The Steve Finnegan Show

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Steve Finnegan interviews retired Army Colonel Steven Bucci, a West Point graduate and former Special Forces commander now serving at the Heritage Foundation, discussing current geopolitical tensions with Iran. They analyze the U.S. Navy's blockade of Iranian ports, with Bucci expressing skepticism about reports that Iran is circumventing it, arguing that tankers already at sea were loaded before the blockade took effect. The conversation covers Iran's nuclear negotiations, with Bucci noting that Iranian negotiators overplayed their hand by revealing 60% enriched uranium stockpiles and presenting unrealistic demands, causing U.S. negotiators to walk out. They also discuss Israel's ongoing airstrikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, with Bucci arguing these are legitimate defensive responses and that both Iran and its proxies will ultimately be forced to negotiate seriously under continued economic and military pressure.

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Hallie Shoffner, a sixth-generation farmer from Arkansas, is running as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate against incumbent Tom Cotton, motivated by the closure of her family's 2,000-acre farm due to financial unviability and frustration with politicians she feels have stopped listening to constituents. She frames her campaign around being "Arkansas first," criticizing Cotton for voting against the farm bill twice and for being disconnected from the state's needs. Schaffner focuses heavily on agriculture and food security, arguing that Arkansas — the most food-insecure state in the country — could lower food costs by encouraging farmers to grow crops for direct human consumption rather than relying on commodity crops like soybeans that are largely exported. On immigration, she supports legal border security but expresses concern that broad ICE raids are sweeping up long-term community members, particularly farm workers, and advocates for pathways to legal temporary worker programs. The interview also covered tariff policy (she voted for Harris largely over tariff concerns from the 2018 China trade war), the SAVE Act voter registration requirements (which she opposes as burdensome for women who change their names), and social security solvency — with a follow-up interview planned to address gun control.

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Spike Cohen, documentary filmmaker and founder of "You Are the Power," appeared on the Steve Finnegan Show to discuss his documentary opposing the proposed Mill Creek Mountain mega-prison in Franklin County, Arkansas, which is set to screen at the Ron Robinson Theater in Little Rock. The proposed 3,000-bed facility on 815 acres near Charleston (population 2,600) is widely opposed by locals due to massive infrastructure deficiencies — including no municipal water, sewer, or electrical capacity to support the prison's estimated 500,000 gallons of daily water needs. Cohen argues the project is a classic government boondoggle, with cost-plus contracts incentivizing contractors to favor an expensive, difficult site over more practical alternatives, and notes that $75 million already appropriated for a different prison expansion has been spent with nothing to show for it. Multiple counties and towns — including Waldron, Helena, Jonesboro, and others — have publicly volunteered to host the prison and even offered to donate land, yet the state continues pursuing the infeasible Franklin County site. Adding further complication, the Choctaw Nation has identified the land as potentially containing Native American burial grounds, which could trigger federal court proceedings and delay the project by years before a single shovel breaks ground.

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.