5/19/2026 THE SIMON CONWAY SHOW Hour3

All across the great state of Iowa, it is the Simon Conway Show 607 on this Tuesday, May 19th. Tomorrow morning, Hivey, that's every Hivey store, will be offering a free breakfast. to veterans and their spouses between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. at all their stores, as I said, this is for America 250. There are some people that seem a little confused. This is not for Memorial Day. That is not till next week. And anyway, not so sure that's the right thing to do on a memorial days for everybody have free breakfast. So anyway, they're doing free breakfast. This is exactly the same thing they do on Veterans Day. I'm going to be at four stores in the morning. I'm going to be at four stores in the morning, and you can come out and say hi. You can have breakfast, particularly if you're a veteran, for free, and you can join in The Fun. And we would absolutely love you to do that. I'm going to be at the store in Grimes, the store in Mike Johnston, Urban Dale, and then we're going to finish up at the Mills Civic Parkway store in West Des Moines. So come say hi. I'll be hanging out. with you guys and maybe we'll have something to celebrate because maybe one of you will have won a thousand dollars Yes, indeed, my friends, this is the last word of the day on my show, and we want you to win. So if you take the word I'm about to give you to the website of the radio station you're listening to, enter it where it's obvious, and if the phone rings within the hour, and if you pick it up and it's us, you just want a thousand dollars. That's how this works. So the word for this hour is Bills, B-I-L-L-S, Bills. Do it right now, and good luck, my friends. All across the great state of Iowa, it is the Simon Conway Show. A lot of things happening in our veterans community this week, next week as well. Obviously, Monday is Memorial Day. And joining us to talk about some of them, well, he is the guy that runs all the communications for the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs. And his buddy of ours, his name is Carl Leto. He's a little under the weather. How you doing, bud? Well, thank you, Simon. I'm great, all things considered, and glad to be here, and I'm proud to talk about this day. We really are very happy that you're with us. I know you're not feeling 100%, but that's okay. We'll be good. So it's going to start early. You're going to come out and hang with me at the Gold Star Museum. We're doing the morning show from the Gold Star Museum from 5am. You guys are going to show up, and who's coming with you?

Well, so Commandant Todd Jacobus usually makes that Gold Star Museum visit, and he plans to this year as well. And then following that, we've got a Memorial Day ceremony, the official state one out at Iowa Veterans Cemetery at 8, and then that's followed up by our one up at Iowa Veterans Home at 10.30. Okay, it's almost a, I'm please don't take this the wrong way, but it's almost like a traveling caravan because Todd will be with us at the Gold Star Museum. He will also be at the Veterans Cemetery. The governor will be at the Gold Star Museum. She will also be at the Veterans Cemetery, right? That's right. A lot of people are going to be at multiple places. So you are actually, whether permitting, volunteers are going to set flags at the Veterans Cemetery. that is on Friday yeah so Friday morning at 9 a.m again weather permitting standby for for contingency plans if necessary but yep every year they come out they gather and they put the they post the flags in the in the graves It's a really, really touching event all by itself. And if you can't get out there, usually one of the papers around will send out a photographer and get some shots to so you can see it that way as well if you have to. Yeah, absolutely. And then you guys are going out to the Veterans Home. I have done that event for you once at least been the speaker there, which is a huge honor when you guys asked me to do that. So what's happening this year at the Veterans Home? Well, let's, uh, I'll go back and, uh, and talk about both of them. So, uh, the Fenst cemetery is first. And, uh, actually this year in both locations, we have some, uh, some returning commanders from our guard units who have been deployed as our keynote speakers. So out of Iowa, Venn cemetery, it's going to be Eric Soltz. He is the brigade commander for the second brigade combat team, 34th Infantry Division. He just recently returned with his unit. And then up at Iowa Veterans Home, it's going to be Lieutenant Colonel Jody Marty. She's the battalion commander of 334th Brigade Support Battalion, who also just returned. You know, this year Memorial Day is going to hit closer to home than has in recent years. And having some of our folks back is really, you know, it's great timing. They can talk about, you know, their experiences over there, and especially, you know, those that we lost over the course of their deployment. But also, you know, what they're grateful for, too. Memorial Day is...

It's a time we recognize our dead, our service numbers who've given the ultimate sacrifice for everything that we stand for and believe in. For a lot of us, that's very close and personal. And that's okay. We encourage veterans, if they are struggling with Memorial Day coming up, to reach out to other vets in particular. Peers are usually one of your best sources of support. But also, you know, today of gratitude. Without the folks that we are honoring on Monday, everything that we hold dear would be in question right now. And that's something that we just can't forget. And it's our job as a nation to keep that forefront of our minds. Well, you know, on my show, we always do that. We'll never fail in that duty. I think it is a duty, but it's an honour, an honourable duty that we embrace wholeheartedly. Because it is very important that we remember. It's very important that we say their names. You know, I have two of their names, literally on a bracelet on my wrist right now. I haven't actually taken it off since I put it on. That's nice. Yeah, it's still there. Howard and Sergeant Edgar Torres Tovar. That's literally been on my wrist since the first day they made it, and I haven't taken it off. Because it's important. It's really important. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Okay, so that's the cemetery, and then you're going to go out to the Veterans Home. And a lot of the people who live in the Veterans Home, they lost brothers. Yes, absolutely. If any of the listeners have never been to an event up there, it doesn't have to be this year, but we encourage everybody to try and get to one. There's something about the events at the Ohio Veterans Home and Council Memorial Day and Veterans Day that's sitting there and being amongst of that crowd where you can actually see. you know, the sacrifices and the experiences and people who have put it all in the line for our country and being in their presence just gives it that much more weight and that much more significance. So if not this year, sometime in the future, we encourage every island to at least get to one Memorial Day or Veterans Day Service up there. Absolutely. Very, very important. We should also point out that there are others as well that are going on. across the state. You know, we could have in Council Bluffs, the wall that heals. That's the three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. That's going to be on display from Friday through Monday. And they're also going to do a closing ceremony for that on Monday at 2 p.m. Then there's the Dan Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum in Waterloo. That will host a special Memorial Day hours on Monday. His mission is free, of course, for all. veterans as well and on all throughout the state people can find this on on your website can they

So we have it on the press release that we sent out. We will get it up on the website. But again, you know, these are smattering of the ones that were sent into us. So encourage everybody also, you know, check your local listings too. Absolutely. Chances are there's probably something on, there's probably something going on very nearby. But these are the folks that send them in. We try to put out as many as we can and, you know, keep the state involved. Absolutely, very, very important. So there is, I can tell you that there's stuff in Des Moines, in Keircook, and Cedar Rapids, excuse me, West Des Moines, Mike Johnston, McGregor, and Sioux City. They've all got things, and there's probably things beyond that as well. So please do check all that out. A lot, before I let you go, I was actually at our state capital today by chance, and there was some legislation. that didn't quite make it. What was it and why? Oh, okay. Well, so as, as, you know, anybody who's been following the story is aware, we've been, I've been struggling as a state for a few years now with ranking near the bottom of our, you know, per average veteran compensation per veteran, meaning the money that They get from the VA in terms of their compensation. We're low. We're below the national average. As a matter of fact, we've been kind of waving in and out between like number 44th and number 47th. And that's been going on for a little while. So to address that this past year, Governor Reynolds put forth a bill. It was aimed at increasing efficiency and claims filing, transparency and reporting. She even added some additional funds to... incentivize our high-performing counties, and just as important, it increased the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund, which is the only state direct veteran emergency assistance program, to adjust it for inflation since it started in 2008. Now, that legislation that it resoundly passed to the Senate with bipartisan support. um over on the house side it passed the house appropriations committee 23 to 1 which is usually the last step but uh for some reason it failed to make the floor and uh We're not sure why we're a bit confused, but we're going to take another run out this next year and hopefully get better results. Yeah, I hope so. That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Certainly I will be talking to some members of the legislature and we'll see if we can't make it a priority. Before I let you go, Carl, you two, veteran, and what does Memorial Day mean personally to you? Is there anyone you want to remember, first of all? I have several that I always keep in mind. And I don't want to go into names, but folks that, you know, lost in conflict, you know, friends, brothers, I kind of reflect a little bit on those particular incidents. But also family members, too. You know, my father was a veteran. Sure.

And so this day is really, really important to me, and I'm sure I am not the only one out there. But again, you know, like I said earlier, at the same time, instead of kind of, you know, wallowing and misery over it, the most important thing is to remember to be grateful for these people that we have, we have a country and values that we have, and that we have folks, you know, like them before us and our current folks. that they are willing to put it all on the line in order to keep our way of life going. Because, again, without them, this would be a very, very different world. Sure would. Carl Letto from the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. You have yourself a good and safe rest of the day, sir. We'll talk again soon, and I will see you actually on Monday morning, right? All right, looking forward to it, as always. There you go. Thank you very much. It is a very important day in our household and amongst many of the people that we know and love. How about you? 515-284-1040. 284-1040. We're all across the great state of Iowa and this. is the Simon Conway Show. All across the great state of Iowa, it is the Simon Conway Show. You are very, very welcome in. It is 626 on his Tuesday, May 19th. And, well, to say we've been busy would be an understatement today for sure. So that was Carl Ledo. He's a friend of our family, but he's also the guy in charge of all communications for the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs. And as you heard, he's going to have a very busy Monday. We will be at the Gold Star Museum from 5 o'clock in the morning. You are all invited. All you need is ID to get into the Gold Star Museum. If you've never been, you should absolutely come. It's an amazing place. Absolutely come. There's going to be free breakfast there as well. Plenty to see. Go through the museum right at the end of the show. As we always do, we will have somebody come in uniform and play taps. The governor's going to be there, of course. The general, General Osborne is going to be there. Of course, the person in charge of all things veteran is going to be there, Todd Jacobus. And it's just a very... It's a very emotional day. Usually we have a choir show up as well. This year, Hy-Vee are going to be there. They're bringing donuts. I think they're bringing other stuff. I should get the answer to all that tomorrow morning. But they're definitely bringing donuts. So in addition to the regular breakfast is there, Hy-V. Donuts. Our friends who collect coffee will be collecting coffee. Don't forget to bring coffee. please. And when we say that, we're not talking about a cup of Joe. We're talking about ground coffee, including decaf, by the way. This is going to places like the veterans home where they don't have enough budget for coffee for our vets. So St. Barnabas does that. So you can bring coffee to donate to them as well. And it's just a really good...

place to be on the morning of Memorial Day. Really good place to be, truly. So that is where we will be and hopefully you will be there too. Usually you come in your hundreds and it's absolutely wonderful to see you. So please go ahead and do that. because we would truly love to see you. Okay, we are coming up to the bottom of the 6 o'clock hour. Just going to be us between now and the end of the show. No more guests. So there's a few things I want to chit-chat to you about, and no doubt you will weigh in on some things of your own as well. So that is pretty much where we are. Dave is getting ready to deliver some news. I see if we can't. It's been so busy. today. I haven't even managed to drag Dave on the air yet for something silly. So I'm going to hunt for something silly to, to drag him on the air. If not today, then tomorrow. Because I have seen how you are dressed. David. And Mrs. C is also in my ear saying, he's got a gig. So thank you, honey. I appreciate that. But I do remember how you were dressed. We didn't have our usual meeting. So it's probably why it didn't stick in my head. Anyway, let's go and move over to Dave, give him some news, and then he can get out there and go play some jazz. Jazz, right, tonight? Yep. Go catch Dave playing. It's brilliant. This is the Simon Conway show. All across the great state of Iowa, it is the Simon Conway show. I think I'm ready for a mental health break. You're ready for a mental health break, Mrs. C. Always. Okay. So, we've done the showing up for the kids' ball games. Baseball. I've done soccer back in the day. Basketball. Let me think. I've done baseball, wrestling, dance, football, basketball, basketball, volleyball, volleyball, dance.

Gosh, a lot. Oh, show choir. Show choir. Yes. Show choir. Well, in Tennessee at a place called Collierville. Collierville. Colierville. Okay. Thank you. It's in the south. Parents were arriving at the Rose Soccer Complex on Saturday morning. And, of course, they were expecting the usual refreshments, right? Little pouches of juice. Orange slices, right? Instead, they encountered 38-year-old Brittany Calloway, who had a full-blown brunch winery experience available. So far not hating this idea. She was escorted from the undernines girls' soccer game after setting up a folding patio bar beside field number three and selling what she called small batch mum juice. out of a monogrammed caller during the first... I love that it was monogram. Do you know it's in the South when it's monogram? Yes. She arrived at approximately 8.12 AM. She was wearing oversight sunglasses, a floppy beach hat, and a shirt that read, it's called self-care, Kevin. So far it sounds like every girlfriend I have in the South. Yes. She got out the collapsible table, the two fake ferns, a handwritten menu. Because one needs to decorate when one serves mom juice. From the back of a Tahoe with a powered by Pino sticker on the rear window. Okay. The menu included Collierville. Collierville, am I saying that right? Collierville. Yeah. Cabernet-ish. for nine bucks. Minivan Mosado for 11 bucks. Loving that one. Pino Grigio and childhood trauma for 13 bucks. Reff Whistle Risling for $15. A complimentary refill for any parent whose child got put in as goalie for character development. She also had, according to, police. Mm-hmm. You know how it ends. A battery-powered blender, a ringlight, a Venmo QR code taped to a pumpkin spice candle, and a Bluetooth speaker that was blasting early 2000s Kelly Clarkson. I felt like she could be my best friend. Anybody who has sat through late. Super young kids, like tea ball age. Yes. How many times have you sat there and thought, good God, I'm going to need to drink after this? Yes. It's 812 a.m. Well, you know, those are long days at the ball field. One dad said I honestly thought she was part of the tournament sponsorships. Was she IDing? Nope, but she wasn't, according to her, she wasn't selling, using my air quotes. She was merely asking for donations.

I personally think this is very entrepreneurial. Yes. Uh-huh. Another parent became concerned after her daughter said, why does Chloe's mom have a happy hour menu next to the orange slices? Okay, I've got to tell you, I'm struggling to believe that quote. Just struggling with that one. She was incredibly committed to the theme, said one police officer. She had punch cards. She offered us a loyalty program called SIP Happens. If I ever moved to Tennessee, ma'am, I am finding you, and you are my new best friend. Yes. She remained calm while being escorted away. She allegedly tried to hand out one final mason jar, which was labeled Silent Carpool Savignon. I love that she used mason jars. Here's the kicker. You ready for the kicker? Kick her on the ball field? Oh, yes. Despite all the, you know, like brew ha-ha-ha. Going on on the sideline. The Collierville lady, are you ready? Fireballs. So appropriate. Went on to win 5'2. You know, you can't be mad at a bomb. It comes up with this idea when your kid is on a team called the fireballs. That's just great. So anyway, there you go. Mental health break. Achieved. Just saying. I can absolutely see that being your best friend. By the way. Yep. Totally, yes. But luckily, we are out of the Saturday morning at the ballpark period of life and are at the college basketball court. Where the seats are still just as uncomfortable. They're very uncomfortable, yes, they are. But the concessions aren't that expensive compared to some places. I'm not even sure they're as expensive as high school concessions, actually. That's true. Yeah, I usually... You know, it depends on how tense the game is by the time it's halftime. But I might have to go for, you know, my bottle of water and Snickers bar. Sometimes I need Snickers because they get a little too hungry at those games. Yes. But packed up and the baby of the family will be taking her second flight tomorrow on an airplane. She's a little nervous, but she is flying down to Texas to see the boyfriend off. Yep. He will be moving into his dorm at Texas A&M. Yep. So we wish him good luck because he has a bright future ahead of him. And we look forward to going to some Texas A&M games. Yeah, we will. We'll go see some Texas A&M games. That'll be fun. It is 643. We're going to take a quick final time out. We're going to come back and wrap it up for a Tuesday. This is the Simon Conway Show.

All across the great state of Iowa, it is the Simon Conway Show. It is a primary night in six states tonight. Andy Barr has already won the GOP primary to be their nominee in a crowded Kentucky race. This is to replace Mitch McConnell. who is retiring. That is important. The other one that is important, of course, is Thomas Massie. And I've got to tell you, it looks like Thomas Massie might lose. The president, when the president endorses somebody, he has an astonishing number. He is... On the winning side, 95% of the time. That is an astonishing number. He came in for Andy Barr. He did that at the last minute, so he may have had some info, but I don't know that. by the way. But the bottom line is it is quite astonishing. So we're looking for Thomas Massie, who made some really nasty Israel comments today. I don't know if he thought that would help him at the last minute, but he certainly did that. Andy Barr has over 60% of the vote. in that particular race in Kentucky. So he is confirmed. Thomas Massie with 60% in is down 54 to 46. So with the president backing the person who's beating him, we will see if Thomas Massie loses. It's certainly going to be very interesting, to say the least. All right, that's the politics out of the way. Mrs. C has been receiving a whole bunch of messages while we've been on the air since we spoke about the Safe Center. I have. I have gotten phone calls. I've gotten private messages from people who have had experiences similar to my own that have not ever shared their stories, and I just need you all to hear me. Man or a woman. Or if you know someone, your story is part of who you are, and you can't change that. But it is okay to say what happened to you. There is a cathartic healing that will come with that as hard as it will be. But you have to know you are not alone. It is not your fault and you will get through it. No matter how long ago it happened to you, whether it be a week ago, a year ago, 10 years ago, or in my case 27 years ago.

You didn't deserve it. And you can live beyond it. And I am here if anyone ever needs to talk. There you go. And she means that, by the way. And she's now very easy to get to because you can just call the show and she's the one that picks up the phone. So that's not the best time to have the conversation, but it is certainly the best time to maybe connect for you. Okay. Well, I was going to do a story that now feels just bad after that. So maybe I shouldn't do that. Okay. Hmm. All right. I'm going to get rid of that one. We're not going to do that one. Instead, we'll do something a little bit more serious in that case. Kash Patel was speaking today because the senior Venezuelan Tranda Agua, a leader, has just been extradited to the United States from Venezuela. No, really. What we've done is clean up President Biden's open border policies. And just look at the month of December, Sean. We were able to stop four terrorist attacks affiliated directly with ISIS and other foreign terrorist organizations of individuals who are already in America, spanning from California to New York to Florida and North Carolina and Texas. That was just one month. So we are not only investigating and arresting people overseas, but we're capturing those that... We're allowed into our country under the corrupt policies of the prior administration and stopping those terror attacks on American soil. And we're going to keep looking for every single one of these individuals who wish to do harm to our way of life and invade our country who got here illegally and decided they thought they could commit crimes here. It's not going to happen on President Trump's watch. And that's why we're manhunting these people around the globe, putting national security first, and making sure their exploits and ties to terrorism are fully unraveled. The intelligence community. this FBI have no greater priority than that, and we are going to chase all of them down, and we have been in record numbers. There you go, the FBI director Kash Patel talking to Sean Hannity. Meanwhile, that isn't the only thing that's going on. The secretary of the DHS, Markwayne Mullin, he was talking about what he is encountering. If you think about it, underneath the Biden administration, they were letting in literally 150,000 to 200,000 in cases a week into the United States. They had files on a lot of these individuals because they were, quote, paroled into the United States because they were claiming asylum. So within usually 24 hours, 96% of the people that came to our border. was released back into the United States. I can tell you underneath President Trump's leadership, not a single person has been released into the United States in over 11 months. But when they released those, we had names and we had files on them. Now, when we started going and looking for them, only about 5% of them was correct. We started scrubbing all the databases. We started going through all the public records. We started really dialing down on who we're going after. And now when we go and serve a warrant, we have a

better than 90% chance of that individual is going to be there or be in that location. So we are just now hitting a stride to go after the worst of the worst and get these illegals that the Biden administration have let terrorize our cities and terrorize our streets back to the country that they came from. There you go. Oh, sorry. Markwayne Mullin. the new Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. So there's just a couple of things that are going on. On the text line, Simon, how can a president decide who gets elected? Well, he's not. He's merely saying, this person has my full and unequivocal endorsement. That's what he's saying. And then the people are then doing the next thing. They are clearly the people that say, which is essentially the... Left, you say that even the people that voted for Donald Trump don't like Donald Trump. That's clearly not true. By the way, Thomas Massie has just officially lost. That race has just been called. 72% is in. 54.4% going for the Galrain and only 45% voting for Thomas Massie. He is... out and I have no doubt he will continue to cause trouble between now and when he's literally physically out but so that's just a prime example of what I'm talking about it the president doesn't decide he says I think Thomas Massie should be gone then it's up to the people who show up But the president's record is of the people he has backed for election. He is right 95% of the time, which is an astonishing number, frankly. So there you go. That's just happened. Thomas Massie, gone. If you didn't like him, if you thought he was obstructionist, a lot of people did, gone. I think he tried something really desperate today with the... posting of the strongly anti-Israel stuff. It's almost like he's pro-Iran. It's very weird. He's gone very weird in the last few weeks, that is for sure. Maybe he saw the writing on the wall because they do something called internal polling. So they have a pretty good idea going in how it is all going to shake. out. So that is where it is with 72% in. The race has now been called. That's Kentucky Congressional District 4. So the AP has called that race. Thomas Massie is out. All right, my friends, we are out as well of time. Ha ha. Professional radio segue right there.

Thank you very much for being along for the ride. We really do appreciate it. Thank you to all of our guests today. If you missed any of that, then please, please, please do check it out on the podcast page. Thank you to the best producer in the business. That would be my wife, the wonderful Mrs. C. Thank you, honey. Appreciate you. But mainly my thanks to you, guys. It is truly never the same without you. We will be back at 4 o'clock tomorrow afternoon to do it all over again. Or I might see you at a high V store tomorrow morning. Either way, have yourselves a wonderful night. Good night.