2.27.2025 -- NLS -- Immigration, Idaho's Governor, and Rush's Legacy

 On this episode with Neal and Julie, they dive into the ongoing debate over immigration policies, federal funding, and states refusing to comply with federal law. They discuss whether the president has the constitutional authority to withhold funds from cities that refuse to enforce immigration laws. The conversation shifts to Idaho politics, specifically the governor’s potential decision on a parental choice bill and how it could impact public and private education. Listeners weigh in on whether the governor will sign, veto, or ignore the bill altogether. Neal and Julie also touch on concerns about foreign investment in U.S. residency programs, questions surrounding Ukraine aid spending, and reflections on Rush Limbaugh’s lasting impact on conservative media. 

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Transcript

Good morning. It's 807 on Newstalk 1079 Neil Larson, Julie Mason on this Day and we have standing by one of our U.S. senators, Senator Jim Risch, joining us from the capital with limited time this morning. But we're always, happy to talk with Senator Risch. Good morning, Senator. I hope and things are going well. Yeah, I apologize for the short time, but you.

You may or may not have noticed. We have a new administration back here. Things are actually happening. Keeping everybody hopping on those things, for sure. Well, let's start out on a real positive note. Really quick, another opportunity for you to celebrate the end of the leverage project. I know, you were, I believe, in the Magic Valley.

And, tell us about that event real quick. Well, you know, this horse is dead. We don't need to be there for that. It's done. It's over. Put a fork in it. We're moving on now. We. I promised that, this wouldn't happen. Promises made, promises kept. Category, I guess. But, we're done with it.

The president, put his signature on it, handed me the pen, and, I'm I'm taking the pen and the the, the executive order and the copy of him signing. You handed me the pen, and they're going into the going to the state Historical Society because it's a big event for the Magic Valley up and for all of Idaho.

Really? Yes. Yeah. We we love the good news. We love the good news. How? That's more good news. You introduced the noble out for Sanctuary Cities Act, along with some really great friends in the Senate. You were joined by obviously Senator Crapo, Steve Daines, Tim Sheehy, others. Could you explain that to us? And does it have the potential to get some bipartisan support?

You know, I doubt it has, chance for bipartisan support. If they were smart, they would. But they're doubling down on stuff like how how many times have all of us on our side of the aisle, wanted to throw up when we heard the city say we're not going to obey federal law, and by golly, we're not going to help, on this issue of, of people breaking the law and our immigration laws and, look, if they're going to do that, they shouldn't be, getting any kind of federal funds of any kind for anything.

And, you either play ball or you don't play. We're all Americans. And we had to live with, what they did when they were in, they need to live what we're going to do, and we're. So, Look, we're not. This isn't, this isn't the soft, fuzzy thing, but it's a, it's a, rule of law application, and, people need to follow the law.

So, Senator, really quick, because I know one of the the common and very predictable moves the left makes when President Trump and his administration do things like this is to run to, a Biden judge here and Obama judge someone who they know is probably against Trump. And then they try to put a stay on that. But is it clearly within the president's constitutional authority to do this, to say no more federal money if you're going to be violating the immigration law?

Yeah, I think it's not only in the president's, bailiwick. I mean, I think it's his duty, to enforce federal law. And the same way with the United States Congress. We do have the authority to do that now. You know, people get worked up when they see the headline, federal judge, gives the city, or enters a, a stay against the, administration when they're trying to do something that happens all the time.

But look at the most recent one, the one that happened in the last 48 hours was you had a judge who, had said that he was unfreezing all the money that was frozen for USAID. And he entered that order, the Supreme Court, in the middle of the night last night or very early this morning, vacated that.

Yeah. You know, I mean, you you the last words with the Supreme Court, not with some, sure. Biden appointed or, appointed judge that they shop for somewhere. Let's let's talk about another issue really quick. And that's a state veterans home in Boise. It looks like a waiver has been granted to be able to build a new veterans home in Boise.

Tell us about your involvement with that. Obviously, that that's good news to Idaho's veterans. Yeah, that's that's really good news for the veterans. Look, I've been working on this for a long time. And, what happened during the, the, Biden years was they enacted a rule or, an executive order that said that, all materials used to build or remodel these, buildings had been U.S produced.

Well, you know that that's a really good thought and a good idea and certainly an aspiration. But, if there are materials that you can't get from anywhere in the United States, or aren't available in the United States, you got to be able to move forward. And the rule did say there was a waiver in there that could be granted.

We cranked on them and cranked them to get a waiver, and they just ignored us, until January 20th of this year when we got, new people in the VA and, my first meeting, with the, director, I sat down with them and said, look, this is the problem. And, laid it out for him.

And he said, where do I sign? And, that was the end of that. So we we move that forward and, it's it's another you know, it's another good thing, you know, it's really good to get things done like that. Yeah. All right. Let's hit real quick since we only have you for a couple more minutes on the continuing resolution, the House did pass a version of that.

I do know the Senate is working to to make some tweaks to that. Can you explain a little bit of what you would like to see different in that before it gets passed? You know, the this is you're talking about a lot of money here, a lot of different programs and what have you. There's negotiations going on constantly on those things, and you never get to exactly where you want to go.

You get to the place that's as close as you can get to it. And, I before we before we start wading into that, let's get it done first. And then if you really want to spend the time, I'd be happy to, but you. Yeah. I mean, there are thousands of subject matters in, in those bills, and so you really have to pick a particular thing out there.

I have no, I don't have, you know, drop dead feelings on any one. But we are negotiating to get us to as much of the stuff as we can get in, or that we want it out, and that's how that'll that. That's how that'll come to rest. The, the things that are going on right now as far as funding the government have got to be done.

I mean, obviously you don't. We were elected to govern, not to shut the government down. And, you know, there's people that like to do that. But, they'll, when you run for election, you run the government. That's that's what we're trying to get. I think everybody's, everybody's acting in good faith on it. The president's waited in a number of times.

I've talked to him. A number of times about this, and, he wants it done, too. The good news is, is the president, like most everybody on this is not dug in. So deep, that we're going to, going to walk away from this and let the the government shut down that that's that's not a good thing.

All right. We are out of time. It's coming up on 815 on this Thursday morning on Newstalk 117. Senator ish. We appreciate your time. And, we'll talk to you next time. Always good to talk to you. Thank. All right. We'll be back after this on Newstalk 170. It's eight nine. Why do I feel like there's this countdown?

Julie, we're 3.5 hours away now from 11:46 a.m.. It is a little bit like that, I don't I yeah, I think it's okay to feel like there's a countdown. It does feel a little bit like that. Yes. If I you know what if I were Governor Little, this isn't him. And I don't even know if it's me, but I'm just imagining in my mind he could walk out of the governor's office with a pen in one hand and a veto stamp in the other.

And then which is it? Yeah. Just, you know, make a spectacle out of it. Yeah. Well, I, I made the joke, and I say it very, very, very, very tongue in cheek. But when they put out the, the phone call line, so you could, you could call in and give your opinion. Viet. What? You're answering a couple of questions and pushing one for yes, two for now or whatever.

I felt like it was a little bit like Pontius Pilate. And when, like, we're just going to read the room and decide if the savior should be killed or not wash my hands. Yes. Yeah. So I kind of felt like that with, so bringing out the pen in the veto stamp would be very much the same way.

Whichever side chooses cheers the loudest, then I'll do it. Well, I, I, you know, you I look at this, and I promise you, at this point, either thing he chooses to do, I mean, I say either thing, there's actually three options. Veto it, sign it. Nothing and nothing is signing it. Okay. It goes into law either way.

So that's why I'm saying there's two outcomes here. He can do three things but there's only two possible outcomes. Whatever he does it will be reluctantly. If he vetoes it he'll be like but those of you who really want parental choice, I hear you and I know you do. But if he signs it, it's going to be a message.

I know those of you who support traditional public education, I hear you, and I know, like there's none of this. I don't think he's going to do anything eagerly today. Right? Whatever he does, it's not going to be with eagerness. Yes. Yeah. So and there's going to be outrage whichever way he does, whichever way he turns. Yeah. It is a tough issue.

Absolutely. You are guaranteed to piss off half the people today. You bet. And that's that's just going to be the reality. Yeah. So yeah we'll see. We'll see. Have you refreshed your screen recently? About four minutes ago. But it's time again. Nope. Nothing new. It's been a whole four minutes. We should set a little reoccurring alarm for every five minutes.

Oh, it's time to check again. Check again? It's time to check again. I don't know if that's where they updated that quick. A day let three days lapsed before they told us they transmitted it to the governor. Well, we'll probably hear from our Facebook audience before they update the website. Probably. So yeah, that's that that is so true.

So, yeah. You know. Yeah. I yeah.

Big deep breaths, I know I should we dedicate the 9:00 hour to Kenny G. No, that's even irritating. Okay, Kenny g what? Irritate me today? Okay. What isn't going to irritate you? Let's what? What did you really, really, really enjoy? Of all the stories that I brought you last night, anything of everything. While I'm looking, the only thing.

I don't have a comprehensive list. Just the sound clips that you say. You know, here's a good story. We could talk about this. Apple announced their expanding $500 billion expansion in the US. Absolutely. Eli Lilly was on the CEO. Dave Ricks was on TV last night saying they are expanding their operations in the United States. Look, this approach by Trump is clearly working to bring manufacturing here, to bring jobs here.

And that to me, that's thrilling that I know the left hates it because it's good for America and whatever's good for America, the left seems to hate I love America, I love this country. I want people to have good jobs. I want abundance and I want prosperity, and I want freedom. And these stories make me super happy. I'm not happy that liberals are crying, but when liberals are crying, it's usually something that makes me happy.

Yeah. Does that make sense? Yes. You don't want them to cry, but the the purpose for their tears is usually something that makes you happy. Yes. Yeah. It's usually a good thing for America if the left is is losing it. I got to tell you, Rachel Maddow may be out of a job. I know those cuts that are happening with her staff.

Yeah, they're cutting her staff all over the place. If she doesn't have people to help her put on that show, that means there's no show. Exactly. The quality of the show goes down. And let me ask a question, because I think this kind of thing absolutely happens. They may not want to fire her because it would be too expensive the to pay to buy out a contract.

Contract. Yeah, but those workers don't have contracts. So do they make it more difficult for her to do the kind of show she wants? And she just ends up leaving? Yeah. She becomes so irritated or. Yeah. Disenfranchized sure. Yeah. And it makes it so she feels like she has a greener pastures somewhere else to go to maybe. And she might I like she's, she's been sort of the consistent star at MSNBC.

Oh if there was anyone who could carry a show like Tucker Carlson on, it would be Rachel Maddow. I don't like what she says. I don't care for her. But from a media standpoint, she does have a following, and I think she could repurpose that into some other venue. So, yeah. And maybe they just want that to happen.

I, I'm beginning to wonder if they're just going to shutter MSNBC. That might be the the solution and just take a loss on it. Yeah. Well another when you sell a media asset, I know this is how it works in radio. They look at your profit and then it's a multiple of that profit to set the price tag.

And I wonder if they're cutting, cutting cutting expenses but trying to keep their revenue fairly consistent so they can put it on up for sale and maximize the price. Does that make it a little bit better. Yes. Yeah. They're getting rid of Joy Reid. They're cutting. Yes. Production staff and support staff. So that they they can get the most for it on the selling block.

Mike I would not be surprised at all if that's what they're thinking is I could follow that. Yeah. That would check out one thing we haven't talked about and I haven't asked you along with the, the private jobs coming to America with Eli Lilly and Apple and many others. By the way, those are just the two newest.

Yeah. Trump also announced a change to a program that was already in existence. He wants to change it, with the way that it's vetted change with what's promised to the people and changed the amount of the cost. So what he's saying is for $5 million. Yeah. You can come to America and you get a fast pass to citizenship.

What do you think of that? I, I, I think it is an idea worth exploring. However, I think we need to, have lots of eyes on it. I don't want to bring cruddy people here that would come in and maybe, you know, because the people who have the money, they can open their wallet and just pay 5 million, plunk down 5 million so they can live here.

I'd be worried about organized crime type people or Russian corrupt Russian oligarchs, or I love the idea of paying off our debt with foreign money coming in. All in on that. I think the idea has some merit, but I don't think we ought to just go in with our eyes not open on this one. Yeah, he did sugarcoat this idea a little bit yesterday.

And I don't mean sugarcoat like it's all ugly underneath. He just presented the best possible option for it. And when asked about it yesterday, he said that what has happened is he's been contacted by large businesses saying, hey, I want to bring people in and I want them to become citizens fairly quickly. The best of the best doctors, the best of the best scientists, and we're willing to plunk down that 5 million for this to happen.

Trump even floated the the number that there was around 200,000 that he thinks could come within the first couple of years. Yeah. And then he he said he would dedicate that money towards paying down the national debt. Yeah. When I saw that 200,000 I was a little taken aback by that. He's known for exaggeration. I felt like 200,000 was pretty high.

But maybe it's really out there and we just don't know. Well, in the in the broader context of his comments, that was just the starting figure. He later said, if we bring in, a million, if we can sell a million of these golden cards, that's I think $5 trillion. And he said we could sell up to 10 million.

Of this literal national debt. I really believe we saw that Trump exaggeration going on there. I don't think there are 10 million people around the world who have $5 million for a company that's going to pay $5 million. Exactly. I just, yeah. I mean, you could do the math out to infinity here. Yes. And I just I don't see 10 million, an influx of 10 million people coming in or, you know, whatever the case may be.

And so, yeah, I just. And these, like, that's $50 trillion. I'm like, that's probably not going to happen. Yeah. Let's take his original figure of 200,000 and cut it in half. Let's say over the next three years, 100,000 people actually figure out how to do this kind of money. That's pretty phenomenal. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's a big deal.

Amazing. You know that even if it's half $1 trillion and it goes toward our our national debt, our debt and that combined with Doge combined with, I mean, we may actually get a handle on this on this debt problem in America. Yeah, yeah. So, so to go back to your original question, do you have concerns about it?

Not the viability of it, because I think we all have concerns about that. But just the basic idea, I don't because I think that to get $5 million, you're going to have to have some kind of a, a history behind you. We're not going to get the shadow of shadowy, shadowy figures that we can't figure out the connections behind.

No, I know, but what if we know they're scumbags and we're not supposed? He said he's going to have the limitations. Okay, so refined that he will not let them in. Okay, so if we know they're corrupt, they don't get to come. Yes. Then I'm fine with that. Yes. I didn't hear that part of it. The headline I saw was I guess some reporters said, what if they're Russian oligarchs?

And he was open. They reported that he was open to sell. Yeah. What I'm what I'm giving the information from. As I was listening to Morning Wire this morning. Yeah. And they did a like a four minute piece, five minute piece on it. And they talked about the boundaries that would be placed, that they would be highly vetted.

Yeah. And that's good because I have seen these concerns tossed around. Like, what if they're Chinese nationals that are communist sympathizers? I mean, if you come, I'll say this. If you have $5 million to spend on a gold card, you have a lot more money behind it that you're bringing here to do different things. Yeah. And I'd. Hey.

Yeah. So, yeah, you know, if they're safeguards against, rooting out the, the lousy people, I think it's, it's an idea worth worth. We also aren't very good at rooting out the lousy people. I know. That's the thing. I, I think Trump will be better, but. Yeah. Yeah, but I mean, we've had some serious issues with who we've allowed in the country for free.

Yeah, yeah, that's I think I just saw a headline, Julie and I don't know. Oh, it was Joni Ernst saying that some of the Ukraine money funded some junkets for like glamor models or something. Yeah. We've been told all this time, oh no, that money is tightly controlled and monitored and accountable. Yep. I don't think we have any idea where the money went.

No. And neither and not to toot our own horn, but toot toot, we've been saying for the last three years we don't know where the money is. Yeah, I appreciate that. Everyone else in the media is now going, do we know where the money is? We didn't know all along. No, people know. We we didn't. It's like, you know what it is.

Well, somebody told me they know where the money is. So you go to that somebody and they're like, yeah, somebody told me, yeah, there's an overseeing body. Yeah. But have they been overseeing it. Well I've been told they've been overseeing it. Yeah. And the overseeing who's the overseeing. But yeah like it's. Yeah. 833 A new Newstalk. 1079285421079.

We'll be back. It's 839 on Newstalk 1079285421079. We had a sort of an impromptu flash poll yesterday, Julie, about high school athletic transfers. Which boy, it got people's blood pressure up. We got emails after we got comments on Facebook after Mad People. Yeah. And they kind of lose their minds by the way. They kind of do. It's like, calm down a little bit.

Yeah. Just take a breath. Let's talk about the issue. But I'm, I'm thinking maybe we ought to do a predictive flash poll right now. What's the governor going to do? And you got three options sign, veto or ignore. Let it pass. Okay. I want to do that. I'm in okay. We're going to do that right now because we are we're on governor Watch right now.

We're on parental choice watch right now. So that is what we're doing right now. You can, text in (208) 542-1079 and, we'd love to, hear what you think is going to happen between now and three hours and six minutes from now. Could happen before. Does the governor sign? Does the governor veto, or does the governor do nothing sine veto or anything?

Okay, we've already got two signs and an ignored. Let's go to the phones caller. What do you say. What's the governor going to do with parental choice today. No. Caller go ahead say what you're going to say. My bad. If you, your connection point on talk radio, go ahead and talk. All right. We got to go to the next caller.

(208) 542-1279 veto sign or nothing. I think you'll sign it. I think I'll sign it. Okay. All right. It's kind of mixed. Julie, watching this, (285) 421-2799. Caller go ahead. Yes. And he will veto. You think he'll veto? Okay. All right. Thank you for the call. What what do you what a what is it look like?

I have multiple ignores that multiple do nothings. Okay. Someone said he foreshadowed with his comments he's going to veto it. Okay. Someone said he's a wishy washy governor, so a big, fat nothing. Nothing. Veto. Nothing. Ignore ignore ignore. There were a couple of signs earlier, but, yeah, we sign is currently losing. Yeah. All right.

We're asking you to predict the governor's actions on parental choice today. Will he sign it? Will he veto it? Will he just simply ignore it and allow it to become law? We're wondering what you're thinking today. (208) 542-1079 that is the Stones Automotive Group call and text line. So, oh my goodness. We have 20 votes. 22 for for ignore RIT sedan.

Yes. Okay, okay. Oh, we got someone saying he needs to veto it okay. All right. (208) 542-1079 if you'd like to call in, we love hearing your thoughts on it. Someone said, when will we understand our governor is a coward. He'll do nothing. Someone else wrote as usual. He'll do nothing of substance. Someone else. I don't think he'd wait this long to veto.

He's going to ignore it, you know, that's that's true. That I never thought about that. If you're going to veto it, you do it right off the bat. Get it over with. Yeah. You also wouldn't wait until the last day when people are standing on the steps of Capitol Hill. Yeah. And and do it in the firestorm. Yeah.

All right. Let's go back to the, phones here. What do you think the governor's going to do? Collar? I think he's going to. I think he's going to ignore it, but isn't ignoring it the same as vetoing? No, that's what I get. It goes into law if he ignored. Well, what I'm saying is he needs to make a decision one way or the other and not just say, I'm just going to ignore it.

That's what I see. Yeah. Need to be a leader. Oh, I got you, I got you, okay. All right. Thank you for the call. But what do you think he'll do? I think he'll ignore it. Okay. All right, all right. They're still rolling in. Julie. Yeah, we have five, ten, 15, 20, 20, 30 people saying he's going to ignore it.

It's hard to disagree with that. As we get closer to the appointed hour. It just seems like the obvious thing that will happen as we get closer. Yeah. Someone said why not sign it if ignoring does the same thing. Oh that's a very good question. And there's a very real answer to this. Yes. He is placating there.

There's a governor's race coming up next year. And if he signs it he's going to alienate the middle and the left. And if he ignores it he'll still lose some of those people but not nearly as much. And honestly if your only concern is political impact, if that's your only concern I would tell him ignore it. Ignore it.

Yeah. Just ignore it. Let it happen. Don't do anything I would agree just especially since he's waited so long. I think that's you're out at this point. Yes, I think so. Two (208) 542-1079 go ahead. Well, somebody asked, Did Otter veto the grocery tax or just not sign it? He actually vetoed it. So that's a way different topic.

But someone just said veto. He doesn't want to commit political suicide. Do you think that signing is going to commit political suicide? We we have complete disagreement on that. We we talked about this. He has to shore up his right base, the middle and the left. Who else are they going to vote for? Yeah, there's nobody viable that they can vote for.

He's not going to lose them. You might lose a little bit in the voter turnout, but you're still going to get a yeah because they don't have another choice. So I think yeah. Let's go to the phones. (208) 542-1079 Caller go ahead. I think he's going to ignore it. Okay. And my next question is, has he been seen, around the office at all today?

We don't know. We actually have Senator and northern Idaho up in Lane. Yeah. I don't I don't know. I, Neal suggested I send an email. I did, so we've sent an email to the office just to see, you know, can we get a response, see what they're saying? Yeah. A post, post check email per se, maybe.

Yeah, yeah. All right. Thank you for the call. Two. 085421079 we offered, up our airwaves for him to make the announcement of what he's going to do with. I don't think that's going to happen, but, hey, a man offered a man can dream. Yeah, right. 285421072 Julie we have offered so many politicians and I haven't done this for a while though if you're going to run for office legislature or higher, our show is offered up as your announcement platform.

Yeah. Might as well. It's a much larger audience than the 12 people you have in a hotel conference room with you. That is so true. And it happens live broadcast rather than you know, a media person coming up writing a story and putting it out on the internet a few hours later, and if it's from 8:00 to 9:00, it's in the Neil Larsen Show podcast.

And if it's from 9:00 to 10:00, it lives forever on Facebook Live. Yeah, that's true. You're right. You're there. Why wouldn't you do this? It's a win win. And I'll say I kind of would have the same approach as stump speeches. We never argue with people's stump speeches. It's just their chance to to shine without opposition. If you're a politician and you want to announce, a run for office, we're not going to press you.

Not in that environment. You're. It's truly an opportunity. So. Right. I'm sure they're all going to line up. Yeah. You keep dreaming. I know, (208) 542-1079. Governor needs to reply to the request. Five things he did last week. Doge joke there. Yeah. And, where are we at? Should we call it? Looks like sine and veto are real close to each other.

So when he came in, it was hard for me to tell, but I have them in equal, distance of each other. Ignore. Is it 39? Okay. So overwhelmingly overwhelming. They are. They don't think the governor's going to take a position? Nope. Okay. Punting should is it? You can call it that. Yeah. All right. We'll give it another minute or two here.

(208) 542-1079 is the Stones Automotive group call and text line. And, we're here for you. We're just awaiting, like everyone else, what the governor is going to do if the governor is going to do anything. Yeah, because he might not. Yeah, he may not. Okay. We said I I'm I'm sort of contradicting myself now do you make everybody a little mad if you do nothing?

I think there's going to be people mad no matter what. If you're looking at the gauge, you know, the the meter and how far does it go up? I think the, meter goes up very far on one side. If you sign it, it goes up very far on the other side if you veto it. And then if you don't do anything, it just kind of irritates everybody.

But not at a pegged point. Yes, I can have half rage and half elation or half elation and half rage or everybody's just a little disappointed. Good. Good point. All right, 2.5. What? What's the hardest thing to overcome? The rage on the right. Because the rage on the left. They don't have anyone to vote for. That's true.

They're they're held hostage by irrelevance. Yes. And so I think the hardest recovery is rage on the right. Yeah, I think you're right. All right. We're going to call it good. It's 850 on Newstalk 1079. Overwhelmingly, all of you said that the governor is just going to punt on this, that he won't do anything. And, we're going to we're going to find out if you're right where you have less than three hours to go.

By the way, you know what I'm going to do? I will break in with breaking news today when we find out what the governor's done. If we don't know by 10:00. Okay. All right. We'll be back after this. 854 On Newstalk 179. And coming up in the next hour, we will talk with a private school teacher who is at the Capitol with his class, anxiously waiting for whatever is going to happen between now and 1146 yeah, we will.

This is great. You can tell us how many people are there and everything. Did you, did you did you think there would be this much build, this much excitement and anticipation over this particular bill? Yes. Because I think that, it means that much to people. It has that kind of gravity, especially since it's come again and again and again over the last three legislative sessions.

I what I am surprised is I'm, I'm not able to calculate exactly why the governor wanted this much build up. Yeah. Which is why I think he's probably not going to sign it or veto it. Yeah, I think you're right. I don't think he likes it this much. I don't think so either. Yeah. You know, the more you people talk, the more I'm getting convinced he's probably going to do nothing.

I. Look, I could be totally wrong. We could be wrong. We were wrong a couple of years ago about something, but I. Yeah, someone said, Will we get the Epstein list today? We may get parts of it. That's what we're. Yeah, that's what bad Pam Bonnie saying. Yeah. Not the entire thing. Parts of it. I think that there's a reason to keep some of it back.

She claimed it was because there's so many victims involved. Over 200, I think it's also you want to keep some of those names and use them for political advantage. Yeah. I'm not surprised by that. We should also remind everyone who maybe has just tuned in. Legendary actor Gene Hackman died at the age of 95. Yesterday. He was inside his home with his wife, Betsy, and their dog, which by pictures I'm thinking is a German shepherd.

That's my guess. It's a German Shepherd type dog. His daughter has come out and and told people she believes they all three died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Okay. So sad. I was telling Julie over the break I thought back about all the Gene Hackman movies. A lot of great, lot of great Gene Hackman movies. Hoosiers is my favorite.

Yeah. Out of all the ones that I could remember. But I probably need to watch Hoosiers again. Yeah. I've never watched Hoosiers and got done saying, well, I never get that two hours back. Like, I've always been like, I love that movie. Yeah, yeah, it's a good one. I liked it, I really liked the movie The Firm. So I liked him in that.

Yeah. Yeah. There's lots of good movies. Yeah. Over. What did I tell you earlier? Over 80 films? Yeah. 82 or something? Yeah. He had roles in over 80 films. I was surprised I saw his age a few months ago. Like they said, he was 94 or something, and, I was shocked at that. He's that old.

I didn't realize he was getting up there. There is a picture circulating of him and Betsy and he, he does look 95. He does. Okay. Yes. He's got a cane. He does look very old. Yeah. Yeah it's good. All right. 208542100 we got a text from a lawmaker and I thought, oh we're going to find out. And yeah, she just said she loves the movie too, which is Barbie hard actually she should do Barb.

Yeah. If you love basketball you'll love that movie for sure. Yeah. All right. 858 on Newstalk 1079. We're going to take a break and we hope to get our, private school teacher arriving at the Capitol with his class today. Will that be anti-climatic for them? If they get there and there's no ceremony, there's just 1146 hits and the bill becomes law.

If if that's all it is, that's what they wanted. So, you know, that's true. Less exciting, but not anticlimactic. Yeah. All right. We'll be back minutes away after the news on Newstalk 1079.

Welcome back. It's our 2907 our Time on Newstalk 179, Neil Larson, along with Julie Mason and we're now waiting. Next 2.5 hours, we'll find out what's going to happen with parental choice and education in Idaho. And joining us right now is Jason Richardson. He is with the Desert Study Abroad Academy in Amman. And it just so happened that he and his students were going to Boise today.

They didn't go there special for this, but it happened on a pretty fortuitous day. And, he's agreed to join us for a few minutes this morning. Jason, welcome. It's good to have you on the program. Hey. Thank you, I appreciate it. So you've been watching this debate, obviously, with your involvement in private schooling and I guess, tell us what obviously, you're you're there on a really interesting day, and I'm guessing you are hoping for either a signature or the governor to do nothing.

Yeah, we'd prefer a signature. Obviously. I think we support that. He's given to educational choice overall has you know, he's indicated that he's he's for a choice for people. But, yeah, funding is is a new step. Okay. Are you hearing anything while you're there? Obviously, it's big day at the Capitol. Are there any rumors or any any, you know, any whispers that you're hearing?

You know, we met with the sponsor yesterday, and, and she had been told by some reporters that, oh, that it was imminent, you know, like it was going to happen. Something was going to happen yesterday. And she mentioned that the governor had not spoken to her, so she still hadn't heard. So right now it's just rumors and, little whispers, but nothing really has been, definitive.

I just got a message from Representative Barbot asking me to ask you who is your favorite lawmaker when you visit?

You know, it's funny that she should be the one that asked that house. You know? Jason, if this law does pass, whether by lack of signature or by an actual signature from the governor, how do you think it would benefit the private school that you oversee? What what could be some changes that would come to the curriculum and to the education options for your students?

You know, quite frankly, I'm not sure that it will directly benefit us. It's, just the way that you've got to apply and get a tax credit back. I, I'm not sure how it will benefit. What I do know is that as we move toward these, mechanisms that allow parents to make decisions for their own children, it's going to open up and allow new ways to approach education.

And I think overall, just having that as part of our climate will help us. Go ahead. So. Oh, no, I was just going to do a quick follow up. Yeah. Obviously, you're a proponent of private education because of of what you're doing. I should mention you, you were the the mayor of Rigby, is that right? A while back, I was okay.

Yep. Gotcha. And, so this is, you've been doing this for, what, 2 or 3 years now? Off and on. So I, I was at a private school for, oh, about 13 years. I've worked at public schools, too. I love working at Rigby Middle School. I was a math teacher there on a couple different occasions between private contracts.

Okay. I just enjoy it. So you've operated in both realms. You've been in public school. You've been in private school. And when you look at this particular school choice legislation, Julie and I have been very proactive in saying this doesn't ruin anything. This is no threat. It's a $50 million cap. And K through 12, their budget is $2.8 billion.

It's a teeny drop compared to what we spend on public education. What do you make of the the dire predictions about how this is a threat? And and it's it's it poses something nefarious to pay K-12. I think from what I remember, we pay somewhere around 70% of the state budget goes to education in one form or another.

And it's it is a super important. Everybody here in Boise is interested in education. And I just don't think that this is something that is going to destroy, public ed, I, I remember years ago when New Zealand, had quite a stir in their education. They funded private schools and everybody stepped up in public schools. Rose like crazy.

Of course, private school had the opportunity to rise, and the scores and abilities of the students just exploded. The we we believe in competition overall. And it's not some kind of aggressive competition. It's it's something that we all have to then look at. Okay, what am I doing that can be improved? What are what are the, schools doing over there that I can borrow from and improve mine?

And I think private or public school will do the same thing. Likewise. It's interesting if I can, there's a bill that we sat through the other day. So we're over here for the whole week. The kids, yeah, are in committee meeting right now, but, they sat through a committee meeting where, Senator Ward Engle King was talking about being able to remove some of the restrictions and the, the paperwork that is so onerous on public schools.

And it comes from school choice bills like this that help senators and legislators realize there's some onerous work that we put on under the education system that we can streamline. And that's where I think allowing more options will improve public school. Also, I like what you said a couple of minutes ago about it's not aggressive competition because in in sports you're trying to defeat who you're competing against.

But in this I, I don't believe that private education and helping private education is actually trying to defeat public education. You're just another option for parents. And and so there's no effort for a conquest here. It's just widening and broadening the menu of options that parents have for their kids. Absolutely. Yeah. This and it's the freedom to move back and forth.

We've had our kids in public school, private school, homeschool, charter school and this opens up for different times in kids lives when a parent can decide, okay, this particular vehicle will be better for my my child. Yeah. All right. Well, Julie, anything else? Now, I think this is great. I hope that those kids are learning a lot about the legislative session in that week, that they're over there.

Thank you for doing that with them. Yeah, absolutely. And I should mention also that there is only one member of the house that, sings every time she sits down with my students. And, so I won't mention that it's Barbara Earhart. Okay. She, she runs a pretty good risk when she's with those kids. Okay? I've never heard Barb sing.

I've never heard Barb sing, either. So this is going to be on tap for the next interview? Yeah, absolutely. You should anyway. And we have studio for covers today, so you'll have to do double duty. All right, Jason Richardson, thank you. Appreciate you checking in today. All right. Take care. All right. Okay. Interesting. There we go. How lucky is that to be over there during during this day?

Yeah. It was great timing for them. So appropriate for what he's doing there, man. I just think this is amazing. Wouldn't you have loved to have gone over to the Capitol for a week when you were 16 years old? Yeah, that would have been fascinating. Yeah, I remember I don't know if this was a statewide thing or if this was an Aberdeen Middle School thing, but in eighth grade we would always take one day, would leave at like five in the morning, and we'd go and spend a few hours at the Capitol and you could go in the gallery and go to a committee room and meet with a lawmaker to, and with,

you know, listen to our boomboxes on the way there and back.

Not your Walkmans. We we did. We did as best eighth graders can, made it a party bus atmosphere. Okay. Going to and from. Love it. Why does that memory stick out? I don't know, it's pretty wild, but, yeah, you can probably name songs that were on that boombox. Oh, yes, I can. Yeah, that was. Yeah, it was fun.

It wasn't too crazy, but it it was pretty fun. Yeah. All right. 917 208542107I Julie, here's the thing. There's been this build up to 11:46 a.m. on a Thursday. And it's getting more and more likely that absolutely nothing's going to happen. Nothing. Yeah, that's my guess. Let me check my email. Do you think they've emailed us back? I don't know I'm going to say no.

Probably not. No not not okay. Well our deadline's coming up at 10 a.m.. Yeah. All right, quick break. We'll come back and continue after this. On Newstalk 1079. Okay. Pam on Facebook is sickening. Jason saying that Barb has a beautiful voice and that we really should have her saying I had no idea. I had no idea either. And I mean no disrespect.

I never would have guessed that. Yeah, well, you just don't. You don't equate singing with athleticism all the time. That's my thing. You know, she's an amazing athlete. So that's where you go with her attributes. You don't think singing right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Barb, if you're still listening then send us an audition because. Yeah, yeah. Oh. Somebody sent us a text saying the planets are going to align.

Yes. For the last time this decade, tomorrow. Okay. Who knew you? I knew nerd, nerd. Aerospace nerd. Neil knew. Yeah. I need to get the what? The best time to view it would be. You just did something that I do all of the time. What the. You actually have to pause your whole entire body, think and then carry forward with two things at once.

Yeah. Right. Yep. Yeah. You have to take that. Just the whole physical pause to go. What was I trying to do. That's it. Yeah. And then you go forward. Yeah. Julius, who does this thing while she's typing? She does this thing with her mouth, like, yeah, I move my mouth. I couldn't feed my kids without me also opening my mouth.

So as I was put as I would put a spoon in my mouth would open up. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Can you do it without opening your mouth, though? Like, because you know, what's funny is I don't wear mascara. Because of my lashes, but. Yeah, when I was young, I could put mascara on without opening your mouth.

You know how women go like this. Get. Yeah. I don't open my mouth to put on mascara. Okay, but any time I feed, I was feeding Asher. He was playing, but I needed him to eat something, so I had mixed some cottage cheese in with some yogurt, and I was feeding him that, while I was down there.

I will still do it. Even now. I still do it. I wonder if JD Vance opens his mouth when he puts on his mascara. It's a joke, people. Calm down.

Okay. Stargazers will be treated to a dazzling six and seven planet alert or. Okay. Hold on. Six planets in the first part of February. And on February 28th, they'll be joined by Mercury. Not all of them will be visible to the naked eye. You'll need high powered binoculars or a telescope to see Neptune and Uranus. Saturn may be difficult to see since it will be near the sun.

Here we go. We have returned for another segment here. If you'd like to join us. The Stones Automotive Group calling text line is (208) 542-1079. We had a very astute listener who saw the need for me to talk about something a little lighter. And for fellow astronomy nerds out there, you may want to look at the planets tonight.

I think it's going to be clear based on the, the forecast. But we're going to see seven planets tonight as well. Possibly, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, the job, Neptune, Venus and Saturn and on February 28th that is tomorrow. So I don't think it's tonight. It's actually tomorrow they'll be joined by Mercury. Not all of them will be visible to the naked eye.

If you want to see Neptune and Uranus, you'll need binoculars or a telescope. Okay. And Saturn may be hard to see because it's going to be pretty close to the sun. What is cloud cover like tonight? Like I said, I think it's going to be clear tonight. It's going to be clear tonight and tomorrow. I mean, just look really quick here.

Yeah. We're looking at clear skies until, like, Monday. So it's it viewing conditions are probably going to be pretty pretty good okay. So and yet there is an app that I have on my phone. And this app is really cool. And there are others like this. All right. But the app that I have is called Star Tracker and you can install Star Tracker.

There's probably an iPhone version. Obviously there's an Android version anyway. You put it on, you hold the phone up to the sky and it will tell you what it's pointed at. Okay, so when you move your phone it changes. So oh, that bright orange dot, that's Mars or got it. Yeah, I could have made a Uranus joke there, but I didn't.

I'm glad you didn't. Yeah. Anyway, so that's something to look at. Okay, if if, like me, you're kind of sick of this planet, you can focus your stream about some others. You just need to take a break from Earth for a minute. You bet. The next couple of nights would be a good opportunity to do that. So just say I did see.

I can't remember if it's Uranus or Neptune with binoculars, probably 4 or 5 years ago. It because the orbits, mean that the planets constantly are changing how far apart they are as they go around the sun. And it was a point in time where Earth was closest to. I think it was Neptune. Which one is which one is farther away?

Neptune. It was Neptune because I thought I because I was in I was in young astronaut scrolling, I was not. You were nodding. Yes, young astronauts, but it's so, you know, you do things like this. You get to look at the planets. And I grew up with the telescope, and I was astounded when I first saw the rings of Saturn.

Like, it was amazing. But I had never seen Neptune until, like I said a few years ago, and with binoculars you could see it was very faint but you could see it. They thought, wow, I saw Neptune. Wow. Are you mocking me? Not at all, not at all. Yes, you are, Julie, give me the moment without mockery.

Oh, that was like a four minute moment. Yeah, I know that's. You gave me four minutes. Generosity. Let's see. Yeah. Okay. We can get back to politics. Someone said good morning. Listening late to you last two mornings. I know you had Barbara on the program yesterday. She briefly mentioned the bill she sponsored in the House regarding child care and Idaho.

Are both of you aware of the impact in to our community, especially families and children that are addressed in this bill? It's a very troubling and serious issue that if you haven't covered, needs to be covered as soon as possible. Well, we had her on. So yeah, yeah. And she promised she would come back and talk about those.

Yeah. They were just at the beginning stages. I think one of them, she said, had gone through committee and was going to be presented on the House floor. The other one was going to committee. If I'm remembering the interview right. Yeah, I'm trying to pull that from memory. So we're still early stages and will absolutely have Barb back on to chat about that.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. As it progresses. Yeah. Should we have another mailbag moment here? Sure. Someone says whenever I'm in a a lousy mood, I'll say it like that. I always pull up my favorite pictures of my kids and grandkids, and it puts perspective back where it should be. I'm a dude, and I don't care what people think.

Well, nobody's asking for your man card. You know, like, you can look at your grandkids all you want. That's my phone screen right now is my six grandkids. Yeah, it is. It's kind of cool. Yeah, yeah. We listen and we don't judge at Newstalk 1079 okay. What do you think of all these. We listen and we don't judge videos.

I think it's hilarious that something can can trend like that. We are so gullible as a nation world because it's TikTok. But yeah. Yeah, true. It's true. Someone sent us a link. Have you seen Stephanie Mickelson's post on Facebook justifying her vote against school choice? So frustrating. Yes, I did read that. We actually quoted from that earlier this morning.

One part says zero accountability. One part says minimal accountability. Yeah. When in reality there is some accountability. One part says a vague terms that it's taking from the school budget, which is just not accurate. Yeah. This is a tax credit that's not touching the school budget. But that's a talking point that's been pushed. And it's claimed in her post.

Yeah, I'm sure that she would talk around that and say, well, actually it does take from the school's budgets because money is determined by butts and seats, and if there's not as many kids attending school, then the amount of money provided to them goes down. So it is taking away from the budget. I'm sure that's how she talk around that.

I don't like the phraseology, even if you can talk around it. Well, I, I don't either. And during our interview with Doctor Jeffrey Thomas earlier this week, he basically said as much. Oh, he claims he at least owned up to it. Thank you for owning up to it. I guess if we want to talk candidly and just speak the truth here, that's what this is about, is the butts in the seats, because that's what translates into funding for the schools.

Let's acknowledge it. It's not the system's built. You're not it is it. Why do we have to hide that. Why is that the big don't don't turn moment. It's how the system's built I guess my follow up is what if the butt doesn't want to be in that seat. You're deliberately making it more difficult for the butt to not be in that seat.

But the butt could be in a different seat. Still learning. And you want to deprive that kid from learning in a different environment because you want his butt in your seat so you can get the money. Yeah. What does that say about you? That's a great question. And it and there's an interpretation out there with this bill that well if there but doesn't want to be in the seat then they're just a spoiled little brat who wants that.

Might not even be it at all. Maybe having their butt in the seat is causing a physical threat to them because they're surrounded by bullies. That's a good point. Maybe having the butt in the seat is there actually isn't a seat for the rear end, because the class at can't fit 32 desks, but that's how jam packed the school currently is.

Yeah, there's lots of reasons that private education or homeschool is chosen by parents. The implication by those who are against this bill is that it. It's just because these kids are snotty and they think they're better than everybody else. That is a very unfair representation. Absolutely it is. Which actually what they don't understand, it actually reinforces why they want to get out of that in the first place.

Yeah. Because you you only see those kids as a moneymaking opportunity. Yeah. As a as a financial resource for your school. Okay. We we got to stop looking at kids like that and, and start looking at it saying, how do we maximize learning for all kids? And the truth is, traditional public schools and charter schools may not be the best fit for some kids or homeschool or homeschool.

So and you know what? This isn't going away. I think they feel like if they can get a veto out of the governor today, obviously they're going to be thrilled. Guess what? There may still be time to craft something this legislative session. And if we don't, yeah, come back even stronger next year. So it's not going away. And I think Dave realized that finally, I think the governor realized that finally and there and leadership realizes even though they don't really like it, because when you when you anger the K through 12 IEA, that whole crowd, it just makes life hard for you.

And and they have spent money to support you. Now there's a reason you have been hearing ads from the Idaho Education Association featuring Governor Brad Little on there. You listen to the ad and it's the governor talking about a teacher that he had growing up that helped him and the fondness he has for teachers. It's a very benign ad like it.

There's nothing controversial in the ad, but what the IEA wants the governor to understand in the lead up to whether or not he's going to veto or sign, is that we're spending money making you look good, governor. Wink, wink. Right. I, I would completely look they, they operate this way. This is. My favorite is when the teachers union is represented as the only single thing they do is take care of their employees that pay union dues.

That is not what they're doing. They're propping up the industry which allows the teachers at the other employees to have jobs. Yeah. That's the actual mission of the teachers union. Yeah. It's an industry for them. Teaching kids is the product. But yes they don't care about that. The kids are secondary in the in the whole concept. Yeah.

All right. 933 you know what is amazing to me about that? We say this over and over and over again. Unions don't really care about the kids. Nobody pushes back on them. No, I think they fully acknowledge that they're not there for the kids. They are absolutely there for the teachers. Yep. Yeah. All right. 934 Newstalk 179 Neil Larson, Julie Mason and you will be back.

You can reach us on the Stone's automotive Group. Collin Text Line (208) 542-1079. By the way, if y'all missed it tomorrow, during the 8:00 hour, we will announce our Bongino replacement plan. I'm excited. I am really excited. Yes, I am. I'm super excited. Neil did his his due diligence on this. He really checked. This was the first idea.

Yeah, but you conducted an investigation. I didn't talk to people. You. You pushed for different options you like. You really did your work. And the first one just is going to be the best one. It it literally was. I boil it down to the four plausible scenarios of what we could do. Weighed the pros and cons, and then finally decided.

So yeah, I'm excited. It's going to be great. Yeah, yeah, I think I think the audience is going to be excited about what we're going to announce. You know what? I'm sort of waiting for? I mean, obviously rush was on the air for 30 plus years. There's so much audio out there you could use AI to recreate Rush's voice.

Yeah. And if you got, conservative, that could mimic his cadence and then rap their own voice in Rush's voice, that would be a weird sell. Weird, a weird experience. So weird. Okay. My daughter did this with her podcast just yesterday. So they have multiple podcasts. One of the episodes that they record twice a month is for Patreon only.

So their subscribers get this extra episode halfway through. Okay. I should explain when recording a podcast that also includes video. You record video and you record audio, and then you lay the two over to the top of each other and you match them up. The audio portion of her Patreon podcast became corrupted about halfway through. Still had the video, but the audio was ruined.

They used the first portion, they used her I her voice and had I use it and fill in the back half. Really? Yeah. I don't know how it's going to look on video. I have no idea. It'll be really interesting to see. But Yeah, that's how they did it. That's cool. It's crazy. I am past too. I mean, that's not the first time you you have a podcast for that long.

You're going to have a couple of instances where something gets corrupted. And, they just had to rerecord in previous times. Yeah. But yeah, they used I this time. Yeah. Maybe that's what you're feeling. Maybe that's your sadness. You're missing rush. There are days I do miss rush. Like I love all that. Yeah. Even hosts that we don't have on this show, even hosts you're competing against, you feel a kinship with them because you're all in the overall cause.

Part of the same thing. But we miss our captain. Yeah. And I think that it's. Yeah, it was his death anniversary just that last week. Yeah. Last week, four years ago. Last week. Yeah. So maybe that's what it is was the departure of of it really marked the end of something. And it was it was fascinating because, premiere that's the company that syndicated rush they put forward a rush replacement.

Bongino emerged at that exact time and was pitched as, oh, this is this is the era parent to Rush Limbaugh. Nobody gets to be the heir apparent to rush. I understand making that pitch is probably not a bad idea, but anybody who truly, truly was a Rush Limbaugh fan, there won't ever be any rush. Yeah, and this isn't just selective to that industry.

Yeah. Is late night TV ever met up to David Letterman and Johnny Carson? I don't think so. Jay Leno might be able to be included in that conversation. Maybe he's on the line, but yeah. Hey, like, when you're that good, you're that good. You are that good. When you're Michael Jordan, you're Michael Jordan. I don't I don't think it's a a great approach to try to mimic it either.

And to become the next. Let's talk about this. This is a good conversation. It's 939 on Newstalk 179. And and Julie and I are on Facebook live. So we talked to our Facebook audience quite often during commercial breaks. And sorry, I got the hiccups. We were talking about how just last week was the fourth anniversary of Rush Limbaugh's passing, and, you had different there were multiple radio shows that came forward pitching themselves as well.

We're going to fill Rush Limbaugh. The vacuum created by rush is going to be filled by me. Everybody knows that's not a vacuum. You fill up it. It got filled collectively in a way. But I don't know if I fully got filled. Yeah. It's like you have one of a kinds that will never be replicated. Johnny Carson, David Letterman, probably maybe Carson more than Letterman, but.

And maybe that's just because I don't like David Letterman now. Yeah, he's a liberal, but, you'll you're never going to replace Carson. You're never going to replace Ronald Reagan. I don't Trump is authentic. Reagan was authentic. There's just similarities between the two. One is not a replacement for the other. Yes right there. Yeah. There's some crossover there.

And in some ways I think Trump's going to exceed Reagan. Things we loved about Reagan that Trump may exceed and probably vice versa. But Rush Limbaugh was, Julie is trying to diagnose why I'm in a bit of a funk. And just like the last couple of days, I've just felt like I'm out of gas. Like I just am I.

Nothing's wrong and I'm not. It's not dark. I'm not depressed. It's just I'm tired. It's like I've hit a wall and. And so she's like, maybe subconsciously it could be that, you know, the the anniversary of Rush's passing because he, he was such a fixture on the political landscape. Yeah. I will say, when I started working with you that I had never met anyone, that I could visibly see the love for rush.

And yeah, you loved him. I did love him. And a lot of people loved him. I was incredibly proud. When I look at my history of hosting radio shows for a lot of those years, not all, but for a lot of those years, I got to be Rush Limbaugh's local lead in. And I felt that duty to, at least for our local market and for this region to to bring an audience to rush, which sounds sort of absurd because rush created his own audience.

But I took a lot of hopefully righteous and understandable pride in being able to fill that role, to, to lead into Rush Limbaugh. Like it. And I mean, he he'll there won't ever be another rush. There just won't be. We won't we won't we'll we'll have a host that maybe in 20 or 30 years might, might rival him in popularity, but they'll never rival him in style and in approach.

And the, the, the very unique way he impacted American politics. Yeah. I'm glad we talked about this, because there was big stuff going on last week. On his four year death anniversary. Yeah, and we barely even mentioned him just because it was. Yeah, it was so full. And, he should be remembered. There are times when I don't do this a lot, but when big things are happening, how much would Rush Limbaugh love to be covering the news cycle today?

What would he be saying over the last five weeks of Donald Trump? Yeah, I did see one. I can't remember who it was that said it, but we may not have Donald Trump if it weren't for Rush Limbaugh, because rush was an early supporter of of Trump and I, I, I was not with rush on that for a while, but he he was cautious because he knew it may not be Trump.

So he didn't want to burn bridges with the others. But he was not reflexively anti-Trump like I was. And like a lot of conservatives were. And I think he, like a handful of other people were able to do, they saw over the horizon of how Donald Trump could be valuable to Republicans, to conservatives and to American politics. And so I think when it got down to Trump versus Hillary in 2016, I think absolutely rush may have been the the difference maker.

Yeah. So, yeah. All right. 944 (208) 542-1079 we did not plan this. Rush, remembrance here today, but, very, very worthwhile. And he's missed a lot, I think a lot of by even years after his death, I still hear people saying, what would rush think or rush would say this or, you know, like there's still references to him, which means he truly left a lasting impact.

Because usually when famous people die, we honor them as we should for a week or two and then everybody just moves on. So I, I like the word that somebody sent in and called him a trailblazer. I was when you were talking I was going to reference him as a pioneer. But pioneer indicates that there potentially was a different leader who told the person to do it.

And then they went and did it. Yeah, it wasn't rush. Yeah. Rush was the one with the idea. Rush was the one who said, this is how we're going to move forward. Rush was the one who said the unpopular opinions. And so you could call him a pioneer. But I don't think that's enough. Yeah, there's more to it than that.

Yes. I you're right. There is someone just said, And were you referencing this text? Yes. He created, an audience that all of us that are in conservative talk radio are now sharing. Yeah. Like it. I remember back, you might argue. Oh, well, I remember back in the mid 80s, before rush came along, Am radio was like Jim Bohannan and Larry King.

You know, it was talk radio, but but it was and it was interesting, but I don't know how compelling it was from a loyalty standpoint. Point rush just brought something incredibly new and novel. And he single handedly and everyone who is in radio, this is a consensus thought that Rush Limbaugh single handedly saved Am radio for about probably 20 years.

He which allowed digital to catch up. Yes. Digital caught up. It these am stations with rush on them and talk radio. The medium became so vibrant that FM stations and owners said let's put him on air FM. That happened probably about 20 years ago, that shift. And I think that started to be the beginning of the end again for Am radio, because rush was so dominant that it it made its way into the FM band.

And of course, now we have digital distribution all over. So we're kind of past that chapter, a little bit, but, it would have been unheard of, Julie, for back in the 1990s and maybe into the early 2000, to have this show or other talk shows on an FM station. Yeah, they were just on and and everybody knew it.

It's a talk station. It's on. And well, they went there to get it. Yeah. It's like going to dairy Queen to get ice cream. Like that's where you went to get talk radio. Yes. Yeah. And now I think we're seeing that truly phase out. So I don't I don't see an Am band savior on the horizon anyway. So all right.

948 (208) 542-1079 and quick break, we'll come back our final long segment just ahead, and we'd love to hear from you. (208) 542-1279 okay. Oh. Glade typed out his phone number two and 22822882. That's cool. Yeah. Someone said, go fishing. Neil, I know I saw that. Where do you fish on February 27th in Idaho. Where you could.

I think the rivers are open. Okay. This is really marginal ice fishing because we've had 40 plus degree days lately, so I don't I don't think I'd step on any ice right now, but I'm not much. I don't like ice fishing. Anyway. I've done it a few times. It's not my thing. I'm going to try to go walking today.

We'll see. I have clients, so we'll see. Yeah, but any email back from the governor? Let's double check. No. No pick, no. Okay. Help me. You're better at this than I am, Julie. Because I see a connection. I don't know quite what it is. Yesterday, the 26th, the governor issued a press release touting the success of the lunch program.

Why would he do that this week? Did anything new happen? What's in the press release? Is he literally just rehashing what he thinks is successful? Well, he's declaring March to be launching Idaho's Workforce Month. But but I feel like because the launch program in principle is so similar to parental choice, it is parental choice. It's using government money to educate your kids.

Yep. So, can I just extend that based upon a text that is there? And then I'll answer your question. Isn't Boise State using government money to educate kids is an issue? Is it? We're acting like this is such a foreign concept. It's happening all over the place. Of course it's happening. This is what I don't get.

You spend government money, a kid gets educated. Why is it so important that that has to be routed through a government owned and run school? I don't know. I we gotta go back on. 952, it's Neil Larson and Julie Mason. You look puzzled over there. Jill. I'm just you mentioned to me on the break that it was just yesterday that Governor Little's office released, a press statement, touting the success of the lunch program.

And it should we be looking at the timing? And I didn't initially answer you because I really wanted to, like, you know, walk it through in my head, you know, figure it out. My, after knowing about that press release for a minute and a half, my gut reaction is he is trying to soften the idea that, guess what?

You didn't get what you wanted with my veto stamp. But I've given lots. See? And that's why I asked you the question. I thought he did this February 26th, touting the launch program for March. And so I feel like there's some optics and a connection to whatever's going to happen between now and 1146 this morning. Yes. And and I would I that you just stated in words what was on my mind that, you know what I we're going to let school choice happen.

But keep in mind we have the lunch program that this is, this is a bonus which is so weird. Julie, to me, if you read Representative Mickelson's piece that she's put on her Facebook, she talked about the, quote unquote runaway costs in Arizona. It's gone from like 250 million to 1 billion, something like that. Arizona's population is higher.

Whatever. We can't compare the dollars. But, in that context, she calls it runaway costs. But and I pointed this out before its launch runs out of money and they want more allocated for it. They call that success because there was so much demand and it was being utilized. You can't have it both ways. Okay. I'm sorry if and I, I guarantee you $50 million for K through 12 school choice will get used and quite quickly.

And the people who don't like it are going to call it a disaster. They're going to call it runaway spending. And and lawmakers will come back and they will say that, oh, look, it's it's, we knew it was going to be more expensive. Well, yeah, but they already said we can lift this cap. It means parents want choice.

It means they want an alternative to that. And you're trying to keep them from having it. I am also a little burned out on them only using Arizona as their benchmark of oh, do you see how much money we're going to end up spending. There are dozens of states that have parental choice where, where that money follows the child in multiple variations.

Why is it you're always running to Arizona? Is there not another successful state that you can't reference that, that they've kept the program costs in in within boundaries like the Arizona has become their poster child for this is gonna be horrible. Well, Arizona is not the only place that this has happened. Yeah. And I'm tired of the overuse of that, because that means you haven't done your due diligence and expanded your your study of these programs, or you are only using it because it furthers your agenda.

Those are the two options there. Yeah. Because if you had done your due diligence and studied further states and further options and everything, you could quote multiple multiple states where the spending has gotten out of control, but the only one they ever mentioned is Arizona. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree, I agree. And, and there are lots of examples where this is happening very successfully.

I would even say is it unsuccessful in Arizona if the only thing you're citing is costs? What about outcomes? Our kids getting better educated. Yeah. Like our test scores go up. Yeah. Like what? And and don't just take that one cherry picked expenditure. Let's look holistically. What is the overall cost of education in Arizona for all of it.

And is that getting out of control. Yeah. You it when would this whole thing started? Forever ago. I said why are you guys trying to recreate the will? There's dozens of states that currently have some sort of parent choice going on. Find a state that matches Idaho. You'll have multiple to choose from. Yeah. Then take the best parts of each of those programs and build a bill.

Here in Idaho, this was not hard to do. Yeah. And and those who are I think Wendy Horman did that. She did. Yeah. And those who are opposing it want to look at at metrics that obviously are working in other states. But it didn't work here. So big bad boogeyman. No. You're just all that's all you're doing is trying to find a boogeyman.

Well, they're they're finding their centers of loyalty and they're pleasing those centers of loyalty. Did they stop to ask the question, will this actually make education better for kids in Idaho? Yeah. Do your due diligence and ask that question and put your political loyalties aside, and maybe you'll come up with the answer. No, it won't, but don't have the answer before you ask the questions.

All right. Well, that's going to do it for the show today. Thank you all for joining us. I have time for a refresh. Should I refresh it one more time? Let's check one more time before last time. Okay, still no update. However, we are watching the news cycle very closely. If there's a signature or a veto at least I will break in.

If Julie's not here, if he's just going to let it go and then we'll know what happened. So either way, we'll let you know here on Newstalk 1079. See you tomorrow.