Focus with Paul W. Smith ~ March 3, 2026 ~ Full Show

0:00Well, a very good Tuesday to you in this crazy world of ours as we wake up each day wondering what next. Apparently, a lot continues to be happening, and I guess that's what happens when you go to war. There are all kinds of things that you were planning out, and some that maybe you weren't. We'll cover it all, and we'll do our best to put a relentless positive radio spin on everything that we talk about, and it's not always easy, as you're on your way to making each and every day count knowing each day as a gift. Still don't know the QTR, as Kim would remind us, and that's why we should live every day. I don't like to say live it like it's our last, but live it to its fullest, don't waste it. We don't have them to waste, frankly, and I do thank you for choosing to be a very important part of the best and brightest audience in all of radio. Anytime you're listening to WJR, you are doing that, and we appreciate you streaming

1:00us, coming back and podcasting us if you can't hear the show from noon to two while we're on. You can do all that at wjr.com. You can do it on the free WJR app, which I hope you have. And of course, now we on Facebook and YouTube pages do live video streaming, as we're on the air. So that's all good news. I'm glad you got your daily dose of deets in, Michael, with all talk. And then right after us, JR afternoon with Ryan Armani, we feel to be happy to be this focus with Paul W Smith Sandwich, where the peanut butter and the jelly, we're the peanut butter and the gel. It's what I had yesterday. How did you know that you have a camera in my house? The only one I'm looking at right now, but you know, I had the peanut butter and jelly and loved it. You know what? Actually, what's in peanut butter? Oh, almond butter. Yeah. Well, there's, there's nothing better than a peanut butter jelly sandwich.

2:01I don't care. I don't care if you're fine. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You know what today is the third of March. And there was an eclipse or there will be or something Kim has been trying to tell me about it. The blood moon. But more importantly, the biggest McDonald's hamburger ever made, I believe. Is released today. I'm going to try one tonight. Forget about the peanut butter and jelly. I'm going to try one, too. Maybe for dessert, but yeah, I'm definitely going to try the, it's called the big arch, I think. The big arch. Yeah. So I, I'm a big, I'm a big fan of fast food sauces. So whenever they come out with a new one, I got to try it. They have a new sauce. Yeah. It looks like Big Mac sauce, but it's not. It's different. Well, they need to, they need to make it different. For obviously, every time they come out with a new product, it is to get business. And I guess either bring people back or bring people in for the first time, I guess. And I guess for some reason, the CEO is getting, um, I saw that.

3:04Yeah, I saw the video and the guy was a little bit awkward, but I, I don't know why he's getting so much guff for it on social media. I guess maybe it looked like he didn't know how to quite eat a hamburger, which I guess is problematic for the CEO of McDonald's. Are you kidding me? What? You know what? I glanced at the story and then didn't read it because I thought, you know, here we go. Somebody's giving somebody a hard time for something stupid. That's a meaningless, which is what a hamburger is in the scheme of what's going on today. But what was it? What? He, don't tell me he tried to eat a hamburger with a fork at night. No. No, I think that would be, that would be worse than what happened with Cracker Barrel last summer. No, he was just like, I'm going to try this and it's going to be my lunch. And then he opens his, like, wow, this is a big burger. I don't even know how to handle this thing. I mean, it didn't look, it didn't look like it was too big. It's the size of a double quarter pounder. So the guy was not hired for his acting ability. He was hired to try to keep the company in the green and make more money.

4:08That's what CEOs are hired to do. Yeah. So I mean, he could have been the most charismatic CEO or not. I'm going to try the burger anyway. So. Today is, and maybe this CEO found this out very quickly, it's international Irish whiskey day. Oh, just around the corner from St. Patrick's Day. Maybe that's Italian. It has been more than 800 years since Irish whiskey first emerged. It's whiskey produced in Ireland and it's known for its smooth texture and quality. It said to be a favorite of whiskey lovers all over the world. Huh. Okay. Well, I don't remember an international Irish whiskey day, but everybody has a day. So. Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, I feel, I feel like it could be like Lincoln and Washington's birthday with St. Patrick's Day. He just combined it into one day. Our St. Patrick's Day party is coming up. By the way, we're excited about that.

5:09That will be on 11 to 2 on March 17th from St. John's. Yeah. We were there. It's a lovely venue. Yeah. It feels very Irish in there as well. So it feels very authentic. It does. Two weeks from Thursday, I think. What's that? I think it's two weeks from Thursday. It's March 17th on a Thursday. I thought it was like on Tuesday. Tuesday. I'm sorry. Two weeks from Tuesday. Yeah. Listen, don't, don't depend on me. I depend on you for dates and things. We fought for TikTok and yet we get so many stories like this. Dangerous fire-breathing TikTok trend leaves Pittsburgh area girls severely burned and currently intubated. Oh, my. A 14-year-old Pittsburgh area girl in the hospital with severe burns after she took part in a dangerous trend on TikTok. Folks, you got to talk to your kids. And you got to explain to them that just because you see this foolishness on TikTok and

6:13people are claiming to do it, you do not do it. What our parents used to say to us is, well, if your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump off a bridge? No, no, no, I wouldn't want to jump off a bridge. I swear. Today it's far worse than our friends jumping off a bridge. Right. Then they're bringing the bridge to our kids and then goading them to step off. Now here's the one positive about TikTok. At least now we know what kind of dangerous things kids are doing. Before TikTok in the internet, parents didn't really have a window into some of the dangerous things that we would try when we were kids. So if you're on it enough and you're in the right algorithm, it could be a warning, but you're right. The kids will see one kid do something stupid, get a million views, turn out okay, and then they think that it's safe and they'll do the same thing. So in a nutshell, the young girl 14 tried to quote, breathe fire with alcohol, rubbing

7:19alcohol. And she ended up with serious burns on her face, mac and chest. I obviously have not seen this on the TikTok. I don't want to see it. But I want our parents to know your kids are so vulnerable to these idiots on TikTok. Only of the things that are probably controlled by China still, and they probably are laughing their butts off when they get American kids to do dangerous, stupid things. I don't know what else to say. Nice column by Bob Wojenowski, wojo, wojo, yeah. You really felt bad when David Montgomery was traded. You don't express that very often, but I could tell you cared a lot. Yeah. I mean, I understood it. We got some good value. But look, he was he was a lot of fun to watch. He was a fan favorite. It's the business, but it's still a bummer. Well, as Bob put at the beginning of his excellent to trade news column to trade news.com for

8:22the lions, this is reality rising as their stars get pricier and their roster gets thinner. There's not much room left for luxury. And he says David Montgomery was frankly a luxury. Yeah. That's exactly what it was. I mean, Jameer Gibbs is one of the best running backs. He's going to command one of the highest salaries and the time comes. We got an offensive lineman, which we desperately need. So it was a good business move, but it's still sad to see him go. Yep. It's, I well, often thought about that. How tough that is in the sports, you know, you get really feeling like you're part of the family. You know, everybody you're you bond because that's what good teams do. And then all of a sudden, could you come into my office and you you pack your bag and you literally have to pick up and leave right in your whole family has to leave. Forget where you live, forget about the kids schools or unless you leave the spouse behind

9:23and then you, you know, it's just a tough, tough deal. Yeah. Either way, it's a tough choice. Yeah. Well, we've got a lot to talk about. We, we had Mike Rogers scheduled, but then he had a flight issue. So we depend on a guy who's a very good also with military experience, retired Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army, Rocky Retch Kowski is coming on board to help out. And we're going to talk about obviously the current state of the war with Iran. So stay with us here in focus on WJR. Well, what's going on? That's for sure. That's putting it mildly as the president meets with the German chancellor. And as you might guess, much of the conversation is on the Iran strikes. We've been monitoring it. You, if anything pops up, Mike said he's going to switch over to it and, and we'll see.

10:27Meanwhile, Rocky Retch Kowski is here. He is retired Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army. And you know he's got some thoughts and comments on this war with Iran. So Rocky, we were happy to be able to get you at last minute here, nice to have you with us. Hey, great to be on with you again, Paul W. My concern is only this, look, I think this I atola should have been taken out any time over the last 38 years or whatever it's been, 47, 37. I don't remember. It's been a long time. He's been causing trouble killing Americans and others, 47 years, 47 years. And, and I'm not surprised the Democrats go against it because they will go against anything to try to make the president look bad. How these people, these Democrats, especially the women Democrats, could be against a regime that took all women's rights away, which used to be important to the Democrat Party. Remember, took all women's rights away.

11:29And now they're in a situation where they might get them all back again. People are still fighting this, but it does remind me that I'm concerned that our president does not always look beyond today. And therefore might be paying the price of upsetting much of the world with what he has said and what he has done with tariffs. And in other things and other ways, he spent a tremendous amount of time saying the world loves us, but we're not getting a lot of love from the world right now. Yeah. Well, listen, this issue is actually one where the U.S. and Israel have taken the lead with now, as we're seeing now, evolve our Middle Eastern partners and our Middle Eastern partners. Let's be honest. Let's, let's put the cards on the table here. Saudi Arabia wanted this to happen, Jordan wanted this to happen, the UAE wanted this

12:31to happen. But because of the internal relations and obviously within the Arab nations, as well as making sure that they protected the oil fields, especially around Riyadh, we had to, they had to play nice with Iran, but let's be honest. Look at the Lebanon example, what happened in Lebanon. Saudi Arabia is the invested, disinvested out of Lebanon and took their money out of Lebanon and Lebanon's economy fell. And the reason they did that was because of Iran's proxy in Lebanon and that was Hezbollah. And you know, I don't want to get into the politics because there's a lot of military aspects to unravel here. But think about this right now in Washington DC, the major cry of the Democrats is they're worried about the Iranian terrorists sleepers cells that they might attack within the United States. These are why don't they approve a budget for the Department of Homeland Security?

13:32It gets one step worse. These are the same Democrats that under Mayorkas let these people in because of uncontrolled borders. They're uncontrolled borders and we do know that they're sleepers cells. So if this attack on Iran affects American citizens, it's going to affect our gas prices probably for about four weeks. And the other issue is we really need to keep our head on a swivel and look around if something doesn't look right because there are sleepers cells. We know because the FBI both under Biden, Obama, as well as Trump testified that there are Iranian sleepers cells in the US. You know, the concern I have among many, many concerns, I think taking out the Iatola was brilliant and should have been done, especially when the Israeli intelligence found out that all of those guys were together above ground in a meeting. It was too good to be true. They haven't had that opportunity ever as far as I know.

14:34And so they took advantage of that opportunity. Now there was another blast that Israel carried out with. They were having a group meeting deciding who to vote in next to run the country. How could these people be so stupid to again gather all of these quote unquote importance of people from the party to pick the next leader then they all got wiped out. I mean, there's not dealing with brilliance, are we? Well, I think we are. They are still very intelligent people, but they've got malfeasance on their mind. Listen, it is true that Israel took out the main leadership compound with the 48 top leaders of Iran, but the intelligence actually was intelligence that Iran gained on the ground as well as U.S. CIA signal intelligence where they followed some of the Israel gained on the ground. Okay. I'm just trying to keep it clear here. Yes, but also the U.S. was involved in that using signal intelligence, keeping tabs on

15:40the bodyguards of some of these main leaders and they were watching how they were coordinating and where they were going to confirm that the meeting was taking place, but you're absolutely correct. About four hours ago, Israel had targeted the compound where the Islamic Leadership Council of Iran was choosing their next leader and they were discussing that. This was the second group, the second layer of leadership. And obviously, I don't think anyone from that meeting will be around for any comments or press availability later on today. They're pretty much gone. Here's one of my concerns and you'll help me because Rocky, you're a great patriot. You've served this country in so many ways and we appreciate you. First of all, the Democrats not funding the Department of Homeland Security at a time when we have sleeper cells run a muck in our country is malfeasance is being a traitor to the country and to the American people that they don't seem to care about. They care about their party and making this president look bad no matter what, however

16:40they can. But I think the president and his people are talking a little too much and here's why. And believe me, the late night political shows that used to be entertainment shows back when like Johnny Carson did it and David Letterman and they were very successful. And none of these shows are, you could add all three of them up and they don't come up to half the audience that those other shows used to have or the revenue, but they're paying attention and they're going to use all of this. So when you have somebody in the administration saying, well, we knew that Israel was going to attack and that therefore Iran would attack and they would attack us. So we had to get out in front of that and we attacked them. The president just said a moment ago on television, well, we probably forced Israel into moving because we were moving on, guys, shut up or get your story straight. Tell me with this. That's right. They need to be on the same sheet of music and I hear the music come and just say whatever the reason is the right thing happened.

17:43We took out the ballistic missiles and especially they're drones. There's primary to secondary and tertiary. The primary is taking out the ballistic missiles and their nuclear weapons manufacturing capability by the way, Russia, Russia's nuclear company called Ross Atom stopped all nuclear construction in Iran. They're going back to Russia. Their secondary purpose China buys 5% of its oil from Venezuela, 15% from Iran. We just basically boxed in China and China's economy. And the third, the tertiary is the big one. Russia gets all of its accurate drones from guess where, Iran. Putin by the way has stepped up and has offered his services to Middle East, Iran and everyone around there. He's offered his services to try to help fix things. You got to be great. You got to be great. Wouldn't it be great if he attended one of those meetings? Bites your tongue, Rocky. But yes, you're right.

18:43It would be. Thanks for your help. As always and thanks for filling in for me a Thursday. I appreciate it. I'm looking forward to it. Take care, Paul W. Let's pray for peace. Pray for peace every day. Rocky Redskowski retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army here in focus on WJR. Well, the oversight committee has, House Oversight Committee has now released video of the closed door depositions of former President Bill and Secretary Hillary Clinton that occurred last week as part of the panel's investigation into the monstrous Jeffrey Epstein. Although former President Bill Clinton has more documented ties to Epstein, it was Hillary Clinton's deposition that grew more heated as she frequently clashed with Republicans. She was not happy. She didn't want to be there. She didn't know why she was there and she's never been shy under those circumstances. What's it all mean? Where's it all go?

19:44Let's talk to Jason Rowe. He's the principal of Rowe's strategic and he knows a thing or two about these kinds of situations and he's going to share his knowledge with us right now. Jason always a pleasure to have you here. Good afternoon, Potty. I get a kick out of one of the newspaper stories that said under her headline, Hillary Clinton did not want to be there. Who in their right mind would want to be there? Yeah, it was pretty obvious that she was a political prop and she knew she was being used for the optics not for anything substantive. I will say though, it closes the ties that former President Clinton maintained with Epstein that she never had an opportunity to meet him. She apparently had a relationship with Elaine Maxwell, his PIMP, but not with him. But you know, he was a big booster of the Clinton Global Initiative, which both the President and the former Secretary of State worked together closely on.

20:44So I am surprised that she didn't know him, but I don't think there was any there there for House Republicans. And they seem to what take pleasure, especially representative Nancy Mace, the Republican of South Carolina, who took a lead role in questioning Mrs. Clinton, pressing her repeatedly about her quote unquote, feelings about images from the Epstein files in which Mr. Clinton, President Clinton appears with young women. I mean, imagine asking any wife this question, which by the way has no, I can't think of any pertinent pertinent reason for this, but quote, when you saw your husband in these photos with young women being massaged, what went through your mind? What a question to ask. And I'm glad that Hillary, the Rotterdam Clinton, is no pushover. And she said, what do you, I'm not here to speculate about situations where I wasn't even present.

21:45Yeah, the unfortunate part of these hearings is two of the least serious Republican members of Congress, Nancy Mace and Lauren Bober, sit on the committee that did those interviews and both of them created political theater for their social media profiles, not to get to any pertinent facts, Nancy Mace is running for governor in South Carolina, her campaign is flailing. So I think she's trying to grab out to anything that will get her clicks and help her raise her profile in this race. And I don't listen. Hillary Clinton's been put through a lot. I mean, my political mentor was one of the three managers of the Clinton impeachment. So I'm as exposed to, you know, the Clinton scandals of the 90s and what Hillary Clinton got dragged through with anybody. But this was for the political theater for the committee members, not for anything. It was going to get to any answers that we do deserve on President Clinton's relationship with Epstein. I'll use this because the illiteration is just too delicious.

22:47I'll say Bimbo Bobert, only because I mean, I don't know if she's a Bimbo or not, but it just works. Bimbo Bobert. I'm with Bimbo. It does. It works very well. But the fact of the matter is she did release photographs after everybody involved agreed there'd be no photographs released. What? And she did it twice. During the deposition. I mean, while this is going out, she's putting this stuff out on social media, which you know, Secretary Clinton stormed out and was done. She got talked back in by her attorney about 30 minutes later after the committee members agreed that that that would cease. But yeah, it's just unfortunate that for certain members and Mace and Bobbert are at the very top of that list, they're there for the clicks, not for anything useful. That is, I'm so glad that you point this out because I did not know that. And this just upsets me even more. I mean, what are they doing in Congress? I mean, we already know there are plenty of Democrats who shouldn't be there, but there

23:49is obviously some Republicans that shouldn't be there. Well, and I get frustrated that we don't police our own when we should be. I think that Mace and Bobbert's behavior over the years has been so bad that people are willing to call them out publicly. And Bobbert's calmed down a bit, but may seem to get more erratic, not less. President Clinton stayed, I think, had a much calmer demeanor. He said, maybe more experience here. Plus he knew he was facing about sexually inappropriate relationships. No, okay. All right. He has had more experience, but she's been around for all of that back when he was governor. I mean, he just has not been able to control himself. I think age is all that's controlling him now. And maybe that's why we're not seeing any more trouble. I don't know. But he defended Hillary during his testimony, stating that she had nothing to do with Epstein,

24:54and that she did nothing illegal. And he did nothing illegal during his friendship with Epstein. Now since on social media, which is completely unreliable, there was a picture of the former first lady secretary, Clinton, with President Bill Clinton, with Epstein, but you don't know if it's real. There's no way to know if that was a real photograph, unfortunately, manware and trouble. You know, receiving line and something, glancing. You know, the one thing with Clinton, those of us old enough to remember him, perturing himself on camera during a deposition, you know, it's hard to believe Bill Clinton, but it's hard to believe the relationship that he had with Epstein, that nothing inappropriate happened. We know this president's preference is better than we've known any in our lifetime. Yeah, he has not been able to control those urges. And I'm far worse than any of us will ever know.

25:57It was whispered about by his staff when he was governor, and they thought he would stop doing it once he became president, and he didn't, and that's sad and unfortunate, and it is a little difficult to believe that he wouldn't avail himself to such a sick, sad smorgasbord as presented by that monster, Epstein. Appreciate your help, Jason Roe, principal of Roe's strategic. We thank you very much. Thanks, Paul. Love you. Have a great day. Roe's strategic, Jason Roe, principal here at 1243. Detroit Regional Dollars for Scholars, DRDFS, has been helping local students prepare for life after high school for 35 years. My dear friends, Bill and Vivian Young were there at the beginning, and God bless Bill Young, who asked me, Bill Young, you remember me talking about him on the number of times, and talking with him, the founder of Plastepack Packaging, and the family of Abso Pure that you've heard so many times over the years here.

26:59He invited me to be on the Detroit Regional Dollars for Scholars Advisory Board. Unfortunately, I'm on the air now whenever they have their meetings, because I'm on the air from noon to two. I used to be able to be more involved when I was doing the morning show. For a number of years, I am seed their event, and it's always been a pleasure to watch the people behind the scenes and the leadership that Bill Young put together without any question. That includes Christa Funk, the executive director of the Detroit Regional Dollars for Scholars, and their 13th annual celebration luncheon is coming up Wednesday, March 11th at the University of Detroit, Mercy and Christa. You guys are just doing a fabulous job and going strong. Thanks so much, Paul. Yeah, it's been going well. We're so excited for the events and really looking forward to sharing a great day with so many different supporters. When people still come to the luncheon, is it to sold out or can they still get tickets

28:00to support the students? We can still accommodate more people, we're getting close there, but we're really excited. You can go on to our website, drdfs.org, and still purchase the ticket or sponsorship or make a donation. We'd love to have additional support. drdfs.org, as in Detroit Regional Dollars for Scholars, drdfs.org, and be a part of it that's something that started off with a couple, two, three, four people and has grown tremendously into helping students because a lot of students don't have the support many of us have, you know? You go through high school and then you go, what next? They may not have parents that ever could tell them what next. That's what you guys do. Yeah, so we are, you know, a full-scale college access and success nonprofit that we start with sophomores in their 10th grade year of high school, really making sure to inspire

29:01and prepare them for their next level of education. We do a lot of different college campus trips, SAT prep, staffed completion, you know, pretty much. You name it and we do it for a student that needs to get to higher education. Every student receives a $4,000 scholarship and then we continue all of our support throughout their time in higher education with college coaching, our scholars' success funds that can cover some of those unexpected expenses that they may have and really just the general guidance, about 75% of our students are the first in their family to go off to college and so you just don't know what you don't know and so, you know, we're really happy to be able to support about a thousand students on an annual basis now. I love that these students who've gone through the program have realized how important it was in their lives that many of them, Christa, come back and join the team to try to help new students. For sure. Yeah, we've had lots of, well, a couple of students that have come through and joined our team and then we also have quite a few that are involved in some of our board committees

30:05and really helping to do some of the summary thing work. We've got a recent grad on our finance committee, which is great and our investment committee. So, love being able to see our scholars come through the whole program and then join us back as professionals. It's really fulfilling. Lots of business people in our area who understand how important this work is are a part of dollars for scholars and these numbers may be, maybe you can update them if they're low, but from when I remember you were partnering with 16 schools across Macomb and Roe, Oakland, Washington, and Wayne counties. You've awarded scholarships exceeding $3 million to more than 17-odd students since 1990 with that alumni network growing each year. And as you mentioned, $4,000 scholarships. So it's been just incredible and you even have a special DRDFS scholarship program. The academic support program that earned its own name back in 2019.

31:10The next level scholars, tell us about that. Yeah, so that's really our core programmatic work, all of our scholars. It's really a lot more fun to be part of next level scholars than, you know, the whole mouth full of Detroit regional dollars for scholars and so it's been really cool to kind of have that program branded, make students feel engaged. And one thing that we found is that they really find a strong community within the program and build that network. So we have students about 30 high school students at each of the schools that we're serving. And so they get really close with those, you know, students in their own high school, but also they're building that strong community and connection across all 16 high school partners that we have. And so, you know, really having the program strengthen in a good feel for the high school really makes a huge difference for our students really feeling bought in and excited and ready to go off the higher ed. And that Detroit chapter of dollars for scholars became the first chapter nationwide to be awarded the scholarship America honors award DRDFS proud to receive this great award

32:14next to the scholarship programs of Chick-fil-A and Coca-Cola, which are huge major corporations with a heck of a lot of money at their disposal. So good for you. You have taken what money you have and what money generously has been donated by people who like listening right now might want to step up and do. And you've used it so wisely that you received that award among those corporate heavyweights. You got to be proud of that, Christa. Very proud. Yeah, it's been really great to be recognized alongside them and share some of the work that we do with their programs and be a great partner to all the good things that they're doing as well. So it's been such an honor and really exciting. But you've done a great job for the period of time that you've been there, which now seems like forever, but I know it's not forever, but you've been there a long time. And the 13th annual Detroit Regional Dollars for Scholars Celebration Luncheon will be March 11th at 11 a.m. at the University of Detroit Mercy's Whittie Fitness Center.

33:17And you can be there. And if you can't be there, you can still support this incredible work that dollars the Detroit Regional Dollars for Scholars does. And you do that by going online to drdfs.org, drdfs.org. Anything else we need to know, Christa? No, I think just thanks so much for the support. And we're really excited to share all of our students and have them meet all the great supporters. Excellent. It'll be a great show. Who's I'm seeing it? I don't have that in front of me. I had it, but I don't I don't see it now. Yeah, we have Jacqueline and Baker. I'm seeing the event. She's from Scarlet Communications and also does a lot of our programming directly with our scholars. And then we have Lisa Howe's CPA and author and former state representative. That's going to be our keynote this year. So we're really, really thrilled to have her. It's always a great program. That's for sure. March 11th, the 11 a.m. University of Detroit Mercy. It'll be a great opportunity for you to see the great work that they do at Detroit

34:20Regional Dollars for Scholars. And God bless Bill and Vivian Young. Bill from Plastepack and Absel Pure for being there at the very beginning. And I thank him for getting me involved on the advisory board. It's just been a wonderful ride to watch all the good work you do, Christopher. And you do do a great job. Thanks much. Thanks, Paul. DRDFS.org. DRDFS.org. Get more information by tickets, by a table. Donate money. Whatever you can do, they would greatly appreciate. Coming up, David Saurby and the markets who are reacting obviously to the war. Marie Osborne and more coming up. Stay with us, WJR. Welcome in to our number two on this Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026. Relentless, positive radio. That's what we try to do here in focus with Paul W. Smith and our team. Mike Persons, executive producer, Daniel Mason, who is training Abby Pelke today.

35:26Abby, welcome aboard Rich Luzinski, taking a look at our WJR traffic and whether I could see that Abby wasn't sure if she should respond or I want to hear your voice on the radio. Abby, go ahead. It's nice to have you here, Abby. Hi, Paul. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. We've become like the training ground of some of our future superstars and that's where we're going to put Abby Pelke, who's being trained by Daniel Mason to run the board and to do all the things we need. How's it feeling so far, Abby? It's feeling good, Daniel's very good. Very good. And there's Daniel standing right behind her, making sure everything goes well. And Mike Persons is, you're overseeing the whole thing. I trust Daniel. Daniel's a very good trainer because she puts people at ease naturally. She does. She does. She puts me at ease. Don't tell her we're saying nice things about her though. No, don't ever let her know.

36:26All right, a couple of quick things here. This is crazy. By the way, you know, you can stream us podcast us later, which I hope you'll come back and do at wjr.com too. Don't forget to get the free WJR app, also all the cool kids have them. And then Facebook and YouTube pages do a live video streaming as we're on the air, which we appreciate very much is you're on your way to making each and every day count, each day as a gift. And the thanks for being an important part of the best and brightest audience and all of radio and that. You are that once you listen anywhere to this great radio station. All right. I have no other details, but Mike is going to look into this for maybe tomorrow is tomorrow Wednesday tomorrow, maybe yes, it is. And the investigation is found that chemicals of unknown safety have been secretly added to the US food supply. What in the world does that mean? Yeah, it's very, very vague. Chemicals of unknown safety were secretly added to the US food supply.

37:29You know, we got enough stuff in our food now that doesn't make sense. You know, I saw something recently I look very carefully because I don't like fake sugar. I think if you're going to have sugar, I, whether you have diabetes or not, you have a little sugar. It's not going to, I'm not a doctor, so I don't take my word. But all of it's better than the fake sugars. And yet I actually see products that say pure cane sugar and then down below stevia or one of these fake sugars and I go, what the heck do they need that for? Somebody's got a great sales team apparently. And why would you put stevia or any of those other fake sugars into pills that you just swallow, that you don't taste, that we don't care if they're sweet sour or indifferent? Yeah, that is weird. I didn't know they were doing that. Oh, it's happening. It's kind of like, remember, well, I don't want to, I don't want to go down that path right now. We don't have time to do. Do you think that this news coincides with the launch of the big arch at McDonald's?

38:31No. No. But let me see here. You sent me a story here, internet teases. I want to see internet teases McDonald's CEO for big arch burger product review. McDonald's set to release big arch burger today, getting attention for its size. It has two quarter pound quarter pounder with cheeses, my favorite burger from any of the places. I'm just going to say it out loud. But it's surrounded by three slices of melted white cheddar cheese. And there's some kind of a taste test video with Chris Kempzinski, who's now famous. We never would have known he was McDonald's CEO, trying the burger in early February. It's drawn skepticism and teasing from the internet with some people unconvinced that Kempzinski Kempzinski even enjoyed the food. Right. Yeah. Well, there it is. If the guy does not have an ounce of body fat has probably never walked into a McDonald's in order to burger. He probably had to as CEO, yeah, he probably felt the same way eating that burger as RFK

39:35did on that plane where they're eating everyone was eating McDonald's and he was forced to have a hamburger. He's president. Yeah. President made him. That's funny. Uh, okay. So let's see what else president Trump. Are you kidding me? President Trump. What is he a glutton for punishment? Does he think that he's going to be welcomed with open arms? He's going to go to the White House Correspondence dinner. He didn't go last year. I saw he must think he's going to have a friendly audience there or something like this. He's going as the first time as president. He has previously boycotted the annual event. Last time it was there, I see the video still if they made fun of them. Right. Which is what they do at the correspondence dinner. They do, but he takes those things very personally. I predict. I predict some all caps posts on true social in the new future that like three a.m. Yeah. That is a probable.

40:37How about this? You know, when they were associated with this radio station, they did very well. But now I'm reading the faster horse's country festival is not returning to Michigan Speedway in 2026. Do you have any idea why? Yeah. I think Daniela. They did not come back last year to the faster horses. I thought they're on high. Well, they were canceled in 2025, and they're not returning in 2026. They said they're only going off for a year, but we all knew deep down. It was never coming back. It's never coming back. I thought it was successful. It is successful, but it is also a nuisance. It's a nuisance to everyone that's in the area, however, it's good for businesses in the area. But is it any more of a nuisance than when they have the races? You know, I used to do a show on Saturdays from the races, and until WJR stepped in and got the traffic pattern fixed with Lansing, I used to have to be helicoptered in to do my broadcast, or I wouldn't be able to get in. There used to be a WJR billboard on the side of the barn, but then I had to email someone

41:42and say WJR has no affiliation out there anymore. Anyways. I would say who put you in charge of having? I don't know. I told him. I told God. Dan, you all got faster horses canceled with that email. No, so it's, I say it's worse than NASCAR in that it's younger crowd. NASCAR isn't that young, which means there's a lot more underage drinking, a lot more drug usage. It's, it's just a mess. It's also got a lot of unity. That's too bad. It's also got to be very expensive with all the acts that they bring in for three days. It's actually cheap. No, I mean, it's probably expensive to put it on for a cheap, maybe because it was cheap for you to go, they can't afford to keep doing it. Yeah, because I could buy a ticket to go for like $2.99 and then if you split your campsite with people, so you can fit as many people onto a campsite, you could be paying $20 a night to stay at a campsite. So you buy a ticket for $299?

42:43Yes. And then you split that up among other people. Not your ticket. You split the campsite. If you go to faster horses, you have to have a campsite. Well, I guess you don't have to, but the majority people do. You get a campsite and you split the campsite between however many people you have. But I just want to say it's good that we're all learning this now when it no longer exists. So, well, for future, if there's another faster horses, we'll know what to do. It's the same at electric forest and that one's still going on. Now did you, I know that Abby Pelke, who was there a moment ago, you've never been a faster horse, is Abby? She's too young to have gone to faster horses. Yeah, I have not touched faster horses. No, no for you. All right. I just wanted to make sure you weren't wheeled right out of the studio. These things happen. You know, these things happen. Okay. What else do we have here? Hall of shame hero, Fox two legend Rob Wollcheck is retiring after nearly 30 years. Good for you, Rob.

43:44I think last night was his last night. And I saw a video on social media of them clapping him out after his final broadcast to look like he'll come back, he'll come back to wish him well and yeah, you'll never forget. But a great guy. He will is what a great guy. Rob is Mr. Hall of shame himself retiring since he's helped hundreds of people since joining Fox in December of 1997. I hope somebody on the air thanks me when I retire one day, but I'm afraid all of the people that I know or knew won't be on the air anymore, but you'll be around Mike. Yeah. I'll thank you. I'll set, you know what? I'll set a reminder every day because I don't know when you retire, so I don't want to forget. I don't want to know. I don't want to retire, but be that as it may. I hope I'm not anytime soon. I'm sure I'm not being retired, but that aside, remember the good old days when you turned on WJR and you heard Tiger Baseball and Red Wings hockey and even at one point, Lions

44:45football. Sure. Well, now you can't find them. I have no idea where they are. And here's this story. Detroit Tigers Red Wings TV update Detroit Sportsnet is their new home. I don't know. I would not know for if you said Paul, I'm going to give you a million dollars if you turn on Detroit Sportsnet, I would not be able to find it within a minute. Yeah. Maybe ever. Yeah. Well, because you don't have it on your TV yet. You'll have to download it. Oh, you have to pay for it. Yeah. Another. Well, and hopefully, you know, because like, Fandall had a deal with Comcast. So certain cable providers who'd be on it. But so hopefully that's the case with this as well. I'm loving the videos now because these people are so stupid. Like Nancy Pelosi, who forget that they said that Obama didn't need permission when he started bombing Libya. Yet she's saying that this president needed permission before he started bombing Iran.

45:49It's just astonishing. And the primary mainstream, lame stream media won't run those videos. But of course, Fox does all these people who said in the past that presidents didn't need permission from Congress to do exactly what this president has just done. It's mind blowing, man. We've got our hands full as the American public with all these people in politics. We have our hands full. And I don't know how we're going to fix that. But thank God you've got WJR and some other people who do their best to speak the truth in talk radio. And not just lie down and go with the lies. Can I get a yes sir on that one? Yes sir. See, you see Abby Pellke. He knows where his his bread is buttered and so he goes along for this because it, well, because it makes sense.

46:49I'll just say that. The market responding. That's in gas prices and all of that. That's coming up next. David Saurby, managing director portfolio manager at Ancora Bloomfield Hills all run good guy has helped us over the years is here to fill us in on the global market sell off that has been intensifying even as we speak. Does that mean that's a great buying opportunity? We'll ask them as we continue in focus at WJR. Well, everybody looks at their, if they're lucky enough to have a Kio, do we still have Kio's IRAs, whatever, whatever investment plans you have retirement planning that we all should do. You know, if we all knew what we know today, we'd all be rich by now, but we didn't know about putting $25 away every week in a Roth IRA or $50 a week when we were kids. No one lawns are doing whatever we were doing.

47:50And we'd have millions of tax free dollars today, hopefully this generation knows that and no one's going to screw that up. David Saurby is managing director portfolio manager of Ancora Bloomfield Hills and obviously the markets are reacting to the conflict in Iran. The David always a pleasure of global markets sell off intensified today Iran is expanding its retaliatory attacks while they can around the Persian Gulf region. What are you doing? How are you keeping yours and your clients, like me, their powder dry? Discipline. It's one word, Paul. You woke up yesterday morning, futures were down. The market ended up flat for the day. You woke up this morning, the market was off more in early trading. Still down, but it's down roughly 1%. We're not out of this yet. That's very important for investors to know and nobody knows when it's ever going to end.

48:56But the rule of thumb is we get these 5% hiccups in the market between 2 and 3 times a year. We get 10% corrections on average once a year. Is this it, perhaps, but ideally, you have to stay disciplined and then think about if the market is down 10% or more, you don't sell, but you get your shopping list out and you think about what can I buy that's cheaper today, more on sale than it was a couple of weeks ago. And that's usually the best rule of advice when we've got this uncertainty and markets have no appetite for uncertainty. Well, I agree with you not 100%, but 1000%. I haven't said that lately, but now the president uses percentages that don't exist. So I can too. And the fact is prolonged conflict, combination of higher energy costs, disrupted logistics, a generalized confident shock, which is constituting a meaningful drag on global trade volumes

50:02that precisely the moment the world economy was still digesting the inflationary and growth consequences of the tariff shock. And it's concerning to me that as the president has talked about us being stronger than ever and getting along with all these other countries, some of these countries are acting like they don't really get along with us right now, which is something we have to deal with. But I do believe there's a tremendous buying opportunity ahead of us, but you said it best David Saurby managing director and portfolio manager and anchor up Bloomfield Hills. We don't know when that is we don't. The rule of thumb is we're seeing the playbook evil oil stocks up oil prices are now up 30% this year, travel stocks, and particularly the cruise lines the last couple of days are weaker, but take take a step back and look at all the. The travails that have existed when Russia invaded Ukraine four years ago.

51:05The stock market is still up 60% 60% since that horrific invasion of Ukraine. That's about a 12% compounded annualized return, which just I think speaks well to the ability of U.S. companies to generate profits sales and cash flow return it to the shareholder with higher stock prices. That's just one example of markets have a way of fighting through this near term adversity. And that really is I think the rule of thumb as we think about all these challenges in Iran and the Middle East. I just want to remind our listeners too that while the mainstream media pretty much ignored gas prices dropping significantly as they did, but they ignored it. In other presidencies that used to be a very big deal. Trust me when I tell you as the prices at the pump go up as they will, that will be a

52:07big story. So think about this. They didn't make a big deal out of the prices going down, but boy are they going to make a big deal out of the prices going up just as an observer. They do. They did in 2000 in the Gulf War in 1990. They did in when we had the attacks or the Iraq, they focus on oil companies gouging. Oil companies are not excessively profitable. They're certainly some very good ones to own. It's just supply and demand. David Saurabee, the steady hand and disciplined hand of David Saurabee, managing director and portfolio manager. At Ankara, Bloomfield Hills. Thank you, David. Thank you, Paul. Thanks for having me on with your listeners. Always a pleasure, sir. And thanks for helping all of us. Coming up next, Marie Osborne, who has a special show tonight, a special edition of Spotlight, tonight at APM, focusing on Iran, she's going to be here talking about something

53:09she's been studying for 25 plus years, conditions inside women's prisons. Marie Osborne up next here on WJR, it's 129. Glad you're here. These are the very things I was mentioning much earlier. Now, President to Donald Trump has said, I didn't hear it because I can't have the sound on on my monitor that was carrying his conversations with Germany, the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz. But now he is saying he, our president, is saying that the United States will cut off old trade with Spain after the European country refused to let the U.S. military use its bases for missions linked to strikes on Iran. Well, it's a socialist government. I don't know if this is one of the places where he said he had a beautiful relationship or not, but he's got to understand that there's going to be reactions like that, obviously,

54:11from the socialist leadership of a variety of the countries. Well, just follow it along the way. Tonight a special program, a special edition of Spotlight with Maria Osborne focusing on Iran. That's at 8 o'clock. I do hope you won't miss it. Meanwhile, Marie is here. Whoops, I don't have her. Let me just do something very quickly. A shame on me for reading all these other things that are coming through here. As you can imagine, while we're at war, there's a lot of stuff happening and a lot of information is flying and I turned off of where it was. Okay. Michigan lawmakers from both parties are demanding changes at Michigan's only prison for women after hearing emotional testimony about conditions inside the Huron Valley Facility near Ipsilanti. W.J. Harris-Marie Osborne says Michigan's women's prisons have a long history of problems.

55:12In fact, she outlined these problems more than 25 years ago in two award-winning series here on WJR. And I'm led to believe that after your work, Marie, over these past over 25 years, things got better, but they're still not apparently good enough. Marie, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Well, things did change after our reporting 25 years ago, but what I'm about to tell you is going to tell you that things haven't really changed that much. This beat my interest last week when I saw this. During legislative hearing and lancing, former staff members and oversight officials described long-standing problems at the Huron Valley Facility. This included mold throughout living areas, easy access to drugs, poor medical care, cases of women who died while in custody. And witnesses said employees who tried to raise concerns, well, they often faced pushback and some staff are suspected of helping bring contraband into the prison.

56:14Lots of problems. The members of the House Oversight Committee said the issues point to failures that should have been addressed years ago. They argue the state is paying out large legal settlements while these underlying problems continue. Now, the state corrections leaders, they pushed back saying Michigan provides nationally recognized programs and medical care, and the efforts are underway to limit contraband and improve safety. So right now, it's still in this oversight committee area where they're going to look into some of these allegations that were made. But Paul, as you said in your lead 25 years ago, we reported on similar problems, but far more serious problems as well in the Michigan women's prisons. We did two series. One was called Guardians of Fear and the other one who's guarding the guards. And we uncovered abuse among the guards who, and at that time, there were allegations that they were raping prisoners.

57:14And then while I was reporting on that, I had female guards come and tell me, confidentially, that they, too, were being raped by male guards inside the women's prison system. So we did at least two dozen, three dozen reports on this at the time. And we did see some changes happen inside the prisons, but at the time, also, there was a really big problem with retaliation within the prison system. So some of that has changed, but the fact of the matter is here we are back hearing about these types, similar problems, again, inside the prison system, the female prison system. So disheartening, given that 25 years ago, you didn't just do a couple of quiet reports, Guardians of Fear and who's guarding the guards. These were big deals, both one national Edward Armaro awards. And in addition, the series on the guards won a national headliner award, both series

58:16won multiple Michigan Association of Broadcasters, Associated Press, and Women in Communications Awards. So these got a lot of attention. And yet you're telling me, 25 years later, some of those systemic problems still exist and frankly flourish now. Yeah. And probably the most egregious here that I'm thinking about and looking about in this latest testimony that occurred was this easy access to drugs. And there shouldn't be drugs, obviously, in prison. And also the contraband that's coming into the prison. So these things have got to be addressed and looked at. You know, at the time when we did the original reporting, we found that the people running the prisons just didn't really want to talk about it. You know, the book stock stopped at the governor's desk. And the governor really didn't want to answer a lot of these questions. The head of the prison system at the time.

59:18He did come on WJR, but he would not talk to me. So he came on, in fact, Paul, he spoke with you on your show talking about the morning show, talking about the allegations. It just so happened that he chose to come on the radio station when I was on vacation with my family, my kids who were a little at the time. And so that he chose that week to come to answer some of these complaints. So we always thought that was an interesting bit of timing there. Fascinating. I honestly don't remember it, but fascinating for sure. And it is a very big issue. You know, when you get quotes like we treat animals better than we have treated these individuals and things like that, we're not helping these people in prison. We're not to rehabilitating them. We're making them worse like has happened with a lot of prisons. And I appreciate the fact that 25 years later, you're still on top of this.

1:00:19We're looking forward to your special spotlight tonight at 8 o'clock, focusing on Iran, Marie. We appreciate that hard work. As you continue as WJR's director of community affairs and news, have a great show tonight. We will. And we're just trying to stay on top of that story that you know is ever changing. Ever changing indeed. And by tonight, there'll be a lot more information out there and we'll have it for you. Right here on News Talk 760, WJR, the great voice of the Great Lakes. Stay with us. Well, this is what we talked about earlier. These are the specifics. Now, Israel believes it killed multiple Iranian officials counting votes to pick the next Supreme Leader. Israel strikes Iran's Supreme Council during a vote for the new Supreme Leader. Seriously, how could they possibly decide that now is a good time to bring all of those people together under one roof and not expect to be obliterated by the Israelis who clearly

1:01:22have inside information on everything Iran is doing? I don't get that at all. Yeah, unless for some reason they thought they were safe if they were voting for a new government, but it didn't sound like it was going to be a very... Well, it's not like they announced everybody. Don't bomb us. We're voting for a new government. Right. That's just craziness. Yeah, I mean, it's essentially what happened less than a week earlier. Here's another thing that I find fascinating. I haven't heard anyone talk about. So, we know that the U.S. and Israel joint attack on Iran would have an impact on global oil prices. That's a no-brainer, because let's face it, Iran is not only Iran is a major oil producer. It could also impact global oil shipments by blocking the strides of Hamuz, which they say if any ships come through there, they're going to set them on fire and all of that. 20% of the world's oil supply comes through those strides. Can you tell me how and why crude oil prices surged ahead of Saturday's attack?

1:02:34Does that not get anyone else's attention? But mine? I mean, especially with people who are... I'm not going to say conspiracy theorists out there, but people are always looking for connections that aren't actually there. So, now this is a connection that's actually there. And I don't know. Maybe... I mean, I know that the United States was... They were moving military assets into the area of the West for weeks. So maybe that... Maybe it was off of that? I don't know. I'll read it again. Good oil prices surged ahead of Saturday's attack. And the OPEC plus delegates have confirmed that the alliance will weigh a more aggressive production increase when it convenes for an emergency session on Sunday. A week later, that doesn't seem that urgent. And the surge of oil prices ahead of the attack.

1:03:37Yeah. The only thing I could guess is maybe they were watching the United States move military assets into the area. But other than that, it's a good question. Pretty astonishing. All right. I don't know anything about this, but apparently people are sweeping up an IKEA plushie like a stuffed animal. Yes. Are you familiar? Yes, I think this has something to do with push the monkey. Have you heard of push the monkey? Yeah, I love push the monkey. For this, have what this is about? Let's ask the new kid on the block, Abby Pelke. Abby, you kind of acted like you were aware of the IKEA stuffed animal. Are you aware of it? Oh, yeah. I love that little monkey. So IKEA got smart and jumped all over that monkey idea. This is for people who don't know. Right. This monkey was shunned by its mother, shunned by all the monkeys. So somebody took, I guess it was an IKEA stuffed animal, like an orangutan, or I don't

1:04:44know what it was. It wasn't necessarily a monkey. And the little monkey who was shunned grabbed a hold of that thing, and that was his best buddy. And we saw lots of footage of him dragging it around, keeping it with him. Now, the rest of the story is he has started to get along with all the other monkeys, and they've now started to embrace him. And he is spending far less time with the stuffed monkey, and now apparently shoppers are spending more time with the IKEA stuffed animal, because they went viral, sold out at stores around the world. So they're rushing to get them in, but of course they're a little, they're a dollar short, no, I don't know, with that expression, a dollar short. A day late, a dollar short, because people, the monkeys have already moved on. My wife and her mom went to IKEA looking for just to get the monkey, yeah, and yeah, not to have, well, I was going to say, haven't been able to find them anywhere, but there's only one IKEA around here, but yeah, it's been sold out ever since push, stole the heart

1:05:46of a world. Well, push certainly did steal the heart of the world, and news makers, news media used it a couple of two, three nights in a row, just to break our minds off all the other news, right, that is out there. And you got to admit, it was the cutest thing to see that little monkey moving around like that. And I'm so relieved that the other monkeys have taken push in, yeah, me too, because that was bumming me out. We never heard why mom, monkey mom, and in the rest of them had shunned this push. Well, they better not be coming back around now that pushes rich and famous. They had their chance, yes, they had their chance. All right. Thanks to the team, the team, the team, Mike Persons, our executive producer, Daniel Mason helping out Abby Pelke. I hope you enjoyed yourself, Abby, look, she put her headphones down, didn't think I'd be talking to her. I hope you've enjoyed yourself, Abby Pelke, you've got a great teacher there in Danielle and Rich Luzinski, keeping track of our WJR traffic and weather first.

1:06:49Now I want you to stand by for news. But before we get to that, it's JRF to noon with the one and only Ryan Hermani. Paul, how are we doing today? We're doing great, and I'm doing great by being the sandwich between my daily dose of deets and all talk with Kevin. And there's me from noon to two, then there's you from two to four JRF to noon, Ryan. And then there's Mitch Album and then there's sports rep. I mean, it's just an incredible lineup. I'm happy to be a part of it. You're telling me, I mean, come on, first of all, to follow you. I mean, I don't even know how the heck I do that. But I do my best, Paul, and then to precede Mitch, come on, man. Well, thankfully the folks from the Barrett Media picked us all to be big winners in the country, which is a big deal when you consider we're in the 13th largest market in the country. And we beat out stations in the top 10 markets.

1:07:51It's incredible in the top markets for the entire country at this great radio station at the leadership of Antonis and so many other people that make these things happen. What are you doing today? Today, we are going to talk about the fracture in the Republican Party, Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly coming out strongly against the war with Iran. Impact will this have if any with the mega base? You know, I, I don't see Tucker Carlson anywhere anymore. And I know he's very much on social media, but I, I don't see it. Do you see it very much? I do, I do see him on social media because I'm pretty active in that space. But again, does it have any impact at all? Well, we'll see time. We'll tell and stand by for news and J. R. Afternoon with the one and only Ryan Armani, talk to you tomorrow. Regards pulled out of you Smith.