Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 08-12-25_TUESDAY_6AM

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

08-12-25_TUESDAY_6AM

Here's Bill Meyer. Good morning. It is Pebble in Your Shoe Tuesday. If you're part of the early risers club, you are certainly welcome to chime in at 770-KM-D. Pebble in your shoe Tuesday, usually there to express gelop de-stressing. Actually, I call it a distressing kind of day. This way you can, something's bugging you, you just let it go. 7-70KM-D to join in.

Heard all over southern Oregon in 1063, KMED, 1067. Jackson County for Ashland, Talent, Phoenix. This kind of areas is where it's probably best heard. You also have 105 in Grants Pass, Rogue River area, 993 during the morning show. We have instead of the jukebox, it is me on the morning show there, covering greater Josephine County there too. And I'm just glad that you're here, one way or the other. I'm going to give you an idea who we have coming up.

I'm a little guest-heavy, a little more guest-heavy than I usually am on Pebble in Your Shoe Tuesday, but there's a lot going on. Editor-in-chief of Breitbart News, Alex Marlowe, is going to join me. He has a new book, Breaking the Law, about the Lawfare, getting to the core of how lawfare ended up forming and taking over a lot of our government process. We're going to talk with him for a few minutes. I'm also going to call up my Aunt Sherry,

my Aunt Sherry Fisher, who lives in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania. Elizabeth Pennsylvania is just three, four miles away from that Coke plant to that U.S. steel plant that blew up yesterday, killing two and injuring 10. Most of the 10 ended up being, well, five of them ended up being released right away, but five were in critical. A lot of, I would imagine a lot of burns, that kind of thing. And this plant is something that I have, it was part of my childhood, really, when I would go visit my grandparents. They lived in Elizabeth right next to the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie train tracks. Now it's CSX. And there would always be the scrap steel and the coal cars and everything like that.

And Granddad Fisher worked probably 40 years in that co-plant, maybe more, and retired. That plant is 120 years old. I am amazed that there is still a plant. Now, granted, there has been improvements done. in it over the years. But it is an amazing plant, and it is a key part of United States Steel. Now, United States Steel, of course, merged with, or was purchased, rather, by Nippon Steel, you know, the Japanese steelmaker, and this is very controversial at first.

But the folks in Elizabeth, Glassport, McKee, Sport, all of these communities in a South Southwest Pennsylvania on the Monongahela, there's like 1,500 people that work at that plant. They are generally thrilled about what happened with Nippon Steel buying them because it means investment in the plant's investment in newer technology. And like I said, 120 years this plant has been baking Coke. And it's an interesting process. My granddad, my granddad Fisher, who, of course, he's been gone a number of years, but. He explained it to me that they took metallurgic coal, a very high-grade coal, and then you bake it in what they call batteries. Batteries are just these brick, big, big brick ovens, and they bake the coal for many hours to purify it, to drive off impurities, water, tars, things like that.

And then what's left over, Coke is used as fuel in the blast furnaces to make steel. now there are other ways to make steel now there's hydrogen processes there's electric furnaces there are other ways to do it that don't require the coal but still this is the number one producer of it in the entire country it is a big critical plant and i know it's one of those things that's just kind of hidden way most people know nothing about it and it is a big part of that of that local economy like i mentioned 1500 people working there having that plant blow up would be like how we would be freaking about it if Harry and David burned down, you know, that, you know, that kind of thing.

Everybody knows somebody that works at that plant. And Sherry's been keep apprised of it. Like I said, she's just a few miles away from it and plugged in. And so we'll kind of get the latest, the community pretty shocked right now and in recovery. And don't even know what's going on with it yet. We'll get the latest from her. Like I said, just lives right by it. Dr. John Lott will be with me too.

and he's going to be talking the Trump tariffs and maybe even the inflation numbers. Inflation numbers came out and didn't rise as much as expected last month, but a measurement of the underlying price hikes show a pickup. They're calling it a pickup in tariff-related pressures, but not a whole lot. Consumer prices up 0.2% in July, so that's about 2.4% a year. But it's keeping the annual inflation rate at about 2.7%. stock futures rising after the data release. Now, stock futures, the markets are going up because they're figuring that this is going to

lead to an interest rate cut. That's what the stock market tends to always want, is very cheap money and moving that along. Gas prices, according to CNN, falling for the month, food prices held flat, kept the overall index tane. Energy and food prices tend to be volatile on a month-to-month basis. Yeah, I know, but it's a big part of it. core inflation rose 0.3% from June. That's the fastest increase. So that's about 3% inflation a year.

Core goods. And economists had expected inflation to heat up slightly, just slightly. So we're talking about some rounding errors really in the economy, but that is the latest news that is driving and powering the stock market higher for the most part. meanwhile a little closer to home Trump's big beautiful bill this is the headline on Oregon public broadcasting

have to have to share this one Oregon stands to lose more than 15 billion dollars in federal funding for health care food assistance and other purposes in its coming years under the sweeping spending bill congressional Republicans passed earlier this year is coming from Dirk Vanderhart

at Oregon Public Broadcast That's the preliminary conclusion by Governor Tina Kotech's office, which in recent weeks asking state agencies to crunch the numbers for what the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act might mean for the ability to provide services. As various facets of the big bill rollout, it's staggered fashion in the coming years, Kotech's office says the state of Oregon will lose out on nearly $12 billion

that currently pays for health care around the Oregon Health Plan. What's left on set about this, though, is kind of the fib, the fibbing by omission. The Big Beautiful Bill Act puts a work requirement. It puts a work requirement on getting health care. So if you're going to get health care subsidized by the taxpayers and you're able-bodied, you're going to have to do something. You're going to have to do something with your life besides. hit the bong and hit the video games.

But, of course, they're calling this a huge, horrible cut. I don't know. I guess we're going to have to sharpen our pencils and decide what is most important. Governor Kotech course, having this special session at the end of the month during Labor Day weekend to figure out how much he can tax people's labor. Yeah, I mean, oh about that. Yeah, we'll talk with Herman about that and other things a little bit earlier. And the thing is, they are talking in this big beautiful bill article about how, oh, man, the tax income. The tax income is really tight.

It's tight. It's tight. That's not true. I ended up pulling up the state revenue forecast from May. So this is four months ago, or three months ago, rather. It was mid-May it happened. Oregon's quarterly economic and revenue forecast released May 14th predicts slightly lower revenue collections for 2023 and 2025 and 2025 to 2027. Now, lower revenue collections than the Office of Economic Analysis anticipated during its previous forecasts.

So remember, this is the way the Democrats define a cut. the Democrats to find a cut in something when there is less money coming in than the big fat forecasts that we had received or that we had accepted. In other words, it's like, oh, you know, we're cutting something, meaning that it doesn't get the increase, right? That's considered cutting something in the Democratic world, too. So they're fidding about this. Kotech is talking about, oh, my gosh, you're going to be hurting with this, the beautiful

bill cutting. billions. Nevertheless, it says the state is expected to collect billions of dollars more than the legislature expected to have when it created the current budget at the close of 2023. And available resources during the Coving by NEM are expected to exceed the money collected during 2023 to 25 by 12%. So we're actually going to receive 12% more money. They figure 12% more tax money going into Tina Kotech's mall in order to hand out to her buddies, I guess, involved in homelessness services or whatever but they're claiming that it's tight oh it's so tight and trump's big beautiful billable flat will slash 15 billion in federal money to to Oregon

yeah a lot of it to deadbeats who aren't doing anything for their health care and we're part of the Oregon uh let's expand Oregon health plan so that every dirt bag that doesn't want to work for a living ends up getting free taxpayer health care maybe we can provide free needles for them too. And, oh, it's just, it's insane the way that this gets spun, in my opinion, at least. And it sure looks this way. And, oh, it's going to be so tight. It's going to be so tight. Listen, the state revenue forecast says we're going to get 12% billions more. It's just less than the earlier forecast of maybe 14% and a billion or two more. So the state of Oregon gets plenty of money. It's a matter of what it chooses to spend the money on. And the

raises that it hangs out to its people, which of course happened. There were, you know, big raises handed out to the Democrat Union types. And nobody wants to talk about that. No, there's more, Connie, you know, it's not the taxing problem, it's not, it's not the money coming in, it's never the money coming in to the state of Oregon. It is always what goes out and will Governor Kotech and the legislature choose as the priorities. That's the issue. that, oh, the big beautiful bill is what's going to kill us. Yeah, sure. Dave, how are you doing this morning? Welcome.

I'm doing real good. I just wanted to say, I got a letter saying I don't have to look for work because I'm on Medicare on that job thing, you know, for people that are on state aid for health insurance. But I wanted to talk about... Well, well, the difference is, though, is that you are considered, you are considered disabled. Are you not? Right. I know. Yeah, and see, that's the difference. That is what they are calling this horrible, this horrible, big, beautiful bill, which is cutting free health care to people who are able-bodied and yet refuse to work. It's a big difference. And if they go to work, they get to

keep their health insurance. What a deal. I know. I mean, I wouldn't mind having my health insurance paid by just working. I pay for mine, along with the, you know, well, the employer shares it with me, too. and you probably pay a pretty penny. But I wanted to say, is with Texas doing what they're doing with denial of quorum, that is over now because now it's pressing it. We're going to get it to our senators and booting them out. Now the Democrats are having it in Texas, and the Supreme Court's probably going to rule they vacated their office by not showing up.

Yeah, the laws are different, though, in Texas than they are in Oregon. You know, apparently Texas still has in their laws when it comes to their legislators the equivalent of what I consider a runaway slave law. You know what I'm getting at? You know, we got to bring our runaway slaves in Oregon, though.

It's runaway slaves or Republicans in Texas, runaway slaves are Democrats, that kind of thing. That's the way I see it. Appreciate the call, Dave. I think we lost your phone. It's 623 at KMED, 993 KBXG. So anyway, when you hear about how tight the revenue is going to be, you're going to be hearing lots of stuff. Big beautiful bill is killing everything.

Remember, the cuts in Medicaid, which is Oregon Health Plan, are generally going to people who are able-bodied and yet are dirtbaggy and don't feel like working. And they never should have been getting free health care in the first place if they're able-bodied and not working. That's the way I would look at it. What about you? You're on the Bill Meyer's show. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, and I'm with Cherise from No Wires Now, your Dish premiere local retailer. It's time to switch to DISH. If you have DirecTV or cable TV, call me today to see how I can save you money.

Plus, I'll lower your internet and cell phone bills. And those offers in the mail from Dish, you can go through No Wires Now for those. Call me at 541-680-5875. Call Cherise like I did or visit their showroom off Biddle Road in Metford, nowiresnow.com. Restrictions apply. Call for details. Internet and cell phone service not provided by DISH. For precision and performance, choose Stephen Westfall Roofing. Their standing seam metal roofings custom cut on site with portable snap lock machines. They also install laminated architectural shingles, rated for high winds and impact,

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But the reason you need auto body repair doesn't matter to us as much as making your car look new again and the process easy for you. At Lithia, Body and Paint, we've been getting southern Oregon drivers back on the road since 1946. service, speed, accuracy. That's Lithia, Body, and Paint on Bullock Road in Medford. It's true. Even the rogue gardener faces challenges. What's a good thing? What isn't a good thing?

It can be hard to distinguish. My frustration this year in my gardening was with the birds. That's why I'm talking about birds. All the stuff that they did starting with the first crop of peas. And, I mean, it has just been constant. and yet they did some good things. Talk about it with Roe Gardner. Saturday's 10 to noon, Sunday morning encore at 9 on KMED, sponsored by Grange Co-op.

Hi, I'm Corey with Patriot Electric, and I'm on KMED. 626 on Pevel in Your Shoe Tuesday. Some other news headlines this morning. Actually, good news. I'm glad to report today. No, it's nice to be able to have some good news, really. Jackson County Sheriff's Office confirming K-OBI reporting this late last night that Rafter that went missing on Sunday just past Dodge Bridge,

has been found alive. Fire District 4 reported that they were able to locate 27-year-old Justice Hamilton of Medford, who spent 24 hours stranded outdoors. He's now recovering at home, but he's okay. He's okay. So normally when you hear about someone that was floating the rogue and then they didn't show up, you start thinking, you start thinking the worst, right? But ends up being okay.

There was another great story on K-O-B-I. This was not good news, though. and this is something that I think we're going to have to get this Medford woman on. But they had a great story there about a Medford woman battling squatters for over a year to reclaim the family home. Vicki Lanfair said she endured, this is up taking us from the K-O-B-I story. Vicky Lanfair says she endured a lengthy and confusing legal process after discovering squatters, aka dirtbags, had taken over the West Medford House, her family had owned since the 1950s. The home near Maine and Lozier Lane finally cleared last week by Jackson County deputies.

But now, of course, the property is trashed. And Vicki Lanfair wants to see some changes in the law. And I absolutely agree with her. And she said, what's really sad is I'm an Oregonian. I love my state. but when druggies take over your property and you have no rights, I couldn't even come over here and check it. There's something wrong, and that needs to change.

And it's absolutely right. Vicky loves her state. I love our state too, but our state has gone almost pure commie. The fact that it's not as simple as, okay, dirtbags living in the family home, where is your signed legitimate rental agreement? Oh, you don't have one? Kick your ass to the curb.

That's about how simple it should be. But there's this procedure and then a 30-day quit and then yada, yada, yada, yada. And then wait for the courts to finally say, yes, you can kick them out. It's like you want to talk about the major attack on progress is the way that squatters can just drive people crazy and it's immoral and it shouldn't be happening. This is the Bill Myers show. I'm going to talk, see if I'd get Vicky on, but I was watching that story on K-O-B-I. It is just like, yeah, there needs to be another law, eliminating these kind of protections

that keep these real legitimate people out of their properties. Hi, good morning. This is Bill. Who's this? Welcome. Good morning, Bill. This is Tom. Hey, it's not often.

disagree with you, but you got to get with the program. The first plank of the Communist Party is to abolish private property. So you're really, you're really not going along with the agenda. We're going to have a... In other words, there's going to be talking to me coming from the state. Is that what is dealing? Oh, yeah. I mean, you're just out of order. You're not going along with the program. I mean, you could get with it. I mean, we've got to abolish any sense. of private property whatsoever. Well, I appreciate your humor, your sense of humor in there. I always do, Tom.

I always do. Well, it's really, isn't this absolutely insane? This woman should be in that situation. It's just absolutely nuts. Yeah, and it's probably going with and forth. Yeah, and it's probably going to be just tens of thousands of dollars that is going to be spent to fix that up, too, okay? I hope she says the, you know, the government in some sort of way, because it's not right, like you said.

Hey, Tom, I appreciate your call it on this morning on Pebble in Your Shoe Tuesday. Alex Marlow will be joining me here in just a few minutes, and so we're going to break for news real quick and get Alex on from Breitbart. And I'm really looking forward to talking to him about his new book, and we'll revisit that, Tom. We'll revisit that issue, too. From the KMED News Center, here's what's going on. As hot weather continues today for much of the state, there are no large active. fires in Oregon so far this year. Oregon's Department of Forestry reports just under 195,000 acres burned statewide so far. Jackson and Josephine counties are now under extreme

fire danger. The Oregon Department of Forestry says it spurred by dry vegetation, fire behavior, and consistent hot and windy conditions. BLM officials say campfires are restricted on all BLM Medford District lands, including at Hyatt Lake Reservoir. It coincides with a fire weather watch for the region today with wind gusts of 20 to 25 miles an hour. The state of Oregon's chief financial officers says federal cuts will cost the state $15 billion over the next six years. Medicaid takes the biggest hit losing more than $11 billion, followed by the Oregon Department of Human Services at nearly $3 billion.

Governor Tina Kotech says she'll convene lawmakers to consider strategies to reduce the impact of the cuts. Bill Lennon, KMED. It's the Bill Meyer Show on KMED, Southern Oregon's. to talk. Alex Marlowe is New York Times bestselling author of Breaking the News. Breaking the news, breaking the news, also breaking Biden, and also the editor-in-chief of Breitbart News Network, keeping people informed. Alex, it's great to have you on. Morning, sir. He's great to be on with you. I'm going to meet you, Bill. Yeah, great meeting you too here. And gosh, what a

story site that you're running over there. Tell us about breaking the law, though, because you've been going on a breaking tear, right? And so you're continuing that theme for your latest. breaking the law, exposing the weaponization of America's legal system against Donald Trump. Love to hear more about this. Yeah, I'm trying to identify where the biggest threats to this country at a given moment, particularly the conservative movement of which I'm an open and card-carrying member, and now we can preserve and conserve American values, First Amendment, Second Amendment, liberty, eplurbish, and in God we trust, all those things.

And people who are threats to those, I'm going to take my investigative eye to them. And I started with the establishment media, and then I thought the Biden crime family was the most worthy of my time in investigation. I think that proved very well. And the latest is the law fair superstructure that has been ramping up for decades, to be honest with you. It started with Franklin Roosevelt. It really accelerated when Joe Biden became a senator with the borking of Robert Bork and the high-tech lynching clearance Thomas. And then really went to overdrive during Barack Obama's administration with Eric Holder leading the Department of Justice. But it just got into hyper speed after Trump was on his way out in his first administration.

And it led to these six major cases against Trump in the interim between his two presidencies, all of which had a coordination with the Joe Biden White House was blatantly illegal. It's blatant electioneering. It's election interference. And all of them were terrible cases. They were all unfair for a number of reasons, be it Jack Smith, who was in a completely unconstitutional role, and was able to operate with impunity for 18 months, being able to investigate, being able to harass, being able to leak stuff to the press. None of it was legit, not any of it. And then you get things like these cruel and unusual punishments that were levied by Tish James in New York and the judge in that E. Jean Carroll, absurd case, the civil case where she asked for $15 million of damages, a court assesses $90 million in damages to Trump.

all these designed to bankrupt him or jail him heading into the election. And I don't think people fully understand the extent of it. And I also think it was the part which was astounding to me was that it was, there seemed to be no shame, Alex, in having it hide completely out in the open. It was like it was openly. It wasn't like it was something that was done hidden in the shadows. Would that be fair to say? Isn't that something?

Isn't this a scary development that you people like Alvin Bragg who led up one of the major prosecutions in New York? how he campaigned for his job on that he was going to get Trump, Letitia James, the Attorney General of New York, the top law enforcement official in one of the most powerful states in the union where Donald Trump was the most famous member of that state, the most famous resident. And she campaigned specifically saying the number one threat to this country is Donald Trump. How could it be allowed in this country?

That is not the purpose of law and order. We're supposed to equal protection under the law. You're supposed to have civil rights. And instead, all these were denied to him, because he was such a threat politically. And as Trump is fond of saying, they're not just coming after me. They're coming after you. I'm just standing in the way.

I'm just right on about this. And I prove this with example after example of people also within Trump's orbit who are subject to similar levels of harassment that just didn't hit the front pages at the same rate because they weren't president. Do you see lawfare expanding beyond just the realm of the political to just we regular people who are just known to be of a more conservative persuasion, Alex? at hell. Yeah, it's already happening. They have a big plan for this, and I give us a lot of specific examples in the book of people who are just sort of fringe members of the conservative movement on the margins and them getting, having police show up on the tarmac at airport, try to pick them up

because of some alleged wrongdoing that they may or may not have done. The whole goal is to unperson people, to debank people, to get them canceled from social media to make it so they can't hold certain jobs. If you're an attorney and you want to represent a conservative, there's a new entity called Project 65, which I investigate, which is designed to get you disbarred. So conservatives cannot have proper representation because if anyone does that, then they may never work again. That's the whole goal, and it's ramping up. This is a ongoing thing. We have not defeated it. It's happening right now. Alex Marlow, his book is breaking the law, exposing the weaponization of America's legal system against Donald Trump.

Alex, let me touch on something. I've been talking to legal eagles for 20 years now, 25 years on the show, and I will ask the same questions that I think you're starting to answer here. I would ask, where did all this come from? And nobody could really point at, point their finger at origins. Yeah, we know that FDR first started with this, but, you know, is there a grander conspiracy, and I would dare say even the bar administration is a big part of this, too.

The actual bar and the... Part of it. Okay? Yeah. Tell me more about that. And I trace all this. I trace all the bad guys, and a lot of it is, first of all, that the academia is a big deal. Everyone goes to law school, and the people running the law schools are the exact type

of people who are in the rest of academia, who run the J schools, the journalism schools. So every lawyer has to pass through that, it has to pass through that process, the right of initiation going through law schools. While the bar associations are left wing, a lot of the top-tier white shoe law firms lean liberal. The corporate capture by the left-wing establishment that's taken place is, I would say, the other major threat. I feel like we're making some progress in that regard with the sort of retreat from wokeification that we've seen in recent years. but a lot of these major corporations that are in law firms and then thus employed the law firms as well, these are all left-wing entities. So you're just getting onslaught, you're getting bombarded with left-wing thought

and trying to get you conditioned to be part of the left-wing apparatus if you're an attorney. And so it takes someone with really committed conservative principles to survive all that. And I think that's where it starts. And this has been intentional. There's lots of money behind it. I go through the financiers, the people who fund the law fair against President Trump, It's a very scary web, and they've been building it for decades, and now it's here, and thank God we had President Trump, who's so resilient he was able to survive it, and frankly, is so wealthy. Yeah, but President Trump is not going to be here forever, as we well know, and you can see this kind of web of influence from the left here, Alex, from not just the law, there's the, sure, the American Bar Association, there's the American Planning Association, there's the American Medical Association.

It's all kind of in the same, you know, they all drink out of the same Kool-Aid. And when you have all of these associations plus academia, how do you begin to take it apart permanently in your view? Any thoughts on that? Yeah. So I make a lot of recommendations in the book that are specific, and it's a terrific question. And I would love to go through, probably take an hour to get through them all. But the number one thing to do is, first of all, if people break the law and you're a lawmaker, you have to investigate. I demand investigations into probably a dozen different entities, and I'm making some of them

day by day at Breitbart News, if people want a little tease and some of the stuff that's out there, I've got a new one today on a judge that I picked out, I think is a really bad actor. But a civic level, your average person in the audience, we have to be in a wartime footing. We have to be engaged 24-7 every single day. We cannot lose another election. The biggest problem of them all is not just the institutions or the money and all that's a big problem. There's just too many liberals on the bench.

and how do you get too many liberals from being on the bench? You have to win elections so conservatives are picking judges, and we have to get engaged in judge elections, so we understand who really are the best judges who are there. And if we can do that, then long-term, we will win back the courts, but it's going to take time and it's going to take diligence and vigilance. Yeah, and, yes, certainly a long-term commitment. Alex Marlowe, great job on this, breaking the law,

exposing the weaponization of America's legal system against Donald Trump. Thanks for taking a few minutes to talk about that. Be well. Take care. It is 20 before 7, 993KBXG, 1063KMED. You're on the Bill Maher's show. You need a furniture store that... What's going on? Landin, I'm doing a commercial for Garrison's Express.

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covers recreational opportunities and is powered by Oregon Truck and Auto Authority. Your Department of Adventure off Vileless Road on Airway Drive. With SRN News, I'm Rich Thomason. Washington. Consumer prices held steady last month, rising 2.7% in July from a year ago. That was the same increase as the month before. However, core prices, excluding food and gas, rose 3.1%, suggesting that higher tariffs are driving up the cost of some imported goods. President Trump's federal takeover of Washington, D.C.'s police force has won the backing of the city's police union. Defense Secretary Hegset says D.C. National Guard troops, also being called up. Irrational Democrats oppose the president's action, arguing, among other things,

that it's racist. President Trump extending a trade truce with China for another three months to allow more time for trade talks between the U.S. and China. On Wall Street, the opening bell just sounding, stock starting off the day, positive. This is SRN News. You're worried because your home has been on the market with no success. An expired listing can be frustrating, but it doesn't have to be the end of your journey. Hey, it's Lars. What you need is the right real estate agent. And in the Medford area, that would be only my friend Jared Hockinson of Hockinson Realty. Jared specializes in turning things around so he can get your property sold. It's not that there's something wrong with your house. You just need expert marketing

and somebody who knows how to properly price your home. Jared Hockinson's more than 25 years experience in leadership, sales, management, and training are all part of a proven track record which combined to make him Medford's top and go-to industry expert. There's been a lot of uncertainty in the real estate world, but through it all, Jared Hockinson remains the agent you can trust. I trust, Jared, you should too. 541-772 sold. That's 541-772-7653. Or reach out to Jared through his website, 541-772Sold.com. News Talk 1063, KMED. You're waking up with the Bill Myers Show.

So great to have you here. Cliff is standing by. Hello, Cliff. I was talking earlier this hour about the Medford woman that spent months and months trying to get her house back from the dirt bags who ended up squatting in it, thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars in damage and cleanup needed with it now. and I can understand her being absolutely enraged. I know you keep up on the rental rules, right?

And so you said something has changed or is coming? What do you say? Right, right. House bill 3522. It takes effect January 1st, 2026, which is unfortunate because they do a lot of emergency bills. But it changes the law and is found in Chapter 90, the ORS, and now you can give a 24-hour notice to a squatter in your house that is not there under a rental agreement or leftover. Well, the law always stated that if a landlord did not know or accept rent from a person that was left behind by a tenant when they moved out,

you can give a 24-hour notice of unauthorized occupant. So now they've added squatter into the law. Good. But, you know, it didn't affect, you know, it doesn't help her at this point in time. No, no, it sure doesn't. Now, is there any definition or, you see, one of my concerns is that there has been another squatter kind of fraud thing that has been spreading around the country in which you have fake rental agreements that people will sometimes, you know, do fraudulently? and then you end up waiting for court proceedings in order to, you know, it could be months

while this ends up getting parsed down in court. Is that still happen? Or could that still happen? Yes, that's a possibility. But then if you're not a landlord, you don't know how to get into court and, you know, do the court process for an FED, then you would have to go file in court. And in Oregon, it takes about, at least, you know, if someone's not paying your rent, it takes about two months to get them out of there if they end up going to trial. But an awful lot of damage can be done to a property in that two months. You've got to figure that, right?

Of course. You know, that's just the nature of the beast. Okay. I appreciate the... One more thing, Bill. Okay, go ahead. Sure. Hey, you hit the big time on a national news publication in political. Oh, I did, huh? On that wildfire map, they cited you in an article here that dropped on the 7th of August. Yeah, they had, you know, I had not read it yet. They claimed that they started that article from what I've heard about this.

I've not taken a look at that yet. but they were starting it from the point of view that Agenda 21 is like some conspiracy theory which is nonsense given that President Bush signed it back in the 90s and President Clinton ended up adding to it and it's become kind of de facto policy in the United States but I ended up getting that email that they said they reached out to me by email it was sitting in spam and by the time that I saw it that it's too late no phone calls or nothing like that so I wasn't able to respond to it, and then I thought, yeah, what's the point? They're going to say what they're going to say.

They cited you, and they're linking you to conspiracy theories, and, you know, the whole article was, they cited some guy named Dunn. He's a state employer. I can't remember what it was, but, you know, he's pointing to the state or other agencies that they didn't advertise this enough that the, you know, the first wildfire map came out and, you know, it's only a one-page thing came out, and, you know, that even the second, when the second map came out, I was looking at lots around, and, you know, they went from four designations down to three, and I was looking up in Ashland out there by Green Springs on the flat out there. before you start climbing out.

And there was a lot out there that was high hazard. And literally, it was surrounded by the middle, lower level. Yeah. Well, that's just it, though. See, I think what the ProPublica article, I'm going to have to read it at some point. I've just been busier with other things. But I think that what this is all about is essentially trying to tell everybody,

the wildfire map is much smarter than you people. You people need to, you know, raise taxes and do what the Oregon State University, 22-year-old algorithms, creating algorithms, say, about your property. That's the bottom line. Well, essentially, you know, they quoted Golden in that. Essentially, that's what he was saying, that the math is smarter than people calling him up. Uh-huh. Yeah, I'll find the lay consent to you.

Yeah, so much for the, you know, being. ruled by the consent of the, or the consent of the governed, right? He, you know, as far as Golden is considered, we're smarter than you, we rule. Okay. Hey, thanks, Cliff. Appreciate it. Let me go to, this is a call that I'm kind of sorry to have had to make because it was a big national sad story, but it is worth paying attention to because this really is a big deal.

I want to introduce you to my aunt who lives in Elizabeth Pennsylvania. Her name is Sherry Fisher. Sherry, it's a pleasure having you on for a sad reason, though. But how are you holding up this morning? Welcome. Okay, Bill. Very sad day around here in the Mon Valley. Yeah. What happened here, for those who just join me, if you haven't heard about this, I don't know how you couldn't have. But the Clartin Coke Works, which is a huge plant, has been in existence with U.S. Steel for more than 120 years.

Ended up blowing up, what about 11 o'clock yesterday morning? is when that happened, from what I recall, Sherry? Yeah. Yes, 10 to 11. And how far down the road is it from you? I know it's across the river, the Mon River, on the other side. It's on the other side of the river, right? Or is it not?

Right. To drive there, it's four miles, but as the crow flies, it's less than a mile. Less than a mile. So, yes. If you, you know, go through the woods and across the river, it's right there. And I have such memories of this because Granddad, your father, my grandfather, ended up, you know, working there for decades, ended up retiring out of it as an electrician. And he was just, you know, gave lots of his life out there to it.

And we would always drive by it. And we would, well, 1,500 people working there today. And what I'm wondering about is what happened? Did you actually hear it blow up or was it an explosion that wasn't loud enough? Tell me what happened to you when you were around it. Well, I did not hear the explosion. I heard the helicopters, but a friend of mine was driving across the Glassport-Claughton Bridge, which is very close to it, and the bridge shook.

So it has affected, you know, some people, it didn't affect right across the street, but up on the hill they felt more. So, you know, I have a lot of friends in Clarton and the surrounding areas. You know, the Mon Valley is a very tight-knit community. Lots of little-town, small-town America is basically what it is. If you don't know somebody that works there, your friends do, or your family has, it's a generational thing. You know, it's just been the largest employer in the Mon Valley. Do you know any of the people that were actually involved or injured?

There were two killed and 10 hurt, and I guess five of them are still in the United. hospital and critical at last report that may have changed i don't know if you've heard anything else no that's correct there's two dead now we only know who the one is i don't know who the other one is but a very good friend of mine knew both people she had worked in the uh credit union or not the credit union the union hall and you know did a lot of classes with them so she personally knew them that's why i said you know even if you didn't personally know someone my grant my father worked there. You know, I knew a lot of his friends that worked there. I knew a lot of people, when I graduated from high school, a lot of the guys went to work there. A lot of the women,

I mean, they all worked there. So everybody knows somebody. It's just like a family affair, pretty much. Now, I know that there were a couple of other incidents earlier this year. Did you keep up on that? Did you ever hear anything about it? I know there was like an explosion, another explosion that happened back in, was it February? I think there was another one at one of the coal batteries. It wasn't as brutal. This is pretty massive. This really hit home.

I mean, he hit close to home. You know, they had all of us inside, you know, air quality was bad. It's just one of those things, Bill, you know, like I said, you could live across and not have felt something, but somebody right behind you would. Because we're on, we have so many levels of hills that the Clareton side, it's flat to a point, but the majority of people are up on the hill, further up on the hill. So, and people from McKeithport and Port View felt things.

So it just depended where you were, you know, as to the amount of what you felt. Are there any kind of rumors about what may or may not have happened? Because the investigation is just starting, and I'm just going to go there. This is one of the first thoughts that I had. Now, this was purchased by Nippon Steel. This was one of the companies that was part of that deal. I was looking at the news coverage in the Pittsburgh area, and most of the people were just absolutely thrilled that Nippon was taking this,

because they were looking at this as an opportunity to renew the plant or, you know, bring newer technology on and have that kind of investment that they didn't think the other suitor was going to. Were there any people that, I know this may sound bizarre. Is there anybody that could have sabotaged something like that? Does anyone talk that way or is it pretty much? No, I haven't heard any sabotage remarks whatsoever. That has not been in the mix. I know that the 13 and 14th battery where it happened were newer.

Oh. So they weren't a part of the old where Granddad worked. Oh. So there have been newer Coke ovens built there since the time Granddad was there. Okay. Yes. Yes, many. So if I'm not mistaken, and I very well could be wrong,

I think there were only maybe, I don't. know how many there were them, but it wasn't as many. He worked on all of them because that was his job as a motor inspector and electrician, but, you know, he kept the place running. I mean, that, that, that was the bottom line. Yeah. You know, it's, it's amazing to think that there's still the 120-year-old factory, still, still doing the same product, really, essentially. And is the Nepon stale part, because this is a big part of President Trump's making America great again in trying to, you know, get more steel production being done here in the United States of America. And was my opinion that they were actually pleased about this purchase?

Is that mostly right in that area? It was very mixed. You know, there was some that were all for it, but there was some against it because they, you know, the uncertainty of what's going to happen, as anything is uncertain in this day and age, you know, people say a lot of things, but actions speak a lot of them worse. You know, it's just, everybody's skeptical. I mean, you know, until you see what's going to happen, it's going to happen. I mean, I'm sure that they should have put, you know, they talk about safety first, but I'm sure that there are many things that could have been done years ago to, you know, make things better. they've taken care of the quality control as far as the air pollution and stuff they've done a lot with that uh growing up we used to have what's called quencher which is the residue from the coke

that just landed everywhere i mean your home could not be cleaned properly because it was just covered with quencher oh yeah and i also remember how every vehicle that ever was in that parking lot including granddad's buick back then the paint would just uh corrode and peel off in sheets after a while, and it wasn't just the salt on the roadways. It was amazing. Right. You know, so it is a very cleaned up plant compared to what we knew in the 1960s, right? That'd be kind of fair.

Absolutely. All right. All right. Absolutely. And is there, is it still closed right now for the investigation? Is it completely closed down, or is there part of it that's still working, you know? There's part of it. It's on parcel Coke making, you know.

Mm-hmm. It's limited at this point. what they're what they're doing they mean they've got a lot of investigating to do yeah the uh after finding the last person last night it almost nine o'clock that's at least that's when it came on the news that you know they found one more deceased you know it's been what nine hours 10 hours yeah where they found that that last person yeah news reports say all the recovery is down is done now i guess it's time for the investigation and the Right. Is the community pulling together on this, you know, going to help out?

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, all the businesses have donated water and Gatorade and snacks and food and cookies and you name it. Everybody's pulling together. You know, it was almost 95 degrees yesterday, and the EMS and firefighters were all in those heavy uniforms, you know, trying to take care of this. Hey, let me tell you, 95 degrees in western Pennsylvania's humidity. That's hot. Man, I'll tell you, no, 95 degrees here, Auntie. It was 105 yesterday. It's hot, but it's nothing like you're 95. Your 95 degrees is sweltering.

Man, oh, man. It's sweltering, yes. It's absolutely, you sit on the porch and you just soaked. Yeah. And for them to have all that heavy equipment on, you know, it was very, you know, and then there was fires going on, and water mains break in, And, you know, it was just, it was an absolute mess. I mean, it really did a lot of damage.

We said it was pretty bad. Well, we're going to keep an eye on this story here over the next few weeks, and hopefully we get to the bottom of what happened. And I'm hoping that Nippon steel ends up rebuilding this and repairing it even better than it was before, and perhaps even with a renewed focus on safety, although we don't know what happened, you know, at this point. It's just pure speculation. Absolutely. It's, you know, it's kind of sad for them, you know, welcome to, you know, certain Coke works. You know, it was very devastating. Like I said, you know, to have something, you know, astronomical happen like that. It's just, you know, when you first buy something, it's like, okay, like buying a house and, you know, having to repair everything. Yeah, having to fix it all up there.

Hey, Sherry, I appreciate the update there, and keeping me in the loop. And just let me know if anything, if you hear anything to ground over there in the Monongahala Valley. I will absolutely do that, Bill. All right, Auntie, thanks for the call. All right. Appreciate that. All right, honey, thank you. You take care.

That's my Aunt Sherry, Sherry Fisher from Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, and it's about, she lives about one mile away from that Clarton, U.S. Steel Coke plant, which ended up blowing up yesterday, killing two. Thank you.