Heated Debates Over Police Demographics, Utility Rates, and Election Board Scandals

Peter Pappas: Well, everyone, good evening and welcome to the Carolina Cabinet. I'm your host, Peter Pappas in studio with the lovely Laura Musler. Hello, hello. Hello, hello. And we need to look at this in the background music the whole time. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Until I turn it all the way down. Okay. Yeah, see? Okay. You almost had two intro musics hidden at the same time. So Mr. Paul Taylor is here joining us. he's gonna sit in on our live session. I told him he doesn't have to participate if he doesn't want to, but welcome, Mr. Taylor. Thank you. Very good to have you here this evening. So here at the cabinet, we know this is the smartest hour of radio and we're here to serve the conservatives of Fayetteville, Cumberland County and beyond. So with that, Laura, what's new? What's new? Let's see. Long weekend. Long weekend. Lots of work. I worked seven days this past week. Yeah. Okay. Well, some people say that's what you gotta do with good life in America these days. you gotta get a you know, hoping hoping to get ahead one day. Yeah, yeah. Well. I had a busy weekend. I heard. helping helping have a birthday party for two young ladies that are turning ten and eleven. Nice. It's a busy weekend. And they were born on the same day? No, it's they were born like a month apart. Okay. So mom picks a birthday or picks a day in between. Okay. They still get their own days. So they get presents on their days. Okay. But the party is like in the middle. Okay. And Dee's birthday is the ninth. So her kid is the eighth, she's the ninth, and her other one's a August twentieth. So it was a good party full of Filipino food, lots of pan sit and I miss my my Libya and I have leftovers. you know, I I bring you lunch, I'll make you a lunchbox. Well, she's a little bitter about that, don't you think, Paul? you know. Just saying. I mean I was working anyway, so I couldn't have come, but it would have been nice just as an obligatory yeah. Right. Just say, come on. Yes. Okay. Yeah, I I see your I see your look of disdain over there. I get it. I know. Okay. So just saying. He'll make it up too. I I I will try always. I do. He always says. He's a good guy. I just bust his jobs. Yes, yes. And she's very good. He keeps me around, so he must like it. Paul, honestly, you need friends around you that do not let you stray too far from you know reality. Letting your head get too big, I guess is what I need to say. Pop the pin, right? yeah. yeah, for sure. Well, guys, we have a few interesting things to discuss this evening on the live. let's talk about City of Fayetteville police report came out. now in before anybody in this county's gonna say one negative word about the police department of City of Fayetteville, we need to give credit to these guys. I mean, they have a hundred percent clearance rate on homicides. That is not normal. I think the national average is somewhere like seventies. I thought it was six like sixty one percent. That's low. It's very, very low. so so far this year they're claiming fourteen killings and fourteen have been closed. Mm-hmm. So that's Chief Brian's department doing real work. but there's a second number. And how do we talk about this? Well first traffic. I would like I would like to focus first of all on on murder rates because as you know, my son, for those of you have who know me, my son was murdered and they closed my son's murder. so for those people that have people their loved ones were murdered, that means a lot. It does. So bravo to the police department. Yes. Your son's murder. Yes. Okay. But okay. So but here's the thing. The department doesn't have to keep publishing the traffic stop numbers. Okay. Okay. The state stopped requiring it and they keep doing it anyway. That tells you something. But it also means that we actually have to look at what they've published, not just applaud them for publishing it. So let's get into the numbers. Okay. So according to what I've got, Fayetteville Police Department, the result, they're saying that black drivers were sixty-two point twelve percent of traffic stops versus being only forty-one percent of Fayetteville's population. Okay, now just that if we're gonna be into demographics, then we need to be in demographics through the whole report. All right, explain. Because we're gonna get into where there's a report of violence being up. What are the demographics on that? Because we're we're only forty one percent of the the black community, right? Well, what percentage of the demographics are committing the violence? Unfortunately, that's gonna be African American. Okay, well then why is it okay to do the demographics when we're stopping people and we're pulling them over and trying to prevent crime or maybe Whatever they're doing, lights out, whatever. Okay, so we're we're harassing the black people. But then or African American people or Mexican people or whatever, and we want to do demographics, then why when we talk about the violence? we don't need to know the demographics for that. Okay, so you're you're noting that in this report they did not break down the other No crimes by race. Only the trap. Well, so now I can I can give you a little bit of background on this. Now the whole driving while black thing back in the nineties, I believe. it came about and there was a sitting city councilman at that time that got pulled over and was less than respectful to the police. Well, there's your first problem. He it was more of a don't you know who I am type of thing. That's that's the second problem. Which is just dumb. But anyway. yeah, I know exactly who you are. You're breaking the law and you're not above the law. he started this this crusade or this this mission to find out are black folks being pulled over more disproportionately than white guys? Are they being pulled over disproportionately because they're breaking the law more or just because they're black? See, I I would hope that's not because of the I I think it's the law breaking because now look, what constitutes a law break when in a traffic stop? Speeding, tags are out of date. I you've Tinted Windows. Yeah. I mean you give I've been pulled over for tinted windows. I have a waiver though. Yeah, you have a waiver. See, so you gotta be smarter than the average bear. That's exactly right. So to all of you with tent on the window, you see smarter than the average bear. Okay. I don't know. I I think that the publishing of the traffic stats is just to kind of keep quelling that question mark that people have in our community. No, it's a way to divide the community period. End of full story, full stop. Okay. If we stop focusing on demographics, then we'll stop focusing on demographics. If you're a rule breaker, you're a rule breaker. Doesn't matter what the color how much melanin you have in your skin. But if you're going to focus on demographics, then do it all the way across the board. So when you get into the the crime of the violence and you say that, well, the black community is only forty one percent of the community, you know, but they're committing a higher percent. Well, wait a minute, it works both ways. So you can't be breaking the law all the time and then be upset when the police stop you because you're breaking the law. Right. Pick one or the other. Okay. Well, that makes a little bit of sense. I like that. You know. I look, I don't believe in everything is based on race. You know, there's some people out there that no matter what you say to them, it it can't be that they're just a butthole. It can't be that they're just not that bright. It has to be because of ski. You don't like me because I'm brown. That's what it is. I don't know. There's like fifteen thousand other things that I don't like about you before I would ever get to that being a factor. It just doesn't matter. I agree. it's like when somebody tells me they're a Christian. Well, if you have to tell me you're not acting like it. That's true. I mean, you know, so maybe they're just buttholes all shapes and forms. So So I told you, Paul, you know you might not want to join in on this one, but at least we can entertain our guests for the season. so look from a police department with a number it's proud of to a utility board with a number nobody's proud of. PWC just raised your power bill, effective September first, which is tomorrow. I meant to ask you about this before we started because it says a dollar twenty four a month. Didn't that mean a kilowatt? It's a lot more than a dollar twenty four a month. But go ahead. no, I think let me see about For the average residential customer. It's only gonna cost a dollar twenty four? Yeah, a dollar twenty four. See, they're saying it's a it's a twenty-two No, you're right. Five five dollars and forty one cent is being raised to six dollars and sixty three cents per kilowatt. Per one thousand kilowatts. Right. So it's not one dollar and twenty four cents. It's one dollar and twenty four cents per kilowatt. Well how many thousand kilowatts do you use? I don't know, I didn't count last night. Well, you know F PwC's fancy new portal, if you've already had the pleasure of paying your bill on that, it has not only what day the usage was, but what part of the day to show you peak and off peak hours too. So I don't know how that's some interesting math to get to a dollar twenty four per month per kilowatt. If it's a dollar twenty four, then who cares? Why are we even talking about it? If it's per kilowatt It'll it we're gonna care because our bill's gonna go up a lot. But if it's per month a dollar twenty four, then why are we even talking about I I think what grabs people is that twenty two percent. But then but but like most people, we read headlines and lose our mind and then we go get some AI data center generated stuff to protest. No data centers. Yes. no data centers. I'm gonna use my data center to protest against this segment. Yeah, that's right. We're not talking data center. So yeah. I think I actually omitted data center tonight for I'm just I'm just over it right now. Anyway, but no, I think what caught caught people was hearing that Duke Energy is increasing twenty two percent. And that that just sounds crazy. Because of the data centers, right? Well, no, not at all. No, we don't have any data. I told you no data centers, sir. But I wanna know is it a dollar twenty four a month? If it's a dollar twenty four a month, then who cares? I mean I care. Every dollar matters. But but if it's for a kilowatt. But if it's for kilowatt, we're gonna have an issue. Yeah, okay. You know what? I'm just gonna you're gonna make me just log into my Faye A PWC. Let me see. I just wanna see how many if we're gonna give information, we gotta give it right. Absolutely. I agree with that. I don't I'm not trying to mislead anyone. Transparency is the key. Yeah, but you know what? It I can only be so transparent in a at a certain point, Mr. Taylor, the citizen or whoever's raising hell about something, they need to go look stuff up too. That's true. That's exactly right. You have to be responsible. If you think about all the people that complain that our government isn't transparent, blah, blah, blah. Ask them. So my favorite ask about people in the city is well, have you signed up for the city manager's email? Yes. It's on the home page. I know there's one box. You get update, you get the city according to Doug. But every week. Except that he only tells you what they've already done, not upcoming. That's the only thing I don't like about that newsletter. He should be like, and and upcoming start? Just let them put their email address. At least they can know what happened last week. And if they're curious, maybe they'll open the calendar that shows you what they're doing next week. I don't want to do that. That's too much work. I know, that's way too much work for you. Okay. Why can't they do upcoming? Well the problem is, you know, they have lives. They had to work, they got to provide for their families, and then they got to do politics and government stuff. No, they don't have to. No, they don't have to. They they and some people we prefer don't do politics because holy crap. This is a choice to serve your community. If you're gonna serve your community, serve it. Okay. Okay. So I'm looking up Faye PwC right now. I can't share because it's got all my account stuff, but how many kilowatts do does Peter use in? Turn that thermostat down or up. Up Okay. So That's a how many kilowatts do you use, sir? Okay. Let I'm gonna pull an actual bill because that doesn't tell me. That chart is cool. It goes up and down. 58 58 kilowatt hours a day. A day. Yeah. So and you're and this is going up for six thousand for six dollars and sixty-three cents per thousand. That's gonna add up real fast. All right, let's see. So last bill I used eighteen hundred and eighteen kilowatt. hours. So for every thousand it goes up a dollar twenty four. So I would pay about two dollars and forty eight cents extra on my bill. Eighteen hundred is all you used? Mm-hmm. Okay. For the whole month. Okay. Then what are we crying about? I don't know. We've already spent more airtime on this than we do. 22% that screws with people. Okay. So figure it out. All right. Yeah. Go figure it out. But now so let's talk about though who is in charge of these rates. Now we have the state utility commission. Mm-hmm that authorizes Duke to make the price change and this is based on a fuel surcharge. but then we do have a five member four or five member PWC board that is local citizens that they approved it unanimously to push it through. So and they get a a signed but they don't get voted in? No, they are appointed. They're appointed. So all right. Well let's Who appoints them? City Council. Mm-hmm. I believe. I don't think the county has now the county doesn't have anything to do with PBC. Okay. Well, if you're upset about the people that you're get appointed to anything that are increasing your rates, then stop voting for the people that you're voting for in the city council. Just saying. You can also, you know, join Doug's list and you know, I'm not I'm not I don't I'm not promoting Doug Hewitt here or something, but it's like it look, join his list. He he will announce there's openings on these boards and apply. Yeah. We need citizen people. now one other thing that's gonna get more expensive is the parking downtown. Yeah. If you've been to a woodpecker's game, parking in the Hay Street deck is very convenient. It's five bucks, you know. But now it's Yeah, let's go down there for five dollars. So for ten dollars, what can I get? The same parking stuff. Because now it's ten dollars to go down there, plus it's how much to get in, plus it's how much to eat. I mean they're just I'm that's That's a hundred percent increase. Well, and the city owns the decks, I mean they're entitled to charge what they want. I love a city with a big deck. But the city, however, and this has not been a new construct, ever since they started paid parking downtown, they have lost money every year on the paid parking system. But there are things that they've never made money. Okay, but there are things that happen downtown that the money doesn't recoup. I learned this when I was running for city council. So there was some J for example, there was some graffiti in the parking deck. And it cost X amount of dollars. I'm gonna make up numbers here. These are not real numbers. Okay. But it cost ten dollars to clean it up. So the person that did it got charged ten dollars and he paid the ten dollars back, but the ten dollars didn't go back into the parking thing. It went into the general fund. Well, wait a minute. The To clean it up you use the parking money. Why wouldn't that money go back into the parking fund? So we we need to make sure that we're have proper accounting in in in the system. So we don't are you saying per perhaps we need a state auditor to come and visit City of Fed? Yeah, that would be awesome. Yeah. Well I know a guy. Despite the parking going from five to ten, which is a hundred percent increase. Nobody Yes. It's a hundred percent. But they're raising nineteen categories of parking fines. for instance, a fire hydrant violation goes from twenty five to fifty dollars. Good. they're saying that the parking fund brings in about five hundred fifty thousand a year against one point one million in cost. Tell me all the good stuff the government does to make money. Now but just out of curiosity. When parking downtown was free, how much did it cost to run? Zero. okay. So let's impl this is some wasted taxpayer money right here. We built in somebody's uncle cousin Eddie to grift off of this city for the tune of one point one million dollars. Right. Who the hell knows who got that contract? Mm-hmm. I'd like to look into that. Yeah. now there's so that's about a five hundred and forty four thousand dollar annual gap. But they voted to unfund the bill. U un unfunded anyway. Well the city cut their what they were giving the parking by two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in their twenty seven budget. So they are tightening their belt, but all they're doing is just costing us more money. Yeah. It doesn't make a bit of difference if you tighten your belt. Well, if they tighten their belt, they're gonna raise taxes to make up the shortfall for the parking someplace else. That's exactly right. Yeah. Nothing's perfect, is it? Or we can go back to free parking and none and then, you know, we just put I And then you're just getting income for things like parking in a handicap spot or parking in front of a hydrant, and you don't have to pay somebody to walk up there and draw a line on your your car. Mm-hmm. Well so let's talk about Venezuela? No, not yet. okay. Let's not go out of the country yet. We got plenty going on in Cumberland County. What I missed. well the state state board of elections. the Board of Elections. There was a complaint against a Board of Elections member Irene Grimes, and she went How is it all of a sudden that all the Democrats downtown are getting complaints against them? we'll get there. okay. you know I'm gonna say some. So the state board, which is Republican majority, which is under the purview now of the state auditor's office, not the governor any longer. Right. the state voted three to two panel of five to advance the a hearing for Mrs. Grimes. So that so previously there there were two or three Complaints about the Republican members of our local Cumberland County Board of Elections against Chairman DeVore and board member Bree Eldridge. Mm-hmm. Those were dismissed. No explanation, no no hearing, just gavel dismissed. Now Miss Grimes goes as a Democrat, one of two, and they vote along party lines to advance her to a hearing. Go figure. This is the party politics that's bull bull crud. Mm-hmm. This is the stuff that pisses me off and makes me not want to participate in the Republican Party because we're so busy worried about who's a Republican, who's a Democrat, and stop this ridiculous crap. It is so stupid. But anyway, keep going. Yeah. So look, forget what party Miss Grimes belongs to for a second. I want to know what the confidentiality statute actually says. Mm-hmm. this is surrounding and it's not a mystery. the employee it's concerning was the now recently retired. Amy Amaro, who was the director of the Board of Elections. Angie, God bless me. I've known her for long enough. I'm sorry, Angie. if the employee, if if Angie hands you the document and says, here, Irene, you can talk about this. Is it confidential anymore? No. I mean that's one board, one complaint. but now Wait a minute, who complained? So the complaint was brought by Shamika Bethay, who is president of the Cumberland County Republican Women's Club. And she works at the Board of Elections. She does not. She was offended by this because why? I'm not sure. Her mind your own damn business. And move on. Do you know who should be offended? Angie. Otherwise shut up and mind your own business. Well, we did lose, and Angie, we did lose a over twenty-five year public servant, somebody that knew knew the office in and out. And my my fears that I've voiced before has been that we're going into a Federal midterm election with I think they have five new people that as of last week had like less than a week of experience. Good. Nice. So election integrity, yeah, buddy. Whoever kind of going out the window. Yes, sir. Yeah. Look, whether you're Republican or Democrat, you are supposed to hang up your party affiliations at the door at the board. Okay. Now this this crusade, this bullying that's been going on, and this is straight up playground bullying. That's exactly right. One hundred percent. Personal. This is not professional. And as far as I'm concerned, our our GOP should be recalling and reassigning some people. I agree. But there is no reason to be afraid afraid, intimidated, or anything by people that have out lasted their useful lives for the Republican Party of Cumberland County. Everything has an expiration date. I want to hear good things out of my board of elections. I'm tired of hearing this nitpicking left and right. guess who guess who's got a problem now? Right. No. And first of all, I I'm just curious because I knew nothing about exposing of personal records or whatever. How is it that a Republican women's club member or president or whomever even knows about Somebody's personal records. That had to become from somewhere inside the board, I'm guessing. it's orchestrated. Every bit of it. And I bet you if I run that complaint through Chat GPT, I bet you I can find out who actually wrote it. I bet you can too. So we'll stay tuned for that next show. It's childish bullcrap. It is. And it's it's it's very frustrating. It's contrary to the mission of making sure that we have secure voting in this county. Now, I will say, under Angie's term, I worked for the board. And I saw how they organized things and I saw how good of a job they did. Hm you don't have to like the outcome of the elections, but the people that were running it were true to their I don't know if they take an oath, but they were true to their mission. Right. They were nonpartisan. If you went and talked to them, they would offer you the same assistance no matter who you were. I'm wondering why an appointed board because they're appointed by the Democrats and the Republicans. Right. Why do they have any say whatsoever in the county employees? That is a big concern of mine. Very large. I I don't like that. I I mean look, as much as I was on I think that's a violation. Well now, let's be honest. I was on a city board that I did everything I could to get the director fired because it I just thought they were useless. Like an appendix. Okay, well, shame on you. You're an appointed person. Do your job. Mind your own business. Okay, well then, you know, if she's doing her job, leave her alone. But at at the same time, the county the appointed people should not be violating the county employees. So that's gotta be I I wonder if we can get a class action lawsuit out of that. And I I just don't see how an appointee has the subject matter expertise or to be an HR person. That's exactly right. It's like they're moonlining as an HR department and that's not what they got appointed for. So they got appointed to cure ballots and make decisions based on provisional ballots and how we're gonna time stuff. But let's And so if we're gonna be talking about HR stuff though, why is the board that is appointed in HR? That's a violation. I'm I'm thinking class action. So let's go. Well, I mean, I would encourage Angie and to bring a And Irene bring a federal suit against I mean the EEOC is I can get you the phone number. Okay. You know, they they they tend to care about that kind of stuff. Hundred percent. So a couple of things about the state board. they did reduce early voting for next year's primary from seventeen days to ten days. But it was vetoed, wasn't it? Mm, they're gonna override it. No, I think they got it through. it has not been overridden yet, has it? Let's see, statewide. Maybe I Yeah, he did veto it, but they're they're gonna override that. Are they? Well, after We don't have we don't in the house we do not have a veto in of After November third, you're gonna see a bunch of Tom Tillis kind of behavior and people are gonna be shut leaving and shutting off the lights and they're gonna they're they're gonna have fun from November like third or fourth until the end of the year. When they swear in the new legislature. But we don't have a v I'm and we don't have a supermajority. So we would have to get somebody to cross over. I'm sure we could. Could we? It's a reasonable thing. I think it's reasonable. You can have one day to vote like we used to could. I mean I think it's seventeen days. That's a lot of that's just ridiculous. It's one of the longest in the country. Did you know that? No, it doesn't surprise me. And then in Spring Lake, they're complaining that they lost their their voting early voting place. See they they're they're omitting the little asterisk at the bottom that says All the precincts will be open on election day because they're claiming and they're probably right, Spring Lake is transit poor, it's hard to get around. so they needed that early voting site. Then why weren't they using it? There you go. Spare me only twelve percent of of Cumberland County votes in the first place. So y'all twelve percent, keep on doing what you're doing. The other seventy-eight percent. you can whine and cry all you want. I don't really care. But in Spring Lake, they have like the lowest turnout for early voting. The absolute lowest. And it's like thirty-five thousand dollars to open an early voting site. So if you're so upset, then show up to vote. Yeah. Yeah, please do. So all right. never mind. Well, look, whatever you make of who controls the elections at home, who's really in charge and what a transition of power is actually worth just played out on a much bigger stage. Halfway around the hemisphere. So let's talk Venezuela. Okay. I knew it was coming. You know, I want to walk through this one in order because the order is the whole story. This jackleg took office or took power in 2013. I'm speaking of Maduro, not Trump for you Democrats watching. But this man, Maduro, took power in twenty thirteen. He spent twelve years hollowing out every institution that that Just what they could stop him. He rigged the election in 2024 that the whole world could see was rigged. my favorite was when he mocked Trump in public while he did it. he basically remember he stood up, he's like, Come and get me, I'm in Baranquill or whatever. Right. Whatever. Donald Trump decided to send for takeout on him. So eight months ago, Special Operations went in and got him. Now, and this is why I wanted to include it on this evening. Yeah, that's why well, I mean, you know. They're both of them. They always do talk about separating the families, so you know whatever. I mean, you know, you want you can ex you can deport families together. That's true. You know. So we did a reverse deportation on them though. We imported them. Yeah, we didn't deport, we import. So now this is what got my attention over the weekend. There's a hundred year oil contract on the table. Tell me that's not a receipt for January. Okay. But yeah, so who put the person that's the quote unquote interim president? They just got appointed, didn't they? I think it was already in Maduro's administration, if I'm not mistaken. So we pull out Maduro and we get this other person in there and they're making deals. Is that deal gonna be good when a new kind of like, you know, President Trump signs all these executive orders, when the new guy comes along He can undo He can undo them. So can this be undone? So I agree with that. I think it would be against their internal interest to do that. And I think with Trump picking off all of Iran's Ayatolas one by one when they would show up to funerals for each other and he'd bomb those two. I think the Venezuelans got a little taste of we better fall in line. you know, they're not willing to risk that. But no, the next administration absolutely can undo it. I I agree with you there. I'm just saying. let's see, let me see about Nicholas Maduro. I I had other stuff here. I didn't know this. Twenty twenty one ICC opened a crimes against humanity investigation into his government. Mm-hmm. He was wasn't I thought he was found guilty of the I knew he was a bad dude. I didn't know he was I mean, I knew he was probably killing his own people too. Mm-hmm. But yeah, I I really just love the whole come and get me coward and guess what? So anyway, but look, this is a way I think for Venezuela to recover from the damage that Maduro did. With responsible exploration and and with responsible extraction. See, all their oil was going to China and Russia. That's why Russia and China are pissed off at us for doing it. Because and Cuba was getting essentially free oil from Venezuela. So now that we're in control of that, they can be communists anyway. They can pay the price. wait a minute. We here in America want to be communists now. No, we want to be socialists, democratic socialists. That's what we're trying to do. Yeah. Well, we just call it something else. Whatever. Okay. Yeah. Well, we are now at the rapid fire. Yeah, buddy. Let's rapid fire some stories. So North Carolina now lands a hundred and sixty-six million dollars in manufacturing wins. the fact is that Governor Stein he announced three manufacturing wins this week. ProVia, which is a window manufacturing plant. It's Davy County. Boaters World Manufacturing Co Group. Okay, six million dollars in Beaufort County and Great Southern Wood, forty million dollar lumber treatment operation. So that was six hundred twenty-two jobs created. none of them for Crumley County though, nothing for us. I guess he doesn't like us. But you know, now our economic development here says we have a pipeline of like five billion dollars of development if we only had the sewer and water to serve these folks. So I think we'll need to ask Robert Van Gians directly, you know. Wa w w w what's wrong with us? Why didn't we get anything? Those three counties got it. Why don't they come to us? Mm-hmm. Well Well, the state board cuts Sunday voting again. North Carolina's GOP majority state board of elections voted three to two on August twentieth to eliminate Sunday early voting hours in ten more counties statewide. Anson, Chatham, Columbus, Green, Harnett, Nash, Put Pass a twon kwal. I don't have to. Yeah, that's passive tank. Pass a tank. Pass a tank. Okay. How would one know? We've got a lifeline in the studio, yeah. Yeah. Union and Wayne, but not Cumberland yet, anyway. Not yet. So Sunday sites cost more money against low turnout versus 2024 data showing that Sunday sites serve more voters per hour, an average of thirty-two point five than the weekdays, which is only thirty-one. So We told you two Mondays ago that we'd watched the statewide early voting fight, and that is this fight, one county at a time. And Spring Lake just felt its own local version of in the same week. It sure did. So question for Cumberland County's own board. Are we next? Possibly. Possibly. I think we're safe for Sundays though. Here we like Sunday. We do seem to have a good turnout on Sundays here. so Governor Stein, he's got some videos that are just sitting there. I think he's gonna play chicken with whoever comes back in session. So House Republicans say they're gonna try to override House Bill nine fifty-eight, which is about the elections and audit authority, and House Bill three seventy-seven, which is about judicial discipline, which I'm not too familiar with. he hasn't scheduled the GOP hasn't scheduled a vote, and the legislature is not expected back in session until after November third. According to NC Newsline. I think the leadership's just waiting to see who's how the chips fall and what they need to ram through at the last minute. But we'll tell you the day a floor vote actually gets scheduled, but not before. Mm-hmm. So your tax cut arrived and ours didn't. Federal ones, big, beautiful, big, beautiful bill. Provisions now in effect. They include up to twenty-five thousand dollars of exempt tax. tip income and an overtime deduction of up to twelve thousand or twenty five thousand if you're married and up to ten thousand an auto loan interest deduction if your U.S. car if your car is assembled in the U.S. Assembled in the U.S. Assembled. That's right. So it can be made of foreign parts. I like most things are. So okay, but North Carolina has not conformed its own state return to any of them. So North Carolina Carolina filers get the federal tax break without matching the state one. So the state legislator should decide conformity, deliberately, not on Washington's calendar, versus a state that brands itself as a low tax, quietly taxing income that the IRS just exempted. So Congress gave you a tax break this year. Raleigh has decided, maybe not. So check your state return before you assume the whole cut is yours. I'm gonna have to look into that unless you don't work for tips. Anyway. so Fayetteville, we landed somebody to occupy the old Black and Decker building on three we did get jobs. so and this is the thing. To me, I I thought Ukrainians did this naturally and homegrown. I didn't know they made a business out of drone manufacturing. I mean, I've seen some pretty impressive video from the Ukrainians. There's some pretty creative SOBs over there. I mean, you seen the video of them dropping a grenade down through the open hatch of a tank? And the poor Russian soldier looking up right right before he ends his life. 162 direct jobs. Now, I know what you're gonna say. Are they gonna hire local people? I know that's your favorite thing. It is. It is, but guess what? Favel Cumberland Economic Development says they are steering the hiring through community college pipelines and Fort Bragg Veteran Transition Services. So okay. Go on, could you please define steering they well I mentioned before in a previous episode that we we utilize Fayetteville Tech for industry at sometimes to create curriculum that we can basically train the employees, go through, graduate them, and then they pretty much have a job when they're waiting. Right. But that's not gonna make them show up on time, pull their pants up, speak clear. You know. What do you mean? Speak English, man. you know, like Communicate. You know, it's not it's not just English, but like, you know I know what's it's not gonna make walkie talkie. You can't train the what do you call it? I just experienced that today. You can train the skill, but you can't train the attitude. You know, e if you have a loser mindset, you're gonna be a loser. Yeah. That's all there is to it. So that's what the pipeline will not teach. But I'm sure there's some professional something or other in there. I don't know. I don't know, but I just think that they should mandate that they hire a a certain percentage of people that are locally You know. Yeah. Well if you're gonna get a tax break. If you're not getting a tax break, you can hire whoever you They were given the minimal tax incentives and not tax breaks. Okay. It was not that big of a deal out there. So well then the good. So, well, that's the live block. Here's what's behind the door. Tonight we have the Democrat trying to unseat Cumberland's own state senator, then the Libertarian trying to break the two party lock on our congressional seat. Back to back, no notes, thirty minutes each. I'm gonna tell both of them to their face when I think I they're wrong. Then I'm gonna shut up and let them answer. That's what this show is for, and it's free. It takes four seconds. Like the page, follow us on Facebook, subscribe on YouTube, the newsletter's at the website. The doors open. See you there. Okay. Welcome back to the Carolina Cabinet. I'm your host, Peter Pappas, in studio with the lovely Laura Musler. Hello, hello, hello. And joining us this evening is Mr. Paul Taylor running for North Carolina Senate. Good evening, sir. Good evening. Well, welcome