JR Morning ~ April 17, 2026 ~ Full Show

Happy Friday, good to have you. Hey, if you're getting ready for work, you're brewing that first cup of coffee on the curing or whatever you got going on, give yourself a little extra time this morning. The fog is very dense. Dude, the fuck. You know, I'm driving down 12-mile road in Southfield. I'm driving down 12-mile and I'm looking down the street. Usually I can see Southfield Road, the traffic. Like, It just was, it looked dark. I said, did we lose power? Right. What's going on? And then as soon as I got up on it, then I can see it. Ah. So that's what you really have to be careful. Yeah. Visibility was pretty low. It was. And you can be up on somebody's back really quick if you're not paying attention. So just slow down, take your time today. Meanwhile, the president announced this yesterday. They're all agreeing. It's a very nice little package for about a week. and we're not going to have lots of bombs dropping, and we're going to see if we can make peace between Lebanon and Israel. So a 10-day ceasefire put into place between Lebanon and Israel. Now, Marco Rubio was the catalyst behind this, right? And here's what I'll say about this. Good, great. Let's try to find some sort of deal. Hezbollah and Lebanon are different. Hezbollah works independently of Lebanon. They don't care. That's just where they're... That's right. That's their home base. That's it. But they work on behalf of the Iranian regime. Okay. Here's my thought is if this is to be a true long-lasting peace deal, right? If there isn't some more... I guess like real work done on behalf of the Lebanese government to push back on Hezbollah. I don't know how legitimate this peace deal can be. Yeah, it's going to be pretty difficult. Yeah. Now, you've made the point a couple times this week that Lebanon doesn't listen to Hezbole. No. Or excuse me, Hezbollah doesn't listen to Lebanon. No. Right? But, but if Lebanon is able to put the crack down more on Hezbollah, that changes the game once again. Yeah. But can... That's a big if, though. If the United States and their negotiations with Tehran can work something where, you know, Tehran controls Hezbollah and tells them to chill out as part of the deal. Sure. That's a possibility as well. Israel wants Hezbollah to disarm. I mean, just like- Yes, sure. Just like the United States and Israel wanted Hamas to disarm. Exactly. And they want them to, and so, you know, that's something that they got to deal with as well. So, you know, maybe the United States can get with Tehran and tell Tehran to tell your guys to, you know, chill out. Well, I think that's exactly right. I think that absolutely is part of these negotiations. And one of the positions the United States have taken, obviously the nuclear is the biggest. It's number one. Number one. And there's no doubt about it. That's right. But one of the other requests of the U.S. government was you need to stop funding these proxy groups because they're causing mass terror across the region. That's right. And so you're right. There is certainly a correlation between Hezbollah and Tehran and what they, what Tehran wants to do going forward. Now, the president also said yesterday that they are working well with Iran and the regime.

towards a deal we have a very good relationship and i think there's a very good chance we're going to make a deal Okay, that's great. He also talked about the blockade. The blockade is amazing. It's holding up very strong, very powerfully. And I think we're making a lot of progress in that. And part of that is what it would seem is because of the blockade, because of the success of the economic constraints of the blockade, the president says that Iran is willing to do more now than they were before. Iran wants to make a deal and we're dealing very nicely with them. We've got to have no nuclear weapons. That's a big factor. And they're willing to do things today that they weren't willing to do two months ago. Now, if you listen to our interview with Saeed Khan this week, the professor of Neri Studies at Wayne State University, and you can listen to that on wjara.com. One of the things that he was critical of was the Iranian regime brought over 70 people, right? And these were some of the top people in the country that were able to negotiate on behalf of the Supreme Leader. Now, they took all of that information back to him, and he would be the one to give the thumbs up or thumbs down. But one of the criticisms that the professor threw out was we sent three people. We sent Jared Kushner. We sent Steve Witkoff and we sent the vice president of the United States. And that's not good enough. I argue that the vice president. is a legitimate negotiator. Now, historically, maybe they haven't been used that way, but the Trump administration is using JD Vance that way. Yes, should Marco Rubio have been involved? Probably. Probably. But maybe that wasn't part of the plan. Yeah. Right? So now we're starting to see kind of the leadership. take the reins a bit. And Donald Trump says that he may even attend these negotiations in Islamabad. I might go. Yeah. If the deal is signed in Islamabad, I might go. That's big. He's the top negotiator here in the United States. We don't need 70 people. No, we don't need 70 people. No, no, no, go and deal with this. And that's why I slightly push back on this idea that the vice president isn't qualified. Now, again, historically, traditionally, your Secretary of State would be involved in those conversations. Yeah. He might be the lead on that. Sure. But.

And it never happened. And they've never beat somebody in a three game set, two to one, two to one, two to one, right? Never been done before. Okay. And it obviously was not done yesterday. But the Tigers blew a five-run lead only to then score three in the bottom of the ninth. And they walk it off and win that one. It was drama, man. It was drama. Drama. High-stakes drama. By the way, I love what they do during the rain delays. They get questions from people on Twitter or whatever. And they just start talking about all kinds of stuff, man. It's very funny. They're like, are you a gardener? They do a very nice job with them. Coming up on the other side, local. funding for local communities. It's important. There's legislation in Lansing to address this. Just that. We'll talk about it coming up on Jeremy. Well, protecting financial stability for local communities. That is the focus of some legislation that's floating around in Lansing. And this bill would secure local government funding for communities. It's being headed up by Michael Weber. the Republican out of the 9th District and joins us this morning to talk about the legislation. It's good to have you back. Yeah, it's good to be back. I really appreciate you guys highlighting this very important topic. I think the last time we talked, Senator, was up at State of the State, and you were all fired up about the Pistons, and they've made good on a lot of that. So it's an exciting time. Yeah. Yeah, still fired up. And, yeah, looking forward to it. Well, I imagine you're fired up about this legislation, too, because this is a bipartisan effort. What does this bill aim to do? Well, really, it's, you know, it's about offering some stability for local governments and some, you know, consistency in the funding, but also, you know, for our residents, it's really about protecting those local services that our municipalities provide. And I will give, you know, Rep. Mark Tisdale credit, you know, Rep. Amos O'Neill, Senators, Moss and Cherry as well, working on this. I want to say Rep Tisdale was first, you know, introduced this and this topic has been, you know, out there for a while. But, you know, as a former local elected official, City of Rochester Hills and actually served on City Council with Mark Tisdale back in the day, you know, having that stability when you're doing your local budgets and not have it be at the whims of the... you know, Lansing debates and, you know, and discussion during the budget process is really helpful in terms of just kind of knowing what your dollar amount is going to be when you're trying to, you know, protect public safety in your community, when you're trying to, you know, fix roads, when you're trying to, you know, do some of those quality of life issues that a lot of our communities do in terms of parks.

and community centers and that kind of thing. And so really the focus has been trying to provide them with some of this financial stability. And I think overall that would also help in this property tax discussion. People are concerned about, you know, rising property taxes and whether they can stay in their homes. And I think providing some stability would go a long ways towards. you know, maybe heading off some of those discussions about raising property taxes. You know, a Michigan changed how revenue sharing works back in the late 90s. And since then, it hasn't, you know, been fully funded. Why has that gap up? And, you know, some estimates say it's more than 10 billion. Why has that gap been allowed to grow? Is it a structural problem with how the funding is set up? You know, it's, I think it's, you know, we have the statutory and we have the constitutional. And I think in terms of the statutory, it's really, you know, it's a debate every year within, you know, the budget process. And I think while. you know, even this year, you know, the governor's budget that she introduced, and obviously it's a long ways to go, but left, you know, the revenue sharing flat. And so when you're looking at, you know, a flat budget for revenue sharing, I think the theory goes that, you know, it's not keeping up with those, you know, cost of living adjustments. What this would do is it would provide that stability. And what I've told local governments, as I talk to some of mine and do legislative updates at their meetings, is it wouldn't necessarily always mean more funding. I think it would just be, you know, it would just be more stable funding in terms of just kind of understanding, okay, this is what's in the fund. And so this is what I should. you know, factor in when I'm doing my budgets. Well, and you know better than anybody. You served on the Rochester Hill City Council for many years prior to heading up to Lansing. But as I understand it, this would protect that funding, you know, whatever changeover happens in Lansing, that that funding will always be steady in there. Yes, exactly. And that's what we've been trying to push for. And, you know, I will note, you know, the bills passed the House last term in the, in the 23-24 session with... very good bipartisan support. And, you know, it did get hung up in the Senate, unfortunately. But there's definitely interest among the legislators to do this. And I think it's just obviously the advocacy of the mayors and the council members on a yearly basis to provide more stable funding.

And, you know, a lot of the legislators do come from a local government background, including counties, including townships, obviously, as well, and villages. And so it's just, I think it's a idea that, you know, its time has come. And we do need to work to put it in place and really appreciate the bipartisan support and bipartisan, you know, push on this. Senator Michael Weber, we appreciate your time this morning on this and we'll continue to watch it roll throughout Lansing. We appreciate it. We'll talk to you soon. Great. Thank you, guys. Yeah, you got it. Meanwhile, the Artemis crew spoke yesterday. Yeah. Pretty cool because the next step in the Artemis program is to land on the moon. And they're going to test out all the landing equipment, things like that. And Reed Wiseman said yesterday that... If we had the first flight Brad Lander on board that thing, I know at least three of my crewmates would have been on it trying to land on the moon. It's an extremely technically challenged trip, but it's absolutely doable and doable soon. Oh, some of the things that they've said. Pretty cool. Meanwhile, a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon and more talks with the United States and Iran. It's next. This blockade applies to all ships. regardless of nationality heading into or from Iranian ports. The U.S. action is a blockade of Iran's ports and coastline, not a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. So an important distinction there made by General Dan Cain yesterday at the Pentagon as they were updating Operation Epic Fury and what's happening with the blockade. They've shifted, certainly, with what they're doing during this ceasefire period. They have transitioned from, yeah, we're going to stop our ceasefire militarily. Or we're going to stop our actions militarily due to the ceasefire. But we're not stopping the pressure. No. And this blockade is causing a tremendous. headache for the regime. It is really choking them out. The more I've thought about this, now listen, it's a big if, okay? And I don't care what Democrats on Capitol Hill say. It is irrelevant to me what they say. The more I'm thinking about this, if this works out, and they are able to secure a deal that does any combination of the following. You are going to not enrich uranium. You are going to give us some of the enriched uranium that you do, in fact, have. You are going to stop funding proxy groups. You are going to stop being the world number one distributor of terrorism across the world. If these main components in some form or fashion are worked out that... It cuts the lifeblood off from this regime. This may be one of the more consequential foreign policy, geopolitical, military actions of all time. It would be huge. And I'm really trying not to be hyperbolic. Yeah. Because we've done things that have pushed back extreme evil in our history, i.e. World War II. Yes.

But when you look at today's day and age, if they are able to secure a long-lasting peace deal and as a result, as a result, work with Iran in a completely different way. Now, that may come from some sort of regime change. Yeah. It may. Yeah. Their financial system is in ruins. Mm-hmm. They are now hemorrhaging money. And you're talking about hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. About a half a billion a day. So with all of that said, if this comes to fruition and you look at the periphery, you look at what happened in Venezuela, you take out Maduro because he's wanted in the United States, you bring him back here. You start working with that regime because Maduro ain't working with you. No, absolutely not. So all of a sudden, you start putting pressure on them. We don't need your regime to change. But we need you to play ball. Yes. And we were here in 15 minutes and took your leader. We could come back if you want. Yeah. You could be next. They're shaking in their boots going, no, thank you. Right. Let's work together. Let's play. Let's play in the sandbox. We're on the team together. Okay. Well, that's pretty. consequential because they have a strong relationship with Iran from an energy perspective. Oh, yeah. Well, then once you start, once you took this military action in Iran and now this blockade, and by the way, I don't know if this was all the grand plan. They may be lucking into it. Part of me doesn't really believe that. Part of me believes that there is something more, there was a bigger plan here at play. But if you're able to choke off Iran, not only from being able to fund their proxy groups, but you've got 80 million people in that country that want a democracy. You've got 80 million people in that country that don't want to be under the oppressive heel of this regime. You got the folks in the region who say, we're sick of these people acting up here. And by the way, good point, because one of the first things the president did during this second term was go on a Middle East trip. Yes. And he built those relationships with these countries in that region. So that's paying dividends now, too. So you've now effectively cut off Venezuela from the access of Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia. Yeah. You've impacted China because nothing's getting through to them. They can't get their energy from the straits. You don't even need to target Karg Island. No. At this point, no. This, if the if, it's a big if, if, if this all works out, it could be very consequential. That's my point. Yeah. And the president said that if these talks progress the way that he thinks that they are progressing, he's going to go to Islamabad for the signing of this. I might go. Yeah. If the deal is signed in Islamabad, I might go. All the while, you've got Marco Rubio negotiating this 10-day peace deal between Israel and Lebanon. And, you know. And I'm happy we got a ceasefire there. But, you know, the conflict is just between the countries. It involved Hezbollah. And Hezbollah, you know, wasn't directly part of the negotiation. So it kind of raises doubts on how enforceable the ceasefire really is. I mean, you know, it's like negotiating the truce with one of the main fighters not fully signing on. And so I'm watching that part too. Sure.

Because as we know, Hezbollah doesn't answer to Lebanon. Correct. Also, this situation up north in Sheboygan. So we've had a number of different flooding events. Obviously, the one in Sheboygan's, the one that's getting the most headlines right now. But this little lake, just southwest of Hubbard Lake, it's called Buck's Pond, completely reduced to mud. All the water. It's gone. And there was a gravel road over this 94-year-old dam structure. Again, the dam burst earlier this week. There was water everywhere. Obviously, it was a huge problem. Roads were destroyed in some areas. But it just shows you again when you've got an aging infrastructure system. That's it. It puts a spotlight on it. It does. And again, it's easy to say, well, we need to upgrade our infrastructure. It's a lot more difficult in practicality. When you actually have to update the infrastructure, it's much more difficult. And there's a lot that goes into it, not just funding. And so now in Chiboygan and the lock and the dam complex, under five inches below the dam as of 5.30 last night. And they're getting much closer to having to evacuate people. It just keeps rising and rising and rising. Well, hopefully we get some better weather. And it's not, you know, Mother Nature corporates because we need her to cooperate too. They really do need some warmer weather up there. They do. Also, some pretty good consecutive days of warmer weather trying to thaw that ground out. Coming up on the other side, Nolan Finley joins us from the Detroit News. Is Senator Slok in positioning herself for a run for president in 2028? We'll talk about it. Next on J.R. morning. I'm not so arrogant as to think it has to be me. Midterms is what I'm focused on right now, but if it comes to the point afterwards that I think there's not anyone else who's on the right path, I guess I wouldn't say no forever, but I also don't think it has to be me. That is Senator Elissa Slotkin, speaking with the Des Moines Register. She was stumping out in Iowa for Democrats in these midterms. And she made that comment, and everybody went into a tizzy, particularly here in the state of mission, but nationally too, as she has raised her national profile. And whether or not she would actually be a serious contender, because she is not in that upper echelon. of folks that are being considered for the Democrats in 2028. No. Nolan Finley wrote about it in the Detroit News and we've got him here on the show this morning. Nolan, good morning. It's good to have you back. Good morning. Good to be with you. What do you make of those comments by Senator Elissa Slotkin? Is this something that she's actually considered and given heavy consideration to before this conversation with the register? Well, I would say so. I mean, that's why she was in Iowa and Ohio. Iowa is always the first stop for anyone looking for her. So under the guise of stumping for Democrats. Right, right. To me, that's what politics sounds like when it's a career rather than a service. I mean, she's a...

very ambitious career politicians. She's made it to the Senate, served her year in two, three months, and now she's ready to move on to the White House in her mind. And, of course, that's only if nobody else will do it. You know, and Nolan, you don't criticize ambition itself, but you seem to suggest timing matters. How do you define the difference between, like, a healthy ambition and premature ambition? Well, exactly. I mean, timing matters, preparation matters, experience, qualifications matter, self-awareness matters. I mean, she's got a long ways to go before she would be ready to take on the number one job in the world, you would think. And this idea that... anybody is clamoring for Elissa Slotkin to join the White House race seems rather ludicrous. I mean, who is it she's saying no to? Yeah, that was my thought as well. It seems like she would be saying no to the DNC or to those that are helping make those decisions. I guess in her mind also what I took that was interesting was she's like, well, if I don't see anybody on the right path, then I wouldn't say no. So maybe she's the final arbiter here. Right. I mean, this idea that there's something uniquely. special about her at this point in her career. Now, she may be ready for that someday. She's a very competent senator, very intelligent person. But I think her ambition is clouding her reality, her sense of reality. I haven't seen her name on any list of potential Democratic nominees. It's a long list, some of whom... Some of the names, you know, I don't really recognize even or not all that to be with. And I think for most people, that would include her name. You know, you bring up the Barack Obama as a counterpoint, someone who also had a relatively short Senate career before running. Has the Obama example kind of change expectations in a way that's maybe unrealistic for other candidates? Well, you know, or maybe it is that, you know, seeing Trump in the White House, everybody believes, well, you know, anybody can be president, as we were always told. But now I think, you know, Obama was. clamored for. I mean, there were people out there when he was young after he gave that speech at the Democratic convention. And there were people who were saying, hey, particularly Democrats, I remember being in Washington the year before that election when people were starting to notice him and call for him or mention him as a potential candidate. I don't see Elissa Slotkin anywhere near that point.

Well, then, you know, she has relatively stayed below the political fray. She had the fracas of, you know, telling soldiers not to obey orders that are illegal. That obviously threw her into the spotlight. But she's been, you know, relatively subdued and has laid pretty low. So do you think that would help her or hurt her? Well, I mean, any time here. You're out of the radar, out away from the radar, I guess in this political climate, it's not a bad thing. I mean, she's been what you'd expect of a first term Senate. She's not been a primary leading voice in Washington. It's, you know, she's not been a leader. She would like to be, and maybe she will be someday. And I just find this whole business to be delusional. Yeah. It's an interesting piece in the Detroit news. Ready or not? Here comes Elissa Slotkin in 28, written by Nolan Finley. Thank you for your time. Have a great weekend. You too. Yeah, you got it. See you, Nolan. Interesting. Meanwhile, stocks hitting record highs on Wall Street. Yeah. And it appears that investors are starting to kind of look towards the end of this war, whether or not that comes sooner rather than later. But the S&P hit a fresh record high on Wednesday. There's optimism that a peace deal is on the horizon. Benchmark stock index, which is a larger world barometer for... the health of the U.S. market rose by almost a full percentage point, 0.8%, closed above 7,000. So that's some positive news as well. Yeah, I mean, it's good news for investors. You know, if you have a 401 or IRA investments, it's great news. But, you know, we understand, you know, a large portion of Americans either don't invest or don't have significant exposure to the market, so they're not seeing the same benefit. But again, it's an indicator that things are going in the right direction. Yeah. And they're not just jumping on the whim like they were before, like every word. And again, I don't blame Wall Street for it. Yeah. Right? They did that with the tariffs. And then finally they just said, okay, we're going to try to future out a little bit. A little bit and look more into the future as opposed to reacting right now. But I think that this potential peace deal that could come to fruition this week, hopefully. is playing a role here. 7 o'clock hour coming up more on the way, particularly on AI and cybersecurity. It's next. Peace soup. That's all I can say. It is dense out there. this morning, at least here in downtown Detroit. The fog is very heavy here on the eighth floor at the Fisher Building. It's 7 o'clock hour. Good to have you. But, yeah, this fog is no joke. So when you're getting ready to go to work this morning, just give yourself a little extra time. Yes. Because the visibility is going to be very low. And A's been talking about it this morning. So just be cognizant of that as you make your way into work this morning. Meanwhile, you know, we're hearing all about...

these negotiations that are going on. The last couple days, it's been negotiations between Israel and Lebanon. Well, the good news is there was a ceasefire reached on that front yesterday. They're all agreeing. It's a very nice little package for about a week. and we're not going to have lots of bombs dropping, and we're going to see if we can make peace between Lebanon and Israel. Meanwhile, the president also saying that Iran, as we sit today, is more willing to make a deal than they were before. Iran wants to make a deal, and we're dealing very nicely with them. We've got to have no nuclear weapons. That's a big factor, and they're willing to do things today that they weren't willing to do two months ago. They're broke. Yeah, right, sure. Because they're hemorrhaging a half a billion a day. Yeah, that's, that would. That would make me consider some of my stances. Yes, definitely. Yeah. And the president said that if this deal is to get done, he'll go to Islamabad and sign it. So he may be there this weekend when those talks get underway. It would be big. It would be big. And again, a lot of this has to do with the blockade that's been put in the place. It is causing a different type of pressure on Iran. And Scott Bessent said, this is the economic equivalent of dropping bombs. Yes. Oh, right. That they are inflicting. Economic Fury. Yes, Operation Economic Fury. Yes. Not to be confused with Epic Fury. You get it. The point is they're doing something different. They're putting pressure on while a ceasefire is in place. So I don't know if Iran had planned for that. But that's the situation that we're in and those conversations are continuing. The president said yesterday, too, that he lost his voice because he was yelling at the Iranian regime. That he was on the phone with them, talking to them directly. And he said he lost his voice. Somebody asked them like, Your voice all right? And he's like, I was yelling at him. So he's very active, it seems, or at least, you know, according to him in these conversations. And because we have Iran in this predicament, you know, with the straits, you know, being... That's a very diplomatic way to put that. Yeah. Well done. Yeah. But I just think, too, as we talked about yesterday, they can, in the United States, can ask for a little more than they've asked for before. And I think one of the things with the Israeli and the Lebanon ceasefire that...

You could tell them, listen, Tehran, part of the deal too. Tell your proxley's the cool out. You know, it's funny. Again, this is how I operate with my kids. I'm like, you need to eat five pieces of broccoli. And they're like two. And I'm like, how about eight? And they're like, what? You keep going up. And they're like three. And I'm like, 12. Let's go. I can play this all day. You're eating the broccoli. That's kind of what we're at now. That's kind of where we are. Except they threw a blockade into dinner time. Yeah. So, yeah, it is going to be impactful, certainly. And we'll see where that takes us this weekend. Detroit officials bracing for another wave of teenagers downtown this weekend as the city remains divided over this new youth-centered safety plan following two weeks of teen takeovers marked by bras and gunfire and an attempted robbery on Woodward Avenue. Mayor Mary Sheffield and police chief Todd Bettison are pushing a six-point strategy. It pairs a safe summer enforcement plan targeting drag racing and curfews with a controversial decision to partner with the 16-year-old event organizers to create. productive activities for teenagers. Here's Chief Bettison. What you're seeing now is a lot of help for the Detroit Police Department from all these other departments with a holistic approach because former Chief White has always said we cannot police our way out of this. Now, while some city leaders call this move genius, critics including business owners and some police commissioners call it an insult to victims arguing that the city is rewarding lawbreakers. Police say they will be out in force this weekend issuing parental responsibility tickets. and enforcing a strict 10 and 11 p.m. curfews to keep the peace. You may not be able to police your way out of it, but you're not not policing your way out of it either. Exactly. I mean, I get it. More than one way to skin a cat. Listen, totally agree. The holistic way, because, you know, and the holistic way, and I think speaking with the teenagers and having conversations with them, that's going to take a little time. But what's happening right now with these. takeovers and people not acting right and running a mug downtown, you got a enforcement now. Well, you know where the policing comes into play is when you got these other people coming in from out of town that want to, you know, do whatever they're doing. Make an example out of them. That's where the policing comes in and then you show these other kids. Yeah. Like, don't get involved with this. Don't do this. It's not going to end well. That's where then you can have the conversation on that side. Sure. Policing, conversation for the win. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Very simple. Meanwhile, the Sheboygan Dam is just inching closer to spilling over the waterways there are continuing to rise under five inches now. And again, you're dealing with a community that is just on pins and needles as they... You know, authorities are trying to and officials are trying to divert this water. They brought in extra pumps. They brought in extra diversion systems. But it is just rising at a rate that is going the wrong way. Yeah. And the U.S. Coast Guard says the dam infrastructure remains sound. But residents between the dam and Lake Huron are being told to prepare for possible evacuation, secure, important items, and stay alert for updates. And the governor has called the situation a severe moment.

saying the state is in crisis mode and crews are working around the clock to prevent an overflow. Meanwhile, AI is on an upending trend for cybersecurity. Does more AI equal better cybersecurity? We'll examine that next. But first at 712, time for WJR's business beat. Brought to you by shelving.com. We rank your world. Here's Jeff Sloan, the founder and CEO of Startup Nation, a spotlight the entrepreneurial tech and startup community on WJR. Well, you know, we got to take those tests here. Those cybersecurity tests? Oh, yeah. Making sure we're keeping everybody protected. They tried to catch me the other day. They couldn't. Did they? They tried, but they couldn't. Not today. Nope. Not today. Not getting me today. But look, this is not uncommon. This is what all of major companies are doing. You have to at this point. You are, what you're doing is you're training your workforce to identify. Fishing, hackers, things like that. Exactly. Because when somebody gets in the system, all have it can be reeked. Yes. So what we're seeing out of companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, hackers are getting more advanced. They're becoming faster and certainly to a certain extent smarter. But the defense to stopping these attacks is actually maybe more AI. Let's talk about it. Brentyaxwood.com joins us, the CEO. Brent, good morning to you. It's good to have you. Good morning. How is AI upending cybersecurity at this point? Well, what it's doing really is just allowing maybe the less sophisticated hackers to present pretty solid, you know, advanced attacks. So it just means that there's way more people now that are getting into the mix that are able to actually get into some of these organizations. And we're hearing that attacks that used to take minutes can now happen in seconds. What does that mean in practical terms for businesses or even local government? Well, for businesses, it means that there are more people getting into this, more nefarious actors, more bad guys, right, that are getting in, which means even, you know, we used to think smaller businesses were somewhat safe because nobody really knew about them. But now, because everybody in the world can now start using some of these advanced tools, even the small companies have to be, you know, really concerned about what's happening from a cybersecurity standpoint. It's kind of like a double-edged sword, too, because AI is being used by both the hackers and defenders. So who has the advantage right now? Well, if we learn from history at all around, you know, cyber, and although it's fairly new, it's only really 15 years that we've been talking about it, initially, you know, the hackers sort of seem to have an advantage because they're the ones who jump on these tools right away. But over time, the defenders tend to wind out. So that's what we're hoping for. It's just still early. Well, it's interesting, too, because Anthropic said they use their AI technologies to find 500-0-day vulnerabilities, which are security holes that the software market didn't even know existed. So it is digging a little deeper into finding some of these vulnerabilities.

Yeah, we're watching that one. So that's Anthropic. That's their new platform called Mythos. And right now they've held off releasing it to the public because they're concerned about what it could do from a cybersecurity standpoint. So it's kind of in like a beta protected mode right now. How does this affect the average person? I mean, are we talking more phishing emails, more identity theft, more data breaches? It is. And you guys are just talking about it, right? Like all those little alerts you get, like, oh, hey, try the security training. It's that. It's more of that. We're going to see it every day. And it's everyone is affected. Now you think you may not be affected because, say, you're out, you know, repairing, like heating, cooling systems, but you have a tablet in front of you and you're logging stuff and you're taking pictures. So you're affected, too. So it's going to hit everybody in some form. Well, then you've got some that are saying that. the guardrails that are being added by companies like Anthropic or OpenAI are actually going to give these attackers an advantage because there would be chatbots involved, things like that, but how would that work? Well, I mean, any of these tools that they're putting together, you know, anything that they're making it easier, that they're adding, like, you know, just the ability for people to, to. do more attacks are going to give them an advantage. But the problem is that they're also giving people a false sense of confidence. So they have some of these guard rails in place and you think that you can do this or can't do this or you get warned about this or stopped about this. Well, the hackers don't care about any of that, right? They're going to exploit who they can exploit, how they can exploit, and some people may feel like they're falsely protected and not go through the due diligence and steps they need to to be secure. You know, we're told, you know, these tools still need skilled people behind them. Are we heading toward a world where one person with AI can do the work of an entire hacking team? I mean, we're already there. Honestly, you know, that's the problem that we have is because one person now can kind of hypercharge all the activity that they're doing. The reality is though that they're still not to the point where you can get rid of the really, really good hackers. You know, you haven't replaced them yet. They still need the people to put all the pieces together and do these attacks. It's just hitting piece by piece by piece by piece. But, you know, flash forward a few years. And yes, it will probably be able to do sophisticated attacks all by itself. I'm curious to know how they're testing all of this. Are these companies hiring, I mean, or do they have people there that are able to try to work their way into the system, fishing attacks, things like that? Is that how they're kind of putting the stress tests on the AI systems? Even when you look at Anthropic, the new program that they're coming out with, what they decided to do is put this program together called Glass Door, and they went to 20 big companies like Google and Cisco and Palo Alto, and they said, hey, try this out, see what happens, see what we can do with it, see how dangerous it is, and just give us feedback so we know what we can do from a guardrail standpoint for the public when we roll this out. You hear experts saying companies and governments that don't adopt AI defenses will be enormously vulnerable. Are we behind right now?

You know, I think we are from a business standpoint, from a public standpoint, you know, we're still looking at cybersecurity how it was three or four years ago. And it's not necessarily that we're behind. It's just we have to look at the new tools. And you mentioned it. Training is the number one thing that people can do. Just be aware of what's going on, what the attacks look like so that you can stop them. That's the best thing anybody can do. And then look at some of the new tools that have been released over the last couple years from a cyber standpoint. Really interesting stuff. The industry, it feels like it's changing so much every day. Something new coming down the pipe. Brent Yaks at O'Com. Thank you so much. Always appreciate it. Have a good weekend. Yeah, interesting stuff. Boy, AI, man, is just, you know, it's everywhere. Look, there are going to be a lot of wonderful practical purposes for this technology. Yeah. There's no doubt about it. It's all, to me, it almost, it almost feels like, you know, when the cops are out there with the. with the laser gun to see if you're speeding. Okay. Then you had the radars in the cars. Yeah. That tells you that the cops are, you know, it's like they're fighting each other. You know what I mean? Not today, copper. Not going to catch me. You know, so it's like that with AI, man. It's like they're both competing against the good and the bad. I always feel like cops if you're, if you pull up next to somebody at a stoplight and you see one of them, you're like, I know you speed. Like, I'm not catching you right now, but I know that you drive too fast. Of course. Of course. Former Vice President Kamala Harris. She's been making the rounds. No. Just before you ask. All right. We'll go to break. Come on. No. So she's still, you know. Okay. Promowing the book and things like that. Yeah. Well, she was at the National Action Network, that's Reverend Al Sharpton's group, in New York City. And he asked if she would consider running for president again. She says she's thinking about it. She goes, I might. I served for four years being a heartbeat away from the presidency of the United States. I spent countless hours in my West Wing office, footsteps away from the Oval Office. I spent countless hours in the Oval Office and the Situation Room. I know what the job is and I know what it requires. No. So? Like I said, I answered the question before you answer it. No. Listen, you know, um... I've always said it wasn't, it's not that we're not prepared or don't want a woman as president. I believe a woman, we will have a female president someday. I just think these two, you know, Hillary and Kamala Harris were not ones that people wanted. And this book that she came out with too, where she just like kind of went to town on everybody. I don't think she, I just wouldn't think she's very popular. in the democratic sphere. I would agree with you completely. I don't think anybody in the Democratic Party wants Kamala Harris. No.

So you can go around, talk about the book, talk about how exciting things are, and what happened during President Obama, President Biden's presidency. Yeah. I don't think anybody's clamoring for Kamala Harris to come back. And actually, I think they would push that away. I think so, too. Because I think she's an unwinnable candidate, in my opinion. More coming up next on J.R. Morning big talks this weekend. Well, Fridays are usually pizza night in our house. Okay. We do pizza night. We do movie night with the kids. We, you know, Friday's a big deal for them. Big deal, yeah. We like to do that. And I'm generally order online and go pick up. That's usually how I am. That's what I do. Yeah. Very rarely will I ever call a pizza place anymore. Oh, no. I'm pretty much online. Yeah. Online only. You can, and then at Domino's, where I go a lot, you can either go in and get the pizza or you can have carside delivery. So you get there. Oh, okay. And you put your flashers on. And they'll run it out too. Oh, that's pretty cool. So that's kind of cool, too, especially if it's raining or rather them get wet. That's bad. That's horrible. Lloyd, stop that. That's bad. But Detroit's own Little Caesars. We were talking about AI and all that. Well, they're going high tech to help you decide what's for dinner. The Global Pizza Giant has officially launched a new AI-powered ordering tool built directly into chat-GPT. The feature allows customers to simply describe what they need, like ordering for a family of four with vegetarian options, and the AI handles the customization, the budget, and real-time pricing for your local store. Chief Marketing Officer Greg Hamilton says the goal is to make ordering as natural as having a conversation. So to try it, users can find the Little Caesar's tool within the chat GPT app, describe their order, then jump to the Little Caesar's app to pay. Company officials say this is just the first step in using generative AI to transform how we get our pizza. That's pretty cool. I think so. So what's what else is, I don't know, do you know who Nate Burgatsy is? He's a comedian, right? And he does, he, in one of his last, uh, specials he did this thing about he was having some buddies over okay and they were gonna order pizza and his wife's like why don't you call your friends to see what kind they like how much pizza they want yeah because he doesn't want to over buy that's the whole bit okay he's like I'm a dad on a budget I don't want to overspend get it and he's like I'm not going to call a bunch of 45 year olds

And ask them, are you going to have two pieces? Are you going to have three pieces? How many pieces of pizza are you going to have? I don't know, Daddy. That's crazy. He goes, I'm just going to buy a bunch of pizzas and hopefully we eat them all. Yeah. What's cool about this is all you got to do is go to chat GPT and go, I got 15 people coming over. Yeah. One's gluten-free. We like to have... Fung vegetarian. Yeah, we like veggie pizzas and cheese pizzas and then you just go to the app and it's all done. Yeah, and they just plan it out for you. That's pretty cool. I like that. But if it's AI, what if it says, how many pieces are they going to eat? Right, yeah. Well, shouldn't you? Are there? Chat, GPT, shouldn't you know that? Are there a bunch of skinny guys like Lloyd coming or a bunch of fat guys like Brian coming so we can judge how much pizza we need? What's the weight of the people who are coming? Right, exactly. By the way, in the brigazzi bit, he's like, You know, did you have a big lunch today? What, like, did you eat breakfast this morning? Right. But this is cool. I dig this. I dig it. You know, well, they want to make it as natural as having a conversation. Well, I'll tell you, sometimes it is a bummer because you're like, you've got to go through and you're like, all right, I want green peppers. I want mushrooms. I want sausage. I want onions. Then you got to go to another section because I want it well done. I got to go. And you got to write a note, like make sure it's well done, not actually for one minute longer. Make sure it's. I want butter crust. I want cheese butter crust. I want garlic crust. Right. You're just like, I want some buttery crust pizza. Dial it up. And Chad GPT's like, you got it. But is this also a way for us not to talk to each other again? I'm not talking to anybody down when I order pizza. Well, true. I mean, if you're on the app, you're not, I guess. Yeah, yeah. But, I mean, just another way. I mean. I always feel bad that when you call this, you call a place. And you're like, hey, can I place an order? They're like, hold on. Like something just massive happens. And then they come back and they're like, what? What do you want? Yes. Like, I don't want to talk to you. Can you just order it on the ad lease? Generally, if I got a call place, it's on a Friday and they're swamped. They're busy. He's like, all right, I'll make you pizza. And you just. Yeah. Like, I know you're busy. I'm sorry. Yeah. But I think this is pretty cool. Cool way to use the technology. I think so. And it's going to catch on. It's going to catch on. I would agree. I think it will catch on. Again, this is as like more people start using it. Right. Right. As the technology becomes more mainstream. And it's certainly more mainstream now than it was.

even six months ago. Yeah. Right? But once it becomes more, you're going to go, I just need a pizza from Little Season. And I just think that, you know, the major chains will start doing it. I'm thinking, you know, down the line, you're McDonald's, your Burger Kings, your Wendy's, those kind of places will do the same thing. I think it's, I mean, I think it's going to be even more so. You're going to go like, I need a stainless steel pan, seven inches, fire it up. And it's like, here's one right here. And you're going to just pay for it and go. It's going to be much more, much more simple. I think. And again, people are, because essentially right now, you go on a chat GBT, it's like a Google search. Yeah, no, right? It is. Essentially. But it's much more. Informative. Like, if you have a question, you just go like, what's the temperature today? It's going to go, well, here's 10 different stories that you can look at to find the temperature. Yeah. And what chat GPT is doing, it's just go, it's 65. Yeah. You're like, perfect. That's all I need. I don't have to go through all the rigamarole of any of this other stuff. Yeah, I don't have to do more research. Right. So it's nice and clean and right there. And that's where it's helpful for a lot of people. Now you just move that into the food game, the restaurant game, all the other stuff that you're going to buy online. I think it's pretty cool. Also. A federal judge in Utah, or a Utah judge, unsealed the federal ATF ballistics report in the Tyler Robinson case. He was the suspected assassin of Charlie Kirk. Right. The report confirms that a spent shell casing recovered at the scene was fired from the rifle that prosecutors say Robinson used, but it could not conclusively match a damaged bullet fragment recovered from Kirk's body to that weapon. Hmm. The judge ruled that the report did not contain different information. That's why they could release it. But the inclusive bullet finding does not weaken the case. They say that a separate testing allegedly found DNA consistent with Robinson's rifle, oh, that was on the rifle, a towel and ammunition inside the gun. Experts say bullet striking bone often fragment, making definitive ballistic matches difficult. And yet he will be back in court for pretrial proceedings as well. But interesting. You know, if you want, you know, without a reasonable doubt. Yeah. You know, those kind of things can work, I guess. Yeah. Meanwhile, the president talked a little bit about his back and forth with the pontiff. I have no disagreement with the fact the Pope can say what he wants, and I want him to say what he wants, but I can disagree. I think that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. If they do, the whole world would be a jeopardy. The Middle East will be blown up and the whole world will be at jeopardy. To be... To be totally honest, that was not the Pope's position. The Pope never said that it's okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. No. Or the intercalinal and ballistic missiles, things like that. It just was not really for the war. And I do agree that the president.

can disagree with the Pope. Yes. Absolutely. Plenty of presidents have. Yeah. But we haven't seen this type of response from a president before to the Pope. And that's where I, that's the part that's frustrating to me because you could, the Pope has no bearing on what you're doing. Zero. Yeah. Of course the Pope is going to promote. The gospel and theology in a way to show that peace is the answer. And war is the opposite of what we should be doing. Of course. So these two worlds, they're like the same side of a magnet. They're going to repel. They're not going to come together. They're going to repel. You're going to come together on a lot of stuff. Yeah. But not on all of it. Well, I mean, a lot of times world leaders, even when they disagree, you know, sometimes they come together and they talk. I mean, that's diplomacy. And so refusing to engage is that a show of strength or is that just a misopportunity for dialogue? If I were the president at this point, there's no reason to me. They've already exchanged back and forth. I don't think there's any reason to meet. I don't think, I don't, the president already said he won't meet with him. Yeah. Whether that's in the now or in the near term or in this whole term, we don't know. And maybe because it's the pontiff, it's probably maybe not, you know. We're still talking about separation of church and state. You don't want to get in there and have the Pope into the Oval Office. And you can. talking politics because that's not what he does. Meanwhile, there are going to be free heart screenings at nine different locations tomorrow, thanks to Henry Ford Health, and they're talking about heart and vascular problems. It's a very important topic. We'll talk about that. Coming up on J.R. Moore. So one of the things that Henry Ford Health has done for a very long time are free health screenings for people. And you're talking about a whole heart checkup, echocardiograms, blood pressure, body mass index checks. blood glucose screenings, and you get all those results, and then you get to meet with the doctor. And your heart health is... It's important. Last I checked, it was one of the most important things that you can check in on. Yeah. Yeah, because if it's not working properly, bad things can happen. Yeah. Yeah, well, this weekend, they're back for their free heart health screenings, and there are now nine locations around the Metro Detroit area where you can go and receive these free healthy heart screenings, thanks to Henry Ford Health. Dr. Shukry David is the co-medical director of Heart and Vascular Services at Henry Ford Health and joins us this morning. Doc, it's good to have you back. Good morning to you as well. Thank you for having me. How important is it that Henry Ford engaged with the community this way and make this available so more people can check up on their ticker and make sure things are working properly?

Well, it's part of the mission of a health system, which is to take care of its community. So we are going to be active in working and screening patients from as far west as Jackson to as far east as St. John in Detroit, north to Flint, and all the way to Detroit, downtown Detroit at Henry Ford, Detroit. So we're going to cover the entire southeast Michigan. with cardiovascular screening, which, as you know, is the number one killer, not just of men, but also of women. And we hear about higher rates of heart disease, doctor, and urban communities. What are the real life factors driving that? Well, you know, I think the main risk factors are the traditional risk factors of hypertension, smoking, obesity, lipid disorders, a strong family history, sedentary lifestyle. All of those things really put you at a risk for having a cardiovascular event. What are we mean by event, heart attack, stroke, death? And so those are really... things that in cardiovascular disease with all of the technologies and screenings today, much of it can be averted. You've been doing this for 21 years. Have you been able to, you maybe personally, but also as the healthy heart group, have you found people that needed some sort of attention that you brought this to their attention that they didn't even know there was a problem? Oh, my goodness, probably at least 50 or 60 people, this usually we will pick up. We will pick up a new onset of atrial fibrillation, which is one of the leading causes for stroke. We will pick up patients who've had, you know, you can have a silent heart attack. If you're a diabetic, you may not have the traditional symptoms of chest pain, pressure, tightness, might just feel a little fatigue or shortness of breath. Show up a year or two later at your doctor's office and an EKG will show that you've had a prior heart attacks. You can have a prior heart attack. We've picked up young people who've had familial type of rhythm disorders like Wolf Parkinson's White. You hear every once in a while a young football player dying on a football field. It's usually due to something like that. Well, we detected one last year. So we pick up all sorts of abnormalities. People that are unaware of hypertension. Chris, you know, there are patients, unfortunately, who have kidney failure. Why? Because they have hypertension. And unfortunately, it's in their 20s and 30s that they have kidney failure. Now stuck to a dialysis machine for the rest of their life. And why? Because they just didn't get these screenings. So these screenings are really important. They really make a difference for patients and the community. And doctor, you know, a lot of people avoid doctors. you know, cost, time, fear, this, you know, this event, no appointment, free screenings, you know, how does that, you know, help break down those barriers?

Well, that breaks it down, and we try to make it easy and available and accessible. That's why we're now at nine locations this year. And so it's all across the state. You can just walk in from 7 to 11 o'clock, and you will be seen, and you will get a consultation with a physician. We'll do an electrocardiogram on you. We'll check your blood sugar to see if you increased risk for stroke. So for those of you listening, try not to eat in the morning. That way we can get a more accurate reading of your blood sugars. And so, yes, it's part of our mission. And we're out there and all our volunteer staff are excited. We've got young people participating. We've got high school kids who come in and want to help with the traffic and helping through. We've got all our nurses, all our heart specialists. So they're all hands on deck to get this program going tomorrow. Well, God bless you, Henry Ford Health, all those people that are out there in the community making a difference. And you get to keep people around a little while longer. It's a needed service. Thanks to these. Dr. Shukry, David, thank you so much. Best of luck this weekend. And we'll talk again very soon. Oh, thank you so much. Yeah. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Very cool. No, it's an important, man. I had a calcium test maybe five years ago. I think it's time for me to get another one. But, you know, they put you in a machine, and they put the dye in you, and they look at your heart and your valves and all of that, your lungs and mine was clear. And I did that because I had a friend who did a story on it and decided that they say, well, why don't you take a test, too? So she took the calcium test, too. And then when she took the calcium test, they said, you need to get to the hospital right now. And she went to the hospital. She had a block. They said, we don't know why you're walking around. Oh, my gosh. And this is a small lady, plays tennis, very healthy. Wow. She said, Lloyd, I had no feeling like I was sick. I didn't have any chest pain or anything. They said, yeah, you could have just dropped that. At any time. At any time. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So it's very important to get yourself checked out. You may not have any symptoms, but something may be going on there. Catch it early. It's all about early detection. Yeah. I mean, we've seen that with almost any of these long-term, you know, wide-ranging. Again, you know, Jamie's battling breast cancer. Early, though. Early detection. You find something and then you got to follow up on it. Yes. And that's how they're able to work. The miracles that they are. And what Henry Ford's doing is very cool, certainly. Meanwhile, just real quickly, on the Sheboygan lock and the dam complex up in Sheboygan under five inches until that water cress. And again, they've just been watching this like a hawk, just keeping track of where these water levels are, how far they're rising, how quickly they're rising. Governor Gretchen Whitmer was up there at a press conference. And she talked about the resiliency of the people of Michigan, certainly of the people of Sheboygan and the greater community up there. But again, it goes to show you that we have another, and we've got an infrastructure problem here. We do. And you've got old dams. And that when something like this comes up, they.

You know, they can't necessarily hold up. No. So it's something that we're going to continue to watch as maybe evacuation orders are on the horizon for a lot of people in these communities. 8 o'clock hour coming up. We'll get you caught up on the headlines of the day. Also, Kristen McDonald-R-Rivitt, the congresswoman out of the 8th District will join us. She's got a bill that she says would cut taxes for families by thousands of dollars every year. You got my interest. I'm good for that. That's coming up, but Jair morning. Foggy day here to start our Friday morning all around the metro area. So just be careful. I'm telling you, man. It's like Gotham City out there. It's a little thick. A little soupy. A little soupy. A little soupy out there. Well, hopefully we come to an agreement this weekend as talks resume between the United States and Iran. The president seems optimistic. The president does seem optimistic. Iran wants to make a deal and we're dealing very nicely with them. We've got to have no nuclear weapons. That's a big factor. And they're willing to do things today that they weren't willing to do two months ago. Sure. That's good. That makes sense. Why? Because of the blockade. The blockade is amazing. It's holding up very strong, very powerfully. And I think we're making a lot of progress in that. Meanwhile, Pete Hegseth from the Pentagon yesterday updated on Operation Epic Fury and said the United States is just using a fraction of our naval force. The United States Navy controls the traffic going in and out of the strait because we have real assets and real capabilities. And we're doing this blockade, performing it with less than 10% of America's naval power. So just a fraction, which is obviously a good thing. I was just bluffing, really, for the most part. It does seem that way, doesn't it? It does. Yeah. And again, maybe the ceasefire has something to do with that, but you're choking off all of their economic lifeblood, all of it. And have they found any minds? In the water, I haven't heard anything about it. Well, the president said that they were going to go ahead and send these mining ships in and these unmanned vessels to go find these mines. Because Iran said... There's no travel right now. And Iran said they couldn't remember where they put them, right? Right. I just think it was a lot of bluffing. Well, it is a lot of bluffing, and it's a lot of bluffing because they said that they were going to be able to take action from, you know, the coastline, things like that. Right. Obviously, that hasn't happened. And again, this is now an economic pressure point is what they're inflicting because you are costing Iran hundreds of millions of dollars every single day. A day. And so you are, you're cutting off their ability to make money while their economic outlook has completely collapsed. They can't pay their soldiers. They can't pay their proxies. They can't pay anybody. And again, if you're talking about a country.

of 90 million people with 90% of those people supporting a democracy that don't want to be under the heel of this regime anymore. What happens then, just hypothetically, if the regime can't pay their soldiers, they can't make money, they can't do anything, and what happens to their army? What happens to their soldiers if they can't feed their families? So all of a sudden, you start looking at the 90% and go, Now's the time. Now is the time to rise up. What that looks like, I don't know. But that's something that the president has said that the Iranian people that don't want to be under this regime any longer, that eventually they'll have to rise up and take their country back. There was a young lady on TV yesterday. She is in America, but she was from Iran. She has family in Iran. She was able to get some information or messages, you know, to her family. The commentator asked her, you know, what is your family telling you about what's happening in Iran? How do they feel? She said they feel more afraid when they don't hear the body. Yes. When it's quiet, that's when they... Are afraid. That's something that the president has said. That's something that Erfano Mead has told us, the PhD student at Michigan State University. He's from Iran. And he has said the same thing. He said that it is wonderful to hear those. It's scary to hear the bombs go off. Right. But that means it's another step towards this regime falling and crumbling. And going back to prior to 47 years ago. a wonderful country. Iran was a, you know, a country that is just a shadow of what it is today. And it could be that again, but with the right people. With the right people in place. The president says that this is, this version of this regime is far more open to making a deal. We'll see if that's true. Meanwhile, he also announced a Lebanese and Israeli ceasefire. They're all agreeing. It's a very nice little package for about a week. and we're not going to have lots of bombs dropping, and we're going to see if we can make peace between Lebanon and Israel. So, there you go. Well, and that's good, and I hope it happens, but, you know, the whole deal with Israel is Hezbollah, and Hezbollah answers to Tehran. Yeah. And so, you know, you have these talks with Lebanon, you know, is it really going to make a difference? Is, you know, Hezbollah going to listen? Or do you... do the president and the negotiations with Iran get Hezbollah calm down? Could be. We'll see. That's what needs to happen. It's all intertwined. Yes, certainly. Meanwhile, officials in Detroit held an update on the teen takeovers that have been happening the last couple of weeks. Yeah, and they're bracing for another wave of teenagers downtown this weekend as the city remains divided over this new youth centered safety plan. Here's Mayor Mary Sheffield. As we head into the summer months and as we know the temperature will be breaking and we know that we can expect warmer weather, this administration is being intentional about staying ahead with a strategy that is rooted in prevention, intervention, and enforcement. Following two weeks of teen takeovers marked by brawls and gunfire and an attempted robbery on Woodward Avenue, Mayor Sheffield and Police Chief Todd Medicine, they're pushing this six-point strategy. It pairs a safe summer enforcement plan targeting drag racing and curfews.

with a controversial decision to partner with the 16-year-old event organizers to create productive activities. And while some city leaders call the move genius, critics, including business owners and some police commissioners, call it an insult to victims arguing that the city is rewarding lawbreakers. Well, police say they will be out, enforce this weekend, issuing parental responsibility tickets, and enforcing that strict curfew 10 o'clock for like 15 and 16. 14 and 15, 16 and 17 is 11 o'clock. And so they're going to have that enforcement out there downtown to keep that from happening. I think you can do a little bit of both, but you've got to have that enforcement in. And talking to the kids and giving them more things to do, that's great. That's going to... happen over time and that'll that'll get into just like you know it reminds me chris of devil's night we had devil's night for so many years mayor archer came in night before Halloween that's right mayor archer came in changed it to angels night well we still had some devil's night stuff going on on angels night but it just kind of you know talking to people and and getting things in order it developed into what it is now was just The night before Halloween. Right. You know, that's it. You know, none of that's going on. It's going to take some time to get that done. But in the meantime... You got to get the enforcement in there. But here's the thing is like, I'm not bringing my kids downtown. A lot of people feel that way. A lot of people feel that way. I mean, that's just the reality. And that's hurting the businesses. Absolutely. And so when you see the rejuvenation of this town. Sure. And these businesses are going to hold on because we got a lot of people coming downtown on the weekends. I'm not bringing the kids downtown if this is going on. Absolutely. And it's not a shot at anybody. No. It's just the reality. Yeah. And there's going to be a lot of people that go, I'm not. I'm not doing it. Yeah. I'm not going to bother with it. I'll go when it settles down. Yeah. And that's what's going to happen. And I think they need to get this, you know, get this done. And I think the enforcement part is part of it. Kansas City yesterday in the sixth inning scored six, excuse me, seventh inning scored six runs. They took a one run lead over Detroit. They scored one in the ninth and then the Tigers came back, scored three in the bottom of the ninth inning, walked it off. They win 10 to 9 sweep the royals. Drama. High drama. High drama. At Comerica. Kevin McGonagall had... That guy. Two runs. Had a walk.

had a hit yesterday, a big hit yesterday. He had a triple yesterday, man, and I watched it. I say this guy, man. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty consistent. It is. Pretty consistent. And for a young guy. He just really has control. Because they were throwing all kind of crazy stuff when he got walked. And he was not going for it. He was just not going for it, man. They were throwing. Really good play discipline. Really good over at 30. He's something. And it was one that they called a strike. And he challenged it. Yeah. And no, that's a ball. Yeah. Walk. See you. Yeah. It's impressive, this kid. He is. And coming off of a big contract, you know, extension. Hey, man. Have to hit their lottery. Like, you'd think, all right, cool. Now I can coast. I can just kind of cool. No. Oh. It's very cool. Very good to see from a young guy. Chris McDonnell Rivett joins us the Congresswoman next because she's got a bill that she says would cut taxes for a lot of folks. I'm listening. We'll talk about it next on Jair morning. So it's the Working Parents Tax Relief Act. And Congresswoman McDonald Rivett says this is a game-changing tax cut that would save parents up to $5,500 per child under the age of four and would help parents even... climb out of poverty. And certainly that would be quite impactful if all goes according to plan for Congresswoman Chris McDonnell River, who joins us this morning. Congresswoman, it's good to have you. Good morning. Let's talk a little bit about your legislation. How did this come about and tell us a little about it? Yeah, you know, we know that when you bring a baby home, my husband and I have raised six kids. So we personally know when you bring a baby home, it adds so many expenses to your household. Honestly, it can be up to $30,000 a year in expenses. It's just really, really tough. So, you know, we've had conversations, you know, I'm sitting in Washington now years and years and years about, hey, how do we help young families at this, you know, really. exciting time, but super expensive time. And, you know, we can do that through a lot of bureaucratic programs or we can just figure out how to put more money back in their pockets. And I've always thought that the best way to do that is through tax relief. So we introduced the Working Parents Tax Relief Act. It really gives, it just, it gives you a little bit of help when you've got a little one at home because they're very expensive. Well, you know, we were talking about this yesterday. We said, I think it was Lending Tree, did a survey and said it takes about $300,000 to raise a child from infant to 18. And they also, you know, put in the numbers like the child care and, you know, and all of those things. And so one part of your proposal would allow monthly payments instead of just the tax season refunds. Why is that chip so important for families, you know, living paycheck to paycheck?

Yeah, well, and too many people are living paycheck to paycheck right now. You know, we, so I represent mid-Michigan, not like any other, it's just like every other part of the state, you know, between the cost of utilities, the cost of groceries, you know, gas is rising. It's just too many people are getting at the end of the month, and they don't, they don't know the money to make their bills. And it's not because they're not working hard. It's because just things have gotten really expensive. I wanted to make sure that there was as much flexibility as possible. So folks can choose to do this and get it all at tax time because sometimes it's that lump sum that really helped. Or they can decide to take the payments monthly, which will help even it out. You know, kids sometimes can spike your prices at specific points. That's right. But a lot of people need that help on a regular basis. So this would be $5,500 per child, and this would be for roughly, I think you said, 4 million Americans. So just basic math, that would be like $2.2 million if there's just one child in the home. Where does that money then come from? Are you allocating it from other places? Yeah, well, we have to. You know, we've got big things to worry about, and we've got a lot of big things to worry about, but one of them is the national debt. So we have to figure out how to do this in a way that prioritizes. working people at the very beginning, one of the most expensive times in their lives. So a couple of things. One, it's for households really that make less than $100,000 a year. It's not for everybody. If you don't need, I mean, if you don't need financial help or you don't need urgently need the financial help at this point of life, then, you know, you don't get the tax cut. But also, it is intended to, I mean, it phases out the more money that you make. But totally a year, it's really only going to run about $20 billion. And I understand that sounds like so much money, but not in the context of the federal budget. So we are obviously going to do what we call here in Washington pay for is maybe you find other places in the budget that you can pull from to pay for it. But also I think it's time that we just have this conversation about who pays for what and how much in this country. So I do think we need to take a total look at the tax code and really understand how to get more relief to folks that are in that working family, working class space because I think they're the folks that are struggling the most right now. And, you know, when you think of the long-term impact, are we talking? you know, just financial relief or something deeper, like some stability and more opportunity for young people, for kids. Yeah, we really want to make sure that at the beginning of life, that kids have everything they need. And the way you make sure kids have everything they need is by bringing some financial stability to mom and dad.

you know, the worry about whether or not you can afford formula or diapers, which are really expensive, is we need to relieve some of that for parents. The panic. when you can't afford the very basics for your kids, even though you're working, because that's a requirement of that's right. You have to have to have a job and you have to be doing your share. But working really hard and then still not being able to afford, you know, to buy milk for cereal for kids in the morning, that is bad for families and it's bad for kids. We just have 30 seconds left here. Are you hopeful that on the Iran front of deal is going to get made here in the next couple of days? Yeah, well, I'm really hopeful. I mean, we need to be able to make sure that Iran is not a danger to the United States, but my God, this war is costing a lot of money, money that we don't really have in the country right now. You know, we're over $4 billion a day. People are dying. We need to get this across the finish line. And I really think that we all need to push as hard as we can to make sure we get there. Kristen McDonald-Rivit, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it. Join us again very soon. Don't be a stranger. Yeah, thanks so much. Yeah, you got it. Interesting. Yeah. And again, I like the idea of having those stipulations that you've got to be working. Oh, you got to be. Yeah. That to me makes these kind of programs much more easy to stomach. But you've got to find. Where the money's coming from. Absolutely, certainly. Coming up on the other side, it's the 89th annual DPSCD Student Art Exhibit at the DIA. We'll talk about that on the other side on J.R. Morning. Well, for a long time, in fact, 89 years, the Detroit Public School Community District Student Art Exhibit starts today. That's great, man, for these young people. Oh, my goodness. I love to see, like, all artists. Sure. I don't get most of it, right? Well, I'm just the simpleton. But, like. What these kids do is remarkable. Because I am the opposite of artistic. And unfortunately, my kids also were passed that down. Don't care. You're just eclectic. I, sure. Sure. Sure. But what these kids are doing is really unbelievable. It is. Meanwhile, it's going to be held at the DIA. Andrew McGuire is the executive director of art and music at the Detroit Public Schools Community District and joins us this morning. Andrew, good to have you. Good morning, good morning. Thank you so much for having me. It's exciting. It's very exciting. And the work that your students are doing is unbelievable.

Thank you. Yes, it really is. It really is. Thank you. I appreciate that. And you know, you've got students, Andrew, from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. I mean, what surprises you most about the range of this creativity across those ages? Well, annually, I'm always surprised by their creativity, what they come up with. The purpose of the DIA and our partnership with the DIA in this exhibition is to raise student voice. And every year, you can see what is going on in the minds and the lives of our students. because they elevate it. Their creativity and how they see the world, how they process what's around them, and how they tell their story and the story of what's going on around us is truly remarkable. So from year to year, it's always captivating. It's always evoking responses, always, you know, planting new seeds of thought in my adult brain. And so as community members come in and just see the wow that's on, the faces of people that are not in, you know, K-12 education. Right. It's really exciting to see those aha moments or those pondering thoughts on the faces of those walking through the exhibition. And, you know, for young students seeing their work hanging in a place like the DIA, how does that moment change how they see themselves? Sure, yeah. So we have students that are coming in and telling their story that are taking the bold step forward to share their story. The old adage or the old image of the art student with their notebook, you know, always closed unless, you know, they're in a private space still holds true. But these are the students that are taking that bold step forward to share. share, to make change, to tell their story, to tell how they see the world. And so when we're looking at a student, when we see the student, which we will see students today, seeing their works on the walls at the DIA, the most prolific, beautiful, absolutely award-winning museum in the country, to have their works hang on that wall, to see our students light up is something that's breathtaking. My favorite moment is actually standing right at the precipice walking into the exhibit. And when you see a student, you know, welcoming the students as they're welcome in just seeing their eyes light up and almost as if they're kind of zooming out so they can see just from a pinhole of the hallway to the entire exhibition. And just that wow moment in their eyes is breathtaking. As an educator, as an administrator. as a steward of this partnership. This is what it is. And I'm so thankful and grateful.

that DPSCD is committed to educating the whole child. We have the arts in all 106 schools. The students are coming from across the city of Detroit and DPSCD schools to participate in this exhibition. We have over 230 students in the show, which is really astonishing. So when I talk about that wow moment from a student, it's 230 students walking in with that or similar reactions to the work, which is... Totally amazing. Do you find that these students are artistic from the get-go? Or is it something that they fall into? And I'm sure every student is a little different. But do you find that they are more, they might just be a little more advanced than some others when it comes to how they view a drawing or a mold or whatever it is that they specialize in? Do you find that it starts at an early age? Yeah, so that's an incredible question because we do have students that walk in that just are shockingly amazing, that come in, that are able to translate their thoughts and ideas and their perceptions of the world directly into their artwork. And then we also have, in my opinion, and to many accounts, objectively, the absolute best. teaching force in the state and in the country in DPSCD. Our visual art teachers are hands down incredible. They are able to not just teach the skills and the rudiments and the elements and the principles of visual art, but connect with students. ensure that they are in a safe environment that they are comfortable sharing their ideas and ensure that they are comfortable raising their thoughts and their ideas beyond the four walls of a classroom or the four walls of a school out into our community, grounding their working community and making sure it's available. So I would be remiss if I did not include that the largest portion of our students that are on exhibition that have their works on exhibition are the products of this absolutely beautiful, not only artistically rich with the skills and the concepts, but an absolutely beautifully safe environment that they can explore and curate their voice in. And I wonder, Andrew, you know, what do you think the city learns about itself when it looks at the work of these young artists? Yeah. Resilience, charm, honesty. I can keep going. Actually, I would implore anybody listening to go see the works because the words that are, the works that are on the wall evoke a response. And they evoke a response because these are Detroiters on our museum in Detroit. And as Detroiters, we get to see and feel and understand what students are staying, sometimes in a more connected way. I think that that is something that that holds true across the exhibition from kindergarten through 12th grade. With the elementary and the middle school pieces, you know, on display as well in that space.

But that's something that rings true every time I'm walking through the exhibition. I can see landmarks. I can see myself. Yeah, and we learn we better keep them here. Yes, right. They better make that art here. We don't want them going elsewhere. Keep them right here in the city of Detroit. Andrew McGuire, thank you so much. Really looking forward to heading down to the DIA, checking this out. It's the 89th annual Detroit Public School Community District Student Art Exhibition. It's at the DIA today through May 24th. Thanks so much for your... time, everything that you do, and we'll talk again very soon. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. And also keep your eyes open. We also have the Evening of Fine Arts coming up at the Fox Theater. That will be at the beginning of May. So more to come on that. We're looking at May 6th. And so. Very cool. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you. Have a great weekend. Thank you so much. Yeah, we'll talk again soon. Yeah. And, you know, admission is free, the DIA for Wayne, Oakland, and McComb County residents. So no excuses. No excuses. No excuses. Get down there. More coming up on J.R. Morning. We've got some feel good Friday stories for you. It's next on J.R. Morning. All right, welcome back, 850. We try to leave you on a Friday with some positive news. And there is some positive news because the annual blessing of the bikes is happening very soon. As a matter of fact, May 2nd. And Kevin Clinton and Oscar Gomez join us in studio to talk about. It's good to see you guys. Great. Thanks for having us. Thanks for coming by. Tell us about this event. This event is designed to bring the community, the motorcycle community, our veterans, and basically anybody who supports together for a like-minded event. And what does the ride go? I mean, where does it start? Where is it in? It's not an actual ride. Okay. We do a blessing at our post. Okay. We're hoping to get between 3,000 and 5,000 bikes out there. It is going to be loud. It's going to be loud. That's correct. Yeah. Muscle. Like Kevin mentioned, right, we're expecting about a thousand motorcycles out there. A lot of show bikes as well and stuff. Oh, cool. And so that, you know, again, we're open to the public. Even if you don't have a motorcycle, we want you to come out, enjoy. We're going to have live entertainment for different bands that are going to be playing out through the day. food trucks and variety of vendors that are going to be out there and stuff. So again, the reason that we're having the American Legion blessing of the bikes at Post-351 in Utica. It's basically a tradition, right? American Legion riders, which actually the American Legion across the nation has different rider chapters as part of their posts. But the actual riders group started 13 years ago from by two motorcycle enthusiasts from right here in Michigan, right from our post 398 in Garden City. And it just caught fire. It just caught fire. And so they do this in other.

you know, post as well? Yes, absolutely. Oh, wow. So you'll see a lot of American Legion posts and other veteran organizations have blessing of the bike events and stuff. That's more of a tradition, right? Because it's signifying the start of our riders. riding the riding season for michigan especially for michigan right oh yeah definitely it's a finite window yes you're not going to be riding in uh blizzard weather no although there are some diehards that want to go out i'm sure i'm sure throw the all the all the all summer tire all winter tires on there and get after it um how did this start yeah where did the dame come from Name of which one. Blessing of the bikes. Well, blessing is just that. We have a non-denominational minister of priest that comes, and he actually gives all the riders and the bikes a blessing for his safe travels throughout the year. Hence blessing of the bikes. Okay. And. I'm sure it's very powerful, especially when you talk about, you know, all these different folks that you're bringing together, whether they're just riders and enthusiasts or military members, veterans, it's got to be a special moment. It is. It is. It actually, it touches all of us. We all enjoy not just see it. atmosphere, there we go. Not just the atmosphere, but we also enjoy the camaraderie that goes along with it, but it also brings, you'll see people out there with tears in their eyes because it does bring a lot of heritage and a lot of... soul searching empathy to people that have lost members, lost family members, lost military members. So it's a very moving moment. And I would think that, you know, you probably would see a difference on how writers kind of approach the season after they attend something like this. Oh, yes. Yes, for sure. Yeah, they tend to be a little more cautious, understanding that there's other people out there that are not just worried about them, but looking out for them. Understanding that we have to look out for others as well. We do whenever our group does a ride, we make sure we all leave together. We all come back together. There is no leaving somebody behind. Always looking out. Kevin, you ride. Yes. What do you got? 19 Indian Roadmaster. Oh, beautiful. Full dresser. Very nice. Oh, yes. Very nice. And Oscar, I hear we got to get you on one here soon. Well, I'll tell you, it sounds like a great event, and I also don't ride, but my kids love anything with wheels.

Bring them out. And so, yeah, so this is an event for everybody, right? You don't have to have a bike. Correct. No bike needed. It's an open event, open to the public. There is no age limits. It's a family-friendly event. Not only that, but then you have our different vendors. I know Oscar had mentioned it, but our different vendors are local vendors. They're all local businesses. You actually interviewed one earlier this week. that's coming out Garden of Eden. Oh, Garden of Eden. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They'll be out there as one of the vendors as well. Oh, terrific. That's fantastic. Well, it's going to be a wonderful event. Hopefully you get some really nice weather and everything works out. And again, when is it? And what time? May 6th. Yep. May 2nd. Or Saturday, May 2nd. Yep, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Oh, cool. And there'll be music all day long. Four different bands. Most of them local. We do have one coming out from the west side. They're all different genres of music. So we'll have something that appeals to everybody. Lloyd just perked up. Music and food. Music and food up there. Music and motorcycles. It's a good combination. Kevin Clinton, Oscar Gomez. Thank you guys for coming by. Best of luck and enjoy the riding season. It's going to be fun. Thank you. Great. Thanks for having us. Yeah, you got it. Yeah, you got it. Very cool. And it's fog. Yeah, the fog is a little more problematic, too, I'd imagine. Yeah, yeah. Also, I found this story. I absolutely love it. So there's a music teacher gone viral in the state of New York. He's a music lecturer, and his name's Stephen Spencer. And he's got a three-year-old. And I'm sure you remember. Oh, okay. When you have little kids. Oh, yeah. The stream of conscious stories. And my grandkids, too. And the grandkids. Just the things that they say. Oh, yeah. Dad, I went to the playground today and then I slid on the slide. And after the slide, I went to the swing. And then I fell down and I hurt my knee. You know, you're like, the whole play by play. Yeah, everything, everything. Well, he's taking his daughter's stories and he's turning them into songs.

Like wiggling so First of all, when does that drop on Spotify? I'm telling you. I'm grooving today. Oh, my goodness. I need that in my playlist stack. Yes. But just hilarious. Absolutely love it. Oh. Little girl likes wiggling. Mom said no. Go to your room. Wiggle some more. Mom says no. I love it. That's going to do it for us. Kevin Deeds and I'll talk. Have a good week. See you.