Kristi, Are You Doing Okay?

Hanging out at the pool is great. Relaxing and playing Vegas-style games on my phone at the same time. Drink in one hand and a blackjack in the other. It's all at SpinQuest. Over a thousand games including your favorite slots and table games. Be cool with this summer special. New players get $30 coin packs for 10 at SpinQuest.com. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. Great to have you with us. Here we are. Here we all are this Friday morning. I am Scott Borges. There's Lucy Chapman and Craig Evans. Jim Rose is here and this is Nebraska's morning news. News Radio 1110 KFAB. I really appreciate Kristi Noem looking at the positives here. She. She posted on Twitter ex-Twitter thanking the president of the United States for her brand new role. Now, sure, she seemingly got fired. from her role as Department of Homeland Security. But she picked up a sweet new gig. She is an envoy, and let's not forget this. She didn't get fired. She got repositioned within the Trump company that is the United States government. She's an envoy to the shield of the Americas. And that's huge. Here to explain what the shield of the Americas is and what an envoy to this group may do. Lucy Chapman, Lucy, go ahead, take it away. Well, first of all, you have to have the right haircut and then the right attitude. Yep, she checks those boxes. That's good. And an Uber account. See, that's where a lot of people can't get it. They're all lift people. They're on Capitol Hill. But she had the Uber account, the haircut and the attitude, and so she is an envoy. What they say here, the shield of the Americas is part of the, and this might be the first time you've heard this phrase, Jim Rose. This is part of the Don Roe doctrine. Not the Monroe Doctrine. This is the Don Roe. Doctor. Don Row, the city councilman? No, not that Donroo, like Donald Trump, Donroo doctrine. This is to provide security for the Western Hemisphere. And she's an envoy to this, the shield of the Americas. Yeah. Some people say, no, she got fired. She got thrown out of there because she put out some weird, really expensive video of her riding a horse at Mount Rushmore. And she got fired. No, no, please. We needed an envoy. The Shield of Americas was this fledgling organization that no one's sure what it does or why it is. They needed an envoy. Kristi Noem was available. She got repositioned. I don't see what the controversy is. Yeah. Look.

She was a problem for the administration. And you people in South Dakota know her a lot better than we do. You elected her to statewide office twice. You elected her to the United States Congress, I think three or four times. She was a state senator. So you know Kristi Noem. You know her family. You know everything about her. But from all accounts, it appears as though the administration was getting worn out by Christie. First of all, Christy's a lot about Christy, and that is historically proven by some of her behaviors in office. When she was in the governor's house in South Dakota, she put a fence around it because she didn't want anybody bad getting in there, and she installed a very expensive TV studio so she could do TV interviews with Fox News. while she was governor. That's one. Two, these commercials were all about her. Yeah. Now, they didn't spend $200 million on the commercial. That included the advertising placement. The commercial probably cost a million, but which is still a lot for a commercial. It was a lot about her. When she would do her press conferences in front of the prison down there in Central America with all of the baddies, that's not a good look. Human rights people don't like that, but a lot of people in the Department of Homeland Security didn't like that. Her actions and words, even though they almost parroted Stephen Miller, who's a senior advisor to the president in the wake of the shootings in Minnesota, were not good for the president, made it look like we don't care about people. We're just going around shooting people. We're cowboying up here. Not good. And when they sent Tom Homan up there to replace her, that was the first sign that Christie's probably going to have a different office. Yeah, a couple questions about what you just said, yes. The last one, I think that was, and I personally think this was planted, I think the White House told John Robert F. Kennedy Jr. some things to ask her about in this hearing. I think that John Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got a dispatch from the White House, and they said, we want Kristi Noem out. We need cover. Ask her about this because she'll be under oath. We'll talk about that. And then my couple questions on what you just said there, which I'll tell you right now, number one. And then there was the Cory Lewandowski stuff. Was she a liability for the administration or is she a scapegoat? And if it's a scapegoat, would she kill that scapegoat? We'll get to all this next. Who said, scapegoat ill-behaved enough for her to shoot it. Many people will say, no, no, the president's administration, the buck stops with him. He's the one that sent ice in there. And yeah, maybe she was pushed out there without a lot of information to say these things. But ultimately, this falls on the president of the United States. She says he signed off on this TV deal that the argument there was. 200 some million dollars in a non-bid contract. And I don't know how Governor Pillen knew these people. A non-bid contract to have someone do a TV commercial, an ad campaign featuring Kristi Noem riding a horse in front of Mount Rushmore.

Not quite like Vladimir Putin, who would be shirtless riding a horse, hitting unicorns with a bow and arrow or something like that. This is her just riding a horse and telling people, if you're in the country illegally, get on out. Time to go and just self-deport. And it cost $200 some million. That included the commercials, not just the production of the commercial. Right, the whole thing. Which is not that much money when you consider it's a national ad campaign. And they said, Trump signed off on. He knew about it. And he said, I didn't know about it. It's too expensive. I don't know where she got the money and time for her to go. And so the argument here is that this is someone falling on the sword for Trump. And now we've got Senator Smell of War Markwayne Mullin out of Oklahoma. Is this a good trade up? And did Kristi Noem really have to go? Okay, well, a couple of things there. One, you need to know that when you're in the Donald Trump administration, Donald Trump is the star. You're not, okay? He does not want anybody upstaging him at all. And Kristi Noem was a media darling, and she liked to see herself on TV. And she liked to see commercials of her riding horses in front of the four faces and among other things. You know, she wore the tight-fitting shirt down there in Central America. This is just a very, very self-absorbed individual. And Trump doesn't like that. Now, do I think Trump knew about the big ad buy for DHS? Heck yes, he did. But this was cover for him. This is, he's thinking, wait a minute, the people out there wondering, this is a guy who said he's going to cut the budget, doge, all that, but we spent $200 million on a DHS or a DHS messaging campaign. The commercial didn't cost $200 million, but all of it did when you consider the placement and the money that went into paying these people to leave, you know, the $2,000. He didn't like the fact that she was taking all the credit for that. She came off very, very badly in the wake of the shootings up in Minnesota. And that was not very healthy for the White House's position either. He's been hemorrhaging political support by independence since the start of this year. And she has not helped. Stephen Miller doesn't help. These are the hardliners. Susie Wiles is the chief of staff. Susan was getting tired of having drama with Kristi Noem, and Susie Wiles is someone Donald Trump listens to. So when you get on the wrong side of the chief of staff, you got a problem. When you get on the wrong side of the man, you got a problem. Now, he's saving face with the maga base who likes Kristi Noem. They love Kristi Noem. Giving her another job. which also allows her to get out of the country and away from TV cameras because this shield, this shield of America's thing, is a nice initiative. But essentially what that means is I'm going to go down and have coffee and cocktails with the heads of these Latin American countries. And that's going to be my job. Try and keep them happy. Maybe close the door on any immigration this way. Tom Homan is the man for the illegal immigration issue in this country. But Kristi Noem, and remember,

Tom Homan has a direct line to the president, but Kristi Noem was becoming the face of the illegal immigration crisis in our country and the deportation process. And Trump doesn't like that. He wants Tom Homan to be that person. Holman's great at it. Maga loves Kristi Noem. When she showed up that frozen night when the president came to Omaha to campaign before the election, Kristi Noem showed up there and everything got 10 degrees warmer. They love Kristi Noem. But they hated her. A lot of the detractors hated her from the moment of the book with the dog and the goat and all the. And Corey Lewandowski. Right. Is she having a thingy with Corey Lewandowski? Who knows? Well, now they... It sure looks like it. Everybody in D.C. says this. This is the worst kept secret. And if you talk to our good friends in South Dakota, they'll say this is not a secret. It's been going on. She's got some sort of an open marriage. or some kind of an arrangement with her husband. You're assuming that a awful lot of these allegations are true. All right, let's figure out now why they now hate Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma. We'll get to that at 635. Right now 1110 KFAB certified transmission. Sports Brief. Here's Jim Rhodes. Well, they'll just kick their, you know, what's it, because he's an MMA guy. Yeah. Okay, final four day at the Girl State Tournament, the basketball tournament in Lincoln, Scott, all day long at the Devani Center in Pinnacle Bank Arena. We're going to pair this thing down to the title games tomorrow, my friends. Here are the matchups. Class A, Lincoln North Star, Millard West at 1.30, Carney v. Omaha North at 315. Class B, Norris v. Gretna East at 6, and Bennington versus Pius the 10th at 745. Milford versus Gothenburg and C1, Fort Calhoun versus the Malcolm Clippers in the other semifinal. In C2, Pender versus U-Tan, Elkhorn Valley versus GACC. D1 has the Bloomfield Bs against Sutton. I don't know if they still call them the Sutton Phillies. Is that so? You Sutton people let me know. Girls teams used to be known, I think, as the Sutton Phillies there. Elm Creek versus Howells Dodge, and then in D2, it's DCS versus the Archangels Catholic team, and then Red Cloud versus Why Not. That is your final four day at the Girl State High School basketball tournament, and that's fun stuff to watch. Big Boy Hoops, UNO starts the postseason tonight, 6 o'clock from Sioux Falls against the South Dakota Coyotes. For the Mavs, every game is due or die all the way to the final four. Last night, Michigan. 71, Iowa 68, Bennett Sturts could have tied it with the three at the buzzer, but no. Michigan State 91, Rutgers 87, that thing got ugly at the end. Some around here think Creighton coach Greg McDermott may be in his last throws on the job. If so, that would be two new coaches in the Big East next year. Providence is ready to run Kim English after three seasons there. Good in year one with Ed Cooley's players, but just 23, 25 cents.

And he had a collection of Hansons on the team this year, got into a big brawl against St. John's. That was a mess. Lost a lot of close games. So it looks like Kim English is out. At Husker Football, we have a new quarterback. This is the new quarterback. I know. that, dude. Yeah. Anthony Calandria walks into the meeting and says, I know you, I know you, I think I know you. This is a guy who is trying to fit in quickly. He's essentially been given the job transferring in from Vegas. Admits he didn't know Nebraska from Neptune before he got a text, but here he is trying to get to know all the fellows. No, I think like getting outside going to dinner with guys hanging out at their house, my house, whatever it is. And I feel like we've done that, like hanging out of the office of the line. them coming to my house, me going to their house and stuff. So we've done some cool things. This guy has a chance to be a personality that we haven't had around here at quarterback in a long time. And he's got a new offensive line with three new guys, including Brendan Black from Iowa State, Tree Babelade from South Carolina and Paul Ambenga. from LSU plus two new coaches. I know his real name is Jeep Wade, but I like calling him Geep Wade and Lonnie Teasley. He's the new offensive. That's two new offensive line coaches. KFAB Husker Inf Strongman, Sean Callahan. Can talk about this and Calandra when we talk to him in about 22 minutes. KFAB news time in the morning 625. All he needs are some tasty waves and a football on his hands. This is how Senator Markwayne Mullin, you're like, oh, okay, his first name is Mark. His middle name, no. His first name is Markwayne Mullin. Is that two words? Kind of, but it's one name. M-A-R-K, W-A-Y-N-E, the W-A-Y-N-E. The W-U is not capitalized. It's not his middle name. He's from Oklahoma, so therefore I wouldn't be surprised if his middle name was Wayne to make it Markwayne Mullin. Wayne Mollant, what is his middle name? He doesn't seem to have one. He's got enough. This is a guy who quite a life. He is the only serving United States Senator without at least a bachelor's degree. He took over his dad's plumbing business. He was hosting a radio show out of Tulsa called Home Talk. You can call up there and go, hey, Markwayne Mullin, my toilets, my drain is clogged again. Well, so that lady can call up all the time and deal with that. But then he ends up in the United States Senate. And this is, well, yeah, but I skipped a few wrongs on his ladder. But this is where most Americans, this is, yeah, so he went straight from radio to senator. And this is where most people know him. It was a couple of years ago. And it was a hearing where they invited the Teamsters president, Sean O'Brien in there. And Markwayne Mullin got his turn with Teamsters president O'Brien.

relating a bunch of posts on X Twitter, where O'Brien had challenged and called out the manhood of clown Mullen. I sure remember working pretty hard in long hours. Pretends like he's self-made. What a clown. Fraud. Always has been. Always will be. Quit the Tough Guy Act in these Senate hearings. You know where to find me. Any place, anytime cowboy. Sir, this is a time, this is a place. If you want to run your mouth, we can be too consenting adults. We can finish it here. Okay, that's fine. Perfect. You want to do it now? I'd love to do it right now. Well, stand your butt up then. You stand your butt up. Oh, hold it. Stop it. Is that your solution? No, no, sit down. Sit down. Sit down. Okay. Sit down, please. All right. Can I respond? Mr. Chairman. Hold it. Hold it. Bernie Sanders has to jump in there. All right. All right, knock it off. Now, wait. Just a minute. Now you're a United States senator. You've got to act. We've been above your approach. Let's go on out here. I'm going to have a brawl here before long. Stay in your butt up. You stand your butt up. You stand your butt. Clown, clown. Your mom. The dude's an MMA champion. You don't want to tee it up with Markwayne Mullin. So afterwards, he was asked about it by a Tulsa TV station saying, you just challenge someone to a fight in a hearing. That's a little strange. He called me out. He said anytime, any place. We were both there. I asked if you wanted to do it now. And he said, I'll fight him in the ring for charity. If he wants to, we'll do it. Now, that never went anywhere. But that was a couple of years ago, and that's where a lot of people were like, who is this guy from Oklahoma? He was ready to throw down right there in a hearing. Between a witness, I don't remember why Sean O'Brien was there that day. Who knows? He's respected in the U.S. Senate. That was one of the reasons that Trump appointed him. They said, okay, first of all, will this guy get confirmed? I don't want a long process. for getting this guy confirmed. I want him in the chair ASAP. And he comes from a state that is reliably read. And Governor Kevin Stitt will, no doubt, appoint a winnable Republican to replace him. So they're not going to lose the seat of the United States Senate. This is a very capable guy. And you're right. He's not highly educated, but he's very, very smart and very wise. And he has very strong instincts. He's a law and order guy. And if they thought they were going to get an easier, softer 2.0 to run DHS, they're wrong. This guy will be the tip of the spear. Yeah. Don't misunderstand. I'm not saying the fact that he doesn't have a bachelor's degree means that he's just walking around. I'm not saying that. He's no mouth breather. This guy, his dad dies. He takes over the family business. He is a tough, tough guy. Native American.

Yeah, he's got some Native American. I mean, he's from this area kind of between Tulsa and Fayetteville, the Ozark foothills of Oklahoma. You want to know where his hometown is near. It's near nothing. And that is not exactly, you know, a tourist attraction to that area of Oklahoma. It's a beautiful country in its own way. He was born in Tulsa. No, he wasn't. July 26, 1977, Tulsa, Oklahoma. He comes to the Cherokee Nation. He was born in Tulsa, but they quickly, I thought they moved to. They did. They moved to Westville, Oklahoma in the middle of nowhere. He pretty much grew up there. He is a direct descendant of the Cherokee Nation. So there is genuine, more Native American in him. In my view, than any other United States senator, including. Crazy, hazy Marono. So he's a tough guy. He did some MMA. More recently, when Al Green, the congressman, not the singer, stood up at the State of the Union the other night and waged his flag around or wait to sign around. It was Mullen that went over there and tried to grab it from him. And then he came out the other day and said, you know, war has a smell to it. You know, the smell of war. And people are like, you never served. What are you talking about? And he had to say, well, no, I've never served. I've done some special assignment stuff with guys who have. But no, I can't. So I'm not exactly sure what all of that was all about. I mean. He was basically saying war is very serious business, and he takes it as such. And he got blasted and ripped up one side and down the other for making it sound like, hey, I know what war is. And suddenly, you know, Democrats who have served are like, call a dude, he doesn't count, dude. Sure. So we've, so. Video games. Yeah, well, this will all come up here in an upcoming congressional hearing, Senate hearing on its confirmation. I'm sure he's looking forward to that fight if there is one. He is. And he's a great American success story. You can count on very few hands the number of Native Americans who have found their way to vast business success. It's not a large number by percentage. But he did that. He took over a couple of broken down plumbing businesses in Oklahoma and turned into a $75 million fortune. So this is a very, very strong person who is goal-oriented, who's focused, laser-focused on tasks. And I think he'll be an excellent, excellent secretary of Homeland Security. It's a complex job now. It's grown into a very complex job. You'll recall George W. Bush invented it in the wake of the 9-11 attacks, but it has since now grown to include customs and border protection, immigration and customs enforcement. Also, the FEMA, the Department of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Secret Service is under DHS. This is just a really complex. job. And it takes a thoughtful, very resourceful individual to run it and to surround himself with people who are equally capable. So Corey Lewandowski's out. He'll no doubt be fired soon and he'll be joining Kristi Noem in Latin America or wherever she winds up. Does Lewandowski have an official position? Yes. He was in the Department of Homeland Security too. He'd been fired three times by Trump.

And he was his campaign manager in 2016. And Mullen might be the only person in D.C. who's not going to have an affair with Cory Lewandowski. It's distinctly possible. Well, it was only a few days, Lucy, but we are no longer the earthquake capital of America. Nebraska had that earthquake on Sunday afternoon. I felt it. I was terrified. Actually, here's what actually terrified me about that. My shower doors started to shake. They started to shimmy. They were rattling around like the shower doors of showers passed, like the Jacob Marley of shower doors. And I thought, huh, and then went on about my life. And then later I found out it was an earthquake, and I was wondering why I was so casual about the shower doors suddenly rattling for seemingly no reason. That kind of bothered me. Like, what would it take to get my attention anymore? I think my wife might be right. I don't pay much attention. I don't know. I wasn't listening. But now no longer is Nebraska, the hurricane capital of America. Louisiana has had another seismic shake. You don't usually think of Louisiana. Louisiana hurricanes, the phenomena and the drink. But Louisiana had a 4.9 earthquake. Always doing better than us. I know. We only had 4.1. They got 4.9 in Louisiana. That was yesterday morning. Second most powerful earthquake in the history of Louisiana. They had a 5.3 in about 20 years ago. Strongest tremor anywhere in North America over the previous 24 hours. Anything picked up in the usual spots like California and Alaska. Now, Louisiana has become a major, for that part of the country, I guess, a seismic trouble spot. Over the last year, eight earthquakes, at least 2.4. were recorded in the region, and they say, well, we don't think it's natural fault lines. We think it's fracking. And the people in the oil fields down there say, that's fracking crazy. So they don't think it's that it's the injection of water into the wastewater from oil and gas operations into the ground. That's leading to a few earthquakes. Look, with the price of gas right now, And if, let's say, let forsake of argument, which I really don't like to forsake. I like a good argument. But for sake of argument, let's say that the fracking leads to a few little tremors once in a while. All right, so what was the worst that happened? My shower doors were shaking a little bit. If we can get lower natural gas and gasoline prices, and all we have to do is just go, whoa, what was that? A couple times a year? Then frack everything, which I think should be a bumper sticker. Frack to your heart's content. Now, sure, the entire earth might open up and swallow us whole. But it looks like it would be Louisiana first, and that's not a real big loss.

What are you even talking about? You listen to me, Louisiana. Let's go. So I'm all fired up. I'm listening to Senator Markwayne Mullin. I want to fight everyone that comes before a Senate hearing. And I'm just ready to go. They've got better music. They've got better food. No, they don't. They've got better entertainment. And now they're besting us on earthquakes. They've just got they've got rampant sin and vice. And I'm sorry that you, I'm sorry that you think. How dare you? Now, Louisiana is a fine place and based on the current crime rate in New Orleans, not a place I want to go to anytime soon. But, you know, it's fun. It's there when you need it. Yeah, earthquakes, beads, they got a little bit of everything. Yeah. New Orleans, Louisiana, we're here when you need us. I should go get a trademark on that. Hurry up. Mayor Ewing released a statement this week after we had a group of businesses downtown who said, we got tired of complaining individually to the city of Omaha about how the streetcar is jacking up the roads, jacking up our business, making it impossible even for our employees to find a place to park when they come downtown, let alone customers. You can't even have foot traffic in some of these areas because the sidewalks are gone. So now you've got people... walking in traffic lanes. And if you had snow like we did two weeks ago, well, that's the snow along what would be a curb, but that's pushed into the street. And what are people supposed to do? And people were complaining as individual business owners to the city, and they felt like they weren't getting anywhere. So they created the streetcar Impact Alliance. And they started complaining collectively to the city of Omaha. Well, Mayor Ewing released a statement, says, today I met with representatives of the Streetcar Impact Alliance. It was from the mayor's office, public works, law departments, couple city council members, Danny Begley, and Levanya Goodwin. And they said our goal is to collaborate with the group of businesses along the streetcar route. in advance our shared interest in driving traffic through their doors. We had a frank, robust discussion about their challenges and needs. All right, well, I don't know what the resolution of this could possibly be. Number one. Businesses leaving. Well. I mean the good resolution. What would that be? That's ultimately what's going to happen. What good is going to come from a $700 million hole in this steady budget and businesses leaving and traffic because you won't be able to get up and down Farnham Street in your car? I've tried. It's impossible. Even after it's done, you won't. But what is this collection of people going to lead to? John Ewing didn't start it. He's trying to see it through. And they're down there working. I guess we got some big old rails down there now. Oh, they're impressive. Very, very exciting. Some fantastic rail, big rail, huge rails, love rail. And so it's going to take a while. We're going to have to knock down bridges and put holes and roads and divert traffic over here and all the rest of it. Meanwhile, these business owners say, we know that in a couple of years we might have now this fancy streetcar, which would mean...

More people coming and going down here, but we can't survive as business owners for two years. The mayor has already said, he said right here on 1110, KFAB, we can't, like, create any kind of special tax incentives or give them money or pay them off for their patients. We're just not going to do that. So. What is left to talk about here other than just thank you very much for venting I hear your pain It's a disaster I feel your pain It's a financial disaster. It's a financial disaster on multiple levels And all of this was discussed. I know it was on this radio station because we did it before this ever happened. We talked about traffic flow on Farnham and Harney. And how will this impact the businesses in the short term? And then when you looked at the streetcar designs, the conceptual drawings, what you saw was one lane for car traffic when it's done. Because you've got bike lanes and you got streetcar lanes. And there isn't enough space for cars on Farnham and Harney Street once this thing is done. So how are people going to get to these businesses? Who's going to ride this thing? Okay. Now, will there be recreational riders? Sure. On warm summer nights, some people might get. Get on right around 42nd Street and then take it all the way down to the river and look at the river and get on the street car and have it take you back to your car and drive home. But we're talking 20 to 30 years before we can engineer people's behavior such that there's enough foot traffic and residential behavior in downtown Omaha to justify this. These businesses were worried about it in the beginning. They said, wait a minute, when you tear up these streets. Who's going to get to our business and how are they going to get there? Will they endure the hassle and the inconvenience of do we sell enough cool stuff at a competitive price to get people to essentially rock climb to get to our business? Well, if they put it out like that, then maybe they'll get some people down there. you know, hey, put on your Indiana Jay Jones hat and try you to get here. It could be like one of those escape rooms. Yeah. If you can make it to this particular bar or restaurant downtown, we'll give you a free drink or something like that. It's going to have a devastating effect on downtown Omaha in the short term, and maybe a long term. Now welcoming to the program from Fox News Radio, frequent contributor here, Jeff Manasso and Jeff. Kristi Noem seems very excited thanking the president for this great new job, an envoy to the Shield of Americas. What a step up and not at all fired as her position to Secretary of Homeland Security. That's apparently how she sees it. How are others on Capitol Hill looking at this move? I mean, there's definitely a reaction. If you talk to Democrats, and this is what they wanted, they wanted her gone.

There's no love loss. If you talk to Republicans, they're going to say exactly what you just said, that you served the country well. Reiterating what President Trump had said on truth social that the secretary served the country, particularly on the border, numerous and spectacular results. And that the nation is moving on to this special envoy for the shield of the America. It's not really sure what that is. It's a new security initiative at the Western Hemisphere, according to the president. Essentially a regional coalition of countries in Latin America where they're going to work together on ideology and policy, and we'll find out more tomorrow. But the reaction is what you would expect. It would be on both sides. And what about the reaction here to Markwayne Mullin, the U.S. Senator from Oklahoma? He's certainly popped up in the news here and there, especially in the last few days with the smell of war comment despite not having served. Is he going to have a rather easy or rough road ahead for a Senate confirmation? Don't know. That's a good question, but he seems to be well liked on Capitol Hill by his colleagues. Maybe not necessarily all Democrats, but first person out of the gate yesterday saying that he's an eye is no other than Democrat senior senator from Pennsylvania, John Fetterman. So we'll see. I think according to... To the president, he wants the transition done by March 31st. We'll see if that can happen. Things seem to be moving pretty slow lately on Capitol Hill. And, of course, that sets up a battle in Oklahoma, who's going to replace Mullen. But he seems to be well-liked by members of Congress. Very interesting background and certainly has excelled throughout his life. Is there anything, though, that suggests that it might be a problem in a Homeland Security front having not served in some of these roles where you would normally see someone in an administrative or law enforcement role served before? He's never done any of that here. Could that be an issue as he's trying to get confirmed for Homeland Security? You know, and Christy Dome never served either. She did serve an executive role leading the state of South Dakota. But I think, you know, based on what we know with President Trump, he likes people who are loyal. And Senator Markwayne Mullin, up to now, it appears to be somebody who's been loyal to the president and who's a strong conservative voice. And, of course, you know, President Trump.

going on to say, you're going on to praise him. And some of the work that he's done, he's a member of Congress for, you know, well over a decade serving in the House and now in the Senate. He's a Native American. He's an MMA fighter, an un-Oaklahoma businessman, and so he's got some credentials that he's bringing to this role, and even Markwayne Mullin. Yesterday was interesting listening to him saying, you know, kind of this kind of caught him off guard. that he needs to call his wife first. But he's moving forward, saying that some changes will need to be made at DHS, but I'm excited for it, and he's up the task. Jeff, thank you for the reporting today. Have a great weekend. You do. Jeff Manaso, Fox News Radio here on News Radio 1110, KFAB. Michael email says, please explain to me why Republican administrators and specifically Trump's administrators are the only ones that have cabinet departures midterms. Biden didn't have a single one, neither did Obama. But the Democrats got their first scalp. The fuse has been lit and they won't settle for just one. That's from Michael. Oli says when mentioning the Kristi Noem situation, the news would always mention Mullen as an MMA fighter. Why does that matter? Why not mention former plumbing company owner before his name? As far as I can tell, he was only in three MMA fights. That's only three more than Jim Rose. Hey. But how many other members of the U.S. Senate are MMA fighters? This guy's definitely a fighter. And now we have an email from a guy named Gary. Gary, go ahead. Here, Scott. Gary Saddlemyer just stopped by here. Good morning, Gary. Hey, boys. How are we doing? What are you doing? A little work to do. Yeah. Gary is in his capacity here as an envoy to the Shield of America's board in the Trump administration. Yep. You're up for it. Edged out by Christy, she's got better hair. Yeah. And Cory Lewandowski doesn't want to go with you. He just wants to go with her. We've been hearing these rumors about those two for at least a year, maybe longer. Lewandowski is rumored to have an affair with everybody. I may have had an affair with him myself. It's all over the place. What do you make of these members of Congress voting against putting all the evidence out there if anyone has ever been accused by anyone, ever paid out anyone? Chris Baker was on fire about it yesterday and his show here. What do you think? I love their reasoning. Well, this might suppress the desire of victims to testify or of those who have been... And flying in flagranti delicto with a congressman to testify. So we don't think we should. Well, just being accused. That's not the real reason, however. The real reason, you know, my name is on there. Right. And being accused of something is not guilt unless you're in the court of public opinion. Or unless you're Bob Carey donating to Democrat candidates. Yeah. Right. You see David Copperfield's now swept up in this Epstein business and he's leaving his Vegas.

Residents, I didn't know he still had one there. I loved David Copperfield. Those magic specials and I was a kid in the 80s, some of the best TV you ever saw. Don't you think that there are prosecutors looking at this, right? That if they had evidence of somebody doing... inappropriate things with underage girls. They'd prosecute them? They'd come after them. Well, maybe if we had another 87 bazillion pages, maybe there'd be some evidence somewhere. But, yeah, you're right. Are we going to the media? Did they go to law enforcement? That's a good question. Gary, you want to hang around a little bit in the next hour? Well, off and on, if you don't mind. Please. No, that's fine. Your name is on the studio. The least you can do is clean up the place. The lords of Iheart have voiced it on me this training. Oh, I did that yesterday. Annual training, yeah, that's super important. I love this annual training. It happens every six months. We're not sure after 50 years if you know what the EAS test is. This is Nebraska's morning news with Jim Rose, Craig Evans, and Lucy Chapman. Courtney Donahoe and occasionally Gary Saddlemire has been wandering in out of the studio this morning. I am Scott Voorhees. So let's take a look here what Courtney just said. We had 92,000 jobs lost in this last quarter here, and a lot of them were government jobs, but only about 10% or so were government jobs. I'm wondering how many of the other jobs lost here over the last couple of months? have been those that were previously filled by people who were in this country illegally. I would say sizably. If we're looking at jobs lost, I mean, there have certainly been some layoffs in tech. And it's probably not that a lot of the jobs in the tech were filled by people who were in the country. Illegally, maybe some had overstayed some college visas, so forth. Now, people get an idea that, oh, if you're in the country illegally and you're working, then you're probably in a field or you're doing this or you're up on here, you're doing landscape, or whatever. No, there's a lot of people in this country illegally by virtue of having come here, highly touted, ready to go. They got a work or a college visa and then just overstated because they felt the rules didn't apply to them. I don't always blame them for feeling that way because the rules didn't apply to anybody up until the last year or so. So you might have some of that. But also, I think Kristi Noem was telling people to self-deport. She was riding a horse and hanging out there at Mount Rushmore and had an ad campaign saying, get out. Well, she also wore a tight t-shirt in front of all of the criminals down in Central America. They appreciated that. They did. That's...

And there are more jobs for people to make tight T-shirts for Kristi Noem, and so you had some of that balance. But I wonder how many of these jobs lost were from people who have been detained and removed or left or just decided to leave in this country. Is this, oh, no, we don't have any jobs for anyone to do anything anymore? Or is this a stabilization that was promised? by this incoming Trump administration just over a year ago and has been happening over the last several months. I would say very possibly. There is a sizable percentage of jobs that have been very difficult to fill because of low wages that went to immigrants in this country. Some here legally, some here illegally. But with the rise of wages in the wake of COVID, it may be easier to fill them than before. It's just going to take a while. Retail sales were down just a little bit. But people are concerned about the economy, Scott, and they're concerned in this way. One, the president made a lot of promises that have not happened yet. They are waiting on the Big Beautiful Bill to kick in, especially for business. And the plan is, if you get all of these business incentives and the Big Beautiful Bill, if you own one, you're going to expand your operation. You're not just going to take the money and stuff it or pay off debt, which has happened a lot. In many cases, they're hoping you'll hire more people, you'll train more people, you'll pay them more to stay there. That's a big if, but maybe it'll happen. The other problem that is not getting a lot of play right now is the issue with private equity in this country. See, you have banks that loan money and you have private equity that invest in business. In 2025, the big boys, Blue Owl, Blackstone, these guys invested hundreds of billions of dollars in AI infrastructure. Well, with a little tick in the economy, some of their investors are saying, you know, I've changed my mind. I want my money back. So they're saying to the private investor, guys, I want my money. Well, we don't have it. It's tied up in this AI deal we're doing in Ohio or Arizona or Tennessee. That's going to have a ripple effect because now they have to go to the financial institutions. If they pay back their investors, they have to go to the financial institutions and borrow the money. That puts a lot of debt strain on an emerging industry in this country, which is AI infrastructure. That's not a plug-and-play operation. It takes years to build the factories, train the workers, and start producing stuff.

Well, the president made it sound like, well, we're going to get all the car factories back here in 30 days, and we're going to start building cars in this country, and they'll be rolling off the assembly line by Easter. But to go back to something you started off saying there about that big, beautiful bill, incentivizing business owners to expand and hire more people and all that. That's certainly there. But business owners, they don't like uncertainty. And right now, with gas prices, spiking back up, and you also got a midterm election later this year. And everyone's saying, oh, there won't be any Republicans left after the midterm elections. They're all going to be gone. I hope you're enjoying this right now. Business owners say, what's that going to look like? What is 2027 going to look like for our business? If they get an influx of cash now, I don't know that they would, based on bracing for that uncertainty a year from now, start expanding and hiring and all the rest of that stuff. So that uncertainty is probably keeping it a little closer to their vests in terms of what they're going to do. And then, like I said, I don't know how many of these jobs were previously filled by people in the country illegally. Of course, we're not going to get those numbers from the media. I don't know how many of them are available from the government right now. So there's a lot going on here. And then on the back end, you also have... What is the incentive for young people to get educated and go work? We'll address that in just a moment. Scott at kfab.com. And in the Zonkers custom was inbox, Andrew points out that as government cuts back, a lot of those government contract jobs are gone as well. Looking at these February job loss numbers, some of them are government jobs. Some of them, I think Andrew's quite right. government adjacent or related jobs. You got some people in government who are working without getting paychecks like FEMA and TSA workers thanks to an ongoing shutdown. But I think you also have a lot of people in the country illegally. who are no longer working for whatever reason. But then you've got this, and that is what incentive is there put there by parents and colleges to get young people ready, motivated, driven to go out there and work, to go and get a job, especially since, according to a New York Times analysis of government data, it finds that... In the last 10 years, the number of college students formally registering for college and notching on the paperwork that they have some form of disability has jumped more than 50% in a decade. And you think, well, okay, that's... More people who were previously listed as being having some sort of disability are able to go to college. We have increased access and maybe a stigma has been gone or so forth. Yeah, maybe. But we also have an incentive structure that's nudging students to seek unnecessary diagnoses.

Because if you note that you have a disability, whether that's ADHD, autism, anxiety, whatever, sometimes colleges will give you special accommodations. Sometimes registering as you have a disability of some sort means that you get your own dorm room. Sometimes you get extra time on exams. Sometimes you get distraction-free testing rooms. Sometimes you get help with even getting someone to take notes for you. in a lecture hall. I can't take my own notes. I have a disability. All right, well, we got this guy here and he'll do it for you. Who do you think you are? Thornton Mellon in Back to School. There's your 80s movie reference for this segment of the radio program. So you've got a number of people. It's leaping in their law. I can't. I have a disability. And they're still going to college, but they're getting a lot of special accommodations. So is it because we've opened up access and reduced stigma? Or have we incentivized another form of not... doing for yourself overcoming and how does that then relate to going to get that job and there's a crisis in higher ed not enough people are doing it there's a little something to think about there throughout the morning thanks for thinking about things with us here Do you want to hear Omaha happenings and news with a fun and random twist? Well, look no further. Listen and subscribe to the Emory Songer podcast on the IHeart Radio app. Emery would fill in in the event that Gary Saddlemire is unavailable. And I've asked Gary in a couple of different occasions. Hey, can you fill in for me this date? Nope. Gary is too busy. Well, actually, there is one coming up at the end of April. Yeah. Yep. And I wanted to do, and that's a Thursday. I wanted to do the Friday, too, but I can't do it a Friday. See? It's just too busy. I'd like to. I'll leave now. Do you want to talk to Rory O'Neill? Oh, it's been a while. News Radio 1110, KFAB, national correspondent. Rory O'Neill joins us here on. Nebraska's morning news. Hi, Rory, good morning. Hey, good morning, all the gang's all here and then some. That's right. Yeah, we got the band all back together here. Hey, Rory, how many people do you know named Markwayne Mullin? Well, do you know, okay, so apparently the mom put the two uncles on the birth certificate thinking she would decide which name to pick later on and then just never changed it. You guys need to know this is not unusual in the South. names that you... Billy Bob. Right. Well, Wayne. Yeah, Mark Middle name is Wayne. But his first name is Markwayne Mullin. It's one name. Secretary Markwayne Mullin. If he's confirmed by the Senate, Rory, what's your assessment as to how that confirmation hearing might go?

Oh, that'll be a breeze. Remember, he's going to be confirmed by his current colleagues in the Senate. So like Marco Rubio got approved, like 99 to nothing, probably going to be about the same for Markwayne Mullin. Now the real question is, Can he do the voodoo he has to do to get the Department of Homeland Security reopened again? You know, it's the Democrats who've been blocking the funding for DHS. We haven't really talked too much about the fact that that is the agency still shut down. Yeah, are you surprised that this partial government shutdown is still going on? They didn't seem like it was going to be that big of a deal when it started, but it's been a few weeks now. Yeah, it has. Remember, they kicked the can once already. They sort of gave themselves two weeks. Then they went on their president's day vacation. Now they're back. And obviously with the developments in Iran, a lot of that now has pushed the DHS issues to the back burner. But there's a very good argument to be made that if we're going to be in Iran, our homeland security better be on its toes, not shut down. Yeah, there was a vote in the House of Representatives yesterday on Iran. Not a surprising one. For those who kind of missed that vote, what did the House do or not do yesterday, Rory? Yeah, essentially the proposal by Democrats was to try to force Congress to rein in President Trump and what he can do when it comes to his role as commander-in-chief and ordering Operation Epic Fury. And essentially, the two votes, one in the Senate, one in the House, they both failed. So it means that President Trump can keep on doing what he's doing. But a lot of these members were rushing to the microphones to say, I reserve the right to change my mind. You know, if it comes to something like either new budget issues or boots on the ground scenario, some of these lawmakers may feel differently about this, or if we've got, you know, the cutter this morning saying that oil is likely going to hit $150 a barrel if this timeline continues. You know, if there are those kinds of issues, these members may have other kind of thinking. Have you been following the finger pointing as to who might be responsible for the... apparently the mistaken bombing of a girls primary school, it's near an Iranian naval base, and apparently they caught astray there, and they're saying it could be 165 or more school girls killed, not an attack on the school, but everyone's saying, well, who's responsible for this and what happens? You've been following that at all? Yeah, well, and they're sort of sidestepping. It's saying that there is an ongoing investigation into it. But, you know, this is a PR dream for the Iranians, right? And that's why this is also getting played up. Remember, you know, Iran controls the news media. They're shutting down the Internet. People have very limited access to information. What they do have is coming from Iran, and they're showing pictures, of course, of this destroyed school saying, you know, see what the great Satan did. So, you know, the way it's playing in Iran.

is being portrayed very differently. But of course, look, we got serious questions about that bombing and about the friendly fire attack that resulted in three American jets getting shot down. Yeah, Rory, great reporting as always. Really good to talk to you. Have a great weekend. Hey, take care. That's 1110 KFAB. National correspondent Rory O'Neill here. The United Nations has weighed in, says a strike on a school represents a grave assault on children. No one purposefully struck a school. It is Iran who puts naval bases and military bases either under mountains or next to schools and hospitals. So they can have something like, oh, look at this. America, the great Satan just killed these people. Now, never mind the fact that we just slaughtered scores, tens of thousands of people who wanted freedom in the streets of our country. But look at this school. It's a mess. Bringing Gary Saddlemire back into this conversation. Gary, you had to have been really enthused when you got the news yesterday or a couple days ago here that we took out a boat with a torpedo. That is World War II stuff. I want bombers. I want the Memphis bell pressed into service. Well, I love the video. I can't get enough of the video. Yeah. Yeah, that hadn't happened. in what, 80 years? Since World War II, we have not sunk. I don't know that we've really shot at anything other than an occasional training exercise with a torpedo. I have bigger fish to fry with you boys. What's that? James may have more on this as the Rosie Digit writing. What's the matter? Well, this effort in the legislature to get Tom Osborne in the Nebraska Hall of Fame. Yeah. And the objectors are right. This Constitution doesn't allow for individual legislation favoring an individual. But number one, what, 35 years? Ridiculous. How about 10 years? Why 35? Rosie, you're on the commission. I'm on the commission. Here's why. And I'm working with Senator Lanowski to fix it. I was ghostedly referred to in the Nebraska Examiner last week, which is fine. We follow the law. We don't make the decisions. We follow the law. But I'm working with him to revise the statute. on a number of levels. One of the things that I'd like to have done is trim the timeline for eligibility from 35 years to 10. And the reason that 35 is there is they want to make certain two things, and this is part of the law that was passed, that they remain...

stalwart long after they're gone. So it's not just a, well, this guy's a big deal today. That's one. Two, if you've been gone that long, presumably anything negative in your life will have popped up, which could preclude you from getting in. But we also have to revise the statute on a couple of other levels. All right. But, yeah, thank you for bringing it up. Yeah. I'm glad to see you, boys. I know you're going to move along here, Scott. Welcome to any time. I want Osborne and Gary Saddlemire in that Hall of Fame. More halls of fame for these guys. Gary is always a pleasure. Thanks a lot for stopping by here on Nebraska's Morning News. Don't go messing with a country boy. Don't mess with a country boy. And he's here from Nebraska Game and Parks. It is Greg Wagner on Nebraska's morning news. Greg, so ice fishing's probably out now. Yes. There are no ice except for your drink. Getting ready for March Madness. If I want to have a drink and stare at some birdies, what would I be able to do? Oh, man. The skies are busy. Yeah. Not only over the Middle East, but here with foul. Look at that. Boy, I saw something like a... 33-11 billion birds in the skies over an area between Valley and Fremont. Oh, yeah. Especially along the rivers are reservoirs and wetlands. A lot of ducks and geese migrating through the area. Of course, this is crane time. And we have viewable numbers of sandhill cranes along the plat between GI and Carney. And, you know, it was looking the other day, recent UNL study. $28 million is what that gangly-looking bird that pit stops in that 40-mile stretch of the Platte River mean to the economies, especially of Grand Island of Carniott. Not just cleaning up after it? 28 million. 200 jobs. That's beautiful. 45,000 people come. Different states and for those who say, all right, I've grown up here and I've lived here for years. I've never gone to see those birds. Where should they go? Well, you know, there's a lot of neat places to stop. You can use your cars, a viewing binder, your vehicle if you want. But, you know, we've got Audubon's Row Sanctuary, and you've got the Crane Trust. You've got Fort Carney State Historical Park and Fort Carney State Recreationalary. We have a hike bike bridge across the plat that's all been redone. There's a lot of places to pit stop and really... Is DeSoto no longer the spot to go? No, that's north. Okay. We went west. Okay. Yeah, so they used... to be. That's where, I think that's where I used to see. Mostly, yeah, it was in November, December, but. Climate change. And they're getting, they're getting some waterfowl, a lot of snow geese moving through. So, you know, they're, you can still make that track to the Soto Refuge because you'll see a lot of waterfowl. What about hunting and fishing? Well, as far as fishing, we've got people catching some crappies. Nothing, you know, gangbusters, nothing like that. But a couple here and there, Cunningham Lake, people using jigs there to catch crappies in the marina area. Zerinsky Lake, where the Boxelder Creek flows in, is a nice early spring place to catch crappies as well. And just kind of in that tweener time in between.

ice out in full-blown open water for fishing. And for hunting? scout your turkeys. I saw turkeys on the way here in a couple different places. Yeah. Not far from the studio. Yeah. But scout your turkeys, especially on the nice days when we get them, the archery spring turkey season opens March 25th and two and a half weeks. Here we go. That was Roger Olson you saw. It was. On the outdoor bulletin board, Greg. Seeing a lot of the seagulls, as people say, they're ring-billed goals, white goals moving through the state. And all of our state park grounds are open. Sunday looks like the day to go. All right. Greg Wagner from the... Nebraska. Game and Parks. Always a pleasure. Have a great weekend. Hanging out at the pool is great. Relaxing and playing Vegas-style games on my phone at the same time. Drink in one hand and a blackjack in the other. It's all at SpinQuest. Over a thousand games including your favorite slots and table games. Be cool with this summer special. New players get $30 coin packs for 10 at SpinQuest.com. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details.