Who Hurt Brett Lindstrom?

That's a look at your roads. I'm Lucy Chapman. Yeah, there was a pretty good rumble of thunder about 10 minutes ago. Oh, that was me. Oh. Sorry. Excuse me. I don't. We're going to call a doctor and a meteorologist in. Nebraska's morning news underway here on this Tuesday. We do have confirmed rumbles of thunder across the area. Lucy, you admit that one a couple of minutes ago, was not you. That was from the sky, yes? Yeah, that was definitely not me. Not you. Okay. That was the weirdest thunder I've ever heard. It really sounded like somebody threw something at the building. Yes, it did. I thought somebody did. Twice. Okay, well, now we have some research that we should send Craig Evans out to the street to do. Does someone just chuck something at the building? Like thunder? It was more the way it started, and then it was a regular thunder. Somebody just heaved a sack of potatoes at the building. Did. So our building made of paper mache just had a sack of potatoes thrown at it. And that's what caused all of us to look to the sky and wonder if that was thunder. Either that or there's a sales meeting downstairs. People are unhappy that they have to actually come to work in the office and so they slam the door. Always a possibility. We'll send Craig Evans out there and see if Zeus threw a thunderbolt at our building. That's Jim Rose. That's Lucy Chapman. Craig Evans is putting on a suit of armor heading outside. I think, yeah, encasing Craig and metal and sending them out there in the thunderstorm is probably the best course of action. I'm Scott Voorhees, and this is News Radio 1110, KFAB. Brett Lindstrom, former state senator, who then said, I'm going to run for Congress. I'm not going to run for Congress. People don't want to vote for me. Yeah, they do. I'm going to have some signatures gather, and I'm going to run for governor. He ought to... Already whipped up those signatures had to have at least 4,000 valid signatures including a minimum of 750 from each of the three congressional districts. It's not a real high bar, but he did whip this together pretty quickly. They filed 5,735 petition signatures. You always go well over because you figure some of them are people who are making up names or whatever. So he turned him in. I presume they will be found to have the requisite number of valid signatures, which would put Brett Lindstrom on the ballot as a nonpartisan candidate for governor this coming November. And this paves the way.

For Governor Lynn Walls, the next governor of Nebraska. Well, the numbers are pretty clear, Scott. Elections are about emotions and ideologies and issues, but they're also about numbers. And here are the numbers. In 2022, Jim Pillen got 59% of the vote. Carol Blode, who probably never left her neighborhood, got 36%. And the libertarian candidate that year got 4%. If Lynn Walls, and I believe she will, tax on another five or six points. from Carol Blood, because actually Lynn Walls is out there campaigning. Carol Blood really didn't. She gets 41% minimum, maybe 42, which means you're going to need 42% to win because you just need a plurality in Nebraska. You don't have to get 50% for a runoff or anything. So if the weed guy gets 2%, which is possible, if he gets 2%, that he gets 2%, that means that Brett Lindstrom to win this race would have to get 42%. But by doing so, he would literally take 70% of the people who voted for Jim Pillen in 2022 away from him. Now, short of a scandal, short of a teenage girl, short of literally getting caught robbing a BMO branch in Grand Island, I don't see how 70% of Jim's voters are going to disappear and line up behind Brown. Well, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago when Lindstrom floated the idea of doing this, that I think he's banking on some scandal befalling the governor Jim Pillen. Should that not happen, do you get the sense that Jim Pillon has lost 70% support among those inclined to vote for a Republican? I mean, Brett Lindstrom is not coming at this as a Republican. He's left the Republican Party. He's filed nonpartisan. He'll be on there as a nonpartisan candidate for governor. But Brett Lindstrom also isn't. widely known, west of Gretna. Well, he's... There's a lot of Nebraska west of Greta. Yeah, he won four counties back in the 2022 primary against Pillon and Charles Herbster and several other candidates, including Teresa Tibado. But I don't think he's going to get 42%, but he could get 16. And if he gets 16... I, Lynn Walls do solemnly swear. That could very well happen. 1110 KFAB certified transmission sports brief now. Here is Jim Rose. Okay, Scott, good morning, everybody. Husker football is gearing up. Tomorrow, fall camp begins. It's been a quiet offseason. Unlike previous years, coaches and players haven't been running their mouths. tied in Luke Lindenmeyer of LeBista. This all season, we've really been focused on our grit, our brotherhood, and our relentless execution. Our team is super gritty. This is the grittiest team. Whatever you put in front of us, we're going to attack it. The brotherhood, we've been having some outside events, hanging out together, building those relationships that we're going to need down the stretch. And then that execution part come fall camp. Come October, November, those late games in the fourth quarter, whether we're down or up, it's going to come down to whichever team executes the best. Okay, see how that goes.

Spring practice was so early this year. Matt Ruhl wanted to be free to take in the Masters. Seems like forever since that memorable day in Las Vegas. KFB Husker Info, Strongman Sean Callahan, starts the Husker Buzz reports tomorrow. Husker volleyball, one of the best in the Western Hemisphere, is going to get a lot of tube time this year. A record 14 regular season matches, almost half of them, are set for live TV. The United States Senate moves with the speed of a sloth, but it might actually pass the Protect College Sports Act this week. With the Big Ten and SEC on board, it looks good to go. Trump will sign it. Here are the highlights. 21.3 million each year in revenue share for all sports for each school. 22.3 million each year to retain your athletes and keep them out of the portal, primarily football and men's basketball. 5 million each year just for women's sports. These are hard caps. You can't cheat or you're breaking federal law. That's jail time. And there's another little clause. The Lane Kiffin rule. It prohibits coaches from leaving their schools voluntarily until the season is over and you cannot tamper with somebody else's guys, which is pretty much what Lane Kiffin did to Ole Miss this past year. And again, this is not an NCAA deal. This is not country club rules. This is federal law. Baseball's trade deadline came and went. Plenty of activity. The contenders loaded up. The Phillies get three-time batting champ Luis arrives from the Giants. The Royals unloaded salary. Outgo starter Chris Bubbage to the Dodgers a day after Lane Thomas and Bailey Falter were shipped off to the Braves. The Giants set a message to outfielder Harrison Bader. He was in a crash. They're riding his scooter around San Francisco. He ran right into the back of a fire truck, injured his foot. He's out a month. Witnesses say, and they saw him get loaded before climbing onto the scooter. So the team invoked the behavioral clause in his contract. They won't pay him until he's off the DL and back in the lineup. On the scoreboard yesterday afternoon and last night, Interleague play, Cardinals 13-7 over the Yankees, San Francisco 5-1 over the Rangers, Tampa Bay beat the Rockies. National League, Philadelphia, 6, Washington 3, Pirates, 4, Milwaukee 3, Cubs 10 to 5 over the Dodgers, Arizona beat San Diego, and one game in the American League, Toronto 3, Houston 1, Omaha opens up a series at Toledo tonight. Sports is news on Nebraska's News Weather and Traffic Station. News Radio, 1110, KFAB. Let's dive back into the conversation. Jim, you and I are phrasing this as he's going to just pull votes from Jim Pillon. There are a lot of Democrat types who think that, hey, this is someone who is not conservative, Trumpy enough for me to hate his guts. Maybe he's more model the road or middle of the road moderate that I can get behind as a Democrat. I don't know that Lynn Wals is a DSA candidate or anything like that. So, I mean... Lindstrom might not just pull from Pillen, but it's very unlikely that he'll pull any Democrat votes. He's a staunch conservative, was a staunch conservative when he was in the Nebraska Unicameral other than one thing, and that was the death penalty. Otherwise, he was a very consistent and very reliable conservative vote for most things. Look.

Here's the issue. And I like Brett a lot. I do. He's a nice guy. He's a good guy. He's a hardworking guy. His father and I have been friends for years. Dad, former Nebraska football player. Brett walked on, played under Bill Kamahan. I respect guys like that. I respect walk-ons a lot. And he's not a complete political loser. He did win two terms as a state senator. He was my state senator. He ran against Lee Terry in 2012 and was not competitive in that primary. That was kind of the first time we got to meet Brett. I don't even remember that. But the challenge is this, Scott. It's a little bit of the Mike McDonald syndrome. He's a man without a country right now politically. There is no base for him other than people who don't like the status quo. But Democrats think this is our best chance since Ben Nelson in 1994. And so you're going to see energy from Nebraska Democrats. Doesn't mean there's a whole bunch of them or that a bunch of Republicans have switched over. But they have about a third of the states. a little less than a third of the state's registered voters. Republicans have a little bit more than a third, and then there are independents that are growing very rapidly. An independent would have to be completely dissatisfied with either walls or pillen to vote for Brett, because they see Brett as 2.0, pillen 2.0. He's very conservative. He's a low-tax, low-regulation guy. He's talking about bringing people together. Well, that's fine, except he believes we need to cut spending. first thing he said yesterday when he turned in the signatures. We have to cut spending. Well, Democrats think we need to raise taxes on rich people. We have a major fiscal problem in this state that Pillon wants to address by leveling off the tax revenue stream. We have too much being spent on property taxes. So what I would offer to Brett is this, what's your issue? What's the thing that people are going to go, yeah? He's right about that. He's my guy. And I don't think he's got that. I have the same question you do, but it comes from a different angle. And first of all, Brett Lindstrom will join us in the studio this Friday morning. I think he's here just after 7.30. on Friday. Looking forward to seeing him. My question for Brett Lindstrom, I disagree with your assessment is, oh, we got a rock rib staunch conservative. A staunch Republican conservative does not run against the sitting Republican governor of Nebraska. So you ask the question, Brett, what's your issue? I don't mean from politics. I mean, who hurt you? Why is he doing this against Republicans, the governor of Nebraska, his supporters? Why is he doing this? Well, it's only Brett knows, and maybe those very close to Brett know. Pillon did come after him hard in the last month before the 2020 elections. It's an election. Because he was gaining in the polls. People saw him as the next generation of Republicans, and he had a lot of support here in the Omaha Metro, something Pillon did not because Jim's not from here. And other than football, number 29, most people in Omaha, Douglas and Sarpe County didn't know who Jim Pillan was.

So he came after him hard with some money given to him by Pete Ricketts to nail. Brett on some negative ads in the last month before the 20-22 primary. In politics, maybe people don't forget. I've never run for office. I've never been attacked, but I've never been attacked like that. So maybe that's a factor. I mean, Brett is a, he's a unifying kind of guy. He did a lot of bipartisan legislation in the unicameral, but the Republicans always had a very, very healthy majority at the time. So in other words, he was playing with House money. I would just say that... There's no way he's going to get 70% of Jim Pillen's electorate from four years ago unless there is a criminal act by the governor. And there will be no criminal act between now and November by this governor. I would be surprised. We'll talk with Brett Lindstrom about this a lot more. He will be in the studio with this Friday morning just after 7.30. Don't miss it. Thank you so much for being with us. This is the place where we come to laugh, cry, and get through the day together. Sometimes all at the same time. President Trump wasn't laughing when he said that the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., Judge Janine Piro, formerly of Fox News, now they're helping out the Trump administration. President Trump said that Judge Janine choked and folded like an umbrella. When she moved to drop a felony vandalism charge, this was against the former Olympian, a guy, I don't know, he did some sort of Olympian event in a canoe. And then he was found by the Park Service touching the lining, the new lining around the reflecting pool on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. They cited him, and Judge Janine dropped the charges against him. President Trump said she choked. She folded like an umbrella in all this. Now, Judge Deneen says, there was no evidence that he did anything. So we need evidence. And this wasn't the only one. There were a few other vandalism charges that were dropped against other people as well. And if you're looking to see who'd potentially damage that new work on the lining of the reflecting pool, maybe you shouldn't have driven the White House motorcade across it. This, which is what they did. Remember, President Trump and the motorcade went out there. They drove the whole motorcade across the reflecting pool lining. They put tire tracks on it. And then later, people were looking at it going, it looks like there's some damage to the lining on the bottom of the reflecting pool. They look like tire tracks. So maybe that was a bad idea. They were out there looking around. Take a look at this. This is beautiful.

Now it's contractor work, and they're going to... I don't know. They're already doing repairs on it. I don't know. The president said that he was not 100% thrilled with the contractor, but he said it's going to be beautiful. Don't worry. A few snags. It's going to be great. But do we need to throw people in Turkish prison for what they did to destroy the lining? Now, I don't blame the president for thinking that vandals wanted to destroy this. The president has talked nonstop about the reflecting pool. And for people who hate his guts. If they can't get to him one way or the other through either a golf course, a rally, or the White House correspondence dinner, then they can take a knife to his reflecting pool and get him that way. I don't blame him for thinking that. And I don't know that it didn't happen, but the U.S. attorney for D.C. said, I didn't have any evidence, so we couldn't pursue the charges. See, President Trump ignores things like we don't have any evidence. He just declares this is what happened. so that it is a positive reflection on him and lays blame with someone else. Gene Piro's an attorney. She's the U.S. attorney. Her job is to process evidence before making a case. And she said, I ain't got any. People thought she was going to get fired. She didn't get fired. Mr. President, I agree with you. People hate you and I'm on your side. But I ain't got any evidence. And last report, if I try to prosecute a case without evidence, I could get disbarred. That's probably inconvenient. We also see here that Brett Lindstrom has named a lieutenant governor candidate, Mike Picard. This is the director of NV Volleyball Club. He's a Navy veteran, a career Navy, and said, I wanted to start a volleyball team because my daughter likes volleyball. And so you got the supernovas, and then you've got NV. You got L-O-V-B volleyball club. Well, yeah, this isn't. This isn't why I guess one of the professional volleyball. I think this is club volleyball for youth, which is lucrative. Oh, sure. Yeah, you know, you can make a lot of money in kids club sports now. Yeah, so Brett Lindstrom has picked Mike Picard to be his running mate in this race. And we've been talking about it a little bit here throughout the morning. Here's what you've had to say about it. Captain America has emailed Scott at kfab.com via the Zonkers custom woods inbox. And the captain says Brett Lindstrom will be able to take credit for giving America another commie, loony leftist governor in Lynn Walls from Nebraska. In my opinion, Brett is a very and extremely selfish and unpatriotic American. Don't think that Brett Lindstrom's going to get Captain America's vote. That's that email. Adam says, personally, I think pillen's in trouble because of the marijuana slow walk. The guy has ticked off too many of those who voted for him when 70% of voters vote yes on an issue and you not only fail to implement the issue tomorrow, but you slow walk it. You don't deserve the office. Good luck. That's from Adam. And we got this and the talkback, Mike. When listening to us on IHeart Radio, you can always send a message with your own voice.

I believe the deficit that the state is in around $1 billion is a criminal act. Governor ought to resign. I think you get to a $1 billion deficit if you extrapolate an annual deficit out several years. Probably not too many years. No, it's a billion. It'll be a billion this year. And that's largely because of the property tax fund. We have now dumping over a billion dollars a year. to try to offset the increase in property taxes. You take that away, and the state's budget is balanced. I got $208 million for the next two-year budget cycle for Nebraska deficit, which is a little short of a billion. No, I mean, but, well, it changes every quarter when they update the tax forecast. But, no, it's not yet a criminal act to not manage finances as well at the state government. But Nebraska is spending... Really, used to say we had three bills. You know, we had Medicaid, which was DHS. We had the University and K through 12 education. Now we have four. We have those three plus the billion dollars we put into the property tax relief fund. Otherwise, our property taxes would go up about 55 to 60 percent every year. And then you have a revolution. Well, that's a lot of numbers. The thing with Brett, Scott, is this. Only Brett really truly knows what his motivation here is. Maybe somebody very close to him. I suspect his family probably knows. They're close-knit family. Only he knows what his motivation here is. But if anybody confuses his run for governor with an objective that he will win. then they just are not dealing with practical reality as it relates to politics in our state. This governor does have a lot of support, especially in the third district. This governor has the ag community behind him, and that's large in this state. Now, I don't know what his popularity is with the Omaha business community. I suspect it's not great. I don't think his popularity with Chambers of Commerce may be as popular as it was before. But he will not lose 70% of his voters, which is what it's going. And they're going to have to come. For Lindstrom to win. In order for Brett to win, Pillen's going to have to lose 70% of the people who voted for him in 2022. That ain't going to happen. That leads to two questions for you. Jim, you say Brett Lindstrom can't win this. Why run? I don't know. As a matter of practical politics, this would be the greatest upset in Nebraska electoral history and one of the greatest upsets in American electoral history. To see a guy with less than 100 days to campaign against two people who have won a lot of elections and won a lot of votes and for whom there is no criminal activity. You know, these kinds of things will happen if you have a criminal. on one side of the ballot. Somebody that's been indicted, somebody that's under a major federal or state investigation. That is not going, there's no moral turpitude in the pillen camp.

So those are usually the openings for folks to roll in and steal an election or get an election. Now, some people say, Rosie, what about what happened back in 1977 when South Omaha grocer Al Vaze shocked the Omaha business community and captured the mayor's seat away from Betty Greg Abbott and Mike Albert? Well, the question that day was, all right, but Al Vez had been a city councilman. Al Vaze had a block of votes in South Omaha, worked very hard, did very well, and took advantage of low voter turnout. Now, Al's not going to go down as one of the more powerful statesmen in the history of Omaha politics, but that he was a right-in candidate. But he had been elected. from that district in South Omaha to the city council. It's a lot easier if you're right there in the city, people know who you are. Brett Lindstrom is not well-known west of Gretna. There's a lot of Nebraska, west of Gretna. Pretty well-known in Lincoln, but yeah. Real quick answer on this one. So we don't think Lindstrom can probably win. But he can certainly erode a lot of Jim Pillon's votes. Oh, yeah. So how happy is Democratic candidate for Governor Lynn Walls today? Thrilled. Absolutely thrilled. If I'm Senator Walls and her campaign staff and our good friend Jane Cleb, our favorite liberal Jane Cleb, this is your opening, okay? This is when you need to go to the National Democrat structure and get money. And you need to have a makeover for Senator Wall. She needs to go out there and campaign like she's missed Nebraska. And if she does that, she has an opening. I don't know if she will. I'm not on her campaign staff. But this is her chance to say, all right, I've never been a socialist. I don't agree with any of the socialist leanings that we're hearing about like today in primaries in Kansas and Pennsylvania and wherever, Michigan. She has a chance now. She only needs about 42% of the vote to win this race. So if I'm her, I've got my running shoes on, and I am going be to the walls for the next 90 to 120 days. All right, Jim. This past Friday, Chris Baker welcomed on to the program. Someone he refers to as Mayor Superman, John Ewing, Mayor of Omaha, who sometimes poses for social media pictures wearing a Superman costume, hence the nickname. So Chris had him on, and it was about a 19-minute interview for the first. 15 or 16 minutes, they talked about some of the mayor's climate change initiatives, and then it got into law enforcement. Chris asked him about whether or not some of what Mayor Ewing, former Omaha police officer, wants to do in terms of bringing the Omaha Police Department to full force, could be helped by the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. I mean, after all, they have some power here in Douglas County, including Omaha. And yet John Ewing had referred to the Douglas County Sheriff is using his Sheriff's Department as an occupying force. Now, a lot of politics involved in this one. Ewing is supporting Mark Martinez in his bid to be the next Douglas County Sheriff against Republican Aaron Hanson. So there's a lot of politics involved there. But Chris started off by asking Ewing whether he wanted to walk that comment back about referring to the county sheriff's department as an occupying force. Ewing said,

No. And then they kind of went back and forth on that for a while. And then here's where things got kind of ugly. Can you tell me what incident even brought on that comment that they were in occupying force? No, I'm not going to keep talking about this all day. I made my statement. I told you why I made it. I think I'm done with that question. We have a great chief. We have a great police department. I believe we have the finest law enforcement agency in the United States. We just had a volunteer event where we recognized amazing people who are committed to helping our police department be great and serving the people of... this community. I prefer to focus on that. But you didn't tell me why you said that, though. Okay. Well, if you don't understand it, that's okay. Oh, I understand it. I understand you didn't tell me. Okay. Well, next question. Thank you. We're focused on the positive. This is the year of the neighbor. We're trying to do everything we can to build an even greater community. And I agree with you 100%. It's just, you know, when you call a law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction and occupying force, I never understood. I didn't say. Hello? Okay. Next question. Thank you. Oh, okay, next question. So my next question is, do you still see them as an occupying force? Next question. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your time. If you don't have anything you want to ask about unit or youth climate action fund and what we're trying to do with that, have a great day and a great weekend.

Okay. Well, I guess that's it. All right. Well, thanks, Mayor Superman. Okay, thank you. Strange visitor from another planet who came to earth with powers and abilities far beyond. And Chris used that, and that was the end of that conversation. Jim, your assessment. It's unfortunate. That's not what the mayor should be saying to the public, especially on a platform as powerful as this one. All you need to say is, yeah, you know. That was probably not the best choice of words. Occupying force is not something that the Sheriff's Department did in this community. They're working through some territorial issues with the police chief right now. I'll leave it to those guys. I have great confidence in both law enforcement agencies to keep the public safe. But as it relates to that particular line, I shouldn't have set that, Chris. Next. And then it's over. And now what it is is a gigantic viral complaint. Now you got the sheriff wondering, whoa, what about this guy? It's all politics. He's a Democrat. Aaron Hansen's a Republican. What else do you need to know? This is what has devolved. This is what gets, I think, public safety in the crosshairs of public confidence. When you have important people throwing sand at each other in the sandbox, you have a very important guy. He's the chief executive of this community. And he is also the chief executive of law enforcement agency in this community in tandem with the chief up against, and that's what it is now, up against an elected official who is responsible for protecting the county. And at last check, Omaha was in Douglas County. Well, there's another way Ewing could say that without. totally backing off what he said. And, you know, politicians aren't usually real good at saying, yeah, maybe I shouldn't have said that. From the president to Omaha's mayor, you're probably not going to get that in this day and age. So what he could have said, and I'm not John Ewing's speechwriter, I don't work for the man. What he could have said was, yeah, we got a hard-nosed political campaign here. I would love to see a leadership change for our Douglas County Sheriff's Office so that we can have better cooperation between the very important members of the County Sheriff's Department and the Omaha Police Department. Thank you very much for that question. Yeah, that would have been a good one. But you also have the dynamic here where you've got... A conservative talk radio host, and they'd had a great conversation for 16 minutes. It was okay. Then it started moving in this direction, and both of them kind of got their, you know, puffed up. They kind of puffed up the ego a little bit. It devolved, and some KFAB listeners heard that and thought Mayor Ewing was childish and wrong. Some KFAB listeners heard that and thought Chris Baker was childish and wrong. I looked for your assessment at Scott at kfab.com. It could be, but you know what, Scott, I don't think it's appropriate for any. elected official to drive wedges or draw lines in the sand when it comes to public safety. John Ewing should stay out of the race for county sheriff. It's not his job. It's not his area. But as mayor of Omaha...

He is involved. His number one priority, in my view, every day is public safety. Anybody elected to office, their number one responsibility is public safety. There is Jim Rose right there, and this topic might come up again later this morning. Caitlin Clark was asked about it the other day. This is after her teammate, Sophie Cunningham, she's the one who points at people, and she's the one who said, I don't think men belong in women's sports. And then suddenly everyone starts protesting at games. Girls are getting cussed at by owners of WNBA teams. It's gotten ugly. They talked to Caitlin Clark about it. Here's her non-answer on the subject of men playing in women's sports. I think for us, like, you know, it's not really a discussion we really have in our locker room. I think it's for leagues and the governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions. But our focus is on basketball, and that's what we talk about and how we can get wins. And obviously, we didn't do that tonight. So you need to find an area to improve that way. Do you have any reaction to the... I just answered for you. That's it. I had to advise some counsel and seek my Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. There's a lot of Anthony Fauci going on around now. Well, Caitlin Clark is a competitor, and she just lost a basketball game. Probably the wrong time to ask her about things outside the boundaries of basketball that I think she's frustrated by. I think she sees that her team... is distracted by all of this, and she's mad they didn't get a win the other day. That's my take on Caitlin Clark. People are upset that she didn't take a bigger stand against it. I don't know why, if she wanted to, she would. It's just not like she's not already getting her butt kicked up one side of the court and down the other from everyone she plays against. Maybe she's concerned that she might lose some sponsorships if she takes a political stand. There are a lot of people who say, look, if you are an athlete and you get asked a political question, the answer is I'm here to talk about basketball. Next question. Thank you. Which is not an unwise way to approach life. If you're in the business of trying to entertain as many people as possible, you don't want to give people a reason to ignore you or not support you or not come to the games. This is, again, and this is the Rosie de Genozy today, we're going to take this up. I thought this issue was settled, but apparently it isn't because of what happened in the WNBA over the weekend. And I don't know about the leadership of that organization. When I've seen some of the things that I've seen this year, this is just the latest one.

But the allowance of the assaulting on Caitlin Clark by the league, or at least not taking a definitive stand on it and meeting out punishment for it, to me, is hard to believe. This is the reason they have a television deal as rich as it is. This is the reason they draw people to games that never before would go to a WNBA game. and yet they are driving her out of the country into a league where she's not mistreated so badly. If that happens. Yeah, I mean, you've seen some of these. She seems to have a pretty good thing going right now. Well, I mean, she gets knocked down. She gets knocked down and she gets blasted a couple of times, which, you know, you just can't do that in basketball without paying a price on the floor and otherwise. So I don't really understand that organization. I don't understand its structure. I don't understand its objectives. The objective should be we're going to promote women's basketball. We're going to create stars. No one cares. And we want people to watch the stars. I'm sorry. No one cares. Well, not by comparison to other sports. We're talking about the WNBA because the trans issue thing has come up. because people are UFC fighting Caitlin Clark on the floor. And then last year, guys were out there throwing rubber fallacies on the court. No one has ever talked about like, wow, did you see that play the other night? Do you see that game? And did you see that the last second shot? No one talks about that. I'm going to push back. And no one goes to the game for that. No, they have a strong following of those folks who truly enjoy women's basketball. Now, It's not in comparison to the major league baseball or the NBA or NHL or college sports. No, it does not have that breadth. But it has grown dramatically in the last 10 years and in particular the last five years because of Caitlin Clark. And there are fans that are passionate and sponsors that see a return on their investment. What I don't understand is why they would wade into these political and social issues. when they've got such a good entertainment product that has found its niche, it's in major markets where there are lots of people who can't afford to go to the Major League Baseball games, who can't afford to go to NBA games, and they want to see professional basketball in Minnesota or Phoenix or Chicago or wherever. So why they would take their revenue stream and throw it up in the air and hope it lands softly by wading into political and social issues is beyond me. But clearly they feel entitled to do so because now they have a larger platform. Would we be talking about them if not for all of those things? Very good point. Thank you. Wow. Thank you. Someone write that one down. Hey, come on. I give credit when credits do. Just not very often. Saw this yesterday. And a question here for the esteemed panel. What do we think about guys in their 40s driving around in their cars by themselves with their hats backward? Is this something that they could be pulled over for? Would this be one of those primary offenses where police can pull them over and write them a ticket for it?

A fashion ticket? Well, if we'd won that Las Vegas Bowl with Matt Ruhl doing it, it would have been a fashion choice. No, I'm not saying I'm against the backwards cap. I think that there's a potential time and place for such a thing. I'm just saying there's a guy just driving around by himself. He's in his 40s. His hat is backwards. It seems like a jailable offense. Maybe he's just depressed. I think we need to leave jails free for real criminals. I think in this case, just let societal pressure. affect his behavior. We don't need to lock anybody up. Well, we've got a couple of teenagers here who were accused of kidnapping two young boys. Craig Evans has been reporting on this today. And yesterday, Judge Hendricks in Douglas County dismissed charges against a 19-year-old and an 18-year-old kidnapping child abuse and use of a firearm to commit a felony. And this was news to the mother of the two boys who were allegedly kidnapped. Something happened here. The mom talked with First Alert 6 News said, I got a call today at 2 o'clock saying the judge had dismissed the charges. And then she says she was critical the judge's decision, quote, these as kids we are talking about. It was guns involved. It was more than one crime committed here for the judge to not take it serious. I got a problem with that, unquote. I imagine she does. This is her kids age 9 and 10. Omaha police say these two boys were abducted near 40th and grand. This happened just over a month ago. Officers pulled over the car. They said they found multiple firearms as well as the two children. Neither kid was injured. And these teenagers say, oh, no, we were just hanging out with them. Teenagers hanging out with 9 and 10-year-olds. Uh, no. Were they, I mean, were these kids like tied up or gagged? I mean, were they just sitting in the back seat? Do we know any? I think they were just sitting in the back seat. The mom said that people associated with the teenagers who allegedly kidnapped her son, her sons, people are reaching out to her and threatening her saying, you're lying, these kids are lying, these are good kids. So Don Klein, Douglas County attorney, says we were just informed. We don't know what specific evidence the judge says she didn't have, but we plan on refiling the charges. So this is not done. Teenagers driving around with guns in the car, they're not necessarily just good kids. Well, I...

We'll let them handle all this. They are of age. They're 18 and 19 years old, but I don't mean. How many good kids are driving around with a whole bunch of guns in the back seat? I would like to ask these teenagers for what reason did you pick up the nine and the 10-year-old boys that you do not know. Yeah, what do you need? Why were they in the car? How did this happen? That's a dangerous question to start asking, Jim, but I've got a bunch of names for you here. Mine is Scott Voorhees. That's Jim Rose, Lucy Chapman, Courtney Donahoe, Craig Evans, all part of this. And a name I've heard a lot recently is Abdul El-Sayed. That's out of Michigan. And one of the more important names on this program is 1110 KFAB National Correspondent, Rory O'Neill, who joins us now. Rory, who is Abdul El-Sayed? Why is everyone talking about this guy? Well, he's a doctor who did public health policy there in the state of Michigan, and today he's on the ballot for the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat there. He's squaring off against four-term Congresswoman Haley Stevens. Now, El Sayed is he's not technically a Democratic socialist, but his beliefs certainly fall in those lines. He's backed by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whereas Congresswoman Stevens... She's been backed by Chuck Schumer. She used to work in the Obama administration. So you've sort of got traditional Democrat versus this much more left progressive wing of the party going head to head in this contest. They really will tell us where Democrats are in August of 26. Yeah, because this isn't some congressional district around a city, like New York City or something. This is the entire state of Michigan. which is purply. So this guy else I said, he says, no, no, I'm a capitalist. I just think that we need to have a lot of different safeguards and parameters on capitalism, which the more he talks, the more it sounds like what we've seen from Democratic Socialist candidates. Bernie Sanders seems to like this guy. What else are we looking at across the political landscape? We've got some primaries across America today. Yeah, we do. And just a couple notes on Abdul El-Sayed. He's also said some things that bring up issues of anti-Semitism. Those are some of the accusations that have been thrown at them. And the Democrats are worried because whoever wins this primary today is going to face off against Congressman Mike Rogers or former Congressman Mike Rogers there in Michigan. And the Democrats need to win Michigan if they have any chance of retaking the U.S. Senate. So they think that Stevens is the better bet. when you're looking at November, but right now she's trailing in the polls. There are a couple of other Michigan races on to watch in the 7th District. There's a divided Democratic establishment there in that congressional fight. We've also got races in Kansas, Missouri, Virginia, and in Washington State.

Yeah, the socialists feel good about what's going on in Missouri to Missouri, Missouri's one. Cori Bush, a dreadful human being who was bounced out a couple of years ago. She's a DSA. She's trying to unseat an incumbent in that race. What do you think? Yeah, because as you said, Bush is trying to win back the seat that she lost two years ago to Congressman Wesley Bell. So this is sort of a revenge race that could be pretty, or it has been pretty spicy. Let's see who turns out for this one. And that's the other factor in this. It's a Democratic primary. you don't know who's going to show up and in what numbers because it's really tough to poll on this. Look, it's the first Tuesday in August. A lot of families who've got stuff to do, family vacation, summer vacation. You know, I got kids at home to deal with. People don't necessarily set aside that time to vote today. And that's why the polling, especially for a primary, is so off most of the time. What do you make Rory of this? Our good friends, George Soros, and his son, who have funded a lot of campaigns in this country. He's a billionaire from Europe. He's sitting this one out. He has so far given zero money to the Democrat National Committee. They are actually getting outraged by Republicans right now, largely because of that. Is he the only Democrat super donor who doesn't like how these socialists, even though he's won, these social... are winning, which could hamstring their chances of actually capturing the office? First of all, it's a great question, and I'm going to counter it with a second question. Why are people voting for these Democratic socialists? You know, because we're seeing they have had some moderate successes. What? I think they had 27 contests. They won like seven of them. They've lost 11. Some are still to come. You know, why is it voters are appealing? Why is it to these candidates appeal to voters? I think it's another big question. Well, I think, else, well-spoken and good on social media. I think it's because the energy in that party is on that side. I mean, just like anybody else, it's a midterm election. The energy is eh. And so the energy is among the socialists. the elite educated whites, high-money whites who are out there pounding the pavement talking about how we need to be socialist. But they're the ones turning out. Yeah, I say that's true with the candidates. I just don't know where that's coming from in the population that's voting for them, right? I mean, but that's the way they're turning out. It's been a conversation to point on this and a lot of other programs. Rory, we'll cut you loose this morning and talk again soon. I appreciate your viewpoints this morning right here. Thanks, Scott. It's 1110 KFAB National Correspondent, Rory O'Neill here on Nebraska's Morning News. One of the big issues, people say that they don't feel secure in their jobs, the prices of everything's going up, and they can't afford housing, they can't afford health care costs, and all these things are going up and up and up, and what they're able to make or what they're able to do in terms of whatever jobs they can cobble together.

isn't keeping pace with being able to afford those things. They feel like they're losing that American dream. So let's just scrap the entire American dream and go with democratic socialism. That's why people are voting for these candidates. And maybe we need to burn the village to save it in this way, Scott. There is no exposure to the current Gen Z, Gen Y, or millennial generation. to the Soviet Union, the old Soviet Union. It collapsed before they were born. So they don't know what socialism looks like. They don't know what communism looks like. All they know is what they were taught by their liberal teachers in middle school or high school or college. They've never experienced it. They've never seen it. Those who immigrated from those countries or who defected from those countries to this one, don't talk about it anymore because they're naturalized citizens. Part of it is the education gap. Oh, it sounds so good. Yeah. It's never worked. It won't work. You see enough examples today if you're paying attention that if you really believe in Democrat socialism, which is very close to pure communism, just look at what they want to do and compare that to communism. It's very, very similar. It's because the younger generation that believes this don't have any idea what this looks like. No. The people who live through the Cold War do. They haven't thought it through. Let's just get all the rich people to pay to feed all the people who don't have that money. And don't want to work. How much does that cost? And at what point do we run out of that money? And then what? That's what they don't follow through. They think there's an endless supply of someone else's money. And I got news for you. There isn't. Right. Well, and they don't, you know, the rich folks don't pay enough tax. Forgetting the fact that Elon Musk paid $23 billion in tax last year. $23 billion in tax. He can afford to pay a little more. Yeah, Jeff Bezos paid $21 billion in tax. Now, do they have a lot? Yeah, both of them made it on their own. They'll be all right. I guess the achievement is no longer welcome in this country. But the idea that. 23 billion in tax isn't enough? Besides, Elon Musk is about to blow a hole in the moon. Hear this story. Craig Evans reported it earlier today here on Nebraska's morning news. Great to have you with us, by the way. On news radio, 1110, KFAB, Jim Rose with the Rosie to Genozy in just a moment. Lucy Chapman and Craig there. I am Scott Voorhees. A drifting SpaceX rocket is on a collision course with the moon. This is after launching a pair of lunar landers more than a year ago. It will impact the moon at 5,400 miles per hour, seven times the speed of sound. And it will unfold in the wee hours of wind. When is this going to happen? Because if you're watching this with a telescope, tomorrow morning, early tomorrow morning.

There will be a smash-up on the moon's near side, packing the equivalent energy of three tons of TNT. There will be an impact flash lasting a split second, too dim to see with the naked eye. But if you're watching on a telescope, you could see that. And the stream of ejected material, aka moon dust, that will start stretching into space. As far as is this going to be a problem? The impact will not be a problem, according to this astrophysicist. But in a future where there are long-term bases on the moon, we don't want to have some of these things go flying into someone's neighborhood or golf course up there on the moon. I guess we'll have that someday. I prefer the moon not be target practice for space junk.