FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Mobile DA Keith Blackwood crime numbers - Dale Liesch dredging project - Dan Brennan and Dalton Orwig Guest Host Midday Mobile - Thursday 8-08-24
"There will be no personal nor direct attacks on anyone, and I would ask that you please try to, um, keep down the loud cheering and the clapping. There will be no booing and no unruly behavior." With that? "This is painful, and it will be for a long time." "Don't. Fuck. Baby. That's right. This man knows what's up." "There's a couple of high-stepping turkeys, and you know what to say about a high stepper. No stepper. Too high for a high stepper." "This is Midday Mobile with Sean Sullivan on FMTalk1065." "Well, Sean's a tough guy. I mean, I think everybody knows that, you know, Sean, uh, he took some licks, he hangs in there." "Yeah, what's wrong with the beer we got? I mean, the beer we got drank pretty good, don't it? Did you hear what I said?" "So this is a great council. I had no doubt about them." "That doesn't suck." "If you don't like it, it's your band." "Last question. Were you high on drugs?" "Last question. Kiss my ****." "Oh, yeah. That's the, uh, Sean Sullivan intro, I know." "Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's, uh, yeah. This is the Mobile Morning Screw, Dan Brennan, sitting over there. Y'all don't know where we're sitting here, and, uh, in for Sean today, guest hosting, some would call it. Not sure how we're going to follow up. April-Marie. April-Marie. April-Marie. Marilyn Dobson, and, uh, a good segment earlier on with, um, the, uh, attorney, Jay, um, and, Jay Towns. Yeah, Jay Towns kind of laying out, uh, his thoughts on the, the Tim Walts, stolen valor accusations, and, uh, he was fired up. He was being a veteran himself. Yep. I think a lot of other veterans feel the same way, uh, but we will be hosting mid-day mobile, noon to two today, and, uh, several guests we will be bringing on over the next two hours, uh, but none bigger than you, the listener. If you would send us texts, two, five, one, three, four, three, zero, one, zero, six, or call it that same number and Leanna will put you through, uh, coming up here in about 12 minutes, Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood will be joining us, uh, talking about, well, with, with school having gotten started for so many already this week, and then more to start school next week, uh, they began a push, um, I don't know if it began last year. I think they announced it and started it last school year. Because really when COVID began, uh, when, when COVID was going on and then they tried to get children to return to schools, truancy became a major, major issue and the kids just not showing up to school at some unbelievable levels of days missed. They've begun to or have done a great job at turning that around as we head into this new school year. So we'll talk about the district attorney about that. So 1230 today, Dale Leash with land yap. We spoke with Rob Holbert earlier on our show as we do on Thursdays, uh, Sean has Dale on on Thursdays himself. So we'll, we'll get the Dale Leash side of things, uh, coming up at 1230. One o'clock will have Brian Comer from Tobias and Comer Law on to explain a, what could end up being a massive ruling from a federal judge earlier this week. It hasn't been discussed much because of everything else going on, but they ruled that Google, the, the search engine part of Google is a monopoly and that could have some pretty wide ranging effects for, well, everyone who hops on their computer and he'll kind of lay out that for us and what happens next and how we got to this point. And then, uh, coming up at one 30, we'll talk with an old friend of the station, John Weishman. Uh, they have a blood drive coming up for mobile police department, uh, next week. And if you've seen any headlines, blood hard to come by these days. Yeah, it is. The summertime is always the time when it's toughest to, uh, slow people down and give them to give blood. You know, the interesting thing about Keith Blackwood and that initiative, I remember when that, that initiative to us was simply a news story, right? There's something new. They're going to try it out. See if they can bite into this truancy rate. And, uh, the interesting thing with this is now about the anniversary of when they rolled it out there, it's actually worked. And you think, wow, sometimes things are just put out there for public display, let them know, Hey, we're trying something here. Right. And in this case, it was thought out well enough. And I guess the follow up was good enough and effective enough where they're getting great numbers. So good news because of course, you don't always get that now this, the students eventually become, you would hope, uh, uh, people, uh, productive members of society, if they're not going to school, uh, and kind of, you know, hinging off of that story as well. There's a new poll out, uh, and they asked high school students kind of what their plans are for education after high school and, uh, some interesting numbers there as things are starting to shift a lot more, uh, students who are more likely to go into apprenticeships and then, uh, work in different industries that don't involve having to go to college for that master for the, uh, bachelor's and then the master's degree, roll some of those out for you. I think they'll be very interesting. So the numbers are more, more students are interested in, uh, driving, you know, heading to a, a vocation rather than going to school. There's that. There's also the military, uh, which those numbers aren't really eye popping, how many you're planning on joining, joining the military, um, but, uh, different options rather than all right. I'm done with high school. I'm headed to Troy. I'm headed to Bam. I had to Auburn headed to south. I think they've seen, um, the generation before them and how much money has been poured into these degrees and then so many people end up with these massive loans hanging over them for years. Although I guess that might change for a lot of people here, depending on especially what happens here in the next, uh, election. I got an email from Joe Biden. Oh, really? I did. What do you have to say to you? Well, uh, when it's, when it's in, uh, email form, there's, there's no stuttering or anything like that. But, um, it was about student loans and, uh, I owe on a student loan. And I think looking, they didn't say much of any substance, just, you know, I've been able to reduce student loans and I've been able to, and it just kind of said that, um, you know, you're on my radar work. It was probably a campaign more, more of that. Yeah. I'm sure. I forgot to mention this. Let's save this email over a month ago. I never brought it up on the morning show. You talk about playing political games in here and, you know, Trump did the same thing when they sent out the checks during COVID and this and that. They'll send an email out saying you're welcome, basically. Yeah. Miguel Cardona, the, uh, education director, I guess for the, uh, country. So he sent this to my wife's email and that's been so confusing for us, just like so many other people. Okay. Do we owe? Do we not owe? How much do I owe? Am I in forbearance? Like because these decisions keep coming down from executive order, then overturned by this court, then flipped again, then it makes it the Supreme Court. So I think so many people are like, okay, just tell me what I need to do. Uh, well, then you had this, uh, some federal court decisions here recently. I think these came down in June or maybe early July. And from, uh, education secretary, Miguel Cardona, uh, in recent weeks, several federal courts have issued rulings and lawsuits brought by Republican elected officials who are siding with special interests and trying to block Americans from accessing all the benefits of the most affordable student loan repame repayment plan in history. That's the save plan. So I know these rulings can be confusing for borrowers and it remains our top priority to provide clarity to you and continue our work to make higher education more affordable and accessible for more students from all walks of life. Let me be clear. And this was before Biden dropped out. Yeah. Biden and I are determined to lower costs for student loan borrowers to make repaying student debt affordable and realistic. He said, that's why our administration will continue to implement the save plan to the fullest extent possible to help borrowers access lower monthly payments. And you go on, it's like maybe 1500 words he wrote here. And it's just he, uh, so political, he didn't write him. Yeah, probably not. Yeah. So he, uh, I know, they caught me, they say it's from the government, but it's completely political. You're like, what's going on here? Yeah. Yeah. He's, they're campaigning. Yeah. The next election rather than just telling us what we need to do. Yeah. But, uh, I think that poll will be, uh, pretty eye opening for some folks. Maybe not. Uh, and we'll love to get your opinion on, uh, if you have students in school right now, your children, or, uh, maybe, I don't know, maybe you're high school listening to us, uh, what your plans are, uh, also this, uh, wanted to bring this up and maybe get some conversation started on the text line, you know, this year we're talking about the presidential general election. Uh, and right now all of the talk is about the VPs, which, I mean, really, how much does that matter in the grand scheme of things? Yeah. But yellow hammer news, uh, Grayson Everett, next year we have the, well in 2026, so a year and a half from now, two years from now, the gubernatorial race here in Alabama. And of course, uh, Ivy, not running again, uh, not expected to run again. She announced that. I don't know if she has. Well, that would be a shock, wouldn't it? I don't think that she has. And you talk about, you know, we're always saying Biden, Biden, you know, we could kind of say the same thing. She's ineligible. So she can't run again. She can't. That would be the answer. So that's why she hasn't. Um, she'd be a yellow hammer of Tsar at that point. She'd be the Alabama dictator. Yeah. So, uh, yellow hammer news, they worked up this kind of running list about potential gubernatorial candidates. Uh, no shock. Number one here, Will Ainsworth, I think everyone expects that some have already given him the crown. Well, he definitely, that's been his aim for sure. Uh, Will Ainsworth at the top of the list, they also put Steve Marshall in the A.G. A.G. Rick Pate. Uh, man, uh, you were quoting from a story this morning, uh, regarding our crops and processing plants, trying to keep up with that, uh, add commissioner, Rick Pate, that would be an interesting name, Tommy Tuberville, they list here. I'm not sure of Tuberville's interest in that. Lindy Blanchard. I think she was just on with the April Maria couple of weeks ago as a guest, Lou Burdett. We haven't heard from him since the last time he ran for office, Randall Woodfin, Doug Jones and Bruce Pearl is also on the list here of potential gubernatorial. You know, Bruce Pearl has been outspoken on a lot of things lately and you wonder if there's something political to that, if he sees himself as somebody that could be involved in politics. And I think Tuberville had enough of a Washington DC. I think you're right. Could Bruce Pearl coach a team to the sweet 16 at the same time he's coaching our state into economic prosperity, Pearl versus tub, Pearl versus tub, that'd be great. Hey, coming back, uh, district attorney, Keith Blackwood joins us. Talk about some exciting new numbers in a program that's been rolled out to help with truancy numbers in school. Which attorney Blackwood, hello, how are you? You know, we weren't following it, but you were keeping an eye on it obviously, and you really made a real gain in what you were trying to get done. We sure did. And we do a lot of really important work at the district attorney's office, keeping our community safe and holding criminals accountable that this helping families initiative program is one of the very important things that we've done and our team did a great job over their first school year in our largest, uh, in our largest school system. We thought we saw it 37% decrease in truancy and 45% decrease in chronic absenteeism. That is, uh, some, uh, unbelievable progress there. Not unbelievable. I mean, it's believable, but still outstanding numbers. What do you think? What's kind of, you know, uh, step one here, you see all these children who aren't going to school, I think probably the pandemic played a major role in that and bring their students back. But how do you start to tackle this problem? Well, it all starts with the team at the DA's office. Our helping families initiative team or team of social workers, uh, they are a great group of people and, uh, you know, maybe they can come on sometime and talk to you more about this. They're, they're just outstanding. But, uh, we had, we identified the students and the families that would be in need of these services, uh, through the metric of unexcused absences, uh, that can be from missing school without a good reason or it can be from suspensions. Uh, so there's a behavior component to this as well. And we do in-home family assessments. We did this with hundreds of families over the last, uh, school year and we connect these families to the resources that they need to fix whatever problem they have in getting their kids to school. If you have 1,000 different families, you can have 1,000 different scenarios and it's the job of the helping families initiative to connect these families, uh, with those resources and fix the problem so that they can get their kids in school. What, what are the ages of the average problem child? You know, where's the sweet spot where the kids are, you're trying to, uh, re-energize or get them the answers that they need or get them the solutions so they can get to school because, you know, you think you go into school, it's almost like a, a yes or no, uh, for a kid, uh, we could, we could have easily painted this like, I don't care, they're lazy. They don't, but you saw deeper into it. Sure. Yeah. We deal with kids of all ages. Um, and when we're talking about, you know, elementary, middle school age kids, uh, if they can't walk to school or get on a bus, you know, it's up to parents and guardians to make sure they get there and so we really work with the parents and guardians there, uh, in order to, to fix whatever's going on. Uh, when it comes to high school age kids, you know, many of them drive and so there might be, uh, some other things going on, whether it's, you know, mental health issues, there could be drug type issues, uh, and you know, we want people to know that yes, helping families initiative is part of the DA's office, but it's not a prosecution arm. Uh, it really seeks to get in, help solve problems and make sure that kids are in school. Um, and you know, for the kids that don't have truancy issues, the data bears out that when more kids are in school, uh, with, you know, in their seats, let the teachers do their job. Everybody benefits. Mm hmm. That makes a total sense. We're talking with Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood about these, uh, outstanding statistics as we start a new school year here in, uh, both Mobile and Baldwin County's officially as of today, uh, 37% decrease in the number of truant students, 45% decrease in the number of students who regularly miss class. And, uh, according to Lanyap's article here, petitions filed at Strickland Youth Center for truant students decreased to around 150 after averaging between six to nine hundred going back to 2019 outstanding numbers there. And I think you pointed out in that Lanyap article that this is kind of a, a community problem, right? Because you would hope that these students end up becoming productive members of, of society and, uh, very often your personal close society. So this is a problem, uh, that could manifest, manifest itself and become worse if it isn't fixed now. Right? Oh, absolutely. And I'm, you know, very proud of that truancy petition, uh, number out at Strickland Youth Center. Uh, a lot of those are parents, uh, of elementary, middle school aged kids, uh, when it gets to that point, petitions are filed, it, it becomes a criminal prosecution. Uh, so our HFI team has to step out, uh, because there could be a conflict there. Uh, but to get that number down is just huge. And I told people at those, uh, big massive truancy sessions, uh, last summer that this, this is really a crime prevention program. I'm not saying that kids are out there committing crimes. Uh, I'm saying that if kids are in school, they graduate, they're going to have so much more opportunity. And there's a much less likelihood that they're, they're going to miss those opportunities and potentially lead a life of crime in the future. Uh, so it really is a long term crime prevention program, uh, and it's a long term program to make our community better. It's also a, it's also a current day crime prevention program because we have, regardless of the way these kids develop and hopefully you, you're going to see these numbers, maintain themselves and these kids are going to go on to graduate, which will be remarkable where you think the path they were going down, Keith, but if they do graduate, that's great. That's the future. But today, right now, you've got more young people off the streets that would be tempted by A to Z, right? That's correct. And, you know, hopefully we're going to see the, the numbers of juveniles prosecuted, the trickle and youth center go down dramatically, uh, we're, we're still taking a look at that right now. But, you know, I'm at a, right now I'm at a capital litigation conference, uh, in Washington, DC and they're talking about the exploding juvenile crime rate across the country. And it really is a problem and it's something that, uh, I really want to solve, uh, to make our community safer, uh, to give more opportunity to our kids to make our community better. Yeah. And, you know, it's not lost on us or listeners, uh, I know the county also working to reduce the recidivism rate of, uh, inmates who, uh, go into Mobile County Metro jail and others who have gotten in trouble with the law over the years. But I wanted to talk with you also about, uh, with the couple of minutes we have left school starting back. And of course we had, uh, that shooting in, uh, uh, was it LaFloor early last, uh, early last year, uh, back in January. And since then it seems like the, uh, school board, uh, they've made a major effort to make things safer for, uh, the kids who go to all the schools and, and like you said, the state's biggest school district with these new weapons detectors, uh, you feel like they've taken some good steps towards making schools safer. I think that's an outstanding step. Uh, I think it's, you know, sad that we live in a world where that's necessary. Uh, but the fact is that it is necessary. Uh, we have to be able to keep our kids safe while they're at school. And I think that the, the measures that they're taking are a step in the positive direction. Well, good luck in, uh, good luck up in Washington, D.C. I know that to whatever you learned, whatever you, I'm sure you're, you're, uh, kind of paying attention to some communities that are doing things differently, maybe getting some positive results. So it's probably going to be time well spent up there. Absolutely. I've got a few members of my team here and we're getting a lot out of it. So we're going to bring that back and make our whole team better. Great. Thanks so much. All right. Thank y'all. All right. There you go. Mobile County D.A. The district attorney, Keith Blackwood on, uh, reducing the truancy rates. I mean, those are, uh, really, really good statistics. Again, 37% down in the number of truant students. And I'm looking at the text line, uh, and fire dog is saying Sean is truant today. Sean is truant said, well, he's, he's dealing with his kids. So he's doing what he needs to be doing. He, uh, fire dog said, find the sheriff and drag Sean's happy buck, but back to the studio. Um, so we'll see about that. There's a bolo out on Sean for missing class 12, 29 year midday mobile, Dan Brennan over there. All right here, sitting in for Sean Sullivan coming up. We'll talk with Dale Leash from land Yap about the latest and the newest issue of land and average son stands now. Welcome back midday mobile, Dalton, Oregon, Dan Brennan, the morning guys, the nappy, nappy winning morning guys, yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, sitting in for Sean Sullivan today. Let's dominate next up, uh, Cameron Smith will be hosting for Sean tomorrow. And then after that, who knows really, uh, but I mean, it's at, from that point, we're like the astronauts in outer space. We don't know. We have no idea when we're coming home. We don't know when Sean's coming back, uh, we don't know if you're about to take another vacation. I know I'm not, uh, there's no chance. I'm, you know, look for what it's worth, uh, you know, I might not be the most skilled broadcaster, but I'm always here, I kind of left behind, I keep showing up, uh, and we will break down as much we can that entire international space station situation in Boeing versus SpaceX. Yeah. I'm just fascinated by that. Yeah. But we have more important things to get to right now. And that includes Dale Leash with Lanyat, newest issue of Lanyat on stands now Dale. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Guys. How are you? We are like the fact that Dale was you're like, what are you up to when he said eating lunch, waiting on your call. I was so nice of you, Dale. Thank you. Yeah. You and all of my previous girlfriends, I'm just very desperate. Yeah. Well, I hope we're not ruining your lunch and that, uh, you enjoy these next few minutes with us, Dale, but you've been working, working your tail off per usual and, uh, big local news stories, including the cover story this week. And that is about the, uh, clash on the dredge spoils. And this really hit, hit its peak, I guess it was two weeks ago, right, that, uh, Mobile Baykeeper said that they were, um, uh, well, they threatened a lawsuit over the, uh, maintenance dredging and, uh, where those spoils will go. And you've dug into this a little bit more. You've also talked with some, uh, local fishermen and, uh, people whose livelihoods depend on the bay. Yeah. It's funny that, and we were, we were guilty of this too. It's sort of like there was the dichotomy, right? People were pitting, uh, pitting, baykeeper and environmental concerns against the quote unquote business community, right? Because you had the change of commerce. Cause, uh, you had coastal 150 come out and say absolutely under no circumstances should this project be delayed for any reason, even, even, you know, the Gulf sturgeon population. But that's my part in this coverage, or my big part. I mean, I, I'll hand it off to Scott Johnson, who did all most of the heavy lifting on this story. I, I supplemented with, with fishermen, uh, and, and I talked to, to free folks to kind of their life thing, it depends on the baby and healthy and being able to catch and all of this good stuff. And so, you know, while it was kind of pitched as well, the business community has upset the baykeeper, that's not the cold story, right, like there were, there were, uh, the fishermen I talked to, it's like nobody asked us what we thought that part of the good community, you know, we're small people. Yes. True. No one, no one asked us, uh, what we, what we wanted to kind of get the sense that, you know, it may not be the entire business community and staykeeper, uh, and maybe a, you know, probably a smaller fraction, uh, quote unquote business community. So, so that's part of why this story exists, right? It's kind of let people know that, uh, not only is this sort of situation where it's not necessarily, thank you for not saying we want to end this, you know, this whole project. They were talking about the maintenance regime and more importantly, they were talking about, you know, it being, uh, the dead layer disposal in bay disposal rather than, rather than not doing that at all. So, that's part of, part of why this story exists. The record straight, um, in so far as we talked to the, uh, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who kind of said that like both sides are kind of overplaying their hands, right? You know, uh, you know, uh, a lot of the, a lot of the spoilers used, uh, you know, in beneficial use scenarios, uh, it's, you know, it's not, it's not all being, uh, but in bay and then on top of that, like, uh, kind of concerned that a lot of folks are completing, uh, the two projects, um, that, that are, that are different and that basically this lawsuit and this threat of a lawsuit, they don't anticipate this load down the project at all. I think what was telling though was immediately the response to the lawsuit by the chamber, by the quote unquote business community, uh, pretty big forceful dog and pony show. Oh, absolutely, absolutely and I mean, I, I get it. You know, the port, the port, this is, this is the project that benefits the, the port of Mobile and it is a, it's a, you know, it's a very important project. They are, they are an economic driver. No one is saying that they're not. So yeah, you know, you have the chamber of commerce come out and for these other groups, yeah, that is a big political force in this community. You know, they, they throw some weight around and they're doing it in this issue. So that's absolutely the case. And, uh, we're talking with Dale East with land Yap and like everything on another call from a girlfriend. So yeah, if we understand if you gotta go, uh, well, hey, I, I'm married now. We've only one girlfriend for me. Oh, okay. Back in the day it was, uh, it was a struggle absolutely, uh, but this issue like so many others Dale, uh, I know for some it's not a great issue. It's black and white. But for many of us, it is a great issue and we had so many texts this morning as we were discussing this as well, uh, people, uh, you know, remembering the old days when the bay was much more clear and the oysters were bigger and you had a lot more people out there fishing for a living and then on the other side, yeah, and recreationally, of course. And then on the other side, uh, and one person said, why does the port need to be the deepest? Why do we need the deepest port? The answer is easy. It's money. And so that's the other side of this. A bigger port, more jobs, more money coming in and trying to kind of split that difference with factions that, uh, really, uh, uh, want it all the way one way or all the way the other. I mean, so, uh, the, the, the talk of an inbay disposal didn't used to be the way things were done. And it's not the way things are done in like the Port of Savannah and other ports. So the people who were like, yeah, used to be clear, used to, there's a, they have a point, uh, this started back, oh, Scott knows the exact date and I don't want to get it wrong. But I think this, this kind of inbay disposal talk started back in 2012 before that before that day were barred from, from inbay disposal. So, so you're not well, you're, you have a point. People's eyes are not deceiving them. Right. Uh, there's a reason there's probably a reason why, uh, people remember the baby and clear it's not just the Mandela effect. I think, I think there's absolutely some truth to that. So, so they have a point, um, but I, I also want to reiterate that the people, most of the fishermen that I talked to for the story were, you know, pro dredging, uh, the projects itself, they were not against what they were against is, you know, they wanted to make sure that the, that the spoil was not put back in, in the bay that they, you know, they would take it offshore. Um, and so, uh, like I said, that's the way to done other places. I, I do find it a little bit surprising that, uh, in all of these, in a lot of these environmental scenarios, Alabama seems to be the one that's like, we're doing it differently than everybody else. But also, they don't know what they're talking about, this is the best way to do it. I find that, um, is all I'll say. So, uh, they're just curious. And did, do you know if you were Scott or if there's been any numbers put up there for what the, how much more it would cost to put the spoils offshore rather than dumping back in the bay? I mean, how big of a difference might that be? It, it is, it is a, it is a pretty, pretty substantial difference that, you know, I don't think it's quite twice as much, but it is a, it is a substantial, uh, difference. I don't remember again, Scott and the, Scott has those numbers about, you know, uh, and I'm sure they're in the story, but, but, uh, but I don't remember right off the top of my head. We did discuss it though. It's, it's, it's quite a bit more, uh, do it offshore. Also Dale, uh, speaking of the port, they played a pretty big role in the Amtrak story as well. It turns out, uh, as early on, uh, in the discussions and I mean early on as in late last year, early this year, not when discussions actually began years ago, but the port seemed to be initially against Amtrak worrying that it would slow down the freight trains and loading of the trains and getting all that product out of the port or into the port. Things changed, uh, over the months and years and then the port, uh, even agreeing with the city to put in a million each year for the next three years to help offset that cost. But of course in return, they get tens of millions of dollars worth of repairs to their tracks. Uh, the Amtrak vote, you know, three counselors flipped and by Tuesday it ended up being unanimous with of course, Councilman Carroll, not able to make it in, um, how does this tie in to the bridge funding announcement? And is it, uh, that clear that one had to do with the other? I don't think it's clear at all. It's about as muddy as the bay, right? Um, uh, do you use a segue, you, uh, you, you people like segue, right? Oh, yeah. Man. Oh, yeah. We studied them. We studied the best all the time. I wanted to, uh, I wanted to reiterate the, the port, I think it's given a million dollars total. Uh, the price tag is three million dollars total for three years. So they're given a third, uh, the city's given a third and the, uh, and I think they're, they're looking at the state to give a third. Yeah. So that's kind of, that already started to stop in the opinions of the council members who were against it. Like Joel days who could vehemently against it for years, uh, you know, uh, call it, I think the carnival ride for the wealthy at one point, uh, painlessly, uh, that's sort of that when we started to get in the part, when we started getting the partnerships and it wasn't the city just funding the operations or part of the operations all by themselves. Meanwhile, the only city in the country that would have had that distinction and still are but to a lesser extent now, I think that started to kind of, well, you know, people's resolve wavered as far as being against it and so you tackle that, you know, you add that to this announcement of the $550 million grant from the feds for the bridge and you kind of had people. I mean, I'd council members tell me that the, the part, the, the partnership with the federal government and future partnerships to them were important enough, even if it wasn't directly stated, it was important enough to them that it was a deterrent. It was somewhat of a determining factor for them. But to say that I don't, I don't think there's a direct connection. I don't think there's, I don't know when, in fact, people said the opposite. It wasn't a quid pro quo at all. It was just a situation where it's like, it's in the back, you know, in the back of my mind that if I do this, it might help with bridge funding, especially or future funding from the federal government. And that, that's sort of the way it went, but yeah, it was, it was shopping because when Brady was covering that for us and I went to the council meeting with him and when, when William Carroll wasn't there, you know, I think he was sick. When he wasn't there, I looked at Brady and I was like, I, this may not be the slam dunk that we think it is as far as support goes, we've been writing for weeks that they had gotten the five votes they needed to pass it and he was obviously one of them. But it turns out that it was a six zero unanimous vote. So clearly something, something changed people's minds. And I don't think it was just, you know, I don't think it was just, you know, there were amendments made too that probably factored in, but I don't think it was, I, I do think that they're, they're not lying when they say that the part of their decision was the federal summit. Well, if you want to simplify it, if you want to simplify it, the federal government wanted to push Amtrak through were no, no, no, we have factions on council, then the same federal government comes up with this five hundred fifty million, five hundred fifty million for the, the most pressing of issue of our time or of our day for sure. And you're like, you know what, that's, that's not so bad a little too, too trained. That's the way I saw it. No, I think there was definitely, I definitely lead lead to the softening of positions. Yes. For sure. I agree with you. And, you know, I've heard you and Sean lament over the years, whenever there's a divisive vote with city council and we've seen counselors abstain rather than vote on the losing side, I thought it was interesting that councilman Reynolds, who still was in no vote up until at least two weeks ago, he said, listen, if we're going through with this, we need to all be one team. He didn't abstain. He voted for it rather than, you know, what we've seen in the past where I really don't agree with this, but I'm not going to vote, I'm, I'm going, not going to vote no, I'm going to just abstain. Yeah. That used to annoy the crap out of me, right, when, because you, you abstain if you have a conflict of interest and you're on, and you're on some sort of government board, you don't, you don't necessarily abstain because you don't want to take a position. You know, so I am a big proponent of vote your conscience. If you don't like something, vote against it. If you're okay with something, vote for it, whatever, but to abstain, I was, I'm happy that we don't have the amount of the abstitions that we've had before. And sometimes, sometimes it is a political tactic, like if you, if you disagree, if you don't necessarily disagree with the, with the, with an argument, but you also don't like, you know, one side or the other of the argument to a certain extent, you can abstain and affect how the voting is, you know, how, how the approval happens, if it happens at all. So I, I get that part of it, but I do think there was a point in time where it was happening too often, and I've seen it less now, which I'd, I'd appreciate it. Is it the makeup of this council or what would you attribute that to? Uh, yeah, I think it's, uh, you know, I think that, you know, people like Ben Reynolds, Josh Woods, uh, have, haven't, you know, kind of been in politics that often or that much. And I think, I think it may be become, it may become something that you do when you, maybe, maybe if you're, you think you're a little bit more political, politically savvy, and, and, uh, you know, you kind of put your finger to the wind to make sure you get the most votes possible in the next election. Right. I think you tend to do that. And you see the few left of that, because there's newer people on the, on the, on the council that have been there for a sense. Dale Leash with land. Yeah. And we'll wrap it with this. Uh, are you a big monopoly player? Dale, uh, did you play it over the years? I love, I love, I love monopoly, uh, I used to, I had a whole bunch of different monopoly games as a child. I loved it. I had the NFL monopoly had all that stuff. So yeah, I'm a big, big fan. Well, let me just say that we're a quick assessment. You love monopoly too much, but anyway, are you excited about the news about mobile monopoly or whatever it's going to be called? That's, uh, yeah, monopoly, mobile edition. Okay. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, yeah, no, I'm a big fan. I'm a big fan. And it's going to be these, I think it's the first officially licensed version. People have pointed out and, and even emailed me to the label, the team was the first edition and you're right. There is, there is a, there is a, uh, mobile awfully out there floating around. You probably get it somewhere. Yeah. Don't you know, it's not the official, it's not the official Hasbro licensed version. So I'm very excited about this and I'm very excited to, to see what space is in before I go. Let me make a quick pitch. Y'all go to, uh, top trumps, uh, mobile@toptrumps.com is the email email that you want to see Laniop on the board. Cause I'd love to get us on the board. Okay. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's a great idea. And, uh, you know what I found having children and playing the children's monopoly is it is much more fun. It's a shorter game and it's much easier for me to win. So I like the kids monopoly much more than the, the old grown up. It's an adult and saying it's easier to win against a three year old, uh, don't. No, no, he's, he's at this point he's just beating up on kids. That's right. It really is. Yeah. It's capitalism, baby. Capitalism. Dale, I will take you down. Appreciate your time today for folks who want to pick up the new edition on stands or sign up online. How do they do so? Yeah. Laniopmobile.com for the subscribe button, go through all the prompts, uh, and, uh, and you can, uh, you can be a subscriber to Laniop every subscription helps us out. They're locally owned and operated, uh, help, uh, help keep us doing, help keep us doing what we do and, and subscribing. We're also news racks all over town, um, and, uh, in the purple boxes to just check us out of you. If you prefer a paper copy, Dalton and audience. There's also great information at dalesformergirlfriends.com, you can then get, you, you'll, you'll see them all. There they are. I'm starting to worry. You're going to get Dale into some trouble here. Dan, uh, we better let him off the phone. Hey, Dale. Thank you. Thank you. I'll talk to you later. Dale Leash, one of the more fun members of the Laniop office, not that they're, I mean, they're all fun. Well, and he's the happily married guy and he built, you know, secure enough to bring up his ex girlfriend. He started it. So yeah, I ended it. That's right. A lot of texts in two, five, one, three, four, three, zero, one, zero, six. If you want to join, we're going to read through some of those and we get back right here on midday mobile. This is mid day mobile with Sean Sullivan on FM talk one oh six, five. 1256 on this beautiful and hot Thursday afternoon. Yeah, it's hot. Mid day mobile. Usually Dan and I are like out partying by now. Yeah. I mean, happy hour starts whenever you're feeling happy. Exactly. No, you know me at this time of the day, I'm usually back inside after a one of these walks one day. Yeah. Will in my life. I walk every day. And so then as long as I get back to the apartment and say, still alive, I get to work, right? Have a salad, then I get to work and send you a newsletter. That's right. And the walks are good for you, man. And I know that period before summer really begins is so crucial because if you just go from walking in 80 degree weather, you show up a month and a half later and it's 99 with a heat index of 110, you're done. You can't do it. Let me tell you it's one of the most probably well known old man walking guys out there. You got to train into it. So April and May are crucial for me because June's coming and when it gets here in July and it's funny. I'll even text you during the walks right like, man, I'm struggling here, bro. That should be an Olympic event, really. It should be. Walking in Mobile. Yeah. Trail walking. You have to dodge the frisbees from the frisbee golf loose dogs, you know. They should add that for LA 2028 and I'm going to put you on the on the list there. I'll be I'll be at the qualifying. Tim texting in. This Amtrak thing is going to be a flop and when the three years comes up again, they are going to stick it to the city for more money Amtrak is not going to make any money down here. Yeah. Even the projections are that it's going to be a seven million dollar annual loss, but the city feels confident enough that it'll bring some money into the city's coffers with people visiting. What it's worth, Rob Holberg from Lanyon thinks it's actually going to benefit the city. John, I'm not sure if this is a shot at me. I love shots at me, though, by the way. What's amazing. I love shots at you. What's amazing is not Sean being gone, but Dalton being here and doing two shows in one day. How much time did I take off? Has it been? Well, two months. You're so beloved that when you leave, it just compounds. It feels like a longer bit of time. Brian Comer with the Bias and Comer Law joins us here next as we talk about this Google monopoly ruling.