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.
You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Wissota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Well, hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It is 6.06.
It's a Wednesday morning.
It's June 4th, 2025.
Another beautiful morning to have you here.
Live from Lake Wissota, up north.
Wherever you're spending your mornings listening across the civic media radio network on the app, social media podcast, we cover it all here and appreciate however you've reached us this morning and that you could find us through the smoke, the haze, the fog and everything else.
I get here.
That's that's my question for you this morning.
Who misses blue skies?
Or alternatively, the question is, can somebody go put out Canada?
Because all these fires and all this smoke, I mean, we've we've put up with this for
What would it be like four of the past five summers or three of the past four, something like that where the smoke just gets insanely thick at times?
And I'm telling you yesterday, and I don't know if this was maybe where you are as well, but I've never seen such a smoky rainy day.
You normally think of rain as, you know, gonna wash away the smoke.
And it was nothing like that at all.
This wasn't like haze like you'd see on a typical rainy day.
It's just really pronounced out here and the air quality alerts are still out and about for big parts of, you know, the Midwest.
So take it easy out there.
And for the rest of us who it's not a health concern, but it's just, it's a nuisance and hope it goes away soon.
But at the moment, we're just going to have to put up with this and eventually get our blue skies back.
But it is nice to have you along on this Wednesday morning.
Coming up, we're going to hear from Dan Schaefer, political editor from the Reconpopulation area.
We have him visit Tuesday mornings at 8 30 and some folks are already at work and things like that.
So we'll play back some of the best of those excerpts coming up at 6 30 this morning.
We're also going to talk about the big, beautiful bill.
It is a big, beautiful, disgusting abomination.
And that's not a Democrat saying that.
That's Trump's former bestie.
Elon Musk is now taking shots at the big, beautiful bill because it's not so big and it's not so beautiful.
And now, suddenly, there are Republicans in the House who voted for this who are now saying to their constituents and to reporters, oh, we didn't know that was in the bill.
Oh, that was in the bill too?
Nope, didn't know about that.
What do you mean that was in the bill?
Oh, did not know.
We knew, we were telling people a week and two weeks ago what was going in there.
But some folks wanted to do the la la la thing until after they had voted on it.
And that's how this bill got to be such a disgusting abomination.
So what you've got is a GOP civil war of sorts within their ranks.
Do they want to pass a budget?
packed with special favors for the rich and cuts for the middle class, or one packed with special favors for the rich and higher debt and deficits because they're not going to pass a bill that isn't packed with special favors for the very wealthy, apparently.
In our second hour, we're going to talk about a bill that just caught my eye here, looking at what the committees in the Wisconsin legislature were talking about.
yesterday in their various meetings.
And one bill, the authors claim it would make it easier for so-called gig workers, you know, like food delivery drivers, things like that, to get benefits that are partially paid by their employer.
So long as they're not considered actual employers.
You see, the whole gig economy is based on businesses avoiding responsibility for the people doing work on their behalf.
So whether it's their health care benefits or being liable for their safety or other things, it becomes increasingly easy to claim that their workers are actually contractors and not employees.
And we're all sold on this gig economy as the thing about freedom.
You know, you get the freedom to set your own hours and the freedom to work when you want to work.
But you're still working for somebody when you're doing this.
usually not getting benefits and usually not getting great pay.
So we'll discuss whether this bill helps fix the situation or if it perpetuates it.
In our third hour, we'll talk to Melissa Baldoff in our climate check talking about the Inflation Reduction Act.
That is, of course, President Biden's signature achievement for creating a new generation of jobs in the green economy.
And some Republicans still want to cut it.
Some want to eliminate it.
Some want to claw back money that's already been allocated for it.
And then other Republicans, again, the ones who aren't completely blinded by ideology, are looking and saying, hey, wait, this thing's creating jobs in my district.
This thing is making us less reliable on fossil fuels here.
And do we really want to cut it?
Plus, even if they did, if you were to look at a pie chart,
of the big, beautiful, disgusting abomination.
You'd see that the Inflation Reduction Act green energy jobs are just a sliver of this bill.
So is it really worth killing new job creation just to say that you stuck it to Joe Biden?
We'll talk to Civic Media's Earl Ingram, who's covering people and stories across Southeast Wisconsin, and James Kelly, who's covering news in Northwest Wisconsin.
so much ahead today on a day that again is still going to be rather smoky but the sun is coming out a bit more and more right now in the Chippewa Valley here.
We've got some fog and some mist and some smoke and it's 50 degrees right now but we're going to get up into the mid to upper 70s today and tomorrow and it will be clear tonight and hopefully we'll get to talk to meteorologist Brittany Merlot tomorrow a bit more about that.
So we've told you what all is happening on the show today, except, oh yeah, this guy Parker Olson standing by in Madison studio A2.
Mr. Olson.
How are you?
I'm doing pretty good.
I could not believe that I couldn't see across the lake.
Not that I'm by the lake every day like you are living on the lake there.
But I couldn't see across the lake as I was driving to work today because it was so rainy and smoky.
It was gross.
It is gross.
There's just no other way to put it.
It's it's not something you want to see or expect to see.
And don't get me wrong.
I wouldn't want to be in the area where the fires are burning right now either.
But I'm just saying that the spillover effect is it just gives you a sense of how big these fires are.
Yeah.
Once
again in Northern Canada that we're getting that kind of a spillover impact here.
It is it is really something.
Let's see.
Tony asked on YouTube.
Hey, is that Parker from Whitewater?
It is partner for whitewater.
It is apparently because somebody's got a whitewater shirt on again.
This isn't going to be awesome.
Do you have a whitewater shirt for like every day of the week?
I probably do.
The reason I'm wearing whitewater stuff today is because today baseball might win the national championship.
So I'm kind of going hard out today.
Well, yeah.
way to represent.
Okay.
Tony also says really love how we went from one job supporting a family to needing two incomes to support a family to two jobs and a hustle.
Awesome stuff.
Couldn't agree more, Tony.
I wouldn't say that I ever had a, you know, a gig job or a side hustle.
I definitely had to do two jobs like through med school when Sherry was attending med school.
So I was in office temp by day and a waiter at a Mexican restaurant by night.
Sherry was attending med school by day and waiting tables at night at a Mark's big boy in Milwaukee.
What about you, high school, college?
Did you have to do some work to put yourself through?
Not a whole lot.
No, lucky enough, my parents have been able to support pretty well.
I do
have a little gig right now, though.
I freelance for Adam's Publishing Group.
Don't do a lot for them, but I do a list of 10 things to do in Jefferson County every week, which is ever
challenging.
Every week, you have to come up with a list of 10 things to do in Jefferson County.
Yeah.
There are not 10 things to do in Jefferson County usually.
Well, I was just going to say, somebody in Jefferson County at a chamber or something should be paying you handsomely for that, but not after that crack, so never mind.
So what would be an example of one of the best things to do recently in Jefferson County?
Well, I know my audience, and I like to kind of poke a little.
So I'll throw in a drag queen bingo night whenever I can.
I like to sprinkle those in like once a month.
Oh my goodness, to be so passive aggressive in your freelance work already.
My goodness, you understand how this works.
That's so funny.
That's awesome.
Well, guess what?
We now have a new feature.
When do you have to turn this thing in every week?
Every Friday, I
think.
Every Friday?
All right, we'll stand by folks for our new Friday feature, 10 things to do in Jefferson County.
We were going to do 10 things to do around Wisconsin, but I think we got to start small.
And maybe, you know what?
Maybe, maybe we'll grow it from here.
Maybe one week it's Jefferson County.
And along with all of your many other duties, maybe the next week you'll be doing 10 things to do in Calumet County.
10 things to do in Burnett County.
Let's just, let's take you on a 72 County tour of 10 things to do each particular week.
This sounds like a miserable task.
No, no, it's going to be, it's going to be really nice.
Tony on YouTube.
I suddenly like Parker much more.
Who is that Greg guy again?
Greg who?
Who are you talking about?
No idea here.
No, we miss you, Greg, very much.
But yeah, we award passive aggressiveness big time on this particular show.
Christina Laurie puts together our daily newsletter.
Sign up for it over at upnorthnewswi.com and looking at what she's got today.
She is sharing food networks picks of 25 iconic eats from America's Dairyland.
And today talks all about cream puffs.
And of course, how famous they've become at the Wisconsin State Fair, but obviously there's a lot more to say about the cream puff in Wisconsin.
So let's see, we've got that story coming up.
We also have some of Wisconsin's best public pools that are out there and accessible.
And a story about bipartisanship, Wisconsin style, reminding us of the times that former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson and former UW Chancellor Donna Shalala teamed up to get things done during the George W. Bush administration.
So that's in the weekday newsletter.
today's edition.
There's also a weekend newsletter that I put together on Sunday mornings about Wisconsin politics.
And I, as I'm looking at the inbox right now, I see that people are still sending in emails answering our question about whether Governor Tony Evers should use partial vetoes on the state budget bill or
Is there a chance it gets to the point where he has to veto the whole thing and tell the legislature to start over?
And so we're getting a lot of good answers on that as well.
You can answer that question too by heading over to radio at upnorthnewswi.com on your email machine and sending us your thoughts again, email us at radio at upnorthnewswi.com.
I would love to tell you some good news about the Brewers.
Unfortunately, the eight game winning streak has been snapped.
And then there's other news to put on top of that.
TJ Friedel of the Cincinnati Reds made a leaping catch in center field in the ninth inning for the final out to Rob Jake Bowers of a tying home run.
And Cincinnati rallied for a 4-2 victory over the Brewers last night.
Kenosha native Gavin Lux drove in the go ahead run for the Reds with a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning.
Game three to wrap up the series is a matinee affair and pregame coverage begins this morning at 11.05 on several civic media radio stations.
And then the Brewers are off Thursday heading home for a long homestand beginning with a weekend series against the San Diego Padres.
Unfortunately, there's some other news to report from the Brewers.
Right-handed pitcher Brandon Woodruff, who we thought was coming back from injury, took a hard line drive to the elbow.
during what we thought might be his final rehab appearance.
X-rays are negative, but we still don't know if that is going to delay Brandon Woodruff's return to the big leagues again.
Live from the heart of America's up north on Lake Wissota, I'm Pat Crightlough.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
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.
I think we'll get more into this later but one of the things I wanted to mention was that it's summer rerun season and so some of us are looking for new shows to watch over the summer and on the plane ride over the weekend I gave two shows on Netflix a try and so I've only seen one episode of each
but I am very much looking forward to watching more of The Residence, which I know people have mentioned it on the show a couple of times saying, Pat, you got to watch The Residence.
You got to watch it.
I finally watched it, or at least the first episode.
And yeah, I'm in.
It's a goofball kind of murder mystery in the White House residence where the family lives upstairs.
So I don't know a lot about it other than that, you know.
a guy died and this kooky detective is out there, you know, and she's funny and she's quirky and the supporting cast is very interesting.
And then the other is the Four Seasons, which I always associate with the Alan Alda movie from 1981, only to come find out that, yeah, that's exactly what it is.
Tina Fey has freshened it up.
you know, for all these many years later, 40 plus years later, talking about three couples and 30 years of friendship and there's definitely drama to go along with the comedy.
So those are the two that I'm going to try to watch a little bit more of here along with that new Stanley Tucci one of Stanley Tucci in Italy that we're finding on Hulu.
I asked Mr. Olsen over the commercial break, you know, what, what new shows he's watching and he, he comes up with some of the best from what?
2007 was it?
Something like that.
Yeah.
Hey, it still hits.
Parker's new show is the newsroom.
Yeah.
The Aaron Sorkin HBO series from now we can officially say back in the day because it's like 20 years old, but that's your new, that's your new thing.
It's my
new thing.
I like it.
I like it a lot.
It's really good.
I think it was really interesting to watch.
as like someone who wants to go into news, it was kind of like, oh, high pace, cool stuff.
This is how some stuff happens.
Not that it's a documentary, but.
Well, in some ways.
I mean, again, Aaron Sorkin, brilliant writer, but again, isn't like the West Wing.
First four seasons, maybe first three seasons
or
masterpieces.
Trailed off a little after that.
The newsroom, season one, tour de force.
Season two, much less so season three, don't bother, you know, but yeah, good for you for, for, you know, grabbing something like that.
That'd be like me grabbing the Ed Sullivan show
and going,
Hey, what is this thing?
I'm going to, I'm going to watch this for a little while.
So, so we will be looking forward to newsroom updates as well from Mr. Mr. Parker as we move through things here.
All right.
One of the headlines today, I'm just going to read the New York Times headline first off.
Here's the headline top story.
After muscling their budget bill through the House, some Republicans have regrets.
The subhead says, the sprawling legislation carrying President Trump's domestic agenda squeaked through the House with one vote to spare.
But, and here's the kicker, some Republicans now say they didn't realize what they voted
for.
It turns out the Times article says the sprawling legislation to advance tax and spending cuts and to cement much of President Trump's domestic agenda included a raft of provisions that drew little notice or debate on the House floor and now Republicans who rallied behind the bill are claiming buyer's remorse about measures.
They swear they did not know were included.
Last week, Congressman Mike Flood of Nebraska admitted during a town hall meeting in his district, he did not know the bill would limit judges power to hold people in contempt for violating court orders.
In other words, a special favor for Donald Trump, who has been ignoring court orders.
Flood says he would not have voted for the measure if he had realized.
And Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia said she'd been unaware that the mega bill
has a provision that would block states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade.
On social media, she says, quote, full transparency.
I did not know about this section.
And she says she would have voted no in capital letters if I'd known it was in there.
Here's how you know these things are in here.
Read the bill.
Read the bill before you vote on it.
And I'm not in any way shape or form saying that Democrats are perfect in this as Tony puts gasp up on YouTube.
I'm just saying it's rich that this is coming from the party that when the Affordable Care Act passed made fun of somebody who said, well, we have to pass the bill to see what's in it.
It wasn't correct to say that at the time.
And it's not, it's not true now.
The problem is things are so polarized.
I'm not going to get into the specifics of the bill.
We've done that plenty and we'll do it more later.
You know, Elon Musk calling it an abomination because of its increase of the deficits.
Some Republicans want to see more spending, even more spending cuts, Ron Johnson.
Others say, ah, cutting Medicaid might not be such a great idea, kids, huh?
So they're going to fight about this.
But I just want to speak briefly about the whole notion of must pass bills.
that we're cramming everything into one bill because it's the one bill that's gotta pass.
And so then you strong arm people and you go, you gotta vote for this.
It's the only thing that, the way it used to work, and I know it sounds naive and like student council or something, but you take all these individual ideas, you put them in a bill, you'd argue the bill on its merits and you'd have an up or down vote on every one of them.
But to do that, you have to,
have to actually be dedicated to the job and be at it full time.
Right now, we have a part-time Congress.
They fly in on Tuesday, they fly home on Thursday, they don't get to know each other, they just do what party bosses and donors tell them to do.
They didn't want to go into it that way, but that's the way the work day is set up now compared to the olden days, I guess, when members of Congress stayed home, stayed in DC, rather, for a big chunk of the year, full time, because that was their job.
They got to know each other.
They got to know the issues.
They made compromises and they passed bills and they got things done and they don't know how to do that anymore.
So they pack everything into one big bill that they don't read and things still don't necessarily get done.
We're going to visit with Dan Schaefer next.
Thanks for spending some time here as part of your mornings powered by UpNorth News.
We'll have more from Chippewa Falls after the Midwest Farm Report here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pat Crightlum.
Not that anybody's counting, but the recombobulation area is a now 19-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Schaefer, who is also the civic media political editor and who also now joins us, complete with Callahan Auto Parts' t-shirt from watching Tommy Boy.
There you go, representing well.
Mr. Schaefer, how are you?
I'm doing well, Mr. Crichtlow.
Always wonderful to join you here on The Morning Show.
Oh, yes, joining here on the morning.
I thought you were talking about joining the club, the Derek Van Orden insult club.
I am pleased to be a member now.
Well, I did
want you to welcome you to this exclusive club that we are both now members of.
of people who Derek Van Orden has told to kick rocks
on the internet.
He loves that phrase, kick rocks.
That
is a favorite of his, but when he told me to kick rocks last year when he was disagreeing with some of my columns about why we should stop having ridiculous constitutional amendments on the ballot every two seconds,
He told me to kick rocks and you know what I did with that?
I I had a special sale at the recombobulation area You could go to the recombobulation area comm slash kick rocks and get 30% off a subscription and a few dozen people joined up so
I
like Derek van Orden for for making me some money last year See now that's
that's the way that it's supposed to work and look from from a
I don't even know that we can do this.
I was gonna say from a serious journalistic standpoint, from two political reporters talking about this.
But it should still be a serious topic that a member of Congress who posts 45 social media posts within a 24-hour period riddled with insults and attempts to dox people, like he tried to dox a UW-Stevens Point instructor yesterday, we still should not try to normalize this no matter who's in the White House.
It is a remarkably unhinged social media presence that Wisconsin's member of Congress from the third district has.
It's insults all the time, it's conspiracy theories all the time.
And you know what, he is not exactly an accomplished legislator
at the
end of the day either.
He is someone that has not really...
He was posting on Twitter the other day and I took note of this and he said, oh, we have work horses and we have show ponies.
There was an article in the Bull Work from a few weeks ago from Bill Leaders who wrote that talked about how unaccomplished Van Orden is as a legislator.
I'll quote here directly, of the 32 bills and resolutions Van Orden sponsored in the 118th Congress from 2023 to 24, exactly none became law.
and just three bills passed the GOP-controlled House before dying in the Senate, and a single Van Orden resolution received agreement in the House, it encourages all Americans to quote, engage with veterans.
That is the one thing that he is able to pass in Congress.
Maybe a little bit less time, a little bit less tweeting.
I guess I know I'm one to talk, but maybe a little bit less time tweeting and a little bit more time legislating.
You're not a member of Congress, although I would like to thank Alicia here, a Navy vet from telling us on YouTube kick rocks is actually a common phrase used by Navy chiefs.
It actually goes kick rocks in flip flops cool breeze.
Now you know.
Now I know.
Now I know where he gets it from.
Uh so as we talk about some of the stories that you're following and we're going to start in your corner of the state.
Oh, wait a minute.
I have to bring up Tony's comment quick.
Wait, he hasn't finished the farm bill?
No.
No, Derek Van Norden does not finish the farm bill.
There's there's there is no farm bill at this point.
He's too busy lying about Medicaid.
Yes.
Uh so let's get to to stories there and a Milwaukee area mom and teacher's aide who has a
law abiding record to self-deport, and I'm not quite sure how this woman came to the attention of immigration and customs enforcement, but it sure does seem to be another case of, you know, we and the Trump administration are gonna send away anybody we like, even if they have twin nine-year-old daughters who are US citizens, even though we said we were just going after the criminals and terrorists.
This case doesn't help their case at all.
Now, this is a frustrating story.
This has gotten a bit of attention here in the Milwaukee area where you have this teacher's aid.
And apologies if I butcher the pronunciation.
Yesenia Ruano, Milwaukee's teacher's aid.
Her case has kind of become this public thing around here with a number of immigration rights advocates, you know Hoping and taking efforts in action to try and get her to be able to stay in the country But it turns out such as not going to be the case and she is going to be have to be deported to her home country of El Salvador And you know, yeah, it's it's there was I think a kind of some legal issues with that this the spring where it for a minute
minute there she had some legal representation it looked like it was going to be able to bank her stay and then and and now that is not the case and it is clear that you know just this as so many other examples of what you know Donald Trump and Stephen Miller and and the rest of the rest of the Trump administration here what their goals are with this mass deportation effort is is not
It's not a crime fighting public safety type of initiative.
It's one that is, you know, go back to the refrain from Trump's first term.
The cruelty is the point.
And that's what we're seeing here with this case.
And I would put even stronger language on it that that it is race-based a race-based policy that they're engaged in by and large and that It's it doesn't matter that she has been a pillar of the community has lived here for 14 years has a family, you know daughters who are American citizens that she left El Salvador as a survivor of domestic abuse human trafficking Had a brother who was killed in gang violence and feared for her own safety
coming to this country.
Now in in all of that there are there's nothing that indicates well she's a terrorist and in waiting you know and yet to hear her plight the comments on social media have been downright ghoulish people going well she's illegal you know part of illegal don't you understand it's like again this was supposed to be about getting the undocumented immigrants who
are causing trouble, who may be gang members who have joined gangs here, things like that.
If you supported somebody like that, but now you're cheering when a mother is being deported at this point, somebody who would like to finish the process of becoming a citizen, it is a very sad commentary on where we are for the humanity of this country, my own personal opinion.
Yeah, and this is somebody who's had a work visa.
She works at a bilingual public elementary school in Milwaukee.
These are the type of people that we want to have a path to citizenship.
Right.
And, you know, I had a couple of immigration attorneys on a podcast at the Reconbibulation Area a couple months ago who were telling me just about how difficult it is to just do do things legally.
And that has forced so many people to into this bottleneck where they're applying for asylum, you know, if she's receiving death threats in her home country.
you know, a lot of these post-World War II, you know, never again type of measures that we've taken on the world stage to be welcoming to refugees and fleeing circumstances where they're fearing for their own, where people are fearing for their own lives.
That's what...
but policy is there for and you think you would think that you know could expedite the process for these people but such is not the case and it is it is again yes it's it's like what you said it is um this is not about public safety this is not about
Um, anything like that.
It is, there are racial tones to this, uh, not undertones, overtones,
overtones.
Yes.
Yeah.
And so it is, it is
a remarkably, uh, it's a sad
story.
And again, to, to get to your point about fixing this immigration process and, and streamlining the process, this country has perhaps rarely in its history needed legal immigration encouraged more than now.
with, you know, the baby boomers stepping off the stage with a labor shortage that is already pronounced.
This is a country that if we want our economy to thrive, had better be more welcoming than ever to immigrants.
And yet there was a deal on the table, a bipartisan deal on the table.
And Donald Trump by himself said, screw that, scuttle that.
We wanted to deport whatever people that we want, and that's how we end up with stories like this one out of Milwaukee.
But we also end up with a story, a very unusual one that deals with somebody who apparently, if I'm reading this correctly, was the victim of a crime, and yet the person that was victimizing him set things up in such a way, allegedly, that it made it look like he was threatening President Trump's life.
And last I can see here, this gentleman, Ramon Morales Reyes, is still sitting in the Dodge County Jail.
This is insane.
It's a wild story.
And I think it is, you know, the fact that the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, put this out as a press release from the main...
you know, Department of Homeland Security press room and all of that, you know, saying that there is this suspect believed to be responsible for writing a letter threatening to shoot President Trump and it was all a hoax.
Well, you know what, they I can't help but think that a certain that paperwork errors like this are being used to deport people all over the country.
Oh, and and
If the Department of Homeland Security is using paperwork errors and things like that to do that, and yet they are making very obvious ones, it seems, in this case, by amplifying it to the national stage, and less than a week later finding out that this was entirely a hoax, that there was this other man in prison setting up this person.
It's seemingly a really obvious way that they couldn't pull coals in this and it's just I think it to me the story here is that Department of Homeland Security are deporting people for the same types of problems that they themselves are committing
Correct and doing so again Despite paperwork errors using masked secret police using detention facilities that are off limits even to members of Congress Congressman Mark Pocan congresswoman Gwen Moore tried to visit inmates
at this Dodge County facility and were told that they could not.
And when they called a phone number that's associated with it for either ICE or another agency, that phone had been disconnected.
And so there was no way for anybody to have oversight and make sure essentially that innocent people aren't behind bars in this country.
And that's where we are at this point.
Again, it's got all of the elements of fascism with the secret police, wearing masks, people in detention that you can't reach, trumped up charges, deporting people out of the country.
I don't know what else people need to know to see what kind of country we've become.
Oh wait, I do have one more and it deals with trains of all things.
And the fact that there's a story out there about how there are companies that would rather work with pretty much any other country other than ours when it comes to high speed rail because we are so dysfunctional.
This was a story I saw on the Civic Media website.
Yeah, it is it really goes to show how broken our politics is when you when you see these international companies that would you know like to build something and make some money in in the United States and Build a rail service here and finding that not only was it so difficult to do it here was actually easier to build a rail service in northern Africa in Morocco I believe the
country was it
was the rail service in Morocco said they found that northern Africa to be less politically dysfunctional
than the United States of America in the Trump term.
It's wild.
This was from SNCF, which is the French National Railroad, a bullet train operator, and they pulled out of projects here in the States.
And again, the quote in the news story is, they told the state they were leaving for North Africa, which was less politically dysfunctional.
Dan Schaefer, we thank him as always, and you can catch him live Tuesday mornings at 8.30.
Today's history lesson is next, including the latest on Pigeon Quest from Melissa Kaye, our history lesson, something we always do mornings up north and live here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pat Crightlow, back in just a bit.
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.
Welcome back time for today's history lesson where we celebrate today's 81st birthday for Roger Ball who Unfortunately stole a name that would have been better off here folks watching on social media if you were to look at Pat Crite low and Parker Olson and Melissa K from WA FHR in Wisconsin Rapids and if they started a group You would call them the average white band but unfortunately Roger Ball took that name first
and gave us pick up the pieces as part of his work.
Happy 81st birthday to him, and good morning to Melissa K. Good morning.
Let's get to what everybody really wants to know.
They're not here for the History Lesson on Wednesdays.
They want an update on Pigeon Quest.
You're hilarious,
Pat.
I love
it.
Oh, there's the birds.
There's the birds.
I got
you some
pigeons,
yeah.
Nice job, Parker.
So I did hear back from the Pigeon Rescue.
OK.
And they said to complete the next.
They enjoyed reading my application and the
application.
This is such a bitch.
This has got to be
a bit.
It's not.
I will forward you the email.
I literally said that.
And then they said that I need to send pictures like a virtual tour of my home.
Oh, what?
Of where my cage is.
We are so big,
punked, Parker.
She is
playing a long game on this.
I'm telling you.
I am not.
This is literally what I read in the email.
So I took pictures of my living room where my cage is set
up.
Wait, wait,
wait.
Is there a chance that you're the one who's being punctured?
That's what I'm thinking.
You think you're writing to a pigeon quest and it's just the most creative stalker ever imagined in broadcast history.
This, I'm really getting concerned now, Melissa.
I really am.
Okay, so you you're sending pictures of your house now?
Just the outside.
Okay, all right.
I mean, just the inside not the outside.
All right.
I mean, they did ask for pictures of like the basement and you know, the attic and and
all of
my expensive personal belongings and maybe no, I'm kidding, Pat, I just had to show where my cage is sitting in relation to the rest of my home.
And so that they can be assured that my pigeon pet will have time to move.
And
it's sweet.
These rescue people are very serious about their rescues.
They are.
Have you ever adopted a pet from a shelter?
No.
Because they do ask a lot of personal questions.
Well, it's good that they care.
Yeah.
You know, to a point.
Because again, we're talking about a pigeon.
But, Tommy...
I am offended, Pat.
on behalf of all pigeons that that I would I would say that their their amount of care related to say a dog should be the same as what you're saying.
Yes.
Okay.
All right.
So they're asking so they're asking all the right questions to make sure that I forget.
Did we didn't we give this bird a name already?
Well, I inquired about bell pepper.
Oh, that's right.
Okay.
Yes.
We'll see.
I responded and we'll see if I get another
I need my back.
I'll keep you updated.
And this has been the latest in Pigeon Quest with Melissa K. On this day in 1979, Fleetwood Mac was at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, recording outside live with the USC Trojan Marching Band, and this was the result.
This of course was Tusc the title track to their first album since rumors It's not every day a rock band gets together with a college marching band and makes beautiful music together, but they did Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas is 81 years old today actress Angelina Jolie turns 50 years old today You want to hear the most prototypical 80s song ever I could come up with here
Oh,
please.
Could
we?
Happy birthday to Albert Brown.
He took that and turned it into Al B. And his stage name was Al B. Schur.
And he's 57 years old today.
Oh, my gosh.
I have been transported back to my first post-college job.
97.9 WA QE and Rice Lake.
We're just going to play all these little 80s New Jack swing hits.
In fact, in fact, I got some more classic 80s for you here.
I'll be sure is 57 today.
Next, let's hear from El DeBarge.
He's 64 today.
God, I just want
to get all
my 80s clothes out again and just throw those out, you know?
Where's my members only jacket?
I would love to see that.
Let's do that next show, Matt.
Oh, there's pictures.
Believe me.
On this day of 1912, Massachusetts became the first state to set a minimum wage.
On this day in 1919, Congress approved the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote and sending it to the states for ratification.
Congratulations, Melissa.
Good work out of you.
You can vote.
A little before my time, but
yeah.
Okay, all right.
On this day in 1984, Bruce Springsteen released an album, just a little piece of work called Born in the USA.
I know I could have played the title track or
I'm glad you did it.
Dancing in the dark or others.
Cover Me was my particular favorite.
Thank you for not playing the overplayed ones.
Yes, exactly.
Let's see, and one more on this day in 1977, JVC introduced its VHS videotape at the Consumer Electronics Show.
It would eventually prevail against Sony's rival Betamax system
in
the war to see which one would be the tape player that we eventually don't use anymore.
Those Betamax, were those really the really big ones?
They were the larger tape cassette, yes.
Yeah, and then there was the laser disc.
This is National Cheese Day.
This is Hug Your Cat Day, International Corgi Day.
Ooh!
Ooh,
that's
it.
Not
involved pigeons yet.
We have to go looking for a National Pigeon Day.
I'm sure there is one.
There has to be.
Pigeons
have a long history with humans.
There you go.
Melissa,
hey.
They were brought over to North America with the colonists.
From 97.4 WFHR and 155 WIRI.
So much to learn from you.
Thank you, Melissa.
Thank you.
Much more ahead in the second hour of mornings here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
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.
