Hour 2 of NMN, China, Hines's Execution + State Rep. Scott Cepicky

I don't know, Sam, you didn't have me potted up on the board. I didn't. Come on, dude. That was on me. That was a great intro, too. I'm sure it was. It is now 607 on Nashville's morning news on Super Talk, 997WTN. Welcome on end to your Friday, August 14th. And there's a lot going on, including the heat. We'll continue to monitor that. Scott Sepicki is going to join us coming up at 636. One of the questions that I'm going to ask, Scott, he was, of course, on with Murphy's show yesterday, but I've got some different things that I want to speak to him about. One of them is an accusation that I did talk about in the 5 o'clock hour. from an outgoing lawmaker, Jeremy Faison, that says that the state of Tennessee is actually veering far too right, is what Jeremy Faison says. And we did a daily Dan poll on this. Real quick, Sam, what are people saying on the Daily Dan poll on YouTube? Are Tennessee Republicans drifting too far right? 82% of respondents say no. I don't believe that we are, and we'll talk to Scott's a picky about that and some other matters involving education coming up here at 635 Super Talk, 9-9-7, WTN. By the way, you can watch the radio show. Facebook, YouTube, 997wtn.com, Twitter, Twitch, and so on and so forth. You can listen to the radio show anywhere. And by the way, you can watch us and listen to us any time of the day as well. So, for example, if you miss the epic 5 o'clock hour this morning, you can go back and listen or watch any time. And if you missed yesterday's 8 o'clock hour, which I thought was really good as well, you can go find that too. Oh, look, China. is ripping off America. So we all know that some countries like China facing steep tariffs on their exports that are coming into our country. This is a really big story this morning. It turns out that China, what they've been doing is they've been routing their products through third countries. to evade those tariffs. Now, who didn't see this coming? And I guess you would file this under, if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying, okay. But here's the deal. This has been going on for a long time, actually. And so now what I find interesting is the Trump administration admitting yesterday in this report that China is ripping us off of billions of dollars every single year. Well, this has been going on since 2018. Now, though, they've decided to start to do something about it. I've got some video. This is, by the way, they call this trans-shipping. We're losing somewhere between $26 and $40 billion every single year. Peter Navarro is the tariff czar, and he explains all of this and a hit yesterday with CNBC. But what happened beginning immediately in 2018...

is that China strategically began to develop methods of what's called trans-shipping. It's basically a modern form of smuggling. The crudest form of trans-shipping is when China takes a crate of widgets, sends them over to Vietnam or Mexico or Turkey or wherever, and then they swap labels. It comes into America at the lower tariff rate. China makes out like a bandit. The trans-shipping third country makes out because it's facilitating some commerce there. And we get cheated out of jobs and treasury revenue. Yeah, I mean, obviously he's right. And he said, again, you just heard it right there that this has been going on since 2018. But now we're using AI. So this is really interesting. A couple of things. Number one, guess who's coming to the White House in September? Xi Jinping, the China president, China's president. So I'm sure that this will be something that he and President Trump will be talking about. You know, though, that nothing is going to change. That's been part of my frustration with China all along is that they talk a good game. You know, whether it is Joe Biden, I'm going to say Donald Trump as well, although Trump has been stronger with China than Joe Biden ever was. But. They make promises like, oh, yeah, we'll work really hard to ensure that the ingredients for the drugs that are killing Americans don't come from China. They don't go from China to Mexico only to be smuggled into our country and kill 100,000 Americans every single year. That's still happening. So the bottom line is this is what China is doing, and we know that it has been going on, and we've known since 2018. It's obviously really complicated. But apparently Canada and Mexico are some of the biggest offenders of being used by China to smuggle in these goods. Over time, these practices contributed to the development of a global network of production hubs, logistics platforms, free trade zones, bonded warehouses, processing corridors, and re-export centers. The report said of this transshipment practice, the report estimates that... tariff avoiding transshipment costs the U.S. $19 billion and $26 billion in revenue annually. Between $19 and $26 billion in revenue annually. I've seen it higher than that. I've seen, depending on how you measure the revenue that we're losing, maybe somewhere around $40 billion. I really have no idea. I'm just stunned that because we started really tariffing China hardcore back in 2018. And so now we're apparently going to start using AI to track this stuff. The Trump administration, they say, has taken steps to strengthen transshipment enforcement for years, according to the Associated Press. For years, the great transshipment scam has let communist China launder its exports, Peter Navarro said, according to the Associated Press. You know how many countries are ripping off America? At least 40.

40 countries are ripping off America, helping China, including nations that are supposed to be our allies and our partners. The report actually names India. What would you do if your online store converted 36% more shoppers? You could take 36% more vacation. Another peanut carata? Yes, please. Open a new retail location. With 36% more square feet. Fantastic. Hire 36% more help. You're hired and you're hired. Shopify has the world's best converting checkout, up to 36% better than other e-commerce platforms. What you do with those extra sales is up to you. Switch to Shopify today at Shopify.com slash listen and get a $1.5.com. com slash listen. Oh, oh, oh, O'Reilly. Check engine, ABS or maintenance light on. Take the guesswork out of your warning lights with O'Reilly Veriscan. The service is free and provides a report with solutions verified by ASE certified master technicians. And if you need help, we could recommend a shop for you. Ask for O'Reilly Veriscan today. Oh, oh, oh, O'Reilly. Auto parts.

The U.S. Soccer Podcast. These players are battered and exhausted, but you don't hurt like this if you don't care about this team, about this country, about this game. You can feel the intensity, the goals, the energy that, wow, look at us. Here in the U.S., I have got some news for you. There's so much more to come. My name is Megan Klingerick, and we're just getting started. The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Henkel. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. And countries in the EU is part of this shell game, South Korea as well. So now Peter Navarro is making the rounds, as you can imagine. And he's saying, oh yeah, you know what? We're going to start using AI to figure this out to help U.S. Customs and Border Protection identify suspicious shipments. We're cracking down. And what's really interesting is this new AI detective border that we're developing. at Customs and Border Protection. And what AI can do with this detective border, and one of the companies we're working with is Exager, it's a fantastic company, is we can see in real time every boat and every container coming out and every port in the world. And what we can do with AI at the speed of scam is assessed with a very high degree of accuracy, the probability. that that's a, that's a transshipment. All right. So that is Peter Navarro, the proposed system that we're about to start using or are using and refining would examine things like shipping routes, product information, ownership, and other data to help officials distinguish legitimate trade from attempts to evade tariffs. The message to the world is simple. The report wraps up by saying, The age of untraceable illegal transshipment is over. The report reads, what once seemed like quiet paperwork maneuvers, relabling, repackaging, re-invoicing, has become a matter of economic sovereignty and national will. And again, that report comes ahead of an expected September visit to the U.S. by Chinese President Xi Jinping. That's going to be a lot of fun. It is going to be... Really hot. We're talking about a few clouds today, a high of 98, going to feel like 110, maybe 115 in some places. On Saturday, a little hotter, high of 99. And on Sunday, a high of 101, feels like it's going to be 110 to 115 on Sunday. So as we've been saying... Too hot, maybe for the state fair and perhaps even too hot for the swimming pool. So you definitely want to be safe out there. Do you know what I want to know from the supertexters? 615-737-99-86. 615-737 W-WTN. Do you work outside? And if you work outside, just tell me what that's like. Because I can imagine that has got to be absolutely brutal because, and I feel for you, and I know we talked about this the other day, people seeing folks working outside and dropping them off a bottle of water. I think that is very cool for people to do. It is 616. Nashville's morning news. Supertext line is open 615-737-99-8986. So with all of that hand ringing, the execution of Darrell Jim Himes, apparently.

went off without a hitch. This happened yesterday about 10. Today, by the order of the Supreme Court, the Tennessee Department of Correction carried out the death sentence of Anthony Jim Himes by means of lethal injection at the River Bend Maximum Security Institution. Inmate Jim Himes was pronounced dead at 1043 a.m. and his last words were, tell my son, hello. So there's a number of things here. We talked about it yesterday. He was convicted of murdering a woman named Catherine Jean Jenkins back in 1985. There was a lot of worry because he was old and he had suffered strokes that they would not be able to find a vein for the IV. And so apparently there was some complications. Nobody's really talking about what those complications were. They started the execution process, apparently right around, or at least it was scheduled for 10 o'clock in the morning. He was dead by 1043. They were worried because of the strokes that he had had. His left arm couldn't bend. His left hand is permanently clenched, was permanently clenched. They said that it would be too painful. They said that Daryl Jim Himes would feel discomfort. You know, I don't know, raise your hand if anybody cares about the discomfort of inmate Daryl Jim Himes after he killed a woman in cold blood back in 1985. The victim's children were there to see the whole thing apparently, and they didn't have any sympathy whatsoever. My family would like to thank the investigators, prosecutors, the district attorney's office, and everyone who worked tirelessly to bring accountability for the murder of my mother, Catherine. Jean Jenkins. For four decades, our family has endured the unimaginable pain and grief of her death. There is a deep void that will never be filled, a lifetime of memories. We were denied because she was taken from us. One senseless act not only took her life, but forever changed the lives of the many family members and friends who were robbed of the chance to hug her. laugh with her, hear her stories, or see her beautiful smile again. I mean, somebody please remind me about how convicted murderers getting the death penalty does not bring the families. I don't know if I would call it closure, but at least what it does is that it gives them a sense that there are consequences.

because that's what this family is feeling. I mean, you could tell that obviously they still carry the pain of their mother's murder. And there's a number of different things at play here, right? So you have the fact that they grew up without a mother, but there's also the thought of your loved one being brutally murdered. I mean, that's also something that haunts you forever. So I don't know whether or not it gives these families a sense of closure or not. I strongly suspect that it depends on that particular family and that particular person. But what it does do is it at least gives them a sense that there are some consequences for the murder of their loved ones. And you heard her say it. You know, to me, at least she lived long enough to see her mother's murderer face some consequences. Here's a little bit more. How do we move forward from a loss like this? The truth is we never truly do. We will always mourn the wonderful person my mother was, even as we continue living our lives. While today does not bring closure, nor does it bring my mother back. It does finally bring justice. Our focus remains on honoring her memory and finding peace as a family. After so many years, we are finally able to close this chapter of our lives and begin to heal. We respectfully ask for privacy as we navigate what lies ahead. I love what she says. I do. I like the fact that they're glad that he's dead, no apologies whatsoever. But that's not even half the story. Wait till you hear what the son of this murder victim had to say. That is all straight ahead. It is 622 on Nashville's morning news on Super Talk 997. WTN Supertext line is open. 615-7-37-9986. Remember, Scott Sipiki is going to be joining us at 636. And Scott, if you happen to be listening, I think it's on the phone, but if he's coming to the station, whatever, I'm also going to ask you. What would it take to change our method of execution to the firing squad, like other states? Do you know what? Let's do a daily Dan poll. Real quick, Sam, let's do a daily Dan poll. Should we, here in the state of Tennessee, do like other states and have our main... way of executing people, the firing squad. Didn't you and I agree on this yesterday, Joan? We did. Yeah, that it should be the firing squad. I actually talked about it before. Yeah. I mean, it's a lot cheaper because we talked about how it costs like thousands of dollars to put these, you know, frankly to put these dogs down and hundreds of thousands. Hundreds of thousands of dollars as opposed to. Which means you got a budget for a couple mill. Yeah.

I mean, how much does, you know, they probably, if I read how South Carolina does it, they've got like, I don't know, five people with rifles and they don't know which one has the actual bullets and who has blanks. But there's probably, I don't know, five to ten bullets. In total, maybe? I think that's what Idaho is doing, too. And they only spent money renovating the facility to do that. Yeah. After that, then it's go buy a box bullets. And there are people who volunteer to do such things. Oh, we talked about that. Oh, yeah. We talked about that. And I thought that would be a very interesting, I don't know, I'm trying to think of the mentality of the people who volunteer. Like, I'm not judging, I'm not saying it's wrong or it's bad. I'm just trying to think of. Why would somebody want to volunteer? I actually have a family friend that participated in it. He's older. He's done it before, and he served in Korea. And so in his mind, it was removing the burden from somebody else of taking someone else's life because he'd done it before. And he had already kind of dealt with the ramifications of that mentally, and it didn't bother him as much. Well, and here's the thing, is that If I were ever an executioner, this is getting into silly mode, but if I were ever an executioner and I had some misgivings, all you have to do is read the details of what Daryl Jim Himes did to Catherine Jean Jenkins back in 1985. And we're not going to talk about it because it is morning drive and kids are in the car. It is absolutely horrifying. You read the report. You. realize what this animal did, and I don't care how old he is or how much pain he's in, yeah, I'd be okay to pull the trigger. It's a bird. It's a plane. It's actually Scott Spicky. 638, Nashville's morning news on Super Talk. Scott, I state lawmaker Scott Spicky so joins us via phone. And Scott Sam was very excited because apparently somewhere on the computer, we have the Scott Spicky theme and it is Superman. I don't know. That's a lot to live up to, Scott. I don't know. Well, that was put on there a long time ago. That was my walk-up music when I played for the Nashville Sounds. Oh, got it. Boy, really that was your walk-up music when you played for the sounds? Yeah, that's what the lady who played the organ chose for me was Superman. Okay. Was it embarrassing if you struck out? Yeah, but hopefully I didn't have too many of those episodes and it worked out okay. All right, very good. Leave it to me to make it awkward. I tried. All right, very good. So a bunch of things I want to talk to you about. I know that you're on Murphy's show yesterday. I want to talk to you about some different things today. First of all, I want to play a piece of audio. I was talking about the execution of Daryl Jim Himes yesterday, which it happened. I mean, they were able to do what they needed to do. He was pronounced dead at 1043.

But apparently he suffered. Now, just so we're clear, I don't care if he suffered. And apparently neither does the son of her victim. This is what he said. Yes, I hope he did suffer. I hope he felt severe pain because what he did to my mother is nothing, what he may have just gone through. And for those hot shot attorneys out there. that are trying to make a name for yourselves by defending these cold-blooded murderers. I mean, I don't understand your mentality. Yep. So, and I'm right there with them. Of course, we do understand that everybody needs to have their day in court. But, you know, I've got to ask this, Scott Sipiki. Has there ever been any thoughts in the state legislature to perhaps change our method of execution, our main method of execution to the firing squad like we've seen in some of these other states recently? Yeah, that normally happens on the criminal justice or the judiciary committee when they talk about the capital crimes and punishment for those individuals that create and are found guilty by their peers of the most heinous crimes in society that have given up their right and their ability to participate with our normal lives. I think one of the things you're seeing with these lethal injections is I think they are, the prisoners, in my opinion, are talking to each other about how to make it as difficult as possible, such as, you know, not drinking waters and suppressing your vein system and your artery system to where it makes it difficult to get these lines in. Maybe we need to do a better job of hydrating these prisoners before we take them in. But there has been some discussion about getting things. to a point to be more efficient. I kind of agree with you, Dan, that when you do these most heinous crimes, I'm not too concerned about your feelings and your suffering because of the suffering that you put your victims through. And these are the penalties reserved for the most dangerous and lethal in our society. Yeah, and I think that part of what's going on, you're right. Number one, they try to make it as difficult as possible to get executed. That's number one. Number two is I do believe that they try to make it seem like they're in as much pain as possible just because they've been spending so many years trying to fight their execution. And so even, there's my opinion, even in their final dying moments, you know. My opinion is they're also going to be a bit performative just because they're trying to help the next guy that's going to be put down as they should be put down. But, you know, the...

We know that they're playing games, right? We know that you've got activists that will do everything they can to prevent states like Tennessee from getting the drugs that we need to be able to put these people down. So I just believe that if we brought back the firing squad, that would make it a lot easier. As a matter of fact, we did a daily Dan poll on this. I would be willing to bet the vast majority of people taking the poll agrees that the state of Tennessee should try to do like South Carolina just did in other states and start utilizing the firing squad. 80% say yes. 80% say yes. So other news, though, I want to play you a piece of audio. This was something that I talked about yesterday, and you and I... changed, exchanged some text messages on this. This is a woman named Samira Hardcastle. She is a former teacher from Metro Nashville Schools. My name is Samira Hardcastle. I was teacher of the year at John F. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Middle School in Antioch this past year and Blue Ribbon Teacher of the Year for the district. What you have in front of you right now is my resignation letter. Yeah, she was in front of the school board. And she had a lot of these allegations against the Metro School Board. and the district generally speaking. Among those allegations, I'm going to go through some of these because, Scott, you and I have spoken about this so many times about Dr. Adrian Battle and, you know, the $6 million in lawsuits that had to be settled, no questions asked by the media, no questions allowed to be asked by the media. But Samira said that teachers were being forced to change bad grades just because bullying parents demanded it. She is also accusing the district of not protecting teachers from bullying parents. And she also accused the district of faking data regarding disruptive students. And finally, one of the other things that she said, again, among others, is that the district stole 500 bucks out of her paycheck to give to other teachers, apparently. So I don't know. And she also said something about teachers not being... certified and accusing the district of lying about filling the teaching gap, the teacher's gap. So, I mean, talk about, you know, you heard that segment. So talk about what I played and, you know, what is happening with Metro Nashville schools. All right. So let me walk you through this first of all, Dan. A couple years ago. It was made aware to the General Assembly that Metro Nashville had a policy that it was actually written down. It was a written policy that you were prohibited from giving a student anything less than a 50 on a test. If the student walked in and did nothing and turned the paper back in, the teacher had to give them a 50. We ran a bill a couple years ago. It's in 49-6-407, and I'll read it to you. An LEA shall not create a local grading policy or procedure that establishes a minimum grade above zero that a student may earn for coursework, which means if a student earns a zero, you have to give them a zero. So if Metro Nashville is doing something contrary to that, number one, Dr. Battle is in violation of state law. That's the first problem.

Second problem is I saw, I listened to Ms. Hardcastle, and I looked her up. And Dan, she was probably one of our best teachers in the state of Tennessee. Yeah. So this is coming from somebody who's excellent at what she does. A couple years before that, about four years ago, we passed a bill that I've talked about, about the called the Teachers Discipline Act, which is in state law. It's 496-2801 that specifically gives the teachers. the ability to remove a repetitively disruptive student from their classrooms and prohibit that student from coming back into their classrooms unless the teacher approves it, Dan, and enable for that student to come back into the classroom. There has to be a meeting with the principal, the guidance counselor, a student. Check engine, ABS, or maintenance light on? Take the guesswork out of your warning lights with O'Reilly Veriscan. The service is free and provides a report with solutions verified by ASE certified master technicians. And if you need help, we could recommend a shop for you. Ask for O'Reilly Verascan today. Oh, oh, oh, O'Reilly, Auto Parts.

The U.S. Soccer Podcast. These players are battered and exhausted, but you don't hurt like this if you don't care about this team, about this country, about this game. You can feel the intensity, the goals, the energy that, wow, look at us. Here in the U.S., I have got some news for you. There's so much more to come. My name is Megan Klingberg, and we're just getting started. The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Henkel. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Social worker and the parents, along with the teacher, to come up with a corrective action plan. We have addressed both of those concerns, and it was required of the districts to adopt both of those. If they have not, then Dr. Battle is in violation of state law again. And I think what we're getting to here is we have a district that has been underperforming for decades, full of excuses. And we've had enough. We've had enough with Memphis, and we're reaching to a point that we've had enough with Nashville. And I've asked a speaker like we did with Memphis in next year's budget to appropriate money to do a forensic audit. on the financials and the policies of Metro Nashville, and let's pull back the curtain. Let's see exactly where we are with Metro Nashville in regards to what they're doing in educating our students. I mean, I said this a thousand times regarding Adrian Battle. It just feels like she's got something on somebody, and she is apparently above reproach. I love what I'm hearing. How are the scores in Metro Nashville? I hear so many differing stories. I hear that they're up, but then I look it up, and the scores may be up, but it looks like they're still well below the rest of the state. Yes, they are, unfortunately. Now, I will give them credit. They've gotten better, but if you look at the legislation that we've passed in the General Assembly requiring certain things, it's evidence that what we're doing in Nashville in the General Assembly is having a direct correlation to academic scores. But here's the latest numbers, Dan, and this is straight from the Tennessee Report Card. In third grade, the state average is 45% on literacy. Now, that's nothing to be happy with, but we used to be at 27% about six years ago. Metro Nashville is at 35.9%. So they're almost 10 points behind state average. In sixth grade, it drops to 30% on grade level. In 9th and 12th, it drops to 27. But here's where the rubber meets the road. Remember... K through 12 is a journey for a student that when they graduate, Dan, they have enough knowledge and the ability to perform so that they can choose what they want to do in life. Community College, T-CAT, four-year in the military.

Metro Nashville's ACT scores. Now, in able to qualify for Hope Scholarship, and you know what that is, Dan, Hope Scholarship. You have to have a 21 on the ACT or a 3.0 GPA. These are the ACT scores, the latest ACT scores from Metro Nashville. The composite ACT score for Metro Nashville is 17.6. English language arts is 16.5. Math is 17.1. Science is 18.1. And reading is 18. How are we preparing those students for the opportunity at the next level? We're not. No, we're not. I actually played some audio from a teacher a couple of days ago. And this teacher was actually crying. because it was at the end of a school year, and he realized that the students that he was teaching simply were not ready to move on to the next stage of their life. And by the way, Chris, in the text line says, as a teacher, I wholeheartedly endorse Scott Sepicki. So I think that there's a lot of teachers that, you know, appreciate what you're saying. And I just... Dan, I think what the teachers want is they want to do their job. Their job is to teach these kids because they believe in these kids and they believe in what they're doing to transform these kids from the situations they're in to the opportunities they could have. And without education, we are cheating these children and we've got to stop doing it. Real quick, there is a story, and I'm just going to give you the headline, and I'll let you comment on it. Because I know obviously you were a big part of the Governor Leeds Voucher program from, I think this is the WKRN. Majority of new vouchers went to higher income families this school year state data shows. So you'll have a lot of people, and I'm for the vouchers, as people probably know. I was a big supporter of it. As a matter of fact, I got criticized for that, but that's fine. You know, the critics of this will say, oh, exactly, the rich families are the ones that are taking advantage of this and, you know, all that. And I don't know. What's your comment on that? Well, see, that's a lot of misinformation there is because if you look at it, the data shows that 9,300, roughly, of the new scholarships of the 15,000 went to a category of students. And what they put in there was at up to $173,000 a year. But they didn't tell you what the starting dollar amount for those families were. And it was 61,000, Dan. 9,000 scholarships of the 15 went to families that had an income from 61,000 to 173. So let me tell you, if you're making $65,000 a year, you're not rich. No. And so now, now below that of the 15,000, almost 4,000 went to those families.