This Just In ...
Kevin Fischer is a veteran broadcaster, the recipient of over 150 major journalism awards from the Milwaukee Press Club, the Wisconsin Associated Press, the Northwest Broadcast News Association, the Wisconsin Bar Association, and others. He has been seen and heard on Milwaukee TV and radio stations for over three decades. A longtime aide to state Senate Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature, Kevin can be seen offering his views on the news on the public affairs program, "InterCHANGE," on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10, and heard filling in on Newstalk 1130 WISN. He lives with his wife, Jennifer, and their lovely baby daughter, Kyla Audrey, in Franklin.
Photos of the Week (06/09/13)
1) An aerial view of the NSA's Utah Data Center in Bluffdale, Utah, on Thursday. The government is secretly collecting the telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon under a top-secret court order, according to the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Obama administration is defending the National Security Agency's need to collect such records, but critics are calling it a huge over-reach. Photo: Rick Bowmer / AP
2) The landscape glows immediately after the main fire front swept over in a fast run toward Lake Hughes on June 1, 2013. Nearly 1,000 firefighters have been working in hot, dry conditions to establish containment lines around 20 percent of the fire so far. Photo: David McNew / Getty Images
3) Firefighter Robby Klaus drives a rescue boat in the flooded center on June 3 in Grimma, Germany. Heavy rains pounded southern and eastern Germany, causing wide-spread flooding and ruining crops. Photo: Jens Schlueter / Getty Images
4) An aerial view shows the flooded city centre of Grimma, eastern Germany, on June 3, 2013. Parts of the eastern and southern Germany were flooded due to heavy and ongoing rainfall. AFP PHOTO / JENS WOLF /Getty Images
5) Conni Grulkey (L) and Heather Murray sit with a lost dog as they drive around searching for the owner after a tornado passed through the area on June 2, 2013 in El Reno, Oklahoma. The tornado ripped through the area friday killing at least 9 people injuring many and destroyed homes and buildings. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
6) Wade and Angela Coble pose for a photo for friends on top of their tornado-destroyed home in El Reno, Okla., on June 2. Her wedding veil was found hundreds of yards away in a field. In an effort to help the Cobles get back on their feet, friends and church members plan on throwing another wedding shower for the couple, even though they’ve been married for six years. Photo: Mike Fuentes for NBC News
7) A Humboldt penguin watches flood waters rise from inside its enclosure at the Prague Zoo, as the swollen Vltava river continues to rise. Photo: Katerina Sulova / Zuma Press
8) People are seen gathered at Victoria Park during a candlelight vigil held to mark the 24th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown at Tiananmen Square, in Hong Kong on June 4, 2013. More than 100,000 people were expected to attend the candlelight vigil in the former British colony which is the only place in China where the brutal military intervention that ended weeks of nationwide democracy protests in 1989 is openly commemorated. Photo: Philippe Lopez / AFP - Getty Images
9) Rochelle Campbell places bones, crafted by students, artists and activists, in place on the lawn of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on June 8, during a massive installation called One Million Bones. The installation is meant to symbolize a mass grave and is a visible petition for bold action toward an end to genocide and mass atrocities. Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
10) Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist and former member of The Chicago Sun Times photo staff John White, right, is interviewed Thursday, June 6, 2013, in Chicago, during a protest in opposition the the Sun Times Media Group laying off 28 full time photographers. About 100 people picketed outside the newspaper's headquarters, chanting and carrying signs that read "Save the photogs" and "The Sun-Times is out of focus." Photo: M. Spencer Green / AP
11) A missing corner of a stone is seen in the Washington Monument at the 491-foot level.The monument has been closed since a 2011 earthquake. Photo: Alex Brandon, AP
12) Kent Williams, owner of New Fishall Bait Company, looks into the mouth of a 1,323.5-pound Mako shark at the company's headquarters in Gardena, Calif., on Wednesday, June 5, 2013. Jason Johnston of Texas caught the potentially record-setting 1,323-pound shark off Huntington Beach on Monday after a 2 1/2-hour battle, the Orange County Register reported. Photos: Richard Vogel / AP
13) More than 650 underwater images were submitted for the 2013 Annual Underwater Photography Contest, hosted by the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. The "Best Overall Submission" photograph was submitted under the Wide Angle category and was shot near San Diego. The winning photo by Kyle McBurnie shows a harbor seal looking out from a kelp forest at Cortes Bank.
14) Wild geese chicks cross a cycle track in Dortmund, Germany on June 4. Photo: Bernd Thissen / AFP - Getty Images
15) A dog lunges for a flying disc during the Dog Chow Disc Cup in Wroclaw, Poland, June 2. The event, which started in Poland in 2006, is a series of canine competitions held in public parks in bigger cities. Photo: Maciej Kulczynski / EPA
16) Fans react as Texas Rangers right fielder Nelson Cruz leaps head-first over the wall trying to catch a homer by Boston Red Sox Mike Carp in the fifth inning of a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston, Mass., June 4. Photo: Elise Amendola / AP
17) 'Hombres de Musgo' or 'Moss Men' take part in the Corpus Christi procession on June 2, 2013 in Bejar, Salamanca province, Spain. Photo: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez / Getty Images
18) A man representing the devil and called El Colacho jumps over young babies in the village of Castrillo de Murcia, near Burgos, northern Spain, Sunday, June 2, 2013. The Colacho represents the devil who takes away the evil from the babies as he jumps over them in this medieval religious custom dating back to the 17th century. (AP Photo/Israel L. Murillo)
19) A competitor awaits the judges after he took snuff at the German Snuff Championships in Freihung near Nuremberg, southern Germany, on Saturday, June 8, 2013. The competition's aim is to snuff as much as possible from a five gram snuff package. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
20) Women in bridal gowns participate in the "Runaway Bride" run in Riga June 1, 2013. Photo: Ints Kalnins/ Reuters
21) A kindergarten teacher attends to a crying student on the first day of a new school year at a public elementary school in Quezon City, east of Manila, Philippines, on June 3, 2013. Photo: Rolex Dela Pena / EPA
22) George W. Obama is a creepy picture making the rounds online that skillfully melds faces of the past two presidents. The picture of George W. Obama ran on the front page of The Huffington Post this week, accompanying an article about The National Security Agency announcing a court order asking Verizon to hand over all phone calling records for a three-month period.
AND FINALLY...
Brad Goldpaint captures views of the northern lights over Crater Lake:
Week-ends (06/08/13)
A look back at the people and events that made news the past week. Week-ends is a regular weekly feature of This Just In...
HEROES OF THE WEEK
Becky Gerritson
Lynette Hales ... MORE
Patrick Watson
Unidentified Idaho mom
Roy Costner IV
Travon Avery
Matt Birk
Mother swan
Pui
VILLAINS OF THE WEEK
Kathleen Sebelius ... UPDATE
The Calgary Board of Education
Maryland school
Disabled tour guides and the people who hire them
Ana Navarro
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"It's not a recovery. It's not even normal growth. It's bad."
UCLA economist Edward Leamer
“Please, suspend the rules until we look at this policy."
Rep. Lou Barletta, a Pennsylvania Republican, asked HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius during a House hearing Tuesday on behalf of Sarah Murnaghan, a 10-year-old girl who needs a lung transplant. She can’t qualify for an adult lung transplant until the age of 12, according to federal regulations, but Sebelius has the authority to waive that rule on her behalf. The pediatric lungs for which she currently qualifies aren’t available.
“I would suggest, sir, that, again, this is an incredibly agonizing situation where someone lives and someone dies."
Sebelius responding to Barletta.
"I can say with a very strong sense of certainty that there are people very close to this president that not only knew what the IRS were doing but authorized it. It simply just does not happen at an agency level like that without political advisers likely in the West Wing certainly connected to the president’s ongoing campaign organization that didn’t know about it."
ABC News Political Analyst Trey Hardin
“Their paid liar, their spokesperson, he’s still making up things about what happened and calling this a local rogue. The reason that Lois Lerner tried to take the fifth [amendment] is not because there’s a rogue in Cincinnati. It’s because this is a problem that was coordinated, in all likelihood, right out of Washington headquarters.”
House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa calling White House Press Secretary Jay Carney a paid liar
"On June 22, 2009, IRS Agent Richards sent us additional written requests, as follows: 'Please explain how all of your activities, including the prayer meetings held outside of Planned Parenthood are considered educational as defined under 501(c)(3). Organizations exempt under 501(c)(3) may present opinions with scientific or medical facts. Please explain in detail the activities at the prayer meetings. Also, please provide the percentage of time your organization spends on prayer groups as compared with the other activities of the organization. Please explain in detail the signs that are being held up outside of Planned Parenthood and explain how they are considered educational.'"
President of the Coalition for Life of Iowa Susan Martinek described how the IRS essentially tried to censor her group’s peaceful protest of Planned Parenthood.
"I am not here today as a serf or a vassal. I am not begging my lords for mercy. I am a born free, American woman, wife, mother and citizen and I’m telling my government that you have forgotten your place. It is not your responsibility to look out for my well being or monitor my speech. It is not your right to assert an agenda. The posts you occupy exist to preserve American liberty. You have sworn to perform that duty. And you have faltered. The abuses I will discuss today occurred on your watch. It is your responsibility to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Using these agencies as weapons against citizens is scary and it feels like tyranny."
Wetumpka Alabama Tea Party President Becky Gerritson testifying on Capitol Hill about the IRS scandal. She said she nearly gave up her application due to fears the IRS would target her volunteers and their families.
"President Obama says he’s renewing his efforts to close Guantanamo Bay. Guantanamo Bay? How about closing the IRS? Why don’t we do that?"
Jay Leno
“Sun, sun, sun, here it comes. Welcome to the Summer of Belated Epiphanies. Media lapdogs are finally, finally arriving at the conclusion that maybe this isn't the most transparent administration in world history, after all.”
Michelle Malkin
"It isn't about the administration, and it should not be about the administration of the state nor federal level when it comes to Obamacare. But in fact it is. And why is that? I have talked to so many members in the House and Senate and you know what it comes down to? Are you ready for this? It is not about how many federal dollars we can receive. You ready? You want to know what it's about? It's about race. Now nobody wants to talk about that. It's about the race of this African-American president. ... It comes down to the race of the president of the U.S. which causes people to disconnect and step away from the substance of the bill."
The head of the Louisiana Democratic Party, State Senator Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, on why people oppose Obamacare.
“This culture of waste has made us insensitive even to the waste and disposal of food, which is even more despicable when all over the world, unfortunately, many individuals and families are suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Once our grandparents were very careful not to throw away any leftover food. Consumerism has led us to become used to an excess and daily waste of food, to which, at times we are no longer able to give a just value. Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of the poor and the hungry.”
Pope Francis
“Social media is the new kind of Ku Klux Klan white hood; it allows you to be anonymous and say the things you would never say to a person to their face.”
Lawyer, pundit Star Jones
“I cannot understand the people who are against some form of gun control. America’s cowboy days are over."
96-year old actor Kirk Douglas
“One wonders when the Walt Disney Company will …present its first-ever queer character. While there are a number of theories on the queer sexuality of various Disney icons, the animation giant has never featured an openly gay character in any of its multimillion dollar films or cartoons, let alone present a (genuine) same-sex kiss. When Disney movies do allude to queer sexuality, including same-sex romance, this is usually in the context of a joke — a comical accident that leaves all parties disgusted and mortified.”
Renee Davidson of Salon.com
"I don't know why we would go after any element of a free press, even if we don't like them.”
Republican Senate President Mike Ellis after the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee voted early Wednesday to force the Center for Investigative Journalism off the UW-Madison campus. The state budget amendment would also prohibit UW employees from doing any work related to the news center.
"Imagine how we would have reacted if Jim Doyle and a Democrat legislature had passed legislation targeting conservative talk radio or any of the independent new media watchdog groups that have arisen in recent years.”
WTMJ’s Charlie Sykes on the ouster of the Center for Investigative Journalism.
"We don't make our decisions based on what talk radio may say.”
Joint Finance Committee co-chair John Nygren (R-Marinette) responding to Sykes’ criticism.
OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK
US is secretly collecting records of Verizon phone calls.
MOST UNDER-REPORTED STORY OF THE WEEK
A year ago, Wisconsin's governor made history.
About that Limbaugh boycott...
Obama and D-Day.
MOST OVER-HYPED STORY OF THE WEEK
Will MLB suspend Ryan Braun and 19 others?
STRANGEST, MOST UNUSUAL STORY OF THE WEEK
Cleansing reduction.
Meet your digital doppelganger.
That's it for Week-ends.
We close with the latest from NewsBusted.
