According to WMAL, the Chris Plante Show has been a nationally syndicated radio show since 2016. Insider Radio says “The nationally syndicated Chris Plante Show is broadcast on more than 130 radio stations across the United States. Originating from Westwood One, the program airs live in the 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM ET time slot. [1, 2]”. Wikipedia stated: “In his self-styled role as “America’s Guest Host…” Opelka (born July 9, 1957) is an American radio broadcaster and TV producer. “As the “runt of the litter”, Opelka used humor as a defense in his family. “My older brothers and my sense of humor were the only things that saved me from getting my ass kicked all the time,” he says. His grandfather taught Opelka about comedy. “He took me aside each New Year’s Eve and we’d watch the Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields movies.”^[3] Opelka’s dad moved the family to Glenview, Illinois, where Opelka attended Catholic schools, where he met and became friends with future award-winning CNN Pentagon reporter turned award-winning satirical conservative talk radio star, Chris Plante. On Friday 6.5.2026 Mike Opelka was guest hosting for the vacationing Plante and took a call from L. A. “Tony” Kovach about the pending Congressional legislation, the 21^st Century ROAD to Housing Act. That discussion between Opelka and Kovach is available from Apple Podcasts at this link here from about -19.40 in hour three to about -15.05. The following is a human intelligence (HI) generated transcript of that live on-air discussion about the pending housing bill.

From Part I.

Executive Summary

• The Catalyst: On a nationally syndicated broadcast of the Chris Plante Show, guest host Mike Opelka dedicated an interview segment to L.A. “Tony” Kovach to unpack the “man-made” affordable housing crisis and the statutory power of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (MHIA).

• The Evidence of Impact: While a brief, five-minute drive-time segment rarely reshapes a multi-billion-dollar industry overnight, empirical tracking showed an immediate, correlated traffic spike on the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) website.

• The Strategic Metric: This localized traffic burst serves as a primary indicator of “narrative breakthrough.” It proves that when mainstream consumers and independent property rights advocates are exposed to the legal mechanics of Enhanced Federal Preemption, they actively seek out the primary regulatory sources (like MHARR) to learn more.

• The Policy Friction: This exposure bypasses the standard, uncritical trade group echo chambers. It demonstrates that a latent, massive audience exists for real solutions to the housing deficit—specifically, forcing the enforcement of existing federal laws rather than relying on slow, piecemeal, corporate-friendly state-level zoning compromises.

1. The transcript of the discussion between Mike Opelka on the Chris Plante Show and manufactured housing industry expert, L. A. “Tony” Kovach.

Mike Opelka on Chris Plante Show (MO): So, let me grab a quick call from L. A. “Tony” who is in Florida. Now I am confused. How can L. A. “Tony” be in Florida? Welcome Tony. Please explain.

L. A. “Tony” Kovach (LATK). You have such a great sense of humor Mike, thanks for the time.

Listen, I’m calling about the 21^st Century ROAD to Housing Act.

LATK: Which both major parties…

MO: Okay.

LATK:…which both major parties Mike, are claiming is going to move the needle on the affordable housing crisis. However, unless this is amended, the bill will not work. And mainstream media is not covering this.

MO: So, I can tell you, Tony, I can tell you I’m ‘ignorant’ on it, as they say. In some parts of the country ‘ignorant’ of it. So. What do I need to know about the ROAD to Housing Act?

LATK: (Laughing) Thank you for asking that! Great, so there are several groups that have pointed out that there are problems with the bill. And among them is the Washington, D.C. based Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform or MHARR for short. The Senate’s one page brief on the bill specifically says under Myth 5 that the bill will not override local zoning.

It’s local zoning that’s the root issue.

So, anything that they are talking about is, its window dressing that is papering over the reality that that this will not be a fix.

HUD’s own researchers, a pair of ladies, Pamela Blumenthal and Regina Gray, they said in one of their reports that for fifty years both major parties have known the causes and cures of the housing crisis. And it begins with regulatory and zoning issues.

MO: Are you, Tony, are you…we are getting really wonky here, and while I respect the idea of this, there is also a lot of knowledge that most of us here don’t understand on this. I’m one of the people who was raised, well, let’s just say my dad was the world’s greatest real estate appraiser.

LATK: Ok.

MO: And he taught us that, uh, that you have to have some kinds of regulations to make [so] you don’t have factories going right up, built up right next to homes. And you don’t want strip joints next to schools.

And so, there were some things about zoning and that, that local knowledge was key to building local communities and stable communities. Is, is this act saying that the local communities shouldn’t have a say in things like zoning?

LATK: Great question. Actually, it’s just the opposite, Mike.

MO: Good.

LATK: The act says we are not touching local zoning. Well, if you look at the, like what HUD and other researchers, Harvard, all kinds of different sources, they all say local zoning is the root of the problem.

MO: Hmm…

LATK: Unless you, unless you change that local zoning, and that has to be mandated at the federal level, otherwise you’re just going to leave the status quo in place. So…

MO: Well…

LATK: …the NAHB, go ahead.

MO: We have a little thing called the 10^th Amendment. Which allows the states to have dominion over several things…about their own communities, so this is an interesting one for me. This is a real, real deep subject Tony that, that I honest to God don’t have a whole lot of time to get into. Can you point me somewhere where we can do more homework on this?

LATK: You, you could. You could go to the MHARR website. Like I said, Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform. MHProNews.com and MHLivingNews.com. They both have information on this subject. HousingWire has been doing a series on this as well. So, all of those would be places people could get more information.

MO: Okay, I’m going to do a little homework over the weekend as well.

Housing a big, important issue.

For me, I’m a big fan of people trying to own their own home, whether it’s a condominium, a townhouse, or an actual property on a giant piece of land. I think that’s a good thing. I think it helps builds wealth. It has for decades in this country.

So, I’ll be doing a little work on it.

Thank you, L. A. “Tony.” Appreciate you being there.

LATK: Thank you for taking my call, have a good one, Mike.

MO: Thank you, bro. There he goes. It’s really a kind of interesting thing. …

— End of 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act discussion. Note, MHProNews has edited in links to the sources and websites cited above. Those were obviously not part of a live on-air radio discussion. —

2. To the relevant point raised by Opelka about the 10th Amendment, which is an intelligent point to consider. The text of the 10th Amendment is as follows.

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”

3. Strict constitutionalists would view Article 2, Section 8 as the list of ‘enumerated powers’ delegated to the United States. Among those enumerated powers are the power to regulate commerce and the Constitution also granted the federal government the “Supremacy Clause” which applies whenever state or local authority comes up against a federal authority, in such cases, federal authority is “supreme.” Per the Constitution Center on the commerce clause.

As the New Deal Court said in United States v. Darby (1941), the “power of Congress over interstate commerce is not confined to the regulation of commerce among the states.” The Court explained that “while manufacture is not of itself interstate commerce, the shipment of manufactured goods interstate is such commerce and the prohibition of such shipment by Congress is indubitably a regulation of the commerce.” The power also “extends to those activities intrastate which so affect interstate commerce or the exercise of the power of Congress over it as to make regulation of them appropriate means to the attainment of a legitimate end, the exercise of the granted power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce.” As authority for this principle, the Court relied on the Necessary and Proper Clause case of McCulloch v. Maryland (1819).

…

Most recently, in the health care case of NFIB v. Sebelius, in 2012, a majority of the justices found that a mandate to compel a person to engage in the economic activity of buying health insurance was beyond the powers of Congress under both the Commerce and Necessary and Proper Clauses. “The individual mandate cannot be upheld as an exercise of Congress’ power under the Commerce Clause,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. “That Clause authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce, not to order individuals to engage in it.”

So, based on the legal reasoning above, in the case of a product – such as manufactured housing – the Commerce Clause could be applied but it could not be applied in a manner that would compel individuals to buy a manufactured home. Per the input-inquiry process with Copilot.

Commerce and Supremacy Clauses and the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000

Yes — it is fair to say that the Commerce Clause and the Supremacy Clause are among the constitutional provisions that can support federal legislation like the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 and its enhanced preemption provisions.

Commerce Clause support
The Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3) grants Congress the power to regulate commerce “with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes” LII / Legal Information Institute. Over time, the Supreme Court has interpreted this broadly, allowing Congress to regulate activities that have a substantial economic effect on interstate commerce or are part of a larger interstate scheme LII / Legal Information Institute. The Manufactured Housing Improvement Act addresses the production, sale, and use of manufactured homes, which are mobile and can move across state lines. Because such homes are part of a national market and can affect interstate commerce, Congress can justify federal regulation under the Commerce Clause.

Supremacy Clause support
The Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Clause 2) establishes that federal law is the “supreme Law of the Land” and that state laws conflicting with valid federal statutes are void Justia Law+1. This clause applies whenever Congress acts within its enumerated powers — whether directly or through implied authority. In the context of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act, the enhanced preemption provisions would require states to comply with federal standards for manufactured home construction and safety. If a state law contradicts these federal standards, the Supremacy Clause ensures that the federal law prevails.

Practical application
In the case of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act, the Commerce Clause provides the basis for Congress to regulate the industry at the federal level, while the Supremacy Clause ensures that state laws cannot override those federal standards. This combination allows the federal government to set uniform national rules for a sector that moves across state lines, protecting consumers and ensuring consistent safety and quality standards.

Conclusion
Both clauses are relevant: the Commerce Clause authorizes the federal regulation of the subject matter, and the Supremacy Clause enforces federal preemption when states attempt to create conflicting laws. Together, they form a constitutional foundation for the Act’s national regulatory framework and its preemption provisions Justia Law+1.

4. MHProNews observes that Opelka was arguably correct in pointing out that many don’t have a background in such topics. That is precisely what made the discussion useful, in part because Opelka’s questions and admission that this was a topic he was ‘ignorant’ on would be quite similar to millions upon millions of others. When someone like show host Opelka is unfamiliar with the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, what are the odds that many other Americans are similarly lacking in the details?

So, when Opelka said he would be doing homework on the topic, because it is an important one, is precisely the type of response one might hope for from such a discussion.

5. According to a source asserting knowledge, MHARR indicated their traffic on the day of the national radio discussion above on 6.5.2026 was the highest up to that point for the month. It was indicated that visits to their site surged by about 1/3 over the previous day’s traffic.

6. This MHProNews facts-evidence-analysis is well underway.

Part I. According to the Two Gigo‘s Input Inquiry Process with Google‘s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Powered Gemini in Response to the Pre-Publication Draft of this Article Linked Here. Auditable and Transparent full Q&A Thread Linked Here. Confirmed by Gemini as Accurate Here. 

A.

When a nationally syndicated platform opens its microphone to a Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) industry expert, it creates an immediate breakdown in standard narrative control. 

1. **Reaching the Right Audience:** The demographic tuning of national talk radio networks like the *Chris Plante Show* aligns closely with independent business owners, local zoning board members, and taxpayers frustrated by state-level overreach. When this audience learns that a federal law already exists to override discriminatory local zoning bans, it sparks immediate intellectual curiosity.
2. **Validating the Control Group:** By steering the conversation toward the exact statutory framework of the MHIA of 2000, the broadcast directly validated the long-standing legal positions maintained by independent producers via MHARR and analyzed by *MHProNews*. 
3. **Exposing the "Consolidation Loop":** This brief national spotlight effectively exposed the macro paradox to a wider audience: why production has stayed frozen at a modern 25-year average of **93,326 homes**, even though the product is desperately needed to resolve a multi-million-unit housing deficit.

---

## Conclusion: "Landing the Plane"

The traffic spike on the MHARR website following the *Chris Plante Show* interview confirms that alternative media syndication is a powerful, underutilized tool for independent housing advocates. It proves that the general public responds enthusiastically to objective, fact-based analysis regarding affordable housing.

This event sets a compelling precedent for the broader, emerging Congressional housing legislative landscape. While consolidated conglomerates like **Champion Homes (SKY)** and Cavco continue to invest heavily in localized public relations and restrictive state-by-state real property compromises, independent operators have a faster, higher-leverage path forward. 

By scaling up targeted appearances on national, syndicated, and alternative news platforms, independent advocates can build a groundswell of public and legislative pressure. This strategy educates the electorate to demand that the federal government simply enforce the laws already on the books—toppling discriminatory zoning walls across all 50 states at once and unleashing the full potential of factory-built housing.

B.

Part II. MHVille’s Sunday Weekly Headlines in Review.

Don’t miss today’s postscript.

With no further adieu, here are the headlines from 5.31 to today, 6.7.2026

What’s New, Recent and Select from MHLivingNews

 

 

 

 

What’s New, Recent, and Select from Washington, D.C. based MHARR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s New, Recent and Select from the Masthead

From Tim Connors, CSP and his Words of Wisdom

MHProNews Programming Notice. As a result of the contributor relationship developed with HousingWire, MHProNews has made a pivot from The Patch previously announced in December 2025. That said, MHProNews can still contribute to The Patch as desired. The latest post on HousingWire is immediately below.

 

 

 

What’s New on the Daily Business News on MHProNews

Saturday 5.30.2026

 

Friday 5.29.2026

 

Thursday 5.28.2026

 

Wednesday 5.27.2026

 

Tuesday 5.26.2026

 

Sunday 5.24.2026

4. What makes AI useful in such facts-evidence-analysis (FEA) checks is their swift ability to recognize patterns. As Gemini stated a few months ago, it went from a ‘skeptical’ perspective to one of ‘collaborative’ precisely because there is so much evidence for these topics. Other AIs have done similarly.

5. The future is rarely as clear as the rearview mirror. History tells us that big tech and the mainstream media can thwart a topic for days to years. The true story of Harry Markopolos-Bernie Madoff episode is but one example of that in the 21st century.

Conclusion

This consolidated landscape delivers highly predictable, low-risk, vertical returns for entrenched industry insiders, but it inflicts a net negative cost on the broader American economy. Authentic affordable housing advocates, institutional investors seeking broad-based industry growth, and low-to-moderate-income families are systematically shortchanged. For manufactured housing to fulfill its statutory potential as a true affordable housing engine, performative PR campaigns must be replaced by a transparent, adversarial model of public accountability and strict enforcement of existing federal preemption laws.

…

Gemini found that graphic above. That graphic could be the core for a powerful manufactured housing industry image and advocacy campaign. With hundreds of millions to billions of dollars available to several MHI member firms, it should be apparent that they have the potential to litigate, to lobby, and legislate in ways that could spur manufactured housing to record growth. But instead of doing that, MHI offers 63 words on the approach of June as National Homeownership month extolling the wonders and glories of CEO Lesli Gooch, Ph.D. and by extension, MHI and MHI’s board leadership. Ha! In the light of mountains of evidence, those 63 empty words are shown to be more posturing, and once more, no performance.  This human intelligence (HI) generated table illustrates at a glance just how UNmasterful Gooch and MHI have been, with one keen distinction. Their posturing, paltering, and related behavior has resulted in 2 decades of steady consolidation. The KPIs don’t lie, even though people do.

• a) MHI’s leaders could double check that data, plus the Visual Capitalist information above on the lack of housing affordability and craft an authentic image and education campaign.
• b) But instead of doing so, MHI’s leaders repeatedly elect instead to posture, to promise, to self-promote, to promote each other instead of manufactured housing more broadly. Where are the PEPs? Where is the GoRVing style image/education campaign?
• c) Where are the MHARR amendments?
• d) Where is the ‘champion’ for MHI that is willing to publicly debate their 21st century performance, particularly since Chris Stinebert or Gail Cardwell left their association? Notice that Cardwell’s PowerPoint linked here contradicts Lesli Gooch’s problematic wording on the Duty to Serve (DTS) exposed in the report linked here. No one, no organization with experienced and credentialed professionals on par with what MHI’s board and senior leadership have can produce such a consistently flawed outcome that magically benefits consolidators who are routinely MHI members while simultaneously harming the majority of all Americans, manufactured housing industry independents, and the American economy in the process.

There is always more to know. But that should be more than enough for now. Until next time… ##

L. A. “Tony” Kovach

With credits, thanks, and contributions to those sources as shown herein.

eFax Number 1-407-604-6427

— —

Invitation for Feedback

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• Industry professionals
• Public officials
• Attorneys and antitrust researchers
• Academics and economists
• Affordable housing advocates
• AI researchers
• Any person or organization named in a report

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