JR Morning ~ June 30, 2026 ~ Full Show

Welcome in, 605. Good to have you here on a Tuesday. It's nice to be back. Lloyd with the rest of the week off. So fly in solo. Renee Vitale here, Brian, Jason, the whole crew. I got to tell you, we were watching the World Cup last night. And if you, even for somebody as cramudgeon as Brian, you have to be excited about penalty kicks in the World Cup. shaking his head doesn't care at all. People, this guy is out of his mind. There is nothing, there maybe isn't anything more exciting in sports than penalty kicks in the World Cup on the biggest stage. I mean, my kids were absolutely enthralled by it. Germany loses for the first time to Paraguay in penalty kicks, in World Cup history. It's never happened before for Germany. And obviously one of the... One of the favorites in this tournament gets bounced in the round of 32 Paraguay advances. Brazil even survived a late onslaught. So these games are only getting better and better. And again, now we're in the stage. We're out of group play. So these things get tighter, more anxious, and a lot of drama. Meanwhile, the Lions have released Terry and Arnold. And this comes after his arrest and this $1 million bond that was set by the judge in Hillsborough County that's overseeing his case. That $1 million bond requires him to surrender his passport, avoid contact with the co-defendants and witnesses in this case, and remain confined to his residence except for legal approved reasons, which would be. work, so professional activities, although now he won't be able to do that because he is no longer a member of the Detroit Lions. And just as a reminder, prosecutors say Terry and Arnold played a role in orchestrating this abduction and assault of three men who he suspected he and these other folks that he was with of stealing jewelry, luxury bags, cash from an Airbnb he was renting in the Tampa area. And he wasn't present during those attacks. And his attorneys say that prosecutors don't have enough evidence to show that he knew what would have happened when these people got to his rental. And so the Lions just decided to cut bait. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. I mean, just on the football field alone. It's unfortunate that this didn't work out. He was drafted here in the city of Detroit during our draft here. And it just never materialized for Terry and Arnold. He struggled early in his rookie season, banged up the rest of the way. And it never worked out in the lines. Just decided to cut bait here. So Terry and Arr will not be able to take advantage of that court's direction by going to work as a way to. to get out of his house. Jalen Duren, meanwhile, this is a fascinating look. Pistons Center Jailen Duren. This has now become one of the bigger storylines of NBA free agency because these contract talks have reportedly stalled. Now, there are a number of reports say that Jalen Duren was underwhelmed by the Pistons' initial offer.

And he is exploring sign and trade opportunities, meetings with Sacramento, the Lakers as well, as he's looking for a long-term big money deal. And this comes after an all-NBA season, an all-star appearance. He was really not good in the postseason. But the Pistons say that they still want to keep them. And there are obviously interests from other teams. I mean, he is a wonderful player and really kind of just getting started. But the pistons do still hold the leverage here because Jalen Duren is a restricted free agent. He can, and the pistons can match competing offers. So if he gets a better deal somewhere else, the pistons can match it. But. Look, I'm not even really interested in going down. Well, what happens if Jalen Duren leaves or he's gone? What do we? What do we do? I'm not even interested in that yet because I'm not so sure that's going to happen. But the Pistons are trying to make an offer that fits for them. It's not working for Jalen Dern in his camp. Okay, fine. You try to continue those conversations. Worst case scenario, I think the Pistons probably would match, but it's a money's game at that point. Tigers, while we're on the sports front. They win last night, seven to three over the Yankees in New York. It's the opening game of that series. How about Casey Meiss? 10 strikeouts over seven innings. Just one base runner. He had a lead off double in the third inning, but otherwise completely shut down the Yankees. And they are on the bit of a struggle bus lately. But. That's the Yankees' fifth consecutive loss. Nice one for the Tigers. And they score five unearned runs. Kevin McGonagall had a couple of RBI, Dylan Dingler, with a double sack fly run scored. Spencer Torkelson with an RBI. This is where, like, those bats coming alive are really going to help you. And they didn't, Jason, the long ball wasn't really in play yesterday. in that bandbox at Yankee Stadium? No, no, not at all. And we got Scoobel tonight. And we got Scoobel tonight. What do you think of Casey Meis? What happens to Casey Meis here? I'm worried. What happens to him? Yeah. What do you mean? Well, what are we looking at down the road here? Oh, what is it going to be? No, no, no, no. What are we looking at come trade deadline? Oh, well, I mean, if Scoobel stays. Well, if Scoobel stays, then Casey Mai stays. Well, they're not, they won't move mice. I think if they can put together some wins and Scoobel ends up staying, they've got to somehow add a bat or two at the trade deadline. Would they give up a Casey Meis for that? I don't know. I mean, he seems to have found it a little bit. Yeah, he has. So that's my concern is. you've got you've got scoble looking scoble-ish like the numbers are good he's had a couple of rough outings gave up those six home runs in his first three games back but i i just i i i really kind of feel like nobody's safe no i don't feel like anybody right no which they shouldn't be no no and they shouldn't be but again it's like who's going to bring the most value scoble number one

And then probably Casey Mize. Certainly no one from the bullpen is going to bring value. Nobody from the bullpen is going to bring any value. And you don't want to give up any bats. You can't, yeah. So, I mean, you're looking to move a pitcher potentially. But who, like, this is now, this is the dance that Scott Harris needs to do because you want to try to make a push. You want to try to add some offense, but you don't want to give up any pitchers. And again, your starting rotation is the only bright spot. And that's a loose term at this point. Right. That's a tough spot. Jack Flaherty, by the way, has come on a little bit. Well, you just came back from injury Sunday. Yes. Yep. But even before the injury, he looked like he found a little bit of something. He's hit or miss, but I'll tell you why, they can get somebody for Jack Flaherty, I would deal him. I agree. He has playoff experience. He's won a World Series. Yep, I agree with that. I agree with that. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is sending Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, their special envoys, to Qatar for these high-level talks with Iranian officials in Doha to preserve this fragile diplomatic agreement. And we've seen the back and forth of the military actions that have been taken over the last couple of days. But Donald Trump says that this meeting... is going to be pretty important here. And the urgency from both of these sides, obviously with the hostilities, the escalation in these hostilities, sent com saying it conducted strikes on Iranian territory in response to attacks on commercial cargo vessels. And that has been going on over the last couple of days. But the talks in Doha are a litmus test, in my mind, on whether or not the diplomacy that has been laid out is going to work. and the escalating rhetoric, particularly from the Iranian side. If that is going to be stomached by the likes of Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, obviously working on behalf of the president, but still something to watch. Also, in a five to four decision, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Mississippi law that allows mail-in ballots to be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and received within five days afterward. The president was not happy with it, just as Amy Coney Barrett wrote for that majority. and concluded that federal election laws require voters to cast their ballots by election day, but do not require election officials to receive those ballots by that date, something the president has talked ad nauseum about. We'll talk to Matthew Snyder coming up at 719 about that Supreme Court decision. Meanwhile, on the other side, getting you ready for America 250, the 250th celebration of our country. And we're going to talk about one of the founding fathers that was never a president. that never held major office, but he was instrumental. We're talking Ben Franklin next on J.R. Morning. You know the Dosecke's guy? The most interesting man in the world? I always have thought if that guy's the most interesting man in the world, Ben Franklin would have been the OG. He would have been the OG. Because if he think about it, Ben Franklin was never a president.

He never served on the Supreme Court. He wasn't a distinguished military general like George Washington. Yet he was probably the most accomplished American of the founding generation. He was a printer, a writer, an innovator, a scientist, a diplomatic businessman. The list goes on and on. And when the Declaration of Independence was signed, Ben Franklin was 70 years old. He was considered at that time one of the most famous people in the world. And yes, the, you know, the Ben Franklin kite and the key and the unlocking of electricity. But he never patented any of his inventions. So the lightning rod, bifocal glasses, the Franklin stove, he thought. that all of the things that he benefited from, the inventions that he created, he thought everybody should benefit from them. Just as he was inspired by others before him, that others should be inspired from him as well. And he's a self-made success American story. His parents were candlemakers and soap makers. He was one of 17 children. And he only had two years of formal schooling, whereas you juxtapose that with some of the other founding fathers, completely different. But it's what eventually helped him to find, found libraries and promote education and help create Penn, the University of Pennsylvania. And then, of course, the diplomatic side of Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin. Because during the Revolutionary War, Franklin was sent to France. And he was America's chief ambassador. He convinced the French monarchy to support the American cause. Because it's very possible that we would be sitting here today in a completely different situation. without Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin convincing the French to send money, to send weapons, ships and troops, that we would not be celebrating America's 250th year of independence. And here's another interesting fact about Ben Franklin that I love. He signed three, not one, not two, but three of the most important documents in American history. He signed the Declaration of Independence. He signed the Treaty of Paris that officially ended the Revolutionary War and the U.S. Constitution. No other founder has signed all three. It's a fascinating story, a fascinating life of Ben Franklin. Let's talk about it. Luke Hopley is the Park Ranger with the National Park Service, and he serves in Philadelphia and joins us this morning. Luke, good to have you. Hi, good morning. Happy to be here. Thank you for taking the time this morning. Obviously in Philadelphia is the site where Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin is buried he alongside of his wife. What makes that such a large attraction to Philadelphia, but from people all over the country, all over the world? What's the draw there with Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin?

Yeah, it's a good question. Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin, as you mentioned, has this kind of international appeal, I think, that perhaps some of the other founders don't have. He was well known even in his lifetime during the American Revolution in a way that people like George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, just weren't. And, you know, Franklin... He has an interest to him for just about everybody. You know, Franklin had his hands in all kinds of industries and technologies and, you know, civil good. So, you know, no matter who you are, really, a lot of people can find a connection or interest that relates them to Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin. Is it because of all of that that people hold him in such high esteem with the other founding fathers, even though he was never... Never a major general, never president of the United States? Yeah, I think so. You know, Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin, he's sort of like a generation older than a lot of these other founders. You know, as you mentioned, he was 70 years old when he signed the Declaration of Independence. He was 81 years old when he helped write the Constitution of the United States. So Franklin, I don't really think ever saw himself potentially involved in this new federal government because he was a bit too old. He was coming up on retirement by the time the Constitution was actually ratified and the office of the president was even created. He was in the last year of his life. So, you know, Franklin added a real legitimacy, I think, to the American Revolution. He was internationally known, both in Great Britain. He had lived there for quite a while before the American Revolution. He was known throughout continental Europe. So the fact that you had this group of, you know, gentlemen from Europe's perspective, the edge of the world. The fact that they had Dr. Franklin with them, I think, added a real legitimacy to their cause. It's interesting to the ripple effects that Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin had throughout now what we see as our country. I mean, he never went west. Yet here in the state of Michigan, Iowa Royal National Park, there is Mount Franklin there. We have a village here, Franklin, that's named after Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin. Why was there so many tributes to him that just kind of... moved across the country when he had, you know, no necessary, no ties necessarily to these particular areas. Yeah. I mean, I think he's considered maybe, you know, he's a founding father. He might even call him a founding grandfather, right? He.

just affected early American life in so many ways, founded so many institutions, founded so many practices from free libraries to firefighting companies. that I think even if he never served in public office, at least in the federal government, he served in public office in the Pennsylvania government, even if he never, you know, was in federal Congress or president or Supreme Court, his effect on, you know, American culture goes deeper than that because it's older than that, you know. It's very fascinating, a fascinating life, an important figure as we ring in the 250. Luke Hoppley, thank you so much for your time this morning, The Insight. I know you guys are pretty busy out in Philadelphia, so we appreciate you to take it a couple of minutes with us this morning. Thank you. Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me. Yeah, you got it. You got it. Very fascinating stuff. Coming up on the other side, CBS has released a new poll with UGov ahead of the 250 about what you think, Americans think, is best about the United States. We'll talk about that on the other side as we continue to roll on here on a Tuesday morning. All right, 8008-8-9-0-9-7, 800-8-5-90 WJR. If I was to ask you, what's best about the American way of life? What would you say? You can call or text. Brian, what would you say? America! Fuck, yeah! All right. Yes. Team America is the best thing about our life. No, no. What's the best thing about the American way of life? What would you say? I would say freedom of speech. Freedom of speech. I mean, that's the kind of thing you're looking for. Jason, don't worry about that. Don't worry about work. You do this. What's the best thing about American life? The best thing. Oh, God. I mean, just freedom as a whole. Freedom. You know, I mean. You hear, you hear stories from other countries and you go, we're so lucky to be where we are. So. Renee. These guys are being all patriotic. I know. I'm going to go a different route. Okay. Oh, no. I like that you can go to like a Meyer or a Walmart and get yourself clothes, vegetables, maybe some fast food. All in one spot. All in one spot. America, it's great. America, one stop shop at Walmart. All right. According to the respondents to this question from CBS News and UGov.

44% of people say the people in America is best about the American way of life. Kind of depends on where you're at. If you're in New York, not so much. And what people you're dealing with. Detroit, yes, sure. 20% say land resources and climate. 17% say the economic system trade and business. And 10% say system of government. What is America's greatest invention? Ooh. Walmart Walmart Walmart and the one-stop shop the telephone 16% say democracy and freedom which I hate to burst the bubble of these 16% of people America did not invent democracy no the Greeks did back in forever ago But we change things around. We tweak things a little bit. I was going to say maybe we refined it. We did. We became a constitutional democracy or a democratic republic. Not so much one thing or the other, but democracy was 16%, which it concerns me that so many people think that we invented that. Coming up in number second, just 2% behind the light bulb. We go from democracy to light bulb. Where's the telephone? The telephone was one of the greatest inventions because we didn't know one day would be able to watch television on it. Come on. Yes. You know? 10% say the internet. Followed by 6% the automobile, 5% the telephone. Okay. And 4% the airplane. I mean. I guess. These are odd numbers. They are odd numbers. Odd numbers and odd orders. I would have thought the telephone would have been higher. What is America the best at in the world? What do we best at? Sports. What do we do better than anybody else? Over consumption? That's fourth, Jason, at 38%. Argue with each other? Yeah. Call each other names? Did argue and call each other names make the board? No. With 58% movies and television, we do the best. I will say I don't understand foreign humor. Like British comedies, I don't think they're funny. Oh, I do like British humor. It's very dry. Yeah. It's weird. Much like their biscuits. But you got to like that. You got to like that stuff. Is it the Monty Python? Yes, very good. The Ministry of Silly Walks is fantastic. At 56% technology and innovation, 41% music, 38% sports and 31% food. Yeah. Our American food, I like trying foreign food better. I mean, ours is just fatty, fat, fat. When I think of American food. Speaking of which food best represents America? Hot dog. Hot dogs, hamburgers.

Hot dog is fourth. Really? What about hamburgers? Hamburgers is number one. 33%. Where's American pie come in? 25% say barbecue. Apple pie is number 19. Wow. Number three with 19%. Hot dogs 14%. And then again, a pizza, or not gave it away, a food that isn't ours pizza. Not our thing. 6%. This is interesting to it, which leads me into the main. topic of this segment how excited are you about this 250th like i here's what i think i think if you're a nerd like me and you like to watch all of these historical docu-series on netflix and you're consuming all of this history then i'm very excited about it But, like, on July 4th, I'm not going to do anything spectacular. We'll probably have a barbecue. We'll probably do the same stuff. Nothing. We're not doing anything different. How excited are you? Chris, you're not going to go down the street in your convertible sitting there with sparklers just hanging off your hands? I did think about it. He does that on Saturdays usually anyway. That's exactly right. How excited are you? How many people do you think that are very excited about this, according to this poll? I'm going to guess it's lower. Very excited. Very excited. Probably like 30 percent or lower. I'll say, yeah, I'll say 30. 30 is good. I'm going with like 18. 23 percent. Right in the middle. 29 percent say they're somewhat excited. 47 percent say not excited at all. Well, it's kind of like when you get older and you have a birthday. It's just another day. That's what you always say, right? I feel like it's hard to celebrate it. But it's a monumental birthday. Unless you can go to, like, Washington and experience whatever they're doing for 250. You know, maybe if each state did something individually where it hit closer to home. Otherwise, you just see the coverage on TV. It's like, oh, yeah, all right. This is crazy, too. Will you fly a flag at home on the 4th of July? I fly a flag every day. Okay. That'd have to be the 4th of July to fly a flag. 48% say yes, 52% say no. I've got a cute flag shirt picked out. I'm going to wear. Does that count? Hold on. The next question is, do you have a cute flag shirt? Ready? One percent say yes. Yeah. I don't think people are necessarily excited for it. What I do think is cool is you get some of the, you get some more information that you wouldn't necessarily have. Right? Like most people, most people don't realize X, Y, and Z about Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin. Right. Right. Like that stuff is interesting because that's how we got to where we are. I don't think that you necessarily go, you know, you light off the firework and go, woo, America, 250. And then that's the celebration. Like that is pretty much what it is. Right. It's just another day.

But everybody in this country, all these states, all of these, you know, different politicians and innovators and things like that have played a role. So like our role, Michigan, Detroit is huge. Well, sure. Right? The arsenal of democracy and the automobile and all of these things. Obviously, the French connection here in detour. All of these things have played a role into what we now are as a cumulative. Motown. The only one here that probably remembers the bicentennial and how different this is from that. That was bringing everybody together. We're so divided right now. and the big celebration was the rally. This is going to bring us together, Brian. Which is like, no, I'm just, I'm saying. But it would have been nice. I don't think you can do that today. It would have been nice if we could have. Oh, yeah. But here's the thing, too, and this is what I think gets lost, is people say we're the most divided. And we are. We are. We are. But, I mean, again, historically, there were times when Congress was divided, when politicians didn't agree. And their version of division was writing these things in the paper and the paper publishing them and people were going into a tizzy about it. It's just different. Now it's like everybody on Twitter's like, I don't like you, stupid. Like that's the lunacy of it. Like you and I, we disagree all the time. Sure. I mean, I don't go, Christmas be destroyed. You know, that's how it works. Well, he says that at home in private. Are we sure about that? I plotting your downfall as we speak, you know. Exactly, exactly. And that's how it should be. We're allowed to disagree. Sure. And still get along. I still think you're a great guy. We talk about families and all that stuff. Unfortunately. We've gotten too far from that, though. No, no. But no, that is the point, is we've lost that. Somewhere along the way. Somewhere along the way. And I think social media plays a big part in that. Huge. It's too easy to get behind your keyboard and hate on everything. Yes, it's very simple. And it's hard to be nice. Hence, the internet was maybe a little too high on that list. Yeah, exactly right. Exactly right. Coming up on the other side, Brian Godfrey of Milliken Ford joins us. Ford is a new distinguished number one. We'll tell you coming up, it's Chair Morning. Well, I got to say, it's quite fitting that as we gear up for the 250 here in just a couple of days, the company that put the world on wheels has been recognized by the J.D. Power, 2026, U.S. initial quality study because they climbed from in 2013 to number 15 as the top quality vehicle in America, number 15 in 2023. They are now number one among mainstream brands, according to this new annual survey. Jim Farley, the president and CEO of Ford, says that it's a proud day for everyone at Ford. It's a result of years of intensive work across the company. We put our heads down, work together every day to deliver for our customers. Now, Ford is not only the most American automaker, but also the gold standard for new vehicle quality.

And also, by the way, you've got the F-150, the Ford Mustang, the Ford Super Duty ranking the highest in their respective segments. It's the second year in a row that those three vehicles have been at the top. Then you've got the Ford Escape, the Ford Explorer, the Ford Expedition, and the Ford Maverick also top three in their segments, which means seven of Ford's 10 models tested. placed top three or number one in their segments, which is the highest of any automaker. It's incredibly impressive. And to be honest, part of this is, to Jim Farley's point, a lot of hard work. There's a lot of work that gets done to make sure that when you are putting these vehicles out to you, the consumer, That they're ready to rock. They're ready to roll. And it's a combination of making sure that the trim packages are what you want, making sure that the technology in these vehicles are meeting up to the standard of everybody else. This is kind of the arms race of the automotive industry, is making sure that you're keeping up with the Joneses. You know, you can't have less tech in your vehicle anymore than your competitor. So that's a huge piece of this pie as well. And then the durability, the reliability of these vehicles. It's absolutely huge. So you look at where Ford has come in just the last three years. Number 15 to number one is incredibly impressive. And to talk about it today, Brian Godfrey, the president of Milliken Ford joins us. Brian, good morning. It's great to have you back on the show. Good morning. Good to talk to you. This is such a huge accomplishment. And again, I keep going back to where you were just a few years ago to now where you are. What has allowed the company to create that jump up to from 15 to 1? From my perspective, I think it's just a focus from the top all the way down. I mean, everyone we deal with within Ford Motor Company for the past few years has been talking about quality and the need to improve and, you know, very specific steps that they're taking to improve. So, you know, we've been having those conversations for a few years and now we're seeing the fruits of that hard work. Well, I'm glad you brought that up because without naming any names. You know, some other companies, some other car companies have had the problem of listening to their dealers, right? They've had, there's been a break in that chain. But that hasn't been the case at Ford. And so how much influence do you guys have as dealers to what the company is doing, what they're producing? Because you guys are on the front lines. You're talking to your customers every day. Yeah, I would say one of the great things about being a Ford dealer is we know that the company listens to us. And whether that's in one-on-one conversations or whether that's in large annual meetings, they're pretty open about their strategies, what's going well and what's not. And they're very good at listening to dealer feedback. So certainly, you know, they've seen the metrics around quality that over the last few years haven't been as good as we would have liked. And they've also heard the dealer feedback.

But they've been very clear with us about the efforts they're taking to improve that. And now we're, you know, seeing some third-party data that supports, yeah, the efforts are paying off. Well, and then, of course, the three of the particular vehicles that are that are on the top, on the pinnacle of their categories, the F-150, the Mustang, and the Super Duty, it's not a surprise. These vehicles have been recognized time and time again. But again, when you pair that with... Ford being the number one mainstream brand now. And then, of course, with these vehicles up on the top of the podium as well, it just feels like there's a lot of momentum at the blue hole. For sure. I mean, F-Series, number one truck for 49 straight years. You know, I'm a dealer in Detroit here. F-150 is consistently our number one selling vehicles. So, you know, it starts with that. It is so critical that that vehicle not only have the features and options at customers demand, but also be number one in quality. So really glad to see that proof point. Well, it's certainly fantastic news. How do you keep this rolling, right? How do you not slip back into that, you know, mid-teen area? How do you keep it, keep it up at the top? Yeah, it all starts with attitude. And what I mean by that is everything I've heard from 40 executives over the past few days as this news has broke is this is not the finish line. This is just a step in the right direction. So they still have a lot of work to do to continue because, yeah, we may be number one now. But other companies are going to come after us. And so now the fight is to stay ahead and just continue to improve. And I believe they have the right attitude and the right people to do that. Brian Godfrey at Millikenford. Thank you for your time. As always, thanks for getting up early with me. I appreciate it. And we'll talk again very soon. Congratulations on this news. It's huge. Thank you. Yeah, you got it. Meanwhile, NASA launching an unusual $30 million rescue mission. Here's what they're doing. The Swift Observatory is an aging space telescope. It's been orbiting the Earth since 2004. It's losing altitude due to increased solar activity. So they are launching a robotic spacecraft called Link to rendezvous with Swift, grab it with these three robotic arms, boost it. from its current orbit of about 224 miles to about 373 miles above Earth, and it would allow Swift to continue to study gamma ray bursts and exploding stars and other cosmic events. But this would be groundbreaking. I mean, you would be talking about saving hundreds of millions of dollars, and they never made a rescue mission like this, but that's what they're working on now. Coming up, get you caught up on the headlines, Matthew Schneider, on some SCOTUS rulings. It's next on J.R. Morning.

All right, 7 o'clock hour here on a Tuesday. It's good to have you. Governor Gretchen Whitmer is threatening to withdraw roughly 160 Michigan National Guard members from Washington, D.C. unless she says she receives assurances that they are only being used for activities related to the 250 anniversary celebration, America 250 mission. In a letter to Major General Paul Rogers, who heads the Michigan National Guard, Gretchen Whitmer says she does not authorize Michigan troops to participate in President Donald Trump's separate safe and beautiful mission, which is a federal initiative focused on crime reduction in public order in the nation's capital during the America 250 mission. So apparently this dispute arose after reports of social media post suggesting that Michigan Guard members were operating in parts of Washington outside the 250 event areas. The governor objected to a National Guard task force webpage that also listed Michigan as supporting the broader federal mission and demanded that Michigan personnel be assigned exclusively to the limited role that she approved. She says that if the guard cannot ensure that separation, then Michigan will end its participation in this deployment. And again, shows the divisiveness, the political divide over what's going on in the national mall, what's going on around the 250th celebrations, and what's going on with the president's efforts to fight crime in the nation's capital. My only problem with this to a certain degree is it feels like this is going hand in hand. I don't think that these National Guards men and women are going to be there collecting tickets so that people can ride the Ferris wheel. Like that's not their job. They are going there to make sure that people are safe, that this added presence is there to deter something from happening. So it does feel like it's hand in hand. Do they need to be out on patrols catching kids who steal Snickers from a corner store? Probably not. Probably not. But it does feel complicated because there is a certain blurring of the lines there. So we'll continue to watch that. Meanwhile, Terry and Arnold, he got that $1 million bond from the Hillsborough County judge in the Tampa area. And this is all part of that. allegation that he orchestrated this abduction and assault of three men as retaliation for stealing luxury handbags and cash and jewelry and all of those things. Well, as a result of all of this, the Detroit Lions have released Terry and Arnold following his arrest and now the subsequent bond that was set. And so he is no longer apart. of this organization and part of the the restrictions around Terry and Arnold at this point was the judge said that well you can uh you know leave your home for

medical appointments or work, things like that. Otherwise, you are going to be confined to your home. And now Terry and Arnold is jobless. And I can't imagine there are many prospects on the way, at least until this process is over. So the Lions have released Terry and Arnold yesterday. Meanwhile, Jalen Duren, he is now officially one of the biggest storylines in NBA Free Agency. Contract negotiations between his camp and the Pistons organization stalled, according to reports. And he was so underwhelmed by the initial offer that he is now exploring sign and trade opportunities, places like Sacramento, Los Angeles with the Lakers. And he's looking for a long-term big money deal, had an all-NBA season, All-Star, and now he is going to test the waters. Although... Pistons still hold a lot of the cards. Why? Because Detroit can still match any competing offer that's put out there. So they are still very much in the mix. I actually don't believe Jalen Duren is going to be going anywhere. I think the Pistons will resign him. But I think this postseason run did spook them a little bit. Because after the season that he had, you expected him to be a bigger factor. And he just. I mean, just even if you go by the numbers, he wasn't. He had won two games where he was a real force. Otherwise, he was basically. a non-factor in most of those games. So I think that's probably where the Pistons have a little bit of uneasiness. But regardless, he is going to test things out and the Pistons have an opportunity to match if they so choose. Meanwhile, the Trump administration sending special envoys Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff to Doa Cutter for these high-level talks with the Iranian officials. I guess the good thing is they are still talking after these, you know. military hostilities have escalated. U.S. Sentcom said that they conducted these strikes in Iranian territory in response to those commercial cargo vessels that were attacked. They were carrying more than 2 million barrels of crude oil on them. And in Iran launched more missiles at Bahrain and Kuwait. And again, it just throws everything into a tizzy, everything in the region. gets put back into play here. So the good news is that these conversations are still going on. Cushner Steve Witkoff will be in Doa for those conversations. Coming up on the other side, we're going to talk to Matthew Snyder. The Supreme Court made a number of decisions yesterday, including on mail and ballot. So we'll talk to him about that on the other side. But first at 712, time for WDJR's business beat, brought you by shelving.com. We rock your world. Here's Jeff Sloan, the founder and CEO of Startup Nation, a spotlight, the entrepreneurial tech and startup community on WJR. Good morning. When we think of cybersecurity, many of us think that that's something only big businesses need to worry about. But the fastest growing of businesses getting hit by cyber attacks these days are small businesses. Cyber attacks on small businesses are increasing rapidly with attackers focusing on small businesses as a high-value, low-security target. In 2026, small businesses have experienced so far a 49% cyber attack rate.

meaning an incident occurs every seven seconds. Globally, small businesses with fewer than a thousand employees were attacked at a rate of 43% of all cyber attacks. Fishing is the most dominant attack vector responsible for 80% of cyber attacks on small businesses. That's where you're sent an email, for example, and asked to enter personal information account, credentials, etc., which then the attackers benefit from. Ransomware is the most common attack type. That's where attackers literally tie your business up in exchange for a required ransom to get it released. Malware attacks have surged by 150% since 2022. And here's the sad part. While big businesses have more wherewithal to recover from such attacks, 60% of small businesses go out of business within six months of a cyber attack. Average recovery costs range from $40,000 to $50,000 with some paying well over $100,000. An annual revenue loss from cyber attacks averages about $1.85 million. Why the increase in attacks on small businesses? Well, one, small businesses simply have weaker defenses against these attacks. And two, as we mentioned in the open. AI is now powering these attacks at a much greater efficiency rate for the bad guys, with some reports showing that a 340% increase in AI powered attacks. So what can you do to protect your business? Well, one, train your staff to identify and avoid fishing scams. Two, enforce multi-factor authentication for all accounts. Keep software systems current. conduct periodic risk assessments and penetration testing, and last, get cyber insurance coverage to protect against catastrophic financial consequences. Look, the bottom line, if you're in business today, you need to take this seriously and protect your business. It's just another hard, cold reality if you want to be in business and stay in business today. I'm Jeff Sloan, founder and CEO of Startup Nation.com. And that's today's business beat on the great voice of the Great Lakes, WJR. So in a case that was brought by the Republican National Committee, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states may continue counting mail and ballots that are postmarked by Election Day, but arrive several days later. It was a five to four decision. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote that federal law requires votes. to cast their ballot, voters to cast their ballots by election day, but does not require election officials to receive those ballots by that date, preserving election procedures that are currently used in many states, including here in the state of Michigan. Let's talk about it. Matthew Snyder, the lead investigations in white collar defense practice at Hahnemian, former U.S. attorney, of course, joins us this morning. Matthew, it's great to have you back. Thank you, Chris. Great to be here. So the majority argued here that federal law sets a deadline for when votes must be cast, but not when ballots can be received. How significant is that distinction?

It's pretty significant, and there was a lot of dispute among the justices about it. It was quite a bitter opinion. What's important to note here is really what the case is not about. It's not about absentee voting in general. It's not about using the mail-to-mail-in ballots or even about early voting or counting the votes after election day. It's extremely narrow. The issue is whether... counting ballots that are postmarked or mailed by election day, but then they're not received until five days later violates federal law. Can you do that? Can you count those ballots? And the majority said here that election day is the day that you vote, but not necessarily the day that you have to count and receive. The dissent said, no, that's not right. It's election day, not election week. And so, therefore, that election day means you've got to get those ballots, you got to receive them, and you got to count them. And to do contrary to that, violates the law. So then how does the, what's the ripple effects here? How does this affect other election laws beyond mail in the voting? So there are. 30 different states who have similar laws to Mississippi that allow this to happen. And those states, the ripple effect for them is those laws will stay into place. What the majority in the Supreme Court said is that there are laws about election day and setting those days that Congress passed. However, they didn't prohibit the states from making their own laws about counting. So those laws all stay into place, but... This is a case where it's not decided along the Constitution. It's decided by interpreting federal law. And federal law can be changed. And President Trump knows that, and he definitely wants this opinion changed. So that's the next step that we're going to see. That's the next ripple effect. Well, I'm glad you went there because that's where I was going next. So Amy Coney Barrett said that these are issues for legislators and policymakers. not for judges. So now this does shift things back, or at least it diverts it from the judges, from the justices, now back to lawmakers. Is that how you see this going? Yes, it's one of those rare cases where it's almost like Congress can overrule a Supreme Court decision because they have the power now to look at the Supreme Court decision and say, we don't like that the way the court came out. And since it wasn't decided on constitutional grounds, but it was decided based on the laws of Congress, we can change those laws. And with Republicans in the House and the Senate... If they can get that bill through and there's been attempts already, we already know that President Trump is willing to sign that into law, and he's requested that bill to come to his desk. So I think that's the next step that we should be looking for, probably sometime later this year. You touched on it a little bit. I want to circle back to it. So Samuel Alito Lito wrote the dissent, and he said that this decision could create new questions about election administration and voter confidence.

How does that play into the decision here? Well, when people talk about election fraud and their disputes about whether there is election fraud or not, but when there is, if people point to election fraud, usually what they're pointing at is mail-in ballots, ballots that come through the mail, belts that actually arrive after election day, because those are the easiest thing to hack and it's the harder thing to verify. And that's precisely what Samuel Alito said. He said... That is a tremendous spillover effect because this opens the door to fraud in all of these states, and now you're signaling to other states that they can pass laws like this, too. So if you want to get a hold on fraud, you would limit this. But yet the court's opinion is kind of opening the door, opening the door to a chain of custody problem where we don't really know where those ballots are. That is his argument. And he's saying that this makes the situation worse. Yeah, and of course the court was narrowly divided. Five to four was the vote. So is this, do you view this as a kind of narrow legal interpretation of this federal election law? Absolutely. It's unlike some of the other opinions that we've seen where there are broad strokes. This was really confined to this. particular set of facts. And that's actually precisely why Congress could override this if they wanted to, because it is so narrow. It doesn't affect such a broad range that Congress couldn't go in and fix this, so to speak, if they wanted to, and then set the path forward that President Trump actually wants. Well, it's very interesting stuff. What's on the docket now for them before they go to recess? Well, we just had a couple opinions on executive power. Those just came out yesterday. But the big one that's coming up is the birthright citizenship case. That is actually going to be released probably sometime within the next couple hours today. And the issue there is whether or not... Trump and his executive order can affect what he believes his birthright citizenship. Also, debates on both sides, that was a hotly contested oral argument as well. Matthew and our many conversations, both on the air and off, you know I'm a brilliant legal mind. And so in all of my research onto this, it feels like the precedent has been set here. This feels like something that the Supreme Court is going to break with the president on. Is that fair? You mean break against the president? Yes. If you listen to the oral argument, which I did, it didn't go great for the government. And the justices, even all of the conservative justices, were really criticizing the president's side of the argument. So unlike some arguments where you...

People are coming out. This one was pretty strongly against President Trump's position on birthright citizenship. Now, that doesn't mean that we know what the answer is. We only know what the justices questions were. And sometimes they ask questions not because they really want... the parties to answer them, but they're asking questions so that they can alert the other justices that these are issues that they want to talk about. Yeah, and you go back to the late 1800s, the U.S. versus the Wong Kim Arc case feels like that's going to be at play here as well. And that was something that they had discussed in those oral arguments. Yeah, really the question is, is when you're here in the United States and you're unlawfully present, are you subject to the jurisdiction thereof of the United States? And what the government argued in this case was that you're not, you're here temporarily, and you're not subject to the jurisdiction thereof. The counterargument to that that the justice is raised was actually these people who come here illegally, they want to stay. They're not here temporarily. They're here permanently. And therefore, they've subjected themselves to the loss. That's really the issue that the court is deciding. When do they go on break? Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Okay. So we're going to get a flood of these decisions. Hopefully, as you said, in the next couple of hours. Matthew Schneider, always appreciate the insight. Thank you, my friend. We'll talk again very soon. Thank you. Yeah, you got it. We'll take a break. Coming up on the other side, get you caught up on some headlines. Also, this idea of the Democrats being in a pickle, I'll tell you why. It's next on Jeremiah morning. So I am very much invested into this 250 thing. I love it. I love studying our history. All the goods, the bads, the ugly bits, all of it. When you look at where we started and where we are now, the political divided nature of today compared to the politically divided nature of 250 years ago are very different sets of circumstances. But there are always going to be disagreements. There are always going to be factions that disagree with each other. And there are always going to be factions within your own party that disagree with each other. And you can go back to the earliest example of that with John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, both members of the Federalist Party and both disagreed with each other vehemently. But now we're starting to see something completely different. We're starting to see something that is out of the ordinary for what we have experienced for many, many years. Now, this idea of communist factions of the United States people here that think that, you know, capitalism is wrong or that socialism needs to be the way, right? All of these, all of these different avenues and different perspectives on people, God bless, you could have those perspectives. Why? Because you live in the United States of America.

Now, everybody's in a tizzy of what's happening inside the Democratic Party with these, the socialist faction that is emerging out of New York State. And there had, I mean, look, we could go down the list of some of these people that are being highlighted and some of the things that they've said, like Dari Elisa Villashaville, who started the, or was a part of a group. She found the group at Columbia University, apartheid, C-U-A-D, which later in Farsi posted on X death to America. They have largely. advocated for the total eradication of Western civilization. Yikes, that doesn't seem like a winning message on the campaign trail. Then you've got others that are a part of this. Claire Valdez, for example, she's a state assembly woman in the state of New York. And she's had some unbelievable viewpoints. And the list goes on and on and on. Former New York City comptroller Brad Lander is among that mix as well. And you've got, you know, prominent figures. in Washington that are having to answer for this. And I got to be honest, every time I see a question get asked to Hakeem Jeffries or Chuck Schumer, it's very uncomfortable for them. Why? Because it's really an unpopular position to take. Now, these are all blue cities. All of these folks are probably going to be elected to Congress. And God bless if that's what the voters in these communities want. Do your thing. But the concern here is the ripple effect for Democrats. And at a time when Donald Trump's approval rating is low, at a time when things are still too expensive, at a time when many of the objectives that were set out by Donald Trump going into this next term have largely been completed, some of them have not. And some important ones have not, like affordability, for example. And so now you've got, and I've always made this point of Republicans shouldn't hand anything on a silver Graham Platner to Democrats at this point. Yet they have. Problem for Democrats is they're dealing with their own infighting. I mean, the Detroit Free Press just endorsed Mallory McMorrow. for the U.S. Senate race here in Michigan. By the way, we'll talk with her coming up at 819. But she is viewed as the middle, whereas Abdul El-Sayed is far left, and Haley Stevens is more moderate. She's in the middle. She is not on the side of where these folks are at out in New York. So it's more palatable.

Now, whether you agree with or not is a completely different story. But what we're seeing from the Democratic Party is incredibly interesting to me at this point in time. Again, not uncommon. We're members of your own party to invite. We're also seeing that on the Republican side of things right now, too. But it's fascinating to me to see this dynamic shift. Now, there is certainly a Zohran Mamdani effect to this too. But I find it incredibly fascinating that for whatever reason, more people are shifting towards the socialist perspective. And I'm not just talking about social programs. I'm not talking about social security or Medicare or, you know, things like that. I'm talking about people that have radical views. of how the country should run. And I mean, you're talking about steering a ship 180 degrees, completely different from where we are now. And, I mean, you look at some of the countries around the world that are of that ilk. I mean, you're looking at, you know, Vietnam and China and Cuba, some of these other communist socialist countries. It's fascinating to me that there are enough people that make that shift. Of course, we have that here. We have Rashida Tlaib. We've got the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-Cortezes in New York, though. So we're seeing this again on the coasts. Not so much Middle America. And if there's one thing that it feels very apparent to me that the Democratic Party still hasn't got. They still didn't figure out what went wrong for them in 2024, which was that they weren't listening to Middle America. They weren't listening to us. They weren't listening to you and your concerns. They were listening to the coasts. They were listening to the edges. And that has become obviously the problem. And so when leaders are asked about this, they are, I mean, they are tap dancing around answering the question because they can't. It's an unwinnable situation for them. Although what should happen is they should denounce it. They should say this is not the way to go. We feel like we are on the right path. We have a winning message and we're going to deliver for the American people on traditional democratic values. And of course they're not saying that either, which is problematic for them. So it's a very fascinating shift for me to see from the outside looking in. And yeah, it's befuddling. But it is fascinating nonetheless. Coming up on the other side, Robert McCann with the K-12 Alliance of Michigan joins us. Tomorrow is the deadline for the state budget. A, are we going to meet it? But B, what does that mean for students in our state? It's next on J.R. Morning. You know, interesting piece out of Crane's Detroit business as we are just exactly one day away from, well, I guess technically midnight tonight, right, is the deadline for the state budget.

And there are still a number of questions that we have as to what will be in it if we even get to the deadline and get it done. But House Speaker Matt Hall has said that the budget will be smaller. than it is now, in part because of 2025 laws that permanently shifted more revenue to road and bridge projects. It extended federal tax exemptions for tips and overtime to state returns. The governor who's proposed a sin tax hike for the rainy day fund withdrawal have been rejected. So there are a number of different ways in which the budget could be smaller. There's also questions on economic development. And this $59 million in annual business attractions and community revitalizations incentives that are up in the air. You also, I mean, what could come of this 21st century jobs fund? This started back in the Granholm era. And that is partially what helps fund the programs like the MEDC, which could be in trouble. They get $75 million a year from the tobacco industry settlements, payments. So there are a number of questions that are up in the air. One of them that I find to be most important is where will schools be in all of this? because there has been a lot of shifting from the school aid fund to pay for public universities and colleges and scholarships. So there's more general fund dollars for other priorities. But there is a lot of money that could be diverted away from schools. Where is it coming in at? What can we expect? Robert McCann is the executive director of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan and joins us to talk about it. John Roberts, good to have you back. Good morning. Thanks for having me. What are you hearing on the education front as we near this deadline? Very little. And that's one of our biggest concerns right now is, as you said, we're essentially 24 hours here from the deadline in which lawmakers are legally required to get our budget done. And we really have very few details on where negotiations even stand at this point. We know there are conversations happening, but we have really little information in terms of what a budget is ultimately going to look like. And for a school official, if you're already hard at work trying to get your doors open in the fall and plan everything that's required to do that, That's not a good situation to have so little information about how much funding you're going to have to do all the things necessary to support your kids next year. Well, and part of that support is the money, but we know that throwing money at the problem doesn't necessarily help. And we've seen what is going on with our reading scores or our math scores. They're just not up to snuff. And so the concern here for a lot of us is, okay, well, what happens when...

A, schools don't know exactly how much money they're going to be allocated to spend for the upcoming school year. But then B, what if what if it's not enough? And that's the exact problem we are facing right now is every school district right now, because they don't have any financial certainty for the next year, is planning very conservatively. And that means that you're not necessarily hiring those extra reading coaches and tutors and those one-on-one supports that we know are what make a big difference in a child's education in catching them up on those reading scores and getting them ahead to where we want them to be. And when a district can't plan for that because they don't know if the funding is going to be there to pay for it, that means that those people that we are looking at hiring are going elsewhere. They're taking jobs elsewhere. And even if we get that funding later on, like last year, we didn't get any funding certainty until October. It was too late to hire those people. And that means our kids aren't getting the support that they deserve simply because the legislature won't do their job. Well, and it feels like this has been the trend now for the last number of years. particularly in education. And even up at the Mackinnell Policy Conference with the Detroit Regional Chamber, one of the messages, the underlying message is, well, Michigan's house is on fire. And Michigan's house is on fire because we're not attracting the business that we need to be. And we're not educating our students enough to where they are going to be protective members of society here in the state of Michigan. And all of that starts at the K through 12 level. Unquestionably. It's hard to imagine attracting large businesses to the state when they can look at the way, not just the performance in our schools, which we all know needs to improve, but the lack of priority that the state places in funding public education. Like you said at the beginning of this conversation, every single year, Michigan has been pulling more and more money out of public education to spend elsewhere. A lot of that money goes to corporate tax handouts through the MEDC. And it's hard to imagine. a business saying, well, you know, this state is willing to give us money but isn't willing to fund its most basic priorities in public education. And that means there's not going to be a talent pool out there for us. That means the state isn't prioritizing its own citizens and children in terms of educating them. That's not the way to grow a state and we need to prioritize our own funding again. This year, $1.2 billion. was raided out of the school aid fund to spend elsewhere. Rumors are that may grow even further in this budget being negotiated now, and that can't continue to happen if we want to actually grow Michigan. It's an interesting look, and hopefully we get more clarity, more information as the day goes along. Robert McCann, we appreciate your time, as always. Thank you. No, thanks for having me. Yeah, you got it. And again, it's the chicken or the egg approach. What comes first? Well, what comes first in growing a stick? First of all, you've got to have people. Well, people have been leaving the state of Michigan. That's problematic. That's problem number one.

But problem number two, if you have a strong education system, well, people are all of a sudden going to start looking at Michigan as a place they would relocate or they want to relocate. Or if there are businesses there, then, and you have a family, you've got kids. Well, that's who you want to be a part of your tax base. You want younger families, younger people that are going to make Michigan their home because there's good jobs and there's good education for their kids. That's how you do it. And unfortunately, we don't have a lot of that yet. Again, of course, we have wonderful businesses here. Make no mistake about it. We have a wonderful stalwart businesses here. Obviously, the automotive industry. The businesses are here. But those economic sectors have been shrinking. They haven't necessarily been growing. So yes, they stay steady. Yes, they're making profits. Yes, there are jobs. But again, we need to be looking forward into the future. What's next? What's down the pipe? What is Michigan need to be in in order to remain competitive in order for there to be good jobs to attract young families too? And so that is, that's the frustrating part is that when it comes to education and Michigan has fallen so far behind so many of these other states where they shouldn't be behind quite frankly, but they are. Well, you need to have a good place for these young families to raise their kids and to have a good school system to send them to. Interesting look. But that deadline is approaching and we're keeping an eye on it out of Lansing for you. Coming up, catch cut up on the headlines, 8 o'clock hour. Mallory McMorrow, the Senate hopeful, joins us on the other side. It's J.R. Morning. So I am very much invested into this 250 thing. I love it. I love studying our history. All the goods, the bads, the ugly bits, all of it. And when you look at where we started and where we are now, the political, divided nature of today compared to the politically divided nature of 250 years ago are very different sets of circumstances. But there are always going to be disagreements. There are always going to be factions that disagree with each other. And there are always going to be factions within your own party that disagree with each other. And you can go back to the earliest example of that with John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. both members of the Federalist Party and both disagreed with each other vehemently. But now we're starting to see something completely different. We're starting to see something that is out of the ordinary for what we have experienced for many, many years. Now, this idea of communist factions of the United States people here that think that, you know, capitalism is wrong or that socialism needs to be the way, All of these, all of these different avenues and different perspectives on people. God bless, you could have those perspectives. Why? Because you live in the United States of America. Now, everybody's in a tizzy of what's happening inside the Democratic Party with these, the socialist faction that is emerging out of New York State.

And there had, I mean, look, we could go down the list of some of these people that are being highlighted and some of the things that they've said, like Dari Elisa Villashaville, who started the, or was a part of a group. She found the group at Columbia University, apartheid, C-U-A-D, which later in Farsi posted on X death to America. They have largely. advocated for the total eradication of Western civilization. Yikes, that doesn't seem like a winning message on the campaign trail. Then you've got others that are a part of this. Claire Valdez, for example, she's a state assembly woman in the state of New York. And she's had some unbelievable viewpoints. And the list goes on and on and on. Former New York City comptroller Brad Lander is among that mix as well. And you've got, you know, prominent figures. in Washington that are having to answer for this. And I got to be honest, every time I see a question get asked to Hakeem Jeffries or Chuck Schumer, it's very uncomfortable for them. Why? Because it's really an unpopular position to take. Now, these are all blue cities. All of these folks are probably going to be elected to Congress. And God bless if that's what the voters in these communities want. Do your thing. But the concern here is the ripple effect for Democrats. And at a time when Donald Trump's approval rating is low, at a time when things are still too expensive, at a time when many of the objectives that were set out by Donald Trump going into this next term have largely been completed, some of them have not. And some important ones have not, like affordability, for example. And so now you've got, and I've always made this point of Republicans shouldn't hand anything on a silver Graham Platner to Democrats at this point. Yet they have. Problem for Democrats is they're dealing with their own infighting. I mean, the Detroit Free Press just endorsed Mallory McMorrow. for the U.S. Senate race here in Michigan. By the way, we'll talk with her coming up at 819. But she is viewed as the middle, whereas Abdul El-Sayed is far left, and Haley Stevens is more moderate. She's in the middle. She is not on the side of where these folks are at out in New York. So it's more palatable. Now, whether you agree with or not is a completely different story. But what we're seeing from the Democratic Party is incredibly interesting to me at this point in time. Again, not uncommon. We're members of your own party to invite. We're also seeing that on the Republican side of things right now, too. But it's fascinating to me to see this dynamic shift.

Now, there is certainly a Zohran Mamdani effect to this too. But I find it incredibly fascinating that for whatever reason, more people are shifting towards the socialist perspective. And I'm not just talking about social programs. I'm not talking about social security or Medicare or, you know, things like that. I'm talking about people that have radical views. of how the country should run. And I mean, you're talking about steering a ship 180 degrees, completely different from where we are now. And I mean, you look at some of the countries around the world that are of that ilk. I mean, you're looking at, you know, Vietnam and China and Cuba, some of these other communist socialist countries. It's fascinating to me that there are enough people that make that shift. Of course, we have that here. We have Rashida Tlaib. We've got the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-Cortezes in New York, though. So we're seeing this again on the coasts. Not so much Middle America. And if there's one thing that it feels very apparent to me that the Democratic Party still hasn't got. They still haven't figured out what went wrong for them in 2024, which was that they weren't listening to Middle America. They weren't listening to us. They weren't listening to you and your concerns. They were listening to the coasts. They were listening to the edges. And that has become obviously the problem. And so when leaders are asked about this, they are, I mean, they are tap dancing around answering the question because they can't. It's an unwinnable situation for them. Although what should happen is they should denounce it. They should say this is not the way to go. We feel like we are on the right path. We have a winning message and we're going to deliver for the American people on traditional democratic values. And of course they're not saying that either, which is problematic for them. So it's a very fascinating shift for me to see from the outside looking in. And yeah, it's befuddling. But it is fascinating nonetheless. Coming up on the other side, Robert McCann with the K-12 Alliance of Michigan joins us. Tomorrow is the deadline for the state budget. A, are we going to meet it? But B, what does that mean for students in our state? It's next on J.R. Morning. You know, interesting piece out of Crane's Detroit business as we are just exactly one day away from, well, I guess technically midnight tonight, right, is the deadline for the state budget. And there are still a number of questions that we have as to what will be in it if we even get to the deadline and get it done. But House Speaker Matt Hall has said that the budget will be smaller than it is now.

In part because of 2025 laws that permanently shifted more revenue to road and bridge projects. It extended federal tax exemptions for tips and overtime to state returns. The governor who's proposed a sin tax hike for the rainy day fund withdrawal have been rejected. So there are a number of different ways in which the budget could be smaller. There's also questions on economic development. And this $59 million in annual business attractions and community revitalizations incentives that are up in the air. You also, I mean, what could come of this 21st century jobs fund? This started back in the Granholm era. And that is partially what helps fund the programs like the MEDC, which could be in trouble. They get $75 million a year from the tobacco industry settlements, payments. So there are a number of questions that are up in the air. One of them that I find to be most important is where will schools be in all of this? because there has been a lot of shifting from the school aid fund to pay for public universities and colleges and scholarships. So there's more general fund dollars for other priorities. But there is a lot of money that could be diverted away from schools. Where is it coming in at? What can we expect? Robert McCann is the executive director of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan and joins us to talk about it. John Roberts, good to have you back. Good morning. Thanks for having me. What are you hearing on the education front as we near this deadline? Very little. And that's one of our biggest concerns right now is, as you said, we're essentially 24 hours here from the deadline in which lawmakers are legally required to get our budget done. And we really have very few details on where negotiations even stand at this point. We know there are conversations happening, but we have really little information in terms of what a budget is ultimately going to look like. And for a school official, if you're already hard at work trying to get your doors open in the fall and plan everything that's required to do that, That's not a good situation to have so little information about how much funding you're going to have to do all the things necessary to support your kids next year. Well, and part of that support is the money, but we know that throwing money at the problem doesn't necessarily help. And we've seen what is going on with our reading scores or our math scores. They're just not up to snuff. And so the concern here for a lot of us is, okay, well, what happens when... A, schools don't know exactly how much money they're going to be allocated to spend for the upcoming school year. But then B, what if what if it's not enough?

And that's the exact problem we are facing right now is every school district right now, because they don't have any financial certainty for the next year, is planning very conservatively. And that means that you're not necessarily hiring those extra reading coaches and tutors and those one-on-one supports that we know are what make a big difference in a child's education in catching them up on those reading scores and getting them ahead to where we want them to be. And when a district can't plan for that because they don't know if the funding is going to be there to pay for it, that means that those people that we are looking at hiring are going elsewhere. They're taking jobs elsewhere. And even if we get that funding later on, like last year, we didn't get any funding certainty until October. It was too late to hire those people. And that means our kids aren't getting the support that they deserve simply because the legislature won't do their job. Well, and it feels like this has been the trend now for the last number of years, particularly in education. And even up at the McAnnell Policy Conference with the Detroit Regional Chamber, one of the messages, the underlying message is, well, Michigan's house is on fire. And Michigan's house is on fire because we're not attracting the business that we need to be. And we're not educating our students enough. to where they are going to be protective members of society here in the state of Michigan. And all of that starts at the K through 12 level. Unquestionably. It's hard to imagine attracting large businesses to the state when they can look at the way, not just the performance in our schools, which we all know needs to improve, but the lack of priority that the state places in funding public education. Like you said at the beginning of this conversation, every single year, Michigan has been pulling more and more money out of public education to spend elsewhere. A lot of that money goes to corporate tax handouts through the MEDC. And it's hard to imagine. a business saying, well, you know, this state is willing to give us money but isn't willing to fund its most basic priorities in public education. And that means there's not going to be a talent pool out there for us. That means the state isn't prioritizing its own citizens and children in terms of educating them. That's not the way to grow a state and we need to prioritize our own funding again. This year, $1.2 billion. was raided out of the school aid fund to spend elsewhere. Rumors are that may grow even further in this budget being negotiated now, and that can't continue to happen if we want to actually grow Michigan. It's an interesting look, and hopefully we get more clarity, more information as the day goes along. Robert McCann, we appreciate your time, as always. Thank you. No, thanks for having me. Yeah, you got it. And again, it's the chicken or the egg approach. What comes first? Well, what comes first in growing a stake? First of all, you've got to have people. Well, people have been leaving the state of Michigan. That's problematic. That's problem number one. But problem number two, if you have a strong education system, well, people are all of a sudden going to start looking at Michigan as a place they would relocate or they want to relocate. Or if there are businesses there, then...

And you have a family, you've got kids. Well, that's who you want to be a part of your tax base. You want younger families, younger people that are going to make Michigan their home because there's good jobs and there's good education for their kids. That's how you do it. And unfortunately, we don't have a lot of that yet. And, of course, we have wonderful businesses here. Make no mistake about it. We have a wonderful stalwart businesses here. Obviously, the automotive industry. The businesses are here. But those economic sectors have been shrinking. They haven't necessarily been growing. So yes, they stay steady. Yes, they're making profits. Yes, there are jobs. But again, we need to be looking forward into the future. What's next? What's down the pipe? What is Michigan need to be in in order to remain competitive in order for there to be good jobs to attract young families too? And so that is, that's the frustrating part is that when it comes to education and Michigan has fallen so far behind so many of these other states where they shouldn't be behind quite frankly, but they are. Well, you need to have a good place for these young families to raise their kids and to have a good school system to send them to. Interesting look. But that deadline is approaching and we're keeping an eye on it out of Lansing for you. Coming up, catch cut up on the headlines, 8 o'clock hour. Mallory McMorrow, the Senate hopeful, joins us on the other side. It's J.R. Morning. You know the Dosec's guy, the most interesting man in the world? I always have thought if that guy's the most interesting man in the world, Ben Franklin would have been the OG. He would have been the OG. Because if he think about it, Ben Franklin was never a president. He never served on the Supreme Court. He wasn't a distinguished military general like George Washington. Yet he was probably the most accomplished American of the founding generation. He was a printer, a writer, an innovator, a scientist, a diplomatic businessman. The list goes on and on. And when the Declaration of Independence was signed, Ben Franklin was 70 years old. He was considered at that time one of the most famous people in the world. And yes, the... You know, the Ben Franklin kite and the key and the unlocking of electricity. But he never patented any of his inventions. So the lightning rod, bifocal glasses, the Franklin stove, he thought that all of the things that he benefited from, the inventions that he created, he thought everybody should benefit from them. Just as he was inspired by others before him, that others should be inspired from him as well. And he's a self-made success American story. His parents were candlemakers and soap makers. He was one of 17 children. And he only had two years of formal schooling. Whereas you juxtapose that with some of the other founding fathers.

Completely different. But it's what eventually helped him to find, found libraries and promote education and help create Penn, the University of Pennsylvania. And then, of course, the diplomatic side of Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin, because during the Revolutionary War, Franklin was sent to France. And he was America's chief ambassador. He convinced the French monarchy to support the American cause. Because it's very possible that we would be sitting here today in a completely different situation without Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin convincing the French to send money, to send weapons, ships and troops that we would not be celebrating America's 250th year of independence. And here's another interesting fact about Ben Franklin that I love. He signed three, not one, not two, but three of the most important documents in American history. He signed the Declaration of Independence. He signed the Treaty of Paris that officially ended the Revolutionary War and the U.S. Constitution. No other founder has signed all three. It's a fascinating story, a fascinating life of Ben Franklin. Let's talk about it. Luke Hopley is the park ranger with the National Park Service and he serves in Philadelphia and joins us this morning. Luke, good to have you. Hi, good morning. Happy to be here. Thank you for taking the time this morning. Obviously in Philadelphia is the site where Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin is buried he alongside of his wife. What makes that such a large attraction to Philadelphia, but from people all over the country, all over the world? What's the draw there with Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin? Yeah, it's a good question. Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin, as you mentioned, has this kind of international appeal, I think, that perhaps some of the other founders don't have. He was well known even in his lifetime during the American Revolution in a way that people like George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, just weren't. And, you know, Franklin... He has an interest to him for just about everybody. You know, Franklin had his hands in all kinds of industries and technologies and, you know, civil good. So, you know, no matter who you are, really, a lot of people can find a connection or interest that relates them to Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin. Is it because of all of that that people hold him in such high esteem with the other founding fathers, even though he was never a major general, never president of the United States? Yeah, I think so. You know, Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin, he's sort of like a generation older than a lot of these other founders. You know, as you mentioned, he was 70 years old when he signed the Declaration of Independence. He was 81 years old when he helped write the Constitution of the United States.

So Franklin, I don't really think ever saw himself potentially involved in this new federal government because he was a bit too old. You know, he was coming up on retirement by the time the Constitution was actually ratified and the office of the president was even created. He was in the last year of his life. So, you know, Franklin added a real legitimacy, I think, to the American Revolution. He was internationally known, both in Great Britain. He had lived there for quite a while before the American Revolution. He was known throughout continental Europe. So the fact that you had this group of, you know, gentlemen from Europe's perspective, the edge of the world. The fact that they had Dr. Franklin with them, I think, added a real legitimacy to their cause. It's interesting to the ripple effects that Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin had throughout now what we see as our country. I mean, he never went west. Yet here in the state of Michigan, Iowa Royal National Park, there is Mount Franklin there. We have a village here, Franklin, that's named after Benjamin Netanyahu Franklin. Why was there so many tributes to him that just kind of... moved across the country when he had, you know, no necessary, no, no ties necessarily to these particular areas. Yeah. I mean, I think he's considered maybe, you know, he's a founding father. He might even call him a founding grandfather, right? He. just affected early American life in so many ways, founded so many institutions, founded so many practices from free libraries to firefighting companies. that I think even if he never served in public office, at least in the federal government, he served in public office in the Pennsylvania government, even if he never, you know, was in federal Congress or president or Supreme Court, his effect on, you know, American culture goes deeper than that because it's older than that, you know. It's very fascinating, a fascinating life, an important figure as we ring in the 250. Luke Hoppley, thank you so much for your time this morning, The Insight. I know you guys are pretty busy out in Philadelphia, so we appreciate you taking a couple of minutes with us this morning. Thank you. Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me. Yeah, you got it. Coming up on the other side, we know it's very hot outside. It's hot for us. It's also hot for your pets. How do we protect them in this extreme heat? It's next on J.R. Morning.

Renee, what is the... The temp today, what's it supposed to be? Well, the real temp is supposed to be 97, but the heat index is going to make it feel like 108. Okay, and tomorrow? Tomorrow's even worse. Tomorrow we get up to 101 with the heat index of 109. Okay, do we get a reprieve Thursday? No. Good? What's it supposed to be Thursday? Same? Something like that. Okay. It's getting hot in here. I mean, the surface of hell, basically. Yeah, so it's hot. Yeah. It's hot. And for everybody out there that has pets, like everybody thinks, oh, I got to make sure it's cool in my house or, you know, but like your pets are also hot. Well, yeah. You can't have them outside right now. They're little feet on that concrete. That's dangerous. Mike Palmer is the owner of Premier Pet Supply and joins us this morning. Mike, it's good to have you. Thanks, guys. Good morning. I don't have an animal. I don't have a cat or a dog or anything like that. So it's easy for me to not think about it. But for people who do, it is absolutely necessary that you remember that, yes, as much as you don't want to be hot, your pets don't want to be out in 107 degrees either. You're absolutely right. First of all, we've got to work on getting you a cat or a dog. Mike, we're working on it. I promise you. You know, so I think what a lot of people do is make the mistake of treating our pets like humans. They think if we're comfortable than they are. And it's not the case. I mean, it's obvious that... you know, they're walking around with a fur coat on, and we had to make sure that they're cool. And, you know, to the point that was made earlier, that pavement can be extremely hot. So if you're going to take them on that routine walk, you're going to have to do it a lot earlier in the morning and plan things differently and make sure you're doing it when it's a lot cooler outside, you know, because the pavement can get even like 30 to 60 degrees hotter than the actual air temperature. And that... can just make it really uncomfortable, but also can really dangerous and cause extreme pain for those sensitive pads in their feet. So what are some of the things that we got to keep in mind for our pets? So I think the simple things that some people just don't get, you know, if you're leaving them in the car and cracking that window, that's not enough. If you can't take them inside wherever you're going, do not take them out at all when the temperature is like this. You know, you have to keep in mind dogs with the shorter snouts like pugs and bulldogs, French bulldogs, they're even more susceptible to having respiratory issues and the heat can get to them quickly.

signs to look out for, you know, with heat exhaustion. If you take them for that walk, sometimes dogs just want to play, they just want to keep going. We've got to be advocates for them. We've got to make sure that we give them breaks, give them rest, make sure they're extremely hydrated. They'll just keep on to go and go, and they don't realize how bad things are. So if you start to see them pant, you know, they don't sweat like we do, so they can't release heat the way that we do. So excessive panting, excessive drooling, excessive drooling, if they seem lethargic, of course. We've got to take a break. And prevention is key. Get ahead of it. Hydrate before, not when you think there's an issue and make sure that we're giving them breaks and not leaving them outside longer than they should be. So if they get to that point, though, where it's the heavy panting, it's the glazed eyes. How do you treat it? What's the quickest way to cool them down? So you don't want to use incredibly freezing cold water on them, but cool them down with cold water. You know, you want to douse them, you know, take. fabric or towels, soak them in cold water, wrap them in that, get them inside immediately, right? Those are things that we can do. And if it gets to a point where they start vomiting and it's really, really bad, you're going to have to get them to a vet because, you know, what could seem like, you know, no big deal can turn into an extreme medical condition pretty quickly. I'm not trying to scare people. I'm just trying to prepare people. Sure. And in Michigan, there's no law in leaving... pets in cars like there's no temperature cut off so what you should not do if you see a pet in a car is break the window right like if you're at a store or whatever and you see a dog there what what do you do You call the authorities immediately. You don't want to go into whatever business you think someone may be in and just have them announce it over the loudspeaker to get somebody out there, whoever's car that may be, you know, get the description well. Bring attention to that and stand there by that car and wait for that person and you're going to have to educate them on how terrible it could be. You know, you don't see as much of it as you used to. I think sometimes people get a little freaked out nowadays, you know, with technology, especially these electric cars, they actually have a pet mode where you can leave that car air condition and locked. And some people freak out and assume that that's not happening. So, you know, be, be cautious and recognize and understand the situation. You don't want to confront people or cause any issues or problems, but you do want to make sure that you're looking out for the safety of that pet. Mike Palmer, great information. As always, we appreciate your time with Premier Pet Supply, everything you guys do. Thank you, and we'll talk again very soon. Keep those pets cool, huh? Appreciate it. Yes, sir. You got it. That is Mike Palmer with good advice, certainly. I absolutely love this story. So... The Swift Observatory is a satellite. It's a space telescope, and it's been orbiting the Earth since 2004, and it's losing altitude due to increased solar activity. Well, there's a new startup, Catalyst Space Technology. They are sending a robotic spacecraft called Link to rendezvous with Swift. It uses these three robotic arms. It boosts it from its current orbit from about 224 miles.

from the earth to about 373 miles above earth if it is successful. It will allow Swift to continue studying gamma rays and exploding stars and other cosmic events that we can't see. And so this would be absolutely groundbreaking. You're talking about the potential of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in technology if the Swift Observatory is not able to function properly, which, by the way, NASA has already shut down a bunch of their scientific instruments on the telescope to slow its descent. Because officials are saying that we could be reaching a point by October where it can no longer be rescued. So you're talking about saving a boatload of money by trying to get this thing further into orbit so it can continue its operations. And this is a $30 million rescue mission. So catalyst space technologies unveiling this new technology. They're going to go up, grab Swift, and send it further into space to continue its work in orbit. But it's absolutely unbelievable. We have never seen anything like this, done anything like this. But NASA's looking at this and what catalyst space technologies is doing as saying, well, this could be. the primer for other events like this, where if we have sensitive equipment in space that is conducting major research for us, well, instead of scrapping it or instead of redoing it and sending up something different, we can actually save this equipment, save this technology for a fraction of the cost, and continue to gather all the necessary information that we need to. Unbelievable feats. I mean, if we're not circling the moon, we're just pulling these satellites further into orbit. Absolutely unbelievable stuff. All right, that is going to do it for us today. Have yourself a wonderful Tuesday. Oh, and by the way, big match tomorrow. Bosnia, USA, 8 o'clock. It's going to be fantastic. Kevin Eats and I'll talk. Coming your way next here on WJR. See you.