Thank you for joining us today. I am Kay Hampton, and I'm the deputy director of our office. Columbia Economic Development is the department of the city of Columbia. We have four major areas of focus in our office. Recruitment of both new business and talent, existing business expansion and retention, entrepreneurship, and marketing communications. You can find out more about us on our website, choosecolumbiasc.com. Today's webinar will also be streaming live on our Facebook page at COLASCED. We are excited to have Nita Rutherford, who is an entrepreneur and small business owner in Columbia SC, and Tony Waller is the director of constituent relations at Walmart. Our guests will take questions as time allows and you can submit those in the chat box of the webinar. We will start with allowing our guests to tell us a little bit about themselves, their careers and current positions, and they will continue with conversations on topics regarding building an authentic workplace and how to include diversity and inclusion into everyday values. Nita, Tony, thank you so much. Thank you so much for having us. I'm very honored to be here today. And same here. It is really an honor and a pleasure to be speaking with people from the beautiful city of Columbia, South Carolina, and to be able to hang out with someone as super fabulous as Nita Rutherford. You know, my life just can't get any better. I don't know. It's kind of glamorous some days and some days not so much. I feel you on that. I really, really do.  I do too. Every day, right? And so, but there are days right now, like, I can't do this today. I slap on my head. I slap my head on top of my head. And I said, this is the best I can do for y'all. I just made a video yesterday on my Instagram talking about the need to still get dressed because it's a part of self love and self care and we can get bogged down with the weight of the world, especially in the climate that we are waking up to. I've been in these past 4872 hours and I think it matters to show up for yourself and and to try to have a little bit of happy in sometimes a sad place. So thank you for being fabulous along with me. Thanks so much for joining us for being here and having us. I really appreciate it. I don't really know you. I mean, we've talked a couple of times, but tell me about you. What should I know about you? You should know that I'm the hardest working woman you'll ever meet. That's number one. Number two, you should know that my heart is in service and in the community and whatever I can do in my life that allows me to serve others. It will always be my number one focus and my number one goal. I just so happen to do it quite stylishly. So when people ask me, you know, who are you? What do you do? I tell them I'm a servant first and then I'm a mom. I'm a wife and I'm a community advocate. Those are those are how those are the titles that I would use to describe myself, but what I do for work, which is often what people want to know. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm also a nurse practitioner. I've been in healthcare for 14 years and I have that skill set in that background. I work in that area every day, but my passion is service and I love fashion. I've always loved fashion, even though I grew up poor and in foster care and I didn't really have new clothes until I became an adult. And so now I try to show individuals that you can be stylish and fabulous and show up for yourself in the best way possible. But you don't have to spend lots of money that you can do it using secondhand clothing items, gently used items, and you can still look amazing. So that's me in a nutshell. I am so right there with you.  I love, you know, looking good. It makes me feel good.  Like you, I truly believe that. So a little bit about myself so I can kind of get into this a little bit by myself. I was born and raised in my name is Tony Waller again, I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. My family, however, is from Virginia from a little town called Danville, which is the southern part of the state. My father was in construction ended up going to Puerto Rico for a year and it ended up turning into 22 years. So that's, that's, that's how that goes, but moved back to Danville when I was 15, went to college. I started working for a state farm work for them for a long time for about 22 years, and then left state farm after a great time there, never thinking that I would ever make a drastic change. Like I did, but I left state farm after 22 successful years and went to work for Walmart and have been with Walmart for 13 years, almost 14 will be 14 years in, in, in December. Now, y'all, I started real young. Okay, so let's get that part straight. I ain't old. I was going to say you're only 22 Tony, how have you done? Thank you. Thank you. That's right. I'm only 22.  But my nighttime job, my other jobs I have to one is I, I shop for people. So I have a whole group of clients that I shop for do all of their shopping. And the range of people that I work with are individuals who have, you know, disposable income they can they can buy what they want but I have clients who say Tony, all I have is this amount. Yes, those are the ones that I love working with the most, because unfortunately society has made it seem as if in order to look good and be your best, you have to spend a whole lot of money.  Yes, it's a lie. You know, when I first started out, I didn't have any money to do the things I wanted to do. You know, I went to secondhand stores I went to at the time I went to K Martin JC pennies and Sears and, you know, you know, all these, you know, as some people would turn more in stores I don't know what to do with that. But, you know, that that people don't tend to connect with from a fashion standpoint, and created all things and it's, it's always it always kills me when I makes me laugh actually when people say like, Oh my goodness that looks good. Where did she get that. Oh, I bought that tie at Kmart or Walmart or about that shirt at, I found this shirt at a thrift store for $7. It's unbelievable what you can do.  Before she passed away, that we all have an assignment in this world, and do not confuse your assignment with what it is that you do your job, your family, your friends, your ups, your downs, everything in your life is a tool that you are to use to carry out your assignment. And so I'm very clear what my assignment is. And so I make sure that all that I do is focused on helping me to accomplish that assignment because I know that at the end of the day I only have a few I have a limited amount of time on this earth that I need to get things done. And so that's a little bit about me and nutshell. I love it. Well we have so much in common Tony is as we kind of found out when we had our previous conversations. So tell me how tell me how you're feeling about. There's this push right now. And if there's a push for equality. It's a battle we've been fighting for a long time. But you work in a corporation you work for a big corporation and I'm sure that there have been lots of kind of coffee coffee room talk about how to increase diversity in the workplace and how to build that and what that looks like and what that feels like without seeming like it's just like let's hire black people right. It's a very real conversation that needs to be had because oftentimes people that look like you and I are not represented at the highest level in corporations. So talk to me a little bit about the work that you do with Walmart and how you're helping them create an environment that is more inclusive. You know it's interesting that you then she asked that question and it's a great question. Fortunately, I don't know if it's fortunate or not. But you know we've been having these conversations for quite some time pre COVID pre everything that's been going on in the world on what it is that we need to do better and our CEO I give him mad credit has been really been paying attention Doug has been out for a long time talking about the inequities that we see in the world and he recently just came back prior prior to all this he just came back from Montgomery and went to visit the new social justice museum that's that's down there and it really rocked his world. I mean to see historically, how inequity has has has led up to where we are today. It led him to to be part of an Institute Institute called the Racial Equity Institute and based on a Greek or North Carolina amazing organization. But what the Institute does it traces the history of slavery and racism from the beginning from 1619 all the way up to today. And it shows us all of the systems that have been put in place that started back in 1619. Now their purpose is not about trying to change your mind on anything but their purpose is to show the evidence that racism has been is a system that was created. That has been used and reused and reused and all these new levels have been laid on top of it to create to where we have today which is why it's being manifested in the way that it is today. And so with that, it's really caused him to call it really has caused him to step up and lead and understand that we as corporations have to play a role. There was a time I would tell you that he as many CEOs would say, we are just blank. You know, in other words, he would say we're Walmart we're just a retailer. I mean we're just supposed to sell stuff it's not it's not for us to, you know, AT&T we're just about phones you know we're you know it's not about us getting involved in this kind of stuff right to now where you're seeing corporations stepping up and seeing oh my goodness we have to do something. Right. And the expectation is there, because consumers are expecting that. I don't know if you've seen. There is a report called the trust barometer that comes out every year, Edelman public relations the largest public relations firm in the country does this, and they literally test and test the trust in communities every single year. And in fact they just did one solely focus on racial equity. And the interesting thing came out of that. What came out of it was that straight up people just don't trust. They don't trust government. They don't trust communities. They don't trust anybody. And their height of expectation now has increased so now it's not government or nonprofits do the work corporations, you need to step up and do your part as well. I'm sorry. Well I was going to say Tony that there's been a history in in the medical field, you know I'm a healthcare provider in the medical field in government, you know we have this systemic problems, and we know we can't fight all of it right like we know that we can't fight all the battles like Tony Waller can fight the battle that he can fight and maybe that it's starting a youth group youth group in Danville to help, you know, disenfranchise youth. Maybe it's, you know, like style by NATO, we provide clothing to the homeless and maybe being able to provide them with business close to be able to go and interview for a job helps break that cycle for them of poverty. You know, in the in the right direction so I think our society with so many things that have been brought forth the, the videoing of of racial injustice and social unrest has allowed us a lens into has a lot I guess not as black people has allowed other non black to have a lens into what it feels like to have your life endangered by the people by the by the very people who are supposed to protect you so I think it's a, it's a very interesting dynamic that we have. We know we can't like we're not the corporation but I think that we are the consumers of these corporations and they are in business because of us and we know that these businesses are placed into areas where people need it the most Walmart is not setting itself up down the street from millionaires Walmart is setting itself up near lower socioeconomic developed areas, because they are the ones that need those types of bulk and cost savings so we have to. We have to acknowledge that the corporations are making money off of the people who are being threatened and we have to also acknowledge that those corporations do have social responsibility to give back to the communities that support them and put. that be in the billions that they make from those communities so I'd like to kind of switch the conversation if I can Tony to have to have us talk about on a on a micro level from from Walmart. What are some things that Walmart is doing at a local level at a community level. That gives people hope and and allows people to see representation from Walmart. So you are spot on, you know, I'm a believer that you have to control what you can control.  You can control what you can control. And so, to your point, we've been doing a lot of work around a number of areas. As an example, in the in the area of hunger and, you know, and food. We've worked with our local food banks to make sure that available for those who are in need right now, especially during the time we're seeing more and more people who are going without. And so we've increased our giving to food bail around the country to make sure that there's access to food. We've hired additional people we've already hired over half a million additional workers, because we know that people have been displaced. You know, since it's that close or they've laid off. And so what we've done is is is found opportunities to bring people on board in our stores and our distribution centers to help out and what I'm loving what's happened with this is that we've seen a lot of innovation as well, because there was a time that it would probably take about 24 days if you will, to hire somebody, we can now get somebody higher than 24 hours, go in and tomorrow have a job. And so, so, so I'm proud of that innovation but there's still much more that has to be done right. We still have schools who are in need we still have people who are worried they are not they can pay their rent we still got where can they get their prescription. You know, and so we are looking at how can we play a role in how we can play a role in that in that way as well. One of the things that we did talking about rent. As you know, and many of our stores we've got storefronts right so we've got small businesses that are located within our stores. Well, we forgave rent because we knew that they were going to have a hard time and that you know they could be open because of different, you know, rules regulations and many cases, you know, government said, you know, right now you shouldn't be open. You know people weren't able to make money, you know, and had to make the justice to how to restructure their physical buildings right or the physical entity to be able to serve customers. We understood that that was going to be hard. So we made provisions to let them know that we're supporting you and we're helping you out. One of the things that we're also looking at right now is working with non-profits, local non-profits in communities that are serving the customer, they're serving people who have been impacted by COVID on a lot of different levels, whether it's food, whether it's other types of assistance. So we're working with, you know, with with local Urban League affiliates, we're working with NAACP branches, we're working with the National Black Child Development Institute affiliates. We're working with school systems, we're working with smaller non-profits who are looking for, you know, for looking for supplies and trying to help them as best that we can. Thus far, just COVID alone, with COVID related efforts alone, we've contributed over $30 million, and that's over and above the close to $1 billion that we contribute in the world, you know, annually. Because we know it's needed, and we continue to look for those kind of opportunities. The other thing that we've been very clear on is making sure that we do the best that we can for our associates, because they're out here working really, really hard. Which is one of the reasons why we cut our hours. Now we're not open 24 hours. Why? Because we've got to give our associates a break. We've got to give them an opportunity to rest up and be ready and take care of the needs that they need to take care of. Right? To restock our shelves to make sure that they're available for the customer. And to make sure that they can take care of their own families and make sure that they're okay. Right. And so that's the reason why we've shut those hours down so they can do that. But it's also we found opportunities to show our appreciation by giving them a number of bonuses. They've done three bonuses thus far. And a lot of people, in addition to their annual quarterly bonus, a lot of people don't really know that we bonus our associates every quarter. If your store is a profitable store, you are eligible for a bonus. And that's whether you are part-time or full-time, whether you are a store greeter or store manager, everybody's entitled to that. But we've also made additional bonuses, three of them in fact. It's come over, it's come to a total of over $1.1 billion that we've given to associates to help them out because we know that they are going through some stressful times just as the rest of the world is. And probably in many cases even more stressful as they're trying to serve the customers that we want to serve at the same time as taking care of their own needs. So those efforts continue. We were the first company, we were the first company to remove the crime-related questions of our application because we've been very focused on how can we play a role in hiring people who'd been previously incarcerated. If you paid the price, you should be redeemed and given a second opportunity. And one of the things that we realized is that unfortunately society doesn't allow for that. So in 2010, we made the decision to take those questions off and we've been working very hard and finding ways to proactively hire people who've been previously incarcerated, who are able, who want to work, who want to make a change, and who deserve to have the opportunity for a second chance.  No, no, no, you're fine. No, no, you're absolutely fine. You brought out some really interesting things. I was taking notes as you were talking.  I hope that Kay will take the time to put in the chat where local nonprofits could possibly access in game or information about that because there are lots of nonprofits doing work that may need assistance. So thank you so much for bringing that up. I think sometimes we look at Walmart, you know, there's multi-billion-dollar company, and we think, you know, they don't understand what's going on at a local level at that micro level, as I like to say. And so it's really nice to hear that they're doing local things, that they're helping their associates, and to talk about the fact that the criminal records are, yes, we have to look at those things, but to give someone a second chance. I work in a prison system here in South Carolina, and I know that sometimes people go to jail and it's for something really small.  Does that make that person a bad person? No, it just means that maybe they had a heavy foot one day and they forgot to pay it. And so it's really nice to know that Walmart is making strides in the community in that way. So thank you so much for sharing that. I'd like to talk a little bit about, thank you so much, Kate, to put up the Walmart Foundation and where people can go to find that information. Let's talk about how, how we actually bring in people, because we know that at the associate level we probably have lots of representation of black and brown and non-white people that work in those roles. Let's talk about the actual how though, like for me as a small business owner. I look, I recruit from USC and I recruit from Benedict College. Those are two schools that I have a relationship with. One is predominantly white and one is an HBCU. I'm a proud graduate of Benedict College and HBCU. And I know that there are lots of talented people there that often are overlooked because large companies or even small businesses don't think to tap into that pool of potential workers. And so for me, I put out information at both of those schools. One has for USC, we use a portal system there. And for the students at Benedict, I contact the administration to see, hey, do you have any students in need of jobs? As a local business, I've been able to help start a career closet there at Benedict College so that students who are in need of clothing, whether it be business or casual clothing, so that they can go there and get free clothing items. But that's just such a small part, right? So how do we, how do we include more people, more diverse people in the workforce because it's not just about race, right? It's not just about black, white, Hispanic, Indian, Asian. It's not about those things. It's also about our veterans. It's also about the members of our LGBTQ community. It's also about having people who have different perspectives and different voices and different experiences so that they can bring those two leadership roles. Tell me how you feel Walmart is doing at an executive level. Are they increasing recruitment efforts for people in those higher level positions? Because I often find, Tony, it's not at the base level where there's a lack of representation. It's often at the top level. And what is, what do you feel Walmart is doing to recruit people from its communities that it serves to operate at those higher executive levels? So you are spot on, Neda, the fact that we could do a better job. I will say this, Walmart is doing a very good job. It can do better, right? And I would say to you, I would agree with you in the lower bonds of companies, people do really well in entry level to do well, but where we were corporations, and that includes Walmart, needs to do better at is how do we create a pipeline that prepares people to move folks up. In our case, I will tell you, and I'll be very frank, we are doing really good on the top, and we do a really good, you know, kind of in the bottom but it's the middle that we could we could do some more improvement. You know, as an example, the Kona Smith, he is the chief operating officer of Walmart, a black man. Latrice Watkins, she is the EVP of consumer, in other words, she oversees all buying of anything that is not who black woman, Spellman grad killing it. So, Calvin Buncombe is the president and CEO of neighborhood markets, so you the small neighborhood, the smaller format stores are primarily grocery, the EVP over all of that black male. And the list goes on and on.  I don't know if you know Carla Harris, I don't know if you know Carla Harris, who's vice chair of not JP Morgan Chase. Morgan Stanley, on the board of directors at Walmart, prior to all of them. Ross Brewer, who now is CEO of Starbucks was the CEO of Sam's Club, which means a lot of people don't realize that Sam's Club is also part of Walmart. So we've been very good in that realm, and we're doing really good I'm very proud of the work that we're doing there and we're continued to add more and more African American officers to the company. And that's because of the leadership and direction of Doug McMillan who says, we're going to make this thing happen. Right. Okay, well that's really good to hear. Oh, yeah, but now how do we prepare people to your point right to be ready to compete with those for those jobs when I treat the sides are going to take another opportunity when the corner says I'm retiring. When Kelvin says, you know, oh, I want to move over to international. Right. Who are we preparing to get lifted up there. And so it happens on two on two ways one is in the recruitment. Right. So we have an amazing executive recruiting team, who is directed by all of our, you know, key associates and say this is what I want. Who are saying to people, don't present to me a pool of candidates that's not diverse for me to interview. We're saying, you know, who are saying, then in turn, what are we doing now to make sure that we're preparing people to compete because we got a lot of good people working at Walmart. Right. Right. So how do we start identifying that talent. And it's on us to, you know, so one of the things that that I learned was, I can't expect others to do what I should be doing to which means being on the lookout of good solid talent and making others at be aware of that talent and saying, and you need to take a look at this person. You need to watch out for this person. How do we create a developmental opportunity for that person that will showcase his or her talent and get them into the eyes of the right people. We've all got to do that. So it can't all be on recruiting. It's got to be on us as associates and we have to expect that. And so that's one of the things that we're working on. We're working in formal group of directors and senior directors that meet every month. And one of the things that we talk about is looking at, who have we seen out there that looks really good. Who is doing great stuff. And then, okay, so who are what are we going to do to get that person into the front of the into the into the eyes of the right people so they can be viewed. And then the other thing that has to take place that we're we're we're I'm very proud of where we're headed here is making sure that we're developing programs specifically to identify and prepare diverse associates in this case black associates to be ready to compete. So we've been working with our executive talent development department to focus on, okay, I know that you all are looking at these high potential people. How do we start identifying people who are high potential who are black, and others, but who are black, and how do we now in turn prepare them start preparing that intentionally for opportunities because the other thing I always see is that we talk about it right. Oh, yeah, right. But we don't get intentional about it until you like really do something, you know, talking about it ain't gonna do squat. Tony, I was about to call you out I was about to call you out brother I was about to say listen companies are, especially corporations are excellent at talking about, Oh, we're implementing a diversity program or we're increasing our recruitment efforts to include more diversity but I want to see it I want to see proof and so when I when I hear companies say whether they are small business or whether they're a large corporation when they say to me, Hey, we're increasing out increasing our diversity in our recruitment, how show me show me what you're doing. And, and then when you get those people in. What are you doing to develop your people so what so one of the things that happens at style by need and and again I speak from a small business standpoint is my employees are paid well. My top employees. They, they make a certain amount. And then, but I at our base level, you're making $10 an hour and a lot of times these are college students let me tell you if I was a when I was in college I would have killed for a job where I could have made $10 an hour minimum wage is $7 and 25 cents. And so we're already bringing our people in and showing them respect for their time and their talents by valuing that with a with a dollar amount. And then like our director of operations makes a little bit more than that, because we're preparing leaders so when you come to work at style by NATO, you are being prepared for leadership so I don't treat them as if they are just, working for me, I tell them all the time I worked for you you tell me what you want to see so we hire them as independent contractors, so that they can say so we have a young lady that that is majoring in visual merchandising. Well, I can't provide you those tools that's in you. So you have to bring your, your talents to our store. And so, one of the main parts of her role there is to do the visual merchandising for the store. The store has never looked better we love having her on. We have a, and she's a USC student we have a former SCAD student SCAD graduate, who does our marketing. A student that is majoring in retail management. So she helps to run the operations of the store. So when you come to work for for my small business, you are doing what you would do in a in a real position on the outside we given that real world experience and when they get stuck right or if there's an employee issue I say to them, how would you fix it. If you had to fire or hire someone how would you fix it. I feel as if a lot of times and even in large corporations there is no thought placed into what will actually prepare them for leadership. Well you can't prepare for any role unless you learn to practice in that role so I forced them to use their leadership skills, and then I pinpoint I like to see where they are naturally. Some people are natural leaders, and some people need development so for the young lady who is the director of operation. She's a natural leader when everything started to fall apart with Coronavirus and all of that. And she happens to be a young, she's a white female, but then our marketing director the black female, we have a model and store associate who's a black female we have another young lady who she was from, I want to say her families from Nigeria I may be messing that up I'm so sorry in goes the I love you. I just can't remember off the top of my head right now but so we try to have a diverse workforce so that when shoppers come into the store. There is representation there's a mix there, but also we try to give them diverse experiences that actually prepare them for leadership so that when they walk into a Walmart as an associate, or a store manager, or one of those mid level exec roles, they have been in leadership they know what it's like to fire someone they know what's like to hire they know what it's like to meet daily meetings and weekly meetings and to plan to do retail management and resource management so. So Walmart is from what I hear you say to me Tony, you're saying that Walmart, it could improve in their development of those mid level executives, but they are also putting in place programs actual programs with objectives and goals to foster and facilitate leadership in at that entry level to build them up is that what you're saying to me Tony because that makes me very happy. Well, that is exactly what I'm saying to you and in fact, you know, one of the areas where we've done an amazing job I'm so proud of is in our internship program you're talking about bringing people in our internship program is. I would I would say probably one of the best internship programs in the country, because we give our interns real world challenges to solve, and it is amazing to see the brilliance of these young folk, and what they come up with. These are programs that actually end up implementing I mean so I the last interns just. And I had the opportunity to be a young man, Southern University grad or getting ready to graduate from Southern University, who was given a project to focus on how do we make in Sam's Club, how do we take some of our. What's the right word the surrounding programs that we work with like voodoo Pandora, you know, all of these agreements all of these kind of merchandising reason we have with organizations. And how do we make them better because of the fact that while we have them are the members of the using right so is it because there's something else that's better out there or they don't know about it or combination what is it. And what he put together was out of this world, so much so that he's been offered a job already. So he's already secured a position at Sam's Club. Before he even gets out of school so he's going back to school for the rest of the year and next year he'll be working you know he'll be working for us. Right. So those are the kinds of things that to your point. So often what happens is like we do these these programs right but we don't put no meat behind them right we don't. You know, real to your point exactly what you talk about a really giving them experiences that really set them up to be able to, you know, to be successful when they start hitting the real world. And so those are the kinds of things that we have to continue doing we have to continue walking walking that talk. Our, our black African American associate resource group has a program that they put together for for for the entry level folks again to prepare them for opportunities so it's about number one truly educating them on who we are as a business and how to understand the business so not just about our philosophy and what why we do what we do, but understanding what does it mean to market at Walmart what does it mean to understand a balance sheet at Walmart talking about profit and loss what does it mean we're talking about supply chain and bringing things in, giving them those basics so that they understand what the business is all about. And also to show them what options they are right because the other thing that we learned was that oftentimes people don't think people always think that you know when they think of Walmart they just think of a store. And I get it, you know, most people see they see a store and cashiers and stockers and store managers, but they don't see the architects they don't see the real estate agents they don't see. They don't see all the computer and tech people that we hired they don't see all the logistics expert. They don't even see the weatherman, do you know that we have our own weather station that we have, we have people right now, I've got, I've already gotten reports on what's going on with Hurricane Laura, and how they have to make sure that they're able to get to the stores that they need to get to. Right. How they're looking at that. I mean people that those are the kind of stuff that we do in house we don't have anybody else to do that. We do that ourselves. So these are jobs that people often don't understand that we realize that we hire, we have our own DJs, people don't realize that we have our own radio station, that we have our own DJs that we hire. I mean, we have our own television station we got television technicians, producers, directors, you know, who work for us as well who do our own commercials who do everything. You know, so these are the kind of things that people don't understand we have that we have to expose people to now to your point. This is where we have the biggest challenge is how do we make sure that we trickle this information down to the field. One of the things that we have really learned really well right now in these past few months is that all time, our own associates in the field. Don't know what's available. Don't know understand and so big concentration of the world right now is making sure that people fully understand fully know this stuff. There's a gentleman by the name of Keith Weichi. Keith is one of our vice presidents overseeing what we call our education shared value work. They're the ones that that's one pillar in this in this race towards social equity that we're focusing on of how do we do better from an education and workforce development standpoint. He's looking at that and he's identified that as one of the things that do and how do we do it in a way that we keep people informed. How do we do it in a way that we actually help people create their own workforce workforce plan like, you know, you know, the X. How do we get you there. How do we intentionally getting there. And we've got people out there who are very verse who are very well verse at developing and they know how to do that kind of stuff. But I would say not everybody does so now we're going to get everybody ramped up so that all of our associates have those kinds of opportunities.  Now let me ask you something. Yes, come on.   You are bad sister. Thank you. You know, what are the challenges that you have seen as a as a as an honor now given all of the issues and challenges that we are seeing in the world. And how have you what what are the steps that you have taken to kind of adjust we adjust kind of make change to keep this thing going because I know it cannot be easy. It is it is not easy and I'll tell you this there are lots of businesses that won't make it out of this pandemic that won't make it out of the social unrest and the social injustice that we're dealing with. There are lots of non black businesses that will suffer because people will will maybe not patronize them. Maybe they have a Confederate flag hanging in their restaurant and they didn't realize that that people noticed. And so there are lots of businesses that will be affected by this and I'll tell you that our business our business has been affected and I and I'll share with you that I'm a part owner of a restaurant in Northeast Columbia so food restaurant and while my style by Native business has, you know, decreased significantly. We put measures in place that allow us to operate online and being a thrift store online is very difficult because you you don't have 20 of one product or like Walmart, you know, thousands of one product and you just have that one picture. We have to take a picture and measurements and and and find models and do all of that for one item. And so that whole process for one item, and it's been a challenge but we have satchel and kid and Tasia and goes the Olivia who have worked with me throughout the pandemic who have been I mean just amazing amazing talent that they brought to us. But I'll tell you it's been hard now at my restaurant at the restaurant that I co owned with Raquel Thomas. The pandemic was the best thing that happened to it. The social injustice and arrest was the best thing that could have happened to it restaurant business is hard and it was struggling. And we had all this food and, like I said, service is the main driver behind most of the things that I do probably all the things that I do honestly. And I said we should offer $5 meals to the community and she said what a great idea we have all this produce all this, all this meet all these things that we can offer and there are lots of families who were struggling and there were people who maybe weren't struggling to be able to donate meals we donated. We had people organizations that donated money so that the nurses at the hospital could eat. We had people who who donated massed. I know personally I wrote the bus system to give out mass to people. And so we tried to find different ways to market and use the business that we have to support the community and we're small. We don't have a lot of money. But it was very helpful for our restaurant business for people to know what we were doing. And for the style by native side, we encourage people during the pandemic because we operate off of donations clothing donations.  And so we were able to do that and now we have beautiful products that we can offer people for $5 and $10. We have a diverse workforce. And so we're able to we were able to pivot and adjust accordingly, but there are lots of businesses that don't understand how to do that. And so during this time I've tried as a small business owner as the as the future conglomerate that I will be to offer people advice and lessons that I've learned along this way. And I find that when you are doing things for the community that help the community, people are more likely to support your business, but you can't just talk about it, you have to actually do it so one of our mantras for this year was do more talk less. And so we show people what we were doing versus talking and making beautiful pictures and posts about it. Here is what we're doing. Yes, there's a pandemic going on but we are riding the bus and giving out masks. Yes, there's a pandemic going on but we are offering free clothing to the homeless who don't have access to showers and things but at least they can have on fresh clothes. We're offering non perishable food items that they can take with them as snacks because a lot of the restaurants aren't doing the outreach that they were once doing because they are limited in their resources so we are doing the work as a as a small business to support our community. But you shared about Walmart having a Walmart foundation. I never knew about that. So don't worry you'll see I'm sure there are a lot of people requesting help from Walmart but we're going to throw our names in the hat too so this is such a great conversation because what it does is allow people to have a face to go with Walmart. That looks like them. And that speaking to what we are actually going through that really does matter. And I think even for for my business with the restaurant gold din and with style by NATO. We're using this time to rebrand we're using this time to make improvements so stop by NATO will actually become the now and then store so that we can focus more on bringing in local small businesses that don't have the capital to have a store front that don't have to rely on going to markets during this time we have an audience of 10.7 thousand people that we can reach for them. So it may not be a lot to people who have a million followers but for our local community. It could mean you know putting money into a single mom's pocket for helping her. So those are the ways that as a small business I feel like we're helping and it's really nice to know that Walmart is people like me who who may need that support during this time. You know, you said something that brought brought about to memory of something one of my favorite quotes there's a quote by St. Augustine that says, preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary use words. And that's exactly what you're doing so you keep on preaching the gospel girl. You got to meet people where they are. That's right. And you're spot on. I mean, you know, we've got to, you know, we've got to find those kind of ways to support people who ordinarily, you know, don't have the their their normal channels, if you will, of being able to sell their products right. One of the things that we've been having a conversation on a big conversation on at Walmart is how can we do more around making, making it easier or making it a better for small businesses to be able to share their products, you know, and services to others through Walmart. And one way we've done it is is by creating what we call a marketplace on on Walmart.com so that individuals who may not be able to let's say, you know, put something in a store can still be able to put their product on Walmart.com and sell it that way online right. And oftentimes that's how many businesses begin right they start selling online then they they're able to ramp up enough, wrap up enough resource to be able to put you know to put products in our stores. But the other way, one of the things I always tell people.  It's all of the information on how individuals who want to become suppliers for Walmart, how they can do it, and I would suggest people and encourage people that we're always looking for good, you know, good for product and opportunities but I also say to people to make sure that you are ready. And you talked about that, right, you talked about being ready when I have to switch over when COVID hit often. Yes, we find that folks aren't ready so this way, you know, be ready but the site will give you really great information on what we're looking for how we look at things what you should be considering. What are the questions that we're going to ask you so that you have the answer for them, because that'll be a big hell. I suggest people to look at that and it'll show you also all the different ways right to come in. The other thing people will say like, Well, you know, I can't, you know, we have 5500 stores in this country. Right. Well, I can supply 5400 stores. I get that. Not everybody can right. Right, and you supply 10. Yes, supply, you know, 100. Right. So the site will kind of talk about that as well right so how do you go about that kind of thing too. And so, so we have to continue looking for those ways of making that happen and as I talked as I spoke with you.  The other piece that that Doug MacMillan our CEO has said is that we have to watch out for all the small businesses that are around our stores right because we are part of that community. And so what role should we be playing, you know, in helping in helping the recovery when the right time comes and we can kind of get out and do something to see that recovery. Doug MacMillan is the chair, not only our CEO, but he's the chair of the business roundtable which is composed of the CEOs of the top 200 countries 200 companies in the country. He has made it very clear as chairman that he says, you know, it does, it serves us it does not serve us well. Right. If it if we aren't doing something to help small business that the economy needs small business. We, it is not good business, despite what people think that you know like if we have an all, having it all is not a good thing. It's not a good thing. Economically speaking, it does not. You know, we, you know, you see, there's there's plenty of documentation that says that it does recognizes that that we in order for this economy to do what it's supposed to do to be as successful as it as it can be. It must include small business, it must entrepreneurship innovation, and we have to play a role in being a support to that. So you're your spot on it. I'm proud of you. I love how you being innovative and doing what you're doing to serve, you know, to serve those that you're trying to get to try to help and not just people, not just people and consumers but other fellow small business people. So let me ask you, let me ask you one other thing. What's your advice to me. What, what, what is your advice to me as I continue down this journey. What do you think, and what are you are charging me and what are you encouraging me to do. I am so glad you asked this question, because I was going to offer it whether it was solicited or not. Oh my goodness, have I opened up myself to something. I charge you. I charge you to, I charge you to look out into the communities where the Walmart stores are to look for those small businesses and maybe develop a program that helps a small business become eventually big business. And that's due to to create informational commercials that let people know about all of the components of Walmart, and that their internships available and have programs that are direct pipelines to HBC use, and to, and to all female that that offer a way for people who are often overlooked, or lost in the big pool, a way to directly bring in people from a diverse background, because, you know, we talk a lot about race but there's also gender inequality in positions of leadership and it and at executive levels. I've been in a position of leadership and the only female and the only person of color in the room in the room. And it's very disheartening to not have people that have your same experience, and that that experience micro aggression, the way that you do from from their peers. And so I charge you, Tony Waller today to commit to me that you guys will look at small business but you will also look at a direct pipeline into HBC use and into the community. And to look for programs that that encourage people of color and that encourage women to that encourage people of the LGBT community to join forces with Walmart to create a community that really does serve everyone and not just a few. You got it. I got you.  I got you girl, I'm right there with you. So, I thank you for that and, and here's my charge to you. Yes, I'm just about to say what advice do you have to me. Keep on being being vocal. Keep on speaking out for those who cannot speak. Make me accountable. I want you to watch me. I want you to Google me, and I want you to say yo Tony why will I see you doing what you're supposed to be doing. Right, because we need to we need to prop each other up encourage us each other and keep us all accountable. So I got my charge. And I love everything that you presented. I absolutely loved it. But I want you to make sure that I'm supposed to do. I promise you that I will keep in touch with you and that if I feel like you're not I will let you but I will also praise you when you are because a lot of times we critique things, but we don't often for those small battles we know there are lots of small battles to get to the big war right. And so I promise you to support you in your endeavors with Walmart and in the community. And I, and I appreciate all that you're doing. And hey, thank you so much for having this forum. I was, I was going to say, okay, now I'm trying to put NATO on the on the, I try to put NATO on the spot. But can we do this again. I mean, I think there's so much more than we could be talking about. Fabulous and brilliant. And so are you there's so many other questions that I would have loved to have asked you. And so it's so I try to print by his public k if ever comes the opportunity that we could do this again, I would love I would love it because I think there's just a lot. There's a lot that I can learn from data, and then I hope that others can and I'm hoping that people can learn a little something from us and, you know, I guess all the other topics in the conversation that we never even got to. Yeah, that's right. There's a lot more we can talk about and I appreciate both of you so much our whole office does it's been a wonderful opportunity for us to get to know you a little bit better you're both full of life and you know great community and servants and really great role models for everyone I think we've gotten a lot of cool tips and tricks on both ends of the spectrum from corporate to the small business today and that's what our office does that's what we're about and we are proud to know people like you and have you in our community and it's wonderful. And I think everybody for attending today. Again, if you have questions for us in our office we're always available for you our website is choose Columbia sc.com. And we're happy to help we're there for you. Thank you guys so much. Thank you all so much and I can't wait for the next one. Yes, I think we should think we should talk, talk a little bit about how society props up celebrities and doesn't necessarily talk about leadership and how you can have success without necessarily being a celebrity so that was a question that was asked in the chat. So okay I'm putting it on your shoulders. So that we can we have a discussion about that. We will. Thank you guys. Bye. Bye.


Tonight on EKB Evening News at 6, raising awareness about stroke in eastern Kentucky. Good evening. I'm Gary Slung. And I'm Jill Fraley-Dotzen. We'll bring you the stroke awareness story in just a moment, but first, EKB News has learned that a number of social security disability recipients in eastern Kentucky and the surrounding area have been told that their checks are being cut off pending further review of their cases. According to one of the letters obtained by EKB News, the Social Security Administration is reviewing the status of recipients whose cases were handled by Stanville Attorney Eric Seacon and were based on evidence handled by one of four physicians, Dr. Bradley Adkins, Dr. Serinova Somersetti, Dr. Frederick Huffnagle, or Dr. David P. Hurr. The letter further states that the Office of the Inspector General has determined that fraud played a role in some of those cases and medical evidence from those doctors and submitted by Khan or his associates must be disregarded. EKB spoke to Khan's attorney, Kent Wicker, who said his client is innocent of allegations of wrongdoing and expects the suspensions to be brief setbacks for his clients. For over 20 years, Eric Khan has been representing thousands of clients with great skill and great integrity. A multi-year investigation of the practice has concluded without any finding of fraud or other misconduct. The Social Security Administration has, however, directed that some cases should be returned to the administrative law judge for further review, and that was the cause of the letters that went out. But we expect that the review will result in the same decision as before. Wicker went on to say that he believes the letters are the result of political pressure. There was a lot of political influence trying to create a criminal prosecution of Mr. Khan. That went nowhere. And I imagine the Social Security Administration is feeling political pressure to take a closer look at some of the cases. Wicker said Khan's office has received phone calls from several dozen clients who received the letters, and EKB has spoken with other attorneys who have spoken with dozens more. Wicker said Khan is referring all of the clients to other attorneys to handle the redetermination process. EKB News is continuing to investigate the situation and, of course, will bring you more details as the story develops. Crowds of people were in downtown Pikeville this morning learning about stroke and being screened for their risk of suffering one. EKB News reporter Shannon Deskins went to the event to learn more about this often overlooked killer. May is American Stroke Month and Pikeville Medical Center held its third annual Stroke Awareness Day today outside the East Kentucky Expo Center. People of all ages were encouraged to come by and meet with members of the PMC stroke team to see if they were at risk. Today we're promoting stroke awareness and letting people see if they're at risk for a stroke. So we're doing screenings today. We're doing free cholesterol screenings, blood sugar checks, blood pressure checks and your BMI. And then I have part of my stroke team here today that have stroke risk cards and they'll take all of those numbers and calculate all of your screenings for you and tell you what risk you are. In the United States someone has a stroke every 40 seconds. The American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association say that knowing the signs of a stroke can literally mean the difference in life and death. But Pikeville Medical Center neurologist Dr. Naveed Ahmed says that people must also be aware of risk factors that increase the likelihood of a stroke. The biggest risk factor for strokes is A the H and two is hypertension. The best way to control hypertension is to decrease our salt intake. About 1500 milligrams a day is the average requirement. We in America consume about 4,000, more than two to three times more. We should enjoy life, but in moderation. Stephanie Turner also told us that the PMC stroke team travels throughout the region on a regular basis to conduct free screenings and promote stroke awareness. We go out and do free screenings around the region and so you can call Pikeville Medical Center and see where we will be at. We try to go out monthly, out into different communities and do free screenings. And so they could find us at another location after today. Anyone wanting more information or to get the location of upcoming stroke screenings can give them a call at<PHONE_NUMBER>. For EKB Evening News at 6, I'm Shannon Deskins. Last week we brought you the report of baby Clay Allen who after successfully battling one type of cancer was diagnosed with leukemia caused by chemotherapy. On Friday, Elkhorn City held a bone marrow drive and supported baby Clay. The EKB news reporter Shelby Steele attended and brings us this report. 22-month-old baby Clay Allen of Elkhorn City has been fighting many battles for the past year. Hopefully that will end soon. Friday evening, Elkhorn City held a bone marrow drive at Elkhorn City Hall in the hopes of finding a bone marrow match for baby Clay, which is crucial because if he goes into remission without a donor, he will quickly be diagnosed again. Elkhorn City Mayor Mike Taylor hopes that doesn't happen. He is doing everything he can to support baby Clay. If anybody that's hearing this right now, if they've got a church, they want me to come and sit and do this, I'll be there. Just make a date and give me a time and I'll be there. Tanya Taylor says if she was in the Allen family's position, she would hope the community would rally for her. I know Trista and he's a baby and I would hope somebody would want to do that for my baby. Trista Allen, baby Clay's mother says she's overwhelmed by the support from her community. I have said this one day. One word cannot express the appreciation that we have for覃光, for Elkhorn, for the surrounding areas. I mean it's just like I said I can't, I mean I can sit here and I can say over and over and over how fact-fying for it that those words do not even touch the The emotion and the feeling and the appreciation that we really have for our hometown. For EKB Evening News at 6, I'm Shelby Steele. While one defendant in a Pike County Railroad Tunnel arson case remains free while waiting for his case to go to trial, another learned today that he will remain behind bars while his case is pending. A detention hearing was held in U.S. District Court in Pipeville today for 32-year-old Harlan K. Dameron. Dameron is charged with conspiracy and arson for a fire in a Robinson Creek Railroad Tunnel last year that caused $8 million in damage. Dameron's attorney argued that his client should be allowed to remain free pending trial, the same as co-defendant Ricky D. Johnson, who faces the same charges. However, magistrate Judge Edward B. Atkins ordered Dameron to remain in jail based on his more extensive criminal record, past history of not showing up for court dates and a demonstrated propensity for violence in the past. Dameron and Jackson are scheduled to go on trial July 28th. Criminal charges have been filed against a man following a steamroller accident last week. As we reported yesterday, an employee of Kimberly Paving was injured when the roller he was operating lost traction and went over an abatement, pinning him under the roller and against a house. During the rescue effort, authorities obtained permission from the landlord to go inside the house in order to gain access to the man. However, the renter, 35-year-old John Cheney Jr., came inside the home and told the rescue workers to leave. A state trooper told Cheney to leave while they rescued the employee. Once the man was freed, the officer attempted to go back into the house, but Cheney allegedly locked the door. The trooper forced his way inside where he was allegedly confronted by Cheney in a pit bull. He was arrested and charged with obstructing governmental operations. The employee was freed and suffered no major injuries, although he was transported to the hospital for treatment of a suspected broken leg. Well coming up, Williamson residents have one last option to cool off when the summer heat strikes. And fresh local foods and crafts are once again available in downtown Pikeville. We'll be back in two minutes. One for the summer will be scarce in the Williamson community. The Williamson Park Board has said that it's unlikely the Williamson community pool will open for the summer. Due to a pump issue, the pool will not be able to open until the end of July, if at all. EKB News reporter Shelby Steele talked to the Williamson Park Board to hash out the details and get to the bottom of the problem. She brings us this report. All day typically kicks off the summer season, which is the time to hit the pool. Unfortunately for Williamson, West Virginia and the Mego County area, that more than likely won't happen this summer. The Williamson community pool has a special made pump that was made in 1971. Since that time, the company is now out of business. The pump has been reliable every year until now, and the Williamson Park Commission hopes to find a company to make a custom pump for the Williamson pool. The original pump is a 1971 model. It was customized for that pool exactly, so the problem is finding the exact pump to go back in and the bolt patterns to go right back into place. We've sent it off to six different places and still waiting to hear back from a couple, so hopefully we can find out something soon. The Williamson Park Commission doesn't have high hopes that the pool will be able to open this summer due to the complications from the pump. It's very doubtful this summer because even if they do find one, they'll probably have to manufacture it because the company that made that motor is out of business. So they, and again it was specially built for the pool, they'd have to make this again. And by the time they make it and get it to us, it's going to be the middle of the summer, maybe the latter part of the summer, so there's no way we could do it. Ball adds that closing the pool, even just for one summer, is something even the park board is upset about. The last thing we want to do is to close the pool down, me, myself and my family attend every year, so we're working every angle to try to avoid that, so things can't be helped. Witt explains that the park board has to pull money from its pocket every summer in order for the pool to run properly. In a normal year, it takes about $68,000 to $70,000 to prep it due to the general maintenance, painting, cleaning, and buying the chemicals. But due to the fact that there is such limited amount of recreation in Mingo County, Pike, and Martin County, the park board through the years has eaten that and tried to survive with going ahead and opening the pool. Of course, if somebody had to pull, they would automatically shut it down because you couldn't afford to do it. If you would like to make a donation for the Williamson Pool, you can do so by sending it to the address on the screen with attention, Pierce Witt Pool. For EKB Evening News at 6, I'm Shelby Steele. Saturday saw a soft opening for the Pikeville Farmer's Market. The day featured the Pikeville Arts community and offering included pimento cheese, jams, jellies, fresh eggs, and salad greens. Some fruits and vegetables were also available as well as different crafts from local vendors. This is the 10th year for the Pikeville Farmer's Market and it grows each summer. Local grower, Kathy Raymeyer, says it's important to participants and farmers markets in order to give to your community as well as eat fresh fruit. It's important for people to participate in local farmer's markets because these are your neighbors and we need to support our neighbors in helping them make a living. It also benefits the individual because they're getting the best tasting, the freshest food that's available to them and usually your small family farms as well are growing food more sustainably. The grand opening for the Pikeville Farmer's Market is set for June 13th. The market is located at the Cooperative Extension Office in downtown Pikeville. Very nice. Visit to the Farmer's Market on Saturday. Coming up next, Jamie Johnson will be in to fill us in on the rest of the first round results from the 15th Region Baseball and Softball Tournaments. The first EKB Chief Meteorologist Lathen Hopkins will be in with the latest on the weather. We'll be right back. Well, that was a nice day in parts of our area. Not too bad, but I understand some storms are on the area happening now. We've had a few stronger storms move through parts of the big sandy for employed County all the way into Johnson County. Doppler radar is showing what's left of the storms making their way out of Johnson County now and into Lawrence and Martin counties. And this is just the start of things to come here, I think, throughout the evening. We will zoom in here a little closer to some of these storms that you see moving right up US 23 near Ulysses and also some rain near Ines and Crumb as you head over into parts of West Virginia.  A couple of spotty showers stretching near Pikeville and also near Wayland over in Floyd County. And then one other stop will take us into southern parts of Letcher County. And this is near Whitesburg, Cumberland, right along 119. You can see a few showers making their way through the region. We're going to broaden the picture with the Doppler radar. And here's why we have a lot of showers to our south. That's what we have to watch from Middlesbrough as I mentioned over toward Cumberland, over toward Whitesburg. This is what we'll have to watch as it makes its way to the north and to the east. As far as temperatures are concerned, well rain cooled in Prestonsburg, still very muggy, 74 degrees, Prestonsburg, 75 Paintsville, still 85 in Pikeville, 88 in Williamson, 88 right now in Logan, where we have yet to pick up a drop of rain. But that could be changing. Notice this big time storm system making its way across the region. Severe weather to the north, severe weather to the south. But this is all rotating around an area of low pressure that will continue to throw in these little hit and miss showers and thunderstorms not only today, not only tonight, but actually over the next several days, as a matter of fact, and that's going to bring some big changes to the forecast. And I'll show you that with a seven day here in just a little bit. As far as the pollen count, it's concerned sponsored by Faith Pharmacy, Adams Plaza in Pikeville into the high category for Wednesday, Thursday, and even into the day on Friday. A seven day forecast looks like this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, each and every day, a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms, temperatures in the mid and upper 80s, and then that will continue even into early next week. We can't get a break. Are you sure you didn't make a top out there? Yeah. Each? I mean, I'm just guessing. Hoping. And every day, that shower thread is going to be with us. Keep your umbrellas, rainboats, raincoats handy.  And of course, you can catch the latest forecast in tomorrow's edition of the Appalachian News Express. All right, Latham. Thank you. Well, community gathered together and participated in a softball tournament Saturday to help remember a loved one who had passed away in December. EKB news reporter Shelby Steele attended the tournament and spoke with some family and friends of that loved one. She brings us this report. Pray out loud. That was the message Saturday at the Memorial softball game held in memory of Tyler Williams of Stone, Kentucky. 21-year-old Tyler Williams passed away on December 14, 2014 due to complications after a UTV accident. Williams was presently a student at the University of Pikeville where he was a pitcher for the baseball team. He was a 2012 graduate of Belfrey High School where he was a member of the football and baseball teams. Williams was also an assistant coach for the Belfrey Middle School football team. Community members, teammates, friends and family joined together Saturday to show their love for Williams and to support his parents, Mark and Marsha, who feel honored and proud that so many people showed up to support them. We're overwhelmed by the support that we've gotten from the community so early in the morning. We're honored and we're proud. We're proud not just of Tyler, but our whole community. We hope that today, like they said, that somebody out here may get something out of it more than just a win-in-a-ball game. Ackon says Williams was a special person who shared a special message. It was just he wanted to let his family and friends know that he had made the right decision by picking up the cross and going, Jesus is his way, and he just wanted everybody in his family to come together, come together as one, not only as a family, but a family of Christ. Friends and teammates of Williams agreed that this was the best way to celebrate Williams on Memorial Day, coming together to do something he loved. I think it's a great thing because Tyler touched all these people's lives. He touched my life personally, and he's just a great guy. Played a lot of ball with a lot of these guys, and I just think it's a good thing to do for him and for his family. And I think it's a good way to show support for him and carry on his memory. Here's your honor, one of my best friends, a lot of other people's good friend, Tyler Williams. He's just an incredibly young man.  Just great to honor somebody who's such a good kid and it's just hard to talk about him. Mark and Marsha have set up a scholarship fund to be given each year in Tyler's name. It will go to a Belfry student. Right now we personally know the kids, so this year's recipients, we've kind of handpicked them, you know, next few years, probably getting help from the school. Mark and Marsha only wanted one message to be shared on Saturday, and it's what Williams is most remembered for. It's pretty out loud. Pretty out loud. For EKB Evening News at 6, I'm Shelby Steele. What a wonderful way for the community to come together. Absolutely. Great way to honor his memory. That's right. Pretty out loud. Important words to look by. And we'll be right back with sports. Well, Jamie, 15th Region Action continues. Yes, it does, and we had a little delay this evening, but action is underway right now. We're going to tell you about it. But first quarterfinal round action of the 15th Region Baseball tournament wrapped up at Prestonburg Sports Park at Stonecrest last night with the host Black Gats taking on an old rival in the Belfry Pirates, a team that Prestonburg has faced the past three years in region tournament play. Prestonburg defeated Belfry for the 2013 Region title. Belfry returned the favor last year in opening round play. Last night would be the rubber game. Bottom of the first, Belfry pitcher Keaton Taylor with control problems. Recessing goes walking after midnight. Next batter, Jaren Hall, now walked the line. Grant Martin just walked away. Renee, bases loaded on walks for Jared Jiro doing the walk of life. Prestonburg takes a one-nothing lead, and then John Cooksey has to go and break up the walk party with this smack the third. The bobble and the pick up another run crosses for Prestonburg. Black Gats came out on top 11-4. Some final action is set for this evening, as we said Lawrence County and Paceville just under way. And later tonight, Frosty Davis and myself will have the call of Johnson Central and Prestonburg at 8.30, the action on 93.1 WDHR. Softball action, the Eastridge Lady Warriors were in search of their first region win in the tournament since finishing as runners up to Johnson Central back in 2012, standing in their way, the Betsy Lane Lady Cats, trailing four at three in the bottom of the sixth, runners on first and second. Lady Warriors with this knock. Eastridge with the rally to tie the game at 4-4. Saw for more, Kaley Sloan was in two more, Lady Warriors home. Eastridge up 6-4. Sloan will wind up at second base with the two-bagger. But not for long, though. This hit will for Eastridge. One more insurance run. Lady Warriors will complete the rally here. They'll beat Betsy Lane, 7-4, the final score. Some of my final action tonight, already under way as well. Johnson Central taking on Pikeville, followed by McGuffin County and Eastridge, J.D. Hughes, and Royce Mayo have the call right now on ESPN 959104.5FL. The Reds dropped their ninth straight game yesterday, falling to the visiting Colorado Rockies. Yet, the team received some good news today. A starter, Johnny Cueto, underwent an MRI on his elbow after being scratched from his start on Sunday. The verdict? A clean bill of health. The Reds will re-evaluate Cueto before moving forward. Meanwhile, manager Brian Price made no excuses after the team dropped their ninth straight yesterday. You know, levity is a great thing and people want to see you guys serious. And it is important. We're all taken at home at night. It stinks to play this way and to lose as many as we have. So maybe some levity would be a good thing. But it's hard because it's just manufacturing. You have to manufacture it. It really isn't. Life or death, but it just feels like it, you know? And, you know, so we're all taken at home. Reds are back at action tonight at home for the second of a three-game series with the Rockies. Game time is 7-10 on Hit City USA 98.1104.3FL. Can the Reds get things straight tonight? Hopefully not 10 straight, it'd be amazing. Gotta get things in order. And baseball action still continues tonight. Hopefully the rain will hold off. Hopefully it will or it will be there all night. You will be. Yeah, I hope not. Right, Jamie, thank you. We'll be back in two minutes. Well, Nathan, chance of showers on and off, right? Over the next several days, as a matter of fact, mid-60s overnight tonight, that 40% chance of rain carries us through the rest of the week, and then rain chance will actually increase as we head into the weekend and early next week, each and every day, temperatures in the 80s. That rain could cause some serious issues for our friend, Jamie Johnson. It could, hopefully, a pop-up shower will stay away tonight, and in Prestonsbury, we can continue on with the baseball complete coverage on EKB 93.1WDHR and ESPN Radio as we speak. All right. Well, that will do it for this evening's EKB Evening News. Remember, you can get more local news anytime by listening to the radio stations of East Kentucky Broadcasting. And you can also follow EKB News and EKB TV on Facebook and on Twitter. Good night, and thanks for watching.


my search for help outside our wisdom drink tears of suffering souls wash away the dreams of children and complain about this world we are the world we are the world we are the world aren't we voices of the underground coming in the rebound I come from a mother that's anchored in water she gives me mangoes sour soap and popo a mother with ground provisions and greens on twin peaks she elevates our vision and dreams a mother who has birthed a booyah of cultures


As a person coming from Louisiana, the country that, due to historical reasons, know the value of the concept of openness, I do appreciate any science of it. Open access, open good, open science, and finally open society. As a person from the field of humanities, I do appreciate the possibility that open access gives to us linguists. Opening the doors of libraries, literally, to the invaluable treasury of the thoughts and writings of our colleagues. As a person participating in the policy of social sciences and humanities, I do believe that these two domains as any other have to get the open access at any price. Otherwise, what's the impact of them to our society?


This morning I'm here to confirm that the young lady who lost her life tragically in surface paradise last year, last night, was a 17 year old woman from Brisbane. This morning I have met with their family, I have been with the young lady's mother and father. We won't be releasing her identity at this stage. The family are deeply traumatised, as you would expect, and they're asking us to respect their privacy, that is what a very difficult time for them. Similarly it's not our intention at this day to request the parents to identify their school until everyone's had an opportunity to be advised. Whilst I was with the parents this morning, friends had started to arrive and were offering them comfort. So it's been a very tragic night for all of us and has put a very dark cloud over what has been a very successful schoolies event. Our message tonight or today is for the rest of the evening is that schoolies stick with the campaign that we had, look after yourselves, look after your mates, stay together and be careful. It's our hope that the schoolies will tonight enjoy their last night as best they can, but do so in a safe manner. We particularly ask that any schoolies who want to celebrate tonight on their balconies of their units, they do so carefully that they stay away from the balconies and that they take care of themselves and others at that location. As of this morning the arrests for schoolies numbers are the same as they were last year and until the events of last night this had been a very very good schoolies and for most of the people that were there they were having a great time. I was very fortunate to be having to be a part of a walk around on Monday night and to see so many young people enjoying themselves the way they were. It was just a great thing to see. Thank you. Questions? How will your investigation proceed? The investigation will proceed as we would normally in any other circumstance. We will prepare a report for the coroner and a coroner will obviously make a determination as to the cause of death. Shall we still let them see now though conducting their investigations at the hotel? No we've gone from the hotel at the moment. What we are doing today is trying to locate and interview a number of people who may have been witnesses to the event who can help us fill in some pieces that we still don't know. You know so far. It's difficult to say but other to say that we believe that the death is non-suspicious. It's really not appropriate to comment as to the circumstances leading up to young lady's death they will be matters for the coroner to consider. She's fallen from the 26th floor of the Chevron license building. Yes we believe so. We can't comment at this stage really. We have to prepare a report for the coroner and we're still going to have investigations going. There's a lot of people we need to speak to as you would imagine. Each and every one of these schoolies have so many friends and they talk to so many people so there's a lot more work we still have to do and it's really been appropriate to make further comment. Quite a number of her friends have been spoken to but having said that there's a much broader and wider group of people that we need to speak to and try and piece together all of her last non-murderance. No no just through our investigations today we've been able to establish a number of things which I'm not likely to discuss really. She was on her own. Yes she was on her own. It's my understanding that yes she was sharing that unit with other people. It's my understanding at this stage we've identified about six people who have actually witnessed the fall from various locations. There may well be many others too and we're hopeful to speak to some of those people today. She fell into a garden area at the Chevron Renaissance Hotel. On the fifth floor yes. That's my understanding yes obviously a number of people actually saw the fall. They've gone to the location and police and emergency services have responded as consequence of course. Certainly we're providing counselling at the moment to a large group of people who are involved in the response to the incident. We wouldn't at this stage be providing counselling to those. We will probably assist wherever we can to steer people in the right direction for those who need counselling and I'm sure there'll be quite a number of people who have been terribly traumatised by this event. Will police consider in future trying to prevent schoolies accessing balconies during schoolies week? That's almost impossible. Most of the schoolies accommodation is high rise accommodation. Most of that accommodation has balconies. It's always one of that greatest fears of course. The message we had before schoolies was you know be careful on the balconies, look after your mates and it's one that we've always been concerned about and our message is will and always will be you know be careful on those balconies, stay away from the rails. I really have no idea at all. I am aware of one of the balconies fall about 10 years ago but I'd suggest that there may not have been any since, they're particularly associated with schoolies. If he was alone, I mean how important is that for schoolies to I guess stick together you know that message about staying together, that message is really critical for us. We want the schoolies to have a great time but we wanted to do it together, we wanted to stay safe and look after each other and that was their message and that was their message right from the start so we'd continue with that message and implore kids tonight to look after each other and stick together. Are you able to save our college drugs to play a part in this at all? No I'm not. Has it been for you to get witnesses to come forward? Have you had many people come to you with information? Yeah we certainly had a lot of people who have come forward and we would probably think or suggest that there have been quite a number of people who may have seen something or part of it or all of it who haven't come forward so part of what we'll do today will be going to that location and seeking the assistance of people who are staying in the location. Were there lots of people around? I really don't know but at that time the night you suggested a large proportion of the young people would have been down at the beach down at the hub as they normally are it's a bit of a throng at times people are coming and going young people tend to move between accommodation houses and visit friends and or go down to the hub or just go for a walk so it's it's difficult to say just how many people were at that location at that time and I know you said she was staying with a number of people can you tell us how many people that you're able to stay within that unit? It's my understanding that she was sharing a unit with one other person One girl? I believe so yes Like a family member or a cousin? Not that I know of no And was she out elsewhere? Was she at that beach? I really don't know where she was I can't comment on that I'm sorry And she okay? How did she go? Um I don't know personally but I probably suggest to you that she be quite traumatized by this event as are so many other of the young people that stay in that location and it will probably just descend a cloud upon the whole schoolies event whilst they come from many different backgrounds and schools they are really one together when you see them down there and this will impact on all those young people I'm sure A tragedy like this does it make you reconsider holding schoolies? Um no this is really a singular tragic event and I have to say that the whole event is well organized it's well run and it's pleasing only the other night the number of people the young people come up to us and say thanks for looking after us it's great to see you here we feel really safe and it's really heartening to see that and that's that's what many of the young people are about they're just there to have a good time it's unfortunately from time to time we do have you know a small number of rested overnight but they have a very small proportion of the actual school leavers that are there Is there anything police could have done do you think to prevent this or to try and prevent similar things from happening in the future? In this particular case absolutely not About 9.30 I really can't comment that W matters for the coroner to consider and it's inappropriate to discuss the lead-up to a tragic death No we understand that it means six people actually saw the fall actually witnessed the fall yes I'm not sure of that but um I think that some of them may have been on other other balconies and actually saw saw the fall yes I believe that to be the case That will be matter for family they're obviously trying to contact lots of friends and relatives and let them know other other family members have only contacted very early this morning when I was with the family so that process is going on and we really need to respect their privacy they are a very personal and private family and the message that I've got from the parents this morning is please respect that privacy Okay thank you Sorry an incident yes there were two school leasers taking away in some sort of involving drugs and ecstasy in a house in the broad beach do you know too much more about that? No I don't sorry Obviously those sorts of incidents so you know school leasers with drugs and alcohol the stuff that we're trying to avoid in these sorts of matters as well Look at it really unfortunate that there are very small proportion of school leas who do spoil the event for themselves by using drugs and alcohol so that does happen we don't deny that there have been drug arrests but tragically as I say a very very small percentage and if you go down there you'll see that most of the kids are just having a great time enjoying themselves after they finish school Okay thank you It's not much to debate though about you know school leasers doing the wrong thing on balconies and things like that is that the case in this? No look anecdotally I think in the past there might have been a lot of that sort of thing that went on but we've been quite strong in our message and so have the accommodation providers about behaviour on balconies about safety on balconies and other than the one incident which has been you know relayed in the media but the young fella having a sleep on a balcony there have been no incidents on balconies this year at all it's been a really remarkable event I think there was no inappropriate behaviour on a balcony last night no no last night was it was a really quiet night actually


AOL, Yahoo Saga coming to an end with the merger. I listened to Tim, Tim Armstrong. I had known Tim for a very long time. He's a very steady hand. He was asked about Marissa Myers, her pay package. And obviously, that's a sore thumb for a lot of people. I would point out that the stock didn't appreciate. People didn't say, well, appreciate because of Alibaba. I am a person who doesn't look through the record if you made the playoffs because everybody went bad on the opposite side. You didn't make the playoffs. She made the playoffs. Do I want to take the money away from her? I know. I don't even care about her. What I care about is that will Yahoo be able to, with AOL, monetize all those hundreds of millions of people they have to the point where it could be meaningful for Verizon? Not initially, maybe not even three years. But if you had to pick someone who could do it, it would be Tim. Tim's a visionary. Tim is a no-nonsense guy. And I have liked his views about doing big things on the web, and that the idea that the only players are going to be Google and Facebook seems wrong to me.