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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Kratlow powered by Up North News.
Now, from our Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Kratlow.
Well, hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It is 6.06.
It's a Thursday morning, August 28th.
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 through the app or podcast.
maybe on the website, suicmedia.us, however you got here.
Appreciate you being here for what some people wink wink is the last working day of the week before a long and well deserved Labor Day holiday weekend for every American worker out there.
I got a question for you.
Does that include Parker Olson?
Is he a great American worker who deserves a long weekend for Labor Day?
The answer is yes.
We'll go ahead and answer that question now.
Parker, you too are a great American worker who deserves Labor Day weekend off.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I'm overtired.
I'm not myself.
I'll try to fix that along the way.
Although, I'm not sure.
I'm looking at how the day is starting here.
We have literally, before we even, but before I even opened up the microphone, first comment on Facebook.
I'm just reading opinions here.
I don't see any facts.
And I'm really curious what exactly you're talking about.
You're curious what he posted.
I'm curious what exactly you're talking about.
That's the point of what you were reading.
before the show had even started.
So, you know, we're off on a great note here.
So let's tell you what we're talking about.
We're going to talk to Joseph Pecky about today's Visit to La Crosse by Vice President J.D.
Vance.
It's another effort to spin the narrative on what's in the Republican package of massive cuts and record deficits used to deliver lots of goodies to people.
in the wealthiest tax brackets.
And like his buddy, Congressman Derek Van Orden, you can expect a lot of forceful denials and sarcasm and name calling, but will help you keep an eye on those pesky facts that keep getting in the way of their brand of performative politics.
You know, Van Orden frequently talks about growing up poor and having to eat government cheese, which only makes it easier to identify him as what I call a ladder pusher.
someone who was able to take advantage of policies that could help children and families climb up out of poverty, only to then push the ladder away before anyone else can benefit.
We're going to talk to Kate Felton of Eau Claire about her new column at the Reconbobulation Area that calls out Van Orden for continuing to lie that the new Republican budget law doesn't hurt people who rely on Medicaid and nutrition support to stay out of poverty.
We will check the latest Kennedy quackery going on at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A woman with Wisconsin ties is out of a job less than a month into her new role leading the CDC.
And predictably, it is setting off alarm bells throughout the country's health and science communities.
So we'll check on a Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr., a spreader of medical misinformation who seems hell-bent on steering the country on a crash course with more public health emergencies.
Because isn't that what this country needs on top of everything else?
Brittany Merleau's forecast for the state today.
says that Labor Day weekend is looking warmer, plenty of sunshine and dry days ahead, and that's some great news.
She says there are some showers possible early in the southern part of the state, otherwise a quiet cooler day, plenty of sun, highs in the upper 60s up north, mid 70s to the south, a northeast wind today at 10 to 15 miles an hour for tonight, clear and chilly patchy fog.
Lowe's will be in the upper 30s up north to 50 in the southern part of the state with an east wind at five to 10 miles an hour.
And we will get her full forecast coming up right after the seven o'clock news right here across the civic media radio network.
I have been saying for the past couple of days that, you know, not having 80s for temperatures.
Do I sound like I've been complaining about it?
I probably sounded like I was complaining.
Yes.
I noticed you didn't even hesitate.
Nope.
Didn't even hesitate to say that I was complaining.
It hasn't been some summer is like 80s and hasn't been in the 80s.
It's been in the upper 60s and 70s.
Anyway, I got to eat all those words yesterday as we went for a pontoon ride.
You know, we've got one of the daughters and her family here today, another one arrives tonight.
And see, Tony, you're right.
Says no way Pat never complains.
We don't, you know, they self invent, they haven't invented a proper sarcasm font yet for online comments.
And I'm, I'm guessing that it would be there on that one.
Anyway, so we're, we're going on a ride up the river.
yesterday and Sherry had to work and she sends me a text, you know, how are things?
So they're great.
We're heading up river, heading to Mallard.
We're going to relax for a while.
And she's like, is it, is it too cold?
I had to send back.
No, it's glorious.
It was perfect.
It yesterday could not have been a more perfect afternoon to be out and about.
You know, it was, it was jeans instead of shorts, but you know, t-shirts and everything else.
And it was, it was just the most wonderful day.
to the
You brought me over to the, it doesn't have to be 85 with a triple digit heat index.
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
Alicia says on YouTube, no real fog here in Marinette, but on the way up, the bugs were so bad in areas, they looked like smoke rising from the trees.
Oh.
Well, there's some good news.
That's an image.
Yeah.
But we're we are getting to that point, though, where some of the critters start to sense there will be a change in the season.
Some are migrating.
Some will be looking at your house and going, Hey, I'll bet it's warmer in there.
You know, whether it's the the what is it?
The beetle, the little Japanese beetles, the little ladybugs.
All the other box elders also start coming box elders.
Yep.
They're, they're all going to start to be on the move here pretty soon.
And so we'll have the ant traps laid out yet again and try to spider one more round of spider spray, you know, the critters.
Hey, you know, if you're out in there in nature critters, you know, go nuts.
You can't come in here.
here,
Okay.
If you're outside critters, give me like a one foot
Radius away from anything I need to touch on my house There is currently a spider that has made its home in the garage door like code panel Okay, and I am have to flick it every day to get into the garage and I'm not a fan Not a fan
of
have you considered instead of flicking it, you know Smush, you know, I mean I haven't found it all your
Oh, you're just flicking the web away.
I've seen the
not crazy, Pat.
And getting more and more angry at you that you keep...
blowing its house down.
Probably true.
That's
Yeah.
So maybe if the little pig could build a web out of bricks, you know, it might have a better chance, but maybe you're right.
Maybe he needs to go find a new zip code to do that.
I see you have your, your badger right on.
You must be ready for today's badger football season opener.
is not a team of household names.
Exactly.
We say, you know,
well, we got to start somewhere.
Yeah.
And I, and I, I guess.
The way I'd put it is for Luke fickle, the coach, you know, you get those first couple of years of a grace period because it wasn't your recruiting class and all that.
I know these aren't all his recruits necessarily.
But you've had a couple of years to get your feet wet, you know, to respond to what you've got there.
Yeah.
And I think it is entirely fair to have not outsized, but high expectations.
from him.
I mean, if he's everything that they said he was when they hired him, this is the year to put up.
Yeah.
And if not, I don't know.
Maybe we go in a new direction.
You know, I have always been huge on you have to give a coach four years so that they can get all their own guys and be involved in the system and everything about the new school that they're at.
Okay.
But in today's world, I don't know.
What to think though, because there's so many transfers, it seems like there's
never is your own team anymore, because yeah, that transfer portal gets used more than the portal on the on the on the enterprise on Star Trek.
His kids are just beaming from place to place to place.
It's you know, Tony says looking forward to a more balanced offense and getting back to running it.
Yeah.
So is that is that the thing we're supposed to be more of a running team?
I
mean,
I have always we really haven't had NFL quarterbacks.
Shall we say no for a few years?
So maybe we should stop trying for a few
exactly a few years.
So the Badgers are taking on Miami of Ohio, which always, you know, to have a footnote like that.
It's Miami University, Ohio.
You think by now they'd get the hint.
You know, I guess their their school motto is hey, at least it's not Miami of North Dakota.
So we got that going for us eight o'clock is a start time late start to the game here.
Big 10 network or or right here on the civic media radio network stations in Richland Center, Amory, Wisconsin Rapids and a ripping
We'll have the pregame starting at six o'clock this evening and then kick off at eight o'clock Badger football new season getting underway in Baseball the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Brewers last night three to two It was the first appearance for the newest Brewers pitcher Eric Feddy 32 years old now with his third team in 2025 His record is currently four wins and 13 losses
So I guess low expectations.
Well, there's that and this whole notion of look at all the players who have overperformed who've come here.
And so I guess that makes Eric Fetti, you know, a reclamation project like, well, let's see if we can turn this one turned strong to gold once again.
And what happened Andrew won.
He pitched four and a third innings.
He gave up two runs on eight hits.
So, you know, nine.
Not terrible by any stretch and just like you said the bar is low Yeah for what we've got because again, and we haven't talked about this for a long time But I mean there are still injuries in that core.
There's players, you know I mean look at all we've done without Jackson Churio All this time and everybody you know everybody else pitchers and hitters like William Contreras though hit a home run and so
He's had a hot bat lately and they're gonna do it one more time with a day game today wrapping up the four game series and the pregame is gonna start at 1235 on Civic Media Stations in Richland Center Oshkosh Racine Park Falls and Hayward so a little daytime baseball before the Brewers hit the road and they're off to Toronto
for a quick series here Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then they're back here on Monday, on Labor Day, for a game against the Philadelphia Phillies, and then they're off on Tuesday before continuing the series on Wednesday and Thursday.
That Tuesday off day will be their first off day after
Is it 18 games and 17 days or 19 games, 18 games and 18 days.
And it's it is starting to show, you know, you're hearing that from folks.
And yes, it is.
So give the boys a break.
But first, they got to go to Toronto, which is hard to say you don't pronounce it other T Toronto.
It's like Fond du Lac, you know, from the heart of America is up north here on a foggy lake with soda.
Thanks for making this the place to spend part of your morning.
I'm Pat Crite low.
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.
And now we're with Sharita Booker, our social media manager, who since she's she's online more than anybody, also looks at other things that are going on around the news world and around the state.
And then joins us to talk about some of the events that you could be attending.
Yes, I know it's Labor Day weekend.
Yes, you've probably made your plans already, but maybe not.
Maybe you can squeeze one of these in.
So let's ask Sharita about that right now.
Sharita, hello, how are you?
Good, Pat, how are you?
Very good.
Let's start with, well, let's go from things that are starting today and then into the weekend.
And so starting today, there are big Labor Day weekend festivities at the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee.
Tell us more about that.
And tonight is Ladies Bike Night from 5 to 9 with musical performances by Dandy Freeling and Big Heart Kind Band.
All weekend long will be Harley-Davidson's Outlet Sale, where you can save major deals on gear and merch.
You can also join the MKE Labor Day Challenge, where you ride to five Harley-Davidson locations, including the museum, to unlock 500 member and loyalty points, where you can earn your challenge badge.
And the weekend finishes up with the eighth annual big unit.
poker run, which benefits Fisher House Wisconsin.
Registration for that starts at 8am with breakfast ready to go.
And you can pre-register online to win a signed guitar from the Sturgis Rally Performers.
For more information on that event, visit Harley-Davidson.com.
That would be cool.
All right.
So that's coming up in Milwaukee here.
Have you been, are you a motorcycle rider or Harley rider?
I am not and I have never been.
Have never been?
Okay.
Well, down to the museum.
I would like to see the museum.
If I were around, this would be a good weekend to go down there and maybe get some, some bargains, like you said, at the factory outlet sale and things like that.
So that's on Canal Street down in Milwaukee, not far away from American Family Field.
If you're not familiar with the Valley there, let's head down the road to Madison, big event this weekend, taste of Madison.
Tell us more.
Yep, and that's the largest picnic on the Capitol Square, and that'll be happening this Saturday and Sunday.
There will be more than 80 food vendors participating this year.
Some of those include Auntie Jill's, Banzo, Common Pasta, Curd Girl, David's Jamaican Cuisine, Draper Brothers' Chop House, El Grande Taco Gato, and Marie's Soul Food and much, much more.
There's plenty on the list.
In addition to several food and beverage options, there will be live entertainment.
Saturday's lineup includes Pop Evil, The Haunt, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus,
NERP, Never Tell, A New Revolution, Food Food Dolls, Super Tuesday and No Limit.
Sunday's lineup includes George Spurge, Madison County, Preston Cooper, Elizabeth Mary Band, The People's Brother Band, Frank Martin-Bush, and the names, The Rotation and Take Back the Sun.
And that mission for this event is free.
And for more information, visit tasteamadison.com.
All right.
Have you, have you been to Taste of Madison or anything similar to that?
Well, you could you could pick worse weekends to go there.
Right.
I was mentioning before some of the events coming up next weekend for people if they wanted to start planning and that includes barbecue fest up here in Chippewa Falls, which I've not been to that.
I think this is the third annual in Chippewa.
I have been to in two other different cities, a rib fest.
If you ever get a chance to go to a ribfest people, go to the ribfest.
It's just unbelievable.
And I'm sure Taste of Madison is gonna have a whole lot of great choices as well.
And if I'm not mistaken, Taste of Madison was the scene, there was a scene up on the rooftop for that season of Top Chef that was in Wisconsin as well.
I'll have to ask Luke Mathers all about that since he knows.
everything about Top Chef.
All right, let's move on.
We've covered Milwaukee, Madison.
Let's get up here to Western Wisconsin.
And look, you're going to find a lot of mazes out in fields this year.
You're going to go, Yeah, it's a corn maze.
That's a corn maze.
This is not a corn maze.
What do we got going in this case around Eau Claire?
We have the Sunflower Maze and that will be Sunflowers and that'll be held at Jakewish Farms and it's their annual Sunflower Maze and Family Fun event and that's happening Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m.
to 6 p.m.
In addition to the Sunflower Maze, there will be a picking patch, barrel rides, wagon rides, a scavenger hunt, a sandpit and photo ops.
There will also be food trucks and concessions available.
The price is $10 per person or $25 per carload and children five and under are free.
And for more information about this event, you can visit their Facebook page.
And that's J-Quish Farms.
And the spelling is J-A-Q-U-I-S-H Farms.
And the location, by the way, is just southwest of Eau Claire.
Get on to 37, but then don't get on the interstate.
Just keep going.
It turns into Highway 85 and just a little ways down kind of there along the Chippewa River is where you'll find a sunflower maze.
That's got to be a first.
Definitely would be for me.
I've done the corn mazes.
Doing the corn mazes, though, I've done them with small children.
And that's an adventure because small children have no respect whatsoever for mazes, especially in corn.
They're just going to barrel right through, go over where they want to go, and then you look like the parent who's cheating, you
chasing the kid through there.
So just keep in mind, keep in mind the spirit of what these young kids are doing when they go out to these corn mazes.
Sharia Booker, thanks for telling us about corn mazes and everything else coming up.
Have a wonderful holiday weekend.
You too, Pat.
In some other news right now, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy would like you to know what a great job President Donald Trump is doing with Amtrak.
He put out an announcement yesterday, a tweet that said, announcing next Gen Osella.
A cello would be those high-speed trains out on the East Coast.
These are brand new, beautiful train stuff, he says, delivered by the U.S.
Department of Transportation and Amtrak.
They will increase reliability, lower ticket costs, and improve Amtrak profitability.
This is all part of the President's vision to make travel great again.
Wow, that's so great.
And it had absolutely nothing to do with Donald Trump.
If you go to the Amtrak website or talk to anybody who was awake during the previous four years, you'd know that the improvements that Sean Duffy is talking about are in fact part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, which was led by and signed into law by President Joe Biden.
I really think he should have stuck with Build Back Better instead of Bipartisan Infrastructure Act to make it a little bit easier to see that it was the Biden agenda, but at least we can keep calling it out when
Other people try to take credit for the work that actually got done over the past four years.
Today's history lesson is coming up next.
You're up north.
History lesson begins with little Mary J Blige.
Family affair was part of Mary J Blige's fifth studio album No More Drama, which was released this day in 2001.
I always pause now because you just sometimes you just know one is going to get people in the fields.
There are people right now when they're like, let's say late 30s, early 40s.
No, 2001.
Yes, it was 2001 when no more drama was released.
On this day in 2009.
Again, 2009.
After the latest in a series of incidents between feuding brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, Oasis splits with Noel walking out for good, it says here.
Well,
Maybe not for good, but 16 years.
I mean, that's pretty good.
16 year breakup.
I mean, I think they just wanted to beat the Eagles record of 14 years because now they're back together selling out concerts.
Dan Schaefer flew to London to see it for goodness sakes.
So, you know, not every breakup lasts.
I get it.
So I'm, oh, I'm getting, I'm getting shushed by Alicia on YouTube patch.
You're reminding me that I'm 41.
Sorry.
Yep.
Here's another one.
You won't believe that she's 43.
Leanne Rimes has a birthday today.
She was everywhere at the age of what 16 or so I think this is I think she was 16 when she made this a hit From the movie con here if I'm remembering correctly, how do I live without you and Made all kinds of music from ages basically like 16 to 32 and then said I'm out
Yeah,
and we didn't hear from her for years and God bless her for it.
You know just knowing when to say okay
You don't want to be one of those, you know, quote-unquote child stars that just completely goes off the rails.
Sure.
Better life and good for her.
Oh, and she, but she'd had, you know, one or two hit blue was her, her big breakout hit at about that time when she was 15 or 16.
And, uh, yeah, at least she's getting it right.
Hey, she made money and retired.
Yes.
Good for her.
So that she's come back a little bit recently on her own terms.
So that's good.
So Leon Rhimes, 43 today shares a birthday with Shania Twain, who is 60 today.
Shania
Twain was born Eileen Edwards in Windsor, Ontario this day in 1965.
Shania Twain 60 years old.
The late David Sol from Starsky and Hutch, the 1970s crime series was born this day in 1943.
He passed away about a year and a half ago.
had that Schmaltzy top 40 hit Don't Give Up on Us Baby in the wake of, you know, riding the fame from Starsky and Hutch.
Wayne Osmond of the Osmond Brothers born this day in 1951.
Another well-known female singer with a birthday today and that would be Florence, a pre-machine.
She was Florence Welch and she is 38 years old today.
Actress Jennifer Coolidge is 63 years old today.
Jack Black is 55 years old today.
But, you know, he'll always be basically a 16-year-old boy.
I mean, yeah.
Or at least with the humor of it.
Wow, I did not think he was
Mm-hmm.
Yep, 55 years old today.
Let's see.
One of John Denver's first pop hits.
peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 this day in 1971.
It is funny that there are sports events I know one team in particular plays this song all the time Oh, yeah, and I'm I'm blanking another sports events do because it's such an easy thing to sing along
It's West Virginia
of and and sound ridiculous in the process on this day in 1960 a 17 year old Barry White I wonder if his voice had changed by that time or was he that way when he was like five years old
Hello, kindergarten teacher.
How are you?
Anyway, on this day in 1960, a 17-year-old Barry White completed a four-month prison term for stealing 300 tires from a Cadillac dealership.
Now, I thought that might lead him into a particular line of work, but while he was in prison for that four-month term, he heard Elvis singing It's Now or Never.
And he determined that he was going to make music his life.
It's being inspired by an Elvis
tune.
You would think, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And let's see.
On this day in 2001, Puddle of Mud released their debut album, Come Clean, selling over 3 million copies, thanks to hits like She Hates Me, Control, and This.
That's blurry from Come Clean.
Again, released this day in 2001.
On the National Day calendar, it's been a quiet week this week, but there are several today.
This is National Cabernet Day for you wine drinkers out there.
This is National Burger Day.
There we go.
Now we're talking.
Yeah.
It's also Cherry Turnover Day.
I do like a good cherry turnover, but I don't know.
I get them at Panera when I stopped there, which isn't very often anymore.
Because of this whole morning radio show thing a little tied up.
But I do have a good cherry turnover.
Don't know.
There's just not as many bakeries out there as there used to be.
That's true.
there's gonna you get whatever the grocery store decided to crank out that day.
And it's just not the it's not the same.
This is also National Power Rangers Day for some reason.
Nice Power Rangers a thing for toys or cartoons when you were growing up.
They
Okay, I was reminded by Luke Mathers yesterday that I I guess I either owe you an apology or clarification when it comes to talking about new coke and how you you did not
understand the uproar about new Coke back in 1984.
And it was Mr. Mathers that reminded me that I might make too big a deal out of these things because I made a big deal out of a different Coke flavor three years ago.
He actually reminded me of this and I pulled up the clip.
Do you see it in Dropbox there?
There's a Coke clip from Luke.
Luke was producing the show in August of 2022.
So actually three years ago this week,
when I saw a different flavored Coke product and decided to give it a try, it was called Coca Cola, what, Dream World or something like that?
Let's play my sampling of that there.
So we're going to open up the bottle here.
We're going to find out right here on air.
Here we go.
Here we go.
I'm tasting it.
I'm sorry, Coke.
Yeah, they called it dream world because coca-cola roba tussin wasn't going to have the same marketing appeal cough syrup boys and girls It's cough.
there's a chance that I might get a little overdramatic about coke flavors and things like that So I thought you would enjoy hearing that little clip from three years ago that it might it might be me You don't have to
I don't think I've seen a reaction like that from Parker.
He literally spun his head like, no kidding.
No kidding.
reviews?
It was just such a big cultural touchstone, or at least that's how I perceived it at the time.
Maybe I read too much into marketing.
I don't know that I don't know that I do, though, because look at look at the furor over a cracker barrel.
changing their logo.
Look how people lost their minds at the cracker barrel logo update.
And so from today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Hannah Kirby, the headline quick trip has some fun on social media with cracker barrels, new logo fiasco.
And Hannah Kirby nails the lead.
The lead is quick trip understood the assignment.
The beloved Wisconsin convenience store chain is taking notes from Cracker Girls logo rebrand fiasco.
They posted on Twitter.
Never update logo ever is what it says.
We basically, you know, periods between every word there.
Never update logo ever note as they
as they noted how cracker burl got all kinds of uh flak because they got rid of the folksy man and overalls on a chair they got rid of the wooden barrel they got rid of the pinto bean shape behind the words and that lasted less than two weeks and the company caved amidst all the backlash as predicted on this program boys and girls as predicted right here they came back um
because people were talking about their their culture was being erased, the nostalgia was being erased.
No, it was just a crappy new logo.
And and they were going to be updating the stores, updating the stores quote unquote, to remove some of the individuality, much like you've seen with
pizza huts and McDonald's, which had very distinct looking restaurants.
And now they all look like boxes.
just like these gray boxes.
And the reason why somebody put together a great video of this, explaining that we've all seen a pizza hut or McDonald's that goes out of business.
And then somebody tries to repurpose the building.
But it's always going to look like a pizza hut.
You know, it doesn't matter.
It's like, Oh yeah, the vape shop.
That's that's in the old Pizza Hut building over there.
Yeah.
And so, so now they've got these generic buildings with these generic logos, because they're always thinking about, you know, repurposing, reselling these things, recycling them.
This isn't the good kind of recycling kids.
You want to do that with your aluminum and your plastic, not your individuality for corporations.
so
good branding.
Yes.
Alicia says, some people were literally claiming the updating of Cracker Barrel went against their traditional values.
No, it didn't.
They're a corporation.
If you have that
Yes.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alicia.
And Alicia also notes the Power Rangers were huge in the 90s, which yes, would have been pre Parker.
And by the way, little vindication, she says you're 100% right, Pat.
The Coca Cola thing was a huge social thing.
There we go.
Parker is frustrated.
If it was a big
I just, I assumed it was in all the history books.
I mean, right up there with, you know, all of the- Right next to
Yes, right up there with it.
I just don't understand what they're teaching you kids in school these days that you just- You know, I
me.
Well, I mean, hey, look where it's gotten you so far, right?
So you've got that.
Yeah, it's
Coming up in our seven o'clock hour, we're going to be talking to Kate Dalton.
She's pen to column and Dan Schaefer's reconbobulation area, all about the upcoming cuts to a snap and Medicaid and the impact it's going to have on families like hers and families throughout Derek Van Orden's third congressional district.
That's after Brittany Merleau's updated forecast after the seven o'clock news.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
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.
And so again, leave yourself a little extra time.
If that's the case where you are as well and drive carefully out there, we'll get written emails, updated forecast, and just a little bit here.
I'm not going to dwell very long on the school shooting in Minneapolis, because again, any regular listener knows where I'd be going with this.
I would just again remind people that a 23 year old man, again, 23 year old
armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol shot dozens of rounds yesterday towards some 200 children who were sitting in the pews during mass at a Catholic school in Minneapolis before taking his own life.
Two children died, an eight-year-old and a 10-year-old.
14 other kids and three elderly parishioners were also shot and wounded but are expected to survive.
Mayor Jacob Frye
Put it quite succinctly your thoughts and prayers are not enough these kids were literally praying at the time and That still didn't save them from the guns Because again, it's the guns and thoughts and prayers aren't gonna cut it president Donald Trump put out a statement Offering thoughts and prayers vice president JD Vance put out a statement offering thoughts and prayers
But until those statements start to say things with some significance to them, like maybe we do need red flag laws after all, maybe we need to stop voting against increasing mental health care for our young people, maybe then and only then, once we start addressing root causes like the guns that are everywhere, can we avoid the
school shootings of the future.
But we haven't done those things yet.
And so the saddest thing I can say here is, there will be more school shootings.
And it won't just be in, you know, some high crime public school area, it'll happen in a Catholic school like this one, or any place else, there is no place immune to gun tragedy.
So the potential of mass shootings.
We had another one recently on a military base, lots of guns.
Yeah, they're locked up.
But again, this whole notion of, well, if we just get more people with guns, that'll take care of it.
It hasn't yet.
Look at the shootings recently at the CDC headquarters where a policeman was killed, or at the NFL offices where a policeman was killed, because they're the funds for once targeted.
They don't know when exactly a mass shooter is going to show up.
It's the guns, kids.
Speaking of the CDC, the new director there, Susan Maneras, is no longer there anymore.
Less than a month on the job, she is out of a job because she and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
disagreed on things like, you know, vaccine safety because science.
Dr. Ramonarez is an infectious disease researcher.
She was sworn in less than a month ago, but after clashing with Kennedy on vaccine policy, she was dismissed.
She claims it was not done appropriately and denied being dismissed as going to try to fight to keep her job.
But four other high-profile CDC officials quit in frustration over the vaccine policy and over...
Robert Kennedy Jr.'
's, you know, quote-unquote, leadership.
This is fully expected, of course, from what Robert Kennedy has been about and who he said, you know, what he said he was going to do.
It's interesting to note the four other high-ranking CDC officials who resigned.
Dr. Deborah Howery is the CDC's chief medical officer.
Dr. Dmitri Daskalakis ran the center that issues vaccine recommendations.
Dr. Daniel Jernigan oversaw the center that oversees vaccine safety.
Dr. Jennifer Layden led the Office of Public Health Data.
Dr. Jernigan was deeply involved in the agency's response to anthrax and swine flu and COVID.
Dr. Descalicus helped the nation cope with an Mpox outbreak.
Dr. Layden established the COVID Strategic Science Unit, according to the New York Times here, and Dr. Howie built the agency's opioid response program.
Not surprisingly, former CDC leaders said those departures would harm the agency and they would harm the nation as well.
Dr. Anna Schuchat, the CDC's principal deputy director,
until May of 2021 called them the best of the best.
They are physician, scientist, public health superstars.
And I think she said, we should all be scared about the nation's health security.
The resignations coincided with a decision by Trump's Food and Drug Administration to put new restrictions on updated COVID vaccines for the fall and winter season.
Morale, of course, is plunging at the CDC.
There have been plenty of other departures.
There have been plenty of budget cuts.
One of the agency's most well-known directors, Dr. William Fauci, who helped eradicate smallpox in the 1970s, recently wrote that Robert Kennedy Jr.'
's words can be as lethal as the smallpox virus itself.
And as a result, also stepped away from any further help with the CDC simply because it has been so politicized.
Now look, there are people who voted for Donald Trump for many different reasons.
Some thought that he was going to lower prices on day one.
That hasn't happened.
Some believed he was going to end the war in Ukraine on day one.
And that hasn't happened.
But he has made happy the people that voted for him because, you know, they, they believe that their, you know, culture is under attack because of diversity.
Well, so far, they're getting what they want.
And the people who want to get rid of vaccines and scientists because they don't trust them, but they trust a failed businessman, reality TV host, those folks are happy or even happier now.
But for the rest of us, God only knows.
We'll have much more in the seven o'clock hour of these mornings with Pat Crichtlow powered by Up Earth News here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
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