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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Thank you, Don Rue.
Hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It is 6.06 on this Wednesday morning, July 16th, 2025.
It's another beautiful morning to have you here up north, live from Lake WSOTA from wherever you're spending your mornings.
listening across the Civic Media radio network or listening or watching us on so many other platforms, so many options for you.
Thank you for starting your day right here.
Hope things didn't get too bad by you, wherever there might have been thunderstorms or heavy rain.
And unfortunately, more thunderstorms and heavy rain are on the way for plenty of folks across Wisconsin today.
Meteorologist Brittany Merlot will have the forecast coming up in about an hour.
I got a question for you.
You want to hear about the most Wisconsin thing
You could learn at the start of your day.
I actually have to share this with Parker Olson, who produces this fine program from Madison Studio A2.
Parker, how are you today?
Kratlow, how are you doing?
Here's great.
Here's the most Wisconsin thing.
Oh, boy.
So we put together, you know, newsletters every day at UpNorth News.
Sign up at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
Shameless plug there.
Then in the newsletter, both the weekday one and my Sunday Politics One, there are various links that you can click on to read our articles or anything else that we link to.
And then we measure a lot of things.
We measure subscribers.
We measure readers who opens the emails that are sent to them and who clicks on the, not who clicks on the links, but how many people click on the links.
So one of my bosses is just a sweet woman from Georgia.
She just, yeah, just, just love her.
She's so, so wonderful.
And sometimes she kind of worries about us up here in the great Midwest.
She sent me a copy of her report.
from one of our recent newsletters and it had an article there about Wisconsin deaths from alcohol related liver disease and there were clicks there about you know CDC data and about you know all kinds of things about you know drinking culture and everything and Kim sends me a note showing that the thing that was overwhelmingly the most clicked on was apart from the state health department's website
on what exactly constitutes excessive drinking.
Cause we're all curious like, I don't know, are we over the line?
I don't know.
And she sends, sends a little note below it that says, Oh, Wisconsin.
And I said, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Our state motto is on Wisconsin.
That's what I say to that.
I'm curious about this excessive drinking.
Could it be me?
It
It certainly, it certainly could be Wisconsin.
So again,
Enjoy and moderation to the degree that you are able please coming up on the program this morning It's gonna be a busy one.
We're we're gonna have a look at some campaign finance reports.
Those are normally pretty dull affairs We're not gonna go through them all but something stuck out yesterday when Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley reported raising zero dollars in the last reporting period not the world's biggest surprise given her history, but still not worthy but
Wait till you hear about one of the candidates for governor and where the overwhelming majority, nearly all of his campaign donations came from.
I can't wait.
I'll tell you now.
It's businessman Bill Barion, 1.2 million raised, 1 million of it coming from the Winklevoss twins.
Yeah, the guys from the Facebook movie.
Do you ever see the Facebook movie?
There's a Facebook
boy.
Yes, all about Mark Zuckerberg creating Facebook.
Oh,
No, no, not a document.
It's called the social network.
It was a 2010 movie.
You haven't seen the social network.
been terrified
Can you imagine,
Oh, no, it was Jesse Eisenberg, starring as Mark Zuckerberg.
And Armie Hammer played both Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who famously had a dispute with Eisenberg or with Zuckerberg, rather, over who actually created Facebook.
And so the Winklevoss twins were, you know, kind of the butt of some jokes and things like that.
And yeah, the Winklevoss twins are still very active businessmen.
And apparently really believe in Bill Barion because they put nearly all the money into his account of his new campaign for governor.
I guess if you got that kind of money, I mean, look, Elon Musk, he had $20 million to burn on that state Supreme Court race earlier this year here in Wisconsin.
So anyway, so we'll have more fun with that a little bit later on in today's program and other little notes about who's been raising funds so far for what's going to be a very busy.
2026 election.
Some serious notes to share about education in our homeroom segment during our seven o'clock hour.
You would probably be quite alarmed to hear that there is a ticking time bomb in the state budget and it's about to explode taxes that we all have to pay for private school vouchers.
The voucher program
already cost us nearly a billion dollars a year.
A lot of our tax dollars go into families that frankly don't need it, but Republicans in their war on public education are taking your money and allowing wealthier families to use it for vouchers.
But there's an enrollment cap on that, so only so many students can take advantage of those caps, except the caps go away next year.
what's that going to do to either the state budget or and or property taxpayers and the parade of referendums going on all around Wisconsin.
We will talk to state representative Christian Phelps at 730, more about that.
And then at 830, we're talking to the new chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, Devin Remacher.
He's going to be on lacrosse tonight along with
lots of other folks for Town Hall in the Third Congressional District.
Now, the Third Congressional District Representative, Derek Van Orden, will probably not be there.
It's doubtful that he can rip himself away from his Twitter machine and stop insulting people long enough to do, you know, the job of listening to his constituents, but Devin Remaker will be along to tell us all about the event anyway, so that folks in the lacrosse area can share their stories about what it is that Derek Van Orden voted for.
and that Donald Trump put out there.
And Ron Johnson and every other Wisconsin Republican voted for, slashing healthcare and other programs so that their rich friends can get a bigger tax cut.
All that is coming up.
Of course, we will also have, let's see, Jimmy Cusco will be in to share some of the new stories that he's working on.
Earl Ingram, we'll be talking about, he's got that new podcast series, of course, Melissa Baldoff with Climate Check.
We got James Kelly coming in from the Chippewa Falls newsroom about stories that he's covering for Civic Media.
And who am I forgetting?
Who am I saving for last?
That, of course, would be Melissa K. Because, again, Parker, we got to believe that whereas last week...
What's what's the bird's name now?
Lou
Lou Lou
Lou.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Anyway, Lucy Lou is was hiding last week in in the the thrilling conclusion of Melissa K's pigeon quest.
So we'll find out if if the bird has made it one week.
The birds made it.
Do you know something I don't?
I mean.
thing.
I'm just, you know, Melissa's been such a good sport about this and.
Yes.
I would like to think she knows that if she really wanted to shock us, we'd bring the camera up in about 30 minutes here and she'd be, you know, gnawing on a drumstick.
You know, we don't have to know that it's a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.
We don't have to know that.
That
She could tell us that paint bucket, a.k.a.
Lee Lu is was a naughty bird.
We'll find out from Melissa K coming up in today's history lesson and just a bit.
Here's the state forecast from meteorologist Brittany Merleau.
Soaking rain across the state last night continues into today.
Some thunderstorms as well.
Behind it all.
significantly cooler and more comfortable air arrives.
There will be a couple of dry days to end the week before more showers and storms start up again come Saturday.
So the forecast for today cloudy and cooler, strong or even severe thunderstorms are possible along with heavy rains and flash flood concerns.
Highs around 60 up north to the low 80s in southern Wisconsin, a northeast wind at 10 to 15 miles an hour.
For tonight the rain moves out, lows will be in the mid 40s up north, 60s to the south, and a northeast wind at 10 to 20 miles an hour.
It was a scorcher yesterday.
It was in the mid 80s here on Lake Wissota.
It felt hotter than that.
Quite a day for me to
have the new lake steps start to get installed.
So the guys that are putting them in, they showed up yesterday and they said, jokingly, I hope, they said, well, we're just gonna start now and we're gonna stop whenever the first signs of heat stroke show.
I was like, okay.
Okay.
So they did, they put a couple hours work in and then they took a break a little after lunch and I did not see them again because it was really hot out here and I don't blame them one bit because we're on a steep bank.
It is not easy to put those steps in.
We're replacing some wooden ones that are falling apart after 30 years and I would not, I'm happy to write that check, shall we say.
Rather
than
trying to come up with stairs myself.
Some expenses are
Yes.
We'll leave it to the professionals, Pat.
You know, in olden days, you pretty much had to make your own steps.
You either made your own steps or you'd like dig into the bank and you'd put like field stone down and you'd have like these stone steps
going
down, you know, with no hand railing.
So Lord help you.
So I don't mean I'm.
I'm glad to see the professionals that are out there and there are more of them all the time that can build these things out of you know aluminum or other metal and wood as the case may be and some of them look really nice.
What we don't have but I see on some of these steep banks around here are those things called
I guess they're technically called elevators.
They're basically on rails.
It's like a little, a little car, you know, that you stand in and think of like the ones for the for wheelchairs when you're in a building, you got to go up just a short staircase.
It's something about that size.
Okay.
And it goes up and down a rail track on there.
And I guess those things started like $100,000 to put in.
Yeah.
out of
budget?
Yeah.
And even even then,
I don't, I really don't think I could do it.
I mean, I, look, I have a lot of faith in technology and engineering and everything else, but the prospect of, I'll ride a roller coaster once in a great while, but the prospect of being on one of those cars for fear that the, you know, the brake or whatever holds it there gives out and sends you hurtling toward the lake.
No, thanks.
Can I just attach a bungee cord to a tree up at the top, and then I'll slowly lower myself?
I'll lower myself down on the elastic, and then when I need to come up, I'll just pull it really hard on the elastic and slingshot myself to the top of the bank.
My little captain's hat over here, yes.
It is quite the image.
I feel like I'd look like somebody being shot out of a cannon, which also I think some people would not necessarily mind.
Let's see, from Jim and Brookfield.
Good morning, Pat.
Yes, right.
The check for the lake steps.
Also better incomplete lake steps than an incomplete roof.
Yes, there's
some jobs.
You got to get them done and you got to get them done now.
Thankfully, these guys can come back when things get a little bit better out there.
We'll continue following the day's headlines in just a second.
Tell you about the All-Star Game.
First, from the heart of America's Up North, live from Lake Wissota.
Thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.
I'm Pat Crightlow and 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.
Got a lot coming up today.
If you missed it off the top, new state Democratic Party chair Devin Remacher will be here as will state representative Christian Phelps, Melissa Baldoff with this week's climate check, and so much more.
Hey, remember the 2002 All-Star game at Miller Park?
The one that ended up tied in Commissioner Bud C League was like, well, that's, that's it.
We're done.
It's a tie.
Didn't go over really well.
Well, the solution that they eventually came up with got its first real use last night in baseball's midsummer classic.
With the American and National League teams tied at six after nine innings, they went for a mini homerun derby.
Parker, they went for a swing off, which the National League won four to three.
In the swing off, each team designates three players, each gets three swings, and the most homeruns wins.
The Phillies Kyle Schwabber hit dingers on all three swings.
So he was named the game's MVP despite going over to it, the plate, making him the first non-picture to get no hits in the actual game and still be named MVP.
I don't know how I feel about
I
for
a
thing
as
Yes.
I mean, I say the same thing all the time.
And I noticed our friend Bob look put this on social media yesterday too.
Everything becomes such a production.
Just just just play the game.
Honestly, don't need all the Hollywood stuff.
Just play it.
Here's the other development from the game.
They they brought in the robots.
Oh, by the way, you'll hear this on today's calendar.
Today is artificial intelligence appreciation day.
So
A day in advance of AI Appreciation Day, Major League Baseball used the robot umpires for challenge purposes last night.
Home plate umpire Dan Iasonia had five of his calls challenged and four of those challenges were successful.
Way to have a night there, ump.
I mean, going home and realizing on national TV, you, uh, four of your five calls were overturned and the, uh, the use of a system that could make its regular season debut next year.
Commissioner Rob Manfred indicated the 11 man competition committee will consider the system for next season.
Now here's the part I'm going to read this part.
You're going to like this because okay.
When actually let's start with you, Parker.
If I'd say describe the strike zone.
How would you basically describe the strike zone for a batter?
Maybe like ribs, like lower rib.
Okay.
Ish.
And then of course, and then the width of the plate, right?
Yeah.
So, uh, so MLB takes like, what do they do with the robot?
You see the box on TV.
Where is that box?
The automated strike zone is 53.5% of a batter's height.
And the bottom is that 27% of a batter's height, basing the decision on the midpoint of the plate, eight and a half inches from the front and eight and a half inches from the back.
Contrast that with the baseball rule book, where the strike zone is a cube, according to the thing that the umpires use.
But as you all know, if you watch it on TV, it is not a cube.
It's a rectangle.
So if we can't even agree on the definition, then yeah, let's just put the robot in there.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Yep.
Uh, again, part of the beauty of the game.
So, uh, look.
the Brewers pitchers, Jacob Mizorovsky came in for the eighth inning, allowed one single and then one line out and two pop outs basically.
I mean, they were hard hit balls, but they were hit way up high and good for the outfielders.
And he threw at least four pitches over 100 miles an hour.
And he had a slider at 98 miles an hour, a 98 mile an hour slider.
that director for Fox was smart enough that after that pitch, he right away cut to both dugouts.
First one and then the other.
And all the players are just shaking their heads because they could see it was a slider.
They could see it break and still go 98 miles an hour to do that, not 75 or something like that.
And they're all just dumbfounded going, this kid, look at
had to
Yeah.
I'm just enjoying it, you know, until his arm falls off.
And I'm not saying I wish that.
I'm just saying I won't be surprised if it does because that's where we're at right now.
Unfortunately.
That's a nature
Oh, yeah.
All right.
Getting back to the Winklevoss twins here for a moment.
They are founders of the cryptocurrency company Gemini.
And they donated a half a million dollars each for a total of one million dollars to support Republican candidate for governor Bill Barion.
This according to campaign finance reports that were put in a story by Anna Kleiber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
These were donations to Barion's PAC political action committee that he launched earlier this year when he was considering running for governor.
So, Barion, who is a manufacturing CEO from Whitefish Bay, is in the race along with Washington County Executive Josh Shulman.
And Shulman, in the most recent report, which runs through the end of June, shows that in the two months or so that he's been in the campaign, Shulman has raised about $425,000.
Governor Tony Evers has raised about $750,000 since the start of the calendar year through the end of June.
Contrast that to four years earlier when he'd raised $5 million in the same time frame.
Again, is that tea leaves about a potential decision?
I would tell you that it's still too early to say.
Again, there was a lot that was said about the
reports for Rebecca Bradley, the conservative justice whose term is up next year, and was widely thought to be running for reelection, but still has not started fundraising yet.
So it's led to speculation she may not run for another term.
But just remember that all of these checks, all of these donations, do not necessarily mean wins.
For example, Elon Musk, who donated $20 million
to help Brad Schimmel in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race earlier this year, and we all know how that turned out.
When we come back, we're going to hear from Dan Schaefer, part of my interview with him later in yesterday's show about the shaping campaign for Governor.
That's after the Midwest Farm Report on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back, it is 635.
Tomorrow on the program, State Senator Jeff Smith will be here to talk about whatever it was that happened that the state budget ended up with zero dollars funding a particular program to help homeless veterans.
And now a couple of facilities, including one here in Chippewa Falls that help homeless veterans face closure in September unless the legislature intervenes and fixes the thing that it either forgot to do or I don't know what.
Well, last senator Jeff Smith, just what exactly happened when he and other Democrats put up an amendment and a lot of Republicans voted no on it.
Also tomorrow, Corrine Hendrickson, a child care provider from the Nuglaris area, talks about the future of child care and at least specifically her future in child care because of what happened in the state budget and what wasn't in the state budget.
All right, but next we're going to hear from Dan Schaefer.
And before I do that, allow me to
Pull back the curtain a little bit about this radio show and explain how the schedule works for folks who might be hearing us for the first time here.
We are on weekday mornings from six to nine on now 10 stations across the civic media radio network all throughout Wisconsin.
And we are so grateful to have you all here either live on the radio or by podcast or watching us on social media.
And in terms of the format of the show.
There are opportunities in the seven o'clock hour and the eight o'clock hour where we take these breaks and anybody that listens regularly knows we take breaks at about 20 past the hour and 50 past the hour.
And some of the stations will then break away for a few minutes and give a little local news update.
You'll hear local interviews with people who are civic or community leaders.
And then folks come back and join us at the top or the bottom of the hour.
We keep yapping away over here because there are some stations that don't have a local update and frankly here in the Chippewa Valley.
we provide that local update with help from James Kelly and Jimmy Cusca and others.
So sometimes we have a guest interview that stretches into that segment where some of the local stations will cut away across Wisconsin.
And we want you to hear what they had to say.
So yesterday we had Dan Schaefer on for a while talking about Wisconsin political news.
We took a break.
And so some of what you might missed what some of what you might have missed is Dan Schaefer talking about the race for governor next year and a
a few other matters.
So let's pick up the second half of our conversation with Dan Schaefer, the Civic Media Political Editor and Founder of the Recombobulation Area.
Dan, let's get back to the governor's race.
We've talked about the two Republican candidates.
Let's talk about the one Democratic candidate potentially that would be Governor Tony Evers.
And now, of course, everybody watching the tea leaves for any kind of activity.
Can I assume that, you know, again, it's only a couple of days removed from the budget?
that there's been no inklings yet, one way or the other?
I haven't heard any inklings one way or another, and I don't think I'd be the one to know at this point after I've had my say.
Wait,
I was
sure that the governor would say, you know what, buddy?
You're right.
I'm going to give you the scoop on this
one.
You
don't see that coming.
No,
no, don't see that one coming right now.
But, you know, we're all on pins and needles waiting for the for the governor's decision.
I think, you know, it's certainly been the hot topic at post budget right now to see what's next for the governor.
But, you know, he's going to he's going to make his decision on his own time and he's earned that.
So, you know,
yeah.
And let me say that this is writ large of Democrats.
I'm not going to name names.
But as we've reached out to Democrats to either appear on the show or talk to them.
about news stories or anything, you can just feel them flinching.
You can just feel them go, don't ask me about this.
I can't talk about this right now until the governor makes a decision one way or the other.
But of course, we're all dying to know.
We had, well, we'll pick on State Senator Kelle Roy.
She was on a few days back.
She's on frequently.
And you just know she's like, oh, we're going to talk about this again.
And you have to give the safe answer until you know what it is.
So forgive any skittishness that you might see out there.
To get back to the state budget, and we talked about the homeless veteran facilities, but what an interesting microcosm we've had just on this show alone.
In our first two days on the air in Green Bay, where we've had an assembly rep, Ahmaud Rivera-Wagner and a Senator, Jamie Wall, both Democrats.
one voting against the budget, one voting for the budget, and both very clearly stating the earnest reasons why you would do one or the other.
And I mean, that's a trend we're just going to see for a while where not everybody's going to be happy, Dan, but the reaction is still coming in from all folks, and it really depends on whether they want to see the glass as half empty or half full.
Yeah, you're right.
And I think, you know, those conversations that you've been having, I thought our friend Mark Becker at the Rational Revolution had a great conversation with State Senator Kristen Dassler Alfheim on her vote on the budget.
She was also one of the state senators who voted in favor of it.
So, you know, it's the nature of compromise, right?
But I do think there is certainly a little bit of a difference between the state Senate Democrats being at the table and assembly Democrats not being at the table in these negotiations.
And, you know, that perhaps coloring some percent
from people that most Democrats voted against this budget.
I think we're still seeing some of the fallout from that.
There was a rally at the Capitol in Madison with some childcare providers, expressing some frustration, to say the least, with some of the components of the childcare.
the compromise that went into the child care budget, you know, raising of those ratios from one to four to one to seven, and some of the other, you know, details there that went into that, that I think, you know, I think the way that the child care providers characterized it was compromising.
provider safety.
So I think that's something not to be taken lightly as well.
And
so I
think, you know, there's still a lot of questions with this budget, especially after it came together in such a discombobulating way, Pat.
Yes, it did.
Way to stay on brand.
Look, when I keep talking about the bipartisan nature of the vote, that is in no way meant to undersell the
And I mean this word anger felt by education advocates about the zero increase in general aids and by childcare providers about funding that only runs for one year and provides no stability whatsoever.
So I just wanted to say again that when I talk about Democrats and Republicans voting for or against and some people not liking it, people want to go, Oh, well, some people don't like it.
It must have been a good bipartisan budget.
Oh, no, no, no.
The things that some people don't like.
They are rightly incensed that they're not in there.
And you're going to keep hearing about this from childcare providers, from education advocates, now from veterans advocates.
These folks don't, they're not just unhappy with the budget.
They are furious.
There is some real.
real anger out there with with the budget.
That's for sure.
And, you know, add into that the decision that UW system had to make last week with raising tuition because they didn't
the long term increases in funding.
Most of the funding that went to the UW and there was a lot of really important funds that that made it into the budget, but a lot of them were capital projects.
So there are one time expenditures on buildings on various improvements in infrastructure within the UW system.
I know the Polk Library, my alma mater at UW.
Ashkosh is getting redeveloped.
And so I think there are a lot of those increases are there, but it didn't really fund the system increases in the long term too.
So you also had, yeah, I think some of it, like the three main components of the budget that the Evers administration was really dug in on was K-12 education.
child care and UW system funding.
And I think we're seeing even, you know, the difficulties of compromise.
Yes, they got a budget passed over the finish line.
Yes, it includes a lot of wins that wouldn't have been otherwise had Senate Democrats not come to the table, but it still doesn't go far enough.
And I think I liked the way that Senator Dassler Alfheim characterized this on Rational Revolution is saying, this is hopefully the last crappy budget that we'll have to pass.
We can all hope for that.
Dan Schaeffer, you can read what he puts out on Civic...
media as their political editor.
And of course, subscribe over at the Reconpopulation area as well.
Dan, thank you very much.
Appreciate it.
Thanks for having me.
Be well.
And a reminder, of course, that if you either for local breaks or you're just away from your radio and you want to listen back to parts of our show, subscribe to us as a podcast.
Head over to Spotify or Apple, wherever you mention or wherever you get your podcast, whatever platform you prefer.
And subscribe to us there.
you might become an everyday listener, or it might be just nice to have handy when you want to listen back to an interview or some of the things that we talked about.
While you're subscribing to things like Spotify, head over and do our newsletter as well, UpNorthNewsWI.com.
We have a weekend newsletter about Wisconsin politics.
It's called Sunday Mornings with Pat Krightlow.
Again, UpNorthNewsWI.com.
And last Sunday's issue,
There was a link to my commentary from this program last week about how the state Supreme Court is making it harder for politicians to bend the rules.
politicians from both parties.
This is a very reform-minded set of progressive judges who are in the majority on the court right now.
There's also the clap back to Wisconsin Republicans who thought it would be cute to send a letter to Canada saying, please stop sending us your wildfire smoke.
And then there's our question of the week, which I want to get into here for a moment, and it deals with whether the Democratic Party should be moving
further to the left or if it is just right where it is now.
I basically gave four options.
I said option A was yes, go left, B bold, no more squishy Democrats.
Option B was, hey, we're a big tent.
There's room for all kinds of voices as long as they're rooted in progressive values.
There was option C, which was to stop the slide toward the left because it will alienate moderates.
And of course, there was option D. I'm a Republican.
I'm just here with a big box of popcorn.
to watch what y'all are doing.
So I want to give you a little sample here.
Here's Barbara, who voted for option A, moving left.
She says, universal health care, subsidized childcare, taxes on the rich, you call them leftist, many people in other nations call them rights.
Then there's Don, who votes for B, the big tent option, and says, we need to have room for an open discussion on issues.
There's Rocky who voted for option C, the more centrist one, writing, because you can only move the people a bit at a time.
Slow down and get it right eventually.
Patience.
And then Vicki writes, I'm in the D camp and truly believe if the left goes any further, they will hurt themselves badly.
I have popcorn in a large bowl watching what's happening.
So those are some of the responses to our newsletter sign up for it again at upnorthnewswi.com.
So about that drift to the left, a lot of that has come up because of the success of Zoran Mondani winning the New York City Democratic primary.
And again, now New York City is already, you know, a heavily Democratic city, so it's not indicative of the entire country, but it is a microcosm of what the party is doing and how the party should be moving.
Well to that end in southern Arizona there was a congressional primary election yesterday and it was a forest seat that was vacated by the death of a popular congressman Raul Grahalva.
He was a beloved 11 term democratic congressman.
His daughter Adelida age 54 was the democratic frontrunner.
And she had a lot of endorsements, but also had a candidate who was charging hard from the left.
A 25-year-old newcomer, Deja Fox, a reproductive rights and political digital strategist and activist, and she appeared to be gaining momentum.
And if you head over to couriernewsroom.com, you'll see that there was a video series done on her along with our friends at the Copper Courier, our outlet there in Arizona.
following Deja Fox as she tried this insurgency to bring more youth to the Democratic field and to maybe help the party embrace positions that are not as squishy as some critics would contend.
In the end, Adelaide Agrihalva was the winner.
She was perceived to be the front runner, but the campaign by Deja Fox did again
capture the inner debate that's happening in the party right now.
So head over to couriernewsroom.com and take a look at that video series and weigh in on our question of the week through our Sunday morning newsletter as well.
Today's history lesson is coming up next.
You're up north.
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.
Oh, there we go.
That's Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina.
Again, folks of Parker's age would not know this, but Loggins and Messina, I mean, they were a big deal for the first half of the 1970s.
There were a lot of duos back then.
Of course, you had Simon and Garfunkel, England Dan and John Ford Coley, all these other duos.
Loggins and Messina was a pretty big one.
But on this day in 1976, after six years together, Loggins and Messina decided to split up their partnership after a couple of hits, including that one, Your Mama Don't Dance.
Jim Messina went on to, you know, some moderate success.
Kenny Loggins took off like a fighter jet in the danger zone.
with Top Gun and, I mean, how many other soundtracks.
All that is part of today's history lesson, along with Lee Lu slash Paint Bucket's mom, Melissa K, from WFHR in Wisconsin Rapids.
Melissa, how are you and how's your feathered friend?
Good morning.
We're fine.
It's a little warm, but, you know, pigeons are cool up to 104, so...
I
will
die before she will.
That's
how it is.
Let's hope that's not a likelihood there.
No, no, no.
We're doing well.
They're still getting used to their surroundings, getting settled in,
hiding a bit.
But fans are going out there, so we need to keep it.
How long do you think we do this before we call your bluff and wonder if this whole pigeon quest was even real if there actually is a bird in your house?
I mean, I did show you the cage.
You did show a cage and a photo.
I shared a picture.
Yep, yep, the photo looked just like the moon landing in that sound studio.
Yep.
So next week you're demanding video with me in it, I guess is what I'm hearing.
Well, you know what?
Today is AI Appreciation Day and now that I realize anything can be faked, it doesn't matter.
We're on top of that.
There was a development though.
The pigeon pants arrived
yesterday.
They are so cute.
Do you have those for show and tell?
I'll have them.
I'll
go get
them.
They're on the
table.
Okay.
Let's see.
In the meantime, let's get back to the history lesson for today.
Barry Manilow had the number one hit this day in 1977.
This would be daybreak, which I thought I'd queued up to the chorus, but of course I did not.
So while Barry sings in the background, I'll tell you that it was on this day in 1941 that Joe DiMaggio hit safely for his 56th consecutive game, a streak that stands to this day.
The atomic age began this day in 1945 with the first successful detonation of a plutonium based nuclear weapon in New Mexico.
On this day in 1956, Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus closed their final big tent show in Pittsburgh.
Due to changing economics, subsequent shows were held in arenas.
And let's see, Barry Manilow, I said he was number one this day in 1977.
That was his album, Barry Manilow Live.
Here's the number one single from 1977 by Sean Cassidy.
Do you ever see Stripes, Melissa?
Yes, it's been a long time.
It's been a long time, but Harold Ramis, he was like teaching English as a second language.
Do you have that clip still, Parker, of
Harold
Ramis teaching English in the movie Stripes?
Go for it.
Okay, that's really very good.
I'd like to try it just one more time and then we'll call it a day.
My heart stood still.
Somebody told me that her name was Jill.
Why
wouldn't you want to learn English that way through the lyrics of Sean Cassidy Hits, right?
sure.
It's kind of how we learned, you know, listening to the radio.
This was the anniversary of the birth of Orville Redenbacher, the popcorn magnet, who died in 1995.
He was born this day in 1907.
Packer legend Max McGee was born this day in 1932, passed away in 2007.
And actor Will Ferrell is 58.
Do you have a favorite Will Ferrell role?
I, of course, have to defer to Ron Burgundy in the movie Anchorman, but with all the others out there, do you have a favorite Will Ferrell character?
I actually don't like his acting.
Oh,
wow.
I
did not see that coming.
I was waiting for Ricky Bobby or the character in Stepbrothers.
I usually just
kind of shy away from his movies.
I've heard I have to watch Elf because it's like his best role ever.
Oh, yeah.
But I just, I don't know.
I don't watch a lot of movies and TV, Pat.
I just don't
know.
That's fair.
I'm with you.
Parker, how about you?
Will Ferrell characters?
I
Really?
I don't.
Wow.
Yeah.
He's an excellent actor.
There's no, no, there's no faulting his talent.
I just don't
have an
appreciation.
I
just don't.
I'm not wrong to it.
Okay.
On the national day calendar for today, again, we've already mentioned, and I don't know why it's this way, it's artificial intelligence appreciation day.
When I really feel like, given all the what's ominous out there, this ought to be artificial intelligence awareness
awareness
day.
I agree.
Be aware of AI.
It's a wrap.
It's when you bring in the music Parker.
There we go.
All right.
Yes.
I asked the Google AI to justify its existence and it just gave me some kind of platitudes and Parker rightly pointed out the robots don't tell you when they're going to kill you.
Yeah.
They play it cool until then.
Today is National Cherry's Day.
You like cherries?
I do.
Actually, I have some cherries in my fridge.
I'm excited to eat them later.
Oh, cherry pie is my favorite.
Fresh
cherries.
Fresh cherries.
This is also, by the way, fresh spinach day.
And I like how they take pains to say it's fresh spinach day, not that garbage that's in a can.
Or the frozen stuff.
Come on, they both have their place.
Yeah, they have a place.
It goes out with the
the barrel every Monday.
This
is Guinea Pig Appreciation Day and this is Rural Transit Day, which I know is a real issue out in Wisconsin Rapids and other areas.
So, so much that needs to be covered and Melissa K. does it all over at 97.5 WFHR 105 5 W IRI.
Thank you, Melissa.
Have a great day.
Say hi to Lelue for us
and we'll be
back after the news.
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