For WGBW and WISS News, I'm Lisa Hale.
A 72-year-old Appleton man is sentenced to two years in federal prison for failing to pay over a million dollars of employment taxes.
Douglas Larson owned and operated Mods International and Mods Client Services, which manufactured and installed residential and commercial buildings from shipping containers.
Court records show that over the 14 years he owned the business, he withheld employment taxes from his employees but refused to pay the money to the federal government.
Judge William Griesbach
says that the sentence would have been longer, but he took Larson's age and failing health into account.
Food insecurity is an issue in Northeast Wisconsin affecting children, students, and adults, but especially children, says DeLorean Walls of Brothers Helping Brothers, Wisconsin.
I get kind of emotional when I talk about that, especially with the kids when having food.
I was talking to a teacher the other day ago.
Most children come to school because they can get a breakfast.
then if a kid gets suspended, they don't get that.
Or on a spring break, on a summer break, they don't receive that food.
As federal programs are seeing funding cuts, Wisconsin food banks are set to lose over $2 million from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
Wall says people can help by donating to the Packers Superfan Food Drive, which will be held at First and Goal April 23rd.
Don't feed the turkeys.
That's the message from the Appleton Police Department.
Over the past couple of years, wild turkeys have caused traffic congestion and other problems in the city.
Aggressive birds have even attacked vehicles.
Police say the feathered fiends are congregating because people are feeding them.
And while police haven't started issuing citations for feeding the gobbling gobblers, that could be next.
I'm Lisa Hale for WGBW and WISS News.
For news anytime, visit civicmedia.us.
Welcome back to Mino and the Mayor.
Join the conversation now by calling 920-264-0606.
920-264-0606.
Now, once again, John Mino and Jim Schmidt.
Hey, thank you very much.
Welcome back.
worth the Michael Friedman simple life hospitality and we were I've not even kidding we have to tell Lisa thank you so much Lisa we were talking quiche last week and she made it for us and it's fantastic well
I said I was
bringing in
a quiche and then
yeah if we thought you were making one yeah
that was
kind of the way you said it
like you are a lot of people just delegated it so much hey can't believe Michael is making you guys quiche right yeah well you know and I
just had that I just had my slice
And oh my god, it's really really tremendous not
spinach bacon and it
the mushrooms no
mushrooms
spinach bacon cheese
the quality of it's good You got a good lot of ingredients in there.
You didn't
Sometimes you get it where it's just all egg.
You
know what I mean?
Right.
Listen, I had the idea.
I'm an idea guy.
Like some other people here sitting here.
I'm an idea guy.
I'm an idea guy.
I've
had some where you know you can just visualize what they taste like, where you can buy it.
Like, is it just the egg yolks or the egg whites, the carton of them?
And you just kind of pour that in and
say, jeez.
But then they add some...
Broccoli and that's but this stuff has the real deal.
It's real.
Yeah, it's delicious.
I had I actually had Lisa's lasagna the other day, too That's pretty special as well Lisa
You guys would be so proud of me though the way I eat now at restaurants and stuff So I go yesterday go risk right across street here Hagenmeister, okay?
Had a nice chicken wrap like I always have okay, and she says what do you want first side?
So what are the options just sweet potatoes, which I love sweet potato fries.
Yeah, so sweet potato fries chips or Regular french
fries.
Mm-hmm.
I said you live vegetable option Just we've got broccoli.
I said all of the broccoli
Wow, what?
Okay kudos.
All right.
Look at you.
So I'm talking about you.
Yeah,
and that's something
Well, I will say
this.
Cheesauce?
Right, that's what I'm saying.
Okay,
Michael, you want to just hold off here,
Mike?
I mean, we
don't have enough coming at me.
I need one more from the blind side.
Okay.
I asked her for some extra butter.
Pads of
butter.
There you go.
Okay.
Spread
on that.
No, close.
Close.
You got
it.
Butter's
good.
I mean, come on, it's
broccoli.
Butter's good
for you.
Yeah,
thank you.
No carbs.
Yeah, there you go.
So aren't you proud of me?
I took broccoli over french fries.
That's good.
That sweet potatoes though that's not out of those three They're actually pretty good for it right for being a potato but
broccoli's better
But if you had those three that was the best choice.
What's that new thing?
I said I was gonna grow We'd no no remember Todd We had that we had the guy on he was talking about this unbelievably great vegetable.
It's a root vegetable It's really good for you.
We had a lady on it's something we'd never heard of so that's like a potato
And you can like roast them and it's like so healthy.
It's
you turn up right?
No, it's like a turnip.
It's a root.
It's a root of a
rutabaga.
Nope.
Nope.
Keep going.
I don't think I'd ever
heard of it before.
What is
it?
Fennel.
No.
No.
Uh, was it Yucca?
Yes.
Thank you.
Yes.
Yucca.
It's like a sweet potato.
Isn't it?
I think I don't know.
It's a little like a potato.
I will say this, that Reggie at Caribbean Taste down in Appleton, right?
He makes that now, and he makes them into fritters.
Oh my gosh, they're so good.
I think it is a Caribbean thing, because there's a Peruvian restaurant in Madison that does Peruvian roasted chicken, and he does Yucca fries.
Yucca
fries.
I didn't know Peruvians had their own type of food.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Jacob Vandenplatz says rutabaga.
No, not that.
Because we
were talking about that with the pasties.
Right.
Okay.
Right.
But what a rutabaga is.
So it was something different.
But what you said, Yucca.
Yeah.
That's what it is.
Rutabaga.
Is it the same as rutabaga?
Is it Yucca?
No, no.
You said, you said rutabaga.
What is it?
Okay, whatever.
All right.
All right.
Speaking of pasties, there's a pasty shop off of Lionville Road I noticed the other day when I was driving by.
Is it really?
Yeah.
Yeah, off of Wineville.
Yeah, I've never noticed that.
Yeah, I don't I don't know if they're any good Welcome to
food chance.
Yeah We just sit around talking what we like and we don't like the entire show.
Yeah, the whole show.
Hey Michael is one more
Time, though, about simple life hospitality.
Tell
people what, you know, what you guys have to offer.
So we, you know, we're a full service vacation.
And again, I
know maybe those people aren't listening, but those people's relatives who maybe don't want somebody staying with
them for a week.
We still have homes available for the draft that are obviously available for rent, whether it's Wednesday through Sunday or just Thursday, Friday, or whatever your needs are.
We have a really nice selection of homes still available here in
Green Bay.
Immaculate,
they're great.
They're awesome.
And they're close to Lambeau and or walking distance or a very short Uber ride.
And then we have a really beautiful selection of homes in Door County for those individuals who wanna be participating in the draft, but maybe for the weekend, they wanna have a little Door County experience, which I think is great.
Absolutely.
And yeah, but we're a full service vocational management firm.
We manage close to now like 150 homes, mostly in Door County.
Northwoods here in Green Bay, a couple in Florida and a couple down in Lake Geneva.
So if people are going to be going to Florida or even the Lake Geneva's or the world and things like that, can they just get on your website
and see all
the
different
spots
in the country?
Absolutely.
Because if I was going to Florida,
I
would check out your place first
before
I
would look out.
Any other?
Are you a good website?
Yeah, and it's actually, and it's improving actually.
We're in the middle of a complete website revamp.
But yeah, I mean, you can go to our website, simpleliferentals.com.
And what's nice about it too is we break it down.
So if you have pets, we have pet friendly homes, we have about 40 of those.
And it just really depends on what you're looking for, budgets from...
affordable, I don't say economy, but affordable all the way up to some beautiful luxury homes down in Manitowoc.
We just picked up a beautiful home that went live yesterday in Door County that has part of a lavender farm connected to it.
So we're growing and having a lot of fun.
And be on the lookout for us too.
We are gonna grow and potentially go into other destinations throughout the U.S.
coming up in the next couple of years.
I'm gonna sound dumb probably.
What's lavender?
Yeah, what's a lavender farm?
That's Dorkoni girl lavender Dorkoni lavender right like Washington Island, Washington Island Dork lavender
That's what they're known for.
I'm
lost here.
You didn't know
that?
Is it a plant?
Yeah.
I mean, I know the smell
of lavender or the color of lavender.
It's a plant.
It's like a whole field.
It's like a field of dandelions.
I'm going to get you some lavender soap.
Wow, where have I been?
I don't know.
I know nothing about a lavender.
But you
know what lavender
smells like.
Sure.
So I'm going to get you a lavender bar of soap or some lavender body wash.
That'd be nice.
Oh yeah, you like that.
You could grow some out on your deck along with the other stuff you're on.
That's not a
bad idea.
That is not a bad idea.
But you've seen photos
or
pictures.
It's purple.
It's like lavender
color.
I
mean, it's like a poppy field of
lavender.
I literally have never seen that.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's amazing.
And I didn't know
Door County was like the capital.
Well, Washington Island.
Oh, I've never been to Washington Island.
Washington Island is the largest lavender farm or area in the Midwest.
It's incredible how big it is.
When
you go into the art galleries in Door County, there's always pictures of Washington Island.
Next time I go to an
Art Gallery in Door County.
I will look for that picture.
We're not holding our breaths on that one, John.
But
there are a lot of those pictures.
Yeah, absolutely.
So we have some great homes and we're excited by what we're doing as a company.
And we're hoping this draft still turns out well for everyone.
And I think it will.
I really think it will.
We're remaining positive and we're doing the best we can.
And again, I'd say if you're coming up here and you have a great day and a great experience, stay an extra day and enjoy what's happening.
I'm gonna
jump on what you just said there which is exactly we because I still get it from people in from the hey, what's going on?
What's yeah, we're doing the best we can I'm giving you I'm not hold none of us are holding back any information
No, we are and a couple mistakes, and I don't know that we're gonna have a draft again, but even if we have a big event again one is Just giving out the information needs to be more consistent.
I
think
the other thing is that
When they announced the draft, we talked about bringing in the ships for extra hotel rooms.
We
talked
about the EAA campgrounds.
There's a
thing in the paper of the biggest busts.
I guess I forgot what they called it, which we shouldn't have talked about it because, and then these people that really, Michael, you guys have always been really fair with your pricing.
There's people who- Very fair.
But there's some people that put some really greedy prices out
there.
And
I think people are like, what?
Yeah, I don't know if it's necessarily greed is so much as not understanding.
10,000 a night isn't greed.
Well, there are so many rumors floating around.
That was a rumor part of it.
There was such a big rumor.
And I think a lot of it was pushed in the sense that there's going to be hundreds of thousands of people here.
There won't be any hotel rooms available.
People are going to need a place to stay.
And you know what?
I mean, listen, we talked to a company the other day.
Their employees are staying down in Milwaukee.
They're busing them up to
two and a half hours every day back and forth because the hotels there were that much cheaper.
I mean, it is what it is.
You know, unfortunately there's, there's nothing we can do.
The Ostoff, that's a resort in Elkhart Lake.
You know, you've been there.
They're shuttling people.
Yeah.
That's nice, right?
Well, I will
say this though too.
It's no rush.
You
really don't have to be here till five.
I mean, you want to get here early and go through the NFL experience, but you know what I mean?
It's not like...
the day's flexible.
Yeah, I think the day's flexible.
I mean, we're planning on starting our day that Thursday around one.
Right.
But just to experience it, walk around, see what's there, obviously, you know, get our place to stand.
We couldn't afford the seats, but, you know, we... How was your three-week junket to Sicily?
Oh, it was... It wasn't three weeks, first of all.
It wasn't a junket, but I don't know what a junket is, by the way.
I know, but
I want to take
one sometime.
A junket.
I just want to go...
I want to use the
word analytics and circuitous and junket.
If we go on a junket, I would go on a junket with you and Jim and Todd.
Thank you.
Let's go on a junket, the four of us.
I think that would be fun.
I do too.
But yeah, it was good.
Trip was good, learned a lot, helped some friends out who are in the business as well, got some downtime, which I really needed and just saw a beautiful part of the world.
Did you see any of those houses
that you can buy for like $100?
No,
they're not $100.
But interesting enough, real estate there is very affordable.
You can buy a nice home there, or build a nice home for a few hundred thousand dollars.
And the young
people didn't want to stay in the country where people from America were like, oh my gosh, we want to go to the country.
And all the young people in there were like, screw this, we're going to work
on the
cities.
Yeah, no, it was beautiful.
We were in a little town called Shefalu.
Actually, the mayor's ship is up in two years there.
So my friends from Sicily are like, we want you to run for mayor of Sheffalu.
I said, I've got someone who can help me be like, little puppet regime, little puppet regime.
Can I be one of those guys?
You can be, you can sit in the area.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh man, that'd be awesome.
Wouldn't
that be fun, small community like that?
Todd!
I have to tell you this, so Lisa and I are sitting here listening to you three and we're just shaking our heads.
They're like three teas in a pot in that room right
now.
Could you imagine
that?
Who knew Michael was so much like
us?
Who knew Michael was normal
like us?
Into the Wu-Tang
Clan like you guys.
Get over to this side of the glass, Lisa.
Wow.
Michael, can't thank you enough for the great hospitality you've given us.
Listen, this isn't going to end, so we're going to work on some other things with you guys.
And as I shared with Todd, I know the draft's in a couple of weeks, so we're still talking about doing some other things maybe before the draft at one of our homes.
So we'll keep to be determined.
This is going to be fun.
Thanks for all you're doing.
And this is we need quality businesses in Green Bay.
You're one that we have here
now.
Well, I live in Madison, but I feel a part of this community.
And that's why that's why I want to support everything.
You
bet.
Yeah.
Michael Friedman, simple life hospitality.
Please look them up if it's not for the draft, some vacation.
They're awesome.
Mine and the mayor back after this.
Thanks.
WGBW 98.3 96.5 FM WSS and of course the Civic Media app 21 degrees in Green Bay 24 now to 21 in Oshkosh forecast today mostly sunny high in the low 40s at least right now there isn't much of a wind unlike yesterday which was horrific that went wasn't it just a nasty
nasty day it was cold yesterday yeah that one's behind us
yeah once again today is Zulover's day empanada day
Library Workers' Day National Wildlife Week.
Who was, okay, Empanada.
What was that song Frank Sinatra had?
The girl from Empanada.
No, Iponina.
Iponina.
And the
girl
from Empanina.
Yeah, that's
not, yeah.
Pretty close.
Let's do it.
The girl from
Empanada.
Right, I won.
two, three, Linda girl from empanada.
No, not with me, Todd.
Todd just did one of those things where he just
kind of
walk away from
that.
Pretty cool thing that Michael's doing and trying to get.
people to, hotels are great, hotels are doing well, but he's got so many options for the hospitality.
I would love to look at some of his places, you know, outside of Green Bay, obviously, but the Florida's, the Lake Geneva's and places like that.
I'm excited about having those places.
And
did you hear what he's doing down in Nashville?
Yeah.
That's a great
thing.
Yeah, that'd be fun too.
So
a lot of people.
You know what I'd be willing to do?
I'd be willing to move to Italy and run a branch of his in Italy.
I'd be willing to do that.
Todd I wonder how he'd feel about
it.
Good?
He'd feel good about it, I
think.
Well, he's loved the building, so we could talk.
Yeah, that Italy thinks you bring that up a lot.
You should maybe look at that.
I would love that.
I mean, I think I would love that.
You know what I mean?
Yes.
But I heard in Italy a lot of, like, if you go to England or France, they speak English.
Okay.
Well, of course, England.
But I'm saying, I'm just saying in Europe, if you go to...
You know cuz I mean we're in Prague in which went to a bus station We're trying to get some information and they it's like that.
We don't speak English.
Yeah, but French a little
how are they?
No, they like French,
but German speak English Yeah, like nothing right with no problems, but Czechoslovakia does not What is Italy?
I Think when you get out of Italy, I don't know I've only been
Rome they were because I'm watching those shows where they're remodeling.
Yeah, those things and a lot of the workers don't speak English No,
and I was gonna say when you get out because those those homes aren't
no, they're all right
No, not at all way out, right?
So I think when you go way out No, I don't think they have a huge desire to speak
to speak English.
No, I mean that would be a little bit tough
You know Italian
none at all
No,
I get my but you know what my dad and my grandma always spoke Italian to each other
My mom and some of her sisters would speak Italian to each other, but my dad and mom didn't speak Italian to each other because they were such different dialects.
Yeah, isn't that crazy?
You know what though?
I You do that full immersion.
I'll bet you six weeks you could
right, but I mean I'm just saying as far as they grew up Yeah, they had like real different you never I never knew that about Italy.
Yeah, but I wish I would have learned Yeah, but yeah, I still I my dream is still to retire in Italy
So I thought you're gonna go you're on the clock.
I know.
Well, I'm that's gonna
be my summer place summer place and then it
gets hot in Italy I've heard yeah, so I would I would spend the summers in the UP in the winters in Italy Might be a ski instructor in the Alps
something
like that.
Oh Okay, yeah, but
we talked also you're on the clock.
Yeah, I know I am on the clock There's not even a question.
So I do have a question for you guys.
This was brought up to me You know Sean Katzbeck was in here yesterday from the internet
He might be able to work it out for you guys to go and maybe do a little welding at the ship.
I'm in.
And he wanted to know if you guys were in for that.
I'm in.
What you thought.
I'm in.
I'm in.
I'm in.
For those of you not watching at home, Jim is giving side-eye to Mike.
I'm in.
I'm
in.
That's one of the things that we do.
I'm going to get my welding degree.
That's
not something
you just do.
And you know what I'm doing in my head?
I'm turning back the clock.
Let's go fly a plane.
I'm turning back.
I'm 49.
I'm 48.
How old am I?
I'm 48.
I'm 48 years old.
All right.
OK.
I don't think welding is something you just let's go do that.
No, I'm going to take lessons.
OK.
If we take lessons and get trained, I would look at
it.
Can you get me into NWTC?
Because I think there's a waiting list.
Yeah, there probably
is.
Yeah.
But you always try to discourage me that I have to know math.
Yes.
But it's not discouraging you.
I'm telling you, that's a
fact.
You're discouraging yourself because you're like, I don't know,
Matt.
All right.
I'd love to be one of those shipbuilders.
Look, those are great, great jobs.
And we talk about the trades of plumbing, electrician.
That is a longevity job.
I
mean, you
show up.
Can do that for the next 30 years.
Yep.
Yep.
Got this here just like Italy.
We have different dialects in this country.
Have you ever been to Missouri?
It's very difficult to understand people there, Gizmo.
Missouri,
I wouldn't think Missouri would be- Oh yeah, there's parts of it.
Really?
Once you get down to like just south of Chicago, that accent starts kicking in, that southern accent, and Missouri is always Missouri.
Really?
Yeah.
You know, when they have those tornadoes in the interview, those people- No, not really.
They're
like,
wow.
Yeah.
I think they're from like Alabama or something really far away and they're not that far
away You'd think that you grow up with geography class in all the way through right you have geography classes You'd think you have a better perception sometimes of states and where they are I remember I did a St.
Norbert football game in Jacksonville, Illinois against the Illinois College and You would have thought we were in the deep south in the southern
That's a long state,
though.
But you know what I mean?
They had nothing to do with the Bears or Cogger,
or St.
Louis
Rams, St.
Louis Cardinals, St.
Louis, whatever.
Even
Ohio's that way, though, too.
You're down in Cincinnati.
There's that Southern drawl and stuff down there.
It's just right across the board.
And there are airports in Kentucky.
Yeah.
But if somebody's to worry from Illinois, oh, way up north, huh?
But if you say Kentucky, oh, way down south, but Kentucky's further north than Illinois, a lot of parts.
That's, this is the song.
Oh, this is your- Yeah, girl from Empanada!
Frank Sinatra did this song too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Listen, here.
Wow.
What?
It's Empanada.
It really is.
Oh my god.
Okay, we gotta get the show back on track in a couple minutes.
We gotta start a quick break.
Coming to Northeast Wisconsin live from the Civic Media Studios and featuring TV and radio broadcast veteran John Minow along with the City of Green Bay's longest-serving mayor Jim Schmidt.
This is Minow and the Mayor.
And here are your hosts.
John
Minow, and Jim Schmidt.
Hey, thank you very much.
Welcome back.
Hour number three, Minow the Mayor, 97.9 FM, WGBW, 98.3, 96.5 FM, WISS, of course, the Civic Media M. Also AM.
Give AM a try if your signal isn't really good.
1100 AM for WISS, and 1590 AM.
So give it a shot, get a texture.
Johnny, I've been trying to get you to come help me repair dumpsters for months.
Just finished welding a new floor in a 20-yard box.
You could weld and be a truck driver on the same day.
Tori, Tori, I'm in.
Just, I got gout, and I got some other stuff going on, and as soon as that's... As soon as that's good to go, I thought that was Todd giving me a bell about the thing.
Nope.
That was our buddy Dennis from the Glam Band.
So Tori, I'm in.
Just let me get some physical things, take care of it, and I'm totally in.
Special thanks Michael Friedman, Simple Life Hospitality, great things going on with him and just a tremendously good guy.
Him and Lisa are just awesome.
Nick, cheese curd, Nick.
Uh, if you're going down to the draft, you got to go to the back of the stadium view.
Glam Band will be playing down there and Nick will be slinging cheese curds and phenomenal brats from Peltkins.
So stop on down there.
Now we got to talk about something else taking place.
A good friend of ours, Thomas Swearingen, favorite chef contestant, best of home.
And you were here last summer.
I think it was Thomas.
That is, that is correct.
And I think we talked that day.
We talked more about your.
Incredible and we have to bring this up before we talk about the contest your incredible military career how you graduate from high school I want to say 92 yeah, and then you decide you went from just you had a cooking class in home boys home back and then you Few years later yada yada yada.
You're the main chef for the Department of Defense.
Yep
secretary defense William Perry.
Yep secretary defense William Perry and William Cohen During Bill Clinton time.
That's incredible
That's that's amazing.
How did that happen?
So I Was supposed I was telling a story the other day my first studio assignment was supposed to be in Turkey Okay, I go through my culinary school in in Denver, Colorado.
No, no no support or
What do they call it?
Experience?
No.
Well, no, because I was asking my instructor, how do I get my plane ticket stuff to Turkey?
It's like, well, they canceled the orders.
I end up in Virginia, Langley Air Force Base.
OK.
Airmen of the Year.
My bosses were going to the, so Langley's headquarters for Air Combat Command.
So my bosses are going to the Pentagon.
How about me?
So I interviewed in the Pentagon at the age of 20.
Um, I got where?
What high school?
Uh, from O'Connell Falls.
Okay.
Yeah.
So I'm, I've grown local.
So that's all, I mean, small town guy, you're the Pentagon.
Yeah.
So like my eyes are wide open at 20 years old.
Um, I actually got hired by three kitchens there.
Uh, went to the secretary of the air force, the secretary of defense and, uh, joint chiefs of staff all in one day, three interviews.
What are they at?
Like, I'm curious, what do they ask you?
Like what?
What does water boil at?
What are the questions?
It's got to be more on nutrition.
Well, the questions on there is, so why would you want to come to the Pentagon from a small town?
So, and then they're asking like our interests, not about my education, because I'm military trained.
So they kind of know what my background and stuff is, but we had a couple of people there that went to the CIA Culinary Institute in
New York.
There
is a
CIA
Culinary Institute.
I did not know
this.
A
lot
of
secret recipes.
The secret sauce.
Don't try to get that one.
It's $100,000 school.
I'll tell you that.
Wow.
Which is why they had to come into the army paid for it.
So they built up that college debt.
So they wanted college relief.
Well, you go to the service.
I'll be darned.
That's awesome.
So you went from there to?
So I was there for three years.
Okay.
Um, so three years, uh, and, uh, I left when, uh, so the Green Bay Packers were, uh, winning a Super Bowl 95, 96, I'm going to go back there and vacation.
So hindsight 2020, I'm coming back during the snow.
Of course.
So, uh, I worked at UWGB and, um,
One of my first job back in Green Bay was Gipper's Bar and Grill.
Oh, no kidding.
So I was there for quite a while.
My wife is a teacher.
So I met her from UWGB and her first teaching job was in Wabino.
Oh, of course.
So they were looking for, in my background, I wasn't a nutritionist, more of a food artist.
Okay.
So they asked me to apply.
I applied.
I've been there for 10 years now.
Um, and I, I used to like working for the high school kids, um, college age would be my young troops, my young airmen.
Um, but then I like, uh, uh, working with the elementary, I thought would be a little bit more challenging.
That's the best job I ever.
Best job I ever had in my life.
I'm gonna retire from that one.
Wow,
that's cool.
And this coming from a guy that was at the highest echelon of our military with a CIA and whatever, whatever.
So yeah, those kids are more fun.
My daily patron was General Colin Powell.
Wow.
So the menu I just made this last weekend for the clubhouse opening.
Yeah.
It's a stuffed tarragon chicken.
That was a recipe I got from
Event with
he was Jamaican or something wasn't
yes.
He was yes.
He was
yep That's cool.
Okay, so yada yada yada fast forward to you sitting here with us right now talking about an event.
Yeah, so um the the culinary thing that's going on the favorite chef 2025 At that school that I work at I was interested in this competition for the prize money our support group staff the cooks the
cleaning people, custodials and the maintenance people pooled together and we have a scholarship.
For the last four years, we've been giving away $3,000 to a graduating senior from Wabino School District.
So part of this, if you vote, you could vote every 24 hours on the favorite chef.
And so right now I'm in first place and I'm pretty much guaranteed to win the first round.
So I'm gonna make the top 15 starting next week.
You can continue to vote until June 5th.
And then at that time, that $25,000 will go to our fund, which will fund that scholarship for the next couple of years.
And then I get to go to New York to compete or to have a cooking thing with the Taste of Homes.
I mean, this is big time.
Yeah, they're bringing your right to New York.
Explain what Taste of Homes is.
Taste of Homes is a culinary magazine.
Like for most part, you can gather recipes, you can get, so that's a nationwide or global magazine.
So in today's day and age, I'm assuming this competition is not just local, it's not just Wisconsin.
This is almost a global competition.
So if you look at some of the entrance, you can post your recipes, you can post your food art.
Most of that stuff is from,
New York, it's from Chicago, so I'm coming from a small area, which is, I'm thankful for you guys inviting me.
It's getting my information.
Glad to have you here.
New York, Chicago, Wabino, that's not...
We don't even have a stoplight in
Wabino.
So there's two things here, right?
One is to get you to the top 15, right?
And that's...
what we can vote for you.
And what's the website or what's the, tell me what we go to.
It is a favorite chef top, favorite chef 2025.
And now it's, it's, it's based off of social media.
So Facebook and.
All
right.
So favorite chef 2025.
And we just go in there and your name's there.
My name, yeah, you can, you can look up for Tom Swaranger.
Okay.
And we vote for you there.
We can also donate for you
for your cause.
So every, every.
24 hours, you get one free vote.
If you want to donate money to the James Beard Foundation, I think every vote, every dollar gets you two votes.
Okay.
So, and they have links and stuff for that.
All right.
I would be clear here though, if so, if I, we donate $10, we get 20 votes.
Yep.
And that $10 goes to
James Beard,
which is
is a, is a organization for like James Beard was
a cookbook writer.
He was one of the first people to start like the food network stuff, so stuff online.
And so this is, we're talking, so he's one of the first people to do the food on TV.
Okay.
All right, great.
Hey, tell me a little bit about the golf course.
Oh, see, yeah.
So we're, we've just opened Pine Hills, the supper club hours.
So that's Friday, Saturday, and we do a Sunday brunch.
So we're open five to nine.
Uh, and we're part of the north star.
So if you come out, uh, north star casino, so if you come on out, uh, you, um, do our son, say you do a Sunday brunch, they get, they do a free play.
So you get a $10 free play for any purchase that you do.
Uh, we are, we put that on a game.
We bet the free play.
All that to the NFL season.
So we're, uh, we're waiting for, uh, it'll probably be next week.
I'm thinking we're going to get.
60 degree weather right now 75 our fairways will be open green and lush So we're looking around the 15 16th.
Hopefully the golf course will be open and where do you do the brunch?
The brunch is right in the clubhouse.
Um, so we're about 10 minutes from the from the casino.
Yeah, um 18 hole golf course We hit this last weekend.
We had a prime rib smoke pork loin
For brunch?
For brunch, beef tips.
I'm out front doing an omelet station and I'd be glad to share my military stories with you.
I'd love it.
Fantastic.
Wow.
And tell them exactly where you guys are.
So just outside of Gresham.
Yeah.
Bowler?
Bowler, between Bowler and Gresham.
Yep.
So we take 29.
Yes, 54.
29.
29.
29.
Right.
Yep.
Okay.
And.
So 29 is about 45 minutes drive.
Okay.
Yeah.
West of Green Bay on 29, and then get into Gresham, and then Highway, I think it's Highway A. We'll take you all to, we'll take you out there.
Okay, if you've been on the military long enough, you can tell us some secrets about guys.
Oh, I got, I got one of those.
Okay, go
ahead.
about Bill Clinton.
So I
was there.
Wow, you're the only one.
It's gotta be good if nobody's heard this one.
I was 22 years old when Bill and Monica were messing around.
So secrets.
Well, Monica was there on.
Did you know it?
Did you know it at the time?
No, but we heard about it.
Well, that's what I mean.
Was there rumors going around?
Yeah, because we work with Secret Service.
OK.
So before most of that, before most of that.
These guys are so
tight.
Clear the rest of our schedule for the rest of the week.
So those guys were obviously trying to get her out of the White House.
Sure.
Um, and she is on, um, she was on a student, uh, she was intern.
So she was an intern.
So if they didn't want to, if you kick her out of there or fire her, she's gonna- Turn down
that
damn music!
She's gonna hold that thought right
there.
We have to,
yeah, we gotta vet this story first.
Untold service from the White House.
More
after this.
Mino and the mayor here on a Tuesday morning with Thomas Swerngen, favorite chef consultant.
We'll talk more about that.
But first, some inside stories from when he worked at the White House.
Yeah, so we were talking about when Monica and Bill were having their affair.
So she's an intern, and the Secret Service obviously knew what was going on, wanted her to...
not fire her, but remove her from there.
So she's part of DOD, so she's going to, they're going to get her job in a Pentagon somewhere.
At that time, the National Enquirer is doing, we'll give somebody a million dollars with a picture of Monica in the dress.
So we do- I've got one.
I looked.
Wow.
We would trade, so if we're doing caterings in the Pentagon for the SecDef,
He had a civilian photographer that would trade we'd trade food like what our lunch was for pictures So she would develop them bring them up
put dates on the event that we had.
Just for ourselves basically.
So we're giving you food every day.
We would love a picture.
That was before cell phones, 92, 93.
Nobody had that kind of technology.
So we were trading food for that.
I went through every single picture, like three years worth of pictures.
I'll trade, I would have gave Bill up in a heartbeat.
22 years old, give me a million dollars.
O'Connell falls on
that one.
Riverside, you know, kind of falls.
Right.
Wow.
That's
cool.
Did somebody cough it up?
It never got, well, I think what happened with it is she, they confiscated it.
They still have it.
The
dress.
Yeah.
Oh yeah,
I know.
Yeah, I just, okay.
Yep, they still have it.
Wow.
Did you ever see her like around?
Again, like, so she's an intern, she's running to get somebody's food.
Right.
So I wasn't sure if she was in...
Office of the Secretary of Defense, so OSD.
So like OSD is like a private membership.
These people didn't pay money for food.
They just signed their name.
Like you're at a country club.
So they just, you give them a, you give the member the card, they sign their name and their office pays for it.
So they would have sent interns.
I've never seen her in there.
So she obviously didn't get to the SecDefs office.
Wow.
That's amazing stuff.
What an experience you had.
I got to ask, like Colin Powell, do you have a favorite food?
I mean, do these guys have
bacon
cheeseburger?
Really?
I remember, like, 21 years old, but one of the first months I was there, they put me on the grill station, so we would rotate throughout the kitchen, so we're not doing the same thing.
So, runs up.
He's eating lunch with the sectif in the office, so it's a
good china everything running up there i'm making there like you better do a good job with it that's general paul's uh that's his cheeseburger well i'll be bacon
cheeseburger
that's
uh you
know there
must be something magical about bacon cheeseburgers because ridden joe vertigan's book uh he had been a uh a guard at the prison here in green bay for years and years and years he wrote a book about you know life the reformatory yeah and the whole thing it talked about one day the um
the inmates were really upset about something, so they weren't going on strike.
They wouldn't do anything, wouldn't do their work, wouldn't come out, wouldn't do anything.
And they said, okay, Thursday night, making cheeseburger night, is canceled.
The protest was
canceled.
The hunger strike was over.
So we just had an ice storm up in Wabino.
Last Friday was the first day back since, because we had spring break and then the ice storm.
I lost all my produce, but my freezer was awesome, right?
So that's the first meal.
I bought an event grill for the school.
My first meal for the students on Friday was a half pound bacon cheeseburger.
Oh, I bet they love it.
I did not hear one complaint.
That's awesome,
man.
What
a great
career.
A guy like that who could order anything.
He wanted and, you know, that's just a something that
we
would all eat,
right?
I mean,
that's pretty cool.
It just kind
of
shows.
He was,
uh, I love hearing stories like that.
Me too.
So actually my, my boss in, uh, Pentagon's from two rivers area.
Really?
Uh, so when I first got hired there, he's like, you're a Wisconsin guy.
And it's, uh, David Eisner.
So the Eisner family, uh, he was, um, he was actually, uh, the one assigned to, uh, this his office, sec desk office.
Wow.
So like that's a small world.
Yeah.
And.
They do love you know, I think that's cool that you're from Wisconsin.
You got to be you're a good guy, you know, like they don't even ask any questions Yeah,
that's cool.
Yeah,
all
right two small town guys, right?
I mean good making it big in the you know,
that's awesome.
Congratulations on that.
Yeah, that's great Hey, so this thing that you're what's the end game on this?
promotion
that we're in.
So for me, the immediate is so when June 5th, which is graduation time, so hopefully they distribute the check and I could start filling our scholarship, our support staff scholarship.
So Will, for me, it's to fund my scholarship.
and to promote culinary arts, because I talk to all my students.
I'm getting them involved in it too.
So now they're looking at the food art.
So I'm promoting and sharing my story with people.
Are you teaching
a class there?
I do a lot with our foods program.
OK.
Yeah.
Preble here.
It does a good job in Green Bay.
I'm sure there's a lot of schools in Oshkosh, Appleton.
That's
a great career.
One of the benefits, it's awesome that I get to talk to young kids.
My reward is some of them don't remember who Bill Clinton is because they weren't born yet.
But I do a summer school and I do a culinary program with the little kids at summer school.
Love it.
Love it.
And it's like the young high school kids, I was that kid.
I wasn't going to college.
So I give them, I share my experience.
And you could see some of them leaning towards it, but at least they know there's other options for them.
The best class I ever had was the culinary class in high school.
And so from high school in the military, I got to fly an F-15 at 19.
Because I was flipping eggs on the grill.
I was airman of the year at Langley Air Force Base.
So one of the, they give you an incentive flight.
Uh, so at 19 years old from that culinary class and just liking the cook, um, a year and a half later, I'm getting a top secret security clearance, cooking for the president.
Phenomenal.
Tom, congratulations.
Not
only a great career, but what are you doing?
Talk about paying it forward.
I know that's a little bit of a cliche, but it's true.
And you're one of those people that are paying it all forward.
Absolutely.
And I'm encouraging, uh, my staff to do that too.
Okay.
After asking one question, nobody else would know what I'm talking about.
Were you guided, directed, and was your inspiration a good friend of mine from Nagani, Al Perucco?
Yes, absolutely.
Absolutely.
One of your teachers.
One of my teachers, yeah.
Another teacher was Marine Corporal Alan Cosner.
Oh, I knew him too.
Yep, so Alan Cosner.
Legendary.
Alan Cosner's part of Flight 19.
That's fantastic.
All right, favorite chef 2025.
Beautiful.
Thomas, thanks for being in here, buddy.
I'm coming to that brunch.
I'm not even kidding.
When the weather gets warmer, I'm coming to that brunch.
Quick breaker, we come back.
The great undy giveaway.
Oh, yeah, that's come that
Monica
Download the Civic Media app today from the Apple Store or Google Play Store and text the studio directly, all from the Civic Media app. Download it today. Now, once again, here's Mino and the Mayor, John Mino and Jim Schmidt. Hey, thank you very much. Welcome back, Mino and the Mayor, here at 21 degrees in Green Bay, 24 in Aptin, 21 in Oshkosh, mostly sunny high in the low 40s today. Special thanks to Cheese Curt, Nick, for coming in today from the Dog House, and they, of course, will be very prominent outside
the stadium view during the NFL draft. Michael Friedman, of course, simple life hospitality. He's awesome. And if you're looking for places to stay around the Green Bay area, Wisconsin or.
points far beyond possibly in Italy very soon contact him. Thomas Swearingen favorite chef contestant best of home please check out that out that he's had an amazing career and now a couple of ladies that are really trying to do their best and and it sounds like for your entire adult lives with your careers one way or another you guys have always been involved in helping the less fortunate. Carissa Buck and Lisa Jones community clothes closets the great underwear give back.
Your whole careers, they're all of, what, 27, 28? But anyway, thank you for being here. No, but, I mean, okay, you're a boys and girls club, and what else? You mean, right? You mean, which is great. That's great. Yourself? Yeah, so I was with the hospital prior to this. Worked in an emergency room. I have just different things. I probably just sounded like they were older when he did the intro, and I thought, oh my god, you guys are so young. Which is great that you're starting to be such young. You're old for your age, in a good way. Yeah, in a great way. No, no, no, no, no. You have great experience for your age.
You know, we have people that come in here and we talk about giving is so important, right? And, you know, toys for tots and they may use the toy, you know, once a week or once a day or something like that. What you're doing is something maybe we don't think about as much and that's just underwear for.
kids for people and this is a great drive you're doing. So tell us, I don't know, I came up with the concept and it's probably one of the biggest needs out there that's not addressed. Yeah. Do you want to go ahead? No, you can go.
Our mission is about providing free clothing to people in need. And so we're providing clothing for families from infants all the way up to adult sizes. And probably one of our biggest requests is for underwear. And it's just something that isn't donated. People don't think about it. A lot of us take it for granted. You know, if you need it, you just go out and buy it. But for a lot of our families, that is not an option. So it might be one of the priorities if they're thinking about, you know, I put this money towards food.
for another couple of days versus that, right? Yes, they're making hard decisions every day. Like you said, food, everything has gone up in cost. So, you know, if you're gonna provide your child a coat or get underwear, you know, you're gonna choose that coat. That's really important. So when people are shopping, they just pick up another set of, you're talking any infant to adult, you know? Yep, any size, we're collecting all sizes. Let me ask you though, there's gotta be something you need a little bit more than others, is there? As far as sizing goes.
Really all of it. I mean we we get a couple few thousand pairs each year But we are serving over eleven thousand individuals So that's not even enough to give each person one pair of underwear in a year and I'll be honest with you It's not cheap underwear isn't cheap anymore either. No, I mean I went to buy a pack of t-shirts the other day and I was shocked at how much a pack of regular
Walmart-type t-shirts were. So I mean, for these people, like we're talking, they have to make every buck stretch as far as possible. Right, and when you have a family the size, you know, an average size of four, we're working with a lot of families who are, you know, six, you know, four or five kids. That adds up very quickly. Absolutely. So we're out shopping, we buy a couple sets. What do we do? Where do we drop them off?
Okay, you're gonna make her talk. All right, so yeah, you can go to the community clothes closet right in Manasha. We also have two drop-off locations at WFBR. FRV. FRV, sorry. So that's the one running 41 and then here on Mason, right? Okay, great. That's a great, we love them. And then we also have the Fox River Mall. There's three locations within the mall that you can drop off. That's nice, just buy them right there and go right over there and drop them off. Okay, easy. And then last one would be
Gundersons, and that's in Nina Oshkosh and Appleton. But that's pretty cool. It got the collection box. It's a Macy's Wing target court and the food court. Can't get much more convenient.
Going to Target, yeah, you can, all right, people can do this. What a great thing that you guys are doing. And how about the distribution? How does that work? Like, can you get them to the families? Yes, so as they come in, we actually take them out of the package, we size them, and then we put them out for our families. So as they come in and shop, they can pick out, you know, two to three pairs while they're with us, so. Wasn't that great. Do you encourage them to pick out like some fun ones for kids? You know what I mean? You know what I mean? Disney characters or whatever. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's very fun.
Oh, for sure. Kids love to pick out their own, so we definitely tell the parents, like, hey, let them have a chance to do that, so yes. That's cool. Yeah, and if your son, daughter, get two pair, right, one for your kid, because they pick out what they want, right? So we kind of know you're getting the right thing, because... I mean, we've all been involved with...
Incredible number of charities. We're not pondering our chest right like that, but I'm just saying I still think back of when we're doing a thing I'm sure you did it to Jim during the service league They put on that big thing the back to school. Yeah, we take the kids That was one of the that was one of the most because anybody can write out a checker Okay, when you're actually with that little kid and they don't quite believe that they can have that backpack And they can't they can have those things and they can
It's like, what an amazing feeling that is. If a person wants to feel good, and again, not say, oh, what a wonderful, but just to know the need and what you can do that might not seem like a huge thing that is such a huge thing for certain people. Isn't that the truth? Yes, most definitely. I think we experience that every day at our job. So it's, yeah, I think it's pretty eye-opening to see that. That's a good point too. And it's new.
It's cool, it's the fashionable stuff. It doesn't look like leftovers, you know what I mean? And I think that's really, really important that these kids feel good about themselves. Yeah, I think the thing is too is that we do get things donated, but it's just having that new, fresh, well-fitting pair of underwear and having that dignity associated with that. I'm an old guy and I'm still looking for that well-fitted pair of underwear.
I'm totally honest. Maybe these fine ladies can help you out. Can they let me go through the bins? Because I never want to bite the bullet and buy that bigger size. Do you know what I mean? It's like, no, these are good. I'm going to be losing a few. I haven't, we all been kind of, Jim. I'm just saying, how can you do this? You said 11,000, that's a huge deed. Yes.
Yeah, this is our first time actually running this specific campaign. So we've done, you know, pajamas in the past. We've done back to school, things like that. But this is our first on the campaign. So who is we? Tell me about your organization and you obviously volunteers, yes? Yes. Yeah, I mean, we're staff, but yeah, we have 150 volunteers that come in on a weekly basis and support our mission. You know,
We are serving individuals directly through our shopping floor that has thousands of items that people can come in and shop. We have shoes, we have bedding, towels, pillows. So you are the community clothes closet. That's your organization. Where's your bricks and mortar? Where's your facility? So that is in Manasha. We're right across from the University off of Midway Road. Okay. Manasha.
All right, and your hours, can we talk about that now? Yes, so we have donation hours that happen Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Monday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m., and then our client shopping hours are Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, 10 to 12.45 p.m., and Monday evenings from 6 to 7.45 p.m. And with the client shopping hours...
Is there a pre-screening for that or how does that work? Yeah, so all of our clients do have to be referred. So we work with over 90 agencies, social service agencies, schools, churches, food pantries. They will make that referral for the family. And then once referred, we issue them a card and they're able to come in and shop twice a month for a year.
That's fantastic. And everything is free. So, I mean, a lot of it's gently used and we're very picky about what we put out. I really believe in dignity. We want to make sure that, you know, you walk away feeling very confident with what you received. And so, but a lot of it also we get is new. A lot of people donate new stuff. And I will say this, you guys give that stuff away from free for free. And I know of other stores would have that exact same stuff and it'd be
Secondhand but gently but very expensive with some of that stuff. What isn't that the truth, right? Some of these people would have other ways of making money by donating, but they're giving it to you guys for free Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, so at this period of time between now and the 14th, which is Okay, this is the the the Underward Drive, so we're asking people to go out buy a couple
pair sets of underwear, drop them off at one of these locations, we'll repeat again. Is this an annual, not annual, is there something then next week that you're going to be looking for or how do people, like if you have pillows, those aren't cheap either. You must have a pillow drive or tell me a little bit more about your organization.
Yeah, so I mean, I guess we're always seeking donations year-round for everything So you can don't if you're cleaning out your closets, you know, it doesn't matter what season you can donate it to us If we can't use it for this season, we'll save it for next season You know same with pillows we do for pillows. We do require new pillows, right? Yeah, absolutely. Um, so but they have a whole list out on our website communityclosecloset.org talks about what we need what we accept So that's a great place to start now. Let me ask you a little bit about this so
The fashions can change in a hurry. Do you ever like accept something? It's like
No 16 year old girl is going to wear this cause that's too, does that happen? I feel like we can't really judge that though. Okay. Cause we, we don't know all the clients that are coming in. So it's hard to exactly like for our operations Cinderella, there were so many different styles and things like that because we just can't anticipate other people's needs like that. Unfortunately. Anybody in the room really kind of, uh, kind of blown away that Mina was the one talking.
about fashion, and what's in style. Well, because I got stuff I donate, but it's all from 1989. So I didn't know. You know some old Lindy and Fonte show shirts. We love Reggie White shirt. You know what I mean? I got a bunch of those things. Holmgren is the greatest coach. I got a bunch of those. I didn't know if those were. They might have some antique value type stuff.
I think so too. Vintage thing. Those stores are popular. Oh, definitely. Yes. And things always come back into fashion. I know. That's right. I agree with you. Keep waiting, John. You know, let me ask you this. And I mentioned this before, and we had fun with it. But to be in your types of jobs, you have to have a certain passion. It's not no disrespect to any other company out here. You know, by me, you could go work for a Shriver cheese across the street. And I'm not sure you're.
Passion is sliced cheese. You know what I mean? It's like just something though about helping people That's got to be a little bit more internal than just the job itself true very true. Yeah, where does that come from? You know, I think it comes from just wanting to to help others to you know have a
kind of like a purpose that's driving you every single day. When I go to work, it's something that I love doing. I love helping. It's that passion that's ingrained in me. How about for yourself? Yeah, I would say the same. I think I grew up, you know, my parents were involved with the community and giving back. And so that was something I witnessed very early on. But I think it's important that everyone feels like they have a chance. And so, you know, even just smiling at someone, you know,
acknowledging them, that can make a big difference in someone's day. And so that's, you know, I just think for all of our clients, like just making them feel valued, that they have a purpose as well. That's cool. That's very cool. And I think you made a good point. You used the word dignity, but I mean, it's just people need to, you know, that's whole Mosul's hierarchy, right? You got to, you know, they got to feel safe, they got to eat, but then ultimately you want them to just feel confident, feel good about themselves. And like you said, this program you're doing is part of that. I mean, people don't
see how it's all connected, and you bring that all together. This is really important stuff that you're doing, and you obviously see it firsthand. Give yourselves a pitch one more time. You got one minute.
Well, yes, so Community Clothes Closet. We are doing the great undie give back and hoping to collect sizes of underwear, all sizes of underwear for everybody. And that's through the 14th. So we would appreciate all your support. Communityclothescloset.org. We get all the information there. Yep. Thanks for doing this, you guys. This is awesome. Yeah, thank you for having us. You bet. Hey, let me ask you one quick question. If somebody wanted to volunteer for you guys, I mean, you have unpaid volunteer positions, right?
Yes, yes, for the most part. OK, how can they get involved? Because somebody might be listening and say, hey, they might text me or Jim or Todd. How do I get involved with them as a volunteer?
Yeah, so you go out to our website, communityclosecloset.org, under About Us. There's a volunteer page there, and you can fill out an application, and our manager is amazing. She'll reach out. Sounds great. Thanks so much for being here. Carissa Buck, Lisa Jones, Community Closed Closet, the great Undy Giveback. You get another week to do it. Really convenient locations. WFRV, Local 5 here downtown Green Bay, or just outside downtown Green Bay on Roosevelt and Mason Street, or along the highway. You can see it about half
way in between just a little bit out of Appleton. Macy's Target Court and Food Court in the Fox River Mall. Gunderson Cleaners in Nina, Aptin and Oshkosh and the Community Clothes Closet. You can drop the stuff off there up until April through April 14th or make a financial gift towards the purchase for these people. Awesome. Great work you guys. Carissa and Lisa Community Clothes Closet. Back after this.
Special thanks, Carissa Buck, Lisa Jones, Community Clothes Closet, the great Undie giveaway. You know, I was just talking with Lisa about to. Yeah, what? Lisa. Yeah. Carissa. No, Lisa. Right. Yeah. Talk about where she's from in Texas. Yeah. Oh boy, you cowboy fan up here in packages. No, I never liked her. But I said, I said, what don't? And she said, wake up. I said, oh my God, we're hoping to go to Waco because we're huge fans of Chip and Joanna.
Fowler Gage show. Yep. Yeah. The jeans. They have the really popular TV show. It's been. Fixer upper. Fixer upper. It was like the first really mega popular one where they had like personalities as a people. I mean, it used to be like Bob Vila. Yes. And the Fixus old house and Norm. Yeah. We got to have the seven eighths. They're screwdriver. Right there. There. And you know what I mean? And then they brought the girl. Yeah. Yeah. With the personality and the whole thing. And then that.
GenRaw exploded. But that led the way. But they're from Waco. And we've always wanted to go to Waco. And Lisa just said, oh, my best friend's parents just built a house right next door to Joanna's parents. So should we see them all the time? I was like, wow, that's cool. I'm big fans of theirs. Huge fans. But Waco is. Have you? I've never been there. No, but OK.
No, good. It's really since they started their business down there. It is like one of the places people want to move to and live and all that kind of like that place in Mississippi and Laurel, Mississippi. Yeah, hometown, that TV show. Yeah. Yeah. I like that show too. Yeah, me too. But you know, I will say something funny though. They make that town, Laurel, Mississippi look like this most picturesque little
Ernest Hemingway, then I was reading about towns with higher crime rates than your experience is like Laurel, Mississippi, all these ones. It's like they can make anything look really, really good. There's a lot more articles out today about cost of living. And it's amazing. You know, it's an expensive place to live, believe it or not, is Detroit, where how much of your money goes to your mortgage and it should be over 30%. I mean, it really should be 28, 29. It's like,
51. Okay. Can I give you a personal story on that? No, I'll tell you, John. You know why? It's because you don't make a lot and the houses are so expensive. Yeah. But that's pretty much anywhere now, isn't it? No, but it really isn't. There was a lot of them that were still 30, 31, 32, 33. I mean, you know, that's still more than it should be, but I was surprised. I would thought it would have been a different city. I was just surprised that Detroit, because I thought Detroit paid a higher wage because of some of the industry they have there. And I just thought there was a lot of
living units there that the supply and demand would have been a little bit lower. I was just surprised it was that high. I'm just gonna tell you my experience with something like that. When I was gonna leave Tucson, they brought me up to Flint for a job interview, okay? So, except for the job, grabbed a newspaper, which in those days was the only way to find real estate. Yeah. Grabbed a newspaper, brought it back. We're sitting there, it's like, oh my gosh, look at this. Four bedroom, 36,000. Circle that.
Such as a circle. Oh my gosh. So when I accepted, I looked at, when I accepted my contract, it's the only time I've never argued or not argued. It's the only time I didn't argue or whatever, you know, and I just accepted the first. I'll take it. Yes. Um, we get there and we got a map and we go to these places and I'm just saying, and then I asked, I talked to a cop who has worked at the station as well, or the, her.
My producer's husband was a cop. Yeah, he had it and I showed him he says um Yeah, probably not crime rate right there is really bad. We're here Drughouse right there. We're kind of looking at so-and-so. So what we had to do was move far outside of where we thought we're going to and spend almost almost twice as much as we thought but my pay didn't go up So I wonder if part of that right is a fact with some of those kind of cities
you know so yeah there's yeah and there were nice little enclaves within the city but those were really expensive too because they were cut you know that was a safe area right i mean you gotta remember when i moved to flint it had the highest murder rate in the nation and and the factories had just shut down and it's just like everybody's unemployed it's like whoa you got to pay whatever you want to pay to kind of get out of dodge i i think it's still up there
Probably, I don't know, with the murder capital? Yeah. The capital was, I remember looking at it like 10 years ago. It was real, 1982, 1983. It was a rough place to be. Yeah. I mean, I loved it because the sports was phenomenal, but... But my point was, when you buy a house, and we talk about that all the time. And then we just jump into the thing that you also know real estate-wise. My real estate person I talked to didn't mention anything like that. And I didn't realize it until I was going for my...
My real estate exam, you can't, that's illegal for a real estate person to talk about that. They can just direct you to where you can get the information. So I went to that my producer's husband who was a cop and said, point out some that are, you know. So that's what I'm saying as far as what Detroit might be along that same line. It just scares me sometimes that people get in too much goes to the house. You can't live and then you get arguments. I've been there. I mean, I did that. So what do you do?
Let's make it $21,000 a year. Right. Yeah. Right. And if you got a house payment, that's right. 500 bucks. That's probably what it was. I mean, that's it was tough. Yeah, that's no lie. But you got two little girls and your wife and, you know, I mean. And if somebody loses their job, then it's really tough. Absolutely. So anyway, that was. So I understand that. There's been more and more articles on that because if you look at the last couple, three years, wages have gone up. Yeah. Not ours, but.
Wages have gone up 19%. Housing has gone up 53%. Think about that, John. You're just not keeping pace.
People just got to keep an eye on that. We'll talk about that with the mouth course to make sure that yeah people are getting in the right house Not because it's the right house because kids can play but it's the right house financially one There's also think if I was a younger person, you know, it was starting out the family and I'm renting it's like holy crap I got to get a house sooner later to build up some equity Yeah, and it's it's that gambling you roll the dice. So do you say okay? It's really high. It's 53% higher than it was a few years ago. Is it gonna go? Are we good betting it coming down?
Or are we worried it's gonna keep going up? Tough decision to make.
That's it. It's a yeah, I wouldn't want to be a young person with a family right now try to navigate all the things going on I'll tell you what man great lineup Todd. This is fun. She's Kurt Nick Michael Friedman simple life hospitality Thomas Swerge and favorite chef contest best of home Chris about Lisa Jones community clothes closet great people helping out our community We are out of time. I will be at the courthouse today talking civics with high school. Yeah, yeah Hope they don't fall asleep on me like last year. See ya
