You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
All 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 at
Freight Love.
Complete with official Roy Kent coffee mug.
I often have on Fridays to help me wrap up the week.
Hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It's 6.06 on this Friday morning, April 18th, 2025.
Another beautiful morning 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.
Watching us on social media or catching us on demand by podcast, thanks for wrapping up your week right here.
I've got a question for you.
What are the odds that I wake up any of the people that have infiltrated my home overnight and we're up until the wee smalls, even though somebody else gets up shortly after that to do a morning radio show?
We may get tiny visitors.
during the course of the next two hours.
We'll see how that goes.
Coming up on the program today, we have Courier of Newsroom National Correspondent, Kia Vakil.
We will be talking a bit about the headlines this week, including that Maryland resident abducted illegally by the Trump administration and sent to a concentration camp in El Salvador.
We'll tell you how Bob Spindel is added again.
The fake elector for Donald Trump
who is somehow still a member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, once again started spewing his Milwaukee conspiracy theories at a meeting yesterday to the point where he was very nearly thrown out in a shouting match ensued.
So I'll give you the update on that.
Our Week in Review panel, Jim Santel is off this week.
We'll talk to Mark Jacob and Jennifer Scholesy about all the headlines surrounding the new administration this week.
And today's headlines alone.
Threaten to be overwhelming with Trump cuts that affect public health, consumer protection, the health of the oceans, food safety, and so on, where we're going to give our usual caveat.
You can't dwell on this.
It'll make you absolutely crazy, but you also can't ignore it.
So we are going to talk about the things that the Trump White House is doing so that you know about it.
You have to carry on with your lives and hopefully with all these things in mind, some folks will make better choices the next time there's an election, assuming that we get to have another election.
Along the way, you can join the show at 855-75-CIVIC-855-7524842.
You can also use the Civic Media app to call or text the show.
and you can certainly put your comments on Facebook or YouTube in the comments section and we'll see them and maybe pop them up on the screen here.
Brittany Merlot says there's a low pressure system over the state today draping a warm front for southern spots and a cold front sits up north ready to sweep through tonight, sparking up chances for strong to severe thunderstorms.
Her state forecast for today goes like this, scattered showers likely, mostly cloudy and mild, strong to severe thunderstorm chances in the evening, especially in southeast Wisconsin.
A wide range of highs today from the low 50s in the northwest to the low 70s in the southeast.
Variable winds eventually becoming northwest at five to 15 miles an hour.
Spotty showers early this evening, then partial clearing and cooler as the night goes on.
Lows tonight up north in the low 30s, mid 40s in the southern part of the state and a northwest wind around 10 miles an hour.
At the bus stop temperatures look like this.
It is 50.
Hey 50 now, that's not the 20s or 30s.
I can get used to that Yeah, so 50 Here in Chippewa Falls 47 in Hayward 45 and Amory wassaws at 50 Wisconsin Rapids at 49 lacrosse 53 Green Bay is at 50 Madison and Milwaukee all 50 and it says here Greg Bach
that radio park in Racine.
It's around 55 degrees and I wasn't kidding about the prospect for some thunder boomers down in your neck of the woods.
Good morning.
Yep, indeed.
My phone just popped up with a warning with a notification that said there's a severe thunderstorm watch right now.
They've issued it for to be in effect until 11am this morning and includes looks like
Oh, there we go.
15 counties.
So all over the state, but down here as well in, in, in we're seeing in Kenosha.
So, and in the vein pat of your, uh, now I can't think of his name.
Roy Kent theme.
I will
simply say one thing to this week.
That's right.
This week can be over.
I am done with this week.
Pat.
I'm
checking out.
Pop, pop.
That was my time card.
I am done.
Wouldn't, wouldn't
that be?
Yeah.
Um, maybe just a little bit longer because dead air apparently is not, uh, you know, not an attractive quality.
Could we all deal with a
little bit of silence, Pat?
Uh, we're not getting it from mother nature.
Alicia says the thunderstorms last night had my dogs barking or as Cassandra puts, yay, spring storms, best time of the year.
So it depends.
What about Maybells?
Maybell a fan of thunderstorms?
No,
she is not.
But not in she barks, but there's a there's an incredulousness to it.
Like, what is this?
Not like I'm scared, but more like, who did this?
Why is this happening?
Oh, look, a squirrel.
Hey, you probably have something going on at the laughing tap.
We do.
We do.
Damon Millard.
New York comic Milwaukee, Milwaukee boy at heart returns to brew city for this weekend at the laughing tap two shows one Friday, one Saturday, uh, seven 30 tickets are available laughing tap.com $22 at the door $25.
I'm sorry.
$22 online $25 at the door.
No drink minimum.
So it's going to be really fun night.
I'm sorry.
Really fun weekend.
And then
I keep on forgetting that it's Easter this week, this weekend.
It is.
Yes.
And I'm really just looking forward.
And we talked about this, I think yesterday.
I don't, we don't really do anything in my family.
So Sunday will just be a wonderful day off.
So you need that.
You need that, especially given for folks that might have missed it yesterday.
You had a little surgical work done on the nasal passages, some little stuffy now, but.
But hey, you know, the doctors say in six to 12, what, years, years, yeah, yeah, or weeks, yeah, that things will, will get better.
So you're, you, you're on the road.
I will be smelling everything.
Someday.
Someday.
LaughingTap.com is where you go.
So Easter means that some folks are traveling and that included part of my brood.
And not the ones I was visiting in Idaho last weekend, but the ones from out in Michigan.
And they, they wanted to come straight here after work yesterday, even though that meant an arrival after midnight with the three year old or the six year old.
Yeah.
The parallel to last week was rather striking, though, because last week, again, I had to get up at 3 30 mountain time to do the show.
But of course, being a man of a certain age, I'd still be getting up around 1 32 o'clock to take a little break.
And not every night, but some nights had to poke my head into the boys, the boys bedroom and say to the 18 year old, knock it off, go to sleep, because I could hear him talking on his phone at two in the morning, as 18 year old teenage men are want to do.
Yeah.
So this morning, and I do mean this morning, again, I went to bed early, they got here sometime after midnight, Sherry clearly got up to greet them, which would have been just after midnight, that's fine.
I get up, it's about 2.15, and I hear talking, and I see that the lights are on.
go out there and again much like last week going it's two o'clock in the morning knock it off i go out there i'm like it's two o'clock in the morning thinking i'm just going to be talking to sherry and my daughter and her husband but no at two fifteen in the morning the three-year-old and the six-year-old are also bouncing around in the living room because apparently they
slept
I know they slept for, you know, a big chunk of the car ride so that when they got there and they saw grandma and everything was all happy and you know, grandma's got treats.
Of course.
So they, you know, so they were kind of, then they see me and say, grandpa, grandpa, give me a hug.
I'm going back to bed.
I love you, but I gotta pee and go to bed.
Bye.
So it normally the odds would be pretty high that at some point a three year old.
and or a six year old would come wandering in, you know, through the kitchen here.
But given that they now didn't go to bed for good until two 30, I'm feeling pretty good that when this show is done at eight, I'll still be the only one awake
under this roof.
But apparently it was it was a I missed a good time last night because Andrew says my four year old was up at four this morning while I was getting ready for work.
Yes.
And again, there's rarely does it happen at a convenient time.
Yeah.
But
oh,
yeah.
We still we and they're not waking up to be like, I'll make breakfast mother.
They're like
Yes, feed me, help me, yes.
You can sign up for our daily newsletter over at upnorthnewswi.com.
You can, once you get signed up for the newsletter, also be part of, put it up on screen there.
Pat, there you go.
You can sign up for our weekend newsletter that we put together on Sunday mornings that concentrates on Wisconsin politics.
But in the daily newsletter today that Christina Laurie puts together,
There is a story there about ways to support Ukraine and Ukraine is part of today's headlines from the Trump administration.
So Christina again points out how Dorr County candle company, the owner is 100% Ukrainian.
And when the invasion first happened, she started selling these little vanilla scented blue and yellow candles to raise money for a nonprofit that provides support for families affected by the ongoing war.
Her initial goal was to sell maybe 30 candles.
She has sold more than 100,000.
She has raised a million dollars in counting.
And in fact, I've got the Ukrainian candle was here.
I think it's in the middle on the top.
Look at you.
Oh, by the way, did you did?
So again, learn more about that in the newsletter.
You see what else I added to the to the bookshelf over here.
Oh, man.
It's
Friday.
It's going to be rock and the
captain's hat is right next.
There we go.
The pontoon captain's hat is right next to the lake with soda signed on the bookshelf.
So we're getting closer, folks.
I mean, come on.
It's 50 again, not 20.
So it's better.
things are better.
We are we are clearly getting there.
So we're looking forward to a house full here.
And that included yesterday running to the grocery store, because I can't remember if I mentioned this yesterday or not, but I think I mentioned that we forgot a couple of things at the grocery store, which which
happens happens.
Yeah.
Yeah, we forgot the big one.
We were unpacking the groceries and we go, did we forget the ham?
Yes, we did.
So I had to go back and get the ham yesterday.
Hey, that's
okay.
That happens.
You know what?
Sometimes people say, did I forget the kid?
Yes, that is a better way to go.
By the way, a reminder that starting Wednesday of next week, if you liked this the past 12 minutes, and if so, I can't help you, but if you liked it, we're gonna do more of it, three hours of it, starting Wednesday with a brand new lineup, all up and down the Civic Media Radio Network, so head over to the Civic Media website to learn much more about that.
All right, when we come back, we'll cover some of the headlines out there, and they're not great.
I will teach you, there's one nice award going to a technical college in Wisconsin, best in the country.
So we've got that going for us.
From the heart of America's Up North, this is Up North News Radio, I'm Pat Critello, we'll be
back.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
My God, I feel better already.
You know, the healing power of Yacht Rock.
Yeah, you said DJ's choice when it came to the music for Yacht Rock.
Yep.
And I really didn't want no offense.
You know how we feel about the man.
I didn't want to play him just because I feel like he's always played.
But you can't deny that intro.
No, of course not.
And it makes
you
feel good.
So yes,
you're welcome, everyone.
Can I tell you the mind blowing fact I learned about a Yacht Rock classic?
yesterday.
Of course you got it.
As I was heading back to the grocery store for the aforementioned ham, that had the missing in ham action, I heard on one of the rock stations, I heard the Michael McDonald Doobie Brothers version of the Carly Simon classic You Belong to Me.
And now most folks have heard the Carly Simon version.
It was on the radio all the time.
The
Doobie Brothers version, you know, not so much.
You have to kind of go looking for it.
But again, it's very much in a Michael McDonald vein.
And as I'm driving listening to that version, I'm like, did he like steal that from Carly Simon or did Carly Simon do a remake?
You know, did somebody with the Doobie Brothers write it or whatever?
I get to the Wikipedia entry, Wikipedia, so it must be true.
And I look up that song, You Belong to Me.
And the entry begins, You Belong to Me is a song written by Carly Simon and Michael McDonald.
This is the Doobie Brothers version.
Oh, that
keyboard.
I know, he loves that keyboard.
I mean, come on.
Seriously, everyone, if you like make a McDonald get that book in your life and get the audio if you can because he him narrating is fantastic.
So Carly Simon wrote the lyrics and Michael McDonald wrote the music.
I had no idea that they'd ever teamed up on a song before.
That's fantastic.
Things we learn on this program here.
The brewers were off yesterday.
They continue their home stand starting tonight.
against the West Sacramento Athletics.
You can catch that game starting at 6.35 this evening on Civic Media Stations and Richland Center.
Osh, gosh, we're seeing Kenosha Park Falls and the newest Brewers affiliate up North WBZH in Hayward.
Again, for that weekend series against West Sacramento.
They really hate it when you say that NBA playoffs the Bucks will be playing the Pacers in Indianapolis Saturday at noon For game one of their best of seven playoff series as we mentioned yesterday If you want to follow the Bucks playoff first round against the Pacers you are gonna need a program because it's ESPN tomorrow at noon
Game two is Tuesday on NBA TV.
Game three isn't until a week from today on NBA TV.
Game four will be late Sunday night in Milwaukee on TNT.
And that's just the force for games.
If it goes to five, then six, then seven, they haven't said what network they're on.
So they're going to be out there someplace, but you're going to have to do a little bit of hunting for it.
In the news.
Today's civics lesson is this.
Without consequences, bad people are going to do bad things again.
They're going to try to hijack elections.
They're going to pressure people to find votes.
And we'll see some other version of the fake elector scheme tried again in another close election.
If somebody else gets to write the rules, somebody for whom there was no consequences the last time around.
which takes us to fake elector Bob Spindel, who is somehow still a member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
This despite being one of the Trump fake electors that while not facing criminal penalties in Wisconsin, does not necessarily absolve them of all responsibility for their actions.
But Republicans in the legislature,
decided to put Robert Spindel back on the Wisconsin Elections Commission, conspiracy theories and all, something he loves to talk about.
He loves to talk about the work that Republicans did to undermine the black vote in Milwaukee in past elections.
Now comes the story that yesterday's meeting of the Wisconsin Elections Commission to talk about the uncounted ballots in Madison
devolved into a shouting match with the Democratic chair threatening to kick Spindel out of the meeting.
The commission was all about how Madison's city clerk failed to count 200 absentee ballots in the November election and didn't tell the commission about the oversight until after the election was certified that clerk resigned this week.
Commission Chair Ann Jacobs was talking to the Elections Commission members about the controversy in Madison.
When Bob Spindel spoke up and said that while he was fine with the Madison investigation, the Commission also needs to pay more attention to what he said were even more serious problems with elections in Milwaukee.
And it's at that point that Ann Jacobs lost patience, understandably, and began
shouting at him that Milwaukee is not on the agenda.
Milwaukee elections are not on the agenda.
She threatened to kick him out if he continued.
She jabbed a finger at him saying, I'm not going to let you keep going, Bob.
I'm going to talk over you until you stop.
You are out of order.
I will eject you from this meeting if you disobey again.
She said, the city of Milwaukee is not on this agenda.
You don't get to hijack the agenda.
They continued to shout over each other until Spindel gave up.
He said, I said what I needed to say, thank you.
And that's what conspiracy theorists do.
And you've certainly seen this in the age of Trump, that if you don't like what the subject is, you change it.
If you're being interviewed by a journalist, you shout at them.
You accuse them of being biased or a bad person.
And you say whatever it is you want to say.
which brings me back to a point that I've made, I think initially with Ron Johnson, but certainly with plenty of other people.
And I've mentioned this to Mark Jacob and Jennifer Scholesi who we'll talk to in our next hour.
I just don't think live interviews serve the purpose that they used to if the other person is going to be disrespectful, try to hijack it, not answer the questions, change the subject and everything else.
I would much rather see programs where
interviews are taped, either out in the field or in the studio, it doesn't matter.
So that then afterwards, fact checking can be done in real time on the things that they said.
Now, you can't do that at a Wisconsin Elections Commission meeting, but you have to at least do what Anne Jacobs did and call it out.
Because, again, you can entertain all the conspiracy theories you want.
But if you ain't got the evidence,
then there is no way that it is official business to be brought up at something like an elections commission meeting.
Take that stuff to wacky right-wing radio where it's welcome.
Kia Vekila is up next here up north.
Michael Curry, a newsroom, political editor, senior political correspondent, vice president of political minions, all of the things that he gets to do.
He needs a hat rack.
So many hats back there.
How are you today?
I am good.
And I actually quite literally need a hat rack because right now on my desk, I have two other hats that are just floating around because I don't have a hat rack.
So I both need a metaphorical one and a literal one.
Very nice.
Let's start with something we haven't covered on this program this week.
It certainly is familiar territory for anybody paying attention to the news.
And that is the case of Kilmar-Abrego Garcia, who was a resident of Maryland, was originally from El Salvador, but was living in the United States under protective court order, and yet is one of the many who were scooped up, disappeared, and Kia, this case...
should not have lasted 48 hours before it was resolved.
If one of your loved ones were scooped up off the street and sent to a concentration camp in El Salvador, you'd want this thing done in hours.
I can't believe this is going on still, but it does tell you something about the Trump administration having no qualms about
taking the the the lawless route and as of the end of this week they're sticking to their guns on this it seems.
Yeah, and you know, that's why they took the lawless route.
They detained Kilmar on March 12th and within three days he'd been deported to El Salvador.
No chance for a court hearing, no chance to prove his innocence, which by the way, there is no evidence of any crime or criminal record or gang affiliation.
This is a man who came to the US when he was 16 fleeing gang violence in El Salvador.
He is a married to a US citizen.
He is the father of an American born child.
He's the stepfather
to two other kids born in the US.
He is a union member.
He has zero criminal record.
The administration itself has admitted in court that he was mistakenly deported.
You know, their lawyers were admitted that, but Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, you know, and all these other
frankly thugs, let's call them what they are, are, you know, insisting he was a gang member, they released a partially redacted file on him, which shows that when he was, you know, arrested in 2019, it was because he was wearing a sweatshirt and a Chicago Bulls hat that they felt was affiliated.
Oh, oh, well, there you go.
I mean, that's, I guess that's good enough for me.
I mean, for the Attorney General of the United States to
stand out there in front of the White House for Fox News and the others and wave this flimsy evidence and call it evidence.
I'm still finding it hard to believe that the judge in this case is showing the kind of patience that's that's been required when I mean the Trump administration is about to be found in contempt of court but it's gonna be what a two-week inquiry before we get the final ruling and and even then we don't know where it goes from here.
Yeah, and I would just say I would hope that judge is trying to build a bulletproof...
file, essentially, case against them to establish precedent to hold them in contempt, and so that other judges will do the same.
You know, Senator Chris Van Hollen, his senator in Maryland, went to El Salvador this week to try to just talk to him and get proof of life.
They would not let him in.
And, you know, meanwhile, they let influencers in, they let Christine Ohman, they let another congressman Riley Moore in.
And this is a guy who did nothing wrong that they can prove.
And
Apparently wearing a Chicago Bulls hat in the United States is enough if you happen to be from El Salvador to get you kidnapped.
Do you know how many people have Chicago Bulls hats who were born in the 90s?
Millions!
They were Michael Jordan was a global superstar.
Like that is just outrageous.
And anyone, whether it's JD Vance or Pam Bondi or Donald Trump or Naid Bukele, the president of El Salvador, who says, Oh, this guy was a gang member.
He's he's a criminal.
He's violent.
Like why would Democrats defend him?
You abducted and deported someone who you have no proof did anything wrong, who is a father.
who is a husband, who is a hardworking person living legally in the US.
And Trump admitted this week that he is looking into deporting citizens who commit crimes.
Do you know how dangerous that is?
That means if you, you know, if you are, plenty of people get wrongfully convicted of crimes and years later get paroled or freed and pardoned.
If that happens, someone who does nothing wrong, who's a citizen born in Wisconsin, maybe a farmer, maybe, you know, a cop.
that is not, you don't have a country anymore.
And by the way, not out of the realm of possibility when people go, oh, Wisconsin farmer, I would remind people the way that Republicans in Wisconsin have weaponized the recall petitions against Scott Walker.
All these years later, people who signed those recall petitions have found themselves in positions where they were discriminated against or publicly called out for exercising their constitutional right.
So don't think for a moment that something very bad couldn't happen to just regular folks in Wisconsin for expressing their political opinion.
But it gets us to the point of what Democrats are doing about it.
And the thing that I know really angered me and it did to you as well was some anonymous member of Congress saying, I think in Axios, that it's taking the bait if you defend
people being scooped off the streets and taken to other countries.
And I get it.
I get it.
We've been told all the time that Trump does a lot of shiny objects to take your eye off the ball with the bad economy, the stock market continuing to tank and all that.
But it's not an either or.
Democrats have got to walk and chew gum on this.
You've got to be able to, you've got to talk about the economy, but you can't ignore this kind of unconstitutional action either.
No, if you were telling if you were a Democrat in Congress saying oh This isn't a fight to pick like who cares about this guy wrongfully deported retire Go be a lobbyist go do something else because you are not prepared for this moment like I'm sorry.
I have less than no patience for that
Yes, the economy is important.
Yes, these tariffs are reckless and are going to cause a ton of damage.
This is a human life we're talking about.
There are three kids right now in Maryland who don't know if their father is alive because Trump and his thugs arrested him and deported him with no due process, with no chance for him to defend himself, and now are resisting a 9-0 Supreme Court order to bring him back.
If that is not something you're willing to speak out against and fight against, you have no business being in Congress right now.
Seriously, go home, go do anything else, because that is an embarrassment.
And I'm glad to see a lot of Democrats taking the opposite approach, like Chris Van Hollen.
We're seeing a lot of members of the House speak out.
I think this week really was a turning point where they grew a pair for lack of a better term and decided to actually pick the fight that needs to be fought.
And I think that's why they were trying so hard to make this flimsy evidence stick, because, I mean, they didn't know which case was gonna become the one that got the most spotlight, but they were hoping beyond hope that Democrats would use all their political capital defending somebody, and then the evidence would come out that this person was, you know, a very bad dude, an MS-13 gang member, whatever the case may be.
That still doesn't take away the notion that due process.
is guaranteed in this country to everybody.
in this country.
You don't even have to be a citizen to be afforded due process.
It's part of the constitutional bedrock of this democracy.
So they're trying so hard to make this guy a bad guy.
And the fact that it's not sticking and that ordinary folks at an Iowa town hall with Charles Grassley are speaking out about how PO'd they are that something like this could happen tells you it is striking a nerve with middle America, with moderate America.
Yeah, and I because it is not that many steps from a legal resident was not given due process and was deported to You know Maybe a naturalized citizen who's been in the US for 40 years Who opposes Trump is arrested and deport like that is one step like we know they've talked about denaturalizing citizens They've talked about deporting any citizen like a lot of citizens who've convicted of violent crimes That is terrifying that means if
Let's say your local police officers make a mistake and arrest you for something and you get charged.
We know there's a lot of prosecutors who make mistakes.
Some intentionally and some not so.
If that happens to you, that happens to people every single week in this country or every single all the time.
If that happens to you, you want to have due process.
If you don't have that, you don't have anything.
That means your life is...
not up to you in any way.
And that's a terrifying thought.
I don't know how much longer it would take if they were to get away with this until Ilhan Omar or Rashid Tlaib, you know, until members of Congress or other elected officials who came here and became citizens.
If Donald Trump says, well, I say you're not a citizen anymore, and I'm kicking you out even though you're an elected official.
Again,
I'm not saying it's going to happen next week, but I'm also telling you the odds aren't zero.
No, they're not.
And I think Republicans know this.
There was a on Thursday of Lisa Murkowski, the senator from Alaska, like at some sort of event where she was saying she's scared that she's scared to speak out because the threats are real from MAGA, essentially.
And.
Lisa Murkowski is one of the few remaining occasionally moderate voices in the Senate on the Republican side who sometimes bucks Trump and This is essentially her speaking out loud that it is you know, they are cowed into submission.
I Just would point out again that the the margins for the Republican majority are so narrow in Congress that it would only take a handful of members of Congress and a handful of senators who
Pretend to be moderate every so often to actually stand up and they could they could so turn the tide on this but they would have to want to first Let's turn just quickly to a couple of other notes that you're following there.
There was of course the arson fire at the governor's residence for Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania I believe a suspect was arrested and I'm curious as to whether there's been any update on
Republicans from Donald Trump on down expressing their outrage about this event.
Yeah, there's been some outrage expressed, you know, kind of perfunctory stuff.
JD Vance and Pam Bondi put out pretty, you know, traditional statements condemning it.
Trump sort of, you know, also like condemned it but said he was like a crazy guy who didn't he made it about himself.
He's like he clearly didn't like Trump.
And there was a Pennsylvania congressman
who, you know, also condemned it, but then took the chance to say that this is the result of everyone's partisan politics, like Josh Shapiro has sued Trump a lot and criticized him.
And somehow that's remotely equivalent to a guy torching the governor's mansion.
No, like this was a man clearly experiencing some sort of like mental health crisis, you know, who tried to burn down the governor's mansion and kill the governor and his family.
That's awful.
You don't need to equivocate that just like when Paul Pelosi was hit with a hammer.
That's awful.
You don't need to Pretend like you know that you need to make this political someone taking a shot at Trump awful like Paul violence is not good You know if we and that part of it.
Yes, I can appreciate Republicans who just unequivocally say that but if you try to make a what-about-ism no like
Governor Josh Shapiro is a Jewish man.
He was this was right after Passover.
Is that part of it?
Maybe we don't know.
We don't know a whole lot yet.
But to to try to what if or and or but it is insane.
Buried in all of that.
What you just said was just the essence of it.
Violence is never good.
Violence is never OK.
you should be willing to speak out against it at any point, no matter how supercharged the political environment is here.
And then very quickly in Texas, we of course are following school vouchers.
Governor Abbott down there finally got through one of the far right things he's really wanted.
There's now enough Republicans in the Texas legislature.
They passed a school voucher bill.
We talk about it in Wisconsin that's approaching a billion dollars.
They are happy.
They are proud of the fact that this bill they passed this week does commit a
billion dollars in taxpayer funds to voucher private schools in Texas.
They say it's going to make them one of the best days for education.
I would take the complete opposite view on that.
Yeah.
And this is after, you know, they've been trying to do this voucher bill for a few years now.
And there were enough like rural Republicans who worked with Democrats to block it because we know vouchers are essentially a death sentence to rural public schools.
And so
But they primaried all those Republicans last year.
They lost.
And so there's now a band of Republicans, all of them pretty much, but two, voted for vouchers.
And the state House and the state Senate, they each passed slightly different bills in Texas, so they have to negotiate.
But it's going to become law.
And we're going to have another state that just decimates public school funding to cover the cost of private schools, mostly for families who already send their kids to private school, as we've seen in other places.
and you know I think that's unfortunate.
Well and that and it's going to just yeah bankrupt the state uh take away from from very important services and again not provide any better education.
Just one that's a bit more what's the word I'm looking for?
Uh segregated.
Kiev Akeel, career political editor from Los Angeles.
Thank you so much.
Have a good start to the weekend.
You bet you too.
We'll be back after this.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Hey,
you talk about iconic beginnings to songs.
I mean...
Michael McDonald gets his due, but give this one to Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell for their version of.
Oh, I was too early.
Well, Pat, what's the
name of
this song?
Listen.
You know what they say is the key to great comedy?
Greg, ask me what the key is to great comedy.
Hey, Pat, what's the key to?
Timing.
OK.
Anyway.
I did that same joke last night only.
Now you ask me.
Hey,
Greg, what's the key to great comedy?
Timing.
Very nice.
Okay, good.
Welcome to today's history lesson for this Friday morning, April 18th.
Aretha Franklin had a number one hit back in 1967.
She did not have another hit at number one on the pop charts until this day in 1987 with George Michael.
Not that the songs in between were bad.
They just didn't hit number one on the Hot 100.
But it's also
another song where the valley is low, the mountain is like, it's amazing.
You're right.
Huh.
Trying to figure it out.
I'm looking at all the rest going what ties into that?
Anything here?
No,
no, no.
Both songs are tied into landscape and geographical challenges.
Oh, well, yeah.
Here on this day in 1906, an earthquake and fire destroyed much of San Francisco.
Like that?
But my love will still endure for you.
Let's see.
In this day in 1506, the cornerstone was laid for the current St.
Peter's Basilica.
On this day in 2012, Dick Clark passed away at the age of 82.
On this day in 2019, a redacted version of the Mueller report is released to the US.
Because of the way it was watered down, people did not actually see the deeper connections between the first Trump campaign and Russia.
Happy birthday to one of our favorite Canadians, actor Rick Moranis.
Turn 72, remember him well from Second City TV when they did the Bob and Doug McKenzie.
So that actually had a hit on the charts for time as well.
Why are you doing this?
It was our idea together, right?
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, okay.
We agreed to say that, but, aw, take off.
Take off through the great
place.
This is another one of those things that
You kind of had to be there.
If you try to explain what a phenomenon it was, the Bob and Doug McKenzie phenomena.
Do you know who's singing that right now?
Getty Lee.
Exactly.
From Rush.
Yes.
Oh, my God.
That was a big get for them.
That was a big getty for them.
Ah, nice.
I'm funny.
Birthdays today include Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham.
Conan O'Brien is 62 today.
God.
Courtney Kardashian is 46.
America Ferrera is 41 years old today.
Hey, happy birthday to the Backstreet Boys.
The group is 32 years old today.
It was on this day in 1993, looking to mimic the success of new kids on the block that entrepreneur Lou Perlman set out to create his own boy band.
He auditioned hundreds of performers, chose five unknowns to be the Backstreet Boys.
This was their first single.
So we did we talked about Spice Girls what yesterday day before yesterday something like that yesterday
was Victoria Beckham's birthday
Yeah, that's what it was.
Okay, let's see from Roger and Steven's point on Facebook Did you know Aretha Franklin had a single peak at every chart position on the hot 100 on positions one through 11?
No That's interesting It's like sports trivia.
It's like this guy
stood on every one of these bases at different points during the game.
It's like, I love that about stats.
Yeah, sometimes sometimes they get a little deep.
Yeah.
Let's see on this day in 1986, the number one song was by Prince.
Another iconic intro.
Oh, yes.
So Prince had the number one song with Kiss this day in 1986.
He had also written the song at number two on the charts, Manic Monday by the Bangles.
But in tribute to Prince's version of Kiss, we would note as we do this day every year that there was another version done two years later, 1988, done by, ladies and gentlemen, Tom Jones and the Art of Noise.
Yeah, to this day, it will frustrate our daughters when their dad will go, I think I'm going to dance now.
And they don't know where it came from.
And one of these days, I'm going to play this.
This video is so 1988.
Oh,
god, yes.
Everything the art of noise did back then was 80s.
It was just Chef's kiss of ridiculous.
Yes.
Today is national juggling day, national pinata day, national amateur radio day.
Wait a minute, let me, before we get, there's one more there, but I want to say that Cassandra on YouTube says, I saw Backstreet Boys at SummerFest in 2022.
It was incredible.
Kevin was 50 that year and up there dancing like he was 25.
And she also added the best version of Kiss.
Hugh Jackman in Happy Feet.
I haven't seen that.
Now
I'm
intrigued.
Now I'm gonna call that one up.
And we also can't forget, maybe we need to remind Brittany after the news today, and this is true, Line Men Appreciation Day.
I think we
should sing
two
verses.
Do you wonder if they celebrate it in Wichita?
I don't know.
I bet you they do.
Oh, Cassandra's saying, no, no, no.
Nicole Kidman sang it.
Well, what do we do in here then?
I mean, come on.
Cassandra.
Come on.
No.
Actually, I'm still going to look it up because, you know, anytime you can throw a little something to the adults for kids, animated films works for me.
That's the key to success.
So much more ahead in the second hour of Up North News Radio live from Lake Wissota here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Back in a bit.
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.