The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Friedman Collapse Good/Bad For CVille Economy?; UVA BOV Will Elect New Rector & Vice-Rector Friday

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Stefan Friedman Collapse Good/Bad For CVille Economy? UVA BOV Will Elect New Rector & Vice-Rector Friday What Did We Learn About Public School Truancy ICE Protest? Indivisible CVille Protests Target Again By Buying Salt 17.5% Of All Homes Sold In AlbCo In 2025 Were $1M+ Congressman John McGuire On I Love CVille This Week The Most Important 3 Minutes Of News Today (2/16/26) Need CVille Office & Commercial Space, Contact Jerry Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Welcome to the I Love Seville Show, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on a Monday afternoon in downtown Charlestville. It's an absolute pleasure to connect with you guys through the I Love Seville Network and our flagship show, the I Love Seville Show. A lot of topics we're going to cover. We encourage you, the viewer, and listener to take a look at the screen for the headlines. And these headlines are what Judah and I will cover on the program today. There are some items that did not make the rundown. That's what we call the headlines.

unscreening the rundown. We'll touch on those briefly at the top of the show. We have some programming notes that we're going to get to here in a matter of moments as well, including Congressman John McGuire in person on the I Love Seville Show sometime this week. Congressman John McGuire on the I Love Seville show in person, in studio, sometime this week on the flagship of content and conversation. In Charlottesville, Almarl, across the University of Virginia, certainly the 5th District and the Commonwealth of Virginia. A lot I want to talk about. This flew very much under the radar

because of the ice protest and the collapse of the Stefan Freibin Restaurant Empire. There is a direct flight that is being discussed connecting Charlottesville-Almoral Airport directly to Boston and the whole concept behind this direct flight. that connects Charlottesville to Boston and Boston to Charlottesville is the support of the biotech industry

that is clearly on the cusp of booming in Almaro and in Charlottesville and it's ties to the University of Virginia. This is as significant of an economic development driver, as significant of a driver of incremental tax revenue, of incremental citizens, as I've seen in a, in some time. Astrozenica is investing $4.5 billion into northern Alamoire County to build their world headquarters, 600 direct jobs, the average wage for those 600 direct jobs at AstraZeneca, six figures plus. There's going to be thousands of indirect jobs.

I was told and was the first to talk about this years ago before COVID that the Paul Mining Biotech Institute would drive an incremental population increase of somewhere between six and 8,000 people. I stand by that prediction. I was told that information by the people signing the checks to drive the biotech Institute. So six to eight thousand people of deep pocketed means coming to the community. The Boston Charlottesville direct flight will connect the biotech epicenter of the United States, Boston, maybe the world, and it's researchers, it's venture capital, its infrastructure, it's staffing with Charlottesville and Almarl and will basically create a one-hour flight for folks to commute between both localities. The discussion is that this will drive the economy

from a tourism standpoint, from a weddings and event standpoint, from a restaurant, from a standpoint from a winery and brewery standpoint from an incremental tax standpoint what's also not being discussed is I would expect this will also drive Bostonians and biotechnology Humans human capital ties to biotechnology to live and call Charlottesville now Marl County their home because the affordability index well extremely expensive here in Charlottesville now tomorrow it's much more affordable in Boston and if you can just hop on a plane and be in Boston in 45 minutes or an hour, why would you choose to live in that area when it's, I couldn't tell you the delta between housing affordability and quality of life and affordability in general between Charlottesville and Amar.

But I would imagine that's probably a 2x minimum delta between the Boston metro area and the Charlottesville metro area. Basically, your money goes further. That's a storyline that's not being covered that should be discussed. And that's what we try to do on the show is pass along information to you that we find of significance. All right, that did not make the rundown. I wanted to touch on that. A programming note before we think some of the partners of the show, John McGuire, the congressman who announced on Friday that he's running for a second term will be in studio on the I Love Seville show sometime

this week. We're not going to tell you what day, because the last thing we want is the golden girls from indivisible Charlottesville showing up outside our I Love Seville studio to protest the John a guire in studio appearance in some capacity the golden girls from indivisible charlesville did just that this is their second protest of targe target is in the crossfire uh in their crossfire because of whether it's actual or perceived manipulated or reality um their support of of of anti anti ice protesters in minneapolis minnesota to put it in a nutshell is that safe i think that's a a sick nutshell, right? Yeah, very succinct.

Target is ranked number 41 in the Fortune 500 list. This is a publicly traded company. I'm going to offer some insight into the Golden Girls of Indivisible Charlottesville, lining up on aisle 6, lining up on aisle 7, lining up on I.O. 11 with their tarjeet shopping carts. And the only item in their Tarjeet shopping carts is some Morton's Table Salt. they proceed to go through the aisle 6, 11, aisle 13, aisle 4, cash register, transaction experience, only to take their plastic bags, which they paid $5.00 for.

I don't think they get the $0.5 cents back when they pay for the plastic bags, only to come back to customer service and say, hey, we made a mistake. This Morton's table salt, goodness gracious, our cholesterol is high, our husband's cholesterol level is high. We cannot eat that salt. It makes our skin swell. We must return this now. I asked the Golden Girls, Blanche and Dorothy and Sophia and Dorothy.

Who did I miss? Blanche, Sophia, Dorothy, and Rose. How can I forget, Rose Nylon? What are you doing here? The only people you're inconveniencing are the Tarjeet cashiers, the Tarjeet customer support staff that is making $10, $10, $12, $13, $14 an hour. If you think the C-suite or upper management, our stockholders are impacted by this in any capacity.

You, my friends, are up past your bedtime. And we're going to unpack this on the program today with video footage of Indivisible Charlottesville's Golden Girls protesting, Tarjeet, including photo footage as well. I'm curious why in this photography that we're going to put on screen here on the I Love Seville show, why they chose to blur their faces. If you're so passionate about protesting something, and doesn't it feel like,

Charlottesville and Almore in Central Virginia or the epicenter of protest of late? I mean, geez Louise, hell's bells. We had protest at Charlottesville High School a week ago. We had protest at Almaral High School in Monticello High School this past Friday. We had protest on entarge over the weekend. From my count, there's at least four protests of merit in the last week. You know, I'm all for protesting. I'm all for freedom of speech. I'm all for. the First Amendment. I'm all for standing up for something that you're passionate about, that you believe in. I also ask these protesters, do you have hobbies? Do you not crochet? Do you not knit or quilt? Do you not enjoy a cocktail or two at happy hour? Goodness gracious,

do you have golf clubs and a golf ball, a squash racket, and a squash ball? Do you have a foodie, affidionado appetite of any capacity. That topic on the program. We're going to cover on the show the collapse of Stefan Freeman's Restaurant Empire. I'm going to ask this question. It clearly is negative for the economy from a tax collection standpoint. It's clearly negative for the economy for landlords locally. There's seven of them that now have vacant storefronts.

It's actually, might even be eight if you include the Vite spirits on unwonderance. on Water Street, but I'm going to try to make lemons out of lemonade or make lemonade at a lemons and say, look, if Stefan Freeman's seven, eight businesses and we'll break them down, I think you have a list of the Freeman businesses that have collapsed that you wrote down or you put on the computer somewhere. Maybe you have that list ready to go. Now that they're closed, the lemonade out of the lemons is this. The strong restaurants that have survived, Darwinism,

now have less competition. And the strong restaurants that have survived, Darwinism, now have a deeper staffing pool to choose from. And that deeper staffing pool means more A-level food and beverage staffers to cherry-pick. I want to take a lemonade from Lemons look at the collapse of the Stefan Freeman Restaurant Empire today. We're also going to discuss on the program what we learned about the truancy, ICE protest from Monticello, Charlottesville, and Almoreal High School. I'm told more protests are in the works for students here in Charlottesville and Central Virginia. I'm shocked about this.

Actually, not shocked. I'm shocked that the schools are going to allow more protest. And I want to highlight some real estate data for you on the program, including Alamara High School, total units sold. We're talking all housing types, detached or attach, new construction, or existing construction. Almaro County, all homes sold in 2025. 17.5% of those homes were $1 million plus dollars. The show is loaded today, as you can tell. We will give some love to Charlottesville Sanitary Supply, Judah.

Their sister company, Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company. John and Andrew Vermillion are five generations strong in Almorel County. The Vermillion family has lived in Almore County for five generations. Their family has owned Charlottesville Sanitary Supply for 30. three generations, the Vermilions, the founders of Charlottesville Sanitary Supply. They have an e-commerce store where anything you purchase online at Charlottesville Sanitary Supply.com is delivered for free, often the same day to your doorstep at price points that are more affordable than the big box brands.

We do it ourselves. And their sister company, Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company, is the concierge, the consultant of anything swimming pool related. We have a family swimming pool at the Miller House. goodness gracious. Water testing, the pool robots, the swimming pool cover, just the quality of life with our swimming pool and Charlottesville swimming pool companies off the charts.

Thank you for millions. All right, Judah, studio camera. Then let's weave you in with a two-shot. You've been eager to talk about the golden girls of indivisible Charlottesville. It's not number one on the rundown. Do we want to start there as something that I think deserves a little bit of attention locally?

You know what, as the executive producer will shuffle the headlines around. Put the lower third on screen to begin with. The Indivisible Charlottesville, the extremely left-leaning activist group, Michael Payne, the co-founder of Indivisible Charlottesville. Michael Payne recently moved out of the basement of his mommy and daddy's house. He is a two-term Charlottesville City Councilor. And Indivisible Charlottesville was seen yet again, Judah. This is the second rodeo for Kristen Zekos, Blanche, Rose, Sophia, and Dorothy at Tarje.

The first one had Kristen Zakos, Blanche, Rose, Sophia, and Dorothy at the cash registers singing a nice little protest jingle. It had a little jingle to it. We even had Kristen Zekos acting as the maestro or the conductor as the ladies were singing right next to customer service in the cash. years. I found it fairly entertaining. Included a Kristen Zekos out, where Kristen Zakos did this. Remember? She went. Yep, that was pretty good.

To let everyone know that the protest jingle was done. This past weekend, they were in Tarje again. We have video footage of a protest and target. I'll set the stage, shall I? Sure. We got a couple of dozen

of the Golden Girls taking an airline from Miami, Florida, where the Golden Girls lived, and a nice little rancher, Blanche Devereaux, she was so sassy. She was a bit promiscuous, Blanche. And Sophia was always quick to call out Blanche Devereaux's promiscuity. Help me with that word? Promiscuity. And Sophia was so sassy with Blanche.

Rose was always kind of like an airhead, but she was a lovable airhead, and Dorothy deadpanned and used dry humor left that. a lot of people don't realize that Albert Clifford, A.C. Slater, Mario Lopez, before, is saved by the Bell fame, was in an episode or two of the Golden Girls, as Dorothy, the retired educator, was tutoring Mario Lopez and the Golden Girls. Let's set the stage of what happened this past weekend.

Yet another protest of Target. Invisible Charlottesville, their strategy this time is less jingle and less singing and more purchasing and then returning. They go to the Salt Isle, the Morton's Salt Isle, and they buy one skew, one inventory. Put photos on the screen, and then we're going to show the video. The video is coming in about 45 seconds. Are the photos on screen?

They are now. Look at the screen. Why blur your faces? Let me get to the blurred face. If you're passionate about what you're protesting, why blur your faces? And then post it on your social media. Do you understand the face blur? I do not.

Like if you're passionate about the calls, why do you blur the face? I have no idea. I mean, maybe they think they'll see people that they know there. And some of them feel a little bit. it guilty about what they're doing? What they're doing is against the law. Coordinated

protest on private property is against the law. And maybe you're able to gray area protest because you're buying something as opposed to just singing a protest jingle. Maybe that's the strategy with the purchasing of the Morton's table saw. We have the video.

Does there sound with the video? I believe there is. How long is? How long is this video? That's only like 13 seconds. Okay, there's 13 seconds of video footage we're going to play here for you, the viewer and listener. Do you have that video ready to go?

Yeah. Cue that video up with sound, if you could, please. And three, two, one. All right. Play the video with me talking over it now. So no sound on the video and I'm going to be talking over it, okay? All right. Let us know when that's being played.

It's on loop. Video on screen now I'm talking over. Here you see the indivisible Charlottesville Golden Girls purchasing Morton's salt. The strategy is to clog the cashiers, purchased the table salt, and then return the table salt. That is the strategy. Okay. I think one of those purchasers was someone that was giving great to the eye of single number. This is literally on a weekend.

Yeah. This is on a weekend, ladies and gentlemen. Is this the new hobby? Let's go back to us now. Is protesting now a hobby? If you like salt, I mean, this guy went a little overboard. We got a picture on our screen where a guy decided to go all out. And he's got, let's see, two, four, six, eight,

eight tubes of salt and two boxes. Eight tubes of salt and two boxes. That's going to make your skin, your epidermis swell. That's too much salt. Your cholesterol is going to be off the charts. Too much salt. Now, are we back on camera? Who does this truly impact?

Indivisible Charlottesville. protesting in Halee Me by purchasing salt and then returning it. Who does this really truly impact negatively? Anybody trying to shop at Tarje? I mean, if I was pulling my cart around and I came out from an aisle and I'm looking for a register to go to

and all I see are people with shopping carts and a single item of salt in the carts and I saw groups of them. I mean, I'd be pretty irritated. I'll say this very succinctly. The only individuals impacted by Indivisible Charlottesville's table salt protests of Target in Holly Meen are the hourly waged employees that are working the cashier lines and customer service at Target that day. This does not impact high dollar, extremely well-paid C-suite. This does not impact general manager of the store. This does not impact the stockholders. This does not impact Tarje's bottom line, 41 in the Fortune 500 list, Targei. The only people dis serviced, negatively impacted by this protest are the individuals that are making 10,

$12 an hour that indivisible Charlottesville chooses to claim its supports. I would argue it's not even affecting them. Just the people that are trying to shop at Target. I can assure you the customer service, the person

working the customer service desk that has to deal with 37 Golden Girls returning a container of Morton Salt, one after the other after the other, is negatively impacted by this. I doubt it. How so?

What do you mean how so? Do you care if you're working at the service line whether someone's returning Morton's salt? I do if those individuals are sassy with me, one after the other, after the other after the other. And in this case, I would imagine the... I mean, you think indivisible Seaville protesters are any more or less sassy? than you're, I don't shop at Target, so I don't, I honestly don't know, but if, if you think that the, the protesters are more sassy than the average target shopper? I would imagine the indivisible Seville interaction with the cashiers and the customer service reps are much more Sophia and Dorothean personality than Southern Bell Branch and Blanche and Airheaded Rose. Okay.

I mean, goodness gracious. As we get off topic and we go to the next one on the show here, we lead with this because we find it hilarious. We lead with this because we see that even in their marketing collateral that they've created for social media, they're choosing to blur their faces. What I find hilarious, the most hilarious about this, is the fact that their stated purpose was to protest, what's it called, Operation Morton Salt,

no, Operation Metro Surge. It's got the same abbreviation. But it was announced on, I believe, the 12th, that Operation Metro Surge is ended or ending. So I'm not sure what a protest two days later is meant to accomplish. But go Charlottesville. Comments coming in the feet. Jason Howard's photo on screen. Jason Howard, I believe works in retail locally in management.

In regards to Target, wouldn't ordering something that had to be shipped to the location then buying it and then returning it actually have an impact because of the shipping involved, when you go into a retail store and buy something that's already on the shelves that is then easily reshelfed, it impacts nobody except annoying the staff. That's from Jason Howard. Conan Owen watching the program.

He's the owner of Sir Speedy Central Virginia. Sir Speedy Central Virginia is a partner over this show. It's a partner of our firm. Sir Speedy Central Virginia does the signage for our 24 tenants in our real estate portfolio. Sir Speedy Central Virginia did the vinyl lettering on our studio storefront windows, and the banner directly behind us is a Sir Speedy special.

Conan Owen is a Darden graduate, and his firm, Sir Speedy of Central Virginia, is locally owned and operated. We've had a lot of success working alongside this company because he lives up to expectations and does what he promises firsthand, and I have extremely high standards. Conan Owen, here's my problem,

with the style over substance of the anti-ice protest and the latest edition of the Reddit mob roasting of GovSmart. Amazon Web Services is the single largest holder of ICE contracts. Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms that the indivisible Charlottesville types use to show off their protesting muscles and economic purity is hosted by Amazon Web Services. Every time they shop at Whole Foods or order on Amazon, they are putting money in the pocket of Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, who helped subsidize the inauguration, fund the Ballroom Project, and the man who gutted their beloved Washington Post. Yet GovSmart is the problem, and those of us who defend their right to do business with whomever they choose are called Nazis.

That's from Conan Owen, the owner of Surveedia, Central Virginia. Great points. Connie Sylvester, key member of the Amar County Republican Party. Also, a side note, the Ammar County Republican committee has a new chairperson. The new chairperson is Philip Reese. Philip Reese is a friend of the program. He's come on the I Love Seville Show in the past. He's an entrepreneur. He's a business owner. He's a husband. He's a father. His children are in Almore County Public Schools. Philip Reese's chairperson who takes over for Nancy Muir, who replaced John Lowry, the former chairperson, who resigned midterm in surprising capacity. Nancy Muir, the interim chairperson, now Philip Reese has the baton passed to him. He has his work cut out

for him. The Almore County Republican Committee clearly must become younger. The Amar County Republican Committee clearly must utilize social media and podcasting to get its message out. Okay? The Amar County Republican Committee has work it needs to do. Connie Sylvester says this, and everything I said was factual. She says, anyone disrupting business inside a business should be arrested. The gray area is they're actually buying something here. That's the gray

area and the strategy, ladies and gentlemen, for indivisible Charlottesville, the purchase of something. I read a great article recently called the Santa Syndrome, Compassion Without Curiosity. And what Conan Owen described is exactly what the article

was talking about. terms of, in terms of people getting outraged and taking it out on, you know, the Saturday shoppers at Target while they are continuing to fund, you know, Amazon Web Services. And there's just, there's compassion, but there is no curiosity. There is no, there's no desire to look deeper than the absolute thin surface of any particular problem for a quick way

to virtue signal your way to the hearts of central Virginians. Kate Sharks watching the program. She's the queen of Ivy. Kate Sharts says this, speaking from firsthand experience, and I'm getting to Kate's comments. The comments are

coming in extremely quickly. Kate says as a former customer service manager at Target, this is so distasteful. The people there at the store are just doing their job and don't have anything to do with this. The only individuals impacting by indivisible Charlottesville's activism and protests

are the individuals it claims to support those on the financial margin. The entire mission, of Indivisible Seaville is supporting the disenfranchised through activism and protest. But if Indivisible Charlottesville and Blanche, Sophia, Rose, and Dorothy

go into Tarje and protest the local Charlottesville store, the only humans impacted negatively by this are the disenfranchise that are on the financial margin working an hourly wage retail job at floor level, not at management level. We're trying to shop. You need to hear that Inevisible Charlottesville.

Jason Noble watching the program. He asked a very straightforward question that I find someone amusing. His tongue and cheek comments are funny. Were they at least singing, Thank you for being a friend. Travel down the road and back again. Your heart is true. You're a pal and a com.

Can you sing that for me? Kristen Zekos, please. All right. Next topic, Judah Wickhauer. What do we got on the show today? Stefan Freeman. How about that? Stefan Friedman. The lower third on screen. Do you have the list of the restaurants that have closed? I'll help you with this list on the fly as well. Do you have the list? Yeah, I've got it. So Stefan Friedman is the restaurateur that over-leveraged and is behind on payroll to staff.

I've had an abundance of staff reach out to me. send screenshots that they're having with Stefan Freedman via text message to me. I've had a number of vendors reach out to me. I've had landlords reach out to me. I've had folks at Charlestful City Hall reach out to me about Stefan Freeman. Meals tax issues. There's a trail of significant collateral damage. That's why I was disappointed when there was a local restaurant on the downtown mall

that seemed to offer a message of support for Stefan. Freeman and his struggles. Okay? The husband and wife that own this local restaurant in the downtown mall that seemed to offer a message of support for Stefan Freeman, I won't name because this husband and wife I admire, I have respect for, I've done business within the past. The husband in particular, I call a friend. I think he's a leader and stakeholder in downtown Charlottesville, a key player in downtown Charlottesville. I just thought his take on his Facebook page was off base. and then, and he admitted in the comment section,

and then in direct messages with me that he doesn't know the full story, guess what, I know the full story. Yeah. I know the full story because I have the receipts and the screenshots, part of that supply chain. Judah Wickhauer, the list of restaurants that have closed, that were Stefan Freeman restaurants, please. These restaurants were all under the, what, the umbrella of a movable feast.

Yep, number one. of his company. So he had Ace Biscuit and Barbecue. Number one. Bonnie and Reed. Two. Draft Tap Room, which included Omicasse Obscura. Nope. Draft Tap Room was... I mean, not draft tap room. Vite Spirits? Vete Spirits.

Okay, so that's three and four. Bonnie and Reed, Ace Biscuit and Barbecue, one, and two. Draft Tap Room three. Vite Spirits is four. Then you have the sushi. Omicase Obscura. That's five. Little Johns. That's six.

Old Metropolitan. Old Metropolitan Hall. That's seven. And Wine Guild. The Wine Guild, eight. So that's seven businesses. No, no, no, no. That's eight businesses and seven storefronts.

Yeah. Because the sushi joint was operating out of Vite spirits. It's also been brought to my attention that he also closed the Vite spirits that was on Water Street where they had a tasting room. So that's another one that's been brought to my attention that can conceivably be eight businesses and eight storefronts. Now, the collateral damage is significant. We're talking meals tax revenue. We're talking less traffic downtown

because the reason people go downtown are the restaurants. The music venues in the restaurants are why people go downtown. We're talking the perceived, the actual concerns, not perceived, the actual concerns of downtown in the 50-year anniversary of the downtown mall. We're in the 50-year anniversary of the mall now. Okay? we're talking job loss.

I mean, we're talking, I mean, you have eight businesses. How many jobs? I mean, 100 plus jobs easily, right? We're talking the impact on the supply chain, the vendors, the janitorial, the laundry, the food vendors, the awning cleaners, the storefront cleaners, the electricians, the HVAC type, the plumbers, the kitchen maintenance, the draft tap line cleaning, the people that clean the kegirators.

You know, the supply chain tied to this many businesses is significant insurance providers, right? The landlords. I mean, goodness gracious, it's a significant supply chain, right? Now, what I'm going to try to do, because we take storylines and we unpack them from a different angle. Why this show works is it's long-form content. Why this show works is I've been in this community for, 26 years. By now we know just about everybody here. We get on the phone. We text message with them. We face time with them. We meet in person with them. We have drinks with them at the mill room.

We have bourbons with them here at the office. We talk to a shitload of people. And because of that, we get information that we relay on air where we always ask for approval beforehand. Can I talk about this on the show? Oftentimes what's happening now? In fact, 90% of the time that's happening now, including the John McGuire interview that's going to happen this week. The people reach out to us and say, talk about this on your platform. That's literally what's happening now. They reach out to us.

And at that point, when people are reaching out to me and saying, talk about this on your platform, I've got to be careful because I've got to be cautious of what's the angle that's being played here. Yeah. Like the John McGuire, he's running for re-election. Yeah. Okay?

I'm going to catch grief for interviewing John McGuire on the I Love Seville show because it's an extremely. left-leaning community. But at the same time, he's a congressman. And this is a talk show, and he's a United States congressman. And we would gladly invite any and all rivals to his spot. Mike Prude and Tom Perriello, free to join. 100%. We're equal opportunity commentators. We don't care if you're black, white, Puerto Rishan or Haitian. We don't care if you're Southern Baptist, Jewish. Protestant, atheists.

We don't care if you like bananas, apples, or oranges, or you like IPAs, red wine or white wine. If you have something of merit and you're doing of something merit, we'll talk to you. Okay. So I'm trying to take lemons,

Stefan Friedman's restaurant collapse, and turn it into lemonade here. The only aspect of lemonade that I see here is this, Judah. eight businesses closing means Darwinistically, the businesses that are still fighting

right now have less competition in this fight we call entrepreneurship. And the businesses that are still alive now have a deeper labor pool to choose from because there's folks

out of work. So the existing businesses that have survived or surviving can now pick more of the A level or B level staffers and bring them on board. Furthermore, and people may not want to hear this, when a restaurant empire of this significance collapses, the leverage goes to the business owner because there's less jobs out there in food and beverage, which means the business owner that does have the jobs to offer has more leverage over the people looking for work. And that leverage often results in higher expectations

and perhaps tighter pay because there's less jobs out there. There's only so many bartending jobs. There's only so many restaurant general manager jobs. There's only so many restaurant manager jobs and assistant manager jobs. and there's only so many Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, A-level serving shifts and restaurants in this community. And a boatload of them just went away.

So whoever has those jobs to offer now has a little bit more leverage. And I'm telling you, I'm not going to say, it's not my place to say. The people who've passed this information onto me have asked me not to say it. there are, by my count and running list, nine more, very significant nine Charlottesville and Almore County restaurants that are on the cusp of closing. Nine.

Eish. Nine. Football season and the success of football at the University of Virginia kept a lot of restaurants that otherwise would have closed open. Yeah. And the unfortunate writing, on the wall was snowpocalypse 2026, which

took an already bleak time January and February where credit card bills were due and made them even more unfortunate. We have a running list of nine other Charlottesville and Amar restaurants that are on the cusp of closing.

So if we're taking lemons and turning them into lemonade, is the strong that do survive, have more leverage, a deeper labor pool, and a larger slice of the pie from a customer standpoint. I was offering some advice to a very good friend over the weekend. This very good friend has been for almost as long as I've known him,

incredibly unhappy with his job. Incredibly unhappy with his job. And this very good friend for as long as I've known him has, shown significant interest in starting his own company. He's got a wonderful wife. He's got two lovely children. He is the, it's a two-income household, the top earner in the household, and also has the retirement and the health insurance in his household, where his wife, his partner, is self-employed, doing extremely well, self-employed. So he's carrying a lot of the weight in the household, especially with two young children. And he's indicated to me on so many occasions that he

wants to start a business. And I explained to him, I offered him this. I've been self, I've been self-employed for 18 years, 18 years, waking up, figuring out where the income's going to come from, 18 years. Running and owning a business is akin to this, a fight for a knife in the mud. And if you don't feel you have the personality makeup or the DNA to every day wake up and fight for a knife in the mud, then don't do this. Don't do this. That's the advice I gave them. And it was eye-opening. It's a fight for a knife in the mud.

Next topic, what do you got? 45 minutes into the talk show. What's headline number two? And remember, we've already covered the Golden Girls protest of Tarjeet with Morton Salt. as their ammunition. UVA, B-O-V. Friday, the Board of Visitors will be electing a rector and vice-rector. Have they been, have all of the Board of Visitors members been approved?

Still waiting on General Assembly approval. Oh, man. Friday, a rector and vice-rector elected. I'm surprised they're going to go ahead before approval of all the members. But are you surprised? with the entire General Assembly unified in power by one party and the governor as well?

The playing field's different. Yeah, yeah. There's not a Republican governor now. It's a different playing field, so the rules can change. I don't know about... Redistricting. I don't know about the rest of you,

but I dislike hypocrisy wherever I find it. We all say we dislike hypocrisy. We all say we dislike it, and then we do something hypocritical. I try to... I try to... try to identify those times when I'm about to do something hypocritical.

I also try to look at the side that I, you know, the side that I'm voting for, whichever side it is. And I try to judge them with the same lens that I judge the other side so that I'm not going around pointing the finger at the other side saying how hypocritical they are when my side is doing the exact same. thing. And I don't know if anybody else tries to do this. I think most people try to do that, Judah. And I will say this, and I'll speak on your behalf. You are one of the best people on the planet. I don't know about that. I've known you for a substantial period of time. You are genuine,

you are kind, you are honest, you're a man of integrity, you're a God-fearing person, you're one of the best people on the planet. If there were more Judah Wickhowers, if there were more Judah Wickhowers in Charlestville and the Commonwealth and the country in the world, the world, the Commonwealth, the Central Virginia, Charlottesville would be a better place. Thank you. I appreciate that. The reality is there's not a ton of Judah Wickhowers out there. And I think the reality is there are not a lot of people that do a lot of, a lot of the type of looking internally to identify those moments of hypocrisy. I will say this.

If you threw a party and invited everyone you knew, you would see the biggest gift would be for me, and the card attached would say, thank you for being a friend. Is that a line from the Golden Girls? Yes, it is. The Golden Girls thieves. I can't get over.

I can't get over Blanche. Sophia and Dorothy and Rose purchasing salt at the target. All right, that's the Friday. I can't get over the fact that apparently the Golden Girls is one of your favorite shows as a kid. Oh, grew up watching the Golden Girls. I'm sorry. Golden Girls, empty nest, loved emptiness, step by step,

family matters, boy meets world, perfect strangers with Larry and Balke. Such great shows, perfect stranger. Vaguely remember that. Alph, Holm Improvement, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Cheers, The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Friends. Goodness gracious, if Kelly Kapowski was my first love, then C.J. Parker and Baywatch was my second love. Then the tooltime girl from home improvement was my third love. And they just happened to be at least initially the same person.

Perryle Anderson. That's a parent answer. All right, next topic. Friday's rector and vice rector with the UVA BOV. I would ask this question. Who really at this point would want to be the rector and vice rector

after seeing what happened to Porter Wilkinson and Rachel Sheridan and Robert Hardy? Right. Who really would want to be... I caution all the Board of Visitors members and, you know, board of visitors members watch this approach? watch and listen to the show.

I would caution any of the Board of Visitors members by saying, why would you really want this job, the rector and vice rector? You know, they're not paid for this? Next topic, what do you got you to Wicke? Next, we have, what did you learn? What did you learn from the public school truancy protest? What did you learn from the public school truancy, protest from a week ago Monday and this past Friday with Al Marl, Monticello, and Charlottesville,

with scuttlebutt that additional protests around the near horizon. What did you learn, Judah, what I learned is that despite the fact that we haven't heard stories of roving bands of kids in local schools, apparently it's still a thing. They haven't really changed anything. it sounds like. You may not have kids, you know, roaming in the halls of the local high schools, but they're still essentially in charge and they can do whatever they want. We've heard from at least one teacher saying that... Lauren Thraves, she issued a statement to the Isle of Seville Network. Yeah, that basically when more kids are taking the day off. or taking the period off, then I think we would like to acknowledge and that she would rather have all these kids, you know, running around town than sitting in, you know, sitting in the bathroom, smoking or whatever else they do when they're...

Spokely. When they're skipping class. The green, the shrubbery, the chiba, the marijuana, the mayor gawanna. Mary Jane. Yes. The cabbage. The greenery. The landscaping.

Or just vapes and cigarettes. Vaping is just does not have the same genesis quat of ripping the flower. Alrighty then. Well, that's good to know. Just being straightforward. This is what we learned. This is what I learned.

The statement that Lauren Thraves issued to the I Love Seville Network on Friday, showed the entire world, the inner workings of Almaral High School, the largest high school in Central Virginia. Yeah. She, on the record, very much explain that there's... How's that not on the record? She said, I'm an Al Morrow High School teacher.

My name is Lauren Thraves. This is what's happening at Al Morrow High School. How is that not on the record? I don't think you can take a comment on Facebook as being on the record. I 1,000% respectfully disagree with you. When someone who has a platform of influence, merit, that is media-based, which the I Love Seville platform certainly is, one that has a following that is more significant than all of print,

radio and television combined, has commentary all last week about protests at Almaro High School that is going viral in the community. You saw the virility. And then a teacher jumps into the comments that are public and on the record and says, my name is Lauren Thraves. I'm a teacher at Almaral High School. And here's what is happening. That is, without question, publishable, quotable, legitimate, and on the record.

Any newspaper, the Daily Progress does this. TV stations do this. They often quote businesses, brands, and people of influence in what they post on social media. Anyone that's watching and listening to this show, geez Louise, did they not learn this in the comment section of the Charlottesville Police Department Facebook page? In the Charlottesville Police Department Facebook page comment section under the announcement to be cautious a week ago because hundreds of Charlottesville High School students were walking ice and snow-covered streets

in the middle of oncoming 45-mile-an-hour traffic amongst ram trucks and G-wagons and Subaru's and Priuses and Volvo SUVs to protest ice, to be careful that there were kids truant and skipping school and protesting because they believed in a cause and not because they wanted to get out of a trigonobarty exam. in that comment section, people were popping off, calling these, threatening these kids,

and then the police department said, we're going to investigate these threats, as they should have, because it's today's water cooler. Facebook is today's newspaper, and there's no larger megaphone than what we're doing here. Be very straightforward. And when Lauren Thraves basically said,

this is what really struck me from her statement, what I really learned from here was this. that there are a significant portion of the Almore High School student body that are not in classroom, that are roaming the hallways, that are extremely behind grade level, and that administrators and teachers have no way to enforce truancy or skipping school, that these kids are just socially promoted,

promoted from one grade level to the other, and that Almoreal High School teachers, in particular, Lauren Thrave specifically, are actually in favor of these kids not being in the classroom, roaming the hallways or skipping the school, because at least it does not negatively impact the kids that are in the classroom. That is literally what she said. I would encourage any viewer and listener to go look at the Lauren Therys comment on my Facebook page from last week.

It was stunningly honest. Surprisingly. She was mind-blowingly honest. Stunningly honest what she published. And I, again, this is the second day in a row that I commend Lauren Thraves. for her transparency, her honesty with her commentary.

How many words was it? It was 600 plus words. She published. 656. I like 3 in the morning. She published it. Yeah, 3 a.m. It was stunningly honest

with what's happening at the public schools locally. You should read it. We should just, you know what, after the show, screen grab that on the Mac,

and let's turn that. In fact, do this now before she chooses to delete it. Can you go to my Facebook page, screen grab it? I actually have the screenshots. I've still got them. You've got the screen? Screen grab it in totality, if you can,

and turn it into an individual post on the I Love Seville Network, and then syndicated... I've still got them right here. Syndicated across all platforms so people can read this. Stunningly honest explanation of what's happening at Amaral High School. Do that today. Make sure this afternoon, the headline should be this. Are you ready for this?

I'll give you the headline. Tell me when you're ready. All right. Stunningly honest statement from Almaral High School teacher on the state of Central Virginia's largest public school. That's the headline. Studyingly honest statement from Almorel High School teacher on the state of Central Virginia's largest public school.

That should be the headline. and then do two sentences. Studingly honest statement from Almaral High School teacher on the state of Central Virginia's largest public school. And then write two sentences that just basically are the who, what, when, where, why of what she said. Like 600 words from Almoreal High School teacher, Lauren Thraves, who published us at three in the morning

about the state of Almorea High School, the largest public school in Central Virginia. And just put the screenshot in there and let everyone read it. That's what I learned about what was going on. I didn't learn anything about the protest. I didn't learn anything about the protests and how they were handled. I didn't learn anything about the influence or impact the protests would have. I didn't learn anything about the X's and O's of the actual skipping school intruancy.

But what I learned from Lauren Thraise was something I did not know. and the rest of the community should hear it and read it. Another thing I learned is that the local schools seem to think that putting out a brief statement absolves them from any lawsuits that might pop up should the unthinkable happen and a student get hurt while away from school. And I'm pretty sure that none of those statements that they've put out would protect them if something bad had happened.

Sorry. I'm responding to a comment from somebody who's saying, I'm making excuses for Stefan Freeman. Did she read, did she hear what I said? How am I making excuses for him? I'm explaining the lemonade that comes from this lemons. Jean-Marie, I'll get to your comments here in a matter of moments. If we could do this for the viewers and listeners,

I'm, there's, I don't know, three dozen comments or text messages or DMs that have come in in the last three minutes about the Lauren Thrave's comment and people wanting to read the statement. You want me to put it on the screen? They won't be able to read it on the screen. Let's turn it into an individual protest. It's 600 words. They're not going to be able to read 600 words on the screen. Let's turn this into, can we have the statement up? It's 130.

Can we have it up on I Love Seville.com by 2.30 p.m. You have the headline. probably you have the headline you have a profile picture and then the statement montage some artwork into a hero picture I just use the top of the montage I would go profile like we did with the Richard Spursor what you might call it a homeless shelter montage do it just like that you could do Amoral High School a picture of Almore High School And then her profile picture in there.

All right. Next headline, what do we got? I got a 145 phone call with a client here. I'd like to give some love to Stanley Martin. If we can do that, Judah. Stanley Martin Holmes, you ready for this? They're a partner of the program. They're doing some, and I got some real estate language.

Let's get the Stanley Martin partner. Call to action message on screen if we could, please, sir. A partner of the show, their reputation when it comes to building speaks for itself. Ladies and gentlemen, Stanley Martin is dedicated to building homes that cater to each person's unique needs and lifestyle. Stanley Martin's high-quality, single-family homes, townhomes, and condominiums are designed and constructed with innovative techniques that ensure exceptional efficiency and aesthetic appeal. Stanley Martin uses design features and technology to enhance, your living experience in your homes, not just today, but for years to come. An honest, honest partner,

Stanley Martin Holmes. Last topic. Let's get to Jean Marie's comment here. She says this about Stefan Freeman. Jerry, why are you making excuses for Stefan Freeman? She says he sucks at running restaurants because he doesn't know when to fold. Instead, he decided to gamble with employees' money. If he had any integrity at all, he would have known that you must shut down when you're looking and having to resort to using payroll funds and a predictable failure just to stay afloat. My friend owned a restaurant, and it did fairly well until it didn't. The moment he saw the writing on the wall that if he kept going, he wasn't going to be able to pay his employees, he closed the doors for good. He gave his employees their last paychecks and a small bonus to

help them get by, shut down permanently, and then paid off all the other bills. This is the is how a decent human being does things. There is never an excuse to expect that it is all acceptable to do what he's done. Only a scumbag gambles with other people's money. He played with his employees' lives and has a failure that, and ripped off his own team. We know that. Isn't that what we're saying? Did I miss you making excuses for him somehow?

I never made an excuse for him. The extent of what I said was, I'm going to take lemonade's and turn on lemons and turn them into lemonade. And the only lemonade out of this thing here and the collateral damage is the restaurants that are still alive have less competition and a larger employee pool.

Right. That's the end. That's it. All right. Next headline. Can you put it on screen? Have we done a good job? Is this the Al Morrow real estate headline? Yeah, 17.5%. All right. This is a tidbit that is a conversation starter. Are you you ready for this? In 2025, last year, in Amarro County, there were 1,504 units sold. All housing types, new construction, and existing detached and attached, 1,504 units sold. Of those 1,504 units

sold, 259 of them closed at a million dollars or more. That represents 17.5% of units sold in 2025 in Almaro County were a million dollars or more. And I can only assure you that in 2026, that number is going to go higher and wait until AstraZeneca and biotechnology is fully online. Just wait for it. Other headlines? Have we covered them all? I don't think we've covered quite all of them yet. Well yeah, I guess basically have, unless you want to mention John McGuire. John McGuire in studio this week on the I Love Seaville Network. A sit down with the congressman. Eyes and ears peeled. This week on the I Love Seville Network, Congressman John McGuire. Gidey up and get ready, ladies and gentlemen. I think we have the three most important minutes of news to get to.

Yeah. Tell me when you're one-shotted and I can set a timer. I don't think I've gotten this under three minutes yet. No, I don't think you ever have. One of these days. Someday. One of these days. One of these days. I'll get under three. It's got a nice little ring to it. Three most important minutes of news, doesn't it? All right. You are one-shoted. All right, don't start the headline. The clock. Tell me when I'm one shot at here because I'm actually reading the headlines for the three most important minutes of news

from the live stream. You can read them on screen now. You're up there. Okay. Catch my breath over here. All right. All right, ladies and gentlemen, on Monday, February 16th,

my name is Jerry Miller, and these are the three most important minutes of news for you. Let's start, ladies and gentlemen, with the collapse of Stefan Freeman's restaurant empire. This is collateral damage of significant proportions. We have eight vacant storefronts and eight businesses that are dragged in the wake of Stefan Freeman's financial malpractice. There are 100 plus employees. employees out of work, landlords behind on rent, vendors who have been unpaid. The downtown mall has more vacancies, the most important eight blocks in the region.

Tax collections are down even further. If there's any lemonade to be made here, is the existing restaurant owners, the ones who have survived. The restaurant owners who embody this quality, this statement, Life is a fight for a knife in the mud. They have less competition and more employees to choose from for their respective businesses. That's the only lemonade that can be made here. More market share and a deeper employee base for the restaurants that are still fighting and kicking. Next topic, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors will elect a rector and vice rector on Friday. I ask the Board of Visitors this question.

Why would you want to be the rector and the vice rector after seeing what happened to Rachel Sheridan and Porter Wilkinson and Robert Hardy? Regardless, a new rector and vice rector will be elected on Friday. Next topic. What did we learn about the ICE truancy protests with public schools last week? For me, I didn't learn much, except for one thing. Admiral High School teacher Lauren Thraves issued a statement to the I Love Seville Network. that we will publish very soon on Iloveceville.com. We encourage you to visit the website,

Iloveceville.com, and click on Lauren Thraves' statement. It is stunningly honest, her statement, where she explains that there are a significant portion of the Almore County High School student body that are truant and skipping school. All the administrators and teachers know about it, and they do nothing about it, because this student body,

this portion of the student body that's choosing to skip school, they're just going to be socially promoted. And by not being in the classroom, it's not going to impact the curriculum or the education or the learning of the kids that choose to sit in seats and read chalkboards and listen to teachers. Studyingly honest from Lauren Thraves, you'll find that statement on the I Love Seville Network before close of business Monday, February 16th. Another tidbit that I want to highlight, might as well show the video, Indivisible Charlottesville, Give me a thumbs up when that's on screen.

In a Visible Charlottesville is an activist and political group, founded by Michael Payne, co-founded by Michael Payne. It's on screen. Look at the screen. Largely made up of white women, generally made up of white older women. They protested Target over the weekend. They chose to purchase Salt, Morton's Salt. And then went through cashier lines and then came back at the Target

to return the Morton salt because their concept of protest of Target in Charlottesville at Holly Bede was the disruption of retail operations by clogging up aisle 9, aisle 11, aisle 13, aisle 2, and by making a stand against

the autocracies and disgusting behavior in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Inevisible Charlottesville. Don't eat too much salt. It'll make your skin swell. Next topic. Almaro County in 2025, there were 1,5004 units sold. All housing types existing and new construction, detached, and

attached. Of those 1,504 units sold in 2025, 259 of them, or 17.5% sold at a million plus dollars, a million or more dollars. 17.5% of the units sold in Almoreland County in 2025 or a million dollars or more. I want to remind the viewers and listeners that John McGuire will join us on the I Love Seville Show sometime this week, the congressman who's running for re-election. And that's the three most important minutes of news for you on Monday, February 16th. Doesn't even come close to checking into three minutes. I try my best. For Judah Wickhauer, my name is Jerry Miller. Thank you.