across Wisconsin from Civic Media.
This is Up North News Radio.
Now, live from our Lake Wissota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Breitler.
Well, hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It is 6 0 6 on this Tuesday morning, March 4th, 2025.
It's another beautiful day.
Not one, but a beautiful one always to have you here up north live from Lake Wissota from wherever you're listening.
Across the civic media radio network or on the app or by podcast or watching us on Facebook or YouTube.
Thanks for getting your day started right here.
My question for you to kick things off is this.
Are you ready to hunker down?
Obviously not everywhere in Wisconsin, but there are parts of the state.
This area included that appear to be on a path to get warped.
by what we hope is the last winter storm of the season.
We'll see about that.
Starting with this rain that's going on now, a little on the spotty side at first, then it's going to be steady later on before turning to wet, heavy snow overnight across many parts of western and northwest Wisconsin.
Now we're going to see temperatures in the mid 40s.
here around Lake Wissota this afternoon before the switch to snow comes later tonight and with the snow is going to come a strong northeast wind 25 miles an hour maybe gust of 40 miles an hour causing blowing snow as well so while all is calm but rainy at the bus stop so far this morning
Keep in mind it's going to look a lot different this time tomorrow morning for your commute or for schools.
Stay on top of that for any school announcements.
Plan your commutes or your sick days accordingly, depending on how the salt shakes out overnight.
It's 38 right now here in Chippewa Falls, 36 in Hayward, 39 in Amory.
Wausau is at 36, Wisconsin Rapids 37, La Crosse here at 41.
Green Bay reporting 36 degrees, Forty in Madison, 34 in Milwaukee.
And it's 39 degrees at Radio Park in Racine, where we'll talk to Greg Bach in just a moment right after we tell you what's coming up on the program today.
Look, I know it's going to be snowing and everything, but it's not too soon to start thinking about road trips.
Summer road trips in Wisconsin are the best.
And maybe one of those road trips could be a farm trip.
Maybe you need to get, I know it's really for this, get moving to a farm trip.
And we're going to talk to a couple of guests from the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association in about 25 minutes or so to give an update on the growing list of activities being held on farms that are rapidly embracing the tourism market.
We'll also talk in this half hour about how Legislative Republicans are now crowing.
They're bragging about withholding expanded Medicaid from Wisconsin families and being quite honest about why they're glad about it.
Their message is basically, you can't trust us, say the Legislative Republicans.
We'll explain the thrust of their remarks coming up in just a couple of minutes here.
In our second hour, we will catch up with filmmaker Mary Mazio.
She had that documentary released last year about the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa fighting against the Enbridge oil pipeline that's running through their reservation and poses a threat to Lake Superior.
That film is still being sought after for more screenings around the country, including a couple this week up north, and so Mary will join us in our second hour to talk about that.
And we'll also catch up with Luann Bird, who has been battling the people.
who are bashing the budget programs that take care of fellow Americans because after all, only someone with a personal worth of $40 billion would think that wasteful government spending is how you would label healthcare for veterans.
cancer research or humanitarian aid or preserving our national parks and so we'll talk to Lou Ann Bird, we'll talk to Chad Holmes, Brittany Merlot and so much more but we can't talk to any of those folks until we we talk to the the folk in Radio Park and Racine.
One Greg Bach, Mr. Bach.
Good morning.
Good morning to you Pat.
I am I have a quick question for you.
What was that joke you had about the road trip again?
I said, uh, I said, maybe one of your road trips you could, you could get moving to a
farm.
That's what I thought.
Not now.
You see why I didn't bring you on until several minutes later.
Oh, I never forget, but
I'm so glad you saved it for me anyway.
Yes.
Bless you.
You, you have this look about you, this aura.
Uh, and I saw it with, with Britney's forecast yesterday when it became clear that you weren't going to see a foot of snow compared to, you know, other parts of the state will get four to seven inches or something like that.
Yeah.
That's it.
As he gives a little dance for us.
Yeah.
You're
feeling good about this.
I'm just, yeah, I, I don't, I look.
I love that new snowblower.
I do.
And I've used it.
I've used it.
You know, I haven't gotten its money's worth yet.
That's for darn sure.
Right.
But it's, it's, it's useful.
It's, it's great.
I can, I'm making a non paid.
I have not been paid, but they don't know I exist.
Right.
The ego corporation.
I love their products.
Oh, is this
the electric
ones?
The
electric.
What am I trying to say the small engine stuff like
no blowers.
Yep.
They just remembers they just released us of writings lawnmower.
Oh, okay, but I have I have the snowblower I have the hedge trimmer I have I have the weed wacker and I have the the blower and I just I'm a fan
fan
A fan, the lawn and garden equipment.
Yes.
The phrase I could not come up with a minute ago there.
All battery powered.
Yes, I've definitely seen those.
I've looked at them the same way that I've looked at electric cars going, I'm not ready to get one yet.
But I'm very excited that they're coming, that the technology is getting better.
Clearly, they're already satisfied customers like one Greg Bach.
Yes.
You know, we've taken our own baby step now with a hybrid car, you know.
So we're making all these nice advancements.
Yeah.
Which makes it very weird, by the way, to hear about the backtracking that it's not just the Trump administration in the
You know, I was just, I was, I was reading this morning about the German elections nerd, who else, who else talks like that.
And a lot of it was this.
Welcome to Ned talk was Patrick.
Whoa.
Was, was what they said was a perceived backlash toward clean energy.
And again, I look at that as kind of the backlash to a quote unquote, wokeness.
And it's like, yeah, why are you, you know, the, the, the so-called backlash is manufactured.
by the people who are, you know, all for oil and gas companies or racism or whatever the case may be.
And it's like, you know, how you're against good things and people are just being shoved on our throats.
No, it's really not.
It's more opportunities out there.
Nobody made you buy a battery powered hedge trimmer or a snow blower, correct?
No, I knew I knew I wanted I knew I'd rather spend money on a battery powered something than having to get gas and all that just the thing.
But at no point did anyone at the ace hardware like point their finger and me go, if you don't love the earth, wait, your
legislator
or
Congressperson to come in and go, you must do this.
No, no, if anything, it's going to work the other way around where, you know, folks that did buy into the clean technology are going to be at a disadvantage because of this perceived back.
So you, Mr. Bach, you, I salute you for making the right call.
Oh, thank you.
Even if you're happy about not using your battery-powered snowblower this week.
I might use it one more time this year, who knows?
But then there's always down the road for later this year and the following year and the following.
And then finally I'll be like, boy, come over here.
I'll pay you $30 to do it.
Yeah, well, will it?
I don't even want to think about that.
But at some point, I'm going to have to be like, yeah, send somebody's granite and sun over here to take care of this.
Not yet.
Not just yet.
Hey, Up North News is having its first live event next week Wednesday.
It's going to be all about the state Supreme Court race.
There will be several different panel discussions with folks ranging from, well, Mandela Barnes is going to join us and talk about clean energy and climate legislation.
He had run the governor's climate task force.
It has tremendous opportunity for job creation, but we could have a state Supreme Court that would be in the pocket of Wisconsin manufacturers and commerce and roll back all that progress.
That same state Supreme Court, depending on how things go in April, could basically take away a woman's right to control her body when it comes to reproductive health care.
So we've got a panel talking about that.
Senator Keldor Royce is going to be one of the members of that.
This next Supreme Court.
is going to hear probably a couple of education related lawsuits, including a challenge to Act 10 and also a challenge to the voucher school program, which is really creeping up on costing taxpayers a billion dollars a year.
And the next court could either help set that aside for fiscal sanity or allow it to grow and flourish and choke off more public school districts.
So this is a very important.
Supreme Court election and we've got those three different panel discussions on those topics and it will run from 5 30 to 7 o'clock next Wednesday.
If you're in the Madison area and would like to attend go to this website upnorthnewswi.com slash supreme and get details on joining us at the Overture Center tickets are free and here's the thing they have now scheduled a Supreme Court candidates debate.
and by a wonderful coincidence, it starts at seven o'clock.
So our event will run from 5.30 to seven, and then we'll turn on the TVs around our place at the Overture Center, and it'll be a debate watch party.
So again, upnorthnewswi.com slash supreme to learn more.
And as we get closer, I'm pretty sure we will have some live streaming opportunities.
May even talk to our friends at the Civic Media Radio Network about doing something, but stay tuned for details on
all of that.
One quick story to tell you about before we head into sports, there was an audit done of the November election in Wisconsin.
And when that audit was done, here's what it found.
Not only did President Donald Trump win in Wisconsin, which we knew that because we saw the votes, we trusted the results, not a single vote
was counted incorrectly or altered or missed by tabulating machines.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission released its audit findings a few days ago and is going to discuss them later this week.
Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris by about 29,000 votes.
Now last time around, Trump lost to Biden by about 21,000 votes and boy could not cry foul fast enough without any evidence.
And there were two partial recounts four years ago, a nonpartisan audit, a conservative law firm reviewed it, multiple state and federal lawsuits didn't support any claims of fraud whatsoever.
And yet they kept saying the system was rigged.
But they didn't think the system was rigged this time when they won because they might have been lying last time around.
So congrats again to everybody who administers our elections in Wisconsin.
Not a single vote out of place.
In sports, the Bucks are at Atlanta tonight.
The Badger Men play tomorrow night at Minnesota on several civic media radio network stations.
The Marquette Men's basketball team is at UConn tomorrow.
We'll talk about President Trump's address to the nation tonight and also the Medicaid program in Wisconsin next on Upner News Radio.
Today is National Toy Soldiers Day because of the date on the calendar.
March 4th.
Get it, Greg?
Get it March 4th?
Yeah.
Toy Soldiers?
Yep.
I got it.
Yep.
Hold on.
What
is that?
It must be here someplace.
Where'd you put it?
Oh, darn it.
See, that's what happens when you have one channel.
Forget it.
Joke is
done.
OK.
You can please get rid of that.
That's all we had.
This song isn't terrible.
It's just when the children are singing, all they just think of is like, dead-eyed children going, come play with us.
Yes, it's creepy.
But it's Toy Soldier Day, but also, and I lost track of this.
Although I did mention yesterday, Ash Wednesday is tomorrow.
So this is Fat Tuesday.
Fat Tuesday.
So in Wisconsin.
In Wisconsin.
Go get your punch keys today.
Oh, that I get behind.
Oh, okay.
Good That is That that is definitely more of an eastern wisconsin thing than a western wisconsin
thing.
Really?
But once you know it's a thing, you can't not think about these little doughnut delicacies and Christina Laurie writes all about it in today's newsletter because a lot of people indulge in them on Fat Tuesday before Lent begins and so she lists all kinds of places where you could go get a punch key today before before you have to
do your Lenten giving up of something really good and delicious.
Do you know what you're giving up, Pat?
If that's what you do.
And I would emphasize the if that's what you do in answering your question.
Yes.
Now, I know it as well, and I'm just catching this out of the corner of my eye that Christine has an article.
How many Wisconsin pizza joints have you crossed off your bucket list?
And so she says there's a website that compiles a list of the most recommended pizza joints in Wisconsin.
And she says there's one here.
People like the Cracker Crust at Cranky Pats in Oshkosh.
I've had it.
Well, I haven't but I've been and so I figured this cranky Pat really ought to go visit cranky Pat's an Oshkosh one of these times so road trip
There I used to do shows in Oshkosh all the time and at midnight on Fridays They would do an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet And we would do a late-night show just so we could go to cranky Pat's
and then
around 1 30
in
the morning.
He's like I'm really this is a bad idea
It should be all you should eat, not all you can eat.
Yes, exactly.
Details again in our newsletter.
Also in the newsletter, something we were just talking about, how to fight the rollback of energy policies that Donald Trump's putting into place.
Wisconsin Conservation voters stepping up to help people learn more about how they can continue being climate friendly in their own actions.
So sign up for our newsletter, get more on that.
Donald Trump is speaking to Congress tonight.
Technically, it's not a state of the union address because he was just sworn into office and
The inaugural address is supposed to count as that, but new presidents have a tradition of talking to Congress this time of year anyway.
And so the saboteur in chief is going to talk about ways he's going to put a positive spin on the ways that he has continued to do Russia's bidding by attacking federal government services that help people, sabotaging consumers by imposing tariffs on our friendliest trading.
partners and now undermining European security.
Trump's actions are not a surprise to folks who have been warning about him for a very long time, but still on Ukraine, it was still noteworthy to see the other shoe drop.
After Friday's national embarrassment in the Oval Office, it was followed up by an announcement late yesterday that Trump is suspending all military aid to Ukraine.
He calls it a pause.
The same kind of pause as with the federal programs going on right now, which is not a pause.
It's a full-on stop of commitments that were made to fellow Americans, and in this case to Ukrainians.
so that Trump can unilaterally determine who he likes and who he doesn't like and let spending continue in only certain areas.
You know, as a dictator would.
All of these things that he's pausing, they were approved by a Congress elected by the people in a regular budget process.
But Trump is making unilateral decisions on turning off spigots.
Same goes with the tariffs the tariffs are a unilateral thing He doesn't need Congress to go along with them and now China has said you know They're going to retaliate against those tariffs and in a way that you know who's going to get hurt first Wisconsin farmers But Trump is going to try to put a positive spin on all of that tonight talking to Congress You will hear coverage across the civic media radio network tonight on that as well Also wanted to tell you about how Wisconsin Republicans are
crowing now and claiming they did the right thing these past 10, 12 years by not expanding Medicaid in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin is now one of only nine or 10 states that has not yet accepted a decade's worth of money, literally billions of dollars that Wisconsin has lost out on because conservative Republicans running the legislature refused to accept that federal funding so that money goes to other states.
It's our tax money.
It's going to other states.
The line that Republicans have consistently said all this time is, well, it's nice that the federal government is providing that money now, but we don't know that it won't end at some point and leave states holding the bag.
To which Democrats had said during the Obama administration, during the Biden administration, that's not going to happen on our watch because Medicaid, a public health insurance program,
for working families with low incomes, whose employers don't offer health insurance for people with disabilities, is a proven performer of keeping families from going under, making sure that they have stable, affordable health insurance.
But Republicans gathered last week and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty released a report that outlined the potential state cost of covering new recipients through Medicaid if what Donald Trump is doing with Medicaid cuts were to go through.
So again, understand what this means.
Wisconsin Republicans have long said, well, we don't trust the federal government to continue funding the Medicaid expansion because somebody might cut off the spigot.
They were talking about themselves.
They've been saying all these years, if we ever get into a position to close the spigot and to rip away healthcare from tens of thousands of families in Wisconsin,
We'll do it.
You can't trust us.
And President Trump is helping make that a self-fulfilling prophecy, at least for right now.
When we come back, we're going to talk about agricultural tourism in Wisconsin with a couple of guests here on Up North News Radio, live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Hey you
can always reach the show a couple of different ways.
You can use the Civic Media app.
or your phone, send us a text message at 855-75-CIVIC 855-752-4842, or you can jump into the comment section where we are on Facebook or YouTube.
You might have to get through a couple of trolls along the way, but we're glad that they're listening to and keeping us nice and accountable, and we appreciate that.
You can email the show anytime as well, radio.
at upnorthnewswi.com.
Happy to welcome back to the program.
Sheila Everhart of the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association who has brought along Gene Bond, the government relations chair.
Gene is in Green Lake County.
Sheila is in Iraq County.
Sheila, good morning to you.
Good morning, Pat and listening audience.
We're grateful to have this opportunity to be on the show today.
Yeah, and Gene, welcome.
It's nice to meet you.
You're in Green Lake County on a farm out there that, again, isn't as active as a lot of family dairy farms used to be, but still doing a little bit of work and taking time out for us today, and we appreciate it.
Yeah, thank you.
Good to be here.
So despite the fact that your farm, Gene, and like my in-laws and others where you're not milking cows anymore, you're doing crop work,
Farms are getting very big in the dairy sector, but there are still a lot of working farms out there.
And as Sheila and I discussed earlier, more of them are embracing tourism.
Gene, why do you see that?
How do you see the growth of farm tourism in the area and its attraction and its benefit?
Because you didn't have to get involved in the Agriculture Tourism Association.
Why did you decide to?
While we did it from a financial perspective, like you said, we used to milk dairy cows.
So we had that diversity along with our cash crop and raised young stock and a couple of those things are gone.
So depending
on
the revenue every year from cash crop can be pretty risky.
You don't know if the price of corn is going up or down.
We have a small farm like most farms in Wisconsin.
We're just under 400 acres
and it
can be difficult to with the rising cost of seed and fertilizer and taxes and things like that.
You still need that extra revenue stream.
So without investing a ton of money into anything, we have the existing dairy barn and we have gone to hosting events in our dairy barn.
to bring in the additional revenue and people love it.
They love coming out to the country.
Many people are several generations removed in their families from owning land.
Many of our rural properties are being bought up by investment companies and out-of-state entities and many local people no longer have a connection to a farm.
So for them to be able to come to an actual farm and
see an actual barn and spend time.
They just love being outdoors and it's just amazing to me when I have younger children that have never ever seen a barn or even been within 10 feet of an animal.
They're just in awe of the size of the tractors.
It's a great opportunity to get them outdoors and get them on the farm.
And Sheila, we've talked about this from the standpoint of providing experiences.
As you put it last time, we should be more involved in giving the gift of making memories and doing stuff, not getting stuff.
And it continues to provide more opportunities, not just for farm families, but for visitors across the state as well.
Yes, and you know, that's exactly what the consumer wants.
The consumer wants.
to downsize, they want to have those memories and they want to have experiences.
And so they want that next generation that is removed from the family farm to go to a farm camp, to experience a farm stay, to spend an afternoon on a farm, to go to a Wisconsin dairy breakfast.
And that is what agricultural tourism is all about, providing those
opportunities and celebrating our rich Wisconsin agricultural heritage.
Now it is today coincidentally is also Farmer's Union Lobbying Day and we often talk to Hans Breitenmoser on Tuesdays but he's busy being a lobbyist with a small L, not a capital L as I like to say, for family farmers.
But the Wisconsin Agriculture Tourism Association also has things that
would be necessary in the legislature to continue the ongoing success of agricultural tourism and Sheila let me start with you and then we'll go to Gina's government affairs chair but can you talk a bit about from a legislative standpoint some of the things that the the association would like to see to help agriculture tourism grow in wisconsin
Exactly.
And we're very thankful for our partners with Wisconsin Farmers Union.
And Jean and I will be in Madison today and we'll be
happen in our cars right after this show and getting ready to get up to the Capitol to talk with our elected officials.
Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism feels that we need a central hub to have resources to support our farmers during these difficult times.
And we are looking at a biennium budget request for an Office of Agricultural Tourism and Rural Innovation because we know
that when farmers prosper, all of our rural communities prosper.
But we want to be farmer to farmer and we want to be able to talk about those difficult things and help farmers look for those additional revenue streams for their family farms by using best practices and by using methods and standards that are very successful.
Gene, can you tell us a bit more as well about some of the priorities that you'd like to see out of the legislature and just for the public to know more about?
Sure.
We were working on several things that would help our members, our smaller farmers that keep their families in there, or keep their farm in their families.
One of the things we would like to have a trailer bill, some people might remember at the end of 23, the state of Wisconsin revamped its alcohol laws.
And somehow the event venues,
working farms that did not serve or sell alcohol that simply rented space got thrown into there and it's made it very difficult to be successful.
The current bill allows you to only have six events a year, one a month, unless you agree to get a liquor license.
And many of us do not want to have all that alcohol on the farm.
We do not want to start selling alcohol.
We simply wanted to
So we're going to be introducing trying to get sponsorship from legislators to introduce that bill and get that fixed.
We're not trying to throw the whole bill out.
We know a lot of work was done on it, but this is hurting our small family farms that again are just trying to diversify and bring in some revenue.
We have another bill we would like at one time it was legal to have zero to three campers come and stay on your property.
People from the urban areas love coming out to the country to stargaze, to have a little bonfire.
Right now it's illegal for a farmer to rent even a rustic campsite overnight and promote, you know, advertise that you can come and camp out.
So we would like to get a bill introduced that would allow
zero to three campsites on a farm without having to go through the state and become a registered campground and have to do all of the things that those larger places have.
This would strike me as kind of a, well, I would hope low hanging fruit given that you have so met, you know, the legislature is Republican controlled.
Most of the Republicans in the legislature are from, you know, rural districts that these would be easy, easy lifts for those lawmakers.
So we'll continue to monitor that as well.
Well, Sheila, the association also has different events coming up and you can take them in any order, add whatever you want.
I'm just going to say that two that stuck out for me, of course, were any activities related to the NFL Draft next month in Green Bay.
And then there's also a classic Green reunion in Washington County around West Bend in June for John Deere collectors.
Those two stuck out for me.
You want to talk about those or any other events you're working on?
It's all about green, isn't it Pat?
So it's the green and gold.
It's called field to field where farmers are going up to Green Bay to learn about how to prepare and what is going on with the draft and how farms can get involved to help market their farms for that 250,000 that will be driving into Green Bay at April 24th.
through the 26th, how can some of that drive traffic be enticed to stop at a family farm, to buy some cheese curds, to buy some beef, to have a farm tour?
How can we market Wisconsin's rich agricultural history?
So March 20th, field to field, Wisconsin agricultural tourism members are going up to learn from.
the Vice President of Discover Green Bay of Digital Marketing and Promotion.
Nick, it will give us a exclusive custom.
tailored presentation about marketing and how farms can get involved to market before and after the draft and you know the draft is an opportunity to showcase Wisconsin and these visitors coming from all over the United States and the world.
We hope not only will they come to Green Bay during the draft but we hope that they will plan additional trips to Wisconsin and come back and really experience Wisconsin.
in America's agricultural tourism destination.
So from that presentation, the group will be heading over to Lambeau Field to walk the turf to learn about how things are going to be set up and to get the legendary tour as well as the participants will also
go into the Hall of Fame and we will be having a short meeting with the
NFL Draft Team that had worked with us in the fall when we had the four Wisconsin family farms host the drafting corn mazes.
And I think you might have seen the sizzle video that I sent Pat, but if you haven't, I will resend that and that would be great to put on so our audience can take a look at the amazing Green Bay Packard draft.
that is just a 60 second promotional campaign for introducing the draft.
And it's a wonderful thing.
Especially for this reason, I have to tell a bit of a story here.
I was on one of these organized trips.
New England fall colors was the theme.
And as we're going through Vermont, and we turned down this intersection on this country highway, and we passed by what appeared to be a factory.
And then we come to realize, looking at the signage,
It's the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory.
And we were all a little miffed because we're like, wait a minute, we're right here at the Ben and Jerry's, but we just drove right past because they hadn't thought to put that on the itinerary to make that kind of arrangement.
Similarly, you're going to have people coming into Green Bay.
They're going to be driving past, you know, all of this beautiful farm territory.
And I just couldn't even imagine if they came in and they just went to Lambeau Field.
Nothing wrong with that.
But then to say, what, nothing else?
We don't get to see
some of the beautiful country around here.
So it's so great that you're doing that.
And Jean, just in conclusion, everything that we've talked about here does not take away from what Hans and I normally talk about.
And that's more like farm policy.
Farmers Union will be talking about that today.
Things that deal with markets and crops and the environment and all that.
This is not to negate or minimize any of that, but to actually say that there's also this new angle for farm families to be part of the Wisconsin economy and that more farmers are embracing this.
Yes,
and
there are larger issues, but there are hundreds of farmers, local small family farms that want to keep their agland in production and legislators need to be willing to listen and work with them as well.
Because what happens to us happens to the rural economy and much of Wisconsin is still rural.
And it's a great way of life.
It's what we're known for.
It's our heritage.
legislators need to support that and understand it.
And there is a huge economic benefit to the state as well.
Very much so.
Gene Bond is with the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association as is Sheila Everhart.
And we thank you both so much again, Sheila, for giving us an update.
Come back again soon.
We'll get more into the classic green reunion as we get closer to June.
But in the meantime, enjoy your lobby day and travel safe.
Have a wonderful day, both of you.
Thank you.
Thanks, Pat.
All right, when we come back, we'll have today's history lesson and then filmmaker Mary Mazio talking about the Bad River Tribe and their ongoing battle with Enbridge against an oil pipeline that threatens the clean waters of Lake Superior.
This is Updark News Radio from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
We thought we'd play it twice.
I saw the second song as the first.
I'm fine.
I'm fine.
This is Chris Ria, who turns a 74 years old today with Fool.
If you think it's over, the song that earned him a Grammy nomination for the best new artist of 1978.
He is 74 today, born in Middlesbrough, England.
And as I was reading up on him yesterday, because he only had this one big hit in the US, he had a lot of hits in the UK.
And yet he consistently refused to come to the U.S.
to go on tour.
And he would later say it was his biggest regret that he would have made a lot more money.
But for some reason, he just didn't feel like coming to the States in the seventies and eighties.
So I guess you ignore the U.S.
market at your own peril, Chris.
Yeah.
America got you baby.
Now I'm
tired.
In the history books, this is currently the 119th Congress that's meeting.
So you go, okay, smart guy, this is the 119th Congress.
What was the first one?
Well, the first one started meeting on this day in 1789 in New York City.
New York City, get a rope.
On this day in 1943 at the Academy Awards, Irving Berlin presented the Oscar for Best Original Song.
Here was the Oscar he presented for Best Original Song.
If you haven't figured it out by now, this marked the only time that an Academy Award presenter announced himself as the winner.
Apparently, they stopped doing that, I hope.
Let's put you, and the best actor is me.
They're all my awards now.
All mine.
Happy birthday to the city of Chicago, incorporated this day in 1837.
Don't worry, they'll tell us.
The Rolling Stones charted their fourth number one hit this day in 1967.
On the birthdays today, Catherine O'Hara is 71 today.
Actress Patricia Heaton is 67.
This is the anniversary of the birth of Kashmir Pulaski, a Polish nobleman, soldier, and military commander called the father of the American cavalry who once saved George Washington's life and then was killed in the siege of Savannah.
Pulaski also had fought for freedom in his native Poland and is one of only eight people to be honored honorary US citizenship.
Wow.
Yeah.
On this day in 1972, this song by Badfinger was certified gold.
This
also like sounds kind of like Gordon Lightfoot.
Or George Harrison since it was Apple, Apple Records.
Yeah.
Pretty sure George Harrison had something to do with this.
It was on this day in 1996.
Remember this in Waiowiga?
A train derailed and caused the emergency evacuation of more than 2,000 people for 16 days.
That was very concerning back then.
That's right.
Yes.
It was when every journalist in the state who wasn't quite sure how to spell Waiowiga learned how to spell it because we had to say it every day for 16 days during the evacuation.
But that was that was scary stuff back then.
Yeah.
Okay, a little chart trivia from this day in 1978.
This was the number three song by Dan Hill.
What did Dan Hill do to break through the charts in 1978?
Who was on the charts in 78?
It was the Bee Gees everywhere.
The rest of the top five had some kind of a Bee Gees connection.
The number one song was Andy Gibb, Love is Thicker Than Water.
The number two song was Stayin' Alive.
The number five song was Night Fever.
And then at number four was Samantha Sang with Emotion, which was written and had background singing by the brother's Gibb.
It was a Gibfest back in 1978.
Let's, on this day in 1993, there was an audition.
It was about 400 different Hopefuls at a London dance studio.
And among those who were selected for this group were Melanie Chisel, Melanie Brown, Victoria Adams, Jerry Hallwell, and Emma Bunton.
What did, whatever came of that group?
Yes,
the audition that led to the Spice Girls was held this day in 1993.
Hey everybody, girl power.
On this day in 2020, Garth Brooks at age 58 became the youngest recipient of the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize given to a composer or a performer for a lifetime of contributions to popular music.
Dang.
Past recipients had included Joni Mitchell, Smokey Robinson, Carol King, Tony Bennett, Willie Nelson, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, and then the youngin of the group, Garth Brooks.
So congratulations to him.
A lot of dates on the calendar today.
This is a national grammar day.
Don't you know?
So this is a national pound cake day.
This is Dance the Waltz Day, backcountry skiing day.
I like this one.
It's the Global Day of the Engineer.
It's not International Engineers Day like we normally see.
It's like, it's the Global Day of the Engineer.
That just sounds like a celebration of like the evil number two.
Like, welcome to the festival for what?
The Global Day of the Engineer.
He brought us here.
We also mentioned that it was Toy Soldiers Day because you know March 4th anyway, and it's National Sportsmanship Day.
So all of that So go punch your
opponent in the face.
No, no, no shake your hand.
Shake your hand.
Good game.
Good game everybody.
Coming up in the next hour, filmmaker Mary Mazio will talk to us about Bad River, her documentary about the tribal battles, about the Enbridge Pipeline, a documentary that is still very much in demand for screenings around the country.
We'll talk to Mary and we'll talk to Luanne Burt about fighting.
budget cuts all ahead on Up North News Radio.
