Hour 4: Fast Food

Ready, set, summer with the Honda Summer event. With available features like all-terrain tires and off-road tuned suspension, the rugged Honda pilot, bridgeline, CRV, and passport. Have all you need to get summer ready with the most fuel-efficient full-line automaker in America. Visit your local Honda dealer today. See Dealer for financing details. Based on EPA estimate of 24 large full-line automaker fleet-wide fuel economy, EPA Automotive Trends Report 2025. Strong values, strong opinions, the Mike Broomhead show, KTAR News 923, and the KTAR News app. All right, Patricia, I want you to hear a message I received. Okay, let's hear it. We were just talking about the VA a few minutes ago, and I think they've made some improvements. But here's the things that some of the veterans are frustrated with. I'm not going to use his name, but he said, the VA is still horrible. This is a veteran. I went down there for a checkup. I had to make an appointment six months ago. I walked in the door 45 minutes early, walked up to the counter, walked up to the guy, said, I have an appointment. Here's my name. Guy got on the computer and said, you're not on the list today, but I can make you an appointment. He said, hang on a minute. I've got an email. The guy said, I don't care. You're not on the list. So he pulled out the email, and he said, I pull out the email. from the guy, I eventually was escorted out by the police because I was causing a problem. That's so sad. Yeah. So, on one hand, you know, if you are misbehaving and you get too loud and obnoxious, they're going to ask you to leave. But if... I had to make an appointment with a doctor six months in advance. And I showed up with the email that said, I have an appointment today. And you told me, can't help you. That's a little insane. I'm so sad for veterans. And again, I don't want to dump on the VA because the people that work in the VA, the health care providers and there's places people call patient advocates, they really love their job. But that doesn't mean that the bureaucrats and the other people that are basically not concerned. We've got to get rid of them. And the only way you do that is I'm a big advocate for school choice. That doesn't mean that I don't want the public schools to be great. I want people to have choices. There's no way you're going to fix the problems at the VA if you're forcing everybody to use bad service. And so if this happened in a private, so you and I, if we get, I was just answering some emails from people that you forward to me and the people go up on my website, my personal website, and they get forwarded to my account here. Yeah, well, they're listening to the show. You guys can do that, by the way. Yeah, you can. When you do that, I try to respond. If I responded in a way that was rude. And they forwarded that email onto the bosses. Oh, no. We get called out. If I go and put something up on social media, even if somebody's vile to me, if somebody curses at me, if I curse back at somebody, it doesn't represent the brand well. Right. This is where the problem is that when there are people within an organization, they shouldn't condemn the entire organization. But they should be dealt with.

And there's nothing more important than your health. You know, as I get older, there are things I got to take care of. You know, I just had blood work done. I had appointment with my doctor. It was a telehealth appointment within, you know, a week or so of the blood work being done. We went over the results. Thankfully, I've got a clean bill of health. But they're in three more months. And I was just at a cardiologist appointment because of high blood pressure. I'm going back next month. I've got an appointment in July. For my echocardiogram, could you imagine if with the high blood pressure I was diagnosed with the severe hypertension? Waiting that long would be deadly. If my doctor said to me, which he did, he said, I don't specialize in this. You need a specialist. You got to go see a cardiologist. Here's the doctor you need to go to. Great doctors. Built more cardiology. And I called them for an appointment and they said, we can see you in six months. None of us would tolerate that. None of us would tolerate that. I might not wake up in six months. Right. What's going on? The average American believes that as much as we support veterans, that veterans get what they need. As they should. As they should. But they don't necessarily. There should be a push in this country. I would love to be a part of a movement in this country where we actually focus on the things that we all can agree on. And let's get those done first. Let's join together. And I'll go to the Republicans in the Congress that I know. And you guys go to the Democrats that you know. And let's get this fixed. Now, this is not a criticism. It's an observation. Our senators are both highly decorated veterans. Why isn't there a scream from them? that we should be giving the veterans a health care card. that allows them to go anywhere they want. Urgent care down the street, a doctor down the road, a specialist somewhere else. If you live up north and you say, I've gotten something that I know that Baroneurological Institute specializes in. I need to go to Mayo Clinic for the things that they specialize in, whatever it is. You know, I've seen Gallego do some push for some vets, but this would be a great idea. And this has been going on for a long time because most Americans, when they hear stories... They are outraged, but they think that can't possibly, that's got to be an embellished story. It can't be that bad. And it happens a lot more than often that we know. They should have veterans of the United States military that are in the VA health care system should have the best gold standard health care available to them for the rest of their lives. You know how everybody got their gold star on their ID? Yeah. Yeah. Veterans should have a gold star on their ID for healthcare. It should be shaped like a gold star. They should be able to move to the front of the line. It should be magical. So it was expanded. John McCain, Bernie Sanders, I mentioned TriWest out here, the great people at TriWest. They developed this choice card for veterans. And I was just blown away that one of the examples, we talked about it earlier. And I'm sorry to repeat myself, but I just got this message from someone.

And it's so sad because I know it's people that don't want to be critical. They just want what they help. But when you get sick, you get the flu. COVID. When we had COVID, imagine if you were someone that thought you might have COVID and you had to go for a COVID test. You'd want to go see a doctor where you or I could walk into urgent care and get a simple test. Yeah. Or get treatment of some kind. But a veteran that before that choice card, before any of those choices were out there, you were stuck waiting for a VA doctor. There were stories when it was at its worst. And I'm glad we're not hearing these stories like this anymore. There were veterans that were waiting for care so long and they were in so much pain. There were a few of them that had gone down to the VA hospital and committed suicide in the parking lot as a protest to the fact that they weren't getting what they needed. That is so... It's heartbreaking. Heartbreaking. But being careful and saying, you know, there are a lot of people, most of the people that work in the VA, they're overwhelmed because there's not enough of them. They're not overwhelmed because they don't care. They do care. And I will tell you that the vast majority of veterans I talk to as angry as they were about the wait times said once you're in, once you're there to get care, the care is exceptional. But the VA is really good at TBI or traumatic brain injury. The VA is really good at people that need prosthetic limbs. There are certain things that the VA is so good at. If you could make sure that the resources did what they were good at and you allowed veterans to go outside of the VA and get care somewhere else where specialists are. it would take the pressure off the system. It sounds like such a simple idea. When you look at the fact that we're $35 trillion in debt and climbing and we spend money and billions of dollars all over the world, how do you not carve out whatever's necessary to make this happen? If we got rid of all the waste, fraud, and abuse in our health care system, maybe it would help our vets. And look at a health care provider because health care providers on the other side of this, many of them walk away from Medicare or Medicaid or whatever because the reimbursements aren't enough or it takes too long or whatever it is to deal with the system. It's a lot of paperwork. Yeah. It's so hard. Imagine if there was a health care plan for veterans where providers were like, absolutely. We will come on in. We'll get you in. because they knew they were going to get paid in a timely fashion. It's an old problem, and it's one that has gotten better, as I said before, it's gotten better, but it certainly isn't solved. This is one of those problems that we can all feel good about joining together, Republican, Democrat, Independent, Green Party, Libertarian, we can all gather together and say, we solve this problem together by going to the existing legislators and getting them to get something done about it. It would just be such a great thing to do. It would be an incredible thing to do. It makes too much sense. It does make too much sense. All right, coming up in a moment, Patricia gets us caught up on the biggest news story. We call it, did you hear this? We'll do it in just a moment. Strong values, strong opinions, the Mike Broomhead show, KTAR News 923, and the KTAR News app. All right, let's get caught up on those big headlines. Did you hear this? Did you hear this?

Brumet reacts to today's hottest news stories. Okay, so following a tense back and forth yesterday between President Trump and the Republican Senator who voted for an end to end the war, ABC News national correspondent Stephen Katie Porter explains from Washington. GOP senators Rand Paul and Bill Cassidy, who voted for the House-past measure earlier this week, withheld their support for the Senate version last night. Paul voted present, and Bill Cassidy set a private briefing in the White House Situation Room following his closed-door Capitol Hill shouting match with the president. informed his decision to vote no. Rather than just being seen as a symbolic expression of Congress's opposition to the war, this Senate bill had it also passed the House, could have forced a presidential veto. So what are your thoughts on what's happening with this war powers measure? And what is it all even for if the vote doesn't even do anything? Yeah, the issue I have here, again, is the vote of no confidence, the vote of dissension. I understand it that you want to make your voice heard. I just was sending somebody an email about this. I think both sides have got to work together more than they have. And you've heard me call out the president and some of the ways he said things and some of the things he's said and done. I don't think that they're presidential. But this isn't about Donald Trump. This isn't about... winning a Senate race or winning the Senate over by the Democrats, this is about the men and women in harm's way. We have military members in the Strait of Hormuz right now, and we are trying to force a peace deal with the Iranians who will obstruct at every opportunity. By showing a desire to end the war and show your displeasure, you're emboldening the enemy while we have people in harm's way. I don't think it's the right time to do it. History is going to judge this operation, expensive, whatever you want to say, it's going to judge this president on it. Let that happen. While we're in it, we should be unified. You can't stop what he's doing, but you can support the men and women that are there, and I think they should do that. And new questions about the hike in gas prices during the war with Iran. ABC's Karen Huah on what we're hearing now from President Trump. We should be, in my opinion, that... $2.25 right now. He's asking the Justice Department to investigate whether oil companies are price gouging, keeping prices at the pump high, even as oil prices fall in the wake of the Iran peace deal. So what are your thoughts on the president having the DOJ look into the oil price gouging? And do you think this could change things in the future? Yeah, I think that I don't believe that there's going to be charges, but the president with strong language, this has been a tactic of the president. in other situations where the president of the United States says, I want this done and we're going to look into it. And now all eyes of America are there. You have the oil executives who push back and say, hey, this takes a little bit of time. But now they know the eyes are on them. There is a question to be had. If we have day one when a crisis hits like we saw the war happen and the straight shut down, if that day fuel prices begin to jump dramatically, when that ends, why don't they fall dramatically? That's a fair question. things are legal or illegal is one thing, but in the court of public opinion, and they want to be seen as good people to their customers, they should be doing what they can to make sure the prices are fair. And that's the question. Are they fair right now? You are listening to Did You hear this every day at this time? We do it to catch up on headlines. And speaking of with rising fuel costs, persistent drought, and stubbornly high interest rates, the stress faced by the American farmer and rancher is obvious. Not so obvious is the help?

a phone call away. ABC's Jim Ryan with a little more. Alongside more traditional crisis hotlines, mental health assistance customized to the agricultural community is available. The problem, it's hard to get a farmer, rancher, a rural person to call in. They're so proud, self-reliant. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller says that when someone does reach out to the agra stress helpline, my people are highly trained in how to get resources to rule people. In coastal and mountain states, the help is customized to fishing. logging communities. So this may rain true for some proud farmers that you may know or who listen to the show. How important is mental health right now? And what would you say to someone that needs help? I would say that you are not any good to anyone else unless you're good to yourself. And we've all been in situations where we felt like we were at the end of our rope. I know it sounds trite, but when people say when it gets to the extreme, that you can't have a permanent solution to a temporary problem by doing something that the people you leave behind are going. going to hate. But being able to be at your best, if you are someone, if you're a proud rancher or a farmer realizing that there are a lot of people depending on you, they depend on you to be at your best. So if there's anything you can do, if you were sick or if you had an injury, you'd go see a doctor for your physical ailments. There's nothing wrong to say that I am not at my best right now because mentally I'm at a breaking point. Go get the help. Make the call. It's anonymous. It doesn't matter what industry you're in. Be at your best. And we've long since gotten past the idea that Asking for help with mental health makes you weak. I think in a way it makes you a little bit stronger. By the way, if you do need help, call 988. And also the Agra Stress Helpline is available at 833-8972474. And it's been the home to the New York Knicks Championship run already this year, but there are possible signs. The New York's Madison Square Garden could be the venue for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey's wedding, Mike. Aren't you so excited? The event company called for a permanent. They requested the street outside the venue be closed around July 4th. And the permit also said the size of the event could be between 500 and 99 people. ABC's Aaron Kuterski has more. The event company declined in the comments. So did representatives for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. It wouldn't be the first wedding at Madison Square Garden. Music legend, Sly Stone, married model and actress Kathy Silver there in 1974. 20,000 people attended the concert spectacular. So we've both been married for funsies. Explain or describe a dream wedding for you, Mike. Or what was your wedding like? I can't even picture it. Well, okay. So when I was in Florida, I was married for a short time to grow I was with for a long time. That was a big wedding. That was a big... Okay. See, I can't even picture the big wedding. That was a big Catholic wedding. Okay. So we got married at a Catholic church. And then we had our reception at a really nice golf course hall called Kelly Greens. And then we did what every respectable redneck does in Florida. We honeymooned at Disney World. And I think I told you, just to tell you a time frame of when this happened, we were in the hotel room watching TV when the OJ slope speed chase was going on. So then to tell you how it happened the second time, when I got married a second time, we got married in a friend's house.

And we did like a potluck dinner after. As you do. Yeah, as you do. The judge just showed up and you just signed some papers. And then we went and spent the weekend. This is how romantic I am. Hard to believe I'm not married again or still single. I was at the time doing a remodel project at one of the point resorts, which is right up here. It's called Tapatiel Cliffs, which is a beautiful resort. That's where you took. I had to work. We honeymooned at Tapatillo Cliffs for two nights because I was remodeling the resort. Women love a frugal man. No, they don't. No, they don't. That sounds like a barrel of fun. So there you are, everyone. I am a hopeless romantic. We've established that now. What about you? What about me? Yeah, what about you? I've only been married once. And when I did, we got, we did the whole thing. We got married on New Year's Eve. Oh, yeah, you told us this. Yeah. Countdown at midnight. It was a grand party. That's awesome. That's all it was. It was a fun party. My niece got married in January, and I'll tell you that I was telling them, I'm the grumpy uncle. I'm the fun uncle, but I kept saying to him, Just do it small. Put the money toward the marriage. That's how I feel now. I'd rather go on a trip. But I got to tell you, it was the best wedding I've ever been to. It was because a lot of them are not fun. This was a fun wedding. It was a fun wedding. I saw people tell me that my wedding was the funest wedding they've been to because it was a New Year's Eve party. What about you? What about you? I'm getting married next year. I know. What are you doing? Going up in Flagstaff. Oh, it's going to be a big deal or is it going to be? About 125. Yeah, that's big. Nice. Good for you. That's going to be so cool. I love it. Like, literally, it's going to be nice in the mountains. I think if I ever did it again, what I would do is I think I would go somewhere. Like, I would go back. That's what I'm saying. I go get married on the beach in my hometown. Just give me a trip. That way. Nobody would be obligated to have to go. Right. You know? That's another thing. We had like 300 people at my wedding. Oh, my gosh. It was a lot. Yeah. See, people showed up in my first wedding because they didn't really believe I'd do it. They just wanted the New Year's Eve party. They wanted to see if I'd show up. Let's see if Mike goes. Yeah, let's see if Mike shows up in what condition he's in. What we're going to do in a moment as we do. We're going to talk about the reverse course on this war powers. But we also, I want to cover some ground with the Supreme Court. We'll do it next. Mike Broomhead, KTAR News 923 and the KTAR News app. You know, it's something we haven't spent a lot of time on, but early this morning, we broke the news here at KTAR news. As a matter of fact, it happened during Arizona's morning news that the Supreme Court had handed down a couple of decisions. There are some big decisions expected on Monday, including birthright citizenship. But it gave a couple of victories to the Trump administration, a number of things, TPS, temporary protective status.

and asylum seekers. And there's action versus reaction. Not everything is partisan. I guess in most people's minds, they are. But what happened in the previous, it has to do an interpretation. And so the interpretation of the law, the enforcement of the law, which there's a lot of leeway, and there is, you know, you can, you have a lot of discretion. The Biden administration used no discretion and millions of people crossed into the United States. They were encouraged to cross into the United States and overwhelmed our asylum and immigration system. I have in my mind a comprehensive way that this would be much better. I wish we could get both Republicans and Democrats. This is where it gets partisan to prioritize these things equally instead of in their own way. But I've seen it for myself. Back in the Obama administration, I was on kind of a humanitarian trip when tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors in the first wave were crossing the Rio Grande into McCowan, Texas. And we spent two or three days down there. And we watched how overwhelming that wave of humanity was. And in this case, you were talking between 50, I think 50 and 70,000 kids. Now we're talking millions of people. And it takes years to get an asylum hearing. And so under the Biden administration, the policy was that you could stay in the U.S. You would get some kind of a tracking device. We would give you an appointment by mail or we'd give you an appointment. And sometimes it was four or five years down the road. The Obama administration and then the Trump administration, Trump carried on the policy, which was, we will stop you at the door. and we will make you file your asylum claim from outside of the United States that you cannot come in and file your claim here. The Supreme Court upheld that and said that's constitutional. So it is up to interpretation. And so that's really what people have to look at is what is the right thing to do. I will tell you. I like that we are a nation of refuge for certain people, whether it's disaster or war, that being a place of refuge. But what we have to protect against is infiltrators in that wave of people. Because we know that's how terrorist infiltrate. We have to do the best we can to protect the American people. There's nothing wrong with that. We're a benevolent people. Our immigration system should benefit the world, but it has to benefit the U.S. The American dream of being able, as Marco Rubio said, anyone from anywhere can accomplish anything. What a great synopsis of the American dream. We have to do it an orderly way. And it wasn't orderly. For four years, it was overwhelming. So, of course, there was going to be a dramatic reaction to that. And there was. And there should have been. We have got to do what we can to protect America. But that doesn't mean we shut down the borders and we don't allow anyone in. We are still allowing millions of people in to immigrate to this company. You have all country, all these people that come here and they benefit the U.S. society and they are either visa holders or green card holders and become American citizens. We do a great deal of that. And it benefits America too. When you have people that come to this country.

that are contributors to our economy, it's good for us. It's good for us culturally to embrace those other cultures. The other part of this about TPS or temporary protected status, the right to revoke it. If we have a right to issue it, we have a right to revoke it. Now, you may not like the way the president does it. There are a lot of people that don't, but that doesn't mean that a future president shouldn't have the right, that they only have the right to do it when you agree with it. That's the other part of that. So. There are things that the Supreme Court does that are bigger than the case that's in front of them, and this is one of them. This isn't just about Donald Trump. It's about the future and what they say the Constitution allows. And I love when I meet people from other parts of the world that come here either to work. When we look at what's happening with the World Cup right now and the visitors that have come to the United States and they're falling in love with the American people, not our government. They don't know anything about our government except what they see on TV. But falling in love with the American culture and in being embraced by Americans and see that Americans are not these xenophobic people, that what we do as people in America is we embrace other cultures. One of the great things about where I grew up in southwest Florida is the city of Miami is a lot like the city of New York where it is intentionally, when I say intentionally segregated, it's probably the wrong word. You have Irish neighborhoods and you have Little Italy and Little Havana. So in Miami, Little Havana, you have Overtown, you have Little Haiti, you have all of these places where you can walk into a culture and embrace it. And they'll embrace you. And that's very cool. When there's a Chinatown, when there's Little Italy, when you go to New York and you go to these different places, it's remarkable. And it's one of the great things about America is we don't want you to come here and leave your culture behind, assimilate into America and bring your culture with you. Let's get back to that. Let's get back to that. Let's say we have a high standard, which means you're not going to come here and circumvent our laws. We have a requirement that you obey our laws. But we're going to embrace you when you do it the right way. I think that's the right way to do it. Story Roundup coming here in a minute to close out the show. We'll get to it here in just a second. He's your Huckleberry. He's Mike Broomhead. And this is another story roundup. All right. Let's get rolling. Let's start with World Cup. Okay. I got to get Polly in this conversation because I know he's such a big fan. Last night was exciting. I finally got to watch a game. Did you watch last night? Yeah, it was great. So we were on a group text, and I texted that it was so funny. I was watching the English broadcast. And the announcer, I think, was British. Yeah. And after the third goal, I wish I could do a British accent. Because I didn't think anybody could sound whiter than me trying to speak Spanish. But do you remember what he said? I don't. As they say here in Mexico City, I caramba. That's so good. I caramba. And then the Mexican fans.

outside of the stadium in the pouring rain doing the Norwegian rowing. Oh, yeah, I saw them rowing. It was so good. It was so good. It was so good. The excitement. Very quickly, it looks like because of what happened yesterday in one of the matches that was a draw, it looks as if there is a 99% chance that the U.S. will face Bosnia-Herzegovina in the first round. Oh. That's a good thing. That would be good. Right? That doesn't guarantee us anything. But if you want to get to the round 16, that's a great way to get there. Great start, right? Great start. And here's the possibility that would put the cherry on top of this beautiful World Cup Sunday. There is a chance that Mexico could play Scotland. I saw that one too. I think that would be amazing. Such a fun game. Is there enough beer in North America? I don't think so. Not in North America, that's for sure. Okay, there's a question. Intellectually, what do you think? I don't think the answer will surprise anybody. Who's involved in fewer crashes? A Waymo or a person? Fewer crashes, I would say. Yeah, humans or Waymo. Geez. I don't know nowadays. I don't know it's really hard to describe. I'd say Waymo is more recent, so Waymo. Yeah, Waymo has less crashes, especially less crashes with injury. They have fender benders and they bump into things. And the reason why I bring that up is now here's why Waymo has less crashes than human beings. A Phoenix man was arrested by DPS. After doing 121 miles an hour. No, I don't think a Waymo would go that fast. They first clocked him doing 110 miles an hour, and then he kept going and reaches speeds of 121 miles per hour, nearly hitting other vehicles before crashing in Mesa. Was he on the highway on the freeway? Oh, my gosh. Wow. People are brave. That's scary. How often, you don't have to admit this if you don't want to, but do you, because you have kids, though. How often do you guys eat fast food? Probably about once a week. Yeah, once a week. Try not to make it much. Do you have a preference or do you kind of bounce around? I bounce around. Yeah, kind of bounce around a little bit. There's two. There's two. Here's two. that may make you rethink. Oh, no. No, don't do this. Mike. Break my glass. Three Wendy's employees in South Carolina. Uh-oh. Allegedly took food from the trash, spit on it. before serving it to an unhappy customer. An unhappy customer. Yeah, you think they're unhappy now. They were charged with tampering with food. As they should. That's dangerous. So the three of them were all charged with tampering with human drug product or food items following the incident in Wendy's in the city of Union, South Carolina. All three suspects were arrested separately between June 16th and June 22nd.

And that's why, you know, when they say you don't send your food back or I've worked in restaurants. I was going to say I've never had the urge to want to mess with somebody's food, no matter how mean they are. It's awful. Now, here's the other one. An Arby's manager in Oklahoma. Arby's. Was charged with felony poisoning. They say the video showed her allegedly spitting into a customer's food. And it left behind and it gave the customer that ate the food. herpes no What? My jaw just dropped on the floor. Amanda Hendricks, a former manager in Arby's restaurant in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, was charged with felony poisoning after investigation in a March incident involving a customer named Jenica Church. She said, I love armies. Not anymore. They got the meats. Wow. They got the hats. That's horrible. That's just terrible. That's just terrible. That's awful. And my last story is a good one. Okay. I love, I don't know why I love this so much, but there is the brand new favorite summer treat that is available. I love this. What is it? Snoopsicles. What's a snoop-sick? Is it a Snoop Dog? Snoop Dog. We had some otter pops in the studio, but now I want a snoop-sicle. Yeah. Is that cool? That's really cool. How much do you got? I love Snoop Dog. I love him too. He's in everything. He's so universal. But how he is, because he made, he made his reputation as a gangster. I mean, you know, they are that whole crew. But you could see from the beginning that he's a good human being. Well, yeah. You know, he pays for that junior league football, almost like Pop Warner Foot. Pays for the whole league. He does a lot of good. And so, and he's transitioned. He does that stuff with Martha Stewart. He does mainstream. People just, right. So he's kind of become the softer side of himself. So Snoop Dog introduced the snoop-sickle, a raspberry cherry lime sherbert popsicle, sold in 24 bar boxes at Costco for 1499. I'm going to go have a snoop-sickle. Next time you're at Costco, I'm going to buy some. Absolutely.

You know, I'm impressed. I got that joke. The shizzle. I know, me too. That is such a good way to end this thing. So I want pictures of people with their snoopsicles. The shizzle my missal. Next time you are at Costco. Never thought I'd say that on. Yeah, I didn't think so either. Next time, tomorrow morning, 815, we are back. We have Justin Heap joining us a part of the day. Have a great day, everyone. God bless.