It's a wake-up call in more ways than one.
Time for some shit you need to know.
Well, another big shake-up in the administration, the head of U.S.
Border Patrol, the agency tasked with securing the nation's frontiers and increasingly tapped by the Trump administration for immigration operations in America, announced the resignation of its head yesterday, not in a jar.
the head of the department.
Michael Banks decision announced in a Fox News interview and later confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security is the latest leadership shakeup of officials implementing
Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
It comes as the Republican administration appears to be recalibrating its approach to its centerpiece policy of mass deportations.
Banks was quoted as saying in a report, it's just time.
I feel like I got the ship back on course.
And that he was referring to the previous chaos at the southern border.
Banks said it was time to enjoy.
What was he taking?
What was he leaving to enjoy, Parker?
What do you think?
Time with this family.
Bingo.
Once again, we went right off the script.
Time to enjoy family and life.
In a statement, the U.S.
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott thanked banks for his service, then showed him the door.
No, he said, during one of the most challenging periods for border security, the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Because as you know, the president was in China, the most talked about summit in the history of man, so much so that there's really nothing to report from there today.
But that's.
neither here nor there.
It's not clear yet who's going to replace banks.
He led the agency at the forefront of Trump's high-profile immigration enforcement efforts.
He kept a lower profile.
Yeah, I didn't know who this guy was.
He's one of the few people in the administration who was not out in front of cameras all the time.
He wasn't Gregory Bovino.
He wasn't Tom Holman.
So that was it.
CPB is one of the federal agencies that participated last year in a series of immigration enforcement operations carried out primarily in cities governed by Democrats.
An effort that triggered a spike in arrests and led to fatal shootings of two U.S.
citizens in Minneapolis this year at the hands of federal immigration officers.
Banks resignation takes place two months after Mark Wayne Mullen, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma, became head of Homeland Security.
DHS oversees CPB.
CBP and U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement known as ICE.
So another shake-up, another department head moving on to stay with their family.
I wonder what all these Republican people did beforehand.
They must not have spent any time with their families and now it's just coming back to haunt them because that's the reason they all give for leaving.
Even here in Wisconsin, that's Robin Voss and...
the Mayhew that was there, part of their reason too, everybody who wants to spend time with their family.
That's how you know, that's how you know it's true, because most people, they're like, I spend plenty of time with my family.
I need to go to work to get away from my family.
Maybe that's just me, who knows?
Other stuff you need to know?
Sure, this is closer to home.
Pardon me.
After repeatedly recessing a special session called by Governor Evers to take up a proposal that would bar partisan gerrymandering in Wisconsin, the Republican-controlled legislature quietly closed the session, packed up their bags, and went home.
Evers called for the legislature to convene in a special session on April 14th to begin the multi-year process that if cleared, if it cleared the legislature would give Wisconsin voters final say on a constitutional amendment to ban partisan gerrymandering in the state.
It's way past time for that to happen.
And yet...
It did not.
Rather than immediately reject Evers' request, though, as they've done multiple times before, Robin Voss and Devin LeMayhew opted to keep the session open.
But after repeatedly recessing the session over the last month to keep it open, the Senate formally ended the session late Wednesday while the Assembly adjourned Thursday morning.
So guess what?
Nothing getting done right now.
The adjournments come after the bipartisan deal seeking to infuse millions of funding.
That big spending thing passed the assembly did not pass the Senate.
On the day the gerrymandering session began, both GOP leaders said leaving the session open would allow for more public input on the matter and for both sides to reach a workable solution.
Voss said at the time, he hoped the governor would, quote, meet face to face with us to discuss our ideas on how to accomplish this goal.
Evers said there was nothing to negotiate on the matter.
You remember, we talked about this when it was happening.
So yeah, they had the special session, but neither side wanted to budge because the Republicans, you know, they're still upset that the Supreme Court changed the maps.
Democrats are happy to appoint because of fair maps, but they want to have the maps redrawn and then they want it to be no more redrawing to gerrymander.
This is the way it is.
So.
We will see.
The governor's office reiterated his stance last week that there was nothing at the time that needed to be discussed.
So that's that.
And the session was adjourned.
Evers' proposal did not lay out any specific process by which maps would be drawn.
Rather, it seeks to enshrine in the state constitution a prohibition on gerrymandering or the process by which one political party draws boundaries designed to benefit that party.
The state constitution does give the governor the power to call a special session, but the legislature is not required to act, and so they did not.
Now, if that's one of the things, as a Democrat, as we were talking about before, that you're optimistic of the possible trifecta,
in November and Democrats taking control.
Maybe that will maybe that will get pushed forward.
But for right now it is done.
We were complaining a little bit about the NFL before and Christmas games and Frank having to watch the Bears Packers game in some sketchy internet connected house in Michigan.
But the NFL is also being issued with a subpoena by the Florida Attorney General.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeyer has issued a subpoena to the National Football League as his office investigates whether the organization has committed potential civil rights violations related to its Rooney rule and other employment practices, policies and programs.
Oh man.
Mr. Uthmeyer, who had previously threatened possible enforcement actions against the league in March, if it did not suspend the 23 year old rule, set the subpoena along with a letter to NFL.
Executive Vice President and lead attorney Ted Ulyat on Wednesday.
The subpoena commands commands the league.
Boy, that's even more than rebuke strongly.
they come the subpoena commands the league to appear at the attorney general's office in tallahassee florida on june 12th it also requests extensive documents including quote all diversity reports coaching census data or demographic surveys that reflect race and sex of coaching staffs of the teams from 2017 to the present now if you are not familiar the rooney rule
mandates that teams interview at least two external minority candidates for head coach, general manager and coordinator positions, and at least one minority candidate for the quarterback's coach role.
Roger Goodell, who is the NFL commissioner, he was speaking at a league meeting in Phoenix last month.
He acknowledged the evolving political landscape surrounding diversity initiatives in the US.
Oh yeah, we know some people do not like DEI.
They don't like the snowflakes who want people included.
But that's all right.
He maintained, he maintained that he did not believe there should be any legal issues with the league's policy.
He said, quote, the Rooney rule has been around a long time.
We've evolved it, changed it.
We'll continue to do that.
And then the FBI did not come or the FBI, the NFL did not comment on the subpoena yesterday.
So are on Wednesday.
However, in a letter sent to Mr. Uthmeyer on May 1st, the league stated, the NFL's pursuit of top tier talent led to the adoption of the Rooney Rule in 2003.
Importantly, the Rooney Rule does not impose any hiring quotas or mandates, and it does not license clubs to consider race or sex in making hiring decisions.
Hiring decisions for NFL teams are made by the individual clubs, not the league, and those decisions are based on merit.
You host a sports show on Saturdays,
early
morning.
Make the call.
You make the call?
Make the call, yes.
Make the call.
Just make the call.
What are your thoughts on the subpoena, on the Rooney Rule?
Well, now, I know people, not joke, but it's kind of obvious.
Sometimes you can tell a team is interviewing somebody just because they need to.
Because of the Rooney Rule.
Yeah.
Because they need to.
You know, there's still an imbalance.
I think of coaches, but there are I think more so in the NFL than anywhere else You're held to that standard of you win or you leave.
So if you're not qualified, they're not hiring there.
The NFL is never gonna hire somebody Just because sure just because of a DEI hire because there's too much money riding on this There's too much revenue for the league for the teams for the cities
And they're quick to let people go if they don't cut the
mustard.
Sure.
I think what's odd about this is that it does no harm, right?
Like the Rooney Rule is just you interview.
Frankly, it probably does more good than I can even imagine harm because it's just you're opening your horizons to possibly having new people.
Exactly.
That's what I was going to say.
You might
find a diamond in the rough and you'd be able to do that.
we will see how this how this plays out but it's you know people want to hire it it's again it's you're giving just because i didn't get a job means you gave it to somebody else who didn't deserve it no maybe you didn't deserve it
Or maybe it did deserve it and just went to somebody else.
That's the luck of the draw.
A lot of qualified people don't get jobs.
All right, one final piece of stuff you need to know.
The Supreme Court yesterday allowed women to continue to access the abortion pill, mythoprestone, through telehealth visits, maintaining the status quo, while officials in Louisiana continue to push for limiting availability of the drug in lower courts.
The conservative Supreme Court imposed a pause on a May 1st decision from the 5th U.S.
Circuit Court of New Orleans.
Orleans that abruptly required women to obtain the drug through in-person visits.
The focus is now going to return to the New Orleans based appeals court, which will decide the merits of Louisiana's challenge.
The court did not explain their reasoning, which it doesn't have to in these shadow docket cases, nor did it disclose the vote count.
Clarence Thomas and Alito were the ones who did.
say no, they dissented.
The court's unreasoned order granting stays in this case is remarkable.
Alito wrote in his dissent.
What is at stake he added is the perpetuation of a scheme to undermine our decision over turning Roe v. Wade four years ago.
Yes, that's what people are trying to do.
You know why?
Because the majority of this country is for choice.
That doesn't mean they're for abortion.
They're for a woman being able to make her own decisions for her health and her body, along with her doctor.
And that is nothing for the courts to get involved in.
It's something for that woman and her doctors to decide.
And in the end, those are the people who have to either live with... Well, they have to live with their decisions, one way or another.
So...
It's not the court's job.
And yes, this is a way for women to access health care that you tried to take away with overturning Roe v. Wade.
Now, I know there's people who are cheering on that decision and are very mad about the Supreme Court decision yesterday to keep pushing.
And listen, if that's you and you're upset about this, it's still going to work its way through the lower courts.
And it'll probably get to the Supreme Court again.
It's a wake-up call in more ways than one.
Time for some sh** you need to know.
That's right.
You know the president is planning to build an arch.
Oh, it looks very nice.
Is it reminiscent of a Nazi arch?
I don't know.
I'll leave that up to you to decide.
But the Trump administration planned to start work at the site of the president's proposed triumphal arch by piggybacking it onto an existing unrelated contract for engineering services at the White House grounds more than a mile away, according to emails that were obtained by the Washington Post.
Now,
The move would allow the administration to bypass a potentially lengthy public bidding process.
An expert said it was unusual because the arch site is on national park service land across the Potomac River and is not part of the White House complex.
But if you think that's going to stop Donald Trump from doing some shady deal, you would be wrong.
Park Service Acting Director Jessica Ballron wrote to White House officials.
month asking whether the agency could extend a contract between the White House and engineering firm ACOM services for an environmental assessment for the proposed 250-foot arch.
She acknowledged that the proposed arch isn't adjacent to the White House like Lafayette Square.
Another site ACOM has worked on under the same agreement, but she wrote that using the existing contract would allow work to quote align with the administration's timeline.
Yeah, he wants this arch built before
July 4th, so I'm sure the quality would be there as you're just slapping up some giant gaudy arch that nobody asked for, nobody wants, nobody needs, except your ego is so fragile that you need to have everything, either with your name, your likeness, your love of all things gold-plated, and to remind everybody that you were here.
The she went on to say, I realize it's a little further afield than Lafayette Park.
But given the engagement on this project from the White House, I thought I'd check.
In other words, he won't stop hounding me.
So I had to ask an hour later, the White House gave NPS a green light.
Yes, of course, wrote Heather Martin, an official in the executive office of the president.
So
What's not clear from the emails is whether the park service ultimately followed through with the plan to use the White House contract.
Site testing was to begin this week, according to a timeline laid out by the administration in federal court last week.
Heavy machinery was at the site on Monday.
Boy, this sounds just like the East Wing.
We're going to do it and everybody else too bad.
I don't need any sort of or need any sort of okay.
I'm going to do what I want when I want.
So a spokesperson for the Department of Interior, which oversees the Park Service, responded to a detailed list of questions from the Washington Post about the proposed arrangement by saying the post assertion on contract sourcing is incorrect.
On Monday, an administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss contracting matters confirmed that NPS was likely to use the White House existing contracts.
Wow.
All right.
Well,
A little closer to home for this piece of you need to know.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson slammed the president in the wake of news.
The FBI is investigating Wisconsin's current election.
No, no, no, the 2020 election.
You remember, we brought this up the other day, but now the mayor has come out.
He said, let me say it clearly.
Donald Trump won the elections for president in Wisconsin for both 2016 and 2024.
He lost the election for president in 2020 in Wisconsin to Joe Biden.
That was the mayor's statement on May 14th, which was yesterday.
Deploying federal law enforcement to alter reality is outrageous.
He added Milwaukee's elections are conducted with the highest level of integrity and accuracy.
Multiple objective reviews of our elections confirm that.
How many times do we have to say it?
How many times do you have to hear it?
How many court cases and investigations?
Is there ever going to be enough?
No.
He will not let this go ever because, as I mentioned in the last story, his fragile ego just is incapable of
actually admitting that he lost even though he won again and nobody's dispute nobody disputes when he won even democrats don't dispute when he won but man he will not let this go
So Johnson's comments came the day after news broke that the FBI agents sought to question one of Milwaukee County's top election officials about the 2020 presidential election, that according to Milwaukee County Clerk George Christensen, he said agents visited the home of the county's election director and left her a business card.
There are no indications as the FBI has contacted any Milwaukee city officials, though.
The visit to the home brought a response from County Executive David Crowley, who said the action, quote, raises serious concerns of intimidation.
Yes.
So the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported this last week that the FBI was investigating Wisconsin's 2020 election and that an agent had spoken with the Wisconsin Election Commission's Deputy Administrator Robert Keough.
During the meeting, Keel reportedly debunked false claims, which have been done ad nauseam.
So the Wisconsin probe comes after federal officials in January seized hundreds of boxes of ballots related to the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia.
And after the FBI issued a grand jury subpoena in March for voting information in Maricopa County, Arizona.
So it will not stop.
I don't know.
Again, like the war and around, what is the end game?
What do you hope?
What do you hope to prove?
And I told you so.
And then that would then that would make this term moot because you couldn't be a president for three times.
What's what's the end game?
Just so you can say, oh, yeah, I won.
See, I told you, I'm big winner.
The system was rigged.
Sit down.
Oh, man, you're muttering.
All right, more things we need to know.
Oh, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in an interview with House lawmakers backed away from a previous claim that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had blackmailed people.
Now you remember this?
A while ago he said he had only been there for lunch on the island, but now it's coming out.
Maybe not so much.
So Lutnick agreed to sit down for an interview with the House Oversight Committee last week after the release of case files on Epstein contradicted his claims on a podcast last year that he had been determined to quote, never be in a room again with Epstein after a 2005 tour of Epstein's home that disturbed Lutnick and his wife.
Now the House Oversight Committee released the transcript of the interview Wednesday as well as a transcript of an interview
you with Ted Waite, a former boyfriend of Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell.
Lutnik, who for years was neighbors with Epstein in New York City, had claimed in that podcast interview that Epstein engaged in blackmail.
But under scrutiny from lawmakers, Lutnik said he was only speculating.
Oh, I see.
Lutnick is the highest ranked current administration official besides President Trump to be named in the Epstein case files.
The Republican president has consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes and has said he ended their relationship years ago.
And as you know, the hopes that the Epstein files will be pushed aside have been buoyed by the DOJ's actions.
But I don't think we should let this go.
And I don't think if things change at the midterm, I don't think it will be let go.
And, you know, here's a little piece of, well, I'll save speculation when we're not doing stuff you need to know.
We have plenty of time to speculate on things.
But anyway, Lutnik repeatedly downplayed his previous interactions with Epstein.
He said that after Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting charges on sex trial on sex trafficking charges, showed him a massage table and made a sexual innuendo during a tour of his townhouse in 2005, Lutnik and his wife decided we would, quote, just avoid him.
Yes.
Yet Lutnik
did exchange several emails with Epstein over the years.
They also both invested in the same business venture in 2013.
And Lutnik told lawmakers that he was unaware Epstein was also an investor until the case files were released a month ago.
So Howard Lutnik, believe it or not, that's up to you.
A little closer to home, a grant will help Madison College prepare rural residents to become teachers.
This seems like good news.
A new grant is aimed at getting rural Wisconsinites into teaching jobs as rural school districts face challenges getting trained educators into their classroom.
So just about a half of the students at Wisconsin's K-12 schools are in rural districts and getting teachers into those classrooms can be a challenge, especially in areas of aging or declining population.
But educators say the real challenge isn't the training, it's keeping teachers in their communities.
We hear that with a lot of different fields, but teaching in particular.
So Madison College created a plan to help reach rural folks who could become teachers.
It's called the Education Pre-Major University Transfer Program.
And the new $156,000 Wisconsin Technical College System Career Pathways Grant
Boy, these titles are long.
We'll help expand the program's reach.
So Penny Johnson runs the school's education department.
She says the program takes the.
makes the education pathway local and flexible.
It identifies open spaces for teachers in districts near where students already live and focuses on recruiting small town residents to work at rural schools.
She calls it an exciting change across Wisconsin.
In the past, teacher recruiting was focused on luring recent big city graduates to try rural living and that is a hard sell.
If you have never lived in a small community, it is an adjustment.
If you've always been a big city person,
Moving to a smaller town where everybody knows who you are and a lot of people are in your business and it's just it's just a slower pace Some people love that some people don't so getting people who are already in that community and already like that kind of lifestyle or finding people that Really want to live a more rural small-town life
Those are the people you have to target.
So what's gonna the grant is gonna let students explore there It's gonna let them visit major universities to finish their degree and it's gonna support the people The the pipeline the teacher pipeline getting teachers to stay which again to me makes perfect sense Because we I've talked about this many times.
We're training in Wisconsin.
There's a lot of people graduating who were trained to be teachers the problem comes when
a lot of those graduates leave Wisconsin they're going to places and money is money is the biggest if or a big if not the biggest reason if you can go somewhere else and make a lot more money I don't blame any anybody for taking a better paying job but we also have to start figuring out okay what the long-term problem is teacher retention and getting teachers into rural areas how are we going to do that well we're going to do that
by using a program like this to get small town rural people trained to be teachers.
