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Thank you so much for joining us for this edition of Donnybrook, the last one on the first half of 2026.

Can you believe it?

Here we are, lots to talk about.

Let's first meet the panelists starting with Wendy Weise, the birthday gal.

Tomorrow, the big day, the media veteran.

29.

29 is mighty fine.

Bill McClellan from the St.

Louis Post-Dispatch, one of our founders.

From the 314 podcast as well as St.

Louis Magazine and the daily newsletter, she's Sarah Fenske.

And Mr.

Alvin Reid from the St.

Louis American.

Well, Sarah, our opinion, our question on Wendy's birthday, what do you think?

Should it be celebrated?

There is not going to be a massive blowout.

Those days are gone.

We'll be debating that on Last Call.

No, let's talk about the Supreme Court taking a look at a case out of St.

Louis.

John Durnell in Soulard for years was using Roundup to control vegetation.

I think he was part of the Homeowners Association or something like that.

A state court ruled that he was entitled to 1.25 million dollars.

He claims that using Roundup caused him to contract non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Well, Bayer, of course, which now is the maker of Roundup, took this case to court and they went all the way to the Supreme Court.

And this week the Supreme Court ruled that nobody has to pay John anything because the EPA had ruled that Roundup is safe and not carcinogenic.

Mr.

Durnell had said, well, there's a Missouri law that says that if there's a harmful substance it has to be on the label.

It wasn't.

But the Supreme Court, I think 7 to 2, said look, federal law trumps the state law.

What do you think?

Yeah, I mean there are so many people affected by this.

There's something like 56,000 lawsuits against Roundup that now they really can't proceed with them.

Like this is the end of the road for those people.

And I have mixed feelings about this.

I get why you can't have 50 different jurisdictions coming up with 50 different rules.

But I think it's become so incredibly apparent in recent years something that was, you know, becoming more and more true even before that is the federal government is incapable of doing anything.

They are not going to protect us.

The US EPA is not going to protect us from anything.

And so the fact that they would then stop claims under state law when they themselves are not going to proactively try to deal with carcinogens, I don't know.

I think it creates this situation where there's nobody who can help you.

Well, I think, you know, this all started with a different EPA.

It's not the one that got, you know, torn apart by Dodge and all that.

So I hear what you're saying, but I think this is one rare time at this day and instance that the Supreme Court, I'm not gonna say got it right, but at 72, I think it's a non-political thing.

I think they just say like this is what the law is.

And as a, you know, kind of tough.

I mean, the Missouri Appellate Court had a completely different decision.

You ask three lawyers what the law says, you're gonna get three different opinions.

Well, technically the Supreme Court is supposed to be the right, but I'm not going to defend the Supreme Court because I think they're making decisions right now based on the political reality and not necessarily the law, but on this one I think it was the law.

You know, I know that the law on this had to do with whether or not it had to be marked or whether it should have been marked, but in a broader view of it, you know, I think that all these chemicals are harmful to us, but I'm not convinced really that Roundup is causing cancer any more than talcum powder is causing cancer.

You know, I think these are clever arguments made by clever people, but I don't know if you can really hope if these companies should be sued.

Well, I hate to say it, but I think if any of us had a relative like this, you know, this gentleman who had been diagnosed, and you do hear anecdotally about people in all of our circles who have had, you know, they've had this non-Hodgkin.

But I mean, it's been around so many other things.

The fact that he was a gardener and used Roundup, you know, when you think of all the other things in this.

That they're exposed to.

Breathing the air.

Right.

It's really hard to say that, I think it's hard to say.

You know, that conclusively there is no definite link between cancer and Roundup.

Well, what's interesting to me is that in recent years, some scientific journals which had kind of endorsed Roundup as being safe, have retracted and changed, retracted the articles and changed their opinions because it's been discovered that some of the researchers who said long ago that Roundup is great, ended up getting money from what was then Monsanto.

And that's exactly my point.

Is that, you know, then you get the EPA not acting on this new information that has come out.

And that's just, we're, none of us are surprised by that.

Nobody expects the EPA or the federal government to do the right thing.

But meanwhile, I could still right now go buy five gallons of Roundup.

Right.

So, I'm not saying that that has anything to do with this ruling, but at the same time, it's still out there.

Like, I could buy it as much as the EPA has said that it's safe.

Yeah.

Insecticide, just the idea of insecticide, you think, that's probably not safe.

Herbicide.

Herbicide.

Right.

Well, a multi-billion dollar agrochemical company is gonna have a lot of weight.

Well, I will say though, I do believe that Clarence Thomas should have recused himself since he was a lawyer in charge of fungicide, rodenticide, insecticide for Monsanto in the 1970s.

It was like, what, 40 years ago?

I'm switching sides here.

It's like, if lawyers recused themselves on everything they'd ever worked on, he was there two years.

What if your high school was, what if you were a judge and your high school came before you?

Would you feel fair, like a fair arbitrary judge?

I wasn't that fond of my high school, so I think I'd be just like... Your father taught there.

Exactly.

I apologize to all alums of Lutheran West High School in Rocky River, Ohio.

Her opinions don't reflect the panel's.

Bill, I want to ask you about changes.

It was Ballyhooed at a big, as a big announcement.

One o'clock, we're gonna broadcast live when the Cardinals announce their new management.

And as it turns out, Bill DeWitt III, who was the president, is now going to be the CEO.

It wasn't that big a deal.

I don't think it's that big a story.

And I think that's great, because I think Bill DeWitt III has done a really good job as the president of the team.

What do you think, as a Cubs fan, that is?

Well, you know, they own the team, so whatever they want to do is fine.

But I think that here in St.

Louis, we don't have a good history of these succession stories with civic treasures.

I think of the brewery.

When the third turned it over to the fourth and made the fourth CEO, but retained the job of chairman, he shortly thereafter sold the brewery out from under the fourth.

We had a very messy Pulitzer Publishing Company transition.

And so I look at this and I think, I don't know why the third, Mr.

DeWitt, the third, it's the third, right?

Well, junior fellow.

Well, why, Mr.

DeWitt Sr., why he didn't just say, I'm turning the team over to my son, and he's the new chairman, instead of, now we're going to call him CEO, but I'm still the chairman.

I thought, you know, this is like Queen Elizabeth, not abdicating to let Charles be king.

But now we know why she didn't abdicate to let Charles become king.

I mean, they've had some issues.

I don't think that there's any issues apparent in young DeWitt, who's 58, which he's not a young boy, old enough that he's a grown up.

Right.

I mean, if I'm the father, I'd say, you know, I'm 84, I'm retiring.

You can come to me for counsel, but you're the new boss.

But wait, okay, it's his son, okay, obviously.

And, but he still owns the team.

I mean, one of your kids probably is executive, maybe if you're a statement, you get older, but they can't just come in and say, hey, we selling the house, dad, get out, you know, should voluntarily say, okay, it's time to sell the house.

I love my daughters, but, but I'm going to be the owner of whatever we own until I'm gone.

I'm just like, oh, here, just don't have a big announcement.

Exactly.

Didn't Mr.

DeWitt, Alvin, didn't Mr.

DeWitt at the press conference actually say, so nothing's really going to change.

I mean, he actually used those words, like nothing's, I thought it was like nothing's going to change.

So why is St.

Louis a sports community?

Why are all the satellite trucks?

And, and, you know, all the stories about, oh, we wouldn't have done this.

We didn't have that.

They've completely forgot that he was the majority owner when these other, the, you know, the Southwest bank guy, Drew, Drew Bauer, Fred Hunt owners.

Now he, you know, aced them out or whatever happened.

But the original team that went to the world series owned like by four people, he was the majority owner.

People forget that all of a sudden, you know, like, right.

But anyway, I don't think the team had been good, great stewards of the team, I'd say.

And even as a cub fan, St.

Louis is a happier place when the Cardinals.

Yes.

And the last 10 years, maybe not as good as the first 20 years, but I think this illustrates a bigger point.

I think one of the big problems we have in America today with all due respect is that some people in the boomer generation need to voluntarily say, okay, I've had this great run.

It's time to let younger blood take over.

The Senate is a perfect example.

But no, but not, you don't have to turn your company over to your son.

Mr.

DeWitt senior is you can't compare him to Strom Thurmond.

I'm comparing him to Strom Thurmond.

No, no, the man is articulate.

He's still looking a little I don't like the direction of two strikes.

I'm deeply offended.

Okay.

I think it worked for the lawn dogs, Bill.

Pretty well with john jr.

Okay, you know, they own their own building a lot.

I don't know the son, my oldest Alvin, I want to ask you about a decision by the Secretary of State Denny Hoskins.

He had said at one point that he was not going to send voter information of Missourians to Washington DC.

But it turns out he admitted this week that he did.

He sent voter roll information of Missouri voters to the Department of Justice, ostensibly to look for people here illegally who are voting.

I don't like the action, but I don't think it's going to be too harmful to you.

Well, I think it could be.

And when I get my little card about joining the class action suit, I'm going to fill it out.

Because my rights have been violated as an American and a Missourian and sovereign immunity.

Oh, we could sue anybody, or anything.

Maybe the state will settle.

No, this is this should not just be glossed over.

I think he just did it to appease, you know, you know, President Trump, but at the same time, now this is egregious.

So because I don't care that the information is out there.

The state willingly gave the information on me without my permission.

And there should be some way I can But I think everybody already has.

I mean, we have discussed these privacy issues before.

I still need to send an email to Kirk Erickson because he wrote the story in the Post Dispatch did a terrific job.

But I still don't understand how of the three states in the United States of America, Georgia, Ohio and Missouri, we are one of only three where the Secretary of State actually has an investigative unit for this to look into this kind of voter fraud.

I did not see in any part of that story, how that lapsed or when that ended.

Because according to the Secretary of State, it wasn't funded by the Republicans in Jefferson City.

Is that correct?

All I know is if illegal immigrants are voting in Missouri, they're probably the only ones because we've been seeing like 8% 10 % of the electorate is coming out.

I don't see a lot of people rushing the polls period, let alone So you just don't think this is that big of a deal?

You know, Denny Hoskins just wants a career in politics.

And if you're a Republican, you have to do whatever Trump tells you.

Like Mike Keogh, Trump wants redistricting in the mid decade.

So we're going to do it.

And you know, Hoskins isn't going to stand up to Trump.

Until November, maybe.

Well, you know, I don't think anything will change.

This is not a very great way to, I don't know if this is the kind of thing that would get the big guy's attention.

He needs something a little more.

No, I don't know.

But see, this is the kind of thing he would go berserk.

Yeah, I could see like one of these crazy truth social posts like Missouri is refusing to turn over its deal.

Hoskins is weak.

Right, exactly.

You know, we want to take a quick break from the program to share the sad news.

It's with heavy hearts that we announced that we lost one of our own this week.

Tim Evaker, an outstanding audio man, stagehand here at 9PBS, who was extremely friendly, always helpful, and he had a great life outside of 9PBS.

Among other things, he was the lead for a band called Raised on Radio, and he was an expert when it came to sound at concert venues throughout the greater St.

Louis area, passed away earlier this week.

And so we send our thoughts, prayers and condolences to the Evaker family.

Really a total bummer.

And always cheerful.

Yes, always cheerful.

Always so professional.

Wendy, I want to talk to you about Mike Archer, a member of the St.

Louis County Council, whether he likes it or not.

And that's a whole nother story.

But in this story, his daughter was driving 107 miles an hour in a 60 mile per hour zone on Highway 270.

And as it turns out, he represented her.

Nothing wrong with that.

He's an attorney.

She ended up paying a $50 fine.

And that, according to reports, is all that she paid, even though she was in traffic court about nine times during that period for different traffic offenses.

I think this was her ninth.

I think you're right.

This was her ninth.

OK, yeah.

Well, just like any other person, huh?

I what I you know, Mr.

Archer said that Sam Page was the one who explained to him that there was there you know, that there was an ethical question about him having this, you know, having this involvement with his with his daughter's record.

Melissa Price Smith said that they her office did not know anything about this, that Costantin, yeah, Kerry Costantin was the one who signed the the the memo or, you know, the whatever it was that she initialed it to finalize it.

But I think I'm the only one that thought it was.

We were talking about a teenager.

This is a grown woman who clearly has a lead foot problem.

So, you know, she might need to get to, you know, talk to somebody about that.

I think Melissa Price Smith is doing exactly the right thing.

Truly.

We're going to open this again and look at it.

But Kerry Constantin is a friend of mine.

I mean, I've known her for a long time.

She was a prosecutor in the county and then worked with Mike Archer.

Then worked for U.S.

the U.S.

attorney and then came to help Melissa Price Smith and just has a terrific reputation.

Right.

And so this has been difficult.

I think it's so odd that the chief trial attorney, I mean, Kerry was a big deal.

There's a reason you know her.

Like she handled some top cases and was really important in that office.

She was setting up the protocol to teach the young prosecutors how to do what they were doing.

For her to be handling something that is a big deal, speeding ticket, but still a speeding ticket.

Clearly strings were pulled.

You know, she used to work with Archer back in the day.

Right.

I have to believe what Melissa Price Smith is saying, that she had no knowledge of what was going on.

But it's like you shouldn't have your top deputy pull a move on something that sensitive without telling.

She was retired, correct?

Constantin.

And I thought she came from the U .S.

attorney's office and went back to the county to help out with the overflow.

OK.

All right.

Yeah, it just doesn't happen.

I don't know.

But a hundred and seven miles an hour for a repeat offender.

You need to at least have points on your record.

Well, that's the thing that bothers me, because if there's no points on the record, then your insurance company doesn't know that you're a bad risk.

Well, if you've been you know, if you've had traffic, nine traffic violations since 2018.

But this is the way it's done in Missouri always has been.

I got to be honest with you.

I was pulled over by a cop in St.

Louis about thirty five years ago and a fella helped fix it, turned it into a bad muffler.

And the lawyer himself was at one of our little nine PBS gatherings about four weeks ago.

I mean, it doesn't happen that way in Maplewood.

I was going, you know, thirty two and thirty five and a twenty five or something about three years ago.

And I got my ticket.

You are like the only one.

I feel like it is pretty much only the little people in Missouri pay tickets like anybody who has a friend who's a lawyer.

They write a letter.

It goes away.

And it's one reason our drivers are so bad.

When you go to the fifty dollar ticket place, you pay them fifty dollars.

They get it reduced.

You make it sound like a racetrack.

I know that fifty dollar window.

You know, they whatever you're feeding, they get it to bad muffler or whatever.

But now here's the part I didn't get in the story.

The fine that you pay to the municipality is higher.

It's almost as much as the speeding ticket.

But you just don't get the points.

It isn't against your driving record.

But I don't know if she just paid fifty dollars.

This was on to seven.

I understand.

So this was prosecuted in county court.

OK.

And what I'm saying is the problem is the 50.

All she paid was fifty dollars.

That's a problem.

OK, I don't have a problem with change from the speeding to the, you know, what?

Alvin, that is a bad thing they do with that.

After all of the questions at the county government level about nepotism for the past two or three years, it's just kind of amazing to me that this would still all I'm saying is about right now.

There are probably in the last month, a thousand people had whatever their violation was changed to something not as dramatic.

They paid a fine and kept going.

This happens all the time.

I can remember when we had red light cameras in the city of St.

Louis and the proponents of red light cameras on the board of aldermen were getting their own red light camera tickets fixed.

You know, it's the oldest game in town.

You hand it to a police officer.

You know, you hand it to your alderman.

I agree.

I don't know how much of it goes on right now, but it does prevent people finding out who the bad drivers are.

You know, if if if it's a bad muffler, Alvin, well, then you pay for that.

But if you're speeding, you could kill somebody.

That's true.

I'm not saying it's OK.

I'm just saying that and I'm not saying that that's OK.

What I'm saying is, is that a this goes on all the time.

The nine different offenses.

Yeah, there was some workings going on there.

But there are a lot of people that are watching this show right now saying, like, yeah, you know, one time I was like 40 over and I ended up having a bad muffler and, you know, like just paid a fine and kept on going.

So, you know, I don't want to cast too much aspersion at the.

I had a I had a police officer.

I've told you this story a thousand times.

I will not name him.

He came to the studios downtown and asked for the ticket back.

Why did you do all that?

Well, it was because you were he didn't know you were Wendy Weiss.

Oh, wow.

That's the power you have.

Birthday girl.

Wow.

Oh, yeah.

I can't wait to read your memoir.

Yeah.

You and a dozen of people.

Sarah Fenske, I thought it was very interesting.

And I'm not too crazy about this, but Democratic socialists were really successful this week in the Democratic primary for Congress in New York City.

The mayor there, Mondami, endorsed three people who share his views, which are Democratic socialists.

They are not only far to the left on economic issues, but they're in some cases pro Hamas against Israel.

So I'm thinking to myself, hmm, Cori Bush kind of fits in that mold.

She's going to be in a congressional primary August the 4th against the incumbent Wesley Bell.

After hearing what you heard this week, do you think that, hmm, maybe there's a little more wind in her sails than we think about?

I think she sure could have a chance.

You know, it feels like progressives are somewhat on the ropes in St.

Louis.

They took some important offices here maybe like four or six years ago and felt really ascendant.

And then there was kind of a backlash to that when people didn't like how things were working out.

I think that's part of how you saw Wesley Bell be able to topple her two years ago.

At the time that we had the first Bell-Bush race, it felt like AIPAC was almost this like new concept to St.

Louis voters.

And it's like, what's this thing that Cori Cori Bush keeps talking about?

I think now this has become a huge issue nationally for young people where they do not want Israel weighing in on their politics.

And so the fact that Wesley Bell is perceived as the candidate of this pro-Israel committee, there's a lot of energy that is going to go into sending that message to like 30 somethings, 20 somethings, people who feel passionately about that.

That was a key to what happened in New York.

It could it could change things here.

Well, I think I think the same amount of energy, Sarah, is going to be from the Jewish community that, you know, two years ago really rallied to beat Cori Bush.

And I think that any idea that they might be complacent now has been washed away with what happened in New York City.

And I expect the Jewish community to really turn out to vote for Wesley Bell.

I don't think anything that happens in New York City has is going to happen here.

Now, I think the race is what it is here.

You're different angles on, you know, the Jewish and Hamas angle.

But I don't think Cori Bush can beat Wesley Bell.

And I think Democrats, other than New York and some other places in the country, are basically saying, like, listen, we need to run moderate candidates who stand for moderate issues, the economy, affordability, things like this.

And it won't be any different here.

Maybe she saves one percentage.

That's what the party's saying.

But that's not who's winning.

That is not at all.

That's in New York.

I wish that we would have moderate candidates.

It's ripping.

It's ripping New York apart at the seams.

I mean, this is not New York.

Who cares what goes on in New York, quite frankly?

I mean, a lot of people.

This is a national election.

You know, you're talking about national issues.

And it's one state.

I mean, like you say, like, and it's one city.

And this whole thing, we're like, oh, Socialist Democrats are taking over.

Like, no, they're not.

It's New York.

They got the mayor and now three congressional seats.

And I think that's a movement.

OK.

All right.

I totally disagree.

Don't forget, we've had individuals like Megan Greene and others who are quite vocal against Boeing, vocal right up to the point of the Homeless Bill of Rights.

Correct.

Right.

Or or to to compare them to what the politicians in New York is just not fair to them because they are nowhere near that left.

I don't know.

I think this is sort of it's a national movement.

And I think, you know, Megan Greene knows Brad Lander, who won.

He's actually a St.

Louis.

He's a St.

Louis.

And, you know, they're sort of cut from the same cloth.

It's politics are national.

All right.

I just I don't think it has any impact on anything.

And that is interesting.

Brad Lander, who's going to be a congressman out of New York, because let's face it, the winner of the Democratic primary is going to win in New York.

He's from Creve Coeur Park, Parkway North, Parkway North.

And so he's a Viking.

He's Viking.

And who else do we have?

Jasmine Crockett is her name.

Texas.

She went to a private school.

Yeah.

Maxine Waters, too.

OK, that's it for the discussion.

How about the old mailbag?

I appreciate you devoting a segment to discussing municipal courts and the behavior of judges.

The perception of how a proper and fair court operates depends on the professionalism of these courts.

That from presiding judge Ed Spillane of the College Station Municipal Court in Texas.

Dale Walker of St.

Charles wrote traffic bump outs, narrowing of streets do not make sense in physics.

If a passage narrows, there is less volume and therefore velocity or speed must increase.

Bob Wilson wrote, where are you all by your rulers to draw a straight line from Trump to empty hotel rooms in Kansas City takes a special type of measuring device.

Hope you limbered up before making that stretch or you could pull something.

Gary Krautman of Webster.

I was amazed that none of you commented on a rather glaring aspect of Ladoo's apparent acceptance of the proposed quarry property development.

Ladoo's residents get more multimillion dollar homes to the east and expensive villas along the north side, while Rock Hill and Brentwood are left to bear the brunt of apartments and retail on their south and west.

You can write us care of nine PBS, 3655 Olive Street, St.

Louis, Missouri, 63108.

Don't forget those emails.

Donnybrook at nine PBS dot org or don't forget us on social media.

You can always call the nine line at 314-512-9094.

And wherever you are this summer, listen to us on your favorite podcast source.

We have a program called Last Call.

You can find it on the Donnybrook YouTube channel.

And this week we'll be talking about Brady Kachuk.

He's moving to Florida, but not St.

Louis.

Should he lose his key to the city?

We'll talk about that and other topics.

Thank you so much for joining us.

See you next week at this time.

Donnybrook is made possible by the support of the Betsy and Thomas Patterson Foundation and the members of Nine PBS.