'JR Morning ~ Full Episode ~ July 17, 2026

Happy Friday 605 here on a wonderful JR morning. Good morning, Lloyd. How are you? I am good. I made it through the smoke. Made it through the smoke. And I'm here. It is still quite hazy downtown. No, it is. Yeah, it's still very hazy downtown. And look, how long this is going to continue to linger in our area? I mean... Probably through the weekend. Yeah, most people seem to be saying experts. Yeah, I saw this morning that it should start lifting this afternoon and into the evening we should be good, but we may get another little round tomorrow, but it's not going to be as bad as it's been the last few days. I mean, Detroit had the worst air quality in the world yesterday. Now, if it's over 300, it's like really bad, and ours was like 500. Yeah, yes, yes. It's like, whoof. I saw, was reading yesterday on these fires that if you, like, are outside for prolonged period of times in that type of atmosphere, it's like the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes. Wow. If you're out all day, obviously, if you're running in and out of a store or whatever. Exactly. That's different. That's different. Yeah. But that's how thick this air was. And the videos of some of these wildfires that were burning in Canada. I mean, absolutely massive fires, massive fires. And the smoke billowing, it's like, you would have, if you were just fly by, you would have thought there was some sort of disaster that just happened. Why do we, why do we get these wildfires there every summer? Every summer. So over the last decade or so, Canada has cut funding for these wildlife. you know, expenditures, line items that would deal with this. Okay. Not entirely, of course. They've taken it down to zero, but they've cut funding for it. So that may be partially one of the reasons. All I'm saying is... Are people just careless? I don't know if that's it. You know? I think some of these fires start... naturally. Okay. But once they start spreading and they get out of control, it's like the palisades fires, right? It's like you could start to put them down and they're burning elsewhere. Well, and I guess if it's, you know, if you've got 100 degree temperatures, 90 degree temperatures and it's dry and very dry, I mean, you could, somebody could. Toss a cigarette butt out the window. Boom. Oh, sure, totally. It's a fire. Yeah. So we'll continue to watch that. But again, it's going to be pretty hazy again today. Meanwhile, the president spoke last night. Did you catch any of it? I did. I, uh, so. In the immediate aftermath of what he said, I went online. First of all, I was having a very difficult time getting onto Whitehouse.gov to view these, to view these documents, because everybody was trying to get on. Everybody was going on to the website. So in his speech, he alleged the vulnerabilities exist in American election systems. They used a large trove of newly declassified documents as evidence.

to show that future elections could be at risk, particularly by foreign's interference and particularly by China. And this is something that we haven't heard necessarily in the mainstream that China has obtained 220 million people's voting data or information around voting data, whether that's addresses, party affiliation, whether they voted, phone numbers, things like that. It is worth noting that at least from what I have read last night and into this morning, many of these documents contain information that we have already known. The China part in this is not something that we've heard on a widespread scale, that China was tipping the scale. They were playing funny business in our elections. And there was also a claim that Venezuela, which again, we have heard before. that Venezuela was conducting experiments on voting machines here in the United States. There was a declassified CIA memo in June that said U.S. intelligence determined in 2006 that Venezuela didn't have the capability to manipulate the outcome of elections outside of Venezuela. It also said that Venezuela did manipulate elections in their country because they had insider access. Sure. but have never done anything outside of the United States. On this idea of the Chinese voter rolls, he says that 200 million American voter registration files between 2020 and 2024 have been obtained by China. And here's the president on the Chinese strategy here. The Chinese government strategy against the United States. was focused on undermining domestic confidence in the US president. They wanted to just make you sound like your president wasn't so hot when actually your president has done a great job. According to these files, these pieces of information were purchased, illicitly stolen, hacked, or some other way obtained by China. But a 2019 report showed that... from a federal government agency, eight states voters databases were compromised by China. But that report also says that Chinese hackers targeted a large swath of the American public, including medical databases, social networking sites, think tanks, defense contractors, and even groups like the Heritage Foundation on the issue of widespread voter fraud. In a 20-year span from 2026 to this year, there have been. according to the Heritage Foundation, 100 examples of voter fraud. Not 100 different cases. No, just 100. 100 singular votes of voter fraud here in the United States. So, feels like a lot of this was rehashing, bringing up old new information. Yeah. It didn't feel like there was anything incredibly new. How did you feel about the fact that some of the networks didn't cover it? I don't like it. I told you that yesterday. The fact that ABC and NBC CBS was in it for a minute. MSNOW, you said was in it for a minute. I didn't see that. They were in it for a minute. I don't think that's right. I think you show the president, and if you have your analysis on the back end, then you provide your analysis on the back end. I agree with that. Because the reason I say that is if you only watch ABC,

He spoke for almost a half an hour. Yeah, yeah. And if you watch ABC, you didn't get any of it. Nothing. Now, maybe you don't care, and that's fine too. You don't care that ABC didn't show it. Yeah. I think you show it, and then you provide your analysis on the back end. That's what you have people on staff for. Because I think you respect the office. You respect the office. Regardless of who's in the office. Sure. And you can make the claim that if Donald Trump is going to go out there and pedal lies, that that's not something that we're going to cover. But again, it's coming from the White House. Yes. So that's where I think the differentiator for me is, is if it was a lawmaker on Capitol Hill doing it, you can go, ah, not covering it. Yeah. But it's the president of the United States. I think you have to cover it and provide your analysis on the other side. Health investigators have linked the Midwest Cyclosporias outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia. That's Corey. to a source familiar with the investigation. Meanwhile, Michigan has now confirmed more than 4,300 cases with 102 people hospitalized. State health officials say lettuce or salad greens remain the leading suspected source, although no specific grower or supplier has been identified, but no, they have been identified. We understand that Taylor Farms is the place that supplies Taco Bell and other places with... that shredded lettuce. And you know, this isn't the first time the company has been in a high-profile crisis. Just two years ago, an FDA investigation pointed into the Taylor Farms Colorado plant as a source of a devastating E. coli outbreak. Contaminated, slivered onion served at McDonald's, sicking over 100 people across 14 states, including... including here in Michigan and leading to dozens of hospitalizations and one death. Investigators later cited the facility for inadequate sanitation controls, though Taylor firms denied they were the source, pointing to clean results in their finished product testing. And going further back than that, they were linked to E. coli outbreak in 2015 at Costco and Costco chicken salads and similar cyclospora outbreak back in 2013. Their hands are not very clean. Literally. Literally. Literally. Yeah, when that information came out yesterday, I was very confused. Because I'm like, I haven't eaten Taco Ball. What is going on here? But we do buy salad from Costco. I guess I don't know the brand off the top of my head. Yeah. That very well could be in case. You know, my son had it. He's just gotten better. He's back to work now. He had it. But he knew he got it from Taco Bell because he eats Taco Bell. All the time. Yeah. So he said, Dad, I know. Even before all this came out, he was like, Dad, I know. It was Taco Bell. Oh, that's funny. We had a big sports weekend, World Cup on Sunday, Argentina and Spain, Argentina, the team with nine lives somehow, they just continue to advance. It is unbelievable. So that is going to be fun. We're going to talk about the ticket prices of that event a little later on. You'd never believe it. Oh, I heard about the beer drinking, too. How much beer is going to be drank? We're going to drink before, during, and after.

We're going to get drunk before the game. Thank you, Jason. We're going to get drunk during the game, and then we get drunk after the game. Also, Tigers back at it tonight. They're in Anaheim, 938 first pitch. First game back post-all-Star break against the Angels. Take a break. Continue talking about Donald Trump. His speech last night. Dennis Darno, joins the show with J.R. Morning. 18 states have been bought, stolen, or hacked by China. Yet those responsible for sounding the alarm instead kept the information secret and hidden. They did not disclose to me as president or to anyone else. That's Donald Trump last night. In his nearly half hour address to the nation on election security, many documents were released to the public that were formally classified. The president says it showed tampering. It showed vulnerabilities in our election system. I'm not sure it met that threshold. Let's talk about it with Dennis Darnoy, the political strategist and founder of Dennis our consulting. Dennis, good morning. It's good to have you back. Good morning. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. Do you feel like Donald Trump proved that there was funny business going on in his speech last night? Well, what I think he did a good job was in was describing the vulnerabilities that could be exploited, but I don't think that there was any proof that they were exploited. I didn't hear any evidence of altered votes or compromised machines. So at the end of the day, I think there wasn't a smoking gun that came out of that specifically pointed to, you know, an example of the fraud he alleged. You know, right after this, you started seeing these immediate reactions from people like Steve Bannon and Mike Lindell who are, excuse me, already, you know, using the address to argue that the upcoming elections are essentially compromised. You know, Dennis, as a strategist, does this kind of rhetoric actually suppress the GOP's own base by making them feel like, you know, voting is pointless? Yeah, I mean, that's been a question that's been raised. You know, obviously, the president has attacked absentee ballot voting before. And we saw in, you know, an immediate election where fewer voters, Republican voters, used that method, where once upon a time, especially here in Michigan, Republicans had a very robust absentee ballot program. So in some ways, it compromises, you know, their ability to compete. I think the other... that it does, you know, especially again here in Michigan, where we have open seats, that this certainly re-injects the 2020 election into the race for Secretary of State. And I think we've seen before when we've had, when Republicans have had candidates who have run for Secretary of State and made these claims that the Michigan voters have soundly rejected them. So by reintroducing this issue into the race,

here in Michigan, it's certainly going to be a little bit challenging for some of the statewide candidates. The president also focused on Michigan in one particular case out of West Michigan in Muskegon. This was ahead of the 2020 election where fraudulent voter registration applications were submitted in Muskegon before that presidential race, and they were flagged. They were caught by the... by the clerk there. The Michigan State Police found that. It was investigated by the state. Those fraudulent pieces of registration were never actually submitted into the voter rolls. So at the time, Michigan officials were claiming that this was a good example of our security working. It was then turned over to the FBI. But the president seemed to indicate that that wasn't a close case. Right. I mean, and that's a very accurate way of putting it. It was, you know, 8 to 10,000 submitted applications. So when he talks about 8 to 10,000, that number is actually real. But what we saw was that there is, you know, canvassers working for this group called GBI Strategies, which is out of Tennessee. and they dropped these applications off in Muskegon. And so, you know, it was immediately realized and flagged. It then was turned over to the FBI, who then looked into it, and zero fraudulent registrations were actually added to the roles. So, yes, it was actually an example of where they detected the material in advance. They alerted authorities, the city clerk of Muskegan, that is. And so the attempted fraud was caught before Election Day. Furthermore, when the Attorney General, Dana Nessel at this point, looked into it, they believe that the fraud being committed by the employees was actually against their own employer. They were trying to pad their numbers in order to get, you know, higher pay rather than a scheme to actually corrupt the vote count. So, again, it is a number that is a factually accurate number, but the reference that he cites, the president that is, is not accurate in this case. Dennis, I thought the structure of the speech was kind of different, you know, because he opened, he talked about the inflation numbers, he promoted the Trump accounts, and his prescription drug site, the Trump RX, and then he dived into the, you know, security warnings. Why mix those messages? I mean, if inflation... And the economy are historically the strongest issues for Republicans to run on. Does money in the waters with this massive complex fight over declassified intelligence kind of dilute some strong economic arguments? Yeah, I think so. I think, you know, again, the hope or the wish. to introduce other issues was say this is a, you know, major address from the president. He's focused on a number of issues, therefore, you know, talking about drops in inflation, stock mark performance, et cetera, et cetera, and then shifting into the integrity of American elections. And as we heard, you know, one of his, one of his goals, obviously, is to call on Congress and to put pressure on Republican voters, sorry, Republican senators.

to pass the Save America Act, which is, you know, something that has already passed the House, but is meeting resistance among Republicans in the Senate. So again, I think, you know, when you make a speech like this, and obviously this is a speech that's going to be more appealing to his base, Trump's base, there is a hope to then say, okay, now let's put pressure on the senators in, to pass the Save Act to implement some of these things, which he argues would help, you know, protect. us and some of these vulnerabilities that he then went in high-leveled last night. Dennis Starnoy, we appreciate your insight as always. Thank you. We'll talk again very soon. Have a great weekend. Have a wonderful weekend. Yeah, you too. No, I'm glad you asked that question because that was going to be my next question. I think what ultimately the decision made was, If you vote a war in Iran going on, inflation was just going up, but it just saw the biggest drop in the last six years. Right. You have to address those things. You have to address it. That wasn't the bulk of what he was going to talk about. Obviously, it wasn't. You know. But he needed to spend seven or eight minutes talking about. I know, this is something that's on your mind. This is what you, you know, so I'm on it. But. But here's really why we're here. Exactly. Yeah, that's kind of how it felt to me. Coming up on the other side, the smoke from the Canadian wide firewalls continue to linger. How do we protect ourselves? It's next. All right, so Detroit was ranked as having the worst air pollution in the world yesterday. It checked in at 724 in some areas. And 300 is like. Bad. Yeah. Like really dangerous. Yeah. 231 is considered very unhealthy. And places like Chicago, Toronto, Minneapolis, that's where they checked in. So, just absolute terrible here yesterday. And the question is, how long is this going to linger around? What are the ramifications of it? Let's talk about it. Aliquaki, the meteorologist at the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy Eagle here in the state of Michigan. Al, good morning. It's good to have you. Good morning, guys. Good and happy, too. Let's talk a little bit about, first of all, these fires that are raging in Canada. What is the, how quickly are they spreading? Is there any indication that they're dying down? And then moving into what we saw yesterday and what we're seeing this morning is how long is this going to stay? Yeah, so basically the past two weeks, we saw these fires, which were more so in the central part in Canada, creep more and more closer and closer to the east side of the country, more towards us here in the Great Lakes. And it was about last or this past Monday night, Sunday Monday night, where we really saw them pop off just north of Minnesota and the boundary waters kind of area and just up to the north of Lake Superior. And so obviously, right across the pond here in Michigan, very close to us. And so those are the fires that are directly impacting us, how close they are. That smoke that's impacting us doesn't really have enough time to disperse in the upper atmosphere, especially when we have these persistent north winds, just bringing all that smoke towards us. In terms of how long we think it's going to persist, it's going to persist throughout today. What we're ranking up to you right now is probably

stick around for the rest of today but then tomorrow we see some relief winds start to shift more south-southwesterly which will help blow that smoke back into Canada away from us but unfortunately we do see another plume come down potentially later the Saturday or into Sunday or into early next week just for those winds shifts back to more northerly flow but in terms of how the fires are spreading and how they're reacting right now um I just looked on radar. There's a pretty good system of rain going up in that area right now. So let's just wait and see if, uh, any of the rain kind of helps put out any of the fires. Once those rain clouds and everything go across those fires, you can look at satellite and see if any additional fires popped up or if any of the fires that are being tracked have been put out. So I want to just wait and see on that. Alex, you know, people hear these terms like fine particle matter. What exactly is that? And why is it considered so dangerous to breathe? Yeah. So if I have a particular matter, basically it's, it's, Two terms that mean the same thing. So it's five particular matter or a particular matter of 2.5 microns are smaller. So very, very fine particles and dust. These particles are smaller than a human hair. So very easy to get to our bloodstream, very easy to get into our bodies. So that's what exactly is impacting us. That's why it's so dangerous. It's so microscopic, essentially. This gets in our body and just it's just junk. It impacts us pretty severely at some cases. Everybody's wondering why we're seeing this more often over the last handful of years we've seen, not quite to this extent. This seems to be the worst, but this smoke that rolls into Michigan from Canada and these wildfires, what is causing these fires to spark up the way that they are? And why isn't anything done being done in Canada as far as you know to put them out? So in terms of why we're seeing them more often, typically, Basically, Michigan sees wildfire smoke every summer, but it's more so in the upper atmosphere. These fires can be out west, in the western provinces. It can actually be in the Pacific Northwest of our country. But these fires that we've had the past couple summers have been right across in Ontario or Quebec, some in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. So just the proximity of those fires to us is a lot closer. smoke doesn't have enough time to disperse in the upper atmosphere. In terms of the past couple years, obviously, yeah, like you said, way worse than what we typically see this year already, this event that we're under right now. blowing 2023 and 2025 off the charts in terms of the values that we're seeing and how long they're persisting around the state. And then in terms of just what we can do with Canada or what Canada is potentially doing, a lot of these fires are just in remote areas. Obviously, if they're nearing city centers or areas where there's a lot of population, they're going to do the best they can to protect those citizens and bring in the fire trucks, the planes, helicopters, to drop water on the fires.

But a lot of these fires are just in dense remote forests where there's not really any logging roads or anything. So our colleagues up in... Ontario that we talk with, sometimes they said sometimes you just got to let the fires burn out. And some of these fires, they don't go until, they keep going until wintertime. So just kind of wait and see kind of situation. You know, we know that children and seniors and people who have respiratory conditions are especially vulnerable. What's your advice for parents who have kids who have baseball games or they're in these camps or other outdoor activities as week? Yeah, so this is where the health department comes in a lot. We've been working with them ever since 2023 when the first major wildfire smoke event we had impacted us. And they recommend when levels get this bad, the hazardous range, which we're still under here in Detroit, essentially, if you can stay inside, stay inside. But if you need to go outside, mask up with the K-95 or the N95 masks. I know a lot of local baseball. leagues and softball leagues, outdoor leagues, they've been canceling games, but some are still playing. So just tell your kids and listen to your kids to listen to their bodies, if they feel more strain, drinking a lot of water. But they notice that their eyes are itchy, their throat is scratchy. Their nose is getting all impacted. That's your body being directly impacted by that smoke. So just kind of take it easy if we need to be outside. Ale Quinecki with Eagle, we appreciate your time this morning. The insight, thank you. And hopefully this thing. Gets out of here pretty quick. Oh, yeah, we're tracking it. Yep, no doubt. Thank you. Appreciate your time. You know, John Cougar, Mellencamp show at Pineau was canceled because of this. A lot of outdoor shows, you know, were canceled because of this smoke. I mean, you can't be at a concert, man, and enjoy yourself. looking like that and smelling like that outside. Well, yesterday I remember Brian said you woke up, he thought his house was on fire. Yeah. Because you could smell smoke. It smells like a bonfire. There were a number of police agencies, 911 dispatch centers that were receiving calls yesterday. Like something's on fire. What's on fire around me? Yeah, people in some cases, I want to say inkster, they were even responding to some of these. claims. But then it was the, you know, it was just the wildfire smoke that's just sitting on us, it feels like. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, again, from the Canadian perspective, if these are, you know, vacant areas, rural, dense forests, they're not going to do anything about it. Right? And part of it, part of it is that it's like it's. I don't know if it, but controlled burns we've seen a lot in dense forest areas. It's good for the ecosystem. Sure. It's good for it. And so in this case, if it's up in the middle of nowhere and it's, you know, burning down a portion of the forest, that's part of the deal. And he says, you know, this sometimes goes until the winter.

Oh, the fires, yes. Yeah, sometimes the fires go into the winter. It is interesting because everybody says, well, I don't remember this 20 years ago. And because they weren't as severe. And then it lingers in the upper atmosphere. So you're not necessarily impacted down on the ground level. No. But pretty fascinating stuff. Coming up on the other side, the Gordyhow Bridge is set to reopen or set to open. And. What is the concern about Chinese made cars coming into the United States from Canada? We'll talk about that. On the other side with Jamie Butters, it's J.R. Morning. So the Gordy Howe Bridge will, in fact, open. There was some negotiations happening between the United States on tolls and things of that ilk. And it will open. On the 27th of this month. So that's great news. Yeah. Great news. But one of the things, one of the concerns on the U.S. side, and actually we talked about it up at McConnor. We did. With Elissa Slotkin and Haley Stevens. They were partnering on legislation to prohibit any Chinese vehicles. made in China coming into the United States over our borders. Well, obviously, this is one of our borders. And it's become a particular concern because of the deal that Canada and China have made to bring in more Chinese-made vehicles, tens of thousands of them. Yes. And so the concern is, would they be able to come across the border into the United States and conduct some sort of... surveillance, some sort of espionate, you know, any sort of information gathering when they shouldn't be here is a real concern. So let's talk about it with Jamie Butters, the expert automotive journalists with the Butters Bureau and the host of WJR's Autotown, which airs Saturdays at 7am. Jamie, good morning. It's good to have you back. Hey, good morning. Glad to be here. So now with the Gordyhall Bridge going to open, for sure, we have a date. Does the concern level rise that these vehicles are going to make their way into Michigan? You know, vehicles. The Gordiha Bridge isn't a huge factor in that. It does make the border a little more free-flowing. But, of course, we have the tunnel, we have the Ambassador Bridge. We have the border with Mexico, where they already have a lot of Chinese cars. And there are Chinese cars coming to the U.S. every day on the southern border. So it does make it a little easier for Chinese cars to get here. It doesn't exactly change the game. But the concern is real. Jamie, Bill Ford made a pretty striking comment. He said that, you know, we can't expect to keep China out forever. Is he acknowledging the inevitable or is he just trying to wake up the auto industry here in America? I think it's a little of both. I think it's both. You know, we do need to try to keep China out, keep the Chinese cars out because of the...

security concerns, but also to keep them out as economic players to the extent that they have an unfair system. I mean, their cars are so now. But yeah, I mean, they're building that EV. They're working on that EV truck, $30,000 truck in Louisville to try to be ready to compete because you can't keep competition out forever. I mean, he also said that Detroit has to beat China at his own game. I mean, what exactly is their game? Is it, you know, the low prices, better technology, faster innovation? Yes. All of the above, right? The other thing with it, I would say, and this is the really important part, a big part of how China got where it is in EVs, is that they've spent decades developing supply chains for the minerals, you know, and I'm sorry. I don't mean to be like going on and on by like USMCA kind of stuff. But, like, we need Canada because they have more of the lithium, the graphite. They have the minerals up in their mountains. If we could get that out, and it takes, of course, you know how long it takes, whether it's in the U.S. or Canada, to get a mine going, to get a place to refine dirty minerals. People don't really like them. It's hard to get those things going. It takes years and years. That's what we have to do as an economy. U.S., North America, however you want to scale it, we have to find a way to make sure that we're not dependent on China for graphite, for lithium, for, you know, simple chips and things that they can control the whole supply chain of the globe. So that's where we have to really beat them at their own game. We have to, you know, staff up and build up our industry. to match them and not be so dependent on them. Well, and do we even have the infrastructure in place to monitor this, right? So, yeah, the Gordyhow Bridge is going to create and get another border crossing here between Michigan and Canada. But at the same time, do we have staff in place? Do we have the technology in place to be able to identify these vehicles that aren't welcome yet here in the United States from coming across? I think it's doable. I don't think it's not in place. If it was, we wouldn't have to worry about it. Right. Right. But, you know, with the Commerce Department rule that is designed to keep Chinese cars out, that doesn't fully take effect yet. And we'll see if Congress can pass a law. There are bipartisan efforts to address this with a law, not just a... presented by the executive branch. So, but with the VIN numbers, it shouldn't be impossible. It might slow things down if we have to check every car and make sure where it originated and turn the ones that are made in China back around, but it should be doable.

You know, and consumers always say that they want lower prices. I'm wondering if a Chinese EV showed up with some great technology, maybe the price tag, about $10,000 lower than the competition. Do you think Americans would buy it despite the political concerns? Maybe, you know. What I think, if it's $10,000, you know, maybe, maybe not. But I was just out at the Center for Aller Research, had their management briefing seminars. You know, they had an electric vehicle that competes with the Porsche McCann EV, and it was one third of the price. So, you know, maybe for 20% off, maybe they wouldn't go for it. But if it's less than half the price, yeah, a lot of people will buy them. Interesting stuff. Jamie Butters, always appreciate your insight. Make sure you catch Jamie's show Autotown, which airs Saturdays at 7 a.m. here on WDJR. Jamie, thank you. Have a great weekend. We'll talk soon. Thanks, guys. Yeah, you got it. No, I think if you're talking about the prices that these cars are costing, and again, they wouldn't be quite this price here in the United States, but if they were $25, $28,000, yeah. Yeah, people are buying those things. That's what I'm saying. I mean, how much useless crap have you gotten off Amazon that is, you know what I mean? Yeah, no. I know exactly what you mean. It would be the same way. If it's that much cheaper, you could buy two cars in the span of eight years and still have it be cheaper than, you know what I mean? So, yeah, I think people would flock to it. And that's why the concern is not only the national security side of things, but protecting our industry here in the United States. 7 o'clock hour gets caught up on the headlines. It's J.R. Morning. What is this? Nintendo? What are we doing here? I found this on Ryan Armani's page. Wow. Okay. We're playing Mario this morning. That's what it sounds like. All right. All right. They jam in the afternoon. Apparently. I see. Okay. All right. Good. Kind of looks like Gotham City outside. Yes, it does. Yes, it does. I'm waiting for the bat signal. I don't even think you'd be able to see it out there. You wouldn't even be able to see the bat signal. Probably not. A little smoky out there still. Yeah. And it's going to continue throughout much of the day. We may get other wildfire smoke this weekend as well. And, you know, this is the reality when these fires are blazing up in Canada, not really very far geographically geographically from us north of... Minnesota and then you get those northern winds and all of a sudden here we are yesterday with the worst air quality in the world in the world in the world by a long shot like it well there was wasn't really close no I mean like I said well when the air quality is around 250 300 that's pretty dangerous yeah

We were like, what? 700, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, again, it's limit the time you have outside. There was a ton of closures yesterday. The Mellon Camp concert at Pineob was closed or canceled. And, you know, I didn't see many people working outside yesterday either when I was popping around. No. No, I didn't see many ruffers. I did see some. Some people cutting grass yesterday. I saw a lot of grass cutting yesterday. Companies, you know, on different buildings or plots, you know, of land out there cutting the grass. But no, I haven't seen a lot of people out on roofs or, you know, in the trees and those types of things. Yeah. Donald Trump also spoke last night from the White House, and he talked about a number of different things. But he focused mainly on... election safety here in the United States. And there were a number of things that I think you can glean from what the president said. But he talked about a lot about Chinese access to voter rolls. And it's not a surprise. that a nefarious actor could get their hands on information. In fact, many groups sell voter information. Oh, yeah. But when you start looking at what exactly was included, according to the president and these allegations, names, addresses, phone numbers, military status, party registration, records on whether or not they voted. And he said that this all happened near the 2020 election. And, you know, Some of the narratives around this speech are he didn't necessarily. He was, I actually thought he was going to be more pointed in the fact that, yes, this was stolen from me in 2020. It really was less that and more showing what he says are the vulnerabilities in our election systems. And. you know, raising the alarm for future elections. Well, we have a midterm election in just a few months. Some people feel like you kind of, you know, shed some, cast some doubt on the 2026 election and it may hurt your own people. They may decide not to want to go because they don't feel like their vote counts because of what he was talking about last night. Yeah, and he brought up this case in Michigan as well, which goes back to. Just before 2020, where there were a number of 8 to 10,000 fraudulent registration applications that were submitted in Muskegon, Michigan State Police were investigating that. That was ultimately referred to the FBI. They were handling that case as well. And at the time, the Michigan Attorney General's office, Dana Nessel's office, said that it was proof that our election systems are safe. Because none of these registration applications actually got through. They were identified as being fraudulent and they weren't a part of those voter rolls. So the president pointed out that there was something going on there and this company that was handling this out of Tennessee. The idea here was that they were putting in these applications to juice the number so that they would get more money from this company based out of Tennessee when in reality there wasn't actually an attempt to.

influx fraud into the vote. It was just for them to try to get more money. Yeah. But he says that this is not a closed investigation that he wants the FBI to continue to look at this. And that goes back now six years. China has said this morning, not us. What mean? We can do it. Nope. What's interesting about what the Chinese said this morning, the official from the embassy, was that, you know, we would never interfere in, you know, different nations, elections. We would never interfere with presidential elections. It's weird that they oddly, they specifically said presidential elections. Exactly. It isn't a presidential election this year. Health investigators have linked the Midwest cyclospora outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and also West Virginia. Health officials have named the agricultural giant Taylor Farms as a likely source of the massive nationwide cyclospora outbreak. The parasitic infection, as you know, causes severe gastrointestinal illness. It's been tied directly to contaminated shredded lettuce served at Taco Bell. Now, this isn't that company's first high-profile crisis. And I'm talking about Taylor Farms. Just two years ago, an FDA investigation pointed to a Taylor Farms Colorado plant as a source of a devastating E. coli outbreak. Contaminated, slivered onion served at McDonald's, sicking over 100 people across. 14 states leading to dozens of hospitalizations and one death. Investigators later cited the facility for inadequate sanitation controls, though Taylor Farms denied they were the source pointing to clean results in their finished product testing. So they've had some issues in the past. Issues in the past. And now they are, you know, the lettuce server for Taco Bell, and they've linked it to that. I haven't had Taco Bell. What happened here? Well, I mean, listen, they also were connected to an E. coli outbreak from celery and onion mixes in Costco chicken salads. I don't think I've had that either. Okay, well. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe you had some. Lloyd, I'm just looking for answers. From there and it was in some other. Are you feeling better? We're getting there. You didn't let it go and just keep eating pizza every day. Yeah, I guess. I don't know. Yes, right. Force it out. Just force it out. Just force it all. Just force all that stuff out, man. Eat that pizza and force it out. Try to figure. Just trying to live my life. Just try my hardest. That's all I'm trying to do. I'm just trying my hardest. 712, time for WDJR's business. Be brought to you by shelving.com. We rack your world. Here's Jeff Slum, the founder and CEO of Startup Nation, to spotlight the entrepreneurial tech and startup community on WJR. Good morning. One of the biggest challenges for small businesses, with some circumstances even posing existential risks, are late payments made by customers to the business, resulting in cash flow and cash on hand issues.

And now a new study just published by the Kaplan Group, their commercial collection agency, shows more than half of payments due to publishers and platforms in the media and advertising space in 2025, for example, were made late. And the problem appears to be just getting worse. And it's not something unique to just the media and advertising space. The aggregated data found that the state of freelance work, 2025 report from remote. reported that 85% of freelancers experienced late payments at least some of the time, and 21% are paid late or not paid at all more than half the time. These results, combined with invoice level analysis by bonsai that draws on data for more than 100,000 freelancers over a three-year period revealed that 29% of all freelancer invoices are paid one or more days late. Female freelancers, interestingly, were found to receive late payments on 31% of invoices compared to just 24% for male freelancers. And interestingly, the study found that it's larger companies that are more likely to pay late to your business than smaller businesses. 51% versus 41%. Large clients are using extended payment terms as a working capital strategy at your expense. The Kaplan Group notes that some marketers now use 90-day or even 120-day terms for making payments. So what to do? Look, if you're a small business in particular, you need to be aware of the increasingly challenging playing field when it comes to managing your cash. You need to be prepared to be paid late in a meaningful number of cases. And to do that, you need to make sure you have a sufficient cash-on-hand position to hedge against these increasingly late payments due in from customers. I'm Jeff Sloan, founder and CEO of StartupNation.com, the source for everything you need to start and grow your own business. And that's today's business beat on the great voice of the Great Lakes, WJR. So it seems like electricity is becoming the measure of where the AI industry is heading at this point. You know, we've seen states like New York, for example, just put an outright ban on these data centers. Ohio has been very bullish. They've built many of them. And Michigan is taking more of a cautious approach. Yeah. But there's doubts on whether we want them here or people want them here. Right, because they're protesting them when they pop up in these different areas. I saw the governor say that she wants guarantees from these companies that they will not raise rates for residents here in the state of Michigan, which I like. But at the same time, where is the expansion of AI headed if there is a stall on some of these? facilities. It's an interesting topic. And Eric Norman is the Director of Institute for Public Utilities and the Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Food and Resource Economics at Michigan State University and joins us. Professor, it's good to have you back this morning. Let's talk about what this means because the industry is pursuing larger models for artificial intelligence, but how they get there is really in question at this point.

That's right. Good morning. You know, data centers have been around for a long time for decades, but we're seeing now these new generation of hyperscale data centers that are specifically built to serve the AI functions, artificial intelligence functions, and they have an enormous appetite for electricity. The computing power is increasing dramatically year after year, but with that computing power comes more appetite for electricity. And we're at a point now where our energy systems are, you know, having to really... We have to build out if we're going to keep up with this demand from these hyperscale data centers. I mean, you know, one statistic kind of really jumps out at you. Google's electricity use has increased more than 140% in just a few years. Does that surprise you or is that's kind of exactly what you expect with this AI boom? That seems to be the trend. They are building these systems out at a very rapid clip. But it surprised many analysts that the jump in electricity use was that big. The report from Axios that you're mentioning also said that there are gains in efficiency in some of these data centers and the chips, which, you know, Efficiency is a measure of the output over the input. So while the chips are getting more efficient at using electricity, we're just building more chips. And, you know, that those efficiency gains are being eaten up by the fact that we're just using much more electricity. Well, the industry seems to indicate that if you scale up, there will be better performance. And better performance leads to greater economic goals being reached. Is that something that you think jives? That is the million dollar question, whether, you know, there's going to be an economic payoff from all this scaling. It does take a lot of investment. And. I think anybody has the crystal ball of where we can see the answer at this point. Yeah. And one of the concerns isn't just electricity, Eric, it's water too. I mean, a lot of people don't realize that these big old data centers require tremendous amounts of water for cooling. How significant is that issue, especially in places like the Great Lakes region? Yeah. And the cooling systems are where we're seeing a lot of progress, technological progress. And the older data centers, older hyperscale data centers used once through cooling systems where you take the cold water in, cool the system down, and then dispose of that waste hot water.

Now the modern many, but not all modern data centers are using recycling, closed loop cooling systems where the water comes in, absorbs that waste heat, and then goes to a chiller. that cools the water down and that same water is recirculated. So you fill the system up once and you don't have to keep using water all the time, which is a big improvement in terms of water conservation. Eric Nordman with Michigan State University. Thank you for your time. Your insight on this. Interesting topic. We'll continue to follow it. My pleasure. Have a good morning. Yeah, you do the same. How about this? You're a big soccer fan. We know that. Of course I am. Average cost, or excuse me, the least expensive ticket, according to Stubhub, for the World Cup final at MetLife Stadium in Jersey. $8,060. Say what? And that's for where is the seat? So nosebleed seat. Okay. 8 grand. But now if I'm like, say suppose I want a good seat, like in the middle. 70 grand. Excuse me, say that again. $69,968. Wow. Midfield. $70,000. The least expensive ticket in this World Cup was $729. That was for France. In the parking lot? And England, yeah. Across the street. Across the street at the, you know, at the Starbucks. With binoculars. Right. Okay. Let's say you travel around the world. Let's say you have come from Argentina. And you want to go to this game. You want to go to this match. Okay. You've been here for a month? Well. Maybe you're just coming for the game. Okay. This is one of the more expensive trips you will ever take. Oh, definitely. Over 100 grand to see your team potentially win the World Cup. Yeah. But again, it's different because this is, this is, this is the mecca. Yeah. For soccer. For soccer. This is it. Yeah. They say in the Champions League final, say in a Premier League final. Nope. They say in a UEFA final. This is the World Cup. And your team is in it. You're going to drop 20 grand? No, no. Way. Here's my thing, too, is like I've had opportunities to go to like, like I had an opportunity to go to the game seven game Red Wings Penguins when Pittsburgh won. And I wouldn't go because I'm like, if they lose, I'm going to be absolutely crushed. I got this map up in here. It looks like car prices, not seat prices. Correct. You know what I mean? Come on. What are we doing? Absolutely insane. Take a break. Get you caught up on some national headlines this chair morning. I am so pleased to have our next guest on this morning. Her name is Zariah Bell. She just completed her freshman year at Cast Tech. She has a 4.0 grade point average. She's at the top of her class. She's an accomplished pianist, singer. She volunteers. She bakes. She's an avid reader. But she was born blind.

But, you know, she doesn't spend every day challenging these preconceptions. You know, she's showing people that a disability shouldn't define who you are. And she's gone through all these accomplishments, and she still has more to do. And so let's bring Zariah Bell on. J.R. Morning. Zariah, good to speak with you. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for inviting me. Congratulations on, first of all, everything that you've accomplished the cast tech. And, you know, when people hear your story, I know they often focus on your blindness, but how do you want people to see you? I always... I think people, instead of focusing on blindness first, I'm a person first. My disability comes last because, yes, there are some limitations, but I just don't believe that's how people should perceive others. Just because you see a problem doesn't mean you should automatically fix it on it. I'm curious to know what you cannot do. It is unbelievable. All of your accomplishments, have you always been this driven, even going back to when you were a kid? Did you find that you found enjoyment in some of the more simpler things or even the challenging things that you are so focused on? When I was a kid, I found enjoyment in sleeping. I did a lot of that. That tracks. That's good. But, I mean. don't know I mean I guess I kind of always just enjoyed doing stuff ever I guess ever since I was a kid but I will say that um now I would say I enjoy living my life more because people um well they think I can't so I don't know I just like to prove the wrong And you know, Cass Tech is one of the most academically challenging schools in Michigan. What motivates you, Zariah, to keep setting that bar even higher for yourself? I would say my family, like my mother, my father, and my siblings, and my two best friends. And none of them know it because I never really say it out loud. It would make me so uncomfortable. That's, like, so awkward. But... Like, I don't know. My parents, they do their best to encourage me because, you know, I have those days, we're just like, oh, I cannot do it. And my two best friends, they encourage me just by making fun of me. I don't know. It sounds weird, but they make fun of me, and I just be like, oh, okay, all right. That's what friends do. That's how you know you have true friends, and they support you along the way and all the wonderful things that you do. I'm curious. In your time at the keys, when you play piano, what's your go-to? What do you love to hear? Chopin. I love Chopin. I think he's like the greatest. Okay, he's the goat. I really love him. What about it? But he does. What strikes you? I don't know. He's, I like to play his pieces because he likes to do extra stuff.

And as much as I say, I hate it, I definitely embrace the challenge. Like, I'm learning a piece right now that he wrote. And honestly, it's extremely hard, but that's why I love so much about him. He's complex. You know, and I've heard you say something that really kind of caught my attention. I know you said you believe teenagers don't have a safe place to express how they feel. Why do you think so many young people are carrying these feelings inside? It could be a lot of things. It could be living situations. It could be environmental, like school challenges. It really could be a lot of things. And I think that a lot of adults tend to brush. our feelings off. I'm not going to say all adults because that's definitely, I'm not going to know, all grown folks don't. But a lot of adults tend to be like, oh, you're a kid, you ain't got nothing to worry about. That's just not true. And so that doesn't make teenagers feel safe to talk about anything. What would be your message to other students in your position? Either students that have blindness or that have other perceived obstacles that people may think that they have. You are a very busy person. What would be your message to them? What would be your advice to them? The worst thing you could do is try. I feel like. Um, I don't, you can fail, sure, and people think that's the biggest thing, but no, I mean, if you fail so what, you can just get up and do it again. I just, that's what life is for. You live your life, okay? And don't let anybody tell you that you can't. I don't believe that at all. And when, when people hear your story today, Zariah, what's the one thing that you hope they remember, not about your blindness, but about Zariah Bell? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, take away what you want to take away. Just don't take away the fact that I'm blind because I just don't believe that's the most important part. I have to imagine you probably don't have a lot of time for. TikTok or Snapchat, social media. And I envy you for that because you have your hand in so many different things. It's absolutely spectacular to learn about you, to talk with you. I'd love to get like a banana bread from you at some point. Oh, absolutely. You're a baker as well. I did make banana bread. I actually did. Oh. What's the go-to in the kitchen? Well, I like to make cake, but I did make a banana bread. It was like chocolate chip banana. Everybody said it was good. I just, I don't personally like bananas. I just wanted to try it. A lot of people did say it was good. We'll be your taste testers. Yeah, yeah. We'll be your taste testers. We can be your taste testers.

Well, it's a wonderful story. Congratulations to you and continued success. I mean, you are, you are such an inspiration. An inspiration to not only kids at CastTac, right, to not only kids in general to adults. Absolutely. That show that there's always a little more that you can do to better yourself and to shake those preconceived notions that people may have about you. Thanks. Yeah. Zariah, have a good one. Have a good weekend. Thank you so much. Man, it's just, you talk about a feel-good Friday. Yeah. That's a feel-good story right there, man. And when we talked about her earlier this week, it's, you know, thank God we got kids like that out there. Absolutely, man. Absolutely. She's like, oh, Chopin. Why? Because he does things that are... It's hard. It's hard. Yeah, it's difficult. Yeah, well, yeah, you look at her schedule, you're like, that looks hard too. Exactly. Makes a lot of sense. 744, time for automotive views with Mike Martinez. It's brought to you by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Learn more at Michiganbusiness.org. Stop me if you've heard this one before. The feds are investigating a UAW president for potential wrongdoing. More than six years after a corruption scandal landed two former union presidents in jail. The Department of Justice has opened a probe into UAW president Sean Fain over a report he sought benefits for his fiance and her sister. That report came from a court-appointed monitor who determined Fain unfairly retaliated against a vice president and a secretary-treasurer by essentially demoting them. The DOJ investigation comes weeks before ballots are sent out to members to elect the UAW's next president and other top officers. Fane, who denies he did anything wrong, is running against five other people, including the VP he demoted. Whatever the outcome, the constant drama within the union is concerning. While the allegations are nowhere close to the corruption from past leaders, it's yet another black eye for UAW leadership that's still trying to win back members' trust. With this week's Automotive View, I'm Mike Martinez with Automotive News. Well, I got to tell you, I mean, there are so many wonderful destinations in our state. We know that. Oh, pure Michigan. I mean, you, you, uh... Lovely. I mean, anywhere you turn, you're going to find a wonderful place. Yep. But we know Traverse City is a... It's a different level. It's special. It is. It's a special place. And there is, um, obviously all the great food, all the great wineries up there draw people from all over the country every single year. We go because we know it. Yep. But there is an event coming up and it is drawing some absolutely... powerhouses in the world of culinary, in the world of food. And I'm so excited to talk about that. Whitney Wara is the CEO of Traverse City Tourism and joins us this morning. It's so nice to see you. Thank you so much for having me. And Patrick Brise with Brise Estates Winery is here as well. It's nice to see you. Great to be here. I haven't seen you in a while. How have things been going? It's going good. The grapes are growing. The wine is flowing. It's a great season to be up in Traverse City. And, of course,

next month to be there to celebrate the Food and Wine Festival. It's just a great place to be. Did you expect this, you know, festival to grow so fast? It's really grown. Yeah, well, we weren't really sure how it was going to go when we first decided to do this last year. And it really developed into an amazing activity. So we had about 80 different events last year. All of our business partners kind of came to the table and brought these beautiful events. They created. something really special. And so when we, you know, when we looked at it at the end of the day, we were like, we got to keep doing this. This is just. Super fun and just a great reward. Well, and you've got a couple of unbelievable chefs that are going to be on board for this event. Andrew Zimmern, of course, he is a world-renowned chef, award-winning chef. He has been on TV all over the place, but he goes to places that are rich in food, rich in wine, and that's where Traverse City comes in. Anna Ansari is going to be there as well. These are world-renowned chefs. Absolutely. And it's just so much fun to have them come to us and see the different collaborations that take place and see how they interpret and enjoy working with the great culinary scene that we have. The agriculture that is native to our area is just amazing. And so when they come in and we were just doing a plan this week with Artie Sakara, who is one of our TV network chefs as well. And she was listening to chef. Sarah Bobier and Traverse City talking about all the ag that was available, all the food that was going to be there in August. And she was like, oh, my gosh, you know, it just gets the ideas flowing. So watching them. create from what they know they're going to be able to work with is just so much fun. Patrick, you know, Michigan's wine industry has grown tremendously over the past 10 years or so. Are people around the country finally beginning to kind of appreciate just how good Michigan wines really are? I think so. People are starting to drink with the food, right? Exactly. Yeah, for sure. But I think people are starting to see that, you know, people are familiar with California wines. Sure, right? Yeah. We've all had those. But now they're starting to see there's other styles of wine. There are cool climate wine regions like Michigan, where we grow grapes that you can't really grow well in California. They love cooler weather. So in cool climate wine styles, they tend to be a little bit lower. alcohol, a little bit higher acidity, a little bit brighter fruit flavors. They tend to pair well with different foods that say a warm climate wine region. So there's different, you know, one of the most magical things about wine is no matter where it's grown in the world, it's going to bring a different story to the table. And Michigan is bringing that story. Michigan being second in agricultural diversity in the United States, we can grow almost anything in our state because of the water that surrounds us.

And Traverse City Food and Wine is tapping into that because we've got the over 50 wineries up there. We've got the microbreweries, the distilleries, and the farm-to-table cuisine that's growing literally in your backyard and then bringing all that together to celebrate over this incredible five-day event. So it's just really a special thing to be and be a part of. Well, you know, I like to fancy myself as a... world renowned chef of course you are in my own right yes you are but the realities are is if you just go to your normal grocery store and you buy you know processed foods you're going to get kind of a processed taste. Yeah. But if you're getting fresh food, if you're getting the freshest ingredients, it completely changes a dish. Completely. Yes. Completely. And so when you talk about those ingredients that are growing in your backyard, whether they're on the vine or in the ground or on a tree, it makes it a completely different scenario. And you brought us one of your rosés from last year. Yeah, 2025 Rose. Tell us a little bit about it. So rosé great wine for the summer, right? And we'll be pouring a lot of this at the Traverse City food and wine. But this one is a blend of Cabernet Franque. That's a cool climate-loving grape and also blended with Merlot. So just a beautiful lighter, Provence-style rosé, perfect for summer. And it actually just took a gold medal at the rosé competition, which is part of the American Fine Wine Competition. So we're really thrilled with it, and it's been really popular since we released it. Congratulations. Thank you. It's spectacular. Whitney, if someone could only attend one event during this five-day festival, what experience do you think they'll be talking about long after it's done? Well, we've designed the grand tasting to sort of be the thing that you should definitely go to in the itinerary because it gives you the chance to sample from... all of our local restaurateurs, all of the wineries and distillers and brewers that are coming in as well as there's non-alcoholic options as well. And then we'll have a lot of those guest chefs up on the stage doing demonstrations. You'll be able to try the food that they're prepping on stage. We have a chef's table so you can come over and try that as those get done. There's cookbook signings and things along those lines happening. But it's just a super fun afternoon taking place on Saturday the 22nd. It's right there in the open space park. So we're right along Grand Travers Bay. Beautiful Lake Breezes coming in. And it is just one of the most fun things I think I did last year. You know, obviously I'm a little bit biased. But I think most people really enjoyed it. Sure. So the Traver City Food and Wine Festival, August 19th through the 26th. And people can buy tickets still. Absolutely. We've got tickets available on Traver City Food and Wine.com. And again, over right now, there's over 70 events. We're working on a couple more that are going to get added to the schedule. You're still going? We're still going. Man, this thing is growing. We have.

Beautiful dinners, lots of fun collaboration dinners. One of those is on Wednesday night, the opening night. It's our James Beard Foundation dinner. So Anthony Joe Lombardo, who we mentioned earlier. We've got Andy Holiday coming in from Selden Standard as well. And then several of our James Beard recognized chefs up in Traverse City are also going to be participating. I think you guys know Sarah Welch and her husband Cameron Rolka moved up and opened up Umbo this year. So they're going to be participating as well as the chefs from St. Stella and Modern Bird and all, you know, just a lot of different people participating throughout this week, making it really special. Fantastic. It's Traverse City Food and Wine.com where people can go buy your tickets. Go buy your tickets. Please do. You don't want to miss it. It is going to be an absolutely unbelievable event. All the days are jam-packed. And they're still adding. Thank you both so much. Whitney Wara and Patrick Bryce. Thank you. It's good to see you both. Take a break. More next on Jair morning. Well, if you're like me, you're on the pizza diet. Yay! Because of the cyclist variances. Straight pizza. That's all we're doing. And nothing says... Pizza like a little World Cup final action. And the folks at Little Italy Pizza are offering specials this weekend because of the third and fourth place games and, of course, the finals coming up Sunday. Sean Kachuba is the owner of Little Italy Pizza and joins us this morning. Sean, it's good to have you. Good morning. It's good to be here. Are you a big soccer fan? You know what? I never was growing up. And then I'd had this job at a local British pub. And all these English guys would come in and they would talk soccer. And I turned into a pretty big fan, actually. They taught me to get the game. So I like it. That's cool. You know, Detroit is really. You know, embrace soccer over the last several years, Sean, from Detroit City FC to World Cup, watch parties, you know, they've been at campus marshes, all of that. Have you noticed more customers gathering around soccer the way they do football or hockey? You know, I don't know if it'll ever take over football, but I'm going to tell you, I hear more people talking shockers. that I have in the past. And I think it's great. You know, we're selling pizza. And, you know, we talk to our customer and they say, oh, yeah, we're going to watch the soccer match. And, you know, you've got to call it a match because a game is in America. Match is how they're what they call the soccer. It's exactly right. Oh, I didn't know that, really. Oh, you didn't know that? You know, a game and match. Yeah, okay. Yep. And so what are you offering people this weekend? Well, we got a really big deal. We're offering two medium pizzas. So you get one with three toppings, one with one topping. You get 10 wings. You get a cheese bread. You get a pop and you get like a two liter of pop.

And we're going to get all that for $49.99. Oh, and a salad. It comes with a salad, too. Oh, nice. Very good. So a little incentivizing for a watch party. Absolutely. And if you want to make it a large, it's just $10 more. So that way you get a large salad, two large pizzas, and you get the large cheesebread as well. Cool. You know, in Detroit, you know, we're a sports town. I mean, we have all our major teams right downtown. And now soccer is becoming part of that identity, too. Why do you think the sport is exploding in popularity here? Well, I think it's, you know, just being the competitiveness. And number one, Detroit's got the best sports fans in America. And I truly believe that. I mean, I know I've always been one growing up and you can't really talk to anybody who doesn't like some sport in this in this state and this city. And I think that just bringing another competitiveness, another reason for people to root together is a fantastic thing for this area. Well, it's very cool that you're offering this for folks. Sean Kachuba, the owner of Little Italy Pizza. Thank you for your time this morning. We appreciate it. And enjoy the weekend. I appreciate that. Yeah, you got it. See, Sean. Very cool. But it goes right with your diet. That's right. It's perfect. It is absolutely perfect. That's right. Meek, did you have you seen this story? about Nancy Delostrito, the 76-year-old woman out of Florida. I saw this and it has something to do with a license plate and I saw she wasn't really happy. Yeah, so she got a new license plate. Okay. She got a new license plate. I want to play a little bit of a report from a CBS station in Miami where they were talking to her about this new license plate. Really? Really? No, DMV, no. That's what I said. No GMV. You're going back. That's what I said. When Nancy Delostrida went to collect her mail, she got quite the surprise, a new license plate with her vehicle registration renewal. And I looked at it. And I said, I don't think so. The plate reads SQZ A55, but from a distance, those five-fives can be read as s's. Well, you get the picture, squeeze blank. I don't think a woman that lives in a senior community that's going to be 77 years old next month will be driving around with what this plate has to say. So she got a plate in the mail. Her plate expired. Right. Now, this is not a personalized plate. She didn't ask for this. But it came out, SQZ A55. With a nice orange in the middle. With the Florida orange in the middle. Yeah, the Florida license plate. And, like, the funniest part in all of this, first of all, that's funny in and of itself. Yes. But then, like, this news report, so she's like, I'm appalled. And so they're going around to different people in this retirement community. And asking them. And, like, this one guy was, like, laughing. He's like, that's funny, you know. And then at the end of the report, she's like, I don't know, maybe I'll keep it. Oh, yeah. Exactly. She got all this notoriety from this license plane. And she's like, ah. And what's her first name?

Nancy. Okay, so, you know, somebody in her retirement community, you know, they see that license plate on her partner. There's Nancy. Man, Nancy, man, Nancy is, I didn't know Nancy was like that. I think it's a, I think it's a very, very funny story. Hi, Nancy, do you want to go on a day? That's what they're going to say. Nancy. She said, I could handle if I get a few honks here and there. Actually, being over 70, I might like a few honks, she said. Okay, see, Nancy, you know. So it sounds like. She kind of warmed up to the idea. She did. Because people were, because people thought it was a, I think it's kind of funny. It is. I mean, it's funny on its face. Yes. But then the fact that she was absolutely appalled, which most people I think would be. Like, they don't want to drive around with that on their license plate. I mean, who's making the plates, man? Did they, you know, notice that? I think they're just generated. Like, there's not. But see, here's the thing is... They don't make plates in the prisons anymore like they used to back in the day. The prisoners used to make license plates. I guess I don't know if they do that in Florida. Because, you know, they do a lot of things in Florida. Well, Elginter Alcatraz is closed. It's gone. So I don't, I guess not. But, no, I, you would think that there would be some... letters or numbers that you can't put next to each other. Like when you generate a new license plate number, like A55 can't be put together. Right. B55, sure, sure. Fine. Yeah. But A55 probably shouldn't be put together. I would think, too, that once it's generated, that maybe... Or SQZ even for that matter. Right. And you would think after it's generated, though, that you would get some type of quality control officer or somebody who kind of looks at it before it. Goes out? Apparently not. Okay. Apparently not. Okay. I'm just asking for it. Would you keep the license plate if you got that? Uh. Probably not me. Would you notice it right away, though? Or would it take a second? Because I have a feeling of me, it would take a second. And I probably wouldn't even notice it in the first place. I'll be honest. I have no idea what my license plate is. If that came in the mail, I wouldn't have noticed. We probably wouldn't, Jason, because we, you know, we're just, we're guys, and we just put the doggone plate on. And somebody will come and tell us or pull us over. That's true. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? Yeah. No, I don't think I would do it. You know, now, you know, my wife, she probably would. It's a great, like, discussion piece. Oh, absolutely. We're discussing it now's a great discussion piece. Right? Somebody would pull up behind you, like, what's with a license plate? Huh? What are you talking about? What's with the license plate? That's odd. You'd be like, I don't know what you're... Yeah. I have no idea. It's just the license plate. You get out and look at it, and you'd be like... Somebody would like, you had, you made that, right? Like you, no, they just sent it to me. I have no idea what you're talking about. No, we don't believe that. And that's a whole other talking point. They don't believe that. Wouldn't believe that you didn't. Yeah, right, yeah. Coming up on the other side, National Ice cream day is Sunday. So let's see.

Talk a little cream with Ray's ice cream coming up on chair morning. All right. Well, Sunday is National Ice Cream Day. Oh, my God. You could do pizza, ice cream for the World Cup, and just have a heck of a Sunday. You got a good day. Very cool. Well, Ray's ice cream is also celebrating, and Jason Edelson is the co-owner and joins us once again. It's nice to see you. Last time I think you were here, we were talking about your Girl Scout flavored cookies. And now we get to talk about National Ice Cream Day. That's pretty good. It's nice to see you. Great to see you guys, too. Thank you very much for having me in the studio. Yeah. You know, if there was ever a month for Michigan summers, made for Michigan summers, it's National Ice Cream Month. Does July feel like, kind of like the Super Bowl for, you know, an ice cream shop? I definitely think so because the summer starts off, you know, a little early in May, June it gets going, but July is like, you know, prime time season. You know, the heat is out there. People are looking to cool off with a delicious treat. And the ice cream dessert industry has become a really saturated industry. And there are a lot of different wonderful places to go. And we really want to make sure that at the top of the mind, people remember about raised ice cream being around since 1958, an old school parlor with old school values where people can come with friends and family and have a great time or just come and meet new people and make some new friends. And he was telling the truth because I've been there and that's just what happens. That's what happens. You meet new people there all the time. Well, what's cool about it too is like depending on where you grew up, like that's your parlor. That's your ice cream place. And obviously you guys are busy all the time. And you've kept the traditions of rays, which is fantastic as well. How do you separate yourself from others? So what you said is definitely correct. You know, we're a neighborhood institution in Royal Oak. And generations of families have been coming to raise ice cream. And it's really trying to keep those traditions up, create some new whimsical fun for the younger generation so that they have fun and they're not being dragged by their parents or grandparents. But not only keeping to our traditional flavors, but people's palettes are changing every year, every decade. and trying to figure out new flavors that keep our raise consistent, high-quality products and ingredients, but really appeal to people's changing flavors, whether that's new Asian-inspired flavors like macha or Hoja-cha, whether that's topical flavors like, for instance, this month being America's 250 anniversary and launching a 250 anniversary ice cream with our Blue Moon and a limited firecracker pop Oreo that pops with flavor when you have it. I mean, that sounds like somewhere on the cone. On an ice cream cone. It does. The firecracker pop. If someone wanted to build the ultimate Made in Michigan Sunday at home, what would they need to have? So first off, you know, at their local, maybe Meyer or bushes, they could come and purchase our delicious raised ice cream and a variety of pints and half gallons. And then there's so many wonderful choices in the snack aisle of Michigan-owned and operated products, whether that's chunky nibbles, Downey's potato chips, Great Lakes pot pies, cinnamon crisps, grandma puffs, really whatever the taste profile is, whether it's sweet, whether it's salty.

those things can really combine with our ice cream to make whatever they're looking for. If they want a hot topping, maybe it's a little Saunders fudge, maybe it's a little Guernsey fudge. But really, anything can be purchased at your local grocery store to make a really wonderful in-home Sunday bar with Michigan-made, owned-and-operated products. What did you bring today? So today we brought just a combination of different ice creams from our parlor. I think you guys just enjoyed some blueberry pie and cookies and cream. Blueberry pie being a summer seasonal favorite and cookies and cream being an all year classic. I also brought the 250 anniversary ice cream we just spoke about before, which has been a big hit, which is available all month this summer. We also brought some other traditional flavors like butter pecan. and then some other new seasonal favorites like banana pudding, which is one we made based upon a lot of customer feedback over the last year because we make a wonderful banana, delicious ice cream in house. But people were like, hey, can we tweak a little bit based upon what our tastes are that have kind of transformed over the years? What's the most unusual flavor you've ever created or one that made me surprised everyone and, you know, it became a big hit? Well, I'll kind of go to that at a two-phased approach. So the first one that wasn't a big hit, but was a great taster, not a seller, was last year for National Pickle Month, we made a pickle-based ice cream. And it was a cucumber base with cut up bread and butter pickles from McClure's pickles. They have some great food science programs there. And it really tasted delicious. But more, it was kind of like, hmm, interesting. Okay. I'll move on to what I'm buying now. Okay. You know, but when it comes to like a real big hit, you know, we've been playing around a lot with some of the Oreos that are limited edition and released. And we have a really delicious. mint ice cream. And one day I saw the new Mint Oreos that came out and I'm like, you know, people either love or hate mint and the people that love it want to tell you how much they love it and the people that hate it, how much they hate it and how it tastes like toothpaste. So we made a mint Oreo, mint ice cream. And when we dropped that reel on social media, it had 35 million views. It went viral in a bunch of countries in Southeast Asia and other different countries across the world. And we had a lot of people kind of nonstop coming in. had to keep making 30 to 50 gallon batches at a time to keep up with demand. But like anything else goes, we kind of let it side for a bit, have released some other new Oriole flavors. But that will be back in the fall, and I know a lot of people are anticipating that. I do love mint, and I would tell you how much I do love mint. It's my favorite ice cream. Well, it's national ice cream this Sunday, and you got to get out to raise ice cream. Jason Edelson, thanks so much. It's really great to see you again. Thank you for coming in. Always. We rate product. Thank you very much. Yeah, I appreciate it. Meanwhile, we do, we've taken the lead, by the way. Oh, in the bad air quality? Yeah, worst air quality. Detroit. Now back on top of Chicago, 438, 382. It's like a horse race. Right.

Yeah, so now Detroit back on top. Race, we don't really want to win. Correct. Yeah, you'd rather not be on top of the leaderboard here. But this smoke from these Canadian wildfires continue to linger. And when it comes to when we can expect this to go away, perhaps later tonight, the air quality alert remains in effect through midnight. But... we could see some fresh rounds of smoke come into our area this weekend. So we might not be totally out of the woods yet. Also just came across this story. We talked about the cyclist bariases outbreaks and now linking the lettuce that Taco Bell gets to this. An Ohio man is suing Taco Bell. I knew it was coming. Yeah. Just a matter of time. Taco Bell says that they've removed them from the lettuce from their stores. But nonetheless, we already have. A lawsuit filed says, I can't do anything. It turned into a class action, I'm pretty sure. Became sick after eating Taco Bell and a law firm specializing in food safety filed that complaint. Of course. So we're already on the lawsuit train. That's going to do it for us. Have yourself a wonderful Friday. All Talk coming your way next right here on Double DJR. See you Monday.