LIVE: Attorney General Blanche and Louisiana Gov. Landry Announce Model Cities Initiative Winner

All right. Good afternoon, everybody. So I am thrilled to be in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to announce the designation of East Baton Rouge as a model city by the United States Department of Justice. This program is just one of many steps the Trump administration has taken to support our law enforcement officers and restore the rule of law in America's neighborhoods, Cities and towns. Today I am pleased to announce that the Department of Justice is investing nearly $64 million through the Model Cities Initiative to help the people of East Baton Rouge Parish reduce violent crime while also making this great city safer and stronger. This figure represents the commitment that we are ready to announce today and we are And we are continuing to work with the parish and law enforcement officials, many of whom are on this stage behind me to allocate additional funds toward the parish's important work. These funds will be distributed to the parish over the next three years, with the next two months focused on finalizing operational plans and law enforcement surges beginning in the first weeks of 2027. I want to recognize the people standing behind me for their tireless work that got us here today, including Governor Jeff Landry, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrell, East Baton Rouge Mayor President Sid Edwards, and I also want to recognize your great Senators, Senator Cassidy, who's here today, and Senator Kennedy, who represent, both of them represent you guys so well in Washington, D.C. I also want to acknowledge Kelly LaDuff. Now, he's worked tirelessly on the grants and application process that led to Baton Rouge being awarded what it's being awarded today. So, thank you, Kelly, for your work in getting us here today. Just a little bit of background. In June of this year, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the Model Cities Initiative. This is a novel grant program that would direct nearly $300 million in federal funding to transform public safety in America's cities. Our announcement drew interest from cities across the country. It led to a rigorous and competitive selection process. 47 municipalities applied for funding. Twenty-one were semi-finalists, and eleven actually interviewed and presented to Department of Justice senior officials about their proposals for their cities. Four were ultimately selected, including East Baton Rouge Parish. Now, the Department of Justice selected these model cities because of their compelling, Whole-of-government vision. For targeting violent crime and enhancing public safety across jurisdictional and ideological lines and because of our belief in their ability to deliver results and follow through on that vision. Here in Baton Rouge, we saw a parish and a city that is confronting a severe and persistent violent crime problem and it demands sustained investment of law enforcement. Sadly, and I was talking with the governor about this a few minutes ago, Over two decades, the homicide rate in Baton Rouge has averaged roughly three times that of large U.S. cities. From 2021 through 2025 in the city of Baton Rouge. Police responded to, listen to this, over 1,300 non-fatal shootings, over 12,000 shots fired calls, and over 1,200 armed robberies. In that same period, aggravated assaults increased by a staggering 320%. And we're here today to address this problem, to tell the moms and children here in Baton Rouge and across the parish that we're here to help. And to tell those involved. In criminal activities that this sort of violent behavior will not be tolerated in East Baton Rouge Parish. Now, the funding announced today, and you'll hear more about this in a moment, will, among other initiatives, expand patrol and investigative capacity, increase personnel for new specialized prosecution units, upgrade a violent crime unit, enhance the police department's technology and real-time crime-fighting capabilities. In other words, more law enforcement officers will be on the beat here in Baton Rouge, and they'll be working with better equipment, better technology, and better information. We're investing in prosecution capacity as well, so that criminals are held accountable and the great people of Baton Rouge can feel safe on their streets. Just as the face of crime has changed dramatically since our surge of resources in Washington, D.C., In Memphis, Tennessee, the lessons that we learned there will apply to these model cities. We are committing resources to help Baton Rouge stop crime across the city, and especially in the 10 hotspots where 46% of violent and drug-related crime occurs. Our hope is that, as we continue to refine this model of crime reduction in our model cities, we can roll out these strategies and resources to even more cities across the United States Today's announcement is the culmination of a lot of hard work by many people, including the people standing behind me, and I want to commend them for their dedication to the people of Baton Rouge and Louisiana. Even though our work here in Baton Rouge through the Model Cities Initiative is just beginning, I have every confidence that together we will make this community safer, stronger, and more prosperous for generations of Louisianans to come. And with that, I will hand it over to their number one champion and advocate, Governor Landry. Thank you. Thank you, Todd. I can't tell you how much it means to have the Attorney General here today. I certainly want to thank the President as well. And, of course, I want to recognize Attorney General Woodard, who's here today. Of course, our Attorney General, Liz Muro. Mayor President Sid Edwards and all of the other law enforcement partners that are here today. It is important to reflect on some statistics, and I think Todd actually touched on them. Over the last 10 years in East Baton Rouge Parish, over 1,100 lives have been lost to gun violence. These were neighbors. Sons, daughters, mothers, fathers. And grandchildren, they have faces and they have all left behind loved ones. What's interesting, if you go through those statistics, only 10 percent of those victims were white. That means that over 900 of those victims came from inside the black community here in East Baton Rouge Parish. 90% of those victims died. From 2016 to 2024, when I took office and long before as Attorney General, I made a clear promise to the people of Louisiana that public safety was going to come first and that crime victims were no longer going to be an afterthought. From day one as governor working with then our new Attorney General, we delivered on promises by truly reforming a criminal justice system that had lost its balance. Earlier this year, because of the federal partnership that we have been able to put together, we launched Operation Red Stick, a great example of how local, state, and federal partners can come together, and it was exactly the kind of coordination and action that I had longed for as Attorney General and that we have institutionalized as I became Governor. The results of that operation. It meant that we had 185 felons were arrested, 100 fugitives were picked up, 45 weapons were seized, 11 of those were stolen, 12 stolen vehicles were recovered. And behind every one of those numbers is a family that is safer today and a victim who can finally receive. The priority that they deserve in their cases. And just think about the number of lives that were saved. And it's because of the work of the federal government that we were able to put on that operation. This year, because of the work of these men and women and the commitment of the president and his team, just like Attorney General Blanchard's here, East Baton Rouge's homicide rates are down to some of the lowest it's ever been. That doesn't happen by chance. It happens because of work. This type of partnership is why East Baton Rouge was selected from nearly 50 cities across the country. Baton Rouge earned this because the people here did not quit working, did not quit. They chose not to work in silos. They chose to work together. And they decided to put politics aside. And make sure that the safety of the community here was prioritized. Our officers, prosecutors, local leaders, and community groups all pulled together to bring us here today. And it was with one goal. Take violent criminals off of the streets here in Baton Rouge. Now, however, not every city in Louisiana made that choice. The city of New Orleans made an intentional decision not to apply. They chose instead to play politics with safety. But I want you to know, the leaders here in Baton Rouge, that was not the choice they made. They decided to put the citizens of this parish first. People in this state should take notice. The Model Cities initiative was developed by the president and his team. And it means that more prosecutors and more investigators, we can bring them to bear so that those cases can be put together and criminals are taken off of our street. It means one crime center where every agency sees the same information so that law enforcement can move faster. It means better training and technology for our officers. It means standing. I want to say thank you to all of you who have been with us this past year, and I want to say thank you to all of you who have been with us this past year, and I want to say thank you to all of you who have been with us this past year, and I want to say thank you to all of you who have been with us this past year, and I want to say thank you to all of you who have been with us this past year, and I want to say thank you to all of you who have been with us this past year, and I want to say thank you to all of you who have been with us this past year, and I want to say thank you to all of you who have been with us this past year, and I want to say thank you to all of you who have been with us this past year, and I want to say thank you to all of you who have been with Sentencing, ending parole for new violent offenders, treating 17-year-olds as adults, and putting victims' voice back at the center of the system. Think how many lives we are going to save. We told the people of Louisiana that we would take on violent crime, and I can promise you we've been able to work on that because of the partnership with the federal government. As governor, as I said, we passed reforms that reversed the policies of the criminal justice experiment back in 2017. I think that's important to understand where we were. This city was listed as one of the most violent cities in America. But because of what Todd and him, because of what the Attorney General is announcing today, it no longer is one of those violent cities. It is going to be one of the safest cities in America. And I think that that is important. It's not so much what we've done in the past. It's our ability to keep criminals off the streets so that our communities are safe. And like the Attorney General mentioned, every neighborhood... in a city deserve safety. It does not matter the size of your pocketbook. It does not matter where you come from. It does not matter the level of education or how hard you work. It does not matter. You deserve, every Louisianian deserves to be safe in their neighborhood. So again, I want to thank the president for his leadership. I want to thank the attorney general. For really taking the time to understand the needs of what East Baton Rouge Parish put forth. And I thank him for giving this city an opportunity to show the rest of America how we can live in safety. Thank you so very much. The governor is supposed to introduce me. I should be saying thank you, governor. But hey, governor, you've got to introduce me, brother. I told Todd the weather's always like this. He goes, really? I said, no, not really. What a gorgeous day. And it's a gorgeous day, not just because it's a beautiful climate, it's a gorgeous day because a lot of effort is being rewarded in this parish, in this city, that is going to benefit our community. I see Judge Johnson up here shaking his head yes violently. That's what this is about. And Attorney General, I too thank you and I thank the President for putting this plan together. You came into office saying that you wanted our community to be safer and this is a manifestation. Thank you for that. You know, if last night, let's face it, everybody's talking about last night. Last night was about accountability. The people of the United States want accountability. They want to see results. They want to see their life better as a result of the people whom they elect. I say this is accountability. Taking our federal tax dollars, bringing it back to a particular city, which has statistics that were just listed. But you know, the best thing about listing this, the tragic thing is that those statistics are what they are. The wonderful thing is, when we have an anniversary of this one, two, and three years from now, we will speak about there was an inflection point. We had this crime, and now we don't. We had this rate of murders, now we don't. We have streets that used to not be able to be walked upon at night, and now there's kids playing ball at night when the day is as beautiful and the evening as pretty as it will be tonight. That's our goal. And that's the goal of this. It doesn't happen accidentally. We mentioned how the president, the attorney general, had the vision to come up with a plan. I remember first speaking about this with the attorney general. This is what Baton Rouge should do. And the mayor, Hiller Moore, law enforcement, combining together, and the mayors, as I ran into mayors on my way in, who came together to come up with a proposal that beat out everybody across the nation. Amen. Amen. Amen. Let's give an applause to our local leaders. It wouldn't have happened without the president. It would not have happened without them. I'm particularly privileged as this phase of my public life draws to a close to have had a role in this. Working with the federal officials, working with our local officials to make sure that it could happen. But I am a federal official. So it's happening not just for Baton Rouge. As the governor pointed out, it's also happening for our state. It's going to happen for the nation. We are a model. If Baton Rouge can do it, others can do it. And that's the goal of being a model. So it's a wonderful way. It's a wonderful way to come up here right now and to be able to speak to you on that. So lastly, you're all influencers. You all have the ability to go out and tell people that there's another day in our city, another day in our state, and another day in our country. Do that. Don't bury the good news. Let others know. There's an inflection point. That inflection point has come and life will be better after that. Thank you very much. And I will remember to do my job. I'm now going to call up Attorney General Liz Murrell. We'll see you tomorrow. Thank you. I want to thank President Trump for being willing to invest in public safety in our communities. I want to thank Attorney General Blanche and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward for choosing Baton Rouge. This is very important to us, and we appreciate not just that you chose Baton Rouge, but that you came to Baton Rouge, that you are here with us. When I got elected, I pledged to work with the sheriffs and work with the district attorneys to do everything that I could to address all of the public safety needs in our communities. And as a statewide attorney general, I supplement and amplify their work. I'm here to support them. I'm here to help them find ways to solve the problems, and they have The predominant responsibility and the boots on the ground both in addressing crime, prosecuting crime, and holding people accountable for the crimes that are committed in our community. But I've been in this community. I've lived here since I was 17 years old when I came to LSU. That's been a number of years now. And I can tell you that, you know, our job is never done. We have to work together. We have to work to collaborate. I want to thank everybody here. I see legislators. I see judges. I see council members. I see everybody that has worked and committed to being a stakeholder and committed to Baton Rouge and making Baton Rouge better. Our job is not done. Last week we lost a 13-year-old child. And that loss, that Maddie Harris, who lost her life last week, was shot, in the last two years, I looked this up coming here, we've lost two eight-year-olds, a 12-year-old, and two three-year-olds. That is very, that's sobering data to layer on top of the numbers that we've already heard. We are losing children in our community to gang violence that they aren't even a part of. And so we have a lot of work to do in this community. This is going to help us achieve our goals and make it a safer place. We've made that commitment and we have brought crime statistics down in New Orleans. We're going to make, we've already made that same commitment here, but we are always glad to have our partners join us in trying to find new and better ways to address public safety in this community. So I thank everybody here for being part of that fight and helping us and all of you who are here and took the time to come here for this press conference to participate in making this a safer, better community for everyone. And I have the honor of introducing Sid Edwards, who did take the lead in fighting for this money. And I'm glad that I was able to play just a small part in helping you get it, if I did. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good afternoon. Now, Attorney General, we like winning here in Baton Rouge, asked the governor. We like to win. And when we talk about the team, certainly you have a team standing up here with all of us. But all these people are all part of the team. I hate to start calling, you know, organizations out or groups, but our council is here supporting us, our mayors from the other municipalities, several of our legislatures. God bless y'all for being here. You know, this is huge. Ah, ah. I'm going to try not to be so much animated. The people here know that I usually don't read, but if I'm scared I'm going to miss something, I have to read today. So I apologize. Certainly, this is one. of the most historic and significant public safety investments in Baton Rouge's history. From day one we have made public safety our top priority. In my first year in office we reduced crime by 19 percent and this year we've continued to build on that progress bringing crime down by 20 percent overall since taking office. Baton Rouge was selected as one of the best in the U.S. There was a competitive process, as you've heard, nearly 50 cities competed, only four were selected. Model City means Baton Rouge has already shown results and has demonstrated more results to come. Local focus for us starting today, we put this plan together for East Baton Rouge Parish. We pursued this investment. This is a plan of Baton Rouge, by Baton Rouge, and for Baton Rouge. This plan targets repeat offenders through increases in law enforcement personnel, technology and prosecution. It also includes intervention and prevention strategies along with community outreach. Local agencies will drive this plan with state and federal support. Operational planning starts today, ready for implementation in early January. This is transformational change. Government grants are often seen as giveaways. This is not a giveaway, it's an investment. The DOJ is investing in Baton Rouge because of the returns we've already shown on our investments in public safety. We plan a ten-fold return on investment. This three-year grant will yield 30 years of transformational change for Baton Rouge. I have a few acknowledgements, and I know several up here have already acknowledged several people. But Kelly LaDuff, I have to call your name again. It's funny, his head of hair don't look like mine from all the bothering and fussing and grappling with him that we did to get this thing going. You did a remarkable job, and I'll be forever grateful, as well as the entire East Baton Rouge Parish. I want to thank U.S. Senators John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy. Our U.S. Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, U.S. Majority Leader, Steve Scalise, U.S. Senator-elect, Julia Letlow, U.S. Attorney, Kurt Wall, Governor Jeff Landry, Attorney General, Liz Murrell, Secretary Gary Westcott. Is the colonel up here, Besson? Okay, thank you. Locally, I got to mention my Director of Public Safety, Jeff LaDuff. Who had to hear all my moaning, too. Chris Zonka and your whole team at just a remarkable job. Niles, with all y'all did working on this. Our District Attorney, Hiller Moore. Our Sheriff, Sid Gautreaux. Our BRPD Chief, T.J. Morse. And all the organizations that worked so hard to make this happen. I'm going to tell you, I am as excited as I can be. And I'm looking forward to getting to work. God bless you and thank you. Thank you, Senator Cassidy, for me to remind me to introduce. You see, this guy is coming with something in hand. I got to introduce him. Assistant Attorney General, Mr. Werber. Come on up. Thank you, sir. Good afternoon, everybody. It's an immense honor to be among Baton Rouge's best today. And a huge congratulations to East Baton Rouge Parish. It's rare in government that we do things quickly. And yet, President Trump came to office with a simple ask, can we make America safe again? We've done that in a number of respects. But one of the things we learned pretty quickly is that public safety is not controversial. You know, I appreciate, Senator, you pointing out that the people want accountability. I agree. And I'm pretty confident that nobody voted yesterday asking to be less safe in their Nobody voted yesterday for one more child. General, my staff is panicking right now because none of this is written on this paper. But you said something that resonates with me profoundly. You see, I have four young children, 11, 9, 7, and my princess just turned 4. And yet, as the third highest-ranking official at the Department of Justice, I've come to the sobering realization that there is very little that I personally can do to keep them safe. Why? Because the people who keep my children safe are standing behind me. They are the local law enforcers throughout our communities, in Baton Rouge and across this country. They're not political. They want less children dying. That is not a controversial statement. And so in my capacity as the Associate Attorney General overseeing all of the grant-making components, I've endeavored with a tremendous staff to find out how we can put money in the streets, the communities, the towns, the cities, where it needs to be. Because law enforcement... And public safety is not controversial. And what we realized is that your local law enforcement wants to partner with us. They want to work with us. You know best how we can serve your communities. It made no sense to be sitting in our ivory tower back in Washington, D.C., selecting which individual organizations to receive money. Why not get the input of the local leaders in our communities across the country? And that's what today is about. Today is about a lasting partnership with communities across the country, with Baton Rouge, and it is why it is my honor with the Attorney General of the United States to present to Mayor President Edwards a check. On behalf of President Donald Trump, Attorney General Blanch, and all of your federal leaders, Mayor President, please accept this check. Denise Marcel, that's some big numbers on that check. Do you see what I'm saying? God bless you all. This is a blessing for our community and our entire parish. And I'll be, I'm very grateful, and I promise you, East Baton Rouge Parish is not going to let y'all down. We're going to be the model of the model. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, thanks, everybody. Do we have a couple questions? You. Just speak loudly if you can. It's a beautiful room, but it's old. I got you. Peter Robinson from WAFB. In the past week, there have been some public concerns around the immigration enforcement aspect behind this initiative. If you all can clarify what exactly that requirement will be and how exactly it will be followed through here in Baton Rouge. Well, so I'm not sure what you're referring to specifically about concerns raised. Every city that applied, every municipality that applied for to be part of the model city had to agree and commit to working together. And so this has nothing to do with I don't know whether the people behind me are Republicans or Democrats, all of them. I have no idea. I don't know, as I stand here today, whether your mayor is a Democrat. I don't know. So this has nothing to do with whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, but it does have to do with a commitment from local leaders, whether it's the legislature, whether it's judges, whether it's the mayors, whether it's the sheriffs, that we will work together to bring violent crime down. And yes, a part of that. by definition includes immigration of some sort. So I don't, and so yes, there has to be a commitment from everybody that we don't, we're not, that the politics around safety, the politics around making our communities safe needs to go to either side if you want to participate in this. And the governor made reference to this. There are many cities in this country that chose not to participate. That's something they're going to be held accountable for their citizens, the work that lived there. Baton Rouge made a different choice. And so I don't, this is a phenomenal opportunity for every single citizen in Baton Rouge, because it is a commitment that's going to last three years, but then beyond that, in every area of law enforcement. So technology, it'll allow you to hire more personnel to get more cops on the street, making sure the equipment is there to keep law enforcement safe, making sure the prosecutors are there to put bad guys in jail. And so trying to make this about... Immigration is missing the point, but yes, it's about a commitment. Senator General, Andrew Greenstein with Louisiana Radio Network. Go ahead, Mark. Certainly, fighting crime is certainly a noble thing, and you certainly talk a great game, but how do you reconcile that with the fact that on his first day back in office, President Trump pardoned 1,500 people who rioted at the Capitol on January 6th, and almost 100 of those people subsequently committed crimes, including weapons violations, sexual assault, including sexual assault of children. Other violent crimes and things like that. Letting people out of federal prison who have subsequently committed all these crimes. So isn't that a part of public safety as well? So the power, I've talked about this ad nauseum, but I'm happy to say it again. The power to pardon is not something that's given to anybody, either me or anybody behind me. Our Constitution gives it to the President of the United States. And it didn't give it to President Trump. It gave it to every single president. And so every president in history, including President Biden on his last few days in office, pardoned or commuted thousands of criminals, including violent criminals. And that is a power that is reserved in full. To the President of the United States, and when he chooses to exercise it in the manner that he chooses to do so, the Constitution doesn't, doesn't limit that. And so, and I do think, I do think it's absolutely consistent to say we want to make America safe again, and that we're going to bring violent crime down, especially in places like It's like Baton Rouge. And still allow the president to exercise his authority under the United States Constitution. There's nothing inconsistent with those ideas. So while we're out every day, and Senator Cassidy made reference to this, and it's worth saying again, it matters when you see violent crime rates, murder rates, sexual assaults, burglaries going from this level to this level. Does that mean we've won? No, but does that mean we're bringing crime down, bringing violent crime down? It is absolutely what it means we're going to do. We're not going to stop doing it. And so investing in cities like Baton Rouge that have made a commitment to partner with us is completely consistent with this administration's message. Next question. Go ahead. The general said... That you're, in the next two months, you're going to be planning law enforcement surges in your speech. Can you clarify what exactly that is and what that entails? Well, so, yes. So, when we talk about surges, what we're talking about is... An investment and a commitment, like we've been talking about with the law enforcement folks behind me, working with federal agents, I'm not talking about the surges that we've seen in D.C. or Memphis as far as numbers are concerned from the federal side, but certainly an effort to continue down the path that's already started two years ago, three years ago here to bring the violent crime rates down, but now you're having it with the understanding you're going to get a tremendous amount of funding to back that effort up. There's accountability in the Model Cities Initiative. Accountability on us. To make sure that we provide the funds and make sure that we provide the federal law enforcement, but also accountability on Baton Rouge to make sure that we're continuing to bring violent crime down, that we're actually coming through on the commitments that are made with law enforcement. That necessarily includes efforts along the way at surges or at focusing on one of the 10 most violent parts of the city with the highest crime rates and really going in there. That can make a difference. By the way, clearing out warrants. Makes your community safer, right? So there's however many men and women that are wanted that there's warrants for their arrest. Many of them are wanted for violent crime. Many of them need to go through the process, whether it's to be put in prison or at least to get back in front of that judge and have their case heard. That is what we're talking about doing when we talk about surges. Go ahead. Go ahead, yeah. You mean you're only going to deploy federal troops, you know, that is asked for by... No, I didn't say only at all. There's no only ever going to be used. I'm saying that it's a... There is groupthink. I am not the smart person about solving crime in Baton Rouge. The smart people are here behind me and our U.S. attorney and the federal law enforcement that know where they need to focus on. So the model city does not limit you and say you can only do this or only do that. To the contrary, it's actually the whole goal of it is letting everybody work together in the city that's been given the funding to address it. Say it again, I can't hear you. Can you talk about which offices and departments specifically will receive funding and how the process will play out about deciding who gets what? No, I'm not. I'm not prepared to talk about the actual specifics of how that's happening. So there's a process in place over the next couple weeks and month to figure out exactly where the money exactly goes. And it's not just our process. It's not just the DOJ's process. It's also working with the mayor, working with law enforcement to see where it needs to go and when. Some of the investments we're making in technology, for example, that money may be needed a little bit Some of the investments we're making in personnel and equipment may be needed right away. So that's not something that we're announcing today. I'll take one more question. You kind of talked about, I'm sorry, Joe Collins, WBOZ, you kind of talked about how some of the funding would be used to enhance the police department's technology. What would that look like? Would that be like drones or security cameras? You kind of have an idea of what that would look like. Yes, potentially, but it's really, it depends. And so there's basic things like technology, like getting fingerprint machines that are up to, that are with today's technology, right? Right, so that's a very expensive problem. product that will change a local precinct. So, and I'm not saying that's what we're spending money on here, but there's that type of technology that is just buying something that other law enforcement agencies have that is very expensive. There's computer technology to make sure that the information flow between Baton Rouge law enforcement, the rest of Louisiana. The rest of the country and federal is actually working in a way it's supposed to work, which is, again, expensive. And it's not something that, it's a one-time hit startup charge, which is exactly what the Model Cities Initiative, in part, is supposed to address. But yes, things like drone technology, we are investing $64 million over three years into this city to make it safer. And so when you say, what are we going to get? And I'm not bothered by the question. It's a great question. What are we going to spend the money on? Exactly. What could we spend the money on? That's exactly what we should be talking about. What do we need so that in three years, five years, seven years, nine years, Baton Rouge is the safest city in this country? That's when we're getting this return on the investment that we've been talking about. And so I'm not standing up here saying you will only spend it on A, B, or C. To the contrary, we're going to spend it on anything that we can consistent with the commitment that we've made, that the Department of Justice and the federal government and President Trump has made with this city to transform it and let it continue on its path of becoming a safer city while the crime rates go down. All right. I want to thank everybody for coming today. I really appreciate everybody being here and for everybody behind me. Thank you guys very much. I appreciate it. They should have gotten you up there. What are you going to spend your money on, man? I got a laundry list.