NBA's hypocrisy, stealing elections, and the release of a man who threatened local schools | Hour 1

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron. Go to ThePeteCalendarShow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. Every Tuesday, we speak with Andrew Dunn. He is the publisher of Longleaf Politics. You can subscribe to the newsletter there. You can go to LongleafPOL.com. It's also got the podcast of the same name. He's also a contributing columnist to the Charlotte Observer, and he is the author of a book called The Change Agent, Pat McCrory's Rise, Reckoning, and Legacy. Andrew, how are you, sir? I am doing fantastic. I'm in sunny Florida at the moment, and it is truly an oasis of freedom down here. Well, so, okay, so are you down there on the book tour? Is that a lot of Pat McCrory files down there? Oh, yes, of course. No, I'm here for the State Policy Network annual meeting where we've got 1,500 freedom-minded conservatives down here. So it's been fantastic. Nice. Okay. So, all right. So I want to start actually with something that you sent out on Twitter, formerly known as X. It was an audio recording. People are probably aware of the stuff going on with the WNBA and You got these male former NBA players that are wanting to enter the WNBA draft. And for people who are in North Carolina, what was this like 2012, 2014, somewhere around there, when the HB2 issue came up because Charlotte did the bathroom ordinance, the state came back saying, no, you can't have men and women's restrooms and locker rooms and such. And then All of the boycotts got whipped up against the state. We had all of the protest marches and Roy Cooper was able to harness all of that to to defeat Pat McCrory in the election. That was one of the reasons. Is that roughly when this audio recording comes from? Yeah, so this audio recording was from June 2016. Okay. Your listeners may recall this is when there was. All the debate over whether the NBA was going to move the All-Star game, the NBA All-Star game, from Charlotte as a result of HB2. And I came across this recording as part of my reporting for the book, The Change Agent, and what I think is quite remarkable about it is that it shows– some of the blatant hypocrisy that there was a whole lot of grandstanding going on on the NBA's part and, to be frank, for a lot of the business community during HB2. And to hear how. They spoke about it in private and how different that was from how they spoke in public. Is very dramatic. So let me play a clip here. This is the clip you posted onto Twitter. This is Silver on the phone. The NBA has had certain core values, I think. Part of the LGBT community looks to the NBA to. Support those values. Having said that, I'm all in favor of confidence. And I do not think a successful outcome of these discussions would be for us to move our own target. I speak on behalf of our owners, our teams and our players. I think they all feel very strongly that this is a core principle. Of our league. All right. So the first clip there is from the phone call, obviously. And so it's kind of difficult to hear. But he says, like, you know, talking about the core values of the NBA, the LGBT community, which he kind of fumbles the acronym there a little bit. that this is what they expect of the NBA to take a stand on this, but he would like to find a compromise. And then there's another clip where he says, like he acknowledges in response to something, obviously, Pat McCrory said, which was there are a lot of places that would not be able to sort of pass this litmus test that you have to allow men into women's restrooms because most states did not allow that in a decade ago. Right. That's exactly right. I mean, it was purely an optics decision. It was purely a I'm getting pressure from business owners decision. I think what's pretty remarkable here is that, you know, everyone felt the need at that time. This is peak woke or woke one, as AOC would call it. That was crazy. That was crazy. It was crazy. It was crazy. And this was a great example of it. I mean, I think that, you know, you heard a lot from the NBA, you know, PayPal, a lot of these big companies saying that this is our core values. But in reality, it was not. I mean, they were they were facing pressure and they just wanted everything. To go away. Yeah. And then and then you hear Adam Silver there go with his public statement where he's like, oh, this is our core value. And so we and they did move the NBA out of Charlotte. And where did they send it? Atlanta or something? Something like that. It was somewhere. And, you know, of course, nobody ever reported on what the status of the laws were in that new state. And it's just, you know, we had the same thing happen with Major League Baseball. There was all the hubbub about moving the All-Star game from Atlanta. This was when Joe Biden was talking about Jim Crow 2.0. And then they ended up moving it to a state that had even more stringent voter ID laws and all that. Right. It's just an important reminder that, you know, everybody likes to grandstand, but, you know, few people are actually going to go in and check the facts. So I have to ask also, sort of behind the scenes, how did you get this audio? Like, did they record? Is this like the Nixon tapes? You know, a journalist never reveals. That's fair. That's fair. I'm just, I'm curious how many calls got, I mean, and good for them for recording it. We are a one-party state, so they did not violate any laws. Um, but because otherwise it would have just been, you know, he said, he said, I am also curious though, as to like, this wasn't like, this is new information. I don't recall, uh, any. Any reporting at the time, and maybe I just forgot because it's been 10 years. No, this is exclusive information for the book, The Change Agent. So I hope your readers can get. A lot more background on it and all the behind the scenes during HB2, which is really fascinating in my book. So I hope you'll pick it up. Yeah, my order is on the way. So yeah, I'm looking forward to reading it. Well, I will come in studio and I'll put my John Hancock on it for you. Well, I'd prefer you put your name in it. if that's okay. I can do that. Okay. All right. All right. So next up, speaking of election laws, you've got a piece at the Charlotte Observer. What counts as stealing an election in North Carolina? And this is in response to Governor Josh Stein's veto of House Bill 958, which, as I understand it, would destroy our democracy in North Carolina. because it is shortening the early vote period from 17 days to 10 days, but only during primaries. Do I have that right? Right. Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, this is another example of the difference between what you hear from the grandstanders and what the reality is on the ground. You know, I'm. Old enough to remember when being an election denier was, you know, the scarlet letter, you know, that you were persona non grata, you were an election denier. And, you know, it's troubling to me when people in positions of power like Governor Josh Stein are reaching for stolen election language. I know it gets donors riled up. It gets you know, your base riled up. But, you know, when you look at what this bill actually does, it is extremely minor. And I think, you know, if you continually reach for that language, it really poisons the well. And then when, you know, it's almost like the boy who cried wolf. And when the wolf really does come, nobody's going to care. Right. And so and you make this point in the piece that these are for just the primaries, not for the general elections. So the only people that are being impacted are the early voters in the party primaries themselves. Right. So and there is a there is a it's a cost issue and a personnel staffing issue because running an extra week of early voting during primaries is basically a waste of money and time and resources because most people don't vote early enough. In the time period, in this extended time period, like a lot of people vote early on day one and then later on in the cycle or later on in the period, but not during the middle portion. That's right. I mean, 17 days is just an extraordinarily long period of time for early voting in any election, and especially in a primary election. I don't know about you, but I always go vote fairly early on in the early voting period. And the poll workers are honestly surprised that anybody showed up. Usually I'm voter number two or three for the whole day. And that's in Charlotte. I mean, and when you look. At some of these smaller counties that are really struggling to find poll workers, it's really kind of an unreasonable burden to turn election day into almost a full month of election season. All right. Well, now also you've got a piece of long-leave politics. I don't know why you would do this, but no, I do. You're already looking at election 2030. Like you do know we have two other elections first, Andrew. I do. I do. But the reality is, is that the 2030 elections might end up being more important than both 2026 and 2028 combined. 2030 is the census year, and that's when there's going to be a round of redistricting. You know, you're going to be able to draw the lines for not only all the General Assembly members, but the congressional delegation as well. And I fear that the Republican agenda, the conservative agenda, has gotten stale over the last five or six years. And without renewed energy there, there's a very real risk that Democrats pick up a few seats in 26, a few more in 28. And in 2030, you're really looking at the risk of a flip and then Democrats being able to cement control for. The next decade. So why do you think that the conservative agenda has gotten stale? It's a great question. A lot of it has to do with leadership. I mean, you look at Republicans have had only one governor since the 1980s, that being Pat McCrory, the subject of my book, The Change Agent. Oh, nicely done. Nicely done. Nicely. Good placement there. Yeah. And the reality is, is that the General Assembly, in a lot of cases, the General Assembly does have all the power, but it's very hard to legislatively set a direction. And I think that's what we're seeing. I mean, I think we have some really excellent people in the General Assembly, but, you know, I say this a lot, you know, the more people you put in the committee, the harder it is to get anything done. Yeah, no, that's true. And also they've got a lot accomplished. Yeah, they did a lot in the first, you know, decade probably after the The Republicans won control. That was under Speaker Tom Tillis, Phil Berger over in the Senate, obviously. They got a lot of their tax reforms done and they really did put North Carolina on a much better path. And now it's like you look at some of the stuff that I mean, they have been dealing with, like sort of the school curriculum and that sort of thing. And I've been advocating that they actually. try to go sort of the Florida route and make the state basically a state that Democrats don't want to move to, you know, like do conservative policies, make the Democrats have to win again and undo it all. But in the meantime, do these things that attract more Republican voters and repel Democrat voters. I think that's really smart, and Florida has really been affected by that. And Virginia is kind of the example of what happens if you go in the opposite direction. Republicans had an opportunity, a very narrow window, and didn't seize full advantage of it. You know, everybody looks at North Carolina and expects it to become the next Virginia, and I'm really hoping that's. Not the case. Andrew Dunn, we appreciate your time as always. You can read his work at longleafpolitics, longleafpol.com, as well as over at the Charlotte Observer. And as we have, we've discussed a couple of times here, the book, The Change Agent about Pat McCrory, go pick it up at your fine bookstores or even the not so fine ones. You can find it there. Yeah. Andrew, thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. Safe travels to you. All right. Thank you. That's Andrew Dunn. All right, for over a year now, you've heard me talking about Create-A-Video, great local company in Mint Hill that has helped more than 2 million families preserve their memories by turning old photos, VHS tapes, film reels, and slides into lasting keepsakes. Now, Create-A-Video is helping families and groups create brand new memories while they're traveling. Introducing Group Travel Videos. Perfect for family reunions, church mission trips, group vacations, destination weddings, student trips, senior adult groups, sports teams. I mean, really any gathering of people that you care about that's traveling together. 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Katie at group travel videos.com group travel videos from old memories to new adventures, preserving life's moments for a lifetime. All right. So another story locally, WSOC TV reporting that Charlotte Mecklenburg students back to school today, right? After a man was arrested, Accused of threatening to kill students at five different schools, investigators say Drew Owens laid out mass shooting plans for a few elementary, middle, and high schools. And he's already out. Yeah, he's out. Well, I mean, he did spend something like a, it may have been like almost a year in jail, but he finally, he finally bonded out post a bail or, well, he had a bondsman do it for him. And I walked free Saturday, two days before the start of school. I mean, what could go wrong, right? Mecklenburg judge, oh, we don't know who it is for some reason. We don't know who the judge is that reduced the bail to let him walk. He left at 1130 Saturday morning. So a year and a half ago, Drew Owens said, threatened to shoot up five CMS schools, Garinger, West Charlotte, Audrey Kell, Community House, and Hawk Ridge. He was arrested, and now the community is outraged by his $ 10, 000 bond. Oh, sorry, the community was outraged at his $ 10, 000 bond. And so then another judge raised it to $ 200, 000 secured. That was last February. But then in May, another judge, I wonder if it's our decarceration judge. Nah, she'd have said it at zero, probably. But in May, another judge, no, we don't have any of these judges' names. Why is this? Why is this not part of the reporting? All of this should be public information. Because they are elected judges. These are elected positions. And if you want voters to know who to vote for or against, to know if the judge is doing a good job, right, they need to know information like this to see how they're doing their job. From the text line, a. 704 number, anonymous person says, it's okay, Pete. The court ordered him to keep away from the schools. Surely he'll comply. Yes. Why wouldn't he? Right? I mean, it's not like the guy is any kind of a wrecker of.. Oh. Yeah, so that's a problem. Jennifer says, I'm sure that ankle bracelet they've got him on will keep him in check, which got me thinking, actually. Why do the ankle bracelets not... shock people. We have this technology. We've been using it on dogs and cats and probably other animals, right? I mean, only the domesticated ones, right? But we have these shock collars. Why not use that technology in the ankle bracelets? Right? Like, they know if you, like, they geofence around a certain area, and if you leave the area, they'll know that you have, you know, gone beyond the county lines or you've left your house or something like that so just just give you know a long persistent shock right to the ankle like that's cool I feel like that would hurt a lot, but maybe it's the opposite. Maybe it wouldn't hurt as much. I feel like it would hurt even more than, say, around a fatty part of the neck, where you got more skin and fur around your neck. I mean, I'm not telling you how to live your life. I'm just saying some people may have a lot of fur around their neck. But for dogs, they've got fur. So you could electrify the ankle monitors. There are no bad ideas under the cone of creativity here. We're trying to find solutions, okay? That's what this is about. Mike says court dockets are public other than family court. If the media wants to, they could report the judge's names. That is true. 704 number says, I am sure if this gentleman, quote unquote, actually committed the act he threatened, the roar of gun control laws would have been overwhelming. Yeah. Yeah. If this guy were to actually attempt to carry out his... threats, right, we would be treated to, well, two different narratives, right? We would get the, how did the system fail him, right? Crying for help and all of that. And then there would be the, let's take up all of the legal gun owners' guns, right? The people who are not threatening schools, let's take their guns. So a year and a half ago, he threatened to shoot up five schools. He was arrested. He got a very low bond. People were angry. Another judge comes in, raises it to $ 200, 000 secured. That was in February. But then in May, another judge reduces the amount to $ 75, 000 secured. And that was low enough so that Owens could pay the bondsman fee. Neighbors who live in the subdivision where he grew up are, quote, terrified. They claim that he threatened, intimidated, and harassed them, too. If only there was a sign. I'll tell you, it's always the ones you most suspect, you know? He's on electronic monitoring, and he has been ordered to stay away from those schools. And, reminder, those schools are gun-free zones. So don't you be bringing a gun there. You're not allowed to be near the school and you're not allowed to bring a gun to the school, which obviously now that thwarts his plan, obviously. New York Post has picked it up. Fox News has picked up the story. A Mecklenburg County grand jury indicted him back in March of 2025. His name is Drew Andres Owens. 33 years old, indicted on five counts of communicating threats of mass violence on educational property. He has pleaded not guilty. Cases all remain pending. Four counts allege that Owens sent emails in February of 2025 threatening West Charlotte High School, Ardrey Kell High School, Community House Middle School, and Hawk Ridge Elementary School. According to court documents reviewed by Fox News Digital, Owens allegedly sent messages threatening to, quote, slaughter staff and students. A separate indictment alleges a mailed threat against Garinger High School. The affidavit claimed that a student who was armed with two shotguns and an AR-15 would carry out the mass shooting. School administrators later determined that no student by that name was enrolled there. The warrant affidavit states that Daryl Owens, Drew's father, and a West Charlotte high school ROTC instructor told police he also believed his son was responsible for the school threats. So once again, we have a family, we have neighbors, we have people around an individual who are reporting that an individual is a threat. is making threats, maybe mentally unstable. We had DeCarlos Brown Jr. We had Daquan Hunt, the guy who punched the women over on East Boulevard, right? And now we've got this guy, Drew Owens. So I'm not sure how many times we need to run this play before people in the court system realize start paying attention to one of your missions, which is to protect public safety. I understand bail is there in order to ensure that people show up to court. Yes. So you've got the flight risk component, that factor, but there is also a component of public safety. And when somebody is threatening to mass murder kids and staff at five different schools, I'm thinking you have a duty to protect the public. But I'm not a lawyer or a judge, so I can't read all the stuff that's not written in the law. What do I know? I'm just a radio host. A lot of questions about this case of Drew Owens. People are asking, and I share these same questions. Why is he in jail for a year and a half? Is that how long it takes to put a person on trial for like what seems to me to be a pretty provable case? Did he send the emails or not? Right. So I, I don't know. Chris wants to know, or sorry, Oscar says, how was he in jail for a year without a trial? It's a good question. I don't know. Um, Scott says there comes a time when a person charged with a crime is held in jail for a longer period of time than they would be sentenced at trial. After they reach that limit, bond is usually reduced. I'm not sure of his charges, but it might be that a year and a half might be the limit to what he can be held. So then they reduce the bond and the guy who threatened to shoot up five schools gets to walk free two days before the start of class. I mean, that makes sense. By the way, we've got. I've seen it now from a couple of people, and it appears the judge that reduced the bond was George Bell, Mecklenburg County, George Bell. So not the decarceration judge. The one that was a decarceration advocate before getting elected to be a judge. Beth's favorite Russ says, I'd be okay with the shock ankle monitors, but only if you can guarantee that the charge will be enough to make the wearer yelp or even pee their pants. Just a little, but not too much. We don't want to be cruel and unusual and all of that. Right? Just, yeah, just a little sprinkle, if you will. And you can calibrate those things pretty accurately. But Indian land Jeff says in this nation of complete lightweights, a shock feature on an ankle monitor would be deemed cruel and unusual punishment. And then the lawyers would get involved. Jimma says they love the shock ankle bracelet idea, but also wants to know whether this resident of the jail got any therapy or at the not my fault McFadden condos. Um, I don't know if they got any kind of therapy or treatment or anything like that. Um, but probably, probably like there's a chance that they did get to use the rap studio, right? That, uh, Mr. Owens probably could avail himself of the, uh, of the recording studio. I don't know what he would be rapping about or singing about. I guess you don't have to just rap. You can also just like you're creating tune. Do they have, I'm wondering, do they have all of like the, the musical instruments in there too for them? Do they bring like a session band? Do they have a session band at the Mecklenburg County jail recording studio? Or is it just all like piped in music where it's like a karaoke basically? Is it a karaoke machine there? And they play the music for you and then you sing along or rap along or whatever? Or do they do they hire like session artists? Rodney says, I'm curious as to what justifies stay away from schools. I can drive right by a school on a public road and be within 100 feet of the building. Good question. I don't know how you police that. Maybe just the property line. Um, eight to eight number says they should put the ankle bracelets around. Okay. I'm not going to read that a different, okay. This person is suggesting that the, uh, the ankle monitor or ankle bracelet be placed on another part of the body. And then one shock would probably be enough to stop him from bad behavior. Um, seven Oh four number says, uh, it is time. These judges have some liability with their decisions. Uh, seven Oh four and number says I'm a Charlotte native middle-class 56 year old white dude. My wife has been a CMS teacher for 29 years. We are moving out of Mecklenburg County. We do not feel safe anywhere in this area. Um, nine eight Oh number suggests shock underwear or a shock G string. Um, Michael says, I am glad that Beth's favorite Russ is looking out for the amount of urine released. Because you wouldn't want to whiz on the electric ankle monitor. That's a good point. It's a good point. I hadn't really considered that. Because if it creates just a little bit of P and then you create like a continuous line connecting the bracelet or anklet, All the way up, you know, then it's like, because you've heard just like we heard all the stories about dying from quicksand when we were growing up. There was also the story about the guy walking his dog and the dog pees on the third rail of the. Railroad line. And then the. Electric shock goes through the p through the dog through the leash to the guy remember that story no idea if it was true but we all heard that story stay away from the third rail and like i could never tell which one was the third rail so i just stayed away from all of them because sometimes it just looked like there were two but i could never tell so i was just. Like i don't i'm just not even going to go near any of. Them um Thad says, too bad the ankle bracelets cannot be programmed like a golf course, golf cart GPS. It shuts down until you back up into the safe zone. Kevin suggests the ankle monitors should be linked up with the flock cameras. Just spitballing there. Why not? That's a win-win, seems like. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete Kaliner show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.