Welcome to the rush hour. Your daily dose of pop culture for your rush hour ride.

Buckle up and enjoy the drive with your host, stand-up comedian Dave Neal.

Good morning, everybody. Happy Thursday to you on this February 19th, 2026. I got all your news for your rush hour ride to work. We'll open with a Baldoni versus Blake Lively story as more legal experts are coming out and actually discussing the shred of leverage that Blake lively has against Justin Baldoni.

Plus, we have an update on the, I should say Nancy Guthrie, Savannah Guthrie's mother Nancy Guthrie,

kidnapping as it's been well past two weeks, I think approaching three weeks now. So we'll get

into the update there. And then some more on Epstein, as more files are released, more people

that are co-conspirators, more allegations made as the White House, you know, tries to wrangle this whole conspiracy in. And they're doing a bad job. It's insane what I'm about to share with you guys. And then a possible war with Iran. Are we breaking out a war with Iran? I thought we destroyed all their nuclear technology. Why do we have to go to war with them? What's the deal with that? We'll get into all these stories and more. It starts right now on the rush. So here it is. It's attorney Alex. I love when these attorneys share great insight. And, you know, I love the way attorneys think about all of the possible scenarios that might come out of the upcoming case, Baldoni v. Blake Lively. You know, look, fans, they kind of want a lot of times to be diehard on one side versus the other, but the truth is they're going to a trial unless there's a settlement, and there's always a chance that one side could win. Blake Lively could win. She could drain Justin Baldoni of millions. Do I think that's going to be the case? Honestly, I don't really

know because I'm not an expert and really depends on the jury and what evidence they allow in

and all that jazz. So here's attorney Alex sharing a little bit about that info, you know,

just what leverage Blake lively does have in this scenario. Have a listen.

He has leverage in her case against Justin Baldoni. I'm Alex Simon O'Train. Let's talk about why.

Blake and Justin had to participate in a court-ordered settlement conference and their case did not settle.

That's not a surprise. What was surprising to, I think, some of you is that I said Blake has more leverage in this case.

And the reason why is because she's the one who has claims left.

And you guys keep saying, well, her claim, she doesn't have evidence to support her

claims. Her claims are going to lose. That's not necessarily the only thing that

matters. Having the claims at all is leverage because she's forcing Baldoni to spend

money on legal fees, tens of thousands a

month, I'm sure, maybe even $100,000 a month going through trial. He's probably looking at another

$200, $300,000, $500,000 of attorney's fees. In addition to, he's the one on the hook for damages if she were to win on any of her claims.

And I know you guys don't think she's going to win on her claims, but the fact that she's the only one with claims, all of his claims have been dismissed, gives her left.

In addition, at trial, we're going to hear evidence we probably haven't heard yet.

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