This holiday season reached for the one butter that never disappoints Kerry Gold. made with milk from grass fed cows on Irish family farms, it's rich, creamy, and perfect for baking. whether browning butter for cookies or crafting the flakiest pie crust, Kerry Gold's high butterfat content makes all the difference in flavor and texture. Holiday treats will taste extraordinary. From the Mighty 990 Broadcast Center, you're waking up in Starnes Country with Todd Starnes.
All right, is it summertime outside? What is going on with the weather? 65 degrees here at the Broadcast Center in East Memphis. A little bit of light rain, a little bit of fog and mist out there. Folks, we could very well be on our way to near record highs.
Are you ready for this? It is expected to be 70 degrees today, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, 75 degrees. Degrees.
So it's going to be mighty warm all the way through Saturday here in the Mid-South. Great to have you with us.
Well, the good news is you don't have to bundle up when you go out there and do your last-minute Christmas shopping. And a lot of folks are doing that. I am curious. We had a couple of callers yesterday who said, as a matter of fact, Derek Mills, who's running for District 2 on the Shelby County Commission, was here, said that Wolf Chase Galleria was packed wall-to-wall people, which is very unusual because, well, in recent years, because of the crime wave, a lot of folks have not been going out to the malls.
So I'm curious, those of you that have been out shopping, have you noticed an uptick in traffic and people traffic at Carriage Crossing or the outlets in South Haven or over at Wolf Chase? Give us a holler this morning. We'd love to hear from you. We have a lot going on on today's program. Joe Garner will be along in just a little while.
Also, a chance for you to win a pretty Super cool Christmas prize coming up. And we have a fun Memphis-themed Christmas trivia question for you. And we also have a lot of crazy news. By the way, we're working on our sources. There is some sort of police activity.
This is happening on Raleigh-Millington Road between Waverly Farms.
So we'll keep you updated on that. Also, we're now getting a report just moments ago of a crash. This is on the off-ramp, I-240 East at exit 12.
So if you're in that area, just be aware. Otherwise, looking pretty good out there on the roadways. There are some minor backups, but nothing too terrible this major. Nothing too major this morning. I think a lot of people are taking the vacation or already on their way to visit family and friends for the holiday.
All right, there is um well, there's a very interesting story. That we've been following really off and on. And I've got to give credit to our good friend Justin Johnson out in Collierville, first alerted us to the story involving FedEx and the H-1B visa program. And it's causing a bit of controversy because we are hearing reports that a number of American workers are losing their jobs. And it's not just here in Memphis that this is happening, but it's happening all across the nation, where for whatever reason, FedEx has decided to bring in these H-1B visa holders.
Now, what we find fascinating about the story, and we're going to get to this is now making national news. And uh it is something that we've really got to pay attention to because A lot of people are being impacted. And from the reporting, most of the people that are. Being hired through the H-1B Visa program for FedEx all across the country are in fact coming from India.
Now, Tennessee, just there is some reporting out there. Tennessee is reporting that they've got a list of the top companies. Here in the volunteer state, that actually sought the most H-1B visa applications. And I want to, this is the top 10 right here, the top five. You've got FedEx.
two hundred and ninety one UBS Business Solutions, two hundred fifty three Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital, two hundred twenty one AutoZone fifty two FedEx DataWorks forty six Methodist Laboner Healthcare 35. And so, those are some of the top companies in the state of Tennessee that are using the H-1B visa program.
Now, keep in mind the whole point of H-1B applications and visas was to bring in highly skilled Workers But apparently That is not what is happening here. As a matter of fact, here is the headline. This is from the Dallas Express in Texas. FedEx wins a $2.2 billion federal contract, then hires hundreds of H-1B workers while laying off Americans. Ellen Jones is the writer of this piece.
And Ms. Jones writes that in December, going all the way back to December 2022, U.S. Transportation Command selected FedEx and two other firms to provide package delivery services for government agencies under an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract, the value of the contract around $2.2 billion. And the award covered the Next Generation Delivery Service 2 program. Since the award, publicly available immigration data I'm reading from the piece here, show a substantial increase in FedEx's hiring of foreign workers through the H one B visa program.
And according to the U. S. Immigration, Citizens and Immigration Services H oneB Data Hub, FedEx had roughly two dozen approved H one B workers at the time the contract was awarded. Over the years, FedEx hired approximately 500 H-1B workers. The sharpest increases occurring in 2024 and 2025.
And now, by the way, and much of that growth appears concentrated in Tennessee. Where FedEx is headquartered.
So we had received some, we get a lot of emails and a lot of people dropping us news tips and things of that nature here at the radio station. And we have gotten, I would say, about a dozen or so people saying, hey, what's going on? We're noticing a lot of foreign people moving into the neighborhood, like an inordinate number. And this was pretty much in the Collierville area. And someone was telling us that the schools are starting to get overwhelmed with students who do not know how to speak English, so you're having a lot of ESL classes and things of that nature.
Now, according to this article, data from privately operated H-1B salary databases indicate that some of the visa applications filed by FedEx for roles in Texas. or get this lower level business or technical jobs, including titles like digital marketing advisor and engineering specialist advisor, those salaries range from one hundred thousand to one hundred fifteen thousand. And the database also shows the applications were listed in cities like Plano, Texas, which is a suburb of Dallas. At the same time, and this is where it gets interesting, at the same time, FedEx had been cutting hundreds of U.S. jobs in the area, in North Texas.
So, a lot of folks are wondering what is going on here. In November, the company said that it would eliminate nearly 900 positions at a warehouse. And again, a lot of people understand that, okay, well, FedEx is moving in a different direction. But again, why are they hiring these lower-level, entry-level positions as H-1B and giving those jobs to H-1B visa holders?
So a lot of attention now is being focused on FedEx. And here's the bottom line.
Now you've got people nationwide looking at FedEx because this H one B visa program is a huge, huge national story. It is a major issue, especially among Gen Z voters. And they're saying, hey, look, um We got a problem here. And it seems to me that these businesses, if let me put it this way, if there is an equally qualified person for a job at FedEx, you've got one person who's an American, they've got the skill set, you've got somebody over in India and they've got the same skill set, Who do you hire? Do you hire the American or do you hire the Indian?
Well, it looks like FedEx, according to the reporting here of the Dallas Express and other news organizations, they're hiring the Indians instead of the Americans. Is that right, ladies and gentlemen?
So, our telephone number, 901-260-5926.
Some of you may work at FedEx, and if you call in, we won't use your real name, we'll protect your identity. But we're curious what's going on at FedEx because clearly something is changing here, and it's not just happening in the Memphis area, but it's happening across the entire company here in the United States. Again, our telephone number this morning, 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. In the meantime, President Trump has Has a special message for the American people.
Cut number two, please. Buenos nachos, amigos. Se tú est illegal alien en el América, and you decide to el self-deporto, el Senor Trump, y el uncle Sam will give you el $3,000 Americanos. That is mucho de nero, amigos. It's like trillions of pesos.
You will be el mignonario like Senor Trump. You can buy half a Mexico and have all the tacos and margaritas you want.
So, this Christmas, remember to El Self de Porto, reunite with your familia, and make El America great again. Muchas gracias, amigos, y feliz navidad. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Was that really President Trump? Come on.
Got to take a break here. 901-260-5926. Let's check in with Commander Chuck. And it is now 65 degrees here in Starnes Country in the principal Toyota Memphis studio. Hello, everybody.
I'm Todd Starnes. Welcome back to the show as we celebrate Christmas this week. A little bit of music from the world-famous Bellevue Baptist Church singing Christmas Tree. Any of you guys go to the performances? It was just phenomenal.
Thousands and thousands of people attending the largest, the largest Christmas celebration in the Mid-South. They've been doing that for 49 years. And what a wonderful, wonderful celebration that was. You'll hear some more music a little bit later on. Also, I know that so many of you love helping out our friends at St.
Jude Children's Research Hospital, and they need our help today for Christmas. You have an opportunity to send free virtual Christmas cards to the St. Jude kids, just a little something that we can do from the comfort of our homes to brighten the holidays of these precious kids. You can do that by going to saintjude.org. That's saintjude.org.
And you can choose a Christmas or holiday card inspired by patient art. You can select a pre-written message or you can write one of your own if you're very creative. And again, we'd love for you to do that today. Let's help out our good friends at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
All right, let's go to the phone lines: 901-260-5926, our telephone number, Mary in Memphis. Merry, Merry Christmas. Thank you. Good morning, Tyr. Good morning.
I enjoyed that article you just read about the hiring of the. Uh, immigrant, and I really enjoyed that. And also, you know, that was done under the administration of Fred Smith. He oversaw the hiring of over five hundred immigrants. And you know, also in a corporation, eight people.
Oh. uh were killed while working there. and because of his bad business practices. And he benefits a lot from the charity, a lot from the businesses in Memphis. He underwrites everything, and he gets tax write-offs.
And uh especially is it that that uh King Museum down there? They advertised that the people could come free, but the people are not coming free. They might not be going in their pockets. But FedEx benefits from Fed. They defray the cost, and they get the benefit and get the write-off.
Well, I don't know anything about the, you know, again, working conditions, and certainly accidents are going to happen. And with an organization that large, there are going to be tragedies. I mean, that's just a reality of business and a reality of life, Mary. But you are correct that it was Mr. Smith who prized diversity.
I'd seen some reports that about 55% of the overall workforce is what they would consider diverse.
So after his passing, we have certainly seen an uptick in the number of Indian Americans specifically that have been hired into the company, not only for senior management positions, but also for those lower-level positions as well. And the question, again, remains, and this is something that Congress is going to have to address. And, Mary, thank you for that. Congress is going to have to address this issue. Is the H-1B visa program being manipulated?
Are these businesses, are places like FedEx and others using the H-1B visa system to bring in cheaper labor? I mean, if they're able to, for example, if they're able to bring in somebody from India or some other country and pay them 30% less of a salary, that is a savings to them.
So, the Congress is, they are going to have to address this because the way I see it, we have to put American people first. And if you've got an American person, if you've got somebody, let's just say you've got somebody here in Memphis and they're very well qualified, and you've got somebody who's equally well qualified over in India, why would you not give the job to the American? That's what I want someone to explain to me. Why would you not do that? That makes absolutely no sense to me.
So we're going to take your calls on that. 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. Also, the Daily Memphian, this is great. They did a huge spread on what people really think about the National Guard and the Memphis Safe Task Force.
They dispatched four or five reporters to write this attack piece. And it was amazing. They could hardly, I don't think they talked to any business owners. I don't think they talked to anybody in the suburbs. But we're going to get to this a little bit later on.
But I'm just curious, how do you feel about the National Guard being here? How do you feel about the Safe Memphis Task Force or the Memphis Safe Task Force and the great work they're doing here? Because according to the Memphian, they say it's split down the middle. I don't think it's split down the middle at all. I think about 95% of the people who live in this city are actually supporting the National Guard and their efforts here.
And the fact that you can now go to Wolf Chase and you can go and get gasoline and you can go and enjoy yourself at, I don't know, if you want to go to Appleby's or where, no, not Appleby's, the Flying Saucer. Then you're going to, you're, you love those things now.
So we'll take your calls on that as well. Also, I promised you trivia, and we're going to deliver on trivia. This is going to be great. And let me tell you what you're going to be playing for. This is a brand new book written by Jeremy Arnold.
It's called Christmas in the Movies, and this is an absolutely beautiful hardcover book. It covers 35 classic Christmas movies to celebrate the season. Lots of photographs, behind-the-scenes stories about some of your favorite Christmas movies. You are going to love it. It's also a beautiful coffee table book, but it's also a great conversation starter, especially if you're doing a great Christmas party.
Got to give a shout-out to the Shelby County Young Republicans that were so nice and invited me, the old guy, to go and hang out with them last night at their big Christmas bash, the home of Luke Symbol. Beautiful home. And just what a wonderful time.
So thank you to the Shelby County Young Republicans for inviting me there. But anyway, this is a great conversation starter if you want to have a Christmas party as well. And here is your question. And if you've won something over the past 30 days, you are not eligible.
So do not call. But here is the question: Elvis Presley's mother. Loved this department store. She shopped there. She got her hair done at this department store, which also had a beloved Memphis Christmastime tradition.
Can you name the department store? Can you name the Christmas tradition that this department store hosted? If you get the question right, well, you're going to win this beautiful hardcover book called Christmas in the Movies. And we're going to throw in some K-Wham candy canes as well. They're very delicious, and we've got way too many of them.
901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. Elvis Presley's mom had a favorite department store here in the Mid South. That department store also hosted a beloved Christmas tradition. You got to name the department store.
You got to name the tradition. And you're going to win a copy of Christmas. In the movies, 901-260-5926 is our telephone number.
Well, coming up, we're going to be talking to our good friend Joe Garner. She's going to drop by every Saturday. You're able to hear her program right here on the Mighty 990. And we've got some wonderful shows coming up this week. As a matter of fact, tomorrow, we have a very special program lined up just for you.
Three hours, you're going to get an advanced listen. To the Starnes Country Christmas Show. It'll also air on Christmas Day multiple times throughout the day here on the Mighty 990. Compliments of our friend Derek Mills. By the way, Derek is not only running for the Shelby County Commission, District 2, he is sponsoring our Christmas programming here on K-Wham.
So if you see Derek out at the ball, or maybe you're at, I don't know, wherever you're at, Booyahs, tell Jim, or tell Derek rather, that. We appreciate him. And Derek Mills, God bless you, my friend. And we appreciate the great work you're doing. All right, hang tight.
We're going to get to your calls. Trivia coming up. This is Starnes Country. All right, instead of hot cocoa, Cena's gonna be drinking one of those fruity beverages with a little umbrella sticking out of it, filling. It's odd.
I think Santa may ditch the outfit this year. He's got the short sleeve fur thing. I've heard about it. He's got like a Hawaiian shirt. He's wearing the shorts.
It is very warm. The reindeer are like, yeah, we need some AC up here in the sleigh, Santa. We're not playing around. Welcome back, everybody. 35 minutes past the hour.
We are heading towards possibly record temperatures for Christmas, Christmas Eve, 75 degrees on both days. We'll have the complete forecast with Laura Huckabee in just a few moments. By the way, want to give a big shout out again. Memphis, the people of Memphis are so giving, and there was a terrible fire over at Fox Meadows. By the way, pro tip: do not put your cardboard pizza box in the oven and leave it there because bad things happen.
And so now a lot of people are homeless.
Well, there is a Memphis rapper. Dylan, I'm just going to butcher this name. Is it NLE Chapa? That's right. Wow, I got it.
Man, I. Ultra man. I feel so fly. Yes. All right.
So NLE Chapa's mother heard about all of this, and so she's putting together money and she's helping these families that were displaced.
So we're so excited for that. Thank you. Is it Mrs. Choppa? I don't know.
I don't know her name. But anyway, God bless you. Real quick, trivia. Let's go to the phone lines. Terry in Memphis.
Terry, Merry Christmas to you. All right, Terry.
So we have a beautiful hardcover Christmas in the movies book on the line here, and we need to know that Elvis' mom had a favorite department store in Memphis, and that department store had a great Christmas event display. Can you tell us the name of the store?
Well, I thought it was a downtown goldsmith.
Well, you thought correctly, yes. Terry, congratulations, did you. Did you know? Did you know what reaction case? What was that, Dylan?
Terry, did you know the name of the event, the display they had?
Well, I I don't know the specific name. I know it was in the basement, and it was a very large display. Just wound around in there. And no, I don't know the specific name, but I don't know. You know what?
We're going to lavish some Christmas generosity on you. It was the Enchanted Forest. Which is now at the yeah, now it's at the Pink Palace. But congratulations, Terry. We're going to put you on hold, and you're going to be able to get you the information on how you can pick up this book.
You're going to love it. It is a terrific book. And you can get a copy, by the way, at Novel Memphis. They've got plenty of copies of this.
Well, let's go right away to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. I know Joe Garner knew the answer to that question, host of Real Estate Mortgage Shop. Joe, Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas, Paul, to our listeners. Did you ever go to the Enchanted Forest when you were a little person?
Well, I grew up in a town outside of Memphis, so I did not get that opportunity. But one of our dear friends, one of the sponsors for Real Estate Mortgage Shop is Santa, And he's there today.
So go see him. The money goes to the Bonner Children's Fund. It does. And he is an honest to goodness. We had a chance to meet him, and what a great Santa Claus.
He is. And he's been a Santa for over fifty years. And he's saying he was the one at the enchanted forest there at Goldsmiths back in the day. Wow. He told he told Dalton or Dylan rather, be sure that he's on the nice list.
And I think he was serious. He wasn't messing around. He doesn't mess around. I saw him walking around the station. He was, yeah, Santa was walking around the station taking notes.
I'm like, what's going on here? What's going on, Joe Carter? Oh, my word. All right.
Let's talk new year because we're heading into the new year and a lot of people looking to make changes, decisions. And especially when it comes to mortgages, what is the smartest move as we head into 2026? That is the biggest, the most popular question online right now. I did some research and You know, some people say it's like a a a game of chess, you know, success in chess and in life it didn't It doesn't come from avoiding risk, but understanding them. And sometimes you have to put everything on the line to achieve greatness.
That's from Anonymous. But you know, it's true, Todd, in the mortgage business. I've been in the mortgage business over thirty-five years, been on thousands of journeys with some Hall of Fame mortgage clients. After that long, I figured out who wins. And the people who win time after time are those people who have sat down like maybe over the holidays right now.
They sit down and they decide what do we want our life to look like. Do we want to own a home? Do we want to own a bunch of homes? Do we want to own a vacation home? What is it that you want?
so that you can prepare. When you're prepared, you can push past fear and pursue that life that you want and don't live your dream. But right now, to answer your question, one of the Most common questions I hear from callers in the last month has been, are there still any mortgage programs that will give me down payment assistance? Yeah. And actually, people don't realize it, but there's some down payment assistance programs that will have a program for people who aren't even first time home buyers.
So check it out, call, text me today, we can talk. About that. Joe Garner joining us. She is host of Real Estate Mortgage Shop on Saturdays right here on the Mighty 990. Joe, a lot of people wonder, is it possible because sometimes you have to put down a down payment.
Are there instances where you don't have to put any money down? Yes, yes, yes, yes. That's another one that people are like, really? You mean I don't have to be a veteran? You know, veterans have a great program, by the way, for 100%.
Down. But there's other programs, and again, some of them you don't have to be a first-time home buyer. You just have to call and call me and let's look and see if you qualify for one of those. But so many times, Todd, if you think outside the box, and I love to do that. We can make a combination of loans to help people get in from zero and still make it.
affordable But here's another question that people ask me. What's the maximum I can afford? You know, I don't mind if you call and ask me that, but that's actually not the best question. The best question is for you to ask yourself: what can I personally? afford to pay per month on a mortgage payment.
Because it's your budget. You know what your personal comfort level is, and I'm not the one making your mortgage payment. You are. But I can help you answer that question again. Call, text me, 901-482-0354.
I'll help you whether you end up doing a loan with me or not. I'm happy to help you. Answer. that question. And the other thing is, there are a lot of great programs out there that can help folks here in the Mid-South.
There are, you know, another one is Hey, I feel like this payment's too high for me. Is there anything? Is there any programs that have? Lower rates, yes, there is. In fact, we're so blessed to have Tennessee Housing Development Agency.
program.
Now that one is primarily for first time homebuyers, except for certain census tracts. But it is a below market interest rate, and it's really low, Todd, for our our first responders and milit retired military or military. It's a wonderful, wonderful program that gets you way below market interest rates, makes that payment low. Plus they give down payment assistance on top of that. Joe, a lot of people, especially here, and this is just maybe this is just a Memphis thing, but a lot of folks here in the Mid-South have a vacation home, whether it's down on the Gulf of America or it's down at Pickwick, somewhere on the lake.
And some people are actually looking at maybe getting a vacation home. What do people need to do? And that is, do they pay cash for the home? What do they do?
Well, they okay, so that's I'm so glad you asked that because right now, since Thanksgiving, that's been one of the hottest number of calls coming in are about people thinking about, hey, we want to own a vacation home in twenty twenty six. Let me give you a common call. I just this just happened this past week. I had a client who said, I want to buy my vacation home on the lake. But Joe, we don't know if we want to get a loan on that house And leave our primary residence unencumbered, or if we want to do a cash out refinance on our primary home to pay cash for that house.
I said, well, there's one way to do it. We can draw a line. We can do one scenario on one side, one scenario on the other, and let the numbers Answer our question. The answer was a cash out on his residence, Todd. You know why?
And it's because the interest rate was so much lower because it's on its primary residence, and he didn't have to worry about a lot of the restrictions on financing on a small home. He was buying a small one.
So, in some cases, it's a number of things. But again, let's brainstorm together, and I can help you do that. It's a great idea. And you can do that, folks, by visiting Joe, reaching out to her, joegarner.com. That's JoeWithoutTheE, JoeGarner.com.
Joe is also the author of the book, Choosing the Best Mortgage: The Quickest Way to the Life You Want. You can get that wherever you buy your books. And, Joe, we got to talk about this coming Saturday, 11 o'clock. You have got a great, great show lined up. Who's going to be dropping by?
We're talking about legacy planning and property holiday conversations. This turned out to be a really cool show, a fun show, very informative. I had Tim Fleshner of MidSouth Home Helpers, Mary Lenovak of ResourceforCare. com. And we had Sherry Harbor of Harbor Realty.
We were all sharing our personal stories, Todd, personal stories of caring. for loved ones and having to make those decisions That you have to make sometimes for the best interest of your loved one who needs some assistance. Know with like daily routines of life and things. But it's a fun and informative show. You can catch our podcast at jo Garner.com.
But better still, if you'll tune in to KWAN, On Saturday at 11 Central, you'll get to join us for that show. I love that. And again, folks, 11 o'clock real estate mortgage shop right here on the Mighty 990, hosted by our friend Joe Garner. And you can go check out her website. That's jo Garner.com.
Joe, Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas, Todd. Thank you so much. All right.
There you have it, everybody. The great Joe Garner. And it is such a fun. I love weekends here on the Mighty 990. I know a lot of you folks have Honeydew List, and you're out there.
You're doing a lot of different projects. It's great to download the app and you can just listen on your smartphone. Or if you've got, I'm old school. I've got a transistor radio at my home and I just crank that thing up and listen. And it's so much fun.
We start the day with Mid-South Gardening, and we go from there with lots of local content exclusively here on the Mighty 990. All right, we've got to take a break. As we go to break, though, President Trump. Dylan, are we sure this is the president? I've never heard him actually singing.
Oh, yeah, this is confirmed. I don't know about that. Cut number three, please. Felise deep or dead. Feliz de Pordad.
Feliz di portad prospero villaje y no vuelvas. We're gonna get you out of a country. Get those bad umbrellas out of our country. Get everyone the hell out of our country and will never let them back. We closed our border to save the nation.
We all love ice and mass deportation. Mass deportation. Send the illegals to a new location and don't ever let them back.
Okay. I don't think that I don't I think somebody's yanking our chain. Here in Starnes Country. All right, our telephone number 901-260-5926. This is Starnes Country in the principal Toyota Memphis Studio.
All right, welcome back, everybody. This is Sterns Country in the principal Toyota Memphis studio. Great to have you with us today. There is a lot of controversy in East Memphis in the Shady Grove area, and that is actually how I drive home. I like driving down through the neighborhoods, it's much more relaxing.
I may not be doing that anymore. After what happened over the weekend, there was a massive shooting incident. And again, it's one of the challenges that we have with City Hall and with the Memphis Police Department. The reality is, we still have a lot of crime. I mean, we don't, and K-WAM catches a lot of flack because of our Stop Memphis Crime Group.
And people are able to go there. And you guys, we have sort of deputized all of Memphis to go to Stop Memphis Crime Group and report. You guys get to report on the crime and really expose what's happening.
So we've been conducting an experiment here at K-WAM. For the past couple of months, I have not been telling you about all of the shootings and the violence right in the city. And you know why? Because the mayor, Paul Young, and all of his ilk. And all of the leftists, and some of these, yes, rhino Republicans, you know who you are.
You've been accusing K-WAM of causing all the crime and violence. All you people do is talk about crime and violence all the time.
So, over the past couple of months, we haven't done that and it's been very intentional.
Now, obviously, if we had some sort of a mass shooting or something, we'd break into programming and let you know about it. But so, we decided, you know what, we're going to see if that's the case. Is it true that K-WAM reporting on the violence is causing the violence?
Well, it turns out. That the shootings actually increased as a result of us not talking about it.
Okay. So there goes that theory out the window.
So over the weekend. There was a terrible shooting in East Memphis and right out in the Shady Grove area, and it shocked everybody because that's a very nice area. And people are wondering what the heck is going on.
Well, if you've noticed, there's another radio station in town, and they run these ads with a company that wants to go out there and they're trying to buy up all this property in our neighborhoods, and then they turn those homes into rentals. We don't allow that kind of crap here on this radio station. And the reason why is because of stuff like this. Because now we know, according to the Memphis Police Department, that this was a short term rental property in the area, and a bunch of gangbangers had rented the property for a large house party.
Now, according to the Memphis PD, This was insane. Eyewitnesses are saying that the gunfire went on for at least a solid minute.
Now, I just want you to think, just imagine, you know, take out your phone and just set the stopwatch for 60 seconds. That's a war zone. A war zone. One person killed. And it it's very fortunate that that others were not injured.
And two gangbangers are now in jail.
So This is not surprising. I wish I could say it was. But anyway, folks are really upset, and they're wondering what the heck is going on. And it's a very fair question to ask. I know our good friend Jeff Fier Rinelli posted something on Facebook.
I love this guy. And he said All the local news stations are calling this a Christmas party, but it was not a gathering among friends, it was a business enterprise. The females were welcomed free of charge while men were charged twenty dollars to enter. The host paid to rent the home through Airbnb. This was an unlicensed business proposition that should never have been allowed to happen.
This is unacceptable. 38117 and 38120 have been my area since 1993. I understand the anger at law enforcement by the neighbors who clearly witnessed potential trouble, and they did. They actually called 911 ahead of time, and nobody did anything. Nobody did anything.
I mean, can you imagine? Those are some pretty pricey homes out in that area. Nobody's calling. They're like, we got trouble here in the neighborhood. Nobody came to help.
They've got to get that figured out. But there is that's why we need the Memphis Safe Task Force here indefinitely, because it's going to take a long time. It may take several years before we change the culture in this city. And I point to another Facebook group called Memphis Crime and Incident Reports. And I don't know who's running this, but I will just Share this with you.
Apparently, they're more concerned with the fact that, well, let me just share the report. A white guy, this happened last night, a white guy. At TJ Mulligan's Was assaulting and threatening to kill a black man. Who was breaking into a vehicle? This happened in Cordova on Trinity Road.
So it just seems to me that they got this backwards, that this white guy was actually doing what any law abiding, patriotic, red blooded American man would do. He was stopping the bad guy from breaking in and stealing his car. Unbelievable.
So that's why we encourage you to hang out with us at Stop Memphis Crime Group because we are not on the side of the criminals. All right, folks, be safe out there as you wrap up your Christmas shopping, the Todd Stern Show, 11 o'clock. We're going to have a lot of fun. Be sure to listen right here exclusively. on the mighty 990.
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