The WOR Saturday Morning Show with Larry Mendte - - 4 - 19 - 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Now the WOOR Saturday Morning Show. Here's Larry Minti.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Good morning, and welcome to Saturday Morning. On this week's show,
the New York City Council slaps Mayor Adams with a
lawsuit over the Mayor's decision to allow ice agents into
Rikers Island. We'll find out what Republican City council Member
Vicky Palladino thinks about that, and you know what they
say about karma. The FEDS are investigating New York Attorney

(00:30):
General Letitia James for a real estate fraud. Aery Hoffman,
Associate editor of The New York Sun, has all the details.
The autism rate in the country continues to rise. We'll
talk with doctor Gregory Poland from the Mayo Clinic about
what is causing that rise. And rich Damuro from rich

(00:51):
On Tech has some tips on the best dictation apps
to buy. But let's start with Vicky Palladino, new York
City Council member who represents District nineteen of Northeast Queens.
I'm gonna start, VICKI with the question I always seem
to be wondering what is wrong with the city council.
This is real ridiculous. This is unbelievable that they're going

(01:15):
up against that, they're slapping Ice and the Adams administration
with a lawsuit over Ice returning to Rakers Island. Where
do they want? They want the criminals back out on
the street. Is that what they want? They want them
to be freed and be back in the community.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yeah, good morning, Larry, Good morning everybody. Yes, it's you. Actually,
just I'm cracking up because as I as you introduced me,
I'm laughing because it is that funny. I mean, it
is pathetic when every time you hear them talk about
public safety and you hear them stand on how they are,

(01:52):
you know, going at war with our with our president
and the Trump administration and to protect the rights and
safety of all New Yorkers against the attacks of Donald J.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
Trump.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Come on, give me a break. Okay, We've got real
real issues here with them doing this. I tell you,
I was surprised, But just when you're thinking they can't
surprise you anymore.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
They do.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
So now this is made very very clear. You know,
since Mayor Adams took on Randy Mastro as his first
deputy Mayor, Randy is to say brilliant is an understatement
and needs to be underscored several times with an exclamation point.
They will go to battle, they will lose the battle

(02:41):
because they've got every right to be there. Let's remember
something about our sanctuary city laws and how they all started,
you know, sanctuary I'm gonna read a little bit. Sanctuary
city laws were originally laws to as an enforcement tool
to help the local cops ofve our crimes by encouraging
witnesses to come forward without being afraid of their immigration status.

(03:06):
Well that was, you know. That was then in twenty
sixteen when they redid the sanctuary city laws, it was
they expanded to remove ICE from our gail system. However,
it remained legal for the mayor to authorize, under executive authority,

(03:30):
cooperation with ICE for the sake of law enforcement or
on national security. So that means that gang members, criminals,
terrorists and legally eligible are legally eligible under our sanctuary
city laws for the NYPD or Corrections to turn them

(03:51):
over for deportations. Okay, So now the mayor is used
this authority, you know, and to authorize ICE to enter rikers,
you know, to pursue immigrations again all our gangs. So
this has been a real joke and the whole thing
is absolutely ridiculous because you just can't. This is just

(04:15):
belowey what she's doing. You cannot do this. And then
she has her whole crew behind her. You know, last
week before the stated meeting, you know, you had a
lectus and vialists, all these haters, and like you said,
very very very from the beginning, this is all about
actually breaking the sanctuary city policy by deep portings and

(04:40):
getting rid of the dangerous and the most vile of
our criminals. And yet they don't want to do that.
Wrap your head around and everybody try to wrap your
head around it insanity.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, let's be clear and exactly what they're saying now,
because Tom Homan has been pushing for this all across
the country for a long long time. All he's saying is,
we're going to go after these people anyway. We'd rather
do it, no fuss, no mess. You hand them over
to us already cuffed, will take them into custody that way,
we don't have to have a shootout in the communities.

(05:15):
We're going to get them anyway. But now they're going
to be in the communities and we have to send
a massive amount of manpower to arrest them, so they're
gonna get arrested no matter what, and so correct. That's
why it's insane, VICKI, That's why it makes no sense
at all.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
This could be like you said, cut and dry. They
get arrested, they're taken to Rikers home and guys go
in and they remove them and they take them where
they need to go. I mean, simple, very very very simple.
Why do they want? But you see the issue is
they feel like they are going to be knocking down

(05:53):
doors of innocent people. Now that one guy that got
transferred last week to El Salvador and it seems to
be tying up the news. Now one guy, one person
and an MS thirteen gang member, though he doesn't have
any tattoos. They're using him as the post a child. Okay,

(06:15):
he's the poster child for what Trump is doing wrong
and what Holman is doing as far as knocking down
and taking an innocent father away from his children. This
is not the way it's going, everybody, Okay, these are lethal,
lethal people. These are people who sit human beings on

(06:35):
fire and subways. These people have got to go. Holman's
got a handle on it. Let's keep it clean, Let's
get them out. My council seems to think that this
is an invasion of our undocumented people here in the city.
That's not what's happening. Okay, if you are an undocumented person,

(06:56):
a lawa body person, though you are here illegally, but
you I'm not committing any crimes. They are not coming
after you. They are coming after the people that don't
make us feel safe yet. In her opening statement, she
says that this is once again that the City Council
is going to stand firmed to protect the rights and

(07:18):
safety of all New Yorkers against the Trump administration. Well,
you know what, Speaker Adams, you got.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
It backward and she can never be married, especially because
of that. Vicki Palladino, New York City Council represents District
nineteen of Northeast Queens. Thank you so much, all, very
well said. Appreciate you being on.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
Thank you, Darling. I have a happy holiday, Okay you too.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
Coming up next, Eric Hoffman, Associate editor of The New
York Sun, is here to give us the details of
expected federal charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James.
For get this real estate fraud areas next.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
Back now to the WAH Saturday Morning Show with Larry Minty.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
Welcome back. Remember when US Attorney Letitia James campaigned on
getting Donald Trump and then sued him for over inflating
his properties. Well, James may now be facing criminal charges
for real estate fraud. Let's get the latest on this
from Aary Hoffman, Associate editor of The New York Sun.

(08:26):
Very good to talk to you again.

Speaker 6 (08:27):
Thank you so much, Larry, It's wonderful to be back.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
Let's go through what she could be charged with, because
they in this referral, they were pretty detailed.

Speaker 6 (08:38):
Sure you know this is a referral that came from
the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, William Polt. Remember,
a criminal referral really can come sort of from anywhere.
It's not the same as an indictment. But what it
is is it's a recommendation to the Department of Justice
to investigate and possibly to bring charges. So this letter

(09:01):
was addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi and her chief deputy,
Todd Blanche. People might have heard of criminal referrals most
often in the case of contempt charges, right, So when
Congress will recommend that someone be held in contempt, Congress
can't file charges itself, but it asked the Department of

(09:22):
Justice to do that sort of Famously, recently, the January
sixth Committee, remember, asked the DOJ to pursue criminal charges
against Donald Trump. So these referral details misrepresentations, misrepresentations concerning
properties and mortgages. They go back all the way to

(09:43):
twenty eighteen. That the letter acknowledges that once you start
getting that far back, you might face issues with statute
of limitations, meaning that the possible charges could have expired.
But really the meat of this concerns twenty twenty three
and misrepresenting her residence at a property in Virginia when

(10:05):
in fact he was obligated to live in New York
per New York law as New York's top law enforcement official.
What's really rich about this, Larry, and we've we've spoken
about this on this program before, is these misrepresentations allegedly
date to right before charges were brought against Donald Trump
for civil fraud concerning misrepresentations himself relative to his his

(10:32):
his properties. So it's almost, you know, an irony worthy
of Shakespeare and and a very New York irony. I
would add that, you know, just as as Latissa James
was putting together the final touches on her case against
uh Trump, which is now on appeal, and we could
talk about that morey you know, she was she was
allegedly uh, you know, doing uh sort of also fudging, fudging,

(10:56):
the fudging the information, and had her eye on a
property in Norfolk, Virginia, rather than than one here in
New York.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
I'll tell you what the unmitigated gall of that, if
it's true, if this referral and what she's being accused
of is true, the unmitigated gall she never stopped for
a second to say, Hey, I'm accusing him of something
I'm doing right now. I guess you just thought you
would never get caught.

Speaker 6 (11:23):
Yeah, I mean. The letter alleges that she falstered bank
documents and property records to acquire government backed assistance and
loans and more favorable loan terms to purchase a residence
in Virginia. There's also an allegation that she sort of
miss misstated the size of a residence that here in

(11:44):
Brooklyn for sort of more favorable tax purposes. The irony
of that, Larry, as you know well, is the core
of Leticia James's case against Trump was that he exaggerated
the size of his properties, and and that that argument
really did carry the day with Judge anger On, who

(12:05):
slapped a four hundred and fifty million dollar plus penalty
for those misrepresentations. So it's a kind of good for
the goose, good for the gander situation. Yeah, you know
what they said, maybe being hoisted on your own petard
might be there.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
There you go. You know what they say about karma,
that's the one I would have used, but I don't
want to use that word. That's certainly family. Yeah, that's
exactly right. So let's let's talk about the appellate court
that's looking at the Donald Trump case when it comes
to him exaggerating how much his properties were worth to
get a loan. We both talked about this. Both of

(12:43):
us watched online the entire proceedings, and it seemed like
right after those proceedings, while this case is either getting
thrown out or they are going to minimize the penalty,
because they were even talking about censuring some of the
attorneys for bringing this case in the first place. And
now that was before the election. Now have waited months.

(13:03):
I know these things take time, but what can we
read into it that this is taking a little bit
more time than most.

Speaker 5 (13:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (13:11):
Absolutely, And you know, I think you and I and
as well as other observers noted the skepticism with which
the Appellate Corps treated Judge en Grond's verdict. There was
comments that, you know, this amounted to a commercial dispute,
that the fine seemed excessive, as well as the other

(13:32):
strictures on Trump's ability to operate in New York. And
I think I think one is to say that judges
are probably aware that this was a very is a
very political case, and I think that maybe explains why
they've waited, you know, since until the election and and
and maybe even the inauguration. Hard to know, hard to

(13:53):
know whether they're they're sort of weighing, you know, do
they entirely vacate the judgment order a new trial. Do
they cut down the penalty but keep the essential verdict intact?
I think there's some probably strategizing going on about how
exactly to move forward. Remember something similar happened with Judge
Jan Mershan in the Stormy Daniels case, where he he

(14:16):
kind of kept the guilty verdict but basically gave Trump,
you know, a suspended sentence and unconditional discharge. I wonder
if there's a similar formula that could be arrived at year.
I think the difficulty for for Legiter James at this
point is you could now face losses on two fronts,
a reversal of her Crown Jewel verdict and the prospect

(14:39):
of a criminal investigation of her own. One thing to
look out for, though, is if the DOJ is going
to investigate it, you'd have to find some federal hook
to these alleged violations, right, So that that's not immediately
clear to me.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Right, it happened in Virginia, right, so cross state lines.

Speaker 6 (15:01):
Right, that that could be That could be one possibility,
but it's you know, it's just as it would be
unlikely that PAMBONDI'SDJ would investigate Trump. It's unlikely that you
know that Leticia James's you know, office would would investigate her.
So we would, we we would, we would were we
are looking at a New York federal government clash.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
I think, well that was fascinating. Thanks so much, Erry Hoffman,
we'll have you back soon. Associate editor of The New
York Sun, Thanks for spending the morning with us. A
little bit.

Speaker 6 (15:30):
Preciate, Clarry, take care.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Still to come. Rich DeMuro, host of rich On Tech,
says polaroids are making a comeback a spike in autism cases,
but doctor Gregory Poland from the Mayo Clinic says that
may just be a good thing.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
Here's Larry Minting with more of the w o R
Saturday Morning Show.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
Over the years, there's been a dramatic rise in autism cases,
but doctor Gregory, leader in vaccines and infectious diseases and
president of the Atria Research Institute in New York, says, actually,
that's a good thing. Doctor Poulwin, thanks for being here again.

Speaker 5 (16:14):
Good to be with you, Lary.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
Let's talk about what seems to be the big health
story today about an alarming rise in the autism rates.
What's causing this?

Speaker 5 (16:23):
Well, let me first shock you by saying this is
very good news.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Shocking. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (16:31):
And the reason that I say that is this reflects
a dramatically increased awareness of the disease, screening and diagnosis
of the disease, and the fact that the diagnosis keeps
expanding in criteria. It's sort of like saying, well, nobody

(16:52):
knew anything about attention deficit disorder, you know, thirty years ago,
and now it seems like, you know, everybody has some
form of it. Well, indeed, because the criteria keep expanding.
So you know when people say alarming, this is a crisis,
well in the sense that we're defining the full extent

(17:14):
of the number of people who have it, and we
certainly would like to find a cause for it. What
we can say, after thirty years and over twenty studies
in multiple countries across multiple decades, is the one thing
that does not cause it is MMR vaccine. And that's

(17:35):
been shown and proven over and over and over again.
One interesting statistic in this new study that came out
the prevalence of autism was much higher in minority communities
than in whites. Well, guess who has the highest MMR
vaccination rate?

Speaker 4 (17:55):
Whites?

Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah, no, I was just waiting you wanted me to answer.

Speaker 5 (18:00):
Yeah, I mean you would have expected to be the Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Absolutely.

Speaker 5 (18:04):
And then they looked and they said, well, what about
by state, Well, you know about rates of what was
it nine point seven in Texas and fifty three per
thousand in California. Well, that doesn't make any sense. Well
it does when you say, well, the number of people

(18:24):
with access to screening in Texas was much lower than
in California. Then they've looked at things like, well, what
if you had a sibling who had autism, and then
we looked to see if the next child got MMR
vaccine or didn't get MMR vaccine, no difference. The courts
have looked at this, Expert groups have looked at this,

(18:48):
multiple studies have looked at this, and not one has
demonstrated any relationship with MMR vaccine.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
And the guy would originally put did the research on
this lost his license.

Speaker 5 (19:00):
Yeah, well, you know, in fact, that's a very good point.
He was stripped of his medical license. Every co author
on that article took their name off the article, and
the journal that published it said it was absolutely fraudulent
and retracted it.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
First time ever they did that too, Right, Is that right?
That was the first time ever.

Speaker 5 (19:22):
I don't recall that it was the first time, but
you know, one of a handful of times maybe that
they've done it. And yet this sticks in the public's mind.
You can't get it out of their mind. Ye, and people,
you know, we're right now in the midst of a
measles epidemic in part because of this.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
Right, then it doesn't cause autism. But let me let
me get something straight on this, because I want people
to realize this because there's a lot of autism doubters
out there. And this is personal to me because I
have both a nephew and a niece who have autism,
and so it's very personal to me. And for a
long time I was on the board of Autism Speaks.
And so it is true that they expanded the scope

(20:02):
of autism. That is true, and they included things in
that scope that haven't been there before. These numbers are
been going up since that happened. Am I correct?

Speaker 5 (20:11):
Absolutely, you are absolutely correct. As they broadened the diagnostic
For example, autism spectrum disorder didn't even appear until nineteen eighty.
They've added now eight subcategories to that. So as you
do that, you include more and more people, which makes
it look like the you know that everything was the same,

(20:34):
and the rate is increasing. Well, the rate is increasing
only because the diagnostic capability and awareness and this broadening
of criteria have dramatically expanded.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
I understand that. But a lot of people say, well,
they expanded it, that's why it's going up. They've expanded it.
But it's important to point out and I'm glad you
did that. This has since that happened. Doctor Gregory Poland
later in Vaccines and in Anxious Diseases and president of
the Atria Research Institute in New York. Rich de Muro
from rich On Tech is up next. And if you're

(21:09):
looking for a great dictation app he has you covered.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
Here again is Larry Menty with the WR Saturday Morning Show.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
If you're like me, you come up with some of
your best ideas when you're driving, and then of course
you forget those great ideas when you get to where
you're going. We'll have no fear. Rich DeMuro from wor's
rich On Tech is here. Hey, Rich, thanks a lot
for being here again, appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (21:37):
Hey, good morning, h you Larry, Thank you, Raydy.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Do you now, let's pretend that I am a caller
into your show on WR from eight to eleven PM
for a moment. Is that okay?

Speaker 4 (21:47):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (21:47):
All right? Hey Rich? I love your show. Longtime listener,
first time caller. I have this problem when I ride
into work. I have some ideas and I want to
have them written down for a show I do, and
of course I can't write anything down because I'm driving
in the car. Is there a good dictation app that
you would suggest?

Speaker 4 (22:08):
Absolutely? And I share the same issue because I run
a radio show as well, and I often come up
with things on the fly and I want to remember them.
And this is the best solution that I have found.
I've got several. Actually, The first is called Whisper Memos.
What I love about this Whispermemos dot Com is that

(22:29):
it is on your iPhone, but it's also on your
Apple Watch if you end up getting one of those.
You tap one thing and it immediately starts recording and
you can say whatever you want. It will use AI
to transcribe what you say. And this is the best part.
It'll be waiting in your email inbox when you get
to the station, so that way you don't have to

(22:50):
look in the app or figure out where you know
remember that you even said something, because it'll just all
be there. So that's number one. This is spot on.
It works every day. I used this since day one,
launched a year or two ago, and I absolutely love it.
The other thing I love if you're at your computer
and you just want to do voice dictation, there's an

(23:11):
app called Whisper Flow. This is they dropped the hwisp
r flow and this is my preferred dictation app on
my computer. I'm not kidding, Larry. I can get through emails.
I came back from vacation yesterday. I got through one
hundred emails in you know, an hour or so because
everything was voice dictated and it gets everything perfect thanks

(23:33):
to AI. So I love that one. How am I
doing so far?

Speaker 2 (23:35):
That was great? Hey listen, how much does this cost?

Speaker 4 (23:39):
Okay? So the Whisper Memos is basically thirty bucks for
the whole year. I think they might have raised prices
because it's so popular, but you can start out with
a free trial. Try it out, see if it works
for you. It's like, you know, remember those little micro
cassette recorders we had in the past, Like the tiny
little tape recorders. It's kind of like that, but a
high tech version of it. Now. If you want something

(23:59):
that's stay and alone, there is a product called PLoud Plaud.
I took a tour of a high school yesterday for
my kid, and I just had this little thing recording
the whole time of the tour, so I can you know,
take notes later, and it basically records everything kind of
like a microcet recorder, except it is a tiny business

(24:20):
card sized recorder that's fully digital, and it sinks to
your phone all the audio that it hears, and then
it summarizes it using AI. So that's also incredible. And
let me give you one more solution while I'm at it.
I've also been a user of this since day one.
This is called voice notes dot com and it is
similar to what I mentioned earlier with whisper memos, except

(24:42):
think of this as a digital notebook, and so anything
you say into this notebook, it saves forever. But it
also uses AI to organize that notebook. So, for instance,
when my kids say something silly, I record it into
this notebook, the voice text, and then it gives me
a list underneath that one memo that I just made

(25:03):
of all the other related things that my kids said
that was kind of funny. So I have these things
called tannerisms. My kid's name is Tanner says these silly things.
Not only did this show me the one I just recorded,
but all the previous ones, so I can reference them
as well, or you can just ask it for whatever
you want.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Well, that's adorable. Tannerisms. Hey, listen, Rich, you had no
idea I was going to ask that question, and that
was amazing. That's the kind of stuff you can get
from Rich and Rich on Tech on Sunday nights from
eight to eleven on woor If you have a tech question,
He's the guy to listen to and ask your questions to.
Speaking of which, I love this story about Apple giving

(25:39):
you a discount on accessories if you bring in an
old item to recycle. How old are we talking anything? Well?

Speaker 4 (25:50):
Yeah, well here's the deal. So there's two things that
can happen. You can either get a gift card for
the trade in value of the thing you're bringing in,
and they will decide, you know, they'll take a look
at it, do their little valuation, and then give you
a gift card on the spot if it qualifies. If not,
you can just leave it there and they will take
it off your hands. So did you even know, Larry

(26:10):
that the Apple store does like recycling of old products?
Because I didn't, no, not at all.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
How did you find this out?

Speaker 4 (26:16):
Yeah? Well, you know they contacted me, Hey, Rich, did
you know we do this? And I said no, I didn't.
And you know, as a tech person, I've always recommended
places like best Buy and Staples they have great recycling programs,
but the Apple Store. So I brought in a bunch
of products. I brought in an old iPad, an old
Android phone, and two laptops that I literally just had

(26:39):
sitting in my closet that I purchased, and they were
my old laptops. One I knew was worth money. The
other I thought was going to be trashed. Well, they
said the first one. I gave me like a nine
hundred dollars. For the second one, which I literally thought
I was just going to recycle, they said, this is
worth one hundred and ten dollars. This thing has been
sitting in my drawer for years, maybe four years. I said, absolutely,

(27:01):
take it off my hands. Android phone wasn't worth anything.
They recycled it properly. It had a swollen battery, no problem,
a bunch of cables, old iPad.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Didn't turn on.

Speaker 4 (27:10):
They took that, no problem. So right now, if you
bring something in to Apple, they're going to give you
ten percent off selected accessories, which I've never even heard
of a discounted Apple, but that's happening right now.

Speaker 7 (27:21):
Hey, rich you know I have a ton of you know,
tech in my house just piling up that are not
used anymore. But I'm always afraid to do anything with
them because I don't know what I should do before
I recycle it. I'm afraid my information might get out there.
What do you do with your products before you do that?

Speaker 4 (27:36):
Yeah, that is a great question and a valid concern
for sure, if you know, if you have the tech
know how to kind of factory reset them. A lot
of the products nowadays, you can just go into the
settings and reset if they don't charge up or turn
on Apple, And I asked them this specifically. They will
guide you if they can help you do it. They
will guide you to get your data off of there,
help you make a backup, or at least wipe it

(27:58):
clean if they can. They work with suppliers that responsibly
erase this stuff, of course without stealing your information. And
if you have a passcode on that device or a password,
they're not going to be able to easily access the
information on there anyway. They will instantly wipe it clean
before they recycle it. But I would get rid of it.
This is an easy way to bring in your old

(28:20):
stuff and have them take care of it.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
How good is Rich de Muro. You can hear them
on rich on Tech every Sunday night from eight to
eleven on WOOR and you can contact him yourself with
your questions at rich on Tech on Instagram. Rich talk
to you next week.

Speaker 4 (28:35):
Thanks, thanks, appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
That wraps up Saturday Morning for this week. Thank you
for listening, and thanks to producer Peter Arolano and producer
Natalie Vodka. I'll be back Monday morning from six to
ten for Mente in the morning. Hope you join us