Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 02-17-26_TUESDAY_7AM

Episode Date: February 18, 2026

Catching up on weather and closure issues with Mr. Outdoors and a talk with former State Senator Baertschiger...big arrogance coming out of the Dems...any push back?

This hour of the Bill Meyer Show podcast is proudly sponsored by Klauser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for more than 50 years. Find out more about them at Klausor drilling.com. Now more with Bill Meyer. I will get back to your calls here in just a few minutes. I wanted to get a quick top-up on the weather news and how things are looking here in southern Oregon. Greg Roberts from rogueweather.com with a reprise here of what happened. and we ended up getting the snowstorm last night, but very spotty in its impact.

And places that got impacted, Greg, fair enough could, boy, some of them were getting really thwapped. I have some people who are talking about six to seven inches in Sam's Valley as an example just this morning. Yep. Yeah. So we're seeing stuff like that. Much less thinking we were going to see. And all of that was based on a low that had set up off Vancouver Island moving down the coast. and then where exactly would it curl and come inland?

Well, that silly thing just sat there on sitting spin mode off of Vancouver Island, and it never came in. So we wound up not seeing what all the data was leaning towards, you know. So, yeah, it created a very uneven hit, miss. Although, I will say this. I got up at 510 this morning, looked out on my window. Okay, I had accumulated snow on vegetation and on my vehicles, but the roads were near with you. I went out and looked.

It is still snowing here in South Medford. It's picked up in intensity. And now I have snow-covered pavement here where we live at on our little road that comes up into our complex. And we have a smear of snow here at the airport. We're right across the street from the airport, you know, where the studios are. And it's starting to stick to the pavement, though, which is indicative of, I'm thinking, wait, maybe what the real story is going to be is tonight and overnight when we get down into the mid-the-low-20s. Yeah, without any question, going to freeze, and we're going to get, you know, the ice skating rink effect on any wet asphalt.

So the other thing to consider now is, since the last... low did not really move at all. We are now set up to see the continuation of snow showers coming through. At times, we may get a heavier shower come through, and at other times they're going to be lighter. What that actually means in terms of snow accumulation is, basically down here in the valley floors, this is much more of that inch or less type scenario. That's heavy intense band come through or you get a couple heavier snow showers come over and then all of a sudden, okay, maybe we're talking two inches here. The winter weather bulletins in effect on Jackson Josephine counties, the winter weather advisory for elevations below 2,000 feet, they're still

looking like those are going to end at 10 a.m. Winter storm warning for everything above 2,000 feet. looks like it ends at 10 a.m. at this point, but that said, low didn't move, and we're going to continue to see snow, and we will have some accumulation still possible going a little bit deeper in the day. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if we saw both the winter weather advisory and the winter storm warning extended out into this afternoon just to cover the potential and make everybody where the, yeah, accumulating snow is still definitely going to be possible through the day to day, but it will definitely be far more of this hit or miss situation. So it's kind of tough because, you know, there are factors in play. You know, there are some that could

produce heavier snow here and there. You just don't know for sure where all that here is going to be. Okay, fair enough. And I'm looking at trip check and various other places. Looks like the Siskus. Highway 140 is a mess this morning, according to trucker reports that I got from that. That is just a hard pack, snowing like crazy. And definitely a place that if you don't have to head over to Cave Falls, maybe just hang on for a while. It's plowed. It's bad. Highway 140, there are chain requirements up on it. They almost never make passenger vehicles chain up. But you definitely, if you're towing a trailer, if you're a big rig, you are chaining up at mile post 21 in eastern Jackson County just outside of Lake Creek

to mile post 41 in Clameth County. You know, again, it is a mess. And so there are chain requirements for certain vehicles up on 140. Doak Mountain, also snow-covered roads, no chain requirements at this point. And then we have another very heavy area of snow move through eastern Klamath County and western Lake County. And if you're continuing to travel east on Highway 140, you are definitely going to be encountering some pretty good snow happening. Eastern Klamath County, Western Lake County. And then again, in eastern Lake County, east of Adel going towards the Nevada state line, more snow impact happening. out there. And what I am hearing from truckers also, that north of Grants Passes, the four

passes, are not doing that badly at this point in time. A period of time there were Sexton was seeing heavy snow, and the snow was sticking to the road, and then that cell moved through, and then there was pretty dramatic improvement. It's not nearly as bad as what it was feared it could be, especially with terrain enhancement, and when we thought we were going to be getting those heavier, more convective bands coming through. But again, snow is definitely going to continue to impact the quad passes between Grants Pass and Canyonville today. And at times we may get those really heavy dumps of snow that can definitely degrade the road quality for a brief period of time. They are running plows on I-5 between Grants Pass and Canyonville.

So as those heavier snow situations pop up, ODOT's trying to jump all over on it. Highway 199 has also at times this morning been seeing snow sticking to the road surface at Hayes Hill, and then that moves through, and then next thing you know you look and you're seeing pavement. However, Oregon Mountain on 199, that's been staying consistently snow-covered. They have been running plows down there in Northern California, and while we're talking about that, I want to take a look at what Caltrans has up for $199 in their section. So no chain requirements there, but when you look at the webcam at Oregon Mountain, there's clearly snow sticking to the road, and they've been running plows.

But again, right now, $199 not seeing any chain requirements at all at Oregon Mountain. or at Hayes Hill. Yeah, Prae River School District on a two-hour delay, and we also have a two-hour delay on Phoenix Talent, right? Yeah. The listening area I'm aware of did also get notifications that Wyrika schools are on a two-hour delay down in Northern California,

and then kind of taking a quick look through social media, what popped up on the Rogue Weather's page feed, seeing other school districts in interior, you know, Del Nort Humboldt, Hupa areas, they're definitely running on delays down in those areas as well. And Northern California, that's where the really heavy snow is happening right now in the mountains. And according to Sacramento National Weather Service, they still expect we're going to be measuring snow in feet today again in the Sierra. and I-80 through the Sierra, Highway 50 through the Sierra yesterday, both of those turned into parking lots, numerous wrecks.

Officially, CHP closed those routes to travel, but they had literally hundreds of people stuck in the middle of the closure zone, and they had quite a mess on their hands. They're trying to get people to not even make the trip through the Sierra on I-80 and U.S. 50 this morning. All right, Greg Roberts at Rogueweather.com. Greg, I always appreciate the take on it, and I know you'll keep your viewers up on Rogue Weather.com, and on Facebook and various others, okay?

Thanks so much. Yeah, no coverage throughout the day here. As soon as we wrap up, I'm going to recharge the coffee cup, give the voice a chance to rest a little bit, and then another live coming up at Rogue Weather, and I know I definitely am doing a live at 10 a.m. this morning. That's my normal Tuesday live webcast. And I get to have fun and do that at trophy club, so I get to enjoy breakfast.

All right. Well, enjoy yourself. All right. Thanks, Greg. It's 22 after 7. 770563 on Pebble in Your Shoe Tuesday. Have you got a pebble? Let me know.

I'll have the hand of the update, a bunch more, more of your calls. Herman's also going to be joining me, too. We're going to be talking about the arrogance of the state legislature. More specifically, the arrogance of our Democratic colleagues. in the state legislature, all of that coming up. If you've been injured in an accident, you've got Reed Law Firm on your side. I'm Shane Reed. Call us for a free, no obligation consultation to discuss your case.

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Here's AOC. She couldn't answer a question about committing troops to defend Taiwan against China. It's almost as if she knew nothing about the topic at all. But my favorite line is when she said that Venezuela is below the equator. Does pay close attention to this? It doesn't mean that we can kidnap ahead of states and engage in a lot. acts of war just because the nation is below the equator. No, he was indicted as a narco-terrorist who was killing Americans.

I'm profiting off it. The funny part is, she goes, the U.S. should not engage in actions like the one against Maduro just because Venezuela is below the equator. One little problem. Venezuela is not below the equator. But why they've let facts now? This is the leader of the Democratic Party now. From coast to coast, from sea to shining sea.

It's the Sean Hannity Show. All right, Noah Pure Talk's favorite holiday is President's Day because they believe wireless service could only cost you a couple of presidents, just a Jackson and a Lincoln, to be exact. And for 25 bucks a month with Pure Talk, you can get unlimited talk and text, plenty of data. Compare that to their competitors. Now, the big carriers would rather celebrate Benjamin Franklin Day

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ed we have deplorable patrick how's a snow looking for you professional driver how you do it i'm sitting here looking out the window with 55 years of truck driving experience i'm sitting here looking out the window, but it wasn't always that way. Oh, yeah? And this no report is for entertainment purposes only. Gotcha. All righty. I was

a very young and very inexperienced truck driver driving a log truck up on the Big Elk Road coming out to Dead Indian Road one day with a load of logs where you're coming out from the woods getting ready to turn

onto the paved roads. I know that road. I know that road you're talking about. Yep. Well, anybody listening who may not, if you look, if you stop at the stop sign and you look to your left, it's uphill. And if you look to your right,

it's uphill. So you're right there in the V. Gotcha. I'm in the bottom of this V and no chains on. Snow everywhere. And I'm trying to decide whether I got to have chains. So I look to the left and down the hill toward me, comes

this guy in a loaded log truck, and he's roaring. And he comes down past me and right up the other side and right on up. He didn't have any chains on. And I thought, well, I guess you don't have to have chains. Uh-oh. I hear a bad outcome coming in this story. It's really entertaining. What I didn't calculate at the time was he had a 475 horsepower V-12 and lots of

momentum. And you had none of that. I had a 220 horsepower. No momentum. And no momentum to get you up on the other side of that V, right? So I start, that is correct. So I start up that hill and grabbing gears. And I got maybe, I don't know, two or three hundred feet, maybe a football field up that hill pretty soon I'm not going anywhere. And pretty soon after that, I'm sliding downhill backward in a loaded log truck. It's not what I wanted. But that was what Barack Obama would have called a teachable moment, right? It was very much a teachable moment.

And so I got this wave of inspiration. and I think God was on my side there. And I just turned the wheel a little bit and ran the rear end of the loaded log truck into the snowbank. That's the only way I was able to stop. Oh, man. And when the trouble is just beginning, because you know, if anybody knows about putting on chains, especially on a truck, you lay the chains down on the ground and then you roll the truck onto the chains, and then you hook, clip the chain.

Well, how are you going to roll the truck if you're stuck against the snowbank? And he don't have chains to pull up in the snowbank. So cut to the chase here, Patrick. Did you end up having to wait until spring to haul it out? What happened? The spring melt? I'm still there. I figured that.

Glad to hear it. I'm glad you're here today, though. I really am. I'll bet you that any good truck driver has had stories back when they were young and inexperienced, a story like that. There has to be. You pay the price, getting experienced. You pay the price to get there.

I love it. Thanks for the call, Patrick. 770 OK, MED. Not exactly a snowmageddon, but there are some places that are certainly pounded this morning. Jacksonville Hill looks to me to be one of the worst, oddly enough, if you're up on that right now. Hi, good morning. This is Bill. Who's this?

Morning. Hello. Hi, this is Bill. Hey, Phil. What's up? Well, I'm switching topics to the pebble in your shoe. Okay. It's regarding the government shutdown again.

but, you know, if these guys can come through a decision on this funding, however now, you know, the other side is gone for 10 days. Yep. And a decision can't be made. Now, why can these guys, when we're having this little critical moment in government, why can't they all be recalled back to make a final decision if the other side makes a decision? Yeah, I don't know that. I don't know the reason why they can't be recalled. But, you know, Congressman Cliff Bence will be in studio this coming Friday morning. You'll be speaking at this Friday or Saturday's Lincoln Day dinner, you know, in Jackson County.

And I'm going to ask him, because you're right, everyone just went home, right? Yeah. It's like, you know, I don't get it sometimes the way things work. One would think that they all have to be there and stay there until they get our government funded. One would think that that would be the rule, but there must be. some different or else maybe there are just a planned vacations and everybody's going back into the into the district which is why congress and bents will be in southern oregon friday and saturday i guess maybe maybe that's part of it's already scheduled and uh the government shut down be damned i

guess that kind of thing i suppose i suppose that uh they could all or we can all suffer so they can go to dinners okay i guess yeah now are we are we suffering at this point because uh homeland Security, DHS, you know, quite off. A lot of that is shut down right now. Like 13% of the government is not being funded, but, you know, you still have the TSA people that are out there, grow up with the folks in the, in the airport, and we still have Border Patrol still working. There's not getting paid right now. Yeah. I mean, I heard the last time the air traffic controllers and TSA guys were getting second Uber jobs and delivering pizza and sleeping in the parking lot because they had no money to pay bills.

Uh-huh. So anyway, all right. Well, Phil, I appreciate that call. I appreciate the irritation. It's definitely a big boulder in a lot of people's shoes. 732 at KMED. We'll catch up on the rest of things here in just a moment. And then Herman, we're going to talk about the arrogance of what's going on in the state legislative session.

Yep, they're still working. They're working hard. They're working hard to screw you over. To what extent. Next. Wipeout hunger's over. Thank you to everyone who participated in our wipeout. hunger campaign at Kelly's Automotive Service.

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Visit Millet Construction.com. Here's the latest from KMED News. Wintery conditions this morning, snow showers on the higher hills and passes. Jacksonville Hill and the Applegate getting hit. Snow reported on 199 at Hayes Hill. The Siskues and Highway 140 also impacted this morning, along with the four passes north of Grants Pass. Winter storm warning is in effect for Jackson and Josephine County's three. Thursday. Overnight temperatures expected to drop to the mid to low 20s. Metford City Councilman

Kevin Stein making it official announcing his run for the state's Senate seat being vacated by Senator Jeff Golden, who last week announced his retirement. Stein running as a Democrat will first duke it out with Denise Krause in the May primary election. A new superintendent for the Eagle Point School District is announced. Getting the nod is Jim Helman, who most recently worked for the Vernonia School District. Helman takes over the Eagle Point Schools. in the 2026 to 2027 school year. And the Medford Chamber Leadership class has some great news for the Joy Community

Senior Tiny Homes Project. Rogue Malley Times reporting they'll concentrate on raising some $30,000 in order to design and build more of the tiny homes. Joy Community focuses on building homes for senior citizens who have been challenged in the current rental market. Bill Meyer, KMED News.

This hour of the Bill Meyer show is sponsored by Glacier Heating and Air, making sense of the heat, heating and air business. When Paul Simon released the song Slip Sliding Away in 1975, he lamented how we can watch our destiny pass by us. Millet Construction thinks it's also a good reminder that if the ground is slipping and sliding beneath your house,

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Fortune Reserve.com. Yeah, silver actually taking some more volatile hits. Gold to a lesser extent. Gold's been a little more steady. I don't know if that's because of the central bank buying or not. Not sure. Former State Senator Herman Berkshiger, we always talk politics and kind of get a lay of the lame here this morning.

How you doing, Herman? Welcome back. You got the stove going there. Dogs and cats. Oh, yeah. Nice and warm and cozy. I'm supposed to head to the East. coast on Thursday, but I don't know if that's going to happen. I was just looking at the

delays today. Delays, there's 11,000-60 airline delays today. You know, that's a pretty impressive number when you think about it. Even, you know, you figure what, 100, 200 people per delay? Sure. There we go. Good stuff. Yeah, so I was just getting ready to go look at the misery map and see what it says. Oh, boy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, as far as the snow down here, the only school districts that I'm aware of with problems, three rivers, two-hour delay. We have Logos with two-hour delay in Phoenix Town on a two-hour delay. Nothing closed at this point.

Just some delays giving people a little chance to get going before they head into class. And that's about all we wrote for today. Now we'll see about tomorrow when it freezes overnight, huh? It's winter. What can we say? It's winter. All right. So you want to talk about the legislature, huh?

What they're doing to it? Oh, gosh. You know, this is, you know, the part that it has concerned me most is that the Democrats in the supermajority, they're not even pretending to care. I know that I'm getting people that are talking about that medical bill, the medical bill, which could possibly be putting some more vaccine mandates and various other things on the situation. Children's Health Defense is all over this one. They get all their people wound up. They're commenting almost 100% against the bill, and yet it's recommended to pass out it goes and for set it consideration.

I'm seeing this stuff all the time. It almost seems that I just have never seen such an arrogant group of, I would love to use an expletive when I'm describing the Democrats. And yet we've worked for these people, you know, off and on for years. They're not even pretending to care about what the opinion is of the so-called government here, Herman. At least that's my opinion of it so far, what I'm seeing. Oh, well, you know, I'll give me a quote from the governor, our current governor, who was the Speaker of the House. She just, I remember her saying, we got the votes.

Don't care what the people say. Don't care what anybody says. Yeah, and they've got the votes as if. the votes mean that the people don't care or don't pay attention, you know, to what they're doing or don't have some say in this. But I guess it's all the matter. Yeah, but they don't have any fear from pushback from their people, the people that elect them into office because they just keep elected them into office, Bill.

It's hard to understand, you know. These people will complain about it and talk bad about it and then turn right around and load them right back in. So I don't know how to fix that. Okay. What are some of the worst carnage that you're seeing coming by so far? You've been keeping an eye on things. Senate Bill 1599, which moves the referendum date to the May election instead of the November election. They don't want, because you don't have the turnout in the primary, as you will in the general. So that is currently, I was amazed. That was sponsored. by the Senate President Wagner.

That's usually something that Senate presidents stay away from. They get somebody else to do it, but he did it. Well, I know, and you were Senator Peter Courtney probably would have stayed away from that, wouldn't he? Oh, yeah. I mean, it would probably still go through the system, but with somebody else's name on it. Right. So anyways, you know, they actually created a joint special committee on the reference. random. So that means that on that committee, both senators and representatives from the House

said on it. Anyway, they came out of committee bipartisan, no Republican votes. So I could see it's in third reading in the Senate, or Senator Casey Jama, our senator from Somalia, is carrying the bill. And so I'm sure it'll pass out of that today. So we'll be voting on that ODA tax in May rather than in November. Okay, all right. Yep, yep, and it'll go into the House. Let's see, Senate Joint Resolution 201, which would take some of the kicker. That seems to be stuck in committee.

Senate Bill 1507, disconnects from the Federal Code. That's interesting. Yeah, this is a big deal because this is essentially, essentially the state legislature saying you're not going to get some of your Trump tax cuts, right? That's what that's all about. Well, and I, you know, being, you know, I was on the Senate Revenue Finance Committee in the entire eight years I was there. And we, you know, we had these discussions on it.

And so what that does, though, they're going to have to somehow, I didn't look at the fiscal, but they're going to have to somehow figure out how to create more tax auditors because now it's like you're getting you're going to be your tax rules are coming from two different entities so before you did all your federal taxes and did all your deductions and everything and then whatever was your tax liability you just moved that over and that was the starting point on your state well now that you're disconnecting you're going to have to do your state just like you do your federal so you have like two different want. And I don't know where they're going to have to spend a lot of money on the state side

to enforce this. So I don't know how that's all going to work. I know that what will end up happening is that, you know, people who end up using, you know, some software, tax software to do this, they probably, you probably won't get the entire final answer until we get out of this state legislative session, right? Because the legislature will pass. No doubt it has an emergency clause and then it'll go into effect. And then they'll have to put a software update on there, won't they? Yeah, and I don't know if it's retroactive. You know, I haven't had time.

Oh, okay, that's right. No, it probably wouldn't be retroactive. It would probably be for next year, for next year. I'm sorry. Don't think so. It could be retroactive. Oh, really? It could be?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, then that could really make it interesting. You could have people who filed their income taxes early. as soon as they could. And they might then have to refile or file an amended turn or a term

or else the Department of Revenue will send him a note saying, here, you owe more, pay up, right? Well, yeah, this is a really, this is a more dangerous bill than, you know, because people don't understand what it really means.

They will understand. Let me tell you. Yeah. They will understand. Let's see. I wanted to try to find a fiscal on it. I can't find it really fast. There's got to be a big fiscal on it. Impact statement. Anyway, moving on. They got a couple house bills that tells the school districts

how to deal with ice. That's interesting. Well, you know, it's interesting you bring that up because I have some people, I guess, apparently within the orbit of bus drivers here in Southern Oregon, and apparently there was Grants Pass School District Transportation Department already put out guidance about what to do with, you know, if ICE was trying to pull over a school bus. I'm not even aware, I mean, I've done some searches for this. I can't find any example of ICE having tried to pull over school buses. Have you? I've not heard anything to think about that at all.

No, no, but they, it's ICE coming to the school. This is just all fear mongering. That's all this is, Bill. It's fearmongering. Okay. You know. So they want to probably put this kind of guidance that Grants Pass was telling its drivers. They probably wanted to put this into state statute, I guess, right?

It's probably what they're trying to do. Yeah, well, they want school districts to create policies. But it's all fearmongering. That's all it is. This is just all fearmongry. Because they know ISIS is coming to Oregon, and they know it's coming. Sure. They're just trying, what they're doing.

is they're building a case for public sediment against ISIS, is what they're doing before it ever happened. Do you understand that? Yeah, I do. Yes, that's what's going on. This concerns me, and I've talked with other people about this, Herman. My concern is that the Trump administration that ran probably on immigration and deportation,

deporting people who are here illegally, probably more than anything else. That was like the number one issue. I feel that kind of dribbling away, do you? Or not? I think they're just taking a pause. It's just a reset. It's got, you know, the Trump administration, always remember,

everything goes by, you know, what is the general public thinking, okay, on the grants? And so Trump was losing a little traction there in Minneapolis, so I think he took a pause, but I don't think the administration's done by any mean. They know this has to happen. But there are some 20,000 habeas corpus cases now coming through the court. It almost seems like that's the reaction from the blue hive mind states.

We'll start filing tons of lawsuits. And I get concerned that's just going to tie the Trump administration down legally and not going to be able to move forward in spite of the fact that maybe they want to. Oh, that could be. You're absolutely right. That could happen. Yes. But that's what this is all about public opinion. They're trying to gain public opinion to be anti-ice. That's what all this is about. All right. Anything else going in that that is noteworthy of the state legislative session at the moment? It's all bad news, unfortunately. I wish it was good news. Yeah, so, of course, we got a couple of gun bills, you know, 41-45. That's basically, rewriting the bill that is sitting in the courts right now. So that's just going to continue that saga going and going and going.

I got Senate Bill 496. That's the gun felon bill, and I don't get this one. So now it makes a felon who possesses more than three guns a real bad felon. Huh? I don't get it. Yeah. Okay. So, now, if you're a felon in possession, you've already violated the law, right?

We know that. Right. Yes. But if you have more than, if you're caught with more than three guns, then you really are a bad guy. Okay. She, I don't get it. All right. You know, I just don't get it.

So I was looking at that revenue disconnect bill, which I think, I think it is really going to be bad for people. it's going to be too late before they know what's going on. No, let's see, revenue impact statement, no revenue impact. Oh, my God. Wait a minute. How can the state of Oregon claim that a bill to disconnect a lot of things from the federal tax code would have no revenue impact? That sounds like a lie.

I know it. But you got to remember, those departments, It's LFO and RFO. They work for the governor, you know. I mean, they work for the legislature, but they work for the majority. Let's put it that way. Okay. And no fiscal impact at this time.

They always put it at this time. Well, at this time. Well, yeah, they're right at this time. It's in the future that the fiscal impact comes, right? Right. And that might be how they get away with that lie. Boy, I have to tell you, you know, you see the way this state, legislature works under Democrat supermajority control. And can you help but be cynical about the

political process here, Herman, when you hear about this? You know, it's so misleading that it's, you know, they make it so complicated and so misleading. I just feel that they're just lying to the public. They want to keep them in the dark. Now, Herman, you, of course, having been in the state legislature before. They move forward. Let's just assume that measure 114 comes out of the courts and it's alive. And it makes about, it makes practically anybody within who has firearms here in southern Oregon a lawbreaker in one form or another just by nature of possession. Right. Do you see this being the flashpoint? Is this the flashpoint? No. No, I don't think so. You don't think so? No.

You're going to have some really angry people, but a lot of people are just going to, they'll say, I already hear people say, well, I'm just going to hide those and I'm just going to do this, and I'm just going to, you know, they're already making adjustments in their life because of the bill instead of fighting it. They're making adjustments. Huh. That, well, I guess once again, it's that battered marriage, that battered wife syndrome here. Southern Oregon being the battered wife. of Salem?

Well, the problem is, is law-abiding citizens don't want to go to jail and they don't want to risk it. Felons, bad people, that's why they're bad people. They don't care about going to jail, and they do go to jail. Yeah. I'll be really curious to see what happens if 114 does go in, and then, in essence, I wonder if they make it so difficult to purchase that they end up actually smuggling guns, if we end up being like a third world country and guns become the smuggling thing along with the dope and everything else. I wonder. I'm not advocating. Yeah, I don't know. You know, how's that going to work with

one minute the guns you have are legal and then the next minute they're not. How do you even deal with that? I guess we're going to find out, Herman. Yeah. I don't know. It's pretty bad, Bill. Yeah, it's a darker, darker session that I would like to be reporting on. That's for sure. Talking with former state Senator Herman Berchiger this morning, hi, good morning. You're on with Herman. Who is this? Hi, Bill's Cliff at a central point. Cliff, good to hear from you. What do you wonder about? Go ahead. Well, the question I have for Herman is, because I watch landlord-tenant law.

My recollection that Senator Jama, when he was first elected, was put in chair of the and housing committee. And it seems as though a lot of junior elected officials are being into these positions on the committee. Do you have any comment on that or speculation? Well, yeah, but they're just, you know, freshmen, we call them freshmen, they just do what they're told. And so it doesn't matter which position.

Is there anything significant, though, that you have freshmen people that know nothing, like Casey in housing, which of course is one of our most contentious issues these days. Oh, yeah. No, they're just, and you have to remember that since whoever is in the majority, which is the Democrats right now, they're going to chair all the committees. And then all the committees are going to be made up that there's always one more Democrat than a Republican on every single committee. So no matter what you do as a Republican, you're outnumbered.

You're outnumbered in the committees or you're outnumbered on the floor. It's just how it is. Any other questions there to answer it? Yeah, okay, one more. Did Jama take over the district that Rod Monroe was in? I think you are correct, because then that was Shemia Fagan, and then I think Jama, I would have to look it up. But I want to say you're correct, but I'm not absolutely positive. Okay, yeah, that's kind of what I thought also.

And let me tell you something about Rod Monroe was a grand old guy. I enjoyed working with Rod Monroe. Yeah, we were on the opposite side of a lot of things. But he was very moderate. And that's what I don't know if you all know this. That's what got him out of office. as the Democrats ran Shemia Fagan, moved into the district, was there for six months so she could run against him. And Peter Courtney raised a whole bunch of money for Rod Monroe in that primary, but the Democrat machine went against them, and they got Shemia Fagan, and that's how they stole that district from Rodman Roe.

That's interesting. Hey, thanks for the question there, Cliff. You know, that kind of brings me up to another thing. That almost sounds as if, in reality, there is no room for any moderates in any party. Would that be fair to say the way the state legislature is right now? Moderates? Well, there's moderates on the Republican side, but there's not. On the Democrat side, they get in line. Let me tell you. All right.

Well, that's kind of what I was getting to because I saved this article, K-O-B-I. K-O-B-I had this article about, because, you know, Dwayne Yonker has a challenger, a primary Challenger coming in here. Seth Benham, a Grants Pass City Councilor. And this was the quote that K-OBI had from Seth, and I thought this was interesting. It says, last session, we weren't able to receive any money for any kind of funding projects, specifically infrastructure projects that related to industrial lands, some water line upgrades, as well as public safety. Those are all things that are important to anyone in the district and funding that I think as taxpayers we deserve our fair share of. And, of course, what that said to me instantly is that this is a moderate Republican or supposedly a moderate Republican willing to reach across the aisle.

Isn't this the same disease that has afflicted the state legislature, at least on the Republican side? Am I wrong about that? In other words, it's going after Dwayne not bringing home bacon, apparently. That's exactly what it is. Now, I met with Seth. He came to my house and we had a long, probably a two-hour conversation. and he just doesn't simply understand. He's very naive how it works.

He doesn't realize for him to get those kind of dollars that he's asking for first, they have to be available, which they aren't always available. And second, he's going to have to do something for him. Okay? And if he does something for him, he's going to be like Lily Morgan. He's going to get that crap beat out of him, you know, when she voted on several bills. including the one to put feminine napkins in boys' room.

I mean, she just had so much pressure, she left. So he doesn't understand, he just doesn't understand how that game's played. You cannot abandon your base, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, because then you won't get elected. So, you know, and I've heard people, you know, Democrats come up to me and say, You represent both Democrats and Republicans. Well, that's right. However, if I want to stay elected, I have to be on pretty good terms with my base

because the Democrats are never going to vote for me. Okay. So that's just how politics are. And I hear people like Colleen Martin, who's up for a commissioner position. I think they get interviewed tomorrow. Because all it needs to be bipartisan and to do things in a bipartisan. manner and everything. She's delusional, absolutely delusional. Lame a democracy on this planet that isn't partisan. It's just not, you know, and I always tell people, pick a tribe.

You have to pick a tribe. If you try, and that's just how it is, whether it's in the United States or any other democracy. And that's also why the Republicans are being taking part in this humiliation ritual. That's really what the state legislative session is this humiliation ritual. They all show up. They vote no of the Democratic bills, at least most of them do, maybe some don't. And they get steamroller because it's mathematics, it's the politics, and the Democrats have a supermajority. There's no squish in this right now. No real wiggle room on most of these bills. Fair enough. That's kind of what we're looking at. You know, when I got elected into the Senate, I took counsel from Brady Adams.

Now, Brady Adams, a Republican from Joseph County, was the last Republican Speaker of the Senate. And so I went to him for counsel multiple times, you just so valuable. And he told me, I remember the first meeting, he says, well, you know, Herman, you're going to be in the minority. and the only thing you can do is throw a few hand grenades. And I said, yeah, I'm taking a dump truck load of them with me. That's really all you can do, you know. You got to just, you got to throw these hand grenades. You've got to be very proactive and do the best you can to stay on the offense.

Years ago, I was at a, oh, we're doing a town hall with Dwayne Stark. And Dwayne Stark, he spoke, and he talked about the bills he was working on and helped passing and this and that and what he was doing. And I got up there and they asked me, well, what are your bills? I go, I don't have any bills. There was times I didn't even file. I didn't even file any bills. I says, I'm in a minority. My job is to stop the bad bills, not to create more.

So I just took a little different attitude than a lot of our Republican first. up there. They think, you know, oh, I'm going to... A lot of Republicans think that their bill has a chance of passing, or that's possibility of passing. If their bill has a chance of passing, it's probably a bad bill. Yeah, I was talking with Noah, Senator Robinson last week, Noah Robinson, and he was saying, and, you know, and I know it's a high lift, but I love the one in which he wanted to talk about the political tax credit going up to $1,000 instead of the 50 per person, like it is, right now. I thought that was a... I'd love to see that. That would certainly be

a little bit of an advantage or at least against the lobbyist. It would help a little bit, wouldn't it? If you were able to pull that rabbit out of my hat, that'd be interesting. Well, you know who benefits from that, don't you? Who's that? The lobby. Oh, yeah?

Yeah, because a lot of the lobbyists run the races. The money's going into the races. They don't do it for free, Bill. Uh-huh. Oh, so they'll take a bigger cut, is what you're saying. Yeah. Okay. All right.

More money for the people running the races. I love it. Hi. Hi, you're on with Herman. Who's this? We've got to go, but give me a quick question or comment. Go ahead. I do have a quick question.

Lynn and Phoenix. And, you know, my big concern is SB 1 1598, which could potentially bring us back to vaccine mandates in Oregon. Mm-hmm. And they don't seem to be paying attention to you, Lynn, are they? No, they're not. They don't care. But there's not one Republican on that.

committee. It's 100% Democrat. And I was wondering, how can that be? I thought there was supposed to be some Republican representation. I know the Democrats always, you know, have more. But do you know how that can be? Well, well, give me the bill number again, really, because I'm up and going here. SB 1598. Yeah, SB 1598, Herman. Let's be 1598. Let's see here. Work session. No, there's the Republicans on there. On the Senate side, it was Hayden and Lithucom.

They both voted no out of committee. That's really weird because I went to Oleson. I didn't find anything but Democrat names. I'll have to go back and look again. Okay. Yeah, thank you. The numbers are compost, Hayden, Lithium, Patterson, and Reynolds. And Hayden and Lexington both loaded, no.

Mm-hmm. All right. Okay. Well, thank you. All right. Thank you, Lynn. Let's see. Where is it at right now?

Let's see. Yeah, that got passed out of a committee from what I understand. Yeah, but we're, let's see, we're married. It's a due pass recommendation out of committee, so it's in the Senate. Third reading. And then it'll go over to the house and see what happened. Yeah. All right.

It's getting kind of late. So keep your fingers crossed. It may not make it to the finish line. All right. We cross our fingers that it doesn't cross the finish line. Maybe that's the best you can do at this point. That's an interesting issue, Bill. There's a lot of Democrats that don't like that.

So, yeah, there's a lot of Democrats, you know, that whole, the whole, the whole, liberal environmental community, they kind of don't like that vaccine stuff. So this may not make it to the finish line. Let's keep your fingers crossed. What would be a sign? Now, I remember it used to be that if something went to ways and means, that it was designed to go there to die a slow, painful death. Is that still the case right now? Well, that's an assumption. It can come flying out a committee. I could be on the floor. It could be sitting in a committee. A bill could be sitting in committee. They haven't had a work session. Nothing's happened. And I can make a motion on the Senate floor to take it out of the committee and bring it to the floor and let the senators deal

with it themselves. So nothing's dead until that final gavel goes down. All right. Good. Appreciate the call. As always, Herman, be well. Thanks for explaining a little bit about what is going on there. And I wish the news were good, but there's just no good news in this session. And we knew it was going to be this way, but it's really trying to figure out what might possibly die rather than what positive Republican legislature might be able to move forward. Okay, fair enough. All right. You take care, Bill. All right. Keep powder dry for sure. Seven minutes after eight. KMED, KMED, HD, One, Eagle Point Method. KBXG grants pass. It's pebble in your shoe Tuesday. You got a pebble. Let me know. And, well, dig it out of the snow if you have any, and we'll talk about it.