Kruser & Crew 7-30-26

Give me some candy. I want candy. Do you ever play Candy Land when you were a kid? I did. And now it is a Candy Land Cafe, a pop up that has transformed a San Diego restaurant into a whimsical life-size version of the childhood favorite game Candy Land. But it comes with a harsh policy for guests who break the strict rules. Bucket Listers has teamed up with Toy Titan Hasbro to launch the immersive eatery, which transformed Bayside Kitchen and Bar into a real-life version of the classic race to the finished board game. You got the lollipop woods, the giant jolly gum drops, the path that leads straight to King Candy's Candy Castle. Oh, man, yeah. I guess a candy land pop-up cafe is going to have what? Just candy. But here's the strict rules. Visitors are banned from climbing, sitting, leaning, or otherwise horsing around on the installations, which are designed to be photographed instead of played with. Not a playland. The Instagram Ready Experience is packed with photo ops, interactive activities, and over-the-top food options. Let's see, rainbow-colored grilled cheese sandwiches. Mm, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would love that. A lot of real food here, lollipop corn chicken and extravagant ice cream flights. Okay, so there you go. That's out there in San Diego if you want to take any of that in. Welcome is Cruiser and Crew Thursday, July the 30th, live from our studios in downtown Lexington. Our phone number 859-253-959. Now, that is also the number for the Stucart Motors text line, and the email address is Cruiser at WVLKAM.com. We've got Car Talk coming up. Donna's set to go. We'll be talking to her in the next half hour. Also, Bill Meck and Kevin Stennett with a Bourbon Update. Well, now there's another list, another study ranking all 50 states. You know, there was that CNBC study that ranked 50 states. But. Now, that seemed to be set on kind of a liberal political wish list, if you will, in cities that met that or states rather that met that, and they seem to rank higher. You remember the controversy on that. Because it had said in the CNBC survey that Tennessee was the worst place in America to live. Then there were a couple other states where the evidence is that, well, people don't hate living there. In fact, people are moving. more to states like Tennessee and some other states to the south that didn't fare so well in the CNBC poll. So now you got the annual list from U.S. News. Used to be one of the three big news magazines. Remember, you had Time, you had Newsweek, and you had U.S. News and World Report, which I guess Newsweek's still around as a monthly, if you can find it, and Time magazine is still around. But U.S. News comes around and they publish these lists and it gets people arguing about them, I guess, or talking about them. The 20s 26 overall best state rankings. Each state analyzed in eight categories, education, health care, economy, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, natural environment, crime, and corrections. You know we never do real well on these rankings, right? And we're not any great shakes here. We are 41st. Louisiana's last.

Worst state to live in Louisiana, then Alaska, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Michigan. Michigan number 46. Then Arkansas, West Virginia, Alabama, Ohio, and Kentucky. There's your bottom 10. Top. Meet Keith. Loving Dad. Board game champ, bus driving pro. I drive 65,000 miles in my bus each year. If people knew what I know, lives could be saved. Like how there are some things I simply can't see. On my route the other day, a car tried to sneak past me and ends up right in my blind spot. I turned slowly, so accident avoided. But no car should be in the blind spot for a 40,000-pound bus. It's our roads. It's our safety. Visit www.sharetherroadsafely.gov. Mike Drop, hosted by former Navy CEO, Mike Ridland. How would you characterize your prowess? I'd say my style is that I just kind of outwork everybody until I get there, because I'm not a quitter. It's just you. And that's yourself. Everything else is team-oriented. The motivation, it was a sort of anger at myself for being weak. That ends up being the driving factor. That anger, that pride, that ego, I think it's a muscle. It gets stronger. When you take that voice seriously, you start to change your life. Mike Drop, follow and listen on your favorite platform. 10 Utah, South Dakota, Minnesota, North Dakota. Wow, these publications like the cold places, don't they? The cold weather climates. Nebraska's fifth. I mean, all five of those, they've been brutal winters, don't they? I mean, all these states, Utah, South Dakota, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, 6th, then Idaho 7th, and Florida is 8th. One little sunshine state, Washington State, ninth, Vermont in 10th place. So, you know, they looked at education two year and four year college graduation rates, kind of measuring the state's educational attainment, and then health care, health insurance enrollment, what percentage of the population is wired with all of that, child wellness, dental vision, dental visits, rather. The economy, business creation rate, top company headquarters, patent creation rate, low tax burden, infrastructure, electricity prices. That's probably where we did okay, even though our electricity prices are up. Opportunity, cost of living, housing, affordability, low food insecurity. Well, I would imagine they probably rated us with a rather high food insecurity. So anyway, we were 41st on that particular list, which... May have been a little less politically motivated than the other list that was. All right, well, here's the Hill right here, kind of saying what I had said for the last couple of days. Here's the headline, Andy Beshear draws Democratic attention, GOP Barbs with Mitch McConnell pressure campaign. First paragraph, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear's efforts to force Mitch McConnell to provide more transparency about his health and fitness to serve as a chance for him to show Democrats he's in fighting mode. A head of possible presidential campaign party strategists say, well, it's getting his name out because right now it's a popularity contest and at least you've got to get your name out there. People have to know who you are. Democrats have to know who you are. The latest moves on Mitch McConnell reports the Hill have won him new national attention.

Christy Seltzer is a Democratic strategist, Andy Beshear has the attention of a national audience on this decision, and he's not going to waste it. The worst thing he could do in the eyes of Democratic voters would be to just let Mitch McConnell's absence in GOP efforts to deceive go unchallenged. How is the GOP deceived on this? Where's the deception on their part been? Now, granted, maybe we're not getting as much information out of the Mitch McConnell camp as we would like. calling for an investigation or challenging Kentucky State vacancy laws is even better. Anything to keep the story in the news. This is what else are saying and shows leadership on it. So, I mean, this is. This is a demonstration. This was almost like an audition. If Andy Beshear didn't say anything, he'd probably be Democrats going, I don't know about this guy's chances. Where's that fighting mode? The governor is also not, did this come out yesterday? Governor Andy Beshear will not be in attendance at Fancy Farm. So maybe we're seeing some changes, some new blood at Fancy Farm, because when you think about it, this year the top two party leaders in this state, Mitch McConnell for the Republicans and Andy Beshear for the Democrats, will not be in attendance. They won't be out there making any speeches. Instead, you're going to have the lieutenant governor. You're going to have Rocky Ackins, who's not exactly a new player in terms of politics, but well, at least a new face in terms of running for statewide office. Let's see. Michael Adams has confirmed that he is going to speak. He's accepted the speaking invitation. Now, he told the election and Harold leader he was considering launching a gubernatorial bid at Fancy Farm. We'll see if he does that. But here's another way for a candidate to get their name out. And Adams, if he wants to run for governor, probably needs to do that because Comer's got a lot of support. And Comer's got a lot of support out there in the western portion of the state. Doesn't part of his district run out there? And then Andy Barr, of course, it's this is going to be a critical day for him as he tries to or continues, I would think, in an effort to try to make his acquaintance with the people in Western Kentucky a chance for him to showcase what he may be able to do, speak to a more broad audience. And, you know, this is a great. political tradition that they have here. And so there's some new blood out there at Fancy Farm this year. No Mitch McConnell, no Andy Beshear, that's okay. Andy Beshear hadn't done it in a while. When was last time Andy Beshear did Fancy Farm? It's been a bit. He's usually got something to do with the kids with one of his two kids. I think that's what he said this year.

So we'll see some new speakers out at Fancy Farm maybe. I don't, Rand Paul's not going to be there, is he? I guess he'll wait until he runs for office. But one of the political operatives in the state, Abby Piper, who's a Republican co-host of Kentucky Politics Weekly, said that the Fancy Farm Picnic's role in today's world is a reminder to get off the screens. to get out in person and be part of the community. At the end of the day, it's a church fundraiser. It's a place for community. It's a place for bingo and a place for barbecue and sundrop and a little bit of fun. The roasting. I guess those would be your speeches. But it's time for us to connect on what we have in common and something that happens. It's not something, rather, that happens a lot in the echo chambers online. Amen to that. Ms. Piper is absolutely right about that. So the governor not going to be at fancy farm this year. The governor is, I don't know how much heat or anything he'll take from this. There's a piece on the Harold Leader's website this afternoon. That is a, well, it's an article that is the result of a partnership between the Harold Leader and ProPublica. More specifically, ProPublica's local reporting network. And it talks about how the governor, the Andy Beshear administration has been doubling down on a widely criticized Medicaid policy. I don't know if you've kept up with any of the antics of addiction recovery care. This is another one of these situations where we flooded the zone with money and people got money to set up treatment centers that wasn't a whole hell of a lot of scrutiny because we just needed to get the overdose deaths down. And so flooding the zone with money. And so then you've got a lot of players that would just steal that money. You know, I wonder on Judgment Day. You hear people who would steal from Walmart and go, well, they're big. They can afford it. I got nothing. Now, that's still stealing. That's still dishonest. But there's a part of me that can almost understand that logic. But to take money and misuse it, money that's intended to try to help people get their lives back. You know, this is just like when people steal from, you know, I don't know, you steal from an old woman. You steal from an 80-year-old woman who's on a fixed income and maybe has some money tucked away someplace. And you, you know, you're online and you're faking that you're in love with her and you're all going to run off together. And she gives you all her money and you just take it. I would think on Judgment Day, there's going to be a little bit different evaluation between that and maybe somebody who took something from Whole Foods because Jeff Bezos got a real big yacht and I got nothing. You can almost understand it. I'm not saying it's right. I'm not saying that is a level-headed or justifiable reason. But, hey, Emily, don't leave. Hang on here a second. I got to. You know what? I got to do the show. Occasionally break new music. Interviewed guests, and I got to do Lost and Found. Hey, Frodo, what was that? That name of that person in the Lord of the Rings. There's a ring in here that belongs to somebody. Is this yours? Looks like a wedding ring. I'm sorry, I had to do a little lost and found dude. That's part of the show now. That's your, is that yours? What do you mean? Give it. Well, yeah, I'm giving it. I'm trying to give it to you. I didn't steal it. It was in here. And I saw it with it as the Lord of the Rings over here. Anyway, I was getting started on this pro-publica piece about the governor. Anyway, yeah.

So we flood the zone with a bunch of money. And so by 2023, the pandemic, and addictions and overdoses, of course, it got worse with COVID because outreach programs pretty much had to shut down because we were all shut down and people didn't have anything to do. But by 2023, as the pandemic was winding down, states started restoring Medicaid requirements that made treatment centers get prior approval before providing addiction treatment. But we didn't do that. Now, we joined more than 40 other states in lifting some restrictions on Medicaid, which served most of the Kentuckians enrolled in substance abuse programs. So recovery centers were offered to offer, allowed rather, to offer expensive treatment to clients without seeking approval from state Medicaid insurers. And as I said, by 2023, okay, the rules got tightened in a lot of other states, but not here. That year, providers offered more than 1,100 spots for people seeking long-term treatment that allows them to live in a facility. a state record, and more slots per capita than any other state. And there were warnings. There were warnings from experts across the health industry. There were at least three public meetings and letters to the Andy Beshear administration saying that these drug treatment providers are billing too much for subpar care and it's leading to worse outcomes. The Attorney General's office in December of last year said Medicaid fraud and drug treatment had become a primary area of concern. There were other warnings from other places. There were warnings. Medicaid insurers warned Kentucky that it was one of the states that was allowing the ARC to their services to be built separately and the providers were abusing it. Mayors were warning like Alan Keck, the Somerset mayor. Now, Somerset got racked pretty badly by opioids. He told Alan Keck was the mayor. He told the state health secretary, the treatment centers across his region, were recruiting patients from out of state and using the company addresses to establish residency for them in order to bill Kentucky Medicaid. He said some of the companies were fraudulently billing Medicaid by misrepresenting the services they provided. Heck wrote to then Health Secretary Eric Friedlander, our communities are seeing an influx of sober living facilities that are taking advantage of the Kentucky Medicaid system and lacks requirements that linger from the COVID pandemic. And didn't do anything.

They didn't do it. So there were warnings from all sorts of, and then the Fisher administration in this piece is trying to defend it going, well, I, you know, look, I'll, I'll do anything we had to do and spend anything we had to spend. I may be paraphrasing a little bit here, but basically overdose deaths went down so the program worked. But did overdose deaths go down because we had all this wildfire spread of treatment, but a lot of it was suspect? No, overdose deaths probably went down, A, because opioid prescriptions were getting harder to get. And Narcan. That magical little inhaler, Narcan. And our overdose deaths declined significantly in the years between 2020 and 2025. But the drop was not you. Start your day with the morning jolt of Drake C. Toll. See, now it's on demand. My podcast is kind of a radio thing, I think, but also it's a bit of a TV show, and it's about whatever I wanted to be. It's listening live as it happened, when it happened, with the instant reaction. You're home for talking sports. We go back, the Drake Toll Show, Westwood One Sports Network, and there will be on demand on your radio. Anywhere in the country, I'll see you there. Westwood One Sports Talk. Your home for Drake C. Toll. Follow and listen. on your favorite platform. Other states had it too. So there must have been some commonality. Andy Beshear wants to point to this, but what you seem to hear from a lot of other sources is, man, you guys were throwing money at a lot of substandard and inadequate treatment, more than you needed to. Medicaid and behavioral health experts in Kentucky. This is in the Herald Leader ProPublica piece, have said in state hearings that some of the services drug treatment companies billed the most for were not directly associated with a decline in overdose deaths. This is what the administration is staying with. Andy Beshear says with four straight years of drug overdose decreases, they can throw blame at me. We'll talk about dollars, but there are people's kids that are still alive today because they're able to get addiction treatment services and get to them quickly. So he's unapologetic about the state spending on drug treatment, even though, again, a lot of, not just, I mean, yes, the attorney general was a Republican, but, I mean, there were, again, insurance people, Medicare people, experts across the health industry that were all saying, hey, man, you're overspending, given the results of the treatment. And what led to the decline in overdose deaths? Probably Narcan more than anything else.

Oh, yes, the kuda. Bum-lum-lum-lum-lum-lum-lum-lum that's hard. And I'm Cruiser at 97.3 FM and 590 a.m. WVLK. We are having trouble with our AM signal. We are getting engineers to look at it. I know the last day or so there's been some times where it's dropped in and out. Now, we were told that our equipment all looked good. There weren't any readings or any indications that it was a mechanical issue or a technical issue. But I guess sometimes at this time a year, there can be some atmospheric issues, I'm told. Now, I don't know. I don't have the qualifications to know if that's bunk or not, but that's what we were told. But then we're hearing that we're down, so we're looking into it. There's always the FM signal, which gets really good coverage here in Fayette County, 97.3 or streaming. I should not be affected by all of this. I did want to mention when I was talking about Fancy Farm. I didn't at the time, but KET does have live coverage of the event. If you want to check it out, it's going to begin at 2.30. I think the speeches started 2. host Laura Rogers. Well, because Renee Shaw is not there anymore. So we have Laura Rogers. I don't know who Laura is, but, well, get acquainted with her. She'll have a panel of experts, including our own Bob Babbage. This Saturday, live broadcast starts at 2.30 on KET. So I think that's what time starts. Yeah, I know the speeches are two. And so I believe KET's coverage will start at... 2.30. So, I mean, hey, rainy Saturday afternoon, kind of a dull time of year in terms of sports. So maybe this is something you might want to check out. ARC founder Tim Robinson, his companies and employees are big Andy Beshear contributors, easily verifiable. Yeah, I can understand that. I was thinking about going to Fancy Farm, Gale says, and starting a drinking game, drink every time a Democratic candidate is called a socialist or a communist and a Republican is called a fascist, but I don't think my liver can take it. Well, yeah, that would be dangerous, I think. It'd be dangerous. The theft of drug addiction recovery money and judgment day. You know, I'm just, I just wonder about these little moral questions from time to time. It's like, is there a, to me, there's a difference between stealing money, as I said, from an old woman who is, who is, who lives on a fixed income, who is vulnerable. Can't take being wiped out. It would ruin her, could kill her. or stealing money that's meant to help drug addicts get clean again and just and what, overcharging and doing what with the money? I'm assuming putting it in your pocket. And I just, I just want, I asked them, I didn't say it was different stealing and stealing, but, you know, some people will justify their stealing from a place like Walmart and well, you know, they got all kinds of money and I got nothing.

This from the Stookartmurters text line, I understand your point, and I, too, would see a difference between stealing from a little old lady and stealing from Walmart or the United States government. Yeah, I bet most people in this country don't think stealing from the United States government is stealing at all. I'm just getting what's rightfully mine that they took from me. The text continues, when that commandment, which states thou shalt not steal, was handed down, I don't think there were any really large institutions like the United States government or Walmart. Now, Jesus did once say, render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and render unto God what is gods or something like that, but the Roman Empire was such a large institution. If it had been set up by the time the Ten Commandments were handed down, arguably that statement by Jesus just applied to taxation. Anyway, when you're speaking of Judgment Day, maybe this is a loophole in the applicable commandant. Render under Caesars what is Caesars and render unto God what is gods. So anyway, thanks for the text. I just, because it is. These were institutions that allegedly, or maybe not even allegedly, they took advantage of, I don't know, I get, you know, all this, you know, I remember during COVID, just get money at it. Just throw money at it. You know, we're going to monitor how the money spent. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember having Andy Barr on and a whole bunch of money was going to go to the small business administrator. You're going to be able to keep track of the? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And what did COVID turn out to be? Maybe the biggest fraud hustle ever against the United States. And it's just every, you throw money out there and go, yeah, just give treatment, treatment, treatment. You know, just get treatment services out there. And so people would hang a shingle that, yeah, yeah, treatment, addiction treatment. Well, we're finding out that around the state there might have been a fair amount of that that wasn't worth the money it was given.

Little GTO, Ronnie and the Daytona's. The Beach Boys did this song, too, and it introses this week's Car Talk, the latest automotive news. Sponsored by Jack Kane Ford, and joining us, as always, Donna Sturgeon. Hi, Donna. Hey, there, Cruiser. How are you? I am hanging in there. Hanging in there. Okay. Wasn't a GTO? That was a Pontiac product, wasn't it? I believe it was. Maybe Pontiac's sports car, but they also had GTO station wagons. You can't, there's no universe where a station wagon is a sports car. I was going to say, is that supposed to be a cool station wagon? No. There's no way it can be cool. No way. And I used to drive a station wagon for a while when I was growing up because that was the car that had FM radio and a cassette player in it. It was a Ford Country Square station wagon, so I would prefer to drive that, but it was very uncool. But I was digging the music inside. I had FM radio in there. The other car didn't have it and a cassette deck, too. Yeah, and you could carry so many of your friends in that car. I mean, I went to school with guys who drove their parents big bombs, too, and they actually turned them into, you know, sort of interesting kind of cars, and everybody respected them because they could carry so many of people out, you know, to go party. Yeah, well, and you're not going to argue with a guy that's, you know, this guy's going to drive. I don't have to drive. Exactly. You're not going to argue with that. Well, and minivans are cool again.

So a guy shows up at your place with a minivan. You're not answering the door. No, no. Come on in. We need all the minivans we can get. According to Edmonds, minivan's minivan sales went up 21% last year with almost 400,000 sold in the United States. It seems like the Toyota Sienna is the crown jewel. It's only spending the Sienna's only on dealer lots for about 18 days. That's pretty quick for a new car these days, isn't it, Donna? Yes, it is. The Toyota Sienna, the Honda Odyssey, and even the, I'm told, the new Chrysler Pacifica, sick by the millennials. That's sick. Yeah. And then it's the millennials that are, you know, transitioning into these. kind of vehicles. It makes me think about it. I mean, it really does when I'm a Gen Xer. And I remember when we started getting married having kids, that was the big joke that you were going to have to drive a minivan with the wood panels on the side or a station wagon like our parents had. So no self-respecting Gen X father was going to easily transition into a minivan back then. But now they do. And they do it because it's, you know, get higher fuel efficiency, lower cost compared to big SUV. Yeah. Yeah. That's a big thing about $4,000 cheaper than comparable three-row SUVs. They like the three rows. Parents say the sliding doors make loading kids simpler. Yeah. Also dogs, too, if you've got big dogs. So they're now cool, man. Get with it. They're hip. And you know what? If you need one more thing to sell you on this, Donna, some of these minivans come equipped with 18 cup holders. Oh, my God. 18 cup holders. Every passenger has got a place for their drink. Can you imagine how sticky the interior? Oh, my gosh, yeah. And these kids with their juice boxes and everything else, which usually don't fit in the, well, they fit awkwardly. Yeah, it's a rectangular thing, and you're trying to fit into a round hole. Right. One of the things that Apple has failed at was Apple cars. Remember, they were trying. It was talk that they were going to, and it was also going to be an Apple TV. Now, you got, I'm not talking about Apple TV, the streaming service, but they were going to do smart televisions. But Apple cars failed. They couldn't get there on their own. But there's plenty of motor companies that would like to team up with them, like Ford. And Ford has announced that driver assistance systems in its new electric vehicles would use Apple Maps software, giving the technology company a much more central place in vehicle operations than it's ever had. Now, Apple CarPlay is available in many cars. That allows drivers to connect their vehicle screens to their iPhones, let them use apps like Apple Maps or Siri. But the agreement with Ford goes further.

by allowing Apple software to play a role in how cars and trucks navigate when they operate autonomously. Apple and Ford engineers working together to improve self-driving abilities of cars that will arrive in dealer showrooms next year. Next year, Donna, self-driving cars at Jack Kane Ford next year. Well, we've got the self, I mean, not completely autonomous. We've got the self-driving blue crews on a lot of the trucks we've got. But, you know, maybe Apple needs to talk to Waymo, those Waymo self-driving cars, because I've been seeing a lot of them on YouTube getting stuck and kicking their passengers out or trapping them inside. So they need to. Discussed it with Apple. Well, that's true. But you know what? There was a study that was done an independent study that found that Waymo's robo-taxies are involved in fewer crashes than human drivers. This was research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. They compared to crash rates of human-driven cars and Waymo taxis, robo-taxies in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Austin, four cities where robo-taxies are prevalent. Waymo vehicles at 68% fewer police reportable crashes. I still don't want to get in one, and you're right. And there are U.S. auto safety regulators that are beginning to work now on new requirements to ensure drivers and passengers can get out of their vehicles. You know, that's something we took for granted in the past, Donna, but in some of these newer vehicles, that could be a thing. You can't get out. Yeah, and I'll tell you why they're probably safer, it's just a guess from me having watched these videos, that they pull over on the side of the road and they stop. When they get confused or lost, I watched a guy last week. He was in Austin, his first trip in Waymo. He was so excited, and he's one of the kids that, you know, films everything about his life and puts it on YouTube. Well, he started filming. And it went well for the first couple of turns, but then it pulled over. It got pulled into a parking lot, and it couldn't turn itself around. It was staring at a gate, and he kept trying to tell it to back up. It was like OnStar, whatever, to the Waymo office, and he had to talk to the gal. She had to transfer him to another man who finally said, I can't get it to move. We can't get you where you need to go. So if there's someplace safe, can you walk to that location and we'll send another car for you? And he goes, no, no, I'll call Uber. That's okay. But, you know, they will pull over and just shut down, it looks like. So, of course, they're not going to have as many wrecks because us humans, you know, will barrel right on through. But they just shut down. They just shut down and pull over. I didn't realize. I knew they were doing that somewhat. Yeah. Not a lot. And I guess these vehicles are flush, a lot of these vehicles, and not just the robotaxies or the Waymo's. A lot of Teslas and other car makers have had these electronically operated door handles, but there's been a number of instances where occupants are trapped inside the car after the vehicles lose power, including after a crash. Oh, yeah. In several instances, occupants of Tesla vehicles survive the initial impact of the high-speed crash, only to die or sustain serious injury.

from subsequent fires after they couldn't get out. Oh, my gosh. We're given too much, too much responsibility to things that are not human. Well, yeah, yeah, we are. There's too much tech. I mean, come on. Why do I have to exit the vehicle? I mean, like the enterprise doors open on Star Trek. I don't need that. These things, everything claims to be able to do so much for us, but how often do you experience glitches or problems? Exactly. And sometimes it's more trouble than just doing it the old way. And there's a whole generation of people that have been messed up by technology. And we're going to find in years you watch, I sound like a really old person, but someday we'll find out just how bad this was for all of us. Yeah. This is kind of an interesting story. Back in the spring of 2024, Tesla notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the headlights on some 19,900 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles exceeded the maximum brightness allowed by law by nearly double. But rather than fix these blindingly bright EVs, the company logged a petition weeks later, and they said they shouldn't have to because the defect is inconsequential to safety. Well, two years later, the feds have responded. Because they're the feds, and it takes two years for them to get back. They have responded with a resounding, nice try, Tesla. I guess GM was doing this, too. They were trying to skirt recalls. And here's how they were skirting the recalls, Donna. They were saying, nobody's complaining. Who's complaining? Nobody, and there is. There's no formal record at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of anybody complaining about blindingly bright headlights, but they're out there, Donna. I mean, and it's causing problems for some people. There was a recent poll that I found recently or a survey that was done that showed that six and ten drivers in the U.S. agreed that glare is a problem after dark. Oh, yeah. I mean, I've had it myself where I've been, you know, blinded just about it. And you think about it. But then once you get home, are you going to sit down and look up an email address to the National Highway Transportation Safety Board? Yeah. Type out an email. So I can see how it's once you survive and you make it past that vehicle and there's no issues, then you sort of forget about it until the next time. Yeah. I just love this. They say, you know, just they just skirted the government, just told the government basically to take a hike. And now their case is, well, nobody's complained. Yeah. You know, nobody's complained, but, but they can be bright. Now, they're not, they may not always get you or hit your blind spot, but, I mean, sometimes it just depends on.

The vehicle's movement and where the lights may be focused at that time. Well, nobody's complained yet, but now we're talking about nobody complaining, and I bet the complaints start rolling in. Well, yeah, yeah, maybe so. If you approach one of these cars on the side of a steep grade or at a peak or a valley or a curve or a straightaway, eventually your eyes will hit an angle of those headlights where it could cause you some problems. Oh, yeah. You know, I guess you've seen them. You can buy them at aftermarket parts places. They almost look purple, and there's some green ones they put in jeeps and Broncos. They're green. And those are just as distracting. They might not hurt your eyes or completely blinds you, but it's extremely distracting when you meet one head on. The government's response says that at least two individuals step forward, and then on page 8, quote, the absence of complaints does not mean vehicle occupants have not experienced a safety issue, nor does it mean that there will not be a safety issue in the future. So that's what the government's trying. And I guess in this day and age, Donna, bulletproof cars. are hot. Some people out there need it. Bulletproof protection. Armoring packages generally started around $50,000. That's in addition to the original cost of the vehicle itself. Would you know if somebody came into Jack Kane Ford and said, yeah, I just bought one of your beautiful Ford Broncos. I want to get an armor-plated. Where would I go? Good question. I would get on Google and try to find out. Y'all don't have that at the Quick Lane facility, the bumper, the bulletproof coating? That would be in our detail department, and I don't think that they do that just yet. Here's the president of, what is this company called, Incas, Toronto, based out of Toronto, Enkis Armored Vehicle Manufacturing. They just opened up their first dealership here in the United States. Miami Armored. It's got a showroom. Philip Daskell is the vice president. We serve government. We serve banks. We serve law enforcement and we serve high net worth individuals. But we also serve Plummer Joe, who's driving on the freeway, a stray bullet these days. It's crazy times. That hits the bumper. He needs to start thinking about taking care of his family. So they're trying to market this to normal people saying, hey, there's stray bullets out there all the time, man. Don't you want to be protected? Well, they may, you know, have a high net income, but a lot of CEOs and CEOs of big companies, I would, you know, if I was one of them, I would be looking to, you know, that wouldn't sound outrageous to me because they're being targeted. It doesn't really matter, you know, what line of business you're in anymore.

Yeah, no, you're right. I mean, if you're a CEO, and even Donna now, I don't know, they may have cleaned some of this up in D.C. because Trump says he's, you know, crime is almost non-existent, I guess, in D.C. when he started cracking down. But, I mean, D.C., and I guess there were other communities, I mean, carjackings were rampant. Oh, yeah. At the time. So maybe people concerned about all of that. Now, they say they don't deal in cash. That's another big factor because people say, well, you know, only mobsters or cartel members are going to want this kind of thing. I don't think that's true, no. I believe that the normal every day, normal Americans that maybe, you know, run companies will start thinking that way too. Yeah. You know, anybody involved in or around the periphery of politics needs to start thinking that way. Yeah, the politics and CEOs and sports and whatnot. Yeah. Uh-huh. You know, there's cash and grab thefts are on the rise. So for people that are able to afford this, I mean, it's almost an extension of the panic room. You've got a panic room in your house. Well, yeah, and you know, so many people, they photograph their life or they video their life and it's online. So people get to see, total strangers, see a lot about your life. They see what kind of car you've got. And they may think, hmm, you know, that person lives near me or one town over or in the next state over. I think I want that car and I want to meet them. So you get a stalker or something. You know. There's too much information about us out there. So I can see why some people would need to do that. I get it too. Yeah. Finally, in Union City, Georgia. Guy named Thomas Johnson, he'd been using public transportation for decades, lives independently in a senior apartment building in southwest Atlanta, but he really wanted to drive a car again. And he's a guy that really shouldn't have driven a car. He's got a mental disability. He's hard of hearing and where's hearing aids. And he's almost, well, he's totally blind in his left eye. And his sister says he can see shadows out of his right eye. Long story short here, in October, Johnson took the bus to Heritage Volkswagen in Union City, and he brought $15,000 in cash. This was money he had saved over the years working at McDonald's and other jobs. The salesman said he talked to Johnson about what he wanted in a car, sold him a 2013 Mini Cooper. Now, again, this is a guy blind in one eye and see shadows out of his right eye. They sold him a Mini Cooper with 42,000 miles on it for $14,100. Johnson's sister, Darling Johnson, who's been looking after her brother, says this is total exploitation, unscrupulous, and immoral that you would sell this guy a car like this, an attorney who spent 18 years at Atlanta legal aid, Aaron Wollinby.

says interpreting contracts for people with limited education. That's what she spends her years doing. She said several factors allowed the dealership to legally sell the car. He had the money. He had a valid driver's license that he had renewed in 2021. He probably shouldn't get another driver's license renewed. You're 18 years old and a legally competent adult. So Donna, could you guys sell a car to a blind person if they walked into Jack Kane Ford and they had the money and a valid driver's license? We absolutely could not discriminate against someone because they're legally blind. Now, if they had all of those things in line and they had the driver's license, we can't also say, well, we don't think that your mental faculties are all there. That's discrimination. So we have sold vehicles, not like this gentleman, but to people who are maybe legally blind, they buy them for their caretaker to drive them around in. Nothing, you know, we can't legally not sell it. If they meet all the criteria, then of course we have to. Because we're not going to be the judge of whether or not, you know, they need it or not. And their family, that sounds like a family thing. Why wasn't the family with him? Why didn't they know more about this? Yeah, I guess he was just planning on doing this. And when his sister got word of it, that's when she started to go ballistic. So I just get a sense that he just did this on his own. He told the sales guy, well, with my glasses, I can see a lot better. And the salesman said, I believed him. He seemed coherent. But then the sister says he's mentally disabled. You can't talk to him and not know that he has an issue. And on top of that, you had to know he can't see. Well, like I said, we've had people who come in and can't see, but they were buying it for their caretaker or someone to drive them around. And that's perfectly legal if they have the money. And, you know, you don't have to have a valid driver's license to purchase a car. You have to have a valid ID to purchase a car. What about insurance, though? Don't you have to prove you have that? You have to have insurance, of course, yes. And, you know, he doesn't, the insurance company doesn't have to have proof that he can see. Again, you can't discriminate against somebody if they want insurance on their car. Should we check that out about this? Well, I don't know. I don't make those kind of rules. I'm not going to make that. That's. No, I can see where you can't discriminate against somebody who's blind, but you also want to make sure that somebody who's blind is not delusional in thinking, yeah, I can drive. Yeah. Well, fortunately, the folks that have come in that we've sold to, they had their caretaker with them or someone's with them, and it, you know, indeed is for them to be driven around in, and they just wanted to pick the kind of car that they wanted to be driven around in. Yeah, I got a car. No, no, I totally understand that. Oh, and I said that was the last thing, but I got one more thing because I got a text message last week from somebody saying, I'm seeing templates all over the place. I see temporary tags on cars in greater numbers than I used to. Is that a thing? Is there a reason why we're seeing templates? I know the licensing of the state, they've been redoing their software and all that stuff.

Well, in January of this year, they did redo it. It's now made, the temporary plates made out of something that, you know, doesn't dissolve when it's rained on. Yeah. And it must be placed where the license plate goes. In January of 24, Kentucky put a new law into effect that the license plate, so say you cruiser bring your car in, you're going to trade it and you're going to sell it to us. You used to be the plate would stay with the car. Nowadays, the plate goes with whoever owned it. So we would give you that plate, and when you could take it home, put it on your wall in the garage or throw it away or whatever. And so. the plate stays with the person, not the car. So all those cars out there have to have temporary tags when they're purchased. And with the look of it now, it looks different than it used to look. They flap in the wind. There's only two holes, and you must put them where the real license plate goes, so you see them flapping a lot. That and the fact that the template changed may be why you think you see more, but you really do see more because... Used to be, you know, if you bought a used car from us and it had a plate on it and it was still valid, you know, it hadn't expired, the tag hadn't expired, that plate would go home with you and you're new to you car. But nowadays, you know, that plate goes home with the person who sold it. So if there are more temporary. Sure, they can sell more place now. Yeah, exactly. They sell more plates this way, as opposed to if, oh, okay, it's almost like going to a parking meter. Oh, somebody left me 15 minutes. Yeah, that's capitalism. Somebody left me another six months on this license plate, but no, no, no, no, no. We want you money. Right. You're going to pay. Somebody on the text line, how'd the blind man get to the car dealership? He took a bus, Marda, the Atlanta, and I did mention that, I think. Yeah, he took the bus. He was a regular MARTA rider, and he wanted to get his own car. Yeah. Well, I can't fault him for that. No, but. I would hope that he would, honestly, I would hope that he had somebody in mind and probably should have had him with him. It's going to drive him. Well, no. He wasn't planning on. He was planning on driving himself. Yes, yeah. He was planning on driving himself. In fact, the sister raised so much hell. I think the dealership ended up giving most, if not all the money back. Okay. I don't think they gave it all back, but they gave. They gave a good portion of the money back to the sister. Yeah. That's all the time. We got Donna. It was a lot of fun. Thanks for joining us and have a great weekend. Great. Thank you, Cruiser, and tell everybody out there who wants to look for a newer used car, go to caneford.com. Hey, yeah, a beautiful day tomorrow to get out to the dealership. You want to take a look around at some of those new and pre-owned vehicles out there. Jack Kane, Ford, all, with one-price, best price on them. lowest price possible on each vehicle thanks donna donna sturgeon out of jack cane forward here on cruiser and crew we'll be back

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