Folk Fest Friday, Arena Fallout, and North Carolina Veterans in Focus on Carolina Cabinet

Peter Pappas: Well, everybody, welcome to the Carolina Cabinet. I'm your host, Peter Pappas, in studio with the lovely Laura Mussler. Hello, hello. Hello, hello. The music just makes you want to dance. It really does. It you know, it gets me going, you know. I look forward to this every Monday, every Monday, you know. And I look forward to seeing you every Monday too. Thank you. You know. So in studio we're being joined by Mr. Miles and I I'm sorry I forget your last name. Hi Miles.

Miles: All good. Miles McKeller Smith.

Peter Pappas: Miles McKeller Smith from the Arts Council Fayetteville and Mr. Tanner Port of the VFW North Carolina. You are the state regional chair for legislative Yes, sir. Okay. So we got a full cabinet tonight. But I asked Miles on this evening because we got a pretty big deal coming this weekend and I don't want to miss it. So

Miles: We do.

Peter Pappas: I kind of it's not as big as the Greek festival. I I don't know, man. I think they're giving

Miles: Yeah.

Peter Pappas: us they're giving the Greeks some competition over here. Okay. so

Miles: Gotta g gotta give some competition, you know a little bit. Chucks. Absolutely.

Peter Pappas: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you know, it's all on good fun and I think we all want to benefit our community. So so this weekend you're hosting the forty eighth annual international folk festival. it'll be starting Friday though, right? My so you

Miles: That is correct. So

Peter Pappas: have stuff. Go ahead. So tell us all about it, Miles.

Miles: Absolutely. So as you mentioned, this is actually the first time that we're going to be beginning the festival on a Friday. so we're going to start it with in partnership with El Centro Hispano and they will be bringing some performances and vendors down to the so excuse me, mainly performances down to Hay Street, and we're gonna just kind of get the energy going for the weekend. So if you come out on Hay Street anywhere between six and nine PM, you'll see a bunch of stuff going on. All the businesses will be open. for extended hours. for folks who don't know, we are part of the social district downtown. So meaning if you go to one of the restaurants or other participating social district locations, you can do things such as if you have a drink with a designated cup, you can come out onto Hay Street and just kind of experience the town, bring your drink around, come by the gallery. it's just gonna be a beautiful night. And the weather's looking beautiful for Saturday, for excuse me, Friday and Saturday. So Really looking forward to seeing how the people embrace this change and the shift. personally, I know I'm excited for it because that means we get usually just one hot day versus two. So it'll be nice to be outside at night and you know, get

Peter Pappas: I got you. Okay.

Miles: things going with some with some just good energy. and then,

Peter Pappas: Okay.

Miles: yeah, and then Saturday really is the day that folks know and expect when it comes to the International Folk Festival. at 10 o'clock.

Peter Pappas: That's the parade in the morning. Yay. Yay. I remember

Miles: That is the parade. Absolutely, Laura. So

Peter Pappas: much family f forced family fun time having to dress up in the Greek

Miles: Yeah.

Peter Pappas: fustanella, which is the dress for the guys. Yeah, it it's a fustanella. It's a force.

Miles: Yeah.

Peter Pappas: That's a soldier's uniform, by the way. I'm just telling you, right now. Okay. So you were

Miles: Hey.

Peter Pappas: wore a dress. Yeah, but I wore underwear, so don't get excited. Okay. Right.

Miles: Specifically for IFF though, it was a special occasion, you know? Forced family and free family fun as well. Gotta make sure we say that as well.

Peter Pappas: Yes. Yes. Nice.

Miles: The whole weekend. So and you know, I think that's the that's the really cool part about this. as we were talking before we went live, you know, I I graduated from high school here in the area and IFF is one of those things that whenever we came back to school every year, it was one of the first events we kind of had marketed towards us because again it was a free event, especially by

Peter Pappas: Mm-hmm.

Miles: that age, you're being able to drive around and go like get some food with friends. Like it's just one of the things we look forward to. So specifically though, the parade is something that I just kind of always notice was held in high regard from the public, even before I started working there. So it's just a great way to start the day. so that begins at 10 a.m. And then around noon, but just more specifically when the parade ends, we will open up the rest of the festival grounds. So festival park, the promenade, we're gonna have a ton of stuff. We have kids areas, the international cafe where you can get all kinds of foods, performances, just a little bit of everything for everybody.

Peter Pappas: So so w the parade is gonna be down Hay Street, down does is it gonna go around the market house or is it gonna terminate there?

Miles: loosely around the market house. There's currently

Peter Pappas: Okay, okay.

Miles: some construction going on down there. but there's gonna be a section of it that folks will be able to go around. But yes, the the Mariden area of Hay Street where it goes right past the arts council and then loops over. folks can go get their spots and that's definitely Prime's prime location to be able to see everything happening.

Peter Pappas: Okay. Well there's there's another event happening Saturday at eight AM at the botanical garden. This is not really for the fat kid in me. It says the around the world run. Is that a new thing? Is that it's not

Miles: That is not a new thing.

Peter Pappas: a new thing? Okay, so basically you get lean then you fatten them up during the twelve o'clock festival park food tour.

Miles: Something like that. You know, aga as I said, there's something for everybody this weekend. And so

Peter Pappas: Okay, okay.

Miles: the around the world run run, that's actually with the Friends of Civil Affairs. and they've been doing that for a while now. I'm not gonna sit here and make up a number for them, but it's been I know it's

Peter Pappas: Okay.

Miles: definitely been going for quite a few years. and you're absolutely right. And the cool thing about that is that folks have the chance to both do that in person, so you can show up to the botanical garden and do the 5K there. Or if you're

Peter Pappas: Mm-hmm.

Miles: somewhere else, for example, if you're stationed around the world or just in general no longer in Fayville, you did it one year and want to still participate, runners can do it virtually as well. So you can log your run and then just kind of let them know, you know, what you did. so it's just a really nice way to, as you mentioned, just get ready before folks go out and hopefully just eat a bunch of food. You know.

Peter Pappas: Shouldn't you be doing it Sunday after after you should do it after

Miles: Well that

Peter Pappas: after we feed ourselves Saturday? No, then you're tired and you want to

Miles: You know, I'ma have to let them

Peter Pappas: rest. Yeah, I guess you're right. I guess you're right, Laura. You get that that food malaise. Right.

Miles: And Laura and Laura knows why we don't have Sunday activated today this year. We gotta make sure people

Peter Pappas: Uh-huh, uhhuh.

Miles: come get it all on Saturday and then relax on Sunday.

Peter Pappas: So again, Friday is new for you guys and you're gonna be doing there's concerts down there. What about Saturday? Are there any music venues? Like what's going on? Is it just time

Miles: Yeah.

Peter Pappas: to eat? I will say that I like that they're loc they're focusing locally instead of bringing in out of town acts. I think that's very nice.

Miles: Yeah. Absolutely. And you know, I think that's really just speaks to a few things. One, the fact that this festival happens here in Fayetteville, it started back in nineteen seventy-eight. And really it was it it began based on a conversation around the cultural diversity that was found here in the area. You know, of course, Fort Bragg makes it just such a diverse area and also a fairly transient area in the sense that people get stationed, but then, you know, get stationed somewhere else down the road. But What we find is that a lot of folks come back to Fayetteville and they start businesses and they bring those cultures here. So some of the this the founders, Miss Martha Doell and Mildred Evans back in 1978, they were like, hey, you know, we got all of these folks here and representing all these different places around the world and all these different cultures, we should do something to celebrate that. so it's beautiful that, you know, I I know that we have brought acts from out of town before, but as Laura mentioned, you know, a lot of them are relatively local. not in Fayetteville, within you know a few hours drive. and and it's just beautiful to see them be able to bring their performances to the stage. But to answer your question though, Peter, there will be two performance stages on Saturday. So we will have one near the International Cafe and then one closer to the I believe in Festival Park. and yeah just an assortment of performances for music and dance just a bunch of different things going on And some wonderful MCs to get us through the day as well.

Peter Pappas: Well, I'm depending on you. I have a girlfriend that's relocating here and this is gonna be her first festival, so you better make a good impression. So she wants to stay in Fayetteville. Laura will back me up on that one. Well, she went to the Greek festival first though. And that didn't scare her off. Okay, there's more there was a lot of Greeks there. I mean, she you

Miles: There we go. We

Peter Pappas: know, I mean, really, you know, there was a ton of Greeks there. She didn't get scared off and

Miles: Yeah.

Peter Pappas: you know, she still came back home with me. So, you know, I guess that worked out. But so it it really was, it really

Miles: That was just the warm up, you know? That was the warm up.

Peter Pappas: was. You know, sometimes Fayette was a tough sell. But it doesn't have to be. It's a good place to be, good people, and like you said, very diverse. We're very fortunate

Miles: Yes.

Peter Pappas: to be here. So Ms

Miles: Absolutely.

Peter Pappas: Mr. McKeller Smith, sorry I jacked your name up in the beginning, but I really do appreciate you being here. especially at short notice, I was scrambling and finally got a hold of you. I appreciate that very much.

Miles: Absolutely. I you know, we really appreciate you guys making space for us on the show. And again, we hope to see you all out there this weekend and we're excited to see the community.

Peter Pappas: Abs you'll see me by the food tent, that's for sure. Yeah, buddy.

Miles: Ha ha ha.

Peter Pappas: actually, well how many different cuisines. Yeah, well different cuisines out there, yeah. How much representation you got? Yeah.

Miles: Yeah, I know between the parade and the food, over thirty nations are represented. So I don't remember

Peter Pappas: Okay.

Miles: specifically for food, but I'm having the two numbers kinda combined right now. So just a a bunch.

Peter Pappas: Okay. Thanks. Something for everybody, which is great. There you go.

Miles: Absolutely.

Peter Pappas: Well, Miles, a pleasure meeting you, pleasure having you on the show. I look forward to seeing you again here and hopefully I'll catch you this weekend. All right. All

Miles: Thank you, Peter. Appreciate y'all. Take care.

Peter Pappas: right. Thanks for coming. All right. Well, that was the fun part of the show, I would say. now we're it's all downhill from now. Is that what you say? I brought I brought good news. I feel like I so let's see. Well let's see, Laura. We we haven't even really spoken much in the last, you know, few days. It's ever since you got a job, like I don't see you anymore. I know. You know, I mean Monday through Friday, eight to five. Maybe that's good for you. I don't know. I don't you know I miss you, you know that. I I miss you. If I didn't if I didn't miss you, I wouldn't come here at I miss having somebody in the office to annoy me, okay? wow. What can I say? You know? I miss somebody that are in the office to buy me lunch every day. Well, there's that. You know, but see, Tanner, what you don't know, I'll show you the front office when we get done. where I sit, I've got Laura to the right through the door looking at me. And then sometimes I'm lucky to have my mom at the other desk. So I get daggers from both sides sometimes. Especially never daggers from Depending on what I say. Because allegedly I can say some dumb things. But Well, nine months ago, the commissioners killed a hundred and sixty three million dollar downtown arena because the price got out of hand. Last week the buildings they chose instead to renovate, the Crown Arena and the Crown Theater, got shut down. And the citizens board that's supposed to run them found out the same way you did after the decision was already made. Now I do need to make a disclosure. I sit on the Cumberland County Civic Center Commission. That is the citizen board that's chartered to run Crown Arena and Crown Theater. and I actually in the past week have been trying to research How the county got away with this because I'm about to make a stink. The Crown Center Board was chartered to be an operational board, not just an advisory board. they should have come to us to vote on when to close those centers. So what's happening is we canceled our downtown event center last year, that whole big empty parking lot that everybody's pissed off about. Yes, we lost some money. Yes, it was a mistake to cancel not can't whatever side you're on. It's done. It's not coming back. Now, it was canceled in lieu of renovating what we had. And for anybody that doesn't understand, we're not talking about the Crown Coliseum itself where the marksmen play. We're talking about the front buildings that front 301, the arena, and the theater. At the time, County Commission canceled the downtown project saying we can renovate these cheaper. However, now that we've done 3D imaging of the inside of the arena and theater now that we've done some invasive what they call exploration to find out what's really behind those walls. Mm-hmm because we don't have any as built plans and even if we did they probably wouldn't be any good. Now we're being told we're at eighty to one hundred million. nice. So now you know it it's getting out of hand. And as I said Well everything is out of hand. It seems like it. The board was not consulted before County Manager Greer came to our last meeting and said we're closing the crown on ten one. And there was no pushback at the meeting or I you were all flabbergasted and didn't know what to Would you have been opposed to it? To closing? Absolutely. I no, I did raise my opposition in the meeting, because I said, Look, how many events did we have where It to my knowledge, did you guys get funding to rebuild this thing yet? No. Well then why are you closing it and making money when we already have we have bookings through the end of the year anyway? So to me it seemed premature and I have been very vocal on that board. I feel like I was excluded the same way in twenty twenty five when we were excluded from the decision to cancel the downtown crown event center. And at that time, even Commissioner Burns called the exclusion a tremendous mistake at the time. our board asked publicly why it hadn't been consulted before that vote either. So this is a pattern of the county not following its own charter and it's just the beginning of this, unfortunately. Well, at what renovation price does canceling the downtown event center stop looking like the decision that saved us money? You know, I don't know. And the problem with the Crown Event Center downtown is that the project had morphed. I always joke around that no government project gets better with age. That's okay. If you plan it, you need to build it within eighteen months or just scrap the project because you get a new board that changes changes direction or changes what they want or wants to add their own imprint to it. And before you know it, it's it's not what it was. there was an old made for TV movie, HBO movie. It was called the Pentagon Wars, I believe. And it had the dude from Princess Bride in a carry L L Us, L U, whatever his name is. It talked about the Bradley fighting. Yeah. How the Bradley vehicle started in the 60s, being developed through the 70s and the 80s, and come to the 90s when they started testing it. Hey, guess what they did? They had screwed it so bad that when they got shot with a round, mortar round, whatever, it basically created a gas with the interaction with the metal that killed the people inside. That's nice. Yeah. Not good. Not good. Yeah. So is that not good? Yeah. Ten certain, don't recommend so that kinda is my I got a few people I want to put in there. Yeah. I think we could all find a couple of people in there. But at any rate, that's kind of my analog for, you know, no good government project gets better the longer you let it, faster. Well, what happens to all the graduations and the weddings and the concerts and stuff that we're gonna use that facility? W where do they go? So are they just like SOL? That's a good question. And I did raise that. So we have the Agra Expo Center that is convention space. And we do have the Crown the Crown Coliseum, mm-hmm, which d can accommodate smaller things. And the events that were happening October, November, December of twenty six are being mitigated to other venues. The one I didn't ask about and I should have is is the Fayetteville Liberty basketball team. Remember we had the gentleman in here? Yeah. he pretty much signed an exclusive agreement to use the arena. Wow. So I wonder where those guys are gonna be playing next year. Yeah. Because certainly not the Expo Center, I don't think. But I don't know. It this is a developing story and hopefully I'll bring you more later. So while the county figures out what to do with that building, they can't hold a concert. There is a state appeals court just decided who's allowed to run your elections. How about that? the State Court of Appeals to sum up, they have basically said they have confirmed that it is the right of the legislature to take like the Board of Elections away from the governor and give that to the state auditor. So the legislature, this this appeals court confirmed that the legislature does have the authority to do what happened. Well, you know what they're gonna do is what's gonna happen is gonna we're gonna get a Democrat for a auditor. Auditor, and then they're gonna wanna change it back. Yeah. And we'll deal with that when it comes. It's like we'll cross that bridge when it gets there. So all right. So let's talk about the the curfew here got credit. How about that? So Faiva leaders are crediting the youth curfew with a continued citywide drop in violent crime. they're building on the first quarter Fave of police department numbers that already got reported. homicides are down forty six percent with a hundred percent clearance rate, which we talked about then in the previous episode. but you know, do you get to take credit on a curfew for a time drop when you're just quiet about other numbers that maybe didn't move during that quarter? I don't think so. And I wanna part of the the thing that I have learned over my few years of life. Is that they change what they report. Right. It's not necessarily a crime drop. It's they change the what it is that they're reporting or what it is that's this crime or that crime or whatever. So I don't you can make the statistics look anything like you want. Well, fewer bodies, the city's pointing at the one policy and you know, we'll keep watching if the trend holds and hopefully it will. Very good. Well, regional acceptance corporation, a truest subsidiary, I can say that word. is closing its Greenville job. there's ninety seven jobs. It's closing Winterville, which is a hundred and fifty-six jobs. Offices right, Winterville offices. As truests an exit. my god, I got like the tongue twister. Are you joking with this? Exits near prime auto lending and sells a five point five billion dollar loan portfolio. A buyer has not been named, but layoffs are beginning around November thirtieth. Office closed by July twenty twenty-seven. So you might be wondering why I included that in a favour show, but you know, Truist calls itself a North Carolina company. there's two hundred and fifty-three North Carolina families that are gonna like to know how they're gonna pay for Christmas, I guess, coming up here shortly. Just laying them off right before Christmas. Yep, yep. So fresh poll numbers in the North Carolina Supreme Court race. that same Carolina Journal survey has Mr. Cooper up fifteen. It also shows Anita Earl's leading Sarah Stevens 47 to 36 for the Supreme Court. we are seven weeks out from the election, so if they want to regain some space, they better start working harder. Yeah. This is the least covered number on the ballot, and maybe the most consequential though. Mm-hmm. Well, there's four appellate races. You know, you need to look up all eight names before November. And we have had some and we will have more coming on the cabinet in the next few weeks. So that's lucky for us. And some national news. President Trump signed bipartisan le legislation September eighteenth, imposing new sanctions on Russia and expanding presidential tariff authority against countries buying Russian energy or helping evade sanctions. So we're trying to restrict Russian oil the same month that Iran related disruption already has crewed over a hundred dollars a barrel. Somebody better explain how both of those don't hit the gas pump real soon. Well, we'll be checking the prices at the pump, but You know, it's a fragile market. And you know, the thing about our markets that you gotta remember, they're they're they're based on human beings emotions a lot of times. Yep, that's sometimes not in fact. You know, they're just like back when we didn't have a president, during the hanging chat incident in two thousand or whatever. You know, the markets just went nuts. Was it hanging chat or dangling? Dangling, hanging, whatever. Participal, whatever. Okay. so I'm gonna skip the last one here. So one more conversation before we get to tonight's special guest, Mrs. Wheatley, that will be releasing her recorded segment later. Okay. and this one we wanted you to see live. So eighty-five North Carolina veterans lost their nursing home to black mold and a failing roof. Two and a half years later, a bill to give the state new land on Fort Bragg to build them a new one just passed the house. And it's sitting in the US Senate right now. So live in studio, we have the man watching it for the VFW. Tanner, welcome. Hey, thank y'all so much for having me. I truly appreciate it. yeah, it's a it's a unique story. I mean, y'all just did a pretty solid recap about partisanship and and like all the things we have to deal with government, and yet here we have this one piece of legislation that that garnered the support from every single congressman inside of our state. all seventeen of and we're grateful for that. and then also took a very a huge bipartisan push from the state house to get it allocated inside the budget. So we're grateful for that for Representative Wheelies and and really all of They, you know, Senator Jackson up there on the budget committee making making sure this stuff got funded. and then the feedback, I I just came back from Washington, DC last week. We were up on the hill for some other stuff and I I talked at at length with some of Representative Hudson's senior staffers and Extremely complimentary of Governor Stein and the secretary for for staying on top of this being able to paint a picture for Congress. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. Yeah. You mean we have a Republican congressman that dared to compliment and work with a Democrat governor? That's crazy now. It's that was well, I will say that it w does work one way. Republicans will work with Democrats. I wish it worked both ways. Let's take it easy on Tanner. He's nonpartisan. But yeah, I mean I I appreciate that you brought that up. Yeah, no, I think that it's it that was one of the reasons I I reached out and it's one of the things it kind of caught off caught us off guard. Obviously we're up there dealing with some other major issues like the Major Richard Star Act and Take Care Veterans Act, these national issues that are extremely have have fill us in a little bit 'cause we don't know the jargon. Yeah, so there's let me give you bet let me finish let me tie this one in a bow and we can talk about our other legislative efforts. it's critical the House has done its part and it has pushed it to the Senate. in the conversations on the Hill were and at risk of some of this partisanship we've seen is that it'll sit in the Senate. Well, here's the problem. And this is what I'm giving a lot of credit to the bipartisan effort is they have lined this thing up. and a lot of reps like Hudson, Harrigan, not is the original sponsor of it. But like I said, the entire coalition or the entire delegation from North Carolina is behind this. They've lined it up with the VA. so all you hearing out there that are thinking about these eighty five veterans from nineteen counties that we have spread. three sheets to the wind right now. Some of them are staying in people's houses, some of them are in other facilities. the state has set across forty million dollars to to help fund this building. The problem then became well, where do you put it? Right. And so they've sliced off 20 acres in Harnick County off of the the backside of Fort Bragg there. and essentially it's a very simple deal. It's literally that the Secretary of the Army can do can transfer property to the state. The reason that that is critical that that happens quickly Knock on wood, hopefully before the election, which it absolutely could happen if we can get enough momentum and awareness on this, is that the Veteran Affairs offsetting grant deadline is April 15th. Now, the Veteran Affairs is ready to receive this bill, and then they know that the state's ready and they're racked and stacked. So for for just in for anybody that follows this, and I and imagine most of your viewers do, the what has happened is essentially These reps and the state have all worked together with the governor, with the Secretary of Military Affairs here in f in North Carolina to line up the bureaucracy to be able to do this rapidly, right to your other point where we talked about, you know, don't get it done and then get it built. This is line this is looking, you know, knocking on wood and cautiously optimistic that has been lined up to be able to facilitate this ha fast. and that the sixty-five percent gr cost of the grant, the VA's ready to make that happen. Everybody acknowledges this is a problem. This literally just it's in the Senate Armed Service Committee at this time. we need some sponsors, we need it quickly. Representative Pat Harrigan did suspended the rules on the House floor and voice voted this thing to get it out of the house. We've had some leaders take some initiative here. we are hoping that the Senate will continue that. Are they in s are they in session? They are. Right. So the house bounced. So that was a you know, we whatever. So if I put a call to action on this, for this evening's once I repackage this and put it out, who do we need to be calling? I think I think Senators Bud's office is engaged. Obviously, Senator Tillis still has some some influence. but really it's gonna need we'd love to see it bipartisan across just like we saw it come out of the house. Like that's just it's a simp it's a very short bill. So literally let the Secretary of the Army transfer this piece of property. Senators but others. It'll take the that's yeah, we've we're we're working with some national outlets to try to bring some awareness to it. It is a very much a North Carolina thing. But if but it the good news is that people here in North Carolina have know people all over the country because we are a transient town and having military. So if you have friends, call your friends and tell them to call their senators. Yeah, and let's get this thing done and on the president's desk. Because really that's just step one. Like we the faster that happens than the rest of the bureaucracy, which By all accounts and and from you know the senior staffer level, they're they have worked this and the governor's absolutely from yeah, to your point, absolutely wild to hear, you know, I sat in a couple different reps' office, nothing but rave things to say about the governor's been proactive in this effort. So as the secretary, let's just get this done and not let it die in the Senate amongst all these other kind of issues that we kind of see. So again, I will put is there a website that we can send people to that Yeah, I'll track it. I mean, you can track the bill HR one one dash five nine. If I don't get me wrong. Well, I mean you the VFW has, I'm sure, advocacy. Yeah, well so this has happened so fast we haven't that's one of the reasons I'm grateful you came on the show. or let me on the show is cause we haven't we haven't had a chance to package like RPR for it yet because it it kinda we were up there and then we heard rumblings. Hey, we're just gonna go on the House floor and see if we can get it past voice vote. And then it happened and it was like, and then we just got back. So yeah, we're gonna you will see some some verbiage from us. We're absolutely in favor of it. We'd love to see it happen. Well, you and I will stay in touch and we'll track it and I'll try to have this episode syndicated out as soon as I can so we can get that out. but one thing and forgive me if I'm stupid on this, but we've had Senator McGuinness in here recently and he said that we got money to renovate this damn thing. Now you guys are talking about land to build one. So what happened? So this is it's been it it's evolved very much like your your when we talked about the crown. and so They essentially came back, hey, we're gonna renovate it. The cost came back. That's not really gonna work. It's extremely you know, we've had two hurricanes just decimate this thing. The damage is is so great. and so then they started looking. So that was one of the the holdups for what we didn't know. When I first heard about this, I thought they were gonna put on striker golf course because that was like in my head, I was like, That place makes sense. Well, if we can't put a school there, we'll put it. Yeah, you'll put a veterans home. Yeah, but then it came back. No, this is coming out of Harnett County. And it the state took a while to work through their permitting process to show, hey, this is the the most appropriate piece of land. The army had to say, you know, you even though the army hasn't officially blessed off on it yet, the army did the background homework to be like, no, this is the piece of land we're gonna give you. So all that has been lined up. And so yeah, no, I I think the first iteration of the budget, they saw it as a a renovation and then realized quickly, no, it's gonna be a new one, which then led them to the VA grant. process which is what built it the first time back in the mid nineties. So this is the one on Ramsey Street that you were looking to renovate and now it's gonna be nothing? Brand new. Brand new. Is it gonna be expanded like more beds or anything? I think that we're getting up to that that one is like a sole single room. I think that the occupancy, if I remember correctly out of Bill, is gonna look about the same. but obviously in a not in a floodplain. And a nicer. Small little requirement you want on your new building. Okay. More to follow and and we'll be pushing out information as we get it. But again, like very the crown thing, very fluid situation. but there's no reason for it to die in the Senate, and that's what we're we're advocating for. It's like guys, get let get out of the way so bureaucracy can obviously there's gonna be other hurdles we have to get through, but Okay. So we've had some pretty good conversation, you and I in the last forty eight hours, I think. what was the other thing that you're pushing for it had to do with VA entitlement not entitlements, but the the predatory people. yeah. Tell us tell us. My friends. yeah, this is great. So there's a for those of you know out there in Southern Pines, there's a lovely company called Veterans Guardian. Veterans Guardian is owned by two lovely gentlemen who are retired colonels or lieutenant colonels, and I thanked them for their service. but they operated or one of the top five, but definitely one of the largest claim shark companies. in the country. Claim shark. Yes. and so people will probably say, well that's not fair to say about them. Well a federal judge did it. So back here in May 20th, now the VFW has been advocating for for that VA accredited provide essentially d do the claims process. Okay. If I if I'm a veteran, sorry. I no please if I'm a veteran and I get out of the military, how would I Would I be approached by one of these people? Like how does that work? I'm I'm looking to get more disability or Yeah. So essentially what happens is it depending on how you retire, and this this goes to another one of our pieces of legislation, which we call the TAP Promotion Act, but basically outline to veterans during the TAP process. So their transition is a assistance program process that you would find out and talk to a VA accredited VSO. And or ver you know, veteran service officers. I don't think we can do this without acronyms. Yeah. I'm gonna do my best. So I wonder what that means. Neither well, you were military. I wasn't. Yeah. So there's veteran service. I'm in a veteran, you'll hear VSO a lot and it gets misused. Like so I'm in a veteran service organization. I'm not a veteran service officer, right? Veteran service officers are accredited by the VA. and so essentially they can prepare, help you. essentially work through your VA claims, so your disability claims. They do a lot more than that. And I I generally try to advocate on that because everybody always just thinks disability pay. But what's the cost for me to use that? It is free because they are taxpayer funded. And so where do these other guys come in? Well, I if you could think about now I I I strike myself as a you know as a entrepreneur and a capitalist. but I think the inherently conservative position is the the VA and the VA as itself as a part of national defense, which you know Adam Smith says is one of the two like sovereign things that we have to offer in a country. it was never meant to be a market, right? And so what we have now is we have bad actors that come in, like this company, and then there's others, essentially come into the space and they and I I characterize it as their arsonist playing firefighters. So for those of you don't know, here in Cumberland County you have a veteran service officer that is their pay is set by the county commissioner. salary, right? They're right over there downtown. On Russell Street. Yeah, on Russell. Yeah. And so they're right there and they're they're paid for by our taxpayer dollars. There's also volunteer organizations like the VFW has accredited VA and the American Legion and there's others out there. So volunteers do pick up a lot of the slack. There's also VA accredited lawyers. here's where the difference is a VA accredited lawyer and even some of these other like a a volunteer or somebody that's preparing, there is a let's say the county works out a deal where they're gonna contract some of these people. They're on a set fee schedule, right? Whatever VA claims consultants do, and that's what they'll call themselves, they'll call themselves consultants because it's illegal for them to prepare your claim. What they'll end up doing is they'll go into the mix and they'll say, Hey, we're not preparing this. We're just gonna help you, right? And they're gonna put big air quotes over that. and then what essentially happens is is they can take so for instance, this one company's pay scale, Let's say you're a 10% disabled veteran. Now disabled sounds wrong, right? We should really for those that don't understand VA disability, think about it like workman's comp, right? It's not disability does just because you're 100% disabled does not mean you cannot go to work, right? It's just essentially an equation that the VA uses to say, hey, this is what your service connected things that happen to you, whether it be concussions, herniated discs, whatever it is, they have an equation that runs for all that stuff. and and it gets really nerdy and I don't wanna go bore your crowd. But essentially it it can be a signific I I say significant to some of our most at risk people. If you take a veteran that has ten percent, they let's say they just get out of the army. They go they do four years, they get out the army. they have tinnitus, so the earring and one and they get ten percent for that. Okay, fine. That averages let's let's call it two hundred bucks. Just to keep math simple here, y'all don't don't quote me on any of this, please. Right. There's companies out there that specialize in in we'll say it coaching, mentoring. some of them have doctors on the payroll, some of them don't, some of them, you know, know the right verbiage with the onset of AI. We've seen a dramatic increase in this. But they know how to influence and what for lack of a better term, kind of game the system. Right. But let's say you were just legitimately that so that's a piece of it. So I I I don't want to I it's not I won't I'll stay away from the fraud aspects of it. What we see is let's say we had a guy that was at 10% that never got to meet a VSO, right? They never saw one for whatever reason. This company and they go and they f they hear from a buddy, hey, you you really should go to the VA. They start doing this. They're gonna get inundated with ads from these types of companies. Can be like, hey, we'll take care of you, right? So then that this particular company, their business model is the they charge five times the increase that they receive. Well, what does that look like? If you take a guy from 10% to 100%, that ends up being around $2,000. All right. Now do that at scale. Right. And then you start to see why we see so much money flooding back, especially when we talk about national legislation here, the Choice Act. Think bills of this nature that would codify this l business practice. And so what where I say that they have arsonist playing the firefighter is it's like that what do you think their advertising budget is versus the count the Cumberland County VSO is, right? Like what how does the Cumberland County VSO get out and educate people? Like you don't have to go cough up two thousand dollars of your money. Does it sound even crazier? The in the court case in the class action that they just got a summary judgment against them in Greensboro back in May twentieth, one of the there's fees of up to twenty thousand dollars. See, I I have heard of one that where they say that they'll get you more but you pay the Like 'cause I guess the VA pa back pays you from when you filed it. They say they'll take all of the back pay. Yeah. And then when when you get approved, then you just get it from there on out. Yeah. Which can be wild because that and then so that's some of the the business practices we've seen is they'll sit on it for months, right? Instead of just processing, okay, you do your initial claim. So that's what they're they're referring to when they talk about the VA, be like, Okay, we did your initial claim. Now you have X amount of days to like work through all the paperwork. Well, if it sits on their desk. That's more than And then they turn it in and then they'll take that. So there's a couple different ways we've seen them apply these different kind of things. I absolutely it's disgusting to me, like candidly. but then we saw last year in the omnibus bill from the North Carolina state house, General Assembly, pass Senate Bill one eighteen that codified this times five language. Now I'll leave it to your viewers to to take a guess on how the exact business model from a southern ponds company ended up. in legislation times five, literally their business model. Fine. and then if you ever want to if you ever want a class on FEC or how to track campaign funds, I can give you one. But essentially that bill got in. Now when we brought that to the attention of key, you know, Senator Jackson, some others not super thrilled about it, but the nature of politics, right? That was an omnibus built. There was a mil there was so much good stuff in it. Like it becomes, you know, trigger warning, I guess for those it's a suicide pact between the reps at that point of like, well I remember talking to McGuinness about it, Senator McGinnis, and he was like, Well, I voted for that. And I'm like, Well, y'all all did. And I don't and I don't fault any rep for that, right? There was a lot of great things in that that Veterans Act. but we're our major push, especially now post the court case, because we have a federal judge ruling on it. and interesting in that, what happened was is the the state bill got brought up in the court case. So that was a class action lawsuit that went all the way back to 2019. This particular company has had two cease and desists from the Veterans Affairs. They've testified on the Hill. they're movers and shakers. And so essentially what has taken place is that everybody from October 1st, when that law was passed, was not allowed to be in the class action lawsuit against them because the state of North Carolina made this business practice legal. Now, I I firmly believe that the General Assembly didn't appreciate. what was actually happening. Like I mean, I've talked enough with the reps and the senators up there. Th there, you know, there there's clear regret. and and I'm extr I'm cautiously, if not extremely optimistic that we will we will rectify this in the upcoming long session. But this is the number one priority at the state level. We have different national levels in the VFW. But our commander Mickey Biggs, this is our number one priority to get this rectified. Get us a home and get us away from the predatory VA service people. Yeah, th it's and and to be started by two lieutenant colonel retired too. They know better. They absolutely know better. And then hi guys. You know, this is our money. I mean, this is you know, we talk about how much we spend on defense and VA and all that. They're just they're helping grift off the system. Okay. Well, that's one way to see it. Let's play the devil's advocate. If I'm if I really am disabled and I apply, because I kn do know people that have applied and they get turned down and turned down and be like, but wait a minute. And there is somebody that there is to help them as opposed to the person that was helping them. Does it really hurt you? Yeah, I think that I mean I've had that field of that question quite a bit. And and what my response is to it is like you will never hear the VFW say we do not need VA reform, that we do not need standardization amongst VSOs, that we do not need to look at federal match funding for the counties, because some counties don't have them. It's hit or miss, right? It's a test, it's just like anything. Like, yes, there's oversight. There are plenty of ways that we can you know improve that process. I think with the onset of AI and machine learning and some of these other things that the VA is getting better at this. but that's why you're seeing such a mad dash and a rush from some of these companies to throw an exorbit amount of money around, DC especially, to hurry up and codify their b business model. I'll give you a prime example. And this is what I've told to every entrepreneur out there. If their system was legal, why wouldn't they go sell it to the counties? You know what I mean? Like I'm being as an entrepreneur, like the county's not afforded. No, I mean I mean, you think about the back if you went to a county I mean, y'all know a little bit about Cumberland County budget stuff. If I went to the county commissioners and say, hey, for the lowly fee of X and it won't be much, right, I can increase the output of your VSO by two hundred percent because they're able to do twenty claims a day versus the one that they're like grinding on. Right. And so that's It when you get back to the service member side, because most of these claims shore companies are owned by former veterans. That's where personally, as a veteran, I kind of get offended. It like, guys, you could work to fix this problem. Like I have no doubt you could you have the sol you it by all accounts you know how to do it better than these other teams do. But why? Because here's the thing they could get VA accredited. They don't want to. Right. Now I'll leave them that to answer, right? The accreditation might make them run a foul or something. I I mean you'd have to ask them. Okay. I mean, out of one of the owner's mouths he said, you if they were in a perfect world we wouldn't need to exist. Well, okay. Fair enough. Okay. but yeah, I think that that's that there's ways forward for them. but they've been given these this specific company was given every opportunity to get on the plane or get on the train to get VA accredited and they chose not to. Okay. So but I we we could always do better at the VSO level for sure. And I think that I think anybody that's being an honest broker, has to admit that. So best advice for a veteran if they're watching, what would you like them to know about this whole situation? what would you suggest they do? first of all, reach out to your co I mean this goes across you know more than just Cumberland County, but the your first stop really needs to be your county VSO. Yeah but that's one person. You've got thousands of people wanting to Yeah no absolutely and then what well I'm saying exactly right and so and then after that they're plenty of other there's a the VFW runs a website where we put you in touch with VSOs, right? And then so so and we got a lot of work to do on the county level to make sure that like cross county VSOs, like so for instance, Ann Knowles out there in Sampson County, her ability to be able to process claims from Cumberland County veterans, right? There's stuff that can be done. I just find myself in the advocacy space always advocating a you know the the companies and entities at play here. lobby against those efforts, right? And so that's kinda why I've I've coined the art well not coin, but the arson is playing a firefighter thing. Like they they fight actual reform at every step to keep the cha the the chaos kind of going. but yeah the V A the VA dot gov and you and they will absolutely walk you through. Just go to VA.gov and they'll walk you through the process and then put you in contact with somebody. Do you think a lot of the victims of these companies or whatever clients, do you think that's their first stop on the train of getting their VA disability increase, or do you think they got frustrated with the processes available for free and said, What the hell with it? I think and I don't want to misquote Secretary Collins, the Doug Collins, the VA secretary, said something up to the effect of sixty percent and this is I'm cross streaming here, but like sixty percent of our veteran suicides have never had contact with the VA. Right? Now that gets back to the one of our other legislative efforts, which is the the Transistent Assistance Program Promotion Act where we standardize across all bases what it looks like when you get out of the army or the or any service. And so and that's one of Doug Collins's the Secretary Collins's big things is like one of his major initiatives is trying to make it more well known how to get with this stuff. And and so you understand what all your your what's the word I'm looking for rights are essentially in the VA. Mm-hmm. And so that's what th there's a lot of work left to do there. But yeah, but I I think most of hear about it word of mouth. They're they do a lot of advertising. but yeah, I most veterans I talk to don't know that there's a county V SO. Like that's pretty common, right? So if I can sum up, I mean if I were a veteran and I got out, I transitioned out of the military, I think I should start locally. Yeah. Google veteran VS what do I what do I I would do just go to VA dot gov, like the the veteran affairs website will will bring you into the ecosystem because that you as it once you get out as a veteran, like it's supposed to happen during TAP, right? Where you kind of get an account and everything like that and then go through that process. And then if not, your nonprofits, you know, the VFW, American Legion, all have VSOs that can absolutely if you go to the VAA, there's a VSO hanging out in the lobby over there on Ramsey Street and on Rayford Road. Like so that they are there, but you do the how do we get that job just to hang out? Well, yeah, I mean they're dealing with some stuff now. but yeah, they and those are the volunteers though. Right, right. Right. Those are volunteers that are hanging out to try to provide the information to veterans. But yeah, if that's the you know, if that's the rub is how do we get the word out? and a lot of it to me goes back to the county VSOs, but the the non profit VOs are are are doing our best. Well, they're drowning. I mean they they can't compete with not at all. for profit enterprise. But well, Tanner, I mean, that's very interesting. I'm glad you were able to join us this evening for our live last minute. Like that's the way Peter does things, I guess, these days. I appreciate you. but you know I'll like to have you back and hear your other priorities maybe quarterly basis or something. Not to give you homework or anything. I would love to be a yeah we this is a major push for us this year is to to make sure everybody understands what's going on in the veteran legislative space, especially in the in this area. I I was gonna say, yeah, in this area, I think VA outreach is pretty important. So Yeah. Laura, any questions for you? Nope. No? I ask my questions. Well then you know what? That is the live block. So here's what's behind the door. Cumberland County's own state representative, Diane Wheatley, sits down with us tonight. 30 minutes to make her case. We're gonna ask her questions other people are afraid to ask, and then we're gonna let her actually answer them because that's what the show's for. It's free. It takes four seconds. Like the page. Follow us on Facebook. Subscribe on YouTube. Newsletters at the website. See you later.