3.24.2025 -- NLS -- Hollywood's Woke Collapse, Trump’s Legal Fight & Fentanyl in Idaho

On this episode with Neal and Julie, they discuss the fallout from Hollywood's shift toward woke storytelling and how recent box office failures might signal a return to traditional, family-friendly entertainment. They also analyze the legal battles surrounding Donald Trump, with Julie noting Pam Bondi’s strong defense of presidential powers. The conversation turns to the Department of Education, as Neal and Julie debate whether its federal role is necessary or if education funding should be more localized.

Later, they speak with Sergeant Brian Lovell from the Bonneville County Sheriff's Department about rising fentanyl and drug-related incidents in East Idaho, including how addiction trends are now affecting younger populations. They also discuss the new Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office mobile app, which provides real-time safety updates, emergency alerts, and resources for residents.

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Transcript

Well, good morning and welcome back. On this Monday, I'm Julie Mason here at 807 at Newstalk 179. And I am joined by Neil Larsen. And you know what, Neil? I'd love to turn down that sound, but it's not going down. Are you there? All right, well, I had Neil just a minute ago. He has to reconnect. So I'll chat with you for just a second.

Not sure what was going on. We couldn't get the music to go down, so there you go. Like I said, good morning on a Monday. It's nice to have you guys here. And so much has happened over the weekend. It was big weekend. Big weekend in sports. If you're watching March Madness, there were some upsets there. We also had a big weekend with the Democrats.

They were, out and about AOC and Bernie on their oligarchy tour. They visited, Las Vegas, Denver, a couple of other places, did a little, town hall and were preaching the concept that Donald Trump and his rich allies were going to destroy America. So we had that going on. We also had Tom Homan.

He was out and about again doing his tour, playing his tour of, oh, we got feedback, Neil, but I can back Neil. But I can hear you. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes, I can hear you. Bet we. Oh, I can hear you, but we. Oh, there. Are you hearing the feedback in your earphones? Are you hearing the feedback in your earphones?

I am not hearing anything. But you're okay. But you're hearing feedback from me. Yes, well, my own voice, actually. Oh, yes. Yeah, my own voice, actually. Oh, that. Yes. Oh, okay.

How about now? Is that better? No, I still hear myself. No, I still hear it is slower, though. Okay. It is slower though. Oh. Nope. It went back up. Oh, nope. It went back up. Okay. This is what happens listeners. This is what has to do when Bill tries to do the show from his car. Yeah. Oh, you know what?

Let's try this. This kind of crazy better Julie this time. Crazy? No, it's still here. My voice is racing at my voice. It's a little crazy. We had this working in the 7:00 fine. And the 7:00 hour. Yeah, I had to default to my phone because I started the car and it rebooted this other piece of, equipment.

And so I'm. I'm doing this from my phone this morning. You go ahead and talk about some news. I'm going to get this other piece of equipment going. Okay? Julie totally works. Totally works. Okay, okay. So, let's chat for somebody just sending a text and said, how about BYU? That game was crazy. Yeah, Neil already gave me a really hard time about it.

And I, I can't believe that they won the game against Wisconsin. It was crazy. Came down to the wire. If you didn't watch that, that was a pretty phenomenal game. People have let us know they're now playing Alabama, and I'm guessing that on Thursday. I'm not sure exactly what day that is, but that's when the March Madness tournament picks back up.

All right. Let's talk about a couple of things. First off, we had a, disappointing weekend for, the, Snow White, live animation remake. UN. Here, let me premier here. I'll play a clip from Newsmax. Tell em new Matt Newsmax that, we'll give you an idea of how poorly that Disney remake of Snow White went.

Mirror, mirror on the wall. How badly did Disney's new Snow White flop after all the live action remake pulled in just some measly 45 million this weekend, putting it on track to be one of the Disney sleepy opening weekends. Yet controversy around the film began ever since we learned that there would be no Prince Charming because apparently he kissed her without consent.

And also no woman needs a man to rescue her. The movie also use CGI for the Seven Dwarfs rather than actors, because they thought using real people would be offensive. The actress playing Snow White is also known for her extreme anti-Israel and anti-Trump rants, and that she apologizes for immediately afterwards. So mirror, mirror on the wall. I'm predicting I'll be skipping this movie once and for all now.

All right, so yeah, it was actually worse than that. When the numbers came out this morning, it wasn't 45 million, it was only 43 million that that movie took in. Took 250 million to make, the actress that she referenced that had Rachel Zegler, who has called nothing but a PR nightmare for Disney through all of this. She's even doubled down.

She said, it doesn't matter what I've said. Any show that I'm in is going to do great. I don't think that is, playing true for her at this point. It's a bad look for Disney. They they aren't doing super well with their big budget live action films. They've had others that haven't done wonderful. The one that really seemed to play the best for them was The Little Mermaid.

That was back in 2023. It made 95 million during its opening weekend, so no pun intended, but dwarfing the Snow White numbers. And then it went on. It kind of grew in popularity and increased and did a little bit better. But they've had other other live actions that did not do well. Dumbo did not do well in 2019.

But the problem there for Snow White is Dumbo's, budget was only one 170 million snow whites, his 250 million. So they've got ground to make up there. Oh, is that Neil Larson that I hear it. It is me. Maybe they should have named both movies Dumbo because maybe they should have. Yeah. I don't know how long Disney keeps going.

I'm really surprised that they didn't try. Maybe it was just too expensive to revamp this movie at the point. But my one thing that I've never understood with Disney's why didn't they quiet or silence this actress, Rachel Zegler? They just let her keep talking and doing the PR, which did nothing but damage that film. Okay, so Julie, you and I both know that we don't follow the latest celebrity stuff.

Is, is she really that big of a draw? Like, is she that big a deal that they just had to put up with? Her attitude? I know there's no way that she was that big of a deal. I, I'm all you're right. I don't follow it. I don't know, she's only 23. It's not like she's done these amazing things in her life.

She she's not bring and the name of like a Tom Hanks or whatever. So I'm not sure why they let her continue on that PR tour, but they did. And they're going to reap some very horrible benefits from it. Well, well, maybe what it was is she matched what when they hired her, Disney was in the throes of their wokeism and and maybe they're like, oh yeah, she completely matches her values.

But as they went along, Disney went they started to moderate a little bit. I just came in and they realized, well, we can't we can't keep going down this road. But she she kept going and, and maybe that they just sort of parted ways. But you're right. What a disaster for Disney. And and I'm hopeful because these movies I mean their years and years in the pipeline when they from when they start to make them to when they finally release them.

So maybe, maybe they, they're just like, well, we got to put it out there because we have to recoup our losses on this. And that could be that. It was just so far down the road that they couldn't do anything but what they have done. And I guess some money's better than no money. You know, it might make 100 million because it's going to it's going to fall off dramatically in week two.

It doesn't have that, strong. Oh, this is still a good story like Little Mermaid did. In fact, a lot of people were panicking. The final scene, everyone's in white and they're dancing. It feels almost like, I like a big theatrical production. But here's the issue. A lot of the actors that are dancing are all of different races than white, and the whole premise of the story is it's that it's Snow White.

She's a fair woman. So it was like they were making a some sort of a racial, you know, statement. With that final scene. A lot of people had big issues with it. Well, yeah. And I, I okay, my first confession here, Julie, is whenever a woke version of a traditional film comes out and it flops, I'm happy like an I know.

No, I think I should be happy. This isn't a happiness or a glee that I should be sad for. I mean, it's too bad Disney's losing money on it, but this is sort of that necessary step for this Wokeism the yeah the all of that to to get kind of I don't want to say cleansed because that's a fairly Orwellian word but but we've got it.

We've got to get rid of it in the, in the culture because it is so toxic. And so I think when we see something like this happen, that's just one more step of getting rid of the of the wokeism that has just infected so much of our entertainment. And maybe this is the tough lesson that Disney had to learn.

These movies take years like you mentioned. And so maybe what the product that we're going to see from Disney in 2 or 3 years is going to look a lot different than this. Yeah. And and that's my hope, is that the movies that they're planting the seeds for now and getting in that pipeline, we'll just kind of get back to their more traditional stuff that is just family friendly, that that, you know, the kind of, entertainment that, that most people are going to love.

And, and, I do hope they've learned their lesson and they'll get away from it. Yeah. All right. We've got plenty more happening in the news. Neil, this morning there is going to be a court hearing held in New York. It's in an appellate court. So the judge, Judge Boasberg, who has said that it was illegal for Trump to send those illegal immigrants to El Salvador, that case is hitting the first step of appeal.

The concepts there is that it probably will do nothing that judge in New York will probably uphold it. But as we know, these are the steps that have to be taken for it to get to the Supreme Court. And it looks really positive that once it hits the Supreme Court, that there's no way they will uphold what this judge did.

But Pam Bondi, she was on Fox News over the weekend. Let's listen to what she had to say about this judge. This is an out of control judge, a federal judge trying to control our entire foreign policy. And he cannot do it. You know, he he dragged this into court on a Saturday without any notice. And then he's continuing these hearings.

He's trying to ask us about national security information in which he is absolutely not entitled to. We are appealing. We will be in court Monday again. We will win. We will prevail. There are 261 reasons why Americans are safer today, and that's because those people are now in an El Salvador prison, and we are going to follow the law, and we are going to protect Americans.

You know, there's a reason why Biden's approval rating was plummeting because of the border. There's a reason why the current Democrats approval rating is at 29%. People want to be safe. This is President Trump's agenda to keep Americans safe. Maria. It's basic public safety. Get these people out of our country as fast as we can. They're not immigrants.

They're illegal aliens who are committing the most violent crimes you can imagine on Americans murder, rapes, you know, ask the parents of all of these young women who have been violently strangled, raped and murdered. And we are going to continue to make America safe again, because that's President Trump's agenda. Yeah. All right. So, Pam Barney, she says they're not backing down.

They're going to go after more. And she truly does believe once it works its way through the courts, that they will win. Julie, this is such a kamikaze approach by the Democrats. I do not understand why they are taking the approach. And I know they're couching it under the under this umbrella of, well, due process. They have the due process.

Now these are known criminals. These are thugs. These are killers, these are rapists. These are people who who America, I believe, just generally believes they should not be in the country and we can send them away. And I agree with you. I think once this gets to the Supreme Court, sanity will prevail, because the law is clearly on Donald Trump's side to be able to do what he did and, it's good to hear Pam Bondi, torching, this particular judge.

However, we're still waiting for the Epstein files. Pam, just let you know, but just high expectations. Pam I know maybe that'll be next week. Well, we'll have to see, but but no, I think she's saying all the right things, and I I'm I'm happy to hear her so aggressively arguing in favor of the, the presidential power that Donald Trump has to do this.

You talked about the Democrats kamikaze intentions. I think it's also journalists have these kamikaze intentions and borders are Tom Homan. He was on with Jonathan Karl on ABC and it seemed almost, almost like Jonathan Karl wanted to protect these illegal immigrants more than protect Americans. So listen to what he had to say. There. But but how do you I mean, what we've heard from lawyers representing some of these people is that they deny that they're members of this, of this gang, or either, you know, trying to get their agua or ms13.

Do they get a chance to prove that before you take them out of the country and put them in to a notorious prison in a country that they're not even from? I mean, do they have any due process at all, like due process, guys, like in Ronnie's due process, where are all these young women that were killed and raped by members today?

Where is the due process? What will the people that do that you prosecuted on the subway? Worse are due process. What's your bottom line? Is that plane was full of people. Does guys terrorists number one. Number two, every every Venezuelan migrant on that flight was was was the TDA member based on numerous criminal investigation and intelligence reports and a lot of work by Ice officers of fact, two days after that, flight took off, I even had discussion with the Austrian director Ice, and he reiterated that every person, every runs away on that plane was a known member of the TDA.

So a lot of officers, a lot of criminal investigators, special agents who have done this for decades, looked at the Intel, the intelligence information, the criminal investigation and information, all the various, social media and, and surveillance and, and government records and public records. And there are company tether. All members said today. I'm not surprised that a member of the family sent a nonmember to the.

All right, so that's Tom Homan saying they did their their due diligence here. Whatever Jonathan Karl is inferring about due process, Tom Homan feels like the American government did their due diligence, checked into these people extensively before they sent them to El Salvador? Well, I, I don't know what the exact process is for do when it comes to due process for illegals.

I my hunch is again, I'm, I'm no, you know, immigration attorney or legal expert here. But if we have solid reason to believe that they are connected to a gang, that they are, you know, not not playing by the rules here in our country. We can ship them out and, and I, I don't think like the due process that we have for citizens in America when they allegedly commit crimes is really the same.

And and I think about, for instance, the, the o the guy on the college that's whipping up the hatred against Jews, the Hamas killer. Yeah, yeah. Mahmoud Khalil, I don't think he has the same full breadth of due process that others would have. We just have the right to get him out of the country if they're not following the rules.

And I think that's really all the due process they have have a claim to as non-citizens, many of them are here illegally. If they're if they're not following the rules, then you ship them out. Now, if they can find a way to get due process in El Salvador, then more power to them in El Salvador can deal with it.

But I don't I don't think we have the same obligation to illegal, aliens here that that we do to, you know, just your your average American citizen. I would completely agree with you. I think that's the layer that is not being referenced here by Jonathan Karl. And I think it's a little bit dishonest on his part.

He's acting. He's acting as if these people, you know, how can you do this to them? You can't really show that they've done anything wrong. Well, we do this as part of our criminal system when, there is a grand jury that's brought forward and there's an investigation, we put people in jail and then hold a trial for them.

And a lot of time they stay in jail following that indictment by a grand jury. Well, what they did here has an added layer to it, which is they are here illegally. The people who are put in jail by a grand jury, they are American citizens, and they're going through the American process. If you are here illegally, you don't get the rights that were given to other people.

And if if they have, enough evidence showing that you're a danger, then go on to El Salvador, go back there, try to figure it out. If you find your way back here. Awesome. But you don't have rights because you're here illegally. Yes. And you have human rights. You know, we can't just beat the crap out of you and deny your food and, you know, that kind of thing, but you don't you don't have the full, full array of rights, which maybe the Supreme Court, when they take this up, they'll they'll be offering some more, some more, I guess, guidance on their son, on how all, all of that works.

Yeah. All right, Neil, should we take a break? Yeah, let's do it. All right, coming up next, I want to talk to you, Neil, after the break about, signee die and how they miss their deadline. Also, Julie, at some point, let's talk about Rosie O'Donnell. She's now an election denier. I see it. This will be fun.

Yeah. All right, we'll be right back.

Let's look like. All right. Julie, this is me. Is that better? Yeah, a little bit better. Okay. I can even go higher. No. That's good. Okay, okay. All right. Okay, let's do this. Okay? Okay.

And we're back on this Monday. I'm Julie Mason, and that's Neil Larsen. I just got a text. Neil, when I put you in that, mode on the board, they could hear us over the commercial. Oh, they could? Yeah. Yeah. This is the fun things are figuring out. Let's kind of explain to people how you're doing this on the road with me.

Okay? So I'm actually in Kanab, Utah, and I, we have fantastic equipment here at at Sand Hill. And I'm using a unit that literally allows me to put on a microphone and hold hold of mic and just talk. I can hear everything happening back at the station. I do want to ask you, Julie, was the slider up or down on, on, on my piece of equipment on the side.

Yeah. The tie line was up. So is that why okay. Yeah, that's why we went over there. So. Yeah. Yeah. I guess you have to treat this like another microphone. You'll just have to turn that down during the break so I can turn it off. So I got it anyway. Anyway, we're here, we're we're good. And I'm actually sitting in my car.

I thought about doing this inside the hotel room. But part of the problem when you broadcast, you actually are louder than your, your to your typical speaking voice. And I didn't want to wake people up at 6 or 7 in the morning with me talking loud. So I thought, you know what, a car is a pretty quiet environment, and I'll find a, quiet place to go that's fairly discreet.

And so I'm sitting in a church parking lot in Kanab, Utah, and I'm, I'm doing my my side of the show from that setting, and it's actually working out really well. It is. It's going great. And this is the first time we've done it with this particular piece of equipment. So we've got a learning curve going on, but it's turning out good I like it.

Yeah it is, it is. And it's a beautiful, beautiful sunny morning here in Kanab. So I can't complain. It's, Let me see. It's, let me see. It is. Well, right now it's 44 degrees, so it's it's cool, but not cold. Not too bad. All right, well, let's talk about this, Neil. On Friday, that was the target date for the potential signing day for the Idaho Legislature.

They obviously failed to get there. And we had mentioned this, last week that Jack is is really the the reason they don't really want to say that a reason, but they are the reason they have been grappling with a series of procedural changes and those have created some kind of like difficult, difficult voting situations in committees. And it's delayed the budget setting process.

So every year that's Jack. Is there really time intensive heavy duty committee that sets all of the budget? And, they've been behind on some of those things. This news article from Idaho Capital Sun, it mentions that Jack did not take action to set pay levels and raises for state employees until February 6th. So that really delayed them.

Push pushed a whole bunch of other things down the line as they kind of wrestled back and forth with that concept, and Jack also did not set the 2026 revenue projection that the new budget is based around until March 5th. So we had the delay from the raises for government or for legislators. Then the delay on, well, what are we even going to do with how much money we're going to project here and here and here?

And so all of that is behind. They did hold a marathon session last week, and they are expected to hold a marathon session again today to hopefully get through some more of those things so that, the signing day can move a little bit closer. It might not even be by the end of the week. It's looking like probably at least two weeks or two weeks from today.

Yeah. He still. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's going to be long. We are as a programing note, we will have Barb representative Barb Earhart on tomorrow and there there was a, a decision in a court case about fairness and women's sport in sports in Idaho. So we're going to have her update us on that. But we'll get an update from her to of when she thinks will actually signee die in case they got a lot done with their session today.

Okay, okay. Well hopefully I mean to be two weeks or two plus weeks past your target signing day date that that's hard on on lawmakers, on their families on you know, there's farmers that want to get back to to planting. So yeah, hopefully they can they can do some marathon sessions and get that done. Yeah hopefully. And like we mentioned last week, they're probably at the point that they're not really liking each other that much anymore.

Yeah. But yeah if they're they're probably really ready to sign it. I yeah I know I'd get tired of half of them. I think I would too. All right. We've got our bottom our news update coming up, and we'll be right back after that.

And we're back on a Monday with Newstalk 179. I'm Julie Mason, and joining me on the road is Neil Larson. Good morning Neil. Good morning from sunny Kanab Utah. All right. Thank you so much for taking the time this morning to do that. Esther probably didn't even care. She's probably sleeping in back at the hotel room, isn't she?

Yeah, I left the room. Like, I'm going to go broadcast and do my, radio show. And so here, here I am. And I just got mail. You've got mail? I have got mail. Okay, okay, let's set up this Rosie O'Donnell clip. She was like, angry Trump when she moved to Ireland, and a clip surfaced of her on a late night talk show that you or I are not familiar with.

I think his name is Jimmy Fallon. Maybe you know what? He doesn't look anything like him. I can see a picture of him. That's that's that's that's true. He doesn't. Totally different coloring everything, but, yeah, it turns out Rosie's an election denier. Yeah. How? The tables have turned here. Let's play it. You know, a lot of people did vote for him.

Yes. Do you accept their their right to do that, in their opinion, often? Well, I respect their right to do that. I question why the first time in American history, a president has won every swing state and is also best friends. And his largest donor was a man who owns and runs the internet. So I would hope that that would be investigated and that we would see whether or not it was an anomaly or something else that happened on election night in America, when Kamala Harris was filling up stadiums with people who supported her.

Donald Trump was not able to do that. So it's curious to me, and as an American and a believer in democracy, I would hope that we would be able to, look at all of the reasons why this happened in our country. All right, I okay, where is she thinking that Donald Trump didn't fill up stadiums, I, I don't well, I don't know she's she's delusional, Julie.

And only she's allowed to be curious. Only she can look at an election and think this didn't look right or this didn't feel right. I don't see the American left with their hair on fire, because Rosie O'Donnell is now questioning the, outcome of of 2020, 2024. And and it's also very weird. The quote here is I questioned why the first time in American history a president has won every swing state.

I don't know that that's true. Ronald Reagan in 84 won every state except for Minnesota, where his opponent was from. So you can't really count that as a swing state. That year. Reagan won every swing state. If you want to use that as a definition. So she's just factually wrong here. She's factually wrong about Donald Trump not filling up stadiums.

I mean, we had story after story after story of Kamala Harris and the lackluster energy that was surrounding her campaign. Like, she's just she's just delusional. You know, I would also say there is some unique factors explaining who won what following the elections. I think we have enough time behind the November election watching Trump govern or be the president.

Now for, you know, most of or a little bit of January, all of February and almost all of March. And then we can compare that to Biden when he won in 2020. Now we all kind of question, how did he get that many, that many votes? There was shenanigans. He run his he ran his campaign from his basement.

So to reference Rosie O'Donnell's, comments, he didn't even try to fill stadiums. There was no stadiums. There was no campaigning. He stayed in his basement yet garnered that amount of votes after he won the election. And I put air quotes around that. In November. It was like everybody went to sleep. He went away like he made all these dangerous moves with executive orders.

And then he just started to age at a light speed. There wasn't this energy around him. Now let's compare Donald Trump winning every swing state in November and how the last 65, 70 days have gone. He's winning on multiple issues, 8020 issues like die and men in women's sports. He is above 60% in this immigration battle. That's in polls that happened just over the weekend.

I think it was 63% who support Donald Trump on both sides. So there's a big difference there. Everybody just kind of went to sleep after Biden won. And Donald Trump has all of this pushing this power behind him. That's why I give these election results legitimacy. Well, I don't even think we have to defend the legitimacy of the election.

I think it's self-evident. And I'm not I'm not contradicting you. But even the Democrats came out other than Rosie O'Donnell. I mean, nearly every other Democrat came out right after the election, recognized Donald Trump as the legitimate winner. And it was noncontroversial. In fact, this is the first and I could be mistaken here, but at least to my knowledge, this is the first Democrat to question the outcome of the 2024 election.

Have there been any other stories where Democrats are saying Trump's not legitimate? Trump didn't actually win that, that it was rigged? I do think I remember some hinting around, but this is probably, I would say, the most blatant, response. I and she probably feels safe doing it because it's on this low budget Ireland talk show. Yeah, yeah, it is kind of low, but it's true.

Yeah. But yeah. No, I bet you're you're not wrong. I think she's in a different country now. She doesn't have to face the American press and the American media. Like she used to. So, yeah, you're probably right. She probably feels a wider latitude to do that. Probably. So bouncing off of that, let's talk about that 8020 issue about, men and women's sports.

So Riley Gaines has not let up on this. She continues to, to, make the circuit on, on all of these media platforms. She was at Trump's, message to Congress, and she was there and and, was celebrated for the work that she has done. I know she's been in Boise before. Like I mentioned, Idaho just won a court case, so it looks like it's going to be upheld in Idaho.

This fairness in women's sports. Well, Riley Gaines was on Piers Morgan Uncensored over the weekend. She is having a battle. And they they termed it a debate with someone named. Let's see. What is her name? Blossom. I do believe it can translate to a woman is who it is. So that's why she's having this debate with him. Let's listen to this person.

So blossoms take on racism piers. Now you can respond. Cannot be racist to white women. Are you kidding me? Sorry, that makes no sense. Sorry. Black women cannot be racist to white women. Do you not understand? Oh yes, I can. I don't have the intellect. Oh, yes, I can understand that. Oh yes, thank you very much. And you've been racist to me.

That's very much. You've been racist to me, a white man. I'm saying I'm a writer. Yeah. How am I racist to you? I'm black. I can't be racist. You called me a race beater with no evidence at me. When have I been a race baiter? You can be racist to me. When have I been a race baiting powerhouse?

Tell me when I've been a race face for House. Well, you may be a Palihapitiya or something. You may be a town. You may be a powerhouse. Okay. When have I been a race baiting? Admit that whenever I've been a race baiting. Okay. When have I been a race baiting? Okay, this is absurd. No, hang on, tell me.

Give me one example of me race baiting. Blossom, go. I'm here. At this point, I'm just here to talk about trans women in sports. I see what I'm saying. So you don't hide anything, do you? Repeat anything? Call me a race baiting. Now you. She's got nothing and like it. That's hilarious. Yeah. She has nothing to come back with for you and the listeners.

They can't see. Riley gains face, but she is losing her mind at the end. She's just not covering it up very well because. And she retweeted this and said, I often have a hard time keeping my facial expressions in check when confronted with sheer stupidity, which is exactly what this person named blossom is doing. She has no argument here or he has no argument here.

And of course black people can be racist to white people. I don't know what definition this person is working under. Oh, I yeah, I've, I've heard it before that when you're in the minority, when you're in the oppressed minority, you can do anything you want because you're oppressed and therefore you can't be racist. There's no logic to it.

Racism is racism, and it can go either direction. But I love the part where Piers Morgan just pressed this individual saying name one time that I was a race speeder, and they couldn't. They were just fabricating the reality as they went on. Which doesn't that speak to much of their life, really, to be honest with you? Oh, absolutely.

Hey, it's it's shifting the goalposts, changing the rules, building, alternate realities that aren't based in fact. And when those things are, exposed, much like you saw Matt Walsh do in his documentaries, there really is no response from the other side. Yeah. And it it is. And then, that actually that clip was a little frustrating to watch because they can throw out any accusation they want.

They're never held accountable for it. But where when it just puts on display how brazen they are and and it is, it's ridiculous. Everyone should watch that clip because I think Riley gains reaction is a good collective reaction for all of us. Yeah, how absurd the left is. Hey, I, I felt her roll her eyes here in Idaho I did too, I did too, I think it was on the Richter scale.

It might have been okay. Real quick, before we take our break, on Friday, I mentioned that BSU President Marlene Trump took the job in Vermont. Give us your brief, take on that. I think you go where you're comfortable and you leave from where you're uncomfortable. And with what the legislature's done when it comes to dealing, I and I, I feel like she who's she's very, very liberal.

And I think she just felt like Boise State is not going to be a good fit for me anymore. And I think she looked for greener pastures and she found them in Vermont. That is so funny. You said greener pastures because I said on Friday, greener, more liberal pastures. Yes. For her, they're the same. Yep. Yeah.

For sure. So which, you know, good luck to her. Yeah. Good luck and good luck on the search for a new president. All right. We got to take a quick break. And before we finish out this hour. Hey, Neal, thanks for joining me. I really appreciate it. Well, thank you for having me.

All right, we're back on Newstalk 1079. And it's the Wild Kingdom. Well, where Neil Larson is at. What's going on over there, Neil? Well, I just sent you a couple of pictures. Julie I'm sitting here in this parking lot, and three deer just walked past about, oh, I would say 30 yards away from me. It was it was so cool.

Oh, fun. Yeah. Kanab is such a beautiful place. I'm so glad that you chose that as your, like, central location over the past few days. Yeah, kind of our hub. It's been it's been really nice. All right. It's been great. Well, guess what I had for dinner yesterday. Let me guess. It was probably meat and something. Protein ish.

Yes, it was Jeep Prime meats, steak. I cooked it for eight hours while I was at church. It fell apart on the plate. It was so good. The only thing wrong with Grand Peaks cuts is, like, everything else sort of feels subpar. I did not have an eight hour cooked steak yesterday. It was so good. Baked potatoes and the roast.

And. But there is a problem. It was my last one in the freezer. So you and I need to go get Ahold of Grand Peaks and refill our orders, because now my freezer is almost empty. Okay, so we'll go to GG Prime meats.com. We'll choose what we want, and then we'll go pick up our order. It's pretty simple, right?

Sounds great. They're friends of the program. They should be your friends too. So when you go to GG Prime meats.com, just take a quick look at the specials. They have, the packages they have. If you don't see what you're looking for, give them a call. They will absolutely answer all of your questions like the ribs and the dogs and all this stuff.

Yeah. All right, Neil, we haven't talked about the Department of Education, so let's do that. The top of the 9:00 hour. Also, Tim Walz is trying to back off his comments about Tesla. So I've got a clip from him that I need to play for you. I feel like he thinks he's a stand up comedian at this point.

I do too. So we talked last hour. Julie, I know we're we're pressed on time here, but we you had a Bernie and AOC doing a tour. Tim Walz has done a tour. And isn't Buttigieg's building some kind of a national network as well? Like, it's it's interesting to watch all of this coming together and they're obviously trying to fill a vacuum.

They feel the issue that Democrats have, and they're trying to fill up that vacuum that's been created. And it feels a little too soon, a little too early. Yeah. Yeah it does, it does. All right. Okay. That's the end of the hour. And we got top of the hour news break coming up.

All right. Welcome back. On a Monday morning I'm Julie Mason and Neil Larsen is joining me on the road. Hey Neil. Guess what. What? It's doing it again. I can't get the music to quiet. Okay, well, we'll just talk over. Let me just talk over the music. I'd love to turn it down, but it's not. It's not responding to what I'm doing, but.

Okay. You can hear me. Okay? I can hear you. Yeah. We're good. Okay. Well, weird. Yeah. All right, well, like I said, Neil is joining us on the road. He's in Kanab, Utah this morning. Yeah, but you will be heading back to Idaho, today. Sure. Yeah, yeah. In fact, once, once I'm off, the air will be all packed up and, getting ready to head back north to get back to, East Idaho.

So, yeah, excited to have you back, but I hope you've enjoyed the the vacation. Has it been good? It's been good. It's been a lot of miles. But you know how much I love to drive, and, we have done three national parks. We spent a day in Bryce, a day in Zion, and yesterday, a day in, Grand Canyon.

And today's our travel day back home. So it's been. It's been a good little, just a good little jaunt. Just just needed to get away and take a little breather for a minute. I love that you had the opportunity. I also love that. And some people might remember I gave Neil a National Parks Pass as part of his Christmas gift because I know that he loves to do this.

So I am so grateful that you've been using it and that you've enjoyed those three national parks. Yes. Thank you. It's it has it has been wonderful. So yeah, it's and we'll put it. Luckily we have lots of National park. Well not lots but we have a couple of great national parks in our backyard in, East Idaho.

So I'll be putting it to good use there too. Yeah, I hope you do. I hope that that works for you. All right. We haven't gotten to Education Secretary Linda McMahon. So while you were gone, Trump signed that executive order. Super cute. It was in, the it looked like possibly the Oval Office, but he had all these little school desks set up, and he had schoolchildren come in and he signed the order, gave lots of, praise to teachers, but said under the current system, the teachers actually aren't being rewarded and that we need to go to a merit based system to reward teachers.

We need to get rid of the bloat at the federal level and help help teachers out by cutting out the people at the top who are making money for doing nothing to help children. And so following that, there was a lot of, you know, weeping and wailing and people having issues. And, Linda McMahon did give some remarks following that, but she was also on CNN this weekend.

And here's what she had to say about President Trump's executive order. Do you believe that the federal government has a responsibility to ensure that all children, for all children, urban, rich, poor, special needs have access to quality education? That is certainly the goal of the president. He has said that he wants to make sure that there is equal access to quality education for every student in our country, which is why he is such a proponent of school choice.

He doesn't believe that any child should be trapped in a failing school that we should have. Parents have the ability to choose for their children, can be able to go to school so that they if they are in a failing school, they have an opportunity to have better education somewhere else, that they have the tools to be able to do that.

Okay, I think this totally matches what Idaho is doing. Neal. I think that we had Governor Little who was actually there in DC for the executive order. He had a bandage on his hand. We got to get the backstory on that. I don't know what he's done to his right hand, but it was all bandaged up. But he was there for the signing of the executive order.

He did put out an an X with a recording of him supporting school choice and the dismantling of the Department of Education. We also had Linda McMahon go on and clarify in this interview with CNN that don't fret about your Department of Education loans, like your Pell Grants or your loans that you get for higher education. Those are all being moved to another department.

Don't fret about the school, lunch program. It's already housed under a different department. So there's not going to be an issue there. And the reality is, the money that is in the Department of Education is going to get funneled back to the states, so that the states can run education appropriate to their demographics. No, I think this is I love the visual of having kids there because I, I think and some oh no, this is some yay!

Who on social media that I happen to be friends with, who thinks that Trump is saying he wants to get rid of education? And, even even they know that's not true. And you know what, Julie? I hadn't thought about this. I, I feel like getting rid of the department of Education. There may be some similarities, to getting rid of Dei in companies and corporations.

If you talk to local schools and you get them off the record and you ask them, do you think we should continue this quarter of $1 trillion department, or should we just take those resources and and allow those resources to be more present in, in classrooms and, and, and directly involved in education? I think teachers and administrators would all be on board with dissolving the Department of Education and repurposing that money for other things that have greater application in the classroom.

And you know, how we we have this theory that that companies and corporations couldn't get out of divest. And if they were very eager to be done with it, I think the same will be true when and I'm going to be optimistic and say when, not if the Department of Education goes away. And I think it's like one of those big, big weights around our necks that we'll be happy to get rid of because it really doesn't do, I think?

I think it was Linda McMahon last week that said that only about a fourth of that money, like 23% of that money, actually makes it into America's Classrooms for education. That is so top heavy. It's time to to get rid of that and, and and reuse those resources, or at least a good portion of those resources in, in a way that's much, much more effective.

And so I look forward to that. I actually, I know that it's it's felt like it was a distant goal to be able to get rid of this big department. I feel like it's actually very much within reach, because I think the whispers on the ground are that, yeah, we really don't need the Department of Education on the federal level.

I would agree to. And whether or not Governor Little is running for office or whether or not governor, Governor Little is all supportive of education. Or maybe it's a hybrid of both. I think this puts to rest the concept in Idaho that still was trying to be pushed by some lawmakers that, well, he signed that order for, Parent choice Tax credit under duress.

It wasn't really what he wanted to do, but he's been backed into a corner and he's had to do it. I don't think that that's true. I don't I would assume that he there were things that he would have preferred to have happened with that. But I think he has a clear understanding of the direction that Idaho is going, which mirrors the direction of Donald Trump in this executive order.

And it is time to put the child first with the parent in the lead. The child is the primary, the measures to help the children become the primary goal and the leader in that goal, that fight towards this, it's led by the parents and then held up by everybody else. Well, Julie, you know my magic question when it comes to school choice, which is why do you want low and lower middle income kids to not have the chance to have a private education?

And there's no good answer to that question. There is no good answer to that question. And I think Governor Little is just reading the room, and that's why he signed the bill. And a whether the enthusiasm is is feigned or genuine, it doesn't really matter. And there's no such thing as a veto or, excuse me, as a governor's signature under duress.

A governor's signature is a governor's signature. That bill is law. And Idahoans coming very soon. They have school choice in Idaho, and we will find out if it is a bill that will provide choice for kids and families in Idaho, or it's it's the education apocalypse that, people on the left are saying it's going to be so.

Well, we'll find out soon. My my hunch is that it's the former, not the latter. So something interesting happened for me this, week after you left. I ran into a teacher friend of mine. We had a chance to chat, and we talked about this education tax credit that has been passed and and this teacher was like, look, it was coming and we need to address it.

And then this teacher and I spoke about the culture of the children that are being educated right now, and how difficult it is for anyone in education to to have success just because the culture is not functioning very, very well, which led for me to ask the question of back in 2020 when on the show, Neal and I broached the concept of cameras in class rooms.

Oh man, do you remember the upheaval? People coming in and saying, no, that's not fair to the teacher. We even had leaders saying it. Teachers aren't comfortable in front of cameras. It will alter the way that they teach. And Bill and you and I were like, hey, let's give it a shot. You you made it all possible during Covid 19.

Let's give it a shot. I asked this teacher that question again. We're now in 2025 and the culture has eroded even further. This teacher has completely changed her tune. She said I would 100% welcome cameras in the classroom. It is time for parents to see what kind of education their child is getting, both good and bad. And it is time for those parents who refuse to help from home and offer discipline for children who are in or up, who are interrupting classrooms.

It is time for them to be able to see what is happening in the classroom. This teacher was all on board for cameras. Now that is the teacher that you want to have teaching your kid, right? The one that welcomes scrutiny, the one that welcomes, parents being able to see exactly what they're doing in the classroom. And I, I would hope that that attitude would be ubiquitous throughout education.

Clearly, it's not because of the backlash you and I received, but. But I would hope that will we'll have more more embracing of that in the future. I would hope so too. And I think it's it's pretty strong to see that somebody is that willing at this point to make a change, that they want it to be that different in the classroom because they feel clearly, they feel like they're not offering everything that they need to for the student.

Otherwise they wouldn't be embracing the concept of cameras in the classroom. So we got that going on. We'll have to watch that executive order. I'm sure that Linda McMahon will have a lot of work, ahead of her. It's not going to be just as simple as shifting these programs, but I do appreciate that the executive order wasn't just a signature and that there was defined, solutions of where things were going to go, but we AAPs 100% need Congress to act as well.

This can't stand on its own, this executive order. There has to be some work done by the lawmakers on the federal level in order to make this happen. Well, I think it feels more in reach now than it has in a very, very long time. Yeah, very long time. Okay. Neil, you remember before you left, we played that clip of Tim Walz making fun of the Tesla stock and so happy because he had the app on his phone and the stock was dropping, and it made him happy during the day.

And then he took so much heat over about the next 24 to 48 hours, because in his home state, his retirement actually has Tesla stock involved in it. So he's sitting there rooting for the government employees in his state and even his own stock portfolio to take a hit because he hates a man so bad. Well, he's been on this tour.

He addressed that concept and said, hey, I was just teasing here, give it a listen. What can we possibly do about Elon Musk? Because it's not right. It is not right, am I? This guy bugs me in a way that is probably unhealthy. And, but but. I, I have to be careful about being a smartass. I was making a joke.

These people have no sense of humor. They are the most literal people. Most literal people. But. But my point was, they're all mad. And I, you know, said something I didn't, you know, probably shouldn't have about a company. He has a great. Okay. So I love the projection here because they're the ones without a sense of humor. And clearly that was exposed during the campaign.

And then he he just doubled the doubles down on the concept that, hey, we're actually doing it right. They're doing it wrong. We're not filled with hate. They're filled with hate. And I'm okay because I'm in this room with a bunch of my supporters. All right. What do you think? Well, he is the most disastrous vice presidential candidate we have had in recent memory.

Like, I can't remember one that was worse than Tim Walz, but he's kind of got his core group of supporters. And. And so I think those are the people he sort of fills the room there with. But he again, it's like what we talked about with, with, with, AOC and with Bernie Sanders, these are not people that America's going to embrace, and they're living this illusion that they are.

And you're right. He said a stupid, stupid thing. It wasn't a joke. It was not a good sense of humor in any, any regard. And now he's trying to gaslight and reframe. He did that multiple times. If you remember Julie during his his campaign, the short lived campaign with Kamala Harris, when he would say things that were controversial or there would be an old clip of him and his, quote unquote, military service, and he mischaracterized it.

He lied about it. And then when he was caught, he said, well, I was joking. Well, no, you were serious at the time, and now you're trying to gaslight and say it was a joke. We're seeing this sort of pattern of deception and dishonesty just continue. And Tim was like, I don't think he'll ever own what he says he is.

And he is constantly running from the consequences of what he says and does. I couldn't agree more. Well, Neil Larson, I'm going to cut you loose. Okay. I thank you for having me. And I will be there and in studio tomorrow morning. Yeah. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that you took of your time on your vacation to join us this morning.

And also, please drive safe on your way back. Well thank you. It was my pleasure. Thank you. Julie. Thank you everyone. See you tomorrow. All right. So we're cutting Neil loose. But that doesn't mean that I'm alone in the studio for the back half of the hour. We're going to be joined by, Sergeant Brian Lovell with the Bonneville County, Police Department.

So he is going to Bonneville County Sheriff's Department. I should say he's going to be joining us. We're going to talk about immigration, fentanyl, all of the things related to safety in East Idaho. And we'll do that after the break as well. Well, good. There you go. This is you. Yeah. If there never is never a question about who's whose microphone cover it is.

Yeah. Heather's been doing a little bit of. And we're back on Newstalk 179. And as promised, I'm joined by Brian Level from the Bonneville County Sheriff's Department. Good morning Brian. Morning. It's so good to have you here. Thanks. We need to remind everybody you have a little bit of experience in radio that was in your past. Tell them about it.

It's sort of a secret. Well, I don't know. It wasn't a secret, but when I did radio, I did. I did it off, you know, kind of part time for about. Yeah. Off and on for like 18 years during. And I was doing law enforcement at the same time. But so either people knew me from that or they knew me from law enforcement and, people I worked with and family kind of knew I did both.

But, that's been a while ago now, like 15 years ago, since I've since I had, a second job doing that at the same time as my full time bread and butter job. So. Well, you're super comfortable behind the mic when you have you in sound, and I don't I mean, I don't know if I can reveal this.

I think I've been Neal's stunt double one other time. Okay. For I don't know, I don't maybe not. I'm just sure this is the really not risky way to be Neal's stunt double. Yeah, I just thought. Well, I can be Neal's stunt double today. I want to come in and let's talk about the hard hitting issues and that's not.

That's the hard questions like Kanab or NAB or. I don't know, why is it Kanab? Why are they apartments when they're stuck together? Those kind of questions. Yeah. All the good stuff that matters. Okay, let's we have some good news that have has been coming out of the department, but let's talk about the bad news first. We have fentanyl on the streets.

We new, I think that, you know, there was hopes that if we stemmed the flow at both the Canadian border and the US border, that we'd be filling those effects by now. But kind of explain what you're seeing on the on that front. Well, East Idaho, I think it might be a little soon to tell or see that different kind of, playthrough or washout or cycle through.

So there's probably, a likely effect of the changes at the border on what's coming into our country. And that's a good thing. Anything, anything that'll curb that coming in, especially with fentanyl. We are still seeing, you know, our, our deputies and our law enforcement partners are still getting arrests with fentanyl and other drugs, methamphetamine and stuff like that, marijuana and THC products.

So, you know, there's going to be some supply and demand that's probably in the middle of playing out, I would imagine, in the next several and upcoming months. So but, but fentanyl is still a real concern because it, you know, it doesn't care who you are. It doesn't wait for you to be an addict.

It can be deadly the first time you have contact with it. And the good thing is, is there's a lot of educational stuff out there and a lot of warning. So hopefully that's curbing some of that use. Hopefully people you take that as a sign to go and, you know, get get help that they need and get clean of these things.

You know, the availability of Narcan and those kind of things around the area, that's a good thing. And we've seen some, you know, cause and effect there. We've gone to calls with, you know, with, the fire and ambulance folks where we've administered Narcan, Narcan, someone on scene there is administered it before we got there. The ambulance crew administers it.

You know, we're having that kind of serious Narcan, events going on. And that's a good thing because some of those things are kind of self rescues before we get there, before you have an actual overdose death. But, but concerning pieces that some people may be under the belief that you only need one dose of Narcan, you may need several until you can get to the hospital and whatnot.

And so, you know that that process has been going on over the last few years of of the availability of that in the community, the educational piece of it, and so on. And so I think we're we're seeing a little bit of that reflect in the numbers of, of overdoses and events that we're interacting with. Let's talk a little bit about fentanyl, because I appreciate that you can bring education to people about it.

And I don't expect you to weigh in on the political matters with fentanyl. But when Trump asked, then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to stem the flow of fentanyl at the Canadian border, there was a lot of pushback from community Canadians saying, well, it was only a suitcase full of fentanyl. That was found. Explain to people what a suitcase full can do.

Well, yeah, a suitcase full is, when when you're talking, you know, two, two grains or or the size of the head of a pencil is enough fentanyl that can kill a person. And then you start. You, you know, extend that to a suitcase full of pills where, you know, 60, 70% of those pills have lethal amounts of fentanyl in them.

That's a significant amount of people that hundreds of thousands of people do. Yeah. I mean, that is, you know, if we want to talk about just a suitcase, but that can go far and wide for a long ways. And that's the concern is, it only takes a little bit and, and, tiny little pill that people are using and abusing.

And then you've got, you know, seven and 6 or 7 and ten chance that, that that could be the hot one that's going to get. Yeah. And, and you think you might rely on. Well, I got Narcan here. Well, are you going to be able to self rescue? You know, chances are I go too far.

Yeah. Because you're not going to know that you're in that state until your body starts shutting down. When it shuts down, you're not gonna find that stuff, right? Someone's got to be there to watch after you. So, that's significant, you know? And those are those numbers. Whatever they're catching at the north border, whatever they're catching at the southern border.

That's just what's being caught. Obviously, there's more getting into the country somehow. And in a variety of ways, because we're catching it on the street, you know, you know, we I think the bulk of it probably comes from the South. But, a lot of other drugs that we're seeing, methamphetamine and stuff like that, it could come from anywhere.

It could get shipped from everywhere. And, and we're still getting that inside of our country, and it's poisoning our communities and killing people. Yeah. And when we're on the education piece, what's the age level? You're seeing this use of fentanyl. I think that people think it's an adult drug. And and when I've talked with you, that's not reality.

I think we're seeing it in our teens and, younger people, teens and early 20s, likely, but all the way up to adult, my experience, my time in law enforcement, some of those drugs and things and activities and drug trade and drug use and drug abuse, that has evolved to where, you know, you used to just see that in adults or that was adult behavior, but now you're seeing, the presence of that down in our schools here and there.

It's not every day. It's not everyone, but the presence of that is making it down into our middle schools and our high schools. And there could be a lot of factors to that. I think you've got we've seen it in our the schools that we have teams working in, that kind of behavior mimicking, you know, adult drug behavior, teenage drug behavior, clear down and elementary level kids and, and, you know, it's got to come from somewhere.

And, I don't know, it could be from TV, the internet or their home life or their neighbors or friends. Who knows? But that that's a serious concern. We see more of that, I think, than we used to. Yeah. So that leads to me. You said that can come from somewhere. The behavior can come from somewhere. Do you have a pretty good handle on how these younger kids, maybe a 14 year old or a 13 year old, how are they getting a hold of these drugs?

Well, you know, they obviously got to have some connection to someone that is, has resources to get that from adults or wherever. And, and a lot of these drugs and things, you go back to like, tobacco and the advertising of tobacco and, and court cases and laws and in lawsuits changed the way that advertising was.

But you look at, vaping, where we're seeing, the presence of marijuana products in vaping, you know, marijuana is legal and illegal in Idaho, but legal in surrounding states. And we're still we're getting that here. And the availability of information on social media and the internet, they're seeing these things and it's marketable and getting priced down to where kids can afford it.

And and then I'm not even sure what they, what they're getting, you know, but they'll, they'll get it and, and, start abusing those things. And they are under the impression that these things are harmless. And, but they're really not, all of a sudden you're having, overdose issues with just vaping and marijuana type substances. You know, you're having serious medical problems that they don't even know, really, what's in those things or where they come from, but they're trusting whoever they bought this off of on Snapchat or social media or whatever.

And so, that's a serious concern because when you start looking outside, looking in at all that, look at those things look like they're marketing it to kids, you know, they'll sure they'll put something on there. This is for adults or, or only where it's legal to use this, but it's ending up here and it's ending up in the hands of kids.

And they think, well, it looks harmless. Feels harmless. One of the things I've said about marijuana, because I will mention on here, when we talk about the potential that being legalized in Idaho, I could actually probably probably argue either way. Yeah. I, I my own moral value is I do not want it legalized, but I, I understand the arguments that people bring forward.

However, I often mention this and you correct me if I'm wrong. It is not a drug that is federally regulated, meaning no one's watching what marijuana is made of. Yeah, and I think that people erroneously believe because it's legal in another state that this is just like taken, you know, Xanax. Yeah. Yeah. There's there's no quality control there.

It's the fentanyl pills. Are the same way, you know, there. And amazingly, some of those fentanyl pills look, more fine and more detailed than ones that actual come actually come from a pharmaceutical company with checks and balances on quality control, right. So, you know, those THC oils and waxes and marijuana products and edibles and things, you know, they may look just like the candy at the store, but you really don't know where they come from and what they are.

And when when the times that I've seen that Idaho's tried to introduce some sort, some level of legalization for, for medical uses and things like that, sure. There's probably some good arguments for those medical uses. The problem is they want to bypass the same quality controls as anything else that you might take medically from a doctor or be prescribed.

And are you going to be able to find doctors that are comfortable liability wise, prescribing those things out, or are you going to be able to find pharmacies to do that? Probably not, unless you have those quality controls in place. And why would they take on that liability? So, you know, there's that's the problem is I think there's an underlying thing trying to sneak this in and open the door just to crack and then drive a freight train of, of normalization through in that.

And, and then you've just increased the problems that were already experiencing and having, having a hard time getting a handle on as it is. Yeah. So final question on drugs before we take a break, when it comes to legalization of marijuana and maybe you don't have an answer to this, but do you think Idaho is close to having it legalized?

I don't know. I think, I, I, I hope not. For one, I don't think that our elected officials are, have have a feel or have a tendency to want to I think there is a there's definitely, you know, arguments on both sides. There's definitely a lot of information out there that is trying to push to to make that happen and that it I think it actually makes tends to make everybody think that it's, more desired in our state than it really is.

And so it's careful what you believe in where all that information has come from, because there is a lot of money pushing legalization of that for a lot of different reasons. And, I do I do think we would see, a multitude more of problems here. Our surrounding states that are dealing with that are seeing more problems because of it as well.

Yeah. Couldn't agree more. Okay. We need to take our news break. But when we come back we're going to chat with Brian Level about an app that the sheriff's department has built. And he'll let us know how that can be available and what it will do for us. And we're back on Newstalk 179. I'm Julie Mason, and Neil Larson is on his way home from Utah and Brian Lovell from the Bonneville County Sheriff's Department gladly agree to in.

Did you do it? Gladly. Gladly, yeah. Glasgow stunt double for now. Yeah, yeah. He agreed to join me to talk about some very things going on with law enforcement. I promised we were going to talk about the app. So tell us about this new app that the Bonneville County Sheriff's Department has developed. Okay, I got to tell you, some sheriffs are sensitive about this in Idaho.

It's sheriff's office, so. Okay, easy thing to, Yeah, it's sure I will absolutely say it right for you. I'm not worried about it, but if I don't say anything, then they're going to blow back. I'm sheriff horse is going to be like, hey, you need to tell Julie, okay? What's a what is from state to state? It's just different.

Some states, it's office, some states it's department in Idaho. Sheriff's looking at look at it in a way of that is an elected office. You're elected to that office. Yeah. And so, that that's the differentiation there and definition Idaho. And then it may be defined, you know, different states, sheriff's offices or sheriff's departments have different functions than in Idaho.

So I think it just varies where you go. But in Idaho, that's the you look at, okay, elected office. Easy mistake that a lot of committed to saying it correctly from here on out okay. So we have our, Bonneville County Sheriff's Office mobile app. So, you know, on our website, Bonneville sheriff.com, we have a lot of information on there that helps people.

It helps our job be more efficient and and helps our community be efficient. And things that are looking for, you know, records information and jail information and inmate information and news releases and so on. And so we have the availability of an app, a mobile app for your mobile device. It's on Idaho Sheriff Connect. So if you go to your app store or you download Idaho Sheriff Connect, you can search for Bonneville County Sheriff's Office in that app.

You'll also find other sheriff's offices in Idaho. Not every county has one of those, but there are several several across the state. But you can have that mobile app on your phone, and it has, you know, a lot of the most used information that, we see people looking for from our website. And then also, you know, I have the ability to push out notifications like news releases and safety information, and things like that.

And so you can get a push notification on your phone when there's, a news release or, hey, we have this emergency event or a crash or slick roads in this area kind of avoid this scrape or windows, you know, general safety things that that we have the ability to push out there. Okay. Tell them again how to get it in the app Store.

Idaho Sheriff, connect. So, in the App Store, it's a it's a black square with a the shape of Idaho in white. And then once you get in there, you can pick Bonneville County Sheriff's Office. You can pick the other ones that are in there. I think Bingham and Bannock is on its way, Canyon County. So the idea that if it's one app Idaho Sheriff Connect, that can give the user the ability to see information from all of the sheriff's offices that have a platform in there.

So if you, you know, you work in Bingham County, but you live in Bonneville County, you can set up push notifications to see what's going on in both areas. So yeah, especially if you're a commuter or something like that. So it's sort of a one stop shop for that information. Or if, if, Bonneville County is where you're at 99.9% of the time or whatever.

You know, you can use it that way. But, you know, we we get a lot of questions about driver's license. You know, our news releases and, our inmate information, how to visit the jail, how to, you know, contact an inmate at the jail. Things like that. And of course, how to join our team, how to come and work for us and start a career path with the sheriff's office.

All that stuff is on there as well. I was going to ask you that question as a follow up. Is the sheriff's office hiring right now? Yes. Okay. We all positions. We need, female deputies in particular. So, you know, we we have a lot of positions open in the jail. We just had a testing event last week for new patrol and for detention positions, new patrol positions, testing for that.

Probably not going to come around again for a while. We really have a big need, especially with some of the expansion that we've done in the jail. We're trying to get, people hired and staff those spots in the jail. And, and we've built a career path there, too. So, you know, we do take certified lateral, people from other counties.

Our agency might be moving into the area for patrol or detention, and we we've hired several people through that process. But, someone that's interested in, serving the community, public safety, you know, we recommend starting in that detention deputy role. And, you know, there's that career path there. You'll have a, you know, a little higher on the list and preference to apply and come out to patrol if that's what you want to do.

But you're going to gain some skills and you're going to start being on the clock and, and retirement benefits and all of those things right now while you're on that career path. And that's going to benefit you down the road. I was going to mention that the benefits package with the office is pretty good. Yeah, we've got great, insurance and we're on Percy retire ment and the county has several other benefits.

And I'll tell you, I, I've been telling people this a lot lately. You know, a lot of what our detention deputy team does in the jail, is behind the scenes. People don't really see that. And unless you happen to go to jail for some reason. But, you know, we've got the ignite program. We've put stuff out about in this and that, but our deputies in that setting, they're in a fantastic position right there.

And they do this behind the scenes every day where they can influence people to do better, and they can challenge them and help them make good choices and decisions and set them up for success when they're done in there. That's that's a part of that rehabilitation piece that, people don't normally see, and they're really doing a fact.

I think a lot of our detention deputies don't realize how much they do that, just, just by way of being there and, being supportive in that role. Yeah. You know, I have, I had someone I was on a board of directors, and there was a probation officer also on that board of directors for a child advocacy advocacy group here in East Idaho.

The work that that woman does to really help rehabilitate and bring people along and train them up in a different way than maybe what they had experienced in a prior life. Yeah. I mean, there's there's so many factors and pieces there that, could be helpful. And everyone needs a little something a little different to, to rehabilitate for whatever it is.

Or maybe they just they got to be held accountable and, and take their lumps, so to speak, and, and finish out and be done, you know, but, you know, sometimes that's where it starts. Sometimes that's where people are hitting bottom. Sometimes it takes several rock bottoms are coming in and out of there, to do it, but nothing when I go talk to our, our, our, our across the Border Patrol deputy team, our detention deputy team, nothing is better than when you come across that person that you've had to interact with on their not so best day, and you've had to take them to jail, and you've dealt with their family and victims

and things like that. Nothing is better than when you see them in regular, ordinary life and they're doing well. It's thriving and they come up and they come up and tell you about it, you know, okay, I'm doing good. I got a job. I'm working. You know, that that is a great feeling for sure. Great. Okay. You have maybe one minute.

How is social media affecting what you're doing? Good. Bad, A lot good, bad. Well, so I've been saying it lately. Like, social media is the best place for the worst information, not 99% guaranteed. There's in the fine print, there's a guarantee. You know, we're using social media, of course, to to communicate what we do and news releases.

And, you know, we want to be that credible source of information for our audience here in Bonneville County and anybody looking in and, of course, the lighter side of things that we do and the serious things we do as well, you know, we use that as a tool, just just like communicating with the media. But just be wary, but be wary because scams, it's hard to believe anything out there on the air and I think people take that too seriously and melt down too fast before they really have a chance to think about what's reality.

Yeah. All right. We got to take another commercial break. Another hour. Oh, geez. It is. Talk about. All right, we'll be back after this commercial break. Okay. All right. We'll just have enough. Yeah. All right. Here on Newstalk 1079I just have enough time to say thank you. Brian Lovell from the Bonneville County Sheriff's Office. Yes, I appreciate it.

And thank you for the correction we learned today. Yeah. This office. Yeah. So I bet there's other people are like, I had no idea I needed to say it that way. Thank you for the information. We'll have to have you back in. Maybe I'll kick Neil out of the studio one more time and you can come back. Sure.

This is. This is an easy stunt. Double gig. Really? Yeah. It's great. All right. Thank you guys. Like I said, Neil will be back tomorrow with, more news. There'll be plenty happening.