2.28.2025 -- NLS -- Wendy Horman on Parental Choice & Clay Travis Joins the Lineup

 On this episode with Neal and Julie, they discuss Idaho's new parental choice in education bill with Representative Wendy Horman, addressing concerns about its impact on public schools. They highlight differing perspectives, from fears of a major shift in education to expectations of minimal change. Neal and Julie also dive into the evolving landscape of talk radio, announcing the addition of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show to the station’s lineup. They reflect on how different hosts bring unique styles, from breaking news coverage to humor-infused commentary, and reassure listeners about the continuity of other beloved programs. 

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Transcript

Now exclusive bonus content on The Neil Larson Show podcast.

On this Friday, with the great opportunity to talk who with Idaho Representative Wendy Harman, of course she was the lead sponsor on a bill for Parental choice in education in Idaho. And of course, she was elated when Governor Brad Little signed House Bill 93 yesterday. We had a chance to talk with her earlier this morning, and that is today's bonus content.

Here's the interview. Thank you, Neal and Julie, it's great to be with you. It was a huge day. It was the culmination of so many years of work for Rick, really fighting to get support for all children, no matter where they're learning. And it just it was an incredible day. You know, it really has been a year journey.

And we've seen this version in the form of, you know, what some people call vouchers. And then there was the health or the education savings account. Ultimately what won out was your bill, the the tax credit. And, I've been I mean, we were right at the tail end of our show yesterday when we saw the report that the governor had signed the bill.

We even did a flagpole for our audience, for them to predict what they thought was going to happen. There was that much of an anticipation and build to it. And a lot of us just thought, well, he's just going to not do anything and let the bill become law without a signature. Were you starting to form any opinions on what the governor's actions would be?

As the the 11:46 a.m. moment was was getting closer? You know, the longer it went, the more nervous I got, that he would let it go into law without his signature. I believed he would sign it. Or at least let it go into law. So when, I received the notice, I was sitting downstairs in house education, working on a bill, that came from speech and debate.

Teachers and a citizen, to try and preserve speech and debate in the graduation requirements. And that's when I got the call, and it was just minutes before he signed it, apparently, or at least before they released it publicly. And so it was, you know, it was just a great moment. I actually said in committee, as they were beginning committee debate, I, I gave my closing, statement and then I said, I have another urgent matter I need to attend to.

And I had to get upstairs to, you know, celebrate with, Senator Dan Hartog and others and, and do a lot of media interviews as well. That's great. All right. So I obviously the people who were against this bill are not so happy today. We did interview, an administrator from a private school yesterday. It was an impromptu interview.

He just happened to be over, at Boise with some of his students. And I felt like he had such a great, measured response, which was, this is not going to be earth shattering to the education system. It'll be a small tremor to a group of people who have been searching for a result. Would you agree with that?

How would you place what what fall or next year when people can apply for this will look like? That is an excellent summary. I 100% agree with him. This. This is not an earthquake. It from the perspective of supporters, there is some hysteria on the other side about, you know, this could be the end of public schools, possibly Western's civilization.

And, the, the evidence from other states just does not bear that level of response out. If you look at Florida, if you look at Arizona, if you look at West Virginia, if you look at any state that has a more robust school choice, environment than we do, guess what? All the school districts are still there. All the rural schools are still there.

And so we anticipate, you know, maybe 1 to 2% of, of change in, in public school students. But, and, you know, the homeschoolers and private school students have, equal access to as well. This is accessible to all but with priority for families of modest incomes. Wendy, there was one question. I because we've done several interviews about this leading up to yesterday, and I keep forgetting to ask you a question.

So I want to ask you that right now because part of your bill, it is right there in the law that this is not money that's getting moved from the K through 12 budget. It's different money, completely separate. But the and the point that is brought up that our formula right now is essentially a butts in seats formula that attendance is what determines how much funding a school gets.

So if if that's true and an A and a student decides to go to a private school with this program, they are not at the school at the K through 12 public school, what happens to their allocation of money? Does it just stay in the state coffer? I mean, what happens with that? Because their argument is the local school will will see less money even if the overall state budget does not see a reduction.

So what happens to that money? I wish that was a simple answer, but I'll make it as simple as I can. So Idaho Falls school funding formula does not, fund on the basis of students it funds on the basis of what we call a support unit, which is the rough equivalent of a classroom. In 1994, when the formula was built, still under this really archaic, needlessly complex formula, you can gain a few students and lose money.

You can lose a few students and gain money because it's all about that support unit, which is roughly 19 children per support unit on average, depends on the district, and so a school district could lose 18 students and still get that support unit, which is worth about $150,000. Or they could, gain students not get more money because it still fits within the support unit number.

And so it's it's it's really complex. And yes, eventually if you have fewer students attending, you will get less money. But let's remember that's already happening in Idaho and school choice hasn't even passed yet. We've seen Pocatello close the school, Coeur d'Alene, Nampa closed for that's but and that's. You can't blame school choice for that. You can't blame, the birth rate declining.

You can blame the pandemic where, families started seeking other options very quickly. And in mass during the pandemic. There are a number of things you can attribute that to. You could possibly even attribute it to school districts using one time money, money from the Covid relief funds for ongoing expenses. And now they're having the course. Correct. That's kind of the situation in district 91 right now, right?

You just can't use one time money on an ongoing basis and not at some time have to rightsize the ship. But every indication from other states is this is this is a small single digit percentage of students in the total system, which is about 315,000 students in Idaho. The max that could use this would be 10,000 students, but we don't think that will be the number because that's if it was only students claiming 5000 a credit.

We do believe students with disabilities are going to actively seek these funds, and they get up to $7,500, depending on their expenses. Of course, you can't claim money for expenses you did not incur, and so its list is literally a few thousand students and it will be sprinkled throughout the state. And you know, it's possible that many of them will be existing homeschool and private school students anyway.

But let's remember that a public, still school student in this state cost the state about, $10,000, roughly, including all funds and including the big investments. We're going to continue to make this session. And this, if they seek another option, is 5000. So in the long run, you've got a student who's seeking an alternative for whatever reason. And, they're going to get it.

At least the cost to the state is about half what it would be a public school student. So, you know, the money is going to continue to roll for public schools. I'm committed to that. I'm committed to protecting rural schools. And and so I think in the end, this will all balance out nicely, and there will just be more families whose kids are in situations that serve them better than, than before.

Yeah. What's it like amongst your peers? I, I'm because you had some competing bills, especially from East Idaho. You had Senator Lant who put forward a bill that that really got no traction. So have you had conversations with Senator Land or anybody who voted for Senator Lynch bill and voted against George? What's it been like over there? No, I haven't, a bunch of us who supported the bill.

I went out and celebrated with pizza last night, which was a great moment. You know, this is this is tough work. And it was great to be with among friends that, are celebrating as much as I am. And and but, you know, the way it works in here, we move on. Because maybe you didn't agree with me on this bill, but maybe you need my vote on the next bill and vice versa.

And so you really have to set aside, in my opinion, or should set aside personal animosity or or anger or vindictiveness and get on with doing the people's business. That's what they send us here to do, not to have personal fights, but to to do their work. And that takes all of us. It takes 36 in the house, 18 in the Senate, and one governor to do get anything done.

And, so we need each other. We should work as a team, especially a Republican caucus should work, you know, as closely as a team as we can. And given that there are natural variations and different interpretations of certain, platform planks and those sorts of things, that's normal. That's part of the process. It's a healthy part of the process.

Personal animosity, name-calling that sort of thing shouldn't be. And so I expect that we will move forward, positively with the remaining work we have to do this session. We're talking with Representative Wendy Harmon. And Wendy, I want to ask you, the governor. I felt like if the governor signs it, that he will because he's done this before with bills where he signs it, but seemingly reluctantly.

And then he issues a statement encouraging caution. And I think he did that with the pawn in library bill. This was full throated support. What he said in the statement that accompanied signing this, that he issued in a press release, was absolute full support of the bill. He even paired it in his comments about school choice from kindergarten to career with the launch program, which I remember last year.

Wendy, you and I having those discussions when you would call in and and saying, this is just launch. But for K through 12 and you had a bunch of lawmakers that were opposed to the bill, they said, oh no, it's different. And here's why it's different. But now the governor signed the bill. He essentially paired it with the concepts in the lunch program.

What did that come as? A bit of a surprise that the level of enthusiasm with which he apparently is supporting this bill. I was so thrilled with his statement. He said exactly, exactly what it is. We can have it all. We can have strong public schools and education freedom because I believe he cares about all children, not just those in the public schools.

But remember, this is something that we see from the evidence will help children in public schools too. So yes, I was absolutely thrilled with his response. I was getting a little nervous about what it might be, given some of the public comments he had made at a press conference earlier in the week. But his point is spot on.

This is no different than lunch. Lunch money goes to public, private and religious schools. And so will this tax credit. Yeah. All right. Wendy, we really appreciate it. Again, congratulations. It was a great day yesterday. For you and for all those who support parental choice in education. And I guess when will this bill take, take effect?

So it goes into effect, in, in, July. But the application window doesn't open until January 15th of 2026. We'll be getting a lot of information out shortly about how to access this. The timing for when the application windows are, when you'll receive notifications because there is an advance payment in this bill. So it's possible you could enroll your student in a different setting this fall and then hope to get the tax credit to get the advance tax payment.

Tax credit payment. And so we will have some, kind of one pagers out very soon about the timing when this works. But the essentially the application window is open for 60 days beginning January 15th of 2026, and then you'll receive notification within 30 days. If you were awarded the credit or not. This does create a waitlist.

So if we find out there's more demand, then a future legislature could take up the issue and then choose to increase it or decrease it for that matter. I don't think that will happen, but we'll see. It's a new program and we'll see how that plays out. All right. Representative Wendy Harmon, thank you for joining us this morning.

And we congratulate you once again. All right. Let's get to the podcast for this Friday. We have a cover session for you up ahead a few minutes and also a big project in Pocatello to tell you about. And we talked with Bannock Development Corporation CEO Mayor Kate Kennedy. It's all in today's podcast. And.

Thank you.

Next, you want to show us.

Good morning. It is 807 on Newstalk 179, Neil Larson, along with Julie Mason. And today is just a good day. Julie texted me last night and she said, I didn't send you a lot of news stories because we have a lot of stuff already to talk about and it's all it's positive. The things that we have fixed, we of course, are celebrating the passage of a house Bill 93, parental choice in education.

We had Wendy on last hour. We're going to have our studio for cover with Keegan Park coming up in half an hour from right now. He's actually here already warming up. Great. So that's exciting. We're going to talk with Mayor Kate Kennedy in about an hour. Big development announced in Pocatello around the airport called crest. And it's going to be a multi use 70 acre development that will accommodate conventions and recreation and entertainment and sports and transportation.

I got them all right. There you go. That's where the crest comes from. And so what kind of get more detail about the vision for that. And then of course we chose today to tell you what our plan is in the wake of Dan Bongino and his exit from talk radio, his last show is actually two weeks from today.

He was tapped as the FBI deputy director. He's accept that position. And as such, his radio show goes away, at least for now. I did talk to their syndicator yesterday, and they're like, well, the door isn't isn't shut when he wants to come back. He's obviously a powerhouse as far as media goes, but it's we don't know what that looks like.

So we had a decision to make when we heard about this, last week, a few days ago. What are we going to do? Because you do hear Dan Bongino every weekday afternoon from 1 to 4. And we are thrilled to announce that we are bringing you, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, beginning March 17th. Now, now there's a little bit of a shuffle.

And, to explain this, I have to give a little bit of inside baseball. We're actually going to air them live from 10 to 1. And Mark Lee van Kampen Robins, who we all love, we will slide them to the 1 to 4 slot. That really wasn't our first choice to do that because you don't you don't want big disruption in a schedule that's successful and going well.

However, bringing on and Clay and Buck their syndicator premiere, and I'll give a little bit more about them in just a moment. They said there are no exceptions. They have to air live because Clay and Buck, they do breaking news and they'll do interviews of things that are happening in, you know, in on Capitol Hill right now and, and, so, they, they insisted that if we want them, they have to air live, Markley Van Camp and Robins is, is a great show.

They talk about a lot of cultural issues. And so they were a little bit easier, and they were accommodating to us, shifting them to the afternoon. So, we're we're excited for this change. It's coming up in, two weeks from Monday, March 17th, and we look forward to it. Each show has their own little bit of flavor, right.

And I love that the line up very swift that if we had show hosts all the way through the day that were exactly carbon copies of each other, that wouldn't be great at all. It wouldn't be a good lineup. This is what I love about the current lineup. You it with, Buck and Clay, you're going to get a lot of breaking news.

You're going to get a lot of them infusing the culture, but not like entertainment wise, them infusing the culture with how they view what's happening in politics. They have a clear understanding of the mesh between the two. Yes. Then you go to Markley Van Camp and Robbins. They had a little bit of humor and entertainment value to what's happening in politics and what's happening in culture.

So that's a little bit different than the way that we approach it. And then the way that, Buck and Clay approach what they do. Then you move into Mark Levine, who is hard hitting and all politics. And yeah, there's a clear variation of flavor from what is happening in earlier in the day, and it just carries forward like that.

I love like Guy Benson a little bit more measured. It's going to be a little bit more calm. Also very political, heavy, but a more measured version version versus Mark Levin. I love that they're also different. Yeah, because that gives you a taste of how people conservatives differ and they view politics. Yeah for sure. And, we have Bill O'Reilly.

He's on now at 7 p.m.. Right after Mark Levin. He brings his own flavor to his no spin approach. So he says things that anger everybody pretty much you know he's pretty much very candid and he's very straightforward. So absolutely. Now there are some that may not be all that familiar with Clay Travis and and Buck Sexton.

Buck actually had his own radio show for a while. But once Rush Limbaugh passed away about four years ago, a little over four years ago, it created a huge talk radio vacuum. Everything got shuffled at that point. And of course, we did not have Rush Limbaugh here. So our schedule didn't didn't change a whole lot in the wake of that.

However, it was an opportunity because that's when there was suddenly room on the stage for someone like Dan Bongino, and he already had a podcast that was quite successful, and they leveraged that into a full blown three hour radio show. Still does the podcast, but, a three hour radio show. Buck and Clay are similar in that premiere syndicated Rush Limbaugh and they they essentially took Rush Limbaugh's infrastructure, so to speak, and the relationships that they had with different stations.

And they said, here's what we would like you to replace Rush Limbaugh with. In fact, for a while, I don't know if they still do. For a while, they were calling it the Excellence in Broadcast Network. And so there. But nobody replaces rush, and we all knew it. Let's just be honest. Nobody actually replaces Rush Limbaugh. But we we think you're going to like the duo of Clay Travis and Buck Sexton in in the short course of four years, which is not a long time when you're building a radio audience.

They have climbed to as far as political talk to the second highest slot and that may actually grow in the wake of Bon Gino's exit, because they are on the same time as what Dan Bongino was on. Bongino actually came down live 10 to 1. But we delayed him for the afternoon. And so they they Clay and Buck will inherit a lot of those Bongino stations and add to their affiliate total.

And we're going to see their national audience rise. All right. Super big fan of Clay Travis. I, I really, really like him. He has in-depth knowledge of the sports world as well. Yeah. So, and like I said, all of those things affect politics. So you get a little bit of that, you get a little bit of culture from them.

And then the heavy political game. So Clay Travis, if you've heard of Outkick, he's the guy behind Outkick. He's also an attorney and it's not going to be sports talk. He has a lot of insight on sports issues, but it is very much political talk. He, I want to say I fear saying the M word here, but he has styled himself as kind of a moderate, but I think it's more of, an approach that he he's not actually a moderate.

Everything I've heard him, he's siding with us. He's very big on Trump. He's. And so and it's just a good mix. Buck is very much an analytical policy guy. And Clay can bring the more creative and and comic relief to it. I would say Clay's value system is definitely conservative. I would say when he when he presents himself as a moderate, what he's doing with that is that he just takes a very like, okay, okay approach.

And he doesn't get all caught up in like sometimes people on the right go too far and they get passionate about things that aren't going to benefit them. Yeah. I think, you know, we we do that here in Idaho. Yes. We've we've been subject to that with the grocery tax repeal. Yeah. Okay. He's much more moderate with his approach.

He looks at a kind of like Donald Trump with, you know, what matters, what we can get done. Yeah. Not the box that you can stand on and scream from. What matters is what you can get done. Yeah. And I would say that's where his his approach as a moderate comes in. Yeah. And and maybe again pragmatic is another word that I, I'm not a big fan of that that word pragmatic but I, I think that's what he's looking at.

Let's not spend all of our time in ideological theory. Exactly. And let's look at what we can accomplish and then go about accomplishing it. So that's our big announcement today. Super excited. Pick over the lineup again one more time for people. So everything stays the same up until 10:00. Starting March 17th. It's Clay Travis and Buck Sexton from ten until one and then from 1 to 4, you'll hear Marco Van Camp and Robbins, and then we're back to Mark Levin.

And everything's the same after that. So those hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., you'll still have Marco Van Camp and Robbins. You'll just listen to him in the afternoon. So and then the addition of Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. So we, we're getting pretty good comments. And we knew there may be a few people because people like their routines.

They like familiarity. You may be a little disappointed about the change in Mark Lee Van Camp and Robbins. But you know internally I have told our people what we're doing and they're like, that's okay. I mean, you know, it's your work day. It's if you can listen to them in the morning, chances are decent, you can listen to them in the afternoon.

There's also a chance people's schedules wouldn't let them listen to them in the morning. But now they can in the afternoon. So we you know, it'll be pluses and minuses. But I think overall it's it's going to balance out. And I, I love our lineup Julie this can be great. It is it is great. And I think this audience if if you're not that familiar with Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, you're going to quickly like them and be drawn to them.

We've got multiple Texans so far. Only some one person is frustrated with the move of Mark Lee, Van Camp and Robin. So that's a great sign. Yeah. And I would say to that person give it a shot. I really think you're going to like Clay and Buck I really do. So give it a shot. You will be pleasantly surprised.

Yes. Yeah. You you will. You're you're not you're not going to hate it. So. All right, let's take a break. It's 819 on Newstalk 1079. We're still about 15 minutes away from our studio for cover. We have Keegan Park. He's going to play again. Julie, this is another super popular group that we hadn't heard of, but this song is great.

It's called Wondering Why by the Red Clay strays. We came across it yesterday. So yeah, we we listen to it and we're like, oh I'm gonna love this. Yes. All right, we'll be back. It's 820 on Newstalk 10798 23 on Newstalk 1079. Julie overall fairly positive. Oh yeah. People are excited and yeah, yeah. And they should be.

It's it's going to be great. Some some asked about what about, Michael Knowles and Ben Shapiro. They actually ended their own show. Like it's not available anywhere. It. We loved having them. We did. We absolutely loved having the the Daily Wire trio. And if they still offered that show, we'd still have it on. So. Yeah. Anyway,

But. Yeah. Okay. All right. Julie, we have, we do want to get to, Do you want me to lead? Yeah. Go ahead. Okay. So I was messing around on the. This morning during one of the commercial breaks, I stumbled across a post by somebody that said the Department of Education has created a new submission form for D-I.

Once I read it, I was thrilled. So I went directly to the site. It's end dtd.gov very clear what they're trying to do here. And this is sponsored by the, Department of Education. Basically, it's a blank form. You submit your email, the school district or school that you belong to, the ZIP code so that they can triangulate, triangulate exactly which school it is.

And then you describe in what way you were discriminated against with the AI practices. Yeah, I love this this aggressive approach to getting us back to where we need to be. You know what? This is such beauty. This really is. And you think about the Trump effect here. This could well, I will say this because I think if you're a school, we've learned in other arguments that school administrators don't like change, okay?

They like they like things the way they like them. We need to get out of schools. We need to get political election, not electioneering, but the sort of the politicization of our schools needs to be done. This creates an, a hostile environment for D-ii to continue in the schools. And I love it, I love it, yeah. Elections matter.

Remember, an executive order was signed and so they're supposed to be getting rid of D-I. So this allows them to have a portal of how to do it. Now I want to make sure people don't think I'm a hypocrite here or that we're full of hypocrisy, because I didn't love during Covid when you could call the tattletale line and say, well, this place is open for business, or these people are didn't take the vaccine or these people weren't wearing masks at this point, or these people are on the beach, this is different.

And let me explain why my private business was not government money. Yeah. Whether or not I wore a mask was more about me than about you, despite you wanting it to make it about you in this situation. This is a government funded institution that affects every child who attends. When I walked on a beach without a mask, I'm not hurting anybody.

I'm not doing anything. I'm outside, I am outdoors. Go ahead and tattle on me. Yeah. When I'm locked into a classroom and I'm six years old and you're making me spell out sexual terms for my spelling list for week 17, that is an infringement on my rights. That's why these two things are different. Yeah, it you're you're right.

I also believe that we can I pair two seemingly unrelated issues here in Idaho. One of the reasons why a school choice bill was so desired wanted is because parents didn't want all that garbage happening in their schools. And if the Trump effect can help eliminate much of that element in our classrooms and get rid of the teachers, that their primary interest is is propagandizing our kids on the LGBTQ, agenda.

If it gets rid of that, fewer parents are going to want to be looking for alternatives. Agreed. I promise you, one of the biggest drivers of parents wanting to get their kids out of the traditional K through 12 environment is because of what this reporting system is, is going to try and eliminate. Yeah, it'll help clean up the school system that we get back to reading.

We can back to writing. Sam. If we get back to those things, your parents are going to be more pleased with the public education that your child is receiving. Yes. Yes, absolutely. All right. It's 829. Let's break. Now, we want to get Keegan Park set up for studio four covers. That will be here in about 6 or 7 minutes on Newstalk 117.

But first commercial break and some news and we'll be back on the other side. In case you missed the big announcement, beginning March 17th, we will launch the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show 10 to 1 right here on Newstalk 179. Mark Lee, Van and Robin shifting to the 1 to 4 slot. Then everything else is is the same.

So that's our plan. If you miss the big announcement, we'll be back after this.

And we're back at 838 on Newstalk 117. It's a Friday morning on the Neil Larson Show, and at this time each Friday, of course, we love to highlight and hear from a local musical artist. And today we welcome into the studio Keegan Park Keegan, welcome. How are you today? I'm doing really good. How are you doing? Good.

Good. We're excited to have you and tell our audience who you are. Yeah, I'm Keegan Park. I was born and raised here in Idaho. I grew up in Rye, RI. I love it out there. A lot of awesome, awesome people. Yeah. Yeah, I'm 21. Been playing music for this almost ten years. I've been loving every second of it.

So. So you're a BYU student? Yep. I'm a BYU guy right now. Off track a little bit. Yeah. You get to play your guitar a little more during that time. So you played all time? Yeah, that's that's great. So, tell us how long you've been playing your musical background. So I started it. It's really cool because my dad, he played a lot and he sang, and I think that's kind of where I got the bug.

And so I one summer, I just didn't really have much to do, and I went up and was working on this little dude ranch, and I decided, you know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna start learning the guitar. So that's kind of where I, where I picked it up and started playing in Highland Park. So yeah, no, not ever since about ten years, I haven't looked back.

I haven't looked back. Yeah. Well that's that's great. You've chosen I will say this because and this is more a function of Julie and I are getting a little older, but we had not heard of the red clay strays. That's who you're covering. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So tell us about them. Honestly, I don't know much about them. Yeah, but I just know that they're their lead singer.

He's kind of like, a little modern day Elvis, a little bit. He kind of does that, like, slicked back, like, I don't know, cool style, I guess, but kind of the old classic. Yeah, yeah. But that's that's really all I know about them. They have, they've got a few popular songs out there, pretty new. So. All right.

Well we love to promote all of our artists social media. And if people just search Keegan Park on Facebook, Instagram and it's k e a g. And that's right mores the he where is the news? That's right, I got you. All right. Well the song you'll perform today is wondering why by the red clay strays. Are you ready?

Yeah. I'm ready. All right, let's pick up your guitar and let's do this. And, as he gets ready here, we'll get you all seated and, whenever you're ready. Keegan Keegan Park wondering why, by the red clay strays. Well, she comes from silver spoon. Golden rule private school. Never miss Sunday church and not come from blue collar low dollar out here where concrete means old red dirt.

And I don't know what happened, cause it sure don't add up on paper.

But when I close my eyes late at night, you can bet I thank my maker. And. Oh, she keeps on loving me. Loves me the way I am.

Who? She's not just along for the ride. No, she's my biggest fan.

Oh, and it's a little piece of heaven. When we lay down that night. And she keeps on loving me. And I keep on wondering why. Oh, she's got a wicked smile. Angel eyes. Every guy's wanting to hold her close.

Oh, she's as pretty as sin. Like the sun sinking down on the California coast. Oh, she keeps on loving me. Loves me the way I am.

Oh, she's not just along for the ride. No, she's my biggest fan. Thank you. Oh, and it's a little piece of heaven. When we lay down at night. And she keeps on loving me. And I keep on wondering why.

And I don't know what happened. Cause it should. Don't add up on paper.

But as long as she's with me. Who? You bet. And I'll thank my maker.

Oh, she keeps on loving me. Loves me the way I am.

Who? She's not just like, for the ride. No, she's my biggest fan.

You know, and it's a little piece of heaven. When we lay it down at night. She keeps on loving me. And I keep on wondering why. Yes, she keeps on. And of me. And I keep on wondering why. Keegan Park. Great job. Thank you. Your your voice match says that song perfectly. Appreciate that. All right. Just search firm Keegan Park music.

It's Keegan on on social media. Keegan thank you for coming in today. No problem. Thank you guys. All right. It's 844 on Newstalk 179. Travis and Puck Sexton will join news.

848 on Newstalk. 107 Neil Larson along with Julie Mason. Super fun to have Keegan Park in a great performance too. Like some times. I wouldn't say this about any of our studio for covers, but you'll hear a performance and you're like right after you him for like five five seconds. You're like, oh, he has no, I've no worries about him being on pitch at like he just owns it.

Yeah, I like that about him. So cute kid too. I just in person was so personable and just enjoyable to talk with. Brought a lot of sunshine with him today. Yeah, yeah. So I hope things are good. I hope that this is a bright future for him. Keegan Park yeah, yeah, we are about 20 minutes away. More good.

I'm glad we have some good news and good stuff to talk about today. It's a good Friday. Mayor Kate Kennedy will join us. She is the CEO of Bannock Development Corporation. And big announcement yesterday at the, Stevens Performing Arts Center at issue big 70 acre development called crest. Coming to the Pocatello airport area, it's going to be convention space, recreation, entertainment, sports and transportation.

And, it's obviously a multi year project. They're still securing funding for it. And but the vision that they have is very, very impressive. I'm excited to hear how she's going to or how this group is planning on addressing all of those things. Like what does the sports complex look like, what does entertainment look like? Like, and she's going to be able to kind of identify a little bit what those things will be.

So you, the listeners can know what to look forward to. Yeah. Yeah, it is it's it's going to be good. So we'll have that. We still have lots of, politics to talk about. So Rachel Maddow, can we talk about Rachel Maddow for a minute? She makes 25 million a year. That's what the ex says.

Okay, so the ex is saying 25 mil a year. If she took less than 10% of that, she could keep her production staff going. A couple million bucks would keep her split, a couple dozen staffers because a whole bunch of them got fired. Yes. Right. Yes. And so Megan Kelly called her out on it. She was on some podcast.

Listen to what she said. But Rachel Maddow got out there and tried to act like, I'm I'm a woman of the working class. I'm here to represent the poor staffers who could lose their jobs now as a result of Joy Reid biting it. And meanwhile, she's collecting $25 million a year. She's got multiple homes worth millions. You know what?

Why don't you take a $2 million pay cut and save ten of those jobs? If you feel that said, you don't even have to pay it out of your pay your bank account, just tell them pay me 23 million. Next year instead of 25. She won't do it. She wants to seem virtuous and sanctimonious, but in fact she's only the latter because she won't actually put any money on the line.

And an example of the exorbitant life she leads while she's trying to remind us, oh, I've worked so many jobs. The jobs I've worked puts to the point her pay and property. So sometimes I want. Okay, it's a great point, but you know what I like about it? It's holding them to their philosophy. I just looked up the, the internet produced I don't know how accurate this is that Rachel Maddow has an estimated net worth of $50 million because for a lot of years she made about 7 million.

Okay. She's worth a lot of money. And Megan Kelly's exactly right. Maddow has pitched herself as I'm here representing the working class. Did you ever stop and think if they're having to make dramatic cuts and fire all of these people? Rachel Maddow $25 million salary might be one of the reasons why they're having to make that many cuts.

Absolutely. This is the same philosophy that people implement when they're talking about illegal immigration with people on the left. Yeah, they want your taxpayer dollars to take care of all of the illegal immigrants, and they want you to be virtuous as they rake in a salary of 25 million and have more than one home. Yeah. I would ask Rachel, do you have any any illegal immigrants living with you and your staff who are paid far less than you are losing their jobs?

Where's your virtue? You sure want to let you want to lecture everybody else about their lack of virtue. Yeah. Where's your virtue. Yeah. This is a perfect opportunity for her to put her money where her mouth is. We'll see. I think she'll do it. No. And I, I'm, I'm all for making calling her out on it. Absolutely out for Megan.

Calling her out on it. Yeah, I saw that. Her on your microphone when I was over. On your side, too. Why? There's a three inch long hair on my microphone. Why would that be there? I don't know, was it me? I haven't used your microphone. I know. That was supposed to be off the air.

Are we on Facebook Live, right. No, we're not on Facebook Live. But, when when do we hide anything from the audience? That's true. Never in the 6:00 era. I told everybody I spit on your board. Yeah, you need to sanitize it. Get the Lysol Lysol wipes. You sent me this clip of Tim Walz. I had almost forgotten about Tim Walz.

Julie. Okay. In fact, sorry, I, I was probably only a few months away from if somebody asked me, who is Kamala Harris's running mate? It would have taken me a few seconds to remember. That's how forgettable Tim was. Wow. Lucky you. I'm glad you already purged that. I'm. I'm exaggerating, but I really haven't been thinking much about Tim Walz.

He, the Julie, the Democrats are so dumb. They really are so emotion driven. You know what? I think they're smart. Okay, let me let me let me backtrack and explain. I actually think a lot of people on the left are smart, but their emotions subtract from their IQ. Okay. Does that make sense? Yeah. Like if we could just subtract their hyper emotionality.

They would, they would have 30 to 40 additional functional IQ points. So you have Tim Walz out there. He's now doubling down on calling his political opponents fascists and Nazis. Listen to this exchange that he had with a reporter. They're asking me to apologize because of their you know if you're talking about the politicians in Washington.

No, I'm talking about the people who are openly Nazis. Okay. So, I don't think you were, Tim, but whatever. You just make crap up as you go along. We learned that very well in the campaign here. Here he is trying to. He even mentions Idaho in this clip. Look, look, we have folks marching in the streets. We have a woman in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, pulled out by a militia.

I'm talking to a group of supporters and saying, that's not true. Our country right now is we have people who are openly Nazis and fascists trying to take our country, and we need to push back. This is this been last ten days? Washington Post, New York Times talking about these folks in Ohio. So no, I'm not going to about it.

The question I have is why are they not condemning them? Why are they not condemning these people who were in Ohio doing these things to us? So now, so we're not talking about Donald Trump and Republicans and no, I'm talking about these people who are there now, if they have tendencies, I cannot say anything. I am asking those people in Washington, why are they not condemning this?

Why is the Department of Justice not condemning these people who are doing that? Okay, let me ask you this, because this court lane situation has gotten a lot of attention. Was that a militia or was that just a security firm? It wasn't a militia. It was what I would say, not clearly identified, hired security. Okay. That's what I'll give.

I'll give that. Yeah. Also, she had an option to stand up and leave. Yeah. She wasn't just sitting there silently and someone came in and ripped her out of her seat. Right. They gave her plenty of options to leave before it. It escalated to where it was at. And by the way, best thing that's ever happened to this woman.

Her GoFundMe has now over 300,000. 320 I saw she's made a poor picked on woman. You know what? Drag me out of a public meeting event. Let's just set it up, you and I, let's go somewhere. We'll call it public meeting. Please. Some militia come drag us out. I would love to add to a retirement nest egg. 150 for you.

150 for me. Let's let's do it. I'm. I'm all in. It might be rough for a couple of minutes and not that pleasant, but I'll take a Bruce. I'm okay. If you can monetize getting dragged out of a public meeting that you disrupted and you bit someone. You know what? Maybe, maybe, just maybe, Julie, the leftists are the best capitalists of all.

Maybe they are. Yeah, maybe that's a brilliant, brilliant way to make a living. Yeah. Okay. Wow. And yeah, this. Does Tim ever get tired of backtracking on everything he's ever done? No, because that was his entire three month shtick. Well, it was only two months because they didn't talk the first month. So was it. It was his three month.

It was his two month shtick with Paris. So, Julie, I, I discard a lot of information that I just don't need because I, I consume a lot every day. And I'm still trying to remember all the things that Tim Walsh, he called himself a knucklehead once because of things that he said that were just flat out not true.

Oh, like how about his military service? He lied about being a coach. Yeah, he lied about his trips to China. He lied about his lockdowns in his state. Yeah. Wow. I, I'm not mad at you for sending me that clip. I did not need to shoot him. Was again. I'm lucky everyone listening. We shared it with all of you.

I know. Look, we're going to have, We're going to have misery. Share? Yeah. Ride share a misery share. We'll be back when we come back in a few minutes, we'll talk with Mia. Kate Kennedy of Development Corporation. Big announcement for Pocatello yesterday. We'll get more of the details coming up.

Welcome back. It is our two of the Neil Larson Show. And if you'd like to reach us via text on the Stones Automotive Group calling text line, that number is (208) 542-1079. And we are, glad to be joined this morning by Mia Kate Kennedy. She is the CEO of Bannock Development Corporation. Yesterday, big announcement at the Stevens Performing Arts Center that, big development, 70 acre development by the Pocatello airport has been envisioned and is actively being pursued.

And she joins us this morning on the program. Mia. Kate, welcome. Good to have you with us this morning. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Well, we would love to hear more about this, this development. We saw the renderings, the the artistic renderings of this. And it it looks like a very, very exciting project.

May be on the way for the Gate City. Yes. I mean, it is our most comprehensive and transformative project. To date. We needed something, I think, to really, get us started moving forward for economics and, you know, for the community and socially. And so, we decided to move forward with this vision of crest, which, is convention and recreation, entertainment, sports and travel.

And the first phase is about 70 acres. There will be additional phases. So it's it's quite large and it'll go over a number of years. So okay, in that first phase, what are we going to be addressing right off the bat. Because that's pretty comprehensive. When you you talk about commercial and recreation and entertainments sports. So which portion will be developed first?

Well I think our we discussed last night and we've talked obviously for months. This project is a culmination of over 4000 hours for me alone. I have experts and colleagues that I've worked with. Mayor blood's been instrumental in, helping to keep this going and just being a great supporter. So, kudos to them for that. But we discussed last night that the initial part will obviously need to be around the stadium convention area and be built around that.

There could be parts that would come prior to that or alongside of that, but we need to focus on getting those sports venues up and going. And they're not just sports venues, but other types of entertainment as well. So that will probably be where our focus is initially. And some of that's going to be, you know, getting the money to develop those certain park.

So Mia Kate there, there's not an official start date or groundbreaking date for this. And I know that money is still being lined up. So a lot of people would want to ask how how close is this to reality? How many investors are in the pipeline. And you may not be able to tell us all of that, but I think a lot of people love the concept.

They they see the renderings of it. They'd probably also like to have more information about how how close are we to actually initiating this and starting to break ground on it for some? That's a great question. Of course, everyone wants to know when it's going to happen and who's going to pay for it. And, you know, these are all things that we've kept in mind.

We want to have the right investors and the right matches for each of these sections of this development. And even some of those will do multiple parts of the development because it's so massive. So we have teams that are willing to branch out and be in like, say, baseball. The Pioneer League or hockey or, you know, that would be willing to come.

And we can't we can't overlook the fact that they're not going to wait forever because cities all over the nation are looking for teams. Because this is, you know, recreation is huge. And so we want to be as aggressive as we can in getting a groundbreaking on any part of this, development. And we do have some investors lined up.

We do have people that want certain components of it. So this is where Bennett Development Corporation will really facilitate how we pull those together. And we're recruiting. And so we've had projects pitched in the past and nobody ever came forward to make them. We're going to be very aggressive. And this is why the city wanted to finally allow us to put this out there in that this is a huge focus for the city because this is their property.

They want revenues from the property. And so, like never before, there's an incentive to get this built. And so I can't name who we have online because we're sorting through those. But I am very optimistic. And if anyone knows me, I'm not I'm very, focused. And so I don't want to announce the project and then never have anything happen.

I'm very future forward building for our young people and. Yeah, and for the future. So maybe describe it because we did see the renderings and it was a beautiful complex of baseball fields and soccer fields, and there was a large stadium type, type structure. Can you give us more detail on, on what kinds of events that would be hosted at the stadium?

I mean, what what sort of things would it accommodate? So I think an important factor of this is to remember that. So Jonathan Cole, the designer, he runs pendulum Stadium Studios out of Kansas City, Missouri, and he's amazing. His vision is amazing. He's got great vision for how a community and network like this would come together, this lifestyle recreation area.

And so it's important to not think of it just as a stadium. But it's important to think of it as there's going to be concerts, there can be convention, there's a huge convention park, there's breakout rooms, there's so in all of these buildings and areas, different activities can happen. So it'll be a sort of one stop shop, but also lead into our downtowns and our other areas for overflow and to bring other guests and tourists.

So I think it's really important not to just say it's a stadium, but in that stadium, that stadium is incredible. Jonathan knows how to multi use and build, and this is one of the things that I loved about him. And so regulation baseball you know baseball can happen inside that there will be ice hockey. There's soccer fields.

They can do lacrosse. They can do rugby. They can do pickleball in areas the basketball, dance, wrestling, gymnastics. So the way that the convention center would break out, and also with the stadium, all of these things can happen here. So the 70 acres is, is phase one, as you just mentioned. But the long term vision of this is to be much larger than it would be residential.

There would be a residential component to this. Can you give us an idea? Because there is a lot of expandable land out there around the the airport. I'm very familiar with that. That area. Can you give us an idea of maybe what that long term vision would look like? Yeah, we have had the long term plans looked at.

We're focused on these because obviously that takes quite a while. But, one of the things that I'm, if you know me, I'm very, protective of our airport. We have an amazing airport. It's incredible. And the fact that it's not as well known the as things about the airport that makes it such an amazing asset compared to any other airports around.

We have, like experts that we're using nationwide and they're, you know, they're it's just unbelievable. So the vision when I came here to see that our airports are amazing and then to have that property around it, we want to be mindful of that's an airport as well. And with all the news lately about airports and residential around it and whatever, we want to be mindful about what we're doing and where we're doing it.

And so, those phases on the outside, and I say outside because this starts very, inside where the airport is on that phase toward facing, you can see where that property is. And so I feel like the phases where housing would come in our, in our other phases now, that may happen sooner than some of the phases in between on that property.

But we're not we're really focused on getting this. Yeah. And then yes, making that because we have to be mindful that our airport is going to grow significantly. And we want to be mindful of how those planes land and what our weather patterns are and such. And, you know, from the seasons. And so we this is going to be running all year round with different things and activities.

And so we want to be mindful of what that airport really is and stands for. And it's going to be growing. So they have a big job to work with us to make sure and vice versa, to make sure that we're preserving that dynamic asset. Right. Yeah. And so and housing would be a big thing because you're going to be living by an airport.

I've lived by airport several times. So, you know, I want to be very mindful of keeping our culture and who we are here and also building that in the residential sense. Yeah. All right. Mayor Kate Kennedy, CEO of Bannock Development Corporation. Well, this is a project very exciting. We'll be watching it closely. And, we wish you the best as you, work to develop it and bring it closer to reality.

Thank you so much. It's exciting. It's great for all of us. So I'm excited to be able to get to work on it today. All right. Mayor. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. It's 918 now on Newstalk 1079. Quick break. We'll come back and continue after this on this Friday morning. Hi, guys. Hi, guys. Okay.

We will be posting because I know you guys were. We're part of the core group. That would have been logging on to see Keegan Park sing. We were trying a different what we call scenes. We wanted just Keegan to be the main scene there. Whatever happened, the audio failed, so we think we know how to fix it.

So next week, we'll have that main scene with the audio. But what that means is that, like Facebook Live went away. This one is for today. What? Obviously, you're here. We will post Keegan Park's video later with audio. We always video in the studio, and I'm sure you've seen me walking around videoing and we had it set up today, so that will be posted later if you do want to see the studio for cover later on.

Do we need to grab that video from the recording or is it still saved on Facebook somewhere? Oh no, I trashed it on Facebook. Okay, so I we're gonna have to grab it. We can't. We can use my phone video, but the one what you can do on Facebook, you can actually download a video if you're the admin on Facebook.

I was going to do that. But it's okay because you're recording it, right? Like it records in the back. I hope I was recording in that time, I think I was because I stop and start throughout the day. Okay, I think I was you want me to run it and see if I can go back and pull up for the last.

Yeah, 50 minutes and. Yeah, yeah, if we can. So 50 times 303 times five. So that would be should be 3000 seconds. No 3000 seconds, 30 600 hours or 30/602 is an hour. So subtracting ten minutes is 600 seconds would be 3000. 3000. Okay. Hold on. Is this code written that it's going to work even if it's currently not recording?

Because I stopped the recording? Oh, okay. It did come up with how many seconds to pull. Yeah, just put 3000. We may get extra stuff in there before. No I know. Oh, I'm not currently recording I stopped it. Okay. What point? I don't remember, that's what I was saying. I stop and start it throughout the day. Yeah. And it always seems to hiccup a lot when it's recording when I start Facebook.

So I always stop before I start Facebook Live. Okay, I don't I'll have to look in the next break. 922 on Newstalk 1079 so they drop the first round of The Epstein Files yesterday. They may as well have not. Okay. Yes, there was absolutely nothing in there. However, did you read the the fire letter that Pam Bondi sent Kash Patel?

Not against him, but basically saying, look, you and I came in together. It's my understanding now. There are agents within the FBI that are actively withholding Epstein documents, even though they were told to turn them over. You need to go in and figure out what's going on and get those documents to us ASAP. In fact, the deadline has come and gone this morning, so who knows what's going to happen.

Yeah, basically I read the letter as I'm going to do my part, but I can't do it alone. And I need you to do your part now. Yeah. So let's work on this together. Yeah. So I think it's going to be days, if not weeks before we get another I. We should just drop everything at once. Rather than that, you know, bit by bit here.

Trickle, trickle. There's too much, too much room for Shannon Wiggins. Yeah. For that to happen. I'm also we'd love to take your calls today if you are in jubilation or in mourning, because if you're on social media, when it comes to school choice, people are either celebrating like it's 1999 or they are in mourning today wearing black with a veil, holding flowers.

There were people that acted like they couldn't send their kids to public education this morning, that it's all over as we know it. This isn't even. You can't even apply for this money until January of 2026. You. Can I also say, and I, I don't I don't know how to say this without coming off a little condescending. Stop outsourcing your mental well-being to Brad Little and Wendy Horman.

Yes. Okay. Stop it. It's not the end of the world. You may not have liked the outcome, but it's not the end of k-through-12. It's not the end of public education. It's not the. Yeah, if anything, look at it as there's a little pilot program to see how it works. Sure. We've heard that from multiple people. We asked Wendy Horman, Representative Horman, this morning in her interview to explain what kind of effect that she thinks this is going to have, and she said, not that much.

And she gave us numbers. We talked to an administrator from a private school yesterday, the person who should probably be doing the most celebrating today said, hey, if it gets passed, it's not going to be that big a deal. Yeah, it it isn't. If you if you have let's we did the math. It's about between 1 and 2% right of kids.

If they're if they max out the plan at $5,000 apiece. Well, no, let's look at it even more. Let's believe what the other side is saying. Okay, that only rich kids are going to be able to use this, right? And those rich kids are already going to private school, then you're not going to notice any change. Yeah. They're not in the public school system.

If it's only kids that are already in private school using the the tax credit, you're not going to miss a kid who's not there right now. They know this is going to help middle class families and lower class families. Yeah, absolutely. I should I read a, super lengthy text that we got about this. What's the tone in tenor?

Oh my goodness. Yeah, they're kind of annoyed with us. Here we go. For the last several weeks now, I've listened to you repeatedly say how great the Parent Rights Education bill is. A few days ago, you even said nothing in Teachers Daily's job. In teachers daily job should be jobs will change if this passes. You also think educators that oppose this bill probably are members of the teacher union.

Well, I'm an educator and I know this will impact me and I'm not part of the union. Educators know that funding is based on attendance. Less students equals less funding. Less funding means district cuts will eventually come. Retired teachers won't be replaced, and job openings won't be posted. Okay, okay, I gotta stop here. I've read maybe 25% of the the text.

First off, I did my due diligence. I looked up to see how many jobs were not filled in the teaching sector sector in Idaho in 2024. There were hundreds. Hundreds of jobs did not get filled. I don't know how to tell you you're not going to lose your job if there's already positions that aren't being filled, and there is an exodus that equals a full time position needing to be cut, they're going to cut one of the jobs that are open.

Yeah. And I'm not. There were hundreds of jobs not filled, not 1 or 2. And you know, that's just not a convenient reality to this argument though Julie. Yeah I keep going. Yeah, but but don't bring up any facts that might counter their argument okay. Ultimately classroom sizes will increase. There is a huge difference if I'm teaching 25 students compared to 32.

Okay, geez, I got through one sentence. We did the math. If you figure out how many students will be removed from the education system, the average amount per class is less than one student. You are not going to have a change from 25 to 32. And when we were figuring out that amount of how many cuts kids could be removed from public classrooms, and it was less than one student per class, that was figuring that all 50 million would go to brand new students.

Yeah, we weren't figuring in the kids that are already in private education who will use this, and you're not going to feel them leave your class because they already left your class, or they never showed up to begin with. Okay, this bill is written in a way that deceives the public by claiming it won't hurt your local public schools, but it will.

You also can't give parents money for education with zero accountability attached. Okay, there is no zero. There is no zero. You asked homeschool parents. You interview homeschool parents. Right now. They're frustrated with the amount of accountability that was put in there because they don't want to meet up to that accountability. So the word zero is not correct. Okay.

Do you want to do the rest or should I just keep ranting? No, I read there's a lot here and I don't I I'm not going to go through this point by point. This is one when we interviewed Wendy Harmon earlier this morning, she said, for some you would think that this was the end of Western civilization.

I think this text falls in the category of someone who thinks this is the end of Western civilization, as we know it. I mean, they've got absolutely nothing good to say about about the bill. Yeah. And and that that's okay. You can add that opinion. We're not going to try and tell you you can or you can't.

But I am telling you, if you think just putting more money and continuing with the status quo is the answer, it's not the answer. And we all know that, you it's interesting, when we interviewed Dave Lent the last time when I asked Dave Lynch, about his bill, he didn't even like his bill. Am I wrong?

Because I said, well, why? You know, a he didn't he? Because he doesn't want any money from the government going to a private school or to a home school, or because they're choosing to take their kid elsewhere, they should have to pay for it. We've heard that over and over again. He was trying to get, I think it was Senate Bill 1025 through.

And it it failed very badly on the Senate floor like very badly. Democrats didn't vote for it because they don't want any school choice. Most Republicans didn't vote for it simply because I don't think they felt it either. Didn't do enough, or there was already Wendy Harman's bill. That was further along in the process. So it was destined to fail.

But I remember when I asked him a follow up question he didn't even like the idea of school choice. He said, what I really want to do is focus on innovation in public education, so that parents don't want to take their kids elsewhere. And in my mind I went, bingo! Yeah, that is going to be the beauty of this of Wendy Harman's bill.

Now it's right now it's $50 million. If they expand it, I'm all in favor of it. I think actually what this means, this is very, very long text that was sent to us. They said buried in there somewhere, that this isn't going to make public school districts even want to work harder or better, as if they know they can look out across the landscape of Idaho's, however many school districts, and know exactly what's going to happen.

I promise you it is going to make things better, and I can prove it. If you go back about 20 to 25 years, we had a charter school revolution in Idaho. The legislature said, yes, we'll allow charter schools. Yes, we'll use public money. If you can put the plan together, you can have a location. If you can bring in qualified teachers to teach, if you can do all of that, then you can do that.

Guess who threw a fit that feels exactly like the fit that we're observing today? Public school people K through 12 people. They couldn't stand the idea of a charter school, and a lot of their gripes and moans were similar. Well, you're you won't even know what's being taught in those classes, blah blah blah blah blah. Okay, well, now we have a very vibrant charter school environment in Idaho.

Kids are getting educated and sometimes their varying results for a lot of different reasons that that I won't go into. But guess what it did? It led to your traditional K through 12 schools going to offer some things online, trying different modes of learning, creating vocational school options for kids who don't always thrive in a traditional academic environment.

It forced innovation in K through 12. And I promise you, this is going to force even more innovation. They're griping, they're moaning, they don't like it. But in the end survival is very important to them. And they will move. I promise you it's going to happen. Well they survived charter schools. So their history shows yes, public education can survive.

Yes. Yeah. And a number of kids migrated out and into charter schools. But guess what? K-Through-12 still is, is thriving. My big takeaway from yesterday and and quite frankly, I don't really want to be frustrated today. We won yesterday. It was a good day. I'm I don't I don't want to I don't want to let this get me down.

Yeah I, I will say I think it's a learning moment and it's a learning moment, not just for the governor. He already knows it. He doesn't need to learn it. But it's for anyone, any Republican lawmaker, anyone out there. It does not matter how much you give them, it is never enough. And if you do anything they don't like, they will stab you in the back.

Read the read the quote by the Idaho Democrats. And they I mean, I don't mean this literally. It's it's hyperbole and me being over the top. They'd like to say they would they'd like to get a shiv and, and take it to the governor. They, they feel like they step on him after they do stab him. Exactly.

And they feel like this was a massive betrayal by by Governor Little. And you know what? I I'll be honest with you, in retrospect, I think the governor handled this incredibly well, incredibly well. Well, if he was going to sign it, he did the appropriate thing yesterday after he signed it, which take it, which was he took a huge victory lap.

Yeah. If he wanted to pretend like it didn't exist, he would have done what we thought he was potentially going to do, which was not sign it and just let it pass into law with the expiration of the time when if you're going to take the step to sign it, do the victory lap. Yeah. Yep. Do own it.

And not you know what. That's smart. Because if you look at it you have the Trump factor. Trump sent out on truth social praising praising quote fingers praising the governor for supporting school choice. It was actually cornering the governor pressuring him to do this. And so it, it does far more good for the governor to own this claim.

Some victory. Yeah. Rather than to say, well, I will reluctantly sign Wendy Harmon's bill and then and, and kind of give a lecture Karen Finger saying, but be careful blah, blah blah. I don't, I don't think he has the, the political option to do that right now. I don't think he does either. Yeah. And I would also point out if we're going to look at the positive here, I would point out he you know what if it what if in two years in a more populated area, we see a special needs private school crop up and they absolutely utilize the money that was provided to them, how awesome is that going to be?

Yeah. Like there's there could be some really great things that come forward with this. Yeah. Oh it is absolutely. It is it's going to be it's going to be good. Someone said, hi, Neil and Julianne schools. Can you please explain why anyone would be upset that a parent has a choice to where their children go to their education?

Why does everything have to go through public schools? Why? Why is it all about the teachers? Why? Why has it gotten to the point where parents were getting in trouble for going to school board meetings because they were concerned? Why is it suddenly wrong for parents just wanting schools to teach the basics? You know, all of these questions.

I think a lot of these are rhetorical questions. I will say this is what happens when you have government bureaucrats in place for long enough. They begin feeling entitled that their cause is so righteous. And so just if anything happens that they don't like that it is some kind of injustice to the universe. Do you know what's so bizarre about the text that I was reading is that I would say to that person, hey, 95% of the people want your product.

Why are you mad? Yeah. Can you imagine how happy Apple would be if they squished Google out and had 95% your market shares? Pretty good K through 12. Be happy. Yeah, yeah. No, I you know what they want. All they want everything they want everything. In fact, I would bet you it irritates them that rich parents take their kids to public school and pay for it on their own dime.

I think that's still like to have their own private school and pay for it on the inside. Yeah. Did I say public school. Yeah okay. It's okay but but yet to to to private school. Pay for it on their own dime because they are in an environment where they believe children should absolutely be coerced to be in the public school system.

All right. We'll be back. It's 939 on Newstalk 1078. Okay. Company offering 24 over seven I chat bot therapy so I can have ChatGPT be my therapist.

Here. We're screwed. Really?

We're so screwed.

People, you missed the announcement. Yeah, I figured that's what you're answering. Submitted my local liners for clean bark, but I haven't seen them arrive yet. Brad, you asked, did I miss the announcement? Who is replacing Dan Dan Bongino? It is going to be Clay. Travis and Buck Sexton. They will run from 10 to 1.

Mark Lee, VanCamp and Robbins will move to 1 to 4. It's funny how when there's a big seismic shift in talk radio, suddenly it it's like woosh! Because it's hard to get a three hour show Monday through Friday on it in prime on a talk station. Like it's just it's hard so everyone they can get they they try to get.

So, I made my protein cookies yesterday. Brought some Neil got cookie this morning. It was very good. On a scale of 1 to 10, what would you give it. At least an eight. Oh good. Yeah. They were really good for a flour less cookie. That's a pretty good score. Yeah. Yeah I liked it. It was good.

It's just oatmeal. Peanut butter. Bananas. My bananas were really ripe this time, so I didn't add. Honey, if you're bananas aren't as ripe, you can sweeten it up a little bit with maybe, like, a teaspoon of honey. A shake of cinnamon, dash of salt. There's a good handful of chocolate chips. It's bake those puppies and and you're not really baking anything.

Just kind of. Yeah. Making them meld together. Yeah. No, it was good. Oh, Brad likes Klay and Buck happy that that you brought in I would say it's about I would say 70% positive really I would say even more than that. I think you're probably right. Yeah. So I mean really the the response via text and everything has been great.

Yeah. Peter they have Klay and Buck have to play live. We didn't have a choice. Yeah. So you know what I will be I'll be very upfront. My my preference would have been to keep mark VanCamp and Robbins right where they're at and put Klay and Buck in the afternoon slot. But they just premiere would not allow that.

I also think it's going to be fine because Mark Lee VanCamp and Robbins, I don't know if I've ever heard them like carry a press conference live or it's happening right now. No, that's not really their approach not their flavor. Yeah. And Klay and Buck it very much. Yes. And so just from a content standpoint it's less of a big deal to delay Markley VanCamp and Robbins.

Then claim all right hold on.

944 on Newstalk. 107 Neal Larson, Julie mason we, have had a number of questions, people who missed our announcement at an hour and a half ago about our Bongino replacement plans. First problem is, you're supposed to listen to every single minute of the show, so we're going to have to deal with that problem at some point. But in the absence of that, we announce last hour that beginning March 17th, that's a Monday.

Clay Travis and Buck Sexton will be joining the lineup. They they are the ones who inherited Rush Limbaugh's show and time slot with Premiere Radio Networks. And, back then, we just we couldn't make it happen. Didn't really have a slot for them. But this opening with Bongino, it and that's a show I would have added really from the get go.

I've always liked Clay and Buck and been impressed with them. They make a good team and we believe you're going to like it. Here's the thing you do need to know. They will air in their live slot from 10 to 1 and I know the next natural question is will then what's going to happen to VanCamp and Robbins?

We will play them from 1 to 4. And so that you're still going to have Marco Van Camp and Robin's, we we would have loved to have kept them in their time slot. That would not have been allowed with premiere to to delay clay in back. And so we had to to make that shuffle as a concession to make all of this happen.

But we think you're really going to like it. It's a great show. We think it's going to be great. And, they they're a little bit different from each other. Clay and Buck do a little bit more, you know, breaking news following what's happened. That morning, like that kind of stuff. And Mark Lee, camp and Robbins put their little, humor spin on things.

So it's fine that they're delayed by three hours. We've had a couple of questions. What about Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh and, Michael Knowles? They actually ended their show nationwide at the end of the year last year. So it's it's been a couple of months now that their show just has not been available. We were bummed.

We loved having the daily Wire trio on our airwaves. But you have to understand, The Daily Wire is a just a multimedia approach. Talk live talk radio was sort of an appendage to that. It was an add on to them, and they felt like it just wasn't really serving their best interests. And so they redirected, what I had heard is that there were months long negotiations between Westwood One and Daily Wire to to keep those shows going because they were popular in the markets they were in.

If, if they were still available, you'd still be hearing them on on Newstalk. But that's simply not an option. We didn't get rid of them. They left talk radio. Right. So all right. I'm so excited. I think it's going to be great. I really like Clay Travis. He's always been I, I've always enjoyed following his content. He, really doesn't mince words.

He just kind of says what he thinks, which I love. And he infuses a, decent amount of, you know, what's going on in everyday life with politics. And I think that that speaks to everyone. We all have everyday lives, and politics affects our everyday lives. And I love that he puts the two together. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

It's it is it's it's good I, I'm, I also think Julie, when they replaced rush with a duo Clay and Buck and then you pair that with Marc Lee Van Camp and Robinson's three, guys on that show. It's not throughout talk radio, but I think it's a new version where it's a multi voice hosting situation. I attribute it to the podcast age, where a lot of podcasts are two, three, four, sometimes more personalities that are talking about politics or culture.

And I think it's what people like. They like the back and forth approach. And and so I think that's why those shows work quickly. And not nobody was under any illusion that anybody is going to replace Rush Limbaugh, even though they took over the time slot, same syndicator. They continue to call it the Excellence in Broadcast Network, at least for a while.

Nobody was under the illusion that they're actually replacing rush. Right. So but, I will I will say, they I think it is responsive to a changing media market. And our audience loves Mark Lee. VanCamp. Absolutely. Matt and I, can we go back? Yeah, four and a half coming up almost five, five years. When we had a whirlwind six weeks, we left our previous life.

And in the span of six weeks I had to put a news talk station together. It felt like a big gamble with Mark Lee, VanCamp and Robbins. I had never heard of them. We're looking for what's available, and we had kind of limited options. And so I scanned the landscape and we were approached with this, this show. I knew the rep at the company.

I'd worked with her for years on other stuff, and she said, I really think you ought to give them a try. And I'm like, well, of course you do. You're trying to get the show on station. So I did my due diligence. I picked up the phone and call I, I, I didn't take their testimonials. I looked at their affiliate list at markets roughly our size, and I said, I'm just calling the program directors.

And I probably talked to 4 or 5 different program directors. It was unanimous. They said, we love this show. We will never get rid of this show because these guys have a different approach. It's funny and they have great comradery. And I was a little nervous about incorporating the music that they put in, like the Friday five and all of that.

And I'm like, I don't know if that's going to work. Like, we live in an era of Rush Limbaugh, you know, and, anyway, I, I, they everyone seems to love that show. I've never had anybody say you need to get rid of them. They've all just, you know, rallied around them. So we're no, we're, they're there is no way would ever would ever do that.

I feel the same about Clay and Buck. I think that people are going to absolutely love them and give them a chance. And it's going to be great. Yeah. Yeah it is, it is. We're sad to to lose Dan Bongino, but he's going to a great place and I think he's going to do good work there. And it's needed work.

And yeah things change. Yeah. Their season two it is. And it it is kind of kind of sad when when it does change. But it makes room for for the good and the new it to to come in. So. All right. We'll, we'll take a break. 952 on Newstalk 1079, we'll come back, we'll have our final segment and we'll wrap things up just ahead.

But we always do Facebook Live on Fridays will stick around for a while. And if you'd like to join us on Facebook Live, just text live to 208542 179. Okay. On cuz someone texted in I'm not really a fan. Mark.

Others said they're my favorite love MVC and R like you can't please everyone. Welcome to House Bill 93. Yeah, and that 5% of the people want to leave. Yeah, that's that's true public education. Like it just is what it is. Yeah. You know, can I make a little analogy here? I feel like the eco system of a talk station and its audience is not unlike your class in school.

Hey. Yeah. Or maybe your family. If you're in a big family, like, there's certain people that you might clash with and yet you don't like, but as a whole, you love. Yeah, it's part of your support system. It's part of what you identify with. So you tolerate the bad parts, put up with the bad parts. There are people I'm sure we've had a couple of people say, I don't like Mark Levin.

Other people say, I love Mark Levin. I love his direct, oh, people love Mark Lee. He's not my cup of tea. Yes, but I approve vitiate his talent and I appreciate what he does. Yes. I don't need to walk around trashing him just because he's not my favorite host. Yes. And and I will say this as the program director of the station, that the most important thing isn't that you try to get as many personalities that everybody will love, but that you make people feel like they belong to something.

And that's what's important, that we want you to genuinely feel. It's not just, a slogan or a marketing schtick. We really want you to believe that we are your favorite talk station, that this is where you turn to to learn more and to be, part of a changing world. Yeah. And and it it's a sense of community and belonging and it's I design it that, you know, we design it so it it behaves that way.

That's what we want. That's the reason for Facebook Live. That's one of the reasons we started it. It makes you part of the show. You get to see how it looks inside of the studio. It's not just a voice. Yeah. There's lots of things that we've done to incorporate that, concept. And, you know, I'll say, like you, you likened it to a family.

Not every kid in your family is exactly the same. Yeah, Mark Levin, not like the rest of them. Yeah. That's great. Does it adds a different flavor? Right. If all we had was Mark Lee VanCamp and Robyn Robbins clones. Yeah, that wouldn't be fun. That wouldn't be fun. No. You like I said, you go back to the idea of your class in school.

You need the the bookworms, you need the the jocks, you need the class clowns. You need the. You know, you're it's just a it's a very interesting mix of personalities and, Someone said their wife says Facebook Live is not working, but it is, right. It is working. I'm getting lots of texts and everything. Okay, we have grand peaks, right?

956 on Newstalk 1079 so guess what? We had for dinner? Not last night, but then the night before. Julie, tell me. It starts with French and ends with dip. John. Any guesses? French kiss? Ranch dip? No. I was splitting words together that there's no middle here. Well, you add starts with French. It ends with dip, and that's it.

So I should have said French fry. Yeah. French fry, ranch dip. French bulldog. French onion. Yeah, I don't know. Anyway. And French dip and, pulled it. We we thought it and then, it was maybe 15 minutes before dinner time. Then I had forgotten to start it in the pot, so I took it. It was pretty well thought.

I put it in a nice big sauce pan fry pan and, French fry. Anywhere you go. Anyway, put it in there and, within, like, I don't know, eight, ten, 12 minutes. It was simmering pretty good through some provolone, on some. But we had the French dip, and the outside was great. It was great. Everybody loved it.

So easy. From Grand Peaks. Prime means we we know you can use the restroom later. We're on the air right now. Deep fried meats, dot com. You can see all the specials they have there. You can also just create your order, turn it in there if you want to call them. They're really great to service over the phone too.

And then you can ask them questions. Make sure you get exactly what you want. But again that's cheap. Prime eats.com. I just got a text. It's GP primates. They said we're not paying for that because. That's okay. And so no you will you'll love it. All the things that they, offer and it's. I don't want you to think it's just French dip.

They have so much. Oh, so much more. Yeah. All right. Julie and I, we're going to stick around for a while on Facebook Live. We'd love to have you join us for that. Otherwise, Mark van Kampen Robins coming up just ahead. And just in case you tuned in and missed our big announcement, this morning, beginning March 17th, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton will take over the 10 to 1 slot.

Mark Lee, VanCamp, and Robbins slide to the 1 to 4 and then everything else stays the same. So have a great weekend. We'll see you Monday.