Austin’s Daily Commentary – February 1, 2024

Austin: It's a story that has been all over the headlines nationally, internationally. Three football fans freezing to death, we think, in the backyard of their friend after watching a football game a few weeks ago. It's not just a story in Kansas City. Again, it's international.

And I want to remind everyone the same delays in getting answers in this case are the same delays that we have right here in our own backyard, crime lab delays because of a backlog. Every answer to the questions as to what killed those guys is sitting in an envelope waiting to be tested, and we are still weeks, if not months away from getting those answers because of the backlog.

I'm tired of hearing this. In all 50 states, there's some type of backlog. It is time to federalize the system. Do away with 50 different sets of rules, 50 different different state budgets, 50 different staff issues. Let's make it a federally funded lab system nationwide, one standard, and get this taken care of immediately. To me, this is a national security issue as much as it is anything else.

How amazing and frustrating and exasperating is it that the same issue I have been pounding with my fist on the table about here in Augusta? For how long? How many years is making trouble nationwide if not internationally? Fund crime lab research, make it a federal issue and do it now. Gotta put an end to this ridiculous waste of time. And it's justice delayed, justice denied. No doubt about it. And that's the comment. And it's the damn truth. I'm Austin Rhodes AM 580/95.1 FM News Talk WGAC.