>> Today's Issues continues on AFR with your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.

Tim Wildmon Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening to afr. Tim, Fred, Ray, we're all here. And now, Steve Paisley Jordahl joins us. Good morning, Steve.

Steve Jordahl Hey, everybody.

Tim Wildmon So, how you doing, Steve, by the way?

Steve Jordahl You doing okay? I'm doing well, yeah.

Tim Wildmon Okay, if you're not, I don't want to know about it. I'm just kidding.

Steve Jordahl I'm getting on a plane at 4:30. Gonna go up, meet my, new granddaughter.

Tim Wildmon Oh, congrats. Tell us about that. Yeah, proud grandpa.

Tim Wildmon Congrats.

Steve Jordahl Thank you.

Tim Wildmon What now? What do you got going on?

Steve Jordahl my fourth grandchild, and, her name is Rory. She's about six months old now. I haven't been able. She lives in Eugene, Oregon.

Tim Wildmon Okay, so you haven't been able to see her?

Steve Jordahl I've been out yet, so I'm flying out this afternoon. Gonna go spend the,

Tim Wildmon Awesome.

Steve Jordahl Coming back Sunday. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

Tim Wildmon So, Oregon I've been to. I've been to Oregon before. The eastern part of Oregon. Where, where's this town you're talking about?

Steve Jordahl Eugene is on. It's fairly much on the coast. It's western, Oregon. It's not exactly on the coast at 10 miles, 15 miles from the coast of.

Tim Wildmon So, how you. Okay, okay. Tell me what airline you're flying, and then I'll tell you how you're getting there.

Steve Jordahl American.

Tim Wildmon Okay, you're flying American.

Fred Jackson American or United?

Steve Jordahl Let me check. I'm pretty sure it's American, but let me look.

Tim Wildmon Pretty sure? You might want to find that out, clarify that. Pretty sure I'm on your United.

Steve Jordahl I'm, flying United. I'm, sorry, I have my boarding passes, so I wasn't gonna get.

Fred Jackson Yeah, Steve told me he was going through Denver. I said it's got to be United.

Steve Jordahl United.

Tim Wildmon Okay, well, that's just what I was gonna say. If you're going United out west, you're gonna stop in Denver.

Fred Jackson Oh, yeah.

Tim Wildmon If Ray knows this, right? You've done this.

Steve Jordahl I just stole Tim's thunder, Fred.

Tim Wildmon That's all right. My thunder's been stolen many times.

Tim Wildmon If it, if it's. If it's Salt Lake City, it's probably Delta.

Fred Jackson Yeah.

Tim Wildmon If it's Denver, it's almost assuredly United. If it's Dallas, it's probably American, right?

Steve Jordahl Yeah, I'm going through Denver.

Tim Wildmon yeah, yeah, America. Dallas is Your last. It's the most western hub. Right. For. For American.

Tim Wildmon For American.

Tim Wildmon And Delta is Salt Lake City. And you said. And. And United is Denver. Those are the.

Tim Wildmon Right.

Tim Wildmon The three big. of course you got Southwest, but if you're going to Eugene from Southwest, you're going to go to Bangor, Maine first, probably.

Tim Wildmon Right. Seven stops.

Steve Jordahl I think Southwest was one of the choices we had. the money was negligibly different, and I just didn't want to fly that.

Tim Wildmon Southwest. Southwest Airlines is cheaper. I mean, that's their selling point. But, man, you look at a lot of times where you got to go

Tim Wildmon jumping all over the country.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, you got to make three stops

Steve Jordahl and anymore flying is changing with all the different fees. Used to be you could bring a carry on or one free bag. It's just different every time.

Tim Wildmon You better check that.

I'm glad you're going to see your new grandbaby

Yeah, yeah, that was a metaphor. Sound like a metaphor. Check that. A double meaning. but anyway, all right, well, safe travels.

Steve Jordahl Thank you.

Tim Wildmon I'm glad you're going to see your new grandbaby.

Steve Jordahl Yeah.

Tim Wildmon Six months.

Uber is cutting about 3,000 jobs because of driverless taxis

all right, what's your first story?

Steve Jordahl Well, Uber is slashing about 3,000 jobs for. It's about 10% of its staff because the, robo taxis are coming, the driverless taxis are coming, and Uber rides think they're going to be taking a hit because they're not doing the driverless thing.

Tim Wildmon Have you anybody here on this panel. Pardon me. Ridden a, driverless automobile?

Tim Wildmon Hey, we were on the. The answer is no. But we were on the way to the Tampa airport, okay. Just the other day, and somebody, it was Miami, and Marlene said, hey, look, look. And there's a vehicle. It's one of those Teslas, I think, right?

Tim Wildmon And there's nobody, there's nobody behind the wheel, and it's just going down the road. So I guess, Steve, that's the future, right?

Steve Jordahl That's what they say is as far as. In fact, Tesla has a program, I'm reading this, that, says, Musk has said that the Cyber Cab will eventually be Tesla's largest volume vehicle, supplying a global network of robo taxis. And listen to this. Allowing individual owners to add or remove their vehicles from a Tesla managed driverless ride hailing fleet. So you can, if you're not using your car, you can let it out, to be a taxi. Right.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Tim Wildmon The story, the original story, there's a whole host of things we could talk about right there. But the original story is that.

Tim Wildmon Oops.

Tim Wildmon Uber, which is, the largest, ride share rideshare service in the world. you also have Lyft. but Uber is the largest and they're cutting their drivers by how many people?

Steve Jordahl by about 3,300.

Tim Wildmon So 3,300 of their employees.

Steve Jordahl I don't know that. That's 3,300 drivers. They do have offices and okay, that kind of stuff.

Tim Wildmon But they're downsizing.

Steve Jordahl Yes.

Tim Wildmon And it's substantial. And the reason is because of these driverless car, driverless taxis that are, that are cutting into their business.

Steve Jordahl Yep. You could say this is AI because without AI, you wouldn't be able to really do the driverless thing.

Tim Wildmon Okay. Call me backwards. I'm not getting in a car with no driver. Is that wrong? Should I. Right. You gonna get in a car with no drivers?

Tim Wildmon look, I'm gonna let you go first, Tim.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. Or is it only gonna let me

Tim Wildmon know how it goes.

Tim Wildmon Next thing they'll have no dry. No, no, no. No pilots in a plane. Are you getting on an airplane with no pilots?

Tim Wildmon no.

Tim Wildmon Okay. Are you, Are you, Fred?

Fred Jackson No, sir.

Tim Wildmon Even if they tell you it's the same, it's everything's autopilot now. You're not getting on there.

Fred Jackson You know, here's the thing, folks. Technology is absolutely wonderful.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah. But till it doesn't work. Technology.

Tim Wildmon Right.

Fred Jackson You know, I, as part of my career, I saw the computer introduced. I go way back to telex. Does anybody remember what that is?

Tim Wildmon Telex to remind me.

Fred Jackson Telex. You had to. You had a keyboard and it punched out a little ribbon of paper with puncture marks in it. All right? That's how old I am. Okay, all right, so computers. but you know, I've used computers. But computers break down. They do. You can't. There, there is no technology. And I don't care if it's Elon Musk or whoever it is that they can say it's 100% proof non failure. You cannot do that.

Steve Jordahl But what they can say, Fred. I think is what they're going to say is that it's safer than you driving.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, they are going to say that. They're going to say percentages show, yada, yada, yada.

Fred Jackson but I, well, but here's the problem.

Tim Wildmon You mentioned airplane said call me backwards, but I'm not doing it.

Fred Jackson You mentioned airplanes.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Fred Jackson Okay. It's fine if my computer breaks down and I'm sitting at my desk. All right?

Tim Wildmon Yes.

Fred Jackson It's not fine if I'm an airplane and there are no pilots.

Tim Ferriss: I'm not ready for driverless car yet

Up there and something goes wrong.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're trying to control it from the ground somewhere. And you're going to. So, Tim, there's nobody even to come over the loudspeaker to tell you you're gonna. We're all in trouble, Tim.

Steve Jordahl You would never do it. Your kids, Wesley and Walker, they're gonna have to think twice. Your grandkids, they're gonna jump right in. They won't even have to think. Well, and on and on.

Tim Wildmon I guess I'm glad I'm 63 then, because I'm not. I'm a.

Steve Jordahl Fewer, that is.

Tim Wildmon Listen, I understand. What I'm saying is. And 25 years is what you're saying, and that's. And I want to be morbid, but that's about life expectancy. Best you can hope for in your middle. Anyway, the point is that. I'm sorry, Ray and Fred. No, and you're. Y' all are on. Y' all are closer. Y' all are in the fourth quarter. I understand that.

Tim Wildmon With the two minute warning.

Tim Wildmon What are you talking about? I don't think you're at the two minute warning. You are just kicking off the fourth quarter. But, but, of life. But, I don't know, you know, I know that, you know when you get up, the jet gets up in the air, the autopilot takes over, right? I mean, it does. And everybody knows that, you just. The pilots punch in the settings and plane flies and then. Yeah, anyway, so I know that already occurs, but I'm just saying that I'm not ready to get into driverless car yet. it just sort of spooks me out. But again, that's just me. I know that's the, that's the, wave of the, of the near future. And it's already here, in fact. But it is, that is causing, the Uber company to downsize. And I don't know what it'll eventually do to ride share, like Lyft, like Uber. We'll, see what happens to that business. All right, you're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio. Next story. Steve.

Department of labor releases list of 13 fastest growing and highest paying career paths

Steve Jordahl All right, the U.S. department, the Department of labor has released a list of the 13 fastest growing and highest paying career paths.

Tim Wildmon So we're already too late for that, all of us.

Steve Jordahl Here it is.

Tim Wildmon But if you're going to, you're saying for young people looking for the job market, here's what they can make money.

Steve Jordahl This is where you can go. This is the fastest growing and highest paid Careers.

Tim Wildmon Okay, what are they?

Tim Wildmon Nursing.

Tim Wildmon Start with number 10 first.

Steve Jordahl I don't know if they got 10. The bottom of their list.

Tim Wildmon Start at the bottom of the list. Who produced this list?

Steve Jordahl This is the Department of labor.

Tim Wildmon Okay, gotcha.

Steve Jordahl 13th would be a physical therapist. You're going to average about 102,000 a year. 12 biochemists and biophysicists.

Tim Wildmon That's what I was.

Steve Jordahl Yeah, Industrial engineers. The top 10 medical scientists.

Tim Wildmon Good.

Steve Jordahl Except for epidemiologists, for some reason. Oh, what is that because of Fauci? I just saw that.

Tim Wildmon Oh, I don't know.

Steve Jordahl Medical scientists, except for epidemiologists, can expect to make $103,000 a year starting.

Tim Wildmon Probably, maybe, who knows?

Steve Jordahl Yeah, the. I think starting out. I think national average salaries.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Steve Jordahl occupational therapists.

Tim Wildmon What is that?

Steve Jordahl Occupational, therapist is someone who teaches, you, like, ah, how to. How to work. how to, like how to do a job? Yeah, I guess.

Tim Wildmon Okay, like a teacher, maybe.

Steve Jordahl No, occupational. Occupational therapy is a, Is a career. it's all by itself. It's like a, Look it up, Frank, and give us a definition.

Tim Wildmon It's indescribable. This must be amazing stuff.

Steve Jordahl You're gonna get $100,000, Fred.

Tim Wildmon What is that? Ah, hold on a second. We gotta get a definition for an occupational therapist before we move on to the next highest paying entry job.

Fred Jackson Okay. Occupational therapy is a health profession that helps people of all ages develop recovery or improve the skills needed for daily living and working.

Steve Jordahl You know what? I really am in trouble here because my wife is a speech pathologist, which is not merely.

Tim Wildmon Yes, but that sounds almost like a physical therapist.

Fred Jackson It's basically the same thing.

Tim Wildmon Okay. All right, Anyway, move on.

Top three medical and health services manager make $132 a year

Steve Jordahl All right, computer and information manager, next, then up the list.

Tim Wildmon Tell me when you get to the top three, please.

Steve Jordahl I just. Okay. health specialists, teachers, information security analyst, physician's assistant, and then computer, and information research scientist. The top three medical and health services manager. You can expect to, be. See, these aren't by, number. $123,000 a year. Data scientists. And then top is nurse practitioner. At least the first on this list. But the list isn't by.

Tim Wildmon How much does a nurse practitioner make?

Steve Jordahl $132 a year now. Nurse 2000 a year. A nurse practitioner is, they're next to a doctor. I mean, they've done all of the, they can prescribe. They have to be under a doctor's supervision. But it's not a nurse. It's not a Practice nurse.

Tim Wildmon No, they do everything but what the doctor can do.

Steve Jordahl You'll see a nurse practitioner if you go to your GP and.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Steve Jordahl Oh, by the way.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Steve Jordahl If you want to make some good money.

Fred Jackson Even more money.

Steve Jordahl Even more money.

Tim Wildmon Now we're. Now we're talking.

Steve Jordahl You can be a general manager at a Buc-ee EE's and make up to $225,000 a year.

Tim Wildmon Ain't worth it. I love.

Tim Wildmon You get to free. You get free brisket with.

Tim Wildmon I love going into Buc-ee EE's but new way would I want to be the manager of that place.

Tim Wildmon You got to pay me more than that.

Tim Wildmon How much does they make? 225.

Steve Jordahl Between 175 and $225,000 a year to manage it for the general manager.

Tim Wildmon Man of a. Of a individual buc ee store.

Fred Jackson Yeah.

Steve Jordahl Yeah.

Tim Wildmon Is what you say.

Steve Jordahl Yeah. Per store. If you want a food service manager makes between 100.

Tim Wildmon I will say this. Most people who go into Buc-ee's are happy.

Steve Jordahl Yeah.

Tim Wildmon Oh, yeah. So that is a positive, you know. And it's hard to mess up a brisket sandwich.

Steve Jordahl Yeah.

Tim Wildmon No, so that's a positive.

Tim Wildmon It's very good stuff.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. So I mean, but. And that is good money right there. Between. You start out between 175k and 225.

Fred Jackson but they also have the cleanest washrooms in town.

Tim Wildmon That's right, they do.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, man.

A nurse practitioner is listed number one among jobs where you can start making money

So anyway, but back to the, So a nurse practitioner is listed number one among jobs today in America that you can start out making good, really good money.

Steve Jordahl Yeah, well, yeah. And I think they list him in this kind of order because, it's also the fastest growing, the 13 fastest growing and high speed career paths. Nurse practitioners up the top there. It doesn't pay the most, but it is the fastest growing apparently because computer information scientists. I don't know why they listed in this order 140,000 a year.

Fred Jackson Well, and I read that story. Steve put that out there. Or you did last night. I think it was Tim. But Ray, means we have been classified in the fourth quarter. we are the ones that are.

Tim Wildmon Let me try to be honest, fellas. I'm not saying you are the two minute warning of life. I'm saying at your age, and I'm not far behind you. I can see the time clicking off of the third quarter. You're in the fourth quarter of life. But here's the problem.

Fred Jackson Notice this list. This list has a lot to do with us, taking care of people

Tim Wildmon in the fourth Quarter,

Tim Wildmon Tim. I don't know where, where we are right fourth quarter. But the ref just came over and told me I'm not a timeout.

Tim Wildmon I can't stop the clock. I want to stop. You can't stop the clock, my friend. You're going to have to see a nurse practitioner.

Tim Wildmon That's exactly right.

Tim Wildmon So you know what? I always got a, I found interesting about, the nurse practitioners. And the same way when I go to the dental office, you know, get your teeth worked on, it's the person right under the dentist or the person right under the doctor, which is the nurse practitioner, I guess, who does really the vast majority of the work, except for like surgeons and things like that. But, but the doctor comes in to give his or her top level expertise on the condition or whatever. But the actual. You go to the dentist office, the dentist comes in last to make sure the dental assistant did her job. Basically.

Fred Jackson That's basically it.

Tim Wildmon That's the way it works.

Fred Jackson Yes.

Tim Wildmon So why would you want, if you're a nurse practitioner or you're a dental assistant, why wouldn't you want to go on and take that next step? Except that it costs so much to go to school.

Fred Jackson That's right. That's right.

Tim Wildmon To get there. And a lot of, and they probably a lot of folks in that occupation don't want the responsibility of owning the, the practice.

Fred Jackson That's either. And all the liability, the liability and

Tim Wildmon all that, all that goes into. They just want to go and do their job and, and not have that responsibility. To each his own.

Fred Jackson Yeah.

Tim Wildmon but I just, you know, you just. All right, next story. By the way, let me tell folks, you're listening to Today's issues. We're here every Monday through Friday. Thursday tomorrow we got Trivia Friday coming up. Jj, Ned going to be here tomorrow. So JJ and Ed and yours truly will have the trivia show tomorrow as we do every Friday. all right, next story.

The US Mint has made a dollar with President Trump's image on it

Steve Jordahl Steve, if you, are someone who collects coins, there's a new coin out from the US Mint. It has Donald Trump on the, the face of the coin. The back of the coin is the standard dollar. it is not gold, but it looks gold. there is a, the U.S. there is an actual 24 karat Trump Gold coin that the Commission of Fine Arts approved. And you can get those, Those are much more expensive. but yeah, you can now pick up the dollar.

Tim Wildmon where do you get this? Is this like a collector's item or is this like, ah,

Steve Jordahl you can spend it.

Tim Wildmon Okay, so you're saying that the U.S. printing and Engraving Service has now made a dollar, a coin dollar with President Trump's image on it?

Steve Jordahl That's correct.

Tim Wildmon Right. And they just announced this and it's going to be. So how do you, if you want to get one of these, how do you, how can you get one of these? Do you know?

Steve Jordahl Well, you have to buy it from the US Mint I think at this

Tim Wildmon point because it's not going to be in mass circulation. There's only a limited number. Right.

Steve Jordahl They have made, government is selling the coin in collectors bundles of 25 or 100 per bag and it ranges from 61 to $154, I guess per bag. Each coin is priced at a markup of more than 50% above the actual value. So it's going to be. You're going to pay at least $1.50 for the dollar.

Tim Wildmon Say how many they're going to produce total. because if it's a limited edition, it has to have a, a cap.

Steve Jordahl I'm sure it is. And I didn't ask that.

Tim Wildmon Let me say if you. That's okay if you don't see the

Fred Jackson number flash up, but I understand the demand is huge.

Tim Wildmon Oh, you can stand in line form do what now.

There's talk of a $250 bill that has been proposed

So, so, so also is there a there's talk of a $250bill that,

Steve Jordahl that, that has been proposed.

Tim Wildmon There's not a 250 bill now. Right. In circulation.

Steve Jordahl There is not.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Steve Jordahl there is not. But I did see a picture of Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary holding up a mock up of one. So it's a real proposal for a $250 bill. Of course this being the 250th anniversary of the America and it would feature Donald Trump, but it is not yet actual US currency.

Tim Wildmon By the way, did you know Ray, that they're not making the printing. What do you call it? Printing and engravement? Is that what you call the Isn't it, you know they're not making the pennies anymore.

Tim Wildmon I heard that.

Fred Jackson Yep.

Tim Wildmon Because it cost more to make a penny than a penny's worth.

Fred Jackson That's about three or four pennies to make a penny.

Tim Wildmon So they quit making them now. They're not going to take them out of circulation. You can't really do that. But but yeah, they're. The US Government's not print. And I guess nickel's next on the chopping block. Probably coming up.

Tim Wildmon not to. Probably not too well, they'll quit making nickels. If a nickel cost more to make than it, you know, to make that nickel, then it cost then the value of the nickel itself.

Steve Jordahl So the U.S. mint has minted 9 million of the twenty, twenty six dollar Trump dollar coins so far.

Tim Wildmon that's not more than I thought would be made if it's going to be all.

Steve Jordahl All minted in Philadelphia.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Tim Wildmon But don't expect to get one in change at McDonald's. Right. Because it's. I mean, m. It's just not. That's just not going to happen. Right.

Steve Jordahl 250,000 of those have a special July 4th privy mark to make them much more scarce and more valuable. So this is with collectors in mind.

Tim Wildmon That would maybe just commemorate the 250th anniversary of our country.

Steve Jordahl Right? Yeah, but I. It's a way to set it apart.

Tim Wildmon What kind of picture did they use of Trump? Is it the mug shot or is it the smiling Trump?

Steve Jordahl It's the mug shot, Trump.

Tim Wildmon It's the mug shot. Yeah.

Steve Jordahl Yeah. Well, he's not exactly looking angry, but he's stern. Yeah.

Tim Wildmon Kind of neutral. Not smiling, Not. Not frowning.

Steve Jordahl Yeah.

Tim Wildmon Kind of halfway.

Steve Jordahl Then there's the, There's another one. The fight, fight, fight coin. I don't know if that's real or not. I, don't think it is, but there is. I have a picture of a memory.

Tim Wildmon That's what I.

Steve Jordahl A commemorative coin, Right?

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Tim Wildmon Fight, fight, fight coin.

Steve Jordahl An early design would have honored Trump's response to the assassination attempt in Butler Prevention at, ah, Pennsylvania, by showing him raising his fist with the words Fight, fight, fight. However, in order to avoid outrage from lawmakers, treasury decided to replace the back of the coin with a presidential seal showing an eagle and arrows collecting olive branch. So, yeah, that was a proposal with the Fight, fight, fight. Democrats would have none of it.

Tim Wildmon I got you. We got one minute left. Anything to talk about or.

Steve Jordahl I can tell you that I got

Tim Wildmon something, if you don't know, go ahead.

Ball State Cardinals take on Ohio State Buckeyes in College Football Across America

All right, so tomorrow, Saturday is the big first day of College Football Across America for the new season. Of course, games start tonight and tomorrow night, so forth, but. So the Ball State Cardinals are traveling to Columbus, Ohio, to take on number one, Ohio State. And Ball State is bringing with them their quarterback. And get this, his name is Keldrick Lester, and he is 5. 10.

Tim Wildmon No, no.

Tim Wildmon £250.

Fred Jackson Whoo.

Tim Wildmon That is a human bowling ball, my friend.

Tim Wildmon Right?

Tim Wildmon Huh? Huh? That is. Listen, I'm not saying the guy's fat.

Steve Jordahl He's what's his name?

Fred Jackson Huh?

Tim Wildmon Huh?

Steve Jordahl What's his name?

Tim Wildmon Something lust Keldrick. His last name is L U S T E R Luster. But, how much is.

Tim Wildmon How much is Ohio State favored by that game?

Tim Wildmon I haven't. Oh, gosh, probably 40.

Tim Wildmon It's got to be.

Tim Wildmon but I'm gonna tell you something. If Keldrick is 510, 250, I don't care if you are Ohio State, you're not going to want to tackle that dude.

Steve Jordahl Oh, indeed.

Tim Wildmon That's right.

Tim Wildmon I would.

Tim Wildmon Let him get started.

Tim Wildmon Somebody else tackling. I'll hit him at the ankles, but I'm not taking on the midsection. No, no, this. This guy, Kentucky Wildcats about 20 years ago, had a guy that was like 5, 11, 270 or something. Like Lorenzen. Lorenzen or whatever his name.

Steve Jordahl Anyway, I look at the pictures of this dude, and he does. He looks pretty beefy. I mean, he doesn't look you.

Tim Wildmon You. 5, 10, 250 is a fullback, not a. Not a quarterback. So I'm looking forward to watching him make a collision with an Ohio State linebacker who does not want to collide with him. We'll be back tomorrow. See you.