GOP Redistricting Slows in Some States, Breaking News

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]In today's show, what states will and will not be trying out the new redistricting trend ahead of the 2026 midterm elections? What is the focus of Pope Leo's first encyclical? And which states are the most and least expensive for a comfortable retirement? Those are good stories, but what about this? A CIA whistleblower says the agency has been holding back information on the JFK assassination, the MK Ultra program, and the true origin of COVID 19. What? Yes.

[00:00:32]All the details on those stories coming up, plus so much more. But first, here is today's trivia question. And it feels entirely made up. It's not. It's real.

[00:00:42]Maybe you know the answer. Here it is.

[00:00:44]Which US state has an island inhabited by monkeys? Did you get that? Which US state has an island inhabited by monkeys? No, it's not science fiction or a really cool children's book. This is a real place and we'll tell you the answer at the end of the show. It's Friday, May 15, 2026. Are you ready for this? This is the Flyover podcast.

[00:01:08]Welcome to the Flyover Podcast. A Brown, your regular weekday host, is off today.

[00:01:13]I'm Christopher Lion, one of the editors here at the Flyover, where our crack team of writers, editors, proofreaders, and spring feverers spends all day, every day, doing what we love, scouring the news from top to bottom, so you can spend just 15 minutes finding out what really matters and then get on with your day. So, let's get started. Here are your top stories.

[00:01:34]GOP governors and legislators in three states pulled back from aggressive map drawing efforts this week, giving Democrats some relief in the 2026 redistricting wars. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves delayed his pledge to redraw congressional maps, dealing a blow to President Trump's midterm strategy in a state where Republicans had hoped to flip an additional seat. Georgia Governor Bryant Kemp called a special session for June 17 that would allow the legislature to redraw the state's congressional map, but he pushed any new maps to 2028 because early voting had already started, effectively taking the state off the board for next year. In South Carolina, Governor Henry McMaster also called the legislature into session today to try to approve a new map after several Republicans joined Democrats in blocking an extension of the regular session. Next, Pope Leo I 14th is expected to sign his first encyclical as soon as today, framing AI as the defining moral challenge of a new industrial revolution titled Magnifica Humanitas or Magnificent Humanity. The document is intended to place human dignity, labor rights, and ethics at the center of the global AI race. The signing falls on the anniversary of Riome Novarum Pope Leo I 13th's 1891 encyclical on industrial era worker exploitation. Pope Leo I 14th chose the name of his encyclical to signal that AI marks a similar turning point. Speaking at a Rome university on Thursday, he condemned AI directed warfare as a spiral of annihilation and called for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East.

[00:03:14]The Catholic Church has 1.4 4 billion members. Finally, Hawaii topped a new list of the most expensive states for a comfortable retirement at $156,610 a year, more than four times the cost in the least expensive state, West Virginia. 13 states require at least $100,000 in annual spending, including California at $121,879.

[00:03:40]Massachusetts at $111,45, Washington, New Jersey, and Colorado.

[00:03:47]New York, and Connecticut also made the cut. The least expensive states for a comfortable retirement are clustered in the South. After West Virginia at $33,223, the most affordable were Mississippi at $35,30, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, where lower housing costs drove the gap.

[00:04:06]Popular retirement spots fell in the middle. Florida came in at $63,445, and Texas at $51,355 thanks to no state income tax. The figures factor in the average social security check, which is now $2,79 per month.

[00:04:27]Moving to today's top political headlines, Chinese President Xi Jingping warned President Trump during their sum in China that mishandling Taiwan would put the US China relationship in quote jeopardy. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen rejected reports that Alligator Alcatraz in Florida is closing, saying the department has no shutdown plan despite the detention facilities operating costs approaching 1 billion. The Senate voted unanimously to advance a resolution suspending senators pay during government shutdowns in an effort to make shutdowns more expensive for lawmakers. and Miami residents filed a federal lawsuit over Florida's donation of a $300 million parcel for Trump's presidential library, calling it a violation of the Constitution's emaluments clause.

[00:05:19]And now, here are your podcast extras.

[00:05:21]These stories are available here, but not in today's flyover email, so they are just for you right now. And these stories are doozies. First, a CIA whistleblower publicly accused the agency on Wednesday of taking 40 boxes of files on the JFK assassination and the MK Ultra mind control program that were being processed for declassification by the team of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

[00:05:50]Special operations officer James Erdman III made the claim during a Senate hearing on the origins of CO 19. He also alleged that the CIA illegally monitored the computers and phones of staff working on Gabbard's Director's Initiatives Group. For context, MK Ultra ran from 1953 through 1973 and tested drugs and psychological techniques on both willing and unwilling subjects. It was exposed in 1975 by the Senate's Church Committee, though the CIA had already destroyed thousands of files.

[00:06:24]President Trump separately ordered the declassification of JFK assassination records earlier in his term and the government has since released more than 80,000 pages. Florida Republican Representative Anna Pina Luna posted that the agency has 24 hours to return the documents or she will move to subpoena. She later clarified that the CIA CIA did not raid Gabbard's office, but that they took documents over which the office of the director of national intelligence had jurisdiction. Next, that CIA whistleblower, the one at the center of the JFK and MK Ultra files revelations, also delivered explosive testimony about the origins of COVID 19 at the same Senate hearing on Wednesday.

[00:07:08]James Erdman III, a two- decade CIA veteran, told the Homeland Security Panel that CIA scientific analysts concluded multiple times between 2021 and 2023 that a lab leak was the most likely origin of the pandemic, but those findings never made the official intelligence report and Congress was not told. Erdman testified under subpoena from committee chairman Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who said the outgoing Biden administration directed the CIA to issue a lab leak assessment only after the 2024 election so officials could claim there was nothing left to find.

[00:07:46]Erdman alleged former NIID director Dr. Anthony Fouchy injected himself into the intelligence community to influence the assessment and that the CIA spied on investigators, retaliated against whistleblowers, and fired one contractor who cooperated with his team. Fouchi has long denied wrongdoing. The CIA called the hearing quote dishonest political theater unquote and said Erdman testified only because he was subpoenaed. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin fired back that he has years of frustration with the AY's stonewalling of oversight. All seven committee Democrats skipped the hearing.

[00:08:23]Senator Josh Holly of Missouri said he hopes Fouchy is indicted, though the statute of limitations on the relevant testimony passed earlier this week.

[00:08:33]Finally, in some great news, teen drug and alcohol use has fallen to the lowest levels on record. According to the latest Monitoring the Future survey, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health, alcohol use among 12th graders has dropped to 42%, down from 75% in 1997. Among 10th graders, it's fallen to 26% from 65% and just 13% of eighth graders reported drinking, compared with 46% in the late 1990s.

[00:09:02]Marijuana use among high school seniors is down to 26% from 39% in 1997. Vaping among 12th graders has fallen to 21%, down from 35% in 2020. Researchers point to the pandemic as a major factor, saying disrupted social patterns and more isolation meant many teens weren't exposed to substances at the typical age. They say the later someone starts using the lower their risk of addiction.

[00:09:28]One trend is moving the other way, however. Nicotine pouch use among 12th graders doubled in the past year, climbing from 3% to 6%. Coming up next, a 27 ton dinosaur called the last titan of Thailand. A newly discovered fish that looks a lot like a beloved Sesame Street character. A 5.5 karat diamond sells for all the money. And football is life. But first, here is a word from today's sponsor, Omaha Stakes. What are you having for dinner tonight? That question gets so much easier now that we are firmly into spring and rounding the corner into summer. It's time to start asking what are we grilling tonight.

[00:10:08]That's my favorite time of year. I don't know about you, but I have been dreaming about some New York strip steaks from Omaha steaks in my freezer. And tonight sounds about right to thaw them out, season them just the way I like, warm up the grill, wave to the neighbors, and turn an ordinary Friday night at home into something memorable. Speaking of memorable, now is the perfect time to place your next order because the Omaha Stakes Memorial Day sale is in full swing. You can get 50% off sitewide at omahastak.com. And because you heard it here, you can get another $35 off your order when you use the promo code flyover at checkout. Terms apply. See site for details. But it does not get much better than that. Whether you're ordering USDA certified tender steaks, juicy hamburgers, chicken, or seafood, it's all premium. It's all packed with both flavor and protein. It's all delicious and delivered right to your door. Place your order today and start your summer grilling season off right with a box of the good stuff from Omaha Stakes. Remember, it's 50% off sitewide right now for Memorial Day and another $35 off with that promo code flyover.

[00:11:14]And you might as well order some extra to share with your neighbors, right? Go ahead and wave them over instead of making them jealous. Get the party started at omahastakess.com.

[00:11:24]In finance, US retail sales posted a third straight monthly gain in April, up 0.5%, though some of that gain came from higher prices due to inflation. Walmart is cutting or relocating about a thousand corporate jobs at the world's largest retailer simplifies its operating structure and shifts to a unified technology platform. And the 30-year fixed mortgage rate climbed to 6.46%, 46% a 5we high but applications for mortgages still rose 4% for the week and there were 7% more applications than the same week one year ago. Now here's your daily market report for yesterday and it was mostly green arrows. The Nasdaq was up 0.88%.

[00:12:04]The S&P 500 was up 0.77%.

[00:12:08]The Dow Jones was up 0.75% to $50,6346.

[00:12:14]Bitcoin was up 2.8% 8% to $81,495.99.

[00:12:19]Gold was down.76% to $4,66210.

[00:12:25]Silver was down 5.36% to $8412.

[00:12:29]Oil for a barrel was up 0.81% to $11.84.

[00:12:35]Reminder that Bitcoin, gold, silver, and oil are traded 24 hours a day. These are the prices we had at press time. The big stock move for the day was Cisco Systems. That stock rose over 13% after reporting better than expected earnings and revenue and also announcing it was cutting nearly 4,000 jobs.

[00:12:54]Next up, sports. In World Cup soccer, the Trump administration is waving visa bond requirements of up to $15,000 for World Cup ticket holders from countries whose teams qualified for the tournament. And the FIFA World Cup final halftime show will feature Madonna, Shakira, and South Korean K-pop group BTS on July 19th at Metife Stadium in New Jersey. In basketball, NBA referees are calling about 11% more fouls per game in this year's playoffs than they did during the regular season. That's one of the largest postseason increases in league history. In baseball, a fan at Wednesday night's Royals White Socks baseball game was hospitalized after falling over a railing into the Kansas City Bullpin at Ratefield in Chicago.

[00:13:41]Finally, back to soccer. Actor Christo Fernandez, who plays striker Danny Rojos on the hit TV series Ted Lasso, has signed an actual real life professional soccer contract with El Paso Locomotive FC of the United Soccer League. Football is life. Good for him. It's hard not to be happy for that guy.

[00:14:01]In science and tech, NASA's Psyche probe flies past Mars today, coming within 2,800 miles of the surface for a gravity boost. The spacecraft is on a 2.2 billion mile journey to a rare metal asteroid that may be the exposed core of an ancient planet. Researchers in Thailand identified a new long necked dinosaur species estimated to weigh 27 tons, more than twice the size of an African elephant. They've nicknamed it the last titan of Thailand. I would watch that. And scientists have identified a fish that looks surprisingly similar to Mr. Snuffleopagus from Sesame Street. What a crazy looking fish. In fact, they named the hairy ghost pipe fish for the character Solenos Snuffigus. Him and that big birdfish are going to be great friends.

[00:14:52]Finally, we come to a few stories we knew you would not want to miss on this beautiful spring Friday. The Ocean Dream, a 5.5 karat blue green diamond built as the world's most rare, sold for 17.3 million at a Geneva auction on Wednesday, more than double its 2014 price. A Norwegian hiker unearthed a 1500year-old gold sword scabbard fitting beneath a stormfeld tree. It's one of only 18 such finds in Northern Europe and likely belonged to a sixth century chieftain. Is it just me or does that sound like a superhero origin story?

[00:15:29]Finally, CBS Evening News anchor Tony Ducopel abruptly ended Wednesday's broadcast from Taiwan when a cameraman suffered a medical emergency on set. The network said he is recovering.

[00:15:41]Now, here are the results of yesterday's poll question, which was which most closely matches how often you talk to your neighbors. 38% of you said weekly, 17% of you said a few times a year. 16% said daily, which is a lot. 16% of you said monthly, and 12% of you said rarely or never. Just think how much more you would talk to them if you had them over for some Omaha Stakes. You're going to be the king of the neighborhood. Today's poll question is, do you still use a physical address book? This is a a non-digital paper address book. Your options are yes, regularly, yes, but rarely, or no. Honestly, I don't think I have ever used a physical address book, but I do remember seeing them. You could kind of tell who'd had an interesting life by how many times their old addresses had been crossed out and replaced with new ones in the margins.

[00:16:32]It's much easier now just to change it in your phone.

[00:16:36]Finally, we come to today's trivia question. I love this question. We asked at the top of the show, which US state has an island inhabited by monkeys? I know you've been dying to hear the answer to this one. And be honest, did you fast forward through the show just to get the answer? I wouldn't blame you.

[00:16:52]I am going to tell you, but then you have to go back and listen to the rest of the show cuz it's a good one. Here it is. The US state that has an island inhabited by monkeys is South Carolina.

[00:17:02]More than 3,000 monkeys live on a secluded island off the Boufort coast.

[00:17:07]Located in the St. Helena Sound, Morgan Island spans more than 2,000 acres and remains offlimits to visitors. Though boat tours offer a closer look at its furry residents. Because monkeys are not native to the United States and typically thrive in tropical climates, the island's massive monkey population has long sparked curiosity about how they ended up there in the first place.

[00:17:29]If you know how they got there, you should definitely tell us in the comments below. And that's our show for today. Thanks for joining us. We know you could do so many awesome things with 15 minutes, and we are thrilled every time you spend those 15 minutes with us.

[00:17:42]Come on back tomorrow to join Amy Hes for our next thrilling adventure.