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Thank you for joining us during this, the annual St.

Louis Humidity Festival.

Lots to talk about on Donnybrook this week, but first, let's meet the panelists, starting with the media veteran herself, Wendy Weiss.

From the Post-Dispatch, he's Bill McClellan.

From the 314 Podcast, the Daily Newsletter and St.

Louis Magazine, Sarah Fenske.

And from the St.

Louis American, Alvin Reid.

Well, Wendy, we're going to start with you.

The elections were not last Tuesday, but the Tuesday before.

And afterward, Steve Ellman, the candidate for county executive who won his primary in St.

Charles County, the incumbent, said that he would like to see some sort of regulation in Missouri, kind of like how they do it in Texas and Maryland, where they regulate the use of artificial intelligence on these political ads.

In his case, one of his opponents, Jason Law, created this fictional display that looked very real of him arguing with another opponent, Bill Igle, about property taxes.

It was completely phony and made up, but it looked very real.

And I was thinking to myself, shoot, I wouldn't have known that this was fake if someone didn't tell me.

Do you think that AI should be regulated?

And political speech.

I think that AI should be regulated and should have been regulated from the outset in much the same way that the interwebs, you know, the Internet is still the Wild West.

It is very, I mean, very little regulation there.

It's like nailing jello to a wall.

It's like mercury in your hand.

And I felt immediately when Steve Ellman, you know, when I read this story, that I just thought he was, like me, kind of a dinosaur.

You know, it's like this has been around for a while, and I think if you move to make politics, you know, your focus, if I am one of the businesses that have been, you know, victimized by AI, I'm going to be upset about that.

Well, I was going to say that if you want to protect politicians, well, what about the general public?

That's what I'm saying, yeah.

Because there are, there's several that I've viewed right away.

I think one local banking, not me, not local, but they have local outlets.

I think they use, like, fake people on their commercials.

And so I don't know that you could say, like, you can't use it for political ads, but you could use it for every other kind of ad.

That's exactly my point.

But I think there is good reason to do it for political ads and not do it for everything else.

I mean, this is like democracy.

Like, we all have more stake in getting political ads right.

And we do regulate political ads in the way that normal ads aren't regulated.

If you're a lawyer and you want to put your ad out there, you can do that on TV.

But if you're a politician or even a political action committee that is supporting that politician, you have to follow certain rules.

You have to disclose the money, all this kind of stuff.

There's no reason that you shouldn't have to also disclose AI use.

And if they catch you not doing it, then you could be subject to a very large fine.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I don't even think it's a question, because people like me are very easily fooled with this.

Everybody is.

Everybody is.

I was on the Internet, and there was something about Bill Gates has this new honey -based thing that can stop Alzheimer's.

And I started watching, and I thought, I'm going to get some of this.

And then all of a sudden, it went a little overboard, you know.

I mean, it was the real Bill Gates talking.

And he said, but you have to do this now.

And I thought, well, that doesn't sound like Bill Gates.

And the idea that, you know, and I Googled it, and it wasn't Bill Gates, fortunately, before I bought a bunch of it.

Right.

Bill Gates could be.

And the idea that politicians can use this against each other like Jason Law did, I thought that was awful.

I agree.

And, you know, it's not just the AI.

In a circular that Gina Mitton, the successful candidate for state senate, sent out, she had Steve Butts wearing a red hat, which looked like a MAGA hat, right?

And so I called Steve today, and I said, were you actually wearing that hat?

And he said, no, that was Photoshop or something.

And I think that's deceptive.

I mean, run on the issues.

Right.

Don't paint your opponent doing something silly, illegal, or unethical.

Alvin, help me here.

This is every single day, and it's impacting people from all walks of life.

I don't think we need to just concentrate on politics.

And I understand what you're saying about democracy being in the balance.

But I think we have to protect everybody.

It's easier, though, to do it for politics.

Why?

Just say, like, you cannot, if you're running against somebody, you cannot have a fake ad where that person is saying something that they never said.

But I can sell you a fly-by -night product using this same technology.

Exactly.

I don't think so.

There is truth in advertising.

There are laws regarding ads.

Well, the people who do this thing on Bill Gates, they should be arrested.

Yeah, I mean, so many of these digital ads are sort of, you know, they pop up here, and you get them struck off Facebook, and they pop up in a different way.

Like, it is really hard to do that.

But again, I think these political ads are different.

I think this is something where meaningful regulation would work.

You're saying that this commercial was produced with AI.

Yeah.

But I don't think you could say that you cannot use AI in a commercial.

No, sure.

I get that.

I think you should.

I mean, like, what Jason Law did was wrong.

What Mitton did was wrong.

What's the difference between what Jason Law did and what Jake Zimmerman did?

Good point.

Well, I thought Jake Zimmerman ran a nasty smear campaign.

But you can't stop people from doing that.

But you can say you can't put up an illusionary thing where you have your opponent saying something, and people can watch and go, wow.

And then it turns out, well, that's really.

I think you should have it labeled that this is an AI-generated commercial.

Right.

That's what I think it's about.

Disclosure.

Disclosure.

Speaking of can and can't, Sarah Fenske, let me ask you about the Missouri license plate program.

Back in 2023, the state of Missouri's General Assembly voted and passed a law that said that we were going to revise the way that people get their license plates.

Right now, you buy a car from a dealer, they give you a temporary tag, and then you've got to pay the sales tax whenever you get around to it, preferably within 30 days.

But a lot of people don't do that.

Well, the state found out that about, I don't know, thousands of people were not paying their sales tax.

The state was losing $26 million a year.

So now the new rule, which is not that new, really.

I mean, lots of states do this.

You buy the car at the dealer, and you get a plate, and you pay the sales tax there.

You can even work it into your car payment.

Pretty simple, but the state of Missouri can't figure it out.

So the law, which was supposed to start last month, won't start until sometime in 2027.

And we also find out that the state might be running out of metal plates in those little year tabs.

They don't have enough of those.

So it's kind of a quagmire right now.

Can the state of Missouri get anything right?

I think the state of Missouri cannot get anything right.

Thank you for asking, Charlie.

No, it's crazy to me.

Like, I have lived in, I think, five other states before I moved here.

Never was this a problem.

And as a result, never was it a problem to have people with long-expired temp tags driving around, crashing into your car, and not having insurance.

Like, we've created such a mess here.

And it was shocking reading this story in the Post-Dispatch about the problems they've had with implementation.

They're saying, well, part of the problem is we're going to try to switch to, like, seven-character license plates, like, next year.

It's like, why are we trying to do this switch at the same time that we need to be ironing out this problem?

And we've let this problem get to such an extent that it's like, oh, we're running short on license plates because so many people don't have them.

It's just ridiculous.

But I thought that the argument was that they're trying to be careful with taxpayer funding.

And I do understand that.

They're trying.

They don't know exactly how many to order.

I know that that sounds like a very lame explanation.

Very lame.

It's so lame, Wendy.

It's extremely lame.

But they're just trying to be good stewards of the taxpayer money.

Well, thanks, guys, for your incompetence and good intentions.

Like, I'm just underwhelmed here.

But the people who are running out of the license plates aren't the ones who are responsible for the low inflation.

Two things.

One, I still think this goes back to like highest bidder got the license plate, you know, not dealership or whatever.

If I'm friends of the end party in politics, I get one because I basically pay for it by, you know, donations and all that.

So, I think it starts there.

Two, what's interesting.

You know why we want to go to the seven instead of six?

It's easier to have a personalized plate and people pay more for those.

That will generate more money.

Why do we have two license plates in Missouri when most states just have one?

That would alleviate 50% of the problem right there.

But that would take like five years to implement because we're a bunch of idiots.

That's what I was just going to say.

And they couldn't figure that out.

And apparently, it's the digital access that makes all the difference in the world.

Between your home state of Ohio and Pennsylvania, South Carolina, they have found out a way to make it all, you know, you enter the digital portal and you can take care of all six transactions at one time.

When we moved to Michigan, and this is the truth, and this would have been in the late 80s, we got our driver's license, license plates registered to vote.

Exactly.

It took like ten minutes.

If you buy a new car and you have to, when you go to the license office, you have to pay like $3,500.

What?

Whereas if it's in a note that's a 60-month or 48-month, you don't even notice it.

I mean, I don't know how we started doing this in Missouri, but it makes no sense.

Well, you know, what happened was the sales tax kept creeping up, up, up, up, and now it can be 10% in some municipalities.

And it does make a big deal.

When it was 5%, maybe you could have paid it at the dealership.

And the average price of a new car is now $50,000.

So that's a lot.

Yeah.

No, no.

If you have what is called a luxury car, you do kind of have to pay.

I had to cough up a little bit of money.

Alvin, I want to ask you about another program that doesn't seem to be working.

It's a program to repair homes in St.

Louis City after the May 16th tornado last year.

Now, they have 2,000 homes that are waiting for these repair funds, which come from ARPA money, federal money, as well as the RAMS settlement money.

2,000 homes.

And they've identified 200 that are priority, right?

Those are the homes where seniors live and children.

They want to get those first.

Of those 200, of those 2,000, they have repaired 34 in total.

In fact, three since February.

At this rate, I calculate it will take 166 years to repair the 2,000 homes.

Now, we're supposed to not laugh at the tornado situation.

So I'm not laughing.

I'm not laughing at the tornado situation.

But that's kind of folly that you've only taken care of 13.

I think it's like many other projects, not just in St.

Louis, but all over, that if your heart really isn't in it, if there really isn't a champion of a cause, then it flounders.

And I think that's what's going on.

I don't think the region is really all that into saving these homes.

And I think that's why it's taking so long.

And it's just like really a half-hearted effort.

Do you know how long it took the 9th Ward?

Do you know how long it took them to recover completely from Katrina?

They would probably tell you they still have it.

They are not recovered.

They're not anywhere close to being recovered.

That happened in 2005, that Katrina.

I think some of the infrastructure mechanics did not start getting into place until 2014.

So this is going to be a very long road.

It is an absolute, it's a human calamity when you read about these people who are trying to do the repairs themselves.

And they are not, I mean, they're not capable of doing the repairs themselves.

They're doing the very best they can.

But I think they need to just, I think articles like this and stories like this are just their way of not telling us this is going to be a very long haul.

I think there were two things.

I think, you know, FEMA really doesn't exist anymore.

Right.

And the second thing is there was that initial burst of solidarity among the people of the region.

And then the mayor announced that we're going to have a 35-person committee.

Look at this.

And I'm sorry, but I don't think that it can work that way.

I think it's FEMA.

I think the federal government, it's the federal emergency management agency.

It's not the local emergency management agency.

You need one organization in the country that is expert at disasters, the masters of disaster.

You can't expect the mayors like Kara Spencer or whoever the mayor was from New Orleans.

And by the way, Channel 9 had a very good special on how poorly New Orleans has recovered.

So I blame the senators who are doing nothing.

Yeah, I'm with you on that.

And I think, you know, even for people who have private homes and people who are of means, that recovery has not yet happened in many cases.

It is a huge pain in the neck.

Also, for people who live in condos, it's been a huge pain in the neck.

So you have to coordinate between all these different insurance companies.

The insurance companies are saying no to so much more than they used to because their bottom line is in trouble.

Like, it has become a complete cluster.

And the idea that a city that hasn't been able to do a good job of filling potholes for the last couple decades is suddenly going to be able to fix private property, that was a pipe dream.

Yes and no, Sarah, because we did a great job the last 30 years renovating and repairing Forest Park.

It can be done.

But that's a private nonprofit that does a terrific job.

Private and public working together.

People don't inhabit Forest Park, Charlie.

Let me give you another example.

In October, I was in Hiroshima.

You cannot find a city that was more devastated.

But you can't find a city that's more modern and populated today.

It's a beautiful, modern city.

How was that a year after the bomb dropped?

Well, I'm telling you what, today it's looking great.

Well, give us 60 years.

Didn't we help rebuild?

Yes, we did.

We helped build Hiroshima.

Let's build North St.

Louis.

But with the Marshall Plan, we went right in there.

We didn't wait 10 years.

I feel like America can't do this anymore.

I don't believe that America could do what it did in Japan and in Germany back in the day.

We don't have the will.

We don't have the ability.

We rebuild Europe.

My fear is that like in a very similar way, what has happened to New Orleans, they just sort of wait people out.

And the Lower Ninth has, what, 20% of the population?

And I think that's what's going on there.

You're right.

Two different entities.

But in this region, for its part, tornado victims.

For its part, winds.

I'm sorry.

I mean, that's the reality.

That's just where we live.

Bill, I want to ask you.

I was talking about one of our senators, Eric Schmidt, the junior senator.

This past week, the New York Times reported that he has been working hard in Washington, D.C.

He got a resolution passed that will reverse a game between Kansas and Mizzou in 1960, where apparently Kansas used a running back named Herb Cohn, who was ineligible and received money outside of NCAA regulations.

So this week, Eric Schmidt got that ruling reversed, which could give Mizzou the 1960 football championship.

How about them apples?

Well, I have a prop here, Charlie.

Because I knew you were going to ask that.

Hold it up for the camera, just in case it didn't zero in.

It says, I don't care.

Right.

And I really don't.

And I'm not down on Senator Schmidt too much for this, because it isn't like he had to spend weeks and weeks researching and working hard on asking the Senate to declare Missouri a co-national champion.

I mean, that was ten minutes worth of work.

I mean, you can criticize him for not doing enough on the tornado, but to try to suggest that he's spending too much time on the 1960 football season is a bit of a stretch.

I think I will stand by my view.

I'm sure you will.

I'm going to agree with Charlie for once.

Call Ripley for the next edition of Believe It or Not.

She's agreeing.

There we are.

I mean, it feels like if that's what you're going to use your bully pulpit for, that's what you're going to put your energy into.

Like, we have so many problems in Missouri right now.

Like, maybe he could try to put his energy into fixing it.

I don't think he's trying to use his bully pulpit.

He's just trying to get on Fox TV.

Well, sure.

And you hold up a sign that says, I don't care.

And when your ambition is to be the vice president, it makes sense.

I wasn't even born yet.

And I'm like you in terms of whether or not this actually, you know, is a big deal to people.

OK.

I'm not going to sleep any better tonight.

But I don't begrudge him.

That is the art and act of politics.

He will receive, sorry, he will receive attaboys at, you know, Masonic lodges for the next 20 years.

You're right.

Abe Lincoln and Harry Truman and FDR, they did all that kind of stuff.

Right, right, yeah.

I was born.

I was two and a half months old.

And I went to KU.

And I worked for the football team when I was there.

And I love it.

I'm on a board there.

This is just stupid.

This is a waste of the people's time.

And it's just.

And you know who hasn't commented?

The University of Missouri.

Because they say like, let's not.

Why are we even going down this path?

He's just trying to, you know, Dan Devine.

The people that he's playing to have to be up there.

Now granted, he is from this state and represents the people of this state.

That's right.

The people who got the loudest mouths about whatever state university is did not go to that university.

I've learned that over the years.

And I don't think anybody really cares whether Missouri was a co-national champion in 1960.

This is strictly the gut on Fox.

I don't think we can say that.

How is that the excuse?

That's the condemnation right there.

What about the other school?

Has anybody asked them?

I forgot who it was.

It was Kansas.

No, no, no.

Who won the national championship there?

There were like five of them.

So ask them what they think.

I thought the Golden Goers.

Let's get a 35-person committee.

Okay.

I do know that there was a senator from North Carolina whose name escapes me.

I should have this at the tip of my tongue, who blasted Trump for not doing enough for Asheville, North Carolina.

I'd love to see one of our Republican senators, you know, stand up on a soapbox and say, come on, Washington.

This is the time we stand up for people who through no fault of their own are homeless.

I would tend to agree.

All right.

Bill, I want to ask you about a guy whose name I don't even know if I should say because I feel he's gotten so much bad publicity.

But let's just call him Zach.

Zach was golfing at Wing Haven in a tournament.

And in this tournament, you could win about $6,000 if you hit a hole in one.

So he concocted a scheme knowing that he'd be at a certain par three first with his foursome.

He put his golf ball in the hole early in the morning.

And then when it got time for him and the others to approach that hole, he said, oh, I got to call my grandmother.

Who's dying.

Who's dying.

So I got to play ahead.

He went ahead and surveillance cameras caught him putting his ball in the hole.

He declared it a hole in one.

OK.

So now newspapers all over from Australia to New York City are blasting this guy for cheating.

And I kind of feel sorry for him right now.

What do you think?

Who hasn't done that, Charlie?

I think it's crazy.

I'm not a golfer.

But, you know, I know that there's a lot of cheating that goes on on a real minor level.

You know, I mean, people move their ball a little bit to get a better swing at it.

But to do something like this, it's so premeditated to get up early and sneak out on the course and put that.

I mean, I think poor Zach deserves all the scorn he's getting.

I don't feel sympathy.

It's just it's odd.

You know, other sports, you get a little bit of an advantage.

I eat a little bit of whatever.

People say like, hey, you ain't cheating.

You ain't competing.

You can't cheat at golf.

And I'm kind of like with you.

Like you brought this on yourself, sir.

Now, he's married.

Got a family and was a was a member of Wing Haven.

Not anymore.

Not anymore.

What are you doing?

I think this is indicative of society today, as a matter of fact.

And I think that this is kind of, you know, blame Washington, D.C.

But it's kind of like anything goes.

It's kind of a Machiavellian kind of attitude floating around.

And I think he caught up with this guy.

Go ahead.

I was going to say, I think with this national press coverage, as much as it's total overkill, everybody's just looking for the viral story because everybody wants to see a cheater get caught.

Hopefully it presents a cautionary tale where the next Zach is like, yeah, I'm not going to pretend.

I'm not going to whip out my dying grandmother in order to cheat.

That's what I thought.

That's what really made it's like, oh, yeah, this guy is going to go as low as he possibly can.

I mean, I thought it would have been bad enough if, oh, there's something wrong with my dog.

He he dragged his grandmother into it, said she was ill.

But I don't think I don't think we should.

You don't mock other people's.

You know, golf is important to some people, Charlie.

I mean, it really it really is.

And if you look at the the viewing audience numbers for the Masters, the British Open.

Yes, I'm married to one.

And so and I wake up at five o'clock in the morning to watch the British Open.

This is something that even not Chris did.

But there is that sense of something like standards.

And that's why the whole PGA Live thing was.

This goes beyond golf.

This is a character.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, he probably used his poor grandmother over and over.

Well, maybe he needed the money.

That's number one.

But the other thing is, Dan Reardon, golf professional expert was on the Chris and Amy show this week.

And he said the golf golf cheating is rife.

And he was able to rattle off about five names in a row, including Vijay Singh.

But that was many years ago.

He scorned because of that.

He's found success after that.

But people know commercials.

People don't want to be around him.

But with a stroke, I mean, you know, you can have a little fun on your, you know, in terms of terms of numbers of strokes.

But there are people who golf their entire lives and never had all.

And that's the thing is that it was a hole in one.

People who are just and we out there, you know, clowning around just golfing because we like to go.

I be the rugby pick your ball and throw it out there like from the rough.

But I'm not playing for a score.

I'm not playing for money.

There's money involved.

Should he be prosecuted?

No.

What?

No, no, no.

There was money.

Oh, no.

Wait a minute.

Wait, wait.

Let's ask the East-West Gateway Coordinating Council if he should be hung.

If he took the $6,000 home with him, He should be.

and then got busted after the fact, then he did commit fraud.

So whether or not he would be charged.

He should return the money.

But isn't international scorn enough?

You were just saying you were a bad guy.

I was asking.

No, no.

He would have committed a crime if he had taken the money It's not a crime you prosecute.

I didn't say that.

I said it would be up to Melissa Smith.

We have prosecutorial discretion for a reason.

It would be up to Melissa Smith.

Should he be shot at dawn?

Oh my gosh.

I think that's going to end the conversation.

There's no rebuttal for that.

Okay, let's go to the old mailbag and see what people had to say about last week's program, if you will.

In a rational world, a politician who tried to foist amendments that got support from only 20% of the electorate would step aside and change careers.

But sadly, this is Missouri.

That from Tim Nagy of Wildwood, Missouri.

Sandra Paget of Ledoux wrote, thank you for highlighting Jake Zimmerman's smear campaign in your discussion about the Democratic primary for St.

Louis County Executive.

I found his statements regarding Brian Williams' alleged and untrue connections to MAGA and prejudice against women to be repulsive, especially in light of Zimmerman's comments that he wants to end political squabbling.

You can write us, care of 9PBS63108.

Don't forget those emails, donnybrookat9PBS.org.

On social media, use hashtag DonnybrookSTL.

Call the 9 line if you get a chance at 314-512-9094.

And wherever you are this summer, listen to us on your favorite podcast source.

Our program Last Call can be seen on the Donnybrook YouTube channel this week, among other topics.

Mike Bush is hanging it up after 41 years, I don't think we'll have too much argument about that.

And Wash U employees are parking in Forest Park, much to the disdain of golfers there.

We're going to talk about that, I guess to the dismay of golfers there.

So that's on Last Call.

We hope you join us.

See you next time.

Donnybrook is made possible by the support of the Betsy and Thomas Patterson Foundation and the members of Nine PBS.