Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 01-20-25_MONDAY_7AM

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

Senator Noah Robinson talks fire map, various other challenges facing us in the legislative session, Russ Kautz, leader of the MTN Church Community Impact Team and the Affiliate for Parents Rights in Education finding best school board folks, need ur help

The Bill Meyer Show podcast is sponsored by Clouser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at clouserdrilling.com. Here's Bill Meyer. We'll call it 10 minutes after seven on Inauguration Monday and also Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I hope you are doing well so far. Joining me in studio, State Senator from the 2nd District of Oregon, is Noel Robinson. Hello, Noel. Great to have you back, Senator. It's wonderful to be here. Thank you very much. All right, good. Now, are you going to be heading out to some watch parties a little bit later?

Well, I'm very looking forward to the inauguration, where I think things are going to improve a lot. In a few hours. Yeah, in a few hours. Yeah, it is a fascinating time to be alive for sure and watching this. And as and the other thing is that I'm trying to moderate expectations in the state of Oregon. And it's not that I wanted to because I'm not a Debbie Downer. It's like I'm a I've always been a happy warrior. But you also have to realize how the decks are stacked in our particular state, which for President Trump are not stacked

to have a lot of cooperation. Would that be a fair assessment? In fact, everything I'm looking at here, I read a story on Friday about how the state bureaucracy is being trained on how to defy President Trump when it comes to, let's say, immigration issues here. And, hey, we're a sanctuary state since 1987 yeah it's really helped us a lot too i know that but um you know how do you how do you see this playing out statewide and especially now that we're going to be digging into the state legislative session

big time this week well i don't think it's going to be very good the people in charge of the legislature the democrats control everything uh just don't have good ideas and don't seem to care what the people of Oregon need. Is there anything that could be done, though, by the people to perhaps blunt some of the resistance, in your opinion? Or is it going – I mean, what do you think? Or do we just roll over at this point? Now, I mean, we can talk about the next election, but right now the best thing to do is to pay attention to what's going on in the legislature. They are a little bit sensitive to testimony on bad bills. They're calling the legislature about different things. Public pressure on both Democrats and everybody, particularly Democrats, because they're going to be running the agenda, is a good thing because it will have some influence.

Because even they want to have perceived public support of their agenda? That's right. And actually most of them actually believe in what they're doing. When they get pushback, it does make a difference. I won't say all. I mean what goes on up there is crazy. But there is an element that if they have a lot of public that are opposing what they're doing, it does make a difference. Can they pass taxes at this point without any help from Republicans? Yes, they can raise the taxes. They can raise taxes.

It might be hard because the pressure – again, that's where pressure helps because the Democrats, do they want to be united against the Republicans on raising taxes? All they have to do is lose a vote in either chamber. It doesn't work. Okay. All right. So it's very close. It's kind of like what we're talking about in the U.S. House in which you lose one or two Republicans and it completely changes the balance, right? That kind of thing.

So same thing, though, except with Democrats. Yep. Democrats have a supermajority, but when it comes to raising taxes, it's not ironclad, right? Yeah, because it's right on the edge. Okay. Well, then if that's the case, we're going to have to be warming up our phone calls and visitations and working it that way.

I mean, if they want to resist, we can resist back, I guess. Yeah, and I'll tell you the way government works. I mean, bureaucracy is always terrible, but we needed an extra phone because we're getting phone calls, right? We need an extra phone just as to the office. So the IT people have to get you a phone. And I said, well, can I, you know, I can get one just like you're using for $25 on eBay. And he said, no, you have to spend $350 on a brand new one because that's the way it is.

And I'm not blaming the people that did it. It's the rule. But that's the way the government is. Everything has to be more expensive because of bureaucracy. Indeed. All right. And including what Governor Kotick did the other day with the labor executive order that she put in near the end of the year. Did you hear about that? I did. Actually, I missed that one. Yeah. In other words, almost all the state projects have to use a prevailing wage or something. See, they've already been throwing that into all the bills as they go along.

It raises the price of everything and also limits the contractors you can use, which raises the price more. I mean the state projects are ridiculously expensive. I mean it's like a factor of 10 off of what they should be. All right. Well, I'll tell you what. I'm going to take a quick break. Someone's banging at the front door. I don't know who it is.

I just want to make sure the building's not on fire. We'll be back with State Senator Noah Robinson and talking about the fire map and a bunch of other stuff. And maybe you can squeeze a call in or two from's Digital Minute, just after 8 a.m. weekdays on the Bill Myers Show and the Kim Commando Show Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., sponsored locally by TechNomad. Kim Commando is your trusted source for the latest news on everything digital, including technology, security threats, scams, the latest tech gadgets, and more. And your trusted local source for home computer repair and IT service is TechNomad at mytechnomad.com. Kim Commando, she's right here on 106.3 KMED. The best of Southern Oregon Magazine presented by Dusty's Transmissions is online. To find out who won gold and silver medals in over 200 categories, visit the website and flip through the magazine online. You can also sort by category and learn about Southern Oregon's best,

such as Oregon Ear, Nose, and Throat Center, Southridge Builders, Drake's Paint and Supply, and Sherm's Food for Less. Congratulations to all the award winners from Bicoastal Media, publishers of the Best of Southern Oregon magazine. Visit bestofsouthernoregon.com today. The Outdoor Report is every Friday morning just past 7 a.m. on The Bill Myers Show. The Outdoor Report on KMED and the Jukebox 99.3 covers recreational opportunities and is powered by Oregon Truck and Auto Authority, your department of adventure,

off Vilas Road on Airway Drive. This is the Bill Myers Show on 106.3 KMED. Quarter after 7, back with State Senator Noah Robinson. Noah, let's talk about the fire map issue here for a little bit, because you've been saying that that is probably one of the biggest issues which has been hitting you right now. And could you give me the latest on that, what you're getting? Well, we're getting calls, emails from constituents all over that are very upset about it. They're getting letters.

They've certified letters from the state telling them that their property has now been classified as high risk. This is going to limit what they can do on their property. It makes it hard to get insurance, raises the cost of everything. So basically the state wants control of private property through this fire map thing, and it's got everyone upset. What is the purported – in fact, I was even trying to get Senator Golden because I talked to Senator Golden. This is his baby along with State Representative Pam Marsh. They're the ones that sponsored this and carry this everywhere. And I know your father did not vote for this, right?

No, he was really upset about it, because it's going exactly where he was worried about. They're talking all about fire. He said this is going to become an attack on private property, and he was really worried about this. All right. And Jeff was talking about, as Senator Golden on Friday, says that there are actually a lot of good things that are in this bill and that the fire map itself is actually a small part. Would you agree or disagree with that?

I don't. I think the fire map is so bad that even if he's got something in there that might be helpful, I don't. I don't. I'm still trying to figure out what the good part about it is. I don't know. Maybe the good part about it, though, is maybe the good part about it though is just funding you know grant stream funding opportunities maybe that's what it's all about i don't know legislatures think that if they got money they won so it might just be that i don't know what the good things that are he's

talking about okay all right is there uh anything which could be done to starve this particular bill or just kill it in some respect? Is there any kind of growing opposition to this? Or are the Democrats, who mostly are the ones that passed this, not all, but mostly are the ones that passed this, is there any ability when you were talking about how the fact that even they respond to political pressure that they would be willing to kill this or put a moratorium on it because it's obviously causing a lot of problems around here and people know it. Well, I think you can put pressure on the bureaucracy through the appeal process. I mean there's just some concern that they're not going to grant appeals when they should. But all the appeals that are – I've been telling everybody, appeal.

Tell all your friends to appeal. We want to get them get get appeals in but as far as the legislature um yes i would put pressure on them as well unfortunately since it's past legislation to get them to reverse and take it out is a lot harder and the democrats were all behind it and they have a history of passing bad things and no matter what happens with them they just stick with them now i know you weren't listening on friday when i was talking with senator golden about it but what i was trying to bring up to him was that uh the administration or the administrator administrative state that is uh in the in the process of working these appeals has kind of it's put out there that it's like heads

you heads they win tails we lose kind of thing with this appeal process, which is not – is spelled out, would not be proper according to the actual law that controls the statewide fire map risk here. And I don't know. Is it going to take lawsuits perhaps really to knock this out? Well, I think every avenue should be should be seriously this is the taking of private property you can't just do that with a bunch of scientists say hey we've decided your property's at higher risk they've gone over the entire state and decided they can pick whose property is classified one way versus another this is wrong this is unconstitutional now you are scientists right engineer scientist, right? Engineer, from what I recall?

A chemist. A chemist, okay. I loved engineering, too. Yeah, your brother is the engineer, right? My brother is a nuclear engineer. That's it. A couple of them, actually. I have to keep your backgrounds right.

Has anyone given you the scientific data? And see, I think this is a key part of the argument about the fire map, is that the law says that everything about this is supposed to be very transparent. And there may be some information available in those fire maps, some data. algorithms that they use to come up with their map and dig into the nuts and bolts, it's almost like we're supposed to trust Oz behind the control at the Oregon State University system. Am I right or wrong about that? You're correct. And I have inquired for data, and I can't say I haven't been given it yet because they've given me some stuff, which I'm about to dig into. So, I mean, it's early to say that they have refused. But yes,

the entire thing should be completely it should be completely transparent. We should have the programs. We should have the data. I want to know how they figure what property is most likely to light on fire. That's a random event. So, well, I guess the thing is though that their computers are so good that they understand the random. They understand random and they can affect the probability of nature. Well, we have had the same thing with global warming.

This is based on computer programs, and you look at actual data that shows the computer programs are wrong, and they say, hey, still trust our computer programs. And this is the same sort of thing. Okay. And that is going to be a major sticking point, I think, on Senate Bill 762. What else do you think is going to be of major import in this session, which is really kicking off this week, Senator? Well, that's hard to say at this point because everything, you know, gun control bills, taxes, they're always focused on homelessness and the drug crisis, which, I mean, they don't have any practical solutions for.

What they will push, which bills we're going to have to worry about most, we'll find out pretty soon. All right. If you had to venture a guess here, I'm hearing talk about a statewide property tax. They would like that. They've tried for that before. I would say it was appropriate pushback. We ought to be able to stop it, but don't cry.

You can't be sure. All right. Because, no, they were trying that last time. It's highly likely that they want that. They want any kind of tax they can get. But I hope we can stop that. Back on the fire map briefly here. By the way, Senator Noah Robinson with me, and he's State Senate District 2 here in southern oregon uh one of i'm told by uh herman

bear chigger and a few other people that the real reason of senate bill 762 the real purpose is not necessarily the i don't know if it was necessarily intended to screw with people's property rights but it certainly seems to have the appearance that that's what it's doing. But it's really about assessing properties and paying for wildfire costs and getting it outside of the general budget, the general fund. In other words, we're just going to go and essentially screw the rural residents. Is that a fair assessment, that claim that you're hearing? What do you know? It's possible.

From looking at it, it looks to me like it's more about government control because that's what it seems to be doing. I mean they have – Well, everything seems to be grandfathered with your property though until you want to do any major repairs or renovations. Who doesn't want to do something to their property at some point? Then they have a grip on you. And already people have trouble with insurance. And then if you look at what happened in Los Angeles, I went to Caltech down there for three years. The weather there is even all year.

This isn't as though it was really high temperatures, just winds. And they were poorly prepared, didn't have the water, whatever. But that just spread across that place. Who would have predicted that Los Angeles, and I think some people down there were worried. But the idea that they can predict what's going to burn up next and protect against it, it's just laughable. But that's what they're doing with the wildfire map. That's exactly what they're doing. And so I mean, I don't mind if they want to give us advice and say, hey, you want to

watch a little bit, prepare your house if you want. It's like putting fire extinguishers around. Giving people advice is one thing. Forcing them to do it is another. And Jackson County Commissioner Colleen Roberts was in studio on Friday on a different forest issue, this one with the U.S. Forest Service. The forest supervisor was coming in for talking about a public deal. But she said that the main concern she had with this, and I don't know if there's anything that can be done with Senate Bill 762, if you could talk with your colleagues, but that there need to be incentives and that absolutely everything about Senate Bill 762 is a club with which to beat you over the head. Is there any way to do anything with it at this point? Is there a fix for it, you think? Well, the fix is to repeal it. Okay. Okay. We submitted a bill to repeal it. They will never hear it. You know how it is. It needs to be repealed.

Practically, I still think the best thing to do is to push back on the bureaucrats. We did get them to pull back for two years because of all the appeals. And of course, what they've done is they're sending letters to the high risk people. They're trying to get less of a fuss, but they need pushback. And then we do need to repeal it. I'm kind of wondering, is it even legal to require people who are more of means and or even every property that's in a trust? I'm hearing from people out in the rural lands around here in Southern Oregon who tell me that this whole idea that if you have a, you know, a trust, if this land is in a trust, which many of them are, you know, these larger areas, and then you

have to hire an attorney. And these are massive expenses to conduct your appeal. Well, you can't do it. I mean, I would send it in any way. They're going to say, you're the property owner, but you have it in a legal structure, so we're not going to accept your appeal because you didn't hire an attorney. This is absurd. Anybody that thinks that that's a rational way to conduct business should not be in the bureaucracy. I mean, we have a lot of bureaucrats that need to be fired. Well, I would agree with you on that. My main concern, though, is that are they going to follow the law? Are they actually going to grant appeals?

And if they're talking about it, and they're talking quite openly about, well, we're not really going to, you know, we can't really change your classification because everything's about the science. But then they won't let you look at the science, right?

I mean, we will see. And then people will question the science. I then they won't let you look at the science, right? Well, we will see. And then people will question the science. I mean how do you – I mean you get neighbors that have different ratings. In their first iteration, they had property owners that had property in two different lots and one had one rating and one had another. They know that they cannot look at the state and figure out perfectly where everything is. It's impossible. So how are you going to start looking at appeals? They'll be buried.

Okay. Is there anything you can bring up with this, with what do they call it, remonstrances or whatever it is? Well, I'm going to do remonstrances like my dad did. Okay. And this is when you can talk about anything that you want to. Two minutes. You can talk as long as you don't insult the others, which there's no reason to. Boy, I'll tell you, when it comes to Senate Bill 762, you're going to have trouble not insulting them, though, if you talk about this.

Yes, well, I'm sure we'll put that on. I'm going to start with discussions about global warming because we know a lot about it. And you realize that there's legislation that constantly they're trying to control the state emissions of carbon dioxide. I mean, it's in legislation all over the place. And this is all based on flawed science. So it's costing us money. Everything's getting expensive. And so I'm going to start with that.

All right. Now, not that we want to be in a doom loop when it comes to the state legislature, but is there anything good that could possibly come out of this legislature session? Well, see, now he's laughing okay i i it just depends upon whether they want i i have put in my bill or my dad's bill the the two bills uh to try to improve reading and education in the schools there's a lot of things we can do to help people like education really frustrates me because it's so easy all you have to do is do it right and yet the bureaucracy can't so there are a lot of things we could do that would improve things. I mean, I've got, I can

tell you, I've got three or four other things that would be sort of a helpful help to people. Like I put in a bill to make car registrations permanent. Why should we have to go in every two years and get a new sticker? Will they listen to them? They could. I don't know. I don't have a lot of confidence in the Democrats. Don't they want the money, though? Of course they want the money. But is it really fair to drag the citizens every time into the every – well, you can do it by mail, but you've got to keep track of this thing. The police officers have to look at your sticker. I mean I'd even go for being able to register it for four years at a time if you wanted. But really, I mean don't give them money.

What good does it do you? Something tells me, Noah, you could be a very lonely man in the state senator, in the state senate. That's because being rational is not part of the legislature right now. Maybe not very diplomatic, but look at what comes out of there. And ordinary people, if they hear you're a senator, they probably go down about five levels in their estimation. So what is it? You and Diane Limpicum, you know, against the world? Yes. And Boquist is still in, right? No, no, he's not. He was knocked out by the Oh, that's right. I'm excused absence deal. So he's out. And so we've got a bunch of new people.

I mean, I like to be optimistic. I'm hoping the Republicans will. I don't want to be the most no votes in the Senate. I'd like everyone else to join me and I will see. Do you think that this particular state Senate might on the Republican side actually learn that their job is not to be there to help pass Democratic legislation? We'll see. We will see. You know, when my dad said we'll see, that means no. Well, because the session hasn't started yet. We'll find out pretty fast. But I – You know I'm having fun with you, Noah. You get that, right?

I know. The job of the Republicans is to oppose anything that doesn't make sense. That's really the job of the Democrats too, but they don't do it. Okay. We will see. Because all I'm concerned about is that I'm still hearing, we're going to reach across the aisle. Reach across the aisle doesn't work. Thank you.

It doesn't work in elections either. Look, we lost everything. Well, there you go. State Senator Noah Robinson, District 2. I think we're going to have a lot to talk about these coming weeks, all right? Now, we realize the county elections went great because they did a great job in Josephine County. But statewide? Yeah.

Reach across the aisle doesn't work. Yeah, that's not what they did in Joe County, that's for sure. It was just like going to the bat and no means no. And, of course, there's a lot of drama going on that has come from that. Well, when you do a good job, there are people that don't like it. All right, very good. Noah, good talking with you, Senator. Great talking to you. Thank you. 7.30 at KMED 99.3 KBXG.

This is the Bill Myers Show. Pump Service and Rotary Drilling Company. We provide well water service. Hi, I'm Michael with Gage and Construction, and I'm on KMED. 7.34. Joining me in studio is Russ Kautz. Russ is the leader of the Mountain Church Community Impact Team, and he's an affiliate for Parents' Rights in Education.

This one is involving, I guess you're focusing on the Medford School District. Would that be a fair assessment, Russ? Russ, welcome. Right now, that's what we're focusing on but our town halls were uh inviting we're going to have a panel of current school board members from eagle point to ashland okay tell us a little bit about this now rob schlaffer who is also in studio and we were talking with him was that thursday yeah it was thursday we were talking. And, of course, you are very emphatic in this reforming of local public education. And, Russ, I was kind of one of those guys, and I told him, and I said, I've kind of given up on the public education system.

I thought as long as we have unionized and bureaucracy and all the rest of it, there's almost no hope. And, fortunately, there are people who disagree with me on this. And would that be fair to say that you are one of those people? Yes. Okay, good. What is your background? What got you into this fight here? Why is this so important to you?

I have a family legacy of the Medford School District. Oh, yeah? My father was a science and math teacher, then administrator, in the Medford High School. And I went through when he was the assistant principal, when it was mid-high. And he was in that school for 33 years. What is it about that legacy that gives you pause when you look at the current state of public education? I don't think they're providing success for students anymore. They're not teaching education.

It's more indoctrination. And that's my concern. My dad would be rolling over in a grave right now if he knew what was going on. So I would like to change that, and I think we can if we get the right school board members who push back against ODE. This seems to be the focus. Rob was mentioning this on the Thursday show. And what does push back against the Oregon Department of Education look like to you? What are specific programs and or agendas that you believe need to be vanquished or weed whacked out of existence as the case might be?

Well, first of all, it would be pushed down and it seems to be rubber stamped by the school board without any looking at it and say, well, let's have a balance and have more diversity in what you're teaching. What is the actual power, in your opinion, of a school board that is not being used? Can you point to anything? Well, first of all, I think they can push back against the curriculum that's coming down why don't they you think i don't think they want to push back because it's uh the superintendent doesn't want to make a make any waves and it seems like everything the superintendent wants is rubber stamped by the school board. So we're talking about school boards, actually, you're looking for people who will get out of school boards who will not just be a superintendent

rubber stamp. Correct. Is what we're talking about. Okay. Well, you know that, um, those people have to be a pretty thick skinned. Wouldn't you agree? Yes. Okay, good. Yes, and we know what happens when they push back if you look at Michael Williams as an example. Okay. I could look at an example of another place that I think was over in the Bend area. I was reading at the end of the year in which there was so much public pressure brought on the school board member that she quit. And she was out there preaching against the woke in education. Right.

Right. Which sounds a lot like what you folks are trying to, to fight here. But I guess the point is she was one member on the school board that was targeted. Right. You need more than one, you need a bunch of people on the school board that are trying to fight this

stuff. Right. Right. Okay. If we can get a majority of school board member school board directors i think we can start making changes all right oregon school board association does it help or hurt at this point in time i don't know okay i don't know all right at least what's that hurts rob thinks it hurts okay all right i talked to you last week, Rob.

You're just here for support this time. Let's talk about this series of town hall meetings you have coming up. What are you hoping to accomplish with this? Mainly, the first two are going to be to educate families and parents on what the role and function of a school board is and how they, as parents and families, can influence that. Now, God ordained three institutions. One of which is civil government. And this is the first level of civil government that we can influence. School board members are elected. So if we can get a lot of people to vote, only i think six percent usually only vote for school

board candidates miserable turnout miserable turnout in participation with school boards and of course a lot of times it could be because of ignorance in which they don't know you know what these candidates are all about right that could be part of it so what's trying to do is educate them on what school boards do so they realize, oh, this is very important because this actually really influences our children's education. Yeah. And frankly, I think if you're going to be a school board member just because you're looking at it as a political springboard, go somewhere else. Okay. Go become a mayor or city council or something like that.

But the school people really need some warriors there. Right. Okay. Go become a mayor or city council or something like that. But the school people really need some warriors there. Right. Okay. So that's going to be the first two are going to be education. Then we're going to have a question and answer period. We're going to have a panel of current school board directors that they can, parents, families can ask any question they want regarding the function of a school board and their children. Okay. Now, first meeting is going to be February 7th. And all these meetings, 6 to 730 at the MTM, the Mountain Church, rather, 1 East Main Street.

That's the old, you were saying? First Interstate. First Interstate Bank. Okay. So that's where you're doing. Another one March 7th. So you're doing it like once, one a month. One a month.

So the next two months are going to be educational in nature. And then the third and fourth, what are you doing at that point? It's going to be a candidate forum for those who are running for school board to come and say, this is my vision. This is what I want to do. And then answer questions from the audience. Okay. They're voters. All right. Very good. Now, are you also going to be part of this? Now, Rob, last week, weren't you talking? I don't have a microphone on you. And I know you weren't supposed to be talking much just here as moral support. But weren't you all asking everybody to get involved with the Medford School Board meeting this week? Yeah, we've sent out a smart action alert. We're asking parents and people in the

community to come out Thursday for the 530 school board meeting at the Oakdale Middle School. We want parents to come out and show up and just show their support that we want engagement locally. And of course, Russ is going to be, his team is going to be doing these town halls over four months I'm following up the next day with my talks that are geared more towards people in the center I'm really going after people who may be leery of some of the language that they hear you know surrounding school change people that are Democrats and what have you. But we're hoping that we can engage the community and see that this is an opportunity for people to come together across the political spectrum, because even folks who are Democrats and support what I call woke education, they know our schools are failing. Yeah. And the role of a school board primarily is to ensure that students succeed.

So we need to get our school boards focused on success, as Russ said. And we hope that together, all of this planning and all these programs that we're doing will engage the community and get people to recognize that Oregon education is in big trouble today. All right. Very good. Russ, that's a great way to look at these things. So February 7th, how long do we have the way? I guess a couple of weeks before we get your first event. But you are welcome back anytime. And I'm glad to know that there are other warriors in there, like Rob and various other people. And do you have enough volunteers at this point, or are you looking for more to help out

and fight back against the educational system that we have right now to improve it? We can always use some more. Okay. And a good place to start is go to Parents' Rights in Education. Go to their website. And that's free. You can become a member. And they have a training program and how to speak,

do public comments at school board meetings, and also how to run as a school board candidate. Since you have, no doubt, studied a lot of this, what's the biggest mistake you think people make when they make a public comment? Do you know? Have you, has there been any talk about that? Because not that I know, it's almost like, all right, I always want to focus on what you want to do, but I've seen people make comments that are just like, gosh, you didn't really make any point. That's it. Is that it? Yeah, I think so. I talk about smart resistance, not ugly, nasty kind of anti-Trump resistance that we've seen here.

I think people need to be reasonable. They need to go in with an objective. They need to state what it is their ask might be. What are we asking the school boards to do? And again, the way that I frame it is we want balance, as Russ said. We want to make sure that the curriculum is not just representing the progressive left and their woke ideas, but that there are other perspectives brought in there. And those are things that people can specifically ask for when they talk to the school board. And what we were talking about then was not to trash everything that is part of the progressive educational issue here, but that there are all issues brought forward there, which would... Well, there are better ways to deal.

You know, a big obsession with the left is the concern over racial disparities in educational outcomes. And our point is, well, actually, the whole DEI woke agenda undermines success in that area. We can do a much better job helping kids of color, which is a big concern, by returning to some of the more traditional methodologies of American education. Well, to go through the situation and then say, oh, by the way, getting the right answer on a math problem is racism or white supremacy. It's not going to help anybody be successful. And the curriculum from the ODE is just obsessed with that kind of stuff. And it actually gets in the way of those kids succeeding. It makes you wonder how anybody got into the ODE with that kind of thought process.

We don't have to have a standard. I don't get that. All right. Russ, I really appreciate you coming down here. It's great getting a chance to meet you. Always good seeing you too, Rob. And something tells me there's going to be a lot of conversation, a lot of school warriors. I'm talking about intellectual school warriors and getting into the system and bringing some balance.

And the main website for the meetings, I just want to make sure we get that. Is there a website for the meeting or a Facebook page or anything like that? You can go to Mountain Church Facebook page. MTN Church. You'll find it there. And for those of you who are interested in the larger, the Oregon Education Project and getting out, particularly

Thursday, go to smartresistance.com. We're going to be reaching out around Southern Oregon in the next few months and ultimately we want to reach around the state. So smartresistance.com. You'll get all the information about what's going on in Mountain Church. You'll also, for example, get information about what's going on with School Choice as people ramp up for another round to try and get that on the ballot in the next few years.

You know that I want to do, I don't know if either of you have an opinion on the School Choice, but I know that I've talked to enough people behind the scenes. And nobody wants to come out and say this directly, I think. But I'm wondering if the school choice issue has a fatal flaw. And maybe I'm wrong about this, in which you have school systems in which people spend a lot of money. And they've done everything possible to get their children into the neighborhood because they bought real estate there, they're living there, and it's almost like the last thing they want then is for – I'll give you an example.

You buy property in Jacksonville, you're in the Jacksonville Elementary, highly rated, you know, that sort of thing. Probably the last thing they would want is a bunch of West Medford kids showing up, you know, on a school choice. And I know that sounds very elitist, but I'm just I'm talking about the reality. Isn't that one of the challenges that school choice even faces moving forward? Well, I would say because I'm going to be speaking with Donna Krexberg, I believe. She's the one who pushed the recent ballot ballot i think that the whole issue needs to be rethought okay and that's one of the but you understand the resistance that could come from

people hey my school's great and i'm and i spent a lot of money to make it that way well not only that and i mentioned this on thursday even if today we you know by miracle we got school choice we don't have the schools particularly alternative. We need to be talking about micro schools and different kinds of alternative schools that can be in the mix. So there needs to be, in my opinion, some groundwork laid. And of course, what we're trying to do in bringing the people together with an awareness of what's going on in Oregon schools, you have to make the case that there's a problem with Oregon schools, I think, before offering a solution. And I think last time around, they didn't really do that. So the whole issue, you're right, there are lots of gnarly problems surrounding it. We need to work through those. I'm hoping that we can do that in the next two years so that by, say, 2028,

we can get something on the ballot that actually is sellable to the public. And also sellable to progressives. I think that's going to be important this has to be a bipartisan we are not florida whatever we do on education we've got to find a center uh orientation that brings in a lot of democrats all right very good russ kautz once again who is the leader of the mountain church community impact team and of course rob schla. We always appreciate talking to you both. And we'll have you back, okay? Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you. It is 749 at KMED, 99.3 KBXG. You know, Diner 62, Real American Quiz, we have a good one. It has to do with presidential inaugurations and elections and all the rest of it. And we'll get you set up at 770-5633. Some adventure off Vilas Road on Airway Drive. You're hearing the Bill Myers Show on 106.3 KMED. Diner 62, extended through Valentine's Day,

those hot open-faced sandwiches we were talking about for the holidays. So the holiday continues on. And you had the pot roast sandwich served with mashed potatoes and brown gravy or the hot turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes gravy and cranberry sauce and by the way uh you have lots of um grilled and and i guess what do we call that not fried but crispy chicken sandwiches that have been added to it you can put avocado on anything you want avocado on a pancake at Diner 62. We don't judge. Diner 62, just south of White City. All right. Highway 62.

Now, I don't know who's on line one. We've been so busy, I haven't even had a chance to get them together. We're just going to do this right now. Hi, good morning. Who's this? Good morning. Good morning. This is Mary.

I am up in Noah Robinson's district, and I just wanted to clarify when he was speaking about the fire issue and he said to get the appeal letter in as quick as possible because I spoke with our councilman and he was saying hold off on the appeal for a

minute that he and Mr. Hart were going to try and work a couple things out first like maybe they can deem it unconstitutional or the other option was they were going to try and okay thank you all right now mary did you want to play the game while we're here or not the game oh no okay i'm sorry mary call me back uh a little bit later here but i think you got your main point out there i don't know i think the main thing is though is that plan to appeal okay all right thanks for the call let me go to line two hi

good morning who's this welcome uh kathy kathy are you actually here for the Diner 62 quiz? Yes, I am, Bill. Wonderful. Great. Now, it was January 18, 1862. Former U.S. President and Confederate Congressman-elect John Tyler died at the age of 71 in Richmond, Virginia. Now, Tyler was born in Virginia, 1790, served as a congressman, governor of his home state, and then he won election to the U.S. Senate during the 1830s, and he was a Whig. Tyler became the 10th U.S. president in March of 1841. Within a month of his inauguration, President William Henry Harrison died in office, and so Tyler was thrown into the presidency. Now, the major advancement of his administration was the addition of Texas to the Union in 1845.

Now, the question here for the win, how many biological children did Tyler have that survived to adulthood? How many kids? Was it zero? He only had stepchildren. Was it B, four? Was it C, seven? Was it D, 11? Or was it E, 14?

What do you say? I'll say 11. You're going to say 11. No, it's not 11. But I appreciate you trying, all right? Hello, Diner 62 Quiz, and who might you be? This is David. Good morning.

Good morning, David. So how many kids did Tyler have that survived to adulthood? Was it zero? Only had stepped kids? Four, seven, or 14? What do you say? I say Tippy Canoe and Tyler, too. Yeah, yeah. Anyways, that's all I know.

So I'm just going to take a wild guess and say 14, just to be crazy. A wild guess just to be crazy, and you say 14. You're a winner! Yes. John Tyler was the most prolific, David, of all American presidents. He had 15 children and two wives, rare at that time. Tyler had 14 kids who lived to maturity. Five of his children served in the Confederacy, including his son, John Tyler Jr. In 1813, Tyler married Letitia Christian, daughter of a Virginia planter.

She had a stroke in 1839, could not perform. She had a second stroke and died in 1842. Then Tyler remarried to Julia Gardner, who was 30 years younger than he. And then they ended up just popping kids and popping kids and popping kids. In fact, his youngest child was born in 1860, less than two years before he died, and he was 70 years old at that time. And I don't know if there's any truth to this. I've heard the rumor that at his funeral that they were unable to close the coffin lid because of, well, never mind.

Well, he reminds me of tony randall the actor yeah he had a kid like at 90 or something oh yeah just absolutely nuts and um anyway tyler was a delegate to the subsequent secession convention later became a member of the provisional congress of the confederate states he felt that victory was impossible for the confederates but nonetheless suggested that the cavalry be dispatched to capture washington dc before the union military was in place you know i've had thoughts like that every now and then what about you david you know can we do that send the oregon cavalry we're just going to capture you know enough of this nonsense we're just going to capture the state capital or the u.s i just want I just want to make Idaho the Switzerland of the United States.

There you go. Everybody else out. There you go. Hang on, David. We're going to set you up at Diner 62 for the Real American Quiz. We'll have another one of those a little bit later this week, maybe even tomorrow. I'm Chad Robinson with your Money Now. One major threat to the crucial 6-3 KMED.

The Bill Myers Show on 106.3 KMED. The Bill Myers Show on 106.3 KMED. Inauguration Monday, 8 o'clock at KMED, KMED HD1, Eagle Point, Medford, KBXG, Grants Pass. Also heard on translator K290AF, Rogue River, and K294AS, Ashland. I think we got that all covered for all the legalities, okay? Hey, coming up, we're going to check into Town Hall News. We'll find out what's going on there. And we'll have some where past meets present with Dr. Dennis Powers. And I want to ask him if there is such a thing as a preemptive pardon

because, you know, apparently Liz Cheney and Dr. Fauci and all the other band of merry, well, guess we want to call it that, were preemptively pardoned by the exiting president. Kind of his last kind of like F.U. moment, I think. F.U. to the people, I think, is kind of what's going on. And also anybody that was involved with the January 6th committee. But there's no crime committed there, right? I don't know. Maybe we'll have to stick with the current stuff instead of history.

We'll find out, though. But we'll talk with the good doctor here in just a moment. So emails of the day are sponsored by Dr. Steve Nelson and Central Point Family Dentistry. Central Point Family Dentistry dot com is the website. And it's on Freeman Way. It's right next door to the Mazatlan Mexican restaurant. While you wait, crowns are a real possibility there. They have an in-house lab works really well.

Just get your appointment there. I think you'll enjoy the experience at Central Point. OK, Jerry, the bull writes me this morning. Hey, Bill, I'm optimistic about President Trump's second term as president. But my optimism is tempered with a pinch of realism. I believe the country will be better under a Trump presidency, but I'm sure there will be decisions that he makes that I disagree with. But I wish him well, and I'm hoping for the best for him and the country. Jerry El Toro, the bull.

Jerry, we always appreciate that. And Jeff writes me from Selma, Bill, 20 degrees on my back porch this morning. Did a quick check on the pump house and hose bibs. I leave them dripping, but one is an icicle. Expect a run on plumbing supplies. You could be right about that, Jeff. That is for sure. I know that it was 24 at my house, not as cold as you.

But, yes, Selma, that's frigid stuff. Hans Albuquerque. Bill, if you ever wanted proof of why the Don has a beef with Fox News, a perfect example, Paul Steinhauer's, Heiser's article, rather, today, regarding historic speed, masking the steal as an electorate that ushered him out in 2020, and using January 6th as a billy club to showcase some weakness in him subtle little slights of pen mixed with what the Don is proclaiming not asking them to are not asking him to slobber on the Dom not asking him to slobber on the Don just stop with the

talking points okay Hans I appreciate you writing here. Okay. I had Susie write me over the weekend saying, Bill, the article below, this is from the post millennial leads me to wonder just how I would or could respond to this. If I were a state employee without ending up in jail. Yeah. It's a post millennial.com article that is mandating training for state

workers to not cooperate with Trump's deportation plans. Yep, that's all over it. I read that. It was a good article over the weekend. Bad, and it's what it's portending here. Does it feel to you like we Oregon citizens are being ruled by traitors posing as our saviors? And I would say, yeah. Email Bill at BillMeyersShow.com. Like I said, as good as it

may be in Washington, D.C., or at least better than it's been for a while, we have a lot of work to do in this state for sure. Email Bill at BillMeyersShow.com. Dr. Powers joining me here in just a moment. Breaking news this hour from TownHall.com. I'm Greg Cludgton.