Hi! For disclosure, I'm not going to talk about the issues Life is Strange has. There are a few of them, and they're mostly technical. A lot of people seem to have some kind of issue with the endings. I really don't. I thought they were fine, quite honestly. Instead, what I'm going to do with this video here is to celebrate what I loved in Don't Know Entertainment's frankly brilliant video game. Life is Strange is a five-part, episodic adventure game developed by Don't Know Entertainment and published by Square Enix. It tells the story of senior photography student Maxine, known as Max Caulfield, and her return to her hometown of Arcadia Bay after a five-year absence. Something of a social outcast, Max doesn't quite fit with most other students at her new school. When she discovers the ability to go back through time, as a girl is shot right in front of her very eyes, Max decides to stop the deed from ever having happened. Little does she know that the girl shot in front of her is in fact her estranged best friend, Chloe, with whom she hasn't spoken for the five years. She was away from Arcadia Bay. The game is part mystery, part high school simulator and part science fiction. And yet, underneath it all, Life is Strange is a beautiful story about friendship. It is a story about the strength of the bond between two very different girls. It is far from perfect, but it is very, very good. Mainly on the merit of its characters. And those characters come alive in somewhat unexpated ways, considering that they start out as little more than the stereotypes we all know. And love to hate. They are a few stronger compliments I can give to the writing team than this. They brought the characters to life. If they hadn't, honestly, I don't think Life is Strange would have worked at all. One of my favorite writers of words about the games said this about Life is Strange and I quote, I know it sounds like there is a lot of criticism there, but episode one is also earnest and gawky and sweet. Life is strange itself, feels teenaged. It's not realistic and it's not subtle, but it taps into a vein of fiction I'd forgotten existed. One which is imperfect, exploratory and full of liminal charm. And those are the words of Philippa War of Rock Paper Shotgun fame. And she's really quite hit the mark, hasn't she? Life is strange, really is charming, and it will touch you, and it will certainly leave a mark. This adventure will be bittersweet, and it might drain you emotionally at times. Hell, I actually teared up at two, possibly even three occasions. I was horrified for both Max and Chloe at different moments in the game, as well as for other, more minor characters. And although I saw the ending coming, I still felt that that final choice in the game was important. I did not actually expect the choice. It affected me more strongly than most game endings I've played through, at least in recent memory. And I will talk more about it in a few days in a spot of field video. But for now, let's just say that hopefully it will not disappoint you. I will miss Arcadia Bay, I will miss Max's selflessness and Chloe's awesomeness. But I guess that it's time to finally say goodbye. However, I am glad that over the period of eight months, I got to live through this adventure. It really was one of the most special times I've had with a game, and it will forever be burned into my memory. It is not the destination that matters, it is a journey. And this journey, it was beautiful. At any rate, one thing is for certain, this game surely loves its little butterfly for shadowing. And I did too, honestly.


to Sheboygan County government working for you. My name's Adam Payne, Sheboygan County Administrative Coordinator and co-host of this program with Chairman Bill Gehring. And today is rather a special program. Not only do we have Anne Wundergem, our Director of the Health and Human Services Department, but a special guest, Heidi Thompson, who is a foster parent and going to be talking somewhat about her roles and responsibilities. Nice to have you both here today. Thank you. Thank you. Anne, we're going to start with you. Please begin by sharing a little bit about the broad roles and responsibilities of the Health and Human Services Department. And you want me to do that in five minutes or less. In five minutes or less. As you know, Adam, we consist of five major divisions. And those divisions are our Division on Aging, our Division of Economic Support, Community Programs. And Heidi, of course, is very familiar with community programs, also being an adult family home provider. Our Division of Social Services. And you'll find out a little bit more about our foster care program and that division from Heidi. And then also our Division of Public Health. And we'll talk a little bit more about some public health responsibilities. As I've often said affectionately, we do everything from pre-birth with women who are pregnant all the way through death, where people who are low income and would not have the resources we assist with burial and everything in between. We're one of the three large departments in the county. We have approximately 200 employees. And a 30, well actually now next year, it'll be a $40 million budget. And just about 11 million is tax levy that supports our department. We're probably somewhat unique in the fact that out of that budget, approximately 67% are services that we purchase from organizations throughout the county in the community, helping support the people we serve through those purchase services. So even though we have 200 employees, the majority of our budget is spent in purchasing services on behalf of our clients. So five divisions, about 200 programs, or 200 employees rather. And Ann is somewhat modest, not only the one of the top three largest departments, it's the largest department with over a $40 million budget. And she does a tremendous job overseeing a very complex area. Recently Chairman Gehring led a prioritization process looking at all of our county programs and services. And Ann came in with over 44 programs in that department alone. So there's no way we can cover it all in five or 30 minutes. But Ann, how long have you been the director and when you mentioned these five divisions, could you briefly give just a little flavor as to what they are responsible for? Sure, not a problem. I think I've been director for years, going on five years. I've been with Sheboyton County in one capacity or another since 1975. So it's been a long time. And I've learned a lot through those years also. I'll try to highlight just one kind of program from each of the areas to give a flavor of what we provide in our division on aging. Probably the most notable is our meal sites, our senior dining sites. We have nine sites throughout Sheboyton County. It provides a meal to our senior citizens. And in addition to the meal fellowship and activities. So that's a significant part of the services that we offer there. As Chairman Gehring knows, our Division of Economic Support not only provides the eligibility determination for medical assistance, food share, but also we do the Wisconsin Works W-2 program, which is a non-mandatory program, but very vital to our residents in Sheboyton County. In Division of Social Services, we work very closely with a number of organizations in terms of keeping children safe, our Child Protective Services Program, and also our Juvenile Justice Programs. And we do that cooperatively with a number of agencies. Probably the most notable program is our STRI program with the Sheboyton Area School District, where we work with some juveniles who have some pretty severe problems. And between the school district and our program, we're able to maintain them in the community in their own homes, rather than the placement at Lincoln Hills, which would cost over $80 a day. So very beneficial program. In community programs, we have been working very closely with community agencies in terms of mental health and substance abuse programs, and also our long-term support programs to keep people in their own homes. And lastly, public health, and I'm now located on the third floor, so I learned a lot more about public health that not being my background. Just as I was leaving, people were coming in again for our WIC program, which is the Women Infant and Children Program, to get their vouchers, to get the basic nutritional needs met for their young children. So those are some of the areas. And I saw just a few vendors across the street as I was leaving, because we also work with the farmer's market with our WIC program. And before we turn it over to Heidi to hear from her a little bit, could you set the stage from a standpoint of the foster care program? I started out in social services, so I know a lot more about Heidi than she probably would care for me to share. But oftentimes we have children that, for one reason or another, we can't maintain safely in their own home, primarily due to child abuse, neglect, or juvenile justice issues. And we need to place those children in a safe and nurturing environment. There's a number of options, but the best option that's been statistically proven is with another family. And sometimes relatives aren't available for that placement. And so we go out and recruit, or I should say foster parents recruit us to open up their homes to these children. They foster parents go through, I should say foster families actually go through an extensive process. It takes three to four months to actually get the license issued. The process is mandated by the state. Interviews of all the family members, background checks, a visit to the home to check out the physical plant, does it meet all the code criteria, references, medical exams, we can go on and on. And we have a coordinator that does that licensing process and works with our foster families. Right now, foster families are also required to complete a 36th training program. And Heidi knows a lot more about that than I do as she is one of our foster parent trainers. And currently we have 51 licensed foster homes in Sheboygan County. And that provides 105 beds available to us for placements. Some families will work only with infants. Some families will take any age group. And some of that changes over the years. And many of our foster families also become adoptive parents for the children that are placed with them. So it's probably one of the programs that's really close to my heart in terms of working with people who are truly dedicated to the care and well-being of children. And I'm so pleased that you suggested Heidi be here today because we have such respect and appreciation for the job that you do. And you mentioned off the air, you've been a foster parent for 30 years. Almost 30 years. And in addition to a foster parent, we also adoptive parents. And we also have an adult provider as well. Which is just fantastic. So again, welcome. It's great to have you here today. How does one go about, or specifically you, what got you interested in being a foster parent? Well, it was kind of interesting because we were a young couple and had two small children. And one day we opened up the Sheboygan Press and there's this little article about fostering. Children becoming a foster parent. And at that time, I think Dobby Brown was in charge of the program. And they had an informative meeting and we went. And I've always loved children. And that came from a somewhat dysfunctional family. And I thought, you know, maybe I could help these kids out. So we discussed it and we made a decision to try foster care. And it's been about 30 years now since we've been doing it. I'll be there. And for those 30 years from your standpoint, what have been some of the challenges and what have been some of the rewards?  Well, there's highs and lows just like having your own children. And the whole concept has changed so much from the beginning. When we first started out, it was more or less that you were a babysitter for the county. You took care of the kids, you know, and the county took care of their end. Now over the years, it's much, much more involved. You become more of a professional. There's much more extensive training. The reunification trying to get these children back into their families is pushed much more and at a much faster pace. Years ago, they had put the child in foster care and everything was going well. They had a tendency, you know, to kind of leave the child there, which really didn't benefit anyone, birth family, child, anyone. And now they have much more involved that they're trying to get help for all of the family and the foster child. And it's a team approach. Everyone is involved. Now the foster parent, the social workers, the birth parent, the foster child himself, depending upon their age, and they make a plan and everybody works on it. It's a lot more support. Absolutely. There's so many more programs to help the children because these kids come with some baggage. You know, they have their issues because of what they've been through. And they have many more programs to help these kids and the birth families to help them be able to get their children back. It's not like they're trying to take these kids away and keep them from the birth parents. They work very, very hard at trying to get these children back into the birth home. That's where they belong, if at all possible. Now Ann mentioned earlier that now, after all these years of experience, you are now one of the trainers, which has to give tremendous comfort to those who are new, getting involved with it. What's that process like? Could you provide a little bit more detail on that? Sure. Johnny has been blessed to have Joan Grunwald who does the training. And she's great. She used to be a foster parent, but hasn't in a long time. And you get all these new little faces that come in and they're all excited about becoming foster parents and they really enjoy all learning all the things from the textbook. But boy, they sure love our stories. There is two other foster parents, Carl and Pam, that also help train. And we share with them the stories and some of the struggles that we have or some of the thoughts that we're having. It's pretty tough not to get attached. You have a child with you two, three years possibly and all of a sudden it goes home. There is a hole in the heart and it takes a little while to work through it. And the different issues. The program is 13 weeks and it helps prepare you for issues that come up. Rather than the old way of where okay, something comes up, how are we going to fix it or how are you going to react? We have the training now, so when the issue comes up, we can react immediately and take care of the issue before it becomes a problem. Are you seeing much interest in folks in this community wanting to become a foster parent? You say you'll have a lot of new faces in there and they're all their eyes wide open at learning, but is there a need for more foster parents? Always, there's always need for more foster families. And the good thing about the training too is there is some people that come in with misconceptions on exactly what foster care is going to be and how it's going to react with their family. And what we don't want anyone going into it if it's not really what the entire family is willing to do. So it really gives them a chance to see how it's going to affect them as a couple, them as a family, their extended family, how that's going to react, and maybe it's not right for them. And then maybe we can direct them to a big brother's big sister program. Maybe they'd be better as a mentor or helping advocate for these kids. So it really is a good sound thing to take these classes and find out for sure that you can make this kind of dedication that everyone in your family is willing to make the dedication. Because it takes a whole family to raise a foster child, not just one person in that family. Well, final question before I turn it over to Bill. All of us sitting here, and I'm sure many of our viewers are parents and have certainly had the challenges associated with being a parent as well as the rewards. And you share without breaching any confidentiality one of the rewards of being a foster parent. You know, I guess one of the biggest things is being able to see these kids come in, troubled with issues and problems, and to try and help them go through the steps of becoming a productive person in society. And they call and Mother's Day I'll go down to the mailbox and maybe there'll be five Mother's Day cards in the box for me from girls that have left five, 10 years ago. Or they call and say, I met my first true love. What do you think? And they want to share that with me. And it's the connection that stays with. I mean, it's a part of us forever, these girls. And apparently a lot of these girls were a part of their life. And it's just neat that they call and I'm pregnant and I'm gonna have my first baby or come to my wedding. And it just makes you feel like you've got one big extended family. Excellent, thank you. Thank you. Heidi, on behalf of the County Board of Supervises, I really want to thank you for your service. You've done a lot for citizens, a lot for the kids of Shebaigan County. So I give you a hearty thanks for all that you've done. We've enjoyed it. And you will for many more years. Many more. Turning back to you, Anne, as I led the Pepsi process, I understood that foster care was a major part of what your department does. But there are about another 40 other programs and things continue to change. There are new mandates from the federal government, state government. Can you tell us about some of those changes that are coming down the pike that will impact your department? I think probably the biggest change that I see right now is long-term care reform. And I use that as a general term because there's so much right now going on that is kind of lumped into that particular effort. As you're aware, we've been working very closely with the healthcare centers in terms of the intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded, the ICFMR. In fact, as of yesterday, we have two people relocated from the ICFMR into the community. And that is an initiative, both at the federal and state level, that individuals with a developmental disability residing in that facility as part of their annual review process, we look at moving them to the most integrated setting, which in most cases for most of those individuals will be a community setting. So we're working on that. And in fact, met with Dale Pauls and Roxanne just this week in terms of strategizing for the balance of the residents and what we can do and received a number of replies to our request for information in terms of service providers to provide those community-based services. So that's on the fast track right now, one of the initiatives. In the governor's budget, as another part of long-term care reform, we have what's called the Community Reintegration Initiative or CIR. And we've had nine requests from the community without any publicity. This is in particular for elderly individuals currently residing in a nursing home who would like to relocate from the nursing home back into a community setting. It can be an apartment, their own home that they still have or it could be in a community-based residential facility. As I said, that one is new and as more publicity comes out, I think we'll see more applications. That's voluntary on the part of the elderly person. It's not required. And as of the end of October, we had nine requests. And so that program, as I said, is moving along quite quickly. The last one that I just kind of like to touch on a little bit is called Comprehensive Community Services. And as everything has an acronym, this is CCS. And that is a program that has developed specifically to work with people who have a severe and persistent mental illness to provide funding and support to maintain them once again in the community versus an institution or nursing home. And for those services that are social and rehabilitative in nature, we'll be able to draw down 60% federal funding. So it's a new initiative that comes with dollars as does the relocation initiative from the nursing homes and also the ICFMR. Now the Health Care Center's Department and the Human Services Department have really been working fairly closely on the initiatives to move people to the least restrictive setting. Can you talk a little bit about some of the meetings that have gone on, how you're really working together for the best of the citizens? As I said, when we met with the Health Care Centers again this week, one of the things we always look at is when you're working with an individual and for Rocky Knoll, the greatest impact will be that eventually the ICFMR, the new structure in Rocky Knoll will be closed down in terms of providing services to people with developmental disabilities and then the nursing home will look at converting those to skilled nursing home beds. We need to work closely with the Health Care Centers because what we're looking at is what services, what types of things work well with an individual while they're residing in the nursing home that we can duplicate or at least try to duplicate in the community setting. So as an example, we've identified groups of people within the ICFMR who work well kind of as a family unit, as Heidi mentioned, even with foster care, so that we can maybe take four or five individuals and locate them in a group home or a small community-based residential facility in the community. So our meetings really focus on what's working for the individual, what are the assessed needs, how do we get the family support and the guardian support. So we're focusing on that primarily at this point in time. When we look at the community relocation initiative, there we're just helping all the nursing homes get information that this is an option available to residents on a voluntary basis, but I think as the Health Care Centers look at downsizing, this becomes an opportunity then for individuals who are interested in relocating to the community to do that, so I see that as a real benefit, not only to the resident who would like to move, but to the Health Care Centers in terms of their downsizing plan. Now the Division of Health is kind of a division that keeps plugging along, it's not really high profile, but there are certain initiatives that they're working on. Could you enlighten us upon those? And I wanna say I'm glad they're not high profile because that means something is probably going on in the community that we would prefer not to happen, like a foodborne outbreak or cryptosporidium or something along those lines, so definitely when we look at public health we like to keep a low profile. I talked a little bit about the farmer's market because it's ending at the end of November in terms, actually it's November now, in October, but during the summer months when that is in kind of the peak, we do what's called a Vaging Out Program and there's a chef that comes in, and he volunteers his time, and he actually goes around and gets produce from the various vendors and does a cooking demonstration that is also taped for TV8 and it's just fascinating to watch how he can take very basic ingredients and make a meal. Of course I talked a little bit about the WIC program, but we're also into immunizations and as we know, anything we can do in terms of preventative health is important and then as I mentioned, our planning for bioterrorism is always occurring in cooperation with our four contiguous counties that we're in partnership with and we work closely with emergency government also in that bioterrorism planning. Bird flu seems to be the buzzword today when you listen to television or read the paper. Have there been a lot of calls coming in regarding bird flu? We are trying to keep that one quiet and hasn't been, but there's always a few. There's always concern, especially if people are traveling overseas, they would like a little bit more information and I do have to do a disclaimer that I'm not a public health official, I have a public health officer, but I did ask Dale Hippenstiel who is that public health officer to provide me some information so I did a little research on it, figuring that that's kind of a hot topic right now. I think the real key here is that government, believe it or not, is pre-planning for this both through the CDC and the National Health Organizations and the World Health Organizations. The transfer to humans is limited, but the potential is always there and the one thing I found out in working closely with public health, viruses tend to mutate and change over a period of time. So one of the key things is, again, hand washing. If you're coughing or if you're ill, not to expose other people to the illness. Just good practice in terms of food handling. Should this flu make its presence in the United States, one of the things people need to be aware of is there will not be a vaccine available for at least four to six months. So that's one of the keys in terms of everything we can do to prevent any illness from spreading. We're gonna be much better off than trying to treat it after the fact, but we're not panicked. We have a plan in place should it occur in the United States or in Sheboygan County and you and Adam would both become part of that plan in terms of implementation because we would look at setting up immunization clinics on a broad basis once that vaccine would become available. Okay, thanks for that update. My wife last night made a great meal of some fried chicken and she's been feeding me a lot of chicken of late. I don't know if it's just the news, the bird flu, or she's trying to get things rolling here. Is she feeding you sauerkraut on the side too? As you can see, she's feeding me well. But we had a delicious meal and speaking of birds, we've got Thanksgiving right around the corner and the holidays and I can't believe it's nearly mid-November here and it's still in the 50s outside and beautiful weather, although I think that's gonna get colder in a hurry. And another thing about your department is with the breadth of responsibilities and all the programs that you oversee and that your staff provide, you have some real special activities over the holidays. Please share with our viewers a little bit about what's coming up. I'm gonna save the best for last. I'm gonna start with some of our traditional type of things. We've once again been selected as a recipient of Festival of Tree money and that's coming up on December 2nd, 3rd, and 4th and our staff volunteer. I'll be doing some volunteer work there hopefully on Friday evening but we would encourage our viewers to participate in that because it supports a number of worthy causes including our department's Child Abuse Neglect Fund. Share the spirit we do in cooperation with the Sheboygan Press. Primarily that program benefits people who are elderly or have a disability and there'll be little blurbs in the Sheboygan Press about different people and what they might like and it ranges anywhere from they would like a box, a homemade cookies, to a trip to the mall, that type of thing so I would encourage people there. I wanna talk a little bit about something that's close to Heidi in my heart. We can always use more foster parents and I have to read this because it's something that I can't just do off the top of my head but we had a young foster child who wrote, on January 27th, I'm going to be adopted and I'm not going to be a foster kid, I'm going to be a kid. And when we really talk about what we do, it is helping children have a safe and nurturing loving environment and this young lady who wrote that, it's very important to her that she's part of a family and has that permanency so we can always use foster parents as Heidi can attest to. And lastly, hopefully you can pan in a little bit, we have a group of young ladies who work with one of our providers and it's the STARS program and it's a mentoring after-school program for teenage girls who are having some real challenges in their life and it's a 12 week program. During every season, the girls work with their mentors and they make different items that they sell and that's how they support their activities and their outings and some of that and Lori who is the primary lead person for that contract agency shared with me what they're going to make for the Christmas season and these are just, Heidi and I really like these so we're definitely going to be buying these, they do light up and they're just the glass blocks that people use for basement windows or showers and that type of thing. With a Christmasy or winter decalon wrapped like a gift box and as I said they plug in and light up. So actually I have bought one of these and I'm going to be dropping one off. Not for you two though, it's for Dorothy because Dorothy is the one that does all the decorations for your office. So- And has the good taste. Yes that's true. So that's my little gift to you guys this year in terms of supporting the program and then in the back along the brick wall they're also doing snowman and I'm hoping today definitely I was glad the wind was not bringing snow or rain. That also has Christmas lights that it lights up and can be placed outside. The nice thing is with the girls doing this they collect different materials and stuff so even though you see that one with blue the next one could come with gingham it could come with plaid. They get fairly creative and really enjoy doing it and as a department we enjoy supporting them because the changes I've seen in some of those young ladies because they come in and do community service work is fantastic from when they start the program until when they end. And we only have a minute remaining they've covered a lot of ground a lot of important information. Viewers who are interested in the last information you just shared or learning more about becoming a foster parent or any other area that we provide, who would they contact? What's a good way to help the health and human services department be successful? Well they can step by if they would like to and we're at 1011 North A Street for those long-term residents that's the old Sheboygan Clinic or they could also call 459-3207 459-3207 that's our main number and depending upon what they're interested and if they explain the receptionist can get them to the right person and if all this fails they can always just ask for me and I'll direct them to the right place. Outstanding. Well Ms. Heidi Thompson, Ms. Anne Wunderjim thank you so much for being our guest today and all the good information and thank you for joining us next month that we're going to have our highway commissioner here Mr. Roger Lanning and he'll be talking about all the hard work that his staff do keeping our roads safe and hopefully not hitting too many mailboxes so we'll have Mr. Lanning in here and until then on behalf of chairman Bill Gehring and myself Adam Payne and the Sheboygan County Board thank you for joining us.


When the government announced its first lockdown in 2020, they recognized that people who were unable to go to work might struggle to pay their rent. Now to that end, they implemented an eviction ban. Communities Minister Robert Jenrick promised that no one would lose their home because of the pandemic. It was all very good rhetoric, the ban was of course welcome. However, now that ban has come to an end and according to the Joseph Roundtree Foundation, 400,000 renters have already had eviction notices or been told to expect them. So the government in their traditional fashion, they implemented an eviction ban, but they didn't sort out the underlying problem, which means at the moment they remove that ban. There are lots of people now at risk of becoming homeless. This, of course, could be catastrophic for private renters. It could also be catastrophic for local authorities who have to work out how to house so many people who are being kicked out of their privately rented homes. However, despite the social catastrophe that could be about to befall on us, some of the noisiest voices on our airwaves have been from landlords complaining about people who haven't paid rent and who they haven't been able to kick out for the past 12 months. We've had many of them call into radio stations, have their quotes in the newspapers or on the evening bulletins. They're all very, very annoyed that there was an interruption to their passive income, the income they get for essentially doing nothing. Here's one calling into LBC.  What about hard-done-buy landlords? Some tenants are very good. A lot of tenants are playing the system for all it's worth. Now, I went to Housetown. I'm actually in the process of evicting the tenants. I've actually got a call date, but these tenants have been playing the system for the past year plus. What does playing the system mean, Michael, to the uninitiated? They can't be evicted. You can't be evicted, yeah, but what does playing the system mean? They know they can't. Whatever they do, they can't be evicted. Right, so you've got people in properties and they're not paying their rent and you can't get... They are paying their rent, but they'll have a personal reason why they urgently need to sell their house. So, I'm actually using the section 21 notice, but the fact to make is, what tenants seem to not understand and what people like Shelter don't seem to understand is, this is the landlord's house. It's up to him what happens with it. This was a landlord whose tenants were paying their rent, but he's still calling in to a national radio station, really upset because even though throughout a pandemic, his tenants were paying their rent, he couldn't kick them out onto the street anyway, right? So, he, for whatever reason, wanted to sell his house and he thought, look, it's the middle of a pandemic, nothing to do with me, whether or not my tenants will end up homeless in the middle of a pandemic. I want to kick them out. It's my house. I can dispose of it how I want to. I always think becoming a landlord has the tendency to turn people's brain into mush, right? And I think that was really an example of it. Let's watch a little bit more of that call. I'm truly appalled at the way the toys have carried on over this. They have made it difficult beyond belief to get more landlords. Once I sell up, and I'm sure I won't be the only one, there'd be less houses to rent because it's just not worth the egg roll. And you don't make a fortune over it. People think if you rent houses out, you're rich. You're really, really not. OK. Once you've paid out all the exceptions, I've had tenants who've phoned me up to complain about the batteries and the smoke alarm they've been placing. Well, can't they get up and charge it themselves? Isn't that your job, as a matter of fact? Or does that fall down to you or to them? Well, I would say it's down to there. It's a battery. It's like batting the torch going. But I mean, I'm a good landlord. I've done everything that's ever been asked for me to be done. These tenants, a lot of tenants, there are some good tenants about. Don't get me wrong, Andrew. There are some good tenants about. But there's an awful lot who aren't. This is what I mean by becoming a landlord. Now, I want to get rid of all our landlordism. I don't necessarily think every landlord's a bad person. I don't like to cast aspersions like that, but I don't think the job was not a job. I don't think they should exist. But they all think universally, they're a good landlord. Now, this guy is saying, look, I'm a good landlord. I'm not like the other ones. You'd previously heard he wanted to kick out his tenants who were paying their rent in the middle of a pandemic, right? He's not a good landlord. I'm sorry. That guy is not a good landlord. And he also said, I'm not rich. People assume I'm rich. Now, lots of private landlords aren't rich. You know, they're not super rich at least 45% of private landlords own just one property, which means, you know, they're not necessarily going to be in the realms of the super rich. However, even though they might not be super rich, they're probably going to be richer than their tenants. And that's because they're taking half of their tenants' income without doing anything, right? That's what they call passive income.  Then you're complaining that you can't kick them out on the street in the middle of a pandemic. He's also like, I have to change their batteries.   It's just phenomenal how you can have people who they're just receiving a third of someone else's income and they still feel sorry for themselves. I mean, look, this guy is obviously so obnoxious and lacking in self-awareness that I'm astonished that he can get out of bed every day without just simply falling over under the weight of his own delusions.  One is the idea that you can be a good landlord when you want to kick out rent paying tenants. And two is this idea of, oh, what's the landlord's house? He can do what he wants with it. Well, if that was the case, you should have kept it empty because when you do have sitting tenants, there are rights that they have because it would be completely absurd to have a society in which people could rent and have zero rights to remain in that place when they're fulfilling all their obligations. So what he's saying is just completely wrong. But the third thing, which is, oh, well, if there were no landlords, then there'd be fewer properties to rent. It is the existence of a buy-to-rent market which contributes to the value of his asset going up and up every year, right? Where the value of housing is outstripping increases in wages to the extent that we have this completely absurd situation where by virtue of having a house, you essentially have a hand on financial stability for the rest of your life. Whereas if you're a tenant, every month you pay rent, you're further and further away from achieving that kind of buy-in to the economy and a sense of stability for your own future. It's the existence of the buy-to-let market which drives the value of his property. So that's the thing that I kind of also want to bring up is that you're talking about, well, not every landlord is going to be rolling in it. Of course, that's true. The majority of landlords own an individual property, not huge portfolios. But the fact is, is that whether or not the income that they generate from owning this property and renting it out is a huge amount. Whether or not they have to carry on another form of work in addition to being a landlord, they've still got a whole asset at the end of it. If they're already a homeowner, an owner-occupier, then it's a second asset. And when you have a situation like ours where people are seeing the value of their pensions decrease as the state pension age goes up, where you've got huge problems in terms of the availability of social care for the elderly, having that extra asset at the end of your working life is a huge deal, right? It is a huge deal.   What landlordism has done is that it has shifted power in quite a profound way away from working class people, right? What social housing did was that it operated as this wonderful engine of class consciousness. It sort of generated in its own way radicalism, political organization, but also the availability of cheap social housing meant that you could have working class people participating in the arts and creative endeavors without thinking like, okay, I've got to work three jobs just to pay for the rent on this terrible fucking flat, right? It made society better in all sorts of ways to have available social housing. It's not just the fact that that social housing is no longer being built to the extent that it was. It's not only that the social housing was sold off under thatcher. It's that the manner of it being sold off under right to buy, then consolidated a huge amount of economic power in the hands of landlords themselves. So four in 10 of every property that was purchased under right to buy is now a buy to let. So you had this huge transfer of power away from social tenants, a huge, I think erosion of the social safety net for working class people and an increase in housing precarity because of it. And yeah, it was essentially fertilizer for the social disease of landlordism. The social disease of landlordism where working class people work all day to pay someone else's mortgage.  The rent and the rent barely covers the mortgage. So yes, but then you get to keep the house at the end of it, right? I'd be less bitter about the rent I paid if I got to keep the house, right? I wouldn't mind paying the rent I pay if I got to keep the house at the end, but the landlord gets to keep the house. I cover the mortgage. He keeps the house and then they're phoning in feeling sorry for themselves. So I always get especially bitter when we talk about landlordism because I just think it is the most unjust feudal relationship we have in society. I don't think there's any justification whatsoever for it. There's no economic benefit to having working people pay the mortgage of people who were lucky enough or rich enough to buy an asset in the first place. No social good comes of it whatsoever. Abolish landlordism, build council homes and that crybaby calling into LBC can get a real job.


The Spence is the man in black. Here again to introduce Columbia's program, The Spence. Our stars this evening are three. The order of their appearance, they are Walter Hampton, one of the theater's proudest names for two generations, and Susan Hayworth and Lee Bowman, two of Hollywood's brightest younger stars. The story called The Dead Sleeps Lightly by John Dixon Carr is tonight's tale of suspense. If you've been with us on these Tuesday nights, you will know that suspense is compounded in mystery and suspicion and dangerous adventure. In this series, our tales calculated to entreat you to stir your nerves, to offer you a precarious situation, and then withhold the solution until the last part, and so with The Dead Sleeps Lightly. And with the performances of Walter Hampton, Susan Hayworth and Lee Bowman, we again hope to keep you in... Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. Meadowvale Cemetery, not far from New York. Meadowvale Cemetery on a dim gray morning in early April, when rain forms a mist across leafless trees in white gravestones. You see, over there, the group of silk-hatted gentlemen each with his protecting umbrella gathered around an open grave. You see the clay soil freshly dug. You can hear perhaps the creaking of the corpse as the coffin is lowered into its everlasting house, and the droning voice of the surgeon. In the life, Mr. Lord, he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet, tell he'll live. Live! Quiet, Mr. Templeton, please. What's wrong with old Templeton? Hey, sir, remember where you are.  It might seem a long distance that, from the cosmopolite club in Gramercy Park on the following evening, when that same well-fed man, as hard and unemotional as a diamond pin in his tie, hurries up the steps into the club then. What, what? Yes, Mr. Templeton? Tell me, Mr. Melmott in the club, do you know? Yes, sir. Don't you see him? See him? Where? In the lounge over there, sir, sitting by the fire. Yes, yes, of course, sir. I'm a little upset.  I won't forget you. Thank you, sir. Excuse me, sir, but aren't you going to take off your hat and overcoat? Never mind my hat and coat. Just tell me one other thing. When I came into the club, was there anybody following me? Following you, Mr. Templeton? Yes, a woman. A woman with a long skirt and a heavy black veil. But aren't many women who wear that kind of dress nowadays, sir? Look out into the street. Do you see anybody? No, sir. There's just... What's that? Oh, that's only the old street musician, sir. He doesn't mean any harm. I won't have that tune played, you hear? I'm just getting my orders obeyed, and I'm going to have this one obeyed. Here's the money. Go out and tell him to go away. Yes, sir, if you insist, but... Do as you're told and don't ask questions. If anybody wants me, I shall be with Mr. Wilmot. Very good, sir. Any, Wilmot? Mind if I sit down for a minute? I'm not at all. Pull up a chair. Want some coffee? No, thanks. I'll get down to brass techs right away. Yeah, too. You always do. I've noticed that. Well, I'm a pretty self-sufficient kind of a fellow, Wilmot. I made a name for myself, even if I do say it myself. But, well, the fact is, I need advice. A successful publisher asking advice from one of his own authors. That's something new, isn't it? Oh, look here, Wilmot, I'm serious. All right, all right, I take it back. What's on your mind? Well, you've studied what we'll call the supernatural, haven't you? I've lectured and written books about it, yes. And did you ever meet a... a ghost? No, I can't say I ever did. Have you? It might only be my own imagination. That's what scares me.  You see, Wilmot, I went to a funeral yesterday. You did? The funeral was... The person who died has nothing to do with this. It was old Simpson of Harley and Sons. We thought it was only decent to make up a party and go to the funeral. And I took my secretary along, a girl named Molly Carroll. I'm leaving for Washington tomorrow. Besides, I'm moving house. There was a lot of work to do, but I couldn't stand with that infernal cemetery in the rain. And we must have gone in by the wrong gate because we were in a neglecting, desolate part of the cemetery, but the ranked grass grew over the grave. You'll oblige me, Miss Carroll. If you first find out the proper directions about places, we'll come in the wrong gate to the cemetery. Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Templeton. I thought... Your thought doesn't matter now. This is the wrong part of the cemetery.  Well, it isn't doing my own shoes and stockings any good. I've been, Mr. Templeton. If there's been any damage to them, Miss Carroll, I'll replace them. You never found me ungenerous, and I'll have you. Well, not exactly ungenerous. No. I'll pay you the compliment, Miss Carroll, saying that you are the best secretary I've ever had. Thank you. Yet you want to leave me. Yes, I... I want to get married. That's what Mr. Barnes is telling me. And who is this caravan of yours? What does he do? Does he make any money? Well, Frank's a radio technician. He's not very wealthy, I'll admit. Wealthy? A radio technician? I bet he doesn't make as much as I pay you. Yet you want to get married. Well, is there anything very strange about that? Yes. Everything that appears in your career, if it... Good Lord. Look at that. Look at what, Mr. Templeton? Over there, around 20. You mean that? That's only an old gravestone covered with weeds and brambles. I haven't seen that grave in years. It looks rather neglected. It is neglected, isn't it?  Mr. Templeton... Do as I tell you, please. Let's see if I can get some of these weeds aside. It says, Sacred through the memory of Mary Ellen Cleaver, Born September 5th, 1892, Departed this life, March 25th, 1919. Thou should still be adored as this moment thou art, Lest thy loveliness fade as it will. If you lower that umbrella, Mr. Templeton, you'll get soaking wet. Sentimental crash, but she always liked it. Mary Ellen Cleaver. Did you know her? Very well indeed. She was my wife. Your wife? But I never knew you were married. Neither did anybody else. Where's my flask of brandy? What have I done with it? It's in your pocket, Mr. Templeton, but do you think that's very wise? You've already had more than enough. Whatever I do is wise, Miss Carol. We were married very young. She was a nice little thing. I was fond of her, yes. But she couldn't have helped me. I'm not a snob, but she wasn't in my class. No style, you know, no manners, no education. Indeed. Could I have introduced her to the friends I was making? No. She wouldn't have been kind to her. She didn't even want to go to the places where I was invited. She'd sit at home and say, What was it like? Did you have a nice time? What was Mrs. So-and-So wearing? And she loved me. I put that to her credit. But... You left her? I thought it was the kindest thing to do, yes. She went away. Then I heard she'd had... Had what? Nothing. Doesn't matter. Well, there was a war on. I attended the peace conference in Europe. Never even knew she was dead until I heard some friends had buried her. I always promised to call her up. She said she'd come back to me if I did. You couldn't call her up now, Mr. Templeton, even if you wanted to. I suppose not. Well, I was fond of her. I wish there was something I could do. But you could have a grave cared for. Have some flowers put on it. Actually, that's an idea. She'd have liked that. Can you take care of that for me? I'll look after it tomorrow morning, Mr. Templeton. But how will they ever be able to locate the grave? Must be thousands in this cemetery. Well, each grave has a number, you know, cut into the stone so you can identify it. This is number 1212. 1212. Sounds like a telephone number, doesn't it? Yes, doesn't it? That'll say 1212. Poor girl. I was fond of her. Please, Mr. Templeton, come along, and please, no more, Brandy. You've got a funeral to attend. Then will what? The night came. And the horror. What horror? Take it easy, man. There's nothing to worry about. You were sitting here in the Cosmopolite's club. I was sitting in the club last night. I was on my way home. And why should that scare you? I don't know, but it did. I'd been jumpy all day. That infernal number kept running through my head. Meadowvale 1212. Have you ever seen my house? Yes, it's that big, shangotic place on Riverside Drive, isn't it? There's big and dark and drafty like a morpheleum. I told you it was moving house to an apartment downtown. But there was some papers there. They're from the library. They take with me to Washington tomorrow. I knew the servants would be gone, of course. But I hoped Mrs. Bloom, that's my housekeeper, would still be there. Then, when I went up the park, about 6.30, 1212. Sorry to trouble you, Mrs. Bloom. I seem to have mislaid my key. Now, they've got a swan I had on my key ring this morning. It's no trouble, Mr. Templeton. Only, I hope you're not planning to send the night here. I'll go to a hotel. Why do you ask? Because they've disconnected everything except the electricity and taken away most of the furniture. Have you touched anything in the library? No, sir. I told them you said to leave that. But it does seem a pity in a way. What seems a pity? To break up a lovely home like this after all these years. Home?  It's been a home to me, sir. I've treated you generously, haven't I? Yes, sir. I'm sorry. I've got several hours' work to do, Mrs. Bloom.  I'm going to the library, and...  I'm not hiding anything, sir. All the same, what is it? It's only a music box, sir. I found it no attic when the moving men were here. If I hadn't known they were... Well, no ladies in your life, I'd have said it belongs to one of them. I love to hear them, sir. May I? Mrs. Bloom. Yes, sir. Come with a smash, that music box, turn it off! Yes, sir, I'm sure I never... I'm going to the library. We can find any sandwiches and coffee, bring them. Yes, sir. Excuse me. Same old library. Same old clawfoot desk. There's the Venetian mirror she bought for you. Look at yourself in the mirror, Templeton. Admit you can't face it. Admit you can't work here tonight. Admit you've got to have lights and music, and... That's it. Go out for dinner. Telephone Wilmot. If they've left the phone... Oh, yes, good. Here it is. Hello, hello. I, uh... Uh, none of these. I want, uh... Meryl 1212. Wait, what's the devil's name on my chain? Chain's out, I want... Who are you? You're not Mary Ellen. This is a trick. Mary Ellen is dead. I don't need anybody. But by the time the clock strikes seven, I'll wear a veil, because I don't look very pretty. I won't have it. I won't listen to you. I won't... Goodbye, my dear. Mrs. Bloom, Mrs. Bloom. Templeton, what on earth is the matter? Who's been playing tricks on me? Tick, sir, I don't understand. Who spoke to me on this phone? But, sir, nobody could have spoken to you on that phone. Nobody could have? What are you talking about? That phone's disconnected, sir. Disconnected? There's a little metal box off the wall, and rolled all the wires up and put everything on the desk there. Said he'd be back tomorrow to take it away. Mrs. Bloom, that's impossible. Look for yourself, sir. You're standing in the middle of the room holding that phone, and the wires don't lead anywhere. Sir, that's true. So you couldn't very well have talked to anybody on the phone that wasn't connected? Now could you? I tell you, I got the operator. I heard it ring. I talked to... to someone else. Oh, and what did that person say?  And so will one. That's what happened last night. The phone was disconnected. It was Mary Ellen's voice. There's no doubt about that. Am I out of my mind or what? Before I say anything about that, my friends, well, let's hear the end of your story. What did happen when the clock struck seven? I don't know. You don't know? No, I lost my head. I ran out of that house as though the devil were after me. Maybe he was. Since then, I spent the night at the hotel. Today, I've walked past that house 50 times, 100 times, trying to muster up enough nerve to go in. I couldn't do it, but I've got to go in there. Why? It's those people I've got to take to Washington to send somebody else to get them. I can't do that, Wilmot. It's confidential information for the government. I've thought of everything. I've even bought a revolver, see? For the love of heaven, man, put that gun away. You want the other club members to think you have gone insane? Then I thought of you. You know all the tricks of fake spiritualists. You've written about it, lectured about it. Which reminds me, by the way, that I'm lecturing before the Acropolis Club in about 20 minutes. You've got to break that engagement, Wilmot. Why? Because you're going with me to my house tonight. No, that's impossible, old man. Now sit quietly and listen to me. I'll go with you willingly, tomorrow morning. Too late. I'm taking an early plate to Washington. Well, then wait until I can get away from the lecture. Say, uh, around midnight. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll take a taxi and join you as soon as I can. That won't do. I've got to know. Know the answer now.   Unreasonable or not, I usually get my own way and I mean to have it now. Well, then I afraid you'll have to go to the house alone. Besides, you know, Wilmot, you worry me.  Like a young Satan. I've often wondered what you were really thinking about. Since you flatter my intelligence so much, I was wondering whether you'd been quite frank with me. Frank with you how? About your late wife, Mary Ellen Kleber. What about her? Well, after she left you, something happened that you don't like to talk about. Was there by any chance a child, a son, for instance? Or did you say a son? Yes. I don't know what you're talking about. Well, then let's agree not to understand each other, shall we?  I tell you, man, I'll get there as soon as I can. All I can think about is the wet red prey in that cemetery and the dismal graves and the rain and what her face might look like if she raised the veil. And what am I going to see in that house? What am I going to see in that house? Chimes, the hours dwindle and the traffic roar of the city sink to a low growl behind twinkling lights. It is midnight. When a taxi moves along a certain street towards a certain house out of a bygone age. Lightless, black against the stars, surrounded by iron railings and with a path bordered by fir trees leading to the front door. Look, too, at the face of Mr. Patrick Wilmot when that taxi draws near. All right, driver. This is the place. I'll be in wait, Peter. No, you needn't wait. Keep the change. Thank you, sir. Good night. So the front gate is open and he did go in. I beg your pardon. I didn't mean to bump into you. Mr. Wilmot. You know who I am. Yes, I've seen you several times in our office. I'm Molly Carroll, Mr. Templeton Secretary. What are you doing here? Well, it's Mr. Templeton. What about him? Well, that's what I want to know. I was out with Frank. That's my fiancée. And when I got home, the girl I room with said that Mr. Templeton had been phoning and phoning all evening.  He wanted somebody to go with him to this house. Evidently, I wasn't the only person he applied to. Shall we go in? Yes, but the whole house is dark. I suppose he isn't there. He's there all right. You don't know men like Bert Templeton. Put up. I'll push the gate wider.  I've got a flashlight. What are we going to find? Something rather unpleasant. I'd better warn you. How do you know? I have my ways of knowing, Miss Carroll. Oh, look. What is it? That French window to the left of the front door. Yeah. It's partly open. Well, there's nothing in that, necessarily. Templeton said he'd lost his key. He might have had to open a window. That's true, but... So you see it too, do you? See what? There's a footprint across the sill of that French window. A footprint made in wet clay. It's like the clay of the cemetery. So I should imagine. Will you go in first or shall I? Into that dark room, I will not. Well, then stay here, please, until I get some light on. No, wait. I'll go. Let me take your arm. All right, be careful now. I thought so. This room is the library. And there are more footprints of somebody or something walking in. They lead... Who's there? Who's there? It's only me, sir. Mrs. Bloom, the housekeeper. Then what's the idea of standing in a dark room in the middle of the night with what sounds like... It's only a music box, sir. I left it behind along with some other things and came back to get them. I've got my own key. I thought I heard a noise in here. But why aren't there any lights? The electricity's cut off, sir. It was cut off today. I see. Templeton is here or was here. He's nothing. Had some kind of light. If I turn this flashlight on a desk, maybe... Be quiet, Mrs. Carroll. What is it, sir? I'm as blind as a bat without my glasses. It's Mr. Templeton. He's lying on the floor beside the desk. Oh, he isn't... No, he isn't dead. His face is the color of putty. I think he's had some kind of stroke. We better not take any chances. Mrs. Bloom? Yes, sir. Get outside to the nearest telephone and call for an ambulance. Tell him it's an emergency case. You're Mr. Wilmot, aren't you? But what's happened to him?  I beg your pardon. Never mind. Hurry. Of course I'll hurry, Mr. Wilmot. What are we going to do? Well, let's have a look around. Campbell doesn't seem to have been working at his papers by the light of a couple of candles, which somebody's blown out. We'll relight them. There's the desk. There's all the paper. Got it around him. Mr. Wilmot, please! What happened to him? I'll tell you. As he sat there in the dim light of two candles, a ghostly figure appeared at that French window. It wore a long, old-fashioned skirt and a heavy black veil to hide the face. It walked toward Templeton, tracking graveyard clay. It stretched its arms to him like this. Keep away from me, please! Templeton couldn't stand it. He collapsed. And now, before the old housekeeper returns, would you care to hear how the whole trick was worth? Trick? What trick? Have you heard about the ghost voice that talked on a disconnected telephone? Oh, yes. Yes, he said something about it this morning, but I thought he wasn't himself. He wasn't, but he heard it. Remember Mrs. Bloom's story about the telephone man? Yes. They don't send a man round to yank the whole apparatus off the wall, put it on the desk, and say he'll be back for it next day. This man from the telephone company was an imposter. The man from the telephone company was an imposter? Exactly. Oh, look, he's moving his hand. He's trying to open his eyes. Isn't there anything we can do for him? No, there's nothing we can do to the doctor arise. In the meantime, listen to me. What did this imposter do? He took away the real phone and substituted a spirit telephone. You don't know what a spirit telephone is. No, of course not. It's an old device used by fake mediums. You see a telephone without wires standing on a desk like that one. You pick up the receiver and talk to the dead. Of course, you never really talk into the phone at all. But if you don't talk into the phone then... Fixed underneath the desk is a tiny microphone with hidden wires leading to another room in the same house. That microphone picks up every word you think you're saying to the phone. Is that clear? I think so. Well, the dummy telephone is really a low-power radio receiving set. Somebody in another room can talk back to you after hearing what you say on the wired microphone. Then Mr. Templeton... If Templeton hadn't rung Meadowvale 1212, then rest assured that same number would have rung him. Well, then the scheme couldn't fail either way. But, you see, there's one thing in this matter I haven't got quite clear even yet. And what's that? Tell me, Miss Carol, just why did you work this whole trick? Why did you try to scare your father to death? My father? Templeton is your father, isn't he? That might be rather difficult to prove, Mr. Wilmot. By George, I admire you. Thanks very much. I'm flattered. Expressionless as ever. Eyes as hard and cold and blue and handsome as... Well, make your own comparisons. But I knew you were guilty, of course, when I heard your fiancé was a radio technician. He franked out of this. Oh, you had scruples. Have I touched you? Nothing can touch me. Not since my mother died. Your fiancé installed a ghost mechanism and took it away today. He probably thought it was only a joke. He did. I swear he did. And the rest of it was plain enough. Who led Templeton to the wrong gate in the cemetery past that woman's grave? You did. Who was the only one who could have stolen the key to this house off that key ring he took to the office? You were. You needed that key to come and go as you liked and impersonate the two voices on the phone. Is there any need to go on with this? He killed her, you know. Templeton killed your mother? Oh, not with a knife or a bullet or poison. All he did was break her heart. And that's no offense in law. I've done what I wanted to do. I've torn his whole rotten life to pieces. And there he is, gasping for breath on the floor. And I'm glad. I'm glad I'm... He is my father. Does he know you're his daughter? No. No, of course not. When I went to work for him as a secretary, he hadn't even seen me since I was a child. But I got near him. I worked for years to get near him. No. I wish I hadn't. Look here, you've got to pull yourself together. Why? Who cares? The ambulance's coming and maybe the police. What do I care? Tell the police what you like. My dear girl, you don't think I'll tell them anything. I'm merely an onlooker, an amateur Satan who doesn't believe in ghost voices. Yeah, yeah. What's that? Templeton, his eyes are open. He's trying to get up. Mary Ellen, Mary Ellen, Mary Ellen. It's as though he could see something that we can't do. What's that? He's got his hand. It's a revolver. He had one at the club. He's putting it against his chest. I'll stop him. Look out! Look out! And now he's tried to join us.  All right, Molly. You've grabbed the gun just in time. If he doesn't die, I'll make it up to him. I swear I'll make it up to him.  Mary Ellen, Mary Ellen, Mary Ellen. What? But what? But what? Mary Ellen. I was just wondering, is there a ghost in this room tonight? So close is the dead sleep lightly, starring Walter Hemden, Susan Hayward, and Lee Bowman. Tonight's tale of... The Shed. This is your narrator, the man in black, who conveys to you Columbia's invitation to spend this half hour in suspense with us again next season. As Hayward appears with the courtesy of Paramount Pictures, and Mr. Bowman appears with the courtesy of Metro Golden Mayor Studios, William Spear, the producer, John Deets, the director, Bernard Herman, the composer-conductor, and John Dixon Carr, the author, collaborated on tonight's... Suspense.


On the recently concluded Anambara State Election, APC candidate Andubar has said he has grounds to challenge the election. And the federal government expresses excitement over the delisting of Nigeria from the U.S. religious freedom, blacklist. This is Plus Politics, I am Mary Anacorn. Andubar, the All Progressive Congress candidate in the just concluded November 6th Anambara State Governorship Election, has stated that the preliminary checks showed that he has grounds to challenge INEX declaration at the tribunal in line with the electoral process. He cautioned members of his party not to engage in finger pointing and blame game as to what went wrong but remain focused. While Chukumasa Ludo of the All Progressive Grand Alliance won 19 local government areas, Valentino Zigo of the People's Democratic Party and Yifan Yuba of the Young Progressive Party won one each. The APC candidate however did not win any of the local government areas in the South East State. Joining us to discuss this is Sidon Adidumbahi, the Anambara State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment. Thank you very much, Mr. Adidumbahi, for joining us. Thank you, Mary Ann. Great. It's interesting. I mean, I don't think we have spoken after the elections that happened in Anambara State, of course. Every single person is looking forward to when the governor-elect will be sworn in. But there obviously have been certain events that have taken place right after the elections. We know that the PDP candidate had congratulated Mr. Soludo, but of course, Andy Yuba seems to be holding on to something. He has said, and like I stated at the beginning, that he does have grounds to go to court. What does APCA, of course, the government of Obiano has to say about this? Because of course the government was in support of Soludo. We're a deletion observer. We are preparing to have a new administration by March 17th. As it is, Andy Obama's thread is enduring. In this case, nobody supports him. The International Community Monetary Election and the International Monetary Presidency by the EU and UK delegation is quite impressed by the processes throughout the media, local and international. We're there. We're impressed by a lot of civil society groups. We're impressed. And all the political parties, including the ABC, starting with the national leader of the ABC, President Muhammad Bukhari, who's only congratulated me now, but he says he's looking forward to working closely with Professor Soludo towards the development of not just an umbrella state, but the entire Southeast. That's a very significant statement. So the budget that came second, the GDP has accepted because we've defeated it. Andy Yuba, who's better than his friend?  In any case, let's face facts, Andy truly is not a candidate of the ABC. The ABC did not have a candidate in that relation. But I'm sorry, what do you mean by he was not a candidate of the ABC? He was on that ticket as a candidate of the All Progressive Congress. So I do not understand what you're driving at. He was a candidate of the ABC. Yes, you and I know very well that on Thursday, November 6, 2021, the Federal High Court in Abuja was going to give a package on the seats brought by George Moore, the managing director of the National Inland Waterways Authority and one of the founding members of the ABC and Yuba's lawyer, wrote to the court and recently pleaded, please don't give this document. If you give it, it will have a very negative consequences for us since we have participated in that election. In that case, she's more than six to the letter the ABC has brought candidates because there was no primary election held on June 26, 2021. There were no electoral materials and there was no attempt to bring them, not one single person voted. The person who brought the ABC to Anand Prestates, Dr. Chris Gignier, who is also the former governor of Anand Prestates, a worthy one, and the Minister of Labor has announced that he did not vote not one single person in Anand Prestates votes and therefore the ABC has brought candidates in that election. For these reasons, on two occasions, Yuba announced that the president will attend his flag-off. The president refused because he didn't want to canonize the liberty. On the third occasion, Yuba announced that the vice president would attend the flag-off. The vice president was not anywhere near because as a pastor of a Christian church, he knows this would kill a mortal blow to his personal integrity if he seemed to be associating the public with people who came about in the most despicable manner. In other words, the ABC has brought candidates. I'm asking you, did you see any ABC governor coming to Japan for Anand Yuba? Did you see one single ABC senator? Did you see one single ABC minister? Did you see one single person from the presidents? The ABC did not have a candidate and regards Anand Yuba as not having the local standing to speak. Talking about the alleged fake YG results, I'd like to quote the lawyer to Anand Yuba. He'd say that any controversy regarding the name of his client, the result in question, was resolved when he, Yuba, swore an affidavit that captured the changes. So as far as he's concerned, that is a non-issue. What if a change is forgery? Is a non-issue? I'm quoting his lawyer. I'm asking you, wouldn't you know the homeowner of Charger Bell lawyers around him? Who had extra money from Anand Yuba? Somebody said he wrote the school site in 1974 and he said he wrote senior certificate. That's what he called it, even though he means senior second of year certificate that came into existence in 1989. So how could he have written it in 1974? He said he wrote further marks, by 1974, there was not like further marks by white, further marks was, it was called additional mathematics. And he said it was a school in Enubu State in 1974. There was no Enubu State in 1974, not even Anand Press State. What he had was 19th by 1974, was East Central State. By the way, can I pick up another mark? Anand Yuba said he was born in December 1958 and he wrote his school site in May, June 1974. That means he was 15 and a half years when he wrote his school site. But somebody coming last in every subject, this is very funny. But worse than this, is that Anand Yuba lost three years during the civil war. From 1957 to 1974, there were no secondary schools in Biafra that were open. In other words, if not for the civil war, Anand Yuba would have written his school site at the age of 12 and a half years. In what I'm saying in fact, is that the day, the year he claims to have been born is false and forged. If you have not been born in 1958 and wrote his school site in 1974, after losing three years during the civil war, it's not possible. Let's move on to... Anand Yuba. Yes. I'm actually... I don't want to waste so much time on it. I wish you could ask me questions how we are preparing. Well... Anand, please turn around. Definitely. We will get to that point. But let's quickly move on to what his lawyer again, speaking about the grouse that they have about winning one or several local government areas. He says that's not his grouse. That his grouse is that they discovered that INEC had a loss of irregularities during the elections, during the conduct of the election. They're saying that INEC was grossly understaffed, number one, in so many polling units that social media, social media, social media, social media, polling units, that so much so that the elections did not hold. He said, we have 5,720 polling units and in most of them, INEC did not conduct elections at all. This is what the lawyer said. He described the elections as one of the worst ever conducted in the history of Anambra and said they would ask the court to nullify it. Can you tell me how many places where the elections did not take place? How many polling units or what? Well, he used the word several. You know, there are a lot of people who just make you money from Anambra and you buy so much money through Anambra and these guys kill is an opportunity to make money from him.  So from where are they getting these ideas? I'm asking you. Well, this is the case that they're making. The whole thing is absurd. And I think everybody has said the freest election, the fairest, the most transparent for which reason the people and government of Anambra state have congratulated President Bari. This is extremely called for the APC, or particularly a new party to read that election because of the new technology by a medial voter of the education system. It's extremely good for them. They did everything to read on each occasion. They were found out and they were caught in their tracks and some of their cases actually before the police. I will give you two examples with my own local government area. And from me here. On Saturday, April, as the election was going on, the APC wrote a fake election result. Brad and the officials tried to smuggle that election result around this time. Seven o'clock that very day they were caught. The name of the electoral officer who collected the thing to smuggle it in is Paul who called on Jack the electoral officer and in the gym of Enubu I need to talk a little bit here. The police are resetting I can show you the video right now go through. And I said to the police it's going to be a prosecutor who in whose role did he try to write the election result and who grabbed him and he took place in my hometown. So I'm giving you full disclosure. We're not hiding anything. On Tuesday, 9th November on the day they had the election in the local government area. My own local government area. And Yuba was threw out to the home of someone who I don't want to mention but everybody knows him. A very controversial politician all he was trying to do there was to rig the elections. The police got their report moved in, arrested folks in several buses. I repeat, arrested these dogs in several buses before they could use these dogs to disrupt the election and these dogs are today in the city. Let me ask you a question. I hope you are aware that from September 28 which was on a one essay for the whole month that APC did not conduct any deletionary campaign. They said that we are afraid of security issues and unrest. We all laughed at us by saying that there was no security in Henan they were actually indicted the president who is the leader of the party who is the commander in chief of the armed forces and to whom all intelligence and security agencies in Nigeria reports. But who important he? He was campaigning everywhere. He was the first thing he did as you know very well on March 31 he lost three of his police orderlings yet he kept on campaigning. We lost the chairman of ABDA in World War I we continued to campaign we did not stop. We are not afraid of anything. We campaigned in all government area and you are about to campaign in all government area. He ran away so how would you expect people to take hand you back and this group? Seriously? Do you even see one minister there? Did you see one senator? Did you see anybody from the presidency? Is party people deserted him because he is an imposter? He was not a candidate of the party. The APC have looked at that in that election in the next few days the federal high court formally nullify his candidate therefore hand you back we cannot we cannot preempt the court so we will wait for that judgment to take place but let's move away from that and talk about let's not discuss issues that are in the court hand you over who preempted the court to stop the court and give that judgment on November 4th we will we will run away from the courts you know what they did. Let's move on to the governor elect now that's the man of the hour like I said at the beginning all eyes are on Chukuma Soludo and the plans that he has spoken about that he has for now a number has had very interesting governors and now of course the Obiano government is grinding to its halt but let's talk about Soludo you know that government is supposed to be a continuum but in Nigeria that's not necessarily the case because you see governors coming with brand new ideas and just where the predecessors had stopped there's no continuity we hardly see that do we see I mean you campaigned for this man you've been everywhere with him do we see him continuing some of the policies and programs of the Obiano government that would help to bring some form of progress about in an amber state well that is the only difference from the other political parties let me please come back to a statement in May the Obiano administration is grinding to its halt I think the more appropriate thing to say is the Obiano administration is feeling strong delivering an airport just commission built in less than two years one of the best in the whole of Africa international airport without a couple borrowed from any bank anywhere in the world that's a record is that airport functioning now as we speak well functioning but very soon we start commercial operations I've met all the requirements I repeat all the requirements for commercial operations the operations were suspended for security reasons because of the threats by some non-state actors to stop deletion now deletion is over here we expand the office of the international security advisor to say please go ahead we expand operations no more threats to the passengers and no more threats to the airport or any of the quick can I inquire quickly can I address your question of continence continence please yeah before we get to that I just want to probe you a bit about the airport I haven't been to that airport I haven't been to that airport what is the road network like to that airport because I hear that it is located somewhere in the hometown of the governor yes the governor from Anguilere the airport is nowhere which is a memory community incidentally the airport was originally marked as to be at all back in Idemili San Gokul province since 1962 by the federal government when when somebody was the minister of aviation it was taken away from our bank to the present location by the administration of PTOD which is from Agolo in a new channel of the government area the total development area PTOD got a land there is some part of the conversation about the project the present administration came into being and received work on it and completed it so about road network fantastic we have just delivered a what do you call it highway express work on a road from across the junction complete with street lights set of light to the airport beautiful we are going to start another realization program from the airport to the right furniture so the two road to the airport one has been completed the other is about to start now can I address the question of continuity we do not talk about continuity in Abdul we call it the first scenes what are the first scenes the first scene is continuing the second scene is called completes the third scene is called commission the fourth and final scene is called commence the first scene is continuing complete and commissioned projects inherited from your predecessor the fourth scene is commence your own projects and programs it is on the basis of this philosophy and policy there is a lot of projects inherited from you to me have been completed and I will give you one example the Abdulik hotel it is a a beautiful five-star hotel I'm sorry how is a hotel a project that would benefit the people of Anambara state I'm confused it's a hotel it's not a hotel did you just say a hotel I say a hotel in this hotel on the lake on the famous Abdulik it did only the foundation that's about five percent how does this benefit Anambara people wow I will explain starting with the employment the rate of employment indirect employment there are people who distributors water food stuffs and they get the money from there they generate taxes and that's a lot of work they get the money from there beyond that development of tourism tourism is the biggest employer of labor all over the world and what important we are talking about Anambara what is Dubai with the Alps is five-star hotel 7-star hotel in Dubai what is Dubai with the international conference center we are about to deliver the biggest international convention center in Africa the city capacity is 13,000 the biggest in a lot of Africa I'm hearing that we have to go we have just a few minutes I'm sorry Mr. Gumbak we have to go quickly I want to ask this question again what should Nigerians and of course Anambarians look forward to in the Saludo government quickly two things that are related number one quality of governance Anambara has raised the standard of governance for the first time we have a former central bank and the second is the government most president Mr. Gumbak are you there I think that we have lost that connection but Sidona Gumbak is the information commissioner in Anambar state and I want to thank him for being part of the conversation unfortunately we lost that connection but thank you all for staying with us on plus politics next we are talking about Nigeria being removed from the US list of countries with religious freedom concerns we are talking about it stay with us


Hey, honey. Are you ready? Yeah, just a few more minutes. Okay. We gotta go. We're gonna be late. I know. I'm really trying. But I can't seem to find a product that makes my lashes the volume and length that I want them to be. Would you like to be on time for a reservation for once? Are these fashionably late? Well, we have the solution. My name is Michael Howe. And I'm Amy Madeira. And Blink Beauty Bar will be a salon specializing in eyelash extensions. We will have three eyelash technicians, one of them being myself.  They last for about three to four weeks. And so this is a service similar to nails. The maintenance is very similar because we recommend that they come in monthly. And the service is actually a very relaxing process. The clients are laying down on a massage table and they close their eyes throughout the whole time. This appointment usually takes about two hours, so usually the client falls asleep. The eyelashes ultimately give a more open and brighter effect to the eyelashes. And they tend to make the eyelashes look more full and also more voluminous. For the products that we will use, we will go with the company we've been using for the past six months. And I've had several different brands that I've used since I've been doing eyelash extensions for over the past year. And so we are going to be using the adhesive and eyelash extensions from Sugar Lash. Sugar Lash, we've had great recommendations from our current clients. And so we're going to continue to use this brand. Not only are we going to be a storefront salon, we are going to also have a presence online. We are going to be fully utilizing the YouTube account. Currently, we have created a YouTube account online and for Blink Beauty. And for this account, we will be posting YouTube makeup tutorials and beauty tips and tricks to gain a following online. To talk about our market opportunity, Michael will be speaking upon that. And first we'll have our models come up and show the judges. While the models are walking around, I'd like to go over some of the benefits. The eyelash extensions are waterproof, so they're perfect for spring break or any other sort of vacation. They are also very customizable, so whether you're going to use them for work or whether you are going to be a bride to me, these eyelashes can have different lengths, sizes, and thicknesses. They are also, I don't know if you can notice, but they look very, very natural. You can't tell.  They have a huge amount of benefits. So now Michael will talk about the market opportunity. Thank you, Amy. So Amy has started this business just in the last year within the status community. And let's be honest, who doesn't like the status company? Over the last year, she has gained about six recurring clients, looked over 100 appointments, and made $10,000 just working part-time. So we look forward to moving with these two status clients into a physical location up in the Twin Cities. And with these clients, we'll continue to grow. In the Twin Cities market, there are very few businesses currently offering the service. Just a few, like, can count on you two hands. So we'll enter this market. It's a very competitive market currently. The profit margin is very high. We're going to offer the service for $200 for a full set to look at a comparative business in the Twin Cities, say, charge $400. So we're going to charge half the cost for very high quality. And then, also, Amy's going to use the clients that she brought at Gustavus into the market in the Twin Cities. So we look forward to this, and now Amy will talk about how we will differentiate ourselves using social media. Thank you, Michael. So we will fully be utilizing our social media outlets. Currently, we are utilizing Facebook, and we have over 25 likes and two five-star reviews. We will continue to promote the Facebook page. But more importantly, we will be utilizing the YouTube account. We have already created the YouTube account for Blink Beauty, and we will encourage people to like our page and also follow. So what we will be doing, we will have videos online of makeup tutorials, and we will also inspire and educate our followers to have a more creative look with their makeup and also share our entrepreneurial journey so that maybe we can inspire other entrepreneurs. We will have our employees, we will encourage them to film their own makeup tutorials, and then upload online so that we can gain that presence online and gain followers, which ultimately will be, you know, future clients. And I'll end with one final question. Are you ready for longer lashes? I assume that Minnesota is probably one of the least penetrated areas for eyelash work. So if you're talking in a place like L.A. or New York, just as an example, how many salons are there, you know, what's going on in those larger cities in terms of this market? I think that'd be relevant to understanding. Perfect. Yes, thank you for your question. So I actually started out as a client, and I lived in Arizona for a year, and this is where I started hearing about the service. And so I brought that knowledge back to Minnesota, and what the problem I had with a lot of people is where do I get my eyelash extensions in Minnesota because it's not a very popular thing or you don't necessarily hear about it, but it is a huge market for it. So I had a difficult time finding someone to do the eyelashes, and therefore I'm solving that problem. And to answer your other question about how many people are in the competitors in the market, certainly there's one salon that specializes solely on eyelash extensions, and again, they start at $400 for a full set and up, depending on the material used. But there are some salons, for example, nail salons, they will add this service as an additional service that can be provided to the clients. So are you thinking about your business model and franchising this? And I am a little worried about you being at half of the price of the other competitor in the market. Why not be just a little bit closer? Thank you. And for that question, there are at-home businesses. So this service is not, you don't have to have your cosmetology license to do so. You get certified, and then you have to have a certain amount of hours of passing exam. And so some people have at-home businesses.  If they decide to go into a storefront salon, they can do that as well. And not saying the salon that charges $400 for a full set is the only place you can go. It's just a competitive price to be at. There are also a lot of salons that can have this service, but there aren't any salons that specialize in only this service. Franchise? Yes, and yes, franchise is definitely something that we hope to move forward to since we do specialize in this service. And currently I charge $100 for a full set, so I think that'll be a good price once we have full-time employees and everything. Can I ask a question about the name? So I was never familiar with the concept, so I had been blank, and I didn't remember to include the E. And I got another blank beauty bar. How do you differentiate yourselves online when one simple character is telling you that it might take you a competitor? That's definitely something that may happen, but branding is huge for our business. So not only do business cards, you know, our logo and everything will be spelled with the E at the end. That's kind of how we compare to just, you know, not blinking the eyelash, but we thought it would be a really creative way to incorporate an eyelash concept in our name. So we just hope that with our promotion of the brand, that our clients will be able to find the right Facebook page, find the right YouTube account, and, you know, make sure we promote our brand with the extra added letter onto the blink word. A question but just an observation. Congrats for being an entrepreneur in college and raising getting that much revenue in one year now.


I saw on the court when you were asked how you know when something like this is coming, you said, oh, when I wake up. But I mean half facetiously, but can you tell in pregame warmups, okay, my shot is on or my shot's a little off? Or do you have to wait till the live live action starts? He always said that, because JC said that earlier this year, we had his career high in OKC. So I asked him the same question. So I was getting getting paid homage to him. But you really don't know. I really don't know. I had games where I shot incredible in warmups and had the worst shooting night that night. Mainly with my minds in the right place, coming into the game, as far as following the game plan, I felt like that's when I'll have solid games. So just try to stay locked in on what we're doing on the defensive side of the ball and try to stay locked in on where coach want me to play out on the offense. And the game just flowing naturally for me. Kevin, we're going to try to ask this in a way that doesn't make me sound like Nick. But what do you make of Bowl Bowl and all he's able to do for a guy that's 7-0? Yeah, he's unique. He's tough to deal with. And you're seeing his confidence growing by the game. You know, he can pretty much do everything on the basketball court. So just need more reps the last few years.  But I love what you're all doing with him over there, putting him at the point sometimes, playing him at the 5, just moving him around because he's such a versatile player. It's great for the league. I think you'll start to see him continue to, you know, be more and more of an impact player as time goes on. So he's playing well this year. You know, Kevin, is he a one-of-one? We're all one-of-ones, baby.  As far, I don't know if you saw the clip yet, but there's that clip at the end of the third that looked like Harris said something to you and you had the ball like this and just started laughing and then you scored. Did he say something? Oh, no, it was the first half, I think. I think it was first. First half? I just seen that clip too. Yeah, he was just extra physical using his hands.  He didn't. He liked his play on it. I just thought it was funny how physical he was. But yeah, we all just having a good time playing the game. And what changes the most? And you guys have dealt with it now for a few weeks when Ben's dealing with this knee injury. What changes the most now when he's not on the floor? We just, we've got to play smaller.  So I thought coach did a good job of trying to figure out the small lineup on the fly. We got to play a little faster. And, you know, I think we all just got to do a good job of gang rebounding and doing the little stuff when he's not out there. So, you know, we had some practicing with him not being in the lineup. And, you know, we was able to figure some stuff out.  Kevin, you mentioned out in the court that it was a goal to get back to 500. I mean, was that a motivating factor for you?   Yeah, that's really what it was. We got so close and we ended up falling two games out of under 500. So I just wanted to, just a little milestone we wanted to achieve in the early season and definitely was motivated to come out here and on our home floor and get back to 500. I think every game we play at home is so important because we want to keep our friends engaged and keep them supporting us through just having a good product out on the court, which is playing hard, playing together. We want, you know, we want guys to feel comfortable in our home arena when they take shots. So it's a lot on the line when we play at home and, you know, we want to take advantage of those opportunities. Katie, you had multiple and one this game and it only means five shots. How do you feel about the defense they give you? Or it just, it has nothing to do with defense, just you being you? They're long and athletic. And I felt like I had to use a lot of my legs and my follow-through on a lot of shots tonight because my fundamentals had to be on point with this team because they can disrupt you on any, you know, action that you, that I try to try to do from. They got a lot of hands on the ball when they trap me and I try to throw over the top a lot against other teams. That's a, that's a pass gets through, but that long athletic team over there is tough to get free looks. So I just try to be fundamentally sound and get to my spots and knock them in.  In your mind, was this, what was different, I guess, this time? Was it Joe breaking out and having a big night? Was it a couple of timely stops? In your mind, what was the difference this time around? We all rebounded them. They didn't kill us on the boards. And it was a possession battle. We won that, where we won that. So usually when that happens, we in good shape, you know, in those other games where we down early, we, they took 20 more shots than us. We turn the ball over as well. You know, and I'm trying to help the team get, you know, at least make it a game. So, you know, I put my foot on the gas to try to score, you know. So tonight was just happening in the flow of the game. Organically, we was able to get a lead and push, you know, get up 11 and they came back. So it was just, it was one of them back and forth games. I was able to get my, my feet under him. Yeah. Kevin, on the subject of big scoring nights, obviously a few this season now, how aware are you of the MVP chance to go up around the arena? Is that something you'd like to be in consideration for again, eight or nine years after the last one? No, not really. I mean, I've been there, done that to be honest. And I know it's going to take a lot from me to be in that conversation. So I just want the respect from our fan base and I want them to have a good time when they come to the game. So if that's, you know, that's what strikes, you know, chance up is how I play from the fans as long as they having a good time. So, you know, but I'm not too worried about accolades at this point in my career.  Just when you have it stuck on automatic like you did today, is that more difficult not to try to, you know, get outside the offense, go get the ball yourself, or is that easy for you just to keep playing within the flow? I'll just keep playing within the flow because I mean, respectfully, I feel like I'm always on, you know, I feel like I always, even if I'm not making shots that night, I feel like my jump shot is, is always sharp. So, you know, I don't want to get in the way of the game too much. I just put my head down and score because teams are going to make adjustments. They might start doubling me now. So I just got to see how the game is being played, see how the defense is being played, what my teammates are doing as well. So, you know, it's a lot I'm thinking about out there, but it's a fun, it's a fundamental game that I play.