St. Louis Has $255 Million and Nobody's Been Helped? - The St. Louis Podcast: Episode #150

One year after the tornado. 5,000 damaged homes. 69 demolitions completed. And the city just quietly signed a $26 million contract with an out-of-state company, no press release, no announcement, that's been audited for price gouging in three other states.

Oh, and AutoZone just quietly warned its managers about the largest motor oil shortage in American history. Because the Strait is still closed and nobody wants to say it out loud.

Plus RFK wants your kids eating grass-fed protein bowls at school while giving districts $4.60 to make it happen. And cutting the one program that made affordable local food possible.

Eric is fired up on this 150th episode. And he's not holding back.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Welcome back to another episode of the St. Louis Podcast. As always, my name is Eric Brown. Thank you for tuning in. As you can see, I was trying to hide the fact that I was drinking a beer today, uh, recording this episode. Because if you've seen uh some of the past episodes, it continues to be a recurring theme on this podcast of me being upset with the state of affairs. Uh, it's Friday. It's late, uh late in the afternoon that we are recording this. So therefore, you know, it's five o'clock somewhere, right? Loganitas, Little Something Something, Loganitas. I will take a sponsorship. I do appreciate it. Friends of the show. Uh today, wow, do we have some news stories? Do we have some hot takes? Do we have some stuff to get us in trouble on, as always? Uh, it always also continues to be a theme, at least on social media, specifically Facebook, that uh the older generation uh just really don't like us. Um, it continues to be it's like a battle of the ages in the comments on some of these reels and episodes that we're posting. Uh you know, we got uh, you know, 16, 70-year-olds talking one way, and and you know, people my age and you know, 40s and 20-year-olds saying, you know, this is just the boomer mentality. You guys are, this is why no one likes you. So if you want to get a kick, uh, regardless of of where you stand on any of the beliefs, uh, you know, and the stories that I go over on this podcast, um, I think you'd get a kick out of going through some of those, uh, some of those reels on Facebook. With that said, all right, today, what I wanted to talk about, starting off with, we got a couple things. We got, I want to talk about the how St. Louis now plans to spend the money from the Rams Stadium. Uh, let's talk about tornado relief. Let's talk about the Trump China summit. We'll talk about redistricting. And then I also found some information, interesting information about school lunches, which we will hopefully discuss as well. We'll see what we get through on today's episode. We'll see how long everything takes. You never know. Um, all right. So, with that said, obviously everyone remembers the tornado of May 16th, 2025. And EF3 came through, you know, a large swath of Missouri and of course damaged a lot of North St. Louis. Um, let's take uh you know little remembrance here is one year ago, 5,000 damaged homes. Um, of course, from the Rams money, we have $255 million sitting in a government money market account. And now they have a plan. Now, what I was going back and forth with is on this subject is who the hell are they really trying to help? Is it helping the whole city? Maybe. But it seems like a lot of this money is going towards where the tornado damage was. And I'm not even gonna sit here and say that that's a bad thing. I just find it interesting the fact that we are still sitting on this money from four years ago. Of course, you know, looking at how much stuff costs from 2020 to now, it's essentially 2x. Let's just 2x it. And so in 2022, obviously, um, you know, it would have our money would have been way better spent. We could have gotten a lot more for our money if it's, you know, building new stuff, if it's investing in businesses, blah, blah, blah, because that $220 million is now worth a lot less than it was four years ago. And if you need an e-comm lesson, I'm not here for it, and I'm not gonna give it to you. So, with that said, there have been uh about 330 permits filed uh for, and that that accounts for about one in 15 damaged homes. So one in 15 damaged homes has had a permit filed. Uh 69 demolitions completed, only 109 demolition packets even submitted to SEMA as of May 7th. Of course, uh Rams' total total settlement share was $280 million, $30 million mandated to the convention center and an outstanding $250 million in principle. Now, of course, a lot of the question was, well, where are they keeping this money? Is it in a high yield savings account, a money market account, whatever? So it was in essentially a high yield savings account. Um, it's accrued apparently about $22 million in interest, which uh they have essentially set aside to use for the future uh on whatever they deem needs to be spent on in the future. So that they're now proposed to spend $230 million. This was introduced yesterday, May 14th, with $25 million held in reserve. So the city placed the Rams money uh in Missouri Secretary's investment program. Now, of course, this is a government-run program, uh, an investment pool for municipalities, similar in structure to a very high-yield money market fund. But of course, the biggest issue is that this isn't right. We didn't invest it in stocks, and we can't. That's that's illegal. Um, but what we should have done was spent it four years ago or three years ago or even two years ago instead of waiting four years to spend this money. And of course, now we've allocated to spend it. Um, but now we're gonna wait on you know, bids and contractors and uh, you know, requests for work. So it's like, when the hell is this money actually going to be spent? It could be later this year, it could be another year or two um before, you know, actual change is happening. And I think that's just insane. I think it's also insane that you know, everyone's looking at this money as holy shit, this is gonna like change downtown. Um again, I'm not part of a development planning uh committee. I'm not, you know, you know, I'm none of these things when it comes to St. Louis City. Uh, but if I just look at St. Louis City um as it stands, uh, my first bet would be you need way more than $250 million to really make a large impact and change and change our downtown into what I think people actually want it to be. And therefore, people would actually go down there. And therefore, we can get conventions downtown. We get people traveling to St. Louis. Right? We should be investing this money to make more money or to make uh people's lives better here that live in St. Louis. Um, so it's not the stock market, it's not treasury bonds. Uh, that's what St. Louis uh County did with their $169 million share. Um, MOSIP earned about 4.38% in 2023 and 5.19% in 2024. Respectable for a capital preservation vehicle, but of course, not stock market returns. The SP 500 was up roughly 24% in 2023 and another 23% in 2024. Had this money been an index fund, obviously not an option though, for city funds under Missouri law, it would have roughly doubled. Uh, but of course, government entities can't take that kind of risk with public money. I mean, yes, I do agree with that. The biggest problem, again, like I said, is we've had this money just sitting in an account for four years and doing nothing with it. Um, but the cost to uh do a lot of which of what they have here in this proposal is going to cost a lot more than it did four years ago. And we'll go through how the city has completely botched um uh, you know, North County from Mayor Spencer uh to, you know, the Board of Alderman, the Board of S estimate and apportionment. It it this is absolutely an insane process. It reminds me of the videos you watch about um, you know, Los Angeles after their fire. I think, what, uh over? I think it's over, I think it's like a year and a half now. Um maybe it was last year, I I forget entirely, but uh where you know, really there's no construction happening, you know, in those areas that were burned down due to um policies and procedures in place and people in institutions that could not could that could care less about moving quickly. Um, you know, I think a lot of the issue that politicians, uh, you know, government officials, bureaucrats have is the fact that they move slow as hell. Um, and that's infuriating coming from a person that, you know, has essentially been in small businesses and startups uh, you know, my entire life. Uh when we need something done, when we want to change, we do it immediately. We do not wait. Uh, you know, if we need an action done, it gets done, it gets handled, and we move on. We would not be sitting on something, and and no company would. Uh, you know, that's successful. Um would look at this and say that was a good use of four years. And sit here and say that this is how our procurement or excuse me, our uh uh, you know, our license and our uh permit process should be for this area. We should be going out there, government officials, whoever it is, and making this shit happen. Uh, but of course, you know, it's North County, and we'll talk about, you know, North City, excuse me. We'll talk about North City, we'll talk about the fact that they've been fucked for the last 40 to 50 years. Um, St. Louis doesn't care. A lot of the people don't care. Um, and now we're trying to like, it almost seems like just a show of good faith and being like, well, we're sending you guys 110 million from the Rams settlement. So, unlike ARPA funds, uh, which have federal rules, Rams money had no legal deadline. Actually, a feature that let them deliberate, but it created a paralysis problem. Every spending decision uh required board of aldermen approval, board of estimate and apportionment, sign-off, and full procurement process. Mayor Jones did the initial community engagement. Mayor Spencer took over weeks before the tornado. Then a disaster hit and changed every political calculus overnight. Um, and again, you know, maybe it's good that we waited because now we can help out North City. Uh, it just seems like like, what the fuck are we doing? Uh then the disaster hit and change, obviously. The interest at least softened the opportunity cost argument, but 22 million on 250 million over four years while people debated dock restaurants is not a great look. Now, this is what I said last week where you got a bunch of uh how do I say this nicely? I guess I don't. I mean, a lot of these people in these government positions in St. Louis, it doesn't matter, look at any city. It's uh, you know, it's a bunch of people that are just, you know, uh in a circle, you know, circle jerking, not getting any work done. Um, and just just sending it around, passing it, passing it, passing it, and continuing to pass it. Um, and continuing to kick to can down the road. They don't care that your house burned down, they don't care that your house was torn down by a tornado. Um, they don't care about any of this stuff, obviously. Otherwise, we would have had way more than 69 total demolitions completed in a year with 5,000 damaged structures. That's unacceptable by every measure of the imagination. And then, of course, you got Kara Spencer out. And, you know, I would love to talk to some of these community organizations that have been involved up in um North City specifically. Uh, because I see them, you know, sometimes post occasionally with Kara Spencer, like, thanks for all the great work. And I'm just thinking to myself, what about this? Has been great work. Like, you know, maybe we would have we would have only gotten 50 demoed instead of 69. Like, I I, you know, I just don't know how we don't see this as an epic failure of every proportion possible. Um, so let's talk about the the Rams money breakdown. Of course, this is bill board bill 22. Uh North City. Now again, it's 250 million, or excuse me, 230 million. So North City is getting almost half 110 million of the 230 million dollars. Uh long uh-term tornado recovery fund. Uh that's gonna sit at $79 million for home repair, new housing, and business recovery. North St. Louis neighborhood implementation, uh, small businesses, sidewalks, trees, demolition, uh $31 million. Immediate housing support, rent payments for tornado victims, $5 million. I feel like it's a little late. I mean, these people, you think these people withstood a year without having some rent help? Uh we got $65 million going to city infrastructure, water, streets, sidewalks. Uh 30 million of that is earmarked for water division repairs and upgrades. We have downtown revitalization at $55 million. Now, some of you listening may think, wow, these are huge numbers. Go look up at how much money some of these buildings just cost to make. I don't see how $55 million is going to get us very far. Um, this is goes for you know, vacant properties, riverfront, and events, riverfront dock, bars and restaurants, gateway arch area is getting about 20 million. Uh vacant building stabilization, railway exchange exchange, etc., getting another about 20 million. And we're holding about 25 million in reserve. And my question is, is this a good use of our money? I don't know. I'm confused. I thought the gateway arch, we just did a bunch of work to that. Seems like it's still under construction. You know, I could I could see that we need some help on the riverfront. But what the hell is even down there anymore? Are we gonna put some dock are we gonna actually put some bars and restaurants back down there? I mean, if you look at the photos of the 90s of downtown, it's way better than it is now. Significantly better. In even early 2000s. Um, you know, you had the McDonald's down there, everyone knows the famous photos you had. I mean, you used to have the river boat and all of the stuff that would go up and down. It was a lively area, right? Now you walk downtown. I mean, a majority of the people that are downtown now during the day, uh, you know, work down there. It's not really people that are living down there. And this has created a whole issue. Um, so you know, another question I asked is is it fair that North City is getting about half of this money? And a simple answer is I don't know. Uh, you know, from an argument of the other side, obviously St. Louis isn't just North St. Louis. The water system is crumbling everywhere. Downtown's vacancy problem kills the city's tax base, which funds everything, including fire, police, and social services for every neighborhood. The mayor explicitly said the $230 million can't solve everything. So what's left has to go where it generates the most multiplier effect. The city says every dollar of downtown public investment could attract $3 in private matching. The infrastructure spending benefits every resident. The logic, a rising city lifts all boats. Um, you know, of course, you know, one of the issues, the Rams were a St. Louis institution. The NFL ripped the team away from them, fuck Stan Krounkey, uh, from working class fans across the entire metro, not just north, but north, south, east, and west. Now the settlement money lands and the bulk goes to a specific geographic area defined by where the tornado hit. Other neighborhoods, Dutchtown, Seulard, South City, North County, got nothing from the Rams, nothing from the tornado recovery, and their alderman Raware. Some wanted money spread across revolving loan funds that are that distressed neighborhoods could access. Former Mayor Jones Transform STL Act plan from December 2024 specifically called for citywide distribution across six funds, including childcare, a revolving redevelopment fund, and citywide infrastructure, not just North St. Louis. Of course, that plan got shelved. Do the tornado. And of course, change in leadership. So the real question we should be asking, and I'm asking it to these people that do live in these areas that, you know, need attention that this money is not going to. You know, if you live in Afton or Soulard, Beaver Mill, South City, where's your piece of this? The Rams left, heard all of St. Louis, not just North St. Louis. Families across the whole metro drove to see the team. And obviously, it brought in, you know, good money into downtown. Now, of course, I'll still stand against any sort of taxpayers being responsible for paying for the construction of $100 million plus billion dollar stadiums. Why? Because we are subsidizing billionaires. I've talked about that on the podcast. Go ahead and do a Google search if you'd like to learn more. Um, so families across all, yep, that lawsuit won in the name of the whole region. And yeah, the tornado was devastating. And that community doesn't need help just now. It needed help a year ago, it needed help six months ago, it needed help yesterday. They still need help today. Uh, there's potholes everywhere. I mean, all of this city needs attention. There's pipes bursting in every ward, and this has been going on since I lived downtown 10 years ago. Uh, there's small businesses dying in every neighborhood, not just North City. The question isn't whether St. Louis deserves the 110 million. They clearly do, and honestly, probably need it more. The question is whether $255 million of Rams money was ever going to be enough to heal a city that's been disinvested for 40 years. It wasn't. And we need to stop pretending it sets everyone, you know, in pr in continuing to pretend to do so, it sets everyone up for disappointment. Now, who the hell is this ST um Sullivan Land Services Company, right? So they're getting a contract value of up to 26 million, uh, signed January of 2026. No press issue released. No uh public actually didn't find out until investigative reporting. Proposals received were five total competitive bid process, but SL SLSCO has a loaded track record. Let's go through it. Sullivan Land Services Company is a Galveston Texas firm owned by brothers John Todd and Billy Sullivan. They specialize in disaster response and construction. Also, fuck these guys. Uh, their resume. $290 million Hurricane Sandy rebuild in New York City, $180 million Hurricane Maria rebuild in Puerto Rico, border wall construction for Trump, $145 million in Hidalgo County, $147 million near San Diego, $61 million in New Mexico. Uh, they build COVID field hospitals, they manage migrant shelter operations. This company is a catch-all of bullshit government contracts. They also built Florida's Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention facility. Um, they are a federal disaster contractor with deep government ties across Republican administrations, which is interesting. That's St. Louis City went with them. Uh, this is where things get interesting. An audit in New York City found Sullivan Land Services Company and other companies charged exorbitant rates operating migrant shelters. A North Carolina audit questioned costs for shower laundry station setup for Hurricane Halene victims with allegations of outright price gouging during the disaster. In Missouri, specifically, the Missouri Independent reported that Sullivan Land Services Company received a $25 million no bid contract during COVID, marked by no shows and inflated costs. Their border wall work was staffed with armed security guards who Per whistleblower lawsuit were illegally smuggled in through a special breach in the same wall they were building. The Sullivan brothers have donated over 250,000 to Texas Governor Abbott's campaigns and received hundreds of millions and no bid contracts under his emergency declarations. I mean 250,000 for hundreds of millions? Sounds like a no-brainer to me. Get money out of fucking politics. It's insane. And then of course we choose them. Spencer said the market for large-scale disaster contractors is consolidated. There aren't many companies that can do this at scale. She's right that this is a specialized capital-intensive industry with a handful of national players. She said that SLSCO has been embedded in city operations for well over a month and expressed confidence in the relationship. The contract does include measurable reporting requirements and homeowner satisfaction benchmarks. That's more accountability than uh, you know, the no bid COVID. Wow. That's more accountability than no bid COVID contracts got. The question isn't whether they can do the work, it's whether a city that's been burned by contractor relations before did enough due diligence on a firm with this particular track record. Like I said before, 110 million. That's going 26 is going to this company. It's insane. It's insane. 10%, people, 10%. The city of St. Louis, after more than a year, quietly signs a $26 million contract with Galveston, Texas Company to manage tornado recovery. No press release, no announcement. People found out through investigative reporting. Same company, as I said, that built Trump's border wall, alligator Alcatraz, audited for overcharging New York City during the migrant crisis, allegedly price gouged North Carolina during Hurricane Aline, and got a $25 million no bid contract, COVID contract in Missouri that was flagged for no shows and inflated costs. And they were picked through a legitimate bid process to her credit by a mayor who says uh we needed a company with that uh kind of skill and experience. Fine. But the city didn't tell everyone. That's the problem. The lack of transparency around a $26 million contract going to an out-of-state firm with that track record while North St. Louis residents are still living in rubble. That's not accountability, that's damage control after the fact. Do we have like anyone that's like, yeah, shit, they're actually like good at their job. That's you know, a say that's in St. Louis as a politician, honestly. Name one. Uh, so of course, you know, our you know, the city had no playbook. So let's let's just go back. Uh, right after tornado hit, uh, she had no time to build a recovery infrastructure before the disaster. So St. Louis did not ever have one. The city had no playbook for an EF5-3 at the scale. St. Louis hasn't faced anything like it. Spencer and Nick's actually wrote in their FEMA request that this was comparable to the 2011 Joplin tornado, and the city didn't have capacity handle it alone. That's honest, but I'm new and overwhelmed, doesn't rebuild houses. Of course, Trump's push to weakened, eventually eliminate FEMA, created a moving target. FEMA rules kept changing. The Army Corps request, which would have expedited debris removal and been completed as early as March 2026, was denied. Spencer warned in writing that city only handling would add 18 months to the timeline. She was right, it did. On August 15th last year, the Army Corps was in St. Louis for their annual low water inspection. Major General Kimberly Peoples, who commands the Mississippi Valley District, was available to meet about tornado recovery. Spencer didn't attend. A state rep who arranged the meeting confirmed tornado recovery was on the agenda. FEMA denied the Army Corps request the following month. Whether Spencer's present would have changed the outcome is unknowable, but the optics are bad. Why weren't you at the meeting? That's like number one most important meeting to be at for that day.

SPEAKER_00 26:24

Where were you?

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Living it up with Clayco CEO. Go ahead and approve that data center, you moron. Um private property, you know, there's red tape on top of red tape, and it really reminds me, like I said, of Los Angeles and kind of, you know, there's been a ton of news stories on the process that's been followed there. And how government officials uh are of no help. And honestly, it seems like they uh they want to cause more damage by not pushing stuff through, by not being available, by having all of this red tape, by making it impossible to knock down the structure that is there in order to rebuild. So private property debris removal requires legal entry rights, environmental abatement, asbestos and lead, excuse me, historical preservation review, and federal compliance documentation. Missouri has to build a private property debris removal program from scratch, their first ever. Every step added weeks. Add North St. Louis's historic uh preservation zone complications, and you get a system where motivated homeowners wait months just to get demolition approval. So the Rams left all so here's my questions. The Rams left all of St. Louis. Why does the money mainly go to one part of the city? $255 million has been sitting in a government money market account for four years. Was that the best stewardship of public funds, or was it the only legal option? Uh, no. Terrible idea. Why was uh that Sullivan Land Company services uh contract signed quietly with no release for announcement? I think we all know why. Spencer says she's very proud of the recovery, but one in 15 permits filed. How do those two things coexist? They don't. That's what I was saying before. They don't. They do not. Um, what is the city's plan if uh SLC, you know, underperforms the same way? Uh that's spear tested. Is there any scenario where North St. Louis gets fully rebuilt with this money, or is $110 million always going to be too little, too late? So $350 million in total state federal aid has already moved. Rams money was one piece piece of a much larger response. MOSIP was uh the legally required prudent option for public funds. Cities can't gamble with municipal money in equities. The market for large-scale disaster contractors is narrow. You know, that's a that's a problem in and of itself. It seems like it's consolidated. I wonder why. FEMA's dysfunction and Trump's hostility toward federalized uh disaster response hamstrung everything at every level. Historic preservation requirements are real legal constraints, not bureaucratic cowardice. Downtown investment generates tax revenue that ultimately funds services for every neighbor in the city. And of course, she inherited a city with no disaster infrastructure and had weeks before the worst tornado in modern St. Louis history. Uh, let's, you know, we talked about that for a good while. Let's move over. Let's real quick talk about uh school lunch programs. I'm already annoyed. I don't think I want to talk about Trump and the whole Beijing thing. It's you know, we can talk about it next week. It's still important. Which of course it's going to be. Um, oligarchs run the U.S. It's a it's a it's a technocracy now. It's been very obvious. I talked about this last year, like uh, you know, like a month into Trump's presidency, when he was surrounded by Bezos, you know, Zuckerberg, Elon, you know, Google guys, they're all there. That is the new deep state. As far as the people that like are forward-facing that we know about, right? Peter Teal, all of those guys. So let's talk about school lunch. Maha versus reality, the school lunch squeeze nobody's talking about. RFK says eat whole foods and more protein. Schools get $4.60 per meal. The math doesn't work, and nobody wants to say it out loud. So we have a federal reimbursement per free lunch, $4.60. That's what a school gets from the feds to feed a low-income kid. Lunches served daily nationally, $30 million. Schools unable to afford current meal costs, two and three. Maha guidelines haven't even been enforced yet. So, what Maha is actually demanding? So, RFK Jr. and the Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins rolled out new dietary guidelines. More protein and every level whole foods, no ultra-processed items, less sugar, full fat dairy. Schools participating in the national school lunch program must comply to keep receiving federal funding. The USDA is expected to publish enforcement regulations this spring. Noncompliance means losing federal reimbursement. The funding schools depend on to serve 30 million kids daily. Listen, I am not going to sit here and say that mandating better food, more healthy food is a bad idea. What we had for lunch at public schools, and it wasn't great. Wasn't awful, but it wasn't great. I mean, shit, Bosco sticks. I mean, once you look back at it, they are right. We weren't eating the most healthy stuff on the planet. Uh Eureka had, you know, sandwich. We can go get sandwiches, you know, cold cuts, big piece of bread. But yeah, it's not like, you know, there was ever a uh a chicken bowl I can get. It wasn't the healthiest food. And I'll be honest, I don't know how much it's changed since then. But um I believe Michelle Obama, big Mike, uh was trying to make some changes to food. I don't exactly know what she was able to get through. But I do agree that food at schools do need to be significantly healthier. Because if you look at the obesity rate of children, if you look at the obesity rate of adults, there's a reason the kids are obese, is because the adults are obese. So let's just get rid of that option for them to eat like shit at least one of those meals when they're at school. But again, the problem is the funding, right? The problem is the funding. Protein is the most expensive item on a cafeteria plate, which is fucking why we never got any. Uh, what do we have? Like maybe chickens, you know, chicken strips or something. I don't even remember. I'm having a hard time remembering what I even ate in middle school or even high school for lunch. Besides like pizza, Bosco sticks, you know, chicken tenders, sandwiches. What the hell even else was there? I don't even know. Can't I literally can't even remember? Um, okay, so schools currently serve processed pre-made food because it's cheap and scalable. Why not just get like HelloFresh or one of these companies and start just making meals? They can't get that shit done for $4.60. They got some. I mean, shit, if you order like a certain amount, it's like nine bucks a meal. Can't get HelloFresh or one of these people to do this? Cook Unity. Um, switching to scratch cooked protein heavy meal costs significantly more, but the $4.60 federal reimbursement per meal hasn't meaningfully increased. And obviously, we know how much food has increased, you know, since COVID, let alone since the Iran war. And the Strait of Armood blockage, which I'm not going to talk about today, but let me tell you, it's heating up over there. And it's still nothing's going on. Nothing's going through. Um, you know, I I should have read the uh, you know, maybe I'll post this, but on Reddit, someone from AutoZone uh went ahead and posted a uh a nationwide training that's going on uh due to the fact that they're saying uh they're their lubrication, oil, they're gonna have a lot of issues with a lot of their liquids here shortly. Um, you know, price is going to skyrocket. Let me actually just see if I can I can find. I think the first page was the most useful. Okay. So when okay, so pending store wide training, all Southeast Region Team District Parts and Storm Managers, how AutoZone will navigate the impending supply shortage of motor oil, diesel engine oil, and specialty fluids. Team, and obviously now I'm off track, but we'll come back to this. Team, when speaking about unusual or historic supply chain disruptions, it's common for those of us who have been in the business for a moment to reference situations from decades ago. But the truth is, if you've been with us for even a year, you're you've already worked through one major supply loss and related rebranding. If you've been with us for just a bit longer, you work through one of the most difficult reshufflings of inventories and changes in sales flow in our company history during COVID. That's why I'm not worried by what we're facing today. Preparation and dedication of every one of our team members will see this through, just as you all did before. That's why I'm not worried about what we're facing today. So, what new challenges are we facing? In the interest of total transparency, there's zero benefit in mincing words. Due to the unfolding situation in the Middle East, we're facing the largest supply shortage of lubricating liquids in the modern history of America. Realistic middle-of-the-road estimates are for our average supply in this product category to drop 40%. Some specific products will have better availability, others will have far worse, and some will become entirely unavailable. Costs will rise often dramatically at non-standard intervals, and margins will be squeezed. But in crisis, there's always opportunity to find the light by evolving to the situation. By helping our communities who are going through the same struggle, AutoZone has been tirelessly working behind the scenes to do exactly that. In the coming weeks, we will be providing full training sessions on our in development motor oil and specialty fluid substitution recommendation system. Uh system, where was I just at? Uh the substitution reference will incorporate guidance from every automotive manufacturer on the tiers of approved replacements for minor warranty secure viscosity changes to emergency use-only products. It will be uh capable of providing authoritative, no worries, guidance based on store and regional inventory. And the customer situation. A late model Toyota driver is coming up on an oil change, and zero W16 isn't available. It might recommend STP any mileage 5W20, and we show we have a five-quart jug shipped to him next week. A ride share driver comes in with uh oil light on, barely anything showing on the dipstick. And all you have in stock is HDO 15W40. It will correctly advise the customer to just get oil into the engine, an emergency substitution using the 15W40. Every situation will receive actionable guidance, escalated to a dedicated helpline if necessary. Some specific products will have better availability than others. Others will have far worse, and some will become entirely unavailable. Uh costable, oh, I said that. Uh, we plan to become the go-to solution pro uh provider for those who met with empty shelves and fear of unknown replacements. We'll provide guidance in supplies to the soon-to-be first uh time home oil changers who can no longer spare the increased cost coming to every lube change. We intend to beat every competitor meeting this challenge head on and expect tens of thousands of new customers. Together, we'll all assist in maintaining an essential normalcy in times of hardship, keeping America on the road. So that's my news for straight informes today. AutoZone is saying that we are going to see a massive increase in price on lubrications. Um, we're going to also see uh constraint on the availability of those items. So that's fun. Going back to uh the lunch issue. So, as I was saying, protein is the most expensive item on the cafeteria plate. Believe me, I know when I buy food, protein is the most expensive, and steak has just continued to increase. I remember when I first moved into my apartment. Well, my previous apartment, and I started cooking steak a lot. You know, Costco had it, I believe it was like $8.99 a pound for uh strip, New York strip. Um, I believe that has almost doubled. You know, when I go now, it's like $14, $15, and it's like at this point, why am I buying Costco steak? Uh Sam's steak is better. If you want to look it up, why do a quick Google research? Um, okay. So 67% of the districts already saying they can't afford current costs, let alone obviously what they're trying to mandate. The Maha mandate is a quality upgrade with no money to pay for it. Classic. While mandate, you know, what Trump can cut at the same time, while mandating higher quality meals, the Trump administration cut the farm to school grant program that let districts buy local food from farmers cheaper, fresher, more nutritious. Of course not. Why the fuck would they? You know, I'm sure big food paid Trump a little bit of money, and he's like, we can kill local farmers. Who cares?

SPEAKER_00 41:05

It's embarrassment.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

Um, the program was briefly shut down, then reopened, and uh with reduced funding in the Biden era DEI component stripped out. Schools are being told to do more with less, and that's been an ongoing issue. Shit, since I was in high school. Um, the one big beautiful bill, which is the one big bullshit bill, uh, changed SNAP and Medicaid eligibility. Kids enrolled in SNAP are automatically enrolled in free lunch programs. Titan Snap eligibility equals fewer kids qualify for free lunch, equals districts lose federal reimbursement for those meals, equals funding crutch compounds. Every policy connects to one another. Um, you know, RFK Jr. wants your kids eating a grass-fed protein bowl at school, but the federal government is giving kids uh schools $4.60 to make it happen. Meanwhile, they cut the program that lets districts buy fresh food from local farmers. They tighten SNAP eligibility so fewer kids even qualify for free lunch. And if districts can't afford to meet the new guidelines, they get fucked and they lose all their money. Which means they serve less food, worse food to the kids who need it the most. Again, you know, I can understand uh people not liking entitlements towards the people that can work, but we are talking about kids. We're talking about kids with shitty fucking parents that don't care about them, don't care how they're fed. You'll eat at school, figure it out. Um those are the type of kids that need the most help. Um, you know, I never had to worry about buying lunch food. You know what I mean? Never had it, never had the issue. Uh, but if I did have the issue, let me tell you what. And they were doing this right now, um, I'd be up in an uproar. I'd be I I don't know how like the people who need to be the most pissed about this are the people that were supported by this program in school already. Um I do agree that you know, just based off of how much money our federal government brings in and how much we spend on entitlements and everything else, it doesn't balance. Um, one thing I do not want to get rid of is $4.60 going to uh kids' lunches. That's insane to me. Go ahead and tax the billionaires, get more money from them. We don't need trillionaires, we don't need people with $800 billion, we don't need people with $500 billion, we don't need people with a hundred billion dollars. And yeah, you know, income tax doesn't work. Because all their money is held in debt and stocks. I get it. Congrats. Whatever other money instruments that they have where they never, you know, they really don't have to pay that much in taxes compared to the overall wealth. Whereas a person that makes 50 grand, you know, fucking 15% of that uh is taxed. And then obviously you have sales tax and everything else on top of that. So really, how far is your money even getting you? Um, you know, this it if people should be super upset about this, um, I do agree that we need better food in schools. Um, but if we're cutting out, you know, the legs right at that policy, I don't see how, you know, this is just like uh what's the word I'm looking for? Virtue signaling. Thank you. Say, oh, RFK gets it. We need steak for every kid. With what money? Wealthier school uh districts with more paying students, a local tax support, of course, can absorb those higher meal costs. Low income districts where federal reimbursement is the primary funding get squeezed the hardest. As usual, as usual goes with the U.S. Um, with localities, with states. Uh, community is killed, no one cares about one another. Um the disparity between the richest and the poorest continue to grow.

SPEAKER_00 45:26

And what we do is we say, fuck those kids. Good policy. And we wonder why, you know, let alone millennials, uh, but Gen Z and these younger people hate politics.

SPEAKER_01 45:44

They hate all of them. All of them. Name one person, they hate them. Trump, fuck Trump. Elon Musk, fuck Elon Musk. Jeff Bezos, fuck Jeff Bezos. I agree. Uh, so my question is, you know, is this school lunch program genuine? Or is it a program, you know, is it a mandate schools can't realistically meet? I don't know why. I can't do a good RFK junior, sorry. Why cut farm to school, the one program that made local affordable protein actually possible? I think we know why. Uh is it even a conspiracy that we want the poor to be even poorer in this country and to be entirely reliable upon the government? Who holds the bag when a district can't comply? Do kids lose lunch, or does the district lose funding? You know, maybe both. If you actually wanted to improve school nutrition, what would the money look like to do it right? Well, let's look at the price of a Chipotle bowl. About nine bucks with chicken. I would assume we can get that price down.

SPEAKER_00 46:55

So let's look at that. If we really want like just, you know, whatever, salad bowl, shit like that.

SPEAKER_01 47:08

So I have a real issue with what's going on locally, nationally. You know, it seems like they're just trying to take away. I don't even know. With St. Louis, money doesn't go to the right spots. Uh, the people aren't actually helped. It's a lot of virtue signaling from Kara Spencer herself. It's a lot of virtue signaling right now from RFK Jr. Um You know, the whole thing with like uh, you know, the one chain that everyone used to love and say, Louis steak and shake. Oh, you know, it's uh what is a beef tallow now?

SPEAKER_00 47:48

It's like oh calm the fuck down. Good job.

SPEAKER_01 47:56

You're still like a a quick food chain making like burgers and fries. Is it really that healthy? So I encourage all of you that are in St. Louis, look up this, look up this uh, what was it? Bill 22. Whatever it is, you can figure out the name. Look up uh, you know, how St. Louis is attempting to spend this money. I'm also curious what you guys think. Please like, review, comment, share with a friend, subscribe. We appreciate everyone's support. Um, you know, I've been on this hot seat here for the last couple of weeks, really kind of speaking my mind, and I'm not always right. And I'm not always wrong, but I am wrong, and I'm sometimes right. Hopefully, a lot more right than I am wrong, but who knows? I'm not a genius when it comes to this stuff. This isn't my specialty. I just think this is the stuff that needs to be paid attention to, as it you know, it impacts everyone. Even if you don't have kids, this impacts, you know, your friends, family, neighbors that do. Um, if you're in St. Louis, this 100% affects you. Even if you're in the county, like, ooh, you know? So uh, you know, that's all we that's all the time we have to for today. Again, please like, review, subscribe, leave a comment. Um, as always, support the companies that support us. Halfcoast Studios here where I'm recording this podcast in Creefcore, Missouri. Uh, they can record podcasts, they can help you set you up a podcast studio at your home or office or wherever you're planning on doing it. They can edit it, they could distribute it, they can market it, they can do it all. Halfcoastudios.com. It's getting warm out there. If your house is hot and your AC is continuing to turn on, uh if your if rooms are different temperatures, it may do the fact that your attic has no insulation in it. So if you want, go ahead and take a peek yourself. Look up there, see if you got about 18 inches of insulation. You probably don't. It probably looks like shit. You probably don't have enough. If your house is built in like the 80s, 90s, even you know, early 2000s, or you've recently bought a home in that age and you don't know. Um, you know, insulation is something that's honestly not very expensive at all. I'm not gonna tell you what it costs. I do know. It depends on the house, it depends on the square footage of the attic, how much we got to put in. If we're removing stuff, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Of course, me, I don't have to get in attics, thank God. Uh, I was just in the attic of the house I bought a couple months ago looking about, you know, I try and do some work myself, putting uh, you know, a couple lights in. Uh, the kitchen is awful when it comes to lighting. Try to put a fan in the bathroom. You know, it's a home that was built in the 50s. No fan in the bathroom. Insane. And of course, so I was in the attic looking at everything anyway. So you need some insulation, you need some soundproofing. Um, hit up the guys over at West County Insulation, they'll get you taken care of. Check out their Google reviews. And of course, as always, last but not least, the best day of marketing company on the planet, Vi Media, VIE Media. Uh, I've been in business for over nine years now. We specialize really with home service companies uh and law firms. But sometimes uh we take on clients in other verticals as well. It really just depends on if we're confident if we're gonna be able to do a good job for you or not. Uh so reach out to us, vi.media. Or of course, just type in Vi Media on Google, check out our reviews. We got some good reviews. Hit us up. We appreciate you all.

SPEAKER_00 51:30

Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you next week. Bye bye.