Hour 1: Congestion pricing decision

Congestion pricing decision.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Good morning to you. It is six oh five on
your Tuesday morning. And you know the nice thing that
I noticed, Natalie, is it sitting in front of this
microphone on Minty in the Morning. I noticed it at
the end of the morning show. I have Menty fresh breath.
I'll come up with a dad joke.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
A day good to dad joke.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Thank you very much, I'll be I appreciate that. My
mother thanks you too.

Speaker 4 (00:22):
By the way, Well, Larry Kowsky just gave you the
thumbs down, I think.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
And here you know, I've never I've listened to Larry
Kovski forever. It is nice to see you face to
face here, Larry Kovsky, good to see you. It's nice
to see you as well. Absolutely well, it's good to
be here again. And of course Larry enjoying a good
day off. Good for you, Larry, and thank you for
letting me sit in the seat. I promise not to
steal your coffee mug. Well, maybe maybe we'll see what happens.

(00:48):
Ze w R the Voice of New York again. Welcome
to Tuesday. It's April eighth, and this is Menty in
the Morning. You may remember me, Ken Rozano. I used
to work at Channel seven and Channel five, Channel ten
and fifty five. I worked all over the Dry State
forever for about thirty five years. In fact, God, that
makes me sound old, but it's so nice to be

(01:09):
here today. These days. I host a TV show and
a New Jersey channel. It's called on New Jersey and
you could stream it from anywhere including New York, but
it's a New Jersey focused channel. It's at NNJ dot com.
So this is one of these this new series of
streaming channels that they have all over the internet, and
it's been working out pretty well for us. We started
in January and I have a food website called Thefooddude

(01:31):
dot us. It's the Food Dude so it's dsback to
back dot us. So Natalie, we have to go over
some of the recipes that I got in there.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
I was looking at it last night. Has a lot
of stuff going on on that website.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
You got the links. We have a links to over
one hundred sites from all around the world in different languages.
In total, there are about two million recipes as you
have access to.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
We do. We have to carve out some time for this.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Well fun well, nothing like a cooking segment on radio.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
You know what. I'm sure it's been done.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
I'm sure.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
And why, Hey, I used to work with Joan Hamburg.
We used to do cooking segments all the time. There
were actually dedicated food shows here at w Orr. Arthur
Schwartz used to do a food show here.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Absolutely I remember, and I think I listened to Joan
for years. God that I love that woman. She was
what a great, great host. But yeah, so we could
talk about it. We'll maybe come up with a recipe
before the end of the week that everyone could try,
or we could like have the have the The perennial
debate for Italians is his saucer is a gravy? Is
his saucer is great? And just for the record, it's

(02:34):
I'm getting it's gravy. And your rule is all gravies
are sauces, but not all saucers or gravies the gravy.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Is six am. That is too much for me.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
There you go, all right, so now you know, so
if it contains a protein, it's a gravy. If it
doesn't contain a protein, it's a sauce. That's that's the
general all right, unnecessary information, KD. We also for those
of you who listen to the station, and you would
be because you're listening right now. I also fill in
for mister New York a lot Mark Simone on the
rare occasion he takes a day off, and I love

(03:03):
doing that too. So anyway, it's good to be here today,
and the phone lines are open at one eight hundred
three two one zero seven to ten. You could also
use the iHeartRadio talkback feature. Just open the iHeartRadio app,
go to WR Radio, look for the little red microphone
on the upper right of the screen. You tap on
that mic, follow the instructions. Even I can do it,
and you can leave a message or a comment anything

(03:25):
you'd like, ask a question, anything you feel you'd like
to our big three stories this morning. First, congestion pricing. Yes,
we've been talking about it right but as of yesterday
now we have new news. Congestion pricing will remain in
the heart of Manhattan until the fall under an agreement
that was struck between the Trump administration and the MTA
before a federal judge. Then ultimately we'll get to decide

(03:47):
whether the controversial toll lives on now. The revelation came
after US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy rode the subway with
Mayor Adams last week and rip the MTA for its
high spending. I mean, one year it's two big billion
in debt, one year it's a half a billion in
the surplus, then another year it's ten billion in debt.
It's just all over the place. The proposed timeline agreed

(04:07):
to by the Trump administration and the MTA would keep
the camera lights on till October. The tolling program began
back in January, you will recall, but was in danger
after President Trump said that he wanted a Yank federal
approval the following month if we continued having congestion pricing
in New York, and that led to a court fight
between the transit authority and the Feds. Sean Duffy gave

(04:28):
the New York state lawmakers an extension on the Fed's
deadline to kill congestion pricing last month before the agreement
was made between the two sides. Next, of course, the
Supreme Court lifted and order blocking President Trump from using
the Alien Enemies Act to the port suspected Venezuelan gang members.
It was a five to four decision in the High
Court yesterday. Now the Trump administration can continue deporting alleged

(04:51):
members of Trend de Ragua to El Salvador. All the
court asks is that before you just put him on
a plane and send him there, at least give defendants
an up oportunity what they're calling reasonable time to challenge
their removal so that you don't make any mistakes. It
was back on March twenty eighth when the Trump administration
asked the High Court to lift the lower court order

(05:11):
decided by US District Judge Shames Bosberg of the DC District.
By the way, Justice Amy Cony Barrett has turned into
a bit of a disappointment for conservatives, risking sounding misogynistic here,
it's like the female members of the court all seem
to be deciding together on everything. I know you're gonna say, ken,
they're all great High Court jurists. Shut up. They all

(05:33):
came to their decisions separately. But it just seems suspicious
that it's always the four women, always on everything.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
What do you think they're all, you know, going to
the ladies room talking it out.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
That's exactly what I thought. It's like, come on, Amy,
you have to do what we're doing. Come on, do it.
I know that sounds horrible.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yes it does.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
It does so horrible, but it probably happened. No, It's
like it's as if they go out for cocktails after
the decisions and they say, come on, you can't possibly
side with that guy, Like any of them talks like that.
I don't know. It's just a little suspicious. You go
in as a as a female conservative, if you come
out as a female liberal. Come on. Back to the decision.

(06:12):
Justice Boseberg's argument was that using the Alien Enemies Act
presented complicated legal issues, but he never said whether the
President was in any way beyond his authority to invoke it.
So it comes down to a liberal judge who hates
Trump and tossed in his own opinion over a law
that was enacted by Congress and approved by the US
Supreme Court two one hundred and twenty seven freaking years ago.

(06:33):
All right, but he doesn't like it. So and before
you say, hey, he was appointed by Bush. Yeah, okay,
he was appointed by a moderate Republican Bush, but he
was appointed to the DC Circuit by Obama because of
the record he had established after Bush appointed him, and
Bush saw that Obama saw he was rather to the left,
which is the reason why he was appointed to the

(06:54):
US Circuit in DC. Now, this Alien Act was used
several times in the last eighty years. The High Court
uphel it's use every time it is settled law. So
the fact that Judge Boseberg, who was appointed again just
in the last ten years by Barack Obama, the fact
that he doesn't like the law, it doesn't give him
the authority to tell the head of the executive brands

(07:15):
that he can't use the law to do the job
that a majority of Americans voted him to do.

Speaker 5 (07:20):
So.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Basically, pound sand Judge Boseburg, I'm making a thumb in
my nose, signed to the judge. Anyone who saw us
on video streaming, we think I'm a juvenile, but I am.
It's okay. And there are activists who believe it is
their moral mission to lay as many roadblocks in the
way of President Trump's success as possible, like Judge Boseburg.

(07:40):
And you know, just remember before the election, we called
what is lawfair? We call lawfair fake criminal charges against
Donald Trump. In every case the criminal charges were dropped,
but it delayed him and impeded him during the campaign. Well,
we still have lawfare now, but it's a little different now.
It's meant to slow down his successes by creating blocks
wherever possible. These judges know that they're gonna get overturned,

(08:03):
and they do every time, but they seem to have
a mission. Let's just toss a rock on the path
to slow things down so that he cannot succeed, he
being the president. I mean, just the idea that Bosberg
would order a plane that is over the ocean between
countries in international waters to order it flown back when

(08:25):
you don't even know if it hasn't a fuel to
fly back. But no, I say it must come back. No,
you're not the head of the FAA, you're not the
pilot of the plane. You don't have that authority. And
the Supreme Court just thumped them and told them, mind
you Beeswax, Daniel Lane, Judge Boseberg. So but something tells
me we'll still hear from this guy because he's sort
of a champion for the left. And then there is this.

Speaker 6 (08:51):
It's the only chance we're going to have to reset
the table on trade.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
As President Trump, of course and his tariffs. At least
seventy nations have now reached out to the Trump administration
to negotiate tariffs.

Speaker 7 (09:02):
Yeah, I can tell you that there are fifty sixty,
maybe almost seventy countries now whoever approached US. I would
expect that Japan's going to get priority just because they
came forward very quickly. But it's going to be very busy.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin evian Yah, who even got on
a plane and flew here to be the first to
have face to face tariff negotiations with Trump, we.

Speaker 5 (09:27):
Are going to eliminate the tariffs and rapidly. I added
the opportunity to speak to the Secretary of Lovenik yesterday.
We talked about how we could affect this quickly, and
I hope to bring the solution very quickly.

Speaker 7 (09:41):
Now.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
At first glance, Europe and Vietnam appeared to have offered
some great deals. They said, we will offer zero tariffs
on the US, so get rid of your tariffs on US. Ah,
not so fast. The problem is Europe is charging an
enormous vat on US, so it doesn't look like we're
going to be rapping things anytime with Europe and Vietnam
seems to be cheating what they do right now to

(10:03):
have a deal with China in that China takes goods
that would otherwise have have taxes imposed on them by
US and they ship them through Vietnam to be sold.
So we'll see what happens with them. The time now
is six point fifteen seven to ten WR the Voice
of New York and AI bots are proving their worth.

(10:23):
But can they replace mental health professionals? Yeah, be your therapists.
We're going to talk about it. Plus we have tickets
to see Barry Manilow at eight twenty five at Aberga
Tuesday morning. To you, Yeah, it's at least not rainy
this morning. Still chili, but not rainy, So it's starting
out a little better. That's a good thing. Well, how
would you like to share all your personal secrets with

(10:46):
artificial intelligence? It looks like they are perfecting they the
proverbial they they scientists are perfecting an AI kind of
a bot version of a therapist because we have a
shortage of mental health experts as we see what's going
on on the streets of New York all the time.
So new research, according to NPR, they're saying, new research

(11:09):
suggests that given the right kind of training, AI bots
can deliver mental health therapy with as much efficacy as
or more than human clinicians, because I guess they don't
get bored hearing you prattle on and on and on
about your personal problems. So apparently, this study was published
in the New England Journal of Medicine. It shows the
results from the first randomized clinical trial for AI therapy,

(11:34):
and researchers from Dartmouth built the BOD as a way
of taking a new approach to a long standing problem
because the US continues to grapple with a shortage of
mental health providers. So amazingly, the initial research is showing
that these things are very effective. There are currently bots
out there. You could download apps right now the claim

(11:55):
to be mental health clinicians if you will. If it's
not live and it's a bought right now, don't trust it.
It doesn't qualify. So they're still working on perfecting the
AI version. But how would you feel about sharing your
personal details with a computer?

Speaker 3 (12:11):
You know?

Speaker 4 (12:12):
I think one I would be worried about where that
information was going to land, because we know once you
put something in AI, it's out there for the world.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
It doesn't just stay there.

Speaker 4 (12:23):
And I would think just from this very little use
of AI that I've done, you can manipulate it to
give you answers that you want, right, So if you're
not really I mean, people could be doing that too,
you know, telling them what you're finding out what they

(12:44):
want to hear.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
So I'm not really sure.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
I mean, it's interesting to see when you have the
randomized studies to see that the results are the same,
that at least the computers are coming to the same
conclusions and offering the same advice that humans are. But again,
like you said, it could also be because of the
input data the way the computers have trained and set up.
That's that's what's happening. But I guess as an option,

(13:09):
if you have a circumstance where it's either that or nothing.

Speaker 4 (13:12):
Yeah, I know we've talked to and you'll be talking
on Thursday to doctor Arthur Kaplan, our medical ethicis and
I believe we talked about them in this past and
he said they're definitely going to be user for them.
First of all, there's shortages in the healthcare fields that
this is very important because this will and people who
live in rural areas that might not have access. So
there are really good uses that could work.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
There you go. And you know, and especially in an
era now since during COVID, we've determined that telemed is
the way to go to for so many especially something
like that, you know, not being physically present could work,
all right, So we'll see what happens with that. We'll
keep you a brecedency where that study goes seven ten
w R. The Voice of New York Ken Rosatto and
for Larry Metti at six twenty seven on a Tuesday morning,

(13:54):
another big story. The TMZ founder Harvey Levin says he
is stunned by changes in the Menendez brothers situation ahead
of possible resentencing. You'll recall the George Gascon who was
he doesn't pronounce it that way, but he was the
DA of Los Angeles, very very very liberal. He was
voted out of office recently. But George Gascon had said

(14:16):
that he would reopen the case. The Menendez attorney had
requested a habeas corpus habeas corpus in Latin, of course,
meaning you have the body. It means prove to me
why my person is here in this court. That's my
little legal knowledge right there. You've heard the extent of it.
And he had said that the gascon was going to

(14:38):
have this retriede but the new district attorney says, not
so fast. So but Harvey Levin has to sit down
interview within Menandez brothers. He said initially that he didn't
think much of them, thought they were brats years ago
when he covered them as a reporter, But not so
much right now. I'm looking forward to because he is brilliant.
He's a great journalist and a great attorney. So Harvey Levin,
we'll see what happens. It is now six twenty eight.

(15:01):
The Supreme Court grants Trump's request to lift the stay
in Venezuelan deportations in a tight five to four vote.
What does that mean for immigration policy? And want to
add to the conversation, Just leave us a talk back.
Go to seven ten wor on the iHeartRadio app and
click the microphone. When you are there. Put seven ten
WOOR on your presets. It is now time for the

(15:23):
six thirty News with Larry Kovski.

Speaker 8 (15:27):
Hey, good morning, Ken. We have forty two degrees partly
cloudy outside. It looks like congestion pricing will be with
us at least until the fall. The MTA and the
Trump administration have agreed to a time then that will
leave the program in place while legal challenges work their
way through the courts. The administration had previously given the
MTA till April twentieth to end the program. A thirty

(15:47):
year old woman is recovering in Bellevue after she was
slashed in the neck by an attacker wielding a piece
of broken glass and soho forty five year old attacker
was quickly arrested. He allegedly smashed a bottle on the
back of one woman, then use the broken glass to
attack the second. The Supreme Court is indefinitely delaying a
deadline for a mistakenly deported man to be returned to

(16:09):
the US from El Salvador. The White House says it
cannot bring back kil Abrego Garcia since he is now
in Salvador and custody. And instacart has released its list
of top Eastern candies for this year, and chocolate is
on top of the list. Reese is taking the top
two spots peanut butter eggs and peanut butter cups. Other
goodies on the list Cadbury Chocolate, Minie Eggs and Hershey's

(16:32):
Milk Chocolate. I don't know about you, ken, I'm not
really a chocolate person, so gonna have to go down
the list of it.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, you know, the only time I really like chocolate
is if it's with peanut butter, then then it's okay.
But if it's just chocolate, I'm not a chocolate guy either,
how about you?

Speaker 8 (16:46):
Not really, but I'm not a chocolate and peanut butter
guy for sure. You gotta go down the number. You
gotta go down to number six and eight to get
away from chocolates. Those are sour Patch kids and Starburst
jelly beans, just the things you need to pull the
fillings out of your mouth.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
And that's happened to me hundred times. I'm also I
love my Jella beans, Jella jelly beans, and also toffee.
I'm a toffee Oh, I love toffee. My gosh, that's
just just pure fat and sugar. Nothing, nothing good and
redeeming about that. All right, So thank you very much, Larry,
and once again yad for the body, but good for
the soul. I'll keep saying, I'll take that to my grave.

(17:21):
The Supreme Court once again grants Trump's request to lift
the day on Venezuela and deportations. We're going to talk
about that in just a little bit. Seven ten wore
the Voice of New York hen Rozatto in Fort Larry
and it's good to be with you, O a Tuesday morning,
six thirty eight, seven ten wor. You know, we talked
about the mental health situation that we have in this country.

(17:43):
We just talked about the AI therapy, etc. There's a
mental health crisis, but especially in the big cities, the
big urban centers around America. And just yesterday we have
with and we don't know that that was the case,
but it looks like it might have been the case.
We have a twenty five year old woman now clinging
to life after being stabbed in the neck in Lower Manhattan.
This happened on Broome Street. A man apparently was wielding

(18:04):
a broken bottle, initially took the bottle, according to police,
and smashed it in the back of the head of
one person, and then took the broken now broken bottle
and cut the throat of a twenty five year old woman.
And she is, like we said, clinging to life in
the hospital. And James McCarthy, who is the NYPD Assistant chief,

(18:26):
talked about the bottle attack yesterday.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
I want to thank the officers from the first prison
for their rapid response and getting the description out and
within minutes we had this individual apprehended. I also want
to thank the you know, the good Samaritans that witnessed
this unprovoked attack.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
And we even had Curtis Sleeway in here, candidate for mayor, yesterday,
and he said that when he was on the subway
coming in, he witnessed people who were acting erradically, one
person who was injecting himself with some kind of drug,
probably heroin, we don't know, I'm guessing in his neck
in front of people. And this is just not normal.

(19:05):
I know as New Yorkers, we sort of walk right
past this stuff, but we have to stop accepting that
as just life in New York. No, you know, we're
better than this. It doesn't happen everywhere else. You know,
when I go to South Florida, I don't see this.
It's happening here and a lot of big urban centers.
But again, you don't have to let it happen. So
we have to do something about the mental health issue.

(19:26):
This is where leadership has to come in and deal
with the mental health issue in this country, and specifically
some rules about people on the streets appearing not to
be psychologically too stable. It's six point forty right now,
seven ten wo r. The other big story, of course,
the Supreme Court lifted and ordered blocking President Trump from
using the Alien Enemies Act to the port suspected Venezuelan

(19:47):
gang members. It was a five to four decision yesterday.
Amy Connie Barrett, whom Trump had appointed to the Supreme Court.
She was the one on the considered traditionally conservative side
who did not side with the traditional conservative justices. And
now the Trump administration can continue to deport alleged members
of Tregua to El Salvador. All the Court is saying

(20:10):
is that before you just PLoP them on a plane
and send them out, make sure the defendants are given
what the court is saying is reasonable time to challenge
their removals, so they're no mistakes made. So it was
back on March twenty eighth, the Trump administration asked the
High Court to lift the lower court order and was
decided by a US district judge, James Bosberg of the
d C District. And James Bosberg, of course, he actually

(20:34):
never said that what Trump did was illegal or he
had no authority to do so, he said, I'm not
really sure, but in the meantime, keep everybody here and
send anybody you sent away back. Really kind of interesting,
It's an interesting way to look at it. So, you
as the president of the United States, duly elected constitutionally
by a majority of the people and a majority of

(20:56):
the of the Electoral College. You as the president of
the United States, you're going to be ordered what to
do by a US District Court judge. Now, this is
where I think the US Supreme Court and Chief Justice
Roberts they have to The Justice Roberts has to step
and at least produce guidelines so that a circuit court

(21:17):
judge doesn't have authority, if you will, over what the
entire country does, because we do have a president elected
for that purpose. What do you think I mean? Natalie's
looking at me like whatever you say, can exactly.

Speaker 5 (21:32):
Know.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Larry is the host. I am just sitting You're the host.

Speaker 3 (21:35):
You're the host of the Jay.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
The host is sure, yes, Eddie, Well, hey, we're going
to have a decent day. At least we're not going
to have rain like we had yesterday. It's still chilly
though in the needle light jacket when you get out there.
But we're going to have some sun today, and again
you don't have to worry about about having an umbrella ever.
Where you go seven t w R the Voice of

(21:57):
New York. Our number is eight hundred and three to
two one zero, And of course you could check us
out at seven ten wor dot com slash Larry. And
if you want to leave a talkback, you can also
just go onto the iHeartRadio app and then go to
woor go to the top of the page and you
will find at the top of the page a little microphone.
When you're there, just click on that microphone and it

(22:19):
will get you right to leave a message talk back
for us, so easy. Like I said, even I can
use the talkback message. So that is a big deal.
If you want to leave that talkbok, we'll put you
onto here. And if you have anything else you want
to talk about that we haven't hit as well, we
will talk about that. The other big thing that, by
the way, that was in the news and we for

(22:40):
those of you who are just waking up and not
realizing congestion pricing, of course was a big deal. We've
talked about that for weeks and weeks. Of course, it
has gone into effect, and we just assume, hey, it's
in effect for good. But is it in effect for good?
We don't know. Now it looks like the Trump administration
has reached a temporary deal at least with of the MTA,

(23:01):
and come the fall, a judge will make a decision
on whether this becomes the deal we have. Peter in Fairfield,
Connecticut right now, Peter, good morning, A yes.

Speaker 9 (23:10):
Good morning. Think you were taking my call. When it
comes to the federal courts, I mean, the Constitution is
clear that we have to have one Supreme Court, which
is established by the Constitution. The rest of the federal courts,
the lower courts, which are the district courts. They are
established by Congress. Therefore, Congress can defund or get rid
of them, or modify them anytime they wont if they

(23:30):
choose to do so. But the word itself district court.
That means that you have the authority in certain district
that you're assigned to serve. Because we have seven hundred
district federal judges, if all of them had the power
to issue in junctions nationwide, they would create chaos and
lawlessness in the United States. Therefore, we have a Supreme

(23:52):
Court who has that kind of authority, not the district courts.
So I hope that Judge Roberts, you know, the Supreme
Court is going to step in given the proper guidance
that these judges should not adjudicate cases that are not
within their jurisdiction. Otherwise, as I said, I mean as
an antonia. See it is as promoting chaos and lawlessness

(24:12):
within the judiciaries.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
And I thoroughly agree with you, Peter in Fairfield, thank
you so much for that call. I can't disagree with
a word you said. I think the argument from the
other side is because I mean, this is talking about
really getting down to it. This is a judge in
the DC district saying, because the president sits in his district,
if whatever the President does, if that judge deems it

(24:35):
to be not constitutional, then because it happened in that
judge's district, that he is functioning within his authority. So
that basically suggests that any US Circuit Court judge in
the district of DC forever has authority over any president
of the United States. And we know that that's not
what the founding fathers had in mind. But again, like

(24:56):
you said, that's something that the Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court has a authority over and has to release
people in. But because my hunch is the Chief Justice
Roberts is not exactly a fan of Donald Trump, I
think he's just got to lay it low and letting
things happen, and he could step in at any point
and put an end to it. But Peter, I appreciate

(25:16):
that that call is a great call. You could call
in two at eight hundred three two one zero seven ten,
eight hundred three to two one zero seven ten, or
again use the talkback feature iHeartRadio app. Just go to
WOR Radio, click on the little red microphone to leave
your message. Our time now is coming up on six
forty seven, and the MTA and Trump administration reach a
congestion pricing deal. We'll tell you the details, so brace

(25:39):
yourself extending tolls through October. Huh, Well, what impact will
this have on all the commuters? We'll talk about that
next here at seven ten WOR Henro's otto in for Larry.
Really good to be here on your Tuesday morning, hoping
you're enjoying. It's in the low forties right now, so
make sure you bundle up but at least there's no
rain today on your Tuesday, so smile and get out
the door and enjoy that rain free morning. So we

(26:02):
were talking a little while ago about the mental health
problem we have in New York City. We have, of course,
the attack that happened with the bottle on two people
yesterday on Broome Street, and of course just overall you
see the people walking around talking to themselves and it
is certainly a challenge. And then we talked about the
story of now Ai therapy, where you have computers that
are being developed that can actually function as your therapist.

(26:26):
So this is something that we brought up and said
we wanted to hear your input. So somebody used our
talk back feature. This is what they had to say.

Speaker 6 (26:33):
Good morning, Ken. We have a mental problem in our country.
They allow these mentally disturbed people to walk through the
streets and this is what happens. Blame your politicians, data
wants to allow this.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
It's a good point. The question is what do you
do about it. You know, years ago, we took anybody
that was mentally unstable and we institutionalized them, and that
led to all sorts of problems. We had people who
are just literally warehoused, they were put in institutions. There
was abuse that occurred. Haraldo Rivera, did the whole you
uncover the whole scandal about that, And it was just

(27:17):
kind of a terrible way to deal with people who
had mental illness. You know, it is an illness and
it can be treated. So what do you do do
you have outpatient The thing is you have to make
sure the people who are in an outpatient program that
they're treated. They need to take their meds. Not everybody
wants to because there are side effects of the meds, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
So we want to hear what you have to say
about it, like this gentleman who just used the talkback feature,

(27:40):
And you could go to the iHeartRadio app, go specifically
to wo R Radio, and once you're on our page,
you'll see in the upper right side a red microphone.
Just tap on that mic and follow the instructions. You
could leave a message, you could ask a question, you
could leave a comment. We want to hear what you
have to say about that topic or any other but
specifically we'd like to hear what you have to say

(28:02):
about that. Seven ten WR The Voice of New York
Ken Rosato at six fifty six in for Larry Menti
Menti in the morning on your Tuesday. The other topic
we're talking about today, another topic, of course, is the
congestion pricing issue. If you missed it last night, we
had an update to the story. So with congestion pricing,

(28:23):
it will remain in the heart of Manhattan until the
fall at the earliest, under an agreement that was struck
between the Trump administration and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority the MTA,
before a federal judge will then ultimately decide whether the
controversial toll will live on mine.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
Let's be honest, it's not going away. How do you
feel about this?

Speaker 4 (28:46):
The longer it stays in effect it's like a toll,
the harder it's going to be from them to take
it away.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yeah, because then what's going to happen is the MTA
will look at the Feds and say, earic, then you
tell us how we're supposed to fill the gap. And
if I'm the federal government, I say no, no, no,
no no. See, you have the budget mess. You're the
ones that allowed people to jump turnstiles for five years
and did nothing about it. You're the ones that allowed
people to walk on buses during COVID not pay. You're
the ones who decided you were going to let people

(29:15):
work for twenty years and then give them bennies for
seventy years of life after that. It's an unsustainable model,
and then you look to the rest of us to
somehow prop it up financially. You don't tell people, well,
in order to make the subways work, you're gonna have
to pay more for RDE No, no, no, no no.
Let's go to people driving cars who never take the
subway and let's charge them exorbitant prices to drive their cars.

(29:38):
Why because if they don't pay, then we'll just make
their registrations invalid and they'll go to jail. So they'll
be forced to pay because they're in the suburbs and
they have money in the suburbs, but we poor people
in the city. You don't have money. This is where
it's going. It really is a haves and haves nottsmen
have have notts mentality, and that's the way it's been
dealt with. It's like, take from these folks and give

(29:59):
to the those folks. Look, if you want the subway
system to work, then how about you go to the
London model. The London model is where you have districts
and zones. If you're traveling from you know, Brooklyn to
the Bronx, maybe you charge a little bit more.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Oh right.

Speaker 4 (30:15):
I always thought that, you know, I'm paying you know,
close to three dollars to go say two stops, right, But.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
I can ride the entire system for the same amount
of money. You're right. A lot of other countries.

Speaker 4 (30:25):
Seem to have a way of it working properly, and
it's better service to top.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
It all off. Absolutely. You know, before London went to
their congestion pricing plan for years, they cleaned up their system.
They cleaned up their subways, so their tube, so that
the London Tube looks spotless. You go to London. I
was in London a few years back. The tube is immaculate.
You get eat off the floor there. You come to
this city and you have people who have mental health problems.

(30:51):
You have filth leverywhere people eating eating food on the subway,
people barefoot, people defecating. I don't want to see this
when I go on the subway and spend my money.
And if you're not going to provide a police officer
everywhere to make sure that I'm safe and my family
members don't get mugged or attacked or killed going from
point A to point B. Don't tell me that that's
the only option then, and I can't drive in or

(31:13):
else I'll have to pay seventeen dollars or nine dollars
as the case is right now. I have no opinion
on this at all, though, Natalie.

Speaker 3 (31:19):
No, you don't. You know what I don't.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
Every New Yorker has an opinion, and everybody in New
Jersey has an opinion on this.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
So if you said earlier, if you live in the zone,
you're all for it because you don't want any congestion.
Of course, you miraculously want food and what not to
appear in the restaurants. How it's going to get there,
we don't know. But if you don't live in the
zone and you're forced to commute in, you know the problem.
You're sold got to pay seven ten wor and don't
forget the wars. White House correspondent John Decker attended Monday

(31:49):
afternoons news conference with President Trump and Israel's or President
I should say that in Yahoo, he was here, is
going to be here, should say with exclusive insights on
their discussions about tariffs, the war in Gaza and tensions
with Iran. Coming up after the seven o'clock New seven
ten wor Canrozotto in Falari