Morning Run: Nascar Plane Crash, Brown Shooter Found Dead, Finland Apologizes To Asian Countries, Jelly Roll Pardoned, Marijuana Downgraded and Saturday Powerball Jackpot

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Speaker 1: Good morning everyone, and welcome to Morning Run. It is Friday, December nineteenth.

00:00:07
Speaker 2: I'm Amy Robots and on TJ. Holmes, and a lot of people are waking up with a sigh of relief the news we got him. Yes, folks, the Brown University shooter, according to police, has been identified. He is off the street, and he is dead according to police, of a self inflicted gunshot. Will This was a fast moving story overnight in Robes, A big highlight. Yes, that's big that they got him, But we're understanding he's responsible for two terrorizing events in the area.

00:00:35
Speaker 1: That's true, and we'll have all of those details coming up on the Morning Run. Also on the Run, there are immigration implications now following those shootings and the discovery of who was behind them. The Trump administration suspending a very popular program that allowed the shooter to enter the country. And we got final words from fifty eight year old serial killer who killed five people before the age of twenty. He was executed last night in the state of Florida. Also, we're expecting those Epstein files. They're supposed to be released today, supposed to being the operative phrase in that story.

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Speaker 2: We'll explain the supposed to and Roji might have to explain that to me a little bit. Also on the run this morning, NASCAR champion and his family killed in a plane crash. This is a horrific, heartbreaking story because an entire family, two families, essentially died in this crash. We'll share what happened there. Also, were getting news from the Oval Office, major marijuana news coming out of the Oval Office. Also Jelly Roll gets a pardon interesting story there. And Finland's Prime minister has apologized to several Asian countries, which ones damn near all of them. Will explain what is a very odd, disturbing, scary and disappointing story of behavior out of Finland quite frankly. And then also, well it's that time again. Saturday is coming around, Saturday, right, Saturday power Ball. Power Ball is up to an astronomical number. Now we're record breaking.

00:02:09
Speaker 1: We all need to be involved, all right, But we do begin our Friday morning run in Providence where people are waking up and breathing a huge sigh of relief. After six days of being on edge an intense man hunt underway, police finally found their guy. He is forty eight year old former Brown University student. A Portuguese national. His name is Claudio Manuel Neves Valente.

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Speaker 2: And you said former student. He ain't been in school there in a long time. Again, it's a forty eight year old man. But yes, he was found dead at a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, last night. Police say he was found with a self inflicted gunshot wound. They did find two weapons to guns with him, and also they said they found evidence from the shooting at Brown University. Now, key to figuring all this out was that other person. You remember, folks, They were putting out surveillance videos of the suspect but you couldn't see his face, and then they put out video of somebody else and showed that person's face and said, hey, we believe this person interacted with the shooter and we're looking for this person in robes. That was the person that came forward. And what was the word, blew this case wide open?

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Speaker 1: Yes, blew it wide open. They still don't really have a motive. They found the connection, they found their guide, but they don't know the why. We're hoping to get more information about that, and a lot of people scratching their heads as to why he would do this. But thank god for that second person that police were looking for, who actually posted something on Reddit, and that's what literally broke the case open. We have an entire podcast right before this one on Morning Run that we put up first thing this morning when we woke up, so we have all the details in that. Please take a listen to it if you're interested in the story. It's fascinating what went down and how it went down.

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Speaker 2: And the key still is that the killing of that MIT professor that took place two days later. They are saying the same shooter is responsible for that. The connection between the two they actually went to school together in Portugal decades ago, and so they are trying to find a mode if don't have it, but yes, take a listen. We go through this story a little more, but like you said, it's been a week of feares community along that story as well. The President has officially suspended the Green Card lottery program. It's the program that allowed Valente to gain permanent residents in the United States. Now, Christy Nome posted on x that Trump's that at Trump's direction, she was ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause of the program. Her words, this heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country. I don't know what you do there with this program.

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Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, it's tough because now you've got about Apple and now everyone gets punished. Valente studied at Brown initially on a student visa back in two thousand, but it was in twenty seventeen that he was given a Diversity immigrant visa and eventually received legal permanent resident status because of that program. Now, the program itself, I've heard of it over the years, as have you, but it awards up to fifty five thousand immigrant visas each year. It's a lottery system, and I looked up what the eligibility requirements were for you to even enter into this lottery. You have to be a native of a country with a low immigration rate to the United States, so Portugal would have been among those countries. And you had to have graduated from high school or its equivalent, or having qualifying work experience. So those are what have been the requirements to apply for this lottery visa.

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Speaker 2: It's been controversial at times over the years, but it's for a lot of people. You literally are winning the lottery. I get to go through the United States because my name got pulled out of a hat, and a lot of folks found beauty in that you just ran into an uber Diry driver.

00:05:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's it was so grateful for the program. So unfortunately for a lot of those people, it is on pause and we do I don't know if it will be reinstated anytime soon.

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Speaker 2: All right, continuing on our run here now, and what is a very windy, rainy morning here in New York. Don't know if you all can hear it, but right outside our home studio here the wind and the rain is really whipping and pounding this window behind us here. We'll continue on this run here though, with what happened in Florida last night, which is what has been happening a lot in Florida this year. They executed somebody. This time it was fifty eight year old Frank Athan Walls. He was a teenage serial killer. His Killingsbrey Wmber two years back in eighty five to eighty seven, and he was known as the Tuesday murder guy. They called these the Tuesday murderers because they all happened either at night on Tuesday or overnight. So no rhyme or reason to that did they after find out?

00:06:47
Speaker 1: No but like we hear so many serial killers, they have some sort of mark. Maybe this was his stamp. Yeah, that's me. It happened on a Tuesday, responsible well.

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Speaker 2: The execution was scheduled for six o'clock last night. Died by ethal injection. Official pronouncement of his death with at six eleven pm last night. He did have final words, quote, I am sorry for all the pain and suffering I caused over the years.

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Speaker 1: You know what, I appreciate that. I don't know how far that goes for any of his victims families, because this was forty years forty years he was on death row. That is a remarkable amount of time and a very long wait for so many family members who many of whom did not live to see last night. But his death sentence was for his conviction in the nineteen eighty seven double homicide of twenty year old Ann Peterson and her boyfriend, twenty two year old Air Force airman Edward Alger. He later admitted to three other heinous murders that began in nineteen eighty five when he was just seventeen years old. That is scary five murders between the ages of seventeen and nineteen. He was the nineteenth person executed in Florida, record set a year, and the forty seventh in the United States.

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Speaker 2: And to mention always one of those, it's a fascination we have. But his last meal was steak, chicken, vegetables, potatoes, and cheesecake, I believe is what he asked for as his last meal. Continuing on the run here now, today is supposed to be we keep saying supposed to be. Today is the day that legally all of the Epstein files are supposed to be released. However, there are some legal folks out there, are the experts who will tell you don't expect them, don't expect them today, and maybe not even expect them all to be made public. So what are we going to get. What's going to be withheld, what's going to be redacted? We don't know. It's unclear ropes what's going to happen today, but something supposed toppen before midnight.

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Speaker 1: That's right because the Epstein Files Transparency Act was signed by President Trump last month, and in that act, it gives the Department of Justice thirty days two and I'm going to quote exactly what the act says to make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the FBI and the United States Attorney's Offices related to Epstein and his associate Gallaine Maxwell. Now here's part of the issue. There is no known way to enforce this act. Who gets punished if all of the files aren't released?

00:09:17
Speaker 2: It's unclear.

00:09:19
Speaker 1: The DOJ correct And here's a big caveat There is language in that same law that allows for reactions in anything quote that would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution.

00:09:33
Speaker 2: And who gets to say what that is exactly?

00:09:35
Speaker 1: And there is the gray area that it makes what is going to happen today unclear?

00:09:41
Speaker 2: So you're telling me this isn't over. No, it's not all right. I want to continue on the run here now with what is an awful tragedy. Anytime with Yann Rose, we keep saying we've seen these horrible things happen. It was we get close, so close to the holidays, but this is devastating for this family and the NASCAR family. NASCAR champ Greg Biffel killed in a plane crash alongside his family. Seven people in all were on this plane who died. Fifty five year old Greg Biffle, his wife Christina, their five year old son Writer, their fourteen year old daughter Emma. Their friends were there as well. Dennis Dutton and his son Jack and another friend, Craig Watsworth, were all on board. And if you can make this feel even worse, robes that this group was together heading to a birthday party in Florida.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I was at the home of another NASCAR veteran. And so they have even waited and said they feel horrific, like how responsible they feel knowing that this group was headed to them to celebrate a birthday. It's just awful. And we're hearing from Greg's wife, Christina's mom. Her mom said that she got a text minutes before the plane crashed saying we're in trouble, So they knew they were in trouble. In fact, they were in a Sesna C five point fifty. They were attempting to land back where they took off from. There was foggy weather. They took off from Statesville Regional Airport. They turned around because it was just too foggy and so they crashed fifteen minutes after takeoff, turning around and trying to reland at the airport they had just taken off from. We actually got the official word that who was on board the plane from their friend and also North Carolina representative of US Congressman Richard Hudson. Here's what he tweeted on x They were friends who lived their lives focused on helping others. Greg was a great NASCAR champion who thrilled millions of fans, but he was an extraordinary person as well and will be remembered for his service to others as much for his fearlessness on the track. There are so many people already weighing and talking about specifically this family, the Biffles, just how incredibly giving they were, how philanthropic they were. It's just it's so incredibly tragic.

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Speaker 2: That's a tight knit community. That NASCAR community as well are with them at this time. Want to continue on the run here. Now we're going to head to Tennessee, where the governor there has issued a pardon. Now, pardons are often controversial, we hear about them, presidential pardons. I didn't se anybody too pissed about this one, because this one went to country music Stars Jelly Roll. The governor there said jelly roll story is remarkable, redemptive and powerful, and saying it's evident to me that this man should get a pardon. And he petitioned in twenty twenty four and it's gone through and this is just a matter of clearing his record. This has some serious, like professional.

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Speaker 1: Implications, absolutely, because Jelly Roll has been very vocal about the fact that having these felony convictions have actually created a logistical issue and inconvenience in worldwide touring, like, for instance, in Canada, when he wants to go perform there, he has to go through this whole process because he is a two time convicted felon and it can delay tours. He can't necessarily schedule things. He also was upset that it kept him from hunting, it's a passion of his and owning a Guani wasn't able to do either of those things since his convictions. He was convicted in two thousand and three felony robbery. He was unarmed with two others and they stole three hundred and fifty bucks. He was sentenced to a year in prison, and then in two thousand and eight He was convicted of felony drug possession, so he got eight years of court ordered supervision. It was crack cocaine and marijuana that they found in his vehicle. So he also said, look, he's been in jail forty times for minor things. So he obviously, and we know this, had a very troubled and long and lengthy criminal record. But he said in his application he was seeking a pardon quote to be an inspiration for people who are now where I used to be, to let them know that change is truly possible.

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Speaker 2: But don't think everybody else is going to get a parton. You know what I'm saying. If you go and I get an exception can be made. I'm happy you got it, But there are a lot of other folks out there who might have a drug conviction and who was found with crack cocaine and marijuana, and you're going to go to the governor say, you know what, I'd like to go hunting. Can you give me a pardon so I can get a gun. Obviously, obviously not exceptions have been made, and I don't want to say he shouldn't have it, but to think other people could get.

00:14:05
Speaker 1: This correct he's jelly roll.

00:14:07
Speaker 2: He's jelly roll. Well, folks, stay with us here on this Friday morning run. When we come back, why the country of Finland is apologizing to just about every Asian country over something a beauty queen did, we'll explain. Also marijuana at the White House. That requires a little more explanation, but it was a big day for marijuana at the White House and power Ball up to one point five billion. Merry Christmas. We continue on this Friday morning run with this was your favorite story in a lot of ways, and it might be one of the more odd, disturbing, weird, and unbelievable.

00:14:55
Speaker 1: It's another it's a jaw dropper.

00:14:58
Speaker 2: Okay, this was out of Finland. The government there backlash and accusations of racism for well from several Asian countries after Miss Finland was seen pulling the corners of her eyes in a photo and that photo went on social media. So you get the idea of what I'm saying. I don't have to explain that any further. Right, she's pulling the corners of her eyes. What did the caption say?

00:15:19
Speaker 1: Eating with the Chinese?

00:15:21
Speaker 2: Okay, there you go, folks. She claims she was relieving a headache. Her friend took the picture and then posted it. Okay, let's go with that. She publicly apologized the post came down. She says she took responsibility. But they took her crown, did they not?

00:15:36
Speaker 1: Yes, they took her crown.

00:15:37
Speaker 2: Okay, so it's over, it's done. We can move on. Right. The girl messed up, She's had a crown taken away. Let's move forward. No, no, no, no no. The reason is still the big story is because several Finnish politicians recreated that image and that gesture and they posted this, did they not? So this was their way of showing support to her by being racist?

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Speaker 1: Yes, they were obs set that her crown was taken from her, so in a I guess they were trying to support her. And it was several members of parliament on their right leaning members of parliament. So after they posted their photos to social media, there was an even bigger uproar as you might imagine in Asian countries, enough so that the Prime Minister of Finland had to officially respond. He issued an apology to several countries, specifically Japan and South Korea. He put it on the Finnish embassy social media account, and he put it in those countries languages so that they all the people of those countries could hear it and read it in their own language.

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Speaker 2: Translation right here.

00:16:42
Speaker 1: Is what the official apology reads. These posts do not reflect Finland's values of equality and inclusion. Racism and discrimination have no place in Finnish society. Our message in Finland and to all our friends abroad is that the government takes racism seriously and is committed to combat the issue. Finland all aims to do better. Politicians have a responsibility to serve as examples in this respect. Look, apparently Finland has a big Asian tourism community, so a lot of people from Asian countries travel to Finland to tour the country. So they're now saying that they want to create a boycott. No one go to Finland, So they're trying to have some economic repercussions because of what some Finnished politicians and Miss Finland decided to put on social media.

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Speaker 2: Why this drives me crazy. We're the ones that go fund not gofund me, the other one where people have done racist things and then they're raising hundreds.

00:17:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then they get support, like financial support sometimes that's concerning it scary, but certainly that was a big story overseas. Next up on the run back here at home, we saw one of the most significant changes in US drug policy happen yesterday. President Trump signed an executive order to reschedule marijuana to a lower drug classification. Here's what he's said today. I'm pleased to announce I will be signing an executive order to reschedule marijuana from a Schedule one to a Schedule three controlled substance with legitimate medical uses. We have people begging for me to do this, people who are in great pain. I think I probably have received more phone calls on this on doing what we're doing. I don't think I've received any calls on the other side of it.

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Speaker 2: So marijuana going to go from a Schedule one drug to a Schedule three. You hear that thrown around a lot. What does that mean. Well, they're just different categories based on really how potent and dangerous some of these drugs are. So Schedule one drugs, heroin, LSD, ecstasy, marijuana is in that group.

00:18:37
Speaker 1: Yes, marijuana in that grip.

00:18:39
Speaker 2: In that group. So it's now going to a Schedule three where there's testosterone tail and all with codeine anabolic steroids. Right, So that sounds for a long correctly. So it's going to go in there now with substances that are considered moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence. A lot of people have been calling for this for a long time.

00:18:58
Speaker 1: They certainly have. It was exciting news for a lot of people, but apparently not too exciting for President Trump because it was also noted it just he fell asleep during this press conference. Sitting at the Oval office, sitting.

00:19:09
Speaker 2: At the desk, I was gonna make a marijuana Well.

00:19:11
Speaker 1: I wanted to too, but I thought maybe it wasn't in contation.

00:19:13
Speaker 2: Should not accuse the president of any No, so he does not drink, he does not use control substances.

00:19:19
Speaker 1: But yeah, he absolutely fell asleep.

00:19:21
Speaker 2: Keep an eye on it, folks. This is going to be talked about more and more after especially that speech the other night where he was screaming and yelling and just was keeping up a frenetic manic. He was manic, and folks were questioning is he just in a hurry and what is going on? There's more and more of a drumbeat about his health and how he's doing. And to see that was a room full of people for this announcement, literally a foot from him, surrounding his chair, and they wouldn't stay away.

00:19:46
Speaker 1: Medical professionals behind him in white lab copes. But there was doctor oz Rfk Junior. They were all He was flanked by a huge group of people. There are cameras on him, and he is sitting at the desk of the Oval office and he literally fell asleep.

00:20:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure he's exhausted. He's a seventy eight, seventy nine year old man, seventy eight. It was exhausted in that job. He couldn't even sit up straight.

00:20:08
Speaker 1: That's that's concerning it is it is, it's concerning.

00:20:12
Speaker 2: Final leg of the run.

00:20:13
Speaker 1: Here.

00:20:13
Speaker 2: We've been talking about this for several weeks now. It seems powerball jackpot up to one point five billion. That drawing is tomorrow night. But the last drawing you have to check. I saw you checking our numbers. Look, people, you had to check them because people went a lot of money.

00:20:27
Speaker 1: I did, and I saw there were three winners in New York, significant winners. Yeah, two players won two million dollars in Arizona and Massachusetts. And then six players across four states, including three here in New York. One was in Queen's Actually so close. They won a prize of one million each. So they were sold in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. It is a reminder, So yes, I checked the ticket, even though I know if it says nobody wanted. But maybe we won something.

00:20:54
Speaker 2: And sometime they get fifty thousand. There are smaller prizes that you need to check.

00:20:57
Speaker 1: I'll take what. I'll take seven dollars, I'll take recoopit, the twenty bucks we spent on the ten tickets. I'll take anything.

00:21:03
Speaker 2: Just want to break.

00:21:04
Speaker 1: But yes, one point five billion cash value of six hundred eighty six point five million. Good luck, everybody. I love it because now that we've been buying lottery tickets, it's so funny. Every time you go buy it, they say good luck.

00:21:14
Speaker 2: We should switch stores.

00:21:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe that's our problem. We should switch stores.

00:21:18
Speaker 2: I love that. All right.

00:21:19
Speaker 1: Quote of the day as we leave you on this Friday morning run from none other than Jelly Roll figured. I was inspired by his recent pardon. He's now no longer a convicted felon. Here is what he has had to say, the windshield is bigger than the rear view mirror for a reason, because what's in front of us is so much more important than what's behind us.

00:21:41
Speaker 2: Was that acception speech in Award Show? It seems like I remember him saying that somewhere.

00:21:46
Speaker 1: I feel I can't tell you for sure, but that sounds right. That sounds right, and.

00:21:49
Speaker 2: It's one hundred percent true. I mean, we've heard things along those lines and similar, that's true. We get so hung up about what's behind us.

00:21:55
Speaker 1: Only we always think that people can't change, and for the most part, most people don't. But it is nice to know that it's possible and that some people do make that effort and you can turn your life around. And I do appreciate that idea that there is always hope. So the windshield is bigger than the rear view mirror for a reason, because what's in front of us is so much more important than what's behind us. I guess. Congratulations to Jelly Roll and happy Friday everyone. We hope weather's better where you are than where we are here in New York City. But with that everyone, thank you for running with us.

00:22:29
Speaker 2: I'm Amy Robot and I'm TJ. Holmes, Be careful out there, be kind out there. On this last shopping weekend before Christmas, we'll talk to also