JR Morning ~ June 3, 2026 ~ Full Show

Good morning, 605. Good to have you here on a Wednesday. Hump day. Middle of the week. Oh, guess what day it is? Hump day! And we got a lot to talk about primaries all across the country yesterday. Oh, yeah. And we'll get to it a little later on. Yes, we will. Because I think it's pretty interesting. Meanwhile, The case involving Lynette Hooker, the woman from Onstead down towards the Ohio border, southern Michigan, who went missing in the Bahamas, that case has shifted. It has. Authorities have reopened the search for the missing woman who disappeared while boating in the Bahamas after new information raised serious questions about what happened. on the water. Lynette Hooker vanished in early April while sailing with her husband, Brian Hooker. He told investigators she fell overboard, was swept out to sea and said that he had to paddle to shore after she went into the water because she had the boat's key. Brian Hooker was briefly taken into custody in the Bahamas following the disappearance, but was later released and returned here to Michigan. Now, Investigators say new cell phone location data appears to contradict his account and may indicate search efforts were directed to the wrong area. That new evidence has prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to reopen the search for Lynette Hooker as the investigation continues. Also... Federal investigators have charged a former procurement director for Detroit's people mover and a local business owner in an alleged scheme to defraud the transit system out of more than $300,000. Now, according to the FBI, former Detroit Transportation Corporation employee, Michael Anderson, and total care restoration owner, Terrence Parker, conspired to submit and approve invoices for work that was never performed between 2023 and 2025. Investigators allege. The restoration company received nearly $305,000 for information technology work despite having no known IT experience, no contract with the people mover, and no record of performing the services bill. Federal agents say phone records, emails, bank transactions, and cash withdrawals point to a coordinated fraud scheme. Both men now face conspiracy in federal program theft or bribery charges. The allegations remain accusations. and both presume innocent unless proven guilty in court. Two NIH-affiliated scientists are facing federal charges after allegedly smuggling biological material, including monkeypox samples, into the United States through... Detroit Metro. Detroit Metro Airport. Two researchers arrived at DTW in January. We remember that after traveling from the Republic of Congo where there was an active monkeypox outbreak. That's right. Also the Ebola outbreak currently. They were stopped by customs officials while carrying a large black case. They claimed it was testing equipment. Then they found these.

113 vials of biological materials 17 vials with deactivated monkey pox viruses one vial with chickenpox virus and two vials with human DNA they're charged with conspiracy to smuggle biological materials making false statements to federal agents and could face up to five years of prison but this is a this is a serious breach of trust for scientists involved in The National Institute of Health. Oh, my goodness. Ah, yikes. That's not a good thing. Scary stuff. Did you see the news about 60 minutes over the last couple of days? I have. Well, they fired Scott Pelly. And you think, what? How? Well, they have a new executive producer that has come in. Yes. And there's been a lot of, uh, I don't know. hurt feelings over at 60 minutes. CBS under Bari Weiss, the head of CBS NewsDowell, there are many people that are unhappy with the direction of CBS. Inside, inside, not even just outside. Right. Inside, people are unhappy with the direction of CBS. And particularly with 60 minutes. Well, there was this meeting when this new executive producer came over. And basically, everybody laughed at this guy. They didn't think he was qualified, yada, yada. Well, Scott Pelly was the most vocal member of the 60 Minutes team was basically ripping into this guy. Yeah. His boss was ripping into him. And as a result, I guess I don't know exactly as a result, but part of the reason why Scott Pelley was fired, at least according to Nick Bilton, the new executive producer, was this outbreak that he had in this team meeting. And now Scott Pelley's out at 60 minutes. You know, some of the feedback I've seen on this has been, oh, how could you? CBS is, you know, they're going down the wrong path. Yeah. In no way, shape or form, would you, me, Lloyd? anybody be able to walk into a giant meeting of your entire team at work and then unload on your boss and then expect it to be business as usual. Not going to happen. Not going to happen. Now, you can, I mean, I appreciate Scott Pelly sticking up for the people of 60 minutes. Yeah, but it's a way to do. Whatever their perspective is. It's a way to do it. Right? He's the leader. God bless. Do your thing. But I mean. That kind of insubordination. I don't know how you look past that. And I think that's one of the things Nick Milton. Well, Billton addressed this, you know, when he sent this termination letter to Pelley. And in the letter, it said, yesterday you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, my intentions, with remarkable instability and contempt. Yesterday's performative display of hostility enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation, demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show.

or approaching my new tenure with an open mind to collaboration and progress. So there you go. I mean, hey, what do you say to? I mean, now, you can make the argument that Scott Pelley was got after, you know, whatever political shakeups are happening in secret. Yeah. Okay, that's fine. I have no problem with that, if that's how you feel. But. I mean, just look at the facts of the matter. I mean, just if that, you know, that's what happened. That's what Billton said happened. You know you yourself could not go in and do the same thing to your bosses. She just couldn't. Correct. Meanwhile, Bill Pulte is Donald Trump's new director of national intelligence. Well, okay. I don't know. He's obviously got ties to Michigan. I think it's interesting there. Yeah. I don't know what really what qualifications he has. But he has been certainly a steady hand next to Donald Trump. He has been. Throughout this second term, I don't know really how this is going to work. But hey, let's see how it goes. Let's just see. Just wait and see. Why not? Let's just see how it goes. How about those tigers yesterday, they get. That's two in a row. That's exactly right. Play one more time. One more time. That's two in a row. Two in a row. Now one more. They have scored 18 runs in two days. What is happening? What is going on with these tigers? I don't know. I don't know, but I'm on board. They win yesterday eight to nothing. Yes, Jason. He grabbed that microphone very quickly. Jack Flaherty in his last four starts. Uh-huh. A 450 ERA. Uh-huh. 26 strikeouts, only three walks. Uh-huh. So he's kind of found a little groove here. Okay. And look what happens when you score runs. How about that? Hello? Yeah. Look, I'm very happy. It was funny. We were at Henry's T-ball game last night as this started. Okay. Also, a 7 o'clock for, you know, T-ball start time for these three and four-year-olds. Right. Okay. Seems kind of late. It's kind of late for me, but certainly seems kind of late for them. Whatever. Just be brushing your teeth at that time. Exactly. I'm like, yo, it's pajama time. We're not supposed to be playing right now. But we're watching the Tiger game, you know, in between innings. And I'm like, 2-0, 4-0.

You know, keep in mind at this point that it's really an online conspiracy theory story, and there's been no connection that anybody has found to these mysterious missing people or dead people, in some cases, like poor Ms. Cassius. But, you know, at this point, there's no link between them, but they're looking into it just because of how many are involved. Daniel, the remains of Melissa Cassius. They were found a year. She had been missing for a year. How significant is it that a handgun was reportedly found beside her remains? And what questions does that immediately raise for investigators? Well, it's certainly, you know, that's one of the first things that you think of is that possibly it's a suicide if it was found right next to the body. She was in a remote location in a national forest. She was found by a hiker. So one would think that the initial reaction from law enforcement is going to be, well, this is possibly a... a suicide situation. You know, they'll look at gun tracing and find out whose gun that was, find out where it was registered, who bought it, who used it, things like that. That will be done immediately. And then, of course, they're going to have to wait for the autopsy to see exactly what happened in there when how she died. Yeah, and you're right. These are not all connected cases. Obviously, there were two that worked at Los Alamos, including Melissa Cassius. Then you had Two that were affiliated with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The MIT scientist who was working on nuclear fusion was shot by the Brown University shooter. And so they are, they're not all directly connected, but it is odd that so many of these people that are working in this technology have gone missing. Even after all of that, and to Lloyd's point, the fact that she went missing in June of last year, and they just discovered her now. So what pieces are they putting together to try to find out if there is a connection or not? Well, I think it starts with their current or what their last assignments were. So if they were all working on the same type of project, the same type of atomic weapons systems or some kind of nuclear research together, even though they may have been spread out across the country, maybe they were working on the same type of research. That has to be investigated first. However, some of them, I understand, are not even scientists. At least one of them was kind of an administrative assistant type of thing. So while most of them were super highly educated people involved in nuclear research, some of them were not. So this could very well just be random death investigations that are not connected at all or missing person investigations that are not connected at all. But it's worth a check.

And it's worth the FBI to do a deep dive into their social media, into their work history, talk to a number of their coworkers and find out if there's any connection, any threats that's been received by the Department of Energy where most of them work are DOE facilities. Some are researchers at universities. A lot of the DOE facilities would know if there have been threats against them or against their employees and start certainly at those locations first and then work outward from there. The family would also might have great insight in terms of that if they came home from work and said, hey, I'm receiving threats or, you know, those types of things. So a lot of footwork has to be done by the FBI both on the computer systems as well as just. out and out interviews and background on all of these individuals. Daniel, do you know if there been any historical examples where like a series of seemingly unrelated incidents eventually turned out to be connected? I mean, and what lessons could investigators learn from those cases? You know, a lot of times we have, we in the FBI have a national center for analysis of violent crime. It's in Quantico, Virginia, and they study a lot of homicides across the country. There have been links before for serial killers, for example, where serial killers have worked, you know, across the country and involved. in that. So there have been links before for missing people. Not that I can recall, you know, missing people with this type of background. Background. Yeah. I've not heard that before. But there have certainly been those that have been investigated for homicide across the country that are linked together. We just have 30 seconds left here. Does the Bureau investigate when there's great public interest in something? Like, does that sway their... I guess their opinion on a particular case, or in this case, cases that people feel like there might be something funny going on here. Does that sway their investigative process? I would say a couple of things on that. First of all, this one came as a referral from congressional committees. So they're pretty much obligated to follow those committees' recommendations and take a look at it. But there also has to be some investigative jurisdiction for the FBI to be involved. In the case of Ms. Cassius, who was just recently found deceased, she was in a national force. So that technically falls under the FBI. Any sort of federal government lands. where crime has occurred would give the FBI jurisdiction to investigate. Also, any sort of crime department of energy facilities, for example, would fall. So it certainly would be something that the FBI could do and is doing based on Director Kash Patel's comments. Daniel John Roberts, always appreciate the insight. Good stuff. Thank you, and we'll talk again soon.

All right, good talking to you. Yeah, you got it. Michigan drivers facing soaring car costs, insurance payments are going up and up and up. And even used cars are more expensive. So what's behind it and what can you look out for? We'll talk about it on the other side. It's Jerry Morning. Well, the case of Lynette Hooker has also taken a turn as well. She went. Missing after falling overboard a small boat in the Bahamas with her husband. And now that that investigation has shifted. Yeah. You know, authorities had arrested, well, they had, you know, took into custody her husband. Brian Hooker in the Bahamas following her disappearance. Now he said that she fell overboard when they were out sailing. It was swept out to sea. He said he had to paddle to shore after she went into the water because she had the boat's key. Well, investigators are saying some cell phone location data appears to contradict his account and may indicate search efforts were directed to the wrong area. So this new evidence has prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to reopen the search for Lynette Hooker, and that investigation continues. And being looked at as a murder case. Yeah. And I always felt that something was a little... off about this case. I mean, just from the beginning, just, you know, I just felt something just wasn't quite kosher. Well, again, I mean, I think that's always going to be the case when there's, you know, two people. out on their own. Yeah. And then you don't know what happened, right? Yep. But then, you know, you started hearing a little bit of their backstory and kind of the volatile relationship that they had. Yes. And, and, and it, yeah, I'm with you. Something just didn't. Yeah. All the puzzle pieces weren't lining up correctly. No. And so now that, that investigation is shifted and there's been a lot of work being done because, right, you're, you're right. They took him into custody and they let them go. And he came back here. Yeah. Yeah. Because he said when he came back here that he was going to end up going back to the Bahamas because he was going to continue searching until they found. Correct. Until he found his wife. Correct. But he never went. But yes, something just isn't quite adding up on that front. Math ain't math. No. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has signed a new executive order designed to give the U.S. government an early look at the most powerful AI systems before they're released to the public. targets open AI, Google Anthropic to voluntarily share advanced AI models with the government up to 30 days before the launch. The goal is to identify if there are security risks, especially cyber threats before they go before before the public has access to these tools.

And these models are just getting better and better and better. And, you know, Anthropic is filing their IPO. Yes. Which is a huge step. Because, again, you're going from investors to then going public. It's a different beast. It's a whole different ballgame. It's a whole different ballgame. And so the government says, well, they'll be able to find weaknesses or exploit the weaknesses of these systems. before they can be taken advantage of by hackers or by, you know, bad actors, foreign adversaries, things like that. So it's interesting. You know, generally, I don't like the government to get involved in issues. But I do believe there needs to be some sort of oversight. Now, should, you know, is 30 days enough to review a system and say this is bulletproof enough? that the public has the ability to go out and use this, this, you know, new powerful tool? I don't know. It doesn't seem like that long. No, it doesn't. And, you know, depending on who's looking at it and, you know, what they can do, I mean, at 30 days doesn't seem like a very long time. No. And again, as somebody who, like me, if you're a bit pessimistic on artificial intelligence, the only thing you got to remember is it's not going anywhere. Oh, no. So, so, you know, you can be skeptical. You can be, you know, you could welcome it with arms wide open. Shout out Creed. It's like the World Wide Web, man. You know, it's, you know, it's. Yes. No, no, there's no doubt. I was reading a story a couple of months ago, and it was about the, it was comparing artificial intelligence to the, to the dot-com boom. And if you, if you remember, you go back in time then. You know, businesses were like, the World Wide Web, that's crazy. I remember those days. Yes, I do. I mean, people were talking about email and how you could actually just electronically send something over. And people are like, we have faxes. What do we need that for? Exactly. No, all that is true. So it's, it's always in hindsight. You go, well, that was. a huge miscalculation. That was not the way to go about it. And I think there's an element of that here too. So for somebody like me who goes, well, hey, hang on, there's a lot of great that is going to come of this. But on the other side, there is going to be some sort of fallout. It seems. Maybe not. Maybe all of us that are out there saying, well, there's going to be a huge loss of jobs. And it's going to change the way we fundamentally think about and go about a lot of different tasks and ideas and thoughts and, you know, artistically and creativity and all those things. And tomorrow, just so you know, we do have a woman who is the president and policy director for the Center for AI and Digital Policy. Great. She's a U of M professor. She's in Paris right now at a conference called... human flourishing in the age of AI. And she said, I would love to talk about this with you guys tomorrow morning. And I think it's an important topic because it is. Because, you know, much like the the worries around electric vehicles, right? The infrastructure, the range anxiety, they never went away. And so if we want to tackle these issues, you got to talk about. You got to talk about.

Hey, did we learn that up at Mackinot? We did. It is one of the things I learned. Yes. Yes. So, yeah, you got to talk about these issues because. There is a level of misinformation, not maybe misinformation, but just not understanding things the way that they are. Right? Right. So I think that that's, I'm glad we're going to talk to her tomorrow because it's going to be pretty valuable. Meanwhile, car costs are just going up and up and up. Crazy. The average cost of a car payment these days is what? Almost a thousand bucks. I mean, it's absolutely crazy. crazy. And we've got to try to bring these prices down. And you see what some of these foreign automakers are selling their cars in other countries. It's very low. 7 o'clock hour coming up. Lots to talk about. Get you caught up on the latest headlines. Also, do you care FIFA's coming. It's next. The tears of joy streamed out.

All right, 7 o'clock hour. Good to have you here on a Wednesday morning. Negotiations are still ongoing, according to President Donald Trump between the United States and Iran. It says that he's even, as you heard in that bit of audio played by Fox News, that... You know, things are going well. They're talking. He may even meet up with Mouhtamahmani at some point. The Supreme Leader said they're getting along well. Cairns going a little bit further down the street. They're kicking a little further. Yeah. Okay. So here's here's one thing to just keep in mind. Okay. Okay. Not that this is any sort of justification. Okay. Because the United States engaged in military activity. Mm-hmm. all with the endgame of being a deal put in place where Iran would not be able to enrich uranium past a certain point and they would not be able to build a nuclear weapon, basically dismantling their whole nuclear program. Yeah. It did take the Obama administration two years to negotiate the JCPOA. Okay. From 2013 to 2015. Mm-hmm. Now. It's a different scenario. It is. Because there wasn't military action then. The Strait of Hormuz wasn't closed. That's right. Gas prices weren't up that high as a result of those negotiations. True. So it is a bit of a different. set of circumstances. But for all the people that have, you know, expected this to get done in a couple of weeks or in one particular meeting with, you know, Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff or JD Vance, it probably was not realistic. Now, I ain't carrying anybody's dead weight around. Yeah, yeah. Right? But you got to get something done here because people are hurting financially here at home. So that's the difference, but it did take a long time. So those conversations are still ongoing. But again, the president has maintained things are going in the right direction until he, you know, sends out of true social saying something to the contrary. But he says things are going in the right direction. And Marco Rubio testified on Capitol Hill yesterday. And one of the things that he said was Iran's willingness to start negotiating on things that were previously redlined for them. They have agreed. to negotiate aspects of their nuclear program that just a month ago or just a year ago they were refusing to even mention much less into discussions about so the secretary states says progress is being made Lynette Hooker vanished in early April while sailing with her husband, Brian Hooker, and he told investigators she fell overboard, was swept out to sea and said he had to paddle the shore after she went into the water because she had the boats key. Well, Brian Hooker was briefly taken into custody, as you remember, in the Bahamas following her disappearance, but was later released, and he came back here to Michigan. Now, investigators say...

There's some new cell phone location data that appears to contradict his account and may indicate that search efforts were directed to the wrong area of the sea. Now, that new evidence has prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to reopen its search for Lynette Hooker as the investigation continues. I, you know, I don't know. From the beginning, I kind of thought things were weird, especially once the daughter started talking, doing interviews, saying, that, you know, there had been some domestic violence, you know, in that relationship. And it just kind of made me think even more. And now here it is that it appears that he may have lied to investigators and they're going to check out his story. Yeah, Rodden Plymouth sent a text and she fell overboard, was not wearing a life preserver, and now you want to blame the husband. This does not add up. The ignorance of not wearing a life preserver in rough waters in a little dingy. I mean, that's fair. It's certainly a fair criticism. And these people, I think, were experienced boaters. They're supposed to be. And the daughter said that the mom was very experienced and a very good swimmer. Right. And by the way, I've been talking to the daughter. I'm trying to get her on the show. Okay. Yes. Because I'd love to hear her perspective now as more information becomes available. I mean, incredibly sad story. Her mother is gone missing. Yes. But again, it's all the pieces that aren't adding up. That's the thing. I don't think anybody's pinning it on anybody. But the only person to pin it on would be your husband because they were the only two there. Right. Nobody else was there. So it is odd how that has shifted, certainly. Detroit leaders taking steps to prevent problems at this year's Ford fireworks. As concerns grew over recent teen takeovers and youth-related violence across the city, Detroit City Council has advanced a proposal to hold a public hearing on a temporary curfew for minors during the annual event under the plan. Anyone under 18 will be prohibited from being in a designated downtown area from 8 p.m. on June 22nd until 6 a.m. June 23rd. City officials say the measure is intended to protect public safety as thousands gather along the riverfront. The move comes after a shooting at last year's fireworks injured a 17-year-old boy and a 22-year-old woman and follow several recent incidents involving large groups of teens that have led to violence and police intervention. And I know when I was when I talked to some city council members up at Mackinall, they were saying they were going to be talking about this, but you had some city council people who said, this would just be for downtown. And you had some city council people kind of wanted to be for the whole city, you know, for that day. Well, I mean, remember, this was an event where there were issues in the past. Oh, yes. Right? Absolutely. And there have been, there was a lot of work done to make sure that that wasn't happening on that night. Exactly. Anymore. No. And so you don't want these, again, kids should be able to go downtown and enjoy the fireworks. Yeah. But again, if you're cause of trouble. If you're causing trouble or if you're not with a parent. And you're not being supervised, you know, you don't need to be there. Yeah, a whole different set of circumstances. Coming up on the other side, primaries held all across the country yesterday. What did we learn? Donald Trump did sustain a blemish. We'll talk about that coming up with Dave Duleo at Oakland University. But first at 712, time forward WJR's business beat brought you by shelving.com. We rack your world. Here's Jeff Sloan, the founder and CEO of Startup Nation, is spotlight the entrepreneurial tech and startup community on WJR.

Good morning. This morning on the business beat. We're taking a look at a hot retail category to see who's winning and who's fading. The category, athletic apparel, a near universal category in which Nike leads by a wide margin. They own a 22% mental market share, the broadest occasion footprint in a new study conducted by Morning Consult. Now, for reference, mental market share means a brand's mental availability. How often it comes to mind compared to competitors when consumers think of buying in a given category. Following Nike, which has more than double market share over the next competitor, that competitor, Adidas at 11% and Under Armour at 10%. Nike is recalled across more purchase occasions than any other brand, including triggers like replacing worn out gear, stylistic triggers like athleisure, and utilitarian triggers like everyday wear. Awareness is highest among 65 plus adults, 93% or remains strong among 18 to 34-year-olds as well at 76%. Now, there are new challengers emerging in this category. Allo Yoga leads the Yoga Pilates category at 39% ahead of Lulu Lemon at 32%. When it comes to gym training wear, the leader is Jim Shark at 36% ahead of Under Armour at 35%. And brands not doing as well as expected. Reebok is at 6.5% mental market share while champion. sits at 5.2% well-known brands, but those brands get left behind when consumers are about to make purchase decisions. All in all, the athletic apparel category showing strong retail results for brands and retailers alike. No doubt one which aspiring entrepreneurs should take a close look at if you're thinking of starting or growing a business of your own. 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 I told you earlier this week, it's June now. Yeah. You knew it was June. I knew it was June. But I told you, once we get to June here, the primaries really ramp up. Yeah, fast and furious. We start to learn a little bit more. And there were a number yesterday, California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota, obviously the biggest, one of the biggest. primaries that we were watching really two of them in California both of them but the mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass the incumbent looking for another term Spencer Pratt the former reality show star right turned politician you know the impetus for him was

He and his wife, their home burned down in the Palisades fire. Right. He has seen the mismanagement of the city budget, particularly when it came to the fires, but then when it came to the homeless population spending $400 million to just. allow people to live on the streets in Los Angeles. And he says that the people of L.A. deserve more. So it's going to be a runoff now because nobody cracked 50%. Correct. But we don't know who yet is going to be in that because they're still counting votes. But there, I mean, he is in the lead. He's in the lead. For second place. He's close to the mayor. I mean, you know, she's like 35, 35%. You know, four percentage points off. Yeah. So. You know, it should put a little bit of fear in Karen Bass at this point. I agree. David Duleo is the Distinguished Professor of Political Science and the Director of the Center for Civic Engagement at Oakland University and joins us this morning. Dave, good morning. It's good to have you back. Good morning, guys. Thanks for having me. What did you make of some of these races yesterday? Yeah, you know, I think yesterday's primary results across the country provided some interesting results, some expected results. And I think also shine a light on some of the national dynamics that are continuing to really drive American politics. And I think, you know, part of that is... the faction divide in today's Democratic Party between sort of the establishment folks and the more progressive wing of the party. And both could claim some victories yesterday. In Iowa, we have Josh Turrick, moderate sort of centrist Democrat. He is going to advance to the run against a woman named Ashley Hinson for the open Senate seat in Iowa. You've got military veteran Rebecca Bennett, who also is from that more moderate wing of the Democratic Party, going to run against a guy named Tom Keene, who has been nowhere to be seen on Capitol Hill as a member of Congress from New Jersey. But at the same time. We get also in New Jersey, interesting in the same state, but driven by different district factors, a guy named Hamilley, who is very much in the progressive bent of the party these days. And he's going to go on in a safe Democratic district to represent. voters and one of the one of the great quotes that I read about him is that he has a checkered personal history which which these days is more and more and of course and you guys covered California yeah but I would just say two other things about that number one you know the primary out there is top two

So a slew of Republicans and Democrats on the same primary ballot and those top two vote getters will go on to the general election. And the last thing is, and you alluded to it, but it's important. lots of votes left out there in California to count. So even in that L.A. mayor's race and an interesting governor's race. Yes, yeah. Lots of votes left out there. David, you know, we've seen, you know, entertainers and media personalities and political outsiders continue to gain traction. Why are non-traditional candidates still resonating with voters? Yeah, great question, Lloyd. I think, let me start by saying that. this is not the first era of American politics where those outsiders or celebrity candidates in some sense have had real success. And I think it's because of a couple things. Number one, you know, when voters start to hear about the quote unquote career politicians and look at records. Maybe like in Los Angeles, right? Folks are looking for something different. They're looking for something fresh. They're looking for a new perspective. to help solve important problems. And being a celebrity, having a notable name helps those individuals raise money. It helps them with name identification, which, as you both know, is really important in races like these. So I think it's a combination of benefits that come along with being somebody who's got a well-known name and just an appetite for something different. Well, up until last night's primaries, there were no Trump endorsed candidates for governor, House or Senate that had lost a midterm primary. Until last night, Randy Feenstra, the representative who was running for governor in Iowa, did lose to Zach Lawn. And that changes things a little bit. Donald Trump was batting a thousand up until that point. Do you think that his late endorsement just wasn't enough at the end? Yeah, it may, it may not have come in time. And off the top of my head, I don't know what the early voting rules are in that state. But it could be that, you know, there were folks who maybe were, who had cast their ballots via absentee or early voting that may have changed had Trump come in earlier. But I think, look, I mean, this is this is one race out of many that have already come, right? grip on the Republican Party and his influence among Republican primary voters is not to be questioned. I'm wondering, Dave, how much should we read into primary results when turnout is often, you know, a lot lower than the general election?

Yeah, it's really hard to extrapolate from a primary to a general election. And the electorates are just so much different in terms of who shows up. And of course, that has an impact on those turnout numbers, as you mentioned, Lloyd, right? I mean, the folks who show up in June in California are the... hardcore of the hardcore partisans right i mean it's uh and it's the same will be true in here in michigan in august right yeah right are People are still on vacation. They're thinking about the last few weeks of summer. They're getting their kids ready to go back to school, right? I mean, it's really, it really takes a motivated and really active politically individual to get out there and vote. I mean, it doesn't sound like much. Right. That's really the, that's really the dynamics that are at the way. Dave, Julio, we appreciate your time. As always, thank you. Thanks, guys. Change is coming to the earmark process here in the state of Michigan. It's next. All right, well, we work on our guests. Let me ask you a question. Ask me. You big soccer fan? Not really. I'll watch it sometime on Saturday before the lottery comes out. At 1 o'clock. I'll see what the lottery number is. Oh, soccer's on. Let me watch this one minute. Okay, the lottery number has been flashed up on the screen. Goodbye. Lloyd's just a, it's a trail of smoke behind Lloyd as he runs away from the TV. No, I'll watch it for a little while. The FIFA World Cup starts in, what, eight days? Yes. In the United States. Big deal. And I don't know if anybody cares. I mean, I don't hear many people that I, my circle of friends talking about it much, you know. Now, I love soccer. Okay. So I'm jazzed for it. Okay. I absolutely love it and I love international soccer the most. Okay. All right. So this is, this is the Olympics of soccer, right? This is your home country representing and it's the World Cup. It's the best. I love it. Absolutely love it. Okay. And all I've heard for years is, oh, here comes soccer. Oh, don't sleep on. Oh, soccer is getting more popular. Yeah. Oh, soccer is getting more popular. And I think that that is true to a certain extent. I mean, forever, forever, you're listening to the best of FIFA talk here.

I mean, it was at one point the most popular game for kids to play. Oh, man. Because what do you need? A ball. Listen, I was out over the weekend at an event, and it was a big soccer game with kids going on at the park. Right. Yeah. And, of course, you know, you've got our talent. our team in town here. Yes. So it is popular amongst certain people, but broadly, I'm not entirely sure it is. Now, I would love to hear from you. 8008-559-0-957, 800-8-5-90 WJR. Is this on your radar? Isn't it? Why? Because I, again, I think it's a beautiful game. Some people don't like it. They flopping around and they're faking injuries and the whole thing. You know, you hear about the magic water bottle, the magic squirt bottle when they come out and all of a sudden, you know, it looked like they just blew their leg off in a horrifying car crash and all of a sudden they're outscoring goals. Goals, yeah. But I was talking to our program or our promotions director yesterday. Okay. Who's a big DCFC fan, like big soccer fan. I'm like, are you excited for the World Cup? And he's like, eh. Huh. I'm like, you're the guy who should be excited. Yeah. I'm like, if we can't get you to be excited, how can we expect anybody to be excited? Yeah, I'm just haven't. I mean, I'm sure we'll hear more as it gets closer, but, you know, normally, you know, when you have something big like this, you would hear about it weeks, weeks, weeks, people will be talking it up, you know. I mean, there has been a lot of talk about it, but it's not like, you know, it's not like the Super Bowl. Yeah. Right? Sure. I know. It's just something that I was thinking about the last couple of days because I'm getting excited for it. Okay. And I just don't know if the same level of excitement is there. And judging by the feedback here, I'm going to say no. How did you get that? 800859-957, 8008-8-9-0-WJR. A couple of weeks ago, the Michigan Court of Claims granted a preliminary injunction to the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation's lawsuit challenging unconstitutional earmarks hidden in the state budget process. And changes now could be coming as a result. Patrick Wright's the VP of Mackinac Center Legal Foundation and joins us to talk about it. Patrick, good morning. It's good to have you. Thanks for having me on. Why file the lawsuit? Why go down that path and now as a result of this preliminary injunction, what happens? Well, we thought that there were taxpayers being abused because there was about $3 billion over two years of unconstitutional earmarks. And so we took them to court. We got a preliminary injunction from the court telling us that the process was improper. And we're hoping to get a little bit of the money back and stop the legislature from being able to do this in the future.

One of the major changes, a strict ban on earmarks going to for-profit companies and new requirements for nonprofits to have a physical presence in history of Michigan. What impact could that have on how money flows into local community? Well, Michigan's constitution for over 100 years has prohibited... appropriations, earmarks, pork, whatever you'd like to call it, going to local or private purposes, unless there's a super majority vote of two thirds. So the, um, what was happening was this was, uh, at a time of, uh, one party was in control and they wanted to help make sure that they can get reelected. And so the earmarks, shot through the roof for a couple years. And hopefully what this will do is make it a little bit harder for these things to go. We do have local revenues. The Constitution requires that revenue sharing. And so if you need a swimming pool at your high school, that can be handled by your local community. It really shouldn't be a state matter. Is the Faye Bedoon case, the poster child of this? Of course, she was charged with 16 felony accounts, according to or through the Michigan Attorney General's office. She had that $20 million grant that was meant to create a global business accelerator in Oakland County, but obviously that didn't end up happening. Is that the poster case for this? Yeah, in some ways it is. It shows that without good oversight and without everybody being aware of what's going on, you can end up with some really ugly situations. That typically happens at the end of a budget cycle. So you have the House has one budget, the Senate has another. They go to something called conference. they hash out their differences and then lo and behold 10 people get lots of earmarks and those 10 people manage to vote for the budget um so the the by making sure that the vote threshold is a lot higher hopefully we will have a lot less of that the house and the senate also put in some things that are not constitutionally required, but improve the process and that these things have to be disclosed a lot earlier in the budget process now so they can't just be stuck in in conference. They have to go through the committees and go through the vote on the floor and all of that other stuff. So that should help as well. Patrick, how common is it for legislatures to tighten rules like this after scandals? And does it really actually reduce misconduct long term? Well, I have a running theory that if you show me this month's headlines, I'll show you next month's rules. And so usually there's a response to scandals. I do think that this will improve the process quite a bit. Before, in the last 10 years, we have had, by the way, a billion dollars in proper earmarks where the...

where the vote was sufficient to have the two-thirds majority, but most of the time it had been in the low 60 and 70 millions, and then it just exploded. And so we're hopeful that, particularly with this indictment with the Faye Bay Dune thing and other investigations, that there's going to be a lot more scrutiny to this and that the problem will improve going forward. Just 30 seconds left here. Does the lack of transparency here in the state lead to some of these problems? Yeah, I mean, obviously you want more transparency as you can get the House and the Senate are trying to make it more transparent by some internal rules. Those are not constitutional rules. They can be waived in the future. So groups like ourselves, people like yourselves, you know, we're just going to have to keep an eye on this process and try to make sure that the taxpayers get protected. Patrick Wright, we appreciate you as always. Thank you. We'll talk again very soon. Appreciate being on. Yeah, you got it. Coming up on the other side, it's meetyourclass.com, and you can, in fact, meet your class. It's next on J.R. Morning. No matter where you look, rising costs are hitting Michiganders hard, and when you're forced to make those tough choices, like keeping on the lights and the heat, well, that shouldn't be one of them. Consumers Energy is stepping up, giving back $5 million to assistance agencies and supporting efforts to increase energy assistance dollars for families and need by 50%. And with personalized energy savings programs, you can take steps to start reducing your energy bills today. Count on Consumers Energy for support. Learn more at Consumersenegy.com slash help. Love WJR's Tim McGraw, VIP experience. It's your chance to rock when country music legend. Tim McGraw brings his pawn show guitar tour to Pineau Music Theater August 28th. And you could win a pair of premium pavilion tickets, transportation, courtesy of metro cars, and $100 to Buddy's Pizza. And enter, all you got to do is download the free WJR mobile app, find the secret keyword, and then text it. to 800 8559-0-9-7, 800-8-5-9-0-WJR. You can head on over to wjr.com for more information. Download that free mobile app, find the secret keyword, and then text it to 800-8-5-9-0-9-7. There was an interesting piece in Crane's Detroit business about companies that tech companies that are bucking the trend of maybe going to places like Silicon Valley and choosing the city of Detroit. instead to be headquartered. Okay. And we love it. Absolutely love it. Always. Well, one of those companies is Meet Your Class. It's a platform to connect current students and universities and resources and being able to connect with people that you're going to end up going to college with. It's a very cool idea. And Blake Mishley is the CEO and co-founder of Meet Your Class.com and joins us. Blake, good morning. It's good to have you. Good morning. Great to be here. Thank you guys for having me. Well, first, let's talk a little bit about meet your class. Where did this idea start? Why did you create it? And it's been successful thus far.

Yeah, no, it's been, it's been a crazy journey. So I graduated from the University of Michigan about a year, over a year ago at this point, Times and Flying. But I started it at the end of my freshman year when I just saw how prospective college students were going to college, including myself. I found my roommates, my friends through social media, yet kind of the infrastructure that was in place, just. was not optimized for how students were researching colleges. So it started to meet your class with the belief that students wanted to connect and they were already doing it on social media. So how can we find them where they are and build that community earlier? And Blake, you're integrating with platforms like Instagram and TikTok and Facebook to connect students where they already are. Does that make the college experience feel more natural or does it kind of blur the line between real life and digital relationships in a new way? No, yeah, it's an interesting question. I think, like... probably a hand like multiple years ago probably didn't used to be the case but i see especially like post-covid i think we're seeing that pivot to where it's almost the expectation that even though if when you get to college you're probably going to make new friends and your classes in person there's almost this expectation post-covid from like an anxiety standpoint that if you don't have that connection or those friend groups or that roommate like you're going to feel like you're behind um and so you know we're seeing We're always kind of pulling our students. And we see over 50% of students now. They are starting to connect with others before they even commit to a college. So it's really part of the college decision process at this point, which is certainly kind of a newer trend that we're seeing. Well, this idea born here in the state of Michigan, the fact that you've decided to stay here, I think, is notable. You've relocated to Detroit. You did that almost a year ago now. Why? Why not go to Silicon Valley? Why not go out west? Why stay here? Yeah, I mean, I think for us personally, I mean, we've been very, we're very grateful for all the resources. We've been able to get through both University of Michigan, through programs there, but then also through now the city of Detroit. But how we kind of got ingrained in the ecosystem was we went through an accelerator called Tech Stars and it was based in Detroit. And so we went through that when I was a sophomore in college. You know, candidly, I had never... I had very rarely, I'm from the west side of Michigan, and so I didn't really get over to Detroit as much as a child. And so that's how I really kind of got introduced to the growing ecosystem that was kind of here in Detroit. And I think, you know, being born and raised in Michigan just really felt kind of inspired to stay in the state. And I think for like our, you know, looking at our business specifically too, being higher at, I think.

Honestly, being very close to our partners, I think, is really important for us. So it does give us a competitive advantage rather than being, you know, all the way on the West Coast and kind of being close to all this higher ed talent that is kind of here in Southeast Michigan. Blake, how are the colleges themselves reacting to platforms like yours? Are they supportive? They're a little cautious? What are you hearing? Yeah, I mean, it's very much, I mean, it's a mix, of course. But we end up working with universities because, so we work with over 30 institutions now. And a lot of them here in the state of Michigan, because they view that community aspect is such an important part of the enrollment process. And, you know, they. you know, institutions that have orientations, admitted student day events to try to drive that connectivity in person. But now they're realizing the need to start that earlier and start that virtually since COVID was kind of a catalyst for that. So we're seeing positive reactions now that we've been able to start growing, build our own brand awareness in the industry. But it's been, it's been very The reception has been good as you've kind of continued to grow. Blake Mishley, the CEO and co-founder of Meet Your Class.com. Thank you for your time. It's a really cool story. And the fact that you're staying at home is even cooler. So thank you for your time. Best of luck. Keep us up to date on how things are going. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate for having me on. It was a great time talking with you. You got it. You got it. Very cool. The NBA finals are tonight. And it's San Antonio versus the Knicks. The Knicks haven't been to the final since 99. Okay. A big deal. Yeah. So Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York, signed an executive order temporarily repealing bedtimes for children across the city so they can stay up and watch the New York Knicks play. Just so you know. And the official order was signed with the handprints of local school children, which allows them to, you know, stay up and watch the game because the game started at 830. So he did that yesterday. With all the little kids around him and, you know, some of them paying attention to what he was doing. Some were not. But, yeah, just so you know. So the kids will be allowed to stay up. I can't go to bed. It's illegal. That's right. The mayor has... We send it back. 911. My mom says I have to go to bed. Can you come 129, 9th Avenue, 7th floor. Bring the paddy wagon. What? Oh, yeah. So if the mayor rescinds it, you know, if the pistols were playing or a mayor rescinds it and your kid say, Dad, hey, the mayor, send it, I get to stay up now. What are you going to say? I don't know. Who cares? That's stupid.

Oh, no, my kids couldn't tell me that. They had the bedtime. They're going to bed. You're going to bed. You're going to bed. I don't care what mayor of them, Donnie says. That's right. Call 911. Go brush your teeth. Might be calling 1-99. That's right. But to leave me alone. 8 o'clock is next. All right, good to have you 8 o'clock hour. Still a lot to do. By the way, we do have, name that tune, is back. We were on the road last week. Couldn't get it done. But we're back at it today. Got to see how well I'll do. It's coming up at 849. You know what? I don't want to hear it from you. What do you mean? I don't want to hear that. What? Yeah. We'll see how this goes. You've been kicking our butts for weeks. No. For weeks, this guy. No. Killing me, small. Yeah. Yeah. This guy's been slow rolling us. He's been hustling us at the pool table for weeks. I don't even want to hear it. You've been wiping the floor with us. No, I mean, Renee is the star. I don't know. I don't know. You may have taken the throne. I don't know. For the last couple of weeks. Yeah. So Donald Trump says that things are still progressing nicely towards a deal. You heard it there in the Fox News update that he may even meet with Mushabahominy at some point. Now, that would be something. It would be something. I'd like to know how that conversation would go. Yeah, me too. But he says that he's active in these conversations now. That's a supreme leader? Yeah, that he's actually involved. I'm involved in the same way that Donald Trump's involved, right? They're working through mediators and negotiating teams and things like that. But that's an interesting bit of news and the development. But there were a number of... instances overnight where Iranian targets U.S. forces, they targeted a Kuwait airport. They also, Bahran intercepted Iranian missiles and drones, according to their military. Sentcom says that any of the drones that were launched towards the United States. were taken out before they connected. Yeah. So there is, again, military activity. The ceasefire is just... Oh. It's very delicate. It's very delicate. It's very delicate. All while the conversations are ongoing about how to come to some sort of diplomatic agreement on this front. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday that... Even now, Iran has taken a different posture when it comes to their nuclear program. They have agreed to negotiate aspects of their nuclear program that just a month ago or just a year ago, they were refusing to even mention, much less into discussions about. So things are progressing. Okay, great. Again, it took for the JCPOA, it took almost two years, roughly two years to get that. agreement put in place when the Obama administration was there. Right. Problem is, is there was military action here with this. That's not necessarily the problem. The problem is the economic fallout. Yeah. And that wasn't in place during the JCPOA discussions. Crazy. The gas prices are up. Food prices are up all of that. Correct. Correct. So while the United States continues to put economic pressure on Iran, the...

cost of things are still too high. So that's been the major difference between then and now back in 2013 to 15. So a different set of circumstances. Yeah. But it's not like you could just flip the switch and all of a sudden you have a deal. That's not how Iran rolls. So. Something we watch. Two researchers with the National Institutes of Health facing federal charges after authorities say they attempted to bring monkeypox-related biological materials into the United States through Detroit Metro Airport. Federal prosecutors alleged Vincent Munster and Claude Qie arrived from the Republic of Congo in January carrying a case they claim contained diagnostic equipment. Investigators say the case actually held 113 vials including samples containing deactivated monkeypox virus. The pair. who work in a high-security laboratory studying emerging viruses are charged with conspiracy to smuggle biological materials into the country and making false statements to federal agents. Authorities emphasize the charges are allegations. Both men are presumed innocent until proven guilty. If they are convicted, they each face up to five years in prison. Very scary. I mean. Very scary stuff. Yes. How close, you know, how close was it to us? I mean, came right through our airport. 17 vials of deactivated monkeypox virus, a chickenpox virus, and two vials of human DNA. Wow. Also, the federal investigators are charging a former procurement director for the people mover and a local business owner in this alleged scheme to defraud the transit system out of about 300 grand. According to the FBI, former Detroit Transportation Corporation employee Michael Anderson and total care restoration owner Terrence Parker conspired to submit and approve invoices to work that was never performed between 2023. In 2025, investigators allays the Restoration Company received about $305,000 for information technology work despite having no known IT experience, no contract with the people mover, and no record of performing the services bill. Federal agents say phone records and emails, bank transactions, and cash withdrawals point to a coordinated fraud scheme. Both men now face conspiracy and federal program theft or bribery charges.

That's not the area we need to slide back into. No, we don't. And I mean, there are digital fingerprints, there's paperwork. I don't understand. I never could understand why people would think they could get away with this and nobody's going to. catch up to it. Right. Right. It is spectacularly unbelievable. I just don't understand that part. There's a lot of parts I don't understand. It's always, you know, that person was not as smart as me. I'm smarter. Correct. Correct. In 2026, I can do things way better than they can do in 2016. Exactly. It is absolutely crazy. Scott Pelly, the veteran 60 Minutes correspondent, has been fired by CBS. There was, you know, he had issued even a public condemnation on the show of CBS. And in behind the scenes, there was a tense staff meeting where Pelly was sharply critical of CBS executives, both Bari Weiss and the new executive producer of the show, Nick Bilton. And he basically was accusing Billton of not having the required experience to be the executive producer of truly one of the flagship journalism programs.

In history. Yes. Right? It's older than me. I know that. Most of the time they do a really, really good job. Sometimes they fall a little short, but so does everybody. Sure. And they do a really, really nice job. So there was this meeting with the new executive producer, and Scott Pelly was the one leading the charge that was, I mean, he was very heated, very heated. Do you think he kind of wanted to? I don't know. I don't know if he martyred himself. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. But in a letter to. Scott Pelly from Nick Belton. He said it was a profound disappointment that you rejected that overture of him coming in in good faith, trying to meet the staff of 60 minutes and choose to ambush me instead. Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt. I welcome a diversity of viewpoints and respectful debate among the team, but this was nothing of the sort. And again, If I were to walk into a meeting of our entire cluster and just started laying into people, I don't know that I'd finish my sentence. I'd be out the door. You'd be gone. We'd be gone. And that's not just the business. If you go into your work today. No, actually don't go to your work today. I'm going to say, I heard this on WJ. Don't know, don't. Chris told me to do it. Immediate retraction. Don't do that. If you were to go into your work and had that meeting that you have every morning at 10 o'clock and you start going crazy, well, of course, they're going to fire you. Yeah. We don't need this negativity here. Of course. So people are like being critical of CBS for firing Scott Pelley, but at the end wasn't Scott Pelley, I mean, Scott Pelley wasn't doing what he should have done. No, no. So it's a shame. Just before we go, Detroit's iconic Dutch Girl donuts giving customers a first look at it. Second location is going to be here in the new center area because Friday is National Donut Day. The new shop located on East Grand Boulevard will open 8 o'clock to 10 a.m. for a special preview event. Visitors can receive two free donuts while supplies last and prepackaged assorted dozen boxes will be available for purchase. Owner Patty Lynch says the event. is a way to celebrate Detroit traditions and thank loyal customers for their support. They're going to have Dutch girls. What time were they opening? 8 o'clock. All right. 8 a.m. We're sending somebody down there. We're going to send somebody down. Brian, you turned your mic on and then off real quick. I don't want to be volunteered to run the door to the shop. I'll do it. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. There you go. Yeah. We'll send somebody down. Everybody's diet in the new center air is going to Helen Hand Basket. Everybody what? Everybody's diet. It's going to be going in. Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah. It's a real problem. You got a Dutch girl in the new center? Are you kidding? It's a regional problem now, unfortunately. Yeah. I do feel like we don't get enough donuts in our diet around here. Yeah, why is that? We're donut deficient. Yeah. Or deficient. Something that the, you know, the DHS is looking at. Coming up on the other side, we'll get you the latest on the conversations, the negotiations between the United States and Iran. It's next. And Jeremy? So Secretary of St. Marco Rubio was on the hill yesterday testifying to senators, certainly the war on Iran, the main focus of conversation and the negotiations that are ongoing.

He said a couple of things. A, the United States is not begging for a deal. And that was an interaction that he had in a back and forth with Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. And his point was, no, the United States is going to take whatever time they need to make sure that this is the right deal for the United States. He also said that Iran has kind of moved past some of the red lines that they had set and they are willing to at least talk about their nuclear program. That's not enough for a deal to get done today. No. And so that's why the negotiations are ongoing. Fox News has been talking about this morning the relationship and the willingness of the Supreme Leader, Mushabahamini, to be engaged in these conversations more than he was previously. And Donald Trump says that they're at a much better relationship level now. I don't think they've talked directly. But through mediators. There is at least some movement in that. All the while, Iran has been taking military action against Iran, Kuwait, the United States. Let's get the latest. Jonathan Savage, our Fox News reporter and WJR contributor. Jonathan, good morning to you. Hello, good morning. Let's talk about where we stand this morning. Obviously, the military actions from Iran yesterday sent com weighing in this morning. They were busy. Yeah, very busy indeed, a lot of back and forth going on. The first thing I think that happened, it's hard to get the chronology quite correct, but we know that an Iranian oil tanker tried to breach the American blockade and the US Navy put a missile in its engine room when it refused to stop. We also know that the US military targeted an Iranian ground control station on Kesham Island in the Strait of Hormuz. However, Iran retaliated. It says it went after the US Navy's fifth fleet headquarters in Bahrain with missiles. Now, we're told that those missiles were intercepted. But an Iranian strike, which did find the target, was a drone attack on Kuwait's International Airport. Don't know exactly why Kuwait's International Airport was targeted. But this drone strike hit a passenger building, killing one person, causing damage. and flights were suspended. Flights are resuming from some terminals in Kuwait now, but it has had a major impact. Jonathan, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has described the Iran nuclear talks as highly technical and potentially taking months. Can diplomacy realistically kind of keep pace when military events are unfolding like this, almost daily? It's quite difficult, I mean, because the Obama-era nuclear deal took about 18 months to come together. So if we are looking for and expecting a comprehensive nuclear agreement between Iran and the United States quickly, that seems unlikely. What you might get is some sort of memorandum of understanding, some sort of interim deal, which would allow the United States to sort of... pull back its posture somewhat to allow the straight and form moves to be opened and the blockade on Iran to be lifted while these technical talks take place. However, we haven't got to that, even that stage yet. Yeah, and that would feel like a bit of capitulation by the United States if they get to that point because they engage in military activity.

Now we're on the diplomatic route. But if the straits get reopened, if the U.S. blockade gets pulled back and there isn't a comprehensive deal, yes, it might help the economic shock. It might help the prices at the pump. But I don't know if politically that would play well for the president and his administration. What you might then hear in that circumstance is the administration pointing to the named goals of Operation Epic Fury, destroying Iran's missiles, annihilating their navy, ensuring their terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the world. And then point four, ensure Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon. That would be the one that would be left to negotiations. And they may say, look, we have achieved enough of these goals. to allow for a longer term ceasefire. I know there seemed to be a little tension between President Trump and Prime Minister Net and Yahoo, understanding they had that phone conversation, got a little heated, I understand. It certainly appears to have initially reported by Axios that on this phone call President Trump swore the Israeli Prime Minister, called him crazy, accused him of jeopardizing negotiations with Iran and was very angry. Now, President Trump doesn't dispute the reporting in general in a podcast interview this morning. He said he'd prefer to use the word perturbed rather than angry, but there's no doubt that he has frustration. at Israel continuing to target Hezbollah, particularly in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, because that is causing Iran to be hesitant when it comes to negotiating. Yeah, he also said in the podcast that he heard for the first time this conspiracy theory that Benjamin Netanyahu drugged the United States and drug President Donald Trump into this war. He said, I heard that the other day for the first time. He said they tricked me. I mean, I'm the one that started it because, again, I don't want to bore anybody, but I... started it because we can't let them have a nuclear weapon. So it was an interesting conversation on this podcast. Yeah, it was. He also said that he believes Iran's supreme leader is now involved one way or another in negotiations. And he says that he will probably meet Ayatollah Mostab al-Kamini at some point. Of course, we should remind ourselves that no one has seen as a supreme leader since this conflict started. Interesting stuff, as always. Jonathan Savage, we appreciate your time and reporting as always. Thank you, and we'll talk again soon. Thank you, ticket. Yeah, yeah, you got it. Meanwhile, interesting, the high-stakes race between Open AI and Anthropic to go public first. Well, Anthropic has filed their IPO. And now starts the race. Yes, it starts. Now starts the race. Clock is ticking. I mean, you're talking about. the influx of now trillions of dollars as these companies start to go public. It is really, really unbelievable. It's huge. It's huge. And just the sheer numbers, the sheer involvement, the sheer entrance into the market with an initial public offering from a company like...

like anthropic. And the companies that are going to be there again with them. But both of these companies are going incredibly fast, but they're also burning a lot of money. Again, they're in the phase of investments, trial and error. They're in the building phase. And so as a result, they're spending a lot of money. They're spending a lot of money. And so the worry is. At what point are you going to run out of that money? Yeah. And if you run out too quickly, well, it's going to be really difficult to go back to some of these vesters and say, I need more. Can I have more? I just, I don't think that's going to work. And so, yeah, it's very interesting to me to see where these companies are going. Well, it's a big deal and everybody will be looking at it and it's going to be a lot of money. A lot of money exchange. It's going to be a lot of money. It's going to change the face of, it's going to change a lot of things obviously in the business world. It's going to change a lot of things in the labor market. But again, it's a money. It's a dollar's game. How much money is it going to cost businesses to utilize this technology as opposed to utilizing human labor? That at the end of the day is what it's going to be about. Yeah, that's what it's about. Yeah, it's going to be very interesting. It's all about the loot. Coming up on the other side, Daniel John Roberts joins us. The body of a missing nuclear lab worker has turned up. One of those missing scientists. One of many. We'll talk about it. It's next on JAR morning.