Focus with Paul W. Smith ~ March 4, 2026 ~ Full Show

0:00Well, a very pleasant to good Wednesday to you, middle of the week. Here we are Wednesday, March 4th, 2026. Some people call it, um, day, um, thank you. Glad we could keep the camel on board, um, but we just call it Wednesday. I, I look, I like the weekend as much as anybody, but I like each day too. I mean, can you imagine if you have to go through five weekdays, uh, unhappily to get to Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I mean, come on. That changed the way you look at things and your life will be better. I promise you that. So, uh, and be grateful. It's not that you have to work today. You get to work today. If you change to the thought process, it changes everything, uh, but even with that positive attitude, apparently, does not protect me from getting a bad cold. I don't know if you can hear it, but man, it's a bad one. It's one of those nose dripping, gross colds.

1:02But I will, I will self-heal and it will be gone by tomorrow. I hope. And it's that time of year where the weather keeps changing back and forth. So it could be a cold. It could be allergies. It could be both. You know, I hadn't even thought about allergies. I got allergy medicine. I'll take some of that. I, I, I hadn't even thought about allergies. Yeah, I just thought cold, um, you know, when I get up in the middle of the night and feel like I'm cold, and Thomas will tell you that if I ever came into the studio and went, who's cold in here, she'd say, oh, you're getting sick. It's never too cold for me ever, but apparently last night, it seemed to be. All right, um, Mike Parsons is here. Executive producer Daniel Mason, queen of the switches, throwing all the right switches. And Rich Luzin's keeping track of our WJR traffic and weather. First, we thank you for that. Rich, while you're on your way to making each and every day count, because you know each day as a gift, it's a QTR we're not familiar with. We don't know how much quality time remaining we have.

2:05So make note of that. I do thank you for being an important part of the best and brightest audience in all of radio. I do. All right, we are doing, of course, the streaming as always. You can come back and podcast us at wjr.com. You can get all these things on the free WJR app. Be sure to download it. And right now, Facebook and YouTube pages lie video streaming, which means you'll see me if you are watching very few people can watch their listening. And that's fine. You'll see me dabbing my nose because of the cold. Glad you got your daily dose of Deets in with all talk with Kevin Deets. In two hours, we'll be able to spend time with Ryan or Monty, J.R. afternoon. All right, there's a number of big stories out there. I'll start with the sickest and saddest that gives you an idea of how screwed up our world is right now. There is actually a musical out on Luigi Mangio.

3:08This is the guy who in cold blood cowardly like came up behind the insurance executive and shot him enough in the back to kill him. And someone's turned it into Luigi, the musical, a tale of love, murder, and hash browns. Oh boy. I can't think of many other things sicker than that. And as we get closer to that, I will give you the names of people who are involved in this and they should be shunned forever. How dare they? It's not a, I mean, it's not like a big Broadway theater, is it? I mean, it's probably just some smartly would like it to be that it's apparently it opened in San Francisco, the city that we've lost by the bay. They're going to do a reading, I think, first in New York of all places where the murder took place. I just, it's too much. I don't even want to think about it. There's a Trader Joe's recall on a variety of products, four different products,

4:12look it up. If you shop at Trader Joe's, please look it up. It's national pound cake day. There's something positive and good. I love pound cake. I don't remember the last time I had it. Do you? No, today would be a good day to get reacquainted and celebrate. Yeah, because it started off gloopy, foggy, you know, pound cake seems to make everything better, but I haven't had it in a long time. Now do you, do you, do you make that into strawberry shortcake over? I, if there's ever a chance to make anything, if I could make shoe leather into strawberry shortcake, I would. I love strawberry shortcake, but I, I don't think I've ever done that. I don't know. I can't say for sure. There's the world champion cheese contest in Madison, Wisconsin, appropriate place. That would be the appropriate place. Cheese cap of, while of the United States, maybe the world, I don't know.

5:12Well, they, you know, they have people from around the world, including China. I don't remember every saying, oh, could I try some of the Chinese cheese, please? I don't remember ever doing that, but China and other places around the world. All right, national hug a GI day. In the old days, you could just hug someone today. You have to ask permission, so do that. But hug a GI, GI's could use some hugs right now that one of the things that bothers me more than anything is that we have soldiers out there risking their lives right now and we the morons in Washington are arguing whether they should be there or not or whether, no, they're not even arguing that they don't care about the, the kids. They care about catching Trump doing something he shouldn't have done, but I say regardless of whether he should or shouldn't, they're there. And let's support our soldiers. We're at war right now, whether they want to call it that or

6:12not. Oh, don't get, I don't want to get started on that. All right. There was a question and I printed all the information. Maybe we'll get into it a little later. I have the answer to the question. The question, well, I should probably, the question was, I'm on the edge of my seat stuck somewhere that I now can't find. Could you paraphrase all this stuff that I just printed? See, this happens all the time. I print the entire internet and then I can't find it until after. Oh, here it is. Does having a dog really extend your life? I'll answer that. Yes. That was going to be my guess. I'm saying yes. Danielle is doing her radio silent waving of the head. Yes. Yes to Danielle as well. Yeah, I would imagine it gives you a purpose. It lowers your blood pressure. Yeah. A large review of studies published in 2019 linked Donnie McDonald to a 24% lower risk of

7:15dying from all causes over the course of a decade. Other than, of course, being an elderly person tripping over their dog, but beyond that. Those are the outliers. I know you live longer. I mean, no matter how bad of a day you have, when you walk in and your dog is excited to see you, like you're a rock star. In that moment, you cannot be having a bad day. Life doesn't get any better than having complete is unrequited the word. No, because it's quiet. It's reciprocal. I think unrequited means it's not returned. Well, unconditional, I think you're having unconditional love. That's it. Is worth its weight in gold or silver or platinum or whatever selling for the music started. How did that happen already? Me and my cold. I have to say, Danielle, that the executive producer, Mike Parsons, and I have to speak about this. Unless we put everyone on the

8:17edge of their seat, but both of us went and tried McDonald's big arch. I'm excited for your review. Both of you guys. Well, do we have time to do this? I'll let you do it because I'm on the edge of my seat now. Okay. The big arch. And I did look around and see how Burger King came out and mocked the McDonald's CEO. Right. I mean, you stupid terminology like the product. Maybe he should not have described the big arch as the product. That's that's too inside business like, but here's the problem. I went to McDonald's. I drew doing the drive through. It took forever to get the big arch. I mean, I watched people behind me coming and going and they weren't waiting. And I got to believe a lot of us were trying the big arch for the first time. But anyway, it took forever to get my big arch. I still tipped the young lady who brought it out to me because I

9:17do that because I still can because I still work and I want to help people. And I got the big arch home. I opened it up and immediately found the shredded lettuce to be a hassle. Yes. You pick the burger up. It falls everywhere. Do not get the big arch and drive. Do not think you can eat that big arch with the two patties and the sauce and all of that and drive. I would now like to hear what you thought of the big arch before I do say what I thought. Yeah. So actually, one of the things I texted you because we, you know, we consulted after was that the lettuce was a hassle. It was. It was good because it was a McDonald's burger. However, the sauce didn't really make an impression on me. And I actually liked the slivered onions and the ketchup on the quarter pounder a little bit better. So the big arch was, was okay.

10:20But, but it didn't really knock my socks off. It's not something I would get every time they brought back like the big rib. Which then everyone said, there's no, there's no rib meat in the big rib. I don't care. It's a dog gone good sandwich, whatever they put on that thing as long as it's legal. Not horse meat or dog meat, but anyway, I didn't like the big arch. And I think when you have something like this with this big of a rollout, you better bring something really good to the market because you're getting all this attention. All they did was open the door for Burger King to say, yeah, well, we've improved to our burger and the burger at Burger King, which I'm not a big fan enough because it gives me heartburn or something, but it has more flavor. I felt this thing was lacking flavor and maybe post COVID after the Chinese tried to kill us, but couldn't, but did kill

11:22many of our taste buds. Maybe we don't taste as well as we did and they need to make stronger flavors. I don't know, but I didn't. I ate that and I queued Peggy Lee with, and this doesn't mean anything to you guys. You'll look it up. Is that all there is? Paul, there's also something to be said about the comfort of getting your normal order at McDonald's. Well, I'm definitely a quarter-pronder with cheese. Yeah, period. I am. And this didn't make me decide I wanted something else. If I put it on Paul W. Smith's to my Instagram, Paul W. Smith's to and I had to rewrite what I wrote because somebody said, well, that's not a quarter-pronder with cheese because they don't have letters on it. I didn't, I never called it a quarter-pronder with cheese. I called it the big arch. And then you can see I took a picture and you can see big arch, but anyway, I'm still going, I'm not writing off McDonald's. I'm saying that it's go back to

12:25your normal. Yeah, I like the quarter-pronder with cheese. You know, McDonald's is getting hit. I mean, think of this. Warren Buffett retired. So that to McDonald's that lives between his house and his office doesn't, I would assume, doesn't get him driving through there every morning to get breakfast in the little astray where his wife puts the exact change depending on how well the market did the day before. Wow. He can have a good breakfast or just an okay breakfast. The guys worth hundreds of billions of dollars. That's how you stay rich. And the any, by the way, he couldn't wait to get to the office to drink his Coca-Cola, which is also a stocky ones with McDonald's breakfast. Anyway, so they're getting hit on all sides. And I'm going to say this. I'm going to say I bet that McDonald's CEO might be in trouble now because of all this. Yeah, I'm just saying. I know nothing

13:26about it. I'm just saying. Well, if Cracker Barrel can survive it, I'm sure McDonald's can. Well, there you are. Cracker Barrel. The Cracker Barrel mistake. It was a big one, but they still are existing. All right, we continue in focus on WJR. How appropriate on this National Hugga GI Day, we have a fabulous veteran that I've known since, frankly, I've known him since he was a little boy because I've been friends with his dad and mom for as long as I've known them, which is a long time. He is Captain Michael Bouchard, Army Paratrooper, Ron Star recipient. He happens to also be running for Congress in the 10th district. And he is a all-round good guy. And on the other end of our line, Captain, if I could, I would hug you today because it's Hugga GI Day. Paul, I'm going to be totally honest. I didn't know

14:31that that holiday existed. I'm glad to know it does. Look forward to giving you a hug down the road. And thanks for having me on. Well, we'll hug again because we've hugged before. And I do find some of the strangest holidays, but that one's worth noting and an important one. Let me first, since you're the only guy I've talked to since this war began or this incursion, or whatever anybody wants to call it, since we attacked, like we should have, Iran, give me your thoughts on this, your overall thoughts on what's happening in Iran and what's happening in the United States. I'd love to hear it. Yeah, you know, it's interesting because when the 12-day war kicked off about eight months ago, I was in Iraq and I fought through the 12-day war, which was definitely an interesting experience, but it kind of formulated a lot of my views on it now since I was there last time. But I know for it's a fact that Iran has killed thousands of U.S. killed and injured thousands of U.S. servicemen and women. Diatola has blood on his hands.

15:33The now deceased diatola has blood on his hands. And he wanted to keep hurting Americans on the road. So the fact that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon now shows that American leadership is back and we're going to keep defending this country. We're going to keep bringing this country first. I appreciate that view. As a soldier, you have the right to have a view. You were there and you're just back and you served brilliantly, bronze star and all the other accolades and awards that you got Captain Michael Bouchard. Now tell me when you're overseas, are you at all aware of the discord or anything that's going on or do you get the feeling when you're not being supported by certain politicians over here or do you wipe all of that out of your minds or does it bother you? I would say it's situational. Sometimes you are aware that politicians aren't backing you and I've seen the effect of my soldiers and their families. But when I was in

16:35Iraq for the 12-day war, I wasn't really paying attention to any of the outside noise. I knew that this administration supports our military. And to be honest, we were pulling 18-hour days just folks that I'm tracking and missiles and drones are richening up Iran and trying to defend other service members there that our main focus was just on fighting the fight. And I know that's where the service members who are currently in Iraq and in Syria and Jordan and Saudi Arabia across the entire Middle East are just folks that are defending their brothers and sisters right now. And it's our job is Americans to support them. I mean, this shouldn't be a political issue. If you want to talk after the fact about war powers, whatever, go have that conversation. But the fact that there's Americans in combat right now, we need to support them. Oh my, that's exactly how I feel and that's exactly what I've said on the air. You can argue about all this other stuff, but not when our boys and girls are in active duty in the field being shot at. This is the time all Americans, including the knuckleheads in Washington, should be

17:37without any hesitation supporting those kids. All the facts that they want to force the vote on the War Powers Act this week instead of just focusing on fighting the fight. Let's fight this fight. Let's bring our service men and women home safe and let's win. Let's defangir on. And then you can have the conversation about War Powers Act in fact. Let them fight the fight right now. I just, it's astonishing to me the hypocrisy captain and the hypocrisy of some of the Democrat women who stand up for women as well. They should and women's rights and understand that this Iatola and the one before him stripped women of all of their rights. And now there's a chance that they're going to get those rights back again. You should be hearing from these people shouting in the streets how much they support this. This shouldn't be a political issue. These are mass murdering thugs who want to have a nuclear bomb. They want to oppress women in their own country. They have people walking around with sticks beating women for not wearing his jobs. So if you truly are a woman's right supporter, then you should support this. If you

18:41support defending America and not having having weapons of mass destruction brought to our shores, Iran chance death to America every day when someone tells you who they are believe them. That's absolutely right. Now, should you be fortunate enough to become a congressman in the 10th district? How would you look at the threat of terror attacks on our soil? So the government's job, their number one job is to keep their people safe. I have the experience because I've seen it abroad. I've seen what happens when we don't defend American lives. I don't want that to come to our country. We need people who have the experience and day one to stop it. Unfortunately, nobody else in this race does. I don't want to make this a political issue. The only thing we should be focusing on is defending our country and that is what I'm going to bring to the district on day one. Captain, where do people find out more about you and your campaign and what you stand for? What to website do we go to? Yeah, I have an awesome team in the websites for congress.com. All right. The more people, the better.

19:47Okay. Bouchard for congress.com. Bouchard B-O-U-C-H-A-R-D. Bouchard for congress.com. Captain Michael Bouchard, Army paratrooper, Bronze Star recipient, running for Congress in the 10th district. We wish you good luck, my friend. Thanks, boss. Not gonna be on with you. Oh, it's our honor to have you, sir. As we continue in focus with Paul W. Smith on WJR. You know, it's funny. You've been around long enough like I have been used to remember when people come and when they go. I remember when Rod Woods stood before the microphones saying, quote, I'm not really qualified to run any other NFL team. And an statement that some of his critics said, well, wait a minute. What are we getting here? He's not qualified for this job. I mean, he's a graduate of the University of Michigan, which is great in my book. But he was graduate in the School of Commercial Banking.

20:52He was the president and CEO of the Florida States. And a lot of us said, what does he know about being the president and CEO of a football organization? Well, my friends, over the last several years, Rod Wood has shown us what he knows. He knew to bring in guys like Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell. He knew how to work with Sheila Ford happened before that her mother. He has been an excellent soldier and he has overseen so many great things with our Detroit Lions. It is an honor to be able to speak with him now as he has announced that he will be retiring that position. Rod, I couldn't be happier for you or more proud of the incredible job you have done. Well, thank you, Paul W. This is kind of a symmetry. I think the first interview I did when I took this position was your morning show. And here we are after I made my announcement,

21:53the first interview you're doing your afternoon show. So it's a full circle. Well, that doesn't go unnoticed. Thanks for reminding me of that. And I take that as a high compliment. And it is my honor to be able to speak with you at a time like this now after watching. And what you said at yourself, you know, I probably isn't another football team that I'm qualified to run, but I am qualified to run this one. And boy, did you ever do that hitting the ground running? Were you ever nervous or thinking, jeez, I'm not exactly sure what to do. And if you ever felt that way, was there anyone you turned to to get help? Interesting question, you know, certainly out of nervous was the right, you know, feeling, but certainly, you know, feeling of wanting to learn and get up to speed. So early on in my 10 year, I spent three days in New York at the League office trying to get to know everybody at the League office and every aspect of the NFL

22:56from, you know, the league's perspective and then bring that back to the team. I still have great relationships with many of those people to this day. Some of those sense retired or moved on, but I wanted to learn the business from the ground up and from the from the league's perspective, including, you know, quite a bit of time with Roger and his whole management team. And after that, I felt like I had a pretty good handle on it. And I think the the biggest advantage I brought to the position was a relationship with the Ford family. And I think in hindsight, talking to others in the league and peers, other teams, having an intimate close relationship with ownership is probably the thing the most important thing to be successful in this position. Well, you know, that's an excellent point. And not everyone gets to do something like that. The Ford's knew you respected you and probably most importantly trusted you, Rod, because they watched you handle the Ford estates. And so they're looking around and they're going,

23:58well, who do we get to do this? Well, we all know and love Rod. We respect Rod. Rod respects us. We can trust Rod as we look back. Of course, hindsight is always 2020, but it really was a perfect fit. Yeah, and I think at the time too with with Mrs. Ford, you know, only being a couple years in after her husband had passed and you know, making the decision to make changes, you know, trust and confidence. I think was one of the most important things to her and the family. And I had that relationship and I think it made sense to her to start with with me. Obviously, the outside world is you identified and probably one of the things I regret saying in my career was that one statement people keep bringing back to me about whether I was qualified or not. But you know, I think the the gist of what I meant was that was uniquely qualified to run this team because of that relationship. That was your first introduction to the media and how careful how careful you have

25:02to be when you say something because they're going to grab a hold of it and make it their own meaning, which is what happened with that. Well, no one no one can question anything about your tenure there. We've seen the lions go from a miserable circumstance and situation from that moment misses Ford, Martha Ford, fired the whole front office, brought you in and now even throughout your tenure, you've done so many great things. The capital improvements, the things that you did to fix Ford field when probably people thought, well, it's it's a new place. You don't have to fix it. Well, it's not that new anymore. And the international footprint, you've given the entire lion's organization. It's just been a great job, Rod. We couldn't be happier for you or proud a prouder of you. What would you say if there's one or maybe you can give a couple happiest accomplishments as president of the Detroit Lions? Well, you know, I reflect on a couple things that

26:08immediately come to mind. I would say certainly, you know, hiring Dan and Brad and you never know when you hire new leaders of your football team, especially those two who didn't know each other to see them gel and build the team into what we have today. Reflecting back on that, you know, it's a huge win for the organization, the city, the state. And I would say for the NFL as a whole because the Lions have become a great brand for the league. The two things that really immediately come to mind after that though was, you know, hosting that first home playoff game at Ford Field against Matthew Stafford and the Rams and winning the game in the final seconds and what that environment was like. Something that you can never repeat and I'll never forget. And then both a good and a bad news, you know, story is that the first half of the San Francisco NFC championship game was amazing. Yeah, unfortunately followed by the second half, which, you know, was as close

27:08as the Lions have gotten to the Super Bowl. And when I told the Ford family of my intention, it was the one thing I apologize for that was the only thing I feel like I didn't give them was the Super Bowl that everybody's been waiting for. But I still think that we're in that window and we're leaving I'm leaving the organization in a good place to deliver that Super Bowl at some point in the near future. I figured that would be if I asked what would be the unfinished business, the obvious answer was the Super Bowl. But I have to tell you, they are more on track to win a Super Bowl than they have been in the last 20, 50, I don't know how many years. It's it's you have led them and you're right. The the the the the Brad Homes, the Dan Campbell hires and working with mom and then with Sheila Ford Hampe. And I'm wondering, will you be involved in picking your replacement? Has Sheila Ford Hampe said anything to you about, you know, who do you think it should be in the organization outside anything like that?

28:09Yeah, I'll be involved. We're we're starting a process as we indicated in the press release week and a half ago that we have a search firm that's helping us. But I'll be involved with Sheila, along with other members of her family and some other internal executives vetting internal and external candidates and find the right person to continue what we have started and hopefully build upon it and deliver even more success in the future. So I intend to stay around until we find that person in a period of transition thereafter to make sure that I really leave the organization the way hopefully it should be left, which is with the right leader in place and the momentum continuing. A great 11 years as Detroit lines president and CEO Rod Wood, will you when you say sticking around at least until we get that new next person and helping out every way you can with Sheila Ford Hampe and the rest of the family? Will you have any official emeritus position with the team that's been discussed? Not anything official. I'll be

29:14available should people want to reach out and need help but nothing in an official capacity. I really don't think that that would be helpful to whoever succeeds me to have you know somebody else looking over their shoulder or be around to get in the way of whatever plans they may have and I don't want to do that to whoever succeeds me and I think that's the right way to leave the organization but to the extent somebody has a question everybody will have my phone number. You're a young man. You're in your mid 60s. You got a lot going on. I doubt very much you're moving on to another job though. I am not moving on to another job. I have a couple of you know boards all I'm on maybe add a couple um spend time with our you know kids and grandkids and you know friends hopefully get my handicap back down to where it once was um and uh you know be able to do what I want to do as opposed to you know having the responsibility of this big job. Unfortunately they didn't offer me an opportunity like you have that I could move to the noon time and

30:19it kind of worked part time like you did to do but I got lucky. Unfortunately this isn't a part time job and it requires somebody who's going to go full speed and be fully committed and I think that the time for me in my life is um it's time to move on to the next phase of a little more personal time and enjoy life with my family and friends. Good for you but it's good too for whoever comes into these big shoes to fill understands that you will stand at the ready if they have any insider questions or anything that you will happily help them uh any way that you can and that doesn't surprise me and I am just thrilled to have gotten to know you Rodwood and for that short period of time we had the lions back on WJR we spent a lot more time together but I couldn't be happier for you and I want to thank you on behalf of all the people who don't get to talk to you at a time like this thank you for the excellent job you have done for the city of Detroit the state

31:22of Michigan for the NFL for football overall for the Detroit Lions as president and CEO Rodwood God bless you and thank you so much and by the way you're always welcome to come back here for anything you want to talk about I appreciate that Paul that would be all the best take care all the best to you what a great job to try lions president and CEO Rodwood has done as he has announced he will be stepping down and retiring waiting to make sure they get the next president and CEO in place he's a good guy we've been very lucky to get to know him over the years we continue focus with Paul W Smith at WJR at 1245 fresh from her special show last night spotlight Marie Osborne our WJR director of community affairs and news is here and before I get into what we're scheduled to talk about how did spotlight go last night Marie oh it was

32:24great you know we we dipped into a lot of the interviews that we've done here on the year in the last week well actually the last three days it seems like a week about the crisis in the Middle East and just very insightful we have such great guests here on WJR well as as we heard from Rodwood he held out to do his very first interview 11 years ago with me and the morning show and then he did his very first interview after announcing his retirement with me on this afternoon show and that's not me that's the radio station that's WJR the great voice of the great lakes we have worked hard to earn that kind of respect and we appreciate it and you're right Marie we do get the best guests ever that's for sure now the Pentagon has identified the first known US casualties in the war with Iran there've been six I believe but four army reserve soldiers killed in an unmanned aircraft attack on March 1st in Kuwait and you have more of the information

33:31Marie Osborne right we sure do and and again you're right there there have been six we just don't know the identity of the other two their families are still being notified 35-year-old captain Cody Cork was from Winter Haven Florida 42-year-old sergeant first-class Noah Titians was of Bellevue Nebraska 39-year-old sergeant first-class Nicole Amor was from White Bear Lake Minnesota and 20-year-old sergeant Declan Cody is from West Des Moines Iowa all four serving with the Des Moines based army reserve unit in support of Operation Epic Fury they were assigned to the 103rd sustainment command that provides food fuel water ammunition in transport equipment and supplies Nicole Amor was just a few days away from returning home to her husband and her two kids when she was killed she her two children a senior in high school and a fourth grader Cody Cork served 17 years he enlisted as a multiple launch rocket fire direction specialist

34:33in with the National Garden 2009 Noah Titians served 20 years he enlisted with the army in 2006 and he had two deployments to Kuwait both in 2009 and then in 2019 the youngest of this group was Sergeant Declan Cody with the army reserve he's a student at Drake University his family says he stayed in close contact with them from Kuwait in fact speaking to his brother who was also a soldier just before the attack so it's important to remember who these people are Paul I think you'll agree with that and really who they were beyond their military service it's the most important thing to be thinking about right now not everything that's being thought about talked about thought about in I said thought and thought about in Washington DC there's plenty of time to do that when all of the troops are back out of harm's way but while they're out there serving their country following the orders they're given they should see a united

35:37front here back home be that as it may you did a great job in summing up these four and we're looking at the the oldest 42 which is very young but the youngest Declan Sergeant Declan Cody just 20 years old that's very very young yeah very young indeed and again he had just you know he was very close to his family and had just spoken to his brother before the attack happened powerful stuff all right anything else Marie nope we're keeping up with the story all right we appreciate it I hope you don't have too many reports like this but I appreciate when you do on this by the way national hug a GI day always ask but hug a GI if you get a chance Marie Osborne W.J.R's director of community affairs and news in focus we've got another hour to go we hope you'll stay with us Paul W Smith here on W.J.R. All righty hour number two for this

36:44Wednesday afternoon the fourth of March all these things are lined up properly yeah we've got the team the team the team Mike Parsons executive producer Daniel Mason running the controls the queen of switches Rich Luzinski traffic and weather first on W.J.R. whether you're streaming us or coming back and podcasting us and I hope you will you'll want to come back and hear the conversation we had with Captain Michael Bouchard the Army paratrooper Braun star recipient he's also running for Congress in the 10th district his take on Iran as a soldiers take and Rod Wood to trite lion's president CEO and all around good guy who announced his retirement after 11 years and it is first interview with us you'll be able to come back and hear all of that with the podcasting at wjr.com do you have the free wjr app I hope that you'll get it and that if you can you can watch us live

37:45Facebook and YouTube pages live video streaming right now as you're on your way to making each and every day count because each day is a gift and thanks for being an important part of the best and brightest audience in all of radio did you hear this story that there was a United States half marathon championship for women and the three leaders are following a vehicle that's supposed to lead them through the course I don't know what it's called lead vehicle I guess maybe I you want to say pace car but that's my car I'll call it that okay let's call it the pace car which I didn't know they used it's amazing in all those races I was used to enter right and it was the women's races that I entered anyway um the pace car went the wrong way uh-oh and led those three women who were on their way to winning one two three or however

38:51the lineup would be they lost because it took them two minutes out of the way that they were supposed to be going how did all the other racers know I don't know the right route I have no idea but I'm telling you this the the committee that runs this race it's some long name I don't know what it's called it doesn't matter you can look it up if it matters to you but it was a women's half marathon race $20,000 in prize money for the win the USATF I don't even know what it stands for but the guy in charge or the gal whoever it was in charge said well there's nothing we can do yes there is you know how I'm stupid and I know that AI could take the the numbers that they have take the mileage they were given to run out of place that's the race people's fault not the runners fault

39:52and AI could tell you with all that information what place they should have in the race itself day am I wrong about that I'm sure there is a way to come up with some formula it seems like you could do it with a stopwatch and mileage yeah but but with AI it would seem to be a no-brainer but they're not doing it well at least not yet they'll be sued and maybe then they'll do it I don't know yeah yeah I mean it it almost sounds like like some kind of plot from a sitcom where somebody goes and sabotages the race but nobody's laughing no well that's like that woman the I can't cracker crack it of jasmine crack it crack of crack of jasmine I guess say careful she says well the Republicans threw the race yeah no the Republicans wanted her to win because I think they thought she'd be the easiest one to beat but I don't know it's just funny and when the president says that

40:52it's it's so off the charts wrong and now a Democrat's doing the same thing are we shocked I mean the hypocrisy just flies I feel like they all work out of the same playbook at different times they all have the same mother is the way we used to put that um the smoothie king and Ann Arbor is getting a lot of attention because apparently a guy with a trump a supportive trump shirt or something came in yeah and I don't know what the smoothie employee was thinking they don't own the company they work for somebody and I don't think smoothie king had an edict that saying do not serve trump supporters no they they did it because they were dealt with the employees were dealt with well they were fired right which is what they should have been so you know before you make a stand a strong stand at your company check the company policy right here's a list of people

41:53you can avoid you can deny service to it's a very short list meanwhile one of the people fired has started uh one of those uh one of those means yeah one the one that I want to start when it's time for me to go I'm gonna start to go fund me because I certainly made a lot more money for a lot more people than I made for myself so I'm gonna do a go fund me but they started to go fund me and you know what I'm sure there's a lot of people who will donate to it oh I'm sure because there that many people don't like the president so they think they're showing that by supporting somebody who made a very dumb decision at work the contest is back the Michigan I voted sticker contest returns oh yeah I think last year there was like some kind of wolf with big muscular arms or something I don't I don't remember I gotta tell you the truth I don't remember it at all well you got mad when your submission didn't win I'm just joking I did not submit a

42:57design but if you want to do that uh let's see what you're about to do uh those younger than thirteen are required to include the name and contract no they mean contact yeah information of a parent or legal guardian entries must include the entrance first and last name email a phone number entrance city entrance school optional entry category elementary middle k through eight high school blah blah blah submit designs by may first who is this was at fox two that put this out maybe I don't know great station fox two fox two to trade but there's uh if you're watching on facebook or youtube there's a there's a look at last year's winners oh good yeah those are cute well it was taleriko that defeated crocket in texas run she's though she she i'm sorry he's the one who was interviewed by colbert and cb us told him not to air it so they crop which was the best thing that ever happened to him yeah they probably helped them win that

43:57primary to be on absolutely yeah he he also made about three million dollars in donations right away right did you know that we have launched a new military operation in Ecuador I saw that I'm like I can't I'm still getting my arms around the uh the one in Iran this is to combat narco terrorists I mean do we really have enough are let's not spread ourselves too thin right that's what I was that's what I was wondering do we have the resources to fight all these all these battles on all these fronts yeah this one's old trump will cut all trade with spain over military bases and spending you know you can't you can't I don't have it I don't have time to come up with a battle you can't piss everyone off around the world right and then expect them to say oh you need help we're gonna help you you can't do that and what do you think's gonna happen uh I assume there's still questioning uh christie no christie no yeah because we heard a lot more

45:02yesterday as it was happening in the senate where uh you know she was getting into shouting matches with people um I haven't heard much from the house maybe maybe no one's um keep an an eye on it because we're talking them about it next but yeah you had uh tom tillis take her to task about writing out republican yeah beating her up and uh one of the Kennedys the the down south who's a republican also i love hearing him talk yeah it was he picking on her too yeah because he thought that uh he threw um steven miller and president trump under the bus um when you know she said that she works at their direction she kind of said hey you know I'm just doing what they want me to do and so he was asking christie gnome why um she was throwing the two of them under the bus when she was quoted saying this that and and the other things so yeah because you know what i used what i said in fact i said it on the air at the time

46:03why is she saying these things without having any idea what she's talking about right and the reasons she was saying them was somebody was feeding her incorrect information but she ran with that she's got to understand you can't do that for something that important yeah and she was talking about stuff she had no idea what she was talking about and and that was a big mistake that you know was it a fatal error i don't know well we will ask Nolan up next yeah yeah he'll give you some insight but yeah tom tom tell us and uh i i don't remember the kennedy from Louisiana but the is he's he's i love his accent you know he's just a good old boy yes all right our number two is underway here focus pull w smith and the team the team the at one fifteen well i'll tell you mr or whether prognosticator it's uh it's hazy where i am and cloudy i think most of uh the area it's it's not bright sunshine that's for sure

47:05and it's 43 degrees right now with an expected high of about 45 so just i mean maybe where he's standing there's a great deal of sunshine and i want to know where that is and i will go stand there with him Nolan Finley editorial page editor for the Detroit news co-author of a book of our time that should be read by everyone at least everyone in Washington especially it's the civility book a guide to building bridges across the political divide by Nolan and his friend Stephen Henderson with Lynn Egoldner and uh i hope the book's going well Nolan seems to be Paul well it should it's a good book i appreciate it i ran into a guy this morning he said enjoyed your book so i guess it's uh it's still out there and uh you can still get it uh on amazon well and it's worth getting that's for sure unfortunately the people really really need to read it

48:07don't know they need to read it that's unfortunate um we watched christy gnome uh at the time of the shootings uh that happened in Minneapolis and i was screaming at the television monitor and i mentioned it on the air at the time she was saying things that she shouldn't have been saying because she did not have direct knowledge about either of the stories but she clearly was being fed and i'll say misfed information from people who were supposed to know i don't know if they were throwing her under the bus or just trying to lie to the american people or whatever so she got her unfortunate come up and say if you will testifying in front of the senate yesterday on the immigration crackdown and she's facing the house today we're not hearing too much about it right now give me some of your thoughts about yesterday's action well you know i'm i was a big fan of christy

49:07gnome when she was governor and i interviewed her uh once when she came to mackenham to speak to the republican uh policy conference uh i think you know she's and i you know i hate to say this but i just feel she's a little bit in the dark uh and and maybe over her head here uh this in this administration values one thing and that's loyalty to Donald Trump and so everything that comes out of the mouth of inter administration officials has to in some way be a lotatory toward Donald Trump and it's it's more important than anything else so i think she has suffered from um uh not really fully being aware of what's going on but also being fed conflicting messages from people in the administration and i just not impressed with with many members of this cabinet

50:10well with her again under the microphone and spotlight and hot seat um i don't know why she tried to defend her early descriptions of Alex prety and Renee good not that either one of them were without any cause at all or uh responsibility but neither one of them needed to die and there was no call for either one of them to die under those circumstances and it would have been at the time i was screaming just say there's an investigation underway let's wait until we find out exactly what happened don't say well he was a terrorist or he was in the uh he was in the uh a domestic terrorism doing what he did or what she did i mean that was just i i think whoever fed that to her those are the people who should be in trouble right now but i know the buck stops with the boss and so the buck stops with her and here we are in a situation now where we have a a likely

51:12opportunity for for sleeper cells to cause trouble in our country and our department of homeland security is unfunded some unfunded TSA officers are working without pay uh that is a bad place to be be and when you know the Iran's history of exporting terror and attacking airports, airplanes, etc we should be fully staffed and and and highly on guard uh while this conflict is going is going on not counting on people who aren't being paid uh to show up and protect us this is unconscionable this is a the blame here lies with the democrats not with christineau democrats are upholding uh the funding trying to force immigration policy changes it's not the way to do it i mean there's a discussion it needs to be had about the immigration policy but you don't stop paying the people who are responsible for keeping us safe on airplanes and in other places while we're

52:18in this midst of this this conflict in the middle east it just makes yeah i think it's just reckless and you know i always wonder all about this administration always what's so hard about saying you know we're going to look at this policy and if it's wrong we're going to change it why defend everything well as you and i both know um it comes from the top and uh from a gentleman who doesn't apologize he sees apologizing or backing off even a little as a sign of weakness that he doesn't want to show it's just the way he's been since i've known him and since you've known him here's what i know go ahead well when he took it away from you know uh gnome and the others uh around him um and gave it to homin uh he came in and settled things down

53:19took the fire out of uh out of the situation and that's what should have happened from the beginning instead they escalated well they they got the impression that they had the okay to be bullies and i'm afraid that's never going to work and nor should it be uh and that's a conversation for another time i want to get to this one am i still so old-fashioned that i'm the only one or do you feel this way too regardless of what they think when when the former president sent bombs to Libya um he didn't get approval ahead of time but and we have all the video showing that them saying that he didn't need approval yet this president needs approval because they hate him but here's what i'm going to say i don't care if it's a republican or a democrat as president when our kids our soldiers are in harm's way i think as an american we need to have a united front

54:22in support of them when they're brought back safely and we want to raise hell with how we think things were or went or whatever then maybe that's the time but now is not the time do you agree or disagree with that well i'm not fully um a paw i mean i do think it's always necessary to have policy debates about whether we're doing the right thing or not and that that would benefit the president to go to congress and go to the american people he's going to need just their support if this turns out to be much longer than just dropping a few bombs on a few moles or a few hundred moles whatever the case may be you he's going to have to have the support of the american people and he's going to need congress on his you know at least buying into the mission and understanding what that mission might be you know what that mission is we we need to know his vision here and what the plan is what the strategy is so i do think we need a straightforward message

55:27from the white house on this and we're not getting it well we'll part on that one because i i just believe blindly that in this situation our soldiers need the support of the american people certainly well that's true that's what's important i just you know and having talked earlier to a soldier back just back captain michael bouchard the army paratrooper it does make a difference as much as he said he would wipe out the noise coming from washington they are aware of it and we are all in this together and if we think it's a mistake we will make whoever made the mistakes pay the price but these kids didn't make the mistake they're just doing what they're being ordered to do and i i don't like not having a clear picture either on what it is the the end game is going to be this time or any of the times nolyn always a pleasure my friend

56:29thank you paul thank you nolyn finley editorial page editor for the to try news co-author of the civility book a guide to building bridges across the political divide we continue in focus at 130 well ron robinson a state representative republican from the 58th district utica has a special place in our hearts because he is a former news anchor and reporter right here at wjr he also served in the marine court during the first golf war we had a couple of things to talk about the uh self-rich in the michigan house fast-tracking a hundred fifty two million dollars for self-rich in a couple of uh runways and he had a big hand in making that happen but first if you don't mind ron i'm going to ask you about your thoughts because you've quote unquote been there your thoughts on your run well i mean you know there's it's a delicate situation right but i i have to say that you know

57:32from what i understand you know they were pretty much laid out like we can help you with this as far as for energy purposes but from my understanding iran wanted no part of that so it was obvious that they were looking to make a nuclear bomb of some kind and and i think that's why president trump felt he had to to do this what do you thoughts about the arguments now about whether he needed to go to congress when we can see that in the past presidents uh most notably with libya and other times didn't go to congress why why all of a sudden he has to you know that's that's that's a good question and and i think there's a lot of lawyers who argue whether that's uh you know legal or not but uh ultimately the the buck stops with the commander in chief and i and i don't care if it's a republican or a democrat in that seat uh i have full confidence that they're looking out for this country's best interest and and uh as of you know unless i hear otherwise i you know i think we need to do what we need to do to protect our national interests the world isn't as big as it used to be no it sure isn't uh it sure isn't um well let's get to what one of the things that

58:38affects us directly too i mean all of this does but the Michigan House fast-tracked the approval of a one hundred fifty two million dollar supplemental spending plan yesterday to secure state funding for two runways at the self-rich air national guard base and you were you had a big hand in that along i think with uh uh how speaker mad hall yes um and you there's a few others senator nesbitt uh governor witmer obviously has been a big catalyst to make sure this this is happening but um ultimately what we need to do with this appropriation poll w is just we had to make sure and this is you know again working with the governor and speaker hall uh just to to fast-track this to make sure that these these fighters these f-15s are itself first before president front please office um is this something that's been talked about a lot and then was stalled or delayed and moved a little faster because of what's happening in in Iran no no i i know it the timing of it is kind of peculiar but no this this has been in the works

59:41for quite a while we we've been talking with generals at itself virgin and and speaker hall has been talking with the president and and the need to to make sure that the runways are ready for the f-15s that's what what the governor and the speaker want to fast-track so that there's no doubt and no confusion but just to make sure that we get this f-15s again before president truffles office so i think that's our goal is just to make sure that that we're keeping all our we're doing our due diligence to make sure that we do everything we need to do at the state level um but with that said that you know it's a big it's a lot of money $152 million but the bulk of the lifting after these runways will be taken up by the feds so that's and it's been said that if we're going to wait on the federal government to fund the runway then we're not going to get it done on time so i think it's right that you're making a move right now but you gave credit to governor Gretchen Whitmer which i appreciate um when when a a republican uh ties in a democrat but

1:00:42in the newspaper story i have it says when governor Gretchen Whitmer was asked for comment she expressed support for self-rich but did not give a direct answer on whether she supports the $152 million supplemental spending bill how do you see that um i would pose that question to governor Whitmer i mean uh from all i've heard she's full throat supporting this um this uh fighter mission um so she was from the beginning she took she took grief from her own democrat party when she shook hands with the president she might even hugged him or whatever but she worked with the president to get this done which is what you want a governor to do yes yes and so again i would say you should pose that question to governor Whitmer i'd love to hear your answer well you know what we haven't talked to her in a long time Mike Parsons i know you're listening let's uh let's plan on having the governor on it's been a long while that's for sure all right um what else is going on that we should uh know about that uh Ron Robinson state representative of the 58th

1:01:48district republican and Utica former news anchor and reporter at WJR you spend time in the marine court during the first golf war on i'm assuming you'd like to see uh Washington and americans overall being supportive of our troops right now yes sir please pray for our troops that's my sending message pray for our troops and you know what we should always do that so god bless you for that thank you Ron thanks for bringing it up state representative uh the republican from the 58th district Utica Ron Robinson as we continue in focus on WJR i uh i stay up too late still i used to doing the morning show now i do doing this show but i watch uh many times i watch the late night guys who disappoint me generally almost every night especially uh Jimmy Kimmel who just decided somewhere along the way and maybe his ratings to show it but all three of them together don't have the ratings

1:02:51of the old great entertainment shows like the tonight show with Johnny Carson nor do they have the billing of all three of those shows put together have one of the shows of the tonight show but be that as it may uh Jimmy Kimmel just spends all of his time uh lamb basting the president and the president oftentimes takes the bait which is unfortunate but he had Gavin Newsomon for at least three segments i finally went to bed uh because that's just a lot of time that he's never given five minutes to a republican but he gives to liberals and democrats all the time and you know falls all over himself talking about him you'll note on this show we have democrats and republicans meanwhile uh Seth Meyers apparently showed up after i went to bed and did a very stinging impersonation of Gavin Newsom i can only imagine because Seth Meyers is very talented and uh i wish i would have seen it critics have accused Newsom

1:03:51of passing the buck on California's problems as he eyes the presidential bed that he keeps acting like he's not doing but he also wrote a book about how tough his childhood was and all of that he's running for president i mean there's no question about it how about this for some uh relentless positive news it's a terrible story anyway but did you see this uh my the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention reported that 649 mothers died in 2024 during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth which is unbelievable that number in america yet it's down from 669 deaths in 2023 the trend of decreasing maternal deaths has been actually ongoing since 2021 when it was the highest level in more than 50 years has anyone figured out why this happens in such a wealthy country as these united states that we would be losing these mothers yeah i mean obviously it's an improvement but that's still 649

1:04:57too many i know that uh dr. Hassan you know her her big life's work is figuring this out well god bless her for that you're talking about uh mic dugins wife uh mirror mic dugins wife and uh and yeah she's she's worked very hard on that and uh like i say god bless her for that a lot of times we wouldn't even know about these things without people like doctor sonya Hassan meanwhile this is crazy what why does this happen kelly webber a school bus driver in mot gummery county pennsylvania is facing more than 50 counts of child endangerment for allegedly driving under the influence with elementary age students on board police found not an empty bottle empty bottles oh my god vodka and a liquor store receipt on webber while she was driving children home from boy or ten elementary school leading to her arrest webber consented to a blood draw which

1:06:01revealed a blood alcohol content of point three three one which is well above the legal limit of point zero eight she also tested positive for thc oh my gosh and she was chosen to drive school buses yeah i mean i'm i'm sure not only legal trouble for her but probably some liability on the part of the school or the the company that that contracts the school buses she checked herself into rehab after the incident and that was probably a move told to told her she was probably told by a lawyer right yes yeah that was my first thought a warrant has been issued for her arrest on charges of driving under the influence child endangerment and reckless endangerment just what just what our families don't need to hear when it's it's already a whole different thing when we send our kids off to school right you've got you've got no control yeah and that's a tough one we when we went to school at least back when

1:07:04i went to school it was changing when you were going to school but we didn't have a care in the in the world we i mean we what we worried about was upsetting a teacher and a teacher telling our parents right that we did something wrong and our parents would go after us now they go after the teacher yeah because they feel so guilty that they don't spend quality time with their kids because they're both working and you know tied up with everything else yeah i could i could not convince my mom i was innocent when i got a phone call from a teacher that's it was it was a given that we were guilty right and we were in trouble that doesn't happen the same way anymore sadly because the teacher's not going to waste their time calling the parent of a child who's not doing anything wrong right that's just crazy well let's remember remember remember recognizing one of the motor cities true leaders and innovators the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear has announced that our mayor Mary Sheffield the

1:08:0976th mayor of Detroit will serve as grand marshal of the Grand Prix on Sunday May 31st Mayor Sheffield made history as the first woman elected as Detroit's mayor when she took office January 1st she'll be featured in several activities as grand prix grand marshal including waving the green flag prior to the start of the annual NTT IndyCar series race on the streets of downtown Detroit well that's a wonderful honor for her and a well deserved honor you ever you ever wave a flag at a race pole i actually have yeah yeah and uh it's a lot it's a lot more uh challenging than you might think yeah there's like a technique to it there is a technique and they take it all very seriously um i had the flag and i thought well this is kind of small well it's a good thing because if the flag were any bigger and i'm waving it and the cars go right underneath me the draft

1:09:14that they create those cars now i knew what drafting was all about that the drivers if that flag were any bigger i would have gone flying over the field you'd have been Mary Poppins with the board of men Mary Poppins so it was everything i could to hang onto that thing because i didn't want to be the guy that dropped the flag in the midst of the start of a race right that they go on top of these drivers that would have been just horrible but yeah Kim and i did that and and had a lot of fun and at one point the crowd was cheering for me after the cars all went by and i said to the guy who was assigned to make sure i didn't make mistakes and he was probably he had he had probably the right to kick me off the stand at any moment but i said that the crowd's cheering i go can i wave the flag to them and he goes no it's so there are rules because i wanted to turn around after the cars all went and wave the flag at them like tipping right like you got you have no cap to tip so you know you wave the only thing you have which is the green flag i yeah i don't remember and this is bad because Kim's not here but i don't know if

1:10:19it was kid rock or m&m i was an honorary parade chairman or something and he was something else maybe grand marshal i don't know but i remember that and it was a lot of fun and that was out at the m.i.s Michigan International Speedway that was a long time ago that was a lot of fun all right looking forward to the grand prix as we always do and we'll do a broadcast from there and all of that now looking forward to jr afternoon with ryan urmani right after the news that you won't want to miss and you won't want to miss ryan because ryan is always ready right ryan no doubt about it Paul really excited to talk to michigan senator gary peter's today at three thirty four as well we'll get his take on everything happening in the war with the ryan and uh this war powers act that apparently is going to get voted on later today so tell me something uh we already have our kids in harm's way what does the war powers i it's what does that in tail i have no idea i mean if i want to talk

1:11:21to her about it mr president you can't send people to a run well they're already engaged i just don't understand that's why we're going to talk to them about it because i simply don't understand what what it means well i've always known gary peter's as a as a straight shooter you know all the different jobs he's had i hope he'll be a straight shooter on this one too amen all right you have your ankles taped and you're like you're going through your loin i know you love hurting that we got to go favorite regards pull w smith