Heartland Journal Podcast

Heartland Journal Podcast EP221 Jon Styf The Center Square & More 6 25 24

Joining us is reporter Jon Styf who works for The Center Square covering Tennessee politics and news. Jon is a tenacious journalist who digs up storie and go after who is behind them. To find jon go to www.thecentersquare.comIf you like what you hear make sure to subscribe to the show and share it with your friends. You can find us at http://heartlandjournal.com

Duration:: 1h 7m
Broadcast on:: 25 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

I'm Steve Abramowitz and this is the Heartland Journal Podcast. We are focusing on our nation today with always an interesting person making a positive change in our community. Welcome to our People Are News where I interview people who are making an impact and are lovers of truth. Today we are talking with special guest, John Steif. John is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida, and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst, and several other companies. John covers Tennessee, West Virginia, and publicly funded sports stadiums everywhere for thecentersquare.com, be sure to type the one looking it up on your favorite browser, thecentersquare.com. Great site full of news from all over, not just LA and New York or DC like the big guys focus on. A lot like heartlandjournal.com, as a matter of fact, incidentally, John writes for the Heartlander news.com, not the same as mine, Heartland with an ER news.com. Thecentersquare is staffed by editors and reporters with extensive professional journalism experience. They engage readers with essential news, data, and analysis, delivered with velocity, frequency, and consistency. Thecentersquare was launched in May 2019, pre-COVID, to fulfill the need for a high-quality state house and statewide news across the United States, and vice president of news and content. Again, McCaleb has been on the show when we were Mill Creek View, and he bought me coffee once. Very nice man. Hi, John. How are you today? You haven't bought me coffee yet. I didn't even know that. Yeah. I worked great with Dan at a couple of newspapers before I even came here. So, yes, really, really good guy, great to be on the podcast today. And he's the one that told me to get in touch with you when I moved here, but that was two years ago. So, this interview has been a long time coming. I'm happy to have you on here today. I used to read your Tennessee stuff when I was in Washington and got to know your editor. As I said, Dan McCaleb, episode 58 in the library on Rumblin iTunes, for those of you that are new. It helped me basically understand what things were like before I got here. Tell us how it is writing for the centersquare, and which of the cities you've enjoyed covering the most? So I think it's great writing for the centersquare. I, again, worked all over the country in different local newsrooms, and the kind of the demand on reporters in those local newsrooms has changed a lot over the past 20 years from what it used to be. You used to be able to focus on one thing, like, "Okay, I can cover this city council, and that's my primary beat." Now, it's like, "I cover these 10 cities, and I cover." I've been fired by now, like most of the game actually gutted, yeah. Right. The way we exist actually is because of that, you know, you have local newspapers or news outlets throughout Tennessee that are looking for statewide coverage, looking for coverage of taxpayer issues that impact them and their community, but also apply to the entire state, and that's what I look for, and that's what I cover. Certainly when the Tennessee Titan Stadium came up, there was a lot of Nashville coverage, but the reason for that is because it was a huge statewide issue. There's a ton of taxpayer money from all of Tennessee that are going into that new building that's being put in there, and that's kind of the way that we look at things, is like, how can we cover things that apply to people everywhere, like you'll see me covering a lot of things like grants, different ways that taxpayer money is being sent out to local communities and kind of focusing on those things that impact people, you know, no matter where you are from. That's where I like the most about it, too. I've threatened many times to change the name to the "Follow the Money" podcast because it really does matter, and I know the center square from talking to Dan has a tax and grant and money taxpayer money bet as to how they do it. So let's talk about Tennessee since, you know, we both cover it. You just reported at the center square.com, record low 3% in unemployment. That's amazing. This state is 200 years old plus and 2324 was a record. What was your biggest take on how they're doing that? Well, first of all, just in terms of accuracy on that, like the federal numbers started being collected. I want to say it was 1976, yeah, they started being tracked in 1976. So it's the lowest it's been since then. What does it tell us? It tells us that there's been a ton of recovery, obviously since it was at its worst in 2021. Like you look at the charts and there's a huge spike that it, you know, gradually comes down and this time of year, the last few years it's been at like, what, 3.2% or something like that in this year, it's even better. So it shows us that even the adjusted numbers, when there's more employees that are brought in over the summer, like that's what the adjusted numbers mean is like, there's a lot of younger people that join the workforce. The unemployment number is still way lower. So there's a lot more jobs right now than there were even one year ago. So that's got almost 100,000 people have arrived here from California and Illinois's last 12 months also a record. So the great migration we hear about is coming to Tennessee. Do you think they'll bring their voting history with them or are they the more conservative voters leaving and looking for a red state to live and work and raise a family and want to keep it that way or change it back the way they, from where they came? I don't think that we've seen a huge shift in the polls or anything in terms of who's voting which way and yes, I agree with you that a lot of the people that are moving to Tennessee move for a reason, they're looking for something that's not what things were like, where they came from, all these states where there's an exodus like you mentioned, the Illinois, the California, the states like that, the people just are sick of the way state government has been mismanaged in the way that you look at the overall tax situation in a place like Illinois and it's absolutely awful. I worked there previously, I was an editor there, like the property taxes are crazy high, it's nothing like Tennessee and that's why when you look at things in Tennessee you have a lot of lawmakers that are pushing for things like a cap on how much you can increase the property taxes year over year because they know that that's a place where you can go to if you're like a Nashville and you want to go get more money to have more government, that's the way to get that money from people is let's reassess everybody and let's have higher rates and you know, that's why those caps are being looked at really strongly in order to not allow people to do that. That's right, that's my big thing too and Nashville, unlike say the state of Tennessee is pretty liberal city, like most cities in America unfortunately, I think it's small, so the whole county, Davidson County has a liberal bias, you know, the wealthy musicians and actors and actresses that have decided to move here but the rest of the state outside Memphis and Chattanooga are pretty blue, well sorry, those two cities are pretty blue but the rest is pretty red, Knoxville where the World Series baseball champions now are UTK, that still seems conservative, do you find those cities to be islands of blue in the sea of red here too? Oh absolutely, absolutely and it's interesting because a lot of the lawmakers end up living in Nashville so they're amongst the city that isn't necessarily the same as state government is and that's why a lot of times you'll see protests of people from Nashville protesting things that they don't like that maybe doesn't agree with the state legislature because the state legislature as we all know represents the entire state, not just that city where happens to be low. That's right, there are 95 counties and 95 assembly men and women and only one or two represent the district where the capital actually is so they all have to come here, the good news is they only get 30 grand a year and they only work January to April so they still have to go back home for the majority of the year and get an earful if they want to take their guns away or things like that but when they had the anti-gun lobbies guess who gets to show up on the doorstep and make a big fuss, the constituents of Davidson County and Nashville. So you did a report last week on 10 care, more than 63,000 eligibility checks are still pending but more than 967,000, almost a million individuals are renewed and nearly 508,000 half a million are ineligible following the full year review of 10 care cases. The analysis of more than 1.5 million members come after the federal COVID-19 pandemic eligibility check pause between March 2020 and March 31st, 2023 as of May the state had 1.5 million enrolled in some area of coverage down from a peak of 1.8 million last summer. Okay, that's before everyone falls asleep of those deemed ineligible more than 325,000 failed to return the renewal packet while 140,000 were deemed ineligible and referred to the federal marketplace. Tennessee didn't expand Medicare and 10 care is their solution. Is it a failure at providing healthcare? I don't think so. No, in Tennessee also was the only place that has the block grant which is what ends up giving them the return. They get a share of the savings at the end of the year if things operate properly and that was something that was passed in the final days of Trump I believe the last month when he was previously president and it was it was a trial because nobody else had done it and it was like how can we properly serve people and one of the things that happened this year is they added some programs to 10 care. So when you look at the overall numbers of who's enrolled and what money is being spent there you have to look at there's more adult dental coverage there's a new diaper program that Governor Lee put in through through 10 care there's there's more coverage for the people that deserve it. The pandemic pause which happened everywhere was essentially between March 2020 and last April anyone who was eligible at any time during that period for 10 care was allowed to keep it and nobody ever checked where they're eligible again like if you lost your job for one month and became eligible it doesn't matter if you make a million dollars a year after that you still could get that as your health care coverage you didn't have to buy it for yourself and so every state then starting last April had to do what they previously had to do which is checked that everybody's eligible once a year you know it just became this massive thing because there was this lot of people for over three years that hadn't had their eligibility checked at all. Some states did it wrong they did it poorly and people didn't return things and a bunch of kids who were probably should have been eligible got kicked off that was I think pretty standard everybody believed that was a bad thing Tennessee was not one of those Tennessee did not miss manage this this entire process they were really careful about it they they checked all the things that they should those other states didn't check like they didn't cross check with things like you know meals at schools like kids that are eligible for that based on income they were everybody was supposed to check those they didn't check those they just like if if some parents somewhere didn't fill out the one form or or it went to a different address the kid was kicked off Tennessee did it the right way Tennessee reduced the roles appropriately because I you know again I think everybody should would probably agree like you should qualify for the program to be getting the benefits they did a means test and it was successful right yeah right that gives me hope for the voucher system too if they pass that I do think they would do a better than say Arizona that has done it so wrong right right Arizona has had all kinds of issues Arizona has people buying a bunch of Legos I don't know if you saw that story on the program like and people want to attack it because oh look it was mismanaged elsewhere that doesn't mean you know everywhere the that people will wrongly take advantage and spend it on things that maybe probably shouldn't be I mean I think we probably all agree on that one too that it's like hey if you're going to use the voucher use it to you know attend the school that's best for your kid and things are vouchers and 10 care or Obamacare when they try to do blanket coverage for as many people or everybody there's always going to be these issues and I guess the what from my perspective the downside of 10 care is that rural hospitals are closing Tennessee has experienced 16 hospital closures with 13 of those being in rural areas since 2010 the second highest rate in the United States did you find that to be the case too? Yeah I mean and with rural hospitals another big thing are are the laws that that require and make you jump through so many hoops in order to open a new hospital or open a new treatment facility anywhere and a lot of those were rolled back within this past year and a lot of the fingers in Tennessee have been pointed at ballot health you know in in East Tennessee like hey they they did this consolidation and the care is poor and and there were there's a lot of problems within ballot health and rural Tennessee that people aren't getting the treatment that they need I'm not certain that that's a 10 care issue though I mean a lot of that's the laws that are in place in in order to prevent I guess competition amongst they kind of relationship between 10 care and say Vanderbilt University Medical Center when they had to be paused and then stopped for providing trans gender mutilation surgeries for minors was there some issue there between money changing hands anything that you have I'm not certain that that's a 10 care issue either I mean every every hospital in every bit of health care is impacted by 10 care or Medicaid no matter where you are in the country because of the reimbursement rates the hospitals get related to a 10 care of Medicare it's a it's a set number it's not high that's not where medical facilities make their money you know it's kind of like the baseline of okay we have to provide care for this and then we have other things like MRIs that for people that are insured that make money um but I'm not I'm not certain that that's true um I I like the relationship between the between the Supreme Court thing that just came off that the Supreme Court's gonna hear I got we'll get to that in a second yeah that's okay you don't know I didn't I didn't give you the script ahead of time but the I find myself quite often defending the Republicans the red state the the folks on the right from the left when they say when the left likes to say guns strictest pro-life legislation in the country which I can't find fault with and corporate welfare make this a deadly place for women of childbearing age too expensive for seniors and education is allowed to be new age enough with with wisdom and CRT and all that basically saying if you're a conservative and like Tennessee you're an awful person that needs more democratic friends and office to save you from yourself what do you think of the progressive party in the south or Tennessee for sure they don't have much power in Tennessee they talk a lot though right and I saw the you know I've seen some of the numbers that were handed out during late in the legislative session of who talked and who was allowed to talk in it and it's interesting um but a big part of that is that the people who have the majority in Tennessee work together and sometimes we see okay the house in the Senate are not in agreement um there were a few things they weren't in agreement with that went to conference committee that's different than some states there's there's other states where the majority party would never do that and they never publicly do that but Tennessee is a little more public about when there's a disagreement like there was with uh um with the refund of the franchise tax for businesses right it was it was a huge difference between the two and at one point it looked like William Lambberth would set was saying you know we're not gonna go to an agreement on this the two days later they did um something that I think both parties were happy happy with um similar with vouchers vouchers didn't pass in the assembly but did in the in the Senate and their Lee wanted to push it through the Senate yeah so yeah they are very transparent it's not it's not done it didn't pass this year right no maybe it'll be back again next year is what I'm told by everybody who's been on this show um do you have an opinion on if Marsha Blackburn, Andy Ogles, Mark Green all up for re-election Donald Trump can all win here in November they certainly all can win um I I think the Mark Green one is certainly interesting right he said he wasn't gonna run again then he was convinced to run again um obviously a larger name probably running against him um in the former mayor of Nashville uh and you know I don't believe for a second that Marsha Blackburn's not gonna win I think all the polling shows that's clear um and the other two are probably more of a question mark right Ogles has Ogles has a bet. He won a very pretty strong straw poll recently against him yeah McClatchy I forget her last name right yeah so I'm hoping I will see about that is that Mark Green or Ogles? Uh Ogles is uh yeah yeah um but it seems to me like he's pretty popular and so I guess my theory is is are we staying as conservative as we were two and four years ago with folks like them or is the state showing signs of maybe moving more towards purple with some of the people that they're close to but if you say they're pretty rock solid without a governor on the ballot um well but you also look at the fact that those are those are newly drawn districts too like there's an a long history of those districts being the way that they are right that one of one of the seats in there was a democrat seat for a long time you know Cooper was there for a while and that and then Green and Ogles ended up winning those two seats so and that was a big that was a national news story when they had to divide up between Ortegais and Starbuck and there was a third they forget maybe gentry anyway so you broke news uh the u.s. Supreme Court said if and you mentioned this it plans to take up a case related to Tennessee's Senate bill one that's the one that prohibits gender affirming surgeries for minors what we just talked about Vanderbilt health had to do but now is it constitutional to ban it only after Matt Walsh at the daily wire shamed them into paying attention to Vanderbilt medical performing those surgeries did that actually get through the assembly here do you think the Supreme Court will agree with our attorney general's committee what do you think of him and actually ban that seems like a no-brainer to me but what do you think right and I think that that what we saw was that the local court uh blocked it and then the three judge committee allowed it to go through and then you know as you expand further and look at the composition of the Supreme Court and the u.s. you and and the things that they've ruled on previously you would think that there would be agreement for the same reasons um that Tennessee would be allowed to put that law into place and and eat I what the the argument is that it was it's they claimed that it's unfairly kind of pulling out a certain group of people and saying we're not giving you care and the argument against it is like the state can decide what it will allow to occur I mean because there's there's all kinds of those already in place restrictions right there's not a blanket we have to go over voting draft days yeah everything right all right so so our license it and and you can you can say that each one of those things have different groups that they point out and say well you can't have coverage if you're doing this or we won't cover this thing you know um so yeah I don't believe that they're going to they're going to overturn what the Court of Appeals said in that interesting to see what the other 49 states do if they do affirm that um we did a show on the amount of water one million gallons a day by some estimates that Elon Musk's XAI will need for their new supercomputer in Memphis Tennessee Valley Authority and other governing authorities must still approve the project you did a report on it that plus forward over there in Shelby County or just outside of it do you think they'll approve it a to let all that the Memphis River water go away and what will that do to farmers and drinking water if they use up that much can the Memphis River survive that much a day plus drinking water right and you probably know more about that than I do I've read the reports out of Memphis the Daily Memphis has done a very good job of covering those issues and and I think that I think they've come up with a different plan within within the past week related to recycling water and bringing in their own water to do that I mean their own water everybody's the water is clearly but maybe on or perrier or something yeah a million gallons is quite a bit uh but do I think it's going to be approved absolutely I mean it's a it's a large project it's a lot of employment um and and to this point there's not a sign of state or local tax money going to it it's their project and they're willing to put the bill for all of it it did say yeah yeah I'd like say in an Alberta or Ford or Tesla not Tesla sorry uh who's the other one uh Facebook or TikTok that has come to town with very big incentives yeah right all right or like any of the automakers pretty much anything uh reasonably sized there was PPG industries just had had one this week that was approved for 1.25 million every time one of the tired companies expands it's it's a warehouse they seem to get some extra tax money so in order to for them to be able to do that big of a project and they haven't set a price tag but it's going to be huge yeah um and and it's also uh you know Elon Musk has has big goals and a lot of these things and sometimes they don't come through that's why he didn't put a huge number on it uh right away because you don't necessarily know the scale there's a there's a goal and she he shoots high and then when you fall a little bit short of that if if it if you don't live up to the number that you said at the beginning it could be looked at as a failure even though it's way larger than anything that would have been there otherwise you know what i'm saying it's about getting to hit the stars type of thing yeah pursuit of the stars at the moon but yeah he i think at one point wanted to dig a tunnel all the way around and under la and i don't know what ever happened to that too so yes man has big theories and big dreams for sure there were there were projects like that both in Las Vegas and in Chicago too that were promised that yes that was what i was referencing um he he is of the mindset that yeah you have you shoot really high you have big goals and by doing that and trying to maneuver between where you're at and where you want to be sometimes you don't end up as far as your goal was but by having a crazy high goal um you're actually getting higher than you would have if you came into it like with way lower expectations you know it's always a lot to win it populating Mars he's gonna have to shoot for for something exactly trying to do things people don't think reasonably you can do so what kind of stories do you like best you know does Dan get a story and automatically go that's a John's story give it to him or do you get curious about something and write it up i often get curious about something and write it up like this Medicaid uh these Medicaid numbers and this unwinding i looking into those numbers figuring out what it means um looking at how they're approaching it and what it means for the state budget because it's been a lot for the state budget it's saved the state budget when they fall fall in short on taxes the past two years 10 care and getting that return at the end is what saved them um from from those lower tax numbers so it's so things like that uh fascinate me uh things that uh like the Titan Stadium that are incredibly complex numbers wise and the people pushing it are trying to oversimplify it because they don't want people to know what's actually going on um i like those i like to be able to tell the public and kind of show the public hey this is what they're actually doing it they're Tennessee remains $523.7 million short of the original budget for tax and fee collection through the first 10 months and in June 20th um i've been screaming from the rooftops we need a property tax cap like California uh they've had it for 50 years like you said do you do you think since Tennessee doesn't have an income tax and sales tax uh or about as high as they can get before people quit spending on luxury goods and buy out of state they will keep coming for real estate taxes making farmers sell or will or is there an appetite for a cap what do you think from the legislators you've talked to you i think that uh there's a there's a lot of people who want a cap and probably more so a lot of people than legislators uh and usually when that happens eventually the legislators are really going to get in that push and usually what what it takes is someone trying it you know i think i think we saw Nashville tried it what six years ago and they had a really high increase and then there was a lot of pushback on that if i had counties last year alone it just overnight boom 56 percent people have to figure out okay sell the farm or some let it or subdivide it what have they got to do do you have a pretty good relationship with the folks up there in Nashville i yeah the people that i talked to um a lot of people will talk to me some people won't they don't they don't like the coverage they don't they don't want people to know kind of like the inner murkings of what are going on but yeah do you find that the press here is so liberal and biased against the republican majority they don't give them access so they have to make stuff up a lot in the press but guys like you and me who shoot them straight they'll actually work with and talk to uh i'm not gonna go after other people uh and they're not the same names but it is a little i don't say out loud that it is a liberal media town but you don't have to say the names or the publications i i i find that when i ask questions and they're not leading someone into a direction that they don't think is factual you know what i'm saying if you if you ask it straight you often get responses and you get good responses from people on why things are happening and and the reasoning behind them um so blanket statement why do you think the media has survived so long i mean i'll say it channel five the tenessean they don't give the voters or the people that live here the news they are looking for how do you think they've been able to be here longer than you let's just say um i mean i worked at those places but no i it's it's definitely evolving um and and i don't think that all those places are doing right i think people watch tv and there's tv advertising to support whatever you're putting on whatever level you're putting on and i think the newspapers are really having a hard time but um the that get at papers in the state still have the largest reach of anybody so i think you'll still see that uh on some level the governor and other people will go towards them that you'll see uh more than previously things introduced as like columns on the opinion page like ideas introduced that way and that's a way for someone to kind of get their point across without having the intermediary of like okay i'll give you an interview and then you'll write it however you want to write it if you can introduce something via a column um then you're not allowing for someone else to interject control the message more so that they can't edit it take you out of context and things like that yeah right well so the tenesse star uh michael patrick lay he reported on the covenant killer and the judge it's been sitting on the evidence for all these many months i think ten now brought him into court asking why she shouldn't hold him in contempt for reporting the facts uh besides the first amendment it was very odd because she didn't even know he was reporting on it another reporter from a tv station w smb called the judge and gave her a heads up what do you make of that professional rivalry that's almost got a reporter thrown in jail uh i mean so i i guess i wasn't part of that phone call but i have called someone and asked them maybe a question about something like that before i don't know i don't know that it's nefarious to call up uh a judge and ask well you know our thing our thing's gonna change now that that this has been reported on publicly like i don't know that that reporter knew the judge didn't have a clue i would put it more on the judge not knowing right you ever called and asked why haven't you held him in contempt for right if that was the framing of the question i certainly know i you know i don't know if that was the framing of the question but if that was the way it was asked no i have not done that you know i think there's questions about it um but but i also like firmly believe that that uh reporting difficult public records is something that's the job of a reporter you know what do they say like like sunshine's the best disinfectant like like things shouldn't be hidden especially important public safety things shouldn't there's a pretty good shield law in tennessee too so the judge really should not have taken that first call and then of course not follow up the good news is he was not helping contempt he could be in the future but he hasn't been yet um right and it did i feel like there was a conversation in between the we're gonna set this court date and we actually had this court date there was a someone talked to her because because what you were talking about with oh are we gonna hold them in contempt and he has to answer these questions i don't think those questions were ever actually asked it suddenly became like oh this is a landscape hearing we're trying to figure out what's going on here no you're not like yeah it was we still don't even know why she has not pulled back real quick because yeah because yeah there's an amendment that uh allows for such things um especially since when you're trying it seems to not make no ways about an issue doing that with a reporter who has all the ink in the world is a big mistake so maybe you're right maybe she said well let's make it go away real fast um all right let's shift gears a little bit so before we run out of time uh tennessee fourth graders saw improvement in statewide testing on english language arts while third grade results remain bad was it because many third graders were held back and this was them getting a second chance at the scores or are test scores getting better for kids you wrote about that ultimately not very many third graders were held back there was a big threat of it there were there was a much longer process and the the kids who are in fourth grade now were part of a process with more tutoring and more resources to get them to a better place um a big question i continue to have on this is like we look at these results and okay only 40 percent are proficient does that really mean that that 60 percent are not proficient you know i know there's the approaching category like is it really that bad where is that standard act um you know because on some level you could freak out about that and say wow we're a really bad spot yeah um and we're getting a little better uh but there's a ways to go you you hope it's because the standard is pretty high yeah in that testing right that's what that's what that's what you would that's what we should hope uh it's it's high standard you you like to see improvement i think that i think what that testing showed was that the putting in those the extra level of tutoring requirements summer school requirements like it it wasn't just we're gonna tell you at the end of the year you didn't do that well and now you have to come this summer now you're required to you're required to come this summer and then get the extra tutoring in the fall if you fall within this category if you want to keep advancing i think folks can read that article at the center square.com Tennessee fourth graders show t-cap improvement in ela and much more of john stuff at the tennessee square.com uh what's coming up for you can you give us a preview of what you're working on this summer it's harder in the summer it really is with the with the legislature not in but you know i i'm working on one of the things that i cover that not a lot other people do is sports gambling in tennessee it's a big deal a lot of people do it not a lot of people cover it and uh there's one uh i i'd say rogue outfit that recently got fined and i'll have a little bit more on that coming up okay all right yeah i agree uh you had one the gibson county sheriff has been indicted on 22 charges from properly profiting off inmate labor the daily male had one kids at the richard l being detention center in noxel tennessee are placed in solitary more than anywhere else in the state national public radio had in ruthaford county one of the property tax counties children were wrongfully arrested and jailed illegally for years at least hundreds likely thousands of kids were stripped of their civil rights arrested and held in jail when their alleged offenses didn't meet the state's legal criteria for incarcerating children some were then placed in solitary confinement what do you make of what we call the juvenile justice system in tennessee the hardest part is that there's not great oversight of it so you can have uh again you would you would hope that these are rogue situations but you just named four of them right and and pro publica said right pro publica said richard l being youth detention center has been skirting state law prohibiting solitary confinement for minors by classifying solitary lockups as quote unquote voluntary even when youth have said they spent days locked alone in a cell something is up with kids and jails here and of course we had the abuse reported at chadonuga facility for migrant kids um any other comments on on the jail system better oversight and that's hard to do without spending more money okay and you mentioned you mentioned the tennessee lottery um ever looked into it and if the money really goes to quote a variety of scholarships grants after school programs and an energy efficient schools initiative that's what they say on the website the tennessee lottery is supposed to go for it ever looked to see where the money actually goes yeah i mean those those programs are funded through that and just like the sports gambling that's how you have things like the hope scholarship program okay that's good i'd like to see honesty and transparency um and last thing in your bio it said stadiums tennessee has a big one coming you alluded to it what can you tell us about the boondoggle the neighbors aren't happy with but the titan fan sure are excited about is it going to be an amazing place to see a show oh absolutely it's going to be a great place to go it's going to be really nice and it's going to cost a lot of money and it did cost a lot of money we talked we talk about how the the taxes coming in this last year and okay they're 500 million short this year guess how much they gave to the tennessee titans 500 million right exactly that much i think i was to the titans or the nfl do they actually spread it around amongst all this no no no no it went it went straight to this project it's to the titans they get that they get it they get to get the money from nissan for the naming of the stadium they make the money on the tickets they all of it goes to the titans it's all a money-making venture for the titans but yes it'll be a very nice stadium for that reason okay and we didn't get a chance to talk about the one billion that goes towards the illegals in terms of health care schooling and all the rest but hopefully have you back on again and we can talk about more stuff tennessee-wise because that is your beat and virginia um so thank you for coming on here finally uh so tell everyone where they can go to find out where your socials are and and follow your dues i'm mainly on twitter or or x now um at john's side j-o-n-s-t-y-f s-t-y-f all right well thank you again and look forward to having you on again all right thanks a lot i'm monica page with one america news and you're listening to the heartland journal podcast steve what you think of john hey it's good guys a lot of energy and i really enjoyed that um it was just nice to to see a young man who's uh played both sides he's been on the mainstream and he's also uh doing the the conservative thing so that's pretty cool i like it it is and to be able to actually work in this crazy business of news and and not be uh let go that's amazing all right and he's been around the block yes he reminds me of jonathan show in this town um israeli mother i let samarano addresses u-n security council after a u-n employee kidnapped her son an un uh u-n-r-w-a worker kidnapped my son a social worker employed by a so-called humanitarian organization under the umbrella of the u-n a man who dragged my son's body on the ground and then snatched him as if it was a prize to gaza anyone who claims israel is participating in ethnic cleansing is either ignorant or lie here is the truth but number one i got into a debate with a friend over the weekend about ethnic cleansing of palestinians by israel this is the new hot buzzword being pushed by palestinians and terror sympathizers and good hearted americans and westerners are falling for the slide because they don't know any better so let me set the record straight when israel was created in 1948 many jews lived in arabic countries as citizens the jewish population in marocco for example in 1948 was about 265 000 people today it's about 2000 in al-jiriya in 1948 jews were about 140 000 today only about 50 are still there in tinesia in 1948 jews were about 150 000 today only 50 left in libia in 1948 38 000 jews lived there today not even one zero in egypt in 1948 about 75 000 jewish people lived there today only 40 are left in yemen in 1948 55 000 jews lived there today about 50 left in iraq in 1948 150 000 jews lived there today only seven remain seven in syria in 1948 about 40 000 jews lived there today there are zero jews living in syria in lovinon my country of birth in 1948 there were about 20 000 jews living there today only 100 remain and i am shocked we have 100 so if there is any ethnic cleansing people should be enraged about it's the ethnic cleansing of jews from all arab lands meanwhile let's look at the arab population in israel in 1948 the arabic population in israel was 156 000 today the arab population in israel is 2 178 000 people the arabic population in israel increased by 1296.15 and you are talking to me about ethnic cleansing cut the baloney the real ethnic cleansing in the middle east is the ethnic cleansing of jews by arabs whose numbers decreased by 99.83 which is almost 100% that's the ethnic cleansing everyone should be talking about did they go to israel steve what did they all move to israel yeah no no i mean there's those numbers have diverse all over the it's called the diaspora they're everywhere from back to europe to america oh okay south america whatever but very i think she makes a very telling point uh christians could start saying a very similar thing as well but that was bridgitt gabriel reporting survivor of terrorism new york times best selling author national security expert great follow on twitter at ac t bridgitt for more all right time to bring out the receipts i've been saying since the campus craziness broke out after october 7th that the universities are in the bag for hamas terrorists and that the administration's paid for by parents and their kids tuition make more from outside foreigners and u.s government and nih and kids enrolled so they don't care about the kids learning or safety either or their parents so today i bring you backup information north western university received four billion dollars from u.s taxpayers since 2018 while the endowment soared to 15 billion by the way the western is the number one fifty five percent of the students are from out of the country not inside the country number one and that's outside of chicago plus katar saudi arabia and others gave one billion to the university in foreign gifts from 2007 to 2022 by adam andrew ski may 2020 so about a monthly sorry this spring students on dozens of campus college campuses have built encampments and occupied buildings in anti-israel anti-semitic and pro-terrorist demonstrations not surprisingly some have turned violent in general universities that cracked down on disruptive demonstrations and disciplined the students involved limited damage both to their buildings and reputations but other colleges did the opposite and negotiated themselves into shocking concessions north western university evanston illinois north western university is an elite college and admits just seven percent of applicants it has taught faculties in medicine law engineering business the arts and sciences journalism and even theater students come from around the world all from all fifty states long called a near ivy it's place among the best us universities is unquestioned and yet has happened at so many distinguished schools this spring north western students set up an anti-israel cabinet positioned on the lawns of its neo gothic during library the camp supported the terrorist organization hamas it's nearly 20 year miss rule of gaza and his genocidal intentions for jews and the state of israel dubbed the north western liberation zone students they are demanded the university divest its endowment from israeli companies and cut ties with institutions connected to israel a mere five days later university leadership rolled out and agreed with the protesters making commitments that include keeping one aid tent on during long for hamas supporters to use until june condemning identification of hamas supporters and urging employers not to rescind job offers for students engaged in speech protected by the first amendment re-establishing an advisory committee on investment responsibilities to single out israel for sanctions with hamas students supporting students as well as faculty and staff represent creating five full scholarships for palestinian undergraduate students funding to pro-hamas palestinian faculty engaging students in a process dedicated to ensuring additional support for jewish and muslim students within student affairs religious and spiritual life yesher immediately providing temporary meeting space for middle eastern north african and muslim students to be followed by a house for community building by 2026 and finally incorporating students into vendor supplying decisions for the university's dining services the concessions concerned jewish students and all those who have for violence support the rule of law and abjure terrorism for good measure north western also hosted palestine week starting may 12th which included an art build where students could paint palestine themed artwork and learn about the history of the kafia a garment worn across the no lease that has become associated with pro terror sentiments congressional hearing may 23rd 2020 for the us house committee on education and the workforce call north western president michael shill and board perfect name and board of trusty chair peter barris to testify on university action actions in response to terrorist sympathizers however it looks like only shill will testify before the committee quote in her letter calling on shill embarrassed to appear before the committee chairwoman virginia fox republican north carolina stated the unlawful pro terror encampment dubbed the north western liberated zone disrupted campus life and became a hot spot for pervasive anti-semitic harassment and hostility rather than enforcing university rules and disciplining those who violated them northwestern leaders surrender to the violators in a shameful agreement auditors at open the books found that northwestern like most of the top universities is funded in large part by taxpayer paid federal subsidies contracts and grants north western is a major federal contractor receiving over four billion in contract grants and subcontracts since 2018 more than 200 million has been awarded in fiscollier to 2024 as reported by federal agencies thus far this funding does not include one subsidized student loans to the benefit received by only minimal taxation on north western's 14.9 billion dollar endowment and three no taxation on other assets numerous members of congress proposed defunding universities that refuse to crack down on anti-semitism on campus breaking down the federal grant making the health and human services department 2.6 billion national science foundation 361 million defense department 256 million education department 136 million and the energy department 125 million dollars were the biggest contributors that's yours and my money steve here's just one example of frivolous grant making at north western 1,363,858 from 2021 to 22 for national institute of health to improve measurements of alcohol use and other disparities by sex sexual orientation and gender identity through community engagement our research shows that the top schools tend to collect more and federal grant money than an in undergraduate tuition which is also subsidized by the federal government through loans grants and work study programs for students you are funding alcoholism on campus other congressional legislation proposes taxing the excessive endowments of wealthy colleges since 2017 excessive endowments are the only subject are only subject to a 1.4% excessive endowment tax and not the 23.5% capital gains tax levied on ume last year center jv vans republican ohio introduced a bill that would tax colleges with endowments over 10 billion at 35% summary north western is organized as an irs 501c3 public education charity under this status the university receives billions of dollars in us tax payer support and pays minimal taxes on its nearly 15 billion dollar endowment and other investments on the other hand north western operates like a for-profit corporation cutting deals with foreign governments and entities meanwhile university leadership is allowing terrorists sympathizing demonstrations on their campus creating a hostile environment for jewish students this foreign involvement and domestic chaos deserves scrutiny from congress the press and the american people the house education and workforce committee will have an opportunity to probe all of it on thursday may 23rd 2004 so they already did calling for accountability stopping anti-semitic college chaos started at 10 15 are you sending your kids to north western i want to hear from me not you i know you're not send me a DM on twitter at milk review or at heartland journal or um at in email steve dot heartland journal at yahoo let's talk about it on the show um remember what fauci said about remdesivir yes it was a great drug to use used it excessively i vermectin on hydroxy quarkin was proven effective in treating covid yet doctors were threatened with losing their medical licenses and jail time if they treated covid patients with either they want you to see first why one reagan is held in such high regard the man had everything that is necessary to be a great leader and a popular politician reagan was smart funny charming thoughtful articulate knowledgeable and he had core convictions like all men he made mistakes but is obviously it is obvious why he had so much appeal to all americans here he was sitting with johnnie karson just riffing clip two we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the american revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves now it doesn't require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people what does it mean whether you hold the deed to the or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property and such machinery already exists the government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute every businessman has his own tale of harassment somewhere a perversion has taken place our natural and alienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government and freedom has never been so fragile so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment so let me switch over real quick steve i think i got here we go yeah that was the last four years before the government has the answers there's very little that government can do as efficiently and as economically as the people can do themselves and if government would shut the doors and sneak away for about three weeks we'd never miss them our biggest problem is that we have built a permanent structure of government federal state and local the permanent employees and they've come to the place that they actually determine policy in this country more than does the congress of the united states yep there are 14 and a half million public employees in the united states that's what i know block and the bureaus and agencies not in washington i heard you talking earlier about some of the research programs what would you say if i told you about one a study in which this was called the the demography of happiness and in this study the government found out that young people are happier and old people they found out that people that earn more are happier than people that earn less and they found out that well people are happier than six people that's good but there was two hundred and forty nine thousand dollars to find out it's better to be rich young and healthy than old porn stuff so that was 1964 on jonnie karsen pretty great and reagan knew what would happen to us in 2024 he knew what the likes of joe biden nancy pelosi chuck schumer and other lifelong politicians in both parties would do to us so play the rest of that other clip if you can without starting it over well i think it's time we ask ourselves if we still know the freedoms that were intended for us by the founding fathers not too long ago two friends of mine were talking to a cuban refugee a businessman who would escape from castro and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said we don't know how lucky we are and the cuban stopped and said how lucky you are i had some place to escape to and in that sentence he told us the entire story if we lose freedom here there's no place to escape to this is the last stand on earth and this idea that government is beholden to the people that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people is still the newest and the most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man this is the issue of this election whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the american revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves you and i are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right well i'd like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right there's only an up or down man's old old age dream the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism and regardless of their sincerity their humanitarian motives those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course in this boat harvesting time they use terms like the great society or as we were told a few days ago by the president we must accept a greater government activity in the affairs of the people but they've been a little more explicit in the past and among themselves and all of the things i now will quote have appeared in print these are not republican accusations for example they have voices that say the cold war will end through our acceptance of a not undemocratic socialism another voice says the profit motive has become outmoded it must be replaced by the incentives of the welfare state or our traditional system of individual freedom is incapable of solving the complex problems of the 20th century senator fullbright has said a stanford university that the constitution is outmoded he referred to the president as our moral teacher and our leader and he says he is hobbled in his task by the restrictions of power imposed on him by this antiquated document he must be freed so that he can do for us what he knows is best and senator clark of pennsylvania another articulate spokesman defines liberalism as meeting the material needs of the masses through the full power of centralized government well i for one resented when a representative of the people refers to you and me the free men and women of this country as the masses this is a term we haven't applied to ourselves in america but beyond that the full power of centralized government this was the very thing the founding fathers sought to minimize they knew that governments don't control things a government can't control the economy without controlling people and they know when a government sets out to do that it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose they also knew those founding fathers that outside of its legitimate functions government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector of the economy amen i can there you go so in that if you stuck around he predicted a bureaucrat like tony fauci the highest paid employee in the federal government besides his life salary combined they made more than any congressperson not counting insider trading don't take my word for it take his listen to this last clip number four when you have a study like this we have a data and safety monitoring board which looks at the data and they are independent so there's no prejudice on the part of the investigators because they're doing the trial or the drug is from a certain company the data and safety monitoring board on monday afternoon contacted me on april 27 first on friday the week before and then again on april 27th and notified the study team namely the multiple investigators who are doing the study throughout the world that the data shows that remdesivia has a clear cut significant positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery the reason why we're making the announcement now is something that i believe people don't fully appreciate april 29th 2020 by way whenever you have clear cut evidence that a drug works you have an ethical obligation to immediately let the people who are in the placebo group know so that they could have access this will be the standard of care but we think it's really uh opening the door to the fact that we now have the capability of treating and i can guarantee you as more people more companies more investigators get involved it's going to get better and better all right now i'm not a doctor but i'm alive and here's what presidential candidate robert f Kennedy jr said tony fauci knew that remdesivir would kill you how does it kill you kidney failure heart failure and all organ collapse all the doctors said we've never seen a virus that attacks the kidneys because it wasn't the virus it was the remdesivir yeah the pandemic was about controlling not curing the populace and they used a bad flu to pull it off just like reagan said they could stay tuned for my thoughts of the day time for my quotes for the day before i share it we'll remind everyone to subscribe to heartlandjournal.com just go there and give us your email and zip code and we'll deliver news right to your inbox for free how cool is that really hope you like it we work hard on it it's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper Jerry Seinfeld you can never get all the facts from just one newspaper and unless you have all the facts you cannot make proper judgments about what is going on harry s truman early in life i had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper george or will i read about eight newspapers in a day when i'm in a town with only one newspaper i read eight times will rogers many towns don't even have one anymore he'd have to scroll through twitter all morning like i do shifting gears for a second it's an election year and i don't want us to forget we aren't a democracy even though aoc and bernie and joe will tell you every time they can we are we are a republic the difference matters a lot here the united states of america isn't a democracy we are republic from america's founders here is why we are republic a democracy is nothing more than mob rule where 51 percent of the people may take away the rights of the other 49 thomas jefferson remember democracy never lasts it soon wastes exhausts and murders itself there never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide john adam's our second president democracy is two wolves in a lamb voting on what to have for lunch liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote benjamin franklin we are a republican government real liberty is never found in despotism or in the extremes of democracy alexander hamilton never a president couldn't be wasn't born here that is it for this episode thank you john stiff for reminding us that all news is local and like speaker of the house at the time tippo kneel said to ronnell reagan all politics is local he also said tax and tax spend and spend elect elect i think that one stuck more than the local one this is goodbye for now i'm your host steve abramlets editor chief of heartland journal dot com see all thursday peace in our time and definitely always glory to god i got another day that ends in y audio clip for you from just going outside in nashville or 20 minutes south in this case songwriter bret jones 14 top 10s and seven number ones to date over 300 songs recorded as a writer and multiple albums as an artist in his own right in the words cited by billy currington in his number one smash that's how country boys roll or rather in the words of songwriter bret jones in fact currentin falls into the same category as jason all dean mcgumery gentry niel mccoy tracy lorence reba macIntyre lee ann wollmuck and many more who have all recorded jones's songs through the decades here's him doing his song jason all deans did well it's his jason all dean did it crazy town jason if you're listening i still want you and your lovely wife bret need to come on see y'all thursday how you think do play for free pray for a hungry town destiny touch your teeth and smoke a part live off the tears from pickled your day line who you sound then you smile in the river and shoot it down his praise down for the archery everybody plays everybody's saying father with a turn to turn he started got a bang bang bang the mainstream today he comes out we call the program streamers shout the love he brought this trying to make it in his crazy town yeah i've been dreaming of the i any views or opinions represented on the podcast are personal and belong solely to the creator and do not represent those of people institutions or organizations that the creator may or may not be associated with in a professional or personal capacity unless explicitly stated