Wisconsin from Civic Media.
This is Up North News Radio.
Now, live from our Lake WSOTA studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Breitler.
Well, I mean, if the Lake WSOTA studio were in a VRBO somewhere out in the mountain west, but other than starting off with that discrepancy, hey there Wisconsin, good morning.
It's Wednesday morning.
It's April 9th, 606 right now.
Another beautiful morning to have you up north.
live here from an undisclosed location.
It's Idaho.
We love Idaho here.
But wherever you're listing across the civic media radio network or on the app, watching us on social media or catching us by podcast, it is nice to have you along.
I got I got a question for you.
Actually, Greg, Greg and I Greg standing by in Radio Park right now.
Greg and I have the same question for you to start the day.
Do you hate it as much as we do when people touch your
I it started with Greg.
Not I didn't do anything.
No,
no, no.
Oh, look at that.
Look at that right there from the from the beginning.
I got to add Greg back in.
People have been touching our partners at the radio station.
You come in and you find all the knobs and dials.
It basically it's like a raccoon ran around in the studio there and just touched every button, right?
Yeah, well,
What was it?
It was today's well as you recruit and I'll say people looking on social media They're like that's not the usual graphics.
That's not the usual color No, it's not because somebody somebody messed with the controls For the program that we use, you know kind of like zoom to broadcast the same people are touching our stuff Greg.
Yeah, I Was telling you on Monday I was channel
channeling my father when I was in the room and my first thought was just to look at someone and say the following words, which, and I said this to you.
Uh, I think every father has said, especially to every son, is this where it belongs?
That was my father's
mantra.
Put it back where it belongs.
And we're like, Oh, whatever.
And now I'm like, I'm in my four.
He's like, that man was a genius.
What else did I not listen to that he told me?
The funny thing is I've been saying this all week because I've got the 11 year old here and it's like, okay, clean, you know, he takes a shower and like mop up the water in the bathroom, you know, or flush the toilet or close the refrigerator or is that where that belongs?
You know, so it's definitely been that kind of a week.
So to see that somebody has messed with.
my colors and graphics because, you know, other programs are recorded on using this program.
But you're supposed to put things back as you found them.
Not so much here today.
Not so much for you.
Not so much for me.
But we made it.
We're here.
So here, let me tell you what's coming up on the show today.
And then I actually have some genuine questions before this one popped up here.
But coming up today, we are going to be having Melissa Baldoff with our Wednesday climate check.
And this time around, we're going to talk about
how a changing climate is requiring communities to be more proactive about things like the increased amount of flash flooding that's going on as storms get stronger.
And we do have some local success stories about that to share with you.
There also appears to be a job requirement.
If you want to serve as chair of the Wisconsin Assembly Elections Committee, that you have to be willing to embrace and spread conspiracy theories, especially if they're about the big bad city of Milwaukee.
We'll talk a bit about that.
In our second hour, in our homeroom segment, we basically talk about doing it for the kids.
You know, Governor Evers has said that, you know, we should, we should
create a state budget as if this were the year of the kid, make it as kid-friendly as can be.
Republicans have reacted in ways that, let's see, are not kid-friendly, using language that wouldn't be kid-friendly metaphorically.
So we'll talk to Corinne Hendrickson, a child care advocate, and we will talk to Bryn Horton of the Wisconsin Public Education Network about the things that could go into a state budget.
that would be more family friendly, more kid friendly, and will track what kind of progress, if any, is being made on those fronts.
when we do our check on what's happening in the legislature.
Along the way, of course, you can always join the show at 855-75 Civic.
That's 855-752-4842.
You can call us at that number.
You can text that number.
You can use the Civic Media app.
It's not just for winning prizes.
You can actually just send us messages.
And you can do so in the comment section on Facebook and YouTube as well.
Roger in Steven's point ads on Facebook.
I've been with my wife for 32 years I knew I was in trouble when she changed the station on the radio Yeah, well the buttons and here's the thing radio buttons are very personal to people which is why as as My daughter takes this week off and I fell in for her and I help with the boys and I'm using her vehicle I've changed all the buttons
on the radio.
But it's all because I mean, she's listening to all kinds of, you know, country stations and things.
And I thought she might miss me.
So when she comes back, she's going to find it on the 70 station on some other classic
rock
station.
There's a couple of new stations on in there.
So you shouldn't touch people's stuff unless you're being passive aggressive with your daughter.
That's okay.
Then I encourage you, Roger, your wife, maybe not so much.
I feel like you're spinning out.
No, no, no, I'm
I don't know who you have to talk to as access to that account, but they're going to be in trouble.
Yes.
I know.
I'm just looking at it.
I'm just looking at the colors here.
I know it's radio, but for people watching on Facebook, you do.
I'm looking at the screen going, this isn't right.
And I don't have the correct color scheme in front of me to put it in.
So today's just going to be an oddball kind of a day.
Temperatures are 15 to 20 degrees warmer around Wisconsin this morning.
Brittany Merlot says before we can get to the warmer weekend ahead, we have a weak weather system sliding by today.
Then the heat turns up as high pressure settles in.
The state forecast for today, mostly cloudy, scattered light rain in the afternoon highs in the upper forties to the mid fifties, a southeast wind at five to 10 for tonight.
Drizzle mixing with or changing to light snow in some places lows tonight in the low
mid thirties with a light easterly breeze and then things get better after that get much warmer.
My original question that I was going to ask Greg and others was this.
As of yesterday.
My
original
question was
who left the mayonnaise out?
I just want to know, am I the oldest person so far to see the Minecraft movie, which is what I took the 11 year old to yesterday.
The thing that he was so psyched up, Jack Black, Jason Momoa.
This kid plays Minecraft like crazy.
And so
we went to go see the movie yesterday.
Yeah.
I'm not the target audience.
No, you're not.
And that's good as you're saying that too because it's not for you.
It's not for me.
It might, it might be for you if you were a Minecraft freak, but no, it's not.
It's for kids and that's great.
You know, kids are loving it.
And
right and I loved watching him love it and trust me.
I'm not gonna spoil anything here But you know how the the thing in movies now is to interrupt the credits the closing credits with a scene Yeah, and it almost feels like almost every movie does it gone with the wind would do it now if they were remaking it but some movies Have another one at the very end of the credits, but you never really know so you might sit there through what is now
15 minutes of credits because there's so many people working on a movie and You may or may not see a scene.
Yeah for me Taking the 11 year old to Minecraft yesterday was worth it to get to the very end of the credits The mid the mid scene one or the mid credit one was fine We get to the very end of the credits and there's a scene in there and I'm not gonna spoil it at all I'm just gonna tell you it was worth it to hear the 11 year old go whoa
That's great.
See, that was great.
So I, so like for Marvel movies and I don't know, like I always look up, is there a mid credit and a post credit scene?
Just so like, if there's no post credit scene, then I'm not going to sit there.
I'm just going to go home.
But yeah, there's been, I mean, well, like one of the God, when in infinity war at the end, when he drops the pager and you see cat, you see Captain Marvel symbol, you're like, Oh my God, it's all happening.
But that's the thing is like, I cannot handle movie critics, whether they're a professional or internet or like the Minecraft movies here.
I'm like, I don't give a rip what you think.
This isn't about you.
You shouldn't have seen the movie in the first place.
This is about, it's gonna make like half a billion dollars because children love it.
And that's great.
Let them have this.
That's the whole thing.
And I did look through the AP.
It said the Minecraft movie was a hit.
It earned a staggering $157 million in its first few days.
Yeah.
And another $144 million abroad for a total of $300 million already.
I mean, I'm looking at Jason Momoa is you know, just he's for a guy that wants to be all you know, manly and everything for this one, they're like, okay, you're gonna be the foil and you're gonna
to scream a
lot.
And we're going to put you in pink fringe.
And he's going to be like, this is going to ruin my image.
Here's how much we're going to pay you for this, Jason.
I'm in.
No.
And he played it perfectly.
Jason Momoa is one of those guys who's a big dude, but has no problems showing his sparkles.
He loves doing that stuff.
And that's one of the things I really appreciate about him.
And like, if you want to look like the movie cost $150 million to make, and then you usually double the budget for marketing, it's made its money.
And this is everything else's profit.
And they're going to fall over themselves to make a second film.
Oh, gosh, yes.
And, and I have to say from the grownup standpoint going there, you know, Jack Black, whatever you think of him, there's a meter on Jack Black of, oh, I mean, way over the top too much, even for me.
And then there's the meter where it's like
No, actually, he plays it at just the right level where she's like, get over yourself.
No, he actually plays the character that he plays just right.
And one of the young women in the cast, her name is Emma Meyers.
And you ever get this in a movie where you have to look up somebody afterwards because it is making you crazy where you saw that person before?
And this was the Emma Meyers role.
I'm like, I have no idea who Emma Meyers is.
I looked it up and I realized the Netflix series Wednesday.
Yes.
Jenny Ortega.
Emma Myers was was one of the friends.
Nice.
I loved that show.
And she was really good.
Oh my gosh, Matthew in Mom and he falls.
Yes.
Matthew says, and the 11 year old did this as well.
As soon as we get in the car, it was how did the how the song go?
It's lava.
It's chicken.
It's something chicken.
It's lava chicken.
There's a lava chicken song.
It's the
dumbest thing and we're singing it the whole way home.
Lava chicken,
we're
singing Lava Chicken.
I
think Pat Critlow really loved the Minecraft movie.
I think
so.
It was nice.
It was
perfect.
I did not roll my eyes one time in that.
You shouldn't.
Yeah.
No, no.
My niece loves, I don't know if she still does, but like a year or two ago, I went to their house and she was playing Minecraft and she was telling me, she's like, you want to see the house?
I'm like, oh, sure.
She shows me the house.
I built 12 of these.
I'm like, what?
I know.
And then I was like, what does that even mean?
But yeah, they dive in and they bury themselves in that game.
Oh my goodness.
And I will say, if you're like, hey, is this movie all about the game?
Not exactly.
The game, it's set in the game, but you don't have to know anything about the game.
It's like the movie Dungeons and Dragons.
Oh my god.
There you
go.
That's a
great movie.
All right, so there's our Hollywood Minute
for the day.
Our Hollywood 13
minutes.
Pete Schwabba.
Pete Schwabba, you can take the rest of the day off.
We got this.
We will get to some of the news of the day, including conspiracy theories being spread by the chair of the Assembly Elections Committee.
Apparently, it's a requirement for the job.
Wherever you're listening across Wisconsin or this great country on this Wednesday morning when you're here, you're up north.
My pack right low.
We'll be right back.
We've
started with Carl Perkins anytime recently, but Carl Perkins is part of today's history lesson.
The Rockabilly legend is coming up.
in just a few minutes here on Up North News Radio.
By the way, back to the text from Matthew Menomedy Falls.
I got caught up in the lava chicken.
He was saying his kids won't stop yelling chicken jockey.
Again, a very funny moment in the movie.
So yes, I can see why the kids would be yelling chicken jockey, but they're also singing this little diddy if you still have a
Greg.
That's it.
Lava.
Lava chicken.
Steve's Lava chicken.
I am
really unhappy that I need to get a haircut.
I am starting to it's it's getting bad.
I'm the amount of people who said you remind me of Jack Black.
I'm like, I don't know if that's a compliment.
I'm not going to say I didn't think about you yesterday watching the movie because you're you're funny.
You know,
keep going Pat.
Tell me.
Tell me all the reasons why you think of me when you think of Jack Black.
I think of you as Jack Black because if you were starring in the movie The Holiday, you too could end up with Kate Winslet.
Oh, just let's get that's that's a good friend right there.
Maybe I should transition now to the newsletter.
You can get that every weekday from Christina Laurie over at UpNorthNewsWI.com in the newsletter today.
reclaiming the darkness and that's not a metaphor and it's not anything about depression.
We're talking about the sky and being able to stargaze and how you know light pollution or light waste whatever you want to call it is keeping us from seeing you know the starry skies and it doesn't mean we have to be dark all the time but there's ways we waste light you can put you know timers on outdoor lights and things like that so there's one story in the newsletter
Another one is that when you think of bars and taverns, you think of places that can be rather noisy, maybe a little raucous.
But there are also some small breweries and brew pubs that are more like coffee shops where you can enjoy a brew and you can quietly read a book or anything like that.
So get that story and more in our daily newsletter, head over to UpEarthNewsWI.com.
Let's see you better check a little sports here at 24 past the hour.
Do you remember Bobby Portis?
Remember him?
He was quite the spark plug for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Whatever happened to that guy?
Oh, that's right.
He took the wrong kind of painkiller and had to serve a 25 game suspension.
And last night was his first game back.
And what did he do?
He helped the Bucks with a comeback win that became instant history for the franchise.
The Bucks were down.
24 points in the fourth quarter.
When Portis and the rest of the team came roaring back, Portis made a steal that led to a basket that put Milwaukee ahead for good.
A raucous crowd at the Fyster Forum chanting, Bobby, Bobby.
Just like old times, the Bucks shocked the Minnesota Timberwolves 110 to 103.
Three games left in the regular season.
The Bucks are pretty well locked into the five seed in the East.
The Timberwolves started that game in a four-way tie for fifth place in the West.
They're now alone in the eighth spot after that epic collapse.
For the Brewers, Bryce Durang, Christian Yelich and William Contreras all hit seventh inning home runs.
Jackson Churio doubled and tripled and the Brewers beat the Colorado Rockies seven to one last night.
Freddie Peralta struck out six in five solid innings.
The Brewers have won six of the last seven.
after starting the season with four straight losses.
And the Brewers will play Colorado again this evening.
Coverage starts at 7.05 on several civic media stations.
Head over to civicmedia.us to learn more.
In the news we've learned that the number of UW System students whose international student visas have been revoked is now up to 27.
So there were 13 originally reported in Madison and another 14 at other UW schools, leading to what appears to be hundreds of students.
Now, the Trump administration is saying that some of these folks engaged in demonstrations, pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Hello, First Amendment, I see you there.
Some engaged in minor criminal offenses like a speeding ticket, but many others,
had no reason at all to have their visa revoked, none.
And so it really takes away from any kind of justification when the Trump administration wants to paint all of them as like some kind of, you know, terrorist cell when they're literally plucking good students out of class and saying you have to get on an airplane right now.
All right, here's today's civics lesson.
People, what do people want?
People want clean elections.
They want fair elections.
They want well-run elections.
It's not that people just dislike bad elections or poorly run elections.
They also don't like it when they do have well-run clean elections, but some politicians choose to lie about it.
Now, lie is a strong word.
And I use it on purpose it may be that a lot of regular folks have genuine concerns about quote-unquote irregularities They may truthfully believe that but it's because they've been lied to By politicians who know better who can't win on their ideas and their candidates alone So they pass along conspiracy theories if I'd have been smart enough to tell Greg to get to some eerie scary music I would have said this leads us to today's episode of
conspiracy theater brought to you by the GOP, we put the con in conspiracy since 2016.
And it all comes from an interview seen on CBS 58 with Waukesha County State Representative Dave Maxey, who is the chair of the Assembly Elections Committee, who told Emily Fanon of CBS 58 that if it were up to him, he'd get rid of the central count facility in Milwaukee.
There are hundreds of polling stations in Milwaukee having a central count facility in large cities Makes it easier to get all the ballots to one secure place That is publicly witnessed to count the ballots with nary a problem and instead This representative maxi wants the ballots to be counted and somehow they're gonna pay for staffing the extra people in hundreds of polling stations
This is right up there with Trump and others who are grandstanding and demanding that everyone vote on a single day with no absentee voting.
It's based in things that aren't real.
There aren't problems with central count facilities.
There aren't problems with mail-in voting, as we talked about yesterday.
One person on what used to be Twitter responded to Representative Maxie saying, I've worked at central count.
You know what I see there?
I see workers doing their job professionally.
I also see Republican politicians showing up to grandstand and media people covering slow news stories.
And this has been a basis of Republican politics for a while, is to make Milwaukee look bad.
Even Brad Schimmel had to do it out of desperation.
When he knew there wasn't a problem in Milwaukee, but it's a buzzword that if you drop enough, you hope might motivate a few people.
I would like to think it's now motivating some people to say, is that all you got?
Maybe I should be considering the other candidate.
Melissa Baldoff has our climate check for the week and a little sports talk after this.
You're up
north.
And we're just going to start right there.
Welcome back everybody to Florida Gators Talk now with Melissa Baldoff and a little climate check thrown in as well.
You're a happy little Gators fan, aren't you?
Give the backstory again on you being a Florida fan.
proud Florida Gator, and I am just excited to see this team win out the way they did.
These are an incredibly exciting game.
I was also really excited watching the NCAA Women's Championship.
It was really awesome to see Paige Buckers get her championship.
You can't hate on their success as a program.
A
dynasty gets that way by being good.
You know, yeah, they do.
Anybody can be good for a year, flash in the pan, but to do it that much really says something.
We also haven't had a chance to talk since the election last week, Susan Crawford and Jill Underly winning their respective races.
And in the case of Justice Elect Crawford, once again by the same kind of 10 point margin, more or less as the other three progressive justices in all of their races.
What do you read into that?
Are they each on their own marriage?
And it's a nice coincidence or do those you know four out of the last five Supreme Court races ending this way Tell you something.
I think for one it tells us that Wisconsinites even ones who may have voted for Republicans may have voted for Donald Trump even as recently as November and they do want a
fair and impartial state Supreme Court.
They don't want it to be chaotic.
They don't want it to be that, you know, Robin Boss doesn't get his way in the legislature and he can run straight to a favorable Supreme Court to see his will done.
What voters really want is a fair and impartial court.
They've seen what happens when we get a fair and impartial court.
They've had that example over the past year.
They saw us
get fair maps in Wisconsin and now have a more balanced legislature that is much more reflective of the will of the people and of the actual makeup of the state.
And they've seen really important victories for democracy, like all of the thousands of people who were able to return their ballot via a drop-box because this fair and impartial court.
restored that ability for localities to decide for themselves if they would like to have a dropbox available for their voters to use.
So I think that's one of the things it tells us.
And the other thing I think it tells us is that the message matters and the candidates matter and what they stand for matters.
So we saw that in Brad Schimmel, somebody who very tied to
all of the extremism of Donald Trump and Republicans, but without the brand of Trump, which kind of is part of the allure for a lot of people because, you know, they think that Trump is a business guy who's doing things differently when, you know, we know, otherwise obvious.
But it was like all of the, you got all of the Trump downsides, but none of the Trump upsides.
So I think that's very instructive.
for Republicans.
And I also just think that's very instructive for Republicans and Democrats alike to just be aware of that.
And also the Elon Musk effect, you know, our state wasn't for sale and our people weren't for sale.
And they sent a really strong message there.
It was a bit of positivity in the midst of what has not been a very positive first couple of months of the Trump administration, which is why a lot of our
our climate check segments have been going in different directions and in this case where we're going to go with it this week is again a reminder of some of these success stories of taking a changing climate seriously and why people whatever their partisan persuasion should still want to support some of these initiatives.
Now in this case we're not talking about green energy, we're not talking about electric vehicles or anything like that.
We're talking about infrastructure
and making it more resilient to a changing climate.
Now, last week we wrapped up our segment talking about rivers and river health, primarily in the sense of water quality, also about the economic development along there.
But there's also something to be said for how a changing climate with the increase in severe storms and especially flash floods, that that's one of the ways
that infrastructure can be made more resilient.
And all that means, Melissa, is as much as people don't want to do it, is accepting that things have changed.
And so when we're building new things, we should take that into consideration.
When you know better, you do better.
And anything is the hope, right?
I think that's a lesson to apply here, that we know more about what's happening.
and whether people like it or not, whether they want to acknowledge the reality here or not.
We know that the changing climate is causing changes in our weather patterns, and it's making people have to react accordingly.
So it is good that we're seeing different local governments and businesses take approaches to bolster their resilience.
knowing that we are going to be continuing to face more of these extreme weather conditions.
So the one I looked at as I was looking for some examples that we could use here, and there's one that comes out of the village of Elm Grove, which is just west of the Milwaukee area.
And it's an area that has seen more than its fair share of flash floods and things.
There was a 1998.
event that produced a foot of rain over seven hours and Underwood Creek rose six feet in just 15 minutes and what they realized was how many structures are still in the floodplain in that particular community and so one of the first resiliency things we can talk about here is something as basic as
buying those properties and and either you know tearing them down relocating folks not doing it in some kind of an eminent domain way but with funding that would encourage that to happen it's very basic but if you're thinking about the way the climate has changed you I would think you have to take these floodplain issues more seriously wherever you are
absolutely I think that it's incredibly important to take that into consideration it's a safety issue for
the people who are there and who's in those properties.
And it's also a really big economic issue.
If the same properties are going to be grown to flooding, that's going to be at significant cost to those property owners and also to insurance companies.
And we know one thing about insurance companies, it's that they want to hold on to their money.
And obviously that has a ripple effect on the community more broadly.
Anything we can do, if we know that there are going to be areas that are repeatedly going to be impacted by this severe flooding and they're going to have those damages, that they could have extreme property loss, damage, potentially pose danger to people, it makes all the sense in the world to say, all right, well, let's get you out of here.
We don't need this risk for anybody.
No, and I mean, it was one of my first, everybody loves to talk about earmarks, you know, those nasty, nasty earmarks.
Well, I'm very proud of one of my first earmarks as a legislator, which was to facilitate the bout of some properties in a flood plain in Chippewa Falls.
And the interesting thing is, you know, they put Park in its place right where Duncan Creek flows into the Chippewa River below the dam there as you're heading into downtown Chippewa Falls.
And people looked at that as it would flood in the spring, and they'd kind of chortle about, oh, nice place for a park that floods every spring.
That was the whole point, is it's no longer flooding the homes or the businesses, it's now going where nature wants it to go, and then eventually the river settles and the park can be used again.
But that was one example, the city of Eau Claire has been wildly successful in its flood plain and then
again, developing in areas along the river that aren't prone to flooding.
And it just seems, Melissa, that the nice marriage of economic development, but a realistic view of why your infrastructure in your community should be as resilient as possible for, you know, for the next few years down the road.
And I think it's like you said, down the road, right?
You know, this is an example of communities taking that opportunity to be both
preventing those problems in the near term and really taking that longer term approach.
And that's what we want more communities to do.
And more people, more businesses to really think long term.
Because that's been, I think, some of the challenge with the way we've tackled climate is that these are long term solutions.
And that's why some of the costs for some of these things seem so large.
because they're not that quick fix.
Some of these projects that people are talking about when you think, oh, I'm sidebarring here, but when people are thinking about like, oh, I want to put solar on my roof and it's expensive.
It can be a big investment up front, but then if you look at it long term, you're going to have savings for years and years and years to come.
That's the, I think, important lens through which to view some of these things is, yes, you're going to have an impact now.
but what is the impact for years to come?
And that's what I think is so impressive about the communities that are taking this approach that they're thinking now and they're thinking in the future.
And by the way, while we're talking about what a changing climate means, we'll end as we begin with coming back to Elm Grove, because in this report about their buyout program, the report says that in a typical 100-year flood event,
In that community, about 52 properties would have been affected.
They did the buyouts.
Since the buyouts, there has been a 300-year flood event and two separate 100-year flood events and none have resulted in property damage due to overland flooding.
So it worked and it also reminds us, I mean, again, a 300-year flood event and two 100-year flood events.
Melissa, they're...
There's something to change in out there, and people would do well to stop living in denial.
Denial's a river in Egypt.
Better you prepare for the river that's running through your own backyard first.
had temporary clothes after the flooding swapped into the facilities.
What are, what would Wisconsinites do if our breweries were getting flooded out?
And that's not said to minimize.
And I certainly want to make sure, you know, to stress the severity of what's happening in Kentucky and how deadly it is and to extend my sympathies for everybody impacted there.
But, you know, just a reminder that this is
something that's happening everywhere.
And it is really important that our local government, state government, federal government, all be working together to do everything they can to mitigate the impacts of flooding and improve their resilience.
And I know we're not getting the help we need from the federal folks right now, but that's all the more important that our local and state government are stepping up and being the moment.
Oh, you're not kidding about the federal involvement because we were used to a steady stream of press releases from Senator Tammy Baldwin securing funds that would make infrastructure more resilient to extreme weather.
So for example, you know, an overpass, maybe you'd build it one way because you'd only have like one 100 year flash flooding event.
But in the future, if that overpass needs to be replaced, you would build it stronger.
to be resilient against maybe that 300-year flood event.
That, again, is just that is smart use of our tax dollars instead of having to replace it and replace it and replace it.
And yeah, we were getting a lot of that from Senator Baldwin over the years.
It's going to be a little bit tougher in the near future, but hopefully folks are always looking out for the next opportunity when the environment changes in Washington, D.C.
So there you go.
We've covered the climate.
We've covered politics.
We've even covered some college basketball.
Melissa Baldoff does it all.
And Melissa, thank you so much.
Appreciate it as always.
Safe travels.
Have a great day.
Always nice to catch up with Melissa and yeah, including
Florida Gators talk.
I was not expecting that.
We talked about our daily newsletter, but I just wanted to put in a quick pitch for our new Sunday morning edition of the newsletter with a focus on Wisconsin politics and our question of the week.
And this one relates to that budget surplus.
And what's the best way to provide tax relief through the budget?
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Melissa Kay joins us for today's history lesson.
next.
You're up north.
Today's history lesson
starts with some true rock and roll history and that of course would be Carl Perkins Was a pioneer of rock ability and rock and roll he was a fan of Elvis and vice versa they both did wonderful things with this little composition
about getting your shoes scuffed up on the dance floor.
Somebody who's never had that problem is Melissa K, because she'll scuff your shoes, but you can't touch hers.
No.
I mean, maybe now in high school, I had Justin Whitmer stepped on my ankle.
He's the only boy I remember in
high school.
How do you do that?
We were doing the two
step.
OK.
I
just
figured like, were you, were you on the floor doing the worm or something?
And he walked
past, but no, okay.
We were dance partners learning the two step and yeah.
And he stepped on my ankle.
I don't, Melissa, I don't know of what age you are, but did any of you have as a unit in your physical education class, square dancing?
Yeah.
Looking back now, you're like, what a weird educational lesson.
When people go, what has happened to the U.S.
ranking and education across the world?
Well, you know, square dancing.
Look at our square dancing ranking
way up there.
Priorities, people.
More birthdays today.
This is the anniversary of the birth of Curly Lambeau, who was born 127 years ago, 1898, died in 1965.
Joe Scarborough from MSNBC is 62 today.
Actress Cynthia Nixon from Sex and the City and many other shows is 59.
On this day in 1966, the righteous brothers had a number one hit.
Hey, Pat, does this song sound like another song
to you?
You think so?
You know, look, in the mid-60s, and actually, no, all the time.
If you've got a hit with something, if it's a formula, run that formula through again.
And so if it sounds a little bit like the Righteous Brothers, you've lost that love and feeling.
Yes.
Yeah, that was that was that was no accident, shall we say, but it did go to number one this day in 1966.
El Fanning is 27 years old today.
Little Nas X is 26.
Born Montero Hill in Atlanta.
Montero Hill.
That's a nice
name.
Yes.
Yes.
Apparently.
I'm not even joking.
His name is for the Mitsubishi Montero.
They saw that and they thought that was a cool name.
But instead of Lil Nas Montero, it's Lil Nas X. So, 1977 we're going back to for the next number one song by a Swedish group that had their seventh top 40 hit and their first number one with this.
You guys ever been to a wedding?
Oh wait, Melissa, I can't tell if Melissa liked that or she made it face.
You don't
like, do
you not like the song or do you not like ABBA?
Because your answer has consequences.
I don't have enough experience with ABBA to give that correct answer.
But I'm not a fan of this song.
Because it's so overplayed.
Yes, totally get that.
Let's see, The Tree of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War, was approved by Britain's King George III this day in 1784.
Coincidentally, on this day in 1865, the Civil War came to an end when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia.
The number one song this day in 1988 was by Billy Ocean.
I think it's, I think it's a really huge shame that Billy Ocean and Michael McDonald never made a song together.
I'm going to say that
now.
When you, when you learn later on, as I only did recently, that this song was produced by Mutt Lang.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
Makes total sense.
I
mean, he turned, he turned everything into gold.
He had, he would add all the right elements and all the right places here.
Let's see, rapper DMX, born Earl Simmons died this day in 2021 at the age of 50 after having a massive heart attack.
His first five albums all went to number one.
And yes, FCC, this is the clean version.
Yes.
Yes.
We triple check.
Oh
my God.
His album.
I love DMX.
He's so good.
He's so good.
I know I've told the story before, but I have to tell it again.
Our oldest grandson was, what, six, I think?
And I hear him singing this chorus part, all going to make me lose my mind.
I didn't know the song, of course, because, you know, I'm old.
I'm like, where did he get that song?
And then I went and heard it on the radio.
And of course, not on the radio, but over the interwebs.
It was not the clean
version.
Which version did he get this from?
But it was fun to hear a six-year-old belting out the chorus.
Yeah.
Uh, this is international and this is national gin and tonic day.
This is national unicorn day.
And it is international ASMR day.
Oh yeah.
Great.
Great.
It's a master of ASMR.
We're
going to get in here and talk about the radio right now.
Melissa K is directing a play up north right now.
All of our bosses like, why is he whispering?
I
know.
Stop
it.
All right.
Melissa,
how are things going as you get set to direct noises off coming up next month?
It's going really well.
Um, I, I challenged my cast to be off book this week and they are knocking it out of the park.
They're doing fantastic.
Um, we, we, we did our first run of act one off books yesterday or Monday, Monday, and they killed it.
What do you
mean off books?
Yeah, they don't have their scripts in their hand anymore.
They have their lines and they're blocking memorized.
Oh,
great.
I have only one reoccurring dream in my life.
It is that that I'm in a play that I've not memorized my lines and it's opening night.
I am positive that is one of the big, I mean, everybody would think that I had done plays and things like that.
No, and that is a big reason.
Why is that fear of not having something to memorize?
But if you would like to see what a great job Melissa is doing with noises off May 1st to the 3rd and May 8th to the 10th head to WRC theater.org.
And I say theater because it's spelled T R E not.
Yeah.
R C theater.
Yeah.
Melissa, thanks for the update.
Thank
you, Melissa.
Appreciate it.
Oh, it's good to see you guys.
Oh, good to see you as well.
Coming up in our next hour of Up North News Radio, we'll talk about making sure that our state legislature is making the next state budget as kid-friendly as possible.
Corinne Hendrickson and Bryn Horton have some ideas about that.
Coming up right after this, Up North News Radio on the Civic Media Radio Network.