Morning Run: NASA Medical Evacuation, Minnesota 2nd Shooting, Immigrant Visa Ban, Timothy Busfield No Bond, Au Pair Testimony, and Olympic Dream Crushed

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Morning Run with Amy and TJ and iHeartRadio Podcast. Good morning, everyone, Welcome to Morning Run. It is Thursday or Friday Eve as we like to call it here, January fifteenth.

00:00:13
Speaker 2: I'm Amy Robot and I'm TJ.

00:00:15
Speaker 1: Holmes.

00:00:15
Speaker 2: Got an earlier start this morning because we're a bit of uh, space geeks. This was cool. It doesn't matter. This is the one thing that lets me know I'm maybe still doing something right. I still have childlike wonder when it comes to space stuff, and this was a we had a landing today, we had a comeback.

00:00:32
Speaker 1: It's sweet that you said we I saw the astronauts actually getting out of the capsule. You watched the thing land, Yeah, and in.

00:00:39
Speaker 2: Land around three forty this morning. But you know they had to evacuate. But it's just I am so fascinated by all things space.

00:00:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, how do they do what they do? It's mind blowing.

00:00:51
Speaker 2: It absolutely is. But yes, they are back. We'll get into some of the details there, but it was cool to have them back. They're back on no but who likes to cut a trip short by a month. But we'll get into but they are back safely, So we're going to start with that here in just a bit. But we'll also let you know that on the run this morning, we're going to be making stops in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Saint Louis, Missouri, Minneapolis, Fairfax, Virginia, and sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue. Actually we have to make two stops by sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue on the run today we'll explain.

00:01:20
Speaker 1: Why not that surprising these days. But we do begin our run down here on Earth where NASA's first ever medical evacuation took place, and it all happened safely. They splashed down, as you pointed out, at three forty am Eastern time, which you were awake and watching with baited breath and childlike enthusiasm, and happen off the coast of southern California. It was a four person crew. There were two Americans, one Japanese, and one Russian, and we.

00:01:48
Speaker 2: Don't know who had the medical issue. They didn't release that, and good for them for not doing so. But one of them, yes you heard, they were supposed to be up there another month at the International Space Station. One of them had a medical issue. They didn't want to call it an emergency, but Rolls it was serious enough that this is the first time ever that NASA has cut a trip short for medical issue. Yeah you think it sounds serious.

00:02:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, you think about what goes into planning these missions and the timing that has to be just right, and the work that needed to be done in a limited amount of time. They couldn't do the space walk, and were you not scrutinizing. I was watching them all come out and they all were taken away on stretchers, but I wanted to see if I could tell who was in pain or who had a problem, and I couldn't.

00:02:29
Speaker 2: They were all smiling, they were all happy to be back, and it made sense. We saw the first person get out with a stretcher that whoa, maybe that's on him, and then we said, wait a minute, they're probably all going to be taken out in stretchers, so they are all back what it was very cool to watch and give NASA credit. You owe NASA TV. I don't have the young lady's name, but we watch a lot of TV. We watch a lot of news, and we've seen a lot of breaking situations. She anchored this thing better than professional anchors, and that she knows when to be quiet she'll explain things and carries you along, but she'll let you listen to mission control shell. She just does at not a trained journalist that I love her. I just want to give her credit. She was fantastic. So thank you NASA, and welcome back to the astronauts.

00:03:11
Speaker 1: All right. Next up on the Run, we're going to head to Minneapolis, where someone else has been shot by federal agents. A man was shot in the leg after a scuffle with an ICE agent, according to the Department of Homeland Security, and according to DHS, those agents were attempting to arrest a Venezuelan national who they say is in the country illegally when he fled those officers.

00:03:33
Speaker 2: So the agents were able to catch up to him, and that's when they say the man violently attacked the agent, and then two other men came out from a nearby home and also join in in beating up on this particular agent. They said he actually used a broom handle and a snowshovel was used in this attack. And that's when they say the officer, feeling threatened for his life, did fire a shot hit the man in the leg, who was then able to still flee, and they barricaded themselves in a home, and it took a while to get this situation worked out. The officer and suspect were treated at the hospital non life threatening injuries. But this set off robes what officials there, They said, this was really what set off another night of unrest, clashes, flash bangs, trying to get people off the street. And look, Minnesota officials were telling their own people. Look, we're angry too, but you gotta go home. Yeah, it just got ugly last night.

00:04:26
Speaker 1: You cannot continue to fuel the fire. But unfortunately, that is what happened overnight. If you're interested, we did an entire podcast on what happened there in Minneapolis overnight as you were sleeping, so please check that out. It's the episode before this one. In the meantime, though, next up on the Run, the Senate rejected a measure that would have limited President Trump's war powers. The vote was fifty one to fifty. It was fifty to fifty, but Vice President JD. Vance came in to break the tie. It wasn't supposed to be like this.

00:04:58
Speaker 2: You can't get any closer than this. But no, there were many who felt that this would actually pass, and a couple of Republicans that come out and said they wanted to actually limit the president's war powers. But something happened, The pressure got to them, and those Republicans flipped, and it's still and flipping ended up being a very very close vote. So now this goes away. The president at this point still has all the war powers.

00:05:22
Speaker 1: He wants, which is very concerning given we'll get into what happened with Greenland, but a lot of people are pointing to the failure of this passage and what he's saying he may want to do with Greenland. Those two things might be connected as we go forward.

00:05:35
Speaker 2: What are we going to do? We're going to take Greenland with force? There is no milk, they don't have some milk. We can't take them by four.

00:05:40
Speaker 1: They're a country of fifty seven thousand.

00:05:43
Speaker 2: How are we going to take them by force? We have bases with more than fifty seven thousand soldials.

00:05:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, more on that in just a bed. But next up on the run. Yes, we have developments overnight in Iran. That country closed its airspace overnight for hours with no real explanation as to why.

00:06:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the reason this is set off alarm bells because the last time they did close their airspace was during that I get it confused, twelve day war with Israel. This is what often happens. They close or someone will close airspace when there's a threat or possibility of ballistic missiles flying through the air or military aircraft. So this concerned a lot of people. No explanation why the airspace has been opened back up. Meanwhile, the US is advising personnel at its Cutter Air Base to evacuate. This is the largest US base in that region. This is being done as a precaution. President Trump also said considering military options, but has said that the US is locked and loaded if Iran started killing protesters.

00:06:44
Speaker 1: Now.

00:06:44
Speaker 2: He said this a week plus ago, and since then, at least twenty five hundred people according to human rights groups, have been killed in the protests there. So now he's warning of US action if Iran executes protesters. One was scheduled to be execut You did yesterday, that did not happen. Hoping that some sign, some signal that somewhere in back channels or somebody's getting the message and things are about to come down a little bit.

00:07:10
Speaker 1: Even though Trump did move the goalpost, at least perhaps that one was honored in the fact that we did think there was going to specifically a hanging. I believe it was supposed to be a public hanging. So the fact that that didn't happen is well a glimmer of hope, and I guess at this point we will take it well.

00:07:26
Speaker 2: Continuing on the run here on this Thursday morning, the Trump administration now putting a pause on immigrant visas from seventy five countries. Yes, if you are from one of these seventy five countries, you need not apply right now. There is a pause. This is for anyone hoping to move to the US and has been sponsored by a family member or an employer.

00:07:48
Speaker 1: Wow. So here was the official statement, the State Department will pause immigrant visa processing from seventy five countries whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates. The freeze will remain active until the US can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people. So they didn't officially put out a list, but they did confirm the countries to a number of news organizations who were asking in. Among them, you have your Egypt, Colombia, Brazil, Senegal, Haiti, Somalia. That's not a surprise given the recent headlines. Dominica, Saint Lucia, Bangladesh, Jamaica, Ghana, Burma.

00:08:34
Speaker 2: You get it. Black and brown places exactly. You get the idea exact, a bunch of black and brown places. You can no longer come to this country to live until they go through whatever process. This is indefinite. We don't know when this will change. But this has rocked. A bunch of families and a bunch of planning, and a bunch of people, and a bunch of careers and a bunch of lives have been up ended. We get what they're saying. A lot of people will be on board with that they shouldn't come here, and we have to take their argument. This ain't that argument right now. This is just a blanket and this has an.

00:09:08
Speaker 1: It's a few bad apples spoil the entire bunch. And so yes, and I'm looking. It is East Asia, it is Africa, it is the Caribbean. Yes, it is Middle East.

00:09:18
Speaker 2: Is Bahama's even on the Yes, it was Jamaica's.

00:09:21
Speaker 1: On there, Jamaica, Bahamas. No, Bahamas is on their babe, Barbados, like Belize, all of Wow, that is incredible.

00:09:30
Speaker 2: Right, continuing on the run here, now let's turn to some whiter places. Denmark Greenland at the White House yesterday meeting with the United States. What were they planning to meet about? Swell to talk about the US wanting to acquire Greenland. So what was resolved? Not a damn thing. So this was Vice President vance Secretary of State Marco Rubio meeting with the foreign ministers of both Denmark and Greenland. Greenland, of course a territory of Denmark. So what came out of this and what does this even mean? We're going to form a high level working group to continue to find a way forward. But Denmark came out and said, there is no way forward. We have a fundamental difference here. Why are we meeting. We don't need to meet and discuss with you. How are you going to take us over? There's none to talk about.

00:10:12
Speaker 1: Right. If we're saying there is no dollar amount, it's not for sale, and you're saying, well, either we buy it or we invade it, what is there to talk about?

00:10:22
Speaker 2: I don't know. Now he was open to seeing like, whatever your concerns are, maybe helped you strategically with this or that. But the President said, the result has to be the US having Greenland. You cannot take them over with military. You just that's embarrassing.

00:10:37
Speaker 1: It's like, and then what do you do to NATO? Like, what does that do to our relationship with all of NATO?

00:10:44
Speaker 2: According to the charter, they're supposed to defend Denmark.

00:10:48
Speaker 1: And they are sending troops. There are European nations among NATO right now, guys sending troops to Greenland. This is happening, all right. Next up on the run, let's talk about peace. Yeah, President Trump is said to me Nobel Peace Prize winner and Venezuela and opposition leader. Of course, we're talking about Machado today at the White House. The meeting is set for twelve thirty and, as TJ wrote, by twelve thirty one, he should have her Nobel Peace Prize in hand.

00:11:17
Speaker 2: This has happened is closed press Initially they say the meeting is a lunch, a working lunch meeting. Wait for it. Oh, I can't wait. I will be glued to the television from noon on to see what happens with this Nobel Prize.

00:11:31
Speaker 1: No, I'm just wondering at what point we will hear or see something from either one of them.

00:11:37
Speaker 2: Soon you're going with twelve thirty one. Still, it's soon. This thing, Oh, it's gonna be shined up real nice. It's like going to pick up a new car. Right, it's they're going to clean it up for you. He's gonna get Oh, things is gonna be great. Might even have his name engraved on it when she gets there. Continuing on the run here now, criminal contempt of Congress charges will now be a family affair for the Clintons. Republicans say they will also pursue charges against Hillary Clinton after she also didn't show up or scheduled testimony in Congress yesterday as expected.

00:12:08
Speaker 1: Uh, that is right, because former presidents skipped his the day before as well, so he's already had all of those charges leveled at him. The House Overnight Committee subpoenat the Clintons as part of their probe into Jeffrey Epstein. The Clintons personally wrote a letter to Comer to the chairman saying, here's why we're not coming and here's why we're calling bs on this subpoena because we don't know anything. You've let everybody else give their testimony or what they know via writing they've you've not made anybody or forced anybody to show up and face questioning. You are singling us out and we are calling you out.

00:12:46
Speaker 2: Uh. Yes, we'll see how that. Next Wednesday they say they're going to vote on whether or not to hold him in criminal contempt. Continuing on the run here now actor Timothy Busfil being held without bond. He is in jail as we speak and cannot get out. Making his first court appearance yesterday to face two counts of sexual sexual contact with a minor. Now this is happening in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It's there because he was a part he was a director of a show on Fox, and this is where the allegations took place. Now, this was something to see him. The story started happening, bubbling up about a week ago that he was facing these charges, and folks didn't know where he was, and so we were seeing him for the first time. I guess robes yesterday in court orange prison outfit, that same white hair, unmistakable when he walked in. But we saw him there yesterday, and we heard a lot from the prosecution and they requested specifically that he not be let out.

00:13:42
Speaker 1: Yes, they don't want him out until his trial takes place. But we know he at least will not be out until he has another scheduled hearing, which the judge said had to happen within five business days. So at the very least he is behind bars for the next several days, possibly into next week. But in and at scathing court filing that the prosecutor sent to the judge asking for no bond, they also detailed another victim. A father has come forward in recent days after hearing about the other charges levied against Busfield and said, yeah, that happened to my sixteen year old daughter. We decided not to report it because as a therapist, he promised to seek therapy. He begged for our forgiveness, he begged for us not to go to authorities. But this father now coming forward, So yes, another serious allegation levied or leveled at Busfield. He has claimed it's all eyes. He went on to camera, made a video and said I did nothing to harm those little boys.

00:14:42
Speaker 2: All right, continuing on the run here on this Thursday morning trial. A lot of folks keeping an eye on the so called O pair affair trial and the pair at the center of it, wrapped her testimony yesterday, which featured at times some pretty testy exchanges under cross examination.

00:14:56
Speaker 1: That's right, Juliana Perez Mahales is testify now against her former boss and her former lover, Brendan Banfield. He is on trial for the double murder of his wife, Christine and another man, Joseph Ryan. Prosecutors say he hatched an elaborate plan to kill his wife and ultimately Ryan because he then framed Ryan for his wife's murder. He tried to set it up where he was the hero coming in to try and rescue his wife. And that is all now being unraveled in court.

00:15:28
Speaker 2: Yea, and a fascinating cross examination. A lot of time was spent on her inability to remember key details. She kept saying, I don't know, I don't remember, and really the defense attorney was harping on this point and he got his point across. That was a lot she could not remember. She also, this didn't sound good. It's not the end of the world, but she's trying to sell her story and had to get up there and say, yep, Netflix is in charge. I'm negotiating now. And she had to read all these correspondents that she had written sounding like a different person, sounding like someone who was a business person making it deal, not somebody who's on trial for her life.

00:16:02
Speaker 1: Yes, and the defense wanted to point out, not somebody who sounds like you could trust, because the motives are unclear and her story has changed multiple times.

00:16:10
Speaker 2: All right, well, folks, stay with us here on this Thursday morning run. When we come back, Verizon says it's back. Whole milk is back, but a really heartbreaking story of a couple that has earned a spot on the US Olympic team, but passport issues will keep them from going to the Olympics.

00:16:34
Speaker 1: Stay here, Welcome back everyone to this Friday Eve morning run and next up on the run. Problem fixed, but we're just not even sure what the problem actually was. If you have Verizon, I have Horizon, you definitely know that there was a problem. Yes, today there was an outage. It happened around midday, but there's not a lot of explanation as to what was going on.

00:17:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, they say it's fixed, whatever the problem was, but yeah, a lot of you all noticed and a lot of people were talking about it yesterday and not real numbers on how many people were impacted up in the hundreds of thousands. But this was impact, at least we know from people talking about it. Coast to coast. People were impacted. Give Verizon credit for this, at least they said, are bad. Quote, we let many of our customers down, and for that we are truly sorry. I mean, you can't get any clearer than that. But again, not sure how many, not sure why, but hey, phone's working.

00:17:35
Speaker 1: It's true, But there is that moment when you know you take it for granted that you just constantly can be in contact with anybody you want. But I had either of people in our lobby freaking out because they couldn't get in contact with their uber that they were trying to catch. Like all of a sudden, your phone, you realize when you don't have access to it, Boom, suddenly your whole life is up ended. But good to know, at least for now everything's okay. Next up on the run, whole milk is back. President Trump signed to bill that reverses Obama era limits on whole milk in schools. They did this in a big event in the Oval Office. We had RFK there behind the President, a.

00:18:12
Speaker 2: Lot of talking, a lot of speeches, and a glass container of milk. Yes, sitting on the sitting on the desk, and this press conference had a lot to do with what iron he talked about. I'm sure Joe Biden's name.

00:18:25
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, did Joe Biden come up?

00:18:27
Speaker 2: But he talked about a lot of other things, a lot of people pointing to ones. Again, the President went to sleep. He was sitting there, surrounded a couple of kids sitting there, people all around the desk, and he seemed to fade off. But anyways, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids acted past last fall bipartisan measure. But yes, whole milk is going to be served in schools again. In addition to skim and low fat milk, non dairy milk products are allowed now as well. But I forgot about this. They had taken whole milk out of schools.

00:18:50
Speaker 1: I had forgotten. I need there was a big war on whole animal fat. And now there's a big revival in that it's not that bad for you. Actually it's gotten demonized unfairly. So whole milk is back in your child's school. And for the final leg of the run, this is a hell of a story. They won the US figure Skating Championship over the weekend, but they will not be able to compete at the Olympics in Milan. Why it's a passport issue. Alisa Famova and Misha Matrofanov are now the two time raining US pair figure skating champions.

00:19:30
Speaker 2: That means they're good.

00:19:32
Speaker 1: That means they're the best.

00:19:34
Speaker 2: Maybe it's the best we have, and we ain't sending them to Milan because ammerently, apparently one of them rogues is not quite American just yet. Yes, because they won, that essentially makes them automatically eligible to make the US Olympic team, and they were the big pair that's supposed to be going. However, Elisa's citizenship is held up. This is how it went down. Now. Misha, her husband, is a US city and actually born in Wisconsin. Now Elisa is from Finland. She married Misha, came to the US full time in twenty twenty three on a green card. Green cards are processed and usually takes about three years. Again, that was two thousand and three. Here we are in twenty twenty six. They didn't get it in time, so it could come.

00:20:20
Speaker 1: Tomorrow twenty twenty three, twenty twenty six. So that's the three year.

00:20:24
Speaker 2: It could come tomorrow and she can't go what it's over now because the rule with the US Olympic team you have to have a passport in US citizenship. At the moment they say who the team is and they won the championship, the team is being named. She didn't have the passport. It's oba none she can do about it.

00:20:42
Speaker 1: That is so frustrated.

00:20:43
Speaker 2: They called US senators and everything and tried to get it done and it did not happen. It's just lesson.

00:20:49
Speaker 1: This is how it goes, bureaucracy.

00:20:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's part of it. It happened. This is just what lesson is this in life? Who knows? Should have an exception been made? I don't know, but it feels heartbreaking. They seem to be taking it in trying, you know what. This is just how life is sometimes, ain't it.

00:21:03
Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean I guess that is the way to look at it. That this is No one promised you life was going to be fair, and this is part of what it is to be human and to deal with things that are out of your control. You can be the best, you can work your hardest, you can do everything right, and still things won't go your way, and that is part of the lesson I guess in there.

00:21:24
Speaker 2: Well, congrats to them anyway, Congrats are US championships are not going to the Olympics. Before we let you go, folks, something where you like for you to consider it is our quote of the day, maybe one of the shortest ones we've had in a while ropes and it is quote, A fearless man is not brave. Took me a second when I first heard this one. A fearless man is how it was said to me, is quite possibly an idiot, because it's not what a fearless man. You don't understand the danger in front of you, do You really not have the ability to understand the risk that you are taking. I was always told feel the fear and then do it anyway. That is what bravery encourage is to actually understand the risks, understand the consequences, understand what you're up against, and you still decide to move forward. That's bravery. Don't follow a fearless man.

00:22:17
Speaker 1: It took me a second too, I had to think about it, but the way you just described it makes a lot of sense. That's just a foolish man, perhaps not a fearless Well, fearless might be foolish because there are a lot of things to be afraid of. You just have to calculate your risks and go forward.

00:22:31
Speaker 2: If somebody's waving you towards it, let's go, have no fear. Nope, I'm going this way, so.

00:22:37
Speaker 1: Get Oh my god, you know what's so funny. You just did that. You waved. The one time I got into the worst car accident, someone was waving me to cut around and boom, have no fear. I got. This is completely tee boned because I trusted someone's fearlessness.

00:22:52
Speaker 2: Don't trust it, folks, So take that with you and remember a fearless man is not brave. And with that, we always appreciated you running with us. Folks.

00:23:00
Speaker 1: I'm teaching and I'm Amy Rovoch. We will run with you soon. M hm

00:23:08
Speaker 2: Hm