The Mark Arum Show 07-30-26 HR 2

Welcome back to the show and a good Thursday morning to you. Mark Aram here, you there. It's 905, five minutes after, no, 10.05, five minutes after 10. It's been a rough first hour. This is the Mark Aram show live Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to noon, 9.955, W.S.B. The whole gang with us today. Gracie Award winning Deborah is executive producer of the program. We got Darius on the phones. I forgot his sound drop. And Vinny Drip. Her. On the other side of the takeout window. Coming up in 30 minutes, travel expert, Peter Greenberg's going to join us live. A bunch of travel questions to ask Mr. Greenberg about. And, Debra, you got another pair of tickets to give away at 1137. Yeah, Mellencamp, in town Saturday, a pair of tickets. A pair of tickets to see John Mellencamp this Saturday at Amaris Bank Amphitheater, courtesy of the Mark Amherst Show in 955. WSB. First hour of the show was... emotional because we've been going to the Barrow County courtroom on the sentencing for Colin Gray, the father of convicted murderer, Cole Gray, who has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Colin Gray, the dad, has already been convicted of 27 counts, including one count of second degree murder. We heard a bunch of victim impact statements. They have just ended their recess. If we can, let's go back live to the Barrow County courtroom and listen in. here today and no argument that I make. No sentence this court imposes. I can restore what was taking on September 4th from these families and from this community. Collingray does not come before his court to be excused for that. He comes to be sentenced for what he did and not for what his son did. When the jury convicted the Colombray in March, they never heard from the one person who knew the whole truth for what was planned in that house. Corporated not testified at a stoppage trial, and this court has now spent a week hearing that missing evidence. And two days ago, we made findings about that missing evidence. So I'm going to be in not with our theory, but with this court's own record. Six things now stand in it that no jury ever weighed. First would be the concealment, from the only voice with first-hand knowledge. Cobray told his court that he actively hid the depth of his involvement in that online community from almost everyone in his life, including his father, that his father did not know what he was planning. We did not ask the court to take the confess killer at his work. We asked the court to notice that his words match to physical evidence that the jury did see. The hidden notes, the burner accounts, the absence, after two years of an investigation by the state, of a single text, email, or single witness, placing that plan within Calumbride's knowledge. Second, the notes on corporate's thumb show hostility towards his father and expressed hope that his father would be punished. I'm not going to read those words in the courtroom. I know the court saw that under the trial. I raised them only one reason. A son who wanted his father punished and wrote it down at every incentive in the world to implicate him, instead of confirmed that he kept that world secret from Colin. Third, the timeline moved because Colin Gray was in fact moving. The court heard that Colt accelerated his plan when his father sought no help for him through the school. The original plan called for

Yeah, that's a tough one because you'd need to get agreement from every party that signed that agreement. You'd need to get agreement from the DOJ, from the IRS, and also from Donald Trump. So that could be problematic in terms of ultimately getting the support of those two Republican senators who have nothing to lose. This is their last term in the U.S. Senate. As a result, President Donald Trump has no leverage over them whatsoever, and so they really hold all the cards right now. And if I'm hearing you correctly, this is stuck at the committee level, right, and not advancing to a vote on the Senate floor. That is correct. So it needs to be voted out of committee. It's a very narrow majority that Republicans have in the Senate, and it's a very narrow majority that Republicans have in the Senate Judiciary Committee. votes, the confirmation process stalls for Todd Blanche. The nomination potentially could be dead altogether. So that's why their votes and what they decide to do, Thom Tillis and John Cornyn is so important going forward. Yeah, and if it is stalled, then the president can pivot and nominate someone else. Is that something the president would be wanted to do? He could, but then potentially that individual will be stuck with the same issues that are. problem for those two senators. They still want the DOJ to say they will never have an anti-weaponization fund, and they also want the DOJ to walk back that settlement with Donald Trump concerning the IRS. So in the meantime, the DOJ is headed by still Todd Blanche? Yeah, he's the acting attorney general. It is still headed by Todd Blanche. This whole process is for Todd Blanche to have the title Attorney General and remove the acting in front of that title. He would be the official Attorney General, the permanent Attorney General of the United States. I guess maybe wait until next January when John Cornyn and Thom Tillis are no longer in the Senate. That's a long wait, though. Really interesting story. Well, yeah, and that's also keeping in mind, Mark, you know, the idea that not a certainty that Republicans still control the U.S. Senate. Yeah, good point. Great in-depth stuff as always. John Decker. John, have a great day, my friend. You too. Thanks a lot. Bye-bye. It's so bizarre that, you know, Todd Blanche is just stuck in limbo, basically because two Republican senators are not running for re-election and they don't feel beholden to President Trump now. I don't know what's going to happen here. I don't know what's going to happen with Todd Blanche. Because they can't go back and just the effort to undo that IRS settlement between the Trump family and IRS. A lot of moving parts there. I could see in writing saying, all right, we're never going to do this anti-weaponization fund. But at the end of the day, I don't think Todd Blanche gets confirmed. I think there's going to have to be another nominee. And will it happen before November, the elections? And all indications are that the Republicans will still hold the Senate after the midterms. But that's a long way to wait to, you know, I guess in the meantime, Todd Blanche is just.

the acting and he'll stay in that role but real good stuff there from white house correspondent john decker uh the defense attorney still giving his final arguments in the sentencing hearing of colin gray will monitor that i do want to update a couple local stories while we can deborah uh governor Brian Kemp uh by the way thank you to the governor and the first lady i'm so mad at myself deborah so they joined us they call us on the carathon as they did every year and i meant to say joining us on the show On the 26th annual WSP Carathon, it's First Lady Marty Brian Kemp and her husband, Brian. Like I want it. That would have been great. I meant it, but I mean. It's ingrained in you to say governor. Yeah. I wanted to play with them a little bit and be like joining us his first lady Marty Brian Kemp and her husband, I think his name is brought, but I forgot to do that. But anyway, thanks to them for their, all their great donations over the years for the WSB Carathon, which by the way, you can still donate to at WSB Radio.com slash Carathon, $2.3 million record breaking. Again, I can't thank you folks enough for your generous donations. That being said, Governor Brian Kemp. warning of spending cuts here in 2026 and beyond. Yeah, Governor Brian Kemp is kind of encouraging the administration. You might want to freeze spending for next year because there's going to be some budget cuts coming along. Now, like right now, things have been really good. George has been kind of on a role. We've had some surpluses post-pandemic and everything, but we're going to get some federal cuts soon. And who knows what's that going to do over the board? So they're saying just be really conservative going forward so that we continue to have maybe a little bit of surplus or we. don't have to worry about some of the things that are important. Yeah, because we've been running a surplus remarkably for so long. And so that's Governor Kent looking forward. Like, hey, I'm not going to be here. Just a heads up that, you know, we need, we might need some spending cuts because the well is going to run a little drier. And again, because of the gas tax break that we had a couple of times during the height of the Iran War. uh what did that cost the state like two to three hundred million dollars yeah like 300 yeah so that's that we're going to see a shortfall there but so governor camp uh warning that spending cuts are looming i guess it depends which way the economy goes and which way everything goes but uh there we heard from governor camp another local story i didn't feel yesterday but there was an earthquake centered in lilburn How big or how small was this earthquake, Deborah? Yeah, so this happened while we were on the air. I don't think. Oh, no kidding. Yeah, so this happened right around Lilbert around 11 a. So we were here on the air in this studio. I don't know if that was engineering, moving something around or what, but there was a 2.3 earthquake. 2.3. Right. I don't know what that feels like. That's like a chicken mini is a little guy. Well, I felt earthquakes before. Like we've had them here in the past. I'm like, oh, what was that? So it's centered in Lilburn where Maya teaches. And she felt it? She did not. feel it, but she said one of her coworkers did. I never felt an earthquake until I was in Vegas playing the World Series of Poker. I don't know if you heard this story, Vin, or not. And not that I was mad, I never felt an earthquake, but we've had a bunch here, like little guys in Georgia, and I've never felt one. I felt like it was like FOMO. Like, I don't know what it feels like. And I was at the World Series of Poker staying at the Venetian.

which is where I just came back from. And the World Series of Poker buying is a $10,000 buy-in. So that's the only time I've ever used a safe in a hotel room. Do you ever use the safes in a hotel room? I don't have anything worth saving. Me neither. But I had $10,000. So I put it in this walk-in closet, there's a safe. And I go in to get the $10,000 to go register for the World Series of Poker. And my stomach was like, ugh. That's normal. Yeah, I was like, oh, man, this is not. Maybe I'm nervous for the World Series of Poker. So I get out of the closet, I feel lightheaded. And I look and there's like a chandelier in the living room and it's swaying. And I'm like, oh, it's an earthquake. Holy smokes. What floor were you on? Like 37th? I know. But I was like, at least it's not my stomach. It's an earthquake. And then there was an aftershock later in the day and I was in the poker room and I caught video of it. That was the, yeah, I don't want to do it again. Thank you, God. I know what it feels like now. You can keep the earthquakes away from me. All right. It looks like the defense still giving their closing arguments or whatever the proper term is in the Colin Gray sentencing. We'll monitor that.

1025 on the Mark Am show. Buddy Guy right there. Saw Buddy Guy at Chastain, like in the late 90s. What a great show. He was with a bigger name performer, like Buddy Guy open for another amazing artist. I forget. Buddy Guy, it's his birthday today. And I can't find how old he is. 80 something. Sources to the Mark Am show said Buddy Guy is 90. Holy smokes. Blues legend buddy guy turns 90 Happy Bird. That was a great. I was like, oh, Atlanta's really cool. First time to Chastain. Oh, okay. That's a good first show of Chastain. It was BB King. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah. What a great concert. I remember that tour. I wasn't living here, but I remember that too. I was like, oh, Atlanta's legit. I like Atlanta. All right, let's go back live to the Barrow County courtroom, the sentencing hearing for Colin Gray. Constantly in touch with his children. Your Honor saw the text messages that were admitted to evidence at school. Colin Gray was positive. He told his son that he loved it, that he was proud of him. He encouraged him to go to school. He told him how happy he was when Cole told him he had a good day at school. This is not an absent father. This is another one of, I believe, Colin Gray's defense attorneys providing. Basically a closing argument on why the judge, the jury, whoever, I think it's the judge, giving sentencing should be lenient on the dad of the convicted school shooter, Colt Gray. But again, the dad was convicted of 27 counts, including second degree murder. We will see when the sentencing comes down and will, of course, bring it to you live when it does. Sabrina has your news weather and traffic at 3 when we come back. Travel expert Peter Greenberg live. A lot of big travel stories will pick Peter's brain. That's coming up. next on the Mark Aram Show. 1037 on the Mark Aram Show, wishing Paul Anka, a very happy 85th birthday. Put your head on my show. The singer-songwriter, not the dog. You hit the pose. I did hit the post. Yeah, Debra's been training me on how to hit the post. Paul Lincoln turns 85. Fantastic. Fantastic. We are going to continue to monitor the Colin Gray sentencing hearing. In fact, Vinnie, if you don't mind, can I dip in live for a second? I see one of the attorneys with props right now. Let's listen in and see what's going on.

This was the risk he was ignoring that there would be a mass shooting of children at a school. All right, that's obviously the prosecutor now. Veronica Waters in the courtroom is going to give us updates on the Colin Gray sentencing. Of course, he was the father of now convicted mass shooter Colt Gray in the 2024 Appalachy High Shooting updates and the sentence as soon as we get it here on 955 WSB. All right, joining us live, very excited, the one, the only, the incomparable, the legend, travel expert Peter Greenberg. Peter, good morning, my friend. Where are you today? I'm anchored off the coast of Portofino on the brand new Explorer 3 cruise ship. Goodness gracious. You know what, Peter, can you say, hey, I'm in a motel 6 in Waterbury, Connecticut with no Wi-Fi? Can you do that for me once? Okay, I'm at the varsity with a hot dog. No, I'm just as jealous as that as I am off the coast of Portofino. Anyway, I hope you're doing well, my friend. We've got a ton of stuff. Deborah's been racking up these stories for me to ask you. But I want to start with one. It's not on our list, but it was chaos at the Vegas airport. And it was heat-related chaos, Deborah. Yeah, I guess it got to like over 100, 114 degrees was reported in Vegas so much that they had to cancel about 500 flights because it was too dangerous for the flights. The planes were too heavy. They had too many passengers, 500, over 500 flights. to later cancel. Have you heard of that before? The heat causing flight cancellations? Oh, absolutely. Remember, heat affects lift. That's why you have weight restrictions on planes in the summer in Colorado. Remember in the Denver airport, you can't always fly with a full flight because of the heat. I saw it relatedly. This might have been the Vegas airport. I saw Deborah, a video on social media. This woman was flying out. And I think it was a United flight. And they're like, we are too heavy. I'm assuming it's because of the heat. They needed 50 people to volunteer to give up their seat for a voucher and cash or whatever. They didn't get enough. So what United says is, all right, we're going to have to take all the checked bags off the plane. and send them on a different plane now. That whole, like, I have never heard of anything like that. No, it's happened. And the thing is this, you have a choice. You either get people to volunteer to leave the flight or you take fuel off. If you take fuel off, you have to stop en route. It's inefficient. It doesn't work. You got a problem. When you have temperatures that high, it affects lift, and it becomes a safety issue. Yeah, I never put two. That's why you're the travel detective. You came in, you looked at the clues, and you came up with an answer. Heat affects lift. All right, let's talk JetBlue. They're getting into the first class business. What do we know about this story? Well, they've been in the first class for a while with their mince class, but what they've really done now is they follow the lead of other airlines like Delta and United in introducing different segments in terms of fare categories. As of yesterday, they announced eight new fare categories for the same plane, meaning there are three different fair categories now for coach. There are three different fair categories for even more legroom, and then two more categories for first.

It's all very confusing right now. It's about all the things that you thought you got for free before that you don't. And, of course, it generates additional revenue for the airlines, so it's fastened your seatbelt. I don't think I've ever flown on JetBlue, but I was under the assumption that it was all one, there was all economy, if you will, all coach, not first class. Is First Class a new thing for JetBlue? No, what happened is, and you weren't wrong about that assumption, on an overall number of their flights, it is an all coach, but on their transcon services, on their services they tried to go to Europe, segmented out the cabin. There is their mint class, which by the way is an excellent service, by the way, but very limited seats because they're still flying the same smaller equipment of the air buses. Gotcha. I saw a complaint from not just Delta medallion folks, but other major carriers medallion folks that business travelers most specifically, right? They rack up the miles and they get the status and they're used to getting free upgrades. Like, oh, I'll just book a seating coach and then I'll get upgraded to first class. But apparently more and more folks. Shlubs like me are buying first class seats and those are filling up. And now the the medallion holders that were used to getting the upgrades aren't getting them anymore and they're kind of mad about that. You know, count me as one of them. The reason why people, really, the people that would earn all those miles, they wanted to get the status, and the status would give them the perk of the free upgrade. Let's go back about 15 years, 88% of Delta's first class seats went on sold. 12% sold, the other were available for upgrades. Today, just the opposite. 88% are sold. Wow. And the 12% that are available, Delta said, you know what, let's generate revenue for that, too. They're not the only ones. Americans doing it as well. And here's the crazy part. 24 hours before the flight, you think you're in line for a free upgrade because you've earned all those miles. They send out an email to everybody else on the plane saying, hey, how'd you like to upgrade for 36 bucks? Guess what? They buy it. Yeah, I've gotten that email. Deborah's nodding. We've got, yeah, I've done that. So how long ago was it 88% unsold up front? About 15 years ago. Wow. Look, we understand they need to generate revenue. But if you're generating revenue at the expense of your most loyal customers, you've now reached the inflection point, and you better figure that out or they may not be flying. I mean, that statistically, in that short amount of time, is crazy to me. You know, an 88% flip, you don't see that in many sectors. No, you don't. But remember, Delta is also the airline that just introduced basic business class. Another fair segment. I have no idea with that. I think it includes a photograph of what you've got in 15 years. That's fair. I'm still waiting. Maya gave us, she used first class upgrade tickets on our flight to Vegas, and then our flight got canceled, and then we had to go through Salt Lake City and back to Atlanta in Coach. And I'm waiting for Maya to get her.

certificate back, her upgrade certificate, because we didn't use it. Well, when she gets it back, go to an art supply store and frame it. Oh, right. The bottom line is, you know, I can get as many of those as I want based on the miles that I earn. It doesn't mean I get a chance to use them. Yeah. Delta did give us each 10,000 miles, which is, I know nothing, Peter. You've taught me that's nothing. Mark, don't, Mark, do not get me started from nothing. They give you 10,000 miles now that you can't redeem. Yeah. No, that can get like a Bloody Mary. I could get, you know. Go for the Biscop cookie. That's the only thing of value. That's exactly what Denver just said. Travel expert Peter Greenberg here. This story just popped up. I wasn't able to read it, but apparently President Trump wants to makeover Dulles Airport. I don't know if you saw the story, but you've been to Dulles. Does it need a big makeover like this? It does need a big makeover, but maybe not the one he wants. Delos is, look, I like the airport. If you like the old people movers, they're still operating out there. That's a throwback for 45 years. But they do need to be more efficient. They can handle a lot more flight than they're handling now if they reconfigure the terminal buildings and get rid of those people movers. So it does need some upgrade. The question is, who's going to do it, who's going to pay for it, and what's it going to look like? One of my favorite travel trivia questions of all time were asking folks if they knew what the longest flight in the world was. But that's about to tell the folks what the answer is, Peter. The longest flight in the world right now is Singapore Airlines between Singapore and either Newark or JFK, depending on the wind. It's anywhere from 20 to 21 hours. But the longest flight that's about to be in the world, they just did the test flight, is part of something that Kwanis calls at the Australian Airline Project Sunrise, nonstop from Australia to London's Heathrow. That's going to be about 23 and a half to 24 hours. And when does that kick off? Because I'm going to have to change the answer to my favorite trivia question. It's going to kick off probably by the end of next year. They've just done the test flights now. But remember, it's not just to see if the plane can do it. It's to see if we can do it. And also the capacity of the plane, I mean, not to get too crazy, but I mean, they have to figure out, can the bathrooms hold that? Can they staff? Is Mark Aramon that flight? Yeah. You don't want the line to that room. And also, how are they going to configure the cabin? By the way, the Singapore Airlines flight that goes from Singapore to New York. They were smart. They don't have a coach section because if they did, they have to call the paramedics. No, they have a sort of premium economy section and then a business class section. What's the longest flight? That's what they're going to have to do. That's what they're going to probably have to do with the quantum flight. Did you take that world's longest flight? If not, what's the longest flight you've ever taken? The longest flight I took was from Doha to Auckland, New Zealand. That's Doha and Qatar to Auckland, New Zealand. That was 19.5. So I'm at 14.

Plus to Tokyo. That was, you know, as long as I want to go. So I'm going to punt on this new longest flight. Just a quick question for you. A friend of the show, I'm not going to name names. They were in Paris doing the Paris touristy thing. On the last day, they said, hey, we're going to go to the Louvre and check out the Mona Lisa. And then after that, I'm going to go buy a fancy handbag. So I need my passport to get the tax break incentive, whatever you get at the shops there. And while at the Louvre, looking at the Mona Lisa, she had her passport stolen from her over the shoulder. Like it was secured. I don't know how they got it, but she was an American strained and without a passport. And then she had to go to the embassy and get an emergency passport. I would imagine passport losses and thefts are pretty common around the globe. They are in cities like Paris where pickpocketing is an art. Seriously, at major locations like the Lou, the Eiffel Tower, they're gangs of pickpocketing. They work as teams. And literally, you know, if you're wearing pants, make sure they're zippers, not just buttons. Make sure you protect everything. But what you should also do before you ever leave home, whether you're going to Paris or you're going to, you know, Pawtuck at Rhode Island, photocopy. photocopy your passport, the photo page, and everything in there so that if you do have a problem, you're lucky in Paris because there's a U.S. consulate and a U.S. embassy there. But it's in the middle of Afghanistan, there's nowhere to go to get that emergency passport. But what will help you is a photocopy of the passport page. which will help them to actually start to streamline the, you know, the reissue process. Brilliant. I never even thought about it. All right. So photocopy your passport before you go to Pawtucket, Rhode Island. I love that you threw Pawtucket, Rhode Island there. Fantastic, Peter. All right, you're on a fancy boat off the coast of someplace fancy. Where are you heading next? Headed to Barcelona to do another television show there, then into Greece. Before you get two jealousies or two-day trips, and then into Las Vegas, where it's 125 degrees. All right. Again, if you need an intern, Peter, I'm available. I'm available for your intern needs. Peter, by the way, thanks again for your fantastic support of the 26th annual WSP Carathon. I don't know if you heard, but we smashed a record over $2.3 million raised this year. That's great news. I'm always happy to help you guys. And as long as you let people know what we're going to do, I think they'll find it valuable as well. Of course, it is extremely valuable. He is an invaluable resource. He's on social media at Peter S. Greenberg, the travel expert, the travel detective, the man, the myth, the legend, Peter Greenberg. I'll be back. One of the most famous lines in cinema history, I'll be back by Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's his birthday today. You folks listening, think about how old do you think Arnold Schwarzenegger is? Because I would not have guessed this number. He's 79 years old today. I really had to be past 70, but I didn't think that close to 80. Arnold. I know he's most famous for his action roles like Terminator and Predator, Total Recall. But I love him in comedies. This is a great cut from kindergarten cop. Yeah. He was hilarious. What's the matter? I have a headache.

It might be a tumor. It's not a tumor. It's not a tumor at all. He's really funny. Twins with Danny DeVito. I know he gets the headlines for the action stuff, but... Jingle all the way because he's up for Christmas. He's 79 now. You can't do the action stuff like he used to. So give me some more Arnold Schwarzenegger. Comedies. Yeah, anyway, happy 79th. I would have said like, oh, 69, 71. No, I knew we had to be past 70. Yeah. We are in another break during the Colin Gray sentencing hearing. We've been covering it live since we came on the air at 9. We heard some really heart-wrenching victim statements. Basically, we heard from the family members of those that died in the Appalachie shooting. We heard from a victim. She was shot twice but survived. Then they had a recess, and then the defense came out and gave what I'm calling their closing arguments is probably not basically asking the judge for leniency for Colin Gray, the father of Colt Gray. And I believe we just saw the closing arguments again by the prosecution. So they're in recess now. And I guess the next thing we'll hear is the judge coming out with a sentence for Colin Gray. Again, he was convicted of 27 charges, including second degree. murder. So we'll get the very latest on that hearing out of Barrow County when we come back after news weather and traffic. Also, it's been six months since Nancy Guthrie disappeared. What's the status of the case? Is it case closed? Is it cold case? We're going to talk to Brad Garrett, ABC News, crime and terrorism analysts and get us caught to date on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie. All of that straight ahead on the Mark Aram Show.