Lars Larson Northwest Podcast 2026-08-11

Quiet, please. Ladies and gentlemen. Are you ready for the bit so? In exactly 15 seconds, we'll be on the air. is the Lars Larson Show. President Trump is one badass president. He secured the border at the level we've never seen before. Honestly, provocative talk with Lars Larson. For our country and for our children, the best is yet to come. Broadcasting across the Pacific Northwest and covering Oregon, Washington, and Idaho on the Radio Northwest Network. Mars and Niles. He is an existential threat to democracy. Here's your host. Quiet place. Larson. Hey, welcome back to the Juars Larson Show. It's a Tuesday, and it's a pleasure to be with you. I'm glad to get to your phone calls and emails, and thanks for joining me on the Radio Northwest Network, which has for more than 30 years served the Pacific Northwest States of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, providing honestly provocative talk on a regular basis. Now, we've got a number of things to talk about today. Before I get to the crazy claims that were made on behalf of a Seattle criminal justice program. I mean, they were claiming that this thing was the best thing since sliced bread, that it would make people in the program 58% less likely to be arrested, felony charges following by almost 40% that all of these former criminals were going to be reformed, they were going to find housing, and they were going to find jobs. And then it turns out that's not absolutely true at all. And I'm going to cite a great story done by one of our colleagues in Talk Radio, and that's Ari Hoffman of our Seattle affiliate, KVI. But before I get to that, first, welcome to the program. If you want to take part in the best conversation in talk journalism, it happens here every single day. At 866, hey, Lars, that's 866-439-277. If you're a naysayer, for 30 years, naysayers have always gone to the head of the line on this program, and they always will. I'm glad to hear from naysayers. I get a lot of emails from people who want to argue with me about one thing or another, and I said, Do yourself a favor and do my audience of favor. Call the show as a naysair. And tell my audience all across the Pacific Northwest, about a million strong or so, according to the best estimates, tell them why I'm wrong about what it is that you want to audio about. I mean, somebody actually emailed me this morning and said, you know, Donald Trump punched his teacher in the face and gave her a black eye. I said, well, actually, there is some truth to that. He wrote about it in the art of the deal, so it's not exactly a secret. But no, he said he was seven years old, and he punched his music teacher in the face. Actually, I said she. I think it was actually a male that he punched in the face, and the teacher says it never happened. And Trump may have exaggerated a bit, but that's the point. If you want to run around saying, well, Donald Trump's the kind of kid who would go out and punch his teacher in the face. At age seven?

Yeah, yeah, it sounds to me like one of those exaggerated stories. But let me get to the Seattle Jail Diversion Program in a moment. First, our poll on X, do the Democrat Socialists of America. And this is what the Democrat Party is turning into. They are turning into DSA. And DSA is gaining traction in so many places. You've got socialists like the mayor of Seattle, Katie Wilson. You've got a socialist slash communist in Zohran Mamdani in New York City. You've got other socialists that are very prominent, including people who've won the Democrat primaries in places like Manhattan, where it appears they will end up as members of the United States Congress. Is the DSA really representing America's working class citizens? Because that's what they claim. Except that when you take a close look at a DSA survey of its own membership, is it, in fact, America's working class? Well, 85% of the party's members were white five years ago in 2021, only 4% of them held working class jobs, and 80% of those in the DSA, who are 25 years and older, have college degrees. Now, you've got Abdul El-Sayed, who won in Michigan's Democrat primary for the U.S. Senate. He didn't win any of the 15 counties that have the lowest share of college degrees. In other words, where there are working class Americans working, but he won 13 of the 15 counties with the greatest number of college degrees. And what does the DSA stand for? They say, we want to tax the hell out of the rich. We want to defund the police. In other words, These are the kinds of positions they say represent the point of view of America's working class citizens. I'd say no to the question, but you can vote on our X poll any way you like. You'll find the question at Lars Larson Show on X. You'll also find it on our website at Lars Larson.com and brought to you by Ultimate Truck Services. If you rely on trucks for business, Ultimate keeps your biggest assets on the road and running right. Find them at Ultimate TruckService.com. Let me tell you about this program in Seattle, but I'm going to rely on the very good reporting of our colleague Ari Hoffman at our Seattle station, and that's KVI. A Seattle criminal justice diversion program that has become a model for countries, counties across the United States, was promoted with dramatic claims. They claimed for about a decade that Seattle's law enforcement assistance diversion, called the LEED program, was producing these results. Participants were 58% less likely to be arrested. Felony charges fell by 39%. And employment and housing outcomes improved dramatically. In other words, everything that a conservative would want to have happened in a criminal justice program, you get the criminal out of crime, you make it less likely for them to be

committing new crimes and getting arrested, you make it more likely that they're going to find an honest law-abiding job, and that they're going to stay out of trouble and live in conventional housing. The only problem is there's a brand new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and this one dates back to 2019. The report shows that three times as many of the participants in the lead program died compared to those who found jobs. So if you told people... It's going to have this dramatic effect. It's going to get people out of crime. It's going to get them back to reform to living a straight and lawful life, except it's more likely, three times more likely, to kill them. The lead research has been promoted with claims that participants' odds of being housed increased by 89%. if they got permanent housing. Of 146 participants who were unhoused, when they enter the program, an estimated average of 19 of them found permanent housing in any given month. The problem is they're not finding them housing. They're not finding them jobs. They're more likely to end up dead. They said shelter placement performed somewhat better with an estimated 31 participants getting sheltered in a given month. But they said even combining all of those numbers, there's only about a 35% success rate for this lead program. So they're spending a lot of money. They're making huge promises. They're promising that they'll get the criminals out of the criminal lifestyle, back into housing, back into a job, not likely to be arrested. And it turns out most of that is not simply true. Glad to have you with me and glad to take your calls. At 866, hey, Lars, that's 866-439-277. Send your emails to talk at Larslarsen.com. Our ex-pull question, do the Democrat Socialists of America, the DSA, really represent America's working-class citizens? I would answer that one. No, you can answer it any way you like. Today's X-Bull question can be found at Lars Larson Show and brought to you by Ultimate Truck Services. If you rely on trucks for business, Ultimate keeps your biggest assets on the road and running right, find them at Ultimate Truck Service.com. Coming up in just a moment. We're going to get to the Northwest nonsense. We've got a couple of important things to tell you there. And then we'll talk about a program that is spending taxpayer money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, to support what they call trans refugees. In other words, Transsexuals who are looking for free surgery paid for by the taxpayers and the Seattle City Council wants to spend the taxpayers money to provide it for them. The surgery, top or bottom, and all the rest of that. You're listening to the Lars Larson Show and the Radio Northwest Network.

If you're losing it now. Morning people wake up for peace and quiet. McDonald's breakfast people? We wake up for the sweet rush of getting that warm, delicious breakfast right before it ends. Hotcakes, sausage patty, hash browns, scrambled eggs, biscuit, real butter and syrup. You know how our big breakfast got its name, and you know where your whole family can share one for just $6. McDonald's. Limited time only, price and participation may vary cannot be combined with any other offer or combo meal. If you don't want to talk but want to be heard, email Lars at talk at Larslarson.com. He actually will read it. Now, here's Lars Larson. That makes a lot of sense, a lot of nonsense. Right, your body will write. You know, you got a right to sit. This is the Northwest nonsense. How much longer do we have to sit for this nonsense? great moment every day where Lars brings you the cold hard facts without any liberal wokeness from the daily dead fish wrapper or mainstream media bias hey a very simple question does dumb as a bag of hammers do justice to the sheer idiocy of the Maltima county commission We now find out that the county chair hired a former Portland Trailblazers executive to represent the county in negotiations with the Trailblazers for the moda makeover the NBA team is trying to extort from the taxpayers of Oregon. Not only that, but we only found out late last week that former Trailblazer executive Chris Oxley is the president of the board for Sport, Oregon. Now, what is Sport Oregon? It is a group that has been lobbying the city. of Portland and the county, Multnomah County, to back a $600 million remodel of the Motor Center. You've hired as your consultant in buying something the folks who are arguing for selling something. Sounds to me like Multlimb County has hired the Fox to negotiate setting up security for the hen house. And nobody seems to want to challenge Blazer owner Tom Dundon and then call his bluff, as I've suggested. Yes, he demands a moda fix-up or he'll leave town. Only the NBA will charge Dundon a relocation fee of up to $1 billion. which makes the move-out threat ring kind of hollow. Tell Dundon, if he wants to make tenant improvements to the moda, he's welcome to use his own cash. After all, the Blazers pay no property taxes, they pay no rent, and they get most of the cash from concessions and parking. Is that deal not fat enough for Tommy Dundon? I don't know. Your calls are welcome at 866. Hey, Lars. That's 866-439-277. And by the way,

I've talked about that subject, the motor makeover, quite a bit in the last several weeks. I very, very rarely get any pushback. I very rarely get any kind of call that's a naysayer call saying, oh, no, it's well worth it to the taxpayers to fund two-thirds of a billion dollars, mostly, nearly all, to benefit a billionaire, when, in fact, the city and the county and the state all claim to be so short of cash right now, all of them. that they can't even supply the basic needs of citizens, but they have the money for the luxuries, like helping out a billionaire? Our question of the day, which is brought to you by Multlima Medical Clinic, no pills, no shots, no surgery, fix what's really causing the problem at Multnom a Medical Clinic. Colleen Vaughn writes in, Lars, Good thing that Peabot, that's the Portland Bureau of Transportation, is all caught up on road maintenance and has all this extra money lying around. Google says two projects in particular will cost almost $2 million. In my neighborhood, they're turning one street into a parkway. Google shows it's going to cost $590,000 for that, which means it'll actually cost closer to $890,000. I think a city official must live on that street. I thought I remembered Peabot being underfunded. I guess they're gold. now. Seriously, Keybot reminds me of Pegbundee. If you ever saw married with children, the show was trashy, but Peg Bundy was a housewife that spent all the money on herself. And then when the kids had nothing to eat, Al Bundy had to go out and make some money somehow. I really think that show was about the government and his taxpayers signed Colleen Vaughn. And my favorite post on X today so far. A must-watch clip from the pandemic. In 2021, CNN hunted down and confronted a doctor for spreading what CNN called misinformation online. What some of that misinformation was spreading, that masks might not work and that vaccines can be dangerous. CNN hunted this guy down at his home and then told him he had blood on his hand. because he was questioning the safety and the effectiveness of experimental vaccines. This is such a good reminder of the pressure, the viciousness, the attacks, the censorship, and the shaming. The same CNN is telling us now that Anthony Fauci wasn't really responsible for anything that happened during the pandemic. And by the way, After the pandemic, even CNN is reported on studies that show masking didn't work at all. Did they issue an apology to the doctor? The Center for Countering Digital Hate, which is a corrupt left-wing attack group that puts out bogus studies, put out his dirty dozen report in early 21. The Biden administration used that report to pressure social media companies to censor people who are questioning the vaccine. Early in 21 was the same time that Anthony Fauci, Biden, Rochelle Walensky, and others were lying about the effectiveness of the vaccine in order to get people to take it. Now, now today's Daily Grill. Insane.

Ridiculous. They get more and more ridiculous. Flat out dumb. You're even Denver than I thought. Who deserves today's Lars Grill of the Day? Maybe they're just really, really stupid. Prejected by Oregon City Garage Door. Well, I want to award today's Daily Grill to the Washington Democrats who argued in Olympia at the state level in Washington State to spend $20 million for what? on long-term care for immigrants. Now, these happen to be legal immigrants. That is, people who came into the United States, and they are here legally and working legally. But they are not eligible for Medicaid. So what did the state of Washington do? They said, we have to make these people eligible. So to cover their long-term care, Democrats had allocated $20 million to cover supposedly... 1,200 non-citizens. You know what? At the end of the day, we now find out this week the money only covered 173 people. Now, I've done the math for you. 20 million divided by 173 means that for non-citizens who are not eligible for Medicaid, the state of Washington, out of its taxpayer money, was funding each one of those with $15,000. If anybody thinks that's the right way to do things, I'd be glad to take the phone call. My favorite post on social media, Norm wrote on social media, I moved from Multnomah County three years ago due to the taxed the rich mentality. I've never understood taxing people more for trying to improve their lifestyle. Now I'm hearing that the Multnomah County and the mayor and a counselor are donating $10,000 each to prevent an ICE detention center in Newport on the Oregon coast. He's absolutely right. That news broke, yes?

need the money they should put the money back in the budget to fund more police support for our community shame on them sign norm and i agree why in the world would it make sense for a member of the portland city council and the mayor to spend money so that newport discourages ice from building an illegal alien detention center So Portland doesn't want to have the ICE detention center, and they don't want any other city in Oregon to have an ICE detention center. Are they really looking out for the best interests of citizens if they tell ICE, we don't want you to enforce federal law here, and we'll do everything we can to block you. Coming up in a moment, Oregon Democrats want to slam the brakes on the data center gold rush is the state finally saying enough or scaring off some big money. That's up next. The Lars Larson Show. Portland's News Trafficking. Portland's News Trafficking...

reviews, podcasts, local and national news. Get it all at larslarson.com. Now, back to the Lars Larson Show. Hey, welcome back to the Lars Larson Show. I've got no dog in the fight on this next subject, although it's been interesting enough to watch from a distance about data centers, especially here in the western United States. Well, Oregon Democrats want to slam the brakes on the data center gold rush. Is the state of Oregon finally saying enough, or is it scaring off big money and opportunities for the state and perhaps for the region? Kara Boonder joins me now, who's Director of Government Affairs for the West at the Data Center Coalition. Ms. Boomer, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me. So tell me this. What's the proper answer on this? Because ordinarily, I mean, from my point of view as a conservative, if the Democrats are saying yes, I figure I should probably say no. But I'm keeping an open mind about this. Are these data centers a gigantic boondoggle? Are they going to raise our power rates in a crazy way? Are they going to burn up or use up all the available cooling water? Are they actually something where you can justify them as a public investment? Sure, I think you ask a couple of great questions there. And getting at the crux of what a data center provides, the data centers are not only related to AI. This is the infrastructure that underpins banking, air travel, hospitals, e-commerce, tele-house, streaming, government services, the everyday things people depend on. The average American household now has 21 connected devices, and data centers are what make those things work. You asked specifically about data centers are going to raise electricity prices. There's research out there that shows that data centers can help provide downward pressure on electricity rates and that there are a variety of other factors that are leading to those higher utility costs that we're seeing. Whether those be supply chain shocks, the need to upgrade and harden the grid due to more extreme weather events or things like wildfires, just a variety of different factors are at play here. But I'd love to touch upon some of the other aspects that you talked about as well, including the economic benefits that are associated with data centers. And are there economic, because when you look at the construction usually involves quite a few people, but once they're up and operating, I think usually the security team at a data center is bigger than the number of Brainiacs who are inside writing codes. So data centers in Oregon, according to a report from TWC, supported over 60,000 jobs in Oregon. But looking at things beyond jobs, if you look at tax revenue, data centers provided $1 billion of tax revenue and $10.7 billion in contributions to the GDP. I think it's also important to remember that these are high wage jobs and that... tax revenue can help provide funding for other local priorities, whether that's education, roads, public safety, or tax relief at large for residents and small businesses. For example, we've seen some jurisdictions that are seeing large amounts of data center growth and that associated tax revenue influx be able to do things like lower property taxes for the residents that live there.

I'm talking to Kara Boonder, who's Director of Government Affairs at the Data Center Coalition. Here's one of the things I find troubling about this, Kara, is when I buy equipment for my little business or radio business, which I've been in radio a long time, I don't get tax write-offs. I don't get tax exemptions for being in that business. But these data centers are getting tax exemptions. If they're the kind of gigantic economic boon for both the people investing in them and for the states that they're located in, then why do we need to give them the kind of tax breaks that we've routinely seen both counties and states offer up to the data centers? If they're a good economic deal, let them pay their own way like every other business that might want to come in. I think that's a good question, but I'd also say that there's, you know, other industries that do see tax exemptions for the types of machinery and equipment that goes into the, go into those facilities, for example, manufacturing facilities. And so a data center, especially given the amount of capital investment that's required to put that machinery and technological equipment into the facility, that does become a big deciding factor in terms of where a data center is going to locate. Not every jurisdiction offers an exemption for that equipment or different types of tax relief, but it does make a jurisdiction more competitive if that is something that's available. But I would just say that there are a lot of other factors that go into consideration when the data centers deciding where to locate. Of course, we need to have access to reliable fiber connectivity, access to reliable power. access to land, and of course having that workforce that is able to help construct, operate, and maintain a data center. I mean, when you're looking at the size of these facilities, the length of these construction jobs, it's just a sheer amount of work that goes into from all the electrical workers, the steam fitters, the pipe fitters, you know, carpenters, you name it, that are really part of this broader ecosystem. Okay, so Kara, let me ask you about this, though, because what is the expected life of these data centers? They're full of computers, and I know a lot of the fabs, and you kind of reference the fabs in passing saying they get a break because they'll put all this expensive stuff in there, and they typically get, they don't have to pay full taxes on a lot of those investments. But if this stuff is good for four or five years, it means four or five years from now, they're going to have to rebuild the entire data center with all brand new technology and brand new computers. And who's going to pay for that? And what happens to the public investment in buying all the computers and stuff that went into this data center that are outmoded in four or five years in a, I guess, a lane-like artificial intelligence? So I would say that the data center itself is not becoming obsolete or inoperable, but the equipment that is inside a data center does need to be upgraded and refresh to keep up the pace of the type of technology that is supporting those products and services.

So if we're looking at something like servers and IT hardware, that's about a three to five year refresh on average. But the broader, the other systems that are in place there, whether you're looking at the cooling and power systems in the entire facility, that definitely has a much longer lifespan. So I don't want the impression to be that these are facilities are going to become obsolete. But there is the need to upgrade and refresh this equipment in there. And that's to make sure that this is deploying the cutting edge of technology. but also being able to deploy more efficient technologies from these data centers as well. See, and that's the thing I'm wondering about is if in three to five years all of the old computers are now outmoded and you have to replace it with brand new computers, do you keep that same building, or do you have to rebuild the whole thing, assuming that you're going to make it more efficient than the last one, or are you able to keep the existing sort of physical infrastructure and just plug new servers in? Yeah, my understanding is that the equipment and hardware is being refreshed within those facilities themselves. Every three to five years, you have to take all the technology you just bought and toss it and then put new in? I don't believe it's, you know, all at once. I think there's probably a cycle within which that needs to be refreshed. But unfortunately, I can't get into the specifics of how and when and, you know, at what exact time that that equipment is refreshed. But it is about a three to five refresh cycle. Sorry, just very quickly. So when you see Governor Kotech intervening and stopping a data center in Salem from buying state property, is that a good move for citizens or a bad move? So I can't speak directly to that specific scenario, but I can speak to, you know, the broader trend of moratoria that we're seeing in various places. I think especially for an industry that relies so heavily on certainty. I mean, again, these are very large popular investment projects. They feel and contrary in the ground. That's something concerning signal, not old. Yeah, I'm here. Kara, thank you very much. That's Kara Boomer from the Data Center Coalition.

Think about selling your home. If you're surrounded by Northwest liberals. I cannot stand these morons any longer. If you don't come with me, I should run amok. Come to the place where common sense prevails, the Lars Larson Show. Hey, welcome back to the Lars Larson Show, and welcome back to the Radio Northwest Network serving the Pacific Northwest States of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho with honestly provocative talk. It's a real pleasure to be with you, and I'll get to your calls in a moment. At 866, Hey, Lars. And of course, naysayers always go to the headline at 866-439. 5277. Send your emails to talk at larslarsen.com. And this segment of the show is brought to you by E-Legacy. You have spent your entire life building your wealth up. Don't leave it unprotected. Set your kids and grandkids up for success, the way Tina and I did by creating a customized estate plan with E-Legacy. Go to e-legacylars.com and set up a complimentary consultation. That's e-legacylars, all one word, dot com. I want to welcome Josh Tom. to the program. He serves as executive director of the Oregon 811. That's the OUNC, the Oregon Utility Notification Center, which, by the way, I've used about a dozen times in the last two years. Josh, welcome to the program on National 811 Day. Thank you, Lars. I can't thank you enough for having me on, and especially for using 811 and sharing testimonials all year to help us prevent damage and injury. I know there are people who roll their eyes when I tell them, well, look, I do call 8-1-1, or I go online, and I do, you know, I get a ticket going to have them come out and mark things, because if I'm going to dig in the ground, I want to make sure I don't dig into a power line or a natural gas line. You don't do as much with water lines, do you? But, boy, those other two, they can either kill you or cost you a whole lot of money if you don't call 8-1-1 ahead of time. That's for certain, and we do do water, and Nike, just outside the Nike headquarters last month, found that out the hard way. There was a 120-foot high geyser out in front of there that sprayed for about an hour before that was brought in control. Don't tell me Nike didn't call 8-1-1 or put in a ticket. They're contractors. I'm not going to put this on Nike. I think it was just outside of the headquarters, but they certainly noticed it. It looked like Old Faithful. The height of a 12-story building of water because they hit a pipe? Yep. And that's just one of many stories that make the news, but there's thousands of stories that you never hear about that affect people's lives, either financially or in worst cases, can send them to the hospital or the morgue. And by the way, Josh, one of the things that I don't think people realize, correct me if I'm wrong, but if I call 811 or I go online and do an 811 ticket to have them come out and mark.

uh... if i do that and i still hit something uh... within reason i've somewhat limited my liability haven't i or am i wrong about that No, you're correct. You want to do the right thing. And it's free. It costs nothing. So it's crazy to me that people still roll the dice and take their chances and dig blind and hope for the best. And they end up finding things the hard way. But you're right. It doesn't, as we like to say, it only costs you unless you don't use our service. Because when you've got those marks on the ground, you've gotten certainty that when you're digging, you're not going to hit something and find it the hard way and end up having to pay for it. No, and that's great because I've had friends who've hit fiber optic lines. Not a good thing. And, of course, nobody likes it when their power goes out or their cable goes out because some knucklehead with a backhoe or an excavator ends up putting a shovel through something that they shouldn't have done. But it's National 811 Day, and we're glad to recommend that you call 811 if you're going to dig or go online and do a ticket. I can tell you, it's relatively easy to do. And is the system getting any more? say, unified and tied together between from state to state and county to county? Absolutely. That's the beauty of all across the country if you call or contact 811. And we've got a lot of front doors. You can use our website. You can also use our free app. But the system keeps evolving. And it's really is a one-stop shop to make sure that you get all of your utilities marked with color-coded paint. So you've got certainty of before you dig. And it's not telling you you can't dig over those lines. It's just telling you to exercise caution. And so, yeah, in Oregon and all across the U.S., the system just keeps improving. It's never perfect. It never will be, but that's what we aspire to. I mean, if you're going to dig around the lines, just take it a little slower and listen for when the end of your shovel hits a plastic conduit of some kind, and then you should probably stop altogether. Hey, Josh, thank you very much. I appreciate what you do at the Oregon 811 Center. Thank you, Lars. We appreciate you too. Thank you very much. It is Tuesday. It's the Radio Northwest Network. I got a little warning for you. We've been telling you for the last several years, actually more than several years, probably closer to a decade, that the Northwest is going to be running short of power, electric power in particular. And why? Well, they've been tearing out dams. That's not good. They've been shutting down nuclear plants. That's not good. They've been discontinuing coal-fired plants like the Boardman coal plant in Oregon, the Centrelia plants in Washington State, and in Oregon it's literally illegal to build a new nuclear power plant to supply electric power. It's illegal to build or expand on natural gas-fired electricity. And now guess what we're hearing from the city of Seattle? Seattle's City Light.

is now saying its customers are going to see their electric bills go up get this they've already been going up already but they are going to go up 80 percent eight zero percent over the next six years so think about roughly 12 or 13 percent a year if it was spread out evenly over those six years from 2027 to 2032 they said the overall plan passed by the seattle city council Two weeks later, the council approved the first of two 9.5% rate increases buried in the dozens of pages that make up the documents. There are plans for even more. They show a 9.8% rate scheduled for 2029, jumping to 11.2 in 2030, and then in 2013, there's another 11.2 increase followed by an 11.6 in 2032. Now, all of this is unnecessary. All of this could be avoided if we simply said we're going to produce enough power. We could have additional hydro. I'm not talking about big dams like Bonneville, but there's a lot of low-head hydro that is available in the Pacific Northwest. We could be building water storage, which would pay off both for reduction in flood potential, also increase in irrigation potential, and generating power. But we're choosing not to do it. And then the idea that we've made it illegal to build nuclear, illegal to build natural gas plants, and we're only going to go with wind and solar, and the wind only blows one-third of the day, and the sun only shines, on average, one-third of a day, and that's how we're going to supply the power. Get ready for the power rate increases because they are coming. This segment of the Lars Larsson Show, brought to you by E-Legacy. Prepare for the future. Go to elegacylars.com and set up a complimentary consultation. You're listening to the Radio Northwest Network. The Lars Larson Show. Thank you.

Your FM News 101. Morning people wake up for peace and quiet. McDonald's breakfast people, we wake up for the sweet rush of getting that warm, delicious breakfast right before it ends. Hotcakes, sausage patty, hash browns, scrambled eggs, biscuit, real butter and syrup. You know how our big breakfast got its name, and you know where your whole family can share one for just $6. McDonald's. Limited time only, price and participation may vary cannot be combined with any other offer or combo meal. is the Lars Larson Show. President Trump is one badass president. He secured the border at the level we've never seen before. Honestly, provocative talk with Lars Larson. For our country and for our children, the best is yet to come. Broadcasting across the Pacific Northwest and covering Oregon, Washington, and Idaho on the Radio Northwest Network. And now. He is an existential threat to democracy. Here's your host. Quiet, please. Lars Larson. Welcome back to the Larson Show. It's a pleasure to be with you. You know, just for the sake of context, I'm going to tell you I've been doing this show for about 30 years. And I remember in the very first year that I did it full time. on the Radio Northwest Network and on our flagship station, KXL, I can remember talking about the war on the car. And I got people who mocked and ridiculed the idea that Portland and much of the Northwest has declared war on the car, that they want the car driven out of existence, pun intended, I guess, and they want people not to drive their cars, except all of those policies and all the literally billions of dollars that have been spent with that end in mind. has not actually produced a non-car driving public. And that's pointed out by Randall O'Toole, who's a Thoreau Institute policy analyst and a Cascade Policy Institute adjunct scholar and the author of six books, including Gridlock. Randall, welcome back to the program. Hi, glad to be here. So if I make the case that there is by government and by people in government in the northwest, a war on the car is there factual basis for making that claim? Absolutely. You know, Portland has this regional planning agency called Metro, and their regional transportation plan consists of a transit plan, a pedestrian plan, and a bicycle plan, and a freight plan, but there's no automobile plan. The automobile plan that you read into all the other plans is, let's take away lanes from the automobile and give them to buses. Let's take away lanes from the automobile and give them to bicycles. Let's shut down freeways. Let's not build any more roads. That's the automobile plan, and that's the war on the automobile. You know, it's funny because I used to always point out that places like Western Europe.

It was notoriously expensive to buy a car. It was notoriously expensive to license a car, to fuel a car, to park a car, and that the roads weren't necessarily built for cars the way they are in the United States, and especially in the Western United States. But then in Western Europe, there was a great reason not to be in cars, and yet the number of miles driven per capita. has continued to go up even as young people growing up in western europe have run into all the expenses i just mentioned expensive cars expensive licensing expensive fueling and everything else and yet they still want to drive cars and america is no different is it is it and and europe has poured billions and billions of dollars into intercity trains and urban transit and so on and so forth 85% of all of our travel is by automobile and next to 0% is by train. In Europe, 80% is by automobile and 5% is by train. So all those extra costs they've dumped on people to drive, all those wonderful trains that they've built all over the place have at best gotten 5% of people out of their cars and on the trains. I think you might have said 80% for America, and it was actually 95%. But tell me this. I'm talking to Randallotool. Go ahead. Lars, it's 80% nationwide. It's 95% in the city of Portland, in the Portland area. Because when you factor in those big cities like, what, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, transit takes a bigger percentage there. But even there, it's not even a third of the commuters, is it? Except for New York. No, it's nothing. In fact, in the New York urban area, it's only about 20% of commuters. In other urban areas, it's down below 10%. But what the difference is is intercity drive, intercity travel. We fly so much intercity that that depresses the total amount of travel as by automobile. So, Randall, tell me this. Are you finding in doing the research on this that Portland's war on cars in particular is actually hurting the people of the city of Portland? Well, absolutely it is. It hurts low-income people the most because they have the fewest alternatives and that we think, oh, we're providing transit for them. Well, transit is a very bad alternative to automobiles. Unless you work downtown, transit can't get you from there. It doesn't go anywhere except downtown. So about 30% of people who work downtown commute by transit. and about 3% of people who work everywhere else in the region commute by transit. It just doesn't work. And if you're low income and you don't want to spend a lot of money on cars, well, transit is not a viable alternative. So you have to spend a significant chunk of your income. You have to sit in traffic like everybody else. You have to pay all kinds of costs that people who are higher income can often avoid because they work at home, they have flex time.

you know, they do other things to be able to avoid having to sit in traffic. And by the way, one of the studies, the lines that you wrote that I said stood out to be in the most. The average Portland resident, I would imagine this would apply probably to Seattle as well, can reach 10 times as many jobs in a 60-minute automobile trip as in a 60-minute transit trip and more than 60 times as many jobs in a 20-minute auto trip as a 20-minute transit trip. That's stunning. You know, the amazing thing is our transit system is so bad, and it's not Portland's transit system. It's transit nationwide, with the possible exception of New York. Anyway, transit is so bad is you can get to more jobs on a bicycle in 20, 30, 40, 50 minutes than you can by transit. Transit is just slow and it doesn't go where you want to go, whereas you can take a bicycle, just like a car, you can take it on any street and go where you want to go the most direct route. Now, the one line you won't get a pushback from the transit fans, transit costs six times as much as driving. Would you mind explaining that? Well, Americans spend about 35 cents a passenger mile driving their cars. And there are subsidies to driving, but they add up to about a penny and a half of passenger mile. So the total cost, about 37, 38 cents a passenger mile. The total cost of transit is more than $2 a passenger mile. Now, we only charge riders about 30 cents. Which means if you're driving a car and you have a passenger, you're paying less for passenger mile than transit. But when you add up all the subsidies, there are almost $2 a passenger mile. Because 90% of our transit costs are subsidized. And when people say we should subsidize our transit more like Europe does, well, Europe actually only subsidizes about 60%. about 40% of the operating costs of transit. 60% of the cost of transit is paid for by fares. Canada, it's about 40% in the United States. Less than 20% of the operating cost is paid for by fares. So we are the most heavily subsidized transit systems in the world. Europe. Fares pay more than the operating costs on average. Boy, wouldn't that be nice to have that here. That is Randall O'T-Toole? Randall is a Thoreau Institute policy analyst. He's at the Cascade Policy Institute as well. He's the author of six different books, including one called Gridlock. Randall, thank you very much. Back in a moment, you're listening to the Lars Larson Show and the Radio Northwest now.

Commercial Property. Ah, taxes. What's your Robin Hood? So you think you're overtax? Overtaxed, overworked, and paid off with a knife of club or a rope. Why, you speak treason? Fluently. This is the Lars Larson Show. Hey, welcome back to the Lars Larson Show. Well, we're finding out a lot about the DSA. That's the Democrat Socialist of America. And the DSA is rapidly becoming the face of the Democrat Party in the United States, whether the conventional Democrats wanted to happen or not. I want to talk about what we've heard recently from a woman by the name of Francis Gill, who's with the DSA. And she didn't do this in a big network news interview. She did it with a local TV station in Los Angeles, NBC4. There's a local acre, Conan Nolan, who had some really good questions. for this woman. She's a board of directors member from the Democrat Socialists of America. But let me get into that in just a moment. First, welcome to the Lars Larson Show. It's a pleasure to be with you, and I'm glad to get to your phone calls and emails at 866. Hey, Lars. That's 866 439-277. Send your emails to talk at Larslarsen.com. And our ex-pull ties in nicely with this subject because we decided to ask you today, do the DSA really represent? represent America's working class citizens. Now, that's what they would tell you. It's what they tell. The comments that are made by those politicians who identify as members of the DSA, they say, we're the working class of America. The problem is 85% of the party's members are white. That's based on the DSA's own survey. Only 4% of them held working class jobs, and 80% of DSA members who are 25 and older have college degrees. So that does not exactly speak to we represent the working class of America. So does the DSA represent America's working class? I want to answer that one. No. You can answer the question any way you like. You'll find it at Lars Larson Show and at Lars Larson.com. So what happens? When a young lady like Francis Gill on the DSA's National Political Committee goes on a local TV news interview in Los Angeles, California on NBC4, and she's asked about the fact that the DSA wants to do away with the police altogether. A policy agenda on law enforcement is to defund police ultimately to get rid of police departments, correct? Well, what I would say is that we're dramatically overspending on police right now. I understand that the goal is to defund the police department so we don't need them in the future. I think it's what we really want to see as a horizon where folks are not reliant on armed enforcement to meet our public safety need. Now hold on a second. Think about that for just a moment. In other words, when it comes to public safety, let's say you or a member of your family is assaulted.

And who do you call? The police. Well, you're dependent on the police. Well, yeah, who am I supposed to call when I'm assaulted by somebody who has the power to come and arrest that person? Only this woman, Francis Gill, does not believe not only should there not be police, there shouldn't be any prisons either. Take a listen. But it says defund police on the website. That's your goal. And also to get rid of prisons and jails, correct? Yes. So if my daughter is assaulted and raped, is there any agency that would seek to find her assailant and bring him to justice? Now, Francis Gill is smart enough that when she was asked that question, is there going to be somebody who's going to bring this to bring the rapist or bring the assaulted person to justice? goal of the say defund the police get rid of prisons and jails and eradicate crimes by removing what she calls the root causes of what drives people to commit crimes now what is she means by that is the assumption is if you are committing crimes it's not because of something that is screwed up in you that you've decided that because you're a bit of a a sociopath that you believe that whatever's good for you even if it's bad for everybody else you're gonna go ahead and do it no they believe the only reason people commit crimes is because they are affected by outside forces bad education systemic racism things like that and so as a result what happens if there are no police and there are no prisons or jails what would it be if not police and where would he be if not a jail So I guess I really want to avoid getting kind of caught into these hypotheticals and talk more about the reality that we're actually facing right now, which is that we're spending absolutely outrageous amounts of money on police and policing, and we're not spending money on things that actually make people safe and feel safe, which is things like actually well-lit streets, the street lights in Los Angeles. Everybody agrees it's a huge problem. things like mental health care and substance use, substance use treatment. So things that drive people to commit crimes and that make our society less safe. We're not doing anything about the root causes. And instead we're funneling money into the police. No, funneling money into the police because all the things that cause people to commit crimes, that if somehow you could get rid of all those other things, people would just be nice to each other and you wouldn't need police anymore. People being assaulted and raped is somehow a hypothetical to Francis Gill? No, it's actually what's happening to people. Let me get to your calls. Let me start first with Eric. Hey, Eric, welcome to the Lars Larsson show. What's on your mind? Hey, Lars. How are you? I'm doing very well. What's up? Excellent, excellent. So a while back you mentioned... Seattle or the greater Washington area increasing energy costs by some 80% and Electron class are going to go up by 80% over the next six years. Yep, it's a bad situation. Right, right. And here up in Alaska, and again, I'm a Luddite. I'm never on the internet. I loosely follow even my local politics. So I'm no expert, but we have our own battle going on up here with an LNG.

gas pipeline that desperately needs to be put in so that we don't all freeze to death over the next couple of winters. And so that's what we're dealing with up here. But as I was listening to you, I had an uncle spent the majority of his adult life in Spokane and Burian, and he moved down to Arizona to the best move you ever made because pretty soon... You've got to have to wrap this up to a point, Eric, we're going to run out of time. So where are you going with all this? I wanted to let you know that your listeners have a great service with you to really make some moves on changing people in office. Thank you. I appreciate that. But, Eric, I mean, here's the thing I've got a concern about. We've been warning people. We're headed toward the edge when it comes to energy. And it's not just data center. It's the fact that the greenies in America have said turn off the nuclear plants and to a large extent they have been. Turn off the coal-fired plants and to a large extent they have been. Turn off the natural gas plants and don't build any more, even though we have an abundance of natural gas in the United States enough to last literally hundreds of years. And yet the greens want all of those things turned off and they want us to be subsisting on the energy, the relatively small amount that can come from wind and solar. and it just doesn't pencil out. The math doesn't make sense. But, Eric, I appreciate your kind words. Thanks very much for the call from Alaska. 866-439-277. You're listening to The Lars Larson Show and the Radio Northwest Network. The Lars Larson Show.

Portland's news travel. Dropping a Portland truth bomb. My favorite thing about living in Portland is no matter how many fent and all overdoses happen, no matter how many tents get set up, you can't blame black people for that. Back to Lars. Hey, welcome back to the Lars and Joe. Well, there have been a lot of ways to measure how effective the Trump administration has been at delivering on the president's promise that the biggest mass deportation in American history. So I could tell you lots of numbers, like the fact that the American border, our southern border, is more secure than it has been in about 50. 50 years. But another measure, and we just saw this number this week, or at least I saw it this week, the Trump administration has now revoked more than 175,000 visas. And it brings up the question, should America be even tougher about who gets to stay in our country? And when you make yourself so unpopular that you become persona non grata. Darren Smolkham joins me now. He's founder of the Modern Law Group, which has worked on about 10,000 immigration cases, and he's the author of Securing America's Future. Darren, welcome to the program. Hey, thanks for having me, Lars. I'm happy to be here. So what about that general question? Should we be kind of tough about saying America is this exceptional country and that if you want to come here and visit, you can, but you have to ask our permission. You can't enter illegally, as so many have, especially recently, about 10 million during President Autopin. But if you're going to come here, you have to be on your best behavior. And if you don't behave well, we're free to kick you up. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, when you look at visas, it's a little bit different than people that are already here. So there's kind of two problems we have to look at. The people that have come and some of which are deportable and others that have a visa to potentially come or are here for a specific purpose, let's say to be a student. A visa is permission to travel to America's door. It's not a status someone has once they're inside the country. somebody were to abuse this permission by getting arrested or something like that, then I think it's well within the right of the United States to revoke that visa for that person that's committed this crime while here as a guest. Is it unusual historically for a single administration to revoke 175,000 visas just during the first less than two years of Donald Trump's second term? Well, it's not unheard of. I mean, during his last year, even Biden revoked 40,000. And certainly that's a lower number. It's about half of the rate or a little less than half the rate that we're doing here.

And we're being more proactive about it. So I think it's just one edge of the enforcement that the Trump administration is using. And ultimately it serves the same goal, just like closing the southern border and making it particularly difficult for people that are here, either seeking status or without permission. And that is deterrence. And the more deterrence they put out there, that's ultimately what they're using to. deal with the backlog. As you mentioned, 10 million or more people came in during the Biden administration, and the most ICE could deport in a year, even working at full force, is perhaps a million. So you'll never get to that backlog unless you deter people from staying and deter people from coming. Okay, because your modern law group works on regular immigration cases, I want you to tell my audience, does it make it problematic? for people who've tried to do the right thing they've come in legally they've stayed legally they obtained the right visas the right permissions they got a green card whatever it was but the immigration courts are so overwhelmed with all the illegal entry that's been allowed by various presidents uh... both republican and democrat that it becomes a problem for the people who are trying to do it the right way That's absolutely the case large. So the greatest opponent of legal immigration is illegal immigration. It paints the waters. It makes, it kind of lumps everybody into the same bag as immigrants. It's not looked upon favorably because so many people are abusing the system. And further, it makes it extremely difficult for the people that are trying to do it right. You know, I have a case next month. For somebody that has waited, they hired us 11 years ago to pursue a legal process and they are still waiting for their first court hearing, which will be next month. And it's extraordinary that somebody who's trying to do it correctly is being deprioritized while others are not respecting the laws of this country and they're coming in and they're abusing the system. And I certainly don't like it. I'm not a fan of it. My clients aren't a fan of it. Well, and let me have you straighten out something else that I frequently get. I'll have people say, well, I've got a friend. He's illegally here, but he's working to legalize his status. Now, I understand there are some little loopholes that are allowed, but for the most part, if you enter the United States illegally, and then you say, gee, I want to legalize my status. For most of the people who've entered illegally, is there any way to legalize their status after they've come in illegally? There is. And. It's important to look at some of the nuances of entry. There's somebody that snuck across the border and never got bought and never made an attempt to do anything. That's certainly one category that everybody would agree is an illegal entry in immigration. There's others that have come to the border and said, hey, I want to pursue an asylum case, for example. And many of them for a good reason, many not as well, admittedly.

and they will go ahead. Hold on. Let me ask you stop for a moment, Darren. I'm talking to Darren Smallcom. What is the percentage of rejection by the immigration courts for people who claim asylum? Isn't it fairly high? About 70% rising. It's risen substantially over the last couple of years, obviously, for obvious reasons with a new administration. And so, yes, many of them that come in were using an entry method called CBP1. So they would make an appointment. Say they wanted to do something, get into the country, and either not pursue it or have ultimately no chance of actually being successful. And so you have kind of like this second category of people that were abusing a system, but actually technically came in on a legal method. They just have very low prospects of remaining here. You have then a third category of people that use the same system to come in and then actively pursued a legal pathway. Those are some of the people that we help. And our success rate is on the other end of the spectrum. The vast majority of our clients that have been proactive about their legal status are ultimately successful in getting it. And so if you kind of love... I think one of the problems is we lump all three into the same category, and they're not quite the same. And... One of the good things that we see in the courts, Lars, now, is that judges are considering these factors quite a bit. So let's say somebody got caught. They've been here for decades, for example. And they may have done nothing wrong. Okay. They're limited to what they could do at that point to get legal. And when the judges look at it, it's like, look, you had 20 years to do something and you're only doing something now that you've been arrested. And they don't look favorably upon it. And I think that's. You know, yeah, I think that's a reasonable approach for the judicial system. And also I think that at the same time when somebody has followed the rules, even if the rules change, they follow the rules and they're timely about their petition and their petitions has merit with the likely to succeed. I think these people should be given the benefit of the doubt and tell their reasons. That's the reason. Darren, thank you very much.

Make that homeowners make. Have something to say? Give Lars a call at 866. Hey Lars. That's 866. Hey Lars. Now, back to the Lars Larson Show. Hey, welcome back to the Lars Larson Show. In a moment, I want to tell you the story about a federal court that just hit flaws on housing biological men in women's prisons because they identify as women. Should the courts get the final say, or should biology have the final say? We'll get to that in just a moment. First, welcome to the Lars Larson Show. And welcome to the Radio Northwest Network. It's a pleasure to be with you. And if you want to join the conversation, that's easy enough. At 866, hey, Lars, that's 866 439-5277. Send your emails to talk at Larslarsen.com. And our poll on X today, do the Democrat Socialists of America really represent America's working-class citizens? Now, I'd answer that one no, but based on the party's own survey, about 85% of the members of the DSA are white. And about 4% of them hold working class jobs like blue-collar Americans, and 80% of those in the DSA, who are 25 years of age or older, have a college degree. And in fact, when you take a look at some recent DSA successes like Abdul El-Sayed, who won the primary for the Michigan U.S. Senate spot that was open, he didn't win a single one of the counties that has the lowest share of college degrees, the ones where arguably you'd find the greatest number of blue-collar workers, but he did win 13 out of the 15 counties that have the greatest number of college degrees. The DSA supports an extreme left-wing agenda that touches on transgender rights, taxing the hell out of the rich, defunding the police, eliminating prisons, and simply letting criminals get away with just about anything. In any case, you can find today's ex-Poll at Lars Larson Show and at Larslarsen.com and brought to you today by Ultimate Truck Services. If you rely on trucks for business, Ultimate Keeps your biggest assets on the road and running right. Find them at Ultimate Truck Service.com. Yesterday's poll had a kind of an interesting result, not that they aren't always interesting, but a little bit more so than usual. Should cities use artificial intelligence to answer 911? emergency calls to the police and fire. And the answer was, no. I said no. 88% of you agreed, but a rather surprising 12% of you said yes to the idea of using artificial intelligence operators to be able to answer those calls for emergency help to 911. Now, my email of the day.

And you can send more to talk at Lars Larsson.com. It's brought to you by Multlima Medical Clinic. No pills, no shots, no surgery. Fix what's really causing the problem at Multlima Medical Clinic. Bruce Hay writes in from Kirkland, Washington. Lars... Just as with the Ponzi scheme, named for the Italian grifter Charles Ponzi, or the expression, Quisling, the surname of the Norwegian politician and reviled Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling, I believe we're on the verge of another name joining the ranks of history's absolute worst human beings, lending their name to that. Anthony Fauci. is sure to be a name destined to become a proturative. I only wonder how vilified that Anthony Fauci and his name will become over time. Judas Escariat betrayed only one man, Jesus Christ, and yet the expression Judas remains with us to this day. Anthony Fauci betrayed 300 million-plus Americans with his vanity, his self-dealing, and his unscrupulousness. Then he invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times that can only add to his disreputable mythology. signed Bruce Hay in Kirkland, Washington. Couldn't disagree with you, Bruce. I think that Anthony Fauci is a real crazy guy. I think that Anthony Fauci is a criminal. I think despite his presidential pardon, I think he ought to be prosecuted for the crimes he's committed. And I believe that by invoking the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, he actually voided his presidential pardon, even if you didn't think. that the presidential pardon wasn't already a fake because it wasn't signed with joe biden's hand it was signed with an auto pen and there's reasonably that joe biden didn't even know that his name was being signed to that now let me get to the court order the court order that forced Oregon corrections officials to ensure they aren't relying on men's prisons to detain so-called transgender women, meaning biological males who identify as women. Now, in September, two incarcerated trans filed a class action lawsuit against the State of Oregon's Department of Corrections after they alleged that they had faced sexual harassment and violence when they were held with other men. doesn't surprise me that they would. They won a preliminary injunction in April, but now the Ninth Circus Court of Appeals, the most overturned Federal Appeals Court in America, has stepped in. They are temporarily blocking the injunction granted by U.S. magistrate Mark Clark. We appreciate the Ninth Circus swift action in granting an administrative stay while they consider our motion and look forward to continuing our appeal. two incarcerated trans women seeking a class action suit to represent trans women in Oregon prisons. Now, here's the problem we've got.

I remember more than a decade ago, when many of us began asking the question, so you want to identify people who say they believe that they are not male, even though they were born male, and now they identify as female. You want to handle that. What are you going to do when convicted criminals end up as a man in a women's prison or as a woman in a man's prison who identifies as a trans man? And the answer we got from everybody at the time was, oh, that's ridiculous. That's never going to happen. Well, it is happening right now. And I'm going to make a suggestion to you. I believe that there are going to be people who are identifying as trans who demand to be put in a women's prison. And they are going to create problems in the women's prison, and they're going to generate lawsuits as well. You're going to see pregnancies that result. You're going to see claims of rape. and probably legitimate claims that women have been raped by trans women who are really biological men who are placed into those prisons. And you're going to see lawsuits. And you know what's going to happen? The lawyers will make money. The criminals will make money. The taxpayers will have to pay the cost of all of this. And all because you're trying to cater to this crazy sexual minority, so-called, in which... men and women identify as the opposite and then demand that society accommodate them, I suggest we tell those men and women, no, we're not going to believe it. By the way, if you believe in supporting American craftsmanship veterans and independent talk radio, go to my website and pick up a limited edition Lars Larson Show Challenge coin, proudly made by American veterans. Everyone comes with a personally signed thank you card. And by the way, Not a single dime goes to the show. All of it benefits veterans. You'll find the Lars Larson Show Challenge Point on the website at Lars Larson.com. The Lars Larson Show.

FM News 101. 15 seconds will be on the air. is the Lars Larson show. President Trump is one badass president. He secured the border at the level we never seen before. Honestly, provocative talk with Lars Larson. For our country and for our children, the best is yet to come. Broadcasting across the Pacific Northwest and covering Oregon, Washington, and Idaho on the Radio Northwest Network. Lars and Niles. He is an existential threat to democracy. Here's your host. Quiet, please. Lars Larson. Welcome back to the Warrison Show. It's a pleasure to be with you. I'll be glad to get your phone calls and emails in just a moment. If you want to join the best conversation in talk journalism, it's here every day at 866.6.6.6. 439.277. Send your emails to talk at larslars.com. As you know, naysayers always go to the head of the line. That's been true for more than 30 years. And our ex-pull question today, do the Democrat Socialists of America? actually represent America's working class citizens. I would argue they do not, and I base that on a poll done by the DSA of its own membership. You can find the ex-bowl question at Lars Larson Show and at Lars Larson.com and brought to you by Ultimate Truck Services. If you rely on trucks for business, Ultimate keeps your biggest assets on the road and running right. Find them at Ultimate Truck Service.com. Holding on the line with me right now is our friend Dan Mitchell from Sporting Systems. Dan, I appreciate you coming on so many times in the last week or so because we wanted to bring people up to date about what has happened in Spokane after those terrible fires that took out, well, about 1,000 houses, forced the evacuation of 65,000 people, and unfortunately also destroyed. It sounds like the vast majority of firearms owned by those citizens. Welcome back. Good afternoon, sir. Always a pleasure to be here. Would you mind telling my audience about Spokane Freedom, the Restoration Project, and how it's going and how they can help out? Yeah, so some good friends of ours up there in Spokane, the longtime family business, sharpshooting indoor range up there, the Ball family, they lost their home in the fire. They got a 20-minute notice, and they got their kids and a couple basic things out of the house before their entire neighborhood burned to the ground. Their parents and their brother also lost their homes in the same basic neighborhood. And so myself and a few other people from the Second Amendment community, we wanted to do something to help them out. But they kind of, they said, you know what, we're going to be okay. There's other people here that have far more need than we do.

Let's see what we can do for the community. So we brainstormed a little bit and we came up with the Spokane Freedom Restoration Project and we are raising funds on give send go under that name, the Spokane Freedom Restoration Project to replace the firearms and second amendment type items that were lost in the fire that that may not be covered by insurance or may be a partial loss or partially covered. So we're taking applications from people that have lost firearms in the fires. Yep. We're raising funds for it. We have manufacturers donating firearms to us. So we'll try to replace people, you know, something specifically that they lost. Or we might just have something that we can just give to them. Of course, they have to be able to pass the background checks, and these, of course, have to be Washington compliant items. So no ARs, no AKs, none of the fun stuff, and all the small magazines for the time being. So we've been making a big push on it. We've got about $10,000 raised so far. We've got three or four people that have applied and are interested and certainly are perfect candidates to have their... you know, at least one of their firearms replaced. So we're trying to get the word out. We've got some folks like Washington Gunlaw and sharpshooting over in Spokane and North Idaho arms are all sharing the message. But we've got it up on our social media pages, all of us. We've got the links for these things for people to be able to donate. And the ball family are going to be selecting all of the, all of the recipients. of these firearms since they lost everything, including all of their personal firearms. So, Dan, tell my audience how they can best find the social media mentions. Should they just look for Spokane Freedom Restoration? At the Give Send Go site, if you search Spokane Freedom Restoration Project, it comes up. If you go to Sporting Systems, Facebook or Instagram pages, we have the links on there, as well as sharpshooting has them on there. Washington Gunlaw is also sharing them on their social pages. We don't have a website. We aren't technical enough to put together a website real quick like that and get it up. So this is what we have for the time being. We're looking forward to being able to restore a little bit of peace and security and sanity for so many people that lost so much. And clearly, they need food. They need housing. They need shelter and bicycles and all kinds of stuff. And we're raising lots of that stuff that we're going to take over as well. But this is one thing that this 2A community can do for the 2A community. And so we need to stick together when really terrible things happen. Well, two things I've already asked some lawmakers. I said I realize it's a long stretch, but a lot of people are going to be locked out of replacing the guns that they lost because they were grandfathered in, but now that they've lost them, the state will say you're no longer allowed to own that gun, and I think that's wrong. I'd like to see the legislature make an exception in this case. Now, like I said, in a liberal state like Washington, it may be a tough reach. The other thing I want to find out is whether or not Spokane is willing to clear the decks and say we will accelerate.

uh... approval of building permits and everything else to allow people to rebuild their homes the minute their insurance money is available i'd like to see that happen i don't want uh... airway heights west of spokane to end up like the uh... the folks in california who lost their homes and a couple of your year and a half later there's still waiting to even get permission to be able to rebuild their homes that is dan mitchell dan is with sporting systems and of course the spokane freedom restoration project let me go to brian in castle rock hey brian what's on your mind today Speak about the wildfires in Spokane. You know, the suppression of the... Are you listening? Are you listening? Because, Brian, we just finished talking about that. What would you like to hear? I did. Yeah. Yeah, for rebuilding how... I got a slightly different single on it. Good friends with a public information officer for Spokane Fire Department. Yeah. And he told me things like that we didn't run out of water here like they did down in the Palisage. That's due to good planning. But the local national media aren't talking about that at all. They speak with the PIO or other interested party like a firefighter. If you get away from the narrative that has been shoveled into everybody's mouth, they don't want to continue the conversation. Through the efforts of the firefighters in Spokane there, they don't talk about this either. Through their efforts of suppression, coupled with not running out of water, they were able to save an additional five to seven thousand houses and other structures outbuildings from... burning down and being lost. So the boys that Spokane fire did a knockout job, and they're not getting any recognition, which I understand. And they should. But they should get the recognition, absolutely. I'm with you 100% Mr. Larson. I spent 15 years in the fire service myself. It's a thankless job, but that's not the reason I called. Hold on a second. I love this. When somebody says at the end of three minutes, that's not the reason I call. Brian, we're going to have to talk to you in a moment. You're listening to the Lars Larson show.

Down on the Sherwood. You ever heard the story of Harry? He was a legend around here. Until one afternoon, he left and never came back. Turns out, Harry went and made himself a website using Squarespace. Use Squarespace domains to buy artisan seat cushions. And he built a beautiful site with an online store to sell his artisan seat cushions. Now Harry's sitting on a fortune. And if our Harry can do it, anyone can. Build your business at Squarespace.com. Use offer code everything for 10% off your website or domain. At the KXL Newsdesk with your Tuesday forecast. Reading glasses. Disagree with Lars? Great. Maysayers go first. At 866, hey Lars. Back to the Lars Larson Show. Hey, welcome back to the Lars Larson Show. It's a pleasure to be with you. We've got a lot to talk about, but let me grab a couple of calls first and see where we're going there. Dana, welcome to the Lars Larson Show. And if others want to weigh in, it's 866. Hey, Lars, that's 866-439-277. And the promise is naysayers always go to the head of the line. So, Dana, what's on your mind today? Well, I'm glad that I got to talk to you. So awesome in Portland, Oregon. Anyway, yeah, I just have a problem because I got an altercation a while back with my partner, and she'd cried wolf and put me in jail. Domestic violence then, right? And that's going to get in the way of you buying a gun. Am I right? No, I had guns. I had a bunch of guns. And so in the process of that, I got a no contact order. And I got, I had to come up with some money. So I thought, well, what the heck? I could get rid. I could pawn my guns off and I'll just get them back when this is all blown all over. I was in jail. It was supposed to be in jail 19 days. It went one day, one day. And then they threw it all out of the court. I won the case. And then I went to get my guns back and they would let me have my guns. So in the process of trying to get that removed. I freaking lost all my guns. I paid them all down. I hawked them, but then I bought them. I paid them down to $1. Okay, but hold on, Dana. You're going through this so fast. I want people to understand what happened to you. So the reason you couldn't buy them back was what? Well, because there's a hold on my driver's license for owning a, for having a gun. Because now they're like, oh, well, me might be a possible felon, right? No, I don't understand that. What felony were you accused of? So once you get taken like any kind of an altercation with a domestic, then they block the rights of you owning a gun. Yeah, they do. As a matter of fact, they'll say, have you been accused of domestic violence? And you were. And so your guns were gone, right? Well, they didn't take them. I still had them, but I needed to get them out of my home. Otherwise, they would take them. Yep.

Right? So what would you suggest as the solution to problems like that? Because do you think it makes sense? The solution is don't take the guns away from people that aren't felons. I mean, yeah, they wanted to hold it against me, but then it was thrown out of court. And then I lost my gun. Hold on, Dana, you're mixing two things up. Do you want to take guns away from people who are engaged in domestic violence? No. Okay. Unless there was a gun, unless there was a gun involved. Do you know how to change that? Is get the law changed because lawmakers wrote the rules to say, if you're involved in domestic violence, you're not going to get a gun, right? Right. Okay. I understand that. But. But if there's not a gun involved in the domestic violence, then that's just ridiculous. Oh, so in other words, if a guy only beats his girlfriend up with his fists or uses a knife on her, then he should still be allowed to have a gun, right? Not necessarily. Okay, and that's where you're... No, it's not about being a felony. You're mixing two things up. If you're a felon, you can't own a gun, period. But it's not just if you're a felon, if you're involved in domestic violence, which can be your girlfriend. It can be if you and your brother get into a fight and the cops get called and you're written up for domestic violence involving your brother, involving your mother, involving your father, involving your sister, involving your wife or your girlfriend, all of those things that has nothing to do with felony. It has to do with domestic violence. So I'm asking you. If you want to get those rules changed, are you ready to go to state lawmakers and or to federal lawmakers and say, I think that as long as a guy only beats his girlfriend up or beats his brother up or uses a knife on them, he should still be able to have a gun. Could you make that argument to a lawmaker with a straight face? I don't think that's going to work. I think we need a better way to... I don't think so either. I think it's the wording. The way you worded it. Well, I know. You mean because I worded it very directly saying, does it make any sense to say, as long as you only beat up your family member with your fists, you should still be allowed to have a gun? I think most people are going to disagree with that. And you're saying... Well, what if the family member cries wolf and then you all gets thrown out of court? And it was actually heard that was the issue, you know? And then again, the guy's innocent. Then you make that argument of the lawmakers and see if you can get the law changed. And in that case, more power to you. But I think it's going to be a very tough case to make. Let's go to Dan. Hey, Dan, welcome to the Lars Larsson show. What's on your mind? Hi, Lars. Thanks, avid listener. Thank you. Yes, you had on earlier talking about those poor folks that lost their homes. And their firearm here in Spokane. Yeah, in Spokane to a fire for everybody else listening who didn't hear that. Yeah, they've lost their homes to a fire, terrible fire, a couple of weeks ago. Yes, just got me thinking, you know, firearm owner, I went through it, a house was broken into, I had a subpar gun safe, they were able to pry their way through it.

But I would say just keep serial numbers and photographs of, I was surprised at what the police departments were able to get back and from different police departments around the state. Funny how far those guns will travel, but it's the old ones that your families have handed down to you that. I didn't have records for, never going to see again. Well, that's why these days, Dan, anybody with a smartphone that has a camera on it who can take multiple pictures of a gun, write down the serial number, write down the description, write down the estimated value of it, and keep all of that recorded somewhere, and then preferably... print out those photos maybe and put them somewhere safe. So if your house burns down, you can still get them. Yeah, that's a great way to be able to document your loss. And then maybe talk to your insurance agent and say, by the way, if I give you a list of all the firearms I'm keeping in my house and a list of the approximate values and everything else, can you make sure they're covered by my insurance? And most insurance agents are happy to do that. And pay for quality safe, fireproof? uh sheet rock lined yet yet uh i hope a lot of those guns survived for those poor folks thanks yeah there there weren't too many of them that made it through the spokane fires because the problem is most fire safes are good for 60 minutes 90 minutes maybe two hours but when you fires like the ones that burned in spokane when all the uh wild lands caught fire and the trees caught fire and an entire neighborhood of 900 homes burned to the ground Those houses didn't burn for 20 minutes until the fire department showed up. They burned for several hours, and the end result was even something inside a very good safe is going to be destroyed by that kind of fire because it goes on for hours and hours and hours. Back in a moment, glad to get your calls at 866. Hey, Lars. That's 866-439-277. Send your emails to talk at Larslarsen.com, and you're listening to the Radio Northwest Network.

The Lars Larson Show. Portland's News Traffic in Weatherst. every email no really talk at larslarson dot com that's talk at larslarsson dot com now back to the larsson show hey welcome back to the larz larsen show and our ex-poll question today an easy one do the democrat socialist of america actually represent america's working class the way the ds a claim that they do I don't think they actually do. One of their own surveys done by the DSA shows 85% of the party's membership is white. Might as well be the clan. 80% of those 25 years of age and older in the DSA have college degrees. And the DSA candidates like Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan don't do very well in the counties that have a low share of college degrees, but they do very, very well among the college elite in other parts of states like Michigan. Let's go to Andrew Lamb, who joins us now. Andrew, welcome to the program. How are you, sir? Thank you, lawyers. I appreciate you bringing me on today. I want to ask you about something. There's something weird that's being done, and I really don't have a dog in the fight on this. People have said, how did I lose weight after I got diagnosed with diabetes a couple of years? And the answer was, I stopped eating the stuff that was making me fat. But now there are companies out there that are, and you go for a walk now and then you make sure that you're staying active. Should companies be buying OZMPIC for their employees and dropping as, say, Bank of America is now dropping a quarter of a billion dollars a year on employee weight loss shots? Is that something that companies ought to do? I think it's interesting. I think what they're trying to do, Lars, is, you know, look at how they're managing their talent. You know, if competition is out there differentiating themselves from the competition, right? People want to attract the best people. And I think they're saying this as a way of attracting people. I mean, those types of medications can be pretty expensive at times. The prices are coming down. I think people are seeing this as a, you know, a differentiator between them and the competition. And, you know, that attracts people. Not only does it attract people, but it truly keeps people, right? So as you're looking at this, you know, what's the cost of doing it? But I think the other question is, what is the cost of not doing it? Are we going to lose employees? Are we going to lose people that we've trained and we've invested in? You know, offering that benefits. could be more attractive for people to stay or people, you know, to come and join the organization.

But I think there's also something that people should look at is once you offer a benefit, as you know, it becomes a business promise. So once that promise has been made, you've got to fulfill that promise time after time. So let's not look at this just as a needy reaction to do this. But what's the cost of doing this for the next three to five years in the business? And if that's something that attracts people and you can benefit from it and it's a win-win, then why wouldn't you do that? I'm talking to Andrew Lamb, who's CEO and managing partner at Buy and Build Advisors. Here's the thing I wonder about. There was that survey that showed about a third of workers in America said they would switch jobs if they could get free or reduce cost, GLP1 coverage. That's the Ozempic type weight loss drugs. What I wonder about is... I don't do ads for drug companies like that, so I really don't have a dog in the fight, and I've never used them myself. But if you take the drug and then it caused you to lose the weight, and the weight is on or off, and now you're keeping it off, is there any reason to stay with the job, or did you just come to get the weight loss drugs? And if you switch... to take the weight loss drugs and you lose the weight but then you gain it back as i hear some people do then is there any reason to stick around at bank of america out of loyalty because they're the ones who got you the cheap g lp one Well, it's not, I mean, lies, let's be honest, it's not just about one thing that keeps people loyal to a company. Right. I mean, it's a benefit. It's a benefit. And I look at it from two points of view. You know, is that the culture? What is the culture that you're building within an organization, right? You know, the number one asset of any company is its people. So if you're looking after your people and you're growing the culture and this is something that people... you know, really wants and it's attracting them and keeping them, great. But again, I think when we're looking at businesses, it's not about holding people, right? You've got to create an environment that people want to come to, right? It's not just a singular thing that they're coming for. So I think it's a part of the package. It's something that we've got to look at. It's not just that singular thing. And I know when surveys do these surveys, you know, this one thing will drive it. I think there's a lot more to it than just a simple drug, because let's be honest, this thing is going to become the norm. The prices will come down. It will become part of the norm. Well, see, and that's the thing I wonder about, too, because at some point, Ozimpic may become, you know, when it falls out of patent and it goes into over-the-counter, and it becomes cheap. There are lots and lots of drugs today that people pay pennies for that that used to be quite expensive when they were still prescriptions, as the weight-loss drugs are. The other thing I wonder about is, has anybody done qualitative analysis of the people who seek out the weight-loss drugs like that? Because they can't find a way to lose the weight any other way. I understand they're kind of a miracle for some people. I don't tend to...

believe in them. But are there any studies that indicate the kind of employee you're getting when you're getting somebody who says, I want it because of the GOP wants? Yeah, I mean, they're looking at for a specific reason. I mean, you know, they may not get the health insurance that they're getting today. I mean, let's just look at it from, you know, people that are moving to businesses that have great health insurance versus the don't, right? There's many people that do that. So there is historical evidence to show that by doing certain things, it's going to attract a certain talent. I don't think it's a single line item. It's a total package. So when business owners are looking at things, I always advise them, look at a total package, you know, compensation, you know, work-life balance, looking at healthcare, things like that. It's the total package that you're looking at. And obviously when you're providing that total package, what are you looking back from the team member? What have they got to deliver to keep that going forward? So it has to be a win-win at the end of the day. And Andrew Lamb, I'm going to ask you this last question because there have been a bunch of companies that have said, we'll pay for an employee's abortion, but we won't pay for, say, the childcare and the additional help if that same employee wants to actually give birth to the baby. And that seems kind of disturbing to me. Is there any kind of trend there among companies? I don't know. I haven't looked into that particular line item at all, to be honest with you. But again, it's whatever they're putting forth and whatever they're projecting is what they're saying they're going to do. They've got to look at it from the company perspective of what are they showing as a company that they're going to do for others. Again, that's going to attract a certain type of employee. Is that the type of employee wanting to bring? So again, I think we look at it, you know, is the cost, you're putting a promise. So anytime we put anything forth to employees, you're promising something. You've got to uphold that promise at all times, not for today or for tomorrow, but longer term. That makes sense. That is Andrew Lamb. He's the CEO and managing partner at Build and Buy Advisors. Andrew, thanks so much for the time. Back in a moment, glad to get your calls at 866. Hey, Lars, you're listening to The Lars Lars & Show and the Radio Northwest now.

At the KXL News. Fire crews are on the... At the KXL Newsdesk with your Tuesday, for you need a simple solution. the Lars Larson show get the podcast right now at larslarson.com now more with Lars Larson hey welcome back to the Lars Larson show I want to talk about the abortion pill a bit and we've made various predictions on this program about where this whole debate is going to go you realize that over the last 10 years The percentage of abortions done in America, the number hasn't changed that much. It's still around $1 million per year, which should be disturbing for anybody, whether you believe in the right to abortion, so-called, or whether you believe in the right to life, as I do. But consider this. About 65% of all abortions in America today are done with a pill, not with a clinical procedure the way they once were. Why is that a concern? Well, we've told you, or I've told you, and we've documented the number of cases where there are people who take that pill despite the fact that they're taking it in a way that puts the woman very much at risk of all kinds of medical maladies because of that pill. Plus, it kills the baby. I mean, that's the bottom line is it kills the baby. Consider this out of North Carolina, a woman in North Carolina and her boyfriend. were arrested last week because she took the abortion pill while she was 31 weeks pregnant and gave birth to the baby in a toilet. Now, I know you're going to say that's disgusting and you're just trying to, you know, say something that's dramatic or, you know, hype something. I think this is disgusting all by itself. The woman takes an abortion pill that is supposed to be taken. If it is taken the way that it is licensed to be used, you're supposed to take it at 7 to 10 weeks at most. Instead, she takes it at 31 weeks. 18-year-old Syesta Johnson and 19-year-old Elijah Spate face a charge of negligent child abuse and inflicting serious bodily injury. Johnson also faces... Two other charges, assault inflicting serious bodily injury on an unborn child and assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill. Now, those are the charges in North Carolina. Now, I know you're going to respond to that by saying, well, Lars, those wouldn't even be possible in many states, the pro-abortion states of the United States. There are about 20 states in which abortion is viewed as this right. that came down on stone tablets and that you are not to be denied that right because there were so many democrats and so many liberals who for fifty years would tell you with a certainty that you couldn't even believe that abortion was a right contained in the US Constitution and finally several years ago the US Supreme Court regained insanity and said no

There is no constitutional right to abortion, but they're going to continue to practice it as much as they can. But here's what's happening. This woman takes the abortion pill at 31 weeks, 21 weeks after. You're supposed to stop and not take that. Now, the pills, we've talked about these so many times, Miffa Prestone and Misoprostol, they are drugs used to induce abortion. And by the way, most of the mainstream media that cover this story, they don't tell you the mechanism by which those drugs work. Do you know how they work? They starve the baby to death. Now, if you told somebody, oh, yeah, we've decided to end our pregnancy, we're going to starve the baby to death. Now, Johnson and her boyfriend claim that they found out about the pregnancy at 20 weeks. So they're claiming that neither the man nor the woman realized she was pregnant until 20 weeks had gone by. Now, I'll leave it up to the women in the audience, the real woman, not the trans women, to be able to tell you whether or not that is likely. I understand there are people who have said, I was unaware that I was pregnant, even though you're 20 weeks along. They ordered the pills from the state of Virginia into the state of North Carolina. Well, in the state of North Carolina, the abortion pill is legal up to 12 weeks of gestation. So clearly this woman was using the pill long after it had become illegal to actually use that pill. Arrest and search warrants indicate that Durham, North Carolina police and firefighters respond to a call to Johnson's home on July 29, just a couple of weeks ago. It was not clear from the reports who made the call. When they arrived, they found that Johnson had given birth to the baby. The baby was found in a toilet. The firefighters performed CPR. They took the child to a hospital for treatment. There are several currently pro-abortion groups that advertise the illegal shipment of abortion drugs to states with restrictions, like North Carolina. So, Representative Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, says the organizations that have been referred to the Department of Justice for Criminal Investigation in his letter to the Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche. Polly called Plan C, which is one of those organizations, the referral and logistics hub for shipping abortion drugs into states where the laws prohibited. Now, we've talked before about the fact that there is a federal law called the Comstock Act. And under the Comstock Act, you're not allowed to ship drugs into a state where those drugs are illegal. For example, State of Idaho is a pro-life state.

under the supreme court's doves decision has the right to have a law that says we are not going to allow abortions there will be a few exceptions but for the most part abortions are not allowed so what you have is you have both organizations like this plan c group and then you've got individuals like this woman in north carolina who decide we don't care what the laws So in other words, all the people who would have preached to you over the last 50 years that abortion is the law of the land, that Roe v. Wade established a constitutional right and that you have to pay attention to the law, all of a sudden when the law goes the other direction, They say it's okay to violate the law. And what they've found is research shows that hundreds of thousands of people have received and used pills by mail over the past few years with no legal problems. Yeah, except for the fact that you're breaking the laws of the state that you're shipping the drugs into. And you're putting women very much at risk when this woman takes a drug at 31 weeks pregnant. And it's not supposed to be taken after 12 weeks. That's the maximum. And you understand that these two drugs, mithoprostol and misoprestone, they are drugs that routinely cause women to become very, very ill. They cause about four or five percent of them to end up in an emergency room because of the severity of the side effects. And up to one woman in four, 25 percent, end up with serious effects, although not serious enough to need an emergency room. They are playing with fire. They are playing with people's lives, and of course they're also killing babies too. Back in a moment, we'll get to your phone calls and emails. You're listening to The Lars Larson Show and the Radio Northwest Network. The Lars Larson Show.

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