Morning Run: Trump To China, Hantavirus Cases Increase, Kouri Richins Sentencing, NBA Deaths, Baltimore Bridge Charges, FDA Director Resigns, Venezuela 51st State and Last Minute Lottery Winner

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Morning Run with Amy and TJ and iHeartRadio Podcast. Good morning everyone, Thanks for joining us for today's morning run. It is Wednesday, May thirteenth. I made me robot.

00:00:13
Speaker 2: I'm TJ. Holmes, and it is quite a busy newsday Robes. Even as we are recording this morning, we're standing by waiting for the President to land for what is anticipated to be the biggest display ever welcoming an American to China in the history of the world.

00:00:28
Speaker 1: Correct, well, that's what he's asked. He literally, President Trump asked President she to please make this the biggest display ever for welcoming someone like him of his stature. Who does that? Hey, can you have all the marching bands and balloons and parades and signs? No, he wants a big welcoming party.

00:00:49
Speaker 2: Oh, I thought you were asking that question, not facetiously or rhetorically. Who does that? There is an.

00:00:55
Speaker 1: Answer, it's President Trump.

00:00:57
Speaker 2: Yes see this is right on brand from my brother. But he is supposed to land really here shortly as of this recording. But of course is the high stakes summing with the Chinese president. There a lot on the line. This was the trip I actually forgot Robes. This one was supposed to happen six weeks ago, and he delayed it because six weeks ago he was kind of busy with some of the stuff that he's still busy with.

00:01:18
Speaker 1: It's not a war though, it's just an operation in Iran that's going on ongoing. Yeah, it's an operation.

00:01:24
Speaker 2: So yes, this conflict, this operational conflicts will be at the top of the agenda because of course China is in business with Iran in a big, big way, so they're being impacted. They get a big chunk of their oil, their energy from Iran, so that is going to be on the table. But this is not what he wanted to be going there. This shouldn't have been a top agenda item.

00:01:46
Speaker 1: No, because this is about business. This is about the economy. That was what was supposed to be and will still be a part of the agenda. It's a forty eight hour trip, that's a long way to go for two days. But he's got some very high and power, high powered folk along with him, some major CEOs of some major American companies like you know, Apple, Navidia just to name.

00:02:08
Speaker 2: A few, and is a former romance partner Elon. There's a chance they might get back together, right, this is this is the start. You take a trip together, feel things out. I'm thinking about relationship.

00:02:18
Speaker 1: Mocation really is what's happened?

00:02:20
Speaker 2: Wors what you say? Well, yes, there are two women on the trip. They said seventeen CEOs, but you hadn't heard a lot about those women with one from Citigroup. I can't remember the other, the other from Google. I think yeah, the vice president of Son. So a couple of women on board. And also you mentioned Tim Cook. I go got up this morning, rogue, you know, I get up before three usually, and trending online number one on X was Tim Apple. You remember, I had to go back and remember that. What Tim Apple is what the president called Tim Cook? Oh, when he put out his message on True Social I'm joined by Elon mus Da Da da da Tim Apple. People jumped on that as if the President was having a moment and messed it up, But he messed it up previously. That's now his nickname Tim Apple, and Tim Apple has embraced it.

00:03:04
Speaker 1: As far as nicknames go that the president gives folks, that's not a bad one.

00:03:09
Speaker 2: Marjorie Taylor Brown was it I'm thinking about? Do he called Nancy Pelosi?

00:03:14
Speaker 1: Gavin nouskomb ye, sleepy Joe. He's got all sorts of yes, okay.

00:03:19
Speaker 2: But that's the update on the president. All eyes will be on China over the next couple of days. But on this run this morning, we're going to make several stops. That's the quick stop in Beijing, but we'll also make stops in Paris and Park City, Utah, in Denver, in La and Venezuela, as well as in Baltimore. But let's start by giving you an update on what's happening with the Haunt of virus. And there are significant updates this morning.

00:03:39
Speaker 1: That's right. The number of cases from the cruise ship has gone up. There are now eleven cases, nine of them have been confirmed, and one of those cases is a woman who is reportedly in critical condition and now on life support.

00:03:55
Speaker 2: Yes, that patient is a French woman who was a passenger on the ship. Doctors scribe her situation as life threatening. The update on the eighteen American cruise ship passengers, though, who were brought back home here to the US. Sixteen are in quarantine in Nebraska. They are being monitored and assessed, as they say robes, but right now they are not showing any symptoms, they.

00:04:16
Speaker 1: Say, yes, even though one of them has tested positive. I believe the doctor. But meanwhile, one of the two monitored in emery in Atlanta, he was showing or I should say he. We don't know if it was a man or a woman, but that person was showing symptoms. That person tested negative for the virus.

00:04:33
Speaker 2: All right, So that is the update there, But still expecting more in robes. Like you said, right, the who was it put out a statement in recent.

00:04:42
Speaker 1: Day or two was the yesterday Tuesday saying there will be more cases with just the amount of time it takes for this virus to incubate and then show signs. They said, almost assuredly, there will be more cases.

00:04:53
Speaker 2: We should mention here too, there are several people in the United States who weren't on the ship who came in contact with somebody who was on the ship, who are being monitors. Those numbers are going up.

00:05:01
Speaker 1: Correct, Yes, in Kansas and Washington, state of note.

00:05:05
Speaker 2: All right, continuing here on this Wednesday morning, run a lot of eyes will be on Utah today in a courtroom where a mother. They are the Utah mom who wrote a children's book about grief after killing her husband. She is going to be sentenced today, Robes, this is one we followed very closely.

00:05:22
Speaker 1: Yes, we followed this trial closely, and this sentencing hearing is going to be a doozy. So she was convicted back in March for the murder of her husband Eric. Prosecutors say she gave him a fentanyl laced drink in twenty twenty two, that famous Moscow mule, and then wrote a book called Are You with Me that was supposed to help kids deal with the loss of a parent. She claimed she wrote it to help her three sons deal with the grief of losing their father. Unexpectedly, Richards did not testify in her own defense. In fact, they called no witnesses whatsoever.

00:05:51
Speaker 2: I just mentioned Rinsin's kids, their sons. What was it with nine, seven and five at the time? So was it thirteen, eleven and nine now? And we were just looking into this. But it's pretty damning, pretty devastating. We watch a lot of cases when it has to do with mom and dad and one kill the other. Sometimes the kids will plead with the court say please please please don't take my other parent away. I lost one. It's not the case in this one.

00:06:18
Speaker 1: Quite the opposite actually, so yes, look for it after morning on. We're gonna put up an episode because wait until you hear what her sons, even at their young age, had to say in a note to the judge ahead of her sentencing later today. And by the way, today is or would have been her husband, their father, Eric's forty fourth birthday.

00:06:42
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm not sure. I haven't seen roles whether or not they're expecting the sons in court. I wouldn't expect that they would be there, but the sons are flat out telling the judge we do not want our mom out of jail because we're scared of her.

00:06:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, we wouldn't feel safe if she were out in the world.

00:06:57
Speaker 2: So yes, we'll keep an eye on that. Today again, have an episode up on the feed here going in detail about the what's going into the sentence of hearing but afterwards. It's scheduled for eleven thirty Eastern time today, expected to go maybe a couple hours.

00:07:11
Speaker 1: Them impact them impact statements are always powerful, all right. Next up on the run. Authorities have identified the person who was hit and killed by that plane while walking on the runway at Denver International.

00:07:22
Speaker 2: Airport, and police now say forty one year old Michael Mott scaled a fence at the airport, but also ropes had to get past motion sensors radar detectors in order to get to the runway. You and I were asking this question, how did somebody get out there? And is it that simple just to jump over a fence? Well kind of sort of roads, but it's an eight foot fence with barbed wire at the top.

00:07:44
Speaker 1: But they said, looking into it, it took him fifteen seconds to scale it.

00:07:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, and was hit within two minutes of getting over the vents.

00:07:51
Speaker 1: Yes. And look, they said, if you look at where this is, and if you've ever been to the Denver International Airport, and I certainly have with my daughter being a boulder, it's it's in the middle of nowhere. So they say, it's like miles from the road, two miles the farmland. It just seemed like a very deliberate and purposeful attempt. And look, they're now talking to his family, his friends to find out why, what could have been going on in his life because he didn't leave a note. As far as they know right now, the motion detector alarms went off actually at one point, but they said they thought it was a herd of deer that set off the alarm, which happens often. I guess, well.

00:08:27
Speaker 2: We talk about this, we say, can't be that easy. Actually it's not so. There are improvements that can be made. But an alarm went off, It worked how it was supposed to. Someone went to a monitor and checked out what was going on and said, ah, nothing to see.

00:08:43
Speaker 1: Probably assumed it was deer because they're prevalent in that area. But yes, his death was officially ruled a suicide.

00:08:48
Speaker 2: All right, continue on the run here now. The NBA is in mourning after the deaths of one current and one former player. And that former player wasn't just a former player. This was a pioneer, not just in basketball, but in all of American professional sports.

00:09:05
Speaker 1: Yes, Jason Collins is who we're talking about. He passed away at the age of forty seven, thirteen years in the NBA, But his biggest contribution may have been in twenty thirteen when he publicly announced that he was gay. He became the first active openly gay player in any of the four professional leagues, and then, sadly, just three months after getting married to the love of his life, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with brain cancer. That was five months ago. That reveal. That's how quickly this uh ah is gle blastoma and it just was in advanced stage by the time they found it. He said he was having memory issues. He couldn't focus, he couldn't concentrate. You go to the doctor, get a cat scan, and all of a sudden boom five months later. It's so sad. Oh I just I was looking at his engagement photos with his husband and just thinking, you're starting your life together. Three months after getting married, he gets this news.

00:10:00
Speaker 2: You cannot overstate his impact on culture, on sports culture, on sports locker rooms, Robes. This is a big deal. He's seven feet tall, black in the NBA and gay. Those things just don't go together. They just don't. And Rhodes. I watched him and his brother play at Stanford. Twin brothers, towering dudes, just the sweetest guys, Robes. This is devastating. He's just forty seven years old, but he became an ambassador to the NBA. He continued to speak and be an advocate. Just see this dude is everything in professional sports. He is the man. If you don't know his name, read his story today. He is the pioneer in professional sports in America period.

00:10:42
Speaker 1: It's just so so sad.

00:10:44
Speaker 2: But then with that, also yesterday, Memphis Grizzlies announced Brandon Clark has passed away at the age of twenty nine. This is a former twenty nineteen first round pick. He was found unresponsive in a home in LA. No cause of death has been determined. He played college ball at Gonzaga and was drafted twenty first overall. Ropes. That's a good ballplayer. This dude was really really good. Made the NBA All Rookie First Team his first year. He had a leg injury. Hadn't placed in December, but this was a guy who had an impact. Don't know what happened there, but the NBA to lose the pioneer, and it lose such a young guy like this, that's tough for that.

00:11:20
Speaker 1: Incredibly tragic. Police right now are investigating his death as a possible overdose. But this is justin too young, twenty nine, recovering from a leg injury. It's so so incredibly sad. All Right, our hearts got out to all those folks who knew and loved both of those men, all right. Next up on the run authorities in Maryland announced a multi billion dollar settlement and this was significant criminal charges related to the cargo vessel crash that brought down the Francis Scott Keybridge in twenty twenty four. You may remember six construction workers died when that cargo vessel when it lost power and ran into the bridge. Will it collapsed a portion of that bridge, and those construction workers who were filling potholes died when the bridge collapsed.

00:12:03
Speaker 2: And Baltimore, now the city has reached a two and a half billion dollar settlement with the owner of that vessel. The Justice Department also announced they've charged two companies and one individual criminally for their roles. Now, the companies were based in Singapore and India. I can't remember where. The one individual that's charged with these an operator of the vessel. Somebody is considered to be in charge. But yeah, well these are criminal charges with yeah.

00:12:28
Speaker 1: So the charges are conspiracy to defraud the US willfully failing to immediately inform the US Coast Guard of a own hazardous condition, obstruction of an agency proceeding in false statements. Apparently, according to these criminal charges, the supervisor of the ship, they had a blackout prior while they were in ported at least one maybe two, and they didn't report that blackout. They didn't report the power failures, and had they done so, the insinuation is that they could have prevented this disaster.

00:12:57
Speaker 2: Their whole brief shows that this was preventable.

00:12:59
Speaker 1: Yes, which is very awful.

00:13:01
Speaker 2: I continue on the run here. Now you can't fire me. I quit. Marty McCarey resigned. I should say quitting and resigning same thing, right.

00:13:08
Speaker 1: Uh, yeah, pretty much. It's a nicer way to put it. Maybe you add a letter to the resignation, but quitting just says bye.

00:13:15
Speaker 2: Quitting is just walking out the door. Resigning is at least giving your heads up. Yes, okay, So he resigned. He resigned yesterday out of the FDA after days of intense speculation and reporting that President Trump was about to let him go anyway.

00:13:28
Speaker 1: Yeah. Several media outlets are reporting that Trump had already approved a plan to fire him, but McCarry ended up resigning. Reportedly, there were tentions over the FDA policy with the White House. Specifically, they're saying he didn't like this thing that just got passed quietly on Friday. If you hadn't heard the FDA is expanding basically flavored vaping. It's just tough because he was. He just felt like it was being marketed specifically to children. Whether we want to admit that or not, this is appealing to younger folks. He didn't want to be a art of an agency that was allowing new fruit flavors to be passed for vapes, and that's one of the main reasons reportedly there was tension. The President posted a screenshot of his resignation text message. Okay, I guess he didn't do a letter. He did a text message.

00:14:17
Speaker 2: Is that we're doing now?

00:14:18
Speaker 1: Okay, okay. But Trump was happy with it. Everyone wins. Yeah.

00:14:22
Speaker 2: Trump didn't bash the guy on the way. He did some complimentary things to say. All right, well, stay with us here on this Wednesday morning run. When we come back, we have a new target to be the fifty first state of our Union, so says the President. Will explain. Also, an actor that I just adore from movies that let you know, I'm a dude, he has passed away. Will let you know who we're talking about. You might not know his name, but you'll certainly know his movies and you'll probably know his face when you see it. And someone just claimed a seventy eight million dollar lottery ticket with very little time to spare. Statement, all right, let's continue on this Wednesday morning. Run now, and if at first you don't succeed with Greenland and Canada, Trump Venezuela ropes.

00:15:15
Speaker 1: This is bizarre. I mean, it's all bizarre. But Trump has now set his sights on Venezuela as the possible fifty first state because he's really held bent on getting a fifty first state. But Venezuela's acting president, not so happy about it, fully rejected the suggestion. President Trump said this week he is seriously considering making Venezuela our fifty first state.

00:15:35
Speaker 2: Yes. Responding to reporters yesterday, though, Darcy Rodriguez defended her country as sovereign and independent, she said they are not a colony but a free country. Roads how far is she willing to go and pushing back? I mean, she has the gig right now because of him, does she not?

00:15:51
Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean I don't know where this one goes. But I can't imagine that this goes far. I don't know, you know, put another star on the on the on the flag. He probably would, and he probably wanted to have like a tee on it or something. All right, last night, that makes sense except on the run. You might not know the name immediately. But we have just lost an actor who was a giant, I guess figuratively and literally. He was certainly unforgettable. If you ever saw him on the big screen.

00:16:23
Speaker 2: His name is Donald Gibb. And if you just look that up real quick and you see his face, you go, oh, okay. If you don't, if it's a current picture, you don't recognize him. Look up Donald Gibb, Revenge of the Nerds, Donald Gibb, Blood Sport. Those were two well the movie franchise, of course, Revenge of the Nerds. He was in all those, but he was also in Blood Sport alongside Jean Claude Dan Dam. That went down as a cult classic favorite martial arts movie, and he played a very prominent role in it. But he was this larger than life big dude passed away now at the age of seventy one years old. Now I didn't realize he's a You see, he's a towering guy, thick guy. He was and went to college to play basketball and football.

00:17:02
Speaker 1: You know what I saw that. I couldn't believe it. I'm also born in New York City, And just what an incredible life did you have? Basketball in college and then football in college, and then acting.

00:17:11
Speaker 2: And went to the NFL for a little while. Got an injury. But he was just a big, towering but he always plays. Yes, he played these dufusger carrot, yes, and these jocks and whatnot. But he did his thing, and they just sucked the seat in romees.

00:17:24
Speaker 1: What seventy one's too young when.

00:17:26
Speaker 2: We see seventy one? Now we wait till happened. But yeah, we don't know the cause of death where they said he did die surrounded by family in Texas.

00:17:33
Speaker 1: All right, next up on the run in November of last year, and I guess this is our final leg of our run. Yes, this is this is crazy. I could never wait to know what you think about it. I could never wait this long. But we knew, and I guess I forgot that the Texas lottery had a winner, a seventy eight million dollar winner. Right, you have to clean the prize within one hundred and eighty days. Up until just a few days ago, no one had come forward. Yeah, they waited one hundred and seventy four days.

00:18:03
Speaker 2: Can you imagine?

00:18:05
Speaker 1: No?

00:18:05
Speaker 2: No, you know what, but this person is smart who claimed the ticket here? It was claimed by the jury Trust Agreement. Trident Trust Company Incorporated. Texas is one of those states ropes that will let a corporation or an entity or a trust claim the winnings. A lot of people are probably going to start doing this more around the country because you can keep you can stay anonymous, you can do it all through a trust and the money goes there. Nobody ever has the no.

00:18:35
Speaker 1: So we don't know how many people are a part of this trust. If it's one person, if it's multiple people. It could have been a whole gaggle of office folks who put their stuff together. But we do know that it is out of South Dakota, so it's out of state.

00:18:48
Speaker 2: The trust is set up in South Dakota. Yeah, bro, that's now. I have thought about that. I would never want my name to be out there if we won the lottery. No, see how I said, we even try to do that, that would just came out naturally. Well what I mean, if I won lottery, that's a good way to go.

00:19:06
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's crazy. The ticket was going to expire on May fourteenth. They claimed the prize on May eighth. Whoo, that is cutting it close. How long does it take to set up a trust?

00:19:15
Speaker 2: That's too close, baby.

00:19:16
Speaker 1: I think so too. But thank goodness they're getting their money. And it is good to know because I hate the thought of someone winning the lottery and throwing away the ticket and never realizing. We hear it happen where lottery prizes go unclaim sometimes.

00:19:30
Speaker 2: You know what's going to upset you now is to know that if they didn't claim it, it would just go into the Texas General Fund. They would have it to do whatever they want to do it. Wow.

00:19:38
Speaker 1: And by the way, Texas, I thought this was a good place to win. The lottery doesn't tax. The state itself does not tax lottery winning, so they only had to pay the thirty five percent federal tax.

00:19:48
Speaker 2: Boom. That's this person did it right.

00:19:49
Speaker 1: That's a win, all right. So for your quote of the day on this Wednesday, this is this is a Buddhist saying. I loved this one. Hadn't heard it before, but it makes a lot of sense. Peace isn't something you create, it's what's left when you let go.

00:20:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, we talk about this all the time. Who lets go? We don't ever do. We always want to be happy, we say, but what we're really looking forwards piece?

00:20:16
Speaker 1: Well, and the funny thing is we're trying to create peace. I was laughing at that notion because I like, I just want I want to create peace. I want to protect my piece somehow, as if it's an active thing. No, you just let go of the outcome and you have peace. It's very hard to do, but it really is. In the act of letting go. It's the only way you find peace. That's pretty cool. And we try to force it. It doesn't work.

00:20:37
Speaker 2: That school finds a piece too. I'm not supposed to do that.

00:20:41
Speaker 1: Let go, all right, And with that everyone, we always appreciate you running with us. I made me robock.

00:20:46
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and I'm TJ Holme. Sorry I went away from the microphone. I thought we were done here.

00:20:49
Speaker 1: We're letting go. It's okay, you're already on your path to piece.

00:20:51
Speaker 2: All right, we will talk soon.