WVMetroNews Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval

criminal consent when you're 16. that's right that's right King of the young is with his Democratic DeLeon from Kanawha County and she has a bill that's come out of house Judiciary Committee that would change that Kayla first of all I did check that but that's the case now 16 you can get married it's 16 with parental consent or under 16 if a judge signs off on it which does happen really yep so there's actually no floor which is pretty scary yeah one of the only states in the country yeah so but there would there be an instance where a judge would sign off on somebody who's under 16 getting married yes there are a lot of instances um over 41 instances last 20 years the youngest age is 14. really yeah wow so what got you interested in this in particular it was a statistic that I saw randomly a few years ago online West Virginia actually has the highest rate of child marriage in the country so we're number one in something but it's something bad so I'm hoping that we can raise it to 18 like because you can't sign a contract unless you're 18 years old I'm not sure why you can get married so what's your bill do specifically it specifically says the age of consent for marriage at 18. okay and uh what's what was was there debate about it in judiciary or people like oh you don't even know that yeah I'm okay with that most people don't know and they are okay it's something that a lot of I've gotten a lot of bipartisan support on it because a lot of Republicans see it as part of their pro-life agenda and protecting children and I agree with them I think that it is and there was a little pushback because we have some people who um their children were married as children or their parents were married as children it's something we see in a lot of older Generations but um the times are changing and I think we need to change with them yeah that's interesting because I imagine there are some older folks who say my parents got married at 17. you know back when people got married yes 17. absolutely but statistics have shown us that uh of the of the child marriages there's been over 700 since the year 2001 and of those only five percent were two teenagers most were a teenager and an adult the biggest case was a 56 year old woman that was married to a 16 year old boy yeah that's a problem yeah that's a problem or I was I thought you were going to go the other way like a 45 year old guy married to a 16 year old girl there's a lot of that too yeah yeah so that would be so currently under the wall in West Virginia you know a guy who's my age could marry a 16 year old if the 16 year old's parents signed off on it that's right and it's a big human trafficking oh really yeah because some people will marry their children off oh geez okay so that Bill's moving that's probably going to pass uh you actually so you and the group of you and the family values Republicans are actually in the same place on this that's right we're in the same place on a lot of stuff ever you are yeah come on protecting kids all right let me all right let me go to campus carry them because I don't think you're in the same place on campus Carrie I don't think so no so campus Carrie uh passed out of the house pretty overwhelmingly uh you were one of the no votes uh what was your opposition to campus Kerry um I listen to my constituents and I have a lot of students in my district and they didn't want to neither did their parents so I listened to them I understand the arguments on both sides I know that the universities were opposed but did get some concessions in the bill so being in a super minority like we are we can't really stop anything but I listened to my people and they didn't want this yes it was a Nova what is it like uh and this is are you in your third term this is my second term what's it like to be in the Super minority in the house um it's not easy it's a lot of hitting our heads against the wall but honestly I I think this year this year hasn't been as bad as the last two it's been pretty slow session so far I think yeah so uh I mean do you feel like they're a thing well this is a bill like you said that the parental consent probably gonna get bipartisan support yeah yeah there's bipartisan sponsors we actually ran out of slots on the sponsors we had more people that wanted to sign on got it okay Kayla Young Democrat Canola County on a bill to raise the legal marriage age without parental consent to 18. that's correct okay and it's out of Judiciary so be reported to the floor we hope to see it reported to the floor today okay got it all right thanks girl good to see you good to see you all right thanks for coming on I would take a break and come back on metro news talk line um pop into a West Virginia Lottery retailer today and play uh cash Pop playing a simple match a single number and win prizes from five to five hundred times your wager for that number in fact cash pop could have you winning up to five thousand dollars drawings are every 15 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in coca.com to learn more faculty and Cove Insurance Studios at the AARP broadcast location here at the state capitol so we mentioned earlier I asked um I'm Brad about that but the houseboat 3042 which is called the riffra bill and it is short for the acronym for Religious Freedom restoration Act refer bill and it passed out of house committee yesterday it relates to forbidding government limitations on the exercise of religion by Mac and he reported it says that no state action according to the bill no State action May substantially burden person's exercise of religion unless it's essential to a compelling government interest or in the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling government interest so the proponents say it is there as a protection for individuals who um that their the practice of their faith cannot be infringed upon the opponent say it is unnecessary one of those opponents the delegate Mike Pushkin Democrat from Canal County Mike good morning how are you good morning it's good to see you good to see you why do you think it's unnecessary well we already have uh protection for Religious Freedom in this country I mean I can tell you that firsthand the whole reason that you know my great-grandparents moved to this country a hundred years ago was to escape real religious persecution in Eastern Europe and and since then yeah I'm Jewish but plenty of families and plenty of different religious minorities have moved to the United States of America the greatest country in the world have moved here for years uh because of the religious freedom that we protect in this country and we've done a very good job of doing that we have the First Amendment of the U.S Constitution which protects our religious freedom West Virginia goes even further has even stronger Protections in our First Amendment to the West Virginia Constitution we have a human right the Human Rights Act which treats religion as a protected class you already you can't be fired because of your religion you can't be uh you know you can't beat uh evicted because of your we already protect religious freedom in this country and we also have a federal referral law that was passed a long time ago that was much more narrow than this which was a really was aimed at protecting religious minorities the proponents of this bill will claim that this is about protecting religious minorities no religious minorities are asking for this bill because we don't need it or nobody has infringed upon our right to practice our religion then what do you think it's about the what do you think it's about this well what it's hard to tell because it's it is written so poorly and it is so broad it's so much more broad than the federal religious freedom laws I think what it will do is it'll create an environment people could really Sue over just about any any law it creates an environment where people could be having frivolous lawsuits left and right if they if they feel that this interferes with a strongly held religious belief that's not really well defined I mean the you know Republicans have been claiming that we were in a in a Judicial hellhole just years ago now they want to take us back into one by passing this ambiguous law that makes the law less clear and really invites a whole host of lawsuits based on on different perceived preferences would it be W Mike pushkins with his Democrat from Canal County would it be a protection for the baker who because of deeply held religious beliefs does not want to make the cake for the gay couple I don't know if you know it shouldn't protect them it'll it'll definitely give that Baker the cause to go to the court and sue over it and it's going to clog up our courts with all these uh different types of law because somebody feels like they're like they're not able to practice look everybody's allowed to practice in a religion any way they want to in this country okay if you're a baker and you're baking a cake for somebody that's your job if you feel uh you know maybe it's an inconvenience for you I would not you know it's not just the baker think about this what about a caterer that was doesn't want to do bar mitzvahs are we going to protect that that we'll have cases like that in court it just it muddies up the law and I feel that it really the the proponents are trying to create like a license to discriminate against uh certain Lifestyles that they may or may not approve of I think this could be more harmful really more harmful for religious minorities um do you think that it's uh it would it would impact or do you think and again I should ask the other side of this but is it is it aimed at um ordinances that maybe have passed at municipalities in West Virginia to protect the lgbtq community I definitely could I think that's what it's a response to that many of the municipalities in the state have done with the the legislature is can't do is unable to do and that's that's to Simply add sexual orientation and and uh and gender identity to the state human to the to Human Rights Act we haven't been able to do that which we should to say simply you can't be fired or evicted Because of Who You Are so different municipalities have passed that I believe this is a response to that and we'll get these municipalities in court um you know it's it's just it's unnecessary and it's it's it it it'll go ahead um let me switch gears because I think I was told that you're up to speed on this so I if I curve volume you're not just tell me and that's fine but I've been I've been following also the issue concerning Delta eight Delta 10 are you up to speed on that on that issue the first time I even saw Delta it was when I was discussing it with Mike Stewart and he dumped a bag of it out in front of me I think carries a bag of it around okay so you're going to say my concern with any kind of laws that are Banning one thing is that it's not going to stop people from using it doesn't really get to the root cause of drug use or addiction and what it will do is push people back to the black market or who knows what they're going to be getting I think we're better off when we have something that's it's regulated and and safer and out of the hands of children yeah and again I I have you to a disadvantage because I've been falling fairly close but there it gets complicated because there's Delta 8 and Delta 10 and the Delta 8 primarily and that that has been approved by the state department Agriculture and it's a legal product and it's it's sold legally you're supposed to be 18 uh to buy it then there's this other options that are synthetic that are synthetics that um you don't know exactly what's in it and I think they're probably bought online and repriced and sold and Mike Stewart's buying stuff he's about what he's showing people is stuff he bought online well it might be it's not what's being sold at your church it's not it's not a point it's not a gar more it's not yours but it might be at a vape shop or something like that you know I'm not I'm not sure but I think that I need to go shopping and see if we'll see if we can find see what we can find so anyway you don't need to go shopping let's go talk to Senators still carries a big briefcase in the capital I have I'm packing right now in fact some things that dropped off with me uh you were a no vote on campus carry yeah I think that's another bill it's just unnecessary and I think we should allow college campuses to make these rules for themselves I'm not hearing a huge public outcry for more guns on college campuses just like I'm not hearing a public outcry for a more for religious freedoms that are already protected in the first first amendment and too often and I think it's a byproduct of having this lopsided super duper majority too often legislators are just doing what they want instead of actually working on the issues that they're needed to work or they're not doing what's needed they're just doing what they want and they're just checking boxes that you see going on in other states and uh it's not it's not you know definitely aimed at the issues that affect what the real lives of West Virginians and that's what we look West Virginia has a lot of issues that's what we should be focused on we need to be focused on on helping these you know seven to eight thousand children in the foster care system we need to have a real fix for peia we have Staffing shortages every from in our classrooms we have Staffing shortages in our prisons and our Correctional business we have real issues need to address instead of addressing fake issues about uh this perceived uh infringement upon upon religious freedom that's just not happening I can't I can't can you think of one instance where anyone's religion Freedom has been infringed upon in this country in this country well that's that's a broad topic let me Google it as Don Lemon would say uh Mike Pushkin Democratic delegate uh from Canal County and also chair of the democratic party Mike good to see you all right thanks for having me on thanks talk like continues we'll return to the AARP broadcast location at the Alcove Insurance Studios right after this when kids are small we tend to spend most of our time saying no instead of yes as our parents and grandparents age we sometimes say no to visit [Music]