The Mark Arum Show 08-03-26 HR 3

about something downtown for the first time and a long time and it's that that cosmic experience that's a 10 ago yards and especially once the chops lobster bar opens up there i am really really uh going to hit it. It's a big back to school Monday today. Obviously, you were listening to Atlanta's morning news with Chris Chandler. School buses are back on. We talked to an expert from ABC News. Emily Guskin costing parents on average $900 per child to send him back to school, which is substantial. But I want to use this back to school Monday as a reminder. To all the law-abiding folks that listen to the Mark Aram show, I know 99.999% of you are absolutely lettered the law, law-abiding folks will probably never go to jail. The 0.1% chance you go to jail, and I've said this a number of times in the show, I want to reiterate it now, is driving distractedly, looking at your phone, not paying attention, and it's worth reminding. Now on Back to School because the school buses are back out there. I heard this on Atlanta's morning news with Chris Chandler. I want to play it again. One Metro County reminding drivers about when you need to stop for a school bus. Georgia has nearly 21,000 school buses on the road every year. 500 of those are in Forsyth County. That's why the sheriff's office wants to remind everyone about school bus laws in Georgia. Remember, always stop in both directions on a single two-lane road. And a two-lane road with a turn lane. the middle. You have to stop on all sides. When you see a bus pull into a passenger side turn lane, like into a neighborhood, if there's no physical division in the middle of the road, everybody has to stop. Versaic Sergeant Drew Long says if you don't, you could face a thousand dollar fine and up to a year in prison. Keith Grumont, 955 WSP. A thousand dollar fine or up to a year in prison. Yeah, just wait for another minute, right? But it's not, I don't think anyone does it intentionally. Right? I think that, you know, we know, right? There's a school bus. The lights are flashing. The stop signs out. Yeah. Listeners of WSP Radio know to stop. The only time where they wouldn't stop is if they're putting around with their phone and they're distracted or doing something, eating Egg McMuffin, doing something, God forbid, because I know none of you would intentionally break the law. Zero. You're just great people. But, and again, we go back to the Colin Gray sentencing, the negligence. Like, you could drop a hash brown on your lap and go, oh, let me get my hash brown, you know, five second rule. And then eat it and you look up and you're passing a stop school bus. And God forbid there's a kid. Like that, that's why I just want to underline, highlight, italicize, bold. The buses are back there. I want 10 and 2. Do people know what 10 and 2 means Debra still? Ask Vinny. He's the one that started driving the late. He's giving away tickets. Oh, that's right. I think so. On the steering wheel. I don't even know if that's the appropriate. Not anymore. They've changed it. I want both hands on the wheel while you're driving with schoolback. Because I don't want to lose a single one of you listener to jail. But you can face up to a year in jail. And that's with not even hitting anyone. Just.

malicious passing of a school bus. You heard it. You could face up to a year in jail. A thousand dollar fine. I don't want you to go to who's cow. You don't want to go to who's cow. Pay extra attention. Now that Yale buses are out there. Was that a, did I get my point across to ever? Yeah. You don't want to go. None of us want you to go to jail. I don't want to lose a listener, a loyal listener. You certainly don't want to mark up your unblemished, non-criminal record just for passing a school bus. I thought it was interesting, though. And I used to, in traffic, I used to get questions all the time about when do you have to stop? If there's a divided highway, you don't have to stop. But if the person, like a bus is turning into a subdivision or like off and the stop, you have to stop there. Even though if they're not in the travel lane, they're in the turn lane, you have to stop. I feel like if the lights are flashing, just go ahead and stop. Yeah, absolutely. So your reminder, just 10 and 2, whatever the app appropriate is, what would 9 and 3, whatever it is. Both hands on the steering wheel. Don't hit a kid. Don't pass the school bus. Do not go to jail. Do not collect $200. School buses are out there. I didn't see any today, but I did see heavier traffic coming in. You get in way too early. You get in earlier and I do see privacy. I did not see anything. Yeah. I saw heavier traffic on my way into work today. Anyway, I think 20 districts in North Georgia are back to school today. Our back to school coverage will throughout coverage will continue throughout the week. I think some schools are back Wednesday. I think Maya said the school, the kids in Gwinnett are coming back. For school? In Wednesday. Anyway, just a reminder there. Don't go to, I don't want you to go to jail. And you don't want to go to jail. A couple of other local stories. I didn't know Atlanta warehouses were hot ever, but apparently they're hot again. Like. Like temperature hot or the market for them is hot? Obviously, I just ordered something from Amazon earlier today. You get a lot of packages. Oh, why don't we get in the Vinny Drip T-shirts? I don't know. Do you get a tracking number or something? I'll check. Okay. Well, anyway, a lot of people have been ordering stuff now. So you need more and more warehouses because we don't want to wait. two weeks for something. They put them out regionally. Atlanta has the busiest airport. So it's been a hot spot to do warehouses to deliver stuff, especially when COVID happened and nobody could go anywhere and everybody was ordering everything. But then after COVID, there was kind of this crunch where everything got really expensive and you were paying tariffs. And so they stopped building so many warehouses and a couple of them were vacant. Well, now they're seeing this uptick. Even though the economy is struggling, people really aren't shopping any less. They're large items but everyday things like I order things I know I can go to the store but it's so easy just to hit click and deliver and it's a different world yeah at right now in so many different ways but when we adopted Walter gosh it was nine days ago now um

We don't know how he's crate trained and he stays in his crate. But, you know, we don't want to keep him in his crate all the time. And I said, we should get a camera for the sunroom where the crate is. Click, click done. And I was like, oh, yeah. I'm like, see with that. And within three hours, Amazon had cameras for us. Like the fact that you can actually have a camera now. And it's like infrared. You can see when he's sleeping at night. But not only that is that technology there for that. But inside of three hours, we had cameras delivered to our house. Yeah, my parents complain about it. Well, I couldn't find this and I couldn't find that. And me or my brother or my nieces are just like, go online, order it. And it's there by the next day. And I don't know if this is price efficient or Clark Smart, but we need batteries for the remote control on the TV downstairs. And I could just go to Target, public, wherever you get batteries. But I haven't yet. I'm like, oh, remind me to tell Maya to order us batteries. That's just laziness. Like sometimes, but if I have a bunch of little things, I'm like, oh, okay, I'll just order everything. Oh, yeah, bundle them up. Yeah. That's right. I would, I would not just order four double-a batteries. Yeah, you're like, I might as well get this because I know I'm going to need it. Well, that's when you wind up spending more money. All right. So warehouses are hot again. Who knew? Speaking of digital payments, that's how you click and shop in your card at Amazon. Georgia is a. digital payment hub and continues to be so what exactly does that mean that george is a digital payment hub basically less and less people are still using any type of paper checks now some of the boomers or anyone older still use paper checks more than any other digital kind of things but it mostly things are moving to digital payments and there's a lot of it that's processed right here In Atlanta. Oh, really? You're the Federal Reserve here. Oh, yeah. And that's been a big spot for these, well, yeah, big payments. But things are shifting to digital, particularly with the younger generations. Like, has Vinny ever written a check? I know that my nieces have never written checks. Vin, do you have a checkbook? Do you, A, do you have a checkbook? Definitely don't have a check book. No, so, and you've never written a check, though, yes. Well, whose check did you write then? I don't remember. I've written a check, though. Yeah, like your grandma. I've had to take something to the mail a check, yes. You've had to take. Wait, if someone gave you a check and you went to the bank and cashed it? Right, exactly. Like grandma and I gave you 50 bucks for your birthday. Exactly. All right. I mean, I remember when I got my first checking account, it was at the Bank of New York. And I got that checkbook in the mail, and I was like, this is the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me. I'm an adult. Yeah, I'm an adult. And I would balance my checkbook. Like, that was the thing. Like, all right, I had to spend 2369 at Price Chopper. I wrote a check at price. And, I mean, I stared at those checks with my name, Bank of New York. That was, so I have, I have an affinity to checks. Do you ever write them anymore? No. And going back to Walter, we adopted him last Saturday, and you have to make a donation to the rescue group. And she's like, yeah, just a check. And I'm like, I panicked. I'm like, I don't know where my checkbook is. I have a checkbook, but I don't carry it. I don't carry it around. I do as well. I can't remember the last time. Well, they're also saying now that check washing is a really easy thing for people to do. Catch me if you can.

Yeah, less people are using paper checks for that reason. I haven't seen the last, I can't remember the last time I saw someone write a check at the grocery store. I convinced my mom to stop doing that. I remember there's a kid. Everyone did that. Yeah, my mom included. All right, so Atlanta, Georgia is still a digital payment hub, and Atlanta warehouses are hot again. So I guess that's good economic news. Oh, speaking of economic news, let me refresh the markets. Dow's up 542, NASDAX up 450, S&P's up 86, and gas is down over $5 a barrel. Arguably one of the most recognizable guitar intros in rock music history. You're listening to Enter Sandman by Metallica. Happy 63rd birthday, singer-gatorist James Headfield. He scared me as a kid. He was a scary. For sure. Like the early days of Metallica were definitely scary for me. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not the musical expert that you are, Debra, but I'm going to go on a limb and say one of the top five rock bands of all time right there, Metallica. Definitely top metal. I think rock bands. I think... Depends on how... I know. I know. It's a hot take. It's a hot take. Not as hot as my take as Weasley, the Weasley kid. Ronald Weasley? The Ginger Kid? Yeah, the Redhead. Yeah, Ronald Weasley. I think he was the best child actor, at least in the first Harry Potter movie. Welcome back to the Mark Aram show. Coming up after News Weather and Traffic, Debra's got tickets to give away to see the PGA Tour Championship at Eastlake, and we're going to go back to D.C. at the White House, get the latest on the possible Todd Blanche confirmation. Did want to hit a couple of stories, though. We were talking about the Strait of Hormuz and... everything that's been going on there. I never thought there might be an environmental impact to the fact that there aren't a lot of ships going in and out of the straight. Well, they're saying there's about 1,500 ships that are just idling around the straight-up removes. How annoying would that be to be stuck out of ship for six months? Like, oh, get me out of here. Yeah, well, that's annoying and everything. But they're also saying all of that fuel is threatening the biodiversity in the water there. They can also bring in invasive species that weren't originally part of it. And just idling and sitting there. Just think of everything that might possibly go wrong in a ship if you're just sitting there. And so they're saying that could also. So are the ships idling? They're saying. They're idling. Oh, so they're not just, well, because you got to run the, you got to run everything, like the, you know, the electricity. Yep. I never thought about that. The invasive aquatic stuff. Yeah, they're saying like barnacles. You grew up in the Great Lakes. There was some invasive fish that I think it was in Lake Michigan.

that is just, it's still a thing. Like the fish jump over boats. It was some invasive. Yeah, it was some invasive feces, species that came in from Asia and it's caused like complete havoc there. I never even thought about that. I just feel bad for the sailors that have been stuck on that boat. for God knows how long. It's not like you're on a cruise ship. It's not like there's a buffet and a pool and entertainment. Yeah. Like, oh, I got the drink package. I can drink all the margaritas I want on this oil tanker. No, that's not the case. All right. When we come back, Deborah's got the tickets to give away to the PGA Tour Championship at East Lake. And we'll get the latest on the Todd Blanche confirmation. Social media is active at Mark Airman at WSB Radio. And don't forget, you can watch the show live. at WSBRadio.com or on YouTube.

Coming up to 1138 on the Mark Aram show before we give away that fantastic prize pack of a pair of tickets to see the PGA Tour Championship at Legendary Eastlake. Breaking sports news. I mentioned at the earlier in the show. Braves Country is going to be on pins and eels today. This is the Major League Baseball Trade deadline. This just popped. The Braves have reportedly acquired left-handed pitcher Brent Suter from the Angels per multiple reports, including Mark Bowman from MLB.com. I'm going to speak on behalf of Braves Country right now and say, huh? Eh? That's the, eh, no, what? Brent Souter? I got Tyler Molly yesterday from the Giants, which is nice, but I wanted Soriano from the Angels, but he got traded to that. So I just wanted to pass that along. I don't often get to speak on behalf of Braves country, but that's my reaction to that. Hopefully, Alex Anthopoulos has another move or two up his sleeve. All right, that was, that was. 14 seconds of sports, which I'm allowed to do. But I am allowed to take my time when we have sporting tickets to give away. Deborah, what do we have right now? A pair of tickets to round one of the PGA Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club on August 26. Amaze balls. Vinnie, I'm going to take it easy. Normally I'd give like caller 900 because these are so good. But you're double dipping today. So we'll do caller eight again. Heard. Caller 8th Caller to 404-8720870. Eighth caller to 404-872050 wins a phenomenal pair of tickets. Round one, PGA Tour Championship at Eastlake. Are we going to have more of those to give away to? Yeah, we'll do it every day this week. All right. I might forget tomorrow. One of these days I might forget just so I can go to. Okay. I haven't been there in years, but man, it was great. Went to the Delta. I was in the Delta tent. God, food and drink. It was great. Delta, if you're listening, if you still have that tent, I'd love to join you. for the tour championship. All right, let's continue our coverage of the Todd Blanche confirmation. We went in depth with this earlier in the show with Eric Erickson. In case you missed it, go back and listen to the podcast. Moments ago, Kevin Liptack at the White House for CNN, with all the movement and that letter that Todd Blanche agreed to sign that would kill the anti-weaponization fund, is it assumed that Todd Blanche will definitely get confirmed now? Well, it certainly seems as if the most significant hurdles that we're facing this confirmation have now been lifted. Those two Republican senators saying that their concerns had been eased, not only on the compensation fund, which Todd Blanche has now put in writing, is officially killed, but also their questions and demands for clarity on the sweeping immunity from IRS scrutiny that the settlement had insured for President Trump, for his family members, and for his businesses. What John Cornyn and Thom Tillis said in the statement today is that, quote, We are pleased that the Department of Justice has issued a formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund. Additionally, the department has acknowledged in a binding written order that the audit settlement is limited to the plaintiffs, and the scope does not extend beyond the defendants in the lawsuit, the IRS, and the Treasury, addressing concerns that multiple of our Republican colleagues share. Now, last night, Todd Blanche put two documents out on social media. One was a formal order terminating the anti-weapon

weaponization funds saying, quote, this order establishes beyond any doubt that there is no fund. It also seems to narrow the scope of that IRS immunity agreement, stating that immunity, quote, applies by its terms only retroactively to claims that were open at the time of the settlement. Now, there are some questions about wiggle room here. Now, Todd Blanche is the one who signed this order. President Trump did not sign it. And the settlement agreement itself states pretty explicitly on page four that the terms can only be modified by parties to the settlement. So Trump and the government, and President Trump has made pretty clear that he wants to see this anti-weaponization fund move ahead. Here's what he said last night. Well, the president was on Air Force One, and he was addressing the questions about this fund, and he said, that this group that could have potentially benefited from it was attacked violently and viciously and that a lot of people like it and that if Todd Blanche wasn't approved that he would put it back on the table. So the president making clear over and over over the last week or so that his ambition was to see this fund move ahead. But John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, at least for now, seems satisfied by what Todd Blanche has put in writing. And it appears as if this nomination will be moving ahead. Kevin Liptack at the White House moments ago. So it looks like Blanchwickett confirmed, which is what President Trump wants. I think that there will still be some pushback by all Democrats and maybe some Republicans that that IRS deal that was part of this, where President Trump, all of his family members and all of their companies are immune from any IRS audits. I'm not here to judge, but that's it. That still appears to be a thing. But if Todd Blanche gets confirmed, you'll, of course, hear about it first here live on 95-5.Wsb. Congrats to Craig from Ackworth won a pair of tickets to the PGA Tour Championship. Sources tell the Mark Aram Show. We'll have another pair to give away tomorrow. And belated, congrats to Brian from Flowery Branch. He won tickets to see the amazing... Derek Huff. Derek Huff, the dancer. Not David Huff, his cousin. Derek Huff. Yes. Both dancers, both fine dancers, but it's Derek Huff. Real quick, Debra, I think this goes back to back to school and the amount of money that it costs to send the kids back to school. When I was a kid, there were a number of activities, places that my parents could take me that didn't cost anything or very little. Places to hang out. It's seen like even yesterday that I went to Cosm, fully enjoyed it, but I was an expensive endeavor. It was an expensive experience just to hang out. Americans are losing places to, quote, hang out. Yeah, there's very few hangout places, and they're saying it's affecting our health. It's causing loneliness if we don't interact with other people in our communities. Now, you're talking about when you were kids, maybe you wandered around the mall. You didn't even buy anything. You just wandered around the mall, right? Yeah, maybe you went to the arcade food court or something, but you kind of just hung out there. You know what? I'm going to stop you. I'm so sorry. West Farms Mall is West Hartford.

I don't think there was a food court there. I have no memory of there being a food court at the West Farm mall. We didn't get a food cart at our mall until junior high. The 90s, I think, is when they finally put a full food court in. They were like restaurants. There were like a couple standalone restaurants. And the only other food vendor was like a Munson's chocolate stand, which my mom always hit. But we'd go and hang on the mall, not buy anything, but get out of the water fountain. Yeah, get out of the hotness. And that was a place to hang out. What are some other places we used to hang out? They're saying places just like movie theaters, people would rather stream things at home. Bowling alleys. I would go to the bowling alley as a kid. We wouldn't even bowl. We'd just hang out there. As someone that worked at two bowling alleys, like there are so few bowling alleys left right now. Yeah, there are. And it's expensive. Back in the day, it was a cheap. You could get a group of friends and go bowling and it was pretty cheap. Like 75 cents a game or something crazy. Not so much, anyway. Yeah. And I even think about the loneliness, just the loneliness factor. That's kind of even for like older generations. So I remember one of my neighbors, he used to go to VFWs. Oh, yeah, absolutely. You don't really see those halls being used. We just play basketball on the VFW. You don't really see those halls being used for big events. Like my mom said that she would go to dances at the VFW, which is in high school and stuff like that. A lot of those places are closing or Moose Lodge. You ever heard like the Moose Lodge? Anyone in our age go to those. I don't, none of my friends are part of a Moose Lodge. Shelly has a lodge. He's a Masonic Lodge. He is a Masonic Lodge. No. Exactly. No, he's a boomer. Yeah. Yeah, he's a boomer. So there are fewer places to hang out. And they did say, yeah, everything is more expensive. It's hard to have a day out, a night out. Even we would go to Perkins. Perkins is 24 hours. It used to be easy just to sit there. I've never been to a Perkins. I know, I know. Even when you go to Florida? Yeah, never. You're missing out. It's like a fear of the unknown. Like I'm like, I don't know what's it. I know. It's what everyone says. Yeah, Perkins is the best. Back to seniors getting some socialization. Do seniors still walk the malls? Because that used to be a big thing where seniors before the mall opened or right as the mall put, they would all walk around in the mall. I haven't been to the mall in a long time. But also after COVID, the malls aren't open. the same amount they were like they were open much later even the stores were open later so i think we have a couple of seniors that listen uh drop me a line at mark ariam.com yeah are that's is that still a thing is mall walking for seniors sponderella what you say that's okay 1153 on the mark garum show uh deep cut of spindrella of salt and pepper Turns 55. I just wanted Spinderella. I tried to tell him, yeah. I don't know. He doesn't, I went through the whole song. What? You did not? No, you did it. I just wanted Spinderella. Cut it up one time. I got nothing for it. Ooh, ooh, ooh. What's the name of that song?

Let's talk about sex baby. We're going to talk about it briefly. We call it Nookie here on the Mark Aram show. Apparently, a certain percentage of Americans have Nookie at the workplace, DeV. Yeah, about 47% of Americans admits to hooking up during the work hours, right? Now, 49 responded said it's sometimes it's in their car. 43 said outside and 40 said, yeah, just other public venues in general. So almost one and two admits to, now, Nookie or hooking up? Because I hate to go Bill Clinton on you. What words do you want me to use? What words do you want me to use? Well, Nookie is the act, the full act. Fred Durst, Nookie then. Now, I don't want to go Bill Clinton and parse words. Right. But I have never. Full act. full-acted nooky at a workplace no well it gen z are actually saying hey employers you know maybe having a private space for us to do this because they're saying after the activity actually improves mental and physical but i thought gen z's not partaking in that anymore well these gen zers are all about it vini is the only one who hunts around the newsroom yeah vini is he he's a hunter he's a hunter gatherer no i've never i've never i am I'm one of the 53% that never had Nookie. Now, other things may or may not have happened. At a Christmas party or something? No, like in this building. I can tell you as someone who's worked in alternative radio for a long time. There's a lot of stuff that happens in a radio station. Apparently in the 80s, we missed the glory days. I worked in the 2000s and there were some glory days. But I mean like crazy stuff was going on and I'm sure you witnessed it too. Oh yeah. Off the chain stuff. But Nookie, no. No, no, no. I don't even want to ask you guys. I don't want to know. But that's 47%. I worked in alternative radio in the 2000s. So, Deborah, one of the 47% apparently. But I'm not Gen Z. Gen Z is the one who says they're all about it. Yeah, they want rooms. We have a lactation room. We do have a lactation room. We do have a very forward thinking by Cox Media Group. We do not need a room. We don't have a boom boom room. That was Ray's Boom Boom Room? That's my favorite movie. Yeah. Life. Did I get the name right? Raised Boom Boom. Yeah. Ray's Boom Room. We will not have a Boom Boom Room at WSB Radio. Yet. Now you know, because of the Mark Aram Show. Georgia and Maine are the two states still where people like to split their ticket and the presumption is that Rick Jackson is going to win. The problem is that you've got suburban voters in the metro Atlanta area who simply like Jon Ossoff and they don't particularly like Mike Collins, who went all in on MAGA and can't really make the case to people who aren't Trump supporters that they should vote for him. That's the first time you've heard Eric Erickson's voice in a week. Good stuff from Eric talking Pollux is he will return live right after the show noon to 3.

The Eric Erickson Show on WSP. Now, you know... Upon reviewing all the evidence in the case, they realized that they simply could not stand up those allegations that this was vandalism. Rather, they pointed to the contractor who was paid more than $14 million saying that they botched this installation to get it done in time for July 4. DOJ does an about phase charging that former Olympian for vandalizing the reflecting pool. That was Peter Harrow-Lambus who joined us from New York City. Now you know... Jay Clayton is now officially assuming office now as Director of National Intelligence. The role is this person overseas. all the intelligence agencies and tries to basically get them to work better together with sharing intelligence. That was Marcus Espinoza from News Nation joined us live with confirmation that Jay Clayton got confirmed to replace Tulsi Gabbard to head up our DNI. Now you know because of the Mark Arab show. Oh, I had one more now you know. Are you guys ready for the Mark Aram star? According to my mom, via the Piccadilly text line, now you know there was never a food court at West Farms Mall in West Hartford. So, you know, I can get my mom started the show for that. Good job, mom. Fact checking me in the air. Thank you. Confirmation. Speaking of conference, she confirmed my memories. Also, Vinnie Drip was on the other side of the takeout window and screen the call. So good job. Oh, and Erickson's back. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. All right. Tomorrow on the show, Scott Slade joins us live. We have more PGA championship tour championship tickets to give away. And, of course, we'll go in depth on the big local news stories. I'll be active on social at Mark Arum. M-A-R-K-A-R-U-M. Stay safe. Have a great Monday, Atlanta.