and said you can't take people off an unemployment line and put them in a factory making missiles. I'm Tammy Trujillo. And did you capture Mother Nature's light show last night? The Northern Lights or the Aurora Borealis produced a rainbow full of colors visible over much of our state. It occurs when the sun puts out a mass so strong it reaches the Earth's magnetic field creating a geometric geomagnetic storm. You can let us know with our social media poll question this morning. saw the Northern Lights last night. There is the slight possibility that you could see them again tonight. Just check Noah's website and you can share some photos with us as well. Our next update in 15 minutes. I'm Tina Kotek on K-O-A. We should make Gina do this because her question. In a foreign language, the question, where can I find the best vegetarian burger?

You're going to make me try to say it. Yeah. Out of the three of us, you're the only one actively taking Spanish. Yeah, that's true. Actively taking Spanish is, I'm the only one that enjoys Duolingo as my leisure activity and not learning anything and playing it more as a game on my app. But sure, let's see. Yeah, pick one. Where can't encounter the mejor hamburger vegetariania. You know, you're absolutely right. Those lessons are not sticking. You're so much better than who are you are on track. You're absolutely right. I told you. I'm so sorry to all the Spanish speakers in this state. Dragon, can you put my audio up? So I've gone to the source of all knowledge, Google Translate. And what I found in Google Translate is that you can... Have it speak the thing, right? So a listener sent in a version of this that I could not even begin to attempt to pronounce. And have a listen. Wow, right? That is Welsh for where can I get the best veggie burger? And then another person sent in this one. The word sushi is in there, and I don't know. This is Chinese, not Japanese. Yeah. And I don't know exactly what sushi means. I mean, it would seem like that would mean either vegetarian or maybe burger, right? Maybe there just isn't a word for burger for burger in Chinese. Any other good ones in there? There were a couple where I didn't recognize the language. I'm seeing a majority of the Spanish ones, which it looks like a lot of people just put it into Google Translate, because I'm not sure if we're getting the right verbs in there. But what am I saying? Because I have no idea what I'm speaking. I have no idea what you're saying. Also, the people that sent Welsh... Yeah. Do you think they speak it or do you think they just plugged it into Google Translate and found just fun random? That's a good question. That's a good question. Maybe there's a legit person from Wales who knows, probably the latter. Yeah. Or maybe they speak a little Welsh and they thought it would be cool to do it in Welsh, but they didn't know if they could do it just right. So then they did it, they put it in Google Translate. I don't know. I don't know. There was another one that looked like some version of an Eskimo kind of language. And I don't, I don't recall just which Eskimo language is, because there's quite a few of them might exist in. Oh, wait, here. Let's see. Hold on. Is there? Let me look for it. What's the Nook-Dak-Hembro. That's what I was just looking up. What is that?

That's the best I can do. It really is. Google Translate can't even do it. Google Translate can't pronounce the in, okay. Wait, where's the one we're talking about here? What does it say? Nook duck. Oh, I see it. I see it. All right. Let's go here. Here and then I'll go. I'm trying. It's not recognizing. Does Google know what it is? No. Kachua, whatever that. It can't. It can't pronounce it, though. Whatever it is, it's detected. It is Quechua. All right. Anyway, thanks for playing along. And seriously, folks, we, we would, Gina and I would love to have lunch with you guys at a burger place, although it has to be a burger place that has something Gina will eat. So a veggie burger, a black bean burger, something like that. But if you want to text us at 5669. Not in Spanish. It could be in Spanish, but as long as the name of the restaurant is the actual name, you can put in any language you want. Hey, Ross and Gina, we should all go have lunch at and then put the name of the restaurant. And text us at 56690 and we'll pick a restaurant and we'll all go meet there sometime soon. We'll take a quick break and we'll be right back on K-OA. K-O-A news time 730. I'm Tina Kotek. The shutdown nearly over. We're going to reopen the government. That's Minnesota Congressman Tom Emmer, part of the House Republican leadership, speaking after Rules Committee votes this morning to set up the final vote later today. He's confident they have the votes to reopen the government. We may lose one. We may get everybody. I mean, it's the right thing to do. But not all Democrats are on board with the bill that provides funding through January 30th. Curious with the decision by some of their Senate colleagues to push for the reopening because they are still not getting that guarantee on refunding Obamacare subsidies. Foxes. Mark Meredith says the Democrats are planning to introduce an amendment tonight to extend those health care tax credits through the end of the year. Until the shutdown ends, travel will remain a challenge. There are nearly 1,300 more flights canceled or delayed today due to an air traffic controller shortage. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is promising to pay those workers within 48 hours of the government reopening. Following some breaking news this morning out of the House Oversight Committee, which has just released emails to and from deceased sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. Committee Democrats releasing this January 2019 email, where Epstein corresponds with author Michael Wolfe, less than six months before the financier would be charged again, this time with sex trafficking of minors. Discussing President Trump's repeated claim, he kicked Epstein out of his Palm Beach club. Epstein writing, Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member of... Of course, he knew about the girls as he asked Gillesne to stop. That's ABC's Jay O'Brien. He says there's no comment yet from the White House.

Rivada police are hoping you can help them identify a man accused of stealing credit or debit cards and using them at various businesses in Highlands Ranch. Police say the man went into an open garage on October 15th and stole lawn equipment, IDs, cash, and cards. The suspect is a white man around 20. He has brown hair and was wearing a white and black true religion letterman style jacket. He also drives a dark colored SUV. And the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance says that their southern... Tamindua named Winnie is pregnant. It's native to South America and is also known as a lesser ant eater. On Wall Street, stocks are opening higher at the opening bell. And in sports, the Colorado Aves host the Sabres tomorrow night after notching their fourth straight win last night, beating the ducks four to one. The nuggets improve eight and two. After beating the Kings last night, 122 to 108, they're again on the road, taking on the LA Clippers tonight. Fox 31 pinpoint weather. Our stretch of 70s continues high temperature again today in the low 70s, dipping to the mid 40s overnight tonight. Currently, we're at 46 in Denver. Your next update in 15 minutes. I'm Tina Kotek on K-OA. Vegetals. It was definitely like a Christian video program show. Vegetables. Vegetables singing about... Jesus and cheeseburgers. Cheeseburgers. Yeah. Really? Yeah. They had silly songs with Larry. I think that's where the cheeseburger song came from. As a carnivorous Jew, I guess I missed it, although it sounds mildly entertaining. It was great. You know, we've mentioned a time or two here that There's another radio station that uses the same text line at the same time as us, and sometimes they have some wacky conversations. That's why we respectfully ask for you guys when you text in to 56690 to please text Ross, Gina, or Dragon. But Dragon, you had a thought about what we might do. Just for funzies randomly throughout the day, if they're doing something good over there. Good is in quotes. Just find some random text message from that show and just see how it plays. Here's one. If a man turns it down, the wife is going to think he's getting it elsewhere, so we never turn it down. Yeah. That seems to be, I'm not sure I want to drag you into that conversation. No, I'm just glad that you're now seeing what I see every morning. Every day. Because the conversations are interesting. Uh-huh. Plus, you're newly married, so you're still doing all that stuff. I've been married much longer than you are, so. I'm much in the same boat as these people on the text line trying to remember what that was like when I was newly married. But I think we won't get into that today, lest I cause Gina to blush. Oh, hey, Gina, let me drag you into this thing for a second because the topic that you found that I thought was really interesting. And here's the headline that you found at Denver 7.com. Solution in the sky, Weld County sees success using a drone to fight noxious.

weeds. And I love this story, partly because of the use of drones and, you know, way to adapt new technology and partly because of it's just really practical import. And especially for, you know, I think we've got lots of listeners in the city and lots of listeners in the suburbs, but we also have lots of listeners, you know, outside and more rural areas in the country who live on farms and live on land. And I want to make sure that whenever Whenever we can, we bring stories that relate to them as well. So you found this thing. So tell us a little. It's fascinating. I mean, I know a lot of people have differing opinions when it comes to drones. They talk about how they're using them on police forces to respond to situations and stuff like that. And that could be controversial. But I think this one is pretty fascinating because they talk about how there's all these weeds and these. hard to reach places and swampy areas that they don't really want people walking out and trying to deal with. And so they have this drone in the Weld County drone weed program. And they named it blue. And they named it blue because it literally sprays out this this blue spray that is killing the weeds and all these invasive. non-native plants. I think they said they're even non-native to the country, not just to our state, but they're just things that they're looking to get rid of. So they're using it on like county properties and some private properties that need to be treated if they see that there is this invasive species. And they say that it's more accurate. They can cover more. They can, you know, fly it over and target exactly what they're looking for. Use it in the spring when like the weeds are most active and things like that. I just think it's very fascinating. It's a massive drone, too. We're not talking the little tiny ones that sometimes people pilot just for fun. It's a heavy duty device because they're using it with the spray on it. going to the areas that they need to treat and then being able to target exactly what they're looking for. Yeah, and as Gina said, in this piece, so far they're mostly using it on government land, but there are some private properties that have what the folks who are running this program call listed mandatory eradication species. And they've been doing it a couple years now. And I'll quote from one of the people running the program here, one of the bigger sites that we've been dealing with is Coal Bank Day. And we've always hand-treated Scotch thistle up there. In 2024, we treated it with blue, this drone. And this year we had substantially less. So we actually made progress. And we're saying, yay, there's light at the end of the tunnel. So as we're heading in the winter, they're going to stop using it. But when we'd start growing it next spring, they're going to start using it again. And they seem pretty optimistic that they can do more and more every year. Does it have a price? Did it say a price in there? It's a great question. It's the right question. It doesn't have a price in here, but what it says is that they believe that it's demonstrated that it's worth it for taxpayers. Okay. And you know what, you know, you and I haven't talked about this stuff a lot directly, but you know I'm kind of skeptical of government doing this and government doing that and government spending. But when you think about the alternative.

For this, like they were just talking about sending lots of people out there with sprayers and they got to mix up the chemicals and then, you know, and. liquid or water weighs what nine pounds per gallon and they got carry in how many people and spray all this and maybe like you said maybe they can't access it and know exactly what they're looking for too all these people have to be knowledgeable of okay this is this is what we're looking for and not start spraying some native plants and killing off the plants that's true so i'm i'm guessing this this probably should be uh A huge cost saver, right? I mean, you've got the upfront cost of buying the drone. It's probably a little bit expensive. But I bet you the cost of operating the drone versus the cost of operating, you know, three or six or 12 or 50 people going out in spraying. I bet it's a huge savings. Yeah. But the other thing that comes to mind because of what you just said, Gina, is... How does the drone know what to spray? So does it have any AI? Does it see a plant and recognize it, which could be because I'm sure you've seen these apps on the smartphones. You can point it at a tree or a plant and it'll tell you what it is. Right. So maybe it has that. Or maybe they just like give it a map and say go to this area and just disperse the spray. But at that point, I guess it depends whether the spray kills lots of other things or really just the weeds. But I don't know about that. When I saw the video, obviously drones still. relatively have pilots nowadays. So a guy's piloting it and he's looking through the camera to see it. But I think that's the pilot of the drone. So I don't know if he's then determining what it's hovering over or if someone else is looking over his shoulder that is knowledgeable of what it needs to target or if the drone itself is talented enough to be able to do that. I don't know. But I think it's pretty cool. I think it would be cool to outfit these drones with air to surface missiles. And for the guy who's piloting the drone to be able to just take one shot, you know, a prairie dog or just a stump in the ground that's in the way of a bike, just anything. Wouldn't that be fun? Just one. What? Why'd you start with a prairie dog? Why didn't you start with the stump first? Well, we were talking about invasive species. I mean, yeah. I don't know. That just seems like it would make the job so much more fun. What, dragon? I was just going to jump back here to the text line on the how to say, we can get a vegetarian hamburger. Yeah. We have a nerdy audience here. Yeah. The nook quack dog hamburger. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Kling on. Clingon. Clingon, according to the texture. Mm-hmm. Gini, do you speak Clingon? No. You think duolingo can help you with that? I'm not sure. Mm-hmm.

All right, let me do this for one minute here. I love this story. This is from our news partners at KDVR Fox 31. There's a building at 1420 North Ogden Street. It's called the Emerson School. It's in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. And it was built in the 1880s. And it is the oldest surviving school building in all of Denver. Now, it's not operating as a school now. It's basically an office building. And it's been massively. refurbished and it has this kind of environmental certification because they they did all kinds of thermal stuff for heating and cooling with drilling 30 kind of tunnels under it or something but anyway this building the emerson school is up for sale it's listed for six and a half million dollars and i have no idea whether that's the right price for a building like that but it is just such a beautiful, beautiful old building, a real piece of Denver history. So I wanted to mention it to you. I think I've got it in the blog if you go to rosskimoski.com, which you should check out every day. And if it's not there, just go to the Google machine and type in Denver's oldest surviving school. And you'll find the listing. And the pictures of the exterior and interior of this building are just spectacular. They really don't make them like that anymore. All right, let's go back to Gina and see what's going on in the world. COA use time 744 House members scrambling to get back to D.C. for a vote to reopen the government. We've even got a member Derrick Van Orden from Wisconsin riding his motorcycle all the way to Washington, D.C. So I think we'll all get here and we will have a vote to reopen the government. That's Indiana Republican Congresswoman Aaron Houchin. Overnight, the House Rules Committee voted along party lines to advance the measure, but did not adopt any amendments to the bill that would extend federal health care subsidies. The funding package now makes its way to the House. A final vote expected before the end of the day. The Columbine Valley police officer who falsely accused a Denver woman of theft will be facing disciplinary action, but what that will be is still unclear. Sergeant Jamie Milliman was recorded trying to serve a summons to Chrysana Elser in late September, saying that he used block safety cameras to track her before and after a package was stolen in Beaumar. It is locked in. There is zero down. I wouldn't have come here unless I was 100% sure. 100%. Elser was able to gather evidence from her phone in her own vehicle to show that she never stole the package. The summons was dismissed. Breaking the law will soon cost more in Colorado Springs in a five to four votes. The city council narrowly approved a $20 police tech surcharge. This will apply to traffic and municipal violations, but not to parking tickets. Police say the charge could raise about $540,000 a year to fund new body camps, tasers, and other equipment. It's a slow start to the ski season with warm weather in the metro and in the high country. Reckinridge spokesman Max Winter, that is his last name, Winter. He says their team has worked hard to get their mountain open in time. Really, when we're trying to build a base for our early season, we're really looking for windows. And so that means a wet bulb temperature of 27 degrees or less. We haven't exactly had the temperatures we've been looking for either. And so our teams have had to work really, really hard in this early season, getting our terrain ready to open.

He says they expect more than a foot of snow to fall in the area over the next two weeks. Your next update coming up in 15 minutes. I'm Gina Gondack on K-O-A. Where can I the best vegetarian burger find? Whoa. Right. I actually understood that. But that's where can I find the best vegetarian burger in Dutch? Oh. And so I actually understood that one because I speak a little bit of Dutch. But anyway, that's what we're trying to figure out today. And folks, text us at 56690 with, and this is serious now, where you might like to meet up with me and Gina for lunch. for a burger. Although Gina will have to have a vegetarian burger, a black bean burger, something like that, because that's her thing. So, but send us some ideas and we'll try to pick a place where we think there's good burgers and a location where a few people can get together. All right, a couple of things I want to do with you in this segment. First, from the Better Late Than Never files, a headline from the Associated Press. The FDA removes a longstanding warning from Horner. hormone-based menopause drugs. Now, Gina is many, many years away from even thinking about this. But for lots and lots of women, going into menopause is no fun. And, you know, I and well, my wife is of an age where this is, you know, an issue at this point. And I can't speak to it very directly, but I am led to understand that many of the symptoms of menopause are not that much fun. I think the hot flashes are probably most famous. or at least what guys would know about, but lots of other stuff as well. And so there are treatments for that that involve hormones like estrogen and progestin and they come in pills and they come in patches and they come in creams. And these things are aimed to kind of tamp down some of those symptoms, right? The hot flashes, the sweating at night and that sort of thing. Now, for many, many years, there's been a warning label. on this stuff that that says that they can cause all kinds of all kinds of problems, all kinds of health issues. And the data just isn't there to support that. At this point, the data shows that this stuff is safe. And they quote in this AP article, a doctor who deals with this kind of stuff. And he says, I can spend 30 minutes counseling someone about hormone replacement therapy, tell them everything. But when they fill the prescription and they see that warning label on the package, they just get scared. And so the FDA is now going to remove that warning label. Now, some folks say they shouldn't do it. Some folks say the evidence is not. conclusive or definitive enough to, you know, feel that confident to remove the warning label. One doctor at Harvard says the evidence.

for overall health benefits is not quite as definitive as what the head of the FDA said. But she also says the black box, that's the warning, is really one size fits all and it scares everyone away. So anyway, I think this is a good move because the upside of this for women who need this help is so large. And I'm not a doctor, but based on what I've seen in the data, I think the downside is quite small. So it's okay to have some kind of warning, but not a warning maybe that makes it look like, hey, if you take this, there's a decent chance. Something really, really bad is going to happen to you. So anyway, there's that for folks who need that information. All right, one other thing. I mentioned yesterday that. One of President Trump's underlings proposed and then President Trump put out on social media, this idea of offering Americans 50-year mortgages. I think for most Americans, it's a bad idea. I think it's a financial trap. And... The White House isn't actually happy that Trump put that out because this message got to him without going through the proper channels. Anyway, from one of my favorite news, and I put that in air quote, sources, the Babylon B. Let me share this story with you. Financial consultant and radio host Dave Ramsey. You probably know Dave Ramsey, right? Big time. financial advice radio show was reported to be in critical condition Monday after learning that President Donald Trump had begun pushing a 50-year home mortgage. According to sources, Ramsey collapsed at his desk after reading a true social post from Trump in which he pushed the concept of a 50-year home mortgage to combat the growing housing crisis. Quote, it was just a sudden shock he wasn't able to handle one person close to Ramsey's family said, quoting again, just the word mortgage is usually enough to cause adverse effects on Dave. The president pushing for a 50-year mortgage, however, was just more than he could bear. Ramsey was rushed to the hospital after suffering what was suspected to have been a major cardiac event from seeing such terrible economic policy. After regaining consciousness, he condemned the president for not following his envelope. method, quote, you can't spend money you don't have, even if it's stretched out over 50 years. Sure, you'll be able to afford the monthly payment, but you'll never be out of debt ever, Ramsey said from his hospital bed. Nurses later gave him a sedative and asked reporters to leave him alone. Ramsey's wife asked for prayers for her husband and for Trump that the Lord work on his heart and change his economic policy. Quote, I love the president, but he's clearly trying to kill my husband, Sharon Ramsey said. I told Dave to stay off truth social, but he didn't listen. At publishing time, Dave Ramsey had been discharged from the hospital and was able to pay his bill in full with an envelope of cash. So there you go. Dave Ramsey in critical condition after learning of 50-year mortgage from the Babylon B. And if you don't know what the Babylon B is, go look that up before you text at me. K-O-A.

News time 8 o'clock. I'm Tina Kotek. We're on the verge of the end of the government shutdown. I'm very confident that we have those votes. I'm very confident we're going to get this pass. That's what Congressman Buddy Carter told fellow Republicans ahead of the final vote that's expected at some point today. Early this morning, a House committee voted to advance the legislation to reopen the government, sending it to the House floor for a full vote. The bill would fund the government through the end of January and provide some funding for government agencies. Foxes, Lucas Tomlinson, says that includes food assistance. programs, SNAP benefits have been delayed this month for millions of Americans. The Supreme Court has extended an order that bars most states from fully funding those benefits until Thursday. Republicans will have to go at it alone, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. House Democrats will strongly oppose any legislation that does not decisively address the Republican health care crisis. He says he will vote for the measure if he's able to attach an amendment that will extend Obamacare subsidies for three months. Controversial issues brought out a lot of people to last night's Douglas County School Board meeting. There was a first reading of a transgender athlete policy that would prohibit biological males from participating in women's sports and vice versa. Many voiced their opinion on the policy, some in favor. When schools ignore this reality and allow boys to compete against girls, it is demeaning, unfair, and dangerous for girls and denies girls the equal opportunity. Others spoke against it. This filing is highly offensive in the language. to attack transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming youth and is plainly an effort to codify transphobia into our school district. A final vote on the policy will be taken at a later date. Chad Bauer, K-O-A news. The Doug Coe School Board voted down a proposal last night to extend some charter school contract renewals from five to ten years. And you may have unclaimed property being held by the state. State treasurer Dave Young says they're finding a lot of valuables in abandoned safe deposit boxes and other places. transfer the safety deposit boxes are of great sentimental value to people. They may have some pretty good value. I mean, we've got a six and a half-carat canary diamond ring that's valued at $100,000. Unclaimed property can also include unpaid wages, utility refunds, uncash checks, stocks, and investment returns. The program has returned more than $820 million to Colorado residents since it was created in 1987. On Wall Street, the Dow up 503 points. 500 is up slightly, NASDAQ down 27. In sports, the ads host Buffalo tomorrow night after getting their fourth straight win last night, beating the ducks 4 to 1. The nuggets improved to 8 and 2 after beating the Kings last night. They're again on the road taking on the clippers tonight. Fox 31 pinpoint weather, our warming trend continues 70s for much of this work week, 70s today, dipping down into the 40s overnight tonight, currently 46 in Denver. Our next update in 15 minutes, I'm Tina Kotek on K-O-A.

That's Icelandic for Gina's question. Where can I find the best vegetarian burger? What, Dragon? It's obvious, really. You're much too quiet. Is it just me or is it you? Gotta be just you because I'm already... Do you think he's a little bit quiet or no? Maybe a little. A little? Well, Shannon never talked, so... That is true. Okay, so what were you saying now at normal volume? At normal volume. It's obvious really when you listen. Play it one more time. Okay, sure. Right there. Easy. What? If you didn't know, you're not going to know. Can I just spell this word for you real quick? Do it. G-R-A-E, and it's that kind of AE where the E is overlapping the A a little bit. They're stuck together. They're stuck together. G-R-A-E-N-M-E-T-I-S-B-O-R-G-A-N-N, which must be Icelandic for veggie burger. But I mean, veggie burger is kind of a long word already. Let's do this other thing real quick. So I just want to say one thing. There was a listener who just texted in who said, I wish you would do more local and national news. And I said, well, we just spent like the last 45 minutes doing a whole bunch of local and national news stories. And therefore, in response to the listener's request that we do more news, I would like to not do more news for a minute. Because Dragon, what was that listener text that came in a moment ago that you just asked Gina about regarding like the perks? Besides working with Dragon, what is the biggest perk of radio? Okay, I'll give you my answer and I'll let Gina ponder her answer for a second because Gina is a more thoughtful person than I am and I tend not to think about things very much. For me, the biggest perk of this job, and this answer is so easy for me. is being able to hold the parabolic microphone on the sideline of the Broncos game. And it's been my favorite perk of this job every year for as long as I've been doing that. And I tell everybody not just when they ask on the air like this, but I tell people all the time, biggest perk of the job, being able to be on the sideline the Broncos games from time to time. Love that. I still need to do it. I requested to be on the list, but I know I'm very late for this season. So hopefully I'm on the top of next season's list. All right. And just as an FYI to those for this new time slot for Ross Kaminsky. Yeah. He's got an immense power this year. When Ross listens to the Broncos game. They are 8 and 0. Yep. Undefeated when Ross Kaminsky listens to the game. Yep. Meaning when I listen to Rick and Dave on the K-OA broadcast. Yeah. Which can be on the sideline. Benjamin Netanyahu Albright also claims that when he guesses the wrong score, you know how we always have all sports people. When he bets against the Broncos. They always. He also says they're 8 and no. Yeah. So I don't know if both of you are causing this or if one of you or if, I don't know, but just don't. Okay, so enough about my microphones. What's your, what's the greatest part for you of this show? Well, I was going to give some thought provoking. I really enjoy informing the community and being a voice for listeners and yadena. But the concert tickets, I had to say, which doesn't happen often. Yeah. But if there is a show where like.

I have a tier of shows I usually go through of like, if there's a show I must see, I will buy tickets for it. Because I don't want a chance not having that opportunity. If there's a secondary show that I actually really want to see, I also will buy tickets for it. If there's a show where I would love to see, but I won't be heartbroken if I don't get tickets for it. Yeah. I'll ask for tickets. Yeah, I'm kind of with you on that, but like I really wanted to see Rush, so I bought them because I don't know whether we'll get them. And if we get them here, I don't know whether they'll be very good. So I wanted very good seats for this. Listener text, best vegetarian burger, seeking the best vegetarian burger is like seeking the best suppository. That's not very nice. I do love all of the texts that have been saying the best veggie burger is in the trash. Yeah, that's a little rough. Let me do just a quick financial markets thing here for a second. Yesterday, the Dow was up something like 550 points. The NASDAQ has been a little bit weak. I think it's down three of the last four days and actually down a little bit today, even though the Dow is up again and the S&P is up again. And it's it's been this mess. Yeah, the Dow was up another 440. So what does that? A thousand. a thousand points in two days in the Dow. And part of it, I think, is a sigh of relief that the government shutdown is likely to end, maybe tonight. And also, I think there's another thing going on that I just want to mention briefly. Yes, the NASDAQ is down the last few days, but that's because the NASDAQ has been up massively in the last month or so. And a lot of it has to do with the idea of... not just billions, but perhaps trillions of dollars in upcoming spending regarding AI and data centers and everything related to that. So it's not just buying the chips, buying the servers, but it's even things like how do you get the energy to these data centers, right? So maybe there are going to be companies that build energy systems. Maybe there will be companies that build the interconnectors, how you get the power. from whether it's a natural gas plant or solar or wind or whatever. But how do you get it from there over to the data center? There will be companies having to do that. And there's this view out there that the infrastructure spending on all this is going to be a massive driver of economic growth. We'll see. I don't have an opinion about it, but I kind of wanted to help you understand a little bit why the market has been just so, so frothy over the last. couple of weeks, more than a couple of weeks, a couple of months. Anyway, that look at markets and finance is brought to you by Blue Heron Capital. I hope you found that interesting. Let me do another thing that is not exactly finance related.

But a thing that bums me out a little bit, you may or may not have been aware that for many years there have been a lot of trade tensions regarding Italian pasta. And there have been folks in the American wheat business, wheat milling business, pasta business, who have said for many years that Italy, quote unquote, dumps. pasta on America at a price that is not only maybe too low for some Americans to compete with, but maybe lower even from time to time than the cost. And I don't know if this is true. It's just a claim that the cost of producing the pasta. In any case, there was a piece at the Wall Street Journal that I saw a couple of days ago. I don't dig this very much. The headline is Italian pasta is poised to disappear from American grocery shelves. And the subhead, Trump administration, is set to impose duties of 107% on Italian pasta imports among the most punitive of tariffs it has levied. And... They quote in this piece, the CEO of a company that has a big pasta factory. And he says it's an incredibly important market for us. But no one has those kinds of margins. What he means is there's no pasta business profitable enough that they can still sell pasta into the United States if there are 107%. tariffs. And it's not that the pasta making company in Italy pays the tariffs, right? What he means when he says we don't have that kind of margin is that when the U.S. imposed the tariffs, imposes the tariff, and the tariff is paid by the American company that imports the pasta and then has passed along to one degree or another to the supermarket, to the consumer, even if the entire supply chain, including the pasta company itself. is willing to make less profit. There is not enough profit through that entire supply chain to be able to justify having that Italian pasta to be available for sale in the United States of America. There is just not enough profit. So it's, it's, it's, is not a done deal yet. But it's just something to keep an eye on and maybe you'll end up seeing at some point soon. Italian pasta will either get very expensive or it will disappear from shelves entirely. I sure hope not that would be bad. K-OA news time 814. A vote is set for today on a bill that would end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, but still. Delays and cancellations at airports are expected to get worse. If this doesn't open, you might have airlines that say, we're going to ground our planes. We're not going to fly anymore. That's how serious this is. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's comments come the same day, the FAA increased its requirement of airlines to cut 6% of all domestic flights due to a shortage of air traffic controllers. Locally, DIA is dealing with 19 delays so far this morning, as well as 87 flight cancellations. The deal to reopen the government.

Government comes with what some are saying could be an industry killing change. The bill that passed the U.S. Senate on Monday includes a federal ban on hemp products containing more than 0.4 milligrams of THC. Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon says the move would effectively wipe out an industry that we have been spending more than a decade creating. America's infant botulism outbreak is growing despite a nationwide recall of a certain baby formula. The FDA warned parents on Saturday that 13 babies in 10 states had gotten sick and needed to be hospitalized after drinking by heart hole nutrition infant formula. But now that number has grown to 15 babies in 12 states. All the infants are being treated with baby big, a special IV medicine designed to treat botulism. I'm Sarah Lee Kessler. New York City mayor elects are on Mondanis. says he'll call President Trump before he takes office, even though Trump endorsed former Governor Andrew Cuomo and threatened to cut federal funding if Zohran Mamdani won. No jackpot winner in last night's Mega Millions lottery. That means the estimated jackpot is now at $965 million for Friday night's drawing. And Pope Leo revealing his all-time favorite movies in an interview with variety, the Pope said his all-time favorite film. is the 1946 holiday classic. It's a Wonderful Life. And his favorite musical is the 1965 Oscar winner, The Sound of Music. Your next update in 15 minutes. I'm Tina Kotek on K-O-A. Because somebody mentions Neil Young doesn't mean they're asking you to play it. What? No. Why would you ruin their mornings like that? That's not possible. The listener said, so Neil Young tickets were easy to get, low demand, right? No. Obviously asking for me to play it? No. Not a, no. No, Fiddler's Green was full, and I did get those tickets for free, but not from work. Right, we didn't want to let work know that we really wanted to go. No, no, and I, yeah, so I just, I knew another way. I know a business that has sort of, they call it a box, but it's sort of a set of reserve seats, and I asked them if they had an extra pair of tickets for Neil Young, and they did. To make it even worse, the guy that you asked. wanted to go, but didn't have tickets because he gave him to us. I know. And I sure wish he had kept him for himself. Gosh, bad. So it was his tickets? It was his company's tickets. But he gave him to you. Yeah, because I'm a client of the company. It's my bank. Go with you? Or what was, I missed that. I wanted a pair of tickets because I didn't ship for Neil Young because I didn't want to suffer alone. So I didn't want one ticket. So I wanted Dragon to go with me so he could feel the pain of going to Neil Young. And the reason we wanted to go was because. reasons. Yeah, it's just a long-running gag about how much I hate Neil Young. Oh. And actually, I should say, as we learned more about him and sort of the things that he makes sure to get done at the concerts and all these things that he cares deeply about, it really makes me feel even worse about him. Can't stand the guy at all.

No name brand sodas, no name brand beer, no name brand beer, no name brand beer, no, no beef. I think he might be vegetarian or vegan and he wants to impose that on the rest of us. You can't buy a burger at an Neil Young concert. He's also 80 years old? 80 years old. How did he sound? All of your opinions aside, did he sound? Terrible. Yeah, but he sounded terrible for a long time, right? He sounded just like a slightly older version of terrible, but he's just an annoying. annoying guy. Oh, all right, anyway. You didn't have to play that. You did not. You didn't have. So on the Neil Young tickets, you still overpaid. Yes. Yes. If we were smart, we would have given them away or paid someone to go in our stead. But we did it for a bit. But we weren't the only ones that walked out. No, we stayed for a long time, but we had worked the next day. So I think would we leave just before an encore or something like that? But we saw most of the show. Eight, ten songs in and then we're like, all right, we're out. Yeah. Painful. All right, let me do this story that I had mentioned. It's his birthday today. Really? Yeah. More Neil Young. Yeah. He turns 80 today. He turns 80 today. Yeah. I hope there's mandatory retirement at 80. Gosh. All right, I mentioned this story, you know, a few hours ago when, when Gina and I were sort of doing the cross talk at the end of Colorado's morning news and beginning of this show. And I just want to do a couple minutes with you on it because I think it's very interesting, and especially because of where this article is, and it's in the New York Times. And the headline is the Sierra Club embraced social justice, then tore itself apart. And I will say there's a bit of schadenfreude here. So. Schadenfreude, a German word meaning enjoying the suffering of your opponents. So the Sierra, this is, again, New York Times, which is kind of amazing. The Sierra Club calls itself the largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the country, but it's in the middle of an implosion left weakened, distracted, and divided, just as environmental protections are under assault by the Trump administration. Now, I don't know if that latter part is true, but this is in the New York Times after all. Now, here's the Schadenfreude a bit. The group has lost 60%, 60%, of the 4 million members and supporters it had in 2019. It has had... three rounds of employee layoff since 2022, trying to climb out of a $40 million projected budget deficit. Its political giving has also dropped. It shows that they gave $3.6 million trying to beat Donald Trump in 2020, but none in 2024. And I just want to kind of go into what they did here because it strikes me as a much bigger, more aggressive version of the thing that I was saying a few years ago where I said, I said, I realized there's a big generational difference and younger people will tend to feel a little bit differently about this than I do. But I thought it was a big mistake for corporations to get involved in politics and for businesses to start taking overt positions on.

controversial issues of politics and culture because, again, going back to that Michael Jim Jordan thing, Republicans buy sneakers too. So Michael Jim Jordan is not in the business of offending, you know, potentially half of the customer base. And to me, what the Sierra Club did, even though they are already, you would think of them as kind of left leaning as an environmental organization. They were very, very focused for their entire existence up until several years ago on just the environmental stuff. But as the New York Times says, the Sierra Club lost its focus and then its strength. And they hired Ben Jealous, who I think I've had on the show one time before, who ran the NAACP for a while. But basically what they did was they decided that environmentalism wasn't enough to raise enough money. And they had these very, very left-wing people running the board of directors and all this stuff. And so they wanted to get involved in all kinds of other stuff. So they got involved in in DEI and all kinds of culture issues and social justice. And they thought they would recruit more young members. And it just. didn't work. They also expanded the number of their own workers covered by a union and then voluntarily raised the union member salaries by an average of more than 30% over five years, which is contributing to their downfall. And then listen to this. This just gives you a sense of how far they abandoned their environmental mission. They issued what they called an equity language guide, which warned employees. to not use words like vibrant and hardworking because they reinforced racism. Wait, what? They also said don't use terms like a lame duck session of Congress because the word lame is offensive. And they also said don't use the word Americans because it excludes non-US citizens. So I don't have time to go into this in greater detail, but I do have it up on the blog at rosskomensky.com. And it is a fascinating story that I think has wider implications for when an organization loses its focus and the perils of that. K-O-A news time 830. I'm Gina Goddak. Still a lot of housework ahead. Welcome back from your taxpayer-funded seven-week vacation. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries preparing Democrats to vote today on a funding bill to reopen the government. He wants an amendment attached to the bill that will include an extension of Obamacare tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year and drive up health care costs for millions of Americans. Republican Congressman Buddy Carter willing to compromise. I agree. We're probably going to have to extend some of the subsidies temporarily to see if we can't get some of those premiums down. But long term, the unaffordable...

Care Act is not working. The Senate promises to take a vote on that next month. Republicans reacting this morning after Democrats on the House Committee investigating Jeffrey Epstein released a series of emails referencing President Trump. We haven't heard back yet from the White House on this, but we have heard from Republicans on the House Oversight Committee. And they accuse Democrats on this panel who release these files of, quote, carelessly cherry-picking documents to generate clickbait. They say they ultimately will release these documents once they go through, redact things like victims, names, et cetera. And they say, quote, Democrats should stop politicizing. this investigation. ABC's Jay O'Brien. President Trump says he plans to sue the BBC over a special that contained edits of his speech on January 6th. Those edits combined comments that were far apart. The BBC called the cuts an error in judgment and two top leaders resigned over them. Colorado is one of seven states that missed a deadline this week to decide how rights to the Colorado River get divvied up. Now the federal government may step in. Gary Wonker with Save the Colorado points out they're fighting over a dwindling resource. And I think that is the cause of why this is taking so long and why it's a few times that are openly broken out. into uh you know rhetorical fights the current agreement expires next year but he believes the next deal won't change much and says the government could give states an extension to reach an agreement And there's a slight chance you may be able to see bright colors light up the skies again tonight in our state, after many of you took some pretty stunning photos last night of the northern lights. But meteorologists are predicting more cloud cover overnight tonight, which could obscure the view. You can check out the forecast for the Aurora Borealis by logging on to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center website. On Wall Street, the Dow is up 415 points. S&P up slightly. NASDAQ is down 64. In sports, the Nuggets improved to 8 and 2 after beating the Kings last night. They're in L.A. tonight taking on the clippers. The aves got their fourth straight win last night, beating the Ducks 4 to 1. And Fox 31 pinpoint weather seems like it's the same forecast on and on again in the 70s for the next couple of days, dipping down into the 40s overnight. Tonight, currently we're at 48. Our next update in 15 minutes, I'm Gina Gondack on K-O-A. I only mentioned it this birthday because you played the first song. Which was requested from the text line. Led to me Googling how old Neil Young is.

Which led to him being 80 today. I should just leave now. You two can just play Neil Young and... Happy birthday, Neil Young. I do love this text, though, that says the best veggie burger is like the best Neil Young song. Awesome. That's even better than comparing it to a suppository. That's absolutely perfect. I want to touch on a news story that's just breaking today. And Gina mentioned it already, but she's sort of, you know... coming out over the past hour or two. I'm going to go to Politico for this. And it's going to be interesting to see. I don't know whether this is an important story or not. I think in the substance of it, I suspect it's not particularly important, but in the politics of it could be. And so this is the headline from Politico. Jeffrey Epstein, a newly released email says Trump, quote, knew about the girls. Now, let me just give a little context here. When if somebody says that Donald Trump knew about the girls with Jeffrey Epstein, and specifically if Jeffrey Epstein says it, we got to be really careful. And I'm not looking to be sort of just aggressively defensive of Trump. At the moment, I continue to believe that. Trump most likely did not do anything wrong with any of those girls and perhaps didn't know, I think probably didn't know, but I won't go too far on that, what Jeffrey Epstein was doing to slash with these underage girls. In a way, I suppose you can't say with it has to be two, right? When you're talking about girls who are under the age of consent, then you're not doing really something with them. I suspect that Trump didn't know and I suspect that Trump didn't participate. So when Jeffrey Epstein says, and I'll get to the email in a second, that Trump knew what exactly did he know? Again, without looking to be overly defensive of Trump, because I just want to know the truth. It could be that knew about just means that Trump knew that Jeffrey Epstein liked to canoodle with, you know, girls on the younger side. Now, I don't mean, I don't mean underage, okay? Of age, but young. And of course, Donald Trump has his own history with... with women, with cheating on wives. And when he was a younger guy, certainly dating women who, as far as we know, young, but of the age of consent, you know, legal. The whole thing just sort of makes me want to take a shower just talking about it. It's all kind of gross. But. Congressional Democrats just released some stuff that was handed over to congressional investigators on the House Oversight Panel, handed over to them by Jeffrey Epstein's estate. The House Oversight Panel has been looking into this stuff for quite a long time. And this committee has also subpoenaed DOJ records. And in any case...

Epstein wrote in a 2019 email to author Michael Wolfe, who is a sort of muckraking guy who wrote a book that appears to have a lot of stuff that isn't true. But in any case, Epstein wrote, Trump said he asked me to resign, but I was never a member talking about the Mar-a-Lago club. And then Epstein wrote, Quote, of course he knew about the girls as he asked Galane to stop. So here's what I think this is about. I think. Ghislaine Maxwell, who was procuring these girls for Jeffrey Epstein and perhaps for Jeffrey Epstein's friends. That's part of the story that remains a little bit unclear as to who might have done that stuff. Like, for example, at this point, it looks like the former Prince Andrew of England, who has now been stripped of his title Prince. In addition to everything else he was stripped of before, just a few weeks ago, they actually removed the title Prince, which has probably never happened before. for in the history of England, right? Not just in recent years. There's probably never been a time where a prince had that title stripped from him. And I think there's only one time where it got even close, but it was voluntary, where King Edward VIII of England abandoned his throne to marry a divorced American woman named Wallace Simpson. So it's an incredible thing that happened there with Prince Andrew. What I suspect is that Ghislaine Maxwell, who is procuring these girls, went to Mara Lago, and we know she did this with Virginia Joufrey, the woman whose book was recently published posthumously because she killed herself. But we know that... Epstein's henchman or henchwoman was going to Mara Lago and recruiting girls there. And Epstein, and Trump said, cut that out. This is, you're poaching my employees. Separate perhaps from a question of what the employees were then going to go do. Trump was mad that Epstein directly or indirectly was stealing his employees. So we will see how this all plays out. The other thing that I wanted to mention here is that with the House back in session, the first thing I think that they're going to do. Maybe it'll be the second thing, but I think Johnson said it might be the first thing, is to swear into office. The newly elected congresswoman, Grijalva, is her surname, which is the same surname as her dad who held that office. She was elected now to Congress. She's a Democrat. She was elected something like...

seven weeks ago or eight weeks ago, but not sworn in because of the government shutdown. And also, Speaker Johnson wanted to delay there a little bit because she is going to be the final vote needed to force the House to then take a vote on. opening up the Epstein files, whatever Congress has, rather than going through the regular committee process. So it'll be interesting now that this is out there to see whether any of the small number of Republicans who are going to go along with all the Democrats in releasing the Epstein files, will any of them change their vote? I suspect they won't. K-OA news time 848. One person is injured after a possible road rage incident that led to a shooting near Conifer. Jefferson County Sheriff's deputies were called to the area of Highway 285 and Sourdough Drive just before 830 last night. After shots were fired, one person was taken to the hospital. The investigation is underway. Mountain lions causing grief on a Fort Susan Collins ranch. They've attacked three horses killing one of them. The other two recovering from serious injuries. Dennis White tells Fox 31 he found his 27-year-old horse dead in a ravine. You can tell she was covered with a mountain lions will cover their kill for seven to ten days and then they'll come back. He's lived on the property for 60 years and says he's never seen anything like it. The Denver Public Schools Foundation using its food security fund to help feed families affected by the federal government shutdown. The organization has given more than $100,000 to schools and community hubs to help stock food pantries during the shutdown. And some top CEOs are expected to have dinner at the White House today with President Trump. It could include the CEOs of J.P. Morgan Chase, META, Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Apple. The newscast sponsored by Dunright Home Improvement. Your next update coming up at 9 o'clock. I'm Gina Gondack on K-O-A. Dragon is playing this Neil Young. So I played some Tom Sawyer, good music, and then... I had to play the Neil Young. I had to play the Neil Young. Dragon, my birthday is the same as Neil Young. I've seen him maybe five times. Happy birthday to me and Neil. Okay, happy birthday to you, random text. Happy birthday to the listener. But you know, like, if you eat something that's not very good, you get a palate cleanser. It's often like a little, maybe lemon sorbet, even after you eat maybe something good. In the middle of a fine meal, you have a little palate cleanser, and so then you can get on to new things. So can you pop my computer up for a second, please? No. The palate cleanse. No. No, he says, this is the palate cleanser. Go ahead. Nope. See. Because it's still playing. I can put it in Q and hear it off the air. All right, fine. I'll do something else. Go ahead. Put my computer up now. Not a chance. Is it up? I've worked with you far too long to know. Wait, is my computer up? No. It's not. All right. Let's do a thing that I used to do with Mandy and now I'm going to do with Gina. You ready? Oh, okay. It's real or fake? Oh, all right. And I give you four headlines. Yep. One of them is fake, and you have to guess which one it is. Okay. Okay. And Dragon, if Gina gets it right today, what does she win? A veggie burger. Nice. I knew you were going to say that. We could actually make that happen. All right, here we go. Oh, geez.

Look what we're starting with right after we talk about food. Here we go. Urine-based astronaut food to be tested on space station. Man who bought used Mercedes finds out it had wooden brake pads. A study says people who binge drink as teenagers earn more money later in life. Whoa. And your last headline, research seems to show that people who own an alpaca live as much as seven years longer. Aw. Aw. Can you give me the first one again? The first one is urine-based astronaut food to be tested on Space Station. Dragon, put my computer up. No, I just heard it. Gina, what do you think is the fake headline? Can I, God, I really hope it's the first one. But for some reason, I have a feeling it's, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'll go with the first one. The actual fake headline, Dragon, is. Research seems to show that people who own an alpaca live as much as seven years longer. Fake news. Darn. Can you put my computer up for a second? Not a chance. I hate you a little bit today. Gina, you do not win a veggie burger, but you will have another opportunity tomorrow. All right. All right. That's another three hours of radio magic of Ross Kaminsky on the news with Gina Gondack. Oh, well played, Gina. I only had it because we have it in our system because they're coming to ball arena next year. That is. Fabulous. Everybody have a wonderful rest of your day. That other guy up next.