Morning Run: Gaza Hostage Update, SC Measles Outbreak, U.S. Obesity Rates, Keaton Cause of Death and History on Everest

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Morning Run with Amy and TJ and iHeartRadio Podcast. Hello everyone, this is your Morning Run for Thursday, October sixteenth. I'm Amy Robots.

00:00:11
Speaker 2: And I'm TJ Holmes. We got good news, bad news new health. The official numbers on obesity in this country. There's some good news. We're not popping champagne. But there is some good news, but bad news for a few states. Everybody wants to know number one and who's number fifty. We have those numbers as well. Surprised by those states on the list.

00:00:32
Speaker 1: Not surprised by the states, but just surprised at the overall percentages still and even the minority communities that is really disturbing alarming numbers.

00:00:41
Speaker 2: Will pass those along. Also, why I thought you're supposed to climb up Mount Everest and that was supposed to be the big feat. So why is a dude, I guess setting making history by the way he came down.

00:00:53
Speaker 1: Correct setting records and its historic. Even how and where he got up. I didn't realize there were different peaks on Mount Everest. So it's a really cool story and someone made USA proud.

00:01:05
Speaker 2: Yes. Also, this morning, a judge is telling the guy who loves to say he fired somebody that. Actually, mister President, you cannot fire all those federal workers. We'll get into that. We did get a cause of death as well. For Diane Keaton, her family is speaking out. Also that big heg Seth speech. He wants to make sure as many people as possible see it. In fact, he's ordering that as many people as possible see it. We'll explain that. And Rome's measles supposed to be concentrated, right, we thought the Texas there was a little cluster there. I cannot believe we're talking about measles now in another part of the country.

00:01:42
Speaker 1: South Carolina and actually in Minnesota has some disturbing numbers. But it's a disturbing trend throughout the country.

00:01:48
Speaker 2: Also, the latest on the shutdown. You can write that story yourself. Also, those Christy known videos at the airport, while dims want an investigation into those now And jad Van says all that racist stuff from those young Republicans just kids being kids. Will read his exact.

00:02:07
Speaker 1: Almost boys being boys kind of a thing. Yeah, all right, let's see how that lands. All right, we begin our run though overseas with that fragile piece deal. Hama says there might be a problem with returning the remains of all the hostages, which of course is a key condition of the ceasefire. The militant group claims they either don't know where or don't have access to the bodies, and in a statement, here's what they said. The remaining bodies require significant efforts and specialized equipment to search for and retrieve, and we are making a great effort to close this file.

00:02:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, the slow pace now of returning the remains has led to frustration and anger in Israel, as well as concerns that, yes, this fragile ceasefire now won't hold. Plus, Israel says DNA a one body returned over turned over to them by Hamas doesn't actually match the DNA of any of the known hostages. Right now, the remains of at least nineteen hostages are unaccounted for.

00:03:06
Speaker 1: Next up on the Run, the Vice President dismissed those racist text exchanges by a group of young Republican leaders as kids telling edgy offensive jokes. That's what kids. Do you know the story by now, and if you haven't, we have an entire podcast on it just before this one if you want to check it out. But Politico reported on this group chat among leaders of the Young Republican Organization.

00:03:30
Speaker 2: So yeah, if you don't know the organization, yes, it is a national group with hundreds of affiliates throughout the States, and they are yes, affiliated with the National Republican Party. They focus on eighteen to forty year old conservatives. But this text chain involving what was at five or six people. At least there are at least two hundred and fifty one references in which they use the IN word, the R word, and the F word, not the four letter F word we're talking about the one that's despaired to the LGBTQ plus community. Also made a reference to black people being quote, watermelon people, and also compared watching an NBA game to going to the zoo and watching monkey ball, praising Hitler at times in favor of slavery, talking about what putting their opponents in gas chambers some pretty vile stuff. But the Vice president spoke about this on the Charlie Kirk podcast. Actually he said, and we're going to quote it here, the reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys. They tell edgy offensive jokes like that's what kids do, And I really don't want us to grow up in a country where a kid's telling a stupid joke, telling a very offensive, stupid joke is cause to ruin their lives, And at some point we're all going to have to say enough of this. BS. We're not going to allow the worst moment in a twenty one year old's group chat to ruin a kid's life for the rest of time. That's just not okay. End quote. I'm I'm a kind of in agreement that something's stupids you do at whatever age should not ruin the rest of you lite. I actually in agreement with that. It's just they're not condemned for what was said, or it's more so the reaction people are having to what they said and kind of dismissing is it's okay, fella's go ahead tell the jokes.

00:05:15
Speaker 1: Boys being boys, locker room talk. Isn't that what they always try to say, Hey, this is just what we do. That doesn't mean it's acceptable, And I agree. I don't think you should lose everything and never have a future because of something you did at twenty one. However, people and commit crimes at twenty one and they're held accountable for the rest of their lives. So it's just words do matter, and I think to not acknowledge that is losing the point of it all.

00:05:42
Speaker 2: And several of them, we should note, have been losing jobs, resigning from jobs that have all been told to step down from their positions with the Young Republican groups. So yeah, there are some consequences that continue to come.

00:05:53
Speaker 1: All right. Next up on the Run, a judge just told President Trump he actually cannot fire federal workers at least for now.

00:06:00
Speaker 2: Wow.

00:06:00
Speaker 1: A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order yesterday that stops the administration with moving forward with its stated plans to lay off thousands of federal workers during this government shutdown.

00:06:11
Speaker 2: This suit was actually brought by two unions who took legal action before the shutdown. They had very good foresight to do this. Yeah, before the president even signaled or when he signaled he might try to lay people off, they jumped on this. When they start talking about this ideal of reduction in force. They sued, and the judge rolled, there's a lot of legal ease in there. When you read a judge's opinion about something. This is as plain as you can put it. The judge said this quote you can't do this in a nation of laws, saying what he's doing is flat out illegal, trying to fire these folks.

00:06:47
Speaker 1: All right, Well, speaking of that shutdown, next up on the run, maybe the tenth time will be the charm.

00:06:52
Speaker 2: Today's the day ropes.

00:06:53
Speaker 1: So you hear us dripping in sarcasms.

00:06:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.

00:06:56
Speaker 1: The Senate is said to vote for a tenth time today on the exact same funding bill that has failed nine times before. They're just going through the motions of the same exercise with no expectations that anything is going to change.

00:07:09
Speaker 2: Okay, Yes, failure to pass the funding bill means that this government shutdown will continue. Today. We're in day sixteen of the shutdown. One more day and we'll be tied for the third longest shutdown in US history. We assume we're going to get to that, So then when we get to day eighteen, we'll have the record third longest of all time. And then next week robes twenty one days. Once we hit twenty two days, this will be the second longest shutdown in American history. So we are all away if we do.

00:07:42
Speaker 1: You said once we do.

00:07:44
Speaker 2: Did I say that you did? I didn't mean to. That was actually a slip. I'm hopeful that today the tenth time will be in fact the charm.

00:07:50
Speaker 1: All right. Next up on the Run, Democrats want an investigation into those christy knowme videos that some people have been seeing at airports. The Department of Homeland Security wanted airport to post these videos right near the airport's security line. When you're frustrated and it's taking longer than it should and you're afraid you might miss your flight.

00:08:07
Speaker 2: Who should I blame for this?

00:08:08
Speaker 1: In those videos? No one blames Democrats for the shutdown and the impact it's having on your air traplics.

00:08:14
Speaker 2: Okay, no critics will tell you this is a clear violation of what's called the Hatch Act, which prevents political activity on the job by federal workers. Democratic leaders and now send a letter the Department of Homeland Security calling for the immediate removal of the videos and asks for info on how much the videos costs and who paid for woo all right.

00:08:35
Speaker 1: A DHS spokesperson dismissed the Democrats' demands as political game gamesmanship, Which is so funny because that's exactly what they're being accused of. And I actually don't even think it's an accusation. It's fairly blatant, by the way I said, some of you might have seen it, because some airports actually refuse to play the videos, citing the Hatch Act LaGuardia, Newark, JFK, so all the New York airports, so interesting, Charlotte, Seattle, Atlanta, O'Hare, all of those, and counting several airports, major airports in some democratic city and some.

00:09:11
Speaker 2: Airports did go move forward and are using them. We never saw an airport nod okay, but we shall see, all right. Continuing on the run now, Defense Secretary Pete Hexth wants to make sure everybody gets his anti woke no dudes in dresses, get your fat ass out of my military message. He has ordered that everybody in the military either watches or reads the speech he gave at that unprecedented meeting of military leaders last month.

00:09:39
Speaker 1: Do you have to file a book report afterwards? I mean, how does he prove that?

00:09:43
Speaker 2: Is this one of those things like we've been in companies before, where you have to confirm that you want Do they really.

00:09:48
Speaker 1: We know what we said that. Maybe I don't know, but you know what we just did.

00:09:52
Speaker 2: No, I've sat through all of them if you didn't sit through those No, I seriously.

00:09:56
Speaker 1: No, I think I actually asked my assistant to do it for me.

00:09:59
Speaker 2: Okay, so somebody had to sit through there.

00:10:01
Speaker 1: Okay, that's really embarrassing, but I think that is a true statement.

00:10:05
Speaker 2: I was busy. In a memo to.

00:10:06
Speaker 1: Military leaders, hegxas said they need to verify that every member of the defense sees the speech and reviews the policy changes. Reminder, this was all this all took place to speech when hegxeth called all one star and above generals back to Quantico at significant expense and travel right when the government was shutting down. Perfect timing. This all happened last.

00:10:28
Speaker 2: Month, and they looked them in the face and said it's embarrassing to see fat generals walking around. And everybody's got to meet these new standards. Yes, he's an addition, he said, everybody does need to review the policies as well, and not just watch the speech.

00:10:41
Speaker 1: The War secretary is bold.

00:10:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, continuing now here on the run on this Thursday morning, with Mississippi executed fifty nine year old Charles Crawford last night by lethal injection. He was pronounced dead at six fifteen pm local time. He spent thirty years on death row after being convicted of kidnapping, raping, and murdering a twenty year old college student back in nineteen ninety three.

00:11:07
Speaker 1: So Crawford claimed he blacked out and didn't recall killing Christy Ray. He was executed after his last minute emergency appeal to the Supreme Court was turned away, even though three liberal justices felt it should have been granted. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that Crawford's lawyers overrided his decision not to concede guilt of his trial. Instead, his lawyers told the jury that Crawford killed Ray, but then pursued an insanity defense.

00:11:34
Speaker 2: So the Supreme Court in twenty eighteen rule that lawyers cannot do what Crawford's lawyers did. But the issue here is whether that twenty eighteen decision could be retroactively applied to Crawford's situation. So Sodamayor wrote that Crawford's lawyers deprived him of that basic right. Because the Court declines to act, Crawford will be sent to his death without ever having had a real opportunity to hold the state to its burden of proving his guilt. This is interesting. They're not saying whether or not there's a question of whether or not he's guilty, or even question whether or not he would ultimately get the death penalty. It's just you have basic rights. We're violated. Let's go back and do it right. That makes sense. Kagan, Katanji Brown joins Soda Mayor inscent.

00:12:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was described as like a very vehement descent. She was clearly upset by the decision not to hear his case. So in the hours before his execution, Crawford visited with his family and a preacher. His execution was the third in just two days here in the United States. There are six more execution schedules to take place this year. The next is set for tomorrow night in Arizona. So far, thirty eight men have been executed in twenty twenty five in this country.

00:12:49
Speaker 2: You we mentioned Kagan and Katanji Brown, Jackson, Soda Mayor. Did everyone vote here? Do we know how it was?

00:12:57
Speaker 1: It was just three against. I guess it would be six. The other side that voted to not listen to the arguments gave no explanation, and they don't have to, and oftentimes they don't.

00:13:06
Speaker 2: Got you, got you, gotcha all right. Continuing on the run here now, and Diane Keaton's family has revealed the Oscar winner's cause of death, and a statement to People magazine, the family says, we are very grateful for the extraordinary messages of love and support they have received these past few days on behalf of their beloved Diane, who passed away from pneumonia on October eleventh.

00:13:30
Speaker 1: Emergency personnel were called to Diane Keaton's home over the weekend for a report of a person down. Keaton was taken to the hospital, where she was later pronounced dead. There were no public memorial plans revealed as of yet, but so many people have been paying homage to her, including us watching some of her finest films over the past couple of niths.

00:13:48
Speaker 2: This is one you've beat me over the head with Baby Boom. It's so I wasn't as familiar with it. Overboard is your favorite? That one? I love. You can get me to watch that anytime. Baby Boom, Baby Boom. H do we have to watch? She's so just her charming, durable. I love that movie. Alright, Well, folks, stay with us here on this Thursday morning run when we come back. There is new concern about the measles in this country, so concerned that we're now quarantining school kids. Also coming up, we got the new numbers on obesity in this country, and Hawaii and West Virginia are on two very different ends of the spectrum. And an American set a record on Everest, not for going up, but for coming down. All right, folks, we continue on this Friday eve run. Next leg takes us to South Carolina, where one hundred and thirty nine unvaccinated students are now in quarantine after being exposed to the measles virus. The South Carolina Department of Health is working with two school rules to put the precautionary measures in place to try and stop the spread of the disease.

00:15:04
Speaker 1: Officials just confirmed five additional cases in the Greenville area, bringing the states total now to sixteen just since July. Health officials are warning that the measles virus can linger in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves the room. Isn't that crazy, and they reiterated the only way the best way to protect yourself from measles is the MMR vaccine. That's the measles, momps and rebella. It's been under attack by our own Health and Human Services secretary. So these public health officials in South Carolina are saying please, they're actually setting up vans, mobile vans to get kids vaccinated.

00:15:42
Speaker 2: Are you did you know that? Two hours?

00:15:45
Speaker 1: I did not know that. They're saying, this disease is so contagious, that is, and people don't understand. This is not like other viruses. This is exceptionally contagious.

00:15:53
Speaker 2: I did not realize. Well, despite all of their efforts there in South Carolina, they say they do expect this outbreak to row. The upstate region has only a ninety percent vaccination rate. That sounds high, but don't they say ninety seven ninety eight.

00:16:08
Speaker 1: It needs to be above ninety five percent for you to feel comfortable. So they are, they say, significantly below where they need to be.

00:16:15
Speaker 2: So this makes them vulnerable. It's part of a larger trend across the US. This year, the US has recorded more measles cases than it has in any year the past thirty years.

00:16:24
Speaker 1: All right, next up on the run. We just got the latest update on obesity in this country, including state rankings, and there is some good news. Nineteen states have obesity rates above thirty five percent. That's the bad news. But that's actually down from twenty three states the year before.

00:16:42
Speaker 2: So it's not great, but we have fewer states that have the higher percentage.

00:16:47
Speaker 1: That's a good perspective.

00:16:48
Speaker 2: Okay, that's a good thing. This is the first time also that we have seen a year to year drop in the number of states with obesity rates of thirty five percent or higher. That also is good news. Here's the problem. Ten years ago we only had three states whoa with obesity rates of thirty five percent or higher.

00:17:09
Speaker 1: Three and now we have nineteen Yeah, down from twenty three. Yeah, that's no wow.

00:17:15
Speaker 2: Yeah. So these are kind of shocking numbers when you consider where we were just a short short time ago. Now we always are look at these state rankings, and here we go the state with the lowest obesity rate. It's not the one I would have come up with, but once I heard it, I was like, oh, that makes sense. Colorado twenty five.

00:17:33
Speaker 1: Percent skiing, hiking, very running. It's an outdoor community where people are active and you know you've got the sun how many days a year in that state there, it's just a that makes sense. Now. After that, the next best obesity rate was the district of Columbia.

00:17:49
Speaker 2: Surprised by that.

00:17:50
Speaker 1: One, Yeah, maybe so, But you know what it's again, it's a running city. I was like all the running trails along the Potomac and the bikes. It's I always saw people out and about when I lived there. Followed by Massachusetts and Hawaii both at twenty seven percent, and after that New Jersey at twenty seven point seven percent. Now Here are the states with the highest obesity rates, and overwhelmingly the highest obesity rate is in the state of West Virginia forty one point four percent. Look when you look at the poverty rates that reads, you know, folks are in areas where they don't have services and don't have access to a lot of the things that other people do in other states. Followed by Mississippi at forty point four percent, Louisiana at thirty nine point two percent, Alabama at thirty eight point nine percent, in Arkansas, So that whole swath of the South, it follows.

00:18:37
Speaker 2: Your point when you talk about rates and poverty and rural areas and access to food, access to I mean doctors, it all has an imbibuty it's that cluster right there. It's always in these same regions. Another not so good note here ropes, this is the first time ever that we don't have a single state with an obesity rate below twenty five percent. So even Colorado at twenty five the lowest. But this is the first time no one has ranked Wow, follow that in obcity rates. Another terrible note, Roads, I could not believe this. The Black obesity rate forty nine point nine percent is calculated by the CDC. That means half of the black folks in this country are considered obese, which is considered a disease, a debilitating one.

00:19:21
Speaker 1: That leads to death all diabetes, heart failure, yes, cancer.

00:19:26
Speaker 2: That is a shocking half. The Latino ob three rate forty five point six percent is calculated by the CDC.

00:19:34
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, we definitely need to do better. All right, for the final leg of our run on this Friday, eve I love this story. An American skier made history yesterday. Fifty year old Jim Morrison became the first person to successfully ski Mount Everest's narrow and treacherous north face. Morrison spent six weeks on the mountain. It was his third attempt to ski this route. He made it down from twenty nine thousand and thirty two feet to Camp one at nineteen thousand, nine hundred and seventy four feet in four hours and five minutes.

00:20:08
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, how did he do? He did it in like a leg at a time kind of a thing.

00:20:13
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how we did it, but like you think about, like, I only have one example of what it's like at oxygen levels at nineteen thousand feet. That was where he came down from twenty nine thousand feet to skiing requires a lot of physical output, and I mean to be able to do.

00:20:30
Speaker 2: That nine thousand feet, I have specialized equipment.

00:20:32
Speaker 1: What do you know? I don't know how he did it, and certainly when you look at just how steep and narrow it is.

00:20:38
Speaker 2: My goodness, our planes fly at thirty thousand feet right, Yes, what in God's name? This is incredible? Now, I'm very curious about all this. Yes, you damn right? That got this on video. He was joined by the Oscar winning directors behind the Free Solo documentary. I assume that's Jimmy ten yep, the first person I ever climbed to it. This dude is he's one of the best i'mers in the world. Now he's one of the best documentary makers in the world. It is remarkable. Yes, they recorded this historic feat. They're going to see this for a national geographic film. Just summoning Mount Ever's north face peak is a thing in itself, only been done by a few mountaineers. The last person to do it was in ninety one. I did not realize. I hear people climb Mount Evers. You just go climb Mount Evers and that's the end of.

00:21:23
Speaker 1: This is considered the most difficult route up to the summit, and it's only been done by a handful, they said, and it was by an American initially. The actual peak is named for this American, but the last person to do it was in ninety one. That's how hard and treacherous this is to go up this particular route. Morrison, and this is probably my favorite part of the story dedicated his history making achievement. This is to his late girlfriend, his late partner, Hillary Nelson. She died nearly three years ago climbing the eighth highest mountain in the world. So they were both avid climbers and hikers, so he spread her ashes when he got to the north Face Peak before beginning his ski run, and here's what he said about her afterwards. Climbing the direct north Face and then skiing what Hillary and I believe to be the world's greatest ski run was a dream we chased together. Hillary's spirit and energy was a galvanizing force for me and this incredible team. I hope what we accomplished honors her and the love for these mountains we shared.

00:22:21
Speaker 2: I wonder if it was always the plan for them to do it together.

00:22:24
Speaker 1: It sounds like it was. It sounds like it was, and so the fact that he was able to spread her ashes up at that peak is just remarkable.

00:22:32
Speaker 2: It's perfect. Isn't that perfect?

00:22:34
Speaker 1: It really is. It really is. So I had a different quote of the day, but I changed it after the story. I was so moved, and I believe I have absolutely in the last two years used this quote because I love it so much by Jack Kerouac. But when I was writing the story, I just was inspired to change the quote of the day. And I hope this inspires all of you to accomplish or do something you didn't think possible, because in the end, you won't remember the time you spent work in the office, or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain, Jack Harouac, whatever your mountain.

00:23:06
Speaker 2: Is, so climb some mountains today.

00:23:12
Speaker 1: It's just that moves me. It's such a reminder that we get focused on all the mundane little things, and yes they're important. We have to keep our lives going. However, don't forget to dream, and don't forget to follow up and follow through on those dreams, because in the end, you won't remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain. And thank you for running with us with that everyone, I'm Amy Robot.

00:23:37
Speaker 2: And I'm TJ. Holmes. Always appreciate you all spending some time with us. We'll talk to y'alls here