Hour 2: The Kitchen’s Open

Good morning, Wisconsin. Good morning, world. It's a new day. Thanks for kicking it off with us right here at WFHR locally grown radio.

Got your host James J joined by Melissa K. Good morning, Seth Habhacker and the best listeners in radio. Thanks so much for joining us everybody.

Hope you're having a good Monday out there. We got some fun things lined up for you this hour.

We touch on a little bit of entertainment news looking forward to that. And of course we'll have some other good topics I want to talk about president's day, that survey that we have for you there and plenty more.

But it's a Monday, it's the 9 o'clock hour, you know what that means.

Good morning and welcome to another edition of The Kitchens Open. You may or may not have heard about the current recall taking place on cheeses causing an outbreak of a hysteria in the United States.

So today we're going to tackle the complicated subject of our food supply chain. This is a complex and very large system. How are we going to cover all this in just one segment?

Well, we're not, but we are going to give some facts and figures and hopefully direct listeners to where they can find out more information if they're interested in finding out more about this subject.

Sounds complicated. Let's go.

Well, we're going to lean heavily on a couple of government websites, including the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the Food and Drug Administration.

To begin, we have to clear our throats and then we have an active recall. We have an active recall going on of Rizzo Lopez food ink right now.

They're voluntarily recalling several dairy products because they have the potential to be contaminated with the bacteria that causes hysteria.

God, this has been going on since the beginning of February of last year.

Listeria can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.

Healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headaches, stiffness, nausea, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea.

Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

Now, Rizzo Lopez foods is based in California and the majority of illnesses from the recalled products are happening in southern and western states.

So we're not going to go through the full list of products that are being recalled, but if you're interested, you can find the full list at FDA.gov under the food page.

Then click on outbreaks of foodborne illnesses.

This page shows all advisories by year and an outbreak due to Listeria monocetaginies for queso fresco and cateja cheese is listed in February of 2024.

Let's discuss a little bit about how our government works to keep our food supply safe.

According to FDA.gov, about 48 million people in the U.S. 1 in 6 get sick.

128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die each year from foodborne disease.

According to a recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this is a significant public health burden that is largely preventable.

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act or FSMA was signed into law in 2011.

This transformed the nation's food safety system by shifting the focus from responding to foodborne illness to preventing it.

Congress enacted FSMA in response to dramatic changes in the global food system and in our understanding of foodborne illness and its consequences, including the realization that preventable foodborne illness is both a significant public health problem and a threat to the economic well-being of the food system.

FDA has finalized several rules to implement FSMA, recognizing that ensuring the safety of the food supply is a shared responsibility among many different points in the global supply chain for both human and animal food.

The FSMA rules that are designed to make clear specific actions that must be taken at each of these points to prevent contamination.

Now this act covers everything from improving the ability to prevent food safety problems to detecting and responding to food safety problems and improving the safety of imported food.

Obviously this act didn't fix everything, but it went a long way towards protecting public health by strengthening the food safety system.

It allowed the FDA to focus on preventing problems rather than reacting to problems after they occur.

It gave the FDA new authority to order companies to recall food.

This is also the first time the FDA had a legislative mandate to require copper heads of science-based prevention, a preventive controls across the food supply.

Game changer.

Yeah, and it's important that they have the ability to say no, you need to take this off the market because it's causing sickness or illness.

And look at the big recall that we just had for those cinnamon pouches for kids with the high lead content.

My father has been walking around with his head down in a little like cloud over him because he has been missing out on his granola bars.

Oh, yeah, there was a recall on those as well.

I'm going to share a real quick little story, very, very fast.

My father, the news broke and we were actually going to order him some because he couldn't find any at the store.

And he loved, loved, loved these things.

And he usually spends about five, six bucks on a box of those or whatever.

When on Amazon, when on eBay, they were going for $50 to $60, those boxes.

People were still trying to buy them, even though they were recalled.

And a lot of them were selling.

My father tried, thought about buying one.

He actually thought about it.

Man, well, not spend money on things like that, but he thought about it.

That's how much he liked him.

And that's how much people have come to like these things and the products that we get in everything.

Right.

We're a quick side note.

Have everyone here ever had food poisoning?

Yes, when I was young.

Yes, I've had it twice.

Oh, no, I've had it twice too.

Oh, that's right.

It's awful.

I think one of the worst things about food and being food is not knowing if it's food poisoning.

Not knowing what's wrong.

Not knowing that it's not as if you eat something and it tells you, hey, you're going to have food poisoning.

Oh, I didn't order that.

I specifically asked for no food poisoning.

I said no onions and no food poisoning.

No food poisoning.

It's usually after the fact that when you decide, oh, I think I had food poisoning, yeah.

Well, and sometimes you don't know.

I think Listeria, sometimes it can happen a week later.

Yeah, yeah.

That's the other.

Thanks.

So now let's jump back to the current multi-state outbreak we're talking about with the Rizzo Lopez foods.

I found something interesting when I was looking at the investigation details posted on February 6, 2024.

At that time, a total of 26 people infected with the outbreak strain of Listeria had been reported in 11 states.

23 people were hospitalized and two people died, one in California and one in Texas.

Illness has started on dates ranging from June of 2014 to December of 2023.

Dang.

Wow.

That's a long period of time.

Right.

That's, yeah.

Yeesh.

I don't know what you mean.

The same thing to be honest with you.

I tried to like stall the segment here.

No, not a little speechless.

It's kind of a alarming statistic.

But over that time period is when these 26 people were infected.

Wow.

So how did they know these illnesses were all related over a 10-year period?

So the CDC investigated this outbreak in 2017 and 2021.

Epidemiological evidence in previous investigations identified queso fresco and other similar cheeses as a potential source of the outbreak,

but there wasn't enough information to identify a specific brand.

CDC reopened the investigation in January of 24 after new illnesses reported in December of 23,

and the outbreak strain was found in a cheese sample from Rizzo Lopez foods.

Well, that still doesn't explain how they knew these illnesses were all related.

So this is where we get to learn about whole genome sequencing or WGS and PulseNet USA.

PulseNet is a national laboratory network that connects foodborne illness cases to detect outbreaks.

PulseNet uses DNA fingerprinting or patterns of bacteria making people sick to detect thousands of local and multi-state outbreaks.

Wow.

Since the network began in 1996, PulseNet has improved our food safety systems through identifying outbreaks early.

This allows investigators to find the source, alert the public sooner, and identify gaps in our food safety system that would not otherwise be recognized.

According to the PulseNet timeline on CDC.gov, it became a nationwide system in 2021 and in 2010,

whole genome sequencing was used for the first time during an investigation on a cholera outbreak that killed thousands of people in Haiti.

By 2013, they were using WGS along with enhanced disease investigation to study foodborne illnesses caused by Listeria.

And by 2015, they used WGS routinely to investigate foodborne illnesses caused by Listeria, E. coli, and cell manila among others.

In 2016, the American Journal of Preventative Medicine published an economic evaluation that suggests that PulseNet prevents at least 270,000 illnesses from cell manila, E. coli, and Listeria, and saves 500,000 U.S. dollars every year.

Wow.

WGS is a super-sized, it can help identify where a germ originated.

It compares the whole genome sequence of germs allowing scientists to determine if they are closely related to one another, which indicates those germs likely came from the same source, for example, a food processing facility or a restaurant.

In this ongoing case with Rizzo Lopez, quote, WGS showed that bacteria from sick people samples from 2014 to present are closely related genetically, this suggests that people in this outbreak got sick from the same food, unquote.

In January of 2024, the Highway State Department of Health, Food, and Drug Branch collected a sample of aged caota cheese, product made by Rizzo Lopez Foods during routine sampling, testing identified the outbreak strain of Listeria in that product.

FDA conducted inspections at the Rizzo Lopez Foods facility and collected food in environmental samples for testing.

FDA found the outbreak strain of Listeria on a container where the cheeses are kept before packaging.

Wow.

Oh boy.

That means everything is exposed as it goes on there.

Well, because the thing with that bacteria is that it will continue to live.

You know, and every time they set something there.

So this is why they say when a food is recalled, you need to not only throw away that food, but you need to clean everything that it touched and where it was.

Like if you had it in your fridge, you need to clean your old fridge.

Exactly.

So I think that everyone's in a while.

It's hard to do, but I think it's important and noteworthy sometimes to be able to take a step back and take your personal feelings or your moral compass away from a topic and just look at like

the science of something and how amazing that is.

And the process of being able to figure something like that out.

Like that's just too damn cool.

Like that's amazing how they figured this.

That is, if that was a murder mystery, we'd be talking about it like, oh wow.

I didn't know that was the killer at the end.

I saw that coming.

Like it's really kind of amazing.

The science and the way we have mastered this, but you know, as much as we haven't.

I also think one of the noteworthy things to me about this topic is how damaging this can be to a business.

And how much, not only obviously holding up the line, you know, okay, we can't build anymore.

We can't do any more of this product until we get this fixed or cleaned or what have you.

But that in losing millions of dollars, a thousand dollars every second that that's happening.

But then the PR damage that comes from something like this, which very few businesses.

There are people that still won't drink corona.

Like come on.

Yeah, exactly.

It's an interesting conversation.

It is, 100%.

Yeah.

And that Rizalope's foods in California, they're shut down right now and they're doing an internal investigation to take care of the problem.

Wow.

So now all of this is fascinating.

And a great example of how our government agencies are working hard to keep the public food supply safe and increase public health.

But what about some of the deregulation that has happened in recent years specifically in the meat industry?

I was wondering why this has happened.

So I took a dive into the information.

I found some enlightening information on a website called food and waterwatch.org as well as USDA.gov.

And a couple other websites will name when we get to that information.

In 2019, the Center for Science in the Public Interest published an article talking about the US Department of Agriculture

publishing a final rule to deregulate meat inspection.

Author Sarah Sorcerer and said this jeopardizes food safety.

The final regulation prioritized the deregulated swine slaughter inspection.

Work that was once performed by USDA inspectors is now done by private slaughterhouse employees.

The difference between this and the deregulation that happened in the poultry industry privatization is that there is no cap on slaughter line speeds.

So the poultry industry is capped at 140 birds per minute for chickens and 55 birds per minute for turkeys.

That means inspectors need to inspect four chickens per second and one turkey per second.

They need to look for cosmetic issues such as bruises, blisters, and broken skin.

But more importantly, they're looking for diseases and tumors.

They also need to look for visible, fecal contamination.

That's poop.

This is one of the major causes of salmonella and other gastrointestinal illnesses.

Four chickens a second.

Yeah.

That sounds darn near impossible.

Yeah.

You can't do that.

Oh, man.

And that's not only, you know, there's the outside of the bird.

But more importantly, there's the inside of the bird.

Do you think that they can look inside each of those birds in four seconds?

Nope.

Not at all.

I can't even think about that in four seconds.

You can't even say that sentence in four seconds.

You can't actually do that job.

Nope.

Nope.

No can do.

Starting to an article on food and waterwatch.org published on April 14th, 2020, called USDA is removing

safeguards on food while everybody else is fighting a pandemic.

Author Angie Acker states, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service is deregulating

inspections in some of the largest pork processing facilities in the country.

It's allowing plants to reduce the number of inspectors working on the slaughter line,

giving critical inspection tasks to untrained company employees, and removing caps on how

fast the line can run.

This new way of running slaughter lines is called the Newswine Inspection System, ISNSIS.

The agency anticipates that 40 hog slaughter facilities processing 92 percent of the U

of U.S. pork will convert to NSIS.

Some of the biggest names in pork processing are pushing for this, including JBS, Tyson

and Smithfield.

In one plant experimenting with NSIS, inspectors have just 2.6 seconds to assess

a hog on the line.

As a consequence, I got to say that again, 2.6 seconds to assess a hog on the line.

As a consequence, they've greenlit hog carcasses in contaminated with feces, hair, toenails

and bite, bile.

These same carcasses go on to become bacon, pork chops, hot dogs, sausage, and other pork

products.

Wow.

I want to say all of these directory moves are designed to increase production, not

improve food safety.

They will contribute to expanding the industrial agriculture model by promoting the growth

of factory farms.

Perhaps you're aware that there is a recall from Fertelli, Burretta, USA, Inc. of ready

to eat meat, shakudari products.

According to an article on foodsafetynews.com, 87 patients across 30 states have been identified

as part of this outbreak.

The article states the CDC estimates that for every case of salmonella infection diagnosed,

there are 29 cases that are not identified.

Another potentially scary fact, whole genome sequencing of bacteria from 87 people's samples

and one food sample predicted resistance to three or more of the following antibiotics.

We're not going to attempt to list antibiotics because I can't talk anyway.

Not because the names don't mean much to you and I, but the fact that all these bacteria

are antibiotic resistant will make it harder to treat the illness if antibiotics are needed.

It is important to note that many people with salmonella illness recover without antibiotics.

So maybe you're wondering why these changes have been made when they have the potential

to make people sick.

I found a cover letter from the Economic Research Service for the USDA that states, over

the years, 1972 to 92, the number of workers, and this is in the food service industry,

by more than a decrease, the number of workers decrease by more than 100,000, that's 20%.

And the number of plants declined by about one-third in seven food industries in the meat,

dairy, and grain, and oil seed processing sectors.

Amidst a period of labor strife in the meat packing and meat processing industries, mergers

and acquisitions roll sharply over two census periods, 77 to 82, and 82 to 87, and then

dropped.

It goes on to say, quote, productivity can be increased in profitability enhanced by laying

off workers, dismissing managers, closing plants, abrogating pension benefits, and reducing

wages.

This may make shareholders better off, but workers and the communities in which they live can

be devastated due to bleak employment opportunities and lost tax revenues.

No company should be run by shareholders.

The effect of...

That was just me speaking.

That was just me.

Yeah, that was just me.

The effect of mergers and acquisitions, M&A's on local communities, and particularly,

are particularly important for agricultural processing because food products, product plants

often locate in a very small, located in very small communities, and that depend on a few

larger employers for their survival.

Something we're familiar with in Rapids.

Not in the food industry, but paper industry, anybody?

But yeah, everybody is familiar what happened when that paper mill shut down.

And for a thought of these places that are very rural, they have one big employer.

Yep.

That can be an issue.

Yeah, so what can we do to change what's happening in the meat industry to reverse some

of this potentially harmful legislation being enacted for profit?

The College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences of Illinois published an article

of June of last year called Meat Processing Plants, what factors are critical for survival?

Researchers analyzed data from 1997 to 2020 for U.S. non-pultry meat processors with more

than five employees.

The study showed the majority of meat processing plants are located in the eastern half of

the U.S., although small and medium plants are more dispersed throughout the states.

The researchers found the average plant survived 9.7 years, and 62% of the plants failed at

some point during the study period, with a small and medium plants more likely to fail

than larger plants.

For small plants, survival was closely related to business diversification.

If they added a retail or wholesale meat market, they were more likely to survive.

For larger plants, they found that local context, including workforce-related variables, was

more closely related to plant survival.

There are locations in Nebraska or Kansas, where the whole communities are set up to serve

immigrant workers.

Many plants rely on an immigrant workforce.

According to USDA.gov, four large firms handle 85% of all steer and hog purchases, and 65%

of all hog purchases.

I think that was supposed to say steer and cow.

Steer, oh, it's okay, steer, cow, okay, got you.

If larger plants are going to survive, they need to address labor availability issues and

support the labor force effectively.

This could include, for example, increasing the number of visas for immigrant workers,

training new workers, improving working conditions, and investing in research and development

to automate processes.

Here's some information from the Economic Policy Institute.

This is from an article titled, Who Are America's Meat and Pultry Workers from September

of 2020.

It states, one of the most dangerous and exploitive industries in the country, the slaughter

and processing of the meat we eat relies heavily upon rural workers, disproportionately

immigrants, refugees, and people of color who have few better options.

If you look at the demographics of workers in the animal slaughtering and processing industries,

34.5% are white, 65% are black, Hispanic, or other, and 37.5% are foreign born.

If you compare that to all US workers, 63.5% are white, 36.5% are black, Hispanic, or

other, and 17.1% are foreign born.

If you notice, that's almost like the exact opposite.

So the majority of these workers and these meat processing plants are being, I don't

even have words for how frustrating that that sounds exploitative to me, and that's

what it's very like.

It's a definition of exploitive.

And here's some interesting statistics for you as well.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research website stated in April of 2020, nearly half

of frontline meatpacking workers, 45.1% live in low income families below 200% of the

federal poverty line, or less than $52,400 for a family of four in 2020.

And about one in eight, 12.4% have income below the poverty line.

It goes on to say, even before the pandemic, they did have this work on a daily basis with

injury and illness rates about two times higher than workers on average.

Instead of increasing protections for these workers during the pandemic, the current

administration has increased the risks by, they face, remember, this is from 2020.

So it is from that current during the pandemic, yeah.

So what are our lawmakers doing to try to increase safety and protection for these workers?

In large part, they're moving toward letting the market regulate itself.

Does that sound like a good idea based on the facts we've discussed today?

No, no, not at all.

It sounds lazy and it sounds like they're not doing their job.

Yeah, and it's very dangerous.

And how many of us eat meat?

Yeah, exactly.

Carnivorous country.

Yeah, we're pretty reliant on meat in this country as part of our almost daily food intake.

Right, yeah.

Well, just another thing I have to mention while I'm on my soapbox, and James takes it away

from here soon.

I need it.

Does anybody recall the article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from about a year ago where

the Wisconsin business Packers Sanitation Services was fined $1.5 million for employing more

than 100 children ages 13 to 17 who were cleaning meat processing plants in eight states.

And our current legislators have just put forward a bill that would eliminate the

requirement for work permits for children ages 14 to 15.

They've already removed that protection for 16 and 17 year olds.

Back to 18 19 oh wait, let's go back to the labor practices of the 19th century.

How did we let this happen?

How did we let this happen?

Like we're going back now.

We're we've gone back on these things now.

No, no, it's just all out in the open now.

Right, exactly.

The kids in there and stuff.

Yeah, how is this going to affect education going forward?

I mean, it's hard when you're in high school to have a job and focus on your education.

Let alone when you're a kid.

Come on, man.

Like, what do I have to tell you?

You know, I worked at the at Tomahe High School as the administrative assistant for six years.

I issued work permits.

It's not hard.

Do you know what's what's difficult for students to be able to get to to get a work permit?

They have to produce their birth certificate.

Do you know who doesn't have their birth certificate?

Uh-huh.

Oh yeah, okay.

I see where that's going.

Not only that, but also the people who live in poverty, people who don't, you know,

aren't able to function like keep important records.

Right, move a lot.

Yeah, people who are very transient.

So I don't think having a requirement for them to be able to produce their work permit

should or produce their birth certificate to get a work permit.

That almost says, hey, maybe we need to pay more attention to these kids.

Yeah, yeah, 100%.

As opposed to, no, let's just let them get a job.

Doesn't matter.

And we'll trust the market to, you know, not overwork them or not, you know,

have somebody looking to say, is this an appropriate place for this child to work?

Because that was part of my job.

Mm-hmm, yeah.

Wow.

It was making sure that that business was somewhere where a 14 to 16, 17 year old kid should work.

And on that, sure you don't.

Just some thoughts.

And I think with that, we'll close the kitchen.

Thank you for joining us for another segment of the kitchen's open.

Fantastic work.

It was very good.

A very, very important information right there.

Appreciate all the hard work that you didn't have the lifting you do on that segment.

Week in and week out.

We won't have time for entertainment today.

So we're just going to skip that.

All right, we'll go right when we come back to presidential random facts and some

move that survey on presidents that we have for you.

We'll go right to our state and local news and we'll come back with more on the

morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio.

Welcome back to the show, everyone.

Thank you, Patsy.

Melissa, Seth and James here with you.

We hope you're having a great, great president's day out there.

Let's talk a little bit about presidents day since, of course, it is an election year.

And it's not hard to think of the apparent upcoming rematch between Biden and Trump if that is

the way that it happens.

George Washington's Mount Vernon conducted a poll asking Americans what qualities they want in

a president.

All right.

Other than not the other guy.

Yeah, let's get over that.

86% of Americans want a president who is honest exhibits ethical leadership and sets a standard

for other politicians to follow.

84% want a president who promotes national unity and tries to address divisions in today's

society.

Let me read that one more time.

84% of Americans want a president who promotes national unity and tries to address divisions

in today's society.

That seems important.

Yeah, 82% want a president who respects the constitution and governmental

laws and abides by them.

79% want a president who is against extreme partisanship.

Someone who is committed to compromise and working across the aisle to achieve the best outcomes

for the nation.

Another 79% want a president who, quote, emphasizes the importance of balancing federal and state

powers to address national issues effectively.

And finally, 77% of the American people want a president who doesn't have an agenda in foreign

policy who advocates for a cautious and independent app approach to international relations

and alliances.

Wow.

So generally speaking, younger generations are more skeptical of democracy and the role of

wealth and politics compared to older generations that carry less about that.

They may seem like a bit of a downer, but it's the older generations who have fostered this

Barack Obama may have felt young for a presidential at the time, but he's technically a boomer.

We have yet to have a president who wasn't alive for the Beatles' arrival of

and Beatlemanium more than 60 years ago.

Oh, wow.

So it's not surprising that younger generations may feel uninspired by the office of the presidency.

Makes sense.

Should we have a cap on how old you can be to be president?

I would be finally.

We have a cap.

We have a floor to that.

You have to be 35.

Yep.

We have all agreed that you are not mature enough until you are 30, whether this is true or not or not.

But as a society, we have agreed that 35 is the cutoff.

You've got to be at least 35 years old to be able to run for president.

Right.

And nobody, I've never heard anybody like buck that once.

I've never in my life growing up in a very political family, never heard one person in society

or my family or anybody ever say anything about that.

Never, not once.

Why do we not have...

You're telling me that if a person is 100 years old, you're okay with them being in the presidency?

Like, this isn't ageism.

This is science we're talking about here.

All right.

You get to be a certain age.

You are more likely to pass.

Yep.

We understand how crazy things can be when we have a living president,

when we have somebody that we lose for whatever the reasons might be.

Whatever the reason is.

It throws everything even to more chaos.

Well, look at what happens when we have somebody that, you know,

has an illness or a sickness that puts them in the hospital and they have to have anesthesia.

Just the process of them being having to hand over powers.

Yeah.

How much do our politicians get done in general anyway?

Like, how much do they really get done?

How many bills really get passed?

How many vacations do they have?

Oh, we're two weeks out of Christmas.

We're taking time off.

You know, it's it's the end of the year and it's kind of important.

We get some, but no, we're taking time off.

Yeah, right.

Where the president's over at Mount Vernon.

The president's over at what do we call it?

The Martha's Vineyard.

Thank you, Martha's Vineyard and Camdena.

That's going on.

So, you know, can't be bothered.

Yeah, I'm not saying they don't deserve vacations or breaks.

Nobody should live their life like I do.

I'm not saying that.

But you strip all this down.

It's a little bit like,

has anybody ever looked at how much a quarterback actually plays

in a in a in a game like it's like 10 minutes.

Yeah, right.

It's like not even 10, 15 minutes or anything like that.

Like we can't treat politics this way, like if now all of that can be considered, okay?

That means, okay, we need somebody in that office

that is lively, that has energy, that can do this job,

that we can count on, we can rely on.

We also have to remember the what the presidency is.

The president is our logo.

The president is our is our mascot.

Yeah, like it or not.

Yeah, whether you like it or not, whether the president likes it or not,

that is the fact.

That is the way this position was built.

You are to the rest of the world, America.

You are showing the rest of the world this,

the face of our country,

that going back to the quarterback thing,

that's the quarterback of America right here,

the president.

That's the face of the franchise right there.

That matters too.

That's important too to the rest of the world.

And we can't skate past this important part about this too.

And I will keep going back to this all year.

I will keep doing this.

We want over 85% of people want a president

who promotes national unity, okay?

We want a president that, hey, you didn't vote for me.

I'm going to support you and I'm going to fight for you

just as much as the person that did.

We, the opposite, only 14% of people want a president

who doesn't care about that.

Doesn't care about you if you didn't vote for him.

Right, something to consider here, okay?

Think about two presidents that were,

we're, you know, rightfully or not,

were known are historically known

for bringing people together.

You know, both sides of the aisle.

Now, you may disagree with policy, okay?

And all that stuff, I get it.

But two, they're on one from each party, okay?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR,

was one of them.

Ronald Reagan was the other.

Now, again, you can disagree with their policy,

but they did seem to bring the country together, okay?

They look, they seem like that uniting force,

which I think is why they're still so popular.

Why both of those presidents are still considered,

you know, some of the greater presidents we've had.

So that's, just think about that, okay?

That's why this 85% while it's surprising.

I mean, everything you said, James,

majorities, major majorities,

and all of these things that they asked.

And it's like, wow, could we be further from that,

where our presidential elections are these days?

Could we be any further from that?

From what we actually want?

Something to consider.

Yes.

Want to do also, I want to know how you guys think about this.

What you feel of that poll and all of this?

Go ahead and let us know.

715-424-2600-424-2600.

You can just touch away from on the Civic Media app.

And I know I can get a little serious on this stuff for everything.

Well, random facts, loosen me up and loosen a lot of people up.

And there's light in the mood a little bit.

Let's go ahead and focus on some of the more random facts

that we may not know about some of our presidents.

Cool.

Quite a few things we know about George Washington,

certainly not only our first president,

but a couple of famous stories about him and everything.

Well, did you know that the first US president

and revolutionary war hero was an enthusiastic dog breeder?

Oh, no, I didn't know that.

He particularly loved hunting hounds to which he gave the names,

like he gave his dogs names like sweet lips and drunkard.

Okay.

So George Washington had a sense of humor, I guess.

Oh, and this is a random fact that's not in here

that I don't think people may notice if you don't pay attention it,

but if you've studied politics like I have

and read a lot of the books that I have,

George Washington, great sense of humor.

That's great.

A sneaky, great sense of humor.

I think that that's something that I ever since reading that

when I was a kid, I've kind of wanted out of a president.

I'm not saying it's a requirement.

No, I like a president that could take a joke.

I like a president that can make a joke of themselves.

Tell a joke or anything.

They are of the people.

They are of the people.

This is not a heart.

This is not a pre, a king or a queen.

This is somebody who's supposed to be of the people.

When they are fallible.

Yes.

When the king doesn't, when the king wants to execute the jester,

that's a sign, people.

That's a sign.

By that, I mean, if you are not only a president,

but if you are in a position of power,

and you can't handle people making fun of you,

and you want to get rid of them,

that tells you right away where that person

not only has no backbone and cannot handle a punch

to save their life or probably has never taken a punch

in their life, but it also tells you

that they don't really believe in what they're saying.

Yeah.

People that believe, excuse me, Melissa,

people that believe in what they are saying

have no problem standing on that.

They don't have to get rid of people.

They don't have to delete accounts in these kind of things.

And they also shouldn't have to surround them

with yes, men.

They should want people in their cabinet

who are willing to say, you know, maybe you should consider this

and have a discussion about it.

You know, again, talking about compromise.

The famous Roman thing of the of the conquering hero

coming back with someone whispering in their ear,

remember Thou art mortal.

Remember Thou art mortal

when they're after getting all the glory

and adulation from everybody.

Yep.

Nicely done, you too.

Martin Van Buren.

Van Buren was the first president

to be born in America and American.

All previous presidents were originally British subjects

having been born prior to 1776.

That's cool.

Wow.

That's going to be the first American president.

William Henry Harris, famously only lasted 32 days

in office to short a stint of president.

John Tyler, Tyler fathered 15 children,

the most of any president.

Holy cow.

Pretty sure he's going to keep that record.

You may out there be a descendant of him.

With all those kids.

James K. Polk, 1845.

Oh, no, no, no, I'm sorry, I didn't want that one.

I wanted Franklin Pierce, the only president from New Hampshire,

also attended college in New England as well

and the only president to do that from New Hampshire.

Okay.

Got one chance.

That's it.

James Buchanan, while serving as minister to Great Britain,

Buchanan helped draft the 1854 manifesto,

which advocated for an American invasion of Cuba.

Abraham Lincoln, honest Abe, the tallest president at 64,

may have had a Marfan syndrome,

a genetic disorder that causes people to be very tall,

thin and long-limbed.

Wow.

Well, he was, I mean, even today, six foot four is tall.

Back then, it was giant.

Speaking of presidents with a sense of humor,

Lincoln was famous, almost to a fault for his stories that he would tell,

his funny little back country stories,

which people in Washington would groan and roll their eyes.

But like you were saying, James, of the people,

the people loved it.

They loved hearing him tell those stories.

Yeah, but it's hard for me to say,

but probably my favorite president.

Yeah.

Let's see here.

Andrew Johnson, though one of the few presidents without a pet,

Johnson apparently cared for a family of White House mice,

which he called the Little Fellows.

Oh, she's...

And that was the inspiration for every Disney movie ever.

Yeah, that was a joke.

Ulysses says Grant, Civil War general,

Grant was invited to join Abraham Lincoln,

affords theater on that faithful evening, April 14th,

in 1865, but was forced to decline after he and his wife

made plans to visit their children in New Jersey.

Oh, wow.

I wonder how that might have been different.

How'd he been there?

I don't know if it would have been,

but I wonder if it would have...

If I remember correctly,

the assassins, because there were many of them

were planning on assassinating Grant as well if he had been there.

I imagine that's probably covered in the movie, Manhunt.

That looks really good.

Yeah, it's probably...

It looks really, really good.

Let's see here.

And James A. Garfield,

Garfield, who was the first known left-handed president,

was elected to the US Senate,

but he never served as Ohio Senator,

because he then won the Republican nomination for president,

so he actually never really even did it.

Wow, interesting.

That story of the convention of the 1880 is fascinating,

about the politics in it.

If you ever get a chance to read about it,

I think it's one of the longest that there ever was,

and the number of ballots was amazing.

It's just crazy.

Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest president

taking office at age 42.

Wow.

And finally, William McKinley.

I'm sorry.

Benjamin Harrison.

Benjamin Harrison.

Harrison was the first president

to hire a female White House staffer.

Wow.

All right.

Wow, that's cool.

That's kind of a cool stuff.

I can be 1870s, not bad.

That'll do it, but I encourage people.

Oh, did you have someone listening?

Not good, but...

No, we appreciate that.

Appreciate all of you out there.

Thanks so much for hanging out with us today.

We're going to go ahead and take a quick time out,

checking with our partners.

Come back, wrap up the show,

if that ain't right.

Story of some good stories of the day.

All coming up for you on The Morning Show at WFHR.

Welcome back to The Morning Show, everybody.

Welcome back to The Morning Show, everybody.

Melissa, Seth and James hanging out with you,

taking you right to the top of the hour

with some good stuff for you, everybody.

Want to remind everybody that you can hear

some of that music live.

How sweet it is.

Steve Leslie sings James Taylor coming up

March 7th at the Performing Arts Center

right here in Wisconsin Rapids.

Get your tickets at saferthearts.com,

saferthearts.com.

All right.

Let's go ahead and dive right into this.

That ain't right story.

One of the biggest mysteries in life

is why every other shopping cart at the store

has a busted wheel.

It is a mystery.

Did they come off the factory line that way?

Is it intentional?

Which is waiting for you to try to take it.

Right, right.

The old myth was that the grocery stores

did it on purpose to slow you down

and make you buy more stuff.

I never heard that before.

I've actually never really heard that.

If you could just zip through the aisles,

you wouldn't make impulse purchases blah, blah, blah.

According to one of the companies that makes those carts

the real reason behind stuck wheels is more innocent.

The carts just get used a lot and mistreated.

Stuck wheels aren't as common as other retailers

like clothing stores because the carts are used less.

And the ones at grocery stores always get taken

outside into the elements.

When you're just buying pants,

you carry them out in the back and a bag.

You don't bring the cart, yeah, yeah.

Over time rolling through the parking lot warps,

the metal caster plate underneath each wheel

which can make the wheel stick to and lift up on the ground.

Those caster plates tend to only last about five years

before they need replacing.

Most stores replace them as needed, not all at once.

So that's why so many carts have at least one funky wheel.

Funky wheel.

That's our right story right there.

Funky wheel, new band name, yeah.

Yes, oh, yeah.

That's awesome, man.

I feel like that's one of those ones like

James and the funky wheels.

Yeah, like that's what you need a name in front of that.

Yeah, you do.

That's a great name.

I just thought that was a fun little note right there and stuff.

Well, it's not like you see people repairing

trapping carts ever.

You don't really know.

No, it's true.

Wow.

Did you either of you ever work at like a grocery store

or any place where you had to collect carts?

Nope.

No, I just dreamed about it.

It was my dream job when I was about six.

That's awesome.

It hasn't happened yet.

Maybe one day.

Maybe some day, Melissa.

He preaches for the stars.

Definitely did that a lot when I worked at cops.

There's no cops here anymore.

No, it's a day we can save, yeah, we can save and everything.

But when I worked there, yeah, that was a big thing we did at night.

Getting to our schedule in the moment,

just one of the bigger good stories of the day that I had

that I had to make sure we got into the show today.

It comes to us from the GoodNewsNetwork.org.

Most of the time when we bring up Americans and education

and comparing us to the rest of the world,

what do you usually hear?

What is usually the headline?

We're behind.

We're behind on this.

We're behind on that or something.

And that is important to note.

And I'm not saying that we shouldn't be covering those stories.

But I don't think it would harm us to also add other stories with that.

Like we are behind on this,

but we are ahead on this or we are on average of this.

Right.

I think that all news, more news, should be done that way.

Celebrate the victories?

Yes, yes.

I don't care about quick news.

I want real news.

I want all news.

I want factual news.

It goes back to the kitchen's open segment.

And yeah, I don't care about how fast you're processing the food.

Is it safe?

Right.

That kind of thing, exactly.

I feel the same way about our democracy.

I feel the same way about getting our news out there.

I care more about the details in the actual facts of an article

than I do if I can get through it fast.

Like if you're concerned is speed,

then you're not on the same page as the rest of us.

Okay, I understand we only have so much time in the day.

Sure.

The important things we make time for, right?

This is important.

Make time for homework.

Do your homework.

Voting is not a, come on.

Like I shouldn't have to tell you this.

Yes, do your homework.

And looking into things like this,

like yes, we might be behind on certain things,

but other things we are ahead on actually.

Good.

America has a higher percentage of bilingual citizens

than French, Italy, Britain, and other countries in Europe.

How about that?

Wow.

Wow.

We are better at this than they are.

Which is shocking, considered how close together they are, yeah.

Imagine trying to live in Italy

and you can't speak another language.

Yeah.

That's like, that's as if you were,

okay, you're living Wisconsin,

but you know what, I don't speak Michigan.

So I can't go to Michigan.

Right.

That's the equivalent of that.

Exactly.

Like that's incredible that we are that far ahead on this.

And we are three times as likely to have bilingual people

or people that could speak multiple languages

than Germany.

The next highest country in Europe

doesn't even come close to us on this.

Wow.

I find that shocking.

And that's, you know, there's that old joke.

You know, if you're tri-lingual,

you know, three languages.

If you're bilingual, you know,

two, if you know one language, you're American.

So that, that, it's wrong.

All right.

We proved it wrong.

The US has between 100,000 and 1 million speakers

of 35 other languages.

The higher-end represents of Portuguese,

Hindu, Arabic, Russian, and Italian.

The lower-end represents Persian,

Greek, Hebrew, Romanian,

Thai, Ukrainian, and Dutch.

Wow.

So we're also versatile.

Yeah, all over the world.

Okay. Where was Spanish in that?

Some of the middle, I guess.

Yeah.

You can write that, you know,

if you don't take my word for it,

do your whole work.

Look up this up.

You can start with goodnewsnetwork.org.

Goodnewsnetwork.org.

They have the article right there,

right up top for you.

Let that be your branching point.

Start off from there.

And like Melissa said, I find that hard to believe.

We'll take that.

Go ahead and start there and dig.

Do a little bit of things.

See what you come up with.

Yeah.

And look, democracy is not spoon fed.

Democracy has never been spoon fed.

Freedom is not spoon fed.

That's the idea.

You got to work for it.

You got to need it.

Got to warm, you got to want to.

Warm to lecter it, right?

We wanted to mention over the weekend,

we had a great over-the-back fence episode.

I want to think, personally,

want to thank the Colors we got that day.

We got some really, really wonderful calls.

Cool.

Appreciate them for it.

We do also think the people that we're

able to get through,

we are having a little troubles with our phones

and just want to apologize for that.

And that goes back to Friday with Senator Teston.

Yeah, the power outage on Thursday

or whenever it was really messed things up.

Yeah.

A gigantic shout out to our GM

and engineer Chuck Genero,

our friends at Water and Light,

working so hard on getting all those things fixed

and making things move smoothly around here.

Want to say a big thank you to Connie Hanky,

joining us from the Art Director from Alexander House.

Thanks for that, Connie.

Very nice.

Find out more about not only the youth art month exhibit

that they have coming up this weekend,

but also plenty of other great things

at the Alexander House at AlexanderHouseOnline.org.

AlexanderHouseOnline.org.

Cool.

We've got a great lineup for you today.

Join us a little bit later for Playmakers from three to four.

Seth and I will be to Handel and Your Calls.

Call up and join the conversation.

Let's talk some sports,

pictures and catcher's reporting.

Got peaceball on the mind.

Peaceball.

They got plenty to talk about.

Join us today a little bit later for Playmakers from three to four.

Probably brought to you by our friends

from Quality Plus Printing.

Getting your words out here in Wisconsin Rapids.

And it's going to be baseball weather on Wednesday.

Oh, yeah, let's take it.

All right.

We will also have a little bit later today.

The great guard show at 605.

Join us for that.

I'm going to be interesting to see here what he has to say

with the way the last couple of weeks

have been for Badger Basketball.

Exactly.

We've got some good stories that the day,

locally we want to touch on.

Right here in Rapids,

over at the Performing Arts Center,

they have the Lincoln High School Orchestra

or a concert going on today.

All right.

The Lincoln High School Orchestra grades 9 and 10

will be at 630.

And the Lincoln High School Symphony Orchestra

will be at 730.

Very nice.

All right.

I get your tickets in a tent

over at the Performing Arts Center

at 16th Street South right here in Wisconsin Rapids.

Mm-hmm.

Support our students.

Exactly.

Tomorrow is February 20th,

which means not only is it primary election day

and something else we are not going to mention.

There's also going to be a blood drive

over at the former East Junior High School room 111.

That's at 311 Lincoln Street in Rapids.

Just off of Lincoln Street can enter that way

from 10 to 3 tomorrow.

So here I got your plan everybody.

So if you are voting in the East Junior High School

if that is where you go to vote,

you can go give blood and then you can vote.

Nice.

You can do two birds with one stone

because it's all in the same spot.

You can schedule an appointment

by calling 800-280-4102.

Employments are encouraged,