Missouri Worker Sues Over Gross Charlie Kirk Post, Daylight Saving Moves Through Congress and Nasty Virus Hits lettuce?! | 7-15-26

We have got these beautiful new banners in the studio this morning, which if you are a viewer on YouTube X or Facebook. Can you see them there, Mark? Or is it kind of, do we have to shift some things around in here? Might have to shift at the next commercial break. All right. We'll shift them around the next break. We got these beautiful America 250 banners with the KCMO Talk Radio logo on them. As we get set for that big event coming up on September 16th, we'll be at Boulevard Brewing, McGraw-Milhaven, Guy Benson. Of course, Vince Kotlinase, myself and Kevin Keatsman, all going to be there on Wednesday, September 16th. The tickets, they're over half sold. So you've got to get yours now at KCMO TalkRadio.com. Join us out there. And it's going to be a great time. Looking forward to it. But yeah, these banners just showed up this morning. Usually I walk in in something's like broken. But this morning I walked in and it looked like the Taj Mahal in here with these beautiful big banners. Super nice. Beautiful big banners. The greatest banners. The best ever. Yes, exactly. So it's pretty cool. Very nice. Well, what's not very nice is this piece, I've been sleeping on this all night waiting to get here at 605 to talk about this horrible story in the Kansas City star about Charlie Kirk. So the story is basically a puff piece for a lady who worked at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. She was the legal counsel. Her name is Lindsay Phoenix. And this was on the front page of the Kansas City Star yesterday. And they wrote here that she filed a lawsuit this week against former education commissioner Carla Eslinger, who retired from her post last month. And the lawsuit. appears to pose a test to the scope of the limits of the First Amendment and state laws governing the political activity of government employees in their private lives. Here's what happened. This employee, Lindsay Phoenix, she posted something on social media on her Instagram page after Charlie Kirk got assassinated. And she shared a post that read as follows. DeLulu is no longer the Salulu. What we need is a Revolulu with a side of a sassanunu. Now, beyond the absolute stupidity of the whole thing, she goes on the note, we need a revolution with a side of assassination. She shared that on her personal press private, technically, but nothing's really private on social media in 26. She shared that on her Instagram story. She was fired one week later. After one of her followers, someone she knew from high school complained about the post to her bosses. So the Kansas City Star is basically writing a piece on her behalf as if like they're getting paid to be her defense attorney here. It is so absurd. Even the way that they write about Charlie Kirk, the photo that they use of Charlie Kirk, he looks very angry.

You know, he's like clenching his hands and he looks really mean in the photo the Kansas City Star uses for this piece about this Missouri attorney who was fired after posting about Charlie Kirk. And as a Monday morning, she is now suing the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. And everything about this just made my skin crawl. Even the way they write about Charlie Kirk makes my skin crawl. They write here. The lawsuit marks the latest fallout from the backlash that followed Charlie Kirk's shooting death last year. Across the country, professors, government employees, and other workers faced investigations, attacks and termination for public comments about Kirk, the polarizing 31-year-old activist who was fatally shot while speaking at a college in Utah last year. Technically, that's not inaccurate. But, you know, I prefer to be a little more direct and honest with the audience. The 31-year-old who was assassinated while speaking at a college campus last year. Fatally shot can imply and mean like, oh, there was a gunman on campus. No, he was assassinated and targeted. for his political beliefs. That's what happened to Charlie Kirk. And then this piece in the Kansas City Star about this lady who used to work as a state employee, she was the legal counsel, by the way, for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Then what the Kansas City Star does is they go talk to their legal experts like a law professor at Washu over in St. Louis. And he said it's a slam dunk case. She's absolutely going to win. No doubt about it. And he drew similarities between the allegations in Phoenix's lawsuit and a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision that found the First Amendment extends to government employees who make critical remarks about the president. Yeah, to me, this is not in the same bucket. I know. I don't have the big fancy law degree like the schmuck over at Washu. I understand that. Okay? But I'm pretty sure the case to make here is that Phoenix was not some low-level worker. She was the legal counsel for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Part of her specific job duty you would think is to train other state employees on social media policies. I think the state's got a fairly compelling and easy argument here that an attorney advocating for violence or, as she put it, a sassanunu, because apparently she has the maturity of a third grader, fundamentally compromises her ability to interpret or enforce agency policy. Wouldn't that make sense to you? What about the workplace disruption? What about the public trust? This person is the legal counsel of the Missouri Department of Secondary and Elementary Education. You are supposed to work on behalf of the public. Can half, or I would say, 65% of the Missouri voting block really trust you to be the legal counsel for a state agency?

And you can say, well, it was on my private Instagram. It's social media in 26. Nothing's private. You're a legal person. You know better than that. Once somebody screenshots it and it's out to the world, that is instantly going to and can destroy the agency's reputation for neutrality. It's a public trust issue is what it is. So I think that there is plenty that I hope the state, if the attorney general needs to get involved, Catherine Hannaway in Missouri, I hope that she does. Because the idea that this lady could post about, you know, positively following the assassination of Charlie Kirk as the legal counsel for a state department of education, if that is something that can happen. And then when she gets fired, she can sue. the state and get your tax dollars that's what we're talking about here she can get her hands on your tax dollars on a wrongful termination lawsuit how screwed up are we how screwed up is the culture of the state of the country if this lady can even file a lawsuit claiming First Amendment protections. Now, if she was a private sector employee, none of this would matter. But because, of course, anyone who's ever worked for the government has these unbelievable protections, that's why this is even a conversation. And I know that the Wash U law professor says that she's got a slam dunk case. Boy, do I hope like hell he's wrong. Well, you may be because like nobody at UMKC would give them the answer they wanted to hear, so they went to St. Louis. Well, you know what? It's a good point, John. Possible. Very possible. They couldn't find the quote from UMKC. They couldn't find the quote from the zoo. Heck, they might have even gone to KU before they went to wash you. You shop for those quotes. Yes. Yes. Tell me my opinion out of your mouth. Yes, exactly. Can you give me the answer that I want to fill out my story? right says casein bayliss of the kansas city star this is uh so gross on so many levels and so so disturbing and you know i haven't talked i haven't really been in the weeds on the charlie kirk case with Tyler Robinson of course who is you know potentially facing the death penalty but man when i saw the local spin on that in the Kansas City Star, even for them. It was so gross on so many levels. It really was. 911-4087-95-7. That is the text line, that is the studio line right here on KCMO Talk Radio. And, you know, I'll try to find my own legal expert on this one. And I'm not going to, you know, try to find someone who's going to tell me what I want to hear. I just want to tell someone or find someone who's going to tell it like it is. That's what I'm looking for. We have Taylor Birx on the show this morning. He wants to be the congressman of the 5th District. He'll be on at 7.30. He first has to win a primary, and then he has to go up against Emmanuel Cleaver. Yes. You must have moon, moo. So we'll talk to Taylor. He'll be in studio at 730 this morning here on KCMO. In the meantime, you might have seen the headline. Congress passes bill for permanent daylight saving time.

But there were plenty of staunch conservatives who voted no as well. Chip Roy down in Texas is one of them. Andy Biggs in Arizona. I mean, you had solid conservatives at least Elise Stefanik in New York, Mike Lawler. You had solid conservatives Andy Barr in Kentucky voting against permanent daylight saving time. So none of this was really about your political preference in terms of Republican or Democrat. It was more, I think, just about. How you view the world? When you wake up, when your alarm goes off, if you're a night owl, if you're a morning person, I don't know. All I know is that if you're here right now at 624 on a Wednesday morning, you're probably like me. You appreciate your mornings. If nothing else, you have to go to work early in the morning. You're getting off and getting at the office now. Maybe you're just, you know, sipping that first cup of coffee, listening on the Google Home, on your Alexa device, on your KCMO talk radio app, whatever it is. And the thought of waiting another two hours from now to just see the sunrise in Kansas City. That's what we would be looking at in the dead of winter. About an 838 sunrise if we had permanent daylight saving time. That is a health mess. That is a safety mess. For what? So it's sunlight until 545 maybe 6 o'clock in the dead of winter when you're not doing a whole lot anyway? I get it if you're in Florida, maybe. But in Kansas City, what are you even doing with a little extra sunlight? at 6 p.m. in December or January. More time to shovel your snow? In the sunlight? I mean, I have not been sold by anybody on why that would be a good thing for Kansas City. 913-408-7957 is how you join us on KCMO Talk Radio 95-7 FM streaming on the KCMO Talk Radio app as always. That's the place to be. But we appreciate Tom Cotton. He's the guy who looks like he is going to put an end to all of this on the Senate side. So good news by him, and I appreciate him for that. The post here from Burgess Everett, Congressional Bureau Chief wrote on X yesterday, AIDS expect Tom Cotton to block permanent daylight savings bill. He gave a long speech in 2025 explaining his opposition. So he is going to go ahead and do that once again. And I'm here for it, man. I'm here for it. And I'm glad that that is happening right now. So last night, the All-Star game happened in Major League Baseball. And, you know, it was on Netflix. So once again, I was able to keep myself away. Plus, I had some things going on. I had to take care of. But the American League ends up with a 4-0 win. You heard John at the top of the hour mention that Bobby Witt Jr., Michael Waka, both involved in the game last night. But is it true that they broke out boys to men in like the fifth inning?

of the game last night for like a little concert all right oh my gosh there was some weird stuff in the middle of the game well they're from philly so that was their deal right i i guess but oh my gosh one of their hits is called motown philly yeah but what are we doing there were fireworks yeah my wife was going it's the game over and i'm like no yeah no i heard it took two hours to get through five innings I mean, I just won baseball. The game was supposed to start at 7. It started at 7.30. Why? Just because of pregame. Oh, my gosh. What about mic and everybody and the guy at the plate trying to stick the earpiece in with one of the Phillies was trying to bat and talk. Oh, my gosh, man. It's a little bit much, isn't it? They're trying too hard. They're trying way too hard. I mean, I don't mind boys to men, but I don't need a fifth inning stretch of a boys to men song. There was a medley of all of our hits. Yeah. The players were holding little sparklers. Oh, were they? Wait, wait. Everyone had to get out of the dugout for boys to men and wave a sparkler? Oh, yeah. No. No. What is this? I mean, what are we in third grade? Oh my God. Hey, the band's here. Everyone waved their sparklers. What happens when everybody gets participation trophy, Pete? Kids were riding bikes in the outfield. I was really confused. What are we doing? We got the best athletes on the planet playing baseball and they think they need to distract us with a boys to men concert. Oh, geez, that is, that is brutal. I am so glad I didn't spend eight bucks for Netflix for a night. I would have been throwing things at the TV. I would have cost myself 300 bucks on the new television. I would have been like John Anthony, yelling at TV, yelling at Jimmy Kimmel commercials. Unbelievable. If you really want to rile me up, play Boys to Men on the Bumper song. Coming back here, Mark. I got news in two minutes more with you after that right here on KCMO.

Did anyone see anyone getting like hot and heavy up in Section 32 in Philadelphia last night while Boys to Men are playing during the fifth inning of the All-Star game, which by the way, correction, correction, correction. Once again, I was tied up with some things last night and I didn't watch any of the game. It was on Fox, not on Netflix. So I could have watched it for free, but I chose not to still. And I'm glad I didn't, considering a boys to men concert broke out in the fifth inning. So I'm glad I missed out on that. I think they were still looking for the Jack Cagley on ball up there. Yeah, that's right. But maybe there was some other stuff going on. Well, I've been in the upper deck in Philadelphia, and it is a miserable place to be. I mean, just in general, Philadelphia is a mostly miserable place to be. But especially when you're rooting on your team. as a longtime pathetic suffering Mets fan. I've been in the upper deck and I've had beer dumped on me at games by Philadelphia fans because they're just bottom of the barrel human beings. It was the first all-star game I've ever heard where every single player on the National League team was booed except for the Philly players. That's Philadelphia. I was like, what is going on? It is a, it is just a miserable, miserable town by and large. My alma mater is nice. Villanova's nice, but it's not really in Philadelphia. I mean, it's not. Oh, my gosh. All right. Well, that was last night. That was something. Now, tomorrow night, the president of the United States is going to be speaking to the nation. And there are rumors, and they first dropped, geez, I think it would have been Monday night. They first came out. And they kind of continued throughout the day yesterday. that the speech tomorrow night, 9 o'clock eastern, 8 o'clock central time, is going to be about election integrity. The president teased it yesterday in the Oval Office, and here's part of what he had to say when he was talking to reporters about this big speech tomorrow night and where it's going to go. It's really big news. It's really, really big ones. And our country has to shape up. But what we're going to be talking about Thursday is it doesn't get bigger because without free and fair elections, you don't have a country. We'll be discussing other things, too. But it's going to be a very big announcement. So here's what I wonder. First off, is everybody going to take this tomorrow night? Typically, every network will take a primetime speech from the president to the United States. Usually also, the president respects the time of the networks, so he keeps it relatively short and sweet. He keeps it 15 minutes-ish. I mean, it might even be 10 minutes, I don't know. But he's trying to respect the network time. Listen, as much as Trump doesn't like the media, he knows TV. And when he's done this before, he typically has kept it pretty brief. So if Trump goes on for 10 minutes about some kind of election integrity stuff, which I don't know what it's tied to, there are rumors that it's tied to the Georgia U.S. Senate elections of 2020.

when Democrats won both of those U.S. Senate race runoffs and ultimately flipped the United States Senate after the 2020 election was done in November because they had two runoffs in December. So it's rumored that that's what this might be about. I don't know. I don't have a great feel for it, but that's what the rumors are today. So if that happens, boy, he better bring the goods. Like, this can't be speculation. You've got to have the goods on whatever happened in Georgia from your perspective in 2020. This cannot be theoretical. This cannot be hypothetical. This has to be stone, cold, facts, data, do not beat around the bush. If you leave open any kind of interpretation on this, if this is where tomorrow night's speech is going. The mocking will come. And frankly, the mocking will be earned if it's not an absolute slam dunk case of evidence. That's what's got to happen. The whole thing, listen, I don't think they would go there or at least I'd like to think this administration would not go there and would not try to relitigate 2020. unless they had some kind of, I mean, beyond a shadow of a doubt evidence that, listen, the American people need to know this. But then again, I wouldn't put anything bastum. I mean, would you at this point? I wouldn't. I wouldn't. But the president's key phrase there is, our country needs to shape up. So what's you going to do? Lobby for the Save America Act? I mean, I'd like to see it. Sure. I think that would be a good bill to pass to try to solidify elections by and large and bring more stability and transparency to the election process across the board. I'm a proponent of it. But it doesn't seem like the votes are there and John Thune won't even bring it to the Senate floor for a vote. So is tomorrow night going to change that?

913-408-7-95-7. I don't know. I really don't. And I'm not convinced it's going to be a great needle mover. Now, we mentioned we're going to talk about some other things. I imagine Iran will be a part of that as well. But we'll just have to wait and see. On the text line, Pete, you can have all the facts in the world and even have video evidence, but the TDS people will still have some kind of speculation. I'm not worried about them. Okay? I'm not worried about that. But if we come in here on Friday morning and everything's just broken down along party lines about the speech on Thursday and it's just more of the same old nonsense, it was stolen. No, it wasn't. If it's the same old song and dance, then the Democrats come out on top. There has to be, there needs to be something that CNN can't deny, that MSNBC can't deny. It can't be speculative. Remember that whole bizarre movie from Dinesh DeSuzza? Remember that movie about the 2020 election, all about drop boxes and everything else? He had to apologize for half the movie because there was a bunch of nonsense in there that wasn't actually true and was completely disingenuous. And those are the facts. So it cannot be just speculation and, you know, A plus B leads us into C. It just can't be that. There's got to be more there. And if they want to open up that can of worms, man, they better have the goods. They really must. They got to have the goods. 9113-408-7-95-7. Pete, do you actually believe Democrats are going to agree that the election was stolen if Trump presents overwhelming evidence? Come on, man. Come on, man. Do I believe? No. I don't think that the die-hard are going to do anything with that. But I don't care about the Democrat politicians. I care about the people. Is there enough there for some people to be of the belief that, huh, maybe something did happen? Wow, this guy just presented me something that I am absolutely shocked by. All he's really got to do is convince the people who voted for him in 24. And there were plenty of swing voters who voted for Donald Trump in 2024. Those are the people that he's got to convince. Those are the people that he's got to get on his side. Because there are a lot of us, a lot of us. Millions of people who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 who do not buy stolen election chatter from 2020. Sketchy, sure. Yeah. Some things that are outliers. Absolutely. No doubt about it. But I've not seen the evidence. And frankly, over six years, no one's presented the evidence and no one's gotten to court with it or done anything with it. So there are tens of millions of people who voted for Trump who believe he fairly lost the 2020 election. All he would have to do is roll out whatever he's got tomorrow and convince the people who have already voted for him. That's all he's got to do. And if he does that, Well, you know what? He's obviously got some momentum on his side. 911-4-0-087-95-7. We have our 6 at 6 coming up. That is the top six stories in the 6 o'clock hour. Do not miss that on K-CMO Talk Radio. Well, on the text line, Pete, you never talk about the stolen election. Yeah, because it wasn't stolen. Hate to break it to you.

But it wasn't. Okay. And considering the administration itself has not done anything, not taken any legal action. We'll see what tomorrow night brings. They don't believe it either. Okay? And considering they had all the power in 2020 and somehow it got stolen while they had all the power, come on. I'm sorry. I'm not going to relitigate all of that because it's six years ago at this point. And, but hey, maybe tomorrow changes things. I've got an open mind. I've got a very open mind. Maybe tomorrow night changes something. All right, tell me, are you not eating any vegetables? Are you not eating any fruit because you're afraid of this explosive diarrhea that is apparently taking over the country, which really, it's getting more headlines, to be honest, than it's worth. I'm convinced that our media just wants us to be unhealthy, disgusting pigs who eat Oreos all day. So they're using this as an excuse to scare us off from eating fruits and vegetables, even though the odds are, I mean, so incredibly low. But I know this says, John, are you now picking the little lettuce leaves off your Big Mac every day? I am very carefully. Okay. I figured that. I am baking my lettuce and then re-drying it, constituting it with purified water. That's great. That's great. All right. We'll be careful there, okay? Just take the tomatoes off while you're at it, too. You never know. All right. I had some lettuce for my Taco Tuesday last night. Didn't go great for me last night, so maybe I got it. Really? Oh, my gosh. So you might have it there, Mark. Hopefully not. All right. So here's what's going on. So cyclospirisis, did I get that right? I've been saying it all morning before I got on the air. But when the mic is hot, you just kind of have that little, you know, mind blank. Not even, I don't know. It's like I say it all morning before I get on the air and then you get in front of a live microphone and you just crap yourself. No pun intended with this story, with what's going on here. But as of Tuesday, yesterday, the CDC reported nearly 7,000 people nationwide. may have, I guess they're calling it also cyclospora. So I'll use that. That's just easier for me to say. Cyclospora cases are surging nationwide. And it's an infection that can cause weeks of severe diarrhea. The infection occurs in the small intestine caused by a parasite. And it's mostly coming, apparently, from like lettuce and vegetables and, you know, things that we should be eating. Now, I didn't mention this Monday, but I had, I think it was food poisoning Friday night into Saturday morning after that Cheryl Crow concert down at World War I. I could feel it. When we were at John's Big Deck, I was like, something's just not feeling right.

and then I was up a bunch of the night. Now, it wasn't because of any salad. There was no salad at World War I. It was just, you know, it was a spread of food. So I don't know if I ate something bad. And by lunchtime, I was fine on Saturday, even late morning. I was, I was totally fine. I couldn't do my morning run. I ran literally half a mile down the street and I was having these wild cramps in my side. So I just turned around. I must have been dehydrated or something. I don't know. No, that's just what happens when you go to KCMO. Yeah, that's it. You cross the line, but. Yeah, that's it. Drank some bad water, who knows. But it was strange. But I knew it wasn't this because it wasn't tied to any kind of vegetables or anything else I was eating. It was like a bunch of finger food. So I just got something bad. But 7,000 cases nationwide, I know the average is like 500. And by the way, there aren't really barely any in our area. There's like 200 in Kansas and none in Missouri. So this is not something that we should be like avoiding fruits and vegetables over. But once the media gets snowballing on a topic, they just can't help themselves. It just grows and grows and grows. Yeah, they did have that on the Fox News rundown. There's no way to kill it. Also, that it creeps up on you. Yeah. And you may have had it for a few weeks. So it's hard to go, hey, what did I eat the other day? Mm-hmm. You don't know. And so they haven't tracked down the source, so it's hard to tell you what to avoid right now. Exactly. So now we're saying it's everything under the tent, I guess. I know. It's not good, not good. So here was some of the reporting. You mentioned Fox 4. Here's what they had last night. It also can be in fecal matter of either animal's human. But there's no really human to human. transmission unless it's coming from like a fecal oral route. The CDC says the parasite can be found in produce like cilantro, salad mixes, and right now Kansas has 22 known cases with the length of illness ranging from two days to two weeks or more. Missouri has none as of Tuesday. Some local produce shoppers are taking a chance because of the lack of cases in the area, but they are taking proper cleaning measures. Dr. Bari Weiss says symptoms can start off like the flu with abdominal pain and diarrhea. If symptoms don't get better within 72 hours, contact a doctor for testing. So we've got 22 cases out of 9 million people in both states. I'll take my chances. I will take my chances. Now, some of you are going to use this, I know. Some of you are going to use this as an excuse to not eat your fruits and vegetables. If my kids are up and listening right now, they're definitely doing that as well. Especially my old, Dad, I can't eat these blueberries this morning. I know. We can't go there with the strawberries. No way. Nope. I'm taking off. Can I have a cookie? Cookies don't do this to you, right? I've never heard a story about a cookie giving you diarrhea. That's what's going to happen. I can see it coming right now. That's what's going to happen in my house with this cyclospora. surging across, surging air quotes across the nation. I'm not even really buying that. 913-408-7-95-7. Surging compared to what it normally is, but I mean, 22 cases between Kansas and Missouri out of 9 million people, I'll roll the dice. Stu's in Rosdale. Stu, hang in there, buddy. You doing all right? Oh, yeah.

But, you know, I have a joke for every topic, and I have two of them on this. Oh, boy. Well, you know what? Give me one, and I'll see if you're worthy of a second. Deal? Well, I'll give you the best one because it touches on a whole other political matter. What does a person who has the incipient intestinal rumblings of explosive diarrhea have in common with a person driving an electric car? What's that, Stu? They're both praying that they make it home. That's your best one? You mean the other one's worse? You know, it's tough to please you, buddy? Well, you know what? Now I feel bad for you, so give me the second joke. Well, the second joke is just advice. You know, Cryptospiridium is not the same as Montezuma's revenge, but nevertheless, you know, in Mexico, I'm an old Mexico hand, and we used to say how, what's the best way to wash produce from Mexico? What's that, Stu? The answer is the same way you would wash anything that had fallen into the toilet. Somebody out there is probably chuckling. We can hope. We can, Stu. We can. Hey, have a great day. All right. I'm glad you got those in. Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate you. Stu in Rosedale on KCMO Talk Radio. Mark, what do you think of those jokes? Slow clap. You're slow clapping him. There you go. All right. You're giving them the slow clap. Okay. All right. Slow clap. John, you got great. Sorry, I was in the restroom. I miss anything.

Oh, my. Unbelievable. On the text line, Pete, you got diarrhea because you went to see Cheryl Crow. That was your problem. Okay. All right. That's fine. You got me there. Hey, listen, we had a good time on the text line. Liberals will make anybody sick. No, she, nothing political. I got to hand it to her. There was nothing political in the hour. show that she played Friday night at Fan Fest at World War I. Nothing about it. Nowhere was there any mention of politics, any drive to be political. It was just, here are the hits. Let's have a fun hour and let's all call it a day. That's all we got. All right. Johns and Lee Summit on KCMO. Good morning, John. Good morning, Pete. I have a solution for this parasite's deal that's going around in waves, I guess. I say we go back to COVID era. Shut down the farmer's markets, shut down all the produce, and open up all the liquor stores. This is absolutely lit. This is lit, lit, lit, lit, lit, lit. Yeah, we could go buy all the booze that we want. We could not, yes, do a farmer's market. Go figure. You got to stuck up on toilet paper if this is going to be happening. Yeah. You ain't kidding. Unbelievable. Oh, gosh. On the text line, man, Stu really was trying. Yes, he absolutely was trying. You're right. And I appreciate anybody who tries really hard. He was definitely trying. There's no doubt about it. He gave it his best shot. I just, you know, if he came out of the Bill Gates with that first joke and that was his best stuff. That's not to stretch, man. It really is. But hey, we're with you, Stu. We're hanging in there, buddy. All right? Just stick with it. Amen. And a woman. Coming up on KCMO Talk Radio, we have Taylor Berks in the studio. He wants to be speaking of Emmanuel Cleaver. He wants to be the Republican to go up against Emmanuel Cleaver in the 5th Congressional District. So he's going to join us at the bottom of the hour on KCMO Talk Radio. There was a national story that dropped yesterday that I've told you about now for a couple of weeks. You got it here first. We'll share with you what that was. Coming up next on KCMO. So there were three different stories yesterday. Tony's Kansas City actually shared this. From Fox News, they had the story, and NPR had the story. And I was like, wait, I've been sharing this with KCMO listeners for at least two weeks now. And the headline on Fox News.com yesterday afternoon was ICE agents instructed to end most vehicle stops in major policy shift. Agents will now only pursue traffic stops targeting individuals with serious or violent criminal histories. On top of that, this was from NPR yesterday. In the aftermath of deadly shootings, ICE pauses many of its traffic stop policies. And it goes on to note in both articles how they're changing some policies, they're backing off ahead of the midterms. All of that has been happening.

In the last couple of weeks, I've noted to you that Markwayne Mullin has said specifically to people that I know that they're not bragging about it, but they are going to kind of dial down some of the ICE policy that resulted in a lot of the chaos, obviously with like Renee Good and people like that from Kansas City, who went up to Minneapolis and caused a bunch of chaos. And in her case, ended up getting, you know, killed after she was hit by a vehicle. So it's that combined with the midterms that is resulting in this administration dialing it back a little bit. And I mentioned to you that that was happening. Now, here in Kansas City last week, we had that raid from ICE at the La Fontanella food processing plant here in Kansas City. And, you know, the mayor came on Friday, obviously he was outraged by the whole thing, even though he admitted he had no evidence of constitutional violations. But he was outraged because, well, it's politics. But that tells me that while we don't know what exactly happened there yet, and I'm trying to get more information on it right now, but that in particular tells me that at a time when they are not trying to be, and when I say they, I mean the administration, is not trying to be super invasive with ice. They're trying to really pick and choose their spots. If they ended up arresting several people at the La Fontanella food plant here in Kansas City, they must have something darn good. I don't believe they're doing that without having real solid evidence and reason to make those arrests. Because they don't want Renee Good 2.0. They don't want Alex Preti 2.0. That's the last thing that they want ahead of these midterms coming up in November. They know that. That's why they're dialing it back a little bit. And that was policy that came from the White House down to Markwayne Mullin, who replaced... That freak Lindsey Kristi Noem or really her husband's the freakier one of the two. Who would have thought? And I guess they're getting divorced. She's shooting dogs and he's cross-dressing. Who's the bigger freak in that relationship? I don't know how they made it this long, to be honest. But anyway, Markwayne Mullin replaces Lindsay, or Lindsay, Kristi Noem. And then the orders come down to kind of dial it back ahead of the midterms. So that's what's been going on on that front. And you had it yesterday from now Fox and NPR basically admitting that ICE is dialing back some of the policy that they've been really moving full steam ahead with. And listen, we need ICE to continue to do its job because of the policy that we had in place for so long under the prior administration. They've got to keep doing their thing. I don't really want them to slow down.

I want to, yes, preserve those who are here legally and are going through the right pathway to citizenship, but not those who have broken the law. And that's where, frankly, a lot of the American people are at. That's why Donald Trump got elected in large part. Got to beware of the disingenuous media that likes to put up the protest footage and then maybe claim that that size is doing. Yes, absolutely. There's always a lot of that going on. Did you see this? So, of course. You know, World Cup yesterday, you had Spain beat France 2-0. And then today we've got the two Kansas City-based teams, England and Argentina. They're both base camp here. They're playing today in their semi-final match. The winner goes on to the championship, which takes place on Sunday. And this game... Today, was it yesterday's game that was in Atlanta or is today's game in Atlanta? Today's is in Atlanta. Okay, that's what I thought. So today's game is in Atlanta. And the Mercedes-Benz Stadium there in Atlanta, owned by Arthur Blank, who owns the Atlanta Falcons. This guy's always been like a $2 hot dog guy. They have very cheap concessions there in Atlanta. And that's a testament to Arthur Blank, the owner of the Falcons, who is like, listen. People are paying a fortune. We want to be family-friendly with our concessions. So this went viral. For the first time ever, Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, where the game is today between England and Argentina, they're serving all of their iconic fan-friendly favorites together at Molly Bees during the World Cup semifinal, all for 20 bucks. So that's a pretzel, popcorn. chicken fingers and fries, hot dog, slice of pizza, and a soda, all for 20 bucks at Molly Bees inside the stadium. That is not to be confused with Missy Bees here in Kansas City, the, you know, drag show operation. Not to be confused. But think about that. It's a dress code at one of those two places, so to speak. What would all that cost at Arrowhead? Popcorn, chicken tenders and fries, hot dog, nachos, pizza, pretzel, and a fountain soda. I mean, that probably is $60 at least $60 at Arrowhead. It might be $80. You can get all of that for $20 today. during the World Cup semi-final. Arthur Blank, who does this for NFL games as well, he continues to embarrass every other NFL owner by saying, I don't need to rip people off on chicken fingers and fries. I know you don't want to do it with alcohol because you don't want people getting totally trashed, but man, he is just embarrassing every other owner. And I hope that at some point, the rest of them feel a little bit of shame. Mark just noted that Taylor Berks, who is running for Congress, 5th District wants to end up beating Emmanuel Cleaver, if he can win the primary, is a, I guess this doppelganger would be Bill Hurlbrink on KCTV 5, who does the morning TV over there. You're right. They could be like, they could be brothers. That's a good way to put it, Mark. And they're about the same age, I would guess, as well. Yeah. They look very similar.

You know, the only thing I'll miss about Emmanuel Cleaver is all the funny drops and wild social media posts and crazy stories, you know, it's like, I mean, Taylor Burke's, you know, he might vote right, but he's not going to give me stuff like that for the show, right? A man and a woman. So I will miss that. But also, let's be honest, I do think up against the right candidate, Emmanuel Cleaver. because he is an institution and because it is a midterm year where the Republicans have all the powers, the Democrats are more likely to come out and vote. He could be tough. I don't think it's a slam dunk. So I think the Republicans have got to have the right candidate in there. And we will talk to Rick Bratton in the next few days as well, get his side of things. So all that is going to be coming up on KCMO Talk Radio. We've got three weeks to go until Election Day. So now's the time when people start to do their homework, you know? I was talking to Taylor, he's like, yeah, I was wondering when people start, like, dialing in. It's like now, three weeks left. Congressional race, primary. Oh, yeah, it's like cramming for a final exam. That's how it goes. So let's go to meta, also known as Facebook, Instagram. A group of 26 meta employees has sued the company claiming it used artificial intelligence systems that disproportionately targeted those on medical or family leave for layoffs. So this is wild. And I'll get to more of the details here. But as I understand this story, META had to make some cuts. And they basically went through AI to figure out who to cut. And they ended up disproportionately targeting those on medical or family leave. A group of 26 META employees to sue the company claiming it used AI systems to select people for layoffs and disproportionately targeted those on medical, parental, or family leave. They're among the 8,000 employees or about 10% of the workforce. Meta said it would layoff back in May. The lawsuit filed late Monday in federal court in Oakland, California, claims the company used internal AI systems, keystroke, and activity monitoring data. AI token usage dashboards and algorithmically assisted performance rankings among other methods to determine who would be laid off. Good thing we don't have those in radio. Jeez. So the fact checkers don't like being fact checked and laid off. Well, that's the irony of all this, right? How about that? I mean, Netta is leading the way. on a lot of this AI and now they're using AI allegedly to figure out who they're going to fire and lay off. You just got doge. And they're using keystroke and activity monitoring data. So who's typing on their keyboard the most? So boys start banging those keyboards in there, okay? because if this company decides they're doing layoffs, I don't want it to be, well, John Anthony doesn't stroke his keys enough on the... Well, that's a different show. I was going to say, yeah, that is, yeah.

And actually, John's very good of banging his keyboard. Yeah, I do percussive maintenance. Yeah, when things just start going haywire, you can see John just banging his keyboard. Usually, while Keatsman's on the air, John is putting on a show in the newsroom, banging away on his keyboard, smashing things left and right, nothing's working. But amazingly, he's the only guy who has these technical problems in the whole building. So I don't know what to make of that. That's what they always say. I never seen that. Yeah, exactly. I mean, you're a guy. Yes, he is. Many of these scores, according to the story, and ratings by design cannot be accumulated by an employee who's on protected medical or family leave. So exactly right. I mean, the employees who are on leave, they don't have any keystroke data. They're not working, right? As a result, people on protected medical or family leave were disproportionately selected for layoffs according to the lawsuit. These 26 anonymous meta employees in the lawsuit took protected leave and requested or received a reasonable accommodation for disability. Now, here's where I, you know, I want to hear both sides of the story. How many people are milking that? I mean, honestly, especially in California. with the way that the state laws overly protect employees. Like, there's always that happy medium, right? I'm all about protecting employees, but protecting employees to the detriment of the company is where things go too far. And some states overprotect the employee and hurt the business at the same time. So I'd like to know the stories. It may have been met us saying, you know what, this ain't working. These people are soaking us dry. We're blowing them out. That may have been part of what was going on. But I just think it's fascinating that we are now in a world where companies may be using AI to figure out who they're going to fire. And they're doing things like keystroke monitoring. So bang those keystrokes when you get to the office. That's my advice. Steve's in Overbrook. What's up, Steve? Hey, guys. Just listen to what you're saying, Pete. So, AI, using AI to fire people, and I'm not a tech guy. I'm not even a fan of AI. But I think using it for this purpose is extraordinarily intelligent. Because you have a company as large as meta who relies on probably department supervisors to evaluate employees, who's being productive, who's not being productive. If AI can do that in terms of who to fire and who not to fire, companies like Indeed.com and just companies like that have been using maybe not AI but similar software to look for keywords and resumes like when you use those companies to hire new employees. They've been doing the same thing, relatively speaking, for a long time. So why not use that technology in large corporate companies that say, hey, you're just lazy. We don't want you anymore. Yeah, I mean, listen, you're right. It's a tool. That's what I've never been an anti-AI guy. I use it, you know, for certain things at the office. It's just got to be used in a smart way, and you can't over-rely on it. Like, if you have a company the size of meta and you ask the AI bot, hey, if you were me, where would you look for cost savings and where would you look for job cuts?

You use that as a tool, though. You don't just blindly go by the artificial intelligence. There should probably be some humans sitting next to the wall doing this thing. I would agree. But, you know, at the same time, our world and society is not moving in that direction. Well, that's true. You're right about that. Good call there, Steve. But here's the thing, too. It's like, if I'm running meta, if I'm Mark Zuckerberg's there, I'm also being like, all right, where am I going first? How big is our DEI department? That's what I want to know. The issue is they're not whacking enough. I mean, that's where I'm starting. Not even close. You tell me you're going to lay off engineers over DEI coordinators? Please. That's where you start the thing. I don't even have a conversation with the AI chatbot. until I have the leanest and meanest DEI, maybe not meanest, but the leanest DEI department in Big Tech. And then I'll work my way down from there. That's it. Because if you're not starting with the DEI department, then you really don't know what you're doing. They don't know what the fuck they're doing. Do you understand that? They just, they wouldn't. Case in point. Scrolling with Haley, join Haley Caronea as she scrolls through the biggest headlines. If you haven't watched this show before, we do blind reactions. I have not seen these videos, so I am seeing them for the first time with all of you. We're going to implement the tinfoil hat time segments and all the stuff you know and love. And I'm going to finish the show and answer some of your questions. Someone asked me, what made you get into podcasting, and I was producing podcasts for other people. And I was like, I could do this for myself. And here I am. Scrolling with Haley, follow and listen on your favorite platform. The United States Soccer Federation presents the U.S. Soccer Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Klingerberg. One thing I promised you is an all-access pass that you wouldn't get on any other show. And we found out that whoever comes on scores a goal. Burhope. Freeman. Trusty. U.S. soccer podcast magic is real people. We still got plenty of coverage all throughout this World Cup. Okay, let's get into it. The U.S. soccer podcast. Presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite. Hey, I'm Chris Van Fleet. Go behind the scenes and beyond the headlines with the biggest names in pro wrestling and beyond. Jeff Jarrett, great to see you. In this business, the story behind the scenes, so much more entertaining than what you see on camera. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul Heyman. Mr. Heyman. You are a master at the little things. That's how you turn good into great. What does it take to achieve greatness? Whatever it takes I'm willing to do. That's an Emmy wedding performance. How about it? Insight with Chris Van Fleet. Follow and listen on your favorite. platform.