Oct. 7, 2026
(Wednesday) Morning Run: Pike Awake, TX Execution Still On, NJ Familicide, Hurricane Coming, Nolan Wells’ Friends Sue, RIP Freddie Jackson, Starbucks Sugar Suit, Messi’s Goodbye, & MORE!
Apple Podcasts 
Spotify 
Castro 
RSS Feed Robach and Holmes cover the latest news headlines and entertainment updates and give perspective on current events in their daily “Morning Run.”
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:10
Speaker 1: Hey there, everybody, and welcome to Morning Run. It's Wednesday, October 7th. I'm Amy Robach.
00:00:16
Speaker 2: And I'm TJ Holmes. Got a lot to get to on this Morning Run, including robes. We're just missing off the top. We had another incident with a plane. We've had a lot of incidents, right? Planes on tarmac, weird stuff happening. This time, a plane from Madrid heading to Dallas had to divert to New York robes.
00:00:38
Speaker 3: Haven't heard of this one before. Bathrooms are out.
00:00:43
Speaker 1: I mean, that is an emergency.
00:00:44
Speaker 2: But they had eight, and they were down to two. So if you're on that plane, is my question for you. If they say, hey, we got to either stop for three hours in New York before we fly the extra four hours to Dallas, or can y'all just hold it?
00:01:00
Speaker 3: What would you do?
00:01:02
Speaker 1: Well, if there are two operational ones.
00:01:04
Speaker 3: With 240 people on board. for the next four hours.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Look, here's where my head goes. The moment someone tells me a bathroom isn't available, I have to pee so badly. It's like the worst emergency in my life. So just the suggestion that I can't pee would send me into a total, like, actually anxiety-driven spiral.
00:01:27
Speaker 3: If I told you one of our four were out right now, You would have to pee immediately.
00:01:30
Speaker 1: Yes, immediately. Just suggesting to me that I might not be able to pee would be an emergency.
00:01:36
Speaker 3: This is one I hadn't heard before.
00:01:37
Speaker 2: American Airlines, everything was fine, but they did have to stop in New York for three hours before then going the extra four.
00:01:43
Speaker 3: That's tough. Because of the bathrooms.
00:01:44
Speaker 1: But I understand.
00:01:46
Speaker 3: I would have said, push on. I would have helped. Don't care. No need to use. Stop in New York for three hours.
00:01:53
Speaker 1: But what if you had been drinking a bunch of wine or some vodka sodas?
00:01:57
Speaker 3: Bring me some of those extra empty bottles y'all got up there.
00:01:59
Speaker 1: Oh, my. You're a man.
00:02:01
Speaker 3: I guess women can't do that. All right. Well, good morning to you.
00:02:04
Speaker 2: I'm thinking I might start every morning with a scenario for you just to hear how you'd start off. But wherever you may be, thank you for joining us this morning. We got a number of stops to make in Nashville, Tennessee, Huntsville, Texas, Princeton, New Jersey. going to make a stop in the Gulf Coast, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Also going to swing by the Starbucks line as well as the billboard charts.
00:02:25
Speaker 3: But let's start.
00:02:26
Speaker 2: Here robs every day a new development and every day we are kind of stunned at where we are a week after an execution. The person being executed is still alive.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: And now awake.
00:02:37
Speaker 1: Yes, Krista Pike has regained consciousness. Today marks Exactly one week since Pike's botched execution. And her attorneys say for the very first time she woke up yesterday. She had been on a ventilator. She was unconscious since she was rushed to the hospital after being given what should have been two doses of a lethal injection last week.
00:02:59
Speaker 3: Should have been.
00:03:00
Speaker 2: Yes, her attorneys released a statement saying that Pike is conscious speaking, receiving critical medical care. Yes, the one we just tried to kill. We are trying to keep alive now. They noted that, quote, Despite the severe damage she endured to her arm, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed. Prognosis still unclear, but they say this is going to be a long recovery. They are still asking rogues, and we'll probably hear this again today, but you said they do have a plan. We should hear a lot today on this story, but they are asking the governor to right now commute her sentence.
00:03:30
Speaker 1: That's right, and they're actually going to court to demand transparency, and they want the state to preserve any evidence associated with the botched execution. That hearing's scheduled for 11 a.m. Nashville time. Is that central time?
00:03:46
Speaker 3: If it's 11 there or here?
00:03:47
Speaker 1: Yes, in Nashville.
00:03:48
Speaker 3: Oh, so noon our time.
00:03:50
Speaker 1: Noon our time. And then from there, they'll hold a press conference. So we should be hearing more details today. But in the meantime, next up on the run, Texas is scheduled to carry out an execution there tonight using the exact same method of execution that was used on Krista Pike.
00:04:05
Speaker 2: This is crazy to think that here we are a week later.
00:04:08
Speaker 3: It's happening again.
00:04:09
Speaker 2: Jamal Howard convicted for the 2000... shooting and killing a Vicky Swarthout, a convenience store clerk. His supporters are arguing he should be spared because he has intellectual disabilities. His attorneys are also citing Pike's botched execution in Tennessee, asking for the governor to grant a 30-day reprieve so Texas can look into things and make sure they understand exactly what they're doing, what drugs they're using, and it's on the up and up as best as it can be.
00:04:34
Speaker 1: Yes, and if you're interested in Jamal Howard, his story, and a really poignant moment that his spiritual advisor had with him about the Krista Pike debacle, please, it's the episode before this one. Take a listen. But in the meantime, next up on the run, there was another horrific tragedy involving a father killing his family and then himself this time. And we say this time because we saw a string of this over the summer. This time it happened in an upscale community near Princeton, New Jersey.
00:05:06
Speaker 2: Prosecutors announced three bodies were discovered in a suburban home Friday. They say 61-year-old David Grodnick shot and killed both his.
00:05:15
Speaker 3: 62.
00:05:16
Speaker 1: Sorry, I said that wrong.
00:05:17
Speaker 3: Whoa, whoa, whoa.
00:05:18
Speaker 1: It's 62. She's 62.
00:05:19
Speaker 3: All right, so he's 61, she's 52. There you go.
00:05:22
Speaker 2: 61-year-old David Grodnick is his name, shot and killed his 62-year-old wife, Laura, and their 24-year-old daughter, Sloane, then killed himself. Grodnick worked as a senior vice president with Land Services USA. That's an insurance company based in Philadelphia. Both he and his wife were members of multiple exclusive country clubs. Not that that's supposed to make a difference, but you look at these neighborhoods in Rome, a lot of places where these are happening are upstanding, job-carrying, professional clubs.
00:05:50
Speaker 1: People. Yeah, they had a $ 2 million home and their daughter Sloan was a graduate of the Hun School in this area. That's a very well-known exclusive private boarding school in Princeton, New Jersey. And she was about to complete her master's degree at the Rhode Island School of Design. I mean, this just sends chills up and down your body.
00:06:10
Speaker 3: Why, why, why?
00:06:11
Speaker 1: And that's the question no one has an answer to right now. There is no known motive. The investigation continues. Montgomery Township, where the couple, where the family lived, it's about 40 miles southwest of Newark Airport, just to give folks an idea of where this is, but just an unbelievable tragedy.
00:06:27
Speaker 3: All right, continuing on the run, Robes returned to something that's just a shame, the mess between Dolly Parton's estate and her nephew.
00:06:36
Speaker 2: That mess seems to be getting messier. The nephew, Brian Seaver, the estate now claims he has put up Robes' barbed wire caution tape around his home in order to avoid being served with court papers. All right.
00:06:49
Speaker 1: Seaver, who is Parton's nephew and her longtime head of security and the one who made that announcement to the world of her death. Yeah. Remember him? He was fired weeks after Parton died by her own estate. The estate also filed a restraining order claiming that Seaver threatened members of the estate as well as threatened to destroy Parton's legacy, all reportedly in demands for money.
00:07:15
Speaker 2: So now there have been new court filings by the estate, and it comes with photo evidence. It shows reportedly that Seaver has put up a no trespassing sign, put up caution tape, barbed wire around the front door. They say robes the railing. You can't even get through because it's blocked. And no matter what, that's intimidating, quite frankly. No one's going to go past that. They claim this is all an attempt to keep them from serving him with a lawsuit from the estate. Don't know where that thing is going, but it's not going the right direction.
00:07:42
Speaker 1: Absolutely not. All right, next up on the run, expect to see more storm watches and warnings to begin today as forecasters closely monitor a tropical storm that has formed in the Gulf.
00:07:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, system is expected to quickly strengthen to a hurricane, possibly target the Gulf Coast of the U.S. At this point, a number of landfall scenarios are on the table, but as of this recording, Robes, the best guess, It's going to make landfall somewhere between New Orleans and Destin on Friday. That's a big range of area right there. It's targeting the entire Gulf Coast almost. Supposed to hit Hurricane 2 strength. Possibly, yes, when it makes landfall. This is a serious storm, and it's starting to give us a better idea. of what we might eat up against here, but close eye on that one.
00:08:25
Speaker 1: Look, and we, this is the first, it'll, if it it's expected to become a named storm, obviously Isaiah's, I believe is the name, but this is the first one that's actually going to threaten us, the U S mainland. And that's pretty remarkable. We're in October at hurricane seasons over in less than a month. Yeah. And this is the first storm threatening the mainland.
00:08:47
Speaker 2: That's what we've been dealing with in hurricanes for the past couple of weeks. We had Rachel. We were traveling.
00:08:51
Speaker 1: We were on the Pacific side of things, right?
00:08:53
Speaker 3: Rachel and who was the other one before that?
00:08:54
Speaker 1: Rachel and Polo.
00:08:55
Speaker 3: Was it Polo?
00:08:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had some doozies. But, yes, that was not in the United States. All right, next up on the run, three of Nolan Wells' friends are suing an NFL Hall of Famer for defamation, and they say more lawsuits are to come. The suit was filed against Terrell Owens, the former tight end for the Cowboys and the Eagles.
00:09:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, this lawsuit alleges that the three were defamed, in particular by a social media post in which Owens posted this. It said, quote, arrest them immediately. Now, this was in response to another post that flat out accused the three of killing Wells and Rose. I looked at the lawsuit this morning. The post had these three boys' pictures, plain as day, and their names on it.
00:09:38
Speaker 1: Oof. Now, the... 18-year-old black college student Nolan Wells, you'll remember, was found dead two days after that boating trip with friends to celebrate the Fourth of July. The medical examiner could not determine a cause of death, and a grand jury did not refuse to bring charges, saying it's most likely that Wells died by drowning. Now, the lawyers for Wells' friends say we can expect more lawsuits. against Reverend Al Sharpton and The View's Sonny Hostin.
00:10:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, they rogues now that the grand jury certainly has. I mean, that post there that they say that came up from Terrell Owens came out after the grand jury.
00:10:14
Speaker 3: Said nobody's facing criminal charges.
00:10:16
Speaker 1: Oh. Yeah. Oh, that's tough.
00:10:18
Speaker 2: We continue on the run here on this Wednesday morning. A follow-up to a story we just told you about yesterday that President Trump approved the firing squad execution of Nadal Hassan, who was found guilty of the 2019 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.
00:10:32
Speaker 1: The Pentagon has now set his execution date for December 3rd. It's going to take place at Fort Hood. Hassan, who was an army major, killed 13 people, injured another 30, and this will be the military's first execution since 1961.
00:10:48
Speaker 3: All right, continue on the run here now on this Wednesday.
00:10:53
Speaker 2: Yes, it is October 7th, and today marks the three-year anniversary of the Hamas attack that set off that devastating war in Gaza. Israelis mark the occasion today with solemn ceremonies.
00:11:05
Speaker 1: 1,200 people, you may remember, died in those attacks. Tens of thousands have died since, and millions of people have been displaced because of the ensuing war. Today is actually the first anniversary in which all of the 251 people who were taken that day have returned home.
00:11:21
Speaker 3: That's kind of a big deal. It is.
00:11:23
Speaker 2: I didn't realize that. I can't remember the numbers now, but so many of them were brought home Of course, they had been killed, but their bodies were returned. But they say every single person home and accounted for. Well, stay with us on this Wednesday morning run. When we come back, it's the last time we will see Messi in that blue and white. What a scene last night in Argentina, we'll explain. Also, this media merger you've been hearing so much about finally has gone through.
00:11:49
Speaker 3: Also, Robes and.
00:11:50
Speaker 2: I had a hell of an afternoon yesterday listening to to freddie jackson yes the r & b legend has passed away also starbucks do you want to get in on this lawsuit they are being sued with something they put in their drinks that they said was not in there and choosing texas has been knocked out of the top.
00:12:09
Speaker 1: Spot Welcome back, everyone, to your hump day run. Yes, an incredible era has ended. Lionel Messi played his last game for his Argentina national team. It was a crazy scene at the stadium in Buenos Aires last night, and it was a friendly one, yes?
00:12:39
Speaker 3: Yes, it was, and it was a good way for them to set up.
00:12:41
Speaker 2: They were playing Benin, so it wasn't a lot on the line, but everything was on the line for this crowd, 85,000. People in there, all the tickets sold out in 90 minutes, I think they said, when it went on sale. His family was there. Old members from other past national teams were there. It was just a wonderful scene. He did score a goal. He helped set up the other two that they scored. Who won didn't matter. Rose, this is just incredible.
00:13:03
Speaker 3: What a career. All those World Cups.
00:13:06
Speaker 2: We still see one of the fairies they have out there that was decked out in his uniform for the World Cup.
00:13:12
Speaker 3: We still see it every day. It's still out there.
00:13:14
Speaker 1: Lionel passes along the Hudson every day. We can see from our apartment. We wave at him. Next up on the run, one of the largest and possibly most controversial media mergers in history is now complete. And it's jumping through all kinds of legal hurdles and facing an onslaught of pushback. Yes, Skydance has officially taken over Warner Brothers in a deal worth $ 110 billion. We're talking about merging CNN, CBS, HBO Max, Paramount +, DC Studio. We're talking about Harry Potter series, Mission Impossible series. They're all under one roof now.
00:13:55
Speaker 3: What happens now? Is CNN going to get the CBS treatment? A lot of people are thinking and worried about this.
00:14:00
Speaker 1: It's really going to be interesting to see what happens.
00:14:03
Speaker 3: This is crazy. CBS and CNN on the same team.
00:14:05
Speaker 1: Good luck with that.
00:14:07
Speaker 3: Maybe this will be wonderful. Continuing on the run here now. What an afternoon we had. Me, you, and Sabine was here at the time, right? Listening to Freddie Jackson. Yes, the smooth R & B legend. Freddie Jackson has died. At the young age of 70, Robes, his family made the announcement yesterday that he died Monday.
00:14:25
Speaker 2: They didn't give a cause. He did have some health issues he had been open about over the past several years.
00:14:29
Speaker 3: But it is, Robes, isn't this at every wedding? You are my lady?
00:14:33
Speaker 1: I love that song.
00:14:34
Speaker 3: You are my lady. That's him.
00:14:37
Speaker 2: And he has a bunch of other stuff. Just go to Spotify, look him up, and just start listening to his top songs.
00:14:43
Speaker 3: You go, oh, oh, oh. It's just, he's awesome.
00:14:46
Speaker 1: You had it playing last night, and I was like, wow, this is setting the mood. I wasn't going to have a glass of wine. And this is a true story.
00:14:55
Speaker 3: That is true. That's true story.
00:14:56
Speaker 1: I was rarely, in a rare moment, making dinner. And you were working, and I was like, you put it on, and I was like, I have to pour a glass of wine listening to this. It's just impossible not to. There was a gorgeous sunset. It was a beautiful way to set the mood. So yeah, in honor of him. We encourage everyone to do the same this evening.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: I just found out about a statement saying, to everyone who ever sang along, danced, or felt something when Freddie took the stage, thank you. You were family to him, and he carried your love with him always. Man, it sounds like it in this song. It was just 70.
00:15:30
Speaker 3: Damn.
00:15:30
Speaker 1: Way too young.
00:15:32
Speaker 3: But you don't realize, Robes, the impact that people have on your lives. And I'm looking, oh, wow.
00:15:37
Speaker 1: Oh, wow. Oh, wow.
00:15:38
Speaker 3: All these songs were part of an era, at least in my life. It's just these things. No, I don't. I hate to hear the passing, but it gives you an opportunity, Robes, to take a beat. So thank you, Freddie Jackson.
00:15:49
Speaker 1: I agree. Thank you, Freddie Jackson. Well, I think we should do a repeat tonight. All right, next up on the run, Starbucks is being sued over the amount of sugar in its sugar-free drinks. A federal lawsuit is accusing the company of adding as much as a candy bar full of sugar to drinks they advertise as as sugar-free. And in particular, the lawsuit names the hot and iced protein lattes and the protein matcha beverages in vanilla and caramel.
00:16:17
Speaker 3: You have either of those ever? Those aren't your drinks?
00:16:19
Speaker 1: No, because, look, any time... No, they're not my drinks. I'll get into... You can get into the details of what's going on in the lawsuit.
00:16:27
Speaker 2: Okay, so maybe you get this already. I wouldn't have thought this, and maybe some customers didn't get it either. But 13 to 21 grams of sugar. That's more than a dose.
00:16:36
Speaker 3: Fair yes okay that's a lot of sugar the suit was.
00:16:38
Speaker 2: Filed on behalf of three customers new york washington and california where they are the company's denying this and said the nutritional information is there but robes they explain the sugar in a way that now i'm like yeah y'all should be sued they explain it by saying no no we don't we don't add any sugar we don't add anything but We have to add milk to it, and the milk is where the sugar comes from.
00:17:02
Speaker 1: So here's the deal. If you are conscious like we are, so I've been, as much as I can be, carb-free, sugar-free, keto, I know that milk has sugar in it. So if you've ever heard me order a Starbucks, I always say I want half and half because that has the least amount of sugar in it. Anytime you add milk to a drink, a latte has milk, you're adding sugar. So I'm sorry, but if anyone... understands what sugar-free means, you should understand that milk is a sugary drink.
00:17:34
Speaker 3: I have to ask then, is there not something you should put as a substitute? Half and half.
00:17:40
Speaker 1: Okay. Half and half. That's called a brevet latte.
00:17:43
Speaker 3: But you can't have a normal, this type of latte without real milk.
00:17:47
Speaker 1: There's no... Well, you can get soy milk. You can do almond milk. So almond milk doesn't have as much sugar. Half and half doesn't have as much sugar. So that's a choice by the consumer.
00:17:56
Speaker 3: So if you see latte, you're getting milk. See, you know I don't understand this.
00:17:59
Speaker 1: No, they oftentimes ask you what type of milk do you want.
00:18:02
Speaker 3: Okay, and your answer needs to be.
00:18:04
Speaker 1: It should be almond milk or half and half. That has almost no sugar.
00:18:08
Speaker 3: You know I'm fascinated. I don't understand these drinks. If you go up there and order the hot protein latte... They're going to ask you what milk.
00:18:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, what kind of milk do you want?
00:18:17
Speaker 3: So if you say regular, you're the one putting sugar in your own drink. Yes, absolutely. Okay.
00:18:21
Speaker 1: And I understand what they're saying. See, I actually understand. So vanilla and caramel, the shots that they will put into these drinks to make them have flavor, most of them are sweetened. But you can get a sugar-free flavor. Like they have sugar-free vanilla, sugar-free caramel. So that's what they're saying is sugar-free. The flavoring doesn't have sugar in it. They have certain.
00:18:44
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. They should be soothed in. This is too much. If you're saying, I got to think about all these things. Well, I understand. If you're handing me a sugar-free drink, I am a normal customer.
00:18:51
Speaker 1: No, they're saying the vanilla is sugar-free and the caramel is sugar-free.
00:18:54
Speaker 3: They were saying the drinks. The argument is that this is a sugar-free hot protein latte.
00:19:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not going to get into the legality. I don't know, but I've always understood that as a consumer. When I'm going into Starbucks, I know that if they're telling me the flavor shot is sugar-free, that's great. I don't even like the way those things taste.
00:19:14
Speaker 3: They say it's all there.
00:19:15
Speaker 1: But I always get the different type of milk.
00:19:17
Speaker 3: They say it's always there for everybody to see and read.
00:19:20
Speaker 1: And I do that too.
00:19:21
Speaker 3: I would never know.
00:19:22
Speaker 1: I'll Google a drink to see how much sugar. I'm like, oh, no, I'm not doing that.
00:19:26
Speaker 3: I had no idea. I didn't know that if you order a latte, this is going to be a sugary drink, period.
00:19:30
Speaker 1: Milk has sugar.
00:19:31
Speaker 3: But I didn't even know milk was in a latte. You know I don't know these drinks.
00:19:35
Speaker 1: That is like you're on a very low.
00:19:37
Speaker 3: What you call, you start ordering Americanas and cappuccinos. I don't know what this stuff is. A latte?
00:19:42
Speaker 1: Cortado.
00:19:44
Speaker 3: A what?
00:19:44
Speaker 1: All right.
00:19:44
Speaker 3: What did you say?
00:19:46
Speaker 1: It's a cortado.
00:19:47
Speaker 3: That's a Mexican dish, is it not? What?
00:19:50
Speaker 1: A tostada.
00:19:52
Speaker 3: Okay, see what we did?
00:19:53
Speaker 2: This was not the story we were supposed to spend this much time on in the rundown. So finally, on our last leg, this didn't last long, was it? We just told you.
00:20:04
Speaker 3: Ella Langley's Choose in Texas beat out Mariah Carey to be the longest number one song in history on top of the Billboard charts. Yes, she beat Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas. We just talked about that, what, last week? Week before, maybe? Well, Choose in Texas has already had its streak at number one ended.
00:20:22
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:20:22
Speaker 3: Shocker. Right.
00:20:24
Speaker 1: You know, someone just put out some new music.
00:20:26
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:20:26
Speaker 1: Her name is Taylor Swift.
00:20:28
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:20:29
Speaker 2: She's been everywhere. So yeah, Patience Zero knocked this one out of the number one spot. Number three, four, and five are occupied by Taylor Swift songs as well.
00:20:38
Speaker 1: Yes. We took a listen to those as well the other day when that dropped. So I always feel like it takes for me some getting used to and then I usually come around.
00:20:46
Speaker 3: To Taylor Swift songs?
00:20:47
Speaker 1: Yeah. Like at first I'm like, sounds like every other song. And then somehow I end up falling in love with it and it becomes an earworm.
00:20:52
Speaker 3: And my favorite Taylor Swift song is Shake It Off from that movie Sing that's sung by a pig. Shake it off.
00:21:00
Speaker 1: And a cortado, by the way. Cortado.
00:21:01
Speaker 3: It's a cortado.
00:21:04
Speaker 1: And it's a Spanish coffee beverage made with equal parts espresso and lightly steamed milk. But you can order it in Starbucks and everywhere. I do like a Cortado. I just wanted to. It does have Spanish origins.
00:21:16
Speaker 3: Okay. So the Mexican thing.
00:21:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's why I just wanted. I was like, is there a tie too? Yeah. All right. Quote of the day on this Wednesday. Occasionally ask yourself, would this deserve so much of me if I remembered that I am dying?
00:21:33
Speaker 3: Say it again, the first part.
00:21:34
Speaker 1: Occasionally ask yourself, would this still deserve so much of me if I remembered that I am dying? And the point being is we're always focusing on things that actually, if you put your life into perspective, we don't know when our last day is, and we are all one day closer to our deaths. It's just the truth. And so, yes, would I be putting this much of myself into this problem, this issue, if I knew, if I remembered that I'm dying?
00:22:03
Speaker 3: Would I really care how much sugar was in this latte?
00:22:06
Speaker 1: Exactly. Occasionally ask yourself, would this still deserve so much of me if I remembered that I am dying? And with that, everyone, we always appreciate you running with us. I'm Amy Robach.
00:22:19
Speaker 3: And I'm TJ Holmes. We'll run soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, everybody, and welcome to Morning Run. It's Wednesday, October 7th. I'm Amy Robach.
00:00:16
Speaker 2: And I'm TJ Holmes. Got a lot to get to on this Morning Run, including robes. We're just missing off the top. We had another incident with a plane. We've had a lot of incidents, right? Planes on tarmac, weird stuff happening. This time, a plane from Madrid heading to Dallas had to divert to New York robes.
00:00:38
Speaker 3: Haven't heard of this one before. Bathrooms are out.
00:00:43
Speaker 1: I mean, that is an emergency.
00:00:44
Speaker 2: But they had eight, and they were down to two. So if you're on that plane, is my question for you. If they say, hey, we got to either stop for three hours in New York before we fly the extra four hours to Dallas, or can y'all just hold it?
00:01:00
Speaker 3: What would you do?
00:01:02
Speaker 1: Well, if there are two operational ones.
00:01:04
Speaker 3: With 240 people on board. for the next four hours.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Look, here's where my head goes. The moment someone tells me a bathroom isn't available, I have to pee so badly. It's like the worst emergency in my life. So just the suggestion that I can't pee would send me into a total, like, actually anxiety-driven spiral.
00:01:27
Speaker 3: If I told you one of our four were out right now, You would have to pee immediately.
00:01:30
Speaker 1: Yes, immediately. Just suggesting to me that I might not be able to pee would be an emergency.
00:01:36
Speaker 3: This is one I hadn't heard before.
00:01:37
Speaker 2: American Airlines, everything was fine, but they did have to stop in New York for three hours before then going the extra four.
00:01:43
Speaker 3: That's tough. Because of the bathrooms.
00:01:44
Speaker 1: But I understand.
00:01:46
Speaker 3: I would have said, push on. I would have helped. Don't care. No need to use. Stop in New York for three hours.
00:01:53
Speaker 1: But what if you had been drinking a bunch of wine or some vodka sodas?
00:01:57
Speaker 3: Bring me some of those extra empty bottles y'all got up there.
00:01:59
Speaker 1: Oh, my. You're a man.
00:02:01
Speaker 3: I guess women can't do that. All right. Well, good morning to you.
00:02:04
Speaker 2: I'm thinking I might start every morning with a scenario for you just to hear how you'd start off. But wherever you may be, thank you for joining us this morning. We got a number of stops to make in Nashville, Tennessee, Huntsville, Texas, Princeton, New Jersey. going to make a stop in the Gulf Coast, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Also going to swing by the Starbucks line as well as the billboard charts.
00:02:25
Speaker 3: But let's start.
00:02:26
Speaker 2: Here robs every day a new development and every day we are kind of stunned at where we are a week after an execution. The person being executed is still alive.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: And now awake.
00:02:37
Speaker 1: Yes, Krista Pike has regained consciousness. Today marks Exactly one week since Pike's botched execution. And her attorneys say for the very first time she woke up yesterday. She had been on a ventilator. She was unconscious since she was rushed to the hospital after being given what should have been two doses of a lethal injection last week.
00:02:59
Speaker 3: Should have been.
00:03:00
Speaker 2: Yes, her attorneys released a statement saying that Pike is conscious speaking, receiving critical medical care. Yes, the one we just tried to kill. We are trying to keep alive now. They noted that, quote, Despite the severe damage she endured to her arm, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed. Prognosis still unclear, but they say this is going to be a long recovery. They are still asking rogues, and we'll probably hear this again today, but you said they do have a plan. We should hear a lot today on this story, but they are asking the governor to right now commute her sentence.
00:03:30
Speaker 1: That's right, and they're actually going to court to demand transparency, and they want the state to preserve any evidence associated with the botched execution. That hearing's scheduled for 11 a.m. Nashville time. Is that central time?
00:03:46
Speaker 3: If it's 11 there or here?
00:03:47
Speaker 1: Yes, in Nashville.
00:03:48
Speaker 3: Oh, so noon our time.
00:03:50
Speaker 1: Noon our time. And then from there, they'll hold a press conference. So we should be hearing more details today. But in the meantime, next up on the run, Texas is scheduled to carry out an execution there tonight using the exact same method of execution that was used on Krista Pike.
00:04:05
Speaker 2: This is crazy to think that here we are a week later.
00:04:08
Speaker 3: It's happening again.
00:04:09
Speaker 2: Jamal Howard convicted for the 2000... shooting and killing a Vicky Swarthout, a convenience store clerk. His supporters are arguing he should be spared because he has intellectual disabilities. His attorneys are also citing Pike's botched execution in Tennessee, asking for the governor to grant a 30-day reprieve so Texas can look into things and make sure they understand exactly what they're doing, what drugs they're using, and it's on the up and up as best as it can be.
00:04:34
Speaker 1: Yes, and if you're interested in Jamal Howard, his story, and a really poignant moment that his spiritual advisor had with him about the Krista Pike debacle, please, it's the episode before this one. Take a listen. But in the meantime, next up on the run, there was another horrific tragedy involving a father killing his family and then himself this time. And we say this time because we saw a string of this over the summer. This time it happened in an upscale community near Princeton, New Jersey.
00:05:06
Speaker 2: Prosecutors announced three bodies were discovered in a suburban home Friday. They say 61-year-old David Grodnick shot and killed both his.
00:05:15
Speaker 3: 62.
00:05:16
Speaker 1: Sorry, I said that wrong.
00:05:17
Speaker 3: Whoa, whoa, whoa.
00:05:18
Speaker 1: It's 62. She's 62.
00:05:19
Speaker 3: All right, so he's 61, she's 52. There you go.
00:05:22
Speaker 2: 61-year-old David Grodnick is his name, shot and killed his 62-year-old wife, Laura, and their 24-year-old daughter, Sloane, then killed himself. Grodnick worked as a senior vice president with Land Services USA. That's an insurance company based in Philadelphia. Both he and his wife were members of multiple exclusive country clubs. Not that that's supposed to make a difference, but you look at these neighborhoods in Rome, a lot of places where these are happening are upstanding, job-carrying, professional clubs.
00:05:50
Speaker 1: People. Yeah, they had a $ 2 million home and their daughter Sloan was a graduate of the Hun School in this area. That's a very well-known exclusive private boarding school in Princeton, New Jersey. And she was about to complete her master's degree at the Rhode Island School of Design. I mean, this just sends chills up and down your body.
00:06:10
Speaker 3: Why, why, why?
00:06:11
Speaker 1: And that's the question no one has an answer to right now. There is no known motive. The investigation continues. Montgomery Township, where the couple, where the family lived, it's about 40 miles southwest of Newark Airport, just to give folks an idea of where this is, but just an unbelievable tragedy.
00:06:27
Speaker 3: All right, continuing on the run, Robes returned to something that's just a shame, the mess between Dolly Parton's estate and her nephew.
00:06:36
Speaker 2: That mess seems to be getting messier. The nephew, Brian Seaver, the estate now claims he has put up Robes' barbed wire caution tape around his home in order to avoid being served with court papers. All right.
00:06:49
Speaker 1: Seaver, who is Parton's nephew and her longtime head of security and the one who made that announcement to the world of her death. Yeah. Remember him? He was fired weeks after Parton died by her own estate. The estate also filed a restraining order claiming that Seaver threatened members of the estate as well as threatened to destroy Parton's legacy, all reportedly in demands for money.
00:07:15
Speaker 2: So now there have been new court filings by the estate, and it comes with photo evidence. It shows reportedly that Seaver has put up a no trespassing sign, put up caution tape, barbed wire around the front door. They say robes the railing. You can't even get through because it's blocked. And no matter what, that's intimidating, quite frankly. No one's going to go past that. They claim this is all an attempt to keep them from serving him with a lawsuit from the estate. Don't know where that thing is going, but it's not going the right direction.
00:07:42
Speaker 1: Absolutely not. All right, next up on the run, expect to see more storm watches and warnings to begin today as forecasters closely monitor a tropical storm that has formed in the Gulf.
00:07:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, system is expected to quickly strengthen to a hurricane, possibly target the Gulf Coast of the U.S. At this point, a number of landfall scenarios are on the table, but as of this recording, Robes, the best guess, It's going to make landfall somewhere between New Orleans and Destin on Friday. That's a big range of area right there. It's targeting the entire Gulf Coast almost. Supposed to hit Hurricane 2 strength. Possibly, yes, when it makes landfall. This is a serious storm, and it's starting to give us a better idea. of what we might eat up against here, but close eye on that one.
00:08:25
Speaker 1: Look, and we, this is the first, it'll, if it it's expected to become a named storm, obviously Isaiah's, I believe is the name, but this is the first one that's actually going to threaten us, the U S mainland. And that's pretty remarkable. We're in October at hurricane seasons over in less than a month. Yeah. And this is the first storm threatening the mainland.
00:08:47
Speaker 2: That's what we've been dealing with in hurricanes for the past couple of weeks. We had Rachel. We were traveling.
00:08:51
Speaker 1: We were on the Pacific side of things, right?
00:08:53
Speaker 3: Rachel and who was the other one before that?
00:08:54
Speaker 1: Rachel and Polo.
00:08:55
Speaker 3: Was it Polo?
00:08:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had some doozies. But, yes, that was not in the United States. All right, next up on the run, three of Nolan Wells' friends are suing an NFL Hall of Famer for defamation, and they say more lawsuits are to come. The suit was filed against Terrell Owens, the former tight end for the Cowboys and the Eagles.
00:09:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, this lawsuit alleges that the three were defamed, in particular by a social media post in which Owens posted this. It said, quote, arrest them immediately. Now, this was in response to another post that flat out accused the three of killing Wells and Rose. I looked at the lawsuit this morning. The post had these three boys' pictures, plain as day, and their names on it.
00:09:38
Speaker 1: Oof. Now, the... 18-year-old black college student Nolan Wells, you'll remember, was found dead two days after that boating trip with friends to celebrate the Fourth of July. The medical examiner could not determine a cause of death, and a grand jury did not refuse to bring charges, saying it's most likely that Wells died by drowning. Now, the lawyers for Wells' friends say we can expect more lawsuits. against Reverend Al Sharpton and The View's Sonny Hostin.
00:10:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, they rogues now that the grand jury certainly has. I mean, that post there that they say that came up from Terrell Owens came out after the grand jury.
00:10:14
Speaker 3: Said nobody's facing criminal charges.
00:10:16
Speaker 1: Oh. Yeah. Oh, that's tough.
00:10:18
Speaker 2: We continue on the run here on this Wednesday morning. A follow-up to a story we just told you about yesterday that President Trump approved the firing squad execution of Nadal Hassan, who was found guilty of the 2019 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.
00:10:32
Speaker 1: The Pentagon has now set his execution date for December 3rd. It's going to take place at Fort Hood. Hassan, who was an army major, killed 13 people, injured another 30, and this will be the military's first execution since 1961.
00:10:48
Speaker 3: All right, continue on the run here now on this Wednesday.
00:10:53
Speaker 2: Yes, it is October 7th, and today marks the three-year anniversary of the Hamas attack that set off that devastating war in Gaza. Israelis mark the occasion today with solemn ceremonies.
00:11:05
Speaker 1: 1,200 people, you may remember, died in those attacks. Tens of thousands have died since, and millions of people have been displaced because of the ensuing war. Today is actually the first anniversary in which all of the 251 people who were taken that day have returned home.
00:11:21
Speaker 3: That's kind of a big deal. It is.
00:11:23
Speaker 2: I didn't realize that. I can't remember the numbers now, but so many of them were brought home Of course, they had been killed, but their bodies were returned. But they say every single person home and accounted for. Well, stay with us on this Wednesday morning run. When we come back, it's the last time we will see Messi in that blue and white. What a scene last night in Argentina, we'll explain. Also, this media merger you've been hearing so much about finally has gone through.
00:11:49
Speaker 3: Also, Robes and.
00:11:50
Speaker 2: I had a hell of an afternoon yesterday listening to to freddie jackson yes the r & b legend has passed away also starbucks do you want to get in on this lawsuit they are being sued with something they put in their drinks that they said was not in there and choosing texas has been knocked out of the top.
00:12:09
Speaker 1: Spot Welcome back, everyone, to your hump day run. Yes, an incredible era has ended. Lionel Messi played his last game for his Argentina national team. It was a crazy scene at the stadium in Buenos Aires last night, and it was a friendly one, yes?
00:12:39
Speaker 3: Yes, it was, and it was a good way for them to set up.
00:12:41
Speaker 2: They were playing Benin, so it wasn't a lot on the line, but everything was on the line for this crowd, 85,000. People in there, all the tickets sold out in 90 minutes, I think they said, when it went on sale. His family was there. Old members from other past national teams were there. It was just a wonderful scene. He did score a goal. He helped set up the other two that they scored. Who won didn't matter. Rose, this is just incredible.
00:13:03
Speaker 3: What a career. All those World Cups.
00:13:06
Speaker 2: We still see one of the fairies they have out there that was decked out in his uniform for the World Cup.
00:13:12
Speaker 3: We still see it every day. It's still out there.
00:13:14
Speaker 1: Lionel passes along the Hudson every day. We can see from our apartment. We wave at him. Next up on the run, one of the largest and possibly most controversial media mergers in history is now complete. And it's jumping through all kinds of legal hurdles and facing an onslaught of pushback. Yes, Skydance has officially taken over Warner Brothers in a deal worth $ 110 billion. We're talking about merging CNN, CBS, HBO Max, Paramount +, DC Studio. We're talking about Harry Potter series, Mission Impossible series. They're all under one roof now.
00:13:55
Speaker 3: What happens now? Is CNN going to get the CBS treatment? A lot of people are thinking and worried about this.
00:14:00
Speaker 1: It's really going to be interesting to see what happens.
00:14:03
Speaker 3: This is crazy. CBS and CNN on the same team.
00:14:05
Speaker 1: Good luck with that.
00:14:07
Speaker 3: Maybe this will be wonderful. Continuing on the run here now. What an afternoon we had. Me, you, and Sabine was here at the time, right? Listening to Freddie Jackson. Yes, the smooth R & B legend. Freddie Jackson has died. At the young age of 70, Robes, his family made the announcement yesterday that he died Monday.
00:14:25
Speaker 2: They didn't give a cause. He did have some health issues he had been open about over the past several years.
00:14:29
Speaker 3: But it is, Robes, isn't this at every wedding? You are my lady?
00:14:33
Speaker 1: I love that song.
00:14:34
Speaker 3: You are my lady. That's him.
00:14:37
Speaker 2: And he has a bunch of other stuff. Just go to Spotify, look him up, and just start listening to his top songs.
00:14:43
Speaker 3: You go, oh, oh, oh. It's just, he's awesome.
00:14:46
Speaker 1: You had it playing last night, and I was like, wow, this is setting the mood. I wasn't going to have a glass of wine. And this is a true story.
00:14:55
Speaker 3: That is true. That's true story.
00:14:56
Speaker 1: I was rarely, in a rare moment, making dinner. And you were working, and I was like, you put it on, and I was like, I have to pour a glass of wine listening to this. It's just impossible not to. There was a gorgeous sunset. It was a beautiful way to set the mood. So yeah, in honor of him. We encourage everyone to do the same this evening.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: I just found out about a statement saying, to everyone who ever sang along, danced, or felt something when Freddie took the stage, thank you. You were family to him, and he carried your love with him always. Man, it sounds like it in this song. It was just 70.
00:15:30
Speaker 3: Damn.
00:15:30
Speaker 1: Way too young.
00:15:32
Speaker 3: But you don't realize, Robes, the impact that people have on your lives. And I'm looking, oh, wow.
00:15:37
Speaker 1: Oh, wow. Oh, wow.
00:15:38
Speaker 3: All these songs were part of an era, at least in my life. It's just these things. No, I don't. I hate to hear the passing, but it gives you an opportunity, Robes, to take a beat. So thank you, Freddie Jackson.
00:15:49
Speaker 1: I agree. Thank you, Freddie Jackson. Well, I think we should do a repeat tonight. All right, next up on the run, Starbucks is being sued over the amount of sugar in its sugar-free drinks. A federal lawsuit is accusing the company of adding as much as a candy bar full of sugar to drinks they advertise as as sugar-free. And in particular, the lawsuit names the hot and iced protein lattes and the protein matcha beverages in vanilla and caramel.
00:16:17
Speaker 3: You have either of those ever? Those aren't your drinks?
00:16:19
Speaker 1: No, because, look, any time... No, they're not my drinks. I'll get into... You can get into the details of what's going on in the lawsuit.
00:16:27
Speaker 2: Okay, so maybe you get this already. I wouldn't have thought this, and maybe some customers didn't get it either. But 13 to 21 grams of sugar. That's more than a dose.
00:16:36
Speaker 3: Fair yes okay that's a lot of sugar the suit was.
00:16:38
Speaker 2: Filed on behalf of three customers new york washington and california where they are the company's denying this and said the nutritional information is there but robes they explain the sugar in a way that now i'm like yeah y'all should be sued they explain it by saying no no we don't we don't add any sugar we don't add anything but We have to add milk to it, and the milk is where the sugar comes from.
00:17:02
Speaker 1: So here's the deal. If you are conscious like we are, so I've been, as much as I can be, carb-free, sugar-free, keto, I know that milk has sugar in it. So if you've ever heard me order a Starbucks, I always say I want half and half because that has the least amount of sugar in it. Anytime you add milk to a drink, a latte has milk, you're adding sugar. So I'm sorry, but if anyone... understands what sugar-free means, you should understand that milk is a sugary drink.
00:17:34
Speaker 3: I have to ask then, is there not something you should put as a substitute? Half and half.
00:17:40
Speaker 1: Okay. Half and half. That's called a brevet latte.
00:17:43
Speaker 3: But you can't have a normal, this type of latte without real milk.
00:17:47
Speaker 1: There's no... Well, you can get soy milk. You can do almond milk. So almond milk doesn't have as much sugar. Half and half doesn't have as much sugar. So that's a choice by the consumer.
00:17:56
Speaker 3: So if you see latte, you're getting milk. See, you know I don't understand this.
00:17:59
Speaker 1: No, they oftentimes ask you what type of milk do you want.
00:18:02
Speaker 3: Okay, and your answer needs to be.
00:18:04
Speaker 1: It should be almond milk or half and half. That has almost no sugar.
00:18:08
Speaker 3: You know I'm fascinated. I don't understand these drinks. If you go up there and order the hot protein latte... They're going to ask you what milk.
00:18:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, what kind of milk do you want?
00:18:17
Speaker 3: So if you say regular, you're the one putting sugar in your own drink. Yes, absolutely. Okay.
00:18:21
Speaker 1: And I understand what they're saying. See, I actually understand. So vanilla and caramel, the shots that they will put into these drinks to make them have flavor, most of them are sweetened. But you can get a sugar-free flavor. Like they have sugar-free vanilla, sugar-free caramel. So that's what they're saying is sugar-free. The flavoring doesn't have sugar in it. They have certain.
00:18:44
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. They should be soothed in. This is too much. If you're saying, I got to think about all these things. Well, I understand. If you're handing me a sugar-free drink, I am a normal customer.
00:18:51
Speaker 1: No, they're saying the vanilla is sugar-free and the caramel is sugar-free.
00:18:54
Speaker 3: They were saying the drinks. The argument is that this is a sugar-free hot protein latte.
00:19:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not going to get into the legality. I don't know, but I've always understood that as a consumer. When I'm going into Starbucks, I know that if they're telling me the flavor shot is sugar-free, that's great. I don't even like the way those things taste.
00:19:14
Speaker 3: They say it's all there.
00:19:15
Speaker 1: But I always get the different type of milk.
00:19:17
Speaker 3: They say it's always there for everybody to see and read.
00:19:20
Speaker 1: And I do that too.
00:19:21
Speaker 3: I would never know.
00:19:22
Speaker 1: I'll Google a drink to see how much sugar. I'm like, oh, no, I'm not doing that.
00:19:26
Speaker 3: I had no idea. I didn't know that if you order a latte, this is going to be a sugary drink, period.
00:19:30
Speaker 1: Milk has sugar.
00:19:31
Speaker 3: But I didn't even know milk was in a latte. You know I don't know these drinks.
00:19:35
Speaker 1: That is like you're on a very low.
00:19:37
Speaker 3: What you call, you start ordering Americanas and cappuccinos. I don't know what this stuff is. A latte?
00:19:42
Speaker 1: Cortado.
00:19:44
Speaker 3: A what?
00:19:44
Speaker 1: All right.
00:19:44
Speaker 3: What did you say?
00:19:46
Speaker 1: It's a cortado.
00:19:47
Speaker 3: That's a Mexican dish, is it not? What?
00:19:50
Speaker 1: A tostada.
00:19:52
Speaker 3: Okay, see what we did?
00:19:53
Speaker 2: This was not the story we were supposed to spend this much time on in the rundown. So finally, on our last leg, this didn't last long, was it? We just told you.
00:20:04
Speaker 3: Ella Langley's Choose in Texas beat out Mariah Carey to be the longest number one song in history on top of the Billboard charts. Yes, she beat Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas. We just talked about that, what, last week? Week before, maybe? Well, Choose in Texas has already had its streak at number one ended.
00:20:22
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:20:22
Speaker 3: Shocker. Right.
00:20:24
Speaker 1: You know, someone just put out some new music.
00:20:26
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:20:26
Speaker 1: Her name is Taylor Swift.
00:20:28
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:20:29
Speaker 2: She's been everywhere. So yeah, Patience Zero knocked this one out of the number one spot. Number three, four, and five are occupied by Taylor Swift songs as well.
00:20:38
Speaker 1: Yes. We took a listen to those as well the other day when that dropped. So I always feel like it takes for me some getting used to and then I usually come around.
00:20:46
Speaker 3: To Taylor Swift songs?
00:20:47
Speaker 1: Yeah. Like at first I'm like, sounds like every other song. And then somehow I end up falling in love with it and it becomes an earworm.
00:20:52
Speaker 3: And my favorite Taylor Swift song is Shake It Off from that movie Sing that's sung by a pig. Shake it off.
00:21:00
Speaker 1: And a cortado, by the way. Cortado.
00:21:01
Speaker 3: It's a cortado.
00:21:04
Speaker 1: And it's a Spanish coffee beverage made with equal parts espresso and lightly steamed milk. But you can order it in Starbucks and everywhere. I do like a Cortado. I just wanted to. It does have Spanish origins.
00:21:16
Speaker 3: Okay. So the Mexican thing.
00:21:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's why I just wanted. I was like, is there a tie too? Yeah. All right. Quote of the day on this Wednesday. Occasionally ask yourself, would this deserve so much of me if I remembered that I am dying?
00:21:33
Speaker 3: Say it again, the first part.
00:21:34
Speaker 1: Occasionally ask yourself, would this still deserve so much of me if I remembered that I am dying? And the point being is we're always focusing on things that actually, if you put your life into perspective, we don't know when our last day is, and we are all one day closer to our deaths. It's just the truth. And so, yes, would I be putting this much of myself into this problem, this issue, if I knew, if I remembered that I'm dying?
00:22:03
Speaker 3: Would I really care how much sugar was in this latte?
00:22:06
Speaker 1: Exactly. Occasionally ask yourself, would this still deserve so much of me if I remembered that I am dying? And with that, everyone, we always appreciate you running with us. I'm Amy Robach.
00:22:19
Speaker 3: And I'm TJ Holmes. We'll run soon.