on on on on on on on on on on down in May. Either way cocktails are still being poured here in the five o'clock hour until we get the business. Coming up at 635 Cal Thomas will join us. 705 Garrett Exner with veterans on duty at 735 Maryland State Senator Justin Reedy and at 805 Jonathan Fahey from a federal prosecutor. Talk about Steve Toscano testing out, testifying on Capitol Hill today. You remember Jonathan Fahey ran against Toscano in Fairfax County. That's all coming up at Slurriakon or alongside Cassie Schmidle. Good morning Cassie. How are you? Good morning Larry. You know the people don't know. Are you just coming in from your crazy nights out or are you just starting your day? The party is going. Yes. Either way. Both can be true. It could be a both and. No, I don't burn the midnight oil like I used to in my youth when I started here on this station going on. Well, I'm about to enter my 15th year on this radio station. That's crazy. And yes, when I first moved to DC, I was a brand new bachelor, divorced bachelor, and and I had a job in the big city and and yeah, there were there were some late nights. There were some late nights where I would roll in and figure out the morning show and then just sleep the rest of the day. But I've only once this is actually as morning radio hosts go. I've only once been on the air when I could still feel the wait twice twice. I have been on the air in the morning where I still felt the residual effects of the last cocktail I had the night before. I'm not saying I was I don't think you can do this job and actually be under the influence. I'm not saying I was actually, you know, I could have driven a car. It was fine. I'm just saying I could still feel a little, you know, a little bit, but a bit. No, that was a long time ago. Now I'm just I'm a very I live a very boring life. Cassie, you know that. Yes, as you're sitting here with your like gallon water jug goal to reach your hydration goals. Trying to cleanse. Yes. So happy tax day to you. April 15th. Is it a happy day? Well, that's a good question. I mean, it's happy day for the government, I suppose, as they they get everything paid off. Theoretically, in my house, we like to refer to this as tax extension day. We're we're doing well if we actually get the extension on time. Sometimes sometimes we don't. Sometimes we don't even get the extension on time. Oh, for sure. Yeah, but we have gotten at this year and we were having a discussion here where a lot of people say, Oh, yeah, I get to get my filing in so I can get my refund. It's my big payday so I can get my wind fall back. And by the way, refunds are running extraordinarily high this year. If the government's been holding on to your money over the course of the last year, and now they're going to get some back to you, most people are getting about 10 to 15% more than they usually get because of the reconciliation package, the solidification and permanent status now of the 2017 tax cut, plus, of course, no new taxes on on overtime and tips, etc, etc, etc. But but is that usually how you gauge things out here? You try to figure out your refund and get your money back? Or do you do you like to parlay it in such a way where instead of the government holding on to your money for a year, you get it and you, you know, I'd say you're doing it right if you have to write a check for like a buck 75 to the government on April 15th. That would be a win. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out, I haven't figured that out yet because this is what we were talking about. When I was younger, I looked forward to tax day because I got a return and I needed that money. I needed that $600. Lucky if it was closer to a thousand. I looked forward to it and then it shifted and it flipped. And then it was oh, I owe big time and I hope I had squirreled away enough pennies throughout the year anticipating that. And that's where we were saying that's when you start looking at what are these taxes? What am I? What are they charging me here? And you start being an anti tax free market conservative. My kids, I mean, one's in the military. One is a student. Well, actually, the other two are both students actually not think about it because the oldest is in graduate school now. But she's been in the working world for several years before she went to back to graduate school. And my oldest has always said, oh gosh, she loves getting that refund. She loves getting that refund. It's so great to get that refund. And like you said, it's like I need that money. Yeah, you needed that money all year last year on a bi-weekly basis. You needed that money then. You shouldn't look at it as oh good, I'm getting the money that I need. The government's giving me money. I have a theory that the moment you no longer get a refund and you're actually writing an extra check to the government, you get a little bit more conservative. Because no longer did taxes look like some refund and bonus you get back. What do you mean bonus? That's your money. They've been holding it for all this time. And then when the government comes out with their handout and say, oh no, no, no, we want more from you than you haven't given, you start to look at the government a little bit different. It may be Bernie Sanders and Zoram, I'm Donnie, don't make quite as much sense. No, it's such a good point. And then when they start saying, well, if we just increase taxes, that's also where I learned the initiatives, the local half-cent sales tax or whatever, half-cent this tax, and you're going, excuse me, half-cent here, half-cent there, you're taking a lot of money. You start looking at everything every time they say tax as that that's just less of your money in your pocket. At least I hope, I hope that's the case. But these kids, they just are like, oh, that's more money I can spend on DoorDash and getting my coffee delivered. I suppose. I just, I think the moment that the withholding started as a law and the government actually takes them on any of your paycheck and it's assumed that they get to spend it before you actually even file your taxes. And only then, once you have, it's like, it's guilty until proven innocent. We're going to take your taxes and then it's incumbent on you to prove why you should get some of it back. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, how did that work? The second that that happened, I think people started to suddenly become a little bit more liberal in this country because they, the relationship with their money and their government was sort of flipped on end. But we'll see. Like I said, people getting bigger refunds because of the tax break is only because their withholdings were adjusted in such a way to assume that they were going to have to pay more because it was not assuming that you would get the reconciliation bill passed in July. Now people are going to reset those withholdings. Hopefully, I hope people do that. Do they, you know, if they get a big refund, do they adjust their withholdings so that they sort of tweak it out and don't have a withholding the next year? Well, I hope more tax, what are they called? Helpers, your preparers are getting more business for people to be smart about how to do all of that. Did you see, I'm sorry, we already talked about this, but the Door Dash grandma, you know, I hope all of these people are doing the no tax on tips. We talked about it a little bit yesterday. It was the photo, photo op of all photo ops. It was wonderful to have a Door Dash grandma delivering McDonald's to the White House and the president opening the door. Yeah. Oh, hello. Do you have my quarter pounder? Thank you. Where are my McNuggets? You forgot. And then he gave her a really good tip and there's no tax on that. He was right on message. She said, no tax on that. It was great. And she claimed that she had $11,000 more this year as a Door Dash. She got some big clients there on Door Dash, if that's the deal. But it's all tips, all tips. Here's the list from the IRS that's put out in terms of the no tax on tips, beverage and food service, that's bartenders, waitstaff, dishwashers, entertainment and events, including musicians, DJs and other, hold on, DJs, that's kind of what we do, isn't it? Are we sort of? Should definitely talk to your tax preparer about this. I'm going to renegotiate my contract. I want to get minimum wage and then the rest is just a tip. It's just a tip. I want WMAL to just tip me at the end of every week. Here's your tip. Chaching. Hospitality and guest services, including concierge, housekeeping staff, home services, including repair workers, groundskeepers. I need a groundskeeper. That's what I need. Hey, you know, got a 14 year old kid that comes by a most along, you know, for 20 bucks. I'm going to start calling him my groundskeeper. Groundkeeper. Take care of my grounds. I'm going to go inspect the grounds. Personal appearance and wellness, hair and makeup stylist, personal trainers, recreation and instruction guides, activity instructors, golf caddies. Oh, now we understand why this all happened. Now we get it. Transportation and delivery, taxi, rideshare drivers, movers, delivery workers, et cetera, tips must be voluntary. Well, that rules out the WMAL scheme I had. All right, forget it. Never mind WMAL. Forget about the tips. We'll just keep the contract as it is. Hold that thought, Cassie Smedley. We'll explore this a little bit more. And also, Cassie experienced a new phenomenon on Capitol Hill yesterday. Personally, it's sweeping this town. It's only two days old. TMZ is here and it appears they're making their presence known. Just ask Eric Swalwell. We'll get to that and a little bit more coming up in a moment. First though, it's 515. Hey, football fans, still a legend. Jerome Bettis here. When I think about football and Pittsburgh, I think about tradition, hard work and moments that last forever. It's a place where the love of the game brings people together. And for the first time ever, the NFL draft comes to the Steel City. We're there for three days of football and the moment draft dreams are realized. The 2026 NFL Draft presented by Bud Light April 23rd to the 25th, registered for free entry at NFL.com slash draft access. Vince Colnays is redefining news talk with the Vince show. It is a reflection of your response to this program that we get to take this thing to the next level. These gigantic shows. This is going to be so much fun. It's unbelievable in depth interviews, live collar interactions and a front row seat to the most important conversations of the day. I've got updates. I've got big stories will sort through the truth of what's really going on to buckle up. Here it comes. The Vince show following. Listen on your favorite platform. Yeah, let's just be clear here on the tips. They have to be paid in cash or a cash equivalent medium like a credit or debit card payments or a Venmo, etc. Etc. employees have to receive the tips from customers directly through a tip sharing pool. Tips must be voluntary automatic service fees or large parties at a restaurant cannot be deducted as a qualifying tip for instance. So there you go. That is going to change the way a lot of people get their compensation. I think now knowing that you can have this whole revenue stream without any tax burden. It's phenomenal. Okay, not to be a Debbie Downer. But as I look at this list, there's a lot of parallels with things that the Democrats in Virginia and Abigail Spanberger are proposing they assess taxes and fees on. Oh, yeah, the states are going to come and screw it up anyway. Yeah. So speaking of, you know, being more conservative, if you enjoy your no tax on tips status, then make sure you vote no on 21st. Yeah, well, little too late there. But yeah, you're right. Certainly vote no on the referendum coming out next Tuesday. Right now it's estimated that what they're calling the working family's tax cuts is going to amount to $241.7 billion in money staying in your pocket. And even better, that's money that the government won't be spending. That's a good thing. That's a good thing. So speaking of that, as everyone knows, Cassie Smendley works in the comms world, as I like to say, you help, you have politicians and other people in this town, you know, actually sound coherent and deliver some messages to the media and over the heads of the media. And you had an event yesterday that involved a congressman, right? Yes. So we, you know, in DC, they call it fly ins. These people from certain industries, they come in and they coordinate them. And they like my oldest brothers of pilot and he'll sometimes come in and the company will bring them all in as pilots to talk to their members of Congress and you get, you know, real on the ground insights. So big fly-in season in the spring. So this was one of those groups and I was heading upstairs to sit in on it and here's a discussion and I got up there and I said, oh, we just had to throw these protesters out. And I'm not on Capitol Hill anymore. This isn't some congressional hearing. This is a conference room in a regular office building. Like a private office, private events, invite only. Yeah. So people are thinking, what? What are you talking about? And so there was a congressman was there. I don't really want to like give too much details. Yeah, that's fine. We don't need to name names. But he was there because he represented a lot of the people who were part of this industry. He represents a lot of them in his home district. And these protesters who came up and started protesting him, right? This is so strange and okay, they got him out and got him on the street. Capitol Police was there pretty swiftly and off we went with our day and tried to figure out how they got up there. But still, this is so strange. Then all of a sudden the videos start popping up around town of TMZ. The Gossip site show is around town. I cannot say for sure that this was connected to that. I have not seen any video from our event showing up on TMZ. But it's quite a coincidence that this very random thing happened. And the person who was there is one of the people that they have on video trying to get info out of. So TMZ does one of two things. TMZ will send street reporters, basically random dudes with smartphones to track down famous people usually at the airports or they sort of track them and find out, you know, they get a tip, hey, you know, Leonardo DiCaprio goes to that Whole Foods every day for a smoothie, you know, so TMZ will camp out and wait with a little smartphone to get and start asking them questions. And it's funny, usually TMZ is sort of like, you know, they sort of low key ask just silly questions or just and a lot of the celebrities you can tell they don't like it, but they get a smirk on their face and they just play along sometimes. Sometimes they can get very aggressive. Sometimes they can get very intrusive. That's a TMZ. The other thing TMZ does is they put out basically ransoms. They basically will pay top dollar for people to deliver not very nice videos or things that expose people or they'll get people to take pictures of a dead celebrity in the casket at the funeral and get money for that stuff like that stuff the National Enquirer has done over the in the past decades. Well, TMZ is now open to Washington DC Bureau and people are noting the fact that in just two days now, two congressmen have had to resign under pressure. Swalwell, one of them and the Gonzalez out of Texas. Now, Gonzalez's problems were going on before TMZ, but Swalwell's weren't and I don't think this was a TMZ operation necessarily, but a whole lot more information about Eric Swalwell has been rolling out TMZ sort of been part of that. And now they it is said that they are offering $100,000 reward for any scandal stories on congressmen here in Washington DC. If you're a staff member and you know something about your principal, you feed that information with evidence to TMZ 100 grand and I mean and it's bipartisan my friends. It's bipartisan and as we were just saying Capitol Hill staffers, you don't make much when you're starting out. When I was one, I got really excited about a $600 tax return. Can you imagine $100,000? Sure, I can figure that out. Well, and a lot of those staffers are not treated very well by these congressmen. I mean, you don't think Katie Porter's staff have something you think Swalwell is the only candidate for governor in California that doesn't have something on them? This is it does sort of shift the power dynamic on Capitol Hill, I think. And congressmen, congressmen, you better start being nicer to your staff. Things are going to drop and that's it's an equalizer. A lot of donuts and Chick-fil-A delivery happening to congressional office since it's today. And for all the professional journalists, I mentioned this yesterday, but let me just remind you when Jake Tapper and Chuck Todd and everybody at the Washington Post start ringing their hands about oh, this is terrible. Now DC political reporting has become gossip. We've got to get back to the integrity of what we do and Edward R. Murrow, hurrum, furrum, furrum, and all the things that we'll hear next week at the White House Correspondents' Center. Let me just say, the reason that we got here, the reason TMZ has an opening is because you haven't done your job. You have not pursued these things. Everything about Eric Swalwell could have been reported. You could have pursued all the rumors in town. You could have pulled some of the women that worked on his staff aside and talked to them, given them safe harbor, got them to tell their story. You wouldn't do it. You ignored it. Meanwhile, you told every false rumor about John McCain and Mitt Romney and Bob Dole and George W. Bush and any other Republican in this town. And Lord knows Donald Trump and his administration, any rumor rose to the level of breaking news with the siren on cable news. You ignored all of that. You acted like you were a party propaganda apparatchik. And because of that, because you no longer acted like fair-minded journalists, that gave an opening to TMZ. They're here because of them, Cassie. They're here because I don't think journalists really recognize what their job is anymore. Well said. It's so true. And even just because what was the thing that when the Eric Swalwell stuff started coming out, what was one of the common themes you heard people say? Oh, yeah, this was an open secret in Washington. Oh, now, now that it's out, we can tell you we were following. Yeah, we knew that. Yep, absolutely. Never wrote on it. Never reported. Okay. Amazing how that works. Yeah. That said, I don't need TMZ talking to anybody I work with. Cassie, do you not talk to TMZ? You better deliver some donuts to the office, Larry. Now on 105.9 FM and streaming worldwide on the WMAL app, O'Connor and Company. It's 537 on this Wednesday, Tax Day, 15th day of April. Thanks for tuning in to O'Connor and Company. At 635, Cal Thomas will join the conversation at 705 Garrett Exner with Veterans on Duty at 735 Maryland State Senator Justin Reedy and then at 805, Jonathan Fahey, he ran against Steve Discano and Discano for Fairfax County will be testifying on Capitol Hill today, sort of representing all of the rogue renegade prosecutors around this country that think criminals, especially if the criminals were born in a foreign country and broke our immigration laws, deserve a slap on the wrist and put right back into the community. That should be a good hearing today. I'm Larry O'Connor with Cassie Smedley. Good morning, Cassie. Good morning, Larry. Good to be with you. It's great to have you. DC District Court yesterday gave a spanking and smackdown to DC Federal Judge James Bosberg. Now, Bosberg's the guy. He is just like anything that goes in front of Judge Bosberg that has to do with trying to stop, block, prevent, injunction, whatever you want. Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Department of Homeland Security, Bosberg, rubber stamps it. Bosberg, by the way, was all over a lot of the Russian collusion stuff, too. This guy is just, he's an activist. He's an activist, a partisan activist who hates Trump, seemingly hates Republicans. And I'll give you an example. And this is the foundation of this latest little order that he just got from the circuit panel in DC. This is the guy who tried to order the Department of Homeland Security to have a plane that was in midair heading to El Salvador with a bunch of gang members and criminals who were in the country illegally. They had been sent to El Salvador. He tried to order the plane to turn around in midair while over international airspace. And since then, he has been fighting Donald Trump and the Trump administration on contempt charges because they refuse to do that. The lawyers for the White House were like, we can't do that. You can't order that. And you have no jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security and national security issues. Remember, those gang members were deemed a terrorist organization by the president. They were rounded up and they were sent out of here. The president as commander in chief in determining that they were illegal immigrant gang members had every right to do that under his roles. And that's been backed up. Anyway, he has continued to pursue contempt charges against Trump until yesterday, when in a two to one vote, the DC circuit panel issued a writ of mandamus. Been a long time since I've had a writ of mandamus. I could really order the judge, Judge Bosberg, to stop his criminal contempt probe of the Trump administration's transfer of these trended, irogla members to El Salvador. But it's taken this long. It's been a year that the Trump administration and taxpayer funded lawyers have had to defend themselves against this judge in his jihad against Donald Trump. You know, the Maryland man, wasn't that what he was? That's right. Maryland man. Maryland man. What luck that he gets to be here illegally, have nefarious ties and get such defense in our justice system. But I was just reading because I was like, what is at the heart of this decision? And that it didn't clearly prohibit the conduct at issue. The order did not prohibit the deportations, essentially, it didn't bar the government from transferring plaintiffs into some of the way. They can't do that. They can't do that. So therefore they can't support the criminal contempt. That's what it came down to. But he, as you say, tied up the justice system for a year at what cost to the taxpayers in pursuit of his political interests. Yeah, it's so annoying. And this guy, I don't know why they don't have contempt charges against this judge. He's so obviously working on a personal animus to Donald Trump and working for partisan purposes. It's, that actually was my follow up thought. What's the recourse for a judge in his position? That's the only thing that can happen is that Congress, well, I'm told by our legal expert, Joe DeGenevon, but is that John Roberts could intervene here too. John Roberts says the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, he does have some power over how these federal judges operate. And he could actually discipline this judge, my understanding is, and ultimately, Congress can impeach judges, federal judges do get impeached, not on a regular basis, but not on an irregular basis. It's possible. Okay, those are, those are two options that I don't really see happening, but good to know. The contempt proceedings were ordered to be terminated and it found that Beausburg, the appointee of Barack Obama, had committed a clear abuse of discretion by continuing to press forward. The writ of mandamus is a rare and extraordinary order from a higher court directing a lower court or government official to stop exceeding their authority. Do you hear that, everybody? This judge appointed by Barack Obama has consistently exceeded his authority in trying to go after, to understand, contempt judge, and he called this, by the way, never heard this term before, indirect contempt. They said that the president and the administration in enforcing immigration laws and national security protocols for a terrorist organization by sending them out of the country to be detained through a partnership agreement with El Salvador was actually acting in quote, indirect contempt of the judge. It's personal. It's, this whole thing has been personal because this judge with his ego and his narcissism feels like his authority wasn't respected in the way he thinks it should be because he's more powerful than the commander-in-chief. Well, I'm glad that justice prevailed today. The district court has assumed an improper jurisdiction antagonistic to the executive branch, the opinion said, adding that a mandamus relief was necessary to halt the inquest. Justice does happen sometimes in this town, my friends, even when the target of the justice is a judge. And so this is a good day, a great decision. And now, Congress, what are you going to do about James Boseberg? It's 543. Live from Pittsburgh, April 23 through 25, watch every pig live on NFL Network, ESPN and ABC. NFL Network is also streaming with NFL Plus. It all starts Thursday, April 23 at 8 p.m. Eastern. Visit NFL.com slash draft for more information, subscription required for NFL Plus. Visit plus.nfl.com for terms. Vince Colnays is redefining news talk with The Vince Show. It is a reflection of your response to this program that we get to take this thing to the next level. These gigantic shows, this is going to be so much fun. It's unbelievable. In-depth interviews, live-caller interactions, and a front-row seat to the most important conversations of the day. I've got updates. I've got big stories. We'll sort through the truth of what's really going on. So buckle up. Here it comes. The Vince Show. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. There's been an ongoing battle in Prince William County that has affected elections, local elections, congressional elections. It's got neighbor against neighbor, angry, vitriol. It's been going on for quite some time. We've been talking about it for quite some time. It has to do with the PW Digital Gateway, basically what would be the nation's largest data center, 37 data centers right on the edge of the Manassas National Battlefield Park in an area that had been designed to not have the level of development that the Prince William Digital Gateway would have represented. The community has been fighting against it. Seats on the Prince William County Board of Supervisors have been won and lost based on these battles. There have been allegations of political bribery and undue influence. It's been just a long, long, long fight. The community versus the powerful. And it looks like finally the community has won. The people have won, Cassie Smedley, because this has now been the third go around here for a legal battle. And Prince William County has now decided that they will surrender. The Prince William County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to withdraw from a lawsuit over the Prince William Digital Gateway data center complex rather than appeal a ruling voiding the approval of the project to the Virginia Supreme Court. Let me just put in plain language what was going on here. The people have been suing their own county government and the county board of supervisors have been engaged in that very expensive, very vitriolic battle fighting against their own citizens, their own voters, because they were so hell bent on having this data center in this location. A lot of it has to do with the location itself. This is a rural area that's not supposed to be the development. It's never supposed to have had this kind of development. And it is adjacent to a historic battlefield and cemetery from the Civil War. The Prince William County Board of Supervisors have been battling with tax dollars against their own voters and their own taxpayers. And they have now finally, last month in Appealsport, uphold the lower court ruling, nullifying the project's approval, saying the board didn't comply with rules governing the advertisement of the public hearings on the project. They tried to jam this thing through. They didn't want to have any public commentaries. It's typical of the arrogance of the people who have these little fiefdoms. And now their next step would have been to take it to the Virginia Supreme Court and they have finally said, okay, fine, we'll do what the people want. Isn't that something? Isn't that nice to hear? But finally, again, at what expense, both time and money, and good on the citizens for hanging with it, because you're right. And I think this is an extreme example of the location, the size of it, what it really would have done to this rural community. But these data center debates are not going away of people, oh, it'll be so great. It'll bring jobs. It'll revive this suffering rural town. And in some cases, we have seen that it has. But in other cases, and I think you hit it on the head that they were trying to shove this through. They weren't being transparent about it. Something just didn't smell right. That's where you were setting up for something that sounded too good to be true, probably was too good to be true. And that's what they're going to have to change if they anywhere want to have these data centers in the future. And let's be clear, the crux of this fight didn't have to do with really building the data centers. It was one step before that, where the Prince William County Board of Supervisors in 2023 unilaterally rezoned the area to allow for the data center. So there would have never been able to be built if they hadn't done the rezoning. And the rezoning was done for 1700 acres of rural Western Prince William County right near the Manassas battlefield. The rezoning happened without the proper notification, without the proper advertising, without the proper public commentary, because they didn't want to hear from the people because they knew that it was unpopular. And since then, they have spent nearly $2 million in taxpayer money for lawyers to defend this thing for the last three years. And let me, the chief spokesperson for the residents, Mack Haddow, president of the Oak Valley Homeowners Association, let me tell you something. I don't know a lot about the Oak Valley Homeowners Association, but I'm pretty sure they don't have the same kind of budget as the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and all of the giant, you know, big tech AI interests that wanted those data centers built there. This is David and Goliath and David once again, on the side of justice and the Lord, David has won. Well done Oak Valley Homeowners Association and all the residents. Now, now the next step, Prince William County voters, get rid of everyone on that Board of Supervisors, who is in favor of this. It's 554. Next roll with Vernon Davis. I'm your host, Vernon Davis. Okay, y'all, thank you. Thank you. That's my, today we have Eitrick Wise. Through my example, on the field, off the field, during game day in practice, that was one way that I led, because then it led to success. Next roll isn't about what's next. It's about why they do it. My man, Bobby Bones. Like I've had a lot of stuff happen, bad and good. And so I don't have any fear of mixing it up. That's powerful, man. Next roll with Vernon Davis. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.
