The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Southern Poverty LC Liable For CVille's Brand Damage?; Should The Heather Heyer Foundation Sue SPLC?

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Southern Poverty LC Liable For CVille’s Brand Damage? Should The Heather Heyer Foundation Sue SPLC? Should CVillians Fund A Class Action Suit Against SPLC? “The News Virginian” Has 0 Reporters On Staff Wing Stop Opens Today In Rio Hill Shopping Center Chris Engel Must Suggest A DORA Downtown AlbCo Supervisor Mike Pruitt On I Love CVille Show 4/29 Subscribe To JerryRatcliffe.com For $8 Per Month 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. This, the water cooler of content and conversation for Charlottesville, Central Virginia, the Commonwealth of the country and the world. Anything and everything goes on the I Love Seville Network. Even if it's a macro topic, a national, an international topic, we'll figure out a way to localize it to hear Charlottesville, Almore County, and Central Virginia. A lot I want to cover on the broadcast. I want to talk about the Southern Poverty Law Center. By now you may know the story.

I certainly hope you do. The Southern Poverty Law Center, shocking story, has been paying third parties, oftentimes highly paid informants, to stoke the flames of racial wars, essentially race baiting. They stoke, the flames of racial boars and race baiting by making tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of

dollars of payments to folks of influence, folks that are networked, folks that are willing to do their dirty work. Once the race bait materializes into disaster, into carnage, into death, August 11th, and August 12th year in Charlottesville, for example, then the Southern Poverty Law Center rises from the ashes, rises from the carnage, and says, we are here to help those on the margin. The scummiest of the scum alleged. We'll talk about this as it applies to Charlottesville and its damaged brand. I'm going to ask you, the viewer and listener. Number one, is the Southern Poverty Law Center responsible for Charlottesville's partially damaged tools? tourism brand, partially damaged, economic development brand, partially damaged history. Number two,

should the Heather Heyer Foundation sue the Charlottesville, the, the poverty law center, the Southern Poverty Law Center for the death of Heather Higher? Number three, should Charlottesvillians and Almaro Countyans unite in class action lawsuit capacity? to pursue vengeance of the compensatory variety as it applies to the Charlottesville to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the damage it's done to the brand of our home. I'll talk about those topics on the show. I'm going to read four paragraphs from the New York Post from yesterday. This has turned into an international story yet again. On today's program, I want to talk as well about Chris Engel. He's the development director with Charlottesville and City Hall. And I'm going to make a very pointed

and straightforward statement. Chris Engel, the Office of Economic Development in Charlottesville City Hall, is doing an awful job. It's time for Sam Sanders, City Council, and folks of influence in this community to ask more of Chris Engel and his team. And if they cannot rise to the challenge, It's time for them to get off the pot and for Sam Sanders and City Council to find a new director of economic development The easiest low-hanging fruit possible for Chris Engle and his office of economic development is to encourage City Council and Sam Sanders to roll out a designated outdoor refreshment area a Dora on the downtown mall He can point to the proof of performance the pop of Tom Tom and what Paul Beyer did this past week and weekend as a success story. A designated outdoor refreshment area where patrons, where tourists, we're locals,

where students alike, who are of age and do so in respectable capacities, they should be able to walk up and down the downtown mall enjoying a beverage. If this is something that Chris Engle does not push forward, he needs to step aside because I'm being very straightforward. I've seen very little economic development from his office in the last 10 years. I ask you yet again, what can you point to from economic development that's been positive, that's driven jobs, incremental jobs, incremental revenue, the needle forward from an econ dev standpoint. Anything and everything, please let us know. We'll talk about it on the show because I don't see a damn thing. Also on the program today, I want to talk about the news Virginian.

Chris Graham at the Augusta Free Press intrigued me over the weekend. He talked about the News Virginian, the first newspaper he worked for just fresh out of the University of Virginia. The News Virginian currently in its current form does not have a single reporter on staff, zero reporters on staff at the News Virginia. Can you call yourself a newspaper if you do not have a reporter on staff? I want to talk that on the I Love Seville show, and we'll talk Wingstop Restaurant opening today in the Rio Hill Shopping Center. And we remind the viewers and listeners that Alamara County Supervisor Mike Pruitt will join us on the show on Wednesday. Scottsville District Representative, Admiral County Supervisor, he just greenlit along with his fellow supervisors, 730 million roughly of taxpayer dollars. the Almore County budget. Fortunately, no new real estate or property taxes within that budget,

although some would say the increased assessments are taxes enough on us Albemarle County's. I want to give some attention to Stanley Martin Holmes. Stanley Martin homes are dedicated to building homes that cater to each person's unique needs and lifestyles, high-quality single-family homes, town homes, and condominiums, design and constructed with innovative techniques that ensure exceptional efficiency and aesthetic appeal. Stanley Martin Holmes, one of its head honchos, Jimmy Evers, will join us in studio tomorrow, Judah. Jimmy Evers of Stanley Martin Holmes in studio tomorrow as we talk about all the new construction from Stanley Martin Holmes, development, new rooftops, in central Virginia.

What they are doing in Green County is truly amazing. We're going to put that in perspective with Jimmy Evers. We'll talk about what Stanley Martin is doing from a new construction and development standpoint in Almore County, in Green County, in Fluvana County, and across Central Virginia. I think you would be surprised. Truly significant development. Judah Wickhauer is behind the camera. Judah Wickhauer is in front of the camera.

Judah Wickhauer is a key contributor to the Isle of Seville Show. What do you is a camera? Judah Wickhauer is a camera. Viewers and listeners, hammer the like button and share the show, please. Hammer the like button and share the show. We work hard for you. That's the only thing we ask in return. Judah Wickhauer, studio camera, then two shot.

As we welcome the metronome of consistency to the I Love Seville Show. I ask you the same question, Judah, every single program. And we do it to get the whistle wet, which headline most intrigues you today in I would love to whet my whistle. I'm intrigued by this Southern Poverty Law Center story. It's pretty amazing, really a bad look for people that are essentially trying to monetize racism, which has, as I think most of us believe, no place in, in more. modern America. Well said. I'm going to read four paragraphs from the New York Post.

These four paragraphs from the New York Post were published yesterday at 3.24 p.m. So it hasn't even been 24 hours. Here are the four paragraphs. For years, Democrats and their media allies have spread the damnable Charlottesville hoax that President Trump praised praised bigots who rioted in 2017 in the Virginian town we call Charlottesville. It turns out he did not. But now

we learn the entire hoax of Trump and Charlottesville was built around another grand lie that the Unite the Right rally was organized and financed by the highly partisan left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center.

In an 11-count indictment, the Department of Justice charged the Southern Poverty Law Center with, quote, criminally defrauding donors and manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred. As a result, America endured years of propaganda that convinced a large segment of the population that Donald Trump supported violent hate.

An insidious lie, that did grave damage to the cohesion of our society. The New York Post, in its commentary, makes the statement and claim that the Southern Poverty Law Center, with its racial stoking of flames, its race baiting, quote, damage the cohesion of our society, of our country. I want to localize that to Charlottesville.

Did the Southern Poverty Law Center not only damage the brand of Charlottesville, damage the economy of Charlottesville, damage tourism of Charlottesville, but divide Charlottesville. Should the Heather Higher Foundation sue the Southern Poverty Law Center? And lastly, should Charlottesville homeowners, Charlottesville business owners, heck, let's include outmoral County,

should a class action lawsuit against the Southern Powerful Law Center be birthed by folks that live in and within and around Charlottesville for damage to their businesses, their community, their home values, and more. Judah, giddy up and get ready on that talking point anywhere you want to go. Man, I mean, definitely. I think they're, I think they should be held liable. I think that they've done, um, uh, they've done, far more. I mean, the harm they've done is incalculable. You literally

can't calculate the amount of harm they've done. And I think the money that they have spent paying these people is a drop in the bucket compared to the damage the damage to Charlottesville, the damage to, I mean,

Cina McGill, I believe her husband was injured. Tyler McGill. on August 11th, a UVA librarian hit in the head by one of the Tiki torch carrying Nazis that stormed UVA grounds, mental stability

and issue from that head hit. The former city councilor's husband. I think it's fair to say that you can draw a line from the from the action surrounding August 11th and and what brought it to our doorstep and the damage, the pain that was caused to Tyler McGill,

the death of Heather Heyer, I believe there were 35 other people that were harmed in the by the madman driving a car up, what, 4th Street. And where do you go? Who do you sue? If it's all, if it's all directly, if there's an arrow directly pointing back to the Southern Poverty Law Center, I think they should be held accountable.

Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts, put them in the feed, we'll relay them live on air. James Fields drove the notorious Dodge Charger into a crowd of people on August 12, 2017, what? 500 yards from here? Yeah, right around the corner. 600 yards from where I'm sitting right now. Killing Heather Heyer on August 12th, 2017,

by deliberately driving his car into a crowd of counter-protesters in downtown Charlottesville. Fields, a neo-Nazi from Ohio, was convicted of first-degree. murder and other state charges. He received a life sentence of 419 years. He also received a separate life sentence for federal hate crimes. Now we know the Department of Justice has brought this to everyone's attention

that the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has an office in downtown Charlottesville, and downtown Charlottesville, was paying hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars over the years. to third parties, to groups, to informants that were networked, connected, that were instructed to race bait, to stoke the flames of racial war, in and around not just Charlottesville, but all over the country. I, without question, see Heather Heyer, her mother, and the Heather Heyer Foundation. They, without question, should pursue some kind of legal. action against the Southern Poverty Law Center.

That's a slam dunk. A life was lost. You walk down 4th Street here in downtown Charlottesville. The memorial for Heather Hire is still significant, is still populated with flowers, with chalk art, with other tangible art on paper, on canvases. A memorial that still, to this day,

breathes and lives with momentum and positivity, mourning the loss of a young lady that had so much life to live. How much damage done to the Charlottesville brand, to tourism, to economic development, the racial tension it caused, the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the collateral damages of funding, the unite the right movement.

One clear collateral damage is the election of Nakaya Walker, to the mayor's office, that would never have happened if it wasn't for August 11th, August 12th. You may even make a convincing argument that Michael Payne would not have been elected. Michael Payne, if it wasn't for August 11th and August 12th, ladies and gentlemen, I ask you the viewer and listener, does the Charlottesvillian, does the Charlottesville business owner, does the Charlottesville homeowner have a class action lawsuit to damage to their brand, their home values, to their business values. We're taking a topic that is macro and national and localizing it to Charlottesville.

An office right around the corner from where I'm sitting right now, one of its satellite offices. Carol Thorpe watching the program, her photo on screen. Jerry, in my opinion, I doubt that Charlottesville and Almore County will speak a word against the Southern Poverty Law Center, let alone pursue any legal recourse. all of the leftist activists, movers and shakers, and elected Democrats march and partisan lockstep with the Southern Poverty Law Center. I doubt they make a sound. Of course not. They're probably just as liable or at least just as complicit. There's an interesting quote from Thomas Sowell where he says,

racism is not dead, but it is on life support. kept alive by politicians, race hustlers, and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as racists. And I think the most disgusting part of this is that as race hustlers, the Southern Poverty Law Center has been financially profiting for, do we have a timeline of how long they've been doing this? I mean, they've been profiting off of racism for years. If any other organization was involved in something like this, I think that they would be roundly despised and denounced by just about everybody. But there are enough people that I think are willing to overlook this for whatever reason.

Philip Dow, the mayor of Scottsville. He says West Bellamy was a big part of this. Carol Thorpe further adds, let us never forget the unofficial Democrat motto, the ends, justified the means. Nakaya Walker one day ago

on her Facebook page, the former mayor of Charlottesville, returning cops, SROs to Charlottesville City Schools continues the cycle of using racist myths to trap black kids. Donald Trump's administration indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center last week. Charlottesville City Schools and city leaders listened to a lot of the same type of people who filed fraud claims against the Southern Poverty Law Center. So much for being a progressive

and welcoming community. So much for being beloved. That was Nakaya Walker's post yesterday on her Facebook page claiming fraudulent claims filed. against the Southern Poverty Law Center. She thinks the claims filed against Southern Poverty Law Center are fraudulent? Oh, yeah. I fail to see any... There's viewers and listeners who watch this show regularly, comment on this show often,

frequently have pursued Judah with some negative criticism in the comment section of this show, who claimed in the last 24 hours, the attack on Donald Trump's life, this, what, the third time, was political theater, fabricated, formulated to shift the new cycle away from either I ran, the Epstein files, or other turmoil the president is facing in his second term, that it was nothing but political theater what happened at the correspondence dinner. I won't utilize the name. I believe you know who I'm referencing. You want to touch on that? I mean, it's all political theater at this point. To say that...

So you're saying what happened at the correspondent's dinner was phony? I'm not saying it's phony. I'm saying that... I mean, come on. You can't overlook the fact that... What was it? I think Trump pushed through the, like, 200 million something to finish his...

to finish the White House ballroom, like, right after this happened. I'm not saying it's connected, but there is so much that just, there's so much that reeks in government these days, that it's impossible not to think that it's all political theater, whether or not, and I do think that this was, I mean, they caught a guy, he shot a, he shot a secret service agent, the fact that he didn't get anywhere near the president is just, proof that the security was good at the dinner. He straight up was writing a manifesto and writing notes of how bad the security was around the D.C. Hilton and the correspondence dinner, saying he was able to check in with an arsenal, a cache of weaponry, go up and down back staircases to access the correspondence dinner.

Now, I want to highlight this. I had this conversation with my wife this morning. and be very straightforward here James Fields who drove a Dodge Charger into a group of into God knows how many people on 4th Street here in Charlottesville killing Heather Heyer

to then spend the rest of his life behind bars is the definition of an absolute loser he drives from Ohio as a young man in a new car in a brand new car a brand new car to Charlottesville to protest something,

kills someone, injures others, and is now in jail forever. Definition of a loser. Take this, is it Cole Allen, the White House Correspondents killer? Is that his name? I believe it's Cole Allen. Cole Thomas Allen. This guy is a California Institute of Technology graduate. he then pursues a master's degree at California State University.

He's a mechanical engineering wizard who works in the meantime or post-graduating as a tutor at a prep, as a SAT and ACT prep company. This guy takes a train, Judah, from California to Chicago, and then takes a connector train from Chicago. to D.C., bringing with him a cache of weapons to check into a high dollar hotel, to try to make a name for himself. This guy is such a loser that he spent money going across the country on a train, carrying his weapons that he bought for this sole purpose, does not kill a single person, does not injure a

single person. Thankfully. The one person he shot was wearing a super deluxe bulletproof vests. and now Cole Thomas Allen will forever be known as the loser who tried to kill some people in an attack in D.C. and did absolutely zilch zero or nada. This is the definition of a natural-born loser. The definition of a natural-born loser. I'll tell you who are not on paper as natural-born losers is the Southern Poverty Law Center. Deep Throat answers your question to Judah's question, the Southern Poverty Law Center, was founded, his photo on screen, Deep Throat in 1971.

They turned to suing the KKK as opposed to actual poverty issues in the late 80s when the KKK was pretty much dead. The Southern Poverty Law Center, since for two generations, knows how to play the game. Yeah. And has been funding race wars and race baiting. Yeah. Going back to Thomas Sol's quote, racism is not. dead, but it is on life support kept alive by politicians, race hustlers, and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as racists. Let me make it clear. The white supremacists, the KKK, all the nut jobs that descended on Charlottesville, with the exception of the nut jobs that identified as Antifa, all those white supremacist nut jobs, have done zilch compared to the Southern Poverty Law Center

in keeping racism alive in America today. Because nobody cares with those nut jobs who walk around with rifles and swastikas, and nobody cares what they think. They are dinosaurs of a bygone era. The only thing keeping them alive, the only thing, the only thing pushing the buttons on those, as people like the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Yeah. That are stoking the flames through financial payouts. Yeah. They're creating a job of this. Yeah. It's a job that's being created here. How often do you hear about, how often do you hear about any of the people that came into Charlottesville?

Because I don't think anyone believes that a single person standing on that, on the lawn of the Market Street Park that day, nobody believes that a single person there was a Charlottesville native. Handsome Hank Martin watching the program.

Then we'll get to Deep Throats comments. Judah Wickhauer's on point. He says, absolutely Jerry on all accounts. The Heather Higher Foundation, Sue, the Southern Poverty Law Center, absolutely on all accounts. Charlottesvillians and Almar County should class action lawsuit

the Southern Poverty Law Center. It's amazing to me. Pikeville, Kentucky experienced the same protest on April 29th, and that community and police maintain order. While here, chaos was purposefully orchestrated. So absolutely, yes,

the Southern Poverty Law Center must be held accountable. He also says, let's not forget former city councilor Kristen Zaycos first initiated all of what we ultimately saw during the summer of hate.

Hank Martin also adds, also worth remembering, Charlie Kirk was assassinated just months after the Southern Poverty Law Seder listed him and T.P. USA as a bona fide hate group. Deep throat. His photo on screen.

It is almost certainly too late for Seville to go after the Southern Poverty Law Center if there ever were a cause of action. But everyone here should take this as a lesson. Do not blindly trust activists. They, like every organization, have internal interests of their own that sometimes trumped their mission. The Southern Poverty Law Center has been known for decades as more a fundraising machine

than anything else. Morris D's founder forced out for rampant sexual harassment was a junk male genius. The Southern Poverty Law Center raises more money than they know what to do with. Their endowment is $700 million. And to Judah's question, founded in 1971, and he tells me, please dear God, stop with the Nakaya Walker. As you said, her free collection due to the August 12th, 2017 riots, she would be a mentally unbalanced, under-employed, under-educated, I'm going to leave that one out,

that no one pays attention to if it wasn't for A-12, 2017. She got elected as a part-time Parks and Rex department employee with no political experience whatsoever, but understood the concept of timing. Michael Payne got elected. These are now my words.

The Walker comments there, were my words. Michael Payne got elected while not really having a job, a part-time employee for Habitat for Humanity. He was living with his parents at the time and only very recently moved out of his parents' house. This is the same Michael Payne who killed the John Dewberry, Mike Signer, Deal, in the bottom of the ninth inning. Mike Signer, then on City Council negotiated a deal. John Dewberry agreed to it for parking spaces in the Water Street parking garage. And because of those guaranteed parking spaces that were below market spaces and some tax breaks, John Dewberry was going to build a boutique hotel in the heart of the

downtown mall. Michael Payne using racially charged August 11th and August 12th to his advantage, campaign and platform that John Dewberry, an out-of-market wealthy, white male developer, should not be given any kind of tax breaks or subsidized parking. He should build everything, boutique hotel as is because he's white, male, and wealthy. John Dewberry said, wait a minute. City Council negotiated a deal with me and promised me this. Now some kid who's living with his mommy and daddy and has never worked a job in a life and is running for counsel during a racially charged period of time is saying,

I'm a bad, terrible person, what's going on? That campaigning and pressure kept John Dewberry forgetting what was promised to him. And now we have the skeleton that is the Dewberry Hotel on the ball. I think you might like this. I found this last week. Somebody used AI to create. I saw that. You saw that?

You want me to put it on screen? Put it on screen. Put it on screen. This is an AI depiction of what we could have had. Tell us when we can look at screen. You can look at the screen. Look at the screen, viewers and listeners. This was circulating the interwebs last week

someone's artificial intelligence rendering of the John Dewberry Hotel. Michael Payne, the reason this hotel is in its current state right now. rather than... That should be a part of Michael Payne's legacy. That should be a part of Michael Payne's legacy. Is it still on screen? I just took it on screen. Put it back on screen.

Viewers and listeners want to see it again. This AI rendering, ladies and gentlemen, I mean, it's gorgeous. Yeah. Instead, we have rats with rabies and hobos peeing and pooping on a steel structure that is no longer structurally have the structural integrity for anyone to buy. Dewberry's got out-of-market brokers

trying to sell this steel structure of pennies on the dollar and no one's biting. This should be part of Michael Payne's legacy and its collateral damage of the Southern Poverty Law Center funding the Unite the Right rally. Ed Helms watching the program. He says,

absolutely. We should question whether it was political theater, what happened at the correspondence dinner, that he believes it's potentially phony. He says we absolutely should question it. Cynthia Hobbs, Bob Seffick watching the program right now. Like and share the show viewers and listeners. Let us know your thoughts. Conan Owen watching the program.

He says, A, I think it will be tough sell for city homeowners to claim their home values have been damaged. B, if Dekiah Walker and Michael Payne got on city council as a direct result of A12, the city should sue for damages. Tom Powell, the founder of Toy Lift watching the program. Carol Thorpe said Cole Allen had a master's degree in engineering. He was 31 years old and still live with his parents. He's a loser. Common theme here of living with your parents when you're a decade past graduating.

college. I will leave it at that. Judah cringes when I say that. You know I'm right, Judah. You absolutely know I'm right. Vanessa Parkhill, her photo on screen, the Queen of Ehrlichville. On the TV show Law and Order, a person who creates a contentious situation, possibly the Southern Poverty Law Center that leads to a death is often held equally accountable as the person who committed the actual resulting event in the death. James Fields in this case.

I doubt this will happen in Seville, however. Someone mentioned this to us today. That's what class action lawsuits are for. How is this any different than a parent providing a keg at their teenager's keg party that happens in their basement without them looking? And then someone drinking too much from the keg, driving away and dying. Yeah. It's a wrongful death lawsuit.

How is what the Southern Poverty Law Center did funding the Unite the Right rally any different than mommy and daddy trying to be the super cool parents buying some beer for their kids and their friends. The kids and the friends drink the beer. One of the kids is dumb enough to leave after consuming too much of it and wraps their Volvo, their Prius, their Subaru around a tree on Garth Road and dies. Any different? No.

A wrongful death lawsuit is a civil action filed against an organization whose negligence or, right here, intentional misconduct caused a death. Ginny Who watching the program. Ginny Who, thank you. Great point from Ginny Who. I'm going to respond to our tweet. Great point. I will mention this now. Ginny Hu, you are smart.

Joe Biden also said he ran because of Charlottesville. would Joe Biden, these are my words, have won if it was not for Charlottesville and the damage that Charlottesville did to Trump's campaign, his second effort? Sleepy Joe Biden, weekend at birdies, and whoever was the puppeteer beat Trump in his second term because in some part of Charlottes and the collateral damage from Unite the Right. Now, Trump never had to say what he said of good people on both sides, regardless if it was taken out of context, regardless if he was taken out of context or not. That was a media training faux pas, regardless if it was taken out of context, providing the sound bite to be manipulated. That's fair. Regardless if it was taken out of context. He could have said there were horrible people on both sides.

In a lot of ways led to him losing that second race. And some people would say that's a good thing. Viewers and listeners, if you're just tuning into the show, we have questions, talking points, subject lines that are challenging. And the New York Post yesterday afternoon writes these words in an 11-count indictment, the Department of Justice charged the group, the Southern Poverty Law Center,

with criminally defrauding of donors and manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred. As a result, America endured years of propaganda that convinced the large segment of the population that Donald Trump supported violent hate. An insidious lie, that did grave damage to the cohesion of our society.

The Southern Poverty Law Center did grave damage to the cohesion of America. What did the Southern Poverty Law Center do to the cohesion of Charlottesville? To the brand that is Charlottesville. To the economy that is Charlottesville. To the small businesses of Charlottesville. To the racial tension of Charlottesville. That's a topic that I want you to discuss with your partners, your friends, your kids, today, and tomorrow.

Hank Martin says that keg party analogy is 100% spot on. 100%. We have some other talking points that we want to get to today. We want to give some attention to Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company. The weather's getting warm. If you're thinking about building a swimming pool, there's one company you call, and at Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company,

you can find them online at Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company.com. They are the sister company to Charlottesville Sanitary Supply. Anything above ground, anything below ground, swimming pool related, anything water testing, anything pool cover, anything pool cleaning robots, or anything shade from the sun for your swimming pool, you contact Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company, the sister business to Charlottesville Sanitary Supply,

which has been in operation for, 62 years. It's been run by fantastic, trustworthy people, the Vermillion. Next topic, Judah Wickhauer. What do you got, my friend? Oh, the poor news, Virginia. Chris Graham in the Augusta Free Press, published this on his website over the weekend. There's many things that I absolutely find infuriating and disagree with when it comes to Chris Graham, his reporting and commentary. But I'm sure that's the case. case, viewers and listeners, with a lot of what we say on this talk show. And one thing I do appreciate

of Chris Graham is he makes me feel something when I'm engaging with his media. And media that makes me feel something, whether infuriated, whether agreement, whether disagreement, whether anger, whether I want to share this with people is the type of media I continue absorbing and returning to. and Chris in the Augusta Free Press is an example of that. Over the weekend, he highlights that his first employer, the News Virginian, currently does not have a single reporter on staff. And he asked this question. This is the question he asked.

Can you be a newspaper if you do not have a single reporter on staff? Zero reporters. Judah Wickhauer, take it first. I mean, this is hardly the first news organization that has largely been prompt up by, what, AP? No. No. The News Virginian is in the Lee Enterprises hierarchy family tree. Yeah.

Lee Enterprises is the largest newspaper owner in Virginia. Titles include the Daily Progress, the Roanoke Times, the Richmond Times dispatch, and the News Virginian. Lee Enterprises purchased the newspaper assets of Buffett Media, which at one time was owned by the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett himself. Lee Enterprises, their whole business model, and it's a crappy, terrible business model, is to take content that is peripheral to Shenandoah Valley or Charlottesville and publish the same content across all its titles. This model is failing. The Lee Enterprises needed a billionaire to infuse $50 million into its company to keep it from failing to meet debt service,

defaulting on loans, and basically crumbling under the weight of consuming debt. That billionaire and his $50 million infusion, he owns the Pittsburgh Penguins, he owns other sports teams, He's in a number of diversified businesses that complement each other. He's in real estate. He's in wineries.

He's in vineyards. He's in tourism. He's in a boatload of stuff. That $50 million gave him control of Lee Enterprises. Now his business model with Lee Enterprises is to try to rebuild the individual titles through, you know what? Through local high school sports coverage. He's of the mindset that he can.

resuscitate all these dying newspapers by pumping money into them to cover local youth in high school sports. And I'll tell you, when I went to UVA, my first job while a third year at the University of Virginia was as a part-time writer at the Daily Progress. And then my first salaried position was as a staff writer on Jerry Rackleff under Jerry Rackoff, the Daily Progress.com. This was in like 2004, 22 years ago. The passion for youth in high school sports is significant. If this guy is successfully able to get the daily progresses of the world, the news Virginians of the world, the Rhode Oak Times of the world,

to be the source of the source for high school sports. And I'm telling you, that is a labor-intensive business because you have to send reporters out to cover games. And those games usually are 30 or 40 miles from the newsroom. Some cases shorter, but oftentimes anywhere from 10 to 40 miles from the newsroom, and they take three to four hours before they're over, then you have to drive back and file. Maybe you file from the location from a hotspot with your phone on a laptop.

But that is a labor-intensive business. If he's able to figure out this business, he may get some traction. My bet is he's going to stop. He's going to get angry. He's going to get frustrated with infusing money into trying to scale high school sports. There's a reason this has not been done yet. Furthermore, I think the real truth or the real answer for covering high school sports at local levels is these substacks. We've rolled out substacks for Jerry Ratcliffe.com.

We're rolling out a substack now for I Love Seville.com. We're putting content that we find valuable on I Love Seville behind a paywall. It's $8 a month. If you want to subscribe for $8 a month and get content, you're not getting anywhere else. You're going to get content that you're going to find extremely valuable. If you don't want to pay the $8 a month, so be it. News is not free. It costs money to create it, to source it, to edit it, to produce it, to publish it, and to syndicate it.

That's the formula. I think the future of covering high school sports, the future of covering local news in general is small teams like ours. Covering local news. And there's going to be small teams like ours. even one person shops like Sean Tubbs that find their content verticals in individual markets all over America and take the content and put it behind a paywall, an $8 a month paywall, and create a business of it. I think teams like ours, which have infrastructure, like $75,000 in podcasting equipment and massive social media followings, can do content at scale. Content at scale is having number of brands under your umbrella, a sports brand, a real estate brand, a restaurant brand, a local government brand, an entrepreneurial brand, a politics brand, and putting them all under different paywalls, and saying, hey, here's our consortium of content verticals, pick which one you want to cover.

whatever it is, it's going to be $8 a month for you to do the price of a cup of coffee. And if people bristle, and yes, people are going to bristle because they think news is free. If they bristle, you push back and say, no, it's not free. It took us this many hours to produce this one piece of content. And if you don't want to read it, we don't want you as a reader. It took me forever to figure this out. My business is 18 years old in May. 18 years old, my firm in May.

I don't want to work with every client. I want to work with the clients that can afford $2.95 an hour. And so many times early 18 years in the early term of this company, I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, I'll do that work. I'll do that work. I'll do that work. I'll do that work. And then I found that no good deed goes undone. I found that the client that...

Unpunished. Unpunished. No good deed goes unpunished. Thank you. And I found the client that I discounted my rate for where they promised me that they would do well by us and they'd sing our praises and thank you for the discount and thank you for helping us out because we need it was the client that became the most difficult one on our roster. We caught our rate for them and they expected Mercedes-Benz service at a El Camino budget. And now the best word I know is a business owner. You know what that is? No thanks.

The word is no. You're not best fit for our company. We don't want to work with everyone. We want to work with the one that can afford our hourly rate because we can kick ass with the service we provide you, but you're going to pay our rate if you want our value proposition. And it's the same damn thing for content. You want to know what's going around in Charlottesville

or with UVA sports or with restaurants or with economic development or with politics or with real estate or with the closings that are happening, real estate transactions all over Central Virginia, it's $8 a month. The price of a cup of coffee, one sacrifice that you have to make over a 30-day period, is going to give you alpha an edge. News Virginian is not a newspaper. You are not a newspaper if you have zero reporters.

Chris Graham is exactly right. Leanna Prizes trying to take these ghost brands, these ghost town newsrooms, and prop them up on digital platforms as actual newspapers and then syndicate Lee Enterprise content across their various ghost newspapers or ghost newsrooms, that's bogus and the jig is up. People are too sophisticated. They realize that.

And the future of local news, the billionaire who are infused $50 million into Lee Enterprises, the future of local news is not to do local news from the top down, the future of local news is to do local news from the bottom up. The Sean Tubbs of the world that are creating a career or a salary for himself or a team like ours that actually has infrastructure and play and personnel and human capital that can do content at scale. There's no reason we couldn't have a sports brand with a real estate brand, with a restaurant brand, with a politics brand, with an entrepreneurial brand, with a deal-making brand,

and say, hey, this is what it's charged for subscribers, and you get 1,500 subscribers on this platform, 1,500 subscribers on that platform, 1,500 subscribers on that platform, 15 on that one, and 15 on that one, all at $8 a month. You've got a baseline of revenue coming in, and then you get 5 or 10 advertisers regionally that want to place their call-to-action message across all of them. That's a company. Content at scale. Carol Thorpe.

Nikail Walker self-immittantly gets subsidized funds for her home and worked as an hourly employee for a city swimming pool and yet she has a bachelor's degree in political science. Go figure. Jennifer leaves this comment. I absolutely love

the content you are creating and what you're doing with your I Love Civo brand and the direction it's heading, Jerry. Jason Howard. Post August 12th, if you ask a random person what they know about Charlestville, they will likely answer some version of Thomas Jefferson, UVA, and August 12th. Pre-Unite the Right rally.

I don't think that a violent event of any stripe would be in the top five for Charlottesville. Yeah. 100% right. John Blair's comment on screen. It's interesting to note John Blair's photo on screen. It's interesting to note that I was also a high school sports stringer for the Danville Register and B. When I worked there, I was told by a news reporter and the sports editor that people read the paper for the obituaries, the comics, and high school sports sports. Just an observation.

When I worked as the high school sports editor at the Daily Progress, I was at the time the youngest editor in daily progress history when I had the job out of UVA under Jerry Rackleff, the sports editor. I was in the meetings with the other editors, the city editor, the sports editor, the lifestyle, editor, the business editor, the Anita Shelburne who did the op-ed, along with the managing editor. We were all in the meetings together. According to the surveys, for months and then years while I work there, the number one red section of that newspaper was sports and it wasn't even close. The number two section was obituaries. The drop from number one to number three was monumental.

And still, the publisher, Lawrence McConnell, looked at us in the sports department as the red-headed stepchildren of the staff, even though we were the most read section of his paper. And he demanded that the managing editor at the time, Lou Hatter and then McGregor McCants, make a focus of the other, sections in their newspaper closing the gap with sports. I just sat in these meetings and I'm like, dude, you are nuts. If you want to drive value for the daily progress and if you want to up

subscription and advertising dollars, pour more resources into the sports department and allow us to cover more games. I said it once, then I said it twice, and the third time I got rebuked. Stop talking you 23-year-old. And then that's... That's when I started thinking about creating my own company. True story. Exactly how it played out. Next topic, Judah Wickhauer. What do you got?

We have Wingstop. Opening today, Ryo Hill Shopping Center. We broke the news. Wingstop, Rio Hill Shopping Center. The I Love Seville Network broke the news. The real we created went viral. Today is the grand opening. Wing Stop and Rio Hill Shopping Center.

I think it's going to crush it. Buffalo Wild Wings. Their wings are terrible. Their service is even worse. Wingstop is going to crush it in Rio Hill Shopping Center. Yes. One thing that astonishes me is the cost of wings. We were at salvage yesterday.

I think the cost of wings was $16. Six, maybe eight wings you got of the tiniest variety. So like two bucks a wing? Let me confirm that. Let me confirm that by looking at the menu. That's wild. I want to confirm that. Salvage.

Selvage is a great job. Throwing no shade at salvage in any capacity. Love salvage. Love their beer. They had the Simco for Sarah on tap yesterday. One of my favorite beers out there. We got a bucket of fries. We got the cheese sauce.

My wife got a beer. I got a beer. Then we got fries for the two boys with the cheese sauce. Out the door, I think our tab is like $38, $40.40. Not bad. Oh, do they not? Oh, here's their order online. Let me confirm the wing.

wings. Wings, $12 for the wings. Let's see if they have an account, a number you get. No, they don't. That's odd. No, it just says it's served with Feta. I think it's like eight wings. Six to eight wings. And they're not that big. They're damn good. They're damn good. Mike Bucenski watching the program. People many times equate expensive for good cheap cost equals low value same in lending and in real estate he's a mortgage broker Mike Buchensky Robert Caldini he's a PhD has a book called Influence the

Psychology of Persuasion that has chapters discussing this very topic Mike Buchensky did a great job on Real Talk with Key Smith on Friday what is Don Gather saying Don Gathers says who says it was taken out of context don't provide cover for him Jerry Oh, I think he's talking Donald Trump there, right? His photo on screen. Who says it was taken out of context? Don't provide cover for him, Jerry, as it applies to Donald Trump and what he said about good people on both sides.

Carol Thorpe responding to Don Gathers. Don, I'm not MAGA, nor do I vote for Trump, nor did I vote for Trump a single time, so I don't offer him cover. However, when one reads his entire, quote, very fine people, quote, statement, that single sentence was taken out of context and has different me than when the full statement is read in its entirety. Yeah, 100%.

You want to touch on that, Judah? I mean, I don't know the entire quote by heart or anything, but if you have actually bothered to do your homework and check the entire quote, you see that just before he says this, I believe he flat out, no equivocation denounces, white supremacy in no uncertain terms. And then he goes on to say that there were, I wish he had, I wish he had,

this probably would have made people just as angry, but I wish he had switched the terminology around and said there are horrible people on both sides of this. Because it's true. The whole conflict required two sides. Don Gathers, your thoughts on that. I will say this. any kind of media training.

And maybe that's why folks appreciate him. It's because oftentimes he's just shooting from the hip. But media training of any capacity would suggest you don't present how he presented with that commentary or with that line. 134 marker. What's the next headline? Next we have Chris Engel. All right. I'm going to be very straightforward.

City Hall is watching the program. City Hall is watching the program. Cine Hall is watching the program. Chris Engel, Economic Development Director, Chris Engel, Economic Development Director. I'll say it again. Chris Engel, economic development director, what exactly have you done for Charlottesville in the last 10 years?

Chris Engel, Economic Development Director, what have you done for Charlottesville? I'll be even more narrow since COVID. Chris Engel, economic development director, you've been on the job since February of 2012. Prior to that, you were the Assistant Director of Economic Development. Chris Engel, outside of riding the coattails of tourism, and Chris Engel, outside of riding the coattails of Almore County's wedding industry,

and Chris Engel, outside of riding the coattails of the University of Virginia, what have you specifically done from an economic development standpoint? I am struggling to figure out anything you have accomplished with your job, your career here in Charlottesville. I've lived in this community for 26 years. I follow and use as closely as anyone. I own real estate. I own businesses. And I talk to a lot of people, including an incredibly connected person that's come in your crossfire recently on the downtown mall today.

I ask you again, Chris Engel, what have you? you done of merit for Charlottesville City and it's time Sam Sanders and City Council actually start asking these questions of its econ development director Emily Kilroy in Almore County is beating him like a drum riding the coattails of Almore County tourism weddings vineyards and breweries and riding the coattails of the University of Virginia is not economic development and Chris Engel if you want to save your job And Chris Engel, if you want to actually get heat off of you, I would suggest that you step up and push a designated outdoor refreshment area for downtown Charlottesville that is around year round, at least monthly, maybe more often than that.

It worked flawlessly, flawlessly with Tom Tom. And anyone like the Nakaya Walkers of the world that say, oh, The designated outdoor refreshment area is allowed for white folks who want to drink on the downtown mall, but it's not allowed for folks on the margin who want to drink coal 45 or want to have their drink a choice on the downtown mall. That's bogus and that's BS. Can you explain the difference, Judah? You don't see a difference between someone cracking? Someone cracking, say that again.

Someone cracking a beverage of their choice, nilly-willie, or someone going through, protocols like getting a wristband or a designated cup, taking that wristband and designated a cup to a restaurant who's paying meals taxes, buying the drink from them and walking it up and down the downtown mall, as opposed to the individual that's going to the convenience store, buying a can or bottle and just poached, just sitting out of stoop and drinking? Yeah, of course there's a difference. Okay. I mean, I mean, first of all, we do it like you said all the time we did it with with Tom Tom they served beer at the at the Fridays after 5

it's just a matter of having the will to to make it happen and I'm sure that I'm sure that all the restaurants that already served beer would love to have would love to have the added income of people regularly stopping in to refurb fill a small plastic cup. Plus the meals tax associated with it to help the fund, help the city do its initiatives. I was reading Sean Tubbs.

Sean Tubbs does a great job. I was reading Sean Tubbs. Tonight, the city council, and I'm going to read it verbatim, is discussing CRHA, Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority, issuing bonds to Piedmont Housing Alliance, to the tune of $7 million in bonds for PHA.

So here you have the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority, excuse me, and counsel and $7 million in bonds to the Piedmont Housing Alliance over a development project called Kindlewood. I'm going to close with this. What are the accountability measures that are in place that keeps PHA in check with spending, with deliverables,

and hitting betch marks tied to performance and dates? Do they have any oversight? What is the accountability? I encourage you to subscribe to Jerry Rackerel, It's $8 a month for the best Virginia sports content possible. In about 15 minutes, this story is going to be published on Jerry rackliff.com that analyzes UVA football and how it did in the NFL draft. Jerry rackliff.com, that story is unreported right now.

$8 a month, the price of a cup of coffee. Judah Wickhauer crushes it per usual. My name is Jerry Miller. This is the water cooler of content and conversation.