Short Session Preview and Data Centers | Hour 1

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three 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 of the links, become a patron, go to thepeakclendarshow dot 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. Thanks for joining us. It's been just such a beautiful weekend, so nice here in Charlotte. We've got a lot of news going on. We're going to be bringing in a lot of experts to kind of dig into some of the stories we've been following lately. The big one being that the North Carolina State Legislature, the General Assembly, they kick off their spring short session on Tuesday in Raleigh. We're going to be following that and talking about some of the big, big issues that your lawmakers are going to be facing. Among them, still have no state budget. How are they going to be dealing with that? What are the some of the prayer aorities that we're going to see Right now? We're going to start talking with Raleigh with our news from Raleigh. North Carolina legislator leaders sent a press release out this morning saying they formed a new subcommittee under the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations. So in case you're not familiar with how this works, a lot of these committees like this one really take an oversight function to see what's been happening in your state government, how's that money been spent, has it beneficient all of those things. This one, this new subcommittee is going to examine the state's prison system, but in particular the early release of more than four thousand inmates during the COVID nineteen pandemic. This followed a legal settlement involving the Cooper administration former Governor Roy Cooper, who's now the Democratic nominee for the US Senate. Republican legislative leaders say this review is going to focus on transparency, public safety, accountability, and talking about how those release decisions were made and communicated. They're arguing that the public just did not receive timely information about who was released and under what conditions, And they say they're going to examine both the policy decisions and the legal framework behind this settlement. You may have seen a big push in some of the news outlets and not being covered by a lot of them, but some And then also of course the Senate Leadership Fund and some of the folks who are really going to be weighing in heavily in North Carolina race for US Senate, they've been very focused on this. So in addition to these releases, these four thousand inmates that were released during the COVID nineteen pandemic, Republican leaders say they're also really going to be focused on some of the bigger issues that we have with the state prison system, staffing levels, healthcare, re entry, recidivism trends. By say that the lawmakers say the goal is to assess whether current correctional policies are effectively protecting the public while in maintaining some long standing operational challenges in the system. You know, this is something that we've talked about a lot here in Charlotte. We've had the murder last August on the light rail and there's been some focus on that. Plus lawmakers are talking about things like involuntary commitments and how do we maintain public safety and still use taxpayer resources efficiently staffing. This is a big issue. It's hard to get folks to work there in the prisons and to maintain some of these things. They're gonna be looking at all of this in this new set legislative subcommittee. The findings really could inform future legislative changes in North Carolina's correction system and policy and oversight. Now meantime, not unrelated, the political fundraising picture in North Carolina is taking some shape ahead of the November twenty twenty six general elections. There are new filings about former Governor Roy Cooper showing that he brought in roughly thirteen point eight million dollars in the first quarter into his Senate campaign, compared to about five million dollars raised by the Republican candidate, Michael Wattley. All of this is in the first quarter of fundraising reports. We're finding that the most recent Carolina Journal poll has Cooper leading Wattley by about eight points, which, truthfully, you know, having covered elections and races like this for a long time, eight points isn't really that much considering that former Governor Cooper has had forty years in statewide public service, never lost a campaign. Michael Wattley, the Republican candidate. This will be his first, his first forty into an elected race of this sort. He used to lead the Republican National Committee at the Republican level, and of course the NCGP the North Carolina Republican Party. So as more folks get to know who Wattley is and both stake out their positions, their political and policy positions, I think those numbers will certainly shift. But either way, this race is going to be incredibly expensive. I'm hearing numbers thrown around like seven hundred and fifty million dollars into North Carolin race for US Senate. If that's the case, this could be the most expensive Senate race in history. And of course this race is an open seat. There's not an incumbent because current Senator Tom Tillis announced last summer that he is not running for reelection. Now, talking about elections a little further, state elections officials are moving forward with new rules tied to voter registration in citizenship verification, The North Carolina State Board of Elections has approved updated procedures for how counties can challenge voters who are flagged as potentially non citizens. So under the new system, election officials would be able to use federal and state databases to identify voters who may not be citizens. Those individuals would be be contacted by the county boards. They'd be asked to provide documentation, and if they are still some questions, they could be required to attend hearings to determine eligibility. Now, supporters of these new rules say the goal is to ensure accurate voter roles and strengthen election integrity and certainly trust in the system, But critics are arguing that the process could create unnecessary barriers for eligible voters, particularly if database errors incorrectly flag of lawful citizens. We're going to be following implementation of those rules and giving you lots of information should you need more information on those state elections and non citizen voting. Meantime, closer to home, Kataba County local leaders are considering major proposals that could reshape public education around here for the next several years. That Kataba County Board of Commissioners is reviewing a plan that would eventually merge three school systems Kataba County Schools, Hickory City Schools, and Newton Conover City Schools into one single unified district. So under that proposal, The new system would be called Kataba Valley School District, governed by a new board created during that transition period. The interim board would help guide planning consolidation efforts. If the plan is approved, Officials emphasize that this is not an immediate merger. Instead, the April twentieth vote, which would be today, would approve a framework plan that would still require additional approval from state election officials and be implemented gradually over time. But if it is fully approved, if it makes it through that gauntlet, the target date for completed consolidation would be July first of twenty twenty eight. That gives them a few years for planning and staffing and administrative restructuring now. Supporters say this proposal is designed to improve long term efficiency coordinate across the county school systems, but critics they say they're really concerned about local control, school identity and a unified district and how that would affect some of these individual smaller communities. So County commissioners are expected to take up this plan in a vote later today Monday, April twentieth, before it moves on to a further review by state education officials and turning to higher education and healthcare down in southeastern North Carolina UNCW. Unc Wilmington is seeking approval to establish a four year medical school program. The university says the proposal is aimed at addressing persistent doctor healthcare shortages across the state, particularly in North Carolina's rural and coastal areas. Supporters argue that expanding medical education in the region could help keep more physicians practicing right here in North Carolina after they graduate, and if approved, UNCW would join other UNC system schools with medical education and expanding the state's healthcare training pipeline. So that proposal will now go through the university system and a state. Approval process as well. Residents and visitors are being encouraged to follow up safety guidelines as the area focuses more on increasing healthcare access across the state. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life and art. Stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video started in nineteen ninety seven and Minhill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories, all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creative video dot com. Thanks for joining us. I'm Donna King. I'm from Carolina Journal filling in for Pete Calendar today on the Peak Calendar Show. A little breaking news this morning, North Carolina legislative leaders are moving to launch a new subcommittee under the Joint Legislative Commission on Government Operations. It's a mouthful, but what they're really going to be looking at is the state's prison system. A series of controversial early Innate releases that occurred during the Cooper administration after a COVID era legal settlement. All right, joining us now, giving us all the details inside look of what's happening down there at the state Legislature. Andrew Pomerantz, who covers the General Assembly for Carolina Journal, It's going to walk us through what this committee means, what it can actually do, why it's being formed right now. Good morning, Andrew. How are you? Good morning? Happy money, donna. Glad to see you. Just see it. It's a twelve thirty so I guess afternoon after noon. Well, good tell me about this committee. Why now, why are we focused on this today? Yeah? So this committee goes back to a court case back in twenty twenty one surrounding as the release of prisoners due to COVID nineteen it, you know, the Cooper administration and released more than forty two hundred criminals early after kind of settling this lawsuit with a c l U and the NC Double A or double A CP actually at the recommendation of a judge here in North Carolina who said that it was most likely unconstitutional to hold those prisoners during COVID due to the health risk. But that uh, that COVID presented and so the Cooper administration released uh these criminals early and up until this past year, we hadn't really known a lot about these forty two hundred individuals. This list was not available to the General Assembly until earlier this year. Actually is just within the last four months the General Assemblies has been able to look at this list, and this list has gained a lot of scrutiny. You know, as a former governor, Cooper runs for Sennett this time, there's been a lot of attension on his record of public safety, and this lawsuit has definitely kind of risen to the top of one of the concerns that Republicans have. Sure, this has been getting a lot of attention lately, particularly after the murder on the light rail in Charlotte, and folks asking questions because Brown's name was on that list and was released shortly before it came out, it looks like, and there's been a lot of questions, who else is on this? Why has this risen to the top of this legislative agenda. They've got a lot to cover this time. Is this just a public safety thing or do you think it's a fishing expedition? What are your thoughts on this. Yeah, I do think one's a public safety thing. I think, you know, we see a lot of focus recently on public safety from the General Assembly, especially after the murder on the Late Rail in Charlotte. This past year, we've seen a lot of work on involuntary commitment for the process to take in mentally impaired individuals into incarceration situation. So we've seen a lot of movement over the past few months in the committees concerning those issues as they relate to public safety. I also think, you know, this is a report that we've all been waiting for a long time to receive this list of individuals, and as the list has been studied and looked through, more questions have emerged. You know, we have individuals like you mentioned who were released looks like before this lawsuit has actually come to agreement with You've got individuals like that on this list. You the individuals who had parole sanctions that would never followed up on on this list, And so I think there's a lot of questions of remaining for Republicans about you know, who else was on this list and what maybe some of the long term negative impacts on public safety. This list has this is it really is frightening to think that there were four thousand people released early without falling filling their full service, serving their full sentence in prison. Do we know how this information was handled? Was this intentional to withhold it from the public or is that one of the questions that lawmakers really want to find out. I think that is definitely one of the questions lawmakers want to find out. I don't think there's a lot of clarity about how this settlement was reached, who actually reached it. I know one of the plaks of this new committee to me, determined kind of the role of Governor Josh Stein at the time attorney general, his role in reaching the settlement agreement with you know, these groups that have long time favored Democratic Democrats across the say North Carolina and then alter nationwide. And so I think, you know, as we look more and more into this, more questions kind of raised, and I think that's where the red flags and the needs of this committee comes from. Do you think this will blow back on current Governor Josh Stein. I mean, he was attorney general when they came up with this this settlement with a c l U and NAACP. Well, one, how do these these settlements shape policy? You know, it seems I don't know if it was collusive, what happened? And will do you think it'll impact the governor? I can't imagine he's very excited to see the statement released on Monday morning. You know, I do think there will be some pushback on both him and governor former Governor Cooper. And I think this is, you know, will bring some scrutiny both to the campaign trail and then also I think to the reputation of Governor Drostein as attorney general. You know, we've had I think there are many issues after he left office that the light has been shined on, and I think this could be the next one. Absolutely, we're gonna want to talk a little bit more about the legislative session kicking off here tomorrow. You are going to be one very busy guy over the next few months as you go into this. Though. We've seen some incumbent lawmakers lose their primaries this year, among them in Carla Cunningham here Mecklamour County, but. On both sides of the aisle. How unusual is that for them to lose their primaries and do you think it's really adjusting the political mood heading into the session. Absolutely. I mean, so we saw, you know, five Republican state or lawmakers across the state lose their primaries and additionally three Democrats, you know, and all three Democrats, I think it's important to note, were our Democrats who have voted its Republicans to overwrite Governor Veto's or on some pieces of legislation that may be more controversial. And I think, you know, this is a direct uh you know, flank against these lawmakers by maybe statewide Democrats and attempt to reunify their their caucus under one of train of thought. And so I think, you know, we saw the governor get involved in in all three of these races and endorsing the opponents of Carl Cunningham and showing Willingham and in District twenty three, and so I think, you know, this is a trend. I think this was a rebuke of those who were willing to break party line. And I think it's something that sets up a uh president going forward for legislator legislators that says, you know, hey, if you're gonna caucus with us, and we expect you're to vote with us a hundred percent of the time. But that said, between now and you know, January, those members are in place and ready for poise, perhaps possibly to override some veto Do you think that they've got, you know, little to lose? What do you think that does the ideology of ever writing those vetoes? Yeah? Absolutely, And I think we've already seen it with Carla Cunningham in particular, who's been very vocal in the week's lating up to session starting tomorrow about you know, some of her pushback on Democratic proposals that have we seen come out of subcommittees and you know, coming out in favorite things like the Levy limit amendments just because of I think, you know, too more aligned with common sense proposals. I do think we will see some some some sparsing from her and maybe telling willing him in a similar sense. I do expect them, though, to vote the majority of time with their caucus. You know, they're still identifying as Democrats, they've not switched party affiliation, but I do think they may be some of those votes that have been holding back some of those governors of right vetoes. Great, all right, well, thank you so much, Andrew. Great to talk to you. Andrew Pomerance from the Carolina Journal filling in for Pete Calendar today on the Pete Calendar Show. Glad you're listening. We've got a lot going on. If you're listening to this on your computer, on your phone, your car, you may be using a data center to get to us. North Carolina is rapidly becoming a hub for AI and data center infrastructure. We've seen a lot of investments from companies like Amazon and Meta Corning. A lot going on. You can find all the information about AI and data centers on Carolina Journal dot com and of course WBT dot com. But what all this is showing us is that there is a growing online movement to organize protests against new data center development. Does that indicate that there is a disconnect, perhaps between the demand for services and opposition to the infrastructure that makes them possible? Joining us now. Donald Bryson, CEO of the John Locke Foundation, Good afternoon, Donald, So glad to talk to you. Always happy to talk with you, Donnah, thanks for having me on. I appreciate the invite and it's always good to talk to this audience, the smartest audience in radio. It is it is, So let's talk about this. There's some irony here. You recently tweeted axt whatever posted that there is an irony in people organizing a no data center protest using the very platforms that depend on those data centers. What do you what do you tell me about that tension and why we need to talk about this? Well, people, you know, I think the bulk of this comes down to the issue of affordability, which I think we're going to hear about ad nauseum as we get further and further into this year's election cycle, because everybody wants to talk about that. But you know, electric power prices, power bills, electric bills, whatever you want to call them, they are part of the affordability conversation that we're having, not just in North Carolina but nationally, and power bills are going up, especially in states that are fast growing like North Carolina, and so people try to pick culprits for why that might be the case. And you know, data centers do take up large, large amounts of electricity, but we also like the convenience of what they provide. We want, you know, to store family photos on Facebook, or we want, you know, instant information or analysis from Chad GPT or cloud or rock or whatever you want to use, and we want to get the fastest news possible over x Slack, you know, formerly known as Twitter, all of those things, and it takes data centers to to do all things. And so I always find it very ironic that the big protests that people are organizing, you know, no data centers in my county, no data centers in my neighborhood, no data centers in North Carolina are being organized on social media platforms that run off of data centers themselves. And so it's clear that people are feeling some of that tension, or maybe they're not even understanding the iron are or what data centers do. They just don't like the inconvenience of it taking up space or making sound or whatever. But why like it or not? Data centers are going to be part of the future economy. Certainly the part of North Carolina's economy. I mean, we've seen some major AI infrastructure investment in North Carolina. Amazon put ten billion dollars into a project in Richmond County, metas Doing having a big supply chain partnership with Corning down East. What does that tell you about where our state is headed economically with kind of jobs or affect economic impact that could have. Oh well, you know, I think that there is always tension right sure about new technology, and AI just happens to be the newest technologies that people want to jump on board and they see what it can bring in terms of productivity to the economy, even their local economy, but they get concerned about what that might mean, you know, in terms of jobs or in terms of how it might disrupt the local economy. And you know, let's look back at automation and how it affected manufacturing in North Carolina. Now, we actually produce more manufacturing value in North Carolina per capita than we did when manufacturing textiles or furniture or whatever it was in its heyday, but we fewer people doing those jobs because automation changed it. Now we found scapegoats for that. We've blamed things like trade and NAFTA and all that, But if you look at the data that was already on the decline, you know, those manufacturing jobs are already on the decline before the Clinton administration passed NAFTA, simply because of automation. Technology changes the nature of jobs. One that's a good thing in the long term for an economy because it really democratizes what people are able to buy and sell in terms of goods and services across an economy. But that doesn't mean that it's not uncomfortable while it happens. And so that's sort of where we are going at AI. What's it going to change? Whose jobs are you know, is going to change or maybe even replace? And then what does the new economy look like? And it's that last question that I think makes people sort of scared. Sure, sure, well, I mean data centers do draw a lot of energy. There's a lot of pressure on the energy grid, as you mentioned, and that's what critics are pointing to. But how do you evaluate that argument? And you know, is there an answer down the road as we really explore this technology. I'm sorry Dond just for saying, how do I evaluate what argument? The argument that that AI and data centers is a strain on our power grid? Well, I mean it is, sure. I mean it. I wouldn't call it necessarily a strain, but it definitely is asking a lot of our power grid. And we've talked about that here at the John Locke Foundational Lot. You know, we recognize that, you know, the rapid load growth from economic expansion and new residents in a fast growing state like North Carolina, and then you know the electricity hungry data centers and large industrial projects. They all are drawing on the electrical infrastructure in North Carolina, which means that we need more gigga watts on the grid. That's just how it is. We had a report back in twenty twenty four called Lighting the Path and we warned that North Carolina risk hitting and energy supply wall without some major infrastructure builds and you know, getting some historical efficiency gains to provide some cushion. And so this push by you know, the Cooper administration and you know, the sort of the green progressives in the state to get rid of the you know what are these efficient coal power plants in North Carolina or replace them with inefficient solar that only oper grades at about twenty one percent of its name capacity or nameplate capacity, is going to really put us in a bind. But you know, we've had further analysis and done further research specifically on data centers, and we highlighted that as a key demand driver for raising the reliability and costs concerning all rate players. We think that we should have what's called consumer regulated electricity in North Carolina, which would let data centers, companies that build data centers like Meta or Google something like that, to build, bring or buy their own power. They can provide their own nuclear deals, or their own solar or their own natural gas turbines or whatever makes them all good arrangements. And that would shield households, you know, the household rate payer, and the industrial rate payer, and the commercial rate payer from the costs of you know, the bureaucracy from the Stay Utilities Commission. Sure absolutely, Donald Bryce and CEO of the John Locke Foundation, lots to think about. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Donna Kington from Carolina Journal filling in for Pete Calendar today on the Peak Calendar Show. We'd love to hear from you if you want to give us a call seven oh four five seven oh one zero seven nine. Of course you in text us at that number two seven oh four five seven oh one seven nine. Wbt's text line is driven by Liberty Buick GMC. We've got a lot going on this week, big news coming out of Raleigh. We've got your state lawmakers headed back for the spring short session in Raleigh starting tomorrow on Tuesday, so they all head back to Raleigh for the short session, and they've got a lot on their plate, illuoming Medicaid funding cliff, and a continued divide even within Republican leadership over taxes and spending priorities. The biggest question really isn't just what they'll do, it's whether they'll stay true to the policies that have driven North Carolina's economic growth over the last decade. Lower taxes, discipline spending, and accountable government. We're gonna be watching that really closely because there is some split on whether we should keep lowering taxes here in North Carolina. You got to remember, if you've been around a while, back in you know, recession time seven two thousand and seven, two thousand and six, we were looking at seven percent and higher tax rates, furlowing teachers. We had a real economic crisis in North Carolina state government in the early two thousands, and it's something that we have recovered from over the last decade with a real strategy of lower taxes and more focus on development and controlled spending and saving for a rainy day. All of those things. Will they have the. Tendency, will they have the votes to. Keep that going as a move forward because they there's been some dissension in the North Carolina House even among Republicans, who say, we need to slow the triggers, we need to stop cutting taxes so much. We might have an economic problem because there's been some revenue forecasts who, by the way, which are notoriously incorrect, but they were concerned that the revenue forecast for North Carolina might indicate that we would put ourselves in the red and pretty soon. But on the Senate side, Republican leadership has said, look, this is a proven strategy. It got us where we are. We can't stop it now. And so you know, this is something that we've been talking a lot about at Carolina Journal, certainly on WBT. You can see more news on this on WBT dot com and Carolina Journal dot com if you're looking for more information. So what are they going to be doing when they get back in to Raleigh and get back into that short legislative session. They're coming in without a finalized budget and that has a lot to do with that tax disagreement. What do we do about lowering taxes? Do we continue down this path, But we don't have a final budget, and I'm hearing that they could be looking at many budgets, that they could be looking at funding individual sections. But there's a lot of organizations from small nonprofits to get grants, to teachers and folks who just are having trouble planning for the future without a state budget. Here in North Carolina, we don't have shutdowns if we don't have a budget. We have a state law that says, okay, if there is no new budget, the old one continues in effect until we have a new one, and so that has prevented shutdowns. But it's also meant that lawmakers can disagree and kick the can down the road a bit without really having some of those serious policy debates. But a lot of this Republican a lot of this disagreement is within the Republican majority on how to balance continued tax relief with long term fiscal stability. At the end of the day, if they would just agree to spend more. As a taxpayer, I'd like to see that if they'd agree to spend more, we would not really have much of that debate. So among those issues that they're talking about here is a Medicaid funding and accountability. Okay, great, Yeah, so we've got Michael here talking calling in. Thanks for calling in. I want to talk about these power of data centers. Tell me what you think about this, you know, I think that the. History of North Carolina is interesting with regards to the power generation overall. I mean, if you think about during World War Two, Alcola actually generated their own power, and I mean there's been some controversy as to the fallout of a generation of that power, plus just the fallout of manufacturing of aluminium during that time frame. This is why a lot of the lakes here in the Charlotte area they have signs on saying they you can only eat one or two of the fish. Do do that fallout? I really think that. I think we think that if we're going to more have these data centers to to to generate their own it's kind of whether it's nuclear or natural gas or turbine. I mean, first of all, how would the how would the bonds hold them accountable if something were to happen. I mean in this day and age infrastructure nowadays are some of it is under federal controls Like you have federal you federalize certain right of ways and certain easements for for access. And now that if these data centers are going to have that, are we gonna betterize federalize the power generation from from these data centers to help protect them from cyber attacks from actual physical attacks. About three years ago, there was somebody was shooting and I'm not sure what type of caliber it was. I remember, yeah, down Thereiners. Yeah, it's shut down all three quarters of Pineers. I stayed at a hotel and there was people down, not down kind of that way. It was actually like two hours from Pineers. But I mean, you know, you can only say, what are you gonnafford to stay here or there? But and then there's that was on the FBI list, And I haven't heard anybody who's actually been charged or convicted of that, So I mean, I would I would say that if we're going to try to even go down this route, then we really need to take a look at some studies as to what what what was some of the fallout we have and we have history here in North Carolina of fallout of copies like Alcola generating. Their own How sure, sure tell me what you think? Yeah, go ahead, Michael, tell me what you think. So we did a poll on this on Carolina Journal and Forfeit. About seventy eight percent of North Carolinian said that new data centers new data center facilities should have to provide for their own energy, whether that is, you know, pay for it themselves, bring it in, contract it out, whatever it is. Sixty percent strongly felt the data center should Where where do you fall on that? I think that the survey question isn't doesn't have enough information there in order to make a logical decision. Sure, I'm not necessarily concerned whether they generate their own power or whether they buy off the grid. I'm more concerned with, well, how is it going to be protected? How is this how is the fallout going to be after something new? Would it come belong? And the data centers are no longer needed? Right if we're going nuclear, everybody knows that you have to store the nuclear waste on site, right. Yeah? These are big questions. Yeah, absolutely, You're just. A lot of big questions about how security, how how how they're are and is they are they going to compete with the other other areas? Right for generation? If they're going to generate more, they're planning on generating more to put into the grid. There's a lot of a lot of questions, a lot of questions here about that. And obviously you're dealing with bond holders, you're dealing with padge funds, and all sorts of entities that may have some grandiose ideas. But yeah, in all just human. We're all just trying to do the best information. Well, we got to to to try to generate this this new new generating new technology. The third my industry. I'm in. I love it, I love I love you know as much pipe as possible. Thanks so much, Michael, I appreciate you calling in. It's good to talk to you. These are all issues that we're going to be talking a lot about with new technology. 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 thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.