Just Another Manic Monday

I'm Scott Voorhees. This is Nebraska's morning news. We start off on this Monday morning. Jim Rose is here, Craig Evans as well. As I mentioned a moment ago, Lucy Chapman out today, not feeling well. I know she's going to blame Jim Rose for getting her sick, but at no point were you guys really in the same room at the same time. Lucy stays as far away from us as possible. That's just due to the logistics of... where all the microphones and scanners are also the restraining order. So, Jim, you're sounding better this morning. I'm glad we got you close to 100%, but you made a... Tipped up for the playoffs. You made a comment a moment ago that I think bears a little further explanation. I'm sure a lot of KFAB listeners started off this Monday morning going, what did Jim just say? You know, the president, and when the president does things, why does he have policy to make the Dow go to... First of all, the stock market has done great over the last year since this president's been in office. What did the president do that caused the stock market to, in pre-trading today, take a little bit of a dive? In between threatening to take Greenland and bombing Iran, he also... He's also announced a plan to get the credit card companies to force the credit card companies into a cap on interest rates. at 10%. And as you know, interest rates on credit cards are 25 to 30% in some cases. And typically that's because it's for the high risk borrowers. It's not for the people to pay off their balance every month. It's for the people who don't. And this is one of the reasons why they have massive, massive profits. Well, he believes that this is a, and look, it's an election year, okay? Not for him, but for his party. and he's trying to find a way to get out to the folks to say, hey, look, I hear you. You know, I feel your pain, and one of the issues is credit card debt. We have well over a trillion dollars of credit card debt in this country, and the big credit card companies just rake it in. Now, one of the things that they don't ever really talk about is how many people default on credit cards, and the credit card companies are stuck holding that bag. But... He believes that we should cap credit card interest rates at 10%. And that has sent American Express and a whole bunch of other publicly traded credit card companies. in the market today. I don't think that the government should be telling the credit card companies what an interest rate to charge. If you don't want to pay 30%, then don't borrow the money. Don't use the card. But this is one of the things the president wants to do. Last week you saw he instigated a very significant use of Freddie and Fannie, the big government-backed mortgage. processors. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $200 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities so that we could lower mortgage rates.

which would do that. It would also drive the price of houses up because right now we have a supply problem. So what he's doing is applying temporary fixes to significant problems that will cause bigger problems down the road. He's trying to get some of these big national corporation. We'll buy your house. Stop buying so many houses because they get out out blank so many young couples trying to get their foothold into that American dream of home ownership. You know, the other thing. And I'm okay with that, but don't be... But don't be buying up government-backed mortgages just because you want to lower the mortgage rate. That's actually we'll have a counterintuitive problem because, again, prices will go up. We have a problem with supply. The big issue today in the American housing issue is not price. It's supply. We don't have enough because we had a housing stop for about five years. Housing builds stop for about five years. I'm not going to sit here and predict the markets. If I could do that with any... degree of certainty, I would be doing that. But my recollection of Trump history as it relates to things he does in the market response, when the stock markets go down a little bit, and as Jim pointed out a moment ago, each of the major indices in the pre-trading is down down 362 points, NASDAQ's down about 225. It doesn't mean that that's the way it ends the day. So much of this fluctuates on an hour by hour basis rather than month by month, you know, big thing. But the other deal here is that the Department of Justice has opened up a criminal investigation into the chief of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell. That's according to Jerome Powell. He says the DOJ Trump's administration is after me. And I'll tell you what that's all about, or at least the assertion here, after traffic weather and a news update. Next, here on Nebraska's morning news started off this morning reacting to Jim Rose's assertion that the president is doing things to drive down the markets. The president's doing things. The market response right now is each of the major indices is down in pre-trading stock market. Wall Street doesn't open up for a couple more hours. But a lot of this, I think, has to do with, according to CNBC anyway, the Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell video, he came out and said, yeah, Trump's administration and the Department of Justice is probing me. and it's not as much fun as you might think it might be. He says they've opened a criminal investigation into me. Now, you immediately think, because President Trump has been saying, like, Jerome Powell's got to go, he needs to lower this rate, he needs to lower that rate, he needs to act quicker and all that stuff. You immediately get the idea that Trump is trying to get him out by any means necessary. And now the DOJ has opened up a criminal investigation into his handling of the Federal Reserve. That's the idea I think some people are getting. That's the idea that people are putting forth on social media. I think that's kind of the tip that Jerome Powell is giving. And, of course, the media is running with it depending on what channel you look at. But that's not what's going on. This has to do with his testimony to the Senate from this past summer.

about a project to renovate the Federal Reserve's headquarters in Washington, D.C. and how it started ballooning out of control. It does like a now a two and a half. billion-dollar renovation project to the Federal Reserve. I don't, I've never been to the Federal Reserve. I can't admit that I know exactly what they do there or why they need $2.5 billion in renovation to their headquarters. I mean, if this guy Jerome Powell is essentially the man at the Federal Reserve, And he puts his wet finger in the air to see which way the economic winds are blowing and makes a decision on interest rates from there. I don't know why he couldn't do that from home. That seems like an email. But I imagine it's probably a bit more detailed than what I just characterized it as. But this doesn't have anything to do with how he handles the interest rate policies that the president has such a problem with.

He's already said that he's not going to stay on too much longer. His chairmanship is up in mid-May. He can remain on the board for a couple more years. And we'll see what happens with all that. But this has to do with the renovation of the headquarters. And they didn't like his testimonies. So the DOJ has opened up a criminal investigation to see what's going on here. And he says, well, they're coming after me. And this is the threat. It's a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on their best assessment of what will serve the public. rather than following the preferences of the president of the United States. So, of course, the media goes running over to President Trump. Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President. Oh, what do you think about this? He goes, I don't know anything about it. I've never heard about it. Whether or not that's true, I don't know. He did say that. He says Jerome Powell is certainly not very good at his job, and he's not very good at building buildings. So that's the president's assessment of Jerome Powell. We'll let the DOJ handle all this. Certainly the markets are like, what is going on? The Trump administration has filed a criminal charge against the head of the Federal Reserve. Yep, that's how we're starting off this Monday morning. I may or may not know what I'm talking about, which is always a good blanket statement before I start any conversational point, I admit. But it seems like throughout my entire life, you know, they go back 50 years. Every five to 10 years or so, we are seeing scenes of young people in Iran. And they're burning the Iranian flag or they're burning the Ayatollah in effigy or whatever. And they're saying, we want freedom. We want blue jeans and McDonald's and fried chicken. And we want freedom. And then America looks at them and says, hey, we're right there with you. Young people of Iran, you freedom fighters. You guys are doing the best thing. And then the Iranian government sends out their military and goes out there and wipes out hundreds of these protesters. quelling the protest pretty quick and then they all kind of go back to whatever existence they had before the latest uprising and it seems like we're on that cycle now as happens every five to ten years or so i feel absolutely awful for these freedom-loving people in Iran who say, look, sometimes we have internet, whether it's the government allowing us to have it or Elon Musk with the Starlink, we have internet and we see what happens outside the nation of Iran, and it doesn't look that bad, and could we have some of that here? And then the strict Islamic fundamentalist government of Iran says, you're going to take this and you're going to like it, and sometimes they don't like it.

Okay? And if we break it, then we own it. And that's regime change, and that's interfering with regimes. And the United States of America does not do that. We protect our interests. People say, what about Venezuela? That was a criminal act. It was not the toppling of the government. That guy was a criminal, and that was a law enforcement action. That was not a regime change because the vice president is in charge of Venezuela. But that guy, he had lots and lots of criminal charges against him, and we simply brought him to justice. But we didn't overthrow the government. I know a lot of people say, Jim, that's a distinction without a difference. I would tell you it is. Much like the same people who looked at the video in Minneapolis and said, that was a murder. And somebody else said, no, it wasn't. That was a nice agent defending himself against somebody using a car to kill him. Okay, we have the same video. We have two people looking at the same piece of video coming up with diametrically different observes. Yeah. And if you haven't seen the video from the body cam perspective of the officer who fired the shots, showing him standing in front of the vehicle as the friend or wife or whatever of the driver is like, drive, drive, you know, and she drives directly into him. Yeah. And then you should. probably take a look at that because I still saw lots of narratives on social media going, this woman just dropped her kids off at school. And then she ended up in the middle of this thing and she didn't. She was confused. And that's not what happened. I'm not saying, and I'm glad she's dead. I'm not saying that. Did you see the TikTok video of the two of them mocking the Charlie Kirk murder? I. I heard about it. I haven't seen it. I saw it. These two people who are dreadful human beings because of that were mocking the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Yeah. Wow. It's funny how things come around, don't they? Yeah, I did see the meme, you know. And just like that, you know, Democrats don't think it's funny to get shot in the head anymore. You know, they certainly did, and not all Democrats certainly, but... You know, these two professional objectors, and that's fine. You can stand there on the sidewalk, and you can flip eyes off and do whatever you want. You don't get to drive a car into them, and I still, I'd like to hear a toxicology on that driver. what she was on, why she thought any of this, that behavior was at all worthwhile. But we'll have to wait on that. As far as Iran goes, we're watching that. Of course, the markets get a little skittish when you see uprisings, you know, around the country. And the Trump administration has a Department of War policy that is F-A-F-O. And the president's not ruling anything out, which he shouldn't and never does. But that's what is also kind of responsible for the markets down pretty big here in pre-trading. Still got a couple, almost two hours to go until the stock markets open up. And the top ranked app in China's iPhone app store is called Are You Dead Yet?

Costing the equivalent of a dollar, it features an oversized green button for users to check in daily and an emergency contact to alert if you don't. Courtney Dunahoe, Bloomberg Radio. Wow. All right. Thank you for that one, Courtney Dunahoe. Good morning. Scott Borges here, Jim Rose as well. Craig Evans. Lucy Chapman, not feeling well. At least she's not in New York City. I'll explain that in just a moment. Thank you so much for being with us on News Radio 1110, KFAB. Your first opportunity to put a grand in your hand. That's right. The cash contest is back. Chance to win a thousand bucks. Coming up at five minutes past every hour from your first opportunity at 805 this morning, just under an hour from now through 805 p.m. during the Glenn Beck Show. Right here on News Radio 1110, KFAB. Listen for that keyword. I'll tell you what to do with it right here on Nebraska's news, weather, and traffic station. Courtney Donahoe just reported that one of the top apps is a button that you press every day to let people on that contact list know that you're not dead. So I guess the idea is every single day, pop and probably get a notification on your smartphone that says, are you dead yet? And then you click, no. unless you are dead then I presume you click yes and throw everybody for a loop how did they so if you click no I'm not dead then everyone on your contact list says oh okay we just got the notification from Danny he's not dead yet and if they if you don't check in Then I guess people start calling the police going, do a welfare check on Danny. He's dead. I just know it. It couldn't possibly be that his phone ran out of juice. He lost his charger, forgot to put it on the charger overnight. Got to wait for it to charge back up. Maybe he just didn't get the notification because there are too many notifications built up. And now you got police coming over and, hey, Danny, you dead yet? Is this really what we've come to? I know I'm a terrible parent. My wife and kids tell me this all the time. But I don't have the stuff on my phone that tells me where everyone else on my phone network is at all times. So what's that live 360 or whatever it's called? I don't know where my kids are. I think my son is probably getting ready to leave the house right now. You got to scrape your windshield, son. You got some frost on the windshield. You got to take a few extra minutes to go out there and scrape the windshield. You got to get to school.

and I think I know where everyone else in my family is, but I don't have that notification on my phone that I can go on there and find out where they all are at all times. Now, my wife, she sees that as sport. She's always just mindlessly, where are the kids? And look, I suppose that's good parenting. I don't know. I kind of like the idea of... raising my kids to where when they go out for the weekend, when they're out with their friends on a Friday night, I kind of like the idea that we've raised them and let them off into the wild to they have to make good decisions and be able to check in if they're going to be running late and not just have everyone rely on, well, I got the app on my phone. I can find out where everybody is. And in case you're wondering, no, my wife... can't know where I am at all times. She knows where I am at all time. I'm either at work or on the golf course or I'm by her side. Outside of that, I don't, I'm not on the network, Jim, where she can check and see where I am all the time. I don't want, I don't want to be on the grid. Sorry to hear that. I want trust. I want freedom. I don't know. If I were her, I'd require the Find Me app. Did they put the, she put you on the Find Me app? I'm either at work or I'm on the golf course or I'm with various mistresses at the penthouse suite at the satellite motel at 60th and L. Everyone knows this. So, I mean, why do you, yeah, everyone knows this. So why, why do I have to? I had... Hey, Scott, it's for you. I had... Have you ever been to the penthouse suite at the... No, I've never actually been in the satellite motel, but I have made it the butt of several jokes. I understand it's pretty cool in there, like an alien ship right there, right on the corner of 60th and L. I had something on 72nd in Ralston the other day, so I drove down 60th and then took that little veer off on L Street. Don't do that, by the way, because L Street right now is under construction. The 72nd Street overpassed. Underpass is a disaster. Yes. So I would encourage you not to get to 72nd Street that way. But anyway, I'm thinking, how do you get up there? Is there an elevator? And if there's an elevator, where is it? I've always, because I don't see any outdoor, I don't see any outdoor like staircases or anything. I started doing a joke on the radio show probably when I started here 19 years ago. saying, hey, happy Valentine's Day. I'll be celebrating today like I always do, getting my wife in that penthouse suite at the satellite motel, 60th and O. And I did hear from some people who know the owners that they appreciated the mention, even if they thought I was kind of having some fun with them. So I always wanted to broadcast live from that outdoor, because you can, I guess, go out on what passes for the terrace. and broadcast my show live there and invite listeners to come up for donuts and coffee. We just never got that done. How about on Valentine's Day? I'd love that. I think that'd be a lot of fun. But if you do it, I'd be happy to come by just to see how you get to the top.

Because there's obviously a way to get up there. I'm just wondering how. If you have to ask, you have not earned the right. It must be a circular staircase. But it's two stories to get up there. That's a long climb for a circular staircase. Jim, let's you and I go check in to the satellite motel together this morning. What is what time is check in time over there? Probably 11. Oh, no, check in. Check out is 11. Well, check out could be 11 p.m. It depends if there's someone in there. We might not be able to get in until 3. Hello. Hey, I got time. Jim and Scott from KFAB, could you just let us in as we can look out, see what's in there and take a look around? Yeah, I love the satellite motel. Hey, happy shout out to the satellite motel. I don't know if they're available for Valentine's Day, but I tell you what, you couldn't do any better. Buy out for the... The president at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, or the chancellor, I should say, who the faculty senate said, we don't like this guy, get him out of here, then he resigned, and he gets like a million dollar payout on his way out. Between that and the regents postponing their vote that was supposed to take place this past Friday and did not take place on the Nebraska medicine takeover or whatever you would call that. We'll talk about all of that coming up here in 15 minutes. Dr. Jeremy Hossine will be our guest as a student at UNL, served on the Board of Regents as a student representative. Now he's trying to get on there as a full regent. He'll be our guest here at 735 this morning. Jim, when I say 10 years ago, what year is that? What year was 10 years ago? New York. 2016. Okay, because I saw the story here from KMTV 3 News Now. where they talked about how it's been 10 years since M's pub blew up real good down at the old market. And they said, and we talked to a server who we first met back and interviewed January 9, 2016. I thought, well, why did they talk to her years after the explosion? Because it didn't register that 10 years ago is 2016. 2016 seems like a few years ago, not 10, but it has been 10 years. Since that server, her name is Angelina. or Angelina, if it's Richard Markson. That's Angelia. But she says, we are outside and we're like, it smells like gas here in the pub. They go outside and there's a construction crew. And she says, did you guys hit a gas line? And they're like, I don't know, maybe. And she goes in there and tells the kitchen and everyone, hey, we might want to get out of here. This, this. Probably not a real safe place to be. And so due to that quick thinking, as opposed to what happens here at the radio station, every once in a while, there's like someone walking in the hallways going, do you guys smell gas? I don't know. Maybe. And then we don't do anything about it. We don't.

And it's going to be one of those times where, you know, the building's going to gratefully blow up and we'll go out with it because we're not smart enough to leave. At M's Pub that day, a decade ago last week, they were smart enough to leave. And then there was the explosion. And then that scene afterwards, if you remember, it was freezing cold. It wasn't like it is this week. And they, you know, their fire departments hosing the place off after that gas explosion and the fire. in that old market restaurant and then the lofts above it, and they're spraying it down. The water freezes, and it looks like the Superman Fortress of Solitude there in the old market. It looked like a giant ice cube for weeks afterwards. It was an amazing scene. That was 10 years ago. It's a miracle. We didn't have more fatalities with that explosion. It's almost unthinkable that you would have a facility like that with such proximity to so many people. and not have widespread injuries and fatalities. And the other thing astounding about it is, and maybe this is one of the reasons people forget, they rebuilt that thing, and it looked absolutely the same. There was no virtual, architectural or design change in the rebuild of M's Pub. And that was an old building. that was converted into Amist Pub, one of the most popular restaurants in town has been for years. Yeah, but try and get there now. Not easy. With the construction, getting around downtown to Midtown, Midtown, Midtown, crossing. I posted on Facebook the other day, I said, the city of Omaha should suspend collections at parking meters. For those who are brave enough to try and get downtown, if you get down there, you should get free parking. I brought it up to Mayor Ewing over the weekend. He laughed and said, I don't know what the city planners and departments who plan on that money. would think about that idea, but thank you, Scott, for the idea. I don't think he is going to do it. A lot of people on my Facebook page like the idea. It's a mess downtown. It's easier to get through Saigon, circa 68, than downtown almost. Hey, if our friend who... set up this morning's interview with a doctor host on his listing going let's hear how this goes uh the number you provided me is not the right number uh so if is it the satellite motel yeah it was not uh she uh you know she knows the number for him to call us so uh you are welcome to have him call us now we'll put him right on we got a few minutes here uh i wanted to talk candidate for regent yeah well i wanted to talk i don't like doing candidate interviews. Tell us about yourself. I don't care. I want to hear some of the things we've been talking about here, like the Board of Regents, was all set to do what is in the contract with Nebraska Medicine, and that is if Nebraska Medicine loses their financial partnership with Clarkson, then it suddenly defaults to where the Board of Regents University System takes over Nebraska Medicine. Clarkson pulled out. And so the Board of Regents was going to step in there as was expected. And suddenly the faculty union group lost their mind and said, we're going to lose their autonomy and no one's going to be able to get any kind of health care or anything like that. And the Board of Regents was supposed to vote on this on Friday and then tabled it.

I don't know why. It's in the contract language. Well, there may be a couple of reasons why. Both regents and Jim Landon, the chairman of the Clarkson Board, are not talking about it. This is a private matter between these entities. Jeffrey Gold, the president of the university, is a little bit more forthcoming. But the big issue probably is this. The University of Nebraska is tax-supported. And as such, tax money is used for all of its behavior, including acquisitions. And we have 33 state senators who get every year to decide how much money the university gets out of the tax hall. And some of them are wondering, where is this money coming from? And if you have a secret stash of a billion dollars somewhere... We'd like to know where it is and why it's there and why it's not being used to cover expenses like we have right now. Well, one of those who would be on the Board of Regents should he be elected this year in District 1. That's where Tim Clare is not seeking re-election in District 1 of the Nebraska Border Regions. As someone who served as a student regent when he was a student at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, he is now a neurosurgeon. Clearly too smart to serve on this board. Dr. Jeremy Hossine joins us here on News Radio 1110 KFAB. Doctor, good morning. We're talking about the border regents tabling the vote on Nebraska medicine. What do you make of this? Hey, Scott, thanks for having me on. That's a tough issue. You know, I think up to this point, a lot of it has been inside baseball, complex arrangement of how the Nebraska Medical Center is organized. Listen, I take the perspective of a physician, as well as someone who served in government. And this is why it's tough. I thought this was going to be just a simple land and property transfer deal. Turns out it's a little bit more complicated than that. You want an institution, first and foremost, that's going to continue serving Nebraska's and providing excellent health care. So whatever deal comes out at the end of the day, that's what I'm first and foremost concerned about. Beyond that, you know, I think an institution has to move nimbly. It has to be, you know, something that is, one, responsive to hiring the best and the brightest from around the country, people who are actively looking at finding cures to cancer. and other maladies, and then also has the ability to get the equipment, advanced equipment that we need at a cordonary medical care center without going through a whole lot of bureaucracy. But I'm also a good government guy, and I believe in accountability, especially in elected leadership. And so those tensions, I think you're seeing alive and well, both in the media and also inside that inside baseball game. So, you know, I'm a... I'm glad that everyone's taking a breath right now to take a little bit of time to explore the ramifications of this deal. Jim Rose. What do you know about this?

I don't know a whole lot, not much more than what I've read in op-eds in the press, right? And I think there's concern from, you know, the Omaha community and particularly with the Board of Breast Medicine that if you subject, you know, the medical center to, you know, a type of bureaucracy where, you know, the Board of Regents meets what once every two months. That might not be nimble enough to move quickly on the kinds of hires, and again, the type of advanced equipment needed to treat Nebraska's. I think that's the concern coming from the board. They've practiced medicine this way for at least the last 11 years, and then even another 10 years before that when these deals were rearranged. At the end of the day, you know, it is a... campus under the auspices of the Nebraska border regions. And so again, those tensions are something that need to be worked out. And there should be some time for all parties involved to study the ramifications that deal closely. There is considerable concern that the Omaha philanthropic community, which has invested a billion dollars in UNMC and Nebraska medicine over the last 30 years, has been extremely, extremely concerned about this process. and about this project. Are you hearing that? And if so, how much credence do you give it? I've heard it. I've not heard it directly from the philanthropic community. And so obviously you've got a large transformational project with Project Health There, that $2 billion new hospital that has the ability to train more health care providers that Nebraska desperately needs. We certainly don't want to put that on chopping block or risk that project from moving forward. I think it's incredibly important. Again, as a neurosurgeon here, you know, There's a few, there's been a few times where I've had to transfer patients who are quite ill from Lincoln to Omaha. And we want to make sure that there are enough beds for Omaha to accept that. That's not always been the case. And that's problematic again for a coronary care center to take some of the most complex and sickest patients that we have in Nebraska. Just a minute left here. Yes, I just one minute left here with Dr. Jeremy Hossine on News Radio 1110, KFAB. The other issue I wanted to ask you about was the regents paying out of a golden parachute to Chancellor Rodney Bennett. It seems like in both of these instances, I mean, the regents are taken over in Nebraska medicine because that's what the contract said. Chancellor Rodney Bennett was making cuts at the university because that's what the regents had suggested. So they approved the contract for him. He leaves. He gets a million dollars in his way out after resigning. Is this the region's fault? Is this Chancellor Rodney Bennett's fault? What do you think of this mess?

Yeah, I mean, look, let's set the table here. That's a $27.5 million cut to the University of Nebraska-Wincoln, our flagship. What does that translate in terms of people? That's 51 staff positions eliminated, mostly faculty, 329 students displaced going to other universities or changing majors. I mean, here's a chancellor that was making $732,000 a year. And he chose to quit. He's making... more in leaving the university than he made for his annual salary. You mentioned golden parachutes. I agree with you, Scott. You know, that might be good for Wall Street. That's not good for Nebraska. We call it the good life, not the gilded life. And this isn't the first time, right? We've got examples of this happening in other instances in executive leadership. And we ought to take a closer look at executive compensation and see what those practices are in our public institutions. I served in government under two governors as a policy advisor. Certainly nobody I knew in government elsewhere, or even mostly in the private sector, is making that kind of money after leaving their job. We've got to do better. The argument we made that if we don't offer this payout, then we're not going to get quality candidates, which you could make the argument maybe we didn't in this last round. Yeah. So, you know, again, this is this is where we have to look at what's good for Nebraska. You know, I think that there are a large number of people who are looking to lead public institutions because, again, it's public service at the end of the day. The Nebraska governor certainly doesn't make anywhere close to that, and you have no shortage of candidates there for that position. Executive compensation has to match not only what's happening in peer institutions, but also what's right for the state. And I think even the Journal Star published an article that said this was an odd-looking contract. It was strange. Well, the issue is I think Nebraska's are fine, paying somebody for the job they do. They're not happy paying somebody to be somewhere else. So it has to do with contract terms, not compensation. And that needs to change. Chancellor, football coach, assistant football coaches, quarterbacks. Dr. Jeremy Hossine, neurosurgeon, served on the Board of Regents as a student region while a student at Deerold Nebraska U. He is running in District 1 where Tim Clare is not running for reelection. The website, Dr. Hossine for Regent.com. That's H-O-S-E-I-N. Dr. Hosein for Regent.com. Jeremy, thank you very much for the time today and good luck with your race this year. Hey, Scott, thank you very much. And let me just say a nod to Gary Saddemeier. We used to listen to him with my parents when I lived in Papillion and certainly when I lived in Omaha. So certainly appreciate his service. We all grew up listening to Gary. I've heard of him. Yeah, I appreciate that. Gary does as well. I guarantee he's listening this morning. Thank you. Dr. Jeremy Hostine with us here on News Radio 1110, KFAB. Janet emails and says, good morning. I have an idea on the I'm not dead. yet app. I think it could be useful if you're elderly and live alone or sick and live alone. This way friends and family could be assured all is good without a daily phone call or text. I thought this when you mention it because I live alone and I'm 71 and I have issues. We all have issues, Janet. I don't know what you're dealing with, but I'm going to have to ask that you check in with us now. Now I feel responsible.

and send us an email to Scott at kfab.com and let us know whether or not you're dead. Doug says the same thing. I have an aunt who needs this app. She's 87, lives alone, semi-secluded. I truly fear when she dies, we won't know for days. Well, hey, she won't care. She's dead. I just don't want the app of people getting a notification like, oh, Aunt Sally is still alive. That's good. I don't want that to take the place of checking in with the loved one and providing that contact every day. But that's out there. Courtney Dunahoe reported earlier this hour as one of the most downloaded apps in the country. M. Are you dead yet? Carl emails via the Zonker's Customwood's inbox. Scott at kfab.com and says, I'm still alive. I'm listening. I'm in Texas. Thanks for caring. Signed Carl. Carl, that's great. You don't need to check in every day and let us know that you're alive. If you die, though, please let us know. Pull that one off. Now, in Minneapolis, where the ICE operations have been ramped up despite the fact that the mayor up there, Jacob Frey, had this interesting comment over the weekend. He says, I'm not against ICE. I just don't like them just grabbing brown and Somali-looking people and detaining them. That's, by the way, not what they're doing. They're targeted operations in Minneapolis. And, of course, everyone's all fired up after that woman decided she needed to get herself shot in Minneapolis on last Wednesday up there. A lot of people have been sharing the comments of the Chicago Superintendent of Police. This man's name is Larry Snelling. and he made these comments that people have been sharing online since this situation in Minneapolis the other day. I think that he would make the same comments today, but that which is being shared online is several months old. This is from about three months ago. Worthwhile to hear it. Here is Superintendent Snelling of the Chicago Police Department talking to the residents of that town. Let me make this clear.

Federal agents, ICE, HSI, are officers. They are agents of law enforcement. If you box them in with vehicles, it is reasonable for them to believe that they are being ambushed and that this could end in a deadly situation. And it's reasonable for them to use force based on those conditions. Do not box in any law enforcement officer. You are breaking the law when you do that. And you are putting yourself in danger. Well, now we've got a pulling this off a YouTube link, a quick advertisement for a World of Warcraft video. If you're interested in that, let's go back to the comments here from Captain Snelling. Law enforcement agents around. The question is why? What are you planning on doing? It's also reasonable for them to believe that you're eventually going to do harm to them. If you ram any vehicle, especially that one that contains law enforcement agents, and that's any law enforcement, local, state, federal, county, and you do this intentionally, this is considered deadly force. Deadly force is anything that can cause great bodily harm or death. When you plow into a vehicle that contains law enforcement agents, you're using deadly force, and they can use deadly force in response to stop you. We need to be clear about these laws. We cannot become a society where we just decide to take everything in our own hands. and start to commit crimes against law enforcement it is a crime you may not like what they're doing i can understand that there's a lot of emotions out there but that does not mean that you get to commit a crime especially one that could lead to deadly force. That is Chicago Superintendent of Police, Larry Snelling. These comments have been shared quite a bit on social media since that woman and her unfortunate actions led to her death in Minneapolis this past Wednesday. Superintendent Snelling made these comments about three months ago in Chicago, but they're certainly resonating today. I still would love to see a... a toxicology report on that driver up in Minneapolis. What would cause this woman? I understand that there are people out there that want to go out and protest ice. They think they're doing.

the work that they're that they're supposed to do. But when she starts driving directly at an ICE agent, while her wife is trying to get in the car and yelling, drive, drive, and she's going to take off what and leave her wife up there right in the streets of Minneapolis? I don't doubt that she was on something. She did not seem to be in her right mind. on this one. But Jim, what do you think about the comments there from that superintendent? Well, you know, this is such a... To me, this is such a black and white issue, and I know that sounds really strange, and people say, no, it's far more complex. Not to me. To me, we have either a commitment to enforcing laws and obeying laws, or we don't. This woman was clearly committing a felony. She was interfering in a federal law enforcement operation. Now, you can say, well, that's a bad law, Jim. It may be. Then you work with your congressman or your city councilperson or your mayor or whoever it may be and get the law changed. But if we ever devolve, and we saw this for four years with the Joe Biden administration, where laws were just routinely ignored, no, that law doesn't count, okay, or that Supreme Court decision, we're just going to ignore that. The message that we were sending to our kids was just disgraceful, deplorable and scary. We have laws. And when a police officer or someone in law enforcement comes up and says, I need you to do this right now, to me, there is no arguing with them. There's no defying them. There's no ridiculing them. There's no pointing the middle finger at them. There's you bet officer happy to do so. But this woman was trained, okay? This woman was trained by professional agitators on how to engage negatively. immigration and customs enforcement officials. If she was a genuine protester who just believed this is wrong, I don't believe that ICE should be doing this, then she stands off to the side, holds her sign, and yells whatever incantation she thinks is necessary. She doesn't use her 4,000-pound SUV as a weapon. Now, you might say, well, she wasn't doing that. Well, what was she doing driving through the ICE? enforcement operation in the first place. She was trying to interrupt the operation. That's a felony. And when she turned her car toward this ICE agent, whether she intended to hit them or not, he doesn't know that. He'd been dragged along earlier in the year by somebody else like her. The agent was in front of the vehicle, which she could plainly see because they had stationed one to the driver's side and one in front of the vehicle, and she took off. Anyway, if you have yet to see the body cam footage of the officer who fired the shots from in front of the vehicle, it's revealing. I just, that's out there. I can't process this, Scott. I can. You see the videos on social media, these women that are pulled over for speeding or pulled over for illegal turns.

And all they do is sit and argue with the police officer and say, who are you? Who's your supervisor? And they've got their phone up recording this. Got a quota, don't you? You got a quota. And then they say 10 times, 15 times, ma'am, please show me your license, your registration, and your proof of insurance. And they just, they refuse to do so. And then they say, ma'am, I need you to exit the car. And they refuse to do so. And then they break the window. Then they drag her out. And then they lock her up. What sense is all of this making to me? No one should do that. Even if you're Tyreek Hill. We saw that this past year as well. Emery was taking calls about the situation in Minneapolis. And Jim pointed out as well, the trained protesters. This caller says, I own a business. If I train my employees in a certain way that causes them to then die, I'm responsible as the trainer, right? So I don't know if anyone's going after the trainer of these. Don't know if that's being pursued. That's an interesting angle on this. Well, JD Vance in one of his news conferences last week said, whoever paid for the brick that you throw through a business, that's the one. who gets tagged in addition to the person who checked it. Well, whoever trained these people, they have to be held liable. Who is responsible for training these anti-ice agitators? They are told, they are given specific instructions on what to do, blow a whistle constantly, park your car in the middle of the street. cross the picket lines to get in the way, interfere with ICE and let them assault you. You don't touch them. You just get in the way and berate them. We've been talking about apps this morning, this one that allows people to follow the movements of immigration, customs, enforcement, and let other potential agitators and obstructors follow ICE, including the criminals that they're looking for, follow ICE and be able to evade law enforcement. That's incredible. Redibly dangerous. Those platforms that allow those apps need to take those down. We now welcome on here to Nebraska's morning news. News Radio 1110 KFAB National Correspondent, Rory O'Neill, for a story we've been talking about a little bit throughout the morning, wondering if the protests we've seen in Iran... are going to end up leading to anything different than previous uprisings in that nation. Rory O'Neill, what's your assessment of what we've seen so far and what America might do about it? Yeah, these protests are a little bit different. You know, first of all, the Iranian government is a lot weaker than it has been in the past. Oftentimes, you'll see individual groups, young men, students, business owners. These individual groups will have a protest that are quickly swatted down. But Iran's government ain't what it used to be. The economy is in shambles. The currency is worthless.

They don't have the swagger they used to have in the Middle East now that groups like Hamas and Hezbollah have really been decimated thanks to the U.S. and Israeli forces as well. And so now what we're seeing is all kinds of demographics taking to the streets. in large demonstrations that we haven't seen lasting for weeks now. But sadly, so far, they estimate some human rights groups estimate more than 500 people have been killed in these demonstrations, 10,000 arrested. Yeah, at some point, though, you realize we don't have the firepower to go toe to toe with the Iranian military. And as you said, there, people have been getting just mowed down estimates are between 500 and 2,000 people dead, over 10,000 people incarcerated. I mean, they can't do this forever. Well, right, and that's why the U.S. may be trying to help in terms of looking at what we can do when it comes to additional sanctions, economic policies, when we work with other countries around the world. Or what about making sure they have Internet access, maybe via Starlink Internet satellites, because a lot of the information we get is really hard to come by. The government there has been shutting down electricity in neighborhoods or turning off Internet access altogether. So it's been difficult for those demonstrators to communicate with one another and with the outside world, what's really going on there. Now, certainly we just took out the, brought into custody due to American criminal charges, the former dictator of Venezuela. And so people are looking at President Trump going, oh, he's just going to go for regime change in Iran. He's just going to blow him up like he did their bunker with the nukes in it and so forth here. The president, though, has said Iran called him and wants to negotiate. What do we know about what America might do here, Rory? Yeah, that's one of the things is, you know, negotiate what? Is it some kind of regime change? It seems unlikely that they'd all be willing to step down there and allow for some sort of free Democratic election. That would be rather remarkable. Or is it more likely just a stalling tax? technique, right? To try to drag this out the same way Vladimir Putin has been dragging out things in Ukraine and just delay, delay, delay. They've been pretty good at that as well. So it's a bit of a wait and see. The president is meeting with a lot of his top international advisors, the secretaries of war and state meeting tomorrow at the White House, specifically on Iran. I'm sure there are plenty of other countries that will come up in their discussions, too.

But, you know, obviously Israel is a big player in these talks. And it's about long-term Israeli security as well. And oil is a factor with, of course, Iran being one of those founding OPEC members. You can't ignore that part of this either. A couple more minutes here with News Radio 1110 KFAB National Correspondent, Rory O'Neill here on News Radio 1110 KFAB. We just took a look at the markets here, Rory, the Dow's down 350 points. It's actually gone up about 50 points since you started here talking on this radio station. I have that influence. Markets respond positively to Rory O'Neill. My cohort in here, Jim Rose, had some heartache earlier on some stuff President Trump was talking about on a plan that could reduce credit card debt. Like, the president shouldn't be doing that. That was a direct quote. Rory, you've been following this story as well. What can you tell us about it? Right. The president floated this idea of putting a 10% interest cap on credit cards. It's a little bit vague. What do you mean? The stuff I already owe is this on future purchases. Apparently, though, it would just last for one year. But to the critics point, credit card companies will say, well, look, if you're going to cap us at 10%, we can't. give credit cards to everybody. We're really going to have to rein in who can use credit cards, and that would, of course, limit an awful lot of spending in the economy. Questions about whether or not the president even has the authority to do this via executive order. But look, this puts him on the same page as the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on this issue about capping credit card interest rates. Yeah, it's just not healthy for the government to be interfering in private business. And he's doing... the same thing or attempting to do the same thing when he ordered that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy $200 billion worth of securities-backed mortgages so that we could lower the interest rate. Well, here's the thing, Mr. President. If you do that, a couple of things happen. Number one, the price of homes goes up because we don't have a price problem. We have a supply problem. And if you do this, you're manipulating the marketplace that ultimately will keep people from being able to get into a home. But he's also trying to get rid of those big nationwide and international investors buying up single-family homes. I think you can do that without actually interfering with the marketplace. Second thing, Barack Obama did this with the cash for clunkers. He says, we're going to get all these old cars off the road, the gas guzzlers, they're burning leaded gasoline and all that. All that did was keep poor people from being able to buy a car. Right. And these are not traditionally conservative viewpoint. No.

It's like he's passing out candy at Christmas. He's trying to convince the world. I get it on affordability. If you really truly want to help somebody buy a house, here's what you do. You work on local property tax issues, either give people a dollar-for-dollar tax credit on their federal return for their property taxes or a dollar-for-dollar credit on all property casualty insurance. In other words, work on the back end. Okay, that way people can afford to be in a house. buying the houses and nearly as much trouble as staying in the house. Rory, if you could pass that along to the president, we'd appreciate it. Hey, I know we've got to cut you loose. The Dow just jumped another 118 points in the time that you've been on here. So once again, Rory O'Neill, moving markets and mountains. I appreciate the time. As always, hope you had a great weekend. Thank you so much for starting the week with us. Thanks. Start to you soon. Here on News Radio 1110, KFAB. That's our national correspondent, Rory O'Neill. What do you want the president to do then? These guys, look, the lending practices in this country, and people immediately, government jumped in there and said, well, you can't charge someone a hefty penalty if they missed their payment by one day. They tried to rein some of that in. But lending, I don't know when the last time you tried to get a mortgage was, you go with the wrong mortgage lender and they immediately start looking at how much money you have, what's going on rates, and they're like, hey, how about this? How about we do an adjustable this? And you can actually afford this much more home. And don't worry, at some point here in a few years, you be able to pay this monthly payment when it goes up. This is great. This was the line of predatory conversation during the subprime mortgage crisis. Oh, gee, you're making $40,000 a year driving a bus in Boston. Here's a million-dollar condo that we'll get to you for practically no interest. And if the rate ever goes up, you can sell it and make money. Government shouldn't do anything about any of this? No, that's a difference between manipulating the market, Scott, and actually invoking policy or enforcing laws. Those laws were broken. and nobody got locked up, which is amazing to me. But if you really truly want to help people own a home, buy a home and own a home, you've got to address the expense of not buying it, but owning it, okay? And again, I've said this for 10 years on this program, and I've asked Congress people and senators, when are you going to introduce a bill, whether in the unit camera or in Congress? When are you going to introduce a bill that gives people a dollar-for-dollar tax credit on their homeowners insurance? When are you going to introduce a bill that gives people a dollar-for-dollar tax credit on their property taxes, okay, on maintenance over $4,000 or whatever? And the answer is they never do. No, why would you collect it if you're just going to hand it back? The point is that that makes it easier to own a home. And nobody's talking about the cost of home ownership. They talk about the cost of buying a home. Okay, well, that's market-driven. If you build more homes, the price will come down. For five years, we stopped building homes in this country over COVID and Joe Biden's administration. In the city of Los Angeles, 16,000 homes burned a year ago. They got 500 built. Why? Because of regulation, cost, permitting, and government red tape. Now, there's some red tape you've got to have.

I mean, you can't eliminate all permitting when you're building a home or some bad guy will come along and pour bad concrete and your house will fall over in six years. We don't want that. The issue is about affordability, and that's not buying it, that's owning it. I love it. They will never address that.