Good evening. Welcome to the Candidate Forum. This program is part of a series presented by The Bridge and Orca Media to help voters get to know the candidates better. Before going on, I want to note that because of redistricting, these are the towns that are represented by tonight's round table. Waterbury, Bolton, Huntington, and Buells Gore. Glad you're here tonight. And forums are unique in that we have invited all the candidates who are on the November 8th ballot here, not even if they're not a major party. So first, we're going to start off with introductory statements, which you have two minutes, and introduce yourself, talk a little bit about your affiliation, and just talk about yourself. We're going to start with Thomas Stevens. Thank you, Linda, and thanks to The Bridge and to Orca Media for having the forums. It's been really nice to see how total you've been covering these races. I'm a Democrat, and I'm running for re-election to my eighth term to the House of Representatives, and I live in downtown Waterbury and have since 1996. Since my first election, I have served on the General Housing and Military Affairs Committee, and have been chair of that committee for the last two biennium. The portfolio in my committee is broad, going backwards in the name of the committee. Military Affairs means mostly veterans work and working with the National Guard, which is our primary military organization in Vermont. Our work is recently focused on providing the guard with more tools to recruit members through enhanced tuition programs to local colleges, and improving our licensing programs through the Department of Fire Safety and the Secretary of State's office, so that veterans who have been certificated in particular trades can transfer that certificate more easily when they come back to Vermont, as well as making it easier for spouses of families who serve in the guard to transfer any licenses they have, be it in a trade or as a teacher, for instance. In housing, we've worked to provide more affordable housing for Vermonters in need of it, and we've worked to mitigate the effects of homelessness or impending homelessness with the help of federal dollars throughout the pandemic. We've worked with the Executive Branch to distribute tens of millions of dollars to tenants and landlords for rental assistance, and we've allocated tens of millions of dollars more to property owners to rehabilitate or build new units. Under the general category, we deal with the myriad issues ranging from oversight of the Department of Liquor and Lottery to labor issues like minimum wage and paid family leave from abinac-y recognition to a formal apology from the General Assembly for the wrongs that we did during the eugenics survey in the early 20th century. We've also worked on discrimination cases and things like equal pay, so it's a pretty broad committee for us to work on. This is the work we do, and the work outside includes constituent work throughout the year. While I'm proud of the work I've been able to accomplish, it's a real privilege to have served this long. Thank you. Next we'll hear from Teresa Wood. Thank you, Linda, and thank you to Orca and the Bridge for sponsoring this. I really appreciate it. As I said, my name is Teresa Wood. I'm from Waterbury. I've lived my whole life in Vermont. I've just finished my seventh year in the legislature. I was appointed by then Governor Shumlin to fill an unexpired term of then sitting Representative Rebecca Ellis. I'm a Democrat running for re-election, and I currently sit on the House Human Services Committee, where I am Vice Chair. And as a member of that committee, we work diligently to help Vermonters in need. We look at issues from housing to poverty, to assisting individuals with disabilities, to have safe services provided by our designated and other designated agencies and other private organizations, such as home health agencies. We work on oversight issues for three major departments, the Health Department, the Department for Children and Families, and the Department of Disabilities Aging and Independent Living all fall under our committee's jurisdiction. In the last few years, we have made major steps forward in providing assistance to working families for childcare support and to expand the availability of childcare. We still have a long ways to go on that, but we've made substantial investments in that. We've also worked to expand the opportunities for Vermonters with developmental disabilities to have safe, appropriate housing and the ability for them to receive supportive services in the communities where they would like to. And likewise, older Vermonters, we've expanded the supports and services for older Vermonters and are working now on the first-ever broad-state plan to help Vermont age well. And I look forward to being able to continue to represent the people in our communities. Thank you. Next in our candidate forum, we have William McGory from Bolton Valley. Yes. Thank you again, Orca. My name is William McGory, and I'm a 20-year resident of Bolton Valley. And probably two years before that, I was running, I was not a property owner there. But during that time, my experience of 20 years, I worked in the hospitality industry in both Washington, the Waterbury area, and also Chittenden in Burlington. And presently, I'm a 10-year-old resident of a small business. I own a building which has a laundromat in it, and I run out to a dance studio and also a hairdresser who was left because of COVID. And that's one of the things I want to focus on as a business environment that we're having right now. My experience, this is the first run for me for a state representative, but I was a four-year member of the town council in Westport, Connecticut, which is a legislative body. It's a local body, but it's doing the same duties as a state. But you're dealing with matters locally in that state. It was also two years as a clerk of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee in Connecticut State General Assembly. So I know the process, and it's the same process up in Montpelier rather. My goals, I see so much infighting between Republicans and Democrats. I'm an independent. Each one of them steadfastly not wanting to compromise so that they won't give a victory to either side. And it's us, the people, there's a disconnect between what they're doing and the people's agenda. That's one of the main reasons I'm wanting. Other reasons are state agencies, I believe that the state agencies, they're not entities in themselves. We the people give them power, and I'd like to see all those agencies be educated in our system of government. That's my goal. I'd like to get more community involvement with all the agencies and with all the police department and all the other agencies. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McGory. Ms. Tenet. I moved to Vermont about 30 years ago. Thank you for having me, by the way. And as a world-class musician, since COVID, a lot of other families, a sense of community and to be able to raise a family and relative safety and comfort is really important. And they should be able to maintain their sense of values. I think that's been disrupted with everything that's been happening in recent years. Many community members have expressed disappointment, whether it be a lack of affordable childcare, housing taxes, mandates, pushing someone else's ideology or political agenda onto them. I know this because I listen while canvassing out there. It's become apparent we need better representation and that inspired me to run as a mom, a single mom, to boot. And I want to imagine a better future for our kids so that they can grow and wisdom and knowledge as to what constitutes we the people. Thank you. You're welcome. The candidates forum will begin now with one and a half minutes to answer a question and I'll pose to all of you. I'll do a different order every time and you'll have one and a half minutes and then at the end of the forum you'll have one minute to sort of close it and give a final statement. I guess I'll start with the way your names are on the ballot and we'll begin with Tom Stephens. Here we go. Question. When you are in the state house, how are you going to use this role to improve your district and what is the one important issue in your district? Our district is pretty broad. Waterbury is quite different from Bolton which is quite different from Huntington. So one thing or another is harder to pin down but again I work on the housing committee and we've been very clear since I've been in office about the dire need for housing that's affordable and which is slightly different than affordable housing in my mind. And what we're seeing across the state, across the country but in our district especially because it's right in our faces is the lack of vacancies for rental units. It's the lack of accessibility to affordable housing for families who don't make that much money in Vermont. We tend to pay people less than in other places and we have 144,000 income tax payers who make less than $27,000 a year and so having housing available for that demographic of people is really important as it is for a middle class person who's now trying to move into the area. We've had a big business leave in Waterbury because for a stated reason of there's not enough housing nearby and that's really important to get straight and we're going to focus on that as much as we possibly can. Thank you. We'll move to Mr. McGory with the same question. What is important in your district and how will you work in the state house to achieve that? What's important in our district like Thomas said, certainly I've heard all about the lack of affordability of housing. That is, I've never seen, I've never seen this environment where it used to be one week's pay would pay your rent. Now it could be, most of your income is going through your rent. How can we address that? I'm looking at some type of rebate program I guess that will give more affordability to people searching for housing. That seems to be probably one of the most important things happening in this district. I said before I do own a building but up in the St. Albanser area there's certainly different problems there. There's an opioid problem which I don't see terribly much in the Waterbury district but we do have to be vigilant in the way our drugs, the way the drug problem is especially here. Thank you. And the same question for Teresa Wood. Thank you. I think that the first thing that we learn as legislators is that you're there for the needs of your constituents and your constituents are both individuals and organizations in your communities as well as the municipal government in your communities. And so we respond on a frequent basis to outreach from whether it's an individual constituent or it could be a town clerk asking for clarification of a bill that's come up or we in turn also seek their input on things that we see coming up on the calendar and asking what's your thoughts about how this might impact business, the business that you do every day. So constituent services is a big deal and it's something that means a lot to me as a legislator because it helps me to connect with the real issues that people have in our communities. One of the big things that municipalities are interested in is bridges and roads and the state assistance for that in the transportation bill. And so making sure that we can link our communities to the appropriate resources is important. And I do want to mention the child care services and the ability for people to return to the workforce who aren't currently now in the workforce because having left due to COVID, we need to have people return to the workforce if they want to. And child care is one of the keys for that. So I'll continue to work on appropriate low cost, high quality child care for Vermonters. Thank you. Cathy Tenet, same question. I'm sorry, the question again, specifically. When you're in the state house, how are you going to use your role to improve things in your district? And what's the most important issue in your district? I will continue to speak to people. I'm a working person. I'm still working and I talk to community members and I'm a part of, you know, groups within the community. So the communication is definitely on that level of the working Vermonter. I think the carbon tax is highly unnecessary. We're already dealing with quite an increase in gas and heating fuel. I was shocked to get my heating bill this fall, early this fall. There's people that are very comfortable and they can afford to pay that sort of thing. There's a lot of people in our community that cannot. So to put a tax on top of that, to me, that's some kind of ideology that's going on that's interfering with our government process. I think the importance of law enforcement and properly funding them. I have a friend that lives in the Wasefield area. I know that's outside of our district, but that's an example. There is not one police officer in that whole area, Wasefield, Warren, that's been assigned to that area. That's problematic and I'm hearing about more police that are dropping out of the profession and more people are not going to be interested in joining the profession if the pay is not comparable to the job description and responsibilities, expectations. All our property taxes, it's the when I owned a home in Fiston, the property taxes tripled within a 12 year period. And, you know, we need to honor the school board and the superintendent's requests to not place more expensive mandates via new programs. Onto our school systems. Thank you. Thank you. Now here's the candidate forum. Here is our second question when you do you believe the Vermont legislature needs to focus more attention on election security? And if so, what actions do you propose? And we'll start with Miss Wood. Thank you. The legislature is continually interested in election security and Vermont has been cited, in fact, on a national level for its very high level of election security. And so I believe, yeah, we're going to have a new secretary of state. That person will certainly focus on election security. The legislature will continue to do that. We've made voting more accessible to more Vermonters than ever. We've continued that. And we will also continue to look at election security. However, like I said, I want to repeat that Vermont has been cited as being one of the most effective states in running its voting process. Thank you. Next, I'd like to hear from Miss Tennant. My estimation is that voting by mail is very susceptible to fraud. I have two friends that moved from the residences, one actually out of state, received a ballot in the mail. She reported it and it was kind of a fuzzy answer that she got. If she were to vote in her state of residence now in Ohio and didn't know about what was going on with the mail in ballots, I mean, that's that would fall back on her and she would be held liable. So the whole thing with cleaning up the voter rolls, so she's going to be mailing that back. So who's to say where that that ballot is going to get mailed back to? Is that secure enough to get that mailed back and what person is receiving it on that end? Who's to say that that person on the other end is not going to use that ballot? Harvest it, I guess that's the term. Another friend around the corner from me left her job and her residence and she received a ballot at her new address, or at her old address, I'm sorry, at her old address, okay, and the person that she was taking care of received a ballot who has since passed. So there you're talking about two ballots in mailboxes right around the corner from where I live. What's going to happen to these ballots? Who's to say that somebody's not going to come along and grab them and mail them? That's a deep concern. Thank you. Just mailing ballots and in the way that it was done, that it automatically went out without us requesting a mail-in ballot. I think that's a little erroneous. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. McGorrie. I know I vote at the Smiley School and they use paper ballots there. I don't know what they do in Burlington. They probably do have machines. It's certainly a bigger area. I know, and for example, my brother just came back from Brazil to see his wife. They vote with paper ballots, all right? They can wait a couple more hours. I don't have to have my instantaneous result. I want the result to be the right result. Not one that can be fudged with. And actually, she says, he told me that night, they do get it. They do get all the ballots counted. And there's no centralized position where any type of fraud can take place. This is one of the most important things in our government. It's our vote. Our vote is one of the most important things in our government. If you go into a liquor store, you've got a show ID. You get on welfare, you have to show ID. Everywhere you have to show ID, except at the ballot box. I think it's certainly Warren's matching a person to a ballot. Thank you. Mr. Stevens. I've been very comfortable with the way that the Secretary of State's office has been handling vote by mail, both through the pandemic and this year. If you remember during the pandemic, even the primaries, which are party related elections, they're not state elections, they're held by the parties at hand. They both went off fairly smoothly. They reacted to the pandemic in a way that was incredibly thoughtful and they focused on making sure that the rolls were clean. They made sure that the trial clerks were up to date on what the processes were and any hiccups that came up were straightened out through either through legislative action if needed or through the work of the town clerks. The town clerks did a phenomenal job across the state in making the system work. So I'm totally happy with the way that they've done it. They've been, the Secretary of State's office has been very forceful in protecting any kind of attacks online from overseas sources. They have been, as Representative Wood said, they have been recognized as one of the most secure voting systems in the country. And as we heard, yes, the vote is the most important at a time when there are states across the country that are trying to deny people the right to vote. I'm really proud that Vermont is getting out there and is getting away for us to vote at a higher level than we ever have in the past and to do it securely. Thank you. This is a candidate forum for Washington and Chittenden. We have four candidates here and I'm Linda Radke. We're going in different order every time we have some questions and then also the people from home can make sure you put your questions in as well. We'll have those as well. This is a question that has already been mentioned is housing. Do you think the Vermont legislature should do more to support affordable housing as well as housing from the missing middle, the moderate income for monitors? And if so, what should they do? Let's start with Ms. Tarrant. Used to own a home and I'm a renter now and my rent has gone up. Two years in a row. Pretty exorbitantly. I'm not sure if that's that. Well, of course, it's probably somewhat related to inflation. But I believe there are some some new regs or something that's going on for landlords. I don't know the specifics right now. I'd be willing to research that some more. I feel the pressure that she. This is my landlady that she is experiencing. She won't share them, like I said, the specifics. But there's there's definitely some some things that are going on. It's just a lot of inspectors coming in and out. It's it's just it just seems like a whirlwind. She's trying to make a living, too. And. But the increase between the increase in rent, two years in a row and a doubling of heat of the oil bill, heating plus gas for the car. You add this stuff up after a while and it's concerning. I'm a working person and there's a lot of other people out there that are working and they're experiencing this. And what can we do about it? I like I said, I will do whatever research is needed and required and necessary to get to the bottom of why this is such a problem in Vermont. It's very expensive to live here. I moved here 30 years ago. And to think that what was going on with the administration around that time that, you know, the the tax, the property tax tripled. And it was less than 12 years. Thank you.  But your return to those. Yeah, leaders. Same question for Mr. Stevens. What specific actions should the Vermont Legislature take to support affordable housing as well as housing for moderate income for Monters? Well, this past session, we passed a bill that allowed for private developers to have access to some of the federal money that we received through the ARPA funding, through the emergency funding, which is the first time we've really tried to allow private developers that opportunity with some restrictions on it. What we've seen since the pandemic started was at first we saw that everybody was holed up in their homes. And then we saw this incredible increase in the price of homes and in the price of rents going up. And our statutes do not have any protections for tenants when it comes to no cause evictions, which means that a landlord can evict someone for no reason whatsoever. We do have just causes, if it's not payment of rent, of destruction of property, and so on. And there are legal processes that go along with that. But during the pandemic, we also, through federal funding, instituted a rental assistance program where close to $160 million has been distributed through tenants to landlords to make sure that people are making ends meet, both as tenants and landlords. But it's a really sticky wicked. It's been very difficult in all the time that I've been here to try to figure out that way to get more affordable housing. We need more investment. We have a mechanism to do that with called the property transfer tax. And some of that money is supposed to go to help with affordable housing. But matching that up with available funds for the so-called missing middle has been a struggle because most private developers don't wanna have any strings attached to money that they're receiving in order to build housing. And if the state or the feds are going to give money, then there are gonna be some strings attached. But this past session, we passed legislation that starts that process. And we'll see how it goes in the near future. Okay. Question about affordable housing for Mr. McGory. Yes. I certainly see, have seen the rents go up in my time or Vermont. I'm not a, I own a house. I own a house actually in Canada also. And what they doing, I'm not a big, the Reggie DeLongement allows, I'm not 100% for rent control. But if the problem gets that far out of hand, the Reggie DeLongement up there, they say you can increase your rent by 2%, maybe 3%, whatever it is they decide at that point. That to me would be a last ditch solution. If, in our economy, our supply and demand, if you're experiencing super profits in one area, that's gonna attract more business to that area, and it's gonna take away your profits. Just like if your rent is getting so high and you're making so much money, people are gonna build new houses. And all of a sudden there's a glut of houses. So it's somewhat self-regulating. But I say, everyone's experience is problems with gas, problems with electricity, and so they're having to have to charge those rents. So it's not an easy solution. But like I said, there could be rent control. That would be a last-ditch effort that I think you could explore. Thank you. Ms. Wood, the question on housing and specific things that the legislature can do. Great, thank you. I think it's important to understand the depth and breadth of the housing issue. In Vermont, most likely we would need an additional 10,000 units of housing to meet what is the current demand for housing. We've made big steps, big strides, as Representative Stevens said. In the last three years, we've appropriated more than $375 million towards housing. And that's housing for middle income Vermonters. It's housing for low income Vermonters. It's housing support to rehabilitate current units that are offline in order to bring them up to code. Those are forgivable loans to landlords to be able to bring those housing units back up to code and to get them back in the housing market. We have been able to provide assistance, as Representative Stevens said, on rental. We have also looked at increasing the availability of what are called accessory dwelling units, which are essentially trying to increase the density of housing in our downtowns. And so I have to say that I think the legislature is on the right track, but we will continue to need to focus on this area. I have another question coming up that everybody take a little bit of water. All right. We're gonna start with Mr. McGory next for this question about climate change. The effects of climate change are already being felt across the world. Do you believe Vermont should take additional steps to limit carbon emissions in the state? My personal feeling is, hey, I'm green. I think I'm looking to move towards electric cars, et cetera. But people get carried up in a green wave. That's what happened in Germany, for example. They cut their nuclear, which I don't want nuclear at all. They cut their coal. Now, since there's a natural gas crisis over in Germany, they've been advised to take one shower a week and they've been advised how to use a washcloth. That's not a responsible pursuit at all. There's no plan B. I don't want to get carried off in a green wave also. I want to do things responsibly, slowly check their effects. And there was an ice age 10,000 years ago. I don't know how, that was certainly a climate change. There was a, in 1816, there was a Mount Tambora went off and there was no summer that year. That was certainly climate change. I don't think climate change is as, I think there, I do believe in it, but I don't believe in it at the extreme that I see other people believe it. Thank you. Mr. Aaron. Yeah, I think there's a lot of scare tactics when it comes to the green issue. And I think there's a lot of people trying to make money from it, quite honestly. And the way that they're setting it up here in Vermont with credits, with a, it's really gonna hurt the businesses that are supplying us with energy as well. Boy, there's so many things about this issue. It's just, I think it needs to be reframed, actually. The information that we're being given by major media outlets is, I don't wanna go so far as to say it's incorrect, but from a personal standpoint, I would say that. It needs to be reframed. What causes climate change has to do with the moon and the sun and the interaction. There's something that happened 135 years ago, I believe, that was quite dramatic, something that you had mentioned as well, similar to that. And it had to do, it's something with the waning of the moon and the sun and the interaction. And this is not being discussed. Things like this are not being discussed. And I think we need to open up this. It's a very big issue that we need to open it up and discuss more fully than it has been. Thank you very much. Thank you. Let's go to Ms. Wood. Well, I guess the first thing that I wanna say that climate change is real. If you lived anywhere in Vermont in 2011 and experienced tropical storm Irene or like in Huntington a couple of years ago with the Halloween flooding that happened there, we are seeing more and more severe weather circumstances. And the legislature has a role in helping our community to be more resilient and we've provided significant funding to support towns and their infrastructure to respond to those crises. We've also passed legislation that deals with the fragmentation of our forests. Our forests are one of our largest responses in Vermont to the climate issue in terms of carbon. And I wanna say unequivocally that the legislature has not passed a carbon tax. The clean heat standard, which is maybe being referred to did not have a carbon tax in it and required, it required the legislature to take further action on any recommendations that were made. And I think that it's important to understand that it's gonna be a multifaceted approach over many years. This is, there is no quick solution to this. And we have to be open to multiple input on those solutions. Thank you, Mr. Stevens. Thank you. Also unequivocally climate change is real. It's been affecting Vermont for a very long time. Many years ago, I picked up a National Geographic from 1975 and there was an advertisement from an oil company that said that we're running out of oil, we're at peak oil and that oil has contributed to the warming of the planet. So this is something that's been known for a very long time. We've actually been very slow in addressing this. And what the legislature has been able to do, some of the work has been vetoed by the administration, by the governor, is to look at this very clearly and relying on the existing science as much as possible. We don't need to look too far to look at Pakistan recently and to look at what just happened in Florida. The storms that are happening are happening in a way that hasn't really happened on a regular basis prior to this period of time. And every month we see that this was the warmest month ever. It's been going on for years. In Vermont, we have the biggest energy carbon creation right now is transportation. We don't have great public transportation. It's very difficult to build a rail system in the way that our state is built. And so until we can figure, make these investments, and first of all, accept the fact that these changes are happening and get a little bit more nervous about them, then we'll find the answers to them. We know where the answers lie. They're all out there. We just need to have the will to pass that bill and to start working on this. Thank you. Going from sort of a global thing to something very specific to Vermont, I'm gonna ask for your stance on Article 22. And just to review it, finalizes a four-year process of amending the state constitution to reflect, guarantee actually a reproductive autonomy for pregnant people. So where do you stand in Act 22? And we'll start with Ms. Terrant. 90% of Vermonters do not agree, and these are pro-choice people, by the way. They do not think that Article 22 is a good idea. They don't believe in an abortion at nine months.  And this would be entered into the constitution in Vermont. So 90%. It's a lot more extreme than Roe versus Wade. I think that the Supreme Court ruling in the way that they did, again, it's scare tactics. It's gonna happen here in Vermont, and we need to do whatever we possibly can to make sure that it doesn't. Roe versus Wade was, I think, the first trimester. You're talking nine months. And again, it's 90% of Vermonters do not agree with this Article 22. And why should the taxpayers have to pay for somebody's abortion? I just have a problem with that. I don't wanna pay for somebody's abortion. I work hard, I pay taxes. That's a personal choice, and that's something that should be between the woman and her doctor. And Article 22 means it's gonna be in public. It's written, it's not good legislation the way that it's written. It's lawyer talk. It's not very clear. It's vague. A woman is not even mentioned, the word woman. It's something person, individual. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Tom Stevens. I totally support Proposition 22 or Article 22. I have to push back against some of the numbers that were just mentioned. Recent poll just showed that 70% of Vermonters support Article 22. That's been the case since this was started over four years ago. It is not about nine month abortion of Vermont. It is not. There are no abortion clinics in the state of Vermont that do abortions at that time. So it's misinformation, essentially. It is putting into the Constitution the right of this choice to be between an individual and their doctor and that the legislature, which changes every two years it will prevent the legislature from easily passing anything that denies that right of those individuals. That's all Article 22 does. And this idea that 70% of Vermonters support it has been pretty regular throughout this period of time of contemplating this. Changing the Constitution is not a simple fact. It's not a simple thing to do. It takes two bienniums plus a public vote to get this across. It's been studied. It's been plenty of testimony taken and the support remains. And so I'm looking forward to seeing it pass in November. Thank you, Ms. Wood. Thank you. I voted in favor of sending Article 22 or Proposition 5, however you wanna refer to it to the voters. And the voters have a right in this state to an obligation to vote on a constitutional amendment as Representative Steven says. This has been a long process. I want to keep this very simple. What Proposition 5 or Article 22 does is to indicate to all individuals, not just pregnant women, to all individuals that government should not have the right to interfere in your personal healthcare decisions, period. Mr. McCory. I'm not 100% sure on Article 22. As far as abortions are concerned, I'm a male. I'm not a female. I don't have sensibilities of what that would do to a female, for example, how it would change their life, et cetera. I'm against, personally, against abortion, but I don't think I have the right to tell anyone what to do with their body. And I probably would abstain from any type of a, any type of telling people that they can't do this or that with their body. But I certainly don't like the idea of a third trimester abortion or whatever. But like I said, I probably would abstain from that or at least not, I think individual has a right to their own body and their own decision. Just as I think people have the right to choose a vaccine or not be vaccinated, the government should not tell you that that is their duty. That's my feeling. We're gonna move on to the cannabis question. What should we do with the unallocated revenue collected from the 14% excise tax on retail cannabis sales? Ms. Wood. Thank you. Well, whether we in fact earn that through sales is yet to be seen. Legal sales just recently started. Serving on the House Human Services Committee, we spend a great deal of time on prevention and education around substance use. And we have a priority for investing a significant amount of resources that come from that in substance education and treatment. It was mentioned earlier about the opioid crisis that we have in Vermont. Last year, a record number of 210 people died from overdoses in our state. And while we have a hub and spoke system that provides treatment to people with substance use disorder, it is not sufficient. We need to do more and we need to explore other alternatives. So investing any resources that we might get from that into related substance use issues, I think would be what I would look to do. Thank you. This is the candidates forum here on Orca Media, also sponsored by The Bridge. And I'm Linda Radke. This is not a debate. It's sort of a round table. So we're giving each of the four candidates a minute and a half to answer some questions that are pertinent. We also may have some questions from our audience who will call in the questions. Let's turn to schools. Do we need to change the way we fund education? Less property tax, more income tax. Vermont is consistently ranked among states with the highest per pupil spending more than 20,000 dollars per student. The question is, are we getting a good return on our investment? So talking about school funding. Let's begin with Theresa Wood. Well, thank you. I didn't know if the other candidates were gonna get to answer the question I just answered. Thank you. I just thought I might. I mean, I'm happy to answer two questions in a row. There you are. There you are. Yes. Sorry. I'm gonna keep myself straight on that. So we'll just go down to Mr. McGory. So the question we're gonna back up the question. The effects of climate change. No, no. Cannabis. Cannabis. How would you use a cannabis? Gee, I forgot. What should we do with the unallocated funds collected from a possible 14% excise tax on retail cannabis sales? I do, I agree that's an opioid problem. And I think some of that money should be spent directly towards the opioid crisis. You were talking about school funding. That's gonna be an opportunity to fund schools. I know you said the pupil cost is, per pupil cost is very high, but cannabis revenue might come in handy with that. So it's either school funding or attacking the opioid crisis. Okay. Kathy Tennant, Territz. Thank you. A representative from Colorado came to speak, I think it was around a couple of years ago, and I decided to attend. And he mentioned that it's not a good idea to legalize marijuana to the point that it's commercialized. And he said the tax that you get back does not offset the cost, basically, because there's a lot of social cost involved in the increased use of cannabis. I think it's fine if you wanna grow your own, and if you wanna share it with your friends, and that sort of thing. But this whole idea of mass producing, and then you're attracting nefarious elements, because then it's a big money-making thing. I'm concerned about that, based on my own experience as a mother, and also from one of my children living in the United States, living in Colorado, and what I've heard that is happening out there. And thank you. Tom Stevens. What to do with the 14% sales tax is still, I think, a question that hasn't been answered, because we don't know how much it's going to be. From the lottery, we net probably close to $30 million for education through spirits, the sale of spirits. We probably net around $28 to $30 million. Both of those are considered controlled substances as marijuana is. And so when we have another year of seeing, a year of seeing what kind of income we're going to make, we'll have a better idea of where that money can be invested, and it should be invested in something that's going to help mitigate any social problems that come up from it. Marijuana is generally speaking safer than alcohol. It is generally speaking much safer than fentanyl or any opioids. The problems that come from it will come from a personal use issue. I'm of the school that it's already illegal, it's already illicit, except for homegrown now. And well, now it's not for recreational. But the idea that it has been a public safety thing for all these years has really, the prohibition against marijuana has created more problems than legalizing it will. And as long as we can invest in the social programs that will help mitigate the problems with any person who has a problem with it, then I think that that would be sufficient. Thank you. So with Act 22 with cannabis, now we're gonna, schools will go to the one I was going to ask everybody else. This is about funding education. So should we change the way we fund education in the state? As you mentioned, $20,000 per pupil cost. Are we getting a good return on that? And do we need to change the funding for education? Start, Ms. Tarant. I moved to Vermont in the fall of 92 and had my son shortly thereafter. I was at home with my children, had a daughter a year and a half after that. And they entered the local community school just as Act 60 came in. My son, I think he made it through kindergarten and then my daughter was right behind him. They're just really close in age. And how it impacted our community and our family. Two thirds of the staff quit. It was just an uproar and that, it was a wonderfully rated school up until that point, actually, people raved about it. The kindergarten teacher won awards. And what ended up happening? Yeah, just imagine two thirds of the staff quit. The money, a third of the funding was taken out of that school and sent who knows where. And that whole thing with Act 60 was just like, I checked it out a little bit more recently because I felt like I needed to for this time that we're in now. Yeah, it was like rushed through. This is what happens with these bills sometimes. So people get together in legislature and they had these agendas and they're gonna do this. And there was really little input discussion from the community that was allowed. Thank you very much. You're welcome. We're hitting all the topics today from cannabis to schools and now guns. What are your thoughts on an assault weapons ban? Do you believe it should have, people should have AR-15s without regulation and what about a ban on non-standard devices such as bump stocks that increase the capacity or firing speed of non-automatic weapons? It's a complicated question, several parts to it, but assault weapons ban and regulation of AR-15s and also modification. We'd like to start with Mr. McGory. I'm not a big hunter, but I am an advocate of a second amendment. I don't see any real reason to have a magazine of 50 rounds to go out and hunt deer. So in some respects, the size of the magazine would I think could be limited as far as rifles, et cetera. I think it's our second amendment, right? It's written in the constitution and it wasn't written because they wanted to make sure people could hunt. It was written as a prohibition against a tyrannical government. So I do understand AR-15 is a 22. It's not a huge round. Like I said, my feeling is I would compromise on some, the size of the magazine and some assault weapons, but as far as guns go, I certainly want people to enjoy their second amendment, right? Thank you. Mr. Stevens. I think we did some legislation on bump stocks. I'm not sure whether it passed or whether it was vetoed in the end, but bump stocks are unnecessary for hunting. AR-15s are unnecessary for hunting and so whether they get banned or not, I think as a federal is primarily a federal issue, but I do think that we should be licensing gun owners. We license for automobiles. We license for cosmeticians. There should be some responsibility when you are exercising your second amendment, right? To the rest of society, to say that you know how to use this tool, this weapon, and that people should be able to be responsible for that. And I think that we ignore that responsibility. I was brought up at a house with guns and that was the first thing I was taught. They're very powerful weapons. They're very powerful tools and that you should have a responsibility for how that tool is used. And I think we ignore that when we get into this simple, simplistic conversation of what the Constitution may say about ownership. I don't have a problem with people owning guns on a whole, but I would like to see it so that it's safer and that it's done in a way that is respectful to those of us who don't own guns. Thank you. Next to Theresa Wood. Thank you. I'm gonna skip back just for a moment to the school question. Having served 12 years on a school board and most of them as chairs, our schools have become social institutions that deal with a whole myriad of issues of children and families. And yes, $20,000 per student is a high amount. And Vermont relies on a diversity of different funding sources, even though people just highlight the property taxes, not the only source of funding for schools. And we in the last couple of years have diversified that even further. So I just wanted to point that out and that we pay for property taxes based upon our income in Vermont. So they are income sensitive. When it comes to weapons, I wholeheartedly support the Second Amendment and I wholeheartedly support commonsense gun legislation. And I don't think that, I think that those two things can live together in Vermont laws. And we have passed commonsense gun legislation and we need to be aware of the fact of how guns are used in our society today and the impact on domestic violence and the victims of domestic violence and guns are used in that way a lot. The impact on people who die by suicide and the use of guns during that. So I support the Second Amendment and I also support commonsense gun legislation. Thank you. Now, Kathy Terrant. I support the Second Amendment wholeheartedly as a woman I should be able to protect myself and for somebody to tell me that I can't or how I can or cannot do that, I don't think that's really their place. Again, I keep saying fear tactics. There's all these fear tactics out there. What constitutes an assault weapon? It could be a knife. There's more knife deaths per year than guns. So it's, there's more to the story here. Again, as a woman I should be able to protect myself in whatever ways that I deem necessary. Thank you. Thank you. Now we've come to our sort of lightning round. Thank you so much for respecting the time and now take a minute, take a strip of water, but this is one minute and we'll go in the original order that you chose when you sat there. One minute to sort of give us a closing statement and do try to keep it to one minute. Mr. Stevens. Thank you. Thank you again for hosting us tonight. I would just ask our constituents, our voters for their vote coming up, starting last week. You can fill out your ballot now. What I think I bring to this position is experience, it's leadership, it's commitment to doing the work that's in front of us in the best way I know how. The stuff, the material that comes through our committee is diverse. It does deal with everyday Vermont issues. It does deal with the important parts that we've talked about tonight, including housing, including affordability, wages, and the ability to make it here in Vermont. And I would just ask people for their support. Theresa Wood. Thank you, Kathy. Thank you for hosting and for moderating this evening. Appreciate it. I think that one of the things that I want to say is that on behalf of Vermonters, working in the legislature is an honor. It's a responsibility I take very seriously, but it's also an honor to be able to represent your constituents and your communities. And to do that in a way that's respectful of the diversity of opinions that there are. We represent everyone in our communities, not just the people who agree with us and on a particular issue. And so we try to, the best of our abilities to listen to our constituents about the myriad of issues that come our way. And I do want to say that we work across the aisle, you know, Republicans, independents, progressives, Democrats, we are all working there for the same thing. And that's to improve the lives of Vermonters and to make Vermont continue to be and improve it as a state that we all want to live in. Thank you. William McGory. Yes, I do think the environment is a problem, but like I said, I don't want to get caught up on a green wave. I want to do things responsibly. I want to have a plan B. Like I said, the Germans, they cut down everything, the coal, now they can't even take a shower. Electricity costs are now in England are way, way up because they stopped their coal production. Let's do things responsibly and have a plan B and all these things. As far as, I'm running as an independent, and it is because Democrats and Republicans are at each other's throats. I've seen it, especially in federal, but in Vermont, it also is there. Like I say, let's be responsible, have an alternative plan and, you know, that's pretty much what I'd like to say. Thank you. Cathy Tarrant. One minute. One minute, thank you. As a 30-year Vermont resident, single mom and musician, working musician, I have seen our state become a harder place for Vermonters to live, to support themselves and their families. This has largely been the result of the politicians we've been sending to Montpelier. Making our lives more complicated and more expensive through increased regs, higher taxes, and mandates based on ideological agendas. They're disconnected from the day-to-day needs of their constituents. Vermonters deserve better representation at the state house that is more reflective of their wants and needs and not based on the parlance of special interest groups or lobbyists. I'm Cathy Tarrant and I'm asking for your vote. Thank you. And thanks to our candidates today for this forum on Orca Media, also co-sponsored by the bridge, the Montpelier Bridge, and also telling everyone to remember to vote. I'm Linda Radke. Thanks so much for listening.


It's in toughness that spider silk is extraordinary beyond any other natural materials and most manmade materials. When I started working on spider silk, almost all of the work had been done on this guy, on Nephila, on the Golden Orbevers. And me as a taxonomist, I have an appreciation for the amazing diversity of spiders out there. So there's a huge reservoir of hundreds of thousands of types of spider silk that have never been researched. Anything you can do with a strong lightweight fiber, you could do with spider silk. So anything from simply superior ropes to something like scaffolding for maybe for skin grafts, things for tissue engineering, possible use as a temporary tendons and all the things. We were lucky enough in Madagascar to discover a spider with these gigantic webs that can throw their silk lines across rivers and lakes up to 80, 90 feet. And it turns out that the silk that used to do that is extraordinary. It turns out to be the toughest spider silk known, which makes it the toughest known natural material. So I was part of that discovery through basically combining fields of biomechanics and taxonomy and discovery.


Hi everyone, my name is Jason. I'm a librarian here at San Francisco Public Library. For today's STEM challenge, I'm going to show you how to make sun prints. What makes sun prints a STEM challenge? Well, it has to do with science. And the way the sun's energy, the ultraviolet rays, affect the colors of the sun paper. What happens is some of the sun's energy travels to Earth as light waves. Certain light waves called ultraviolet rays have enough energy to change the chemical compounds of the sun paper. And those chemical compounds are the dyes and the colors in the paper. In this experiment, you'll see that the sun paper shaded by leaves and other objects causes it to have an imprint on the paper. So we're going to get started and here's what we will need. One sheet of sun art paper, one plastic sheet cover. You can use scavenge leaves, sticks or flowers or craft materials, which is what I'm going to be using. Ribbons, lace, yarn, anything like that that you have in a craft kit. You'll also need rocks or books or CD covers. Those are going to weigh down your plastic cover. And I don't have this today, but you will need a tub of water or access to a faucet. So what we're going to do is take our sun paper. We're going to lay that flat in direct sunlight and you're going to make a design on your sun paper. Anything you want, just throw it on. And once that's ready, you're going to take your plastic sheet cover and put it over the sun paper and then weigh it down with your rocks, your books or your CD covers. And you're going to let that sit in the sun between five and 15 minutes or until you can see the colors changing on the paper. Once that's done, just lift everything up and you're going to get kind of an image like this. And I made another one with leaves and other things. So what you're going to do next is you're going to put your sun paper in a tub of water or you can run it under a faucet for 30 seconds to a minute. And when that's done, you're going to see this kind of brighten up. Then you need to dry it so you can hang it on a clothesline with some clothespins or you can lay it on a towel until it dries. And once it's dried, you can lay it in a book and that'll help flatten it out so it's not so crinkly. And then you have a beautiful sun print. You can hang up. That's how you make sun prints.


What's up guys welcome to SBM Buzz my name is Liz Jackson I hope you had an amazing amazing weekend and talking about the weekend I would want us to just you know go through the events that happened in the past weekend and The famous boys to men concert finally happened So according to the setup and according to what we saw people really enjoyed themselves. This was the first time Boys to men were performing in Kenya for the very first time and the tickets were very expensive Very very expensive regular itself was going for 8,000 pop Aside from that we saw a few complaints from people especially who are seated on the regular side. They said that Especially when our big boy band Sao Tisol was performing the screens went off and not so many people who are happy about that They were like if we paid 8,000 for regular the screens must have been working the entire time Let's move to state house if you're a content creator and you do not have a picture in front of the state house See do you know how to feature Surawapi? So we saw several content creators at the state house where the president himself William Ruto was launching the Talantahela So if you are not Conversant to the Talantahela, it's supposed to help you know creatives Monetize their content. So we did see several content creators. We saw asia. We saw mungai Eve. We saw official Kinutia and News reaching our desk is that there was so much traffic getting into state house There's some of their content creators who didn't make it to the venue completely the likes of K-Tac Tres and Mami to so let us know what Do you think about content creators being in being in state house? I saw a lot of comment of people saying is now state house a place where people can walking and walk out or Should we celebrate the fact that the president has embraced young people? And he wants to have a close relationship to them and he invites them to you know state house events So let's move on to the third event of the weekend the Larry Assego laugh and to hold one-man Comic show that took place at the Allianz Fonse so Larry Assego is a very famous radio presenter But in the last couple of years and I mean five years He has not performed on a stage, but we did see him on stage. He performed for two hours straight Laughter for two hours So it was produced by a very famous producer her name is Christian Savane and Larry Assego actually did Deliver and the venue was full the venue was extremely full So we don't know what Larry Assego has planned for us, but we hope to see him on stage So that was the weekend recap by Liz Jackson. See you next week on Monday


Right. Right. And I think that that part is, it was an interesting, I'd never thought about it until you had said, obviously this is your line of work. What are things that you're working on now, what are, you know, as, as you see important items for the voters for you, your office in 2024, what are the, what, what keeps you up at night? What are the things? Yeah, look, I mean, we obviously violence was a, it will continue to be obviously something that we care deeply about, but you know, during 21-22, that was a big concern of ours. Right. You know, the spike was going on in our community, it was going around other communities. How do we deal with this?


what's up guys we're back with another epic video we have dualist revolution 24 packs to open up these were sent to me slash purchased by sam he picked up all these packs for me and then he decided that he wanted some of them so he said open them up 24 packs dualist revolution so if you guys are interested in packs like this as well check out ruxen34.com i have dualist revolution ancient prophecy stardust overdrive uh legacy of darkness stuff like that so there's pharaoh servant magic ruler there's tons of stuff on ruxen34.com check it out there will be occasional discounts for members as well so if you want to become a member click the join button or the link in the description that says become a member special footage members gets discounts occasionally they get early access to box breaks emotes badges etc stuff like that access to discord so if you want to do that check that out and let's get into the opening we have a giveaway we'll be giving away these three cards all you got to do like the video be subscribed let me know what you want to see out of dualist revolution we've got a fechviller ulti we got ulti saw a morning we've got pot of awesome we've got a ghost rare there's so many good options last time we opened up dualist revolution we pulled insane so hopefully we can pull that well for sam because sam did me a favor helped me get some packs for the website and uh he also got himself some epic packs as well but i appreciate him doing that and now he's gonna open up some on the channel which provides awesome content so let's go first pack not so much but we have 23 to go so hopefully we can pull some good good good good good good good good good good stuff earthquake giant don't know what i'm doing there how the wild mosquito horn of the phantom beast look if you don't know what it's going on just roll with it just roll with it guys we are hoping for a ghost right here i've never pulled the uh the drako a quest or whatever his name is before so it would be really cool to pull on earthquake giant got how the wild mature your mosquito we got a unicorn night so slow start definitely a slow start let's see if we can pull an ultimate rare you've got ulti secrets you've got ghosts in this set i mean there's just tons of good stuff this was like a very very good set back in the day and first edition of this is crazy it's so hard to find we've got a flambel fiend all right okay no foils for the first like five packs or is that for it not only four packs okay so we are hoping these are hot after this scrap goblin oh i've never seen that card it's weird lock cat desperate tag unibird this guy always comes up in the duals revolution and i can't ever remember if he's like worth something or not it feels like one of those cards that i wouldn't think was worth something but actually is but then when i say that on camera it usually ends up being 10 cents so yeah yeah not sure we'll find out you guys will find out right away you guys will already know because the editing but for me i'm just gonna be wondering i'm just gonna be wondering who knows if it's good or not damage eater earthquake giant amazon's fighting spirit amazon's village and ad changer okay dualist revolution let us revolt against the dualist all right or is it the dualist revolting that is the question here we go we got a fighting spirit mind mole i think fighting spirit's actually a good comment reanimation wave and rhino torus all right okay so uh one foil so far we're hoping for better than that in this video gen X worker we got a waddlemer okay scrap okay we got to check this guy out we got him doesn't that look like something from the muppets is it just me is it just me chain whirlwind egotistical ape and anti magic prism egotistical ape this is an interesting set all right interesting set it has been a while since we've opened this i maybe like two months ago synchro fusion we got a flambelle archer all rucks and special into parallel selection okay what's that one called that's like the arc the selection is that what it's called it's in the dualist genesis i think it's just the selection man where are the foils in this thing we got a lot cat desperate tag watsy playing the archer scrap gold this was reprinted but this was like a four dollar five dollar rare for a while still worth a little bit i'm sure so we'll set that aside all right saving it all for the end huh saving it all for the end this came from one of those big ol like 100 pack boxes or whatever you guys know i'm talking about so i don't know like i don't know where the i don't know if they're mixed up i don't know what but i don't really know how the ratios go with that hundred pack box so we're about to hopefully find out if there's some good good stuff in here damage eater watt cannon mine mold dark des desert appear and watt beta okay wine spot strike we still got several packs left but but hopefully it'll go better than it's going right now we're dropping packs we're not pulling anything we've got a watt beta that's a goldfish scrap sheen chivalry we got an ultra another scrap golem okay that's a pretty good pack chivalry is not a great ultra but it is an ultra and then we got a scrap golem which is very good as well if this hadn't been reprinted it'd be like five dollars per cart which would be really nice okay dualist revolution this could be considered part of the ghost hunter series it's not because you know we didn't announce at the beginning it's ghost hunters this is more of like a effect filler saw morning pot of awesome kind of a hunter but uh that's like a side quest side quest to find the ghost rare if we complete it we're definitely going to be happy so hopefully we can do that for saiyan janex worker come on we've only got three foils scrap goblin ultimate axon kicker there we go you got a synchro fusionist and bichlorian there we go we're picking it up four foils now that's much more like it that's much more ratio but can we get the ulti i don't know what the ratios are for ulti wait are the ratios on here all right so we have there's not gonna say ulti's on here eight this just tells you how many cards are in each pack unless i'm missing it on here okay or like any in the set there's there's eight secret rears total mosquito what is this chivalry again one in the world another chivalry okay ultra rare chivalry all righty okay not the most exciting but we have done it we've pulled two chivalry they really want you to be chivalrous out there guys just keep that in mind janex worker reanimation wave okay okay all right keep believing come on we're gonna pull something big here we can do this amazon a sage we got a final over final psychic over desperate tags wiseman's chalice i think wiseman's chalice is maybe okay maybe i'm not sure i think it might be good super rare still a few packs left we're still hoping for an ultra i mean an ultimate secret go stuff like that anything like that is going to be huge desperate tags trying to tag out to that next guy in the wrestling match scribe album it's like nacho libre all right nature he beans what do we have left we have five more packs we've opened 19 we've got five more we've gotten the ratio looks like we've gotten pretty decent ratios oh upside down one upside down that's how it usually goes i don't know why it's kind of weird chain whirlwind watson scrap golem a third scrap golem that's pretty good actually pretty good the sad part is the scrap golem is probably worth more than the foils at this point i'm not sure it might be the most expensive card the good thing is we bought three of them though miracle synchro fusion mosquito oh vaulted by corn we see this guy a lot too look at those the naturia beans now might be one of my new favorite cards look at that it looks like a little toaster look at him that is so awesome that's a great card all right vaulted by corn ultra rare that's pretty cool so we've now pulled three ultras so where are the secrets where are the ultimates where are the ghosts come on guys maybe they're all hiding in the other like tons of packs we have fighting spirit we got a mind mole why cannon amazon is village that used to be decent i think it might be under a dollar now okay two more packs can we get a big hitter to end it come on let's do this damage eater we got a miracle synchro fusion earthquake giant howl of the wild check that guy out blue bear i guess amazon is scouts that's cool and bear your way final pack of duelist revolution in this video you guys are interested check out rexon34.com there are more packs of this and other 5d's and original sets okay here we go let's pull some go get a chain whirlwind final pack for sam gen X worker here we go trident warrior we did get a super rare at the end will powers a good one and another one of the minichuria beans gotta love it beans are good for your heart guys all right super rare not bad so out of 24 duels revolution we got three scrap gold and we got one two three four supers and three ultras to being chivalry which is very weird i don't think the best value not exactly the card you're looking to pull we did pull some pretty decent ratios hopefully in the other packs there'll be better pulls thanks again sam for sitting in those duels genesis and getting some of the duels revolution it is really appreciated hope you guys like the video make sure to like it subscribe if you enjoyed it and that's for this video i'll see you guys later peace


Welcome back to Why In The Morning. It's Tuesday, it's Interpreneurship Tuesday at White River Channel. You can find us across all our social media handled at Michelle Ashira's, where you can find me across all my social media. In this particular segment, we dive into an interview that looks at motor vehicle tracking and also insurance. So in studio, I'm joined by Joseph Munghe. He's the final track founder and CEO and he was also part of 2018 top 40 and the 40. Thank you very much, Joseph, for creating time to be with us. Thank you, it's a pleasure. You're much very much welcome. So you are among the top 40 and the 14 2018. Yeah, true. Right. So which company was you listed? Because I'm considering the map that I learned when I had a conversation and you have serial solar business as well. For 2018 was Finatrack. Finatrack Global Limited, where we are specializing in our GPS technology and fleet management solutions. Okay. All right. So what is Finatrack all about before you even get into So for Finatrack, we were licensed by Communication Authority of Kenya as application services providers, whereby we have GPS tracking devices, which we use to install in vehicles. And once we install them in the particular vehicles, the owners are able to monitor the real-time information about the vehicles and also historical information. So we also coupled these with the added solutions where we are able to help people with fleets efficiently manage their fleets and also cut on costs of operations. So for all of you, have you been running the business? Since 2017. So is Finatrack the main source of other several business or how did it happen, as you mentioned, other sort of businesses that you took? Actually, I started it later on because before that I was also in insurance and I was also in logistics. So basically, I came up across the solution relating it to the current challenges in those industries. Many insurances whereby the car tracking really helps and also in logistics, managing the trucks. Yeah, and that's how I came up with it now, the Finatrack here. All right. What was the market gap that you saw in the market that you felt that you're going to start a GPS car tracker? For me, what's the market? So quite also unique about your company? So first of all, it was mainly on the features. So most companies were offering the basic tracking whereby you can only maybe view the real-time location, the historic playback and maybe switch off the vehicle using your phone. So first, we looked for additional solutions such as voice monitoring and also video monitoring which we coupled it with the device and also our angle was different because we were mainly focusing also on the risk aspect whereby instead of selling the device to just protect the owner, we were able to incorporate it with an element of insurance such that in the event of theft of your vehicle, if you had our GPS tracking device which was certified, you could save on the excess charges which are usually cut and the amount which you want to be refunded. You mentioned something early on that this is the basic aspect of GPS installation of tracks, the trackers. Then quite specifically mentioned like sound tracking and video tracking, what is the difference compared to just going to another company that are going to give me like all locations where my car is, locking my car in a way that no one can actually drive it through my phone even just location. So what is so different about the voice in the video? The video because from our analysis, what we realized was you see for the vehicle aspect, most of the risks weren't from outside, most of the problems came from inside. So you could find if it's a case of loss to the vehicle, maybe Guza, the high probability was maybe the staff were involved or people close to where the vehicle used to operate. So in the event of an emergency, instead of you just knowing where the vehicle is, you can be able to hear the voice inside the vehicle or the people speaking or be able to see the actual footage of the people inside the vehicle. The chances are high you'll identify the people inside, they wouldn't be strangers. Because most cases when it comes to that, most cases happen within people you know. Yes, it's mainly an inside job. Okay, that's very interesting. So let's go back to the type of the best GPS vehicle trackers. And how do you identify that this particular tracker is suitable for my cow? First of all it depends on your needs, what your focus is. So you could find private vehicle owners and commercial vehicle owners have different interests in the GPS tracking. So mainly for the commercial owners, it's cutting on costs and being able to monitor the use of the vehicle. And on the other side, for the private vehicle owners, they mainly consider their personal security, the security of their vehicle. So when looking for a device, first it depends on your needs. Because let's say you're in the track industry, one of your main cost is fuel. So your main focus can be how can you monitor the fuel consumption or the fuel usage? And in the event of fuel theft, how can you be able to know? So you'd be skewed towards such a device. But if you're just your own vehicle, you may not be really considering how much fuel you're spending because you are the one fueling your vehicle and the one using it. But on the other side, you'll mainly consider maybe aspects such as theft and the personal security of your vehicle. Yeah. Let's talk about how affordable this is. And is it a subscription fee that you want us to repay monthly? How does it work? That was also one of our main entry points into the market because we realized most of the people were charging quite a high substantial amount and also had recurring costs. So like for us, our entry product was a basic trucker with also the voice monitoring, which we were able to offer 10,000, a flat fee without any renewal. All the client had to do because for the device, for which to be able to transmit the data, we partnered with Safari com. So they just load in the airtime for the trucker and they're able to use the trucker for a lifetime. Okay. So that is when you want to find the location of your car, you can call and it will give you the feedback. No, us hours is different because we have apps, both available on iPhone 100 and also the desktop browser. So you can be able to real time just log in for many device to your account and you're able to view the vehicle location and you can also be able to see anywhere the vehicle was, anyway it stopped for how long it stopped. Yeah. Okay. Let's dive into insurance. Are there any policies that you're putting in place for the sake of your clients when it comes to insurance? Because for insurance, as I mentioned earlier, we started with insurance. We had registered an insurance agency where we're independent insurance agents. So for the insurance aspect, we partner with insurance service providers. So these are the underwriters who are able to provide competitive rates and proper cover. So in the event of loss, you're almost sure if you've complied with all their terms, you'll be compensated. So where we integrate the tracking with the insurance is mainly on the aspect of theft. Because on theft, what a lot of people don't know, if your vehicle is stolen, you won't be compensated the whole amount. The insurance company will have to deduct an amount. Yeah. How many percent? Yeah. Mostly it's 20 percent. Yeah. 20 percent. So if your vehicle was valued at 1 million, that's 200,000, which will be deducted. Okay. Yeah. That is if you don't have an anti-theft device on the vehicle. But so once we issue the anti-theft device, now which will be for the tracker, now the excess will move from 20 percent to 5 percent. So they still deduct something, but it will be substantially lower. Yeah. And for still under insurance, because you want a company that deals with insurance. Yeah. Let's look at situations whereby a client went away like identify that this particular insurance is good for me in terms of car insurance. So because most of the time is when it all starts, it's always like ferry, like insurance covered everything. But when an incident happened, an accident happened. So it was like a push and pull situation. Yeah. True. But that's a common challenge, especially in the Kenyan market. I think I am really struggling to enhance the efficiency within the market, because the complaints have been for long. So mainly for you to assess an insurance company, of course, the first place is maybe to look at the financial reports. So an array usually publishes this on their website, can easily analyze the claim payment ratio for these insurance companies. So this is a ratio for the claims reported for the losses incurred. What percentage of these claims has this insurance company been able to pay over a certain period of time? And next from that, you can also look for a competent person within the industry. Most probably an independent insurance agent or a broker who can be able to compare with you, these different service providers. Because mostly what happens in Kenya, you find that we have standardized policies all over. So they're not really unique. What maybe comes in as a difference is maybe the cost. So for you, for the amount you're paying, you really want to be given a guarantee of the quality of the service which will be able to benefit from this. Yeah. And is it actually good to ensure a call twice? No, no, no. It's not. Some people used to talk about it as a co-insurance, but it doesn't work. Because even recently, an array came up. It's not an array, actually. It's Aki, the association of Kenya insurance companies. They came up with a unified platform through which insurance for motor vehicles is issued. So once you're issued a cover by a particular company, you can't ensure that vehicle again within the company until your cover is canceled or expires. All right. So let's just break it down for better understanding. So when it comes to an insurance cover, so what does it really cover in specific aspects so that we might just avoid this situation so about this? For the push and pull. So mainly it's to consider the types of insurance. So when you're buying insurance, you'll notice on the proposal form, they've ticked the three boxes. So there's one called the third party only insurance. From that, there's the third party, five and a third insurance. And then finally, there's the comprehensive insurance. Yeah. So these cover different aspects. So for the third party only, once you purchase this insurance, your vehicle is not covered. It's only to pay for bodily injury or death to another person caused by your vehicle. You see? Yes. Yeah. So if you bought that party insurance and your vehicle is damaged, it's straightforward. You have to repay it yourself. From that, you have the next stage, you have that party, fire and theft. So that covers the third party and also covers thefts, losses to your vehicle caused by theft and fire only. And it's there. So they're the different types. The certificate will look similar. It will be the same, but the different types of cover. So one has to know which cover. So it's easy for you when you're going for a cover to pick a different one compared to what you really wanted if you don't seek consultation. Yeah. And this happens to a lot of people who are looking at the cost side of it because it starts the third party only. It's cheap. And then the third party fire and theft is cheaper. And then finally, for the comprehensive, it covers the third party, fire, theft. And now this one covers losses to your vehicle caused by an accident. Yes. Over and above that. Okay. Maybe we're going to the holiday season. And then in this particular season also, the year has been really tough. In most cases, the crime aspect of it has really increased. So in a situation where we have a GPS truck on my car, and I've gone, you know, home up country. In a situation where my car gets stolen. Then, of course, I have my truck, I can access through my phone. So how fast and how fast is it to probably then what are the measures put in place to seek help? Or seek help for it.  First report to maybe the nearest police station or to any security agency within that area. Because that's the first contingency measure. And then from there, you can be able to share with them. Because our app is it can easily share the information with a with a particular security agencies, whether you are able to monitor with them where the vehicle is. And then once the vehicle is at a secure location, let's say in a marketplace somewhere common, you can be now be able through your app, switch off the vehicle. Because once you mobilize the vehicle using your app, the key can't start it again. You have to immobilize it again. You have to return the power using the app only. Yeah. All right. So let's look at it in a general aspect.  Yeah. What, how did it all start? Was it via this, you know, truck company or was it under your background, which is insurance? Because for me, my undergrad was in actual science. So for me, I got a little bit background on the insurance. And from there, I went straight immediately after graduating, I did a certificate of proficiency in insurance. And then once I entered the market, my main element was looking at the side of the risk. Because what happens, even if you buy insurance, doesn't cover you all the risks. So in fact, one of the main angles of entering insurance is immediately by insurance, you should assume you don't have insurance. So that means immediately you have insurance, you should take all necessary measures on your end to prevent any risks from occurring. Yeah. So that was my main motivating factor also in founding the Finatra Global Limited. And can we save money through insurance? Receive? Save money. Save money. Yeah. Ah, no. Because there are some policies which say they are saving money. But when you analyze them, that's not called saving. Because what happens in insurance, we call those endowment policies. Yeah. So what they mean is we are covering you for this particular period of time.   So it will come with an extra benefit on top. So it's not really a saving product. But I think what it's called a saving product, because it's easier for the market to understand. And like me coming and telling you, there's an endowment policy. It will be difficult for me to maybe convince you or enlighten you more. But if I tell you the savings policy, it's easier for you maybe to see it as a viable thing. Tell us, how was the experience like for you being top 40 and a 40? How was that experience for you? And did you come with any opening doors to broader markets? How was the experience? Yeah, it created market awareness. That was my main thing, which I got from it. But for me, I wasn't really working towards it. It's not something which you sit and say, I want to be in the top 40 and under 40. And that's why I'm starting this business. So it was mainly an appreciation of what I was able to do. So I took it lightly. And immediately after getting the award, I just went back to the normal life of operating the business here. Okay. One thing that I've noticed with you, earlier on before starting this conversation, you mentioned that you run a couple of businesses. There were design logistics, then there's the final track. There are six of them and I'm halfway. Probably you've mentioned this. And what is your whole thought behind opening up these different branches of businesses? And is it your way to financial freedom? For me, I can't really say it's the way to financial freedom. The way I look at business, the business is about mainly service. So once I look at a particular area and I see it's something which I can offer a solution for, and I can be able to maybe do it better than it's being done, something which I consider, and I take it up as a challenge. Mainly, most of the business which I've started, so I start by training on it. I do my research, see if it's something which I can do, try it on a small area. If the people like it and see it's something good, the good thing, I have a lawyer on call. So we just call, tell, I have this idea. These are the names which I think can work. Register it. So that's how we get a new company and we run with it. So have you been in employment before? No, never. What was the name of your first company? Before online advisors, when I was in school, we started a company called Walters Trading Company. So we started it as a family, was when I was in campus. So with this, we concentrated on the supplies. It was mainly on construction materials. So for me, it was able to learn a lot about running a business, you know, from scratch. So we were able to start small, we were able to apply for loans, got a few trucks, and started from there. That was, I think, was in second year or something. So by the time I was finishing, that's when I ventured into insurance, because now I had completed my degree. I tried convincing some of my friends, we start, they didn't look at that line as a viable light. So I just went in alone, started now the insurance agency. And then from the insurance agency, the others came along. When you look at the GPS vehicle truck, so who is eligible to start that kind of business too? Does one require any skills, like educationals going to school and all about it? Just who is eligible to start that sort of kind of business? I can't say educational, because for me, in my education background, there was no topic called GPS. Yeah, so it wasn't in school. And I think the main thing in business, because when you look at the educational side, mainly the academic, because like for me, I studied until the PhD level. I can say over 90% of what I've learned. You've cleared your PhD? I've cleared the coursework. It's the thesis which I'm supposed to pursue, which I'm not focused on currently, but I'll just do it. But what you realize is the academic knowledge and the practical knowledge, the scooter disconnect. So for you, you have to get the initiative yourself. If you want to study about maybe GPS, insurance, all of this is available within the market. So there are people who know more than you. There are people who have written content about it. There are websites on it. So if you do your own research, where you're guided by what you're looking at and your goal, you can easily get all this information online. Because I can say everything is self-taught. And looking at all of your businesses, six of them in numbers, are they sustainable by themselves or since you started them, are they sustainable? Of course, there's a downside to running several businesses because you'll find most of the time you're concentrating on the losers. Because when one business is doing well, you leave it alone because it's doing well, you come and concentrate on the one which is not doing well. So you can find that when you do that, the one which was doing well now becomes average as you're trying to lift this other one up. So for me, what I try to do is get a long-term view. So if this is not the core business which I'm doing, but there's a long-term prospect on it, my first objective is to keep it alive. So you make sure it never drains me of money or it doesn't drain me of my time. So if we can sustain it and grow it progressively over time, so instead of looking at how much profit I'll make in one year, I try and look at it maybe in 10 years. And in the middle, what can we be able to do for the people? Because there are some which, like at the moment, let's say the web development, it's not making as much profit. But on the terms of impact, it's causing a lot of impact. Because for the web development on our end, we don't do it whereby we create websites to sell. We look for problems within the market and create a website for it. So for example, one of the main problems which I'm trying to solve in the insurance industry is claims. So we came up with a website called www.claims.co.ke. So through this website, people are able to increase the efficiency of their claim settlement, which is a main headache in the insurance industry. So you can be able to easily report the claim, follow up online, get a lawyer online, a mediator and stack online, and also contact IRA directly through the same portal. You know what I've noticed? With all of your businesses, they're connected, just somewhere we have to input insurance. Is it a conscious decision that you took that I am good at insurance? That is what I know. So everything that I'm going to do, it will have something to do with insurance. Yeah, because for me, I think it's good to consider your strong points. Yeah, like insurance is one of my strong points. And for me to offer value in insurance, I need not necessarily offer it through the conventional way. Because in my line of maybe education, the best, the most appropriate channel will be to go and be an actual officer. And an actual officer. So you manage risks inside the insurance company. So for me, I'm trying to do that outside the insurance company. Yeah, yes. So looking at, so looking back at Phenatrack, it's running for two, three years? We can say three. Three years. So three years. And so far, what are some of the achievements story that you're looking back in your projects? And you feel like, actually, I don't regret studying Phenatrack. We've had quite a number of milestones. One of them is offering GPS tracking to Cooperative Bank, which was one of our key milestones. So hereby, when people are paying for loans at Copbank, we are able to secure the asset on behalf of Copbank. And we also offer the tracking features to the client who was bought the particular vehicle. So that's one of them. We've also been able to offer fleets financing, short-term financing for the vehicles which we are tracking. So we get, there's a contract, for example, which needs trucks like currently we are on Mombasa Road. We're doing the expressway. So they need trucks, but it's difficult to manage these trucks. They're from different people. So what we do, we are tracking these trucks. We have the devices in them. So we can easily tell this vehicle went for how many trips, when it stopped. And with that, we're able to reconcile with the tarnages. We're able to invoice on behalf of the truck owner, and we're able to manage his cash flow. Let's say it's in the middle of the day, we can easily see this vehicle has covered 60 kilometers. It had a fuel of 30 liters. So it needs to top up. So we can able to top up for the client on his behalf. And on payment, we deduct the amount with a little bit of interest, of course. Wow. It's actually solving the problem in the market. A couple of challenges that you're facing in the business? Some of the challenges are mainly human resource, human resource challenges. Because when you founded a business, you were really attached to the business, and you have that vigor. So for you, the clock is not something you look at. Because if you have a project, which needs to be done by tomorrow, we'll do it today. Even if it's until tonight, we'll do it. So for you to be able to gather a team with the same, maybe, vigor or running ability to run with the project, that's the main challenge I can think of on our end. Like getting someone who can incorporate the vision. Yeah. Pick the vision and run with it. How many employees do you have? Currently, about 25. 25 staff. Within the different companies. Has COVID-19 affected any of your employees in terms of you cutting down on staff income? I can say some have been affected. Because you see now, then on the other side, you see, I told you those are downside to having different companies. There's also an upside. Because maybe during this COVID-19, some of the business have really picked. You see, like, let's say the one which I've told you, the expressway. So the expressway started during this COVID-19 period. It has really been big. On the other side, insurance, you haven't experienced much growth on the insurance side. So for the insurance bit, so most of the staff, well, if you had something fixed, it was maybe turned to commission based. Because it was just trying to manage the overheads. So what did you see in the track? Three years, four years down the road. Three years, four years down the road. What does the vision look like? For us, currently my main focus is now outside Kenya. We were really looking at expanding. Because some of our clients are actually venturing up to Rwanda, Burundi. So we are tracking for them from here. So we can also be able to look at need in also these neighboring countries. And also within Kenya, the different counties. Because currently we are mainly focused in Mombasa and Nairobi. So I think there's a lot of opportunity also within the counties. For that, we are really looking towards the franchise side of it. Unlike us, opening several branches all over the place. So what is the plan for the festive season? For us, for the expressway, we're still working also on Christmas. But we will just celebrate as we work. Of course, we'll take a break. But those who will be willing to work, they'll of course show up. Your plans, Joseph? My plans for the holiday. For the holiday, I'll just be around. Nothing much. Okay, so I think you guys find your social media handles if they want to reach out to you. For me, I have a Facebook page called Joseph Mungi. And also have a website, www.mungi.co.k. And the company? They're the good thing with the website. All the companies are inside that website. Quite very simple. Yeah, because if I started telling you, I'd have to tell you about seven websites. Yeah. Before we even get to the seven, we were forgetting about the top three. Yeah, true. So we just head on to the one website and then reach out to others. Yeah, so www.mungi.co.k. We'll be able to get everything. All right, thank you very much, Joseph, for creating time to be with us and talking about matters pertaining insurers. It was a pleasure. We're much, very much informed. Thank you. So all right, that is Joseph Mungi. Fine, Fina Chuck, Fina Chuck, founder and CEO. Oh, I hope you enjoyed that conversation. We'll be right back with more on why in the morning I try to fit for a channel so you can find us across all our social media handles at Michel. I should also find me across all my social.


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So two videos gonna show them really fast. Yeah. These are some ongoing mag tag projects we're working on. What is this? Well, I'm revealing characters on an ink display making some projects for the ESP32S2 plus 2.9 inch ink display called the mag tag all-in-one IOT ink display. And this is like a classic project that we always put together. It's our quote display grabbing data from the Adafruit quote service. You've collected almost all these quotes. Yeah, people send them into us there. Yeah. It's really inspirational quotes. It goes on our invoices and it's on our website. Yeah, and I just connect to the internet with the ESP32S2, go to the Adafruit service and ask for a new random quote and then display it in some beautiful fonts. You won't update this often when it's done, but this is a great way for me to quickly go through all the quotes and just make sure that things display right and do the wordwrapping and everything. So all good inspirational quotes. All right, Lady, what is this? Hey, working on more mag tag projects. This is a unfortunate popular project that people do with IOT these days is they want to display the latest statistics from the COVID tracking project. So this is as of today 1114, the new positive COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in the U.S. And this is coming from covidtracking.com, which is a COVID tracking project which gets data from around the U.S. and puts it together and has a really easy to use JSON API. So, you know, a lot like the Pi portal, we set up a location to get data from this JSON feed and then we can pull apart all of those different statistics and display them on the ink display. All right, I know you're working on that right now. Yeah, I've got I've got a you know, I was actually looking at some other ink projects people have done and someone I can remember their name, they made a Raspberry Pi project that would go onto the internet and get quotes from Reddit's shower thoughts. So Reddit where like people post like these little like witty quips. So this one is a project so it goes and gets like funny little sayings or thoughts, the shower thoughts. And we're gonna make a nice little border and graphic for this. But just showing like how easy it is to get data and parse it from JSON from the internet using the the mag tag. So I'm experimenting with all these different products and projects and ways to get data so I can just like really hammer test this ESP32 S2. Okay. Wait, hold on. Oh, you want to go back? Yeah. No, that's actually not safe work. Sorry. It's Reddit. Sometimes it was meant to be in the vault.


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