#RolandMartinUnfiltered - RMU Exclusive: Fmr. TSU Pres. Talks Financial Crisis, Rep. Crockett Blasts "Oppressed" MAGAs

Episode Date: November 21, 2024

11.20.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered Exclusive: Fmr. TSU Pres. Talks Financial Crisis, Rep. Crockett Blasts "Oppressed" MAGAs Tennessee State University's financial crisis is being blamed on former president Dr. Glenda Glover.  In an RMU exclusive, Dr. Glover will tell her side of the story and explain why the school is drowning in debt.  In our Crockett Chronicles, Congresswomen Jasmine Crockett and Summer Lee unleashed on MAGA Republicans, targeting legislation that would close all federal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion offices.  Members of the House Ethics Committee deadlocked on whether to publicly release a report detailing their investigation into former Representative Matt Gaetz. A Louisiana appeals court will allow the state's ten commandment law to proceed.  And a national monument for Tulsa, Oklahoma's Greenwood district, is getting closer to reality.  #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (link) and Risks (link) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms 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.

This is an iHeart Podcast. to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.

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It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Folks, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches. I'm real revolutionary right now. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories

are told. I thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't

be Black-owned media and be scape. You can't be black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Hey, folks, today is Wednesday, November 20th, 2024, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. I'm live here in Atlanta. Republicans in Tennessee are going after Tennessee State University about their finances.

You have folks who are blaming former President Dr. Glenda Glover. Well, she joins us right here to share her perspective about what's happening at that HBCU in Nashville. Oh, man, Congress got a little heat today. Congresswoman Summer Lee and Jasmine Crockett went off on MAGA Republicans over the issue of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We have all of it for you. Also, members of the House Ethics Committee, they don't want to release a report on Matt Gaetz.

Hmm, interesting. You got allegations of him sleeping with two underage girls. That's called a statutory rape. But Republicans don't want to release the report. I wonder why. Also, Louisiana appeals court will allow the state's Ten Commandments law to proceed, meaning the Ten Commandments will be displayed in all of the classrooms and also a national monument for Tulsa's Black Wall Street gets closer to reality. Folks, let's talk about that and more right here.

It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Mark-Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got the best belief he's knowing. Whatever it is, he's got the super fact to find. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine And when it blips, he's right on time And it's rolling, best belief he's knowing

Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling, yeah It's Uncle Roro, y'all Yeah, yeah It's rolling, Martin, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Rolling with Rollin' now. Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best.

You know he's Rollin' Martin now. Yeah, yeah. Rollin' with Rollin' now. Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Rollin' Martin now. Yeah, yeah. Rollin' with Rollin' now. Yeah, yeah. Republicans in Tennessee have been highly critical of the finances of Tennessee State University,

the state's only public HBCU. The state has given the university some $43 million for operations this year in order to make payroll and prop up the university. Now, 114 people have been laid off at the institution. Remember, they also replaced the board of trustees last year. We were there in Nashville discussing that. The interim president, Dr. Ronald Johnson, he says the fault lies with former president Dr. Glenda Glover. He says that repeated poor decisions and the lack of checks and balances are why the university is financially strapped. Well, Dr. Glenda Glover

reached out to us and she said, I would love to come on the show to discuss this. And so she joins us right now on Roland Martin on the filter. Dr. Glover, glad to have you here. So first of all, let's walk through. You retired as president from the university. I've had some alumni, folks have been on my social media saying, oh, why is she taking $800,000 as a consultant for the university? First, can you explain that?

Thank you, and good evening, and thank you for having me on the show tonight. Yes, I can explain that. I mean, just this whole notion of $800,000 is so ridiculous. I have a retirement agreement. It's my buyout agreement. It represents the value of the remainder of the years from my contract. I was in year one of a five-year contract. And so I was asked to identify donors, to continue to work with the university and raising money. As you know, we built an endowment from $46 million to over $100 million. We're the envy of many HBCUs with our endowment.

But set that aside. When the legislators carefully constructed an arrangement with me, when legislators, some met with me in person, and some sent others to meet with me to speed up the retirement process. In fact, to ask me to retire. So I said I would do it on my own terms at my own time. And so I did honor their request and retire.

But now you don't get to come to me now and say, want your retirement agreement now to be voided. That's just not a fair process because it happens in academia all the time. When a president leaves early, they get an exit package. They get a retirement package. They get a buyout package. It's not only just in academia. It's in other areas.

Coaches and others get buyout packages. And so there's no difference from that. So there's no $800,000 arrangement I have to consult with TSU. It's just ridiculous. All right. So you have a buyout and that is being paid to you over what period of time? It was set up to be over a four-year period. The different arrangements being made before the period. And are you required to do additional things as a result of that buyout? I am. Now I suggested the four-year period so that it wouldn't be such a strain on the university's treasury. And so, for that, I would continue

to identify new donors, continue to build the endowment, to bring them, I'm going to the East Coast after Thanksgiving to meet with some individuals about some money for TSU. And so it's those kinds of things that, you know, that's how my skill set is. And they did not want that to go to waste upon my retirement. In fact, that was suggested to me by one of the legislators. And so that's why it was such a shock when they were acting like they didn't know anything about it,

because they were the very ones who came to me and said, you know, you've been here a long time. You should consider retirement. And they suggested some things to put into the retirement package. So this hypocrisy is just unreal. Okay. So let's talk about where the university is right now. You have your interim president who's saying all of these financial issues with Tennessee State are your fault and your previous administration and the previous board. You have state legislators who are also blaming you. You've got columnists with the National Tennessean who are saying this is, you know, one of them even said that that by you being on the of a for-profit prison is also part of this problem. And so let's talk about this here. Where the university is right now, what is the reason for the university's financial problems in your estimation? Well, let me start by saying this.

The state will not get the chance. They don't have the chance to cause a problem and then criticize us for having to go through the problem. So again, it's almost like a friend who you've loaned money to and that person comes by, owes you money and that person comes back and makes fun of you because you're broke. So they can't cause a problem, and then come back and criticize us because we're in a problem that they created. I haven't said that. They say, yes, they owe us money.

Yes, there's a $2.1 billion underfunding letter that's been written to the governor. But let's put that aside. There's a $544 million underfunded amount that the state has admitted that that's the amount that THS has been underfunded by. That's not a number that's made up. That came from their internal processes, their own analytics, their own budget analysts

who put that number together and said, here's what we have, $544 million. When you compare it to the other land grant institution, the equitable funding model that they developed shows that we owe Tennessee State University $544 million, and that's the underfunding amount. But having said that, I'm not even going to discuss that as that, because that's not what's in our budget. What's in our budget is how we operate from semester to semester is through students paying their tuition and fees. That's where it comes from.

Students pay tuition and fees. That's probably 75% of our budget. I think another 23% comes from the state. But you can see our bread and butter. Recruiting students, students paying their money, they come to school and they go to TSU. But there are two things that I want to bring out. How do we get

here? Number one, everybody's talking about reserves and everybody's talking about that. When you talk about a school, only at the capitol have they found something called reserves they want to talk about. What's really, when you want to make a decision to go a school, only at the capitol have they found something called reserves they want to talk about. What's really, when you want to make a decision to go to school, it's about what programs you have, what's your endowment. And by the way, TSU has a health endowment of over

$100 million in endowment. We have one of a handful of schools. So no school is broke to have an endowment of over $100 million. We do have a cash flow problem that has to be addressed. I have to say that. But here's what has happened. Number one, how do we start? The Tennessee Higher Education Commission, THEC, has a process whereby they

have schools to give students, to put scholarships on a student's account. The HOPE scholarships, the lottery scholarships that are state-funded, not the ones that the schools offer. These are ones that are offered by the state. And there are a lot of students from a lot of the universities getting these scholarships. Well, rather than all of those students going to the Higher Education Commission, THAC, asking them for the scholarship money in that process. It's worked out so that

each school will advance the money to the students. Again, totally separate from the $2.1 billion, totally separate from the $544 million. They would advance this money to the students, TSU did, from our operating funds. And then THAC, Tennessee Higher Education Commission, would then reimburse TSU at some point. Well, afterAC, Tennessee Higher Education Commission, will then reimburse TSU at some point. Well, after we had done this reimbursement and waiting for us to get our, after we'd done this advancement, waiting for our reimbursement, they informed us they're not going to reimburse us. We said, what do you mean? This came from our operations. And they said, well, we're not going to reimburse you because you got some audit findings from THAC. We want

you to get those clear first. Now, there was almost an not going to reimburse you because you got some audit findings from TSAC. We want you to get those cleared first. Now, there was almost an impossibility to get those cleared first because we had students who needed transcripts. They had not been, the final transcript was not there. There were a lot of things that couldn't be done overnight. So we thought that was very, very critical. So we just sent them letters, literally begging them to pay us the money. That's number one. Another thing that happened, that went through our operating account.

The state forced TSU to hire a company, JLL. They're a good company. I even know one of the guys that's a tip top and they're a good company. However, it was being done much less, much less funds in-house, but they forced them to come in to do our facilities and maintenance because they had put $250,000 away. But the catch is, it couldn't come out of $250,000 they gave us.

It had to, it was a million, I'm sorry, $250,000. It couldn't come out of that. It had to come out of our operations. So that's a out of our operations. So that's a tune of $1.2 million per month that they forced us to pay. I mean, I hope you're listening. I hope the audience hears that. $1.2 million per month.

And what is so startling about this is that they were not allowed to have an RFP process. There was no bid process. There was no, we couldn't do due diligence on it. You take it or leave it. Those were the words given to us on the phone. And I was not the only one on the phone that day. But either you take JLL or we don't have a deal. And so we took them to manage the property and do things at TSU. That's a big price tag, $1.2 million a month. And so that helped, that hurt last year, last semester. Now this semester is a different story. This semester, we don't have funds because the students are not there. We don't have funds this fall semester. It has nothing to do with our reserves, but that's for emergencies. We wanted those funds to help some operations, yes. But this fall, we're down

by 1,900 students. Now, that equates to almost about $20 million. You can't operate a school asking the state to bail you out because we don't have the students paying their fees. We don't have students here to pay. I don't understand why

they won't put that narrative out front and say enrollment is down. Therefore, enrollment, the revenue is down. So I'm reading this article here, and it said that in fiscal 2023, the university logged $45.9 million in institutional aid, which includes tuition discounts, a massive increase from $8.6 million a year before other students found themselves without a scholarship once federal funds ran out. Then this is from higheredive.com. It said enrollment faltered because of broken promises. First year student enrollment at around 3,500 in fiscal year 2022, roughly halved the next year and hit 880 students by 2024. So what was happening?

So what was going on there with these tuition discounts? So what is the reason to go from, how do you go from 3,500 first-year students in 2022 to 880 in 2024? How does that happen? Okay, let's go back. The allegation is that we use the one-time fund. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week,

I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action, and that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest

stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything

that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Add free at lava for good. Plus on Apple podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the war on drugs. But sir, we are back in a big way, in a very big way,

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to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

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It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

A wrap-away, you've got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. I think that's what I heard you say. Those were COVID dollars. When they had, you know, when COVID was there, we had the, they had the HEERF dollars and sometimes referred to, it's the federal

stimulus package that was given to HBCU, but to all universities, and there's a special package for HBCUs. That was in 2020. It's something in 2021. Those students have already graduated. We couldn't have made a promise to a student from the COVID funds from four years ago in 2020 when COVID was there. It was March of 2020. By the time they got their registration together, we had students.

And we didn't give scholarships out of that fund. That money was used to pay off student balances. They could come back to school. And to help them through the COVID factors, like parents losing their jobs, students losing their jobs, companies shutting down that had promised students money for a school. Students not having connectivity. You know, all the COVID woes. That's what that funding was for.

So that was four years ago. So that couldn't have been what they were talking about. But I think what they may be talking about, because I've listened to it too, is that in 2022, we had a huge influx of students. Because we were coming back from COVID. Parents were calling us saying, listen, they've been here for all this time, a year. We need you all to do something to help us. And so, and it wasn't just Tennessee State. It was around the country. When students were going back to school in large numbers.

But TSU was chosen for a lot of reasons. One, we have good programs. They know they get a quality education. That's the number one reason you go to HBCU is to get a quality education. Everything else is graven. When the students watched, they saw a lot of things happening. Kamala Harris,

the Vice President of the United States, came for our speaker. Our band was nominated for two Grammys. They had not received them then. They since received the Grammys. They had a performance at the White House, the Rose Bowl parade. A had not received them then. They since received the Grammys. They had performance at the White House, on the Rose Bowl parade. So a lot of things would happen. TSU was on a national stage. And we were all

having fun with it, just having a good time with it. And we didn't have this crisis because as soon as we came to TSU, yes, we had a housing problem because there was not enough housing on campus anyway. And then there were students who couldn't afford to live in Nashville off campus because the housing prices are cost prohibitive.

So they asked to come back on campus, too. So just like other schools in the United States, HBCUs and non-HBCUs, we housed in hotels. Yes, that was expensive. And that did take up some of the money that we had. But we got funding from those students, money from those students that came into TSU. That's not coming in now. So whatever the reason was, 2022 is gone now because that's the time they said you don't have enough students before that. So when these students came, then they got on to having too many students.

Remember when the legislature got on TV and said you have too many students. Why are all these students coming to TSU? You're doing them a disservice for having so many students. So it wants to cut the number of students down to make housing the number one factor. So the next year, we said, okay, let's keep the temperature down. We'll have 8,000 students. We had 8,200 last fall.

We're at 8,197. So in this fall, it dropped to about 6,300 students. So that's not even typical of a TSU first-year class of 800 students. There's no, what promise was made to these 800 students? Nobody promised them any scholarships

because there was no scholarship funding to promise them. So for them to say that these students couldn't return or they couldn't come this first year because they had a scholarship promise that didn't happen, they were in high school at the time. And there was no promise made to these 800 students. So I don't know where that came from. There is a sensation in saying that something was not, that was promised and not given. That's just simply not true.

And there may be some things that slip through the cracks. So you're saying that the main issue here is that by having that drastic of a drop of first-year students, and what people have to understand is that HBCUs largely depend upon the financial aid of students. So by having that drop, that's $20 million not coming into the university. Therefore, you're going to have a shortfall. I know earlier you also said, let's set aside what they owe, but isn't that part of the problem? If the state owes Tennessee State more than $500 million, and again, the $500 million the state owes them is separate from that $2.1 billion

that the federal government say they've been underfunded. So really, Tennessee State is owed about $2.6 billion. Yes, precisely. That is correct. The point I was making is they've always owed us money, and we've managed by semester to semester with the students that come in and register. You have to understand the bread and butter of the higher education is students coming in, paying their tuition and fees, and the students and the of the higher education is students coming in, paying their tuition fees,

and the students operating, the universe operating from that. Now, aside from that, the university, the university is expecting to receive the funds that's been owed by the state, especially the first 544 million that their own budget analyst said was old, and it was reviewed by his superiors that it's old. So that's expected. They did put $250 million up front, but then they tied a hand so it couldn't be used. They put $250 million providing the government's budget, but then there was so much red tape, there were so many agencies that signed off on it, and so many things to be done and approvals that we haven't

used, but maybe it's just a miniscule part of it. And so, in essence, they owe us still the $544 million. And honestly, part of that was supposed to be a part of the second allotment that we were supposed to get. It was supposed to be used for some of the operations. And we were going to use

some of that for scholarships. But that didn't happen. They were nicked on their promise. So we got the $250,000 and we were supposed to get more. After we got the $250,000 and showed how we were going to use that, and we did. And then when it came time for another allotment of that

$544 million, it just didn't happen. And so yes, we depended on that, but we absolutely depended on the money from the state. The 23% they give us, we need that. But what I'm saying is we need the $5.4 million also. And what we don't need them to do is play down the fact that enrollment is down. Enrollment being down by 1,900 students, that's, I mean, $20 million just for one semester alone.

That is significant for operations of the university. With payroll being $8 million a month or $8.5 million a month. I heard a number that was maybe twice that, but I can't speak to that because I know what it was when I was there in June.

It was $8.5 million a month was payroll. And so just that 20 million was almost a whole semester's payroll. What I'm saying is they can't, the state can't get away with bad mouth and tissue to the point that students are deciding to go other places. Students, we know why students didn't come back the fall. We know why it's down. There's some, it's on Tennessee State's part, too, because our biggest months are June, July, and August. There's been more we could have done or should have done to get the students, get more students in.

But be that as it may, what the state did is unconscionable. They created an environment that was so bad that students didn't want to come to TSU. I know because I'm in the street with them, on the ground with them. I'm in Memphis recruiting and Nashville recruiting, up in East Tennessee recruiting. And students are saying, we don't think, they were afraid that we were going to lose our HBCU brand because of all the chaos. We said, we're going to put you in the community college system. Parents will listen to that.

Parents, I feel more phone calls from that very moment of saying, why don't we put TSU in the community college system? They thought they would just become a community college. They thought somebody was going to take us over. There was too much uncertainty among so many students that really contributed to our enrollment decline. Now, the state won't admit that because in their minds, that's not the problem. But they're not talking to students. We're talking to students.

We're getting answers from students. Students are telling us what is going on in their minds, in their families, in their churches. And they're saying stay away from Tennessee State until they get it together. They're about to have a state takeover. Those are the things that parents are saying as to why they're sending students to other places. Well, what do you make of the state controller, Jason Munpower, trying to get Tennessee State

to sell its Avon Williams campus downtown Nashville. He's saying it could net the university some $40 to $50 million. Some are saying, oh, this is these Republicans trying to get their hands on valuable HBCU land. I just shook my head. I have to let him work it out with the current president. You know, I just won't give my opinion. They just have to work through that one themselves. Do you do you accept do you accept any blame for what's going on here? Was there anything that could have been done differently, that should have been done differently? You said that y'all could have done a better job when it came to recruiting students.

Is there anything that should have been done differently under your watch the last three to four years at Tennessee State? Well, we were fine the three to four years. We've been fine for the last, I was there for 11 and a half years. And initially I could do no wrong. They labeled all degrees. They talked about me. They loved Glenda Glover. It wasn't until Glenda Glover challenged that system of discrimination

against Tennessee State University. That's where it all started. When I looked them dead in the eye and said, when you say challenge the system, do you mean saying, send us that $500 million? Yes. At that time, we didn't know how much it was.

But we know it was something. We had done some preliminary numbers ourselves. And we had come up with different sets of numbers. But it was enough to present to them, to go get legislators together, one or two legislators together. And I won't call their names tonight, and go with me to the governor to meet with

the then governor, who was really surprised. And I believe he was honest when he said he was surprised. He didn't know that we were not being funded. We were not being matched our funding. That was the first thing we had to do was bring to their attention. Presidents have to be courageous enough to tell

the truth. You know, because there's so much that they're saying that's just so not true because the truth doesn't care whose mouth it comes out of. So I was, I said, somebody, there'll be some casualties. Some presidents will be casualties. I'm one, but I don't take that back. You know, they're saying to me, you know, sometimes at some point we just got to stop blaming the state. I said, what do you mean? The state has blamed itself. They did the study. I didn't. They said, we owe you $544 million. The state is the one that said, go into your reserve funds and operate for a moment because we're not going to pay you the money we owe you. It's a state that said, pay this firm $1.2 million per month. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small

ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms,

the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back.

In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means

to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Not per year, per month to run this $250 million that we're giving you. And you have a choice in it.

You either do it or you're not getting any more money to do another project we had. So there was that kind of cruelty and this kind of hypocrisy that has to be addressed. And so now that I'm not president, I can address it. You know, I got my First Amendment rights back. And so that's where we are with this. Last question for you. Is it insulting to hear the interim president and others say that you mismatch resources when you are a certified

public accountant? They are laying it out as if you had no clue how to manage money. You know, I know the interim president. I've known him for a number of years. He and I have been friends. I spoke at his inauguration when he became president of Clark Atlanta. So I won't say anything ugly about the interim president. I know him. I know his wife.

And so, yes, it's hurtful because it's like growing up in a poor home like I did, when you watch your mother and father take what little money they had and pay all the bills that were on the table. That's what we had to do because the state has ignored TSU. They pretend like they want what's best for TSU, but yet right now they do so many distractions. This is just a distraction from the money. They don't care about this agreement I have, my retirement agreement. they don't care about the fact that there are no students there right now

they in fact i think they like that because now it's like we're so dependent on you to give us the money they said we're going to advance you 43 million dollars what are you talking about advance you owe us money if you're going to do anything taking out the funds you owe us somebody has to tell the truth you know and so when they that, that's the part that is so unfortunate that they will not speak the truth. They rather create distractions and talk about other things rather than say, we did not fund TSU properly. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to remove this restriction of this $250 million. It's already in the budget. It's already there. Already bowed on're going to do. We're going to remove this restriction of this $250 million. It's already in the budget. It's already there. Already bowed on

and ready to go. We're going to remove that infrastructure restriction and let you use the money for operations rather than say, we're going to do this, you cut this, and then one lawmaker said, an officer said, we're going to tear it down to the court and build it back up again. What do you

mean you're going to tear TSU down and build it back up? That was an outrageous statement. I mean, it makes your blood crawl to hear somebody say that. Somebody has a BS degree who knows nothing about higher education, advanced education. That was so insulting to me.

That was insulting. Talking about me doesn't really matter that much because I trust God. I know he'll take care of all this. I trust God. I know that when I went to them and told them, you have to pay us the money you owe us. It's like the story of Jesus. And I'm not comparing myself to Jesus in any way. But as long as he went about saying, I'm the son of God, I came to save the world,

oh, they said, he's crazy, let him go. But the moment he challenged that Roman establishment, they said, uh-uh, he has to go. And that's the situation I find myself in. It was fine until we told them, you owe us money and you have to pay us the money you owe us. You have to pay up. And that's when everybody started coming after them to Glover.

But I'm used to a fight. I was born to fight. I grew up in a civil rights home. I watched my dad fight in the civil rights movement. And so I was born to fight. I grew up in a civil rights home. I watched my dad fight in the civil rights movement. And so I was born to fight like this. It was fight for my university that I'm passionate about, that I love for the students. I fight for the students all day, every day. And so that's why I say I'm happy to be a part of the TSU family.

I'm happy to be a TSU alum so that I can join in that fight to get them minded that they owe TSU to get rid of this doggone distraction that they're talking about just so they can keep TSU and have a way to say that they're not doing this. No, we don't have funds this semester, but it's not because of what I did. It's what the students didn't come back. We could have done a little bit better with June, July, and August. That's our biggest months to follow up with the students, to do more follow-up with them, to say to them, you know, we're not here. We know you haven't registered. You haven't returned

to school. But don't put down scholarships. They didn't get their scholarship. That was four years ago. And even this first year, 800 students, that's nothing to do with scholarships. That's just to say that we have 800 students because they were promised scholarships. How many were promised scholarships? Who?

Give me their names so we can look it up and see. That's just simply not true. That's a red herring. That's a distraction. And that's what this General Assembly is doing where the key leaders, key folk of Tarka, they come up with distractions. And they love having me as a distraction. But I can clear up my distractions because I've got an agreement. I have an agreement that says you have four years left on your contract.

So if you want me out of there, they would give me suggestions on how to do it. That's what's so hypocritical about it. But that's okay. I'm just happy to be here so we can talk through it. And you can see that. And by the way, we did leave. There was no, all the money was not spent.

They said, somebody said all the money was spent. There was close to $9 or $10 million left in the reserve fund. And that I'm sure about. And so that's what I'm saying. There are so many mistruths and non-truths that come out, but that's how it is when they're fighting a battle and trying to win a case that is just, well, there is no case. So before we hang up,

let me say hello to my good friend and the best attorney I've ever come in contact with. Hey, Scott Bolden. I'm happy always to share a show with him, a moment with him, because he is by far the best that you can encounter, that one could encounter. Oh, Lord. I don't even know if our television is wide enough to fit his head into the screen now.

Dr. Glover, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you so much. Goodbye. All right. Going to go to a break, folks. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you so much. Goodbye. All right. Going to go to a break, folks. We'll be right back with our panel, including

the totally gas up Scott Bolden. You're watching Rolling Mark on the Filter right here on the Blackstar Network. Hi. I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. Fanbase is a free-to-download, free-to-use, next-generation social media platform that allows anyone to have followers and subscribers on the same page.

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slash fanbase and invest. The minimum to invest is $399. That gets you 60 shares of stock in Fanbase right now, today. And then use Fanbase to connect with friends, grow your audience, and be you without limits.

Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday

on Black Star Network, A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. Now that Roland Martin is willing to give me the blueprint. Hey, Saras. I need to go to Tyler Perry and get another blueprint because I need some green money. The only way I can do what I'm doing, I need to make some money. So you'll see me working with Roland. Matter of fact, it's the Roland Martin and Sherlock Holmes show. Well, should it be the Sherlock Holmes show and the Roland Martin show? Well, whatever show it's going to be, it's the Roland Martin and Cheryl Lundgren Show. Well, should it be the Cheryl Lundgren Show and the Roland

Martin Show? Well, whatever show it's going to Let's get it going with our panel. All right, joining, welcome back. Roland Martin on the filter. Let's get it going with our panel. All right. Joining us right now, Kevin Reynolds, contributor with The Root, former speechwriter to Vice President. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters,

and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing.

So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple

Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I'm from New Haven, Connecticut, Daniel Blackman, former Biden appointee,

founder of Renaissance 94 out of Atlanta, and also A. Scott Bolden. He is, of course, attorney, former head of the National Bar Association PAC, and, of course, as Dr. Glover said, attorney for Dr. Glover. So let me just go ahead. I'll start with you, Scott. You misquoted her. She said outstanding. Say it again. She said outstanding attorney, one of the best that's ever done it.

Just don't misquote her, okay? Are you still a client? Are you done? Yeah, I'm done. All right, let's get right to it. Here's a thing that is, I've seen this in so many other places.

I've seen these people, Republicans, and also some Democrats, complain about HBCUs, complain about all sorts of things. The state owes them $2.6 billion! Yeah. Yeah. So you want

to come to me or you, whoever you're going to, but I will tell you. I said, Scott, I look, I'll go to Devin first. No, no, listen, this is pure politics. Republican legislature, you see what they did over the last three or four years with their black state legislators. That didn't work. But, you know, TSU is a land grant university and college, which means there are the federal government gives them money. And every other land grant institution like UDC and a couple of black colleges in Maryland. In fact, there's been ongoing litigation. They may have settled it now.

There was ongoing litigation for this very issue of how the federal government and state governments historically have underfunded these land-grant institutions and then complained that they're mismanaged or they're underfunded or they've got accounting issues or there's scrutiny on what they've done with their money. You can't have that discussion if you owe that institution money and you don't disagree that you owe them $500 million, $600 million, and you don't disagree that the Fed's assessment is $2.1 billion, but you just say we're not going to pay you and then we're going to criticize you in the interim.

It is the height of hypocrisy and the depth of arrogance. And so Dr. Glover just laid it out. The other thing she did not say is, you know, she's got certified signed executed contracts. There are two contracts, right? They paid her on part of her first contract, which was the buyout. The Board of Trustees approved this. The General Counsel approved this. Their general counsel approved this. And these are representatives, some were representatives of the Republican

administration and the governor's office who makes appointments to that board. They paid part of it already. So they can't get out of the first contract. And the second contract is a four-year contract where she's actually performing. She's working. It's not like a buyout. She's a special advisor to the president. Everybody signed off on it. So her job is to raise money and to be an ambassador for the TSU, which she's been doing. They've paid her three or four months on that contract.

She's not an admiral employee. She's a contract employee unless they want to breach the contract because right now they're currently in breach of the contract i sent them a letter yesterday demanding or reminding them they're in breach of the contract and to cure it because their financial woes is in one bucket but my clients got a con two contracts in the other that they've been performing on so it's hard to get around it and for public officials officials to say, terminate that contract, well, if it goes to litigation, they're going to be the first witnesses that get called in discovery

because they're trying to interfere with that contract simply because they want to scapegoat it. Not going to happen under our collective watch. And thank you for covering this so long with her this afternoon. See, Gavin, this afternoon, rather. See, Gavin, this is the thing that I need a lot of our people to understand. They got to understand the games that are being played here. So you withhold money from Tennessee State. You send money to University of Tennessee.

You fund their operations. When they have a housing issue, you help them acquire hotels. And so then you say, well, y'all having problems over here. Why isn't it the governor and the Republicans in legislature, how is it that they easily found money to build a new stadium for the Tennessee Titans in Nashville, but they can't find the money for Tennessee State? Well, see, episodes like these just remind us of the prioritization or the deprioritization that states have on Black progress.

And we've seen this throughout history, obviously. This is not happening in a vacuum, either in this moment in time, just at TSU. It's happening at other universities. We talked about how public land-grant HBCUs have been underfunded $2 billion over the past 30 years. But it's also been happening over time. And it's not just in terms of universities, right? States have looked for so many ways. And it's the present-day Republican supermajorities who have always been the ones to do whatever they can to stifle Black progress. We saw this during Reconstruction, when Black folks were making tremendous progress towards self-governing. Those in power at the time who opposed Reconstruction then tried to claim that Black people were incapable of governing themselves, which led to the violent

overthrow of Reconstruction. And we saw that happen in a modern-day context with TSU earlier this year, when Governor Lee signed the bill that the state legislature, the General Assembly, passed to dissolve the whole board. Again, another example in our nation's history playing out right now on the campus of TSU, war being waged by the state against Black progress, again, to show that, as they say, Black people are not capable of governing themselves. And again, this is happening across the country, not just in higher education, but in so many other capacities. And we should prepare, by the way, over the next four

years for more of this, not just with MAGA Republicans at the state level, but also Donald Trump at the federal level. We see in the cabinet nominees that he's putting in place right now a complete antagonization of the Black community, whether it's going to be whoever ends up leading the DOJ or any other cabinet department, which over the past four years has actually been committed to equity and diversity and supporting Black progress. We're going to see a lot of that progress be erased over the next four years, not just in Tennessee, but across the country. I just sit here and, you know, I've covered these issues so often, Daniel. I've covered them.

Out of 107 HBCUs, I've been to 60 of them. I have sat down and I have had conversations with presidents, with board of trustees, with alumni, and on and on and on. And I don't care. And it is a fact. It is a fact. And I have talked to enough people who are graduates of Tennessee State, people in the state legislature. Republicans in Tennessee had no problem with what was happening at Tennessee State. Most of them have never even visited the campus until they asked for their money. Then all of a sudden, stuff changed.

I mean, look, you're singing to the choir, man. I mean, I'm an alum of Clark Atlanta University. My wife's an alum of Spelman College. We get it. We see the playbook. And you, Brother Martin, you're in Georgia. And when you think of what the University of Georgia and Fort Valley as a land-grant college went through this same scenario where when they did the audit, they found that the University of Georgia and Fort Valley as a land-grant college went through this same scenario where when they did the audit, they found that the University of Georgia as an agricultural university and Fort Valley, which is an HBCU and also a land-grant college, what they realized was that there was a disproportionate amount of funding coming into the state that was going to UGA versus Fort Valley.

And we saw that, right? And the same thing we're seeing, and I think we really need to just pay attention to what's happening, not only now, but this has been going on with HBCUs and the attack on our HBCUs, similar to our black farmers, has been going on for over a decade. We've seen this. And I think this is now the epitome of what they can do. As you mentioned earlier, I think now that the president has the House and the Senate, the courts in his first term, we're going to see a massive attack on HBCUs and funding that they're owed. And I think we need to be very serious and intentional about not only paying attention, but we can't wait till this gets to the next second, third, fourth or fifth HBCU. If we don't come together now, not just as an alum, but as a community behind what's happening at this institution, we're going to be in trouble. And it's not just going to be those types of schools. When it comes

into other areas, we can't cry foul then if we're not raising our voices now with what's going on at TCU, TSU. And here's the thing, Scott, This does not mean that we cannot have accountability with our institutions. I am not one who says that goes on them. I believe you got to have your T's crossed, your I's dotted. I believe you must be doing stuff the right way. I believe your paperwork must be right. I believe those things must be happening. I believe you must be looking at best practices.

You must be doing the best with what you got. But again, again, when I look at what, when I saw that hearing and these Republicans were like, I don't understand why are all these students going to Tennessee State and they're not going to our other schools because they don't want to go to your other schools. And this is the reality that people need to understand. Republicans in Tennessee do not want Tennessee State to look like the University of Tennessee. They want University of Tennessee to be the flagship of the university. They don't want that because now you truly do have options. The reality is one of the reasons that many black students who bypass HBCUs, it's a question of facilities.

You don't have the Wi-Fi. You don't have the dorms. You don't have the amenities. And if you have a university that's sitting here and they are owed $2.6 billion, can you imagine? This ain't hard at all. If they're saying TSU has a $43 million shortfall, if they gave TSU is $2.6 billion, that means that if TSU enrolled 800 new students every year for the next decade, then they could spend $500 million on a shortfall and still have $2.1 billion left over. What that means is that Tennessee State potentially could be investing that $2.6

billion and actually be reaping the benefits of that. And so people need to understand, there's accountability on the part of the university and administrators, absolutely. But we should never let these lawmakers off the hook that have cheated Tennessee State, Fort Valley State, Florida A&M, Texas Southern University, all of these public HBCUs out of federal taxpayer dollars that boosted predominantly white institutions. It's a simple calculation. It don't get any simpler than that. And, you know, you drop the mic on that and then you look at the Republican decision makers

and then you say, well, why won't you pay them? And whether they got excuses or not, it doesn't really matter, because if it was the white school in those states, they'd catch that money up in a heartbeat, because they never got behind, because it was all supposed to be equal distribution. But here's the other thing about money and accountability, Roland. I'm on the board of trustees for Morehouse, a chair of the governance committee, deal with these issues all the time, even as a private institution that gets federal help. The number one reason students cannot go to historical black colleges isn't just the facilities, but we don't have enough money to give them scholarships at a level high enough

that we can compete with white institutions of academic learning. They have more money and better facilities. So then you say accountability. Okay. But if I'm underfunded, right, there is a direct relationship between capabilities and competence and ability to be accountable and money. If I got the money, I can hire talented people and keep me accountable on the books and so forth and so on. If I can't afford to pay people, I'm paying them less. And those who are the ones who are more than the best, they're going to go somewhere else and get paid more money. So then I have to hire who I can hire, right? Well, they may not be the best at what they do, but they're committed to the HPC, you and the mission and what have you.

And so I don't put accountability and the money owed in separate buckets. It's one bucket. There's a direct relationship between it. And after the COVID money came to HPC use and made all of them debtfree, they were able to hire the best and the brightest. But in order to sustain that, if the state owes these A&Ms money, they've got to pay them. They've got to pay up at some point, or you're going to have a perpetual problem. You can't tear it down to the studs and build it back up without that money being owed, because where are you going to get it from? Where are you going to get it from? It's only going to come from the state, and you owe the money.

So you're going to have to pay up, period. Folks, I'm going to go to break. When we come back, we've got more to talk about right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered and the Black Star Network. Be sure to support the work that we do. If you want to give via Cash App, use this QR code and utilize Stripe to do so. Also, send your check and money order

to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. You can also give to us via PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RMUnfilteredZale. Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. Hatred on the streets.

A horrific scene. A white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence white people are losing their damn minds there's an angry pro-trump mob storm to the u.s capital we're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the rise of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys.

America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. What's up, y'all? Look, Fanbase is more than a platform.

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R.M. Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com Hello, we're the Critter Fixes. I'm Dr. Bernard. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith.

Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked

all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves.

We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson. And you're tuning in to... Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you. Thank you. folks some breaking news uh moments ago in north car, I told y'all how the Republicans in North Carolina do,

how they are always trash. They now, because the Democrats won the governor's race, lieutenant governor's race, secretary of state, attorney general, now these Republicans have passed laws stripping loads of power from the governor because they don't want Democrats having the control. Let's go right now. Let's go right now to give me one second. I'm going to go live to our guest. She's joining us right now.

Give me one second. I'm pulling the information up. Amber Baker, she's a North Carolina state representative. Amber, is Amber there? I'm here. Can you hear me? Okay, Amber, glad to have you here. I can hear you. Here's the deal. Because of what happened in the vote, y'all have been able to break the Republican supermajority. So they're trying to ram through these laws to strip all sorts of power from the Democrats

that were elected. Tell the people how dastardly the Republicans are, the work that they're doing there in North Carolina. Amber, we lost your sound. We're trying to get it back. So hold on one second. Do we have her now? Amber, just keep talking. Amber, can you...

All right, y'all. So y'all let me know when we have Amber. Yeah, now we got you, Amber. Now, are you there? Can you hear me? Yeah, we hear you, Amber. Go right ahead. Okay.

So we thought we were just coming in to deal with the governor's veto and perhaps the third round of hurricane relief, but that was not what we dealt with. First of all, they gave us a 118-page bill for the relief bill. Very few of the dollars were directed towards continued relief. Over $500 million was in there for vouchers. And then there was a whole plethora of bills stripping away the powers for the education department, judges being stripped away, powers being put under the newly elected Republican treasurer. It was just bananas. And I mean, the bill that did the most amount of damage was not even known to the people what the bill really was. So the bill came in as a dental

hygiene bill, but then it was turned into a conference report and a whole bunch of really crazy legislation was added and then sent over to the Senate. So the next step was for the Senate to approve that bill today. It will be going to the governor's office tomorrow. We expect that the governor will veto it. And we're scheduled to come back on December 2nd, which their goal probably will be to try to overturn that veto. What also is important to notice is that we, we have four Democrats that voted with them. And so even though we anticipate a one seat majority in the upcoming session, we've got to begin to neutralize those Democrats that will continue to vote

with the Republicans on some of this craziness. And again, the same thing happened in Wisconsin. Democrat was elected. Tony Evers, Republicans, took them to power. This is what they do. It's all about retribution. It's all about holding on to power.

And this is why I keep trying to explain to people why the Supreme Court races matter. At one point, the Democrats had a majority on the state Supreme Court, and then they could have had a six to one majority. Beasley lost. It was four to three. Then the court flipped. Now Republicans are five to two majority. Alison Riggs is holding on. You've got Anita Earls is going to be up in 2026. Three Republicans are on the ballot in 2028. And so folk have got to be focused in flipping this Supreme Court from Republican to Democrat that will also stop a lot of the things that Republicans are doing in North Carolina. And they can't be distracted just by what's happening at the federal level. You know, although what Trump

is anticipating on doing when he's sworn in in January very much mirrors what's happening at the states. And as you've said so many times and others as well, is that we have to be focused on our state races and what's happening in our state legislature, that we can be the gap stop between what Trump is proposing and what actually can happen in our respective states. So the fact that they now have—right now, they still have control of the Senate. We're waiting on a couple of races still to be called. We did break it in the House by one vote. But—and Alison Riggs is holding on to her seat by just slightly over 100 votes. They're still waiting for a couple of counties

to be counted. It is important for people to understand what's happening at the state level. Mo Green, who was the first African-American superintendent of schools, state superintendent of instruction. That's another reason why they are dismantling that. Another $500 million went yesterday to vouchers. If nothing else, they misunderstood the optics of that. We still have so many more issues, present issues that need to be addressed in Western North Carolina. And so the least of those was an additional 500 million to go to vouchers. Well, listen, y'all hands are full. Let me do this here. I know my pal may have some questions. Gavin, you got a question for the state rep? Yeah, Representative, thanks so much for joining us and for what you're doing on the ground in North Carolina.

I'm from Georgia myself, and I know the fight that we're up against in the South. So thank you for the fight that you're fighting for us. Can you talk a little bit more about the proposed changes to the appointments, the state elections board? I've read, and you kind of alluded to this a minute ago, that there are some proposed changes to put the power of who gets appointed to that board now with the state auditor, who will be a Republican, right, in the next session. So can you talk a little bit more about that provision, how it would work? Yeah. So, as some of your viewers may know, is that we had the first female, black female, that was appointed to that position, and we were hopeful that she would have been elected to that position, which would have given us the governor, the lieutenant governor, the secretary of state, and attorney general.

But so the way it worked out, it didn't. So now the way that the legislation is written is that all 100 counties in terms of who gets appointed will be now under the jurisdiction of the auditor. So he will control all 100 jurisdictions, voting jurisdictions for our state. Scott. Yeah, Representative, good evening. You know, the first question is always, is the legislation legal?

Is the legislature's kind of general counsel's office signing off on the constitutionality and the legality of this legislation? It just seems to be out of whack with the will of the people and those Democrats who are elected. And secondly, you know, the Republicans do retribution a lot better than Democrats do. I don't care what jurisdiction you're in. Are you all planning some retribution for these four Democrats who have lost their minds and voted with the Republicans? While we have not discussed that directly, I anticipate that that will be some of the discussion that we need to have for it to be addressed, because as you've heard me say on here before, we needed to flip more than one seat because, you know, we have consistently had three or more Democrats that have historically voted with the Republicans. So this was nothing

new, but we had hope that given the extreme nature of what they were trying to do, that they would have voted with their party and indeed with us as a caucus. In terms of the legality of it right now, they don't care. They have the Supreme Court. So they are prepared to take whatever actions they need to take all the way to the Supreme Court. And again, I will remind the viewers that the Supreme Court is held one of the son of the of the Speaker Pro Tem in the Senate. So the Speaker Pro Tem's son serves on the Supreme Court. And so he has refused to accuse himself on anything that is in conflict. And so that's what we're dealing with. We also know that two of the Superior Court judges' positions were in the process of being

decommissioned, for lack of a better word, and those positions, vacated, I'm sorry. And those positions will now also come under a Republican-led department. The two positions were one right here in Forsyth County, Superior Court Judge Todd Burke, because he had ruled against the maps and the gerrymandered maps. And another judge who I can't think of his name right now, but again, he also had ruled against the Republicans. And so when we talk about retribution and retaliatory actions, those two judges potentially could be without positions at the end of their terms. Real quick, one last quick question. That is, does the legislature, both houses, are they veto proof or can they override the

governor's veto in much of this legislation? Not at this point. We heard about one seat yesterday, but they did lose a couple of seats. And there are still a couple of races. There are toss-up races in the Senate. So right now, they do not have the veto-proof majority in the Senate. We are still awaiting some of the final results, final results on a couple of races over there. But right now we are holding it by one seat. Good luck. Thank you. Daniel, go ahead. Yeah, I think, you know, Representative Baker, my biggest question, Roland brought it up earlier, and that's these races in 2028.

And I think there needs to be a long-term strategy. Too often, we see Democratic spaces where we're planning for the next election, whereas they're planning a decade out. So could you talk just a little bit about what is your plan looking at, you know, focusing on the Supreme Court in 2028, looking at other seats that are coming up to start planning now for long-term transitional power that Democrats, quite frankly, haven't really yielded? So I'll be honest with you, it's both and and but, right? We need to focus on 2028, but we have the midterms started on November 6th. See, we run every two years in North Carolina, both in the House and in the Senate. So we can't bypass 2026 elections. We came very close to flipping a number of seats. And so we need to also focus on 2026 in terms of ensuring that we

hold on to and extend our veto-proof majority in the House and indeed work with the Senate to make sure that they get the veto-proof majority in the Senate. And that needs to occur in 2026. With that being said, you know, this was the first time that we implemented a 100-county strategy, and we were competing and contesting in districts that we are reaching out to those unaffiliated voters to make sure that we can engage them in a way that they now are a part of our Democratic caucus to begin to shore up these races. And here's the reality that you don't hear any of the mainstream media talking about, but indeed, as always, a conversation on Rolling Show, is that we can't overcome racism and the refusal of America to deal with the racism and the refusal, no matter how qualified a black candidate is, that it is difficult for us to overcome that. So the best way to do that is to extend our base and spend time with our young people. Find out what's

important to them. What does campaigning look like in this generation? It doesn't look like our campaigning. It doesn't look like our parents campaigning. So how do we engage and motivate these young voters? And I can tell you here in Winston-Salem, Winston-Salem State students were not playing. Day one, when students started to move in, they were out there registering voters, keeping students engaged. So people are paying attention. And as Democrats, we have got to be in tune to what our party currently looks like. And we need to deliver on the promises that are always made around election time, but never delivered on.

Representative, we appreciate it. Thank you so very much, Representative Baker. Look, y'all keep up the fight. Thank you, sir. Folks, when we come back, we got Lahita on Capitol Hill with the issue of DEI. Congresswomen Summer Lee and Jasmine Crockett, they were having none of it.

We're going to show y'all next on Rolling Mark on Filter on the Black Star Network. What's up, y'all? Look, Fanbase is more than a platform. It's a movement to empower creators, offering a unique opportunity for everyday people to invest in Black-owned tech, infrastructure, and help shape the future of social media. Investing in technology is essential for creating long-term wealth

and influence in the digital age. The Black community must not only consume tech, we must own it. Discover how equity crowdfunding can serve as a powerful tool for funding black businesses, allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital directly through their community, through the jobs ad. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly

violence white people are losing their damn lives there's an angry pro-trump mob storm to the u.s capital we're about to see the rise of what i call white minority resistance we have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this.

There's all the Proud Boys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin.

And I'm Stacey Banik-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing.

So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley, But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way.

In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This has kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus

King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care.

Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Hey, this is Motown recording artist Kim. You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Boy, he always unfiltered, though. I ain't never known him to be filtered. Is there another way to experience Roland Martin than to be unfiltered?

Of course he's unfiltered. Would you expect anything less? Watch what happens next. Oh, man, things got heated on Capitol Hill. Y'all, they were dealing with the issue of DEI. And let me tell you something. Two of the black women on this panel were not having any of it. First up here is Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett of Texas. Bring in the funk.

So many of you know that I practice law, but some of you don't realize that I actually was a business major at a Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. And the emphasis that I got in my business degree was on finance. And as I traveled the country campaigning this election cycle, one of the things that I talked about was this idea that in finance, we always promote this idea of diversity. If you know anything about a portfolio,

the one thing that you want to do is make sure that it's as diverse as possible because at times certain stocks will perform better than others and they will exemplify various strengths and weaknesses and together a diverse portfolio is usually what any good finance person would promote. They wouldn't promote that you solely invest in vanilla wafers believing that that is going to be the strongest portfolio but instead they may want to add some chocolate cake and some twinkies into the mix to make sure that we have the best portfolio because there will be different preferences by different people and again there will be different strengths but as I sit here and I think about what we say and what I'm

hearing as it relates to diversity when it comes to anything outside of making money. And to be clear, we are losing GDP every time we try to push back on this idea of diversity because all of us bring something different to the table. But you consistently said over and over the word oppression. And every time that you said it, it was almost as if I was hearing nails on a chalkboard because it seems like you don't understand the definition of oppression, and I'd ask you to just refer to Google to help you out. Oppression is the prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control. That is the definition of oppression.

And so as I sit here as a black woman who practiced civil rights, let me tell you the reason that my colleagues wanted to make sure you understood the same black history that your side of the aisle wants to delete out of classrooms is because you can then misuse words like oppression. There has been no oppression for the white man in this country. You tell me which white men were dragged out of their homes. You tell me which one of them got dragged all the way across an ocean and told that you are going to go at work. We are going to steal your wives. We are going to rape your wives. That didn't happen. That is oppression. We didn't ask to be here we're not the same migrants that y'all constantly come up against we didn't run away from home we were stolen so yeah we are going to sit here and be offended when you want to sit here and act like

and and and don't let it escape you that it is white men on this side of the aisle telling us people of color on this side of the aisle that that y'all are the ones being oppressed that y'all are the ones that are being harmed that's not the definition of oppression you tell me the prolonged cruel or unjust treatment that you've had and we can have a conversation. You can start with Exodus. The final thing that I will say on this particular issue, two things. There is an article from The Guardian, and it is a little old. It's from 2021, so I apologize. But it said that back then, just three years ago, white men represent 30% of the population, but 62% of office holders.

These are the issues that we are constantly looking at and recognizing and trying to say, is this just? I can't even tell you how many white men have served in this chamber, but I can tell you that I am only the 55th black woman to be elected to Congress. And so when you want to talk about history and pretend as if it was so long ago, it wasn't. Because again, I am just number 55. Finally, when we started to talk about what do these numbers do as we're trying to say the diversity, equity, and inclusion is the problem, the reality is that when it comes to financial performance, companies with more diverse workforces are more likely to outperform their competitors. Companies in the top quartile for racial diversity are 35% more likely to outperform their peers on profitability.

Companies with diverse executive teams are 25% more likely to generate greater profits. Diverse companies earn 2.5 times higher cash flow per employee. Diversity works. And until you can show me data that says otherwise, I think that we need to go back to being a country that listens to experts and gets out of our feelings and recognizes, again, that racism is real in this country. And until we stop pretending that it's not, we will not solve the problems that we are consistently facing.

And that will bring real unity that we seek when we're looking for a more perfect union. Congresswoman Summer Lee, she said, I want some of that. I'm not in favor of the dismantled Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Act, or what it may be, what more aptly be called, the dismantling any semblance of support or opportunity for certain American acts. We know who those Americans are, Americans who have not enjoyed centuries of unfair advantages by keeping others enslaved or segregated or disenfranchised or incarcerated or redlined or gerrymandered or excluded by law,

Americans who've lived with disabilities or had their relationships criminalized or their gender expression demonized. If we're being honest here, this bill, which will wipe out every diversity, equity, and inclusion program in our federal agencies, plus those who contract with us, plus those who receive grant money, plus our schools. It's nothing new. This is just the final piece of a decades-long obsession with targeting and dismantling anything that might give marginalized people a fair shot, including DEI programs, which honestly started the second the Civil Rights Act passed.

Policies like affirmative action and diversity, equity, inclusion are the closest things we've had to the mythical bootstraps that some of my colleagues insist historically and currently harmed communities need to pick themselves up by. After centuries of efforts to keep us out of schools and universities, from jobs and elected office, Republicans targeting these policies are no accident. Why do predominantly conservative white men believe that the success of a black person or the opportunity or access of a black person is an existential threat to them? DEI has not given any unfair advantage that society itself

does not already confer on certain Americans. It merely exists to ensure that all other people, that women, minoritized folks, queer folks, disabled folks, have the same opportunities to succeed and thrive in our workforce and our schools as people who have not had those opportunities systematically and legally stripped from them do. Is our country not greater when all of us have opportunities to succeed and contribute and survive? Our success and our survival as a nation is bound together. Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs only exist to band-aid over decades, hell, centuries of discrimination against people's skin color, their religion, disabilities,

gender, or sexual orientations, you name it. Contrary to Republican conjecture, remedying past discrimination is not, in turn, a discrimination. And we're not going to sit here and pretend racism is over just because one black person on the Supreme Court agreed that it should be. What DEI does not do is give some kind of magical pass to better jobs, like some of our colleagues are implying. That middle word equity does not mean more than or better than. It means treating people fairly and impartially. It means working to fix generational and systemic discrimination to the betterment of all of us and all of our institutions. But instead, Republicans are trying to bastardize the term DEI to be a slur.

When Justice Kedanji Brown Jackson was up for confirmation and when Vice President Harris was added to the ticket, they called them DEI hires. They want you to believe that a Harvard graduate with over 20 years of experience who happens to be a black woman is not qualified, but a Fox News personality is qualified to run the Department of Defense and the WWE executive is qualified to run the Department of Education. Let's be real.

There is an attempt to create a direct correlation between our race, being a black person, and our qualifications. So much to say that there is no way to create a direct correlation between our race, being a black person, and our qualifications. So much to say that there is no way to be a black woman. There is no resume that a black person could have that would qualify them unless that black person is a Republican. And there is a quota there. And while all of this has happened at the top level of our government, I can promise you these same things are happening on every single level of government and private sector. But those people don't have a national platform to speak out against discriminatory treatment where is a federal worker supposed to turn when another co-worker says a racist comment

to them in the break room where is the same-sex couple who has denied housing supposed to because of their relationship excuse me supposed to turn where is a pregnant woman who was fired for being pregnant supposed to go? Often the only place that they have to give them recourse are the diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. These folks just want to do their jobs, serving the American people in an environment that feels safe and supports them. Making work a better, safer environment for some does not mean it automatically is worse for others. And those complaining about DEI training are probably the ones who need it the most. My Republican colleagues have got to stop punching down on already marginalized communities and face their own fears of a level playing field privately.

It's shameful. I yield back. See, that's what I'm talking about, Daniel. Why you got to have black representation in the room. Let me tell you something, man. I wish them sisters had a campaign donation button up when they were speaking. We have to stand up when we see people not just speaking truth to power, but, you know, we cannot continue to allow the types of things that are happening to continue without being vocal. And I think one thing about this group, this this platform I'm sharing with you all and with our other speakers is we're seeing this happening in real time. And there was a time in my generation, I'm 45.

There was a time in my generation that a lot of us were like, we don't see how they could have did this in 1968, or they wouldn't have hit me like this when I was crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. This is our 1968. This is our time to not just sit in the corner idly by. We have too many brilliant minds coming out of Howard and Clark, Atlanta, Morehouse, Spelman, Florida A&M. We can no longer stand idly by while they are under the threat that they're just going to happen. So I actually am not only proud of what those sisters said, I'm not only proud of how they stood there, but I hope they inspired people around them to do the same. Because as you heard the second sister, Ms. Summer Lee, when she mentioned about the qualifications,

we're acting as if we haven't been disrespected in the sense of being overqualified. Heck, Michelle Obama was the most decorated, educated, degree-having first lady in the history of our country. Yet and still, there were questions about her qualifications as a first lady. So when we see these things happening to Vice President Harris or to our sister that sits on the Supreme Court, Justice Brown, we have to step up and stop allowing them to dumb it down and accept it as if it's normal. Kevin. Yeah, look, Roland, I mean, the past few weeks have been really hard for a lot of Democrats, including myself. But, you know, hearing these clips, I feel a lot of hope about the future of

our party because of young leaders like Congresswoman Lee and Congresswoman Crockett. And if I could speak just about Jasmine Crockett for a minute, no one says it quite like she does. I think she's one of the most effective communicators and messengers that we have in the entire Democratic Party. I'm really excited that all people got to know her and got to see her and hear her during this campaign cycle at the DNC, where I was on the speechwriting team, as you know, Roland, and on this very show. I remember, Roland, on the first day of early voting in Texas, you did an interview with her. And so platforms like these, so important, right, for making sure the American people, including those in our community, know about those leaders who are in these spaces and in these rooms speaking up about the issues that matter most to our community. I think it's also important to underscore that, you know, Congresswomen Lee, Crockett,

and, you know, all those who are in our Congressional Black Caucus, they're not just speaking up about these issues. They're speaking up about the issues that matter most to the American people, whether it's the cost of food, the cost of housing, health care access, reproductive freedom. They're on the front lines for so many of these issues that directly impact our communities. And of course, the EI and the attacks that we're seeing are included in that. But our leaders are on the front lines, making sure that our country moves forward on so many issues. And I think with these clips, we're reminded of just how fortunate our community is and, in fact, the American people are to have representatives, true representatives like Jasmine Crockett and Summer Lee, who are standing up for our community and for the people and against these attacks that MAGA Republicans, again, it's their side that's bringing these attacks that are talking about DEI and all of this, they're the ones who are bringing these attacks. And there are going to be a lot of them over the next four years. But I'm so grateful and I'm excited that we have representatives like Summer Lee and Jasmine Crockett.

And I know Jasmine Crockett ran for DPCC chair earlier this week. That's the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. She didn't win. But I'm really excited to see how she and Congresswoman Lee continue to lead and to rise within this party. You know, Scott, there are a lot of people, obviously, who are frustrated. They're sad. They are angry. They are people talking about giving up, all sorts of stuff like that. And I've had people, I've had people tell me, I mean, I don't understand how you just moved on. I said, well, first of all, I didn't just move on. I said, I said, I know what happened. I said, but what I also realize is there.

A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in

business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened

when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of

Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet. MMA fighter. Liz

Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov.

Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Here's a tomorrow. And you're looking at two individuals. Republicans right now control the House. They're going to control the Senate. They're going to control the White House after January 20th. And I just got to remind people that there were days when Oscar DePriest, when Ralph Metcalf, when John Conyers, when you had black folks who were in Congress, and they had Adam Clayton Powell, and they were dealing with just straight-up,

hardcore, violent racists. And they went to work every day. They went to work every day in the face of Jim Crow segregation. And I think what this generation has to understand is it's now your time. And you can either give up, be despondent, be sad, go into a state of depression, or you can fight.

And for me, I'm not going to do that bullshit Joe and Mika did. Go to Mar-a-Lago and let's do a reset. Hell no. My studio is two blocks from the White House. My studio is two blocks from the White House. My studio is two blocks from the White House. I have absolutely no intention, no intention

on going to the White House for the next four years after January 20th. I'm not going to normalize this administration. I'm not going to sit here and play footsie with this administration. But I need folk to understand that, damn it, there is still a fight to be had because there is still a tomorrow that we must focus on. And that's what these two sisters are doing.

Yeah, yeah. You know, Roland, I talk to juries for a living at least three or four times a year. And so when I hear the sisters talk, I'm listening not just for cadence, but substance, eloquence, articulation and discipline and no emotion. Right. And what bothers me most about those two presentations aren't the presentations, but how eloquently they laid out the hypocrisy. And what bothers me is that the hypocrisy that is so clear in the both sides of this issue, why it's not resonating with the majority of Americans. Why don't they get it? Or if they get it, they just ignore it. And I'm not talking about just Republicans. I'm talking about independents and Democrats as well. Why 50 percent of America voted for Donald Trump and are endorsing these appointments

that are nothing less than embarrassing. You know, I think you're right about, you know, I think about the brothers and sisters, our parents, our grandparents who fought in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, right? What character or manner of men they were to fight against outright segregation and racial oppression and the night riders. You know, I think about your parents, who not only were on the picket line, but were registered people to vote for the last 30, 40, 50 years. Or my dad, and Reverend Singleton, and Joliet Illinois, who were foot

soldiers for Martin Luther King, and in the face, desegregating education institutions, hospitals, and the government. Let me tell you something. Those were the real freedom fighters. We seem like we don't want to fight that much or there's not that much to fight about. But my father on his deathbed said,

we've seen Trump before. We've seen him worse. He talked about Governor Wallace and Bull Conner in Philadelphia. He said, you know, y'all crazy about Trump. But let me tell you something. We've been fighting this same stuff for the last 30, 40, 50 years, or 200 years, if you will. So to the young people and to my generation, load up. We got to ride out. You may not like the fight. You may think that we've gotten past that. But as Professor Glaude says, America's got to face the racism and sexism, misogyny and xenophobia that it is. Not who it wants it to be, not who America wants to be,

but who it is. Because this last election showed us who America still is as we try to form this more perfect union. There's a ton of more work to do. And we can't do it by ourselves. So you're right. You can be depressed for a day or two, but in the end, you've got to get up and get back in the fight because the fight is real. You're not going away, and it's not going to change. We're not going to win unless it's up to us,

unless we do it. So we all have that responsibility. Yep. Absolutely. All right, folks, hold tight one second. Going to break. We come back. We will talk about Black Wall Street becoming a, moving closer to getting a national monument. And also,

why are Republicans so scared to release the House ethics report on Matt Gaetz? Lord, what's wrong with y'all? Maybe y'all don't want anybody to know what's in it. Oh, I can't wait my pound to talk about that. Folks, you're watching

Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Blackstone Network live from Atlanta. Support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans on average contributing 50 bucks each a year. That's $4.19 a month, $0 bucks each a year. That's $4 and 19 cents a month, 13 cents a day. There are numerous ways in which you can support our work.

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Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores nationwide. Get the audio version on Audible. I'll be right back. Hi, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. Fanbase is a free-to-download, free-to-use, next-generation social media platform that allows anyone to have followers and subscribers on the same page. Fanbase was built through investment dollars from equity crowdfunding from the JOBS Act. People just like you help build Fanbase.

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invest. The minimum to invest is $399. That gets you 60 shares of stock in Fanbase right now, today. And then use Fanbase to connect with friends, grow your audience, and be you without limits. Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders?

Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Blackstar Network for Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday on Blackstar Network, A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. Carl Payne pretending to be right back. Folks, the Republican-led House Ethics Committee deadlocked on releasing the report on former

Congressman Matt Gaetz. Donald Trump, of course, has nominated him to be the Attorney General. Republicans don't want that report released. Speaker Mike Johnson says absolutely not. But you have folks like Senator John Cornyn, who is on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who says absolutely they must have access to it. Now, normally when you're vetting somebody to be attorney general, the FBI actually does the investigation. Donald Trump doesn't want that. What is it, Scott? They clearly don't want folks to know. Of course, Matt Gaetz has been accused of actually statutory rape, of having sex with underage girls.

That's not having sex. That's called statutory. That's called rape. They have payments. They have records showing that he made, you he made $10,000 Venmo payments. Of course, the guy who he was accused of doing stuff with, he pled guilty. And so it's all kind of—and then you have Republican members of Congress who said that Matt Gaetz has actually—has history of going on the floor and showing folks photos and videos of his sexual conquest. This is from Republican members of the House.

But they don't want the public to know, but they want this man to be the nation's highest law enforcement official. Come on. You know what? Rape and sexual abuse and sexual assault has never been a disqualifier for the Republicans. Just come on. If you've got the power and you think you've got the vote, come on. Come on, come on. You know, Donald Trump supported the Republican Senate candidate. When was it? About 10 years ago when Trump, between 2016 and 2020, Roy Moore down in Texas, I'm sorry, down in Alabama,

and he was a certified serial dater and dater of young women who were underage and having sex with them, certified. And Donald Trump himself has been found liable for sexual abuse. And so Matt Gaetz, you know, they're trafficking this sexual abuse, and it is not a disqualifier. And yet the majority of white women vote for Trump, vote for these candidates. It is the height of hypocrisy.

Because, you know, if they were black and Democrat, there would be outrage about the sexual abuse, whether it's civil or criminal or what have you. So he's a disruptor. And Roland, as I said, I don't mind disruptors, quite frankly, because disruptors can get stuff done.

But you have to be qualified, right? Because if you don't know what you don't know, then people have agendas and they come and advise you. You can't sort through what's real and what isn't real and the political dynamics. And that means they can hold you and capture you. And so that's the real issue experience. But character and personality should matter. And it doesn't with Donald Trump. And he won. So there are consequences for these races.

I don't think Gates gets... They're going to leak that report, probably. And the media, by the way, is lasting. The lawyers for these two women, who are underage, they have sworn statements that they saw Gates at a pool having sex with a 17-year-old,

and they got sworn statements on it. So they can not put that report out. That report's coming out, though. You watch. It's coming out. And it's going to get ugly and make it very hard for Republicans to defend it. Yeah. Gavin, here's the crazy

thing. Their attitude is like, okay, we don't care. They're making excuses. Mike Johnson, Mr. Purity, okay? Mr. Super Duper Christian. I mean, these people bow down at the feet of Donald Trump. Again, this is a cult, okay? They are an absolute cult because whatever this man wants, sure, here you go.

Here you go. Okay, morals, ethics, values, principles, integrity. We don't care. Whatever you want. And you got Republicans in the Senate. You got Tommy Tuberville, the dumbest United States Senator out of Alabama, like, I'm going to go after any Republican who opposes Matt Gaetz. Man, go sit your dumb ass down. Devin, go ahead.

Yeah, no, this is a certified cult. And here's the thing with Donald Trump, right? The only qualifications about which he cares are, are you going to be loyal to me? That is the full stop, the single only qualification that he cares about. And the reporting that I read in terms of how Matt Gaetz ended up being nominated for this position, he wasn't even being vetted by his transition team. Donald Trump was on Trump Force One the morning that he announced this pick and had a phone call with Matt Gaetz. And Matt Gaetz told him, you know, all these other people you're considering, you know, they're probably talking about their fancy legal doctrines and theories, but I'm going to come in and cut heads for you at DOJ.

That's all it took for Donald Trump to be like, that's my guy. And he did not. Look, anyone who's heard the name Matt Gaetz over the past few years, the only thing they associate with Matt Gaetz is pedophile. At least at least that's the case for me. And I know that's the case for all the Republicans he serves with in the House and who serve across from him in the Senate. Absolutely, American people deserve to know the truth about Matt Gaetz. And that's why this ethics committee has got to release their report. But whether or not they do, the Constitution says that the Senate must give the president their advice and consent for cabinet nominees.

It doesn't say that somehow a president who wins the popular vote is entitled to have anyone they want in the cabinet. And that's what concerns me. The rhetoric right now seems to be that, oh, Donald Trump's victory gave him some mandate, which, by the way, is not true, because he's now dropped below 50 percent of the vote. But they're saying that because he won the popular vote that senators need to get in line. That is not true. No president is entitled to strong-arm their way to a confirmed cabinet. And my fear, above all, is that whether it's Matt Gaetz or someone else, whoever is going to get confirmed here is going to be the one who's going to carry out what Donald Trump has said he's going to do, which is to weaponize the Department of Justice and go after his political opponents, whoever he

thinks they are, the people he's called the enemy from within. And look, the last thing I'll say is the job of the attorney general, and I'm a law student right now, so I've been learning all about this over the past few years, is one that requires you to have a profound dedication to the rule of law and to the Constitution. Why? Because the Attorney General has a great deal of power over things like national security, firearms, immigration, prisons, drug enforcement, and the decision of whether to bring investigations against high-level officials. And there's a reason why the DOJ has been independent from the president over the history of our country. It's a very serious job. And our leader, whoever leads the Department of Justice,

needs to treat it as such. And I don't have a vote, but I hope that those who do will vote on their conscience on whoever the nominee is after reviewing their record, after reviewing their record. They don't have a conscience. Daniel, somebody posted this tweet, pretty at least, it says, we spent four years hearing about every detail

of Hunter Biden's sex life, but we can't even see a report about a Republican who has been with underage girls? Really? Yeah, you know, here's the thing, man. What bothers me is I'm an actual presidential appointee. I did not go through a confirmation process, but I was appointed by President Biden

to head the Environmental Protection Agency as a regional administrator. My background check had to go through the FBI, the CIA. I had financial records. Same with mine. I had people interviewed. I had to go through a top-secret clearance process where if I had an outstanding debt, it had to be paid.

I had to sign a Biden ethics pledge before I could even get sworn in. I had to sign a pledge that I will follow an ethical mandate outside of the president of the United States and also fully align with the policies that were in place of said administration. So my concern is that we already know. we already know that there was a time where I would say there was a sense of hopeless optimism. But this confirmation process is not, is going to do, it's the best gift we could have gotten. Because what this is going to confirm to us is what we already know. These individuals, you know, I think we're past the level of conscious, past the level of, you know, qualification.

You know, we have raised a... A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. With guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone,

sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back.

In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man.

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves.

We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-up way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Generation that has normalized foolishness, normalized a lack of integrity, normalized disrespectful behavior, normalized abuse of women.

So I think that what this is going to do is it is the last layer of showing what can happen. And the biggest thing, and my dear brother just said it, look, the attorney general is not just, you know, in a position to work with the Justice Department or prosecute cases or oversee the rule of law, the prisons. And this gentleman has already praised practices in El Salvador where there is no reform, there is no correction, there is no restoration and reacclimation to society. So we need to be very clear that these positions that are being appointed go far beyond the titles. They go directly in to mass incarceration, how our communities are restored, and how black men will have a chance to transition and reactivate themselves in society.

And we need to pay attention. Let's talk about the Department of Justice. They're investigating, the DOJ is investigating the fatal shooting of Sonia Massey in Illinois. That took place, of course, in July. Sean Grayson, the deputy who shot and killed her, has been fired and has also been charged with murder. He has pled not guilty. The DOJ is demanding all records related to the shooting as it investigates how local authorities treat black residents and people with behavioral disabilities. Of course, a 36-year-old Massey was killed in July when deputies responded to a call about a possible prowler at her home when she was shot three times

by Grayson. Also, folks, let's just talk about this here. In Louisiana, the battle to require all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandment continues. The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, extremely conservative court of appeals, rejected a state request to temporarily stay an earlier order by U.S. District Judge John DeGravallis in Baton Rouge while litigation continues. Now, arguments will take place before the Fifth Circuit panel on January 23rd. A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit issued an order last Friday allowing the law requiring the displays to take effect in school districts without parents challenging the measure. Of course, in June, Governor Jeff Landry, MAGA governor, signed House Bill 71 into law requiring public school classrooms to display, quote, certain historical documents, among them the Ten Commandments, the Mayflower Compact, Declaration of Independence, and the Northwest Ordinance. bipartisan bill to make Oklahoma's Black Wall Street a national monument has moved out of a Senate committee with unanimous approval, setting up the possibility for a full Senate vote before

the end of the year. The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved the measure to establish the historic Greenwood District Black Wall Street National Monument as a unit of the national park system. The bill now heads to the full Senate for a floor vote. The district, of course, was home to one of the most prosperous black communities in the U.S., of course, just one generation after slavery, but it was a racist white mob that burned it down, killing 300 black folks on May 31st and June 1st of 1921. And there's two survivors of that massacre, 110-year-old Mother Viola Ford Fletcher and

110-year-old Mother Lessie Benningfield Randall. Real quick here, Gavin. OK, again, I appreciate the establishment of a national monument, but here's the reality. Those survivors have not been compensated for that, as well as their descendants. And this was state-sanctioned. And the problem is the city of Tulsa, the state of Oklahoma, they have refused to make amends. This is a perfect example of, sure, make it a monument, but that state and this country should be doing more. Of course, this is over 100 years after the massacre took place, and we're supposed

to celebrate the advancement of a bill, not even the passage of the bill. It hasn't passed. It hasn't been signed. But the advancement of a bill through the Senate establishing a monument is, frankly, unacceptable. And what blows my mind as a law student is that at no point over the past 103 years has any person or institution actually been held criminally or civilly liable for the injuries, the deaths, the murders that stemmed from this act of terrorism.

And, in fact, the only business owner that's ever received some compensation was white. I will say, though, I think, like, this—I guess the reason why this is a big step on paper is because we know that the state of Oklahoma has fought like hell since this act of domestic terrorism to make people forget that it ever happened. And it wasn't until four years ago, after we saw another example of violence against a Black body by the state, which is the murder of George Floyd, that students in Oklahoma were actually mandated to learn about it in schools. But I guess who needs that education when you have a Trump Bible, apparently, in Oklahoma these days? So, look, there's a lot to say about the importance of the courts, the importance of state and

local elections, the importance of knowing our history and why those in power try so hard to prevent us from doing that. I hope the monument gets built. But look, the state did commission a task force to investigate this in 96, and they recommended in 01 that the victims receive reparations. That's yet to happen. And all I can say is we're grateful to have—we're lucky to have Leslie Benningfield and Viola Fletcher, who are still alive and kicking 110, fighting the good fight, a fight they should not have to be fighting alongside other descendants

of this, you know, brutal act of terrorism to get justice. And I hope that we get more than this monument. I hope we get reparations for the survivors and the descendants of the victims. Daniel? Yeah, I echo the same. I live in Forsyth County, Georgia. Race massacre and expulsion of Black folks in 1912. In 1987, Hosea Williams, Coretta Scott King, Dick Gregory came up here with 30,000 folks. Largest protest and rally against the KKK in the history. Oprah's first show was here. So I get it. But a

monument itself, or at least advancing the idea of a monument, doesn't take it away. But I do agree that it is at least symbolic to know that it's being acknowledged. But here's the thing. There needs to be more than acknowledgement. And what I don't want is a decade from now for young men and women that vaguely remember Tulsa to say that this monument was erected as a form of reparation.

That is not a form of reparations. It is not reconciliation. Does those women—I hope those women live to 120. But the reality is they have had to endure. They've had to fight. They've had to live under the shadow of one of the darkest moments in our history when terror was enacted on a black community. And we have not resolved that. The statue won't do it.

It will allow us to be able to remember and acknowledge. But there is so much more work to be done. And I hope that we all understand that and support initiatives that go beyond statues and monuments. Scott? And y'all talking about Tulsa. Y'all talking about Tulsa. When's America going to apologize to the American Negro for slavery and for violence against them and the civil rights movement and the terror from the time we were freed as slaves up until now. They've apologized to Japanese with the internment camps. They've apologized to other groups that were oppressed.

But America's just not ready to apologize or give us reparations, not just for Tulsa, but elsewhere. You know, I talk about the melanin in my skin and what it is about the melanin in my skin that makes white America hate me so and hate our communities, but also not want to deal with the race issue or question or racial oppression over 400 years.

I, if you can use, the courts can give us even money for that, but the apology is the first step, and then second. There's not enough money. Tell me if you can agree with this, Roland. There's not enough money to properly compensate black people for what they've been through in the last 400 years of racial oppression and slavery.

There isn't. What would that number be? It's amazing. It's amazing. It really is, though. We'll see. You can't come up with it, but you can't come up with it, but in the case here, these are actual survivors, and they should have been compensated

long, long time ago. Let me do this here, Pug. Hold on, you can give that money, not just to those two survivors, but to the estates of those who have passed away as a result of Tulsa. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Let's close it out with our Black and Missing. Verlaine Baker has been missing from her California home since June 21st. The 16-year-old is 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighs 146 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information about Verlaine Baker should call the Orange County California Sheriff's Office at 714-647-7000. 714-647-7000. All right. Daniel, Gavin, Scott, I certainly appreciate y'all being on today's show. Thank you so very much. Folks, that is it for us. I'm here in Atlanta working on

a HBCU project with Coca-Cola, and so we'll be working on this tomorrow. I'll be back in the studio on the Fridays. I'll see y'all tomorrow right here on the show. Don't forget, again, support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. We don't have millionaires and billionaires cutting us checks.

I don't charge a subscription fee because I want people to have access to our content. And so, please, you can use Cash App by using this QR code with Stripe. By using Stripe, I told you Cash App closed down all of our accounts because they changed their rules. And so you can use this QR code to donate to us via cash app. Also, send your checking money over to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com.

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Holla! Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punch! I'm real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal.

See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, So now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to,

yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastain. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future

where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.

Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives.

Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.