#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Florida STOP WOKE Act Struck Down. Ben Crump Speaks On Nolan Wells. Black Scholarship Saved

Episode Date: July 13, 2026

7.10.2026 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Florida STOP WOKE Act Struck Down. Ben Crump Speaks On Nolan Wells. Black Scholarship Saved_ For free and unbiased Medicare help, dial [phone] to speak with my trusted partner, Chapter, or go to https://askchapter.org/roland *Paid Partnership*_Download the Kalshi app and use code Soccer10 to get $10 when you trade $10. You can also sign up at kalshi.com/r/soccer10, which auto-applies the code at checkout. Kalshi. Trade What's Next_ A federal judge strikes down part of Florida's STOP WOKE Act.  We'll talk with the Florida A&M law professor who sued the state to stop it. The Trump administration fires the three remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission -- the latest in the GOP attack on Black America.  Nolan Wells' family spoke for the first time publicly today about their son's mysterious death.Attorney Ben Crump will join us... The University of North Carolina-Wilmington said a scholarship for Black students would have to be changed.  The Black family, who gave the money, said NOPE, and now the $1 million endowment is probably headed to Howard.  The alums of the South's oldest HBCU, North Carolina's Shaw University, believe the school administration is not making the best financial decisions.  We'll talk to the founder of one alum group who fears they may end up like Saint Augustine's University.   Also, more of our exclusive coverage of the VA Democrats Blue Commonwealth Gala -- we'll show you my one-on-one with Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones. Black Star Network Partner: ChapterChapter and its affiliates are not connected with or endorsed by any government entity or the federal Medicare program. Chapter Advisory, LLC represents Medicare Advantage HMO, PPO, and PFFS organizations and stand alone prescription drug plans that have a Medicare contract. Enrollment depends on the plan’s contract renewal. While we have a database of every Medicare plan nationwide and can help you to search among all plans, we have contracts with many but not all plans. As a result, we do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent 50 organizations which offer 18,160 products nationwide. We search and recommend all plans, even those we don’t directly offer. You can contact a licensed Chapter agent to find out the number of products available in your specific area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-Medicare, or your local State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) to get information on all of your options.____Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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On today's show, Attorney Ben Crump, who is the family attorney for the Nolan Wall family will join us because the latest in the case of that, a young African-American in Mississippi who died while going voting with several white friends of his. Also, on today's show, Donald Trump clearly wants to steal the next election. He has fired three of the administrators tasked with helping states with the November election. What the hell is going on? We told you what they're trying to do to rig this process. Also on today's show, University of North Carolina Wilmington said a scoffs for black students would have to be changed.

The black family says, no, we're not doing that. That million dollars is likely going to Ohio University. Also, the alones of the South Olders HBCU, North Carolina Shaw University, don't have faith in their administration when it comes to making financial decisions. We'll talk to the founder of the alumni group. also on the show. We're here from Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, as he talks about, how he continues to battle the Trump administration when it comes to civil rights and other issues as well. Folks, it's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Mark unfiltered. On the Blackstone Network, let's go. It's on the first amendment rights of university professors. Florida

Governor Rock happens as one of his priorities, where he essentially wanted to tell university professors what they could and could not talk about in the classroom. It was signed into law in 2022. It restricted how professors at public colleges and universities could discuss race, gender, and related concepts in the classroom. This week 11th Circuit Court Appeals ruled that Florida cannot enforce provisions of a law citing the law is forcing an official government line into college classrooms. Florida A&M law professor Leroy-Prenel sued the state over the the law. He joins us right now. Professor, glad to have you here on the show. Listen, this is abundantly clear what we're dealing with here, and that is Rhonda Sanders, like so many other

Republicans, want to impose a white nationalist agenda on this country. They don't like the, even any discussions about race and gender. And I'm glad to see this federal judge is slapping him down. That's absolutely right. You know, I think that we filed this case back in the date you indicated because this law tried to set up a sort of penalty system of suppressing black thought, pretending that black history doesn't exist, pretending that racism doesn't exist, and in a university, which is a laboratory of ideas, and particularly here at HBCU, when we have law students who are going out and challenging the status quo,

it's important that we discuss ideas clearly without intimidation. And this was a bill that was enacted, indicated that there's no way that I would adhere to that. So I am the league named plaintiff on that case. It was aside on First Amendment grounds as far as the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals was concerned. But there were other issues in that case as well. The thing here, I warned people. I warned folks in Trump's first time in the White House.

And then, of course, there's second time. And then I warn folks about these southern states with Republican governors, where people felt that HBCUs were going to be an oasis or a place of protection. And I said, folks, you got to remember, our largest HBCUs are public universities. If you're talking about Florida A&M, Florida, North Carolina, A&T, North Carolina, South Carolina State, South Carolina, Texas, Southern University, Prairie A&M, Texas, Southern and Grambling, Louisiana. And I say, we've got to be vigilant in vote in these state elections because otherwise, they are going to try to make decisions and are going to even hinder our HBCUs. Now, granted, this law was not specific to HBCUs, but it's a perfect example of why we cannot be silent and sit elections out

because there are consequences when folks like the Santas win. Well, you know, the other thing to mention here is that the importance of this case is this is not just Florida we're talking about. The Florida legislation was modeled after a creation done by conservative think groups in D.C. And it was modeled after a framework established by Donald Trump. And so this decision is significant, not just for Florida, but it is the highest decision against the attempt to suppress the teaching of black history in the nation right now. So we're very pleased at this juncture to have the support of the 11th Circuit. But I think, I'd hope people will be aware that they have to watch what's going on everywhere. This is an attack that I think an article I wrote recently that at least 23 to 30 states have laws on the book virtually identical to what Florida

is trying to do in suppressing a black thought and speech. And so we have to be able to fight back against all of this on a local level and on our national level. Also, they're in Florida. You have a governor who has put a bullseye on the back of the university professors. And as you said, Florida operates sort of as a test case for others. What has been happening in Florida has been happening in Texas. I'm here in Houston with MAGA governor, Greg Abbott. and Dan Patrick upending what's happening at my alma mater, Texas,

University University of Texas, Texas Tech, and others because they want to put their right-wing stamp on these state institutions. And so, in other states as well. And so, again, we're constantly trying to warn people on this show that when you see an action in North Carolina, understands it's not just North Carolina. You see something happening in Georgia. It's not Georgia. This is a part of the MAGA Republican attack on Black America.

It is their effort to target universities because they believe that these are liberal bastions, and that is what is really driving them crazy. Well, that's absolutely true. Understand that one of the things this law tried to do is not just to stifle and gag the discussion of our issues in a classroom of ideas, but also to require that we repeat and adopt their own thoughts and their own agenda. I mean, we're talking about a situation here in Florida. Remember, he had a governor who suggested that slavery was simply a job training program

for black folks. And so, you know, I'm not going to, I'm not going to buy into that. And the notion that somehow I'm obligated to repeat such natherings just because I'm employed at a state university was absurd, and the 11th Circuit agreed. And one of the things that also, before I got my panel with questions, one of the other things that jumps out, let's just be clear. What does Santis and these other Republicans want to do? they want to force folks like you and others to retire.

We saw that in Louisiana, where there were some professors who actually retired. They've been attacking tenure. They have been going after, you know, the underpinning. And so what I've been saying to people, listen, they are attacking these well-established institutions, just like they want to attack every facet of black America, academic, civil rights, social, economics, you name it. You're absolutely right. We've seen losses all across the country in this state. I know some friends of mine who have been at other universities said they couldn't take it anymore. They went to another state. The desire to push us out, push out those who would speak up and fight back is a pressure that we feel every day. And yes, they can be reflected in there are other bills. laws in Florida to try it into tenure, try to tie it into arbitrary decisions to disapprove you if you are not adhering to a party line on this.

And, you know, one of the positions I've taken on this, and I've said it in other context, is that what they're really asking of us is to be a form of slave. that, you know, one of the hallmarks of slavery was you had to remain silent and repeat whatever the master told you. Well, that's not going to happen for a lot of folks, not going to happen for me. And I think that this attempt to relive and bring back the good old days, at least what they thought were good old days, is a war that we cannot afford to lose. And so we do have to pay attention. You know, the other thing I just,

one of the things I want to mention is, this is not simply a matter of the need of faculty to express themselves. Students want to be taught. Students want an opportunity to talk about these things. Students want an opportunity to address the problems in our country. You can't mandate silence and prevent that. I want to bring my panel right now, joining us on today's show, Candace Kelly, legal analyst and host of Takeaway with Candace Kelly out of South Orange, New Jersey, Matt Manning, Civil Rights Attorney out of Corpus, Texas, Michael M. Hotev, host African History Network Show out of Detroit.

Candace, you first. Well, listen, as a professor, I know, like you said, let me just echo that students do like to express themselves, and they like the opportunity to have different viewpoints. That is the whole point. And the whole point is that that's what a classroom is for. If you have a different viewpoint, your opinion is welcome. My question is this, is this a precedent that you think will carry a lot of weight? We have different circuits with different schools of thought. What will this do for K through 12?

What do you think this will do with the other states that have similar laws on the books? Well, I think that it will have a positive and leading effect. I mean, if you look at some of the language from the 11th Circuit opinion, they are expressive and indicate concerns about the impact of legislation like this on K-FU-12 as well, although that's not specifically the issue that was raised in this case. As I indicated earlier, when we look at the laws like this that have been adopted in every state, almost a blueprint, you scratch out one name and you write in another, This is, to my, as far as I know, the highest level, that is the United States Court of Appeals, that this issue has reached in a positive manner. The 11th Circuit is a very well-respected circuit, and I would hope that this will have sustaining quality to it and provide leadership for other states and other circuits that are considering virtually identical laws. Thank you. Matt? When I see these kinds of things, Matt, seemed to me to be, can you hear me? Seemed to me to be blatant viewpoint discrimination, but my, my question is,

what are the other grounds of the lawsuit and did the 11th Circuit reach those merits of those, or did they pass on those because of the disposition on the First Amendment question? Well, when we, you look at the original lawsuit that was brought, it raised the First Amendment, issues and also raised issues relating to equal protection and the fact that this law was a poorly disguised direct attack on on black folks. I mean, even its name, you know, woke is a term that originated in the black community. And so there are, it has a disparate impact on the black community and those issues were raised in the original pit, uh, uh, uh, uh, complaint. Judge Walker, the district court judge, who issued the preliminary injunction,

decided that the First Amendment grounds was strong enough that he issued an opinion based on that that and did not address the other issues that remain in the case. But there are other issues in there. Listen, and you're there. wrenching knockouts. The world's biggest stage. And breathtaking triumph. In 2026 FIFA World Cup. The knockout stage.

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Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? maybe I have adult ADHD. I need to look this up. Where's my phone? Juliana, your phone is hot to the touch. I think it's asking you for a break. You know what?

Maybe I should just ask chat GPT. Or maybe we can ask an actual human. Yes, like a couple sex therapist. Whoa, that escalated quickly, but okay. Because I have questions. We have questions. And I bet everyone has questions. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms?

We do that. How about this one? Is bribing your kids bad parenting or just negotiating? Oh, and I still do need to know why was my poop green that one time? Hypothetically, right? Okay, well, instead of letting the Internet guess, we've got actual people answering these exact questions. And laughing with us has got to be better than spending three hours down a rabbit hole online.

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that presumably when this case finally meets full litigation at trial will be addressed again. And there are issues that even go beyond what was originally filed in the lawsuit. For example, I think that there is an issue of whether or not this attempt to silence black folks in a way that is similar to said slavery, whether that might not, in fact, be a 13th Amendment violation as a badge of slavery. Michael. Professor Pernel, thanks for coming on and sharing this with us.

I've been talking about these anti-critical race theory laws since they started. I think Florida was the first state that had them. I wanted to focus in on something that you said. You said Florida modeled that stopped woke at after framework from a think tank in Washington, D.C. That was modeled after policy from Trump. Was that in Trump and his first administration? Yes, well, Trump is first administration adopt. at the reports from the Heritage Foundation, others, that outlined attempts to model, to control,

and to suppress critical race theory, or what they would call critical race theory. And so they develop a blueprint that the first Trump administration signed off on the Biden administration through executive order overturned that almost the first day that you came in. And now that same blueprint has been sent to the states around the nation, and they in turn have adopted versions of that foundation report. So Florida did that. Texas is very close to the same thing. I mean, you can get minor differences in there and other states as well. So yes, there's There is a blueprint out there. It is a consistent attack on critical race theory.

Right. A consistent attack across the nation on just recognizing the role in significance of race in our history and in our current condition. So yeah, this is, you know, I would have to say that, you know, to get the devil it's due on this. they got their act together as far as a consistent attack. And so that's why I've always argued that we have to do the same thing. Get our act together and have a consistent response.

Yeah, just very quickly, was that the September, just very quickly, was that the September 2020 memo that Trump issued that banned critical race theory being used in federal training for federal employees? Was that the policy from the Trump administration you're referring to? Because when Biden came in, he rescinded that memo. That's correct. Yes, that was certainly one of them. I mean, I don't have, you know, I wrote an article that sort of identified those.

I don't have in front of me right now. But yes, that was one of them. I think that what Trump did in that memo was converted. over for state adoption to outlaw that in education, in employment, and in other areas as well. All right. Thank you. All right, Professor Pernel, we certainly appreciate it. Congratulations on this.

I'm sure they are going to appeal this. But as I have consistently said, we have to fight back at every single effort what these folks are doing because their aim is very simple. And that is to completely destroy what has taken place of the last 60 years for African Americans and others. And in fact, they want to go as far as back those reconstruction amendments. And so we must be on guard and be utilizing everything at our disposal. Our civil rights groups have got to be filing these lawsuits. And we've got to be doing our part at the ballot box. Agreed. Yes.

All right. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Folks, let's go to a break. We come back. Let's talk about how Donald Trump is trying to steal the election in November. Also, why is JD fans trying to call Democrats out for protecting fraudsters when Donald Trump lets off another Ponzi schemer? I'll explain.

You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltern, broadcast in live right here on the Blackstar network. All right, folks, let me tell you about chapter. Now, if you're in Medicare or about to be the system. is not set up to work for you. Too much fine print, too many plans, and too many people are making money off of your confusion. And look, we're used to this. We're no strangers to systems

that don't have our best interests at heart. But we don't have to accept it when it comes to Medicare. That's why I'm telling you about chapter. Their advisors are independent and honest. In fact, they're the only Medicare advisors that compare every plan nationwide. And they're focused on one thing.

what works for you. If there's a better plan out there, they'll find it. If you're already in the right one, they'll tell you that too. There are no games. Just last year, people who switched with Chapter saved an average of $1,100. It's 20 minutes and a real person. It's completely free. My parents actually have already called.

My mom sent me a text. Folks, give Chapter a call at 724-264-8-281. 724-264-8-8-1 and connect with someone you can trust. Folks, these are the kind of services that we need for our audience here at Roland Martin Unfiltered and the Black Star Network. So call chapter right now, 724-264-8-2-81. What's up, y'all? This is Wendell-Haskin, aka Win Hogan at the original Chiefsaw Classic. And you know I watch Roland Unfiltered. Folks, the Trump, Donald Trump, inspired the three remaining members of

the Election Assistance Commission. That commission is responsible for helping state governments and local officials with funding and security recommendations for elections. Democratic members Benjamin Hovlin and Thomas Hicks were immediately fired while Republican Commissioner Christian McCormick was given the option to resign. Thursday's firing came after a June Supreme Court ruling that gave Donald Trump the authority to fire any bureaucrats that he chose to do so. He remains unclear whether Trump will replace the commission with new appointees. Actually, I don't think it's unclear at all. He's not going to do that. What we are seeing is we are seeing an effort to completely rig this election.

Donald Trump is scared to death that if Democrats win the House, he is going to get impeached. he certainly has earned that. He also wants to control the Senate because that's what we determine Supreme Court nominees as well as other nominations to his administration. Let's go to my panel here. Matt, it is without a doubt that that Supreme Court decision and other decisions has empowered this thug in chief to do what he wants to do and to sit here and fire the folks who oversee the nation's elections that tell you exactly who he is and what his focus is. You're exactly right, and it's completely indefensible. It is solely a political move.

There's not any justification that you can come up with that is in any way compelling for doing this, especially as close as it is to the elections. There's a couple things I'm interested in. First, I did not know that there was a resignation of actually a Republican commissioner before he fired all three of those people. So I'd be interested in knowing what the basis was behind that, number one. But number two, I'm especially interested in knowing what experts will say the trickle-down effect will be because my understanding is the EAC dispersed grants to state and local elections groups,

and that's going to have a major effect on places that were requiring that money or needing that money and needing just the assistance and the best practices, I think, is what the EAC is very important for. So, you know, not only is he getting rid of those people at the top, but it's going to have presumably a measurable effect on the local elections, and it's going to be another part of the way that Republicans and Trump are trying to steal elections all across the board at all levels. Candace, listen, we already seeing it, we saw this week where Trump gave a disaster assistance to red states and denied assistance to blue states. I wouldn't be surprised that what they're going to do is by firing these commissioners, they're going to bring the control of a disbursement of those dollars in-house, and I wouldn't be shocked if they give money to red states and screw blue states. They're rolling.

I mean, listen, this is what happens when you back a dog up into a corner, right? They start barking, and you get out your broom, and you try to fight them, and they attack. And this is exactly what Trump is doing. Like you said, what's going to happen is because there's nobody that's going to be anywhere to make the policy. So the default policy is going to come from Trump and anybody else who's around him. We're talking about voting machines. Are they working properly? Like Matt said, do local jurisdictions have the money that they need in order to properly function? The registration form that Trump wanted really strict requirements to make sure that people were not immigrants in that full citizenship.

All of that's going to go into effect by default if nobody watches and a voting rights group and people like you and me do not pay attention to this because that is what the setup is. Help, whatever is going to help with him in this midterm elections, which is exactly why these firings are taking place. He is scared.

He's scared for the ultimate outcome, like you said, because impeachment is on the table. But this is not surprising. And anything that we see from Trump on any day is not surprising. But this is a power. that was given to him. Let's start there. We saw what he did in terms of stacking the courts to make sure that he ultimately got to this point. This is exactly what he wanted. And by default, there would be

default policy while nobody's watching, but enough people are watching. Michael. Yeah, Roland, this is another move by Trump, like you said, to try to avoid the inevitable. He's scared. He's scared. the death of the 2026 elections. We saw the seizing of ballots in the county in Georgia. We know that he said he wished he had seized ballots in the 2020 election. So I think you're going to have state attorney generals pushing back on this, fighting back on this. If it comes to a situation where there's a reduction and distribution of grants to states, things of that nature, right? But at the same time, there has to be a energy on our side that fights back against things like this. So there has to be, you know, connecting this to the segment with Professor Pernail.

This is straight out of Project 2025. Okay? And it's like we have to, people on the ground have to really understand how to connect the dots. Because black people are in the crosshairs. This is not a game. That's why I don't use the phrase they're playing in our faces. These white nationalists are not playing. At some point, we have to wake up.

Absolutely. And so again, we keep making this point to folks consistently that elections have consequences. And the only way to stop these people, if we. we absolutely positively overwhelmed the ballot box. All right. Let's go to a break. We come back. Lots to talk about,

including we'll talk about the, we'll talk to attorney Ben Crump about what's happening in the case of Nolan Wells, the black teen who was found dead in Mississippi. That is coming up next. Folks, you're watching Rolla button unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Be sure to support the work that we do. Join our brain,

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the system is not set up to work for you. Too much fine print, too many plans, and too many people are making money off of your confusion. And look, we're used to this. We're no strangers to systems that don't have our best interest at heart. But we don't have to accept it

when it comes to Medicare. That's why I'm telling you about chapter. Their advisors are independent and honest. In fact, they're the only Medicare advisors that compare every plan nationwide. And they're focused on one thing. What works for you? If there's a better plan out there, they'll find it.

If you're already in the right one, they'll tell you that too. There are no games. Just last year, people who switched with Chapter saved an average of $1,100. It's 20 minutes and a real person. It's completely free. My parents actually have already called. My mom sent me a text. Folks, give Chapter a call at 724-264-8-281-1-7-281.

24 264 8281 and connect with someone you can trust. Folks, these are the kind of services that we need for our audience here at Roland Martin Unfiltered and the Black Star Network. So call chapter right now, 724-264-8281. My name is Bill Duke and you're watching Roland Park Unfiltered. Folks, we continue to seek answers and to the mysterious death of no-lo in Wells, the 18-year-old African-American who was found dead in Mississippi after he went outboating with a group of white friends on July 4th. Independent autopsy is being done on his body.

The Mississippi officials say they continue this investigation, and again, we continue to, you know, ask the critical questions, what happened? What happened to this young man? And how did he end up dead joining us right now is Christine and Elmore Wansley of the parents of Nolan Wells also the attorney Ben Crump I'm glad to have all three of you here certainly our condolences go out to you Christine and Elmore on the loss of your son I want to be clear in terms of trying to think to understand this timeline What time did Dolan go out with his friends?

What time they go out voting on July 4th? So that was some time in the morning. I don't have the exact time. I do still have his information up on the Life 360. But it was earlier in the morning on July 4th. So he said, hey, you know, July 4th, we're going out for the day. day, boating. Was this something that he had previously done with his group of friends? Yes, it was, and there was no issues, and my son came home. So did he indicate for you what time

they're going to be coming back? No. Like his dad has stayed in in multiple interviews, you know, it was his last hurrah before reporting back to school. So we were just, you know, going to let him have that time to Canadian women are looking for more. More into themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are at them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

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Listen to the Honest Talk podcast and I Heart or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Maybe I have adult ADHD. I need to look this up. Where's my phone? Juliana, your phone is hot to the touch.

I think it's asking you for a break. You know what? Maybe I should just ask chat GPT. Or maybe we can ask an actual human. Yes, like a couple sex therapist. Whoa, that escalated quickly, but okay. Because I have questions. We have questions.

And I bet everyone has questions. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that. How about this one? Is bribing your kids bad parenting or just negotiating? Oh, and I still do need to know why was my poop green that one time? Hypothetically, right? Okay, well, instead of letting the internet guess,

we've got actual people answering these exact questions. And laughing with us has got to be better than spending three hours down a rabbit hole online. Listen to Bill and Juliana. The podcast. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier, and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible,

you're the problem. If you come over here to play games, I'ma check you. Okay? If you do some in the news that don't sound good, I'm going to play you. Join Yomeneika Saunders as she breaks down the week's most problematic stories on her new podcast. You're the problem with Yamanika. Do you know I just found out who's serious?

Sydney Sweeney was. New episodes weekly every Wednesday as part of my new network, the Dear Chelsea Network. If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men. Do better or do less, so I don't have to do so much.

So join Yamanika each episode as she answers one question. Who's the problem? I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to you're the problem with Yamanika starting on July 15th on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

A decade the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the king of corn in Brazil. So we met with a lot of larger farmers, went from Bahia to Tokitines to Madagroso. And he brought a team of executives. They were going to help the country get in on a gold rush. Carbon and its derivatives are going to be really the next great commodity that the globe's going to trade. But back home in Iowa, trouble was brewing. If you live in Iowa, your land, your water, and your voice could all be at risk thanks to a man.

named Bruce Rastetter. Now people are questioning if his climate solutions have anything to do with climate at all. You gotta give Bruce and the guy's credit. They're Republican. They don't give a shit of money. On this season of drilled,

Carbon Cowboys, the story of how the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the king of corn in Brazil and what it tells us about the limits of technology and markets to solve the climate crisis. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Really just decompress because, you know, football can be a lot on you. Especially, too, you know, he was a student athlete, so he wasn't just, you know, doing one thing. He was having to manage both. So the evening arrives. All of a sudden, it's getting darker. You have not heard back from your son. What then happened? What time did you and your husband begin to get concerned when you had not heard from?

or seeing Nolan. So honestly, we got concerned when we got the phone call. There have been times when Nolan has come in later because he and his friends are, you know, watching movies or, again, at some type of party. So, you know, that wasn't necessarily uncommon. But when I saw his friend call me, my heart dropped because I knew something was wrong.

His friends do not call me like that. What time? What time was that? That was around, that was, I think, 11.07 is when he called. And he said, you know. So he leaves at morning. Mm-hmm.

Go ahead. So he left the evening before. So he's, him and his friends, they all stayed the night at one of the other friends' house. Okay. So July 4th was that Saturday. So they stayed the night with some friends on Friday.

So y'all last saw Nolan on Friday. And then he goes out with him on Saturday. He went on 11.7 p.m. on Saturday, then you get this phone call. We heard about them having his cell phone. When did they turn over his cell phone to you and your husband? So they actually gave the cell phone to my friend. Whenever I got the call that no one was missing, I was like, you know what, let me call my friend, Tashima, because her son's Jalen and Javon.

Nolan actually, those are the guys he actually grew up with, right? Like, from playing City League on up, we were very familiar with Jalen and Javon and their mom, you know, again, they're friends of ours. And so I called her and I was like, hey, have you seen Nolan? Can you ask the boys? Have they talked to him? And she was like, you know what? And the boys, of course, they were like, no.

So they're pulling up their location tracker on Snapchat because they all follow each other. And they, you know, were able to help him. I'm pulling mine up on like 360. So between the two, you know, we were able to determine where his phone was, which is not where his car was. So the car and the phone were in two separate locations. Elmore and I were trying to, after we got off the phone with Tashima,

because she was like, hey, look, don't worry about it. I'll go get it. You know, we went ahead to start calling authorities to see who we needed to file the missing person's report with. And when you got the phone... Elmore, I have... Go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Ben, go ahead.

You asked about the phone. It was important when they got the phone. So it took a while. It took a little bit before the phone was handed over to my friend. And then we did meet up. And of course, you know, they don't, there's no, we met up soon after. We filed the police report finally. And then she was on her way back towards Ocean Springs.

So we met up at the second house to pick the car, which is where he stayed overnight. I have Yeah, go ahead, Ben. The only thing I was going to point out that is very important, we believe some of the Snapchat messages seem to have been deleted, and some text messages seem to have been deleted, and we believe that could prove very relevant.

Elmore, I've raised six Deses. and first got these two years when they were as early as a year and a half and raised them all the way through they were even now my twin nieces and they're 22 years old I don't know many kids today who they're never without these and did that cause you suspicion that and when you think about your son was his phone always with him Was he always on his phone? Was he always using his phone? Yes. You talked about, Christine, you talked about the life tracker. I would assume, just like my nieces, his hand was attached to the phone. Yes.

All the time. His hand was attached his phone all the time. His hand and his phone was always in my face messing with me. So he wouldn't go to it without his phone. He wouldn't give someone else his phone. and go off a whole other way. It wasn't in his character. We didn't raise him like that.

For him to not stay with the people that he came with, we taught him that like, if you go with someone, you stay with them. You go with them, you leave with them. You don't go off. You don't go off. You don't spit from the group chasing a girl. There's girls back where you at.

The girl's everywhere. So she's not the only one. You can find another girl. So he, and I constantly drilled in his head to always stay with the group, always just be mindful of your surroundings. And, you know, all of the kids, really.

We constantly have, I constantly had those conversations with him to, until it's like he got, and I can tell you he'd be getting tired of him. I'd say, you're nagging, you're nagging, but I can't say him, son, one day you're going to, you're going to thank me for,

me nagging you like this because you're going to say you know dad was right and we and when that day comes I want you to pick that same phone never call me and tell him all right so um I say is it's it's hard for us to believe that he would choose to stay on the island without any kind of forms communication and see that's why that's the thing that jumps that jumps out at me um again, knowing how young folks are today, if, again, if he, if he, if, if, if he says, okay, I'm going to go with somebody else, they don't, they don't leave this. They don't, like, that's the, no, hey, be sure, give me my bag, make sure I have my phone. And then, that's what he immediately jumps out, that, that, that he separated from his phone. It takes,

so long for his parents to be notified. And then when you said it appears if some items have been deleted, obviously people don't realize text messages cannot be deleted permanently. Have you already communicated with the cell phone company to be able to pull those records? Yes, we are reaching out to experts to try to not only retrieve the, deleted Snapchat's, but the deleted messages, because we know on the video role and that's been circulating all around the internet,

we know there was some kind of argument where you hear Nolan saying, give me my freaking phone, what are you freaking doing? And then for him to not come back, but his three friends who were in the boat with him, all come back with his phone and he comes back

a couple days later on the shore dead. It doesn't add up and it makes it hard for the sheriff to say where there's no foul play that we found. Well, that's foul play there when you're talking about an argument of a phone

and then they take his phone and leave him on the island. It makes you scratch your head. and say this isn't adding up. The, have you, Christine, and first of, have y'all had any, that you have any conversations, any discussions with these, and was it three young men who went with your son? Or was it more? I think they're pretty sure they're probably more present.

Two, three of them. them, three of them have reached out. And I know, and I've been sitting here kind of trying to go through all the facts and everything, because, again, I'm, we're still grieving. Like, it hasn't even been that long since our son, four days since he's been found. But I think maybe two, two or three parents have reached out. And I'm just, you know, I'm in a mind. set right now where I'm trying to protect my family. I'm trying to protect my peace.

Make sure my husband's okay. And it's just it's a lot because social media is just so nasty with this pain that we're going through. Like they think it's a joke and it's horrible. And I pray that they never have to go through anything like this. unfortunately and Ben knows this I've had to interview far too many of his clients I always say this is a fraternity or sorority that no one wants to be a member of absolutely what is what is so what is so difficult here again is sort of like there's this this fog if you will when you when you said that they've reached reached out. The only explanation given was that, did it come from his friends that he just decided to stay?

That was it. They didn't convey anything else? Yes, that was it. They said that he wanted to stay and hang out with this girl named Katie. And also, and this was the initial conversation, and me being alerted to him being missing, it was, oh, well, Katie's also missing, but we don't know who she is.

Like, that was our first time kind of seeing her type of thing. So then when I'm going to social media, I'm coming from a place with information that was given to me by people that were there. Ben, and you mentioned the video circulating. That appeared to be a lot of votes in that, area and they were shooting video. In terms of this investigation, are you troubled by the lack of urgency that you're hearing

from this sheriff who's just sort of being somewhat nonchalant about what took place with Nolan Wells four days ago or six days ago, if you will? Yeah. You know, rolling with very concerned because from the very very very important, beginning, his response was that, well, we don't think it was foul plate. Well, how do you know? You haven't even investigated anything. And that video certainly makes you think that there's something that doesn't pass the smell test. And the fact that you have the young lady who said that Nolan said he was going to get back on the boat with the boys. And then the boys said,

Nolan told them that he was going to stay with the girl. Which one is it? Somebody must not be telling the truth. And again, we cannot overstated enough. What 18-year-old teenager says, I'm going to stay behind on the island and don't ask for their cell phone? Well, especially when you look at the map

that shows the distance this island from where they came from. I do want to ask Christine, their husband, this year. So the photos that we've been showing, were those photos taken on that day or was it a previous boating trip? That was taken on that day. That was taken on that day,

specifically the one with all three of them. Whenever I had made the post asking for information, there was a young girl who reached out to me and she said, hey, Ms. Christine, I know that in the report, it's stating that he had black shorts on, but she was like he actually had blue shorts.

And those are two very different colors. Like, you can't mess, you know, get those two confused. And so what she did is she was like, I'm going to send you these pictures to show you so, you know, I could use to show everybody like, this is actually the color of the shorts he was wearing. because she was concerned too about. So they had sent those photos to her or have they supposed to go?

No, these are pictures that she took. No, she took the pictures. Yeah, she took those herself and she sent them to me. Yeah, she was out there. Yeah, she was out there. Got it. Got it. Obviously, it has been four days since your son's body was found.

seven days since you last saw him. Are you concerned with the pace of this investigation? I would also ask Ben. I mean, do you believe, I mean, initial report saying that the young men have been questioned. No one out of us has been taken into custody. any thoughts and concerns about that. The pace of this investigation that here we are is four days later, and there still are so many unanswered basic questions.

Yeah, I know the family is very concerned. That's why they wanted an independent autopsy done, Roland Martin, and so the body was flown from Mississippi to Washington, D.C., because they wanted to have a doctor do an exam of his body that had no connections, no influence from the law officials in the state of Mississippi. Because it's inescapable that, you know, Roland, had the roads been reversed, and you had three young black man and a young white man on a boat and the white man dies or is killed, you would see a completely different investigation, Roland Martin.

I mean, especially, and you got his cell phone, and you back on the island and you leave him on the island. I mean, it's so many things that says, you all are not doing a zealous investigation on behalf of the family of Nolan Wales. We want the same kind of investigation that you would have did that the roads were reversed for a young white man for our son too.

Absolutely. Elmore, it has to be, I listened to you, as you talked about, your son felt like you were badgering him when all those questions. And the reality is fathers and mothers desperately want to protect their children, want to provide them with the, much cover as possible.

And so as you think about those many conversations, you absolutely believe that you gave your son so much information that you don't believe for a second that he would decide on a whim just to make some crazy decision and just go off with some other people. He had no idea, didn't know who they were at all. I believe I gave my son, I could say enough information to not do that. He had too much extate. He had a plan for his life.

He knew what he wanted to do. He knew what he had to do coming up that following Monday, which was get down the business so he can get on with his life and get his future started. So for someone to tell me that Nolan decided to stay on the island to text a girl, I do not believe you. No one is going to get me to believe that not one bit. No, I can't believe that because he wasn't raised like that. I had him super focused on what he wanted to do.

He was finally buying into what I was talking about as far as sports and business and really taking it serious and understanding that if he wanted it, he had to put in the work. Just a couple of questions left. Christine, you talked about how nasty folks are on social media. It has to be extremely painful and difficult for your husband. To see people who you don't know, who don't know you, who don't know your son, question you allowing him. to be around white teens, questioning how you raised yourself?

What I would say to that is the amount of love and support that we've received from our local community, people outside of our community, and even his friends, it's a testament to his character. It's a testament to us as parents. And this is a thing. I would never, and my husband is saying, we would never tell our child any of our children, you are not allowed to associate with this person over here because of the color of their skin

or because this person over here is purple. Absolutely not. And just the way Nolan's heart was, he was a friend to everybody like he was just his heart was that big so like I just I don't care because at the end of the day

I know we did everything we could as parents raised our children as best as we could we have always told them to be kind caring and respectful to others no matter who they were and that's the way we were raised so if anyone has an issue with that, then that seems like that's a you problem, not an us problem.

Ben, final question for you? Have you gotten any indication? First of all, Ben, who's leading this investigation? Is it the sheriff or is it the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation? I think at this time it's still the sheriff because the sheriff is the one who's making the statements. sheriff in Jackson County, Mississippi. Do you want to see the MBI take this over? I want to see somebody lead the investigation who's going to do so zealously.

We are in a ferocious search for the truth. I mean, with every day that goes by, that makes it a little more don. a little more challenging. So time is of the essence. I mean, we don't want not one more sleepless night to go by just because they don't have answers. We know they're never going to have peace because, you know, their baby, as they talked about,

their family, so much peace. And so there's a void in their hearts and in their families forever. but let's at least give them the transparency that they deserve. As Christine said, any parent, any parent, black, white, brown, or red, you would want answers. If somebody came to you and said, we went out with him, we left him, and now he's dead. No, we got to get answers, Roland Martin. we must get access.

Christine, Elmore Wonsley, again, our condolences go out to you is absolutely difficult. And as you said, it's even more difficult when you're trying to grieve the loss of your son and you're having to do interviews and, frankly, put the pressure on officials to get answers as to what is taking place. And so I appreciate both of you joining us. I appreciate Ben Crump, you've been here as well. And certainly we've been covering this story from day one, as we always do. We're going to continue to cover this story because it needs to be told.

And it needs to, we need answers as to what took place to 18-year-old Nolan Wells. Thanks a bunch. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much, Roland. Thanks a lot. Quickly go to my panel here. Candice, when we talk about evidence collection, what is bothersome here is that these boys come back. They call the mother at 11 p.m.

They don't get the phone until the next day. Anybody who understands investigations, you are most concerned about the destruction of evidence. Listen. And you're there for heart-wrenching knockouts. The world's biggest stage. And breathtaking triumph. In 2026 FIFA World Cup. The knockout stage.

Every match, every moment. Listen on TSN Radio. Join the globe. On the road to the July 19th final. 2026 FIFA World Cup. Stream it all live on TSN Radio. Available on IHeart Radio. Bill, why is it?

my eye twitching. Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Maybe I have adult ADHD. I need to look this up. Where's my phone? Juliana, your phone is hot to the touch. I think it's asking you for a break. You know what? Maybe I should just ask chat GPT. Or maybe we can ask an actual human. Yes, like a couple sex therapist. Whoa, that escalated quickly, but okay. Because I have questions. We have questions. And I bet everyone has questions. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that. How about this one? Is bribing your kids bad parenting or just negotiating? Oh, and I still do need to know why was my poop green that one time? Hypothetically, right? Okay, well, instead of letting the internet guess, we've got actual people answering these exact questions. And laughing with us has got to be better

than spending three hours down a rabbit hole online. Listen to Bill and Juliana. The podcast. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier, and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem. If you come over here to play games, I'ma check you. Okay? If you do some in the news that don't sound good, I'm going to play you.

Join Yomeneika Saunders as she breaks down the week's most problematic stories on her new podcast. You're the problem with Yamanika. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was? New episodes weekly every Wednesday. part of my new network, the Dear Chelsea Network. If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men. Do better or do less, so I don't have to do so much. So join Yamanika each episode as she answers one question.

Who's the problem? I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to You're the Problem with Yamanika starting on July 15th on the Iheart Radio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you get your podcast. A decade ago, the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the king of corn in Brazil. So we met with a lot of larger farmers, went from Bahia to Tokatines

to Madagroso. And he brought a team of executives. They were going to help the country get in on a gold rush. Carbon and its derivatives are going to be really the next great commodity that the globe's going to trade. But back home in Iowa, trouble was brewing.

If you live in Iowa, your land, your water, and your voice could all be at risk thanks to a man named Bruce Rastetter. Now, people are questioning if his climate solutions have anything to do with climate at all. You got to give Bruce of the guy's credit. They're Republican. They don't give a shit about him.

It's now. On this season of Drilled Carbon Cowboys, the story of how the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the king of corn in Brazil and what it tells us about the limits of technology and markets to solve the climate crisis. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In this case here, we're dealing with water. And so now, again, you don't know. Did they change clothes?

Now you're talking about what, you know, was there a fight? Scratches on their body. What kind of interviews took place from the authorities? There's so, there's so many people, there are so many things here at play that could determine not knowing what actually happened. Yeah.

And you said the. key word there and that is the evidence because the evidence begins right now and if there are any lawsuits that's what this part and this time is for to collect the evidence and make sure that people are held accountable so that evidence plays out well in court whether it's a wrongful death suit or negligence suit or any other criminal action that comes down the line which there probably will be now I'm not sure and this is a question that I wanted to hear from them and maybe you know this if any of those young men that were with him did get legal representation. I have heard it. I'm not sure. But, you know, to search for an attorney and not

be as part of the search party is ridiculous. And that is evidence. And that is evidence that it goes against any story that they have. At this point, it seems to me, I think about it this way, Roland, when you want to punish a child that's 18 years old or 8 years old, the first thing that you do is you take away that phone. And we know that there was confirmation from Crump. There was, you you know, audible, you could hear audio that was confirmed that was Nolan, that he did say, you know, give me back my freaking phone. Why were they punishing him by keeping that phone away from him? There was, there's something that somebody is hiding. This is what we know. And it all has to do with that phone. The fact that they went home, set on that phone,

that a friend of hers had to go retrieve the phone. Nobody offered that phone up. Are you kidding me? And this is all the evidence building that is not going to play well for those kids in court, which is why one of the kids' mothers, that judge who name escapes me, that's why she started her evidence and seeding of it now, that my child, you know, he's been cooperating with everyone, and everything is fine. And maybe I canceled my Facebook account, but don't take it personally. People out there are mean. Everybody is pulling together their evidence, and that's where we are.

And it does not look good. It is because of that phone. It is because of that. That phone is telling the story, and it's going to tell the story in court. Matt? Yeah, I want to stay on that same thought. So I have literally proven a murder case off of deleted text messages from a cell phone. The police may not have thought they had probable cause to search the phone, but phones get dumped.

So what people don't know is, even if you've been, delete messages or delete data on your phone, there are various levels to the phone where things are saved. So like I said, I literally proved a murder case off a deleted text messages. There's a lot of evidence surely in that phone. And there are a couple things I don't understand in this case. The first thing I don't understand is if you have a video that's contemporaneous with their time on the island with Nolan and they come back with his phone and he's protesting them having his phone, you have a theft. So how you don't issue an arrest warrant immediately for you? for the theft, how you don't decide to dump the phone,

how you don't send an exigency search warrant to Snapchat, to social media, to the phone provider. I mean, they do that all the time. And somebody's missing and they have reason to believe there's been foul play. The police routinely do that. And the phone companies and other providers have a means whereby they can get them information

in an exigent circumstance. Here, on the 4th of July, this young man goes missing. The family realizes he's missing. It seems to me the police had a number of things could have done to truly investigate this and preserve that evidence. And Ben Crump is one of the best in the country, so I suspect his team is going to do this. But the absolute first thing I would do is get a private forensic examiner on that phone. I would do a logical dump, a physical dump, find what is in that phone.

And there may certainly be things that were deleted, right? And then even if those things are innocuous, right, even if there are text messages that don't have anything to do about the conflict, then you have a question of chain of custody. okay, y'all had this phone for X number of hours before it was provided to his family, and there's something that was deleted that was sent after the time Nolan had the phone, or rather deleted after the time Nolan had the phone, it stands to reason you got tampering with evidence. So maybe, you know, this is something the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation will have to get into, but police officers do these things routinely, and I think what this might be is a situation

where they want to take the path of least resistance and assume there's no foul plate, despite the fact that they had incontrovertible evidence that this young man was not only in a conflict, but that they had expensive property of his, which they would normally call a theft. So how they didn't go down that road, I don't understand. Hopefully, Ben and his team are able to develop some of that, and that evidence has been preserved despite presumably someone trying to delete it or otherwise obscure it. Well, Michael, what's so ballroom for me is for a sheriff to say, we don't believe there was foul play. I'm sorry.

An 18-year-old, extremely healthy young man goes on an island with friends, doesn't come back, they come back, he's missing, and I'm sorry, that's called doubt. That's called suspicion. And so you don't just come out and just make that kind of statement. That raises questions as to the thoroughness of the quality of the investigation that this sheriff is going to actually

conduct. Yeah, Roland, I agree. I think it's premature to say there's no foul play suspected. You can just say

we haven't been able to conclude that at this point in the investigation. The other, or you're just simply or you simply say this, or you just simply say

this is under investigation. This is an investigation. You don't give a definitive statement like we don't believe. believe that was foul play. Right, right. So I agree, Roland.

I watched the press conference today. I also saw the interview this morning on Good Morning America that Nolan's parents did, along with Ben Crumb. And I watched the interview on CBS this morning. And I have like 15 questions, but I'm only going to ask two. So I heard you, Roland, say that someone called. the parents at 11 p.m. Was that to say

we have Nolan's phone or what was that call regarding? Well, the mother answered that. She said that the call she got was that Nolan had not come back with him. Right. Okay. Now,

so one of the questions I had is when the father went to go retrieve the phone the boy or the man or the young man he retrieved the phone from said Nolan was like a brother to know the father and no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no the father didn't go retrieve the phone the mother said a friend of hers uh was the one who went to go and retrieve the phone okay okay I misunderstood it at the press conference today uh okay yeah yeah I didn't see that but here's the deal I didn't see the news conference I'm just simply saying what the mother just said and might just interview her.

So in terms of, so I don't know that. But so, so, so the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the bomb line is here. Okay. Clearly, they're not giving answers as to what actually is taking place. Um, it has been four days since his body was found. Seven days, uh, you know, seven days since they last on six days since, uh, and, uh, it's clear folks are clamming up. And so I would hope this sheriff is doing a real investigation.

And the problem is if he's not, for every day that you get away from this, the problem that you have is you have a lack of evidence. As we said, evidence could be destroyed, evidence washed away, all that sort of stuff. And that's really what is of great concern. I got to go to a quick break. We come back when I talk with the alumni group of Shaw University where they have some serious concerns about the leadership of that HBCU in North Carolina. You're watching Roland Martin Unfilts on the Black Star Network. All right, folks, let me tell you about Chapter. Now, if you're in Medicare or about to be, the system is not set up to work for you.

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My mom sent me a text. Folks, give chapter a call at 724-264-8-281, 724-264-281, and connect with someone you can trust. Folks, these are the kind of services that we need for our audience here at Roland Martin on Filtered and the Black Star Network. So call chapter right now, 724-264-8-21. I'm Ryan Wilson, CEO co-founder of The Gathering Spot, and you're watching Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. The University of North Carolina are at odds over how the university is being run specifically when it comes to its operations. The alumni said leadership is not being transparent about it increasing debt, also the sale of the school property and the 2003 Shaw U District rezoning plan. Some alumni fear at their beloved university could meet the same.

fate as St. Augustine's University. We've been covering the drama with that university. Eugene Myra, his founding member of Save Our Shaw. He joins us now. Glad to have you here. Eugene, so what exactly is the issue, this concern that you and others are expressing? So Roland, the rezoning happened a few years ago.

And Dr. Dillet said, we were supposed to see a public-facing master plan by last year. So, and mind you, Dr. Dillard's contract, it actually expired in June. So she had a town hall, an alumni town hall. She didn't bother to invite the Alumni Association, but she had an alumni town hall and said that the board approved a $550 million master plan in February of last year.

But yet we still haven't seen this master plan for the university, which I need to go back and state that there is a such thing as a campus master plan. But Dr. Dillard chose and the board of trustees chose to go with a sure you business district, which in fact may be a violation of the charter, which states that Shaw's land is to be utilized for institutional purposes perpetually. Okay, so you're saying that a master plan for the campus is different from this Shaw U business district? No, she was the we're still waiting to see the master plan. We haven't seen a master plan yet, but as there are as they're prolonging the presentation of this master plan, we're coming across deeds where Shaw's assets are continuously being sold. Shaw's assets are being sold off and our debt continues to increase.

Remember, at the CARES Act, the CARES Act landed the Titanic for us. But just last year, Dr. Dillon, the board took out a loan for $20 million, putting up all of Shaw's real estate for $20 million. And I, and I stress the $20 million because just down the block from Shaw, $1.3 acre of land sold for $21 million. Okay, so you mentioned the CARES Act. And so what was your point? Was your point there how much money Shaw was able to get from that that should have assisted them in stabilizing their finances?

Exactly. Once we were 20 plus million in debt, the CARES Act wiped that debt out. And I believe, I believe the year may have been 21 or 22. And I believe Shaw's surplus was like $21 million. Next year was like a surplus of $600,000. I'm looking right here. I have, I'm looking right here. I have the spreadsheet.

Shaw received $44,188,477 and one cent as a result. of CAT-1, F-1 forgiveness, CARES Act 1, CARES Act 2, as well as the American Rescue Plan 1, American Rescue Plan 2. And magically, five years later, we're back in debt. Assets are continuously being sold. But it's to the point now where the Board of Trustees is so dysfunctional. If you talk to one board member, you'll get an answer.

Like, a prime example. example i'm asking them how many board members are showing them to the meeting somebody will say eight well they've changed the bylaws where at quorum you need's 15 so i'm saying how are y'all even having a meeting oh well chairman joe bell has five proxy votes in his pocket roland if you if somebody was to really do the homework proxy votes a chairman of a non-profit organization in the state of north california it is illegal for the chairman of the executive committee of a nonprofit organization to utilize proxy votes. Because all of these board members have a fiduciary responsibility.

Yep. So with that in mind, does the alumni plan on suing the university? That's, listen, we sued some years ago. So we ran into a situation in federal court where a judge said, yeah, y'all went to show university, but you don't have standing. The same issue that St.Aaulg came up against. St.Aulg elected their alumni president, but the board never sat him. I went with them to court rolling, and I watched the attorney for their board of trustees say, yeah, they have valid points, but they don't have standing. They don't have a board member with them. So regardless of all of this corruption, the binders, the judge said,

it's nothing I can do here. tossed out. So at this point, we're literally trying to gather... But, but, but... But in the case of St. Augustine's, just like you, your private university, there was a role that the Attorney General plays

because you are a nonprofit. So have you had any conversations with the Attorney General of North Carolina? And that's the, and that's the move that we're headed toward right now. Our next conversation is trying to have a discussion with our alumni association representative because it would hold much more weight

if we had a member of the board of trustees with standing. If that doesn't work, then our next choice we would have no choice but to go to the attorney general to ask them to look into some of these matters. Because it goes so deep rolling as to Shaw's original charter was on the books in 1875. Fast forward, I believe, us around 1947 section eight and a half was added to the charter specifically around real

estate it specifically states that the only way Shaw could sell real estate is to be signed by the chair of the board of trustees the secretary of the board of trustees as well as a university seal we have property dr. Dill is selling property chairman Joseph Bell is selling property there's no, no seals, no signature from the secretary, the board of trustees, even going back to the cell of WSHA. We didn't even know, we didn't even know that they took out a $2 million loan from the company that they sold a radio station to because we don't get any answers from the university. But our next step, my first, our first goal is going to go ahead. Go ahead.

Our first goal is hoping that our national alumni association president will step up because he would have standing. Those of us that filed that suit some years ago, all he would have to do is white our name out, stamp his name there, and he would have standing to go to court. And that would be the best way for us to go as opposed to hoping that the attorney general

will step up to the plague. Shaw University sent us a statement when we reached out. They said increasing debt that's not on its own tell the story regarding the university's property decisions. Responsible financial stewardship requires evaluating how resources are utilized, what investments they support, and how those decisions contribute to the university's long-term stability and missions. The university's debt has

increased in the last few years, new and large part to delay maintenance, including H-back systems and enrollment decline. They also said that several non-core properties have been sold in recent years. The non-core properties sold were either through the donor's wishes and always through appropriate processes and at market value reflective of the of real estate conditions and valuations at the time of the transaction. They say the university's approach to campus progress planning and land use has been thoughtful and informed by intentional engaging with alumni faculty staff, surrounding community, and professional expertise.

In 2019, Shaw University engaged the Urban Land Institute to provide an independent assessment and strategic recommendations related to campus development, land use partnerships and long-term growth opportunities. The resulting report is part of an extensive effort to thoughtfully evaluate how our assets can best support our mission and sustainability. They also addressed the issue of rezoning, master plan, and bylaw changes. It said in summary with the 2022 reaffirmation by SACSCOC, our accrediting body and adjusted plans to roll out the Shaw-U District rezoning master plan in fall, 26, our focus

remains on strengthening Shaw University's financial foundation through thoughtful stewardship strategic planning enrollment growth expanded partnerships and diversified revenue opportunities while preserving the legacy and mission that have defined Shaw use since 1865 your final comment so Roland fall 2026 will be an opportunity again to avoid the alumni body for Dr. Dillet came to the alumni meeting and this past October or whenever it was. Dr. Diller was at the meeting.

She said, we're not selling any downtown property. Think about the, think of the multiple lives that we've, we've been faced with. There's nothing left but downtown. There's nothing left but our down. Now the language is where we're selling non-core properties. Why they haven't showed that master plan is because it wipes out the

entire campus. It wipes out what we know as the yard. It wipes out the latest dormitory. that they built. The joke was Shaw University is one block. They are literally turning this into one block. When you look at the rezoning application,

it says, Shaw will house 100 students in the third building for five years. What about the first? What's the first two buildings? Why only for five years? And Roland, if you will allow me, I know you but let me just take it back

to the radio station cell. Let me talk about the multiple scams See, WSHA was sold to cover up a bunch of things. When Dr. Emeka filed his lawsuit, his whistleblower lawsuit, he said he was asked to sign off on a fraudulent audit. Dr. Emeka said his budget was $20,000 to $20,000, but they told him it was $500,000. And he had paid interns he never met. So let's somebody spent over $500,000, tried depending on Dr. Emeka. somebody was receiving checks from WSHA tried depending on Dr.

Emeka and then they would have turned this over to the Center for Public Broadcasting trying to get matching funds and when Dr. Emeka said no even within his lawsuit he was like remember what happened in Dr. Jai the years before for $400,000 this is why sure does not prosper rolling everybody has their hands in the piggy bank we need our border trustees to leave They've been there for more than Willie Gary 40 years Lorenzo Williams 39 years Tom Darden 34 years Even our current chair Joseph Bell 28 years rolling our charter specifically says three years These people have bastardized their own bylaws. They don't follow the rules to their own bylaws is to the point now where we're gonna lose everything if we do not get rid of these people

These people have to go the only reason to keep Dr. Dillard around for another year is not to focus on the master plan is to get this check that they're waiting for. Roland, we had a fire in January. We had a fire in January and turns out the buildings failed the fire inspection back in December. Come to find out all of the dormitories have failed the inspection. So you're not keeping the kids safe. you're not bringing in any money. The endowment is shrinking. We didn't even get into the audit. They're borrowing money from the endowment right now

and there's $2.8 million that they took from endowment. Canadian women are looking for more. More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are of them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine Clark.

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On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier. And Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem. If you come over here to play games, I'm a check you. Okay? If you do some in the news that don't sound good, I'm going to play you.

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I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to you're the problem with Yamanika starting on July 15th on the I Heart Radio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you get your podcast. A decade ago, the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the king of corn in Brazil. So we met with a lot of larger farmers, went from Bahia to Tokitans to Madagroso. And he brought a team of executives. They were going to help the country get in on a gold rush. Carbon and its derivatives are going to be really the next great commodity that the globe's going to trade.

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You're not supposed to be able to class in 1971 focusing on finishing off their $1 million endowment. I believe they want to give like $20 million to $50 million. They don't even know where the rest of their money is at. So at this point, we have to get the alumni together. to either focus on getting our NAA president to file this suit, but we have to get the alumni together to pressure the Attorney General to step up to the plate to investigate the scam. For us, we're going to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate,

hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate. All right, Eugene, Mark, keep us abreast of what happens next. Thank you, Roland. I appreciate you. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Folks, you can always count on Fox News showing there's stupidity. They really hate smart people. They really like them dumb.

Donald Trump likes them dumb. And if you want a good example of that, listen to this compilation of these idiots led by the chief idiot, Lawrence B. Jones. I will say this. The college educated are the problem as well. The college educator are the ones that are buying into this. They're coming off the college campuses.

They're being taught this new worldview. It's not like when we went to college when they had open debate. It doesn't exist. I'll back you up on that. Because if you look at Piker, he's got a lot of degrees. Of course. He spent his whole life in academia, as does Mondami. These are highly educated people who come out with an agenda,

and they're trying to make a difference in their 30s. Who's voting for these socialists? Highly educated. Brian likes to say overeducated. We had a nice gentleman in the audience who said he blames the colleges. they're learning a lot of this in college. They're not being taught what a country looks like under communist rule or under socialism

and also the wealthier voting for them. American Dream is dead if you don't want to work. Colleges have been conditioning kids not to. They've been taught the country stole the land, ripped the world off. So these lifelong students who got everything free at college feel like America owes them something, that they shouldn't have to earn it.

They're getting a majority of their votes right now, from the most educated folks. Some would say maybe over-credentialed educated folks. Isn't that it's a shame? Fox News, they're saying, oh, I'm sorry. Too bad you actually have an education. Candace, they like them dumb. The right-ween likes them dumb.

That's why Don Trump's biggest group is non-college white people. And, you know, there's another big point that I just have to bring up, And that is this. People who go to college and get out and have to pay those loans because the education system is so broken and you have to, you know, end up paying $200,000 on a bill that started out as 40 after 15 years. They're trying to figure it out how to even get a job to pay that loan. It's all broken. So, you know, they're talking about one issue as if college educated people don't want to work. I mean, some of them don't. Let's be real. You know, just young people who get out of school. I know that. I've tried to give away jobs, but the other big portion of it is that they can't afford not to work. And they're trying to figure out how to pay off these student loans that are like an albatross around their neck. So there are a lot of issues that have nothing to do with learning or knowing more about socialism or communism. This all ties into the subject that we were talking about earlier and the No Woke Act and making sure that professors have their First Amendment

rights limited. It's all connected. And the truth is, when you get into the schools, whether it's K through 12, or whether it's on a university level, you can change minds. And that is the problem for them right now. They are scared that people are so educated. And when you're educated, you actually do know better. And that's what they're up against. They also know educated people can see through Fox News as BS. We saw the last election. And it was shown and the data mat that a per the more educated a person presenting with the facts they can call out fox news bs as opposed to them feeding people who are not educated who go well you know sean hen he said it so must be right yeah full stop see also ted cruise went to princeton and

harvard josh holly went to stanford and yale so these educated people that are their manipulative overlords are leveraging this. Oh, my God. Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, you left, Matt, you left out, Matt, you left out John Kennedy in Louisiana. Well, all of a sudden, hey, he's talking with this drop. He doesn't even talk like that. Also, Harvard educated.

And so his, his whole accent is a shit. It's fake. Yeah. So, so I think I've said this on the, on this show. But this is why I find particularly Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz to be among the most insidious politicians there are because they're very highly educated i think one or both of them were valedictorians they're not idiots by any stretch but they know that there's a very large contingent of people out there who feel this country was stolen from them particularly you know poorly educated

middle class white people right so they stoke that fire despite being in the upper echelon of society and laughing at the plebs nonetheless right so this is intellectually dishonest it's uh problematic especially because if you listen really deeply to what Lawrence Jones said he said oh we go to college and it's supposed to be about open debate the same people who are trying to vilify open debate with a stop woke act right you can't have it both ways and what it comes down to is exactly what you said they don't like educated people because educated educated people think critically but what I think is especially dishonest is very

educated people are at the top of their tip J.D. Then he go to Yale Law School? You know, right? They know that what they're doing is they're pissing off people who feel this country has been stolen from them. And they are vilifying education to say, see, that's another thing that these blacks and these women and these whomever else took from you, right? They went and got this fancy degree. And now they're living the life you're supposed to be living. That's what we're hearing without them saying it.

And that's why I think it's intellectually dishonest and particularly insidious. Michael. Yeah, Roland. So we know Lawrence B. Jones is the court jester of Fox and Friends, but I want to point out something. That was Brian Kielme. That was there in that segment, that first clip that you showed with Lawrence B. Jones. Back on October 18th, 2024, Donald Trump during the campaign was on Fox and Friends, and Brian Kielme asked him, what if one of these liberal states, like California, for instance, says, going to teach this new history where the country was built on, was built on stolen land built by slaves. What would you do? Donald Trump said we would stop sending that state money for

education. He's talking about the Department of Education. He said we would stop sending them money, okay? When you have dictators, they attack institutions of higher learning because the resistance is going to come from those that have the most education because they really can see what you're doing. Okay. People who have taken a political science class can see through Donald Trump's nonsense. They can see through Fox News. But when you have, when Donald Trump said, I love the uneducated. He wasn't lying. He usually lies, but he was not lying when he said, when he said that, because he can deceive them. And we, and the proof that he could deceive them is what happened January 6, 2021. Um, I'm so glad Matt brought up J.D. Vance. So,

J.D. Bance was talking about fraud and he said this. We've got a party that is fighting for fraud and a party that is fighting against fraud. We've got a party that is fighting for fraud and a party that is fighting against fraud. We're not back one more time. We've got a party that is fighting for fraud and a party that is fighting for fraud in a party that is fighting against fraud. that is fighting against fraud. Interesting. So I am reading that.

This is a tweet from Benjamin Penn. He's with Bloomberg. He's a senior reporter, Department of Justice Bloomberg Law. Scoop. This is four hours ago on Twitter. Trump DOJ to drop charges for a laid $722 million dollar crypto Ponzi schemer just before trial. Bid Club mastermind said he built scam on backs of idiots and sheep.

He hired Trump-connected lawyers to lobby DOJ headquarters for relief overruling New Jersey prosecutors. We can read off a line of people that Donald Trump has pardoned and allowed them to keep the money, people who Ponzi schemers, defrauders, folks have stolen. And so Trump's idea is that all of these people are the victims of overzealous prosecution. J.D. Vance, the party you're talking about who is protecting fraudsters, it's yours.

100% right. 100% right, which is exactly why the last time I was on this very show, we talked about Mike Johnson, and talking about them being afraid of the investigations. Remember that conversation? And that's exactly what is coming, because there's been, this is administration and those connected to them have been replete with fraud.

And that's what's so dishonest about this. This is exactly why you want uneducated people. Because people who are paying any attention at all are gonna say, you're talking out of both sides of your head. You're saying it's about fraud, but every week there's a new corruption issue or every new metric we hear is that the Trump

family has made something like what, $2.2 billion, his net worth has gone up since he's been back in office and a lot of it is connected to crypto. It's just out and out corruption and it's out and out fraud. But if you move the goalpost and if you control the messaging, and if you make the messaging stronger from the Republican side than what the Democrats have come up with, then you get that contingent of people that you need in your base to give you a one-off and let you get away with anything. And that's what we're seeing. We're seeing a massive grift on the greatest scale ever right before our eyes, because instead of calling it fraud,

you just say the other guy's doing fraud while you continue to commit it. It is beyond laughable, Candace, to look at this, the richest cabinet in history, how Donald Trump is just letting these rich folks skate and these dumb-ass maggots out here who are broke as hell, keep lifting his guy up.

And I'm like, He doesn't care about you. He cares about rich people. But these people are so clueless and so uneducated, they are in a cult where they think he is absolutely their God. And that's exactly what I was going to say. I was going to use the word cult. Go through and look up what cult, you know, what it means to being a cult.

All the boxes that you have to check. This is someone who they look up to as a God. They don't know what they're, They don't know what he's about. They don't know what they're doing. They're not educated enough to understand what they've gotten into. Then another part of me is like, do we really dignify this? Isn't this the White House that's at the WWF in front of the,

and the lawn of the White House? Is that who we're talking about here? The other thing is that, you know, when we think about how Trump and the executive branch of the government functions, you say something enough. It gets into people's heads and that. they ultimately believe it. This is just another same old play from their playbook

that they're going to keep on target up until next week and say it enough, and people ultimately believe it. And that is also what happens in a cult. You plant that seed, you say it enough. And somebody ultimately says, you know what, that's true because I've got all these other co-signers around me that are saying that's true. And I'm caught up in my own world

and don't even understand or have, have the level of intelligence to understand that there's a whole world out there that sees that I'm crazy. They don't see that. They don't see that at all. They don't. And Michael, they just believe whatever this dude.

It is so blatant that literally they're like, hey, you want a part? It's going to cost you $2 million. The biggest business today for lawyers is if you're a Trump-connected lawyer, these folks are blowing them up, just buying them. their way out of jail and Trump was like, yeah, don't worry about it. Y'all just keep the millions upon millions y'all stole from other people.

It's all good. You can go ahead and go home. You can go back to your yachts and you could go back to your mansions. Yeah, Roland, you know, the Republican Party used to be the party of law and order. They can't claim that anymore. They can't claim family values either. They can't claim fiscal responsibility either because Donald Trump has shredded all of that. You know, there's an authoritarian tactic hidden on Candace's point where you repeat a lie over and over and over again and fools will believe it.

And this is something that Trump does. This is why he targets the uneducated. And when you go through and study how this works, it's usually the highly educated, like the people you mentioned, John Kennedy, Louisiana, J.D. Vance, Yale law degree, Ted, punk-ass, Ted Cruz, is usually the elite that have these elite degrees that manipulate those that don't have them. Okay. So these are things that we warn people about, but this doesn't surprise me.

Donald Trump is corrupt and rotten to the core, and, you know, we're going to see more of this. Hopefully, there's a reckoning. If Democrats take control of the White House in 2028, take control of Department of Justice, hopefully there's a reckoning on a lot of these acts that have taken place. But I wouldn't be surprised that Trump gives himself a pardon on the way out the door. Well, I just saw this story right here where this guy was pled guilty on epoch times. It says a former E-Poc Times executive pleaded guilty

for a $67 million fraud scheme that helped fund the right-wing newspaper. This is from courthouse news. Trust me, in a couple of weeks, don't be shot. He gets a pardon from Donald Trump. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We'll be back, rolling Martin unfiltered right here on the Blatchartonet. All right, folks, let me tell you about chapter. Now, if you're in Medicare or about to be,

the system is not set up to work for you. Too much fine print, too many plans, and too many people are making money off of your confusion. And look, we're used to this. We're no strangers to systems that don't have our best interests at heart. But we don't have to accept it when it comes to Medicare. That's why I'm telling you about chapter. Their advisors are independent and honest. In fact, they're the only Medicare advisors that compare every plan nationwide.

And they're focused on one thing. what works for you. If there's a better plan out there, they'll find it. If you're already in the right one, they'll tell you that too. There are no games. Just last year, people who switched with Chapter saved an average of $1,100. It's 20 minutes and a real person. It's completely free.

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Yes, that is Zodico Capital of the world. My name is Margaret Chappelle. I'm from Dallas, Texas, representing the urban truth. trivia game. It's me, Sherry, Shepard, and you know what you watch. Roland Martin on Unfilger. A black cop in Georgia is facing charge of involuntary manslaughter in reckless conduct after accidentally discharging his gun that killed a black teenager. The incident took place Tuesday evening in the backyard of a home in Avondale Estates in Georgia.

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, 19-year-old Jaten Eccles was questioned earlier that day about his involvement in an armed robbery of a mail carrier, but he was later allowed to leave. Officers later learned that Echols had an active arrest warrant and began searching for him during which he hid in nearby woods. When the Caval County Police Officer Derek Harris located Echols, he gave the team verbal commands while holding him at gunpoint. Echols comply. While Echols was lying face down, Harris attempted to take him into custody using one hand to hold his firearm at the team's back and the other hand to handle the handcuffs. During the pretexts, process Harris accidentally discharged his firearm.

Ethkins was transported to the hospital where later died from his injuries. Folks, the U.S. Navy is ending permanent shaving waivers for sailors with chronic skin condition caused by shaving. Under an updated policy, sailors diagnosed with razor bumps can receive medical treatment and temporary shaving waivers for up to a year. If they are still unable to shave after they could after that, they could be discharged from the Navy. The Navy states the policy is about military readiness and ensuring protective equipment fits properly. This decision is drawing criticism based on the fact that razor bumps disproportionately affect black men. Medical experts say 60% of black men experience razor bumps. All this is, Michael, is the latest attempt by Pete Hegg said to have a white military.

Yeah, Roland, you know, I agree. I think this is targeting African-American men in the military. I do know that for some type of equipment that you have to wear on your face. I do know like for emergency responders, things like that. In some cases, they tell them they can't have facial hair. I do know that. Now, my question would be, okay, if you say that you're doing this so that certain equipment will fit properly on the face, right?

Well, how is the equipment fitting now? What evidence do you have that the equipment is not fitting now? Because I haven't seen anything saying, well, the equipment is not fitting properly. Okay. So this is why we're doing this. So to me, this seems a way to attack DEI without calling it DEI. Matt? Yeah, I think Michael pretty much summed up my thoughts on it.

I mean, I don't really see that this is in any way a veiled attempt at attacking black sailors. I am interested in the question of whether, you know, if you shave and get razor bumps, if you can still serve, or if it's a question of can you not shave at all, presumably that might mean a much smaller number of people. But if 60% of the people affected are going to, 60% of black men get them, including my dad, who has used that disgusting magic shave my whole life, you know, are the ones who get razor bumps. And I think it's a pretty thinly veiled attempt at attacking those black sailors.

But it's Pete Hakeseth. So what's new? Canvas. Well, clearly we see what's going on. There used to be a waiver for this, right? Because it is a medical condition. Those razor bumps are no joke. We've seen the extremes of what razor bumps can look like.

Like Matt said, we all know about the creams and how it smells and the process and surgeries that, you know, black men go through. So this was a change because of what they ultimately wanted to do, which is meet their goal of getting rid of black men. in the military because now it's a very strict scrutiny rule. But if you look at this, this has to do with medicine, having a medical condition. And when you have a medical condition, you have rights. And if this goes to court and if anybody fights it, it's going to be fought on those particular medical rights that you have. It's just something too that you can't really explain unless, one, you're a black man and experienced it and share it. And these are you. These aren't the people who are looking at this situation.

They don't know what it's like to have razor bumps to the extent that we have seen black men have those razor bumps. And might I say, black women too? I'm just being real, right? Because black women, sometimes they have to shave two and they get some of the same results. So it all has to do really with, you know,

getting rid of, you know, diversity, getting rid of inclusion in this process in the name of medicine, we are going to see lawsuits. All right, let me thank Candice, Matt, and Mike with me on today's show. I'm certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. We're going to go to a break. We come back.

I'm going to talk to the co-founders of a new company that they want for black businesses to have a better shot at getting contracts all across the country. I'll talk to them live from Houston. You're watching Rolla Martin on Filtered right here on the Black Star Network. All right, folks, let me tell you about chapter. Now, if you're in Medicare or about to. B, the system is not set up to work for you. Too much fine print, too many plans, and too many people are making money off of your confusion.

And look, we're used to this. We're no strangers to systems that don't have our best interests at heart. But we don't have to accept it when it comes to Medicare. That's why I'm telling you about chapter. Their advisors are independent and honest. In fact, they're the only Medicare advisors that compare every plan nationwide. And they're focused on one thing. what works for you.

If there's a better plan out there, they'll find it. If you're already in the right one, they'll tell you that too. There are no games. Just last year, people who switched with Chapter saved an average of $1,100. It's 20 minutes and a real person. It's completely free. My parents actually have already called. The mom sent me a text.

Folks, give Chapter a call at 724-264-8-281. 724-264-8-8-1 and connect with someone you can trust. Folks, these are the kind of services that we need for our audience here at Roland Martin Unfiltered and the Black Star Network. So call chapter right now, 724-264-8-281. Melanie Campbell, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Black Women's Roundtable. And we are watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered all day every day, 24-7, spread the word. All right, folks, I'm here at Houston, and there's a launch of a tech platform that the goal is due to help more African-Americans, be able to get government contracts. We talk about this a whole lot on the show.

Billions of dollars spent every single year on city, a school district, county, state, federal contracts. Last year, President Joe Biden, some $10 billion in federal contracts went to African-Americans. That was 2 percent, not a great number, but it also was a record. number here in Texas, the Texas Hub program was... Hey, I'm Ruby Carr, the host of the podcast, OnCore. Check out our brand new episodes featuring music from the show that everyone is reheating as we speak. Heated rivalry.

Join me as I go behind the songs that brought Shane and Elia together. I'll tell you the stories of Fice, My Moon, My Man, Wolf Parades, I'll Believe in Anything, and tattoos all the things she said, and how they all became a part of this global phenomenon. stream on core on iHeartRadio, Crave, or wherever you get your podcasts. Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Maybe I have adult ADHD. I need to look this up.

Where's my phone? Juliana, your phone is hot to the touch. I think it's asking you for a break. You know what? Maybe I should just ask chat GPT. Or maybe we can ask an actual human. Yes, like a couple sex therapist. Whoa, that escalated quickly, but okay.

Because I have questions. We have questions. And I bet everyone has questions. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that. How about this one? Is bribing your kids bad parenting or just negotiating? Oh, and I still do need to know why was my poop green that one time?

Hypothetically, right? Okay, well, instead of letting the internet guess, we've got actual people answering these exact questions. And laughing with us has got to be better than spending three hours down a rabbit hole online. Listen to Bill and Juliana. The podcast. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you listen to your podcasts. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea.

Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier, and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem. If you come over here to play games, I'ma check you. Okay?

If you do some in the news that don't sound good, I'm going to play you. Join Yomeneika Saunders as she breaks down the week's most problematic stories on our new podcast. You're the problem with Yomeneyka. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was?

New episodes weekly every Wednesday is part of my new network, the Dear Chelsea Network. If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men. Do better or do less, so I don't have to do so much. So join Yamanika each episode as she answers one question. Who's the problem? I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to you're the problem with Yamanika starting on July 15th on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you get.

get your podcast. A decade ago, the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the king of corn in Brazil. So we met with a lot of larger farmers, went from Bahia to Tokatines to Montegrozzo. And he brought a team of executives. They were going to help the country get in on a gold rush. Carbon and its derivatives are going to be really the next great commodity that the globe's going to trade. But back home in Iowa, trouble was brewing.

If you live in Iowa, your land, your water, and your land, your water, and your voice could all be at risk thanks to a man named Bruce Rastetter. Now people are questioning if his climate solutions have anything to do with climate at all. You gotta give Bruce and the guy's credit. They're Republican. They don't get a bit of money. It's now. On this season of drilled, Carbon Cowboys, the story of how the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the king of corn in Brazil and what it tells us about the limits of technology and markets to solve the climate crisis. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Disbanded by Republicans here, but this is still about it. When you look at the opportunities for African Americans to be able to build businesses, government has been the number one place for the past 40 years for black businesses. And so my next two guests, co-finding the company called First Bid, utilizing AI technology, to be able to sort of make it easier if folks be able to seek contracts and find them. Only, no, Lisa is joining us, Christy Parker, as well.

to have y'all here. So explain to us what exactly is first bid. Thank you so much, Roland. So first bid is a government intelligent platform that aggregates information from different federal sources, local, and county sources into one position for different. If you have a small business, if you're certified small business, womanal business, underutilized business, you go on there, you type your codes in, and then we created a platform where everything is, sink to one. So hold it right there. Hold on. There you go. Sorry. Where everything is synced to one space. So normally

where businesses would have to use a lot of resources, we're kind of condensing it to try to help small businesses get an upper hand and be equal with these big firms who do have big staff like five to 20 people. You can now do that with this one platform. We're trying to level the playing field.

All right. So is this for Texas? Is it national this platform? So we're here. in Texas, Houston, Texas to be exact. So that's where we started. And our feet are on the ground here. So that's where we want to keep it right now. But eventually, we're going to spread out all over the U.S. And so when you talk about, so, so you're going to be adding more data into it. So when someone is looking to apply for a contract, because listen, you can have a business

in Texas, but you can apply for in other jurisdictions. And so is this way to be, as opposed them trying to go to each one of these places, if they're in, if they're janitorial services, or if they're in some of the field, and they type it in, then what does it then pull up all their contracts in that particular area? So right now we're solely Houston. We want to make sure we take care of Houston first because that's where we're at. We're in the streets. We're on the ground so we know what's going on here. And then as we grow, we're going to move So when you say it's here, is it, so is it here, is it city, school district, and county, and state?

Yeah, so right now we have federal city, school district, tech stop, the jail system, actually all of the universities, so even, let's say you wanted to bid at something on A&M, you can throughout Texas, it is coming into for as far as universities. And so we really are, we're starting in Houston, but our next city, want to go to is Dallas and eventually go to every metropolitan area in Texas before we continue to go on nationally. So did y'all, and they also talk to business owners and they share the issues that they've had in trying to navigate? Because it is not an easy process. That's what we've been doing for the past year. And we've heard the small businesses, and they have a lot to say. With the over 30 sources they have to pull

these contracts from and scrowl and just have so many team members try to find these opportunities. It's hard, especially when you're just trying to work and make money. So we've spoken to all of them, and we hear what they're saying, and that's why we built first in. All right, so now, is it, is it a free app? Is it a cost per month, for a year? How does that work for businesses? Now we do have a free starter profile and that will give you like all of the federal we have our basic plan. And then for 299 we have our profile proposal generators a month.

So not only are we giving you the resources to find it, we're also giving you the resources to generate the proposal because that takes a lot of time and effort and resources. And we're really excited about that because usually small businesses are putting out maybe 10 bids a year, which is not a lot. not a lot. But with this, if you're getting 15 a month, imagine how much you can do. Last question. Does your app also assist with minority certification? Because that's also an arduous process for a lot of minority-owned businesses. Even though I hate it, like I've had people hit me up, they're like, well, you're a minority certified. I'm like, yo, I'm black. I say, I don't need to certify what the hell I am. Yes, I understand that. What we do,

So we do have a certification tracker. So all your certifications will let you know when it's due, if it's up for inspiring. So we also on our platform suggest what you should have. After pulling your data from your capability statement, your website, we'll go ahead and look and see what you should be having as a certification if you don't already have it. So that's where we're at right now with the site. All right. So folks want to access it.

Where do they go? Firstbitpro.com. So it's right down as web-based, but what do you have an app? It's web-based. Okay, all right. We appreciate it. Thank you very much, darling. All right, thanks a bunch.

Folks, I'm going to a break. I'll be right back. Roll the mark unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. All right, folks, let me tell you about chapter. Now, if you're in Medicare or about to be, the system is not set up to work for you. Too much fine print, too many plans and too many people are making money off of your confusion. And look, we're used to this. we're no strangers to systems that don't have our best interest at heart.

But we don't have to accept it when it comes to Medicare. That's why I'm telling you about chapter. Their advisors are independent and honest. In fact, they're the only Medicare advisors that compare every plan nationwide. And they're focused on one thing. What works for you? If there's a better plan out there, they'll find it. If you're already in the right one, they'll take it.

tell you that too. There are no games. Just last year, people who switched with Chapter saved an average of $1,100. It's 20 minutes and a real person. It's completely free. My parents actually have already called. My mom sent me a text. Folks, give Chapter a call at 724-264-8-281, 724-264-8-1 and connect with someone you can trust. Folks, these are the kind of services that we need for our audience here at Roland Martin Unfiltered and the Black Star Network. So call chapter right now, 724-264-8-281. What's up, y'all? This is Wendell-Haskin, aka Win Hogan at the original Tee Golf Classic. And you know I watch Roland Unfiltered.

All right, folks, welcome back. So my next guest, she's actually been on our show before. So Kara Ross, she owns a construction company here in Houston. And so glad to see you here. And so one thing I was just talking to the two sisters who was starting first bid. A lot of people really, really don't get how arduous the bidding process is and trying to figure it out. You have a construction company. You started with your dad.

Just explain to people how it ain't the easiest thing in the world when you're trying to, when you're a small business, and you're trying to bid on city and county and university and all these contracts out here. So, yeah. You're absolutely right. It's not an easy task. And for me, when I started out, a lot of my contracts were coming from, like, relationships that I had built. And so I got a little spoiled that I wasn't having to go through the actual business. Oh, you were getting the hook up?

However, I wouldn't even call it the hookup. Right, but just folks you do. I got connected, and I did some amazing work. I take pride in my work. And so that's how it works. You know, you've got a lot of contractors out here. And it's a tough game. And everybody doesn't, they don't operate with integrity.

And you have to take into consideration just getting projects done on time. And there's a lot that goes into it. So when a client finds someone who does a great job and takes pride in the work they do, they're going to come back. And so it just happened that, you know, I was able to get referred and consistently got referred. But the tables turn. they do turn and sometimes it's being an entrepreneur you hit a down spot.

Yeah, but also when you want to build capacity I mean you want to be able to build and grow. Absolutely. So then I did, things slowed up eventually and I had to jump out there and really start that bidding process. And I think I try to not look at myself so much as a small business anymore because sometimes if you think that way, you

operate that way. Well, I understand the federal designation for small business is 499 employees or less. Well, I'm still small business. So good. So, No, you don't have to knock it again. That's literally how they classify a small business.

Yeah, but I understand. Speaking to the bidding process because it can be so intimidating. And, you know, general contractors, you have, you have bonding that you have to consider. And it's like, well, what's your bonding capacity? And a lot of companies are like, well, we can't get bonded. Well, you got bonding capacity. One of the other things that jumps out that is real,

is also the fact that when you're dealing with governmental entities, you have to float your business. a lot of them are playing, paying net 180. And so you're talking about, you're going to carry your business for half a year before you get paid. And that's always another issue,

which is why, you know, one thing that Maynard Jackson did in Atlanta, what he did was he said to banks, if we're going to put our money into these banks, and what you need to be doing is providing lines of credit for these folks who, you know, get city contracts. Absolutely. I've been doing a lot of work recently.

I don't know if you've seen, but I'm doing a lot of work with Preview A&M. And so now I'm going on my family. I'll follow you on Instagram. I've been seeing your work. And I chuckled today because I've tried to get lines of credit with Chase, which I've had since I started my business. And they're not really that interesting. Construction's high risk. They're not that interesting.

But as of the last six months, my business is doing better. And every time I go, hi, do you have a personal maker? Every time I'm making a positive, they're approaching me. And because I know it's still a process, but it is funny because now I got their attention, and they're like, oh, they're like, oh, they're out. Well, the reason, the reason I'm laughing, I remember when I wanted a business credit card through Chase and had about a quarter of a million dollars in the bank, and we got denied. And I went, okay, took all my money, personal and business, moved it out of chase. And I was like, that's how y'all want to roll. That's not a problem.

Because my whole deal is people have to understand when you're in business, a banking relationship is critically important. And many black banks found it out during COVID. So what happened during COVID was they had personal accounts or business accounts. They didn't have a banking relationship, so when it came to time to apply for PPP loans, they were like, okay, we'll get to y'all, and we get to y'all, and that was a problem there. It's absolutely about relationships, and I went through a program here in Houston, and after I went through that program, I decided I was going to start making more relationships with smaller banks, but building those relationships with someone there so that when the time comes,

it's an easier transition than going to a chase for a Bank of America. Absolutely. Well, it's Karen, good to see you, and I'm glad to hear that business is doing well, because we had you on, what, two, three years ago? Viewers, I've received some customers from being on your show. A lot of people reached out to me, and I appreciate your support. I truly do. Cool, sounds good.

All right, I appreciate it. Folks, that is it for us. It actually is it for us. I talked to the Attorney General of Virginia, Jay Jones. We were in Richmond, Virginia for the Commonwealth Gaila, and we talked about how he's helping lead the fight against Adon Trump. Here's our conversation. John does right now is the Attorney General of Virginia.

Jay Jones, how you doing? I'm well. How are you, sir? I'm all good, good seeing you. Good to be back. Absolutely. Welcome back to Virginia. I appreciate it.

Frequent flyer. Yeah, I got a few miles on the airlines. I got to see. To Virginia, because you've been here for us a whole bunch and we're grateful. Well, I'm actually live in. Hey, I'm Ruby Carr, the host of the podcast, Encore. Check out our brand new episodes featuring music from the show that everyone is reheating as we speak. Heated rivalry.

Join me as I go behind the songs that brought Shane and Elia together. I'll tell you the stories of Fice, My Moon, My Man, Wolf Forades, I'll Believe in Anything, and tattoos all the things she said, and how they all became a part of this global phenomenon. Stream encore on iHeartRadio, Crave, or wherever you get your podcasts. Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Maybe I have adult ADHD. I need to look this up.

Where's my phone? Juliana, your phone is hot to the touch. I think it's asking you for a break. You know what? Maybe I should just ask chat GPT. Or maybe we can ask an actual human. Yes, like a couple sex therapist. Whoa, that escalated quickly, but okay.

Because I have questions. We have questions. And I bet everyone has questions. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that. How about this one? Is bribing your kids bad parenting or just negotiating? Oh, and I still do need to know why was my poop green that one time?

Hypothetically, right? Okay, well, instead of letting the internet guess, we've got actual people answering these exact questions. And laughing with us has got to be better than spending three hours down a rabbit hole online. Listen to Bill and Juliana. The podcast. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you listen to your podcasts. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea.

Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier, and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem. If you come over here to play games, I'ma check you, okay? If you do some in the news that don't sound good, I'm going to play you.

Join Yomeneika Saunders as she breaks down the week's most problematic stories on our new podcast. You're The Problem with Yomeneka. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was? New episodes weekly every Wednesday as part of my new network, the Dear Chelsea Network. If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men.

Do better or do less, so I don't have to do so much. So join Yamanika each episode as she answers one question. Who's the problem? I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to you're the problem with Yamanika starting on July 15th on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. A decade ago, the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the king of corn in Brazil. So we met with a lot of larger farmers, went from Bahia to Tokatines to Madagroso.

And he brought a team of executives. They were going to help the country get in on a gold rush. Carbon and its derivatives are going to be really the next great commodity that the globe's going to trade. But back home in Iowa, trouble was brewing. If you live in Iowa, your land, your water, and your voice, should all be at risk, thanks to a man named Bruce Rastetter. Now, people are questioning if his climate solutions have anything to do with climate at all. You got to give Bruce and the guy's credit.

They're Republican. They don't get a bit of money. On this season of drilled, Carbon Cowboys, the story of how the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the king of corn in Brazil and what it tells us about the limits of technology and markets to solve the climate crisis. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you can. get your podcasts. There you go. So I'm still registered to vote in Texas.

Okay, that's why I thought you were in Texas. Yeah, I'm still registered to vote there. That's my homestead. I live here. So, but yeah, I got my, if I had to add it up, I think I got 3.1 million miles on three airlines. So I got a few. I got a few.

I got a few. It's been what? Six months since you being aging? Just about. How has it gone so far? You know what? We hit the ground running. First Black Attorney General in the 407-year history of Virginia, and we've been delivering on the promises that we made to folks during the campaign last year. We've sued Donald Trump over 50 times to protect against federal overreach.

We've kept our community safe, and we're attacking this cost crisis. People, myself included, are struggling because this administration refuses to do something to get it under control, and instead they're trying to levy tariffs that are illegal, that are driving costs up, and we're fighting back on that. And, you know, I think the people of Virginia are very pleased to have Democratic leadership at the top because we're delivering. We've got a budget that's coming that's going to work for every single Virginia. And we're really, really proud of the work that we've done. And we got those folks out of office who were really just doing everything that Donald Trump is trying to tell them to do. No more. We respond to the people.

And now you had to sit back when it came to the redistricting election. What's the path forward? We're going to have a really successful year in 2026 in Virginia and across this country. We have talented candidates. And people are fed up. I get to move around this Commonwealth. It's one of the great benefits of my job. And from corner to corner, it doesn't matter if it's a blue part of the state or red part of the state. People want relief. They want help. And they want candidates who are going to speak to the challenges they're facing. And right now the Democrats are doing that. Republicans are too scared. They're too afraid of Donald Trump to do anything beyond what he says.

And that's going to be to their electoral detriment. We're going to win seats in Virginia. We're going to win seats across the country. And Akeem Jeffries is going to be the next speaker of the House of Representatives in January. 2027. One of the things that I keep saying is, so what happens is when you look at these national shows, when you look at the networks and they're sitting on, oh, Democrats are polling at 28%. What I keep telling people is that's what people are saying in terms of their perception of Washington, D.C. Yet when you go to various states, when you see wins in this state, when you see wins winning mayoral seats in Florida, they had not had in 30, 40 years, winning special elections. I keep saying

November is going to be about outside of the state races. Is that a presidential year? Congressional seats are local elections. State rep, state Senate, local elections. And so I said, folks, people are thinking differently and those

candidates are going to be running candidate and district specific messages and not solely what's coming out of Washington, D.C. Well, a good candidate listens to the people that they're trying to get votes from. And if you are listening, and it doesn't matter if you're in Virginia, you're in Texas, you're in Florida, you're in North Carolina. People are hurting right now. They are struggling because of the policies that the Trump administration continues to push.

And the folks in Congress who have ours next to their names are rubber stamps for that. You see Republican incumbents who are running away or trying to run away from the president to their detriment because then he turns on them too. And when you have a candidate who's going to be responsive, who's going to listen, that resonates with folks. And right now, everybody is getting crushed, right? I have two little boys, my older son just turned four, my younger son will be two next month. Our grocery bill is off the charts. If you compare it to what it was a year ago, what it was two years ago, it is absolutely off the charts.

And I know that I'm not alone. There are millions of people like me just across the country. I thought there's going to be the golden economy. Hey, the proof is in the pudding. If you look at your bills, people have to make an awful choice between putting food on the table and paying rent, paying their light bill and paying their car insurance. That's not where we should be, but that's what the Trump economy has done. and in Virginia we have been fighting against that.

The electoral results will demonstrate that we've had some success there. And now once we're governing, we deliver because Democrats are the party of results. We're the party of solutions. And in Trump's economy, they don't have a solution except to go down with the ship. One of the things that I spoke earlier today to a group of pastors. And I said to them at a town hall, it was in Triangle, Virginia. I'm sorry my in-laws live. Okay.

Was it Mount Zion? Oh, yeah. And what I said to them is we need to understand that this administration in D.C. and on the state level, there's an absolute, in today's Republican Party, an anti-black agenda. And there's no other place than what we're seeing from in the area of civil rights and law. They want to destroy that civil rights infrastructure. and you've got an extreme court that's standing with them. And I really need, so as somebody who's the Attorney General, explain the people why this is so huge

when they have this extreme court making these decisions that could very well lock these rulings in place for 30, 40, 50, 100 years. Well, you know, when I think about it, the work that we've done since January, we've sued the president a lot, but we've had victories, myself, and our Democratic coalition, we've beaten the president on several occasions, in particular when it comes to tariffs.

And so I know that this is a moment when people feel dejected, they feel disheartened, they feel broken down. And I would just say, look, to the black community, right, think about where we've come from. We had our ancestors brave the middle passage, slavery, Jim Crow, black code, segregation, and they never gave up. And they never lost sight of that ultimate goal, which was full equality and power. And we've gotten there. And it feels like you're rolling a rock up a hill and it falls back down on you. But where we are now is light years ahead of where we were and it's on us, right, at this moment, to step up and fight back. And that's why I think the courts are such a powerful mechanism to do that.

We're going to have more black people elected to office at every level come, you know, November, which I think is powerful. You think about the Black Caucus here in Virginia in the legislature, 36 members, the first Black Attorney General, you know, the leadership in the General, you know, the leadership in the General Assembly are black people. Virginia sets the model for how things should be. can go. And so in my office, we have fully stepped up our office of civil rights so that we can protect people here in Virginia. When the federal government doesn't want to do their job, I will happily step in and protect my citizens, and people across the country are looking to their attorneys general to lead in that same way. And I can say that the Democrats have delivered on that, too. Well, that's one of the reasons why I've explained to a lot of people why we

cannot ignore these statewide races in down ballot, because you might have this chaotic, insane federal department of justice, but when you have, frankly, black Democrats who are attorney, who's attorneys general, now of a sudden that changes the game. And so just like we, people didn't understand the power of a secretary of state until Bush v. Gore in 2000.

Folks were like, oh, Secretary of State, I don't know what they do. They're a secretary. They learn in Bush v. Gore why, who the Secretary of State matters. These statewide races are really important, and it could be a secretary of state, it could be attorney general, it can be your treasurer, it can be your chief. Whatever you call these offices, everything has a role and a purpose to play in the era of Donald Trump when they are taking, you know, massive steps to expand their power through the presidency, and we have to fight back back back. Right now, it's on states to step up and to fight and protect and defend, and we're doing that. And that's why I'm so optimistic about our ability to take back seats in Congress so that we can have the, the other branch be a check on the president because right now attorneys general we have been the ones

holding the line to keep democracy from breaking right we are in a very deep bend the founders designed the system to ebb and flow and to withstand but we've never been closer to the brink and it's attorneys general who have done that job and I'm proud to stand with my other 23 Democratic colleagues to do that and we need to get Congress back so we can get some help all right then turn general jones i appreciate it thank you very much sir thanks a much all right all right folks that is it for us I'm going to step over and say a few words here at this event here. Y'all know we are huge supporters of black businesses. So anytime we can uplift black businesses, we will do so, which reminds me.

Please support the black businesses that we elevate on this show through our shop, blackstar network.com website. We have more than 50 businesses on our marketplace segment. So if you actually go to shop, blackstar network.com, you will see all those products. If you look in our studio, all of the products you see there are black-owned companies, amazing companies with great products. And you've got backpacks and cross-bripped puzzles and you've got candles and you've got a car-wrat solution. I mean, you've got all types of products.

And so we want you to support those companies by going to shop, Blackstar Network.com. Of course, when you support those black-owned businesses, you support this. Speaking of that, our goals get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each a year. That's $4.19. The month, 13 cents a day. It goes to support all of the shows here, this show, and the others here on the Black Star Network, allows us to be able to travel and do things like this and cover the stores all across the country. And so, if you want to contribute, the cash app, uses Stripe QR Code.

You see it right here on the screen. That's for credit cards as well. If you're listing, of course, go to blackstar network.com for ways you can see on the site for ways to give. Check some money order, make it payable to rollermarking unfiltered. PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 203-7196. PayPal's R Martin Unfiltered. Benmo, R.Miltered, Unfiltered, Zell,

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We have had a total of 49,498 donors. And so we certainly want to hit that number. Don't forget if you also want to get our roller mark on the foot to swag. Go to shop, blackstart network.com. Our hats and T-shirts and zip-ups, all that good stuff. We've got our America 250 shirts there as well, our June team shirts.

So please go to shop, blackstar network. dot com, shop blackstartnetwork.com to support that and also all about black owned products. Y'all, that is it for me. I'll be back in our studio on Monday. I was here in Houston this morning. We laid the rest of my dad's brother, my uncle Melvin, Melvin Martin, Melvin Leroy Martin, U.S. Army veteran. And so certainly that's why I'm here.

Then, of course, for this event as well. And so it's been time with family. I hope y'all have a fabulous weekend. We'll see y'all on Monday right here, Rolla Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Power! Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause?

Where's my phone? Julianna, maybe we can ask an actual human. Yes, because I have questions. And I bet you do too. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that. And I still need to know why my poop's been green. We've got actual people answering these exact.

Act questions. Listen to Bill and Juliana. The podcast. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. I'm Stephanie Young. The hit podcast Love Trapped is back, with new updates in the case of Laura Owens. This is CR 2025 State versus Laura Owens. I think she really believes that she still hasn't out. I'm quite confident that they're up to something. We're following the case live as the criminal charges finally come to a conclusion. Trust us when we tell you as the victims of Laura Owens, she will not stop. Listen to Love Trapped. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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