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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.
Now, from our Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Well, hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It is 6.06.
It is Friday, August 8th, 2025.
And it's another beautiful morning to have you here up north.
We're live from Lake WSOTA.
Wherever you're spending your mornings, listening across the Civic Media radio network or catching us on all the other different platforms out there, we deeply appreciate you starting your day, ending your work week, right about here.
Another warm one already in the 70s this morning across much of Wisconsin.
So I got a question for you.
Do you know how many days it is until Christmas?
Doesn't that make you feel better about the hot weather?
Parker Olson producing this thing in Madison A2, knowing
Cause people go, Oh, it's another hot day.
It's going to be in the nineties again.
Really?
Snow below zero temperatures.
Can I sell you on those?
Yes.
I'll, I'll take the nineties every time, every time.
I
don't know about every.
I like the
snow.
No, I like seasons.
I'm just saying if I had to, if it was an either or proposition, especially today, you know, no, I know what I like.
I like summer.
I don't know.
I like summer, but hey, I'm a big winter guy.
I'll take
it.
I do.
I do.
I do like seasons that much I learned from our three years living in the Caribbean was you you actually do get to miss seasons.
Alicia putting up three hot, hot emojis, really hot, sweaty, red face.
And she says she's grateful most of her customers have air conditioning today.
So yeah, Brittany will have forecast details coming up in just a little bit.
So just keep that perspective in mind only 139 shopping days, you know, until Christmas.
Oh,
no.
Yeah, we are.
Oh, no.
That's how these calendar things work, I know.
Here, let me keep you in the summer spirit of things.
It's Free Ticket Friday.
Hey, and in just a few minutes, I'm going to give you the key word to text in.
No, not yet.
Can have to wait a little bit here.
You're going to win four tickets.
You could win four tickets to see the Brewers take on the Pittsburgh Pirates next Wednesday afternoon.
Again, that's next Wednesday afternoon.
So if you can go to the game, if you can get tickets delivered to you electronically on your phone, if you can use those tickets on your phone, then enter this statewide contest that we got going on today.
I'll be giving you a keyword, oh, in about 10 minutes or so, that you will text to us using the Civic Media app, call up one of the stations, use the text feature, text us the keyword, and then listen throughout the rest of the day, other keywords on other programs, and then from all of those statewide entries, one will be picked and that...
Lucky person will win four great club level seats to see the Brewers Pirates game next Wednesday afternoon.
So stick around for that.
And let's see, because of my advanced age, I have to I have to make sure I tell you this word in the next nine minutes or so.
Parker Parker, would you remind me to give that keyword right before the break, please?
Oh, sure.
Sure.
I got your grandpa quite well.
See, see, he doesn't, he doesn't just go to the drugstore and get my metamucil when it's low.
He, he serves other purposes as well.
Coming up in just a second, I'm going to tell you how a Western Wisconsin doctor is part of an online video series with the former transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, talking about how President Trump's Medicaid cuts are putting rural healthcare into a death spiral.
Trump's disdain of the Constitution was on display this week in his insistence that a new census be taken that only counts citizens.
That's not how a census works.
Unless, of course, you're into people being invisible and being, you know, even disappeared.
We'll talk to a courier, newsroom, national political editor, Keva Keel, about that shortly.
Meanwhile, two more red states say they're willing to engage in corrupt cartography and rig their maps to make Trump happy.
And Count J.D.
Vance as one of those, quote unquote, small government Republicans, unless he needs something, you know, like the Corps of Engineers to raise the water level on an entire river so he and his buddies can go kayaking, there'll be a new ruling from a federal judge.
Let me let me fix that.
There has been a new ruling from a federal judge that may lead to a big setback in Indian sovereignty across the country.
The Lactoflambo Reservation is one of many that were turned into checkerboards of tribal and non-tribal lands because of racist policies back in the 19th century.
The checkerboards were further locked into place by this week's ruling.
At least that's my interpretation of it.
We'll ask former U.S.
Attorney Jim Santel what he thinks of the ruling coming up.
And we'll get more from our weekend review panel that includes Jim Santel, Jennifer Schulze, Mark Jacob.
We'll talk about gubernatorial candidate Bill Berrien who seems to be Berrien his campaign every time he's asked questions about his positions or his history.
It took four tries by a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter to finally get him to claim that he regrets supporting Nikki Haley.
in the last GOP presidential primary, and he didn't exactly have a convincing answer to what separates him from Eric Hovde and Tim Michaels, two other wealthy businessmen seeking a high office without any significant political experience.
We'll visit with Dr. Kristen Lierly.
We will talk to Mike Clemens from Packer Training Camp and also hear a bit about the Brewers, of course.
That and Brittany Merlos forecast for the weekend as well.
In fact, I've got her statewide forecast in front of me right here.
She says, as the temperatures heat up, so do the chances for thunderstorms.
Severe storms are around the corner and a soaking wet weekend is in store for some folks.
Here's our state forecast for today hot and humid partly sunny and breezy upper 80s up north low 90s south and a southeast wind at 10 to 20 miles an hour for tonight partly cloudy and sticky Our lows tonight will be in the upper 60s up north low 70s south and a southeast wind again at 10 to 20 miles an hour and again more details from Brittany coming up
in less than an hour now here on these mornings powered by Up North News across the civic media radio network.
Plans for this weekend, Parker, are to maybe go see some dueling pianos at a nearby establishment here.
I haven't seen a good dueling piano show in a while.
Have you ever been to one?
I've never been.
I would really like to.
Pianos are cool.
They are so when when you get the right
People doing it and by the way, there is a dueling piano bar almost like literally across the street from you.
Yeah in Madison right now Yeah, my brother's been there a bunch.
I
haven't
I've been there a couple times and it's it's good It reminded we used to go a lot in the early mid 90s.
Yeah, I know don't don't say it.
Okay
Don't say
it.
Go ahead.
Say it.
I
didn't know they had pianos back
then.
Yeah, he wasn't born yet.
Okay, fine.
Have you ever been to Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota?
I've
not.
Okay.
When Mall of America first opened, it had a very vibrant nightclub level up on the top level, the fourth level, and it included a dueling piano bar.
And having lived there at the time, while Sherry was doing her medical residency, we went there a lot and they can
just be so funny and there's a place here called Shootsies just south of Chippewa Falls that I guess is going to have dueling pianos tonight.
Uh I suppose maybe depending on the weather we'll talk to Brittany about that but that might be fun but then Saturday Sunday again weather dependent but remarkably open which is kind of nice for us because there's a lot of travels to see kids and grandkids and all kinds of other things uh what about you will it be mallards games will it be
Other endeavors?
I'm starting off tonight going to a show at the Memorial Union down here with my uncle and my brother.
My uncle has been learning how to play the fiddle for, oh god, I don't know, probably like 10 years or so now and his teacher is doing a show with somebody else.
So we're going to go see her.
That'll be tonight after I produce the Todd Alba show today, by the way.
Oh, tune in.
Mr. Zahmer's taken off a little early here,
huh?
Zahmer's taken off today and Monday.
So
you're going to get a
whole lot of Parker
today
and Monday.
A lot of our listeners got a fever.
And the only prescription is more Parker.
Oh, yeah.
That's what they tell me.
Yeah, let's see, have we, no, it doesn't.
Alicia says, have you counted how many days until spring elections pick up?
No, nope, not there yet.
We'll get there though, trust me.
Let me get to the story that we're doing first before anybody else here.
We were contacted by the team for Pete Buttigieg, the former U.S.
Transportation Secretary, former presidential candidate.
And he now speaks to an online audience of millions through YouTube and Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and Substack.
And if you don't follow him, he's been doing a series of interviews.
It's not right to call them podcasts, only in the sense that, you know, he doesn't, um, there's not like some kind of a flashy open.
It doesn't even have a title.
It just opens up and it's him having a conversation with somebody.
And the conversation that he's having in an interview that's going to be posted later this morning is with a doctor from Tomah.
And in talking to Dr. Jill McMullen about the cuts that are coming to Medicaid because of Donald Trump's big bloated boondoggle of a budget bill supported by Derek Van Orden.
who represents the TOMA area.
Dr. McMullen thinks that this is going to take an already bad rural health care situation and make it worse.
And we were given permission to be the first ones to put up excerpts from the Pete Boody Judge interview with Dr. Jill McMullen.
So here it is.
I don't feel that it's strong leadership to say, I'm going to create a problem that I'm then going to have to come back and fix.
And you're just going to have to trust me that I'm going to fix it right and it's not going to waste time.
I'm here with Dr. Jill McMullen.
She is a family physician in rural Wisconsin with about 30 years of experience.
She has been day in, day out, providing the kind of care that people need and has a wealth of experience to help us understand the impact of some of the health care cuts that the Republican
And
I will tell you that rural hospitals really aren't making money.
It's not like it's a great gig to go into to become wealthy.
I think what is it about almost half of rural hospitals are working on a negative margin.
So they are taking in less money than they're spending.
And then if you can imagine you have fewer and fewer people who are coverage, more of that coverage becomes charity care or unavailable to help with their bottom line.
Which could become a death spiral for a rural hospital, right?
It means that the Sustainability of the hospital just shrinks until the hospital can't stay open
and what they may do is start cutting services at first So stopping delivering babies or stopping having various specialists or closing different areas of the hospital What I want people to understand is that our rural hospitals are infrastructure
every 30 to 40 miles in general and unless you're in the in the bigger western areas.
So you're driving on vacation with your family.
You have an incident, heart attack, car accident.
If there's no rural hospital, that golden hour has now evaporated trying to get you someplace to keep you alive.
And so not only does it matter for the local folks who live here and just want to be able to take care of themselves, it matters for people who are just crossing through the area.
Again, that's Dr. Jill McMullin from TOMA talking to Pete Buttigieg, part of his video series that they will be posting this morning on their various platforms and we were given first opportunity and you can read more about it and see the excerpt on our Instagram, which is where it's posted right now.
So either head to the Up North News Instagram site or read the article, head to our website, upnorthnewswi.com.
It's the top story there right now.
Sign up for our Sunday morning newsletter about Wisconsin politics and then
the story rural health care faces death spiral from GOP Medicaid cuts.
It is it's something that more people are realizing at first they hear this and they go oh it just affects those Medicaid recipients as if you know all the Medicaid recipients were somehow unworthy and then they're finding out wait there's a lot that does affect them from Medicaid but it's not even just the Medicaid.
Once those rural hospitals start cutting services and or closing then things get real bad.
And they're already not in a good place when it comes to rural health care in Wisconsin.
All right, here's that word of the day, the keyword for the free brewers tickets.
It is free ticket Friday.
And if you text us the word ground, right?
Yes, G R U N D G R O U N D G R O U N D ground.
You can win tickets to the brewers pirates game next Wednesday afternoon.
I'm Pat Crightlow.
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.
Let's get that keyword out for free ticket Friday for brewers tickets for tickets brewers versus Pittsburgh a statewide drawing after keywords throughout the day on the various shows across the Civic Media Radio Network Ground GROU ND again look back at your texts might want to check the spelling on there GROU ND use the Civic Media app and send it our way
Also on the text line from Jim in Brookfield, since it will be warm and humid in southeast Wisconsin, today I will be going to the local Milwaukee County pool for a water aerobics class and some lap swimming, embrace the warm weather.
Just think of those cold days in January.
Amen.
Thank you, Jim, for that.
Again, you can get our daily newsletter over at UpNorthNewsWI.com, some of our unabashedly Wisconsin news, which includes tooting our own horn about the Wisconsin State Fair ranked among the best in the country.
That is part of USA Today's 10 Best Readers' Choice Awards.
The Wisconsin State Fair has snagged the number three spot among all state fairs in the U.S.
Minnesota.
took first place Iowa came in second but hey you get enough cream puffs and cheese curds that's going to get you on that top five list as well up there at number three which I have to say is a little surprising I hear all the time about the Texas State Fair so I'm guessing that must be pretty high up on the list as well in fact you know what let me let me click on that link because you will find that link right there
In our newsletter, sign up at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
Yep, sure enough, Texas is in at number four, South Carolina five, Indiana six, Alaska seven, Florida State Fair is eight, the Washington State Fair is nine, and the Ohio State Fair is 10.
But the Ohio State Fair, as I've mentioned before, is where they have the different flavors of deviled eggs.
That's like their big deal.
And this year, it's chocolate chip cookie dough flavored deviled eggs.
For that reason alone, I would disqualify them from the top 10 list.
But also in our newsletter, if you're much more into say, you know, hiking, there's the perfect Wisconsin trail for every kind of hiker is listed in there.
And also another article about rural health care.
And another thing that is exacerbating the situation in rural Wisconsin, and that's housing costs.
So if health care gets more expensive,
or unattainable because you have to travel farther to get it, combined with housing costs, it's going to be an even bigger problem for rural Wisconsin.
So again, all in our newsletter, UpNorthNewsWI.com.
With Congress on recess, Senator Tammy Baldwin has done what she's done every year since first elected, and that's do a statewide tour to listen to folks in various capacities, either at a business or taking various tours, meeting with constituents, meeting with business leaders.
And she kicked that off in Milwaukee this week, meeting with small business owners and talking about Trump's tariffs.
She was joined by about a dozen small business owners at the headquarters of Diamond Disk International.
That's an international wholesaler of construction tools and safety equipment.
And she rightly referred to Trump's tariffs as chaotic and scattershot and said that, you know, the U.S.
is in a global trade war that's going to be hurting U.S.
consumers and businesses.
who will be paying the price tag for that.
And again, it bears repeating because the president's people were again yesterday insisting that this was some kind of a windfall of money that has come into the country.
No, it has not.
Tariffs are paid by the American importers of goods that come in, and then that gets passed along to the consumer.
The Baldwin tour comes out
on the heels of the 90 deals and 90 days that did not happen, did not even come close to happening, and Senator Baldwin's tour will continue over the coming days here.
Let's see, Parker, have you ever gone on a canoeing trip or a kayaking trip, anything like that?
No, I'm not much of a water guy, ironically.
What do you mean, ironically?
Well, I drink a lot of
water, but I don't go out on the water.
Okay,
I'm a
land
being I see that that's yeah, that's certainly one way to think of it.
So you've never gotten like special treatment for any any trips like this anything like that.
Oh, certainly not.
Oh, okay.
Well, the reason I ask is that
it appears that if you're the vice president of the United States and you want to go kayaking, you can get the Army Corps of Engineers to raise the water level of a river, which is
what
happened this week.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Pretty cool, huh?
It was a security matter, apparently, where the water level for the Little Miami River had its water flow increased
by request of the Secret Service to ensure motorized watercraft and emergency emergency personnel could operate safely.
Critics rightly blasted this as a sign of the vice president's entitlement, given the administration's focus on slashing government spending.
Well, I mean, for the little people, not for him.
I mean, we got to have her priorities straight, right?
So I guess you could say this was JD Vance's own whitewater.
But of course you'd have to be old enough to remember the Clinton presidency to have that happen, too.
And we're going to talk with Courier Newsroom's Key of Akeel in just a moment, and we'll talk about the Texas redistricting controversy where it appears that, well, there's nothing...
really new as far as we can tell in terms of the Democratic lawmakers who've left the state to try to delay the gerrymandered Texas maps from coming into effect.
So if I tell you that there's reaction from Republicans in Indiana and Florida, well, in a perfect world, in a better world, the story would be Republicans in Indiana and Florida tell Texas Republicans not to engage in that kind of corruption.
It's making them look bad.
But no, the actual story is the Republicans in Indiana and Florida are also considering corrupt cartography and rigging their maps in an endeavor to win elections that they cannot win on their ideas alone.
The cheating is running rampant and will do so.
until and unless voters can do otherwise next year.
Courier Newsroom's national political editor, Keva Keel, joins me right after this, including the Midwest Farm Report.
I'm Pat Crightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
We are one step closer to the weekend when we get a chance to talk to Courier Newsroom's National Political Editor.
Kiavakeel, get you caught up on headlines before you get into your weekend.
Hello, Kia, how are you?
Good.
See, I'm glad we can play that role for you.
I think if there are visuals from this week, one of them will be Donald Trump just wandering the roof of the White House and how we'd be...
telling the story of Joe Biden.
We're just walking along the roof of the White House.
It just seems that we have such a show business presidency.
But the press like, you know, had he been seen, like you said, wandering the roof of the White House, it would have been a multi day story with Trump.
You know, it's a multi hour story at most and it's, you know,
And part of that's on the press and part of that's also, there is, as you were joking before we went on air, there's like, there's no shortage of things happening and Trump is the root of most of those things.
And he has cracked the code for how to brush past like gaffes and scandals, which is just have so many of them that it becomes the air Americans breathe and the water they drink and the stew they live in, including reporters, you know,
On any given day, there's 18 things he does or says that would be a scandal for literally anyone else.
And he does them all publicly, which is not a novel insight, but it does.
It takes away some of the sort of the air of like, oh, he's doing something bad, what he's so brazenly inept and corrupt in public.
Yeah, I mean, it used to be sunshine was, you know, said to be the best disinfectant.
But if if you're if you're doing all your crime in out in the open.
Apparently people think, well, it must be OK.
He's doing it publicly.
So when we look at what was the main story of the week, I would pose this, that it didn't happen in Washington DC because Congress is in recess.
So maybe the main story of the week is happening back home.
And that would be the ongoing campaign by Democrats, by local groups to tell
the American public more about the cuts that are coming in the Republican mega bill.
And I don't think that that's, I'm not saying that's a bad thing.
I'm saying the polling indicates the more that people learn about what Congress and Trump passed, the more they don't like it.
So why wouldn't Democrats be doing that throughout the August recess?
And, you know, Republicans structured this bill in such a way that some of the worst cuts don't happen till after the midterms, which
I'm very loath to give them any credit, but that is cynical, but politically savvy.
But the cuts are going to devastate people.
It's going to cost people their health care, their food.
It's going to cost jobs.
Like rural hospitals will shut down.
It's a monstrosity.
And yeah, if Democrats are worth their salt at all, their top mission should be to communicate not only those parts of the bill, but that this was a giant giveaway.
to Trump's donors, his crony friends, billionaires, corporations, while ordinary people are stuck paying a new tax bill because of his tariffs, which we saw just an astonishing amount of tariffs went into effect this week.
And that is, I believe it's the highest rate since the Great Depression, which you never want to hear that come up in a conversation.
But we're approaching smooth holly territory of
putting the economy at risk and it's just they should be talking about that obviously there's a lot happening but
Yeah, any Democrats should be talking about that.
Republicans are generally too scared to hold town halls.
We saw Tom Tiffany held a sort of pre approved one on the phone where questions had to be vetted.
But, you know, across the country, Republicans are largely trying to stay hidden with with some exceptions.
And those exceptions have not gone well.
They've not.
I mean, Brian style caught in your full in Wisconsin.
And is it Mike flood in Nebraska that had the especially colorful one?
Yeah, he had one of the most scathing town halls I've ever seen where he Largely, I mean this is Nebraska.
It's no one's idea of a blue state That's not to say there are not Democratic voters and liberals in Nebraska there are but it's a red state and he got absolutely torn shreds By people who you know, I don't know their ideologies.
I'm sure some of them were liberal, but I'm also sure some of them voted for Mike flood and
it was absolutely brutal, which is why you're seeing a lot of like Mike Johnson, House Speaker, tell Republicans that don't even bother because, you know, you're going to get ripped apart.
And that's never a good look on video to have those videos of your constituents chewing you out, go viral.
But that's also not like I give points to Mike Flood for actually facing his constituents.
That is the bare minimum that any member of Congress should do.
Is it politically savvy?
I don't know, but it's morally correct.
And
99% of Republicans aren't doing it because they know on the merits that bill is a moral monstrosity.
Yeah, all they can do is hope to flood the zone with other messages between now and November of 2026.
So obviously, we've been seeing this in all the various states, all the ways that elected officials and groups have been talking about this.
Is there anything from any of our sister outlets on any of the other states that you'd hold up as an example of a member of Congress or somebody else doing an especially good job of communicating all this back home?
Yeah, I mean, I think there's been a lot of different voices that have been compelling about this You know, I think in Texas there's been, you know, Greg Casar who's like a member of the I think co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus I want to say a job Mark Pokan used to have I believe he
He has been a pretty solid communicator about this.
It's a lot of the younger Democrats, you know, she's not in one of our states, but Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who's
always going to say Jasmine Crockett's been on fire this week.
Jasmine Crockett and these Texas Democrats are, you know, we're doing this and are now obviously more focused on the redistricting saga there.
But yeah, these younger, more, you know, vocal and more charismatic, frankly, elected officials are among the more
the best communicators out there, Ruben Gallego in Arizona, who's not exactly a progressive, but he's also been really strong on it.
And yeah, I think it's going to continue to be something they have to really nail down the best to continue to make sure people know what this bill is and what it will do to them.
And coming back where I started, it's because the polling hasn't changed on this.
The polling on this is bad for people who know what's in it.
It's extremely bad and you know We have seen this bill beyond those measures like the other main function of it is to make ice like Fund ice more than I basically all but three or four militaries in the entire world give them more funding than like the Russian army ice and DHS and other immigration agencies and
You know, we have seen Trump's approval on immigration take a massive nosedive since he approved a seizure in Los Angeles, which is ongoing, I might add.
You know, we're still seeing, we're seeing ICE agents and DHS agents use Penske rental trucks in a very shady way to attack and grab people.
And this bill gives, I believe it's 170 billion for immigration enforcement.
And so that is going to really
tear communities apart.
And that's not just immigrant communities.
But if you are living in a surveillance state, as we all will be probably within the next couple of years, what does that do for just ordinary people who, you know, it's not as if these people are, these agents are asking for identification.
They're just grabbing people and asking questions later.
That's scary.
And this bill expands that.
And I do think that will be a line of debate that will escalate as that funding kicks into gear.
Yeah, imagine where those billions could have been used instead.
You mentioned the Democrats in Texas legislators who've left the state so that again, they can continue to call attention to the corrupt cartography going on with drawing the new congressional maps.
Do we basically end the week with no change over the past few days?
Democrats showing no signs of going back.
Republicans showing no signs that they're going to drop these rig maps.
Are things in a holding pattern as we head into the weekend?
I will say, obviously, we're recording on Thursday.
So this could change by the time your listeners hear this.
But we've seen all the leading Texas Republicans try to one up each other for
Holding you know attacking the Democrats.
We've seen John Cornyn who's facing a bruising Senate primary Call the FBI to get involved and chase them down.
We've seen his opponent in that primary Texas is most corrupt elected official of maybe ever which is saying a lot Ken Paxton who's the Attorney General right now You know
He is basically saying it's not an FBI issue.
It's a Texas issue.
And he's trying to really be the head honcho on this.
We've seen Greg Abbott really try to take ownership.
All these people hate each other, by the way.
It's all a really big, essentially just people trying to show off their strength for the base.
And we don't know where that's going to lead as of today on Thursday by Friday.
But my sense is that we're still weeks, not days away from really resolving this.
So then apart from the the maps as a way to make mischief and political warfare, now you've got the president of the United States wanting to monkey around with the census, something you tried in his last term as well, and is is coming back for for another try to change the way we've done the census since, you know, ever.
Yeah, it's it's a he wants to basically have a new census, which is
by all accounts not legal to do mid decade and wants to exclude, you know, people who aren't US citizens, which has also is not a part of how the census works.
You're supposed to count every single person in the country according to the Constitution.
That's not just me saying that.
That's the literal Constitution.
And he's trying to monkey with it because he wants to essentially rig the...
control of Congress so that his party doesn't lose the midterms because their agenda is unpopular.
If there was a fair election without gerrymandering, they would probably get clobbered.
But if you change five democratic seats in Texas to Republican, if you try to redraw maps based on changed census data, states like California are going to have less seats because we do have a big undocumented foreign-born population.
But so does Texas.
Texas with loose seats.
So does Florida.
Florida with loose seats.
So do a lot of these big agricultural states.
So it's not it's not necessarily, you know, a perfect way to rig.
It's just it's they're cheating.
It's it's really at the end of the day.
Donald Trump is an authoritarian who wants to govern like a king and wants to hold, you know, doesn't want to be held accountable for policies that will affect people's lives in a negative way.
And so
the only way to avoid that accountability is to not let voters have their say.
And that's what they're trying to do.
There you go.
So one more thing.
I mean, you follow, of course, things coming across your desk from all the various career outlets.
So do you want to tell me tell me one that I might have missed something that caught your eye from one of our sister newsrooms this week?
I think there was a good piece.
I mean, there are a lot of good pieces, I should say, but oh, yeah, there was a really strong piece out of Arizona, which was looking at the number of essentially seats, local
local seats across the state last year that didn't have any any candidates file and so it was more than it was I believe it was a 277 I want to say was a number of uncontested just candidates with no seats with no candidates in the general election and these are largely like very local seats like they were school board seats they were a fire district water district seats
largely in rural areas in small towns, but some within, you know, medium-sized towns.
And so this was according to a report by a group called Ballot Ready, by the way.
And across the country, there were thousands of these sorts of just empty seats.
And it looks at basically, you know, when no one runs, what choice do voters have?
And the answer is they don't have a choice.
And what that means is either seats get consolidated,
or they get people get appointed to them.
And that can often wind up being based on who knows who or who's friends with who or who's donated to who.
So it's sort of that's not really how democracy is supposed to work.
And it is a growing problem.
And the piece did a really nice job of taking a look at that and what it means for these communities that don't actually get representation.
And it's not that all these offices just sprung up and there's nobody to run for them.
They've been there just fewer.
people in some areas want to run for something, which, again, is not a great thing.
But for the folks listening out there, it provides an opportunity for you to run for something and serve your community in some way, shape, or form.
The opportunity is out there like it never has been before.
Keava Keel, Courier Newsrooms, National Political Editor.
Kea, thanks so much.
We'll talk to you later.
You bet.
Thank you, Pat.
Today's history lesson is up next.
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This was a number one song once upon a time, actually this day in 1960.
So 65 years ago today, Brian Highland had the number one song in the country with the itsy bitsy teeny weeny, yellow polka dot bikini.
It stayed at the top of the charts for exactly one week.
But that does not strike me as the appropriate song to bring in our usual Friday guest for the history lesson.
Let's bring in something more musically inclined for Greg Bach.
Let's bring in Happy Birthday wishes to Scott Stapp, who's 52 years old today, and you'll recognize him from this
group.
Now, Greg Bach is rocking out and lip-syncing in a way that is going to get him a national contract or he pulled something.
I'm not quite sure.
I think I hurt myself.
Oops, sorry, Greg.
Tony, very happy Greg in capital letters and five exclamation points there on YouTube, although he also sees who else is on the screen.
And in all caps, we get the handsome and capable Luke Mathers, boys and girls.
This is, I mean, this is.
an all-star lineup now.
Does this still work?
Can
you hear me?
Whoa.
You do, yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
Welcome.
Nice to see you as well.
Good to see you as well, Mr. Critelaw.
All right.
Well, let's get through the history stuff.
We have important vegetable news to talk about with Mr. Mathers coming up here.
But first, before we leave, Scott Stapp's birthday from Creed, who's again 52 today.
Greg, up or down on Creed?
I'm 52 years old.
We're going to take that as a yes.
David Evans is 64 years old today.
I don't know if either one of you can see the notes anymore.
Oh, Greg has his hand raised.
Yes.
What was the name again?
David Evans is 64 today.
Yeah.
He was born in East London.
You know him now as the Edge.
The Edge.
The Edge.
That is great.
Yes, he is.
The Edge is 64.
That's the radio station in Whitewater I work
for.
The
YouTube,
Luke.
Yeah.
The
Edge.
I was, yeah, I wouldn't have been able to tell you that that was the edge.
That's all I'm saying.
I wouldn't have told you that that was his name.
No, all right.
Actor Keith Carradine is 76.
Actor Dustin Hoffman is 88 years old today.
Donnie Most from Happy Days, Ralph Mouth is 72 years old today.
And, okay, so we did Creed for Greg.
Let's do something more for our friend Luke Mathers here.
Sean Mendez is 27 years old
today.
I mean, I'm
guessing anyway that you're more of a Sean Bendez stan, perhaps?
Not really, no.
I would fall more in the Creed camp.
Definitely alternative rock and roll is more than optionally.
But that's what I'm saying, though.
Not that Creed is alternative.
You
know, kids, I love the alternative rock and roll.
Hello, fellow youths.
OK.
All right, let's get something more in my age group here.
And that is the fantasy musical Xanadu, premiered in theaters this week in 1980.
Oh my god, this movie bombed so bad.
My favorite.
My favorite review is the one in a word, Zana don't.
And it was part of the inspiration for the creation of the Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Film of the Year.
You know what this musical needs?
Roller skates.
Roller skates and Gene Kelly.
But the soundtrack did very well, but the movie, not so much.
Let's see, this marks the first night baseball game in the history of Wrigley Field.
And of course, in Wrigley Field fashion, the game was rained out in the fourth inning.
A rack invaded and occupied Kuwait this day in 1990, which would lead to the Gulf War shortly thereafter.
President Richard Nixon on this day in 1974 announced that he would resign the office the next day because of the Watergate scandal.
Gosh, remember when when presidents had honor enough to resign when they got caught doing something wrong.
The Beatles shot the photo for their Abbey Road album cover at the crosswalk outside the studio on this day in 1969.
This is International Beer Day.
which I believe Greg Bach knows a thing or two about.
You do a little work at, is it Lakeside, Lakefront Brewery?
Correct.
There it is,
Lakefront Brewery, yes.
Lakefront Brewery, OK.
It is International Cat Day.
It is Pickleball Day.
Oh, Mathers, is that why you're here?
Because you play pickleball?
You're pickleballing now.
We just
started, yeah.
A couple weeks back now.
All right.
This is International Frozen Custard Day.
Is that?
International?
No, I'm sorry, this is National Frozen Custard Day.
It's International Beer Day.
But perhaps most importantly of all, today, and Luke and I have marked this holiday going back, you know, the three years when he was here at the first week of the shows, this is National Sneak Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day.
Luke has brought a visual aid that is not, it is only appropriate for radio, shall we say.
It's coming
for a doorstep near you, Mr. Crichtlow.
It's coming.
You say
it's a
Zucchini.
HR!
HR!
It's
a Zucchini!
This is where I... Don't hold it that close to the camera.
No, please don't.
I'm about to help you here, Luke.
I'm about to make a confession.
Oh boy.
So last week we were invited over to dinner.
with some friends and they grilled out and the the steaks were great and then they passed around this bowl of mixed vegetables and normally I would have you know kind of just picked my way through it just to grab you know the good stuff but I just went ahead and put the whole thing on there including an ample helping of zucchini which was heavily buttered and seasoned and I loved it.
Exactly!
See, it is delicious when you grill it and you prepare it properly.
Like you like, there's always a bad
way to go
out there.
But yes, zucchini is delicious.
And I don't know yet how I can get the new F F FAA drones to drop off zucchini for you.
OK, if a drone ever drops a zucchini on me.
And if the zucchini looks inappropriately shaped, I will know that it was Luke Mathers.
Just look up in the sky and go, thank you, Mr. Mathers.
So handsome and capable.
Luke, thank you for being around for the big news.
Greg, good to see you as well.
You'll be back on mat and air on air coming up.
Correct.
That's right after this fine program of which we have two more hours, hopefully on the civic media radio network.
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