The Big K Morning Show
Winning the lottery
Good morning. This is Larry Richard, a very important weekend for a very special family, the family of Martha Dixon, who was FBI agent killed in the line of Dunie while confronting an armed criminal in an active shooter situation. In 1994, her family is committed to celebrate her life, and they've done it in a very unique way. And this year, it's a extended bike ride and Martha's brother Kevin joins me on the Big K Morning Show. Kevin, good morning. Good morning, Larry. Thanks for having me. How are you today? I'm doing well. I appreciate you spending time, and I think everybody's touched it after all these years. You still dedicate to the memory of your sister, Martha. Let's first tell us about Martha. Well, she was a very special person. Indeed, we like to say it was not just the story of how she died that was impressive, heroically, in fact, but it was really about how she lived and who she was. A good story about Martha tells you everything you need to know about her in third grade. She was going to be promoted from the B class to the A class. She didn't want to leave her friends, and she took all her books out of her desk and walked into the principal's office and dumped them on the principal's desk and said, "I quit." She did, and it's true story, third grade, and she principal called my mother and my mother said, "Let her stay." And she didn't want to leave her friends on that fateful day in which they were being shot to pieces in another room, and she ran in there to confront that gunman and met him at Point Blank Range and gave her life in that incident, and there are many, many stories about Martha, not only her service in the FBI, but her life in general. She was a very kind-hearted, generous, intelligent, humorous person, and she was everybody's favorite. She was devoted to her nieces and nephews. My parents had eight children, 22 grandchildren, and all of the nieces and nephews who had been born as of that day walked down the aisle in procession at her wedding. So she had all of them in her wedding, and she was very devoted to the kids. And being a great athlete at Mount Lebanon High School, we combined those two things into a run, which is a fundraiser through the generosity and assistance of the town of Mount Lebanon for almost 30 years now as a fundraiser to build playgrounds for children in her memory. And we've gone over 20 projects. We're working on up to 25. I think 23 is the number now. We have a couple more in the works. Penn Trafford School District right now is building their playground. It's under construction. And we've given them a $10,000 grant to assist in that work. All to honor Martha's memory and to promote and sustain her legacy. Something that, of course, is like yesterday to us. It has never left us. But we have learned how to navigate that through doing something positive. You've done so much. And Kevin is board president, by the way, the Martha fund.org, if you'd like to learn more and make a donation. But this year, you are on an extended bike ride that's going to culminate here in Pittsburgh. I met your brother Ed years ago. His son Connor, my son, Zach played it through cane football together. And that's how we first met got to talk about this. And I have a nephew who is a FBI agent. I think about this. And he told me that they actually teach a class and in Martha's name about technique in the most dire situation. And he said, no, I know he heard about your sister through his training in the FBI. In case you didn't know that. But where are you guys now? Because you're cycling back to the bird, right? We are. We start, we started this bike ride inspired by the police unity tour. I was invited by my, I'd moved to New Jersey after I graduated from pet back in the 70s when there was really, you know, our economy at that time was that still still moves were all closing down. And they were building casinos in Atlantic City and I moved there to find engineering work. And so I've been there ever since. I'm still home sick every day for Pittsburgh, honestly. And Pittsburgh, I tell people all the time, you know, what's your hometown? I don't say it like see Jersey. I say Pittsburgh. And I understand that. Yeah. So where are you now? So we're in Hancock, Maryland. We started at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. And we start at Martha's name, which is engraved on that memorial. And we would travel a bike path, a dedicated bike path that goes all the way from D.C. to Pittsburgh. And we end at the FBI building where her name is engraved on the sign in front of that building. So we traveled between her name and D.C. and her name in Pittsburgh. And then last last year and this year, we added a loop ride within Pittsburgh to give more people locally a chance to participate in a one day ride who may not have the time or the resources to do a five day endurance ride as we have done for the last seven years now. I'm in Hancock, Maryland. We just came from Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. We're headed to Cumberland, Maryland today and will be headed to Ohio pile and then Pittsburgh. Well, that's incredible what you and your family has done in Martha's name. And Saturday, 11 o'clock gathering at Station Square, a 15 mile ride or a 30 mile ride. And you could participate by going to the Martha Fund dot org, Kevin Dixon, I'm sure your sister is so proud of you and your family for what you've done for so long now, 30 years, hard to believe. Thank you so much. And there is also a separate website that we have spun off called Martha's ride dot com, which has all the details of the ride. There is a link on the website that you just gave, but there is also a separate website to do that. If somebody wants to donate, register for the ride, come out and volunteer, or just come out and say hello, Station Square East, parking lot will be set up and it's supposed to be a beautiful day. Gorgeous 73 and sunny Saturday. So is it true that your brother Ed is in a side car on an electric bike or is that just a rumor? It's a rumor that hasn't been disproven yet. All right, we'll have to see on Saturday. Kevin, thanks for the time and we appreciate the service of Martha and your family. Thank you so much, sir. And thank you for having us on. We really appreciate the the shout out. You got it safe travels. And again, the Martha Fund dot org. Looking at this dock workers strike, it's been a long, long time since we've had a strike from the dock workers and going back to 1977, Larry, that's hard to believe. But you kind of, if you're just driving along you here, oh, dock workers strike. I'm not really, it doesn't really bother me. That'll affect me. Well, not so fast. The dock workers strike shut down ports along the eastern seaboard and the Gulf Coast has prompted some people to engage already. Paul, believe it or not, in panic shopping, they're reporting. That's right. San Antonio, Texas shoppers flocked to Walmart, Costco, Sam's Club, stocking up on water, paper goods, toilet paper. They always do that. If I said it was going to snow doing the weather, they'd be a run on toilet paper in milk. Not sure why paper towels. Experts like Mark Long, a business professor at the University of San Antonio, says such a panic buying is unnecessary. Reporter Meredith Haas at KENSTV going into the holidays. They say companies prepared for this. But right now, it's a game of wait and see. It depends on that specific supply chain and specific items. Do they have a lot of inventory in the cushion? So about 45,000 workers walked off the job. That was Tuesday in the union representing the workers demanding a sizable pay raise, but they want to ban on automation of certain projects. The union says threatened union jobs. So this is where it gets sticky for a lot of people because can you push back technology and understand pay raise in health care, but how do you not advance with the technology that's available just because, I mean, if it's your job, I get it, you know, but how can you not? It's like, I always think of when wagon wheels, you know, when horses pulled carts, somebody made great wagon wheels and then eventually the automobile came in and they said, hey, Jim, you got great wagon wheels. But if you don't start making rubber tires, you're going to be out of business. Well, what if they made a law that said, you can't, you know, automate exactly the same thing? Yeah, you can advance technology. I mean, there's. And that's why some people are questioning the Biden administration's decision to sit on the sidelines. How is this different, they say, then the rail workers strike in 2022, and the president did step in and prevent it from happening. And then the reason why was because, again, how dependent we are on the real system for our getting our, you know, supply chain is the critical part of the supply. Listen to this little sidebar, by the way, Larry, that is spilled, the, the distilled spirits council of the United States says that they're very dependent on the port system. Even a day of work stoppage would have repercussions throughout the supply chain. And to give you some idea, ports impacted in this work stoppage handle 77% of the distilled spirits exports and 43% of the imports. All of this just ahead of the holiday season. Imagine all the people who won't be able to have if this strike goes on, won't be able to have that special bottle of whatever for Thanksgiving or Christmas, right? Well, now you're getting serious. I guess it's a great example of how this is going to affect people. And so you do wonder sometimes if they can't reach an agreement before the end of the week, if you don't have the government step in and say, okay, arbitration time, you guys get back to work. I don't know. I mean, you know, well, let's let's be honest. Part of the reason we're paying 30% more, you know, for stuff these days or 25% more is because of a supply chain problems. It was one of the things that fueled the inflation we're dealing with now. It comes at a very bad time. Yeah, sure does. Election time. All right, another story I want to share is we all fantasize maybe at times about hitting the big one, the lottery, right? Mega millions, powerball. Surely almost everyone has thought, well, that would be nice. Yeah, the thought crossed my mind just yesterday. What would I do with, you know, one of the smaller jackpots, you know, like a cash five of for work like a half a million, you know, what would I do with the cash? I watched a documentary about people that won the lottery and then everything went sideways. And it happens more than you think. And a lot of these people end up broke and declaring bankruptcy. It's a it's some for some people a burden that they're unprepared for. That said, everybody also says, well, that wouldn't be me, right? But the problem begins when you have the winning ticket checking this out. A judge in California says a guy who won a record $2 billion powerball can keep all the money. The court ruled he is the rightful owner. Oh, this is that dispute with the other guy who thought it was his ticket, right? Yep. Even if it might not have been his ticket to begin with. Now, Edwin Castro was sued by a guy claiming it was his ticket and then it had been stolen. The judge said, quote, sorry, players are responsible for securing their tickets. And if he thought it was stolen, he should have called the cops. Wow. So two billion dollars. I'm surprised the judge didn't have them split it 50 50. Well, maybe he could throw the guy a bone, right? You know, it's something, right? Two billion. I mean, if you and I were to win a large sum of money, you know, it would be, it would make sense to me to throw a nice party for everybody and then pass out a few checks. Well, the next time. Yes. You know, did you ever think about that? Yeah. I mean, if it was a really big one, if it was a really, really big jackpot, wouldn't it be fun to have a party with some of your closest friends and coworkers, the people who you know well, and to have this wonderful party and then hand everybody a check for like a million bucks? I like the way you think that would be great fun. I'm going to hold you to that. You're going to have to do something with with all that money besides find charities and then set up a, a foundation where people can apply for help and things like that. I mean, it's a, you know, you're going to be hiring people right and left to manage the money and run the foundation and screen calls for you. All of that stuff, right? I'm rooting for you, Paul. I'm rooting for you. Me too. Million would be fine. Hey, yeah. Right. A million would be great. Have a party and pass out thousand dollar checks. But are they happy? Yeah, that's the question, isn't it? And the good doctor and my catch-in sent of animal general LaSalle Plaza and cranberry our weekly Thursday guests. The doctor is in. Good morning. Good morning, Larry. How you doing? Good. You see the sunrise here. Isn't it awesome? I'm actually at the airport. So I apologize in advance for the background noise. It's all good. We appreciate you doing that. You're, you're over the years. I mean, I've done you so long now. You're one of the most consistent, reliable people I've ever met in my life. And people trust you with their dogs and cats and other pets. And as you know, people put a lot of love and emotion into their animals and they trust you for a reason. So thank you, doctor. Well, thank you. And you have a wonderful family, Larry. So it's easy to be friends. All right. Paul and I have some questions to share from your fans, Sarah in Oakmont. Are there specific signs of vision loss in dogs? And how can I support my dog if he's going blind? Yeah, you know, that always is a sad thing if you have a pet that's starting to go blind. So, you know, what you start noticing is bump into things. They won't see the toy when you throw it. Their eyes might look a little bit cloudy. They might be hesitant when they get to the steps. And the best thing you can do is just support them through it. Don't move the furniture because they won't know you did it. And then you can do cent work with them and and teach them words like, you know, caution or step and just give them lots of love and assurance. And they do fantastic. They get no psychological hang ups when they go blind. So you just have to teach them the environment again and just make sure they know their way around. Dr. Mike Greg in Bethel Park is asking, what are the best dietary changes he can make for a dog with chronic kidney disease? So, well, kidney disease is one of those things where we want to make sure we're giving high-quality protein. They make really good diets for animals for this, for kidney diets. And what they do, one of the most important things is that they restrict the phosphorus. We want to decrease that because in kidney disease, it will start building up and create mineralization or, you know, stones and things like that. And fatty acids will make it three fatty acids are always good. And then I generally will check their blood pressure. And if they need magic, your veterinarian will prescribe those. And certainly lots of water. You can add water to their food, make sure they're taking some more. And there's some really good renal care of kidney care vitamins that you can give to your pets when they have kidney disease as well. We're with Dr. Mike Hutchinson. I'm looking at Gwen and Shadysai wants to know, "Doc, what step should I follow if my dog gets bitten by another dog?" We were walking. My dog got attacked out of nowhere. My dog was on a leash. The other dog was not. What do I do? Yeah, that's always one of those scary events. First thing is, you know, be safe when you're separating those dogs. A lot of times you end up getting bit. So just be very, very careful. That's a scary event. But just check your dog over for any kind of punctual wounds. Check them carefully. If you see anything, of course, clean. It was open water. And I would recommend you see your veterinarian. Even if it looks like a minor puncture, those things can turn into a nightmare from bite wounds. So I would always say check with your veterinarian. And I would contact local officials that the dogs running around without a leash that's against the law. And they should be aware. And then they'll follow up to make sure that dogs properly vaccinated. I was thinking, Doc, about all the displaced pets down because of Hurricane Helene. I've seen some incredible images and people rescuing. There's so many people missing first and foremost, but there are so many pets missing. I just, my heart goes out to those people. I saw a picture. I was telling Paul of this probably three, four-year-old little girl in a rowboat being rescued, clotching a wet poppy. And I'm sure there's a lot of pets that are missing there. As has happened in the past, Dr. Mike, like, for example, with, I remember during and after Hurricane Katrina, a lot of these lost pets or displaced pets wind up in rescue shelters away from the actual hurricane, the disaster area. We might wind up seeing some of them here. They do when they have the FEMA now has to help pets as well, which is good. And of course, it's people first. But when the pets are in these disasters, they need help, too. But Pittsburgh has always opened up their heart to these pets. I remember with Hurricane Katrina, there was a lot of those pets that came up our way that got rehomed and ended up in a very nice environment. But it's a, yeah, my heart goes out to them as well. Well, safe travels. You're not taking all your pets with you on the aircraft, are you? No, he flying solo. Sometimes that could be very relaxing, Doc. Imagine. All right, we'll talk to you next Thursday. Thank you, brother. Oh, you're welcome. Have a great weekend, guys. You got it. The good Dr. Mike Hutchinson of Animal General, the South Plaza in Cranberry, you can go to animalgeneral.net. We have a link at kdkradio.com. You know, we could probably talk with him about his journey. If I suspect what I know from having you, Dr. Mike, for two pets now, he does a lot of flying around. He hooks up with people who are into new treatments and new technology for veterinary medicine. He's involved in all kinds of interesting things. We could probably spend a half hour talking with him about the latest thing that he's involved in and the one that he's flying to. What I appreciate about Dr. Mike is he's not a know-it-all in the sense that he has all this experience, emergency medicine, and years and years of working with people in his clinics, but he's so curious, Larry. He never stops looking for things that can continue to advance or help. Yeah. He's the one that introduced me to the whole concept of stem cells, because don't forget, the stem cells were now using to help people they first utilized with pets and he would tell me almost with childlike enthusiasm, Larry, this procedure, the stem cells, and how does this work, Doc, and it's working. It's going to help pets, and he told me way in advance just wait to hear what it does for people. For example, one of my dogs, my first dog, Pancho, had some back pain, had back surgery at one point, and he was having some back pain, and Dr. Mike recommended cold laser therapy, and it helped. It was amazing, and it was something that he had only recently looked into. If everybody was as passionate about what they do as he is about what he does, man, I'll tell you, he never stops learning, which is a lesson for people like me. Never stop learning. You never get there. It's in the journey. Coming up right after the news at the top of the hour, looking forward to our conversation with Bill Hillgrove. After 30 years as the voice of the Steelers, he stepped down and he's continuing his work with the pit Panthers in his 51st season doing football, getting ready for 56 years of pit basketball. How about that? Yeah, and we're going to talk a little bit about the Steelers too, right? Oh, yeah. Well, we got to ask him about this wide receiver in Las Vegas, Devontay Adams, who says he wants out. The Jets, the Steelers, and the Saints are reportedly interested, and there's been a lot of talk about it around town and on social media, so I'd like to hear what he thinks about. Do the Steelers need another really good wide receiver? Is that what it's going to take to put them over the top? Many experts believe that is the case. They have George Pickens, who's spectacular. Yes, he is. Very talented. He's a talent. But some of their other receivers have stepped up, but if you talk to people that follow this intimately, they say Steelers could use another high level wide receiver like Adams, who played with Aaron Rodgers. He did. And he also played with David Carr in Las Vegas. So that's the reason why the Jets and the Saints are in that conversation, because he indicated a preference for playing with a quarterback who he knows. But on the other hand, if the Steelers make him an offer, he can't refuse. Well, then it's going to be interesting for me. I'm interested in watching this one unfold, much more so than that other one, the fellow from IU from San Francisco. Yeah, that was a conversation. And I feel sometimes for our sports brethren, because at certain times of the year, they just have to recycle the same conversation and throw stuff against the wall, see what sticks. Right. But for most fans, this Steelers team is very talented. This Steelers team has potential. They didn't live up to it fully in Indianapolis. That's obvious, but they appreciated they battled back after being down 17 nothing and made it a game and had a chance to win it. That's exactly right. Larry, they played badly and still had a chance to win. I would also add, by the way, that Davante Adams is not playing right now, he has a hamstring injury. So if you're wondering what happened to him, that's it. By the way, I just happen to be looking at the NFL. I'm a fan. Forget about the fact that I have duties in certain cases for home games. I mean, I'm just a fan too. And I was looking at how many teams are left undefeated. There's two now. That's it. So you think how hard is it to go undefeated? The Chiefs and who else? It's the Chiefs, Minnesota Vikings. So really just the Chiefs and the AFC. And then if you look at the NFC, yeah, you got the Minnesota. Yep, that's it. Who am I missing? No one. That's it. The Chiefs and the bikes are the two undefeated teams. Yeah. So that gives you the idea, the level of parity. I heard on the way in, by the way, that the Vikings and Packers are going to be playing a early game on Sunday in London. That should be a really good game. When's that kickoff? Like 11? I think it's like 11 a.m. Let's see what it is. Maybe even earlier than that. Come on now. Here we go. Of course, it's going to take a sweet, old time loading here. Jets Vikings 930 a.m. Oh God. See what I'm saying? Yeah. Early game. You could watch a little bit of it. Yes, sit there with that. I'm still old school. Oh, that's right. You don't have to work until late on Sunday night. No, people ask, what time you got to be at the stadium? Three hours before, right? Five. Five. So five. I thought it was three. Five. Well, think about it. People say, why do you guys get there that early? Because the scoreboard team assembles and they go through very detailed check on everybody's headsets. Everything has gone through to build up to kickoff. But when Gates opened two hours before kickoff. Then you start with the announcements. That's game time for the scoreboard team. We're on, you know, through halftime in the end of the game. And I think the Steelers have done a really great job of here we go, the build up to kickoff. It's a lot of fun. It adds a lot to the atmosphere to have a great production going on in the stadium. It's so, so very different from the NFL that we grew up with. These guys work so hard year round. The full time employees that have to put all this together, they care and they want to do, you know, the mission is, our mission is to do everything we can to support the team and enhance the fans experience. And that's what they do each and every game. And they take it really serious. And one thing I like about what you do, and I did it a couple of times in my own career, PA work, but you have a real nice touch for knowing how to fire and when to fire the crowd up. It's fun. I mean, it is in the moment. It is so much fun. I had somebody last night come up to me and go, Hey, Larry, say TJ Watt. Right. What? Right. I can't wait. Cowboy Steelers Sunday night football.