The Big K Morning Show
Bank of America technical issue
Larry Richard with Paul Rasmussen. What a lot of people are talking about is the fact that the stories that are emerging from the south places like Asheville, North Carolina. Also parts of really all the way up the coast from the Gulf just around Tampa. There is a satellite picture, Paul, that shows electricity. This is, you can see at night, the outline of the United States and you can see the day after the storm hit, you can see the blackout where millions of people were without power. Now, right as of this moment, I believe there is about a million people that still don't have power, but you have seen these videos and stories. Yes, I have one quick sidebar before we move on to a report from Skylar Henry who is in Asheville. I saw a video this morning before I came in to work. One of the NASCAR drivers has his own helicopter. He's been flying around looking for people who are stranded up in the mountainous areas. He saw a guy flashing a mirror at him in an open spot in a forested area. He landed, he had some supplies he could leave and took off. That's what he's been passing the time with, is finding people who are stranded and no one can get to them. They're asking for volunteers, the Red Cross, for two-week deployments. If you have that kind of time, would like to volunteer, contact the Red Cross here and they will give you the details of what's necessary, but hard to imagine. When you see a town, there's a couple of mountain towns that are literally wiped off the map. Yeah, Asheville was one of the hottest places to go in the United States. For the longest time, it's been trending up. It's a foodie destination. It used to be beautiful. Now, it's been marred by the hurricane, and CBS's Skylar Henry is there. The nation has your back. President Biden got a first-hand look flying over a region where roads have washed away. The basic needs, like food and water, are in short supply. Our job is to help as many people as we can, as quickly as we can. That includes the search for the hundreds still missing. Since we've been in Asheville, some progress, cell phone service has improved. Power is back on in certain parts of the city, and this roadway, which was at one point covered with rushing floodwaters, is now back open in both directions. Utility crews are working to do as much as they can as quickly as possible. Now down in Tennessee, in a town called Erwin, this would be in eastern Tennessee, very mountainous country, just like Asheville and North Carolina, Helene swept away eleven people working at a plastics factory, and to tell you what happened there, and there now a criminal investigation is underway in the wake of this thing. Here's CBS's Manuel Borjo-Kes. These people were like my family. We worked together every day, and I just, it was senseless. In a statement, Impact Plastics said at no time were employees told that they would be fired if they left the facility. That's a lie. They just left us to die. Yep, there's a big controversy over this is the water was coming up. They say the manager didn't give him the go-ahead to clear out of there, and now where we're at is that out of that eleven people that were swept away in the water, five were rescued, two were confirmed dead, so we still have four people unaccounted for. This is just one of the many tragic stories that's emerging. Helene is going to wind up being, it may not be the most deadly hurricane in American history. Some of the ones way back in our past were much more deadly, but in terms of destruction and the vast area of destruction, this one will be, I'm sure, in the top three or four, perhaps maybe even number one. One of the images that really stuck with me was this young girl, I would guess, her to be about three or four years old in a rowboat and clutching a little poppy that obviously she saved. For those people, I mean, when you look at the devastation, it's just hard to imagine them even being able to rebuild in some of these places. There's nothing there, and yet they will, and they will. Over 180 people now are confirmed dead so far, and we know that that number is going to go up as the rescue crews and the people dealing with the recovery start to uncover the bodies that they didn't get to the first time around. And our local organization that's helped internationally, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people over the years, Brothers Brother Foundation is working hard on a two-phase program to help, and you can check them out at brothersbrother.org. They're right here on the north side of Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, security details, as you can imagine, for Donald Trump's visit back to the Butler Farm Show site, and he's bringing his vice presidential running mate JD Vance, and Paul, I can't imagine there'll be a place on earth that'll be more secure. Based on what I'm seeing here, just to give you a quick rundown on the security changes this time around, unlike the first rally, there'll be just one command post, and there'll be one person from each law enforcement and emergency service agency who's working at the rally. They'll all be there together on the same page. Let's see here. The snipers that were inside the AGR building, they've been asked to help again, but law enforcement will be on top of the AGR building instead. Butler Township Police, County Sheriff's deputies will be involved. Who's in charge of the rally? In terms of security, that would be secret service, manpower, they say, will be in the hundreds. Secret Service is going to fly surveillance drones, and then they're also expecting 15,000 to 60,000 people to attend the rally. I would not be surprised to see the number somewhere in the middle between 15 and 60. Well, I think 15's a low estimate for them. I'm seriously worried from a vendor yesterday who said that he's selling Trump merchandise in the Butler Fairgrounds area, and he says he's heard from people all over the country that are coming to this thing. So we're not going to have just people from Butler County in the surrounding area. We're going to get people from out of state. Katie KATV talked with Butler County Commissioner Leslie Ocey, and she was asked if she had any concerns about this second rally. Here's what she said. Mr. Trump comes here because we represent the best. Mr. Trump comes here. OK, well, let's try it this way. Here we go. I think that's the biggest concern is that there's so much interest in this and so many people watching that I think everybody's worrying about trying to make sure they get it right. There we go. And I would imagine they will this time. And Pittsburgh Steelers hosting the Dallas Cowboys anytime is news. But the fact that it's Sunday night football, it's going to be a big time on the North Shore this weekend. And right there on the Roberto Clemente Bridge popped up out of nowhere a Ferris wheel. Yes. What's the story with the Ferris wheel? I get you said part like a October faster. It's part of October Fest. And we haven't confirmed yet that our own news editor, Pat Septak, will be up in his leader hose and on top playing his yodeling and then playing according. But we can make that happen if we want. Now it's open starting today. Five bucks a ride. It will be open late Sunday for Monday night or Sunday night football. And then I think October. One of our reporters should probably go down there and take a spin on the wheel and file a reporter to Tamara. If you're listening on your way in, we got you. Wait till you get here. And that's what people are talking about and we'll be talking about certainly over the weekend. We're going to talk to Bill Hillgrove. And we'll ask Bill about the Steelers Cowboys game and pit undefeated now getting serious consideration to be in ranked as they begin ACC play and Chapel Hill, North Carolina this Saturday. Download the free Odyssey app. Take us with you wherever you go. And we'll keep you posted on breaking news, weather and sports to especially Friday night lights. We've got game of the week. And man, they're already looking at playoffs here in the next few weeks for high school football. Meanwhile, Paul, Bank of America customers. This was a can you imagine you go to your app on your phone for your bank and you whatever amount of money out of care of you have a dollar or $100,000 and you see zero. How would you feel? Well, I would feel absolute panic. I mean, they flooded the Bank of America helpline with calls because of this. Well, that's exactly what happened. Sam, can you imagine that you go to your bank? You go to look at your, you know, deposits or just your balance and it's zero. Well, I mean, like, come on. I mean, the problem started around noon between noon and one yesterday, according to down detector. And when people would call the automated line to check their balance, then they would actually get the correct number. So I'm not sure exactly what happened. So it was a computer glitch. They said the company said nationwide outage affected online banking and ATMs. Bank of America says it's mostly been fixed. But some customers who did manage to log out freaked out to see a message again, either account unavailable or even a balance of zero. Well, the Bank of America is the second largest US bank. They have almost 70 million domestic customers and small business clients and get this. Here's a quote from the company in their, in their release on this. It says, some clients are experiencing an issue. Really accessing their account. Oh, it's called panic Bank of America. Yeah, a screaming sound. And by the way, people were reporting that they were still having these problems. It's seven o'clock last night. Yeah, it's not apparently a hundred percent fixed. So if you're a bank of America, customer apparently do not be alarmed. You know, I forgot I have the Bank of America app on my phone here. Let me check this out real quick. You got money in there? No, I have a I have a credit card with them. Oh, I hope it's zero. Let's see. That's what I'm hoping for zero on a credit card. Right. How about this? Sam's got somebody on the phone that's a Bank of America customer. Are you good? I'm I'm working on it. All right, let's check in. Hold that thought. This is the big game morning show. Larry Richard with Vankerman, Paul Rasmussen yesterday, we had a conversation with Katie KTVs, John Delano and John ended up on national television Tuesday night on CBS as they were preparing for the vice presidential debate. And it turns out John had a chance for an exclusive one on one conversation with Kamala Harris. They also asked John about the importance of Pennsylvania in this presidential race. And Paul, you know, very well that the candidates keep coming. And there's a reason for that. It's not just because we're wonderful people. It's 19 electoral votes. It's the most of any of the battleground states. And it's decisive. Who wins Pennsylvania is going to win the going to win the election is what they say you can qualify for enough electoral votes total. What is that number? 272, right? Right. And so Pennsylvania is and will continue to be really critical. As we know, Donald Trump coming back Saturday as Paul detailed with JD Vance and the candidates have keep crisscrossing the region. So this conversation, John Delano wanted to know things that really affect Pittsburgh in particular, US Steel is one of those subjects from John Delano and Kamala Harris. So how will you block Nippon, but keep our steel jobs right here? So let me tell you where I'm coming from. I feel very strongly that US Steel needs to remain a US company and that the people working there need to be American workers. And I think that is also why I am proud and I do have the support of the steel workers union. But if you block this foreign acquisition, how can you guarantee that there will be support? Will it come from the federal government to make sure that these furnaces stay open and the jobs are kept here in Pittsburgh? It is my priority to keep the jobs in Pittsburgh. Understanding again that the folks who are doing that work are doing hard work, good work. It is part of not only the tradition of American industry to do that work, but it is part of what we need to invest in the future. So Kamala Harris, doubling down that she wants US Steel to remain a American based company and based in Pittsburgh. So we'll see what's the plan that would be interesting because US Steel has said that if the deal with Nippon Steel falls through, then there's a very good chance that they're going to move the jobs to other steel mills and then move the headquarters out of the city as well. Nippon Steel is offered I think just under $15 billion for US Steel and I wonder if the American government is ready to make that kind of a commitment. I mean, this is a very confusing situation. It is. And this is one area where Donald Trump and Kamala Harris agreed. They both want to keep US Steel and American based company. So then on the flip side, you have 99% of the shareholders with US Steel approved this acquisition. They just went through the one of the regulators went through the deal and said that US Steel has kept all of its commitments in terms of making sure that its workers are taking care of per the steel workers contract. So that has been cleared. So there's this dichotomy here. It's there's this, you know, the unions dead set against it. The politicians are dead set against it. And the people who are in the business side of it all say this is really a good deal. The shareholders. So and it's been kicked down the road by Joe Biden because they said that they will weigh this they basically wanted to wait till after the election. Right. So it don't expect anything between here and they're definitively on US Steel. Now we're sitting on one of the largest reserves of natural gas in the world here in our region. So fracking is the way they extract that gas. And John Delano asked Kamala Harris about that. I will not ban fracking. I did not as vice president. In fact, I cast the tie breaking vote to open up more fracking leases. And my perspective on this is grounded in a number of things, including that we don't have to ban fracking to do the work that we can do to also invest in a clean energy economy. And on a more global scale, the question John had about what's going on in Israel right now. How far would the US government go to protect the state of Israel? US troops on air in the air on sea or on land. Today, I was with the president in the situation room for several hours, along with members of our national security team. And I'm pleased to report that based on everything we know as of this moment, our position, which is to support Israel and its right to defend itself. And Israel's ability to defend itself today was quite successful. And we must all agree that it is in the best interest of the United States, much less our allies Israel, to ensure that Iran not have the ability to do what it was attempting to do today. It is in American interest to make sure that we take seriously the threat Iran that it poses not only to our interest, to our personnel and into stability in that region. And we thank John Delano for sharing some of those thoughts with us. You can see the entire interview, by the way, at Katie KTV's website, kdk.com. And congratulations to John again for getting another one of the big interviews. He seems to get a lot of them, doesn't he? Yeah, he's had Donald Trump in the past. He's had all, you know, the president's John has a reputation that obviously extends way beyond Pittsburgh. Otherwise, he never got any of those interviews. I think John tries to be really fair and direct. And it's also great job. It's also true that the Pittsburgh designation is a big plus for him. Yes. Among these candidates because they want once they want the votes here so badly. They love us here. They love us in the burg coming to PPG paints arena. This Tuesday night. Stevie Wonder begins a 10 city tour here in Pittsburgh. And we've got a pair of tickets for you. 4 1 2 9 2 2 10 20 is our number. Paul pick a number. Let's go with four. All right, call it number four. We'll make you a winner. Samantha McGill filling in for our Aaron Faragoni. Oh, she's well able to handle this situation. Stevie Wonder, what a talent. I wish I could go to that show. It happens to be the same night of our hometown heroes event. And we're excited because we're going to introduce you to another one of our hometown heroes right after the news at 9 this morning. We've been doing that. There are five in total each and every morning. And then our lifetime achievement awardee is Jim Leland who's having a year. Think about it. Cooperstown Hall of Fame, baseball manager and then pirates induct him immediately into their Hall of Fame. And I believe he turns and someone say that can't be right. 80. Come on man. He can't be 80. He can't be. And he and his wife are coming. And then I talked to Craig Patrick who was one of our lifetime achievement awardees back when it was the anniversary. People forget he was also the assistant coach with her Brooks for the American Olympic team to beat the Russians as well as being the general manager and bringing Stanley Cops to Pittsburgh. He's still in the town in the area. And then I ask a former Steelers GM Kevin Colbert to join us. So we got pirates, penguins, Steelers represented in John Wainer, the rock, the pride of Carrick who was a favorite of Jim Leland is going to join us too. So that's Tuesday night. We thank the Lamont, uh, Kathy Slenchack and the Dunlap family. They've been extraordinarily generous. And I'm looking forward to it. When's the last time you've been at the Lamont? That view never gets old. Oh, it's been a few years now, but yeah, you're right. It's unforgettable. It's absolutely beautiful. And it doesn't seem to matter much where you're seated in the restaurant, either. You get a good view pretty much everywhere. Yeah, you don't have to be right at the window to enjoy it. I've lived here all my life. And you know, I've been up there over the years many times, but you still walk out there at night when it's lit up and you go, huh, this is tremendous. Years ago, there was a restaurant on top of the steel building called top of the triangle. And the view from there was spectacular. It's now the executive offices and has been for UPMC's top top folks. I kind of wish it was still a restaurant. Well, they actually do have a think a restaurant up there and executive dining room or something like that. Yeah, but it's not accessible to the public. Well, of course not. No, I'm just saying that there is a place to eat up there still. Oh, yeah. They have a chef. I don't know what the guy's name is, but I met him once. Did you? Yeah. You got to you got to be specially get invited to that room. That ain't happening. Meanwhile, Bill Hillgrove is going to join us right after the news at eight. Actions talk to him about pit starts, ACC play, four and O getting talk about them ranking, you know, I got to head down to Chapel Hill, Duke upset them last week. They did. And then Steelers Cowboys is Sunday night at Akrasher Stadium. That's going to be a lot of fun in the North Shore. The Cowboys are banged up. Larry, they apparently yesterday lost another one of their wide receivers. They did. I felt so bad. Not one of the ones at the top of the depth chart, but still, you know, it's another injury. And then I want to ask Bill Hillgrove about that. By the way, Bill Hillgrove, this is a year for his accolades. He was inducted into Pitts Hall of Fame just a few weeks ago. And Monday night, October 14th at the Lamont, he is being recognized by the Saints and centers. Really. He's the man of the year. Saints and centers. Yeah, by the way, I haven't heard of that in a while. Oh, man, it's a fun organization. And they what they do is they raise money for different charities every year. And that's based on the charities that the man of the year aligns with. So we'll we'll ask Bill about that. But if you want to get tickets to that event, you can go to Saints and centers. Just look it up and find out the details. And we'll salute Bill Hillgrove.