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--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: And I'm John Bickley, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's Thursday, September 14th. After a month's long slowdown, inflation has again leapt upwards. Meanwhile, a new report shows household income fell for the third consecutive year. What's behind the latest spike and how is it affecting regular Americans?
--:-- John Bickley: That's right, Georgia. Let's dive into it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: After months of cooling, America's inflation rate jumped up last month, driven by skyrocketing gas prices. The news comes as a separate report shows that household income fell in 2022 for the third straight year.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Hi, I'm Cabot Phillips, Senior Editor at the Daily Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Cabot, tell us about this latest inflation report.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, on Wednesday, the Labor Department released their highly anticipated inflation report, and it showed that in August, the all-important consumer price index, which tracks the basic costs of goods and services throughout the country, rose 0.6% last month to 3.7%.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, while that may not sound like much of a jump, it's actually the largest single month increase since inflation peaked back in June of 2022.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Exactly. And look, not to beat a dead horse, but it is always important to remember when discussing inflation, that 3.7% inflation rate means there was a 3.7% increase this August compared to last.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But remember, we were sitting at 8.3% 12 months ago. So it's essentially building on top of itself.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So while rates may not be rising in the double digits anymore, the reality now is that inflation has ingrained itself in our economy, meaning basic goods are considerably higher than they were two years ago, which again drives purchasing power down. It is a new and very unwelcome normal.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, what are the main reasons for this most recent increase?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So a number of goods and services went up in August, notably airfare, which jumped 5% month to month. Car insurance was also up 2.5%, and car maintenance costs ticked up another percent.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But the main factor by far was gasoline, which jumped nearly 11% in August.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That's the single largest increase in 14 months. For context, a gallon of gas is now 384 nationwide. That's 50% higher than gas prices in January of 2021.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Those prices have been driven up by a variety of factors, including record global demand in the month of August, refinery disruptions caused by hurricanes, and decreased oil production in Saudi Arabia.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And there's also the fact that the Biden administration is no longer able to tap into the nation's emergency oil reserve, which had been used in the last few years to increase supply and lower prices at the pump.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Our emergency reserves are now at their lowest levels since the 80s so there simply not much left to pull from.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now this latest inflation news comes just a day after another concerning report. That one was regarding household income.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, this one went under the radar, but very concerning to say the least.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So on Tuesday, the Census Bureau released new data showing that when adjusted for inflation, median household income in America fell 2.3% last year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That is the largest annual drop in over a decade, and now the third straight year of decline.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Back in 2019, household income hit a record high of $78,250. Last year, it fell to $74,580.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And when you look closer, the numbers get even worse. When taxes are taken into account, real median income levels fell 8.8% to $64,000.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And there's even more concerning data with regard to poverty rates. Last year, the after-tax poverty rate jumped 59% compared to the year before. It's now at 12.4% after sitting around 7% in 2021.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So very concerning numbers there. What's to blame?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So first and foremost, throughout the last two years, while wages have gone up, they simply have not kept pace with inflation, meaning a $70,000 salary is not what it used to be.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We've also seen a number of Trump-era tax cuts expire in the last year or so, as well as the expiration of COVID-era stimulus payments and other federal benefits that were not available in 2022.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So bottom line, inflation may have cooled a bit in the last few months, but its impacts are still being felt across the country as Americans are earning less and paying more.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, can't help but think that this is sort of the other shoe dropping for all that COVID spending.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Seems that way.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A federal judge has frozen the controversial gun order New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham issued last week.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hi, I'm Tim Pierce, Daily Wire Reporter.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Tim, first off, what happened in court on Wednesday?
--:-- Tim Pierce: The governor lost, at least for now. U.S. District Judge David Urias, appointed by President Biden in 2021, sided with the plaintiffs and froze the governor's gun order.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He found reason to believe that the defendants faced potentially irreparable harm because of the governor's order.
--:-- Tim Pierce: After reviewing the motions before the court, the arguments made by the parties at this hearing, the public health order signed by the Secretary of New Mexico Department of Health, the Executive Order 2023-130, and the applicable law regarding restrictions on the public carrying of firearms, the court will grant the plaintiff's motion for a temporary restraining order.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Urias interviewed the two sides for about an hour before making his decision.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The judge seemed to lean toward the plaintiffs and told the government that it had a hard road to prove their case.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here's a bit from the hearing.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The status quo is more guns, not less, right? That's That's the argument that I keep hearing from the folks on my left. More guns, not less. And at this point... I have to say, I don't hear that from them. What I hear from them is they just want the right to carry their guns. They don't want necessarily more guns on the street. They just want the right to carry the guns.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Where are you getting this idea that they want more guns
--:-- Tim Pierce: This is just the latest blow against Lujan Grisham since she signed the order last week.
--:-- Georgia Howe: On Tuesday New Mexico attorney general a fellow elected Democrat and a Lujan Grisham ally broke from her on the gun order and said his office would not defend it in court.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, why did the state attorney general break with the governor?
--:-- Georgia Howe: He believes she's overreached.
--:-- Tim Pierce: New Mexico attorney general Raul Torres wrote the governor a letter on Tuesday laying out his case. He said he recognizes that his statutory obligation is to defend the government in legal cases against the state, but, quote, my duty to uphold and defend the constitutional rights of every citizen takes precedence.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Torres said he believes the governor's order neither protects the public nor passes constitutional muster.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, where did law enforcement stand on this? Was it actually being enforced?
--:-- Tim Pierce: A pretty remarkable thing has happened in New Mexico. Over the past few days, every level of law enforcement refused to work with the governor on this.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Albuquerque's local police wouldn't enforce it. The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office refused to enforce it.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The Attorney General's Office won't prosecute it or defend it in court. Even the state police, the same state police, by the way, that were the lone enforcers in some instances of the governor's shutdown orders during the pandemic, they haven't ticketed a single person over this despite the clear violations that took place in Albuquerque this week.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's been a total rejection of the governor by law enforcement and by many other public officials.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Here's what Lujan Grisham told CNN about the situation on Tuesday.
--:-- Georgia Howe: My question to law enforcement is, where are you? Where are you?
--:-- Tim Pierce: In that young 11-year-old, Roy Lynn Villegas, 17 rounds were fired into that gun. 35,000 rounds are fired at least annually in Albuquerque alone. You are not safe going to work, getting your prescription drugs, or going to a public park.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The governor is alone on this, and Republicans are trying to use it to remove her from office through impeachment.
--:-- Tim Pierce: It's hard to see how a legislature dominated roughly two to one by Democrats would oust a Democratic governor, but the clear lack of support for Lujan Grisham's order has to make the governor a little nervous.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. It sounds like all the momentum is against her right now.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Tim, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Great to be on.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Michigan State University has suspended head football coach Mel Tucker without pay while it investigates allegations of sexual harassment.
--:-- David Cohn: Hi, I'm David Cohn, sports writer and co-host of the Crane & Company podcast.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So Dave, this story seemed to come out of nowhere this weekend.
--:-- David Cohn: First, can you walk us through the timeline of these events?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Sure. So the origins of this story date back two years.
--:-- David Cohn: When Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker teamed up with Brenda Tracy, a rape survivor who has made educating athletes about sexual violence her life's work for over a decade now.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Coach Tucker invited Tracy to campus three different times.
--:-- David Cohn: That was twice to speak with his team about sexual assault and once actually to be an honorary captain during Michigan State's spring football game, and that was in 2022.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Then in December of that same year, Tracy filed a complaint with Michigan State's Title IX office claiming Mel Tucker made sexual comments and masturbated during a phone call.
--:-- David Cohn: Now, Tucker, who is married with children, was interviewed by an attorney in March and admitted to those sexual acts while on the phone with Tracy but claimed it was consensual.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Tracy denies that last point.
--:-- David Cohn: The investigation conducted by an outside third party was concluded in July with a recommendation for a formal hearing, which has been scheduled for October 5th and 6th, and that's Michigan State's bi-week in football.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, Michigan State AD Alan Holler suspended Coach Tucker without pay until this hearing is complete.
--:-- David Cohn: So the university has known about this matter for nine months and has known about the investigators' recommendations for a couple of months, but waited until after football season started to suspend Tucker.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What's the reasoning there?
--:-- David Cohn: That is the question everyone wants to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There seems to be a lack of communication all the way up the ranks.
--:-- David Cohn: And this is particularly troubling for a university that is still dealing with the aftermath of Larry Nassar, the gymnastics team doctor who was convicted of sexually assaulting at least 265 young women when he was involved with that university.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. Now, how has Tucker responded to these allegations?
--:-- David Cohn: Coach Tucker is saying that Tracy's twisting the facts.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Her phone bills indicate that she spoke with Mel Tucker at least 27 times over the course of a year, an average of once every two weeks for about a half hour.
--:-- David Cohn: Tucker has not argued this point, but did tell investigators on March 22nd that, and I'm quoting here, Ms. Tracy's distortion of our mutually consensual and intimate relationship into allegations of sexual exploitation has really affected me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm not proud of my judgment, and I am having difficulty forgiving myself for getting into this situation, but I did not engage in misconduct by any definition, unquote.
--:-- David Cohn: All right, so dozens of lengthy calls between the two of them, and he's saying this is consensual.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Correct.
--:-- David Cohn: Now, Tucker has a really lucrative contract, right?
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right. He signed one of the highest paying coaching contracts in the country back in November of 2021.
--:-- David Cohn: That deal was 10 years for a fully guaranteed $95 million.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That money can be voided, however, via a moral turpitude clause, which allows Michigan State to fire Tucker if he engages in immoral or deviant behavior or conduct that embarrasses the university.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, as for the team, Michigan State, what's their interim solution while he's suspended?
--:-- David Cohn: They've named secondary coach Harlan Barnett as the interim head coach for now.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He's been on staff for the past four seasons, so there won't be any lack of familiarity.
--:-- David Cohn: It's also been announced that former Spartan head coach Mark D'Antonio will assist in an undefined role.
--:-- Georgia Howe: On a purely sports level, Michigan State is heading into the weekend facing a major opponent in the eighth-ranked Washington Huskies at home in East Lansing this Saturday.
--:-- David Cohn: So it'll be interesting to see how the community responds amid all this turmoil.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, it will be.
--:-- David Cohn: Dave, thanks for joining us.
--:-- David Cohn: Thank you for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Craning Company co-host David Cohn. Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If you love our show and you stand with our mission, please consider subscribing, leaving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend.
--:-- John Bickley: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
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