Morning Wire - More UFO Questions & Ohio’s Air Quality Concern | 2.14.23

Episode Date: February 14, 2023

Many questions about the unidentified objects shot down in the U.S. over the weekend continue to go unanswered, residents of East Palestine, Ohio feel uneasy about returning home after an controlled burn of toxic chemicals, and a bombshell report suggests a State Department funded group has been blacklisting reputable conservative news outlets. Get the facts with Morning Wire. Black Rifle Coffee Company: Get 10% off your first order or Coffee Club subscription with code WIRE: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ RefundsPro: If your business experienced shutdowns, limited capacity, supply chain challenges, or reduced revenue due to COVID, you likely qualify for Employee Retention Credit. Get started today with a free, five-minute questionnaire at https://refundspro.com/ EpicWill: Use Promo Code 'WIRE' for 10% off your Will: https://www.epicwill.com/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This show is brought to you by Black Rifle Coffee. Start your morning with America's Coffee from black rifle coffee.com. Questions remain largely unanswered after three unidentified objects were shot down over the weekend by U.S. fighter jets. And look, the president in the United States has to tell the American people what the heck's going on. We break down the latest happenings in the sky and the response from the Pentagon. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, February 14th, happy Valentine's Day. This is Morning Wire.

Residents from East Palestine, Ohio are reluctant to return home after a train derailment exposed nearby communities to toxic chemicals from a controlled burn. We hear from residents about their concerns. And a new report suggests a State Department funded group has been blacklisting reputable conservative news outlets and stripping them of advertising dollars. the United States government funding an organization that is putting its finger on the pulse of what people can say and what they cannot say.

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. If you love your morning coffee while you're listening to the show, you have to check out Black Rifle Coffee. They're constantly coming out with new roast to try like their most recent. Beware the Delaware roast. Black Rifle Coffee is roasted by a veteran-led team of brilliant coffee graders here in the U.S.

Go to Black Rifle Coffee.com and use promo code Wire for 10% off your purchases and your first coffee club order. That's black rifle coffee.com promo code wire. Black Rifle Coffee, America's Coffee. New details have begun to emerge about the three unidentified objects shot down by the U.S. military over American airspace this weekend, but a number of important questions still remain unanswered. Here with more on what the Pentagon is saying

and what we've learned about the objects is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips. So, Cabot, what's the latest? Well, on Monday, we learned from defense officials that they're confident that three objects shot down over the weekend were not sending out communication signals and that the biggest threat they posed was to commercial airliners as they were flying between 20 and 40,000 feet. We also learned that each of the three objects, while similar in size, were reportedly different shapes. The first was car-shaped, the second was cylindrical, and the third was octagonal. But we still don't know what they are. On Monday afternoon, the Pentagon announced that no debris from any of those three objects, had been recovered. We did learn, however, that after that Chinese balloon incident,

Norad adjusted their radar system, essentially making it more sensitive to incursions into our airspace. So these flying objects were cylindrical, octagonal, and car-shaped? Yeah, it's pretty bizarre. The government says our pilots did gather video and other sensor readings of each object before they were shot down, but they're still saying they're unsure what they were. One official even told the New York Times, quote, it's unclear what keeps the objects aloft. The DoD is saying they're confident the first object downed over Alaska, as well as the octagonal one over Lake Huron were not balloons, but some sort of other craft, while the cylindrical object over Canada is thought to be a balloon of some kind. But as far as what the objects were doing or where they came from, we still don't have any answers. John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, said the military has yet to identify the source of the objects, or more importantly, their purpose.

At least that's what they're telling us publicly. To that point, it's worth noting there are plenty of credible people who say it's unlikely the government would tell us what they'd found, even if they did know what it is or where it came from. And what is the official message from the Biden administration this week? So there seemed to be agreement among the general public that the president should have shot that first Chinese balloon down before it traversed the entire country. For example, a Trafalgar poll found that 60% of Americans think Biden mishandled that situation. So it's not surprising that outwardly at least they're taking a much more aggressive stance this week. For example, the White House ordered an interagency team to study, quote,

the broader policy implications for detection, analysis, and disposition of unidentified aerial objects. And more broadly, there's definitely growing pressure from politicians, the media, and average Americans for answers on what exactly has been shot out of the sky. On that note, I talked to Congressman Ryan Zinke. He's a former Trump cabinet member from the state of Montana, where much of this action is played out over the last two weeks. It's quite clear.

We're entering balloon warfare. And look, if we can't figure out balloons, we're not going to be able to figure out how to defend Taiwan. And this is what happens, I think, when an administration takes no action. Now, it is worth pointing out. There are those who say these objects are actually fairly low-tech and are simply being sent by foreign adversaries to test our detection capabilities. But Zinke and others say their main concern is the lack of transparency between the federal government about what these craft are and who sent them. Well, look, they didn't even tell the governor of Montana until it was 200 miles in and it'd been reported by the Billings Gazette. So I think this administration can't hide the fact that they're been penetrated by China.

All right. Well, we will definitely continue to monitor. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Anytime. That was Daily Wire's senior editor, Cabot Phillips. Coming up, Ohio residents sound the alarm after a toxic train derailment. If you own a small, the medium-sized business that kept its employees on payroll through COVID, you may have a big cash refund waiting for you. The employee retention credit is a tax credit of up to $26,000 per employee.

Cut through the red tape and qualify for this government program with help from the experts at refundspro.com. Take their free five-minute questionnaire at refundspro.com. That's Refunds with an S.pro.com. A trained derailment in northeastern Ohio is sparking outrage after the rail company involved told federal officials that several of the cars contained hazardous industrial chemicals. While crews have already released and burned some of the chemicals and evacuated residents were told they could return to their homes.

Many are concerned that the dangerous materials are impacting air and water quality. Here are the details as Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marita Lorty. Hi, Marad. So first, give us some background on this situation in Ohio. Hi, John. So this started when 50 cars on a freight train derailed on February 3rd near East Palestine, Ohio, a town right on the border of Pennsylvania. The train, which is a Norfolk Southern train, was carrying several. types of industrial chemicals. To lower the risk of explosion, officials decided to do a controlled release of the chemicals, and residents within one mile of the crash site were ordered to evacuate. Less than a week after the crash, residents were told they could return to their homes.

What are some of the chemicals that are so problematic? One of those chemicals is vinyl chloride, a highly flammable substance used to make polyvinyl chloride or PVC. You may have seen those videos of deep, dark smoke billowing up into the sky from the crash site. That was the vinyl chloride being released in the controlled burn. It was visible throughout eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Yeah, it was definitely concerning. What are the health risks? What makes vinyl chloride so dangerous? Well, the National Cancer Institute describes vinyl chloride as a carcinogen linked to a rare form of liver cancer as well as lymphoma, leukemia, and several brain and lung cancers. Water supplies contaminated by the substance can

enter household air when the water is used for activities like cooking or showering. To give you an idea of just how serious this chemical is, OSHA only permits exposure of one part per million during an industrial worker's eight-hour shift. But some officials are assuring the public that the situation is now safe. The EPA says they are monitoring the air quality and have found no toxic threats. West Virginia American Water said the company has not seen any change to raw water quality from its Ohio River intake, but has enhanced its treatment processes as a precautionary measure. Meanwhile, some locals are reporting animal deaths, including fish and even chickens. My chickens were perfectly fine, and as soon as they started the burn, my chickens slowed down and they died.

I'm going to be taking my birds to the vet to have them examined, because if we can do this to chickens in one night, imagine what's going to do to us in 20 years. So it sounds like we don't really know how bad the situation is there. Is the derailment site at least contained? It's unclear. Norfolk Southern told the EPA on Sunday that the five train cars carrying vinyl chloride have been stabilized, that's their word, but they listed at least three more cars that contain other dangerous chemicals. One train car containing ethylene glycol monobutal ether, a highly combustible liquid used to make paints and varnish, currently has an unknown status. Again, that's a quote. Ingestion or skin contact with the material can cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, and dizziness.

Another car was transporting ethyl hexyl acrylate, a combustible liquid used to make paints that's also believed to be a carcinogen. A third car was carrying isobutylene, a flammable gas that can induce dizziness, drowsiness, and unconsciousness when moderate amounts are inhaled. But Norfolk Southern says there are no signs of a breach for that car. So the full scope of this is not entirely clear. Do we know exactly what caused the derailment? Well, the immediate cause of the wreckage seems to be a malfunctioning rail car axle. Video footage showed that the train had traveled more than 20 miles while the axle was either shooting sparks or on fire. We'll see what steps are taken next in Ohio.

Maraite, thanks for reporting. Thanks, John. That was Daily Wire reporter, Marita Lorty. A bombshell report finds that the State Department helped fund a group that produces an advertising blacklist and that appears to have targeted conservative news outlets limiting their income potential. At the same time, the group recommends a number of left-wing news outlets as safe places for companies to invest their advertising. advertising dollars. Here to tell us more about this report and which news outlets were targeted is Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan Basham. So Megan, to start, can you tell us about this group that

the State Department funded? So this news came from the Washington Examiner, and its investigation centered on a nonprofit named the Global Disinformation Index. And it's UK-based, but it also has affiliate offices in San Antonio. And it says that its mission is to remove the financial incentive for creating disinformation. So it was for this reason that the group said it created a list of news outlets that it told advertising companies are risky bets. Conspicuously, all of those outlets were what could be characterized as on the right of center end of the news spectrum. And this work was funded in part by two government entities. Tax records show that GDI has received $330,000 from the National Endowment for democracy and the global engagement center, both of which fall under the State Department.

So basically what that means is that American tax dollars were going to potentially fund the creation of these lists. Here's what the reporter who broke the story, Gabe Kaminsky, told me about GDI's riskiest outlets list. Global disinformation index has publicly said that the 10 riskiest outlets are, quote, the American Spectator, Newsmax, the federalists, the American conservatives, One American News, the Blaze, the Daily Wire, Real Clear Politics, Reason, and the New York Post. And we actually spoke on the condition of anonymity with a member of the Global Disinformation Index's board, which has oversight over who gets added to that exclusion list.

That individual had said it would be likely that all outlets on that risky list would also be on the blacklist, and therefore losing out of critical ad dollars. So as Kaminsky noted there, the Daily Wire, which of course produces this show, was on that list. Now, GDI also created a list of least risky outlets where it recommended companies invest in advertising. And all but one of those could be characterized as left of center. Several of these outlets on this list, including Hoppost and BuzzFeed News, were major peddlers and pushers of the notion that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation. And in addition to that, BuzzFeed News, for example, published the Steele dossier, which the Hillary Clinton campaign fed to the FBI in order to link former President Donald Trump to Russia.

And obviously, that story had been heavily debunked. As for what kind of content landed conservative outlets on those lists, Kaminsky said GDI was flagging some obvious opinion articles. To give you one example, one of the examiner's own op-eds on transgender policies in public schools was actually flagged as anti-LGB disinformation. Now, how influential is GDI? How much of a financial blow is it for companies to get on this blacklist? You know, given that it has relationships with some major advertising firms, I think it's

fair to say that it's pretty influential. And GDI's CEO, Claire Melford, who used to be an executive with MTV, boasted on a podcast last year that their blacklists have had, and I'm going to quote, a significant an impact on the advertising revenue that has gone to those sites. And then as some evidence of that, Kaminsky told me that a top ad company named Xander, which is owned by Microsoft, was one of those that was abiding by those GDI blacklists. However, one day after the examiner's report, Microsoft announced that it is no longer using the blacklists and that it's launching an internal investigation and pausing its relationship

with GDI. All right. Well, it sounds like there's more to come on this. Megan, thanks for reporting. Yeah, my pleasure. That was Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham. Another story we're tracking this week. New research from the CDC found that nearly 57% of high school girls

struggled with persistent sadness or hopelessness in the last year. 30% of the girls reported seriously considering suicide in 2021. Both of the numbers are significant increases over a decade ago, with 36% reporting sadness or hopelessness. and 19% reporting suicidal thoughts in 2011. Well, that's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.

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