Checking Up On The Neighbors (Hour 2)

Good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome to Matt Nair on air.

Jane Matt Nair, Greg Buck and Calvin Butenoff coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.

You can always join us, call or text the number is the same.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

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We have a busy, busy show for you today.

Coming up in about a half an hour, Journal Sentinel reporter James Causey is going to be joining us.

He had an article last week.

He and his wife were caught in a police chase.

Lots of reckless driving in Milwaukee lots of efforts being spent lots of money being spent bump outs speed bumps Traffic calming measures traffic calming measures Trying to cut down on this and James Causey at least according to the article that he wrote about this has some different ideas about what should happen With people who continue to drive recklessly in Milwaukee should be a very interesting conversation.

I hope you will join us for that in hour number two

The results will be announced today.

I

don't want to know I got I want I want to hear it.

I Want to hear it

be excited From the beak itself From the the spokes speak the spokes speak ever shots is gonna be here to announce the winner of Wisconsin's fat bird week Lots of excitement around this.

Oh, yeah, it was a bracket style voting

And we'll see who ended up as Wisconsin's fattest bird.

And this is a wonderful way to bring attention to conservation efforts in Wisconsin, the importance of birds to our lives seriously.

And it's just a good, happy thing.

It's just something here, folks, to make you feel good for a moment.

That's what we like to do here on the show.

Absolutely.

At 1030, we have audio survey coming up, and this is going to be related to something that I did over the weekend.

I hope I'm not the only one who's old enough to remember Mrs. Kravitz from the old Bewitch series.

I did a Mrs. Kravitz over the weekend.

I hope I'm not the only one.

I bet you're not.

We'll talk about that after 10.30 your Mrs. Kravitz moments and then we'll wrap up the show as we always do with this shouldn't be a thing.

Today it's the Mayor McChese cracks down edition.

There you go.

Not laughing about this one boy.

Never laugh about about crime and

burger land

in burger land that's coming up at the very end of the show around 1051 so stick around for that one of the start off though this is good news if you're in the stock market stocks stocks at the opening bell are up the S&P 500 open 2.9% higher the Dow jumped 2.5% and the Nasdaq up almost 4% as the opening bell got underway today global markets this from the Washington Post have been volatile since late February

That's when the White House started announcing these tariffs willy-nilly.

All three indexes fell deep into correction territory before recovering.

On Friday, things were not good when the market closed, but the deal has offered a temporary reprieve.

U.S.

tariffs now after Scott Besant met with the Chinese over the weekend.

They have cut our tariffs on Chinese good from 145 percent, now to 30 percent.

Hmm in exchange Beijing will cut its blanket tariffs on American products from 125 percent to 10 percent both of those kick in on Wednesday This is only for 90 days.

Yeah.

Yeah, I Would have paid money to been in that room to watch the Chinese just probably say this is what's going to happen

145 down to 30s quite a

Yeah, it's almost like it's almost like it was bloviating from the start.

I mean, I guess when you're in negotiations and I've trust me, I've never been in high-powered negotiations, but I guess you start really high and Then you come down mm-hmm a lot drastically over a hundred percent So anyway, this is we'll kick in on Wednesday.

That's good news.

Yeah, and hopefully

our ports, which are pretty much empty right now.

We'll start filling up once again, and all those truckers who are concerned about losing their jobs because they would not have anything to move will be back on the roads.

I just say this though, Jay.

Can I say something?

You may certainly.

I think maybe instead of playing with...

The stock market the way they did and the job that like you just said people afraid they're gonna lose their jobs ports being empty Maybe they could have came out this whole tariffs thing with a more professional business governmental type of mentality instead of we are going to Punish the people of this country to get our way and then when they finally get their way people are saying we'll give them the credit they're due Yeah, I was trying to give them the credit when the stock market was tanking and they didn't want it so

No, it's, you know,

good job, I guess.

Well, again, this kicks in on Wednesday, last for 90 days.

We'll see, you know, mines can always change.

Oh, good Lord, can they ever?

Just at the last second.

So we'll keep you updated on that.

But again, as of us coming on the air right now, stocks are up.

So that is good news.

Again, a lot of people have their 401Ks invested in the stock market and all kinds of things.

So that is good.

I wanted to start off with this, and I'm very curious for your opinion,

at 855-752-4842-855-75 Civic.

This goes to the Abundant Life Christian School shooting and the sixth, the young girl who committed this act and then apparently took her own life.

Her father has been arrested for supplying her with the guns, even though she was underage.

Is this the right thing?

Should we be arresting the parents of young gunmen?

I think if they're supplying them illegally, then yes.

This isn't the first time this happened either.

They've arrested parents before.

The couple in Michigan.

They're the first ones.

This is a pretty new thing that parents are being held responsible for their children's actions when it comes to guns and their access to guns.

I mean, if a child goes and buys a gun on the street and does something,

What we're seeing in both instances is that there was easy access to guns in the home, and the parents were encouraging.

Or at the very least

apathetic.

Well, yeah, I mean, he bought her these guns.

Yeah.

So Jeffrey Ruppnow is the father who has been arrested.

I believe he's out on bond.

His daughter had a history of cutting herself, which is tragic.

Yes.

He had...

told police that he had locked up every knife in the house at one point.

And at another time, he brought his daughter to the ER, but they got her into therapy, which is great.

She wasn't therapy for anger, anxiety, depression, anger and self harm.

Then he gave her a handgun as a Christmas present in 2023 and bought her a second handgun last summer.

The defendant said,

It was my gun, but she saved up.

It was her own money.

As a reminder, you do have to be 18 years old to purchase firearm in Wisconsin.

Natalie Ruppnow was 14 at the time.

By the time she started at Abundant Life Christian School as a freshman, Jeffrey, the dad, concluded his daughter's problems were minor.

Thought she had beaten it and did not enroll her back in therapy.

There was never a time he said when she told me that there was a serious concern He also apparently disregarded his daughter's repeated comments that she wanted to kill herself Telling officers he thought she was just doing it for attention This is from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel behaviors like violence toward animals which we talked about many times in the past That is a very disturbing sign.

Yes violence toward animals expressing an intent to engage in violence and

and troubling social media posts, our warning signs when paired with a troubled home life or other bad childhood experiences.

Is this the right thing?

Should we be arresting more parents or supplying weapons for their children and not supplying weapons for them to commit a terrible heinous act like happened at Abundant Christian Life School?

But when those

Weapons are then used in that way should their parents be held responsible 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 Jeffrey Rupp knows bail has been set a $20,000 cash after he was charged Connect in connection criminally with that December 16th shooting He is facing two felony counts of giving a dangerous weapon to someone under 18 Also charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor which is another felony

I personally think yes because he is the parent.

He gave his child a gun who shouldn't be having a gun.

First of all, just legally should not be having a gun.

They're not allowed to have a gun until they're 18.

And everything you just told me with regard to the mental health aspect of everything, that is so irresponsible on his part.

First of all, you never beat it.

You always, you learn to manage your mental.

If you suffer from mental illness you go to therapy you do the work This young lady should never have been anywhere near a gun just for her own safety period not even for the safety of others I Can't say in every situation it's the right thing to arrest the parent but I think in this situation I think it is because he is responsible he gave her the means of doing these things and then and not only did we lose

all those individuals, we lost her too.

And I'm sorry, I know she is the perpetrator, I know she is the person who did this, but I still, after listening to all this, I can't just sit here with a cold heart and say, well, too bad for her.

No, she was hurting as well, and she needed help.

And instead, her father gave her a

gun.

are involved in gun crimes and the parents have supplied the guns.

Mary from Wauwatosa texting in, yes to parental responsibility at birth.

Parents assume 18 years of legal responsibility for their children.

And from Chippewa Falls, listening on WAUK, if a child is using a gun and they're not old enough to purchase one, then the parent should be held accountable.

And Roger from Stevens Point texting in, if the parents are being held accountable for their underage child's truancy,

They are just as liable for any actions, including bringing a weapon to school.

That's a great way of putting it.

Your kid gets, you buy beer for your kids and they're underage, you are getting arrested.

855-752-4842, is this the right move?

The father of the gunman at abundant life Christian school here in Madison,

arrested, being held on $20,000 bail for providing his daughter with these weapons.

855-752-4842.

We will continue this conversation.

Stay with us.

You are listening to Matt Nair on AIR.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

We'll be right back.

Good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome

and Dr. Slide on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.

You can always join us, call or text.

The number is the same.

855-752-4842.

Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.

Coming up after the 930 News, the journal, Sentinel's James Causie is going to join us.

He had an article in the paper last week about...

hit and run reckless driving incident that he and his wife were involved in.

And he has some ideas on what should be done to cut down on reckless driving specifically in Milwaukee.

They're trying all kinds of traffic calming methods, including, you know, bump outs on the curbs and speed bumps so big, you could, seriously, you could, you could ski off those things.

There's one on Center Street.

That's insane.

But James Causie thinks we should be spending more attention in a different way.

And I tend to agree with him.

So that's coming up after the 9 30 news right now that we were talking about the abundant school, abundant life Christian school shooting that happened here in December in Madison.

And the father of the gunman has been arrested.

He is.

on $20,000 bail.

Doesn't seem like a lot, by the way.

It really doesn't.

And the question is, should we be holding more parents accountable in this way when their child, especially an underage child, brings a gun to school and tragedy ensues?

Erin West, a 42-year-old teacher at the school, and Ruby Vergara, a 14-year-old freshman, died in that shooting.

Six other people were injured.

including another student who is still hospitalized in critical condition.

To this day?

To

this day.

Oh my goodness.

This is from, yep, this is from May 9th from Wisconsin Public Radio, Sarah Lair.

855-752-4842.

855-75 Civic, is this the right thing?

Should we be holding parents responsible in an instance like this?

According to the criminal complaint, Dad Jeffrey Rupno told police

His daughter started seeing a therapist when she was a sixth grader.

She had a history of cutting herself.

At one point, he had locked up every knife in the house.

At one point later on, he believed that she was getting better.

Yeah.

Didn't see the need to put her back into therapy.

And tragically, this happened.

And the other thing that jumps out at me is that he did have a gun safe.

The day before the shooting, Repno's daughter had one of the guns out of the family safe.

She was cleaning it.

Dad says he couldn't remember whether it ended up back in the safe or not.

He also admitted his daughter may have known how to open it.

He said she didn't officially know the combination, but at one point he told her it was his social security number backwards in case something happened to him and she needed to get at the guns.

So this is just a story of totally responsibility.

I mean, and I'm sorry, I know that I'm not a parent.

I don't understand the complexities and the difficulties of parenting, but I also do understand some basic things.

If your daughter has mental health issues, that's great that you locked up the knives.

It's great that you could cheat an M access of those things.

But I think to just then allow her access to a much more powerful weapon than a knife and to just not really take.

Take it seriously

take it

seriously you this whole pulling around a therapy if a child's in therapy it's at sixth grade.

That's 12 years old They don't just shake it off.

They don't just kick it that is a I'm sorry personally I believe therapy is a lifelong commitment It is a thing that you when you don't go back especially for kids at something you consult with the therapist counselor or doctor But just not do it anymore, and then she's talking about ending her own life

I'm sorry, absolutely.

He should be arrested.

Period.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

Cindy from Appleton is on the line.

Good morning, Cindy.

Thank you for joining us.

Well, if my dog bites somebody who's responsible.

Fair.

I am.

Yep.

If a person's child is something like this, the parents are responsible.

I'm so tired as a school bus driver of parents not wanting to take any responsibility.

for their children.

One of the reasons our society has gone down the crapper like it has is because parents seem to think they can have children, but they don't need to be responsible for them.

And that's a bunch of wheat.

I appreciate it, Cindy.

Thanks a lot.

Well, there just does seem to be, it's, they raised themselves.

Well, I mean, and that's, I mean, we, we don't have time to talk about it now and we can maybe talk about it another day, but like this whole thing that happened at Waterford High School.

Like the racist comments being hurled at these young athletes, and it wasn't just kids, it was the parents too.

And I'm hoping that these parents are held responsible as well.

That I don't like turning into like, ah, that's not a problem.

You know, that's not who I am.

But when I see parents just taking little.

little responsibility and then and then they have the nerve to say how dare you tell me what my child can read and can't read, ban these books.

These teachers should be fired.

You're not going to tell my kid about critical race theory.

It's just infuriating.

Lori from Hayward Texting and she's going to have the final word before we go to the news.

Jane is a parent of two grown children who have kids of their own.

It's clear that over the years children make their own choices and therefore are responsible for their own actions.

But in this case with a parent knowing the child has emotional issues

and yet he goes out and buys her guns when she's too young to buy her own, then definitely he should be prosecuted.

Appreciate that.

Thank you.

And a couple of comments on the livestream as well.

But, yeah, Don, there's a Polaroid picture display at the Reich Museum in Amsterdam of American children holding guns.

We have a problem.

We have a problem.

We have a problem.

News is coming up next when we come back.

Reckless driving in Milwaukee.

The Journal sent us James Causey is going to join us.

Stay with us.

You were listening to Matt Nair on air.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

So catch me if you can I'm going back

Good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome to Matt Nair on air.

Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach and Calvin Butenoff coming to you live from our studio and Radio Park in Racine where you can always join us.

Call or text the number is the same 855-752-4842.

You can leave a comment if you're watching in the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.

We are trying to connect with Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist James Causey.

We've got him on the live stream.

We're having a few audio issues.

James, I think we got you.

Can you hear us?

Okay.

Okay.

Perfect.

All right.

We have a little bit of a delay.

But thank you so much for joining us, James.

I really appreciate it.

If we continue to have audio issues, we're going to ask you to call in and we'll give you the number in the little chat.

Already done.

Already done.

OK.

So we'll see how this goes.

But you had a really important article in last week's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about an incident that you and your wife ended up in the middle of.

I think we got James frozen now in the live stream.

He is definitely frozen

James.

We're gonna ask you to call the phone number, please and we'll get you on the line and get you get you on the interview

8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 We're at a way to connect with James causey from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel I will just share the headline with you from the article that he wrote that was published May 7th My wife and I saw firsthand how a simple trip can lead to a brush with disaster

Too many young people are stealing cars and causing chaos on our roads, leading to injuries, property damage, and lost quality of life for those who happen to be in their way.

And unfortunately, this couldn't be more topical.

Today's headline from the Milwaukee Journal sent no 90 year old crossing the street dies in hit and run in Milwaukee.

The suspect arrested.

If you live in the city of Milwaukee, if you do any driving around the city of Milwaukee, you have experienced this yourself and you have seen it happen.

James, have we got you now?

I think you do.

Can you

hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Fantastic.

First of all, James, if you would take us through what happened with you and your wife, you guys were just out running errands, right?

Yeah, it was a beautiful Saturday.

We decided to go get ice cream.

My wife is a nurse, so she

enjoys those times when she's off.

So she said, you want to go get custard?

And I said, sure.

So we head over to the south side to get ice cream from cops, like a normal Saturday.

And when we were leaving, we just started noticing just because it was such a nice day, people were driving crazy and driving fast and passing on the right.

So when we were coming back home and I look off at 39th and cap.

We almost got hit by two carriages driving fast anyway, and my wife was like, it's time to get home.

So when we got off of Interstate 41 and passed, we were watching that high school.

We heard the sirens.

We could hear the sirens.

We had our windows down, and my wife was driving, and she saw this car just driving reckless, and several squad cars chasing this car.

And I told my wife, just go.

Go drive fast.

Let's get out of here.

Like no, I want to see just in case they come back our way So she was driving very cautious really slow and by the time we got to ability and Sherman This car just came crossing right in front of us about a hundred feet hundred fifty feet in front of us and it just T bone a white Mercedes right in front of

us

and will you see something like that?

Can't believe it because it seemed like this is slow, but you see it and it's hard to take

Yep,

and the people behind a wheel of the speeding car to a stolen car were teens two young boys and a young lady and It's just you see that Because they didn't get hurt, but the woman who they hit was injured and

It just, it makes you just wondering, you know, my uncle guy hit by reckless driver late last year, frustrated because it seems like all these measures that they're putting in place are not working to stop all of this stuff.

And the things that they're doing, and we were talking about this before you joined us, are the bump outs, right?

They're doing the bump outs, and they're adding these speed bumps.

And I admit, there's one speed bump on Center Street that you could do ski jumps off of.

It's so big.

But I would think that the people who are doing this know where those things are.

And for one thing, if you're driving a stolen car, you're not going to care if you get bottomed out going over a speed hump, right?

That's not...

is that much

of

They don't care about injuring you or themselves.

And the sad part is like when these young people were arrested, they two of them had a mask, right?

And I'm pretty sure that these masks were so they could conceal their identities.

I don't think they were worried about COVID or anything

like that.

Right.

They were arrested and they seemed like it seemed like it was matter of fact.

Like they expected it to happen.

Yeah, like it was matter of putting

James we're gonna have to ask you to call in because we're still glitching on the on the live stream here if you would give us a jingle and we'll do the rest of the interview that way at 855-752-4842-855-752-4842 because again we're still getting you're freezing up a little bit here and there and there's a little bit of a lag and I really

want to continue this conversation, because I think you have a very different perspective from some things that I've heard from other folks about what they think the answer is to cracking down on reckless driving.

And again, this is something, if you live in the city of Milwaukee, if you do much traveling around certain parts of the city, and it's on the north and the south side as well, you've experienced this, the Milwaukee slide, which is such a

innocuous term.

What is that?

So you're at a stoplight and someone is to the right of you in what would normally be the right turn lane.

Yes.

And then when the light turns green, they cut in front of you.

Oh, yes.

That's what that's.

That's called the Milwaukee slide, which again is this nice, not dangerous sounding thing.

It's a terrible.

It's terrible.

Yeah.

James Cosby, we got you on the line now.

Thank you so much for giving us a call.

Appreciate it.

Can you hear us?

Okay.

Yeah, I can hear you.

I'm sorry about

that.

No, not no worries at all.

Um What are you hearing from the community James because again, I think sometimes it's like you're picking on our kids and That's why we do the bump outs and the and the speed bumps Do you know what so these kids that you saw get arrested in front of you?

What happens to those kids once they get into the system or do they even get into the system?

I'm curious

Well, that's a hard part because we don't know what happens to them.

They usually go to Juvie and because of they have so many rights, it's really hard for us unless they hurt like kill someone and they're sent to adult court.

You really don't know what happens to them.

But what we've heard is and what police have told us is that after they do something like this, if it's just property damage, they're really back on the street within

you know, at the most a day or so.

Seriously?

Yeah, it's one of these things, rotating door and something has to be done to fix this because if they're not learning from their mistakes and just think about this, it was about 20 squats.

I kid you not, because they had to block off streets, they were chasing these kids and doing all this kind of stuff.

They injured a woman, tore a per car, tore up the stolen car that they were in because that car flipped.

All the damage that they did, all the people that they traumatized in this high-speed chase, and they get to walk like, okay, like they didn't even do anything.

What lessons are learned in that?

And that's the frustration part on people who have lost their property, people who have been injured, and insurance, our insurance keeps going up.

And it's like...

What are we getting for this?

I mean, we had to change insurance companies just because our insurance rates kept going up.

And we was like, we didn't even do anything.

We

reported anything, but it's based on where you live.

And so those things are so frustrating to people who are doing the right things that it just builds up and you just get angry, you know?

So that's that's how we feel.

Well, and I think tragically, for some of these kids, this is a point of honor, right?

They get to go back to their buddies and say,

Yep, we stole this thing, and we did this thing, and yep, and now we're back.

I wish I knew what was going on in their minds.

When you talk to them, they really don't have good answers as to why they do what they do.

I think we want to assume that they don't have anything better to do.

But if you just look at reading levels in the city of our kids and how they're struggling and reading and math, there's plenty of studying that they could do.

Not very sexy, but it's something they could do.

I've never spoken to a child who's still in the car, but I've talked to kids who've done things wrong.

And usually when you say, why'd you do that, they go, I don't know.

That's their full answer.

That's always their answer.

And, you know, we want to give them rollerwings.

We want to give them all these things that they could do to get out their energy and things like that.

But don't you have to earn that responsibility?

You have to earn that.

We can't just give them these things because as soon as they open these rollerwings, as soon as they open these play areas,

it'll be grand opening grand quality because they would do something to get it shut now because they have to show that they care appreciate it and I don't think they're doing that right now.

You make such a good point James a number of years ago when I was working at a different radio station and I was talking to a local activist and her solution to this was to open a racetrack on the north side so kids could go and race that way and that just seems like backwards logic to me.

Okay, let's just follow that through.

Who's gonna pay for the insurance?

What cars are they gonna be driving?

What happens if they get hurt?

I mean, that just doesn't make any kind of sense.

It doesn't even make logical sense.

I think what we would be doing is teaching them how to be better getaway drivers.

Yeah, seriously.

And, and James, something you just mentioned now was, you know, talking about reading scores and education.

I think going back to what I said about, you ask a kid why they did something wrong and they'll shrug their shows and say, I don't know, is because we're also not addressing critical mental health issues with young people and figuring out what's the root cause of the behavior they're doing.

Why are they doing that and having, and we don't have those options.

We don't have that access because, you know,

whether it's the state or the country, we don't have a true interest in mental health with our people.

And I think that part of that problem, part of the solution is access to mental health for young kids to talk about what's going on and figure out like, oh, why are they being, excuse the pun, driven to these types of things.

That's an excellent point.

And that's what our young people have been seeking.

That's one of the things that they constantly tell me that they need is mental health services.

They want teachers who look more like them.

They want

mental health counselors who look more like them.

But what do we give them?

We'll give them more police officers in schools.

and that was a fight in his own self.

That's a topic for another day.

But we give them that and that's not what they ask for.

So I think we have to start listening to the kids a little bit more.

Agreed.

If you're just joining us, Journal Sentinel columnist James Causey is our guest.

great article that we will include in our show notes about James and his wife getting caught in the midst of a reckless driving stolen car incident that must have just been terrifying.

I can't even imagine.

James, we're going to continue our conversation with you on the other side.

Stay close.

You are listening to Matt Nair on air.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

We'll be right back.

Good morning.

Welcome back to Matt Nair on air.

Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach, Calbee on the board, coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.

Join us, call or text at 855-752-4842.

Leave a comment on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter.

Joining us on the phone, Journal Sentinel columnist James Causey is with us.

He had an article last week about he and his wife were essentially in the middle

of a stolen car police chase that ended up with a major crash.

Woman injured, the kids arrested.

James, we got a whole bunch of calls lined up that we're probably not going to have time to take.

But I wanted to go back to your article where it says that you talk about making the laws more punitive, making sure that people who do steal cars and drive recklessly like this get something more than just this revolving door, right?

Well, yeah, I mean, um, if we really, you don't, you don't want the punishment to be so harsh that a young person can never recover.

But at the same time, you just don't want to give them a slap on the back of the hand because they need to understand that, you know, some people may say it's just a car and you should be okay with that.

And we used to steal cars back in the days and joy ride and stuff like that.

I'd never been in a stolen car, but a lot of people sit, you hear that kind of language.

That's something we used to do growing up.

But it's a whole lot different today than it was even back then.

These kids are stealing cars, driving crazy, putting everybody's lives in danger.

And how many people do we have to lose?

How many lives do we have to lose before you realize that this is a very, very serious crime?

And it's property damage.

And not only that, if you lose your car, that could impact your livelihood.

It gives you back months

to

cause you to lose your home.

Yes.

Yeah.

I think one of the other things too, James, that's up top of that is that, you know, I mean, I also never been in a stolen car or the joy riding thing, but you did it and then it was done and you moved on and whether it was right.

Like the severity is another discussion, but now it's also about people putting this on the internet, putting these videos on the internet for, for follows, for likes, for clicks, for all those things.

And it's, it's.

more almost about getting the attention from the world than it is about actually stealing the car, which should never do in the first place.

But I mean, there's a whole new layer, which is social media on top of this.

Oh, yeah.

Because I think a lot of young people believe it was not caught on video.

It didn't happen.

Yeah.

And they get a lot of they get a lot of praise from their friends for doing that kind of stuff.

It's just it's just crazy.

It's madness and it's a mental health element

to that.

Yes, but I wonder to James I used to work on 7th and Capitol and I would drive down from the Northwest side and I jump on the Capitol about 35th Street I almost got killed about three times a week and these weren't kids these were adults

Mm-hmm Yeah, what where do you think they get it from?

Yeah,

those kids.

And seriously, I used to want to follow some of these people to their destination and just ask them, why?

Why was that necessary for you to do that?

Why?

That wouldn't be the safest thing to do.

Which kind of stopped me.

Yeah, that kind of stopped me on that.

But you know what I'm saying, right, James?

I do know what you're saying.

You know what it comes down to.

I think a lot of people don't understand how frustrating it is until you're caught up in it.

You know, like when my uncle was injured late last year, a car struck him.

He had probably never drive again.

He's in his 80s.

It terrified him to the point.

His car got totally like, I'm done with driving.

And, you know, this is a church going man who honestly just goes out to eat and goes to church and that's, that's, and goes to the grocery store.

That's, that's all he pretty much does.

And

now he, we have to take up and pick up the pace and take them to all these different places.

So it, it's crazy.

Well, and, and, you know, we, James, and Jane and I, you are James, Jane and I have had.

discussions off air about this topic many times.

And I don't live in Milwaukee anymore.

But what I one thing I do see where I live and I live in in southeast Wisconsin, Kenosha, I drive through Kenosha and we're seen a lot.

I see its own versions of reckless driving and I don't want to sound like the old man yelling at the sky here but one of the things I think is the problem is we see movies now too where people are driving crazy and they think well I can drive like that and I'm invincible and I'm on the freeway and I'm just gonna slalom through cars and I'm gonna go I'm gonna follow I mean I've had people I am a very fastidious driver people flash their brights on when I'm going 10 miles over the speed limit because I'm not going fast enough for them

Well, you know, we could blame media if we want, but hell, I grew up on a Dukes of hazard.

Fair point.

You're absolutely right, James.

I mean, it's always been a part of pop culture to have, you know, fast driving and stuff like that.

So I don't want to just put it in on that.

I think, I think a lot of kids are seeking thrills and the excitement that they give from this.

That's what we need to try to understand why they choose to.

put their lives in danger.

And I think a lot of it gets back at a lot of these kids don't even see themselves living past a certain age.

Like they don't see themselves getting old.

So they take these chances there.

They become risk takers with not just driving recklessly, but with everything that they do in life from, you know, sex and, and every drugs and all this kind of culture that they do, because they don't see themselves living to see 18, 19, 20 and graduating from high school and going to college.

So they try to live this fast life because.

to them that's excitement that's living sure we have to we have to taper that back

well and i think that's so important james because i think that's a perspective that so many people just cannot relate to right it's that that that measure of hopelessness and that measure of i have no future what does it matter we could have you on the entire two hours of the show we would love to have you back james cosy is a uh

Milwaukee

Journal Sentinel reporter and as a great, great article that we will include in our show notes.

Thank you so much for your time, James.

Time, James, and we'd love to get you back on soon.

Okay.

Hey, thanks a lot.

Take

care.

You as well.

News is coming up next.

Tom and Carmella and Ollie, if you want to comment on this, we'll bring it back after the top of the hour news.

Stay close.

You are listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media radio network.

Good morning, welcome, welcome to Matt and air on air, Jane Matt and air, Greg Bach, Calvin Butenoff coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.

You can join us, call or text at 855-752-4842.

Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.

We're gonna lighten things up in about 15 minutes.

Emma shots will be here for the results of the voting in Wisconsin's fat bird week after 10 30.

Audio Sorbet, where we really try and take a breath and lighten things up a little bit.

Oh, the harps are here, Jane.

I had a Mrs. Kravitz moment over the weekend, Alice Kravitz.

Be witched, the old TV series.

If you're my age, you should know who she is.

I would love to know your Alice Kravitz moments.

That's after 1030 and we'll wrap up the show as we always do with this shouldn't be a thing.

But right before we went to the top of the hour news, James Causey was our guest.

He's a journalist with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

And he had an article last week talking about a firsthand experience with reckless driving.

Crash happened right in front of them.

And three teenagers, three young kids were the ones responsible.

So we were talking about, it's a epidemic.

Yeah.

It is an epidemic in the city of Milwaukee with kids stealing cars and then driving recklessly and frequently ending in crashes.

And there does seem to be this rotating door where unless someone is injured, it's considered a property crime.

I mean, it's, it's the thing that blew my mind is when he said, he told the story, he said the kids also just walked out of the car unharmed essentially too.

Oh yeah.

And unfazed.

And absolutely.

855-752-4842.

Carmella has been very patient from Milwaukee.

Good morning, Carmella.

Thank you for waiting.

Oh, no problem.

Good morning.

I was going to say, yeah, it is an epidemic, but also there are signs even before that.

Living on the north side of Milwaukee, I see it blackened windows, even the front windshield, no license plates.

And I'm talking about the others not just stealing cars.

Yeah.

you know, um, Greg it brought up.

Yeah, it's adults too.

And I see it all the time.

I had someone come up, you know, in the fire lane next to me scared, scared me one time.

And then, yeah, I went through the red light and I know that Milwaukee's trying to get more of a presence, the police anyway, but why not stop them for those blackened windows or no license plates or, you know what I mean?

Like, Michelin Diamond.

Then they can't afford to get that or do it or whatever.

That's my feeling on it.

I don't know how I could advocate for that.

It didn't mean to write my alderman forever and I haven't, but things like that.

And I've seen firsthand, like your guest James right in front of me, you know, um, the car exploded.

It was insanity.

Um, just seem that it's traumatic sometimes driving on the North side.

I will not take certain streets.

Yep.

Yeah.

I'm with you.

I am with you, Carmella.

I will avoid driving down Capitol Drive, Lisbon.

I won't drive down Lisbon.

There's a whole bunch of streets.

I'm like you, which I will avoid in, I'll add a 30 minutes onto my drive.

in order to avoid some of those strips.

Thank you, Carmela.

I really appreciate it.

Ali from the Northwoods also has been waiting a long time.

Thank you, Ali.

What did you want to say about this?

Well, I have to say first off that I have never been to Milwaukee or driven in Milwaukee per se.

But I do understand the need for stricter rules and stricter consequences.

not only for the kids but for the adults too.

Time and time and time you hear or see in the newspaper where this person has had a DUI and it's like their fourth, fifth, I even saw one time where the person had been 11 times picked up DUI and there's nothing done and that's a big problem in our society that

there is no consequences for them driving like that and putting others in jeopardy too.

Yep.

I appreciate it, Ollie.

Thank you for checking in on this 855-752-4842.

You can text, you can call.

The number is the same if you want to comment on reckless driving and what we can do to combat reckless driving.

Casper in Madison says, I think a big part of this is generational poverty.

It breeds hopelessness.

And with that come all sorts of bad things.

And as far as what Carmella was talking about, I have never seen more cars without tabs in

my tabs.

Your your sticker.

Oh, yes.

I

there are without plates, without tabs, even some that are really questionable as far as their roadworthiness.

Yeah,

there are

some cars you see on the road that are held together with

gum and spit.

I mean, the thing too is, you know, the problem is for the police is that that is a heavy duty commitment of energy and, and, and manpower or, you know, power, um, to police the streets.

And that made me, they would be pulling people over.

And, and once again, I want to reiterate, like, I know we, we spent a lot of time talking about Milwaukee.

This is a problem in a lot of places.

You live in Kenosha.

You've seen it there too.

And I would say, and I remember saying to you on the air, when I used to drive to our old Waukesha station,

I would drive an hour from Kenosha to Waukesha,

and

I would take the backcountry roads, and the driving that happened at 5.30 in the morning was terrifying.

Because you have these long, abandoned, dark roads.

You can't see anything.

You can't see cops.

You can't see anyone, or deer, or me.

And people would just come speeding past me on a two-lane road.

If we, if we had to do that, the police would be basically pulling people over and

shooting

people and arresting people for driving alone so much that I don't know if other crime would be handled.

But I mean, I don't, I don't disagree.

And I completely see the point of saying they need to do more, but especially now they would be, there would have to be a whole new division just dedicated to this.

And maybe there should be.

Yeah.

We have Lisa on the live stream says it is an epidemic.

I just called police yesterday to report a reckless driver Thank you for bringing up the topic.

You are most welcome Lisa again I think for a lot of us and if you drive on the freeways It's not just kids.

No, it's

not just kids who are doing this.

It's adults I see them every single day on my drive down to Racine Jack from Racine is on the line.

Good morning Jack.

Thank you for joining us

Good morning another interesting topic.

I did hear your convert great conversation about guns and gun safety this morning and that And they talked about the locking locking guns up and safes And I just I agree with all the call every one of the callers who called with the about this terrible and difficult problem, but I just wonder where Where people's responsibility to lock up their cars and try to make sure that they can't be stolen as best we can

or do automobile manufacturers have, have a way to do a better job of making cars so they can't be stolen.

I really don't want to listen in how they're being stolen on the radio or something

like that.

But I'm curious as to what you think.

Well, I mean, honestly, thank you so much for calling, Jack.

Appreciate it,

Jack.

The one thing we've learned, especially from the Kia boys is that one of the reasons why they were able to steal these cars so easily is that there was a software issue.

And if we go for hardware,

I've seen videos where you put a club on your wheel and they just saw your wheel like saw saw a little piece off of it and they could take that thing I don't think there is a non-stealable car.

I just think it's a it speaks to the level of Well, how much effort do you want to put into it exactly?

So I don't think that's something that we or the car companies can do because someone's gonna find a way to do it They're gonna find a way to get in there and take your car now.

Can you?

do more things.

Yes, you can put a club on your car.

You can always make sure your car is locked.

You can have a car alarm.

There are things, but at the end of the day, there's always going to be someone who, if they want your car, no, granted, they're not stealing my, they're not stealing my Nissan Rogue.

If they're, if they're that desperate, but yeah, it's, it's, there are a matter of, there are, there are abilities out there and, but there's not, there's no easy fix.

There's no easy fix, but there's also no full proof plan.

Every cars is the evil ball

eight five five seven five two four eight four two We're talking about reckless driving in Milwaukee and not just in Milwaukee, but Kenosha and again I see it on the freeways every single day I'll be going 75 77 in a 70 mile an hour and people are shooting past me at 95 miles an hour

Yeah, yeah

And they're adults and they're not kids.

Oh my god, Jane a month again Don't want to be the old man this guy But like when I'm doing like ten over on the freeway and someone is zoom in past me and whipping the bird at me for not going even faster It's like what first of all there's four lanes

right

second of all

Where do you need to be?

Well, and that's my question too and like I told James I've been tempted many times which I've never done because it probably wouldn't end up well To follow them to their destination and say what did you have to go 85 miles an hour to get a chicken sandwich really?

Is that what was so important?

That is why you had to drive like that because you need lunch

Well and nowadays it would just be like if you even attempted to do that it would be it could be end up being

A fight and how dare you tell me how it's like no, you are a danger on the road and just because you didn't get caught by the cops doesn't mean it's not a problem

Well and speaking of and we're gonna have to wrap this up because we're coming up against the break But there was another article in the Milwaukee Journal setting all about two weeks ago in one particular neighborhood on Milwaukee's northwest side Where they have reckless driving happening all the time and they never see any cops.

Oh,

it's almost like they've given up

or they don't, it's like, yeah, that happens over there.

Just, we got other things we got to do.

It's, it's really, it goes back to what we were talking about with James, where is the root problem and how do we address those root problems?

There's no easy fix.

Jen

from Appleton listening on WGBW.

The note plates and stickers happens up at Appleton too.

The reckless driving seems to kick in south of slinger.

I'm a school bus driver, also, and I make many trips to the Milwaukee area.

Good for you, Jim.

You must be a saint for driving a school bus.

Give you a lot of credit for that.

You and Cindy.

And Ronnie from Horecon.

As a follow-up to this segment about reckless driver and kids, talk to a guest who does restorative justice.

That's a great idea, Ronnie.

We will follow up on that.

I really appreciate

that.

If you have any little...

Uh, connection, sir, please let us know as well.

You can always email us at janesaysatcivicmedia.us, J-A-N-E-S-A-Y-S, janesaysatcivicmedia.us.

When we return, we're gonna lighten things up for the rest of the show.

Well, actually, this is very critical news.

This is big news, folks.

This is

big news coming up.

We break the biggest stories here.

We're breaking it, baby.

Yeah.

Fat Bird Week.

has wrapped up.

We know who the winner is.

We're going to talk to Emma Schatz coming up next.

Stay close.

You're listening to Matt Nair on air on the vast statewide, countrywide.

You can pick us up in Vienna if you have the app.

Civic Media Radio Network.

Don't go away.

Good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome to Matt Nair on air.

Jane Matt Nair, Greg Box, Sweet Calvary on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.

You can always join us, call or text.

at 855-752-4842.

Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter.

Coming up a little bit later on today, Todd Alba from 2 to 4 PM.

Join Todd today.

He'll be talking to Jack Kelly from Wisconsin Watch to break down all of the weekend's news, and then they'll have a weight loss comment edition of What's Worse.

Oh, I think I'm going to listen to this one.

It's always great.

Yeah.

Join Todd today for what's worse and so much more coming to you across the network from 2 to 4 p.m.

Right now though, breaking news.

Oh

my God.

We cover the important stuff here.

Emma Schatz is back from the National Resources Foundation of Wisconsin.

Good morning, Emma.

How are you?

Oh, Emma, we can't hear you.

We're having all kinds of challenges today

Huh Emma would you do us a favor and sign on sign back in but we'll give the ramp up of what fat bird week is all about It's been quite a

competition that bird week course was brackets.

Yeah

We started out with a dark, dark-eyed Junko in the Trunko.

Which I thought was

gonna be the winner.

You thought that was gonna be the Shewin.

I was wrong.

He made it, they made it to the, to the second round.

Was the dark-eyed Junko in the Trunko versus the necklace Northern Cardinal.

Dark-eyed Junko in the Trunko was the winner there.

Also the enormous Eastern Bluebird versus the spherical white-throated Sparrow, Sparrow.

Moved in there and that was in the first round also in the first round round round yellow romped warbler against the well-fed yellow warbler Yellow warbler took the spot the rotund ruby throated hummingbird versus the pudgy pine warbler the hummingbird and then on Friday Was the last matchup where you could vote between the spherical white throated sparrow and the rotund ruby throated hummingbird I know how I voted.

Did you vote?

Of course I voted.

I availed myself of the voting process.

Emma, can we hear you now?

Hello.

There we go.

Yes, we can hear you.

Fantastic.

Thank you for joining us.

All right, we're waiting for the big announcement.

Who was the winner of Fat Bird Week 2025?

So the winner was the spherical white-throated sparrow.

Wow!

I lost it every

turn!

And he had so much money riding on this, Emma.

I don't have a car anymore because of

this.

Oh, no, yes.

And they won, but they got 72% of the vote in the final round.

So they swept.

That's incredible.

I thought the hummingbird was going to get it just for the affection vote.

I thought, you know, a lot of people have a soft spot for hummingbirds.

But wow, that's kind of an upset.

Were you all shocked?

Yeah.

I know, I thought that hummingbird would do better too because...

You just you can imagine how small a hummingbird is.

But then the fact that they have to gain so much weight for migration and how much energy they have to use.

I was like, maybe they would get more of the votes for that.

But

didn't

turn

out that way.

Is that the reason I can use for getting like putting on some pounds of I'm getting ready for migration

or hibernation

hibernation.

I'm just, you know,

whatever

works.

Taco Bell ain't going to eat itself and I got to take a nap.

was participation this year, Emma, because this is only the second this is only the second year for for Fat Bird Week.

That's right.

Yeah, we had over 4,700 votes across the whole week.

So it went really well.

And I was one of my

The best parts of my day is like looking through the comments on our Instagram posts of people showing their support for one or the other.

And people are really funny and creative in the comments section.

Oh, that's awesome.

I'm going to have to check out your Instagram just to see those.

This, of course, was all brought to you by the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin.

Ultimately, Emma, what is the idea behind this competition?

Yeah, so Fat Bird Week is just a way for us to celebrate our native bird species of Wisconsin, but also learn how to protect them.

So that's why on our social media posts each day, we would include some fun facts about ways to help them, whether it's planting native plants in your garden or buying bird-friendly coffee, or just learning more about...

the native species that we have in our state and how to protect them.

Because we have lost a shocking number of birds around the country, seriously, in the last 10 years.

So anything we can do to help protect our birds, including keeping your cats in the house.

I'm just going to say it is huge.

A question.

Actually, I'm glad you brought that up, Jane, really quick, because I have a dog and I have ripped a dead bird out of her mouth.

And are dogs as big a problem or is it mainly cats?

That's a good question.

I don't know if one or the other is a bigger thing, but I know

The organization that we partnered with for Fat Bird Week, SOS, Save Our Songbirds, they really hone in on the cats and keeping cats indoors.

Again, I love cats.

I have no problems with cats or cat people, but do us all a favor and it's better for your animal.

It's much, much better for your cat if you don't let them outside.

They get in fights.

They get hit by cars.

There's all kinds of bad things that can happen to your cats, please.

They annoy me because I'm allergic.

So, hey, just keep them inside.

You can get a little catio for them.

Yeah.

You can.

So they can.

I love that idea.

I do too.

Get a catio and do us all a favor and help save the birds.

Just be a real American and get a dog.

Oh, stop it.

Send all your cat comments to Greg Bach.

at civicmedia.us.

It's been such a pleasure, and I can't wait to do this again next year.

Fat Bird Week in Wisconsin, and a big congratulations to our winner, the Spirical White Throated Sparrow beating out the Rotemned Ruby Throated Hummingbird Emma Shots.

Really appreciate your time.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

We have news coming up next, and when we return, share your Mrs. Kravitz moments.

I hope it's not just me.

You're listening to Matt and Air on Air.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Good good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome to Matt and air on air Jane Matt and air Greg Bach and sweet Kelby on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park and Racine.

You can always join us.

Call or text.

at 855-752-4842.

Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter.

We got baseball today, crew on the road at Cleveland.

Our broadcast starts at 435.

If you want to listen to the game, you can't listen on the app.

You do have to listen to Terrestrial Radio.

So catch the game today.

Our broadcast again starting at 435 on WRCE and Richland Center, WISS in Oshkosh, WRJN,

here in Racine and Kenosha and WCQM in Park Falls crew at the Cleveland Guardians.

It just doesn't flow yet.

I don't, I mean, look, I'm all happy that they got rid of the other name,

but like

when they, when they introduced Guardians, I'm like.

And you know what it is?

It's the statue.

It's the statues on the road.

Which they're kind of cool, actually.

They're fine.

The crew at The Guardians today, our broadcast starts at 4.35.

This is the segment of the show we like to call Audio Sorbet.

Where we lighten things up a little bit for the last half hour of the show, get away from politics, get away from the news, because we can all use a break every once in a while.

Here is my question to you.

First of all, do you know who Mrs. Kravitz is?

The bumper music that Calvin played was from the TV series Bewitched, which was on in the 60s.

And one character in Bewitched, Mrs. Kravitz, was the busy body of the neighborhood.

Alice Alice Kravitz.

That's a good way of putting she was she was the nosy one of the neighborhood was always looking out her window trying to see what was going on and She all you know, she stuck her nose into everybody's business.

I did an Alice Kravitz over the weekend

really I

did Jing

Tell us your story.

Okay

We live in a pretty quiet neighborhood.

We're in the northwest side of Milwaukee, but it's not like we don't have problems last summer we had garage break-ins and other things like that and Because we live in the city of Milwaukee.

You cannot park on the street unless you have a permit correct.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

So Our neighbors this is a good guy.

I don't want to get too far into this our neighbors are in this are in Wauwatosa even though we're on the same block

Yeah, you've said that like it's literally like across the street is Wauwatosa.

No

The rest of the block is Wauwatosa.

Oh, it's like next door.

Yeah, next door is Wauwatosa.

We are the city of Milwaukee.

That's some weird mapping.

But I woke up Sunday morning about 2.30 to use the bathroom.

And I get up and outside the window, I see a car parked in front of my neighbors.

And it's running and it's got the lights on.

Now it's 2.30 in the morning.

There's not usually a lot of activity in our neighborhood at that hour of the morning.

And so I decided

To watch to investigate.

I was yes.

She investigated I investigated because it could be a drug deal true I don't know what's going on in there.

It just was unusual and it made me twitchy.

So I go down to the kitchen and I get our pair of binoculars good Lord and then I station myself at the window and I'm trying to see what's going on Inside the car that is parked in front of my neighbors.

That's running with a light on

These

are it could be

Slenderman you never know I couldn't see very well because these are crappy binoculars and if I really want to be a good Alice Kravitz I need better binocs So that's on my list for today I need better binoculars if I'm gonna really do an Alice Kravitz

Hey, you really want to look at your neighbors?

You need good binocs,

but I watched him for a good ten minutes And I really couldn't figure out what was going on in there

And ultimately, I'm crouching.

We have a window on our staircase.

I know.

You think I like admitting this?

I'm crouching on my staircase by the little window and I'm trying to spy out to find out what's going on with this car.

And ultimately, a woman got out of the passenger side and went in the house across the street.

And I'm assuming she was either babysitting or it was a date.

But they had been parked there for like 20 minutes.

which made me suspicious.

I am gonna just say that that story was like the last season of Game of Thrones, just a big bunch of disappointment at the end.

Yeah,

it was nothing.

But I love how you, first of all, you told me half the story beforehand then, because I didn't know there was crouching.

Oh yeah, there was crouching

at the

window.

And some faulty binoculars.

Yeah, the binoculars are terrible.

I need better binoculars.

This was amazing.

Give me share with please share with me your Alice Kravitz moment.

Yeah.

Come on.

We've all done it.

You've never spied

on your neighbors.

Well, first of all, OK, I'm going to tell my I was I said I wasn't going to say this story, but I'm going to now because why did you take a right turn into a weirdo?

No, I had I did not it was not spying and I want to reiterate because this involves this.

So the story goes like this in my first apartment.

We lived on 76th Street across from

Pius High School.

And we were in a four person apartment building.

And the downstairs neighbor right below us, it was a mother, her son and her daughter.

Her daughter was my age about 19, 20 years old.

So this is

also above board.

Okay, you're an adult.

An adult.

And one night I'm coming home and I come out of the garage and you have to do a back walkway to the front to get in.

And

but all four apartments have patios that lead to the back.

So you can see in their apartments or our apartments too.

And I'm walking and the lights are on in their apartment and it's her bedroom that has the patio and she is changing.

And it is a site that I'm not proud that I saw, but it's one of those things.

That's a movie situation.

Well,

you're just walking home.

I'm walking home.

I'm just walking up the walkway and I see

everything and I'm stopped dead because I'm so in shock and she sees me looking and for the for the two years I live there I couldn't look at her or talk to her or even garner an apology I just look like a creepo which I wasn't doing and then from the rest of time I would park on the street I would look down I would I would like

briskly walk to the front of the house because I never wanted to be in that situation.

That was my accidental Kravitz.

No binocs involved.

No binocs involved.

855-752-4842.

Share with me.

Share with us.

Your Alice Kravitz, nosy neighbor story.

Yeah.

Or am I the only one who has crappy binoculars?

And I was looking out the window because I didn't know what's going on if you'd like to gift

Jane some sweet binocs Preferably with a night vision option Send them to 1 1 2 2 boogie woogie Avenue.

We will gladly accept them on her behalf I don't I mean honestly like I'm

sure Snooping and wouldn't if you got up at 2 30 in the morning and you looked out your window And there was a car a running car parked in front of your neighbors

for 15, 20 minutes, that wouldn't make you go, what's going on with that?

Well, I don't know how long you go to

the bathroom, but that's fine.

I mean, it's, it's, well, the thing is, is it has happened and I kind of just slough it off because my next door neighbor are cops.

So I figure has something to do with copping.

That's fair.

And then my across the street neighbor, he gets up.

He's like a contractor who works crazy hours.

So I just always assume- Someone's working

or something that's working late?

Yeah, exactly,

but I've never like, I've never whipped out the sweet binocs and although my bedroom window has a great view of the neighborhood.