Mike Porcaro, behind the mic of your 50,000 watt blowtorch. News Radio 650, KENI. Live from Anchorage, it's your news and information blowtorch. On your front porch The mic will call Welcome, everybody. It's a nice-looking day, and I've got a special guest, a guy that I've known for more years than we probably both want to admit to, Jeff Lohenfels. Jeff, how are you?
I am great. God, a day like this? How could you not be? I mean, you know, if you would ask me that this morning, I would go, it's dark. I love this daylight saving times in the afternoon. I hate it in the morning. Well, I'm right with you. I love mornings, and summer mornings up here are just something special. Yeah, the best. But anyway, I'm looking out the window, and there's grass.
A lot of tree damage and stuff. But what do we do? I mean, you know, we've been here a long time, and we know that it could snow. You know, tomorrow. It could snow in April or May. So what do we do? I mean, I think people are chomping at the bit to get this thing going. You know, let's get summer going. But what do we do? I mean, it's probably not safe to do anything.
Yeah, you know, outside, really don't do anything outside. I mean, well, I take that back. I've got to think about what I wrote in my comments. You know, put a box over your rhubarb and it'll grow. And then you'll have something growing, you know, in a couple, three weeks, you go take the box off and you can harvest the rhubarb. You'll have green leaves or yellow leaves, whatever, and they'll turn green.
You get excited. But I think people have to just sort of take a look at the calendar and not at the bare lawn. And the calendar says a couple of things. It says, first of all, If you're going to start anything inside, you need to use lights up until April 1st. So we're not quite there yet. If you're going to start sweet peas, which everybody loves, that's not until April 1st. If you're going to start...
Tomatoes, April 1st. You know, so we're still a little far out. The geese come back to Anchorage, and that's always sort of an indication that, okay. The snow is basically over, yeah, maybe the leaves are not the size of a squirrel's ear quite yet, but April 15th. So we've got a way to go. Yeah, we do. And in the meantime, I've been...
I've been telling people that are fairly new to the state, no, no, don't get too excited. Yeah, don't get too excited. I mean, the other thing is if you go out and try to stick your finger in the soil, it's not going in. No, no. Yeah. So what you could do if you really, really are anticipating a really early spring, and a lot of us are because of this wonderful weather, you know, you could start stuff inside.
in containers like lettuce. And then, you know, when it gets to the point where you say, okay, it looks like it's going to be, you could take the container outside, you've got stuff growing. But you really can't plant anything outside right now. No, and I think that, you know, you've long been a proponent of, you know, plan a row for somebody else. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
And I think that's a good thing. And I think as we look at Alaska and we look at our food situation and the fact that we're having some... Problems now with a friendly neighbor who may want to put some jobs on some things. Well, a lot of people are going to have some free time on their hands until we get some stuff straightened out. I mean, you know, we've got a lot of federal employees. So, yeah, gardening is going to be helpful for everybody. And even if you don't need the food yourself.
you should plant one row in your garden to feed the hungry. It's a national program. I cannot tell you how many tons of food it raises, and it started right here. plant a role for Beans Cafe. And so we're responsible for the program. We have to carry it on. Absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I guess, you know, to talk to people that are interested in gardening and they're kind of new to the state, and maybe some folks that have never tried to garden up here, you know, it's like I say, what are you waiting for? What are some of the crops, Jeff, that you would recommend people start out with? Yeah, I think any of the snap peas. They do great. Flowers, sweet peas, of course.
The peas do terrific here. You can certainly do any of the coal crops, the things your kids don't like to eat, you know, broccoli, cabbages, kohlrabi. Yeah, Brussels sprouts, all of those things, they really grow well. But you need to start something yourself indoors. Wait until after April 1st. I might go with peas because you can stick them outside early. This is a great time to be looking at tubus begonias to start those up and dahlias you can collect.
So, yeah, there's a lot of stuff. You need to go wander around and take a look at all the various outlets where you can buy plants and where you can buy seeds and start getting some ideas. It's time to do that. All right, now, one of the things that people do when it's time to go outside and clean up for the spring, they rake their yard and they do all this stuff.
And that drives you crazy, doesn't it? That drives me nuts. I mean, and in fact, you know, when I first started talking about this stuff, I looked it up the other day, 2005. I was going to call it scientific gardening, you know. And then it occurred to me, no, it's not scientific gardening. This is the way you're supposed to do it. Just because, you know, just because you've been growing up on your grandmother's...
garden columns. What the heck? Anyway, so you definitely should run over all of that stuff that's down on your yard with a mower. If you don't have a power mower, rent one or borrow one from somebody, run it over. I know they're terrible polluters. This one time, just run it all over and let it mulch into the lawn. Don't rake anything up. All of this stuff is good feed for the lawn.
And then once we get to the point where the birch buds are the size of a squirrel's ear, then it's time to just water. And that's all you need to do. You don't need to fertilize the lawn. Ever. Ever. See, that's something that I think a lot of people don't understand or don't know. And you see people out there with, you know, bags and bags of fertilizer. And that's not good for the worms either. I mean, you know, I've got to...
I've got a ton of worms in my soil, and I'm loving it because it's just good for the soil. Well, yeah, it's not good for lots of things in the soil, and it's just one of these knee-jerk things we do because, you know. In 1954, the freeway at the country club where the U.S. opened was beautifully green and weed-free.
Oh, okay, how'd that happen? Miracle-Gro, you know. Now, I'm allowed to talk about Miracle-Gro. I think you and I may have chatted a little about this. Yes, yes. Because the guy who started Miracle-Gro worked for my father and my grandfather. And he made the mistake of convincing them that they were in the butter business. They needed to have a margarine package. And so they called the margarine Happy Boy Margarine, and they took pictures of me and my two brothers.
And I lost and ended up on the package. And they sold it anyway, you know. Yeah, it's called Happy Boy Margarine. You can still buy it, Happy Boy Margarine. Look it up on the Internet. It's kind of a big laugh. It wasn't as a kid growing up, I have to say. So Horace Hagedorn, I'm allowed to badmouth it. And unfortunately, he and I were very good friends at the end of his life.
Had he lived, I'm convinced he would have changed everything about Miracle-Gro. Now, as it is, Scotch Miracle-Gro is the largest purveyor of organics in the country, probably in the world. So at least they are doing some organic stuff. But lawn foods, you simply don't need them. Now, you've got a product that I wanted to just kind of ask you about. Is it like a tea or what is it specifically? I mean, and it's an organic product completely. Oh, yeah, yeah.
do that stuff anymore. But yeah, well, you know, the soil we have here is incredibly rich. You know that stuff everybody always thinks is peak? It's really high. biologically active humus. And so if you can find some of that and make a... tea out of it, or even easier, and you can do the same thing with good compost, by the way, you put it into a tea cloth, and you put it in a bucket of water, and you just squeeze it. Squeeze it for, you know, five or ten minutes.
That takes out a lot of the good microbes, and then you use that to water your plants and, you know, make your cabbage a giant cabbage. And it's just that simple. It's just kind of natural. You don't need anything else. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I mean, if I stand for anything, I stand for the, you know, the basis of the first book, Teaming with Microbes, which I wrote with Wayne Lewis.
are attracted to the plant. This is how the redwoods grow. They attract these microbes. These microbes get eaten by other microbes who poop out the excess, and the roots just take up all of that excess because it's in plant-usable form. That's how everything operates, and that's how it all operated before 1945, you know, when we started to turn our leftover munitions that had nitrogen in them into fertilizers.
So we just need to go back to that system. That's what everybody used. All the food, everything. All the wonderful, the Biltmore Estate. Compost. Microbes. That was it. It's just really... It's kind of amazing. I'm not saying it's simple, but it's simple in the sense of it's very straightforward. Well, you know, it's so straightforward. I'm sorry, I've got four books on the subject basically now.
And they've been translated, I think now it's like 13 languages. Wow. It's unbelievable. Yeah, Jude and I went over. We were in Spain. I walk into these stores, and here's my book. There you are. Let me tell you, they do not like you signing and writing inside books in space. Really? Yeah, they don't want your autograph.
That's got to be a real thrill, though, to see that and to know that you're helping people in other parts of the world, you know, grow food and flowers and all kinds of things. Oh, it's an incredible thrill. An incredible thrill. And, you know, because it's not something I invented. I'm just, you know, I write a garden column. And they ended up in books because...
That's what books are. You take 700 words and you put a little black print. Then you write another 700 words and another little black print. And so I ended up with these books. I didn't invent this stuff. And it's just once people learn about it, they go, oh, yeah, it makes so much sense. I'm going to stop doing all this work and let the microbes do the work for me.
Now, Jeff, do you still have a website where people can go read articles and get information? Yeah, you know, I have a website. I don't think... I'm an old guy, you know what I mean? I don't think I've... Now, wait a minute. It's hard. I don't have a crash and folks to, you know. Tell me how to work WordPress and how do you change the weekly column every week. It's just too complicated for me. I can't do it anymore.
I understand, completely understand what you're saying. Oh, God. You know, it's tough. It's tough. Yeah, you know, you and I, we come back from the New York days. You talk about 50 watts. Who was that guy we used to listen to? who would come in from Mexico or New Mexico. Wolfman Jack. Oh, yeah, Don Imus used to come in. Yeah, and Wolfman Jack. Remember him? Yeah, yeah. He was in Villacuña, Mexico. Oh, man.
Yeah, so how big was his blowtor? 150,000 watts. He was in Mexico. Oh, my God. How did he even sit there with his hair, you know? I don't know. I think he probably was barbecued or something. People don't know this about you. Crash should take some pictures of you. You sit there on that chair. Your hair is straight up because you've got the blowtorch going.
As soon as the station goes off, you know, you go home, your hair goes back to normal. It's, you know, it's one of the things we have to do for our art, you know. It definitely is, no question. I want everybody to remember that you started pizza by the slice up here. I'm just going to kind of... You had a place called Legal Pizza. It was downtown. Yeah, best job I ever had. And by the way, it was good pizza.
It was. It was. It was the best job I ever had. And I tell you what, two things that are really interesting. One time a guy walked in, you know, it was owned by three lawyers. A guy walked in and he said, I'm going to sue you guys. I said, what for? He says, my name is John Legal. You can't use his name. You know, from Legal Seafoods.
You know, which was, so, you know, that kind of stuff. And the other time a guy walked in and he went, this is good pizza. Would you ever think about becoming the pizza maker? Are you sitting down for this? For Costco. For Costco! And my partner said no. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my goodness. You and I would have owned the station. Oh, jeez. All the Costos in the world, we could have been making pizza. It would have been legal pizza. Just a quick comment here.
Jeff, I actually worked for you for like three weeks at Legal Pizza. Did we fight? Did we fire you? No, no, actually, the problem was is I was driving in from the valley, and I couldn't get decent parking, and so between the drive and not having parking and having to park like...
three-quarters of a mile away, that it was like we agreed it just wasn't going to work. But I did not realize that was you. I literally, like, my brain just blew up just now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There were three of us, David Shemek and Larry Kulik. And we had a lot of fun. And that was good pizza. Yeah, it was good pizza. But it was a bunch of lawyers who set up a business and had to go through what everybody else has to do. We had to go get the permits.
And the building happened to be the Central Plumbing Building, which was the second oldest building in Anchorage. And we had to put a hot water line in a hallway that went down 20,000 feet. You know what I mean? All this stuff. And so we learned what our poor clients had to go through. We'd say, oh, yeah, go get that permanent. No, no, no, no. That was very interesting. It was a lot of fun. And to this day, it was the best job I ever had.
I still love to throw a pizza, and whenever I go into a pizza place and they let me, I go in in the back and I throw a pie. All right. Well, listen, if you ever want to throw some pies and maybe we can find some young people to start a business, we could sit out there, eat pizza, and pretend that we know something. I love it. I love it.
I love it indeed. And we should do this again when we're in the season. Yes. And people have questions and we can do some answers. Absolutely. We'll take some questions from the audience. Jeff, it's a delight, you know, having you on. And I think people could tell, you know, when you have a friend on, you get to just chat and have fun and talk about all kinds of things that are of interest. And I really appreciate you taking time this afternoon, and you kind of made our day.
Well, it's always a lot of fun. And as I say, you and I, we go way, way, way, way back. We're two old, old men. Yes, we are, but somehow our wives still love us. I don't know how, but they do. Yeah, it's a good thing, too, isn't it? It is a good thing. All right, Mr. Mike. All right, you take care, Jeff, and take care of yourself.
Yeah, you too. I appreciate it. Always fun. You bet. All right, Jeff Lohenfels, folks. We'll be right back. Report traffic problems to News Radio 650 KENI by dialing pound 250 on your wireless phone and saying total traffic. All right, it's 428. I want to thank Jeff Launfels for being with us for the first part of the show. We're going to take a quick break now, take care of some business. When we come back... You remember Doug Ford, who was the premier of Ontario. It's like a governor.
And he decided the other day to tack on a 25% surcharge for electricity that's exported to Michigan, Minnesota, and New York. And, well... It's not happening. So we've got a story on that. I'll kind of let you know what's going on In the meantime Stay with us. We'll be right back Welcome back, everybody. 522-0650. Glad to have you with us on a beautiful, beautiful Tuesday afternoon.
It is 35 degrees here, 37 in Palmer, 39 in Soldatna, 37 in Homer, 35 in Talkeetna, 20 in Fairbanks, minus 7 in Prudhoe Bay, Seattle's at 49, New York's at 54. 56 in Akaroa, New Zealand, in rain. 64 in Pensacola, Florida. 66 in Tampa, Florida. Tifton, Georgia, 66. And in Tokyo, it's 50. And do we know if Crash got there or not?
Unfortunately, I have not been informed that he's got there or not got there. They have not put any alerts out that he's missing or lost. Kind of like, you know, what's the little blue creature? I can't think of. His name gets lost. Stitch, that's what it is. I always picture Crash as Stitch in other countries. I don't know why. But I do know it's only 9.36 in the morning right now, so he's probably just now, like, stretching and scratching. I really don't want to know that.
But anyway, it's good to know that I know he left yesterday. So let's hope everything is fine. He got there. He probably doesn't know what day it is, which is not unusual for him. So he should be having a great time. I told him to call in when he feels like he knows where he is, when he gets his bearings. So I imagine he'll call in, and I imagine that he'll reverse the charges.
Oh, you know, that'll definitely be, I'll be like, um, this is who again? Uh, yeah, I've never heard him. Or he'll call in with the, I've arrived safely. You know, who's this call from? I've arrived safely. Everything's okay. Yeah, no, I don't want to accept the charges. Thank you. I remember those days. That was a lot of fun. You know what's weird is I'm looking at the cameras in Tokyo. I always picture Tokyo as just this mass pack of people constantly milling, constantly moving.
Half their streets right now are like empty. Really? In the morning? Yeah, I'm literally, I'm like flabbergasted at this as I'm looking through. I must have 10 different cameras up here that I can look at. Now, some of them are scary because they're water level cameras. So it's like when there's flooding. So you're looking at the meters for that. But yeah, a lot of the streets are just flat out empty.
Wow. Well, the Premier of Ontario, Canada, Doug Ford, has agreed to suspend its 25% surcharge on electricity exported to Michigan, Minnesota, and New York. Ford and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick issued a joint statement on the matter today, saying the two of them had a productive conversation about the economic relationship between the U.S. and Canada. Secretary Lutnik agreed to officially meet with Premier Ford in Washington on Thursday.
March 13th, alongside the United States Trade Representative to discuss a renewed USMCA, United States, Mexico, Canada agreement, ahead of the April 2nd reciprocal tariff deadline. Ford shared in a post on X. In response, Ontario agreed to suspend its 25% surcharge on exports of electricity to Michigan, Minnesota, and New York. Now, the agreement came after President Donald Trump threatened to impose further tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum or aluminium, electricity and vehicles on Tuesday.
in response to the Ontario Premier placing a 25% tariff on electricity coming to the U.S. Now, the thing that amazes me... is why, excuse me, why is it that we are dependent on another country? Canada is a friendly country, but sometimes you have a little... disagreements, and you have a guy over there saying, well, we're going to cut off electricity. Well, you know, that's pretty low. I'm sorry. Why not cut off food, too, while you're at it?
And so I think it's kind of incumbent upon America to generate its own electricity, to basically be independent and self-reliant. Does it mean we can't trade with people and work with people? But this is what happens when you don't control 100% of what you're supposed to do. And electricity is a vital... of a vital import, and you shouldn't be worrying about it. You should be producing it yourself. So maybe we will start thinking about how to make America great again.
by doing those kinds of things. It's funny, Mike. That is exactly what I said this morning. I literally was like, I don't understand this. We need to be energy self-sufficient with our oil, our gas, and then, of course, the electricity. There's no... If anything, maybe... We'll sell it to them. But we cannot rely on other people because of little tips just like this where they just said, you know what? We're just going to cut you off. We cannot do that to our people. We have to control it.
Well, especially when you have a guy who makes this statement and he's... going to be doing, or at least he's thinking about what he did. And he knows what this would be. This would be a tariff that the United States would have to pay. It would be about $400,000 extra a day across families and businesses. And it would add about $100 a month to the bills.
Americans that bust most people's budgets with right there on the low end So now you look at this and now you've got to add another hundred dollars for the basically the same electricity That you were using because this guy doesn't like Trump, or he's trying to throw his weight around, which is, you know, if you've seen him, you'll get the joke there. But it's like, what are you doing?
Is this it? Is this the best you've got? Because, you know, you will be brought to your knees quickly. And that's not what we want to do either. Nobody wants to do that.
Nobody wants to be at odds with a friend and a neighbor. Nobody wants to do that. But here's the problem. And this is something that I think Americans, if you haven't... heard this if you don't understand it i'm going to try to help you with this one because this is something and i and and the president should have been up front with this first he should have set the stage for what he wants to do
first then go ahead and implement his tariffs but he didn't do that and so now you let the media run the agenda and the media doesn't like him and so the media is going to run around saying oh the world is turning to you know what well it's not The market is worried and it's scared. And so when the market gets scared, things go down. And so the past few days, if you've got a 401k, it's now just a 401k.
Or just a 4-0. You've lost some money, but you haven't really lost anything until you sell it. So hang in there. That's my best. Advice it will come back because things usually tend to write themselves But here's the here's the real rub It's not these tariffs that Trump's trying to put in or the tariffs that the Canadians are doing in concert with what we are doing. The real problem is the reciprocal tariffs.
And one of the things, and I've talked about this, and now it's finally starting to rise up through the news, milk. 250% to 270% tariffs on American milk. So if you're a dairy farmer in a dairy state that borders Canada, and you're going to sell your milk, forget it. Who's going to buy it? Nobody. But, but, our tariffs on their milk are very low.
So their milk can come into our country and compete with our farmers, but our farmers can't sell their milk in their country. Now you tell me, how is that fair? It's not. It's not. So what needs to happen here is an equalization of that. We have to make sure that what we're charging them, they're charging us. And that's the real bottom line. And we've been doing this. This has been happening for years.
And so I think it's about time that maybe America recognized what's actually going on, and that's what's actually going on. So you want to have a level playing field? And free trade, great. Let's do that. But don't prohibit my products from coming into your country. All right, it's 445. Let's take a break. We'll come back. Back to the Mike Porcaro Show with Crash on NewsRadio 650.
Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on this beautiful Tuesday afternoon. Your Wednesday before temperatures warm back into the upper 30s by week's end. For Alaska's weather source, I'm meteorologist Aaron Morson. Well, welcome back, everybody. 522-0650. So, you know, I think that once people start understanding what exactly Trump is doing... it starts to make some more sense. Because right now, the way the news is handling it, it's like a guy who's just throwing tariffs up in the air.
And that's exactly what they're making it sound like, that he wants a trade war. Because I talked to my cousins, and that's literally, they didn't know anything about the fentanyl and the border and stuff like that. They were under the impression that Trump came in and just wanted basically a trade war. You're going to pay more, and you're going to do...
this and it riled him well the narrative that's going on and and i you know and trump whether he's joking trolling or doing doing whatever i mean and he does this he likes to he likes to poke at people But the whole idea of Canada should be our 51st state. You know, is he serious about it? It's hard for me to believe that he is. Truly. I mean, I think what he's trying to do is to say, why don't you work...
closely with us and be like our 51st state. I just don't see... What are you going to do, invade Canada? I mean, I don't see that. And I don't see... The fact that Canada is going to continue on its merry way here with these tariffs. And so I think what's going to happen is what he's done is he's done something that needed to happen years ago, which is to say, let's sit down, guys, and come up with something that is going to make sure that our trade is all fair.
As opposed to, I let your stuff in cheaper than you let my stuff in. And that's just not the way it should work. And so when the media gets a hold of this... It's a whole different story. And they spin it. And have you seen anything in the media that talked about what I just talked about? I haven't. Nope. But that's the story.
And I think Canadians and Americans need to understand what's actually going on. Because right now we have, you know, who's the biggest guy on the block? Who's the meanest, toughest guy on the block? You've got the folks in Canada going, yeah, well, we don't run, we drop the gloves. Okay, you know, look, it's great to play hockey and drop the gloves and we can punch each other in the nose and then hopefully go have a beer afterwards.
But that's not what this should be about. This should be about two countries that are allies and friends and lots and lots of trading going on between us, working together. But working together equally, that's the key. And what Trump has done is he's basically upset the apple cart. And I don't fault him for what he's done. I just think that it would have been better had they come out and done an explanation of the program before they did it.
Don't let the media set the agenda. Don't let the media tell everybody what's going on. That's the problem. You tell the media what's going on. And then let them go from there. Let's go to Tim. Hi, Tim. Hi, Tim. Daryl, is Tim there? Yes, can you hear me? Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Okay, well, I'm willing to give President Trump as much time as he needs to get this country straightened around.
I mean, basically for the last five decades, it's been pillaged. We've been on the end of it. So the man took a bullet for us on live TV. And the Democrats... The Democrats will never measure up to him. He is the greatest president, I believe. And the Dems are jealous because they'll never measure up. So... I'll give him as much time as he needs. I voted for him three times, and he's got our best interests in mind as a nation. But I think you get the point. Give the man a chance.
So, well, thank you. Sorry for cussing. I didn't mean it. All right. All right. Bye. Okay. 454-522-0650. Daryl, I hope you got that. Oh, yeah. Took it right out of there. Okay, all right. Yeah, sometimes people get a little vociferous. He wasn't trying to. Yeah, no, no, no. There was no harm, no foul on it other than that it's been removed from the airwave, so everybody's like, what? It's okay.
Check the podcast. Nothing happened. No, and I think Tim makes a good point. Let's give the guy a chance to set the record straight, and that's what we have to do. If we're going to have a level playing field, then let's have a level playing field. Exactly. A level playing field without a hill on one side of it and everybody saying, well, that's okay.
Yeah, because now it's your problem. You have to work twice as hard. Because who's going to buy your stuff if it costs so much more than the other guy's stuff? Nobody. But then the real rub comes when you have this... product coming in from a country that's charging high tariffs on your goods, and the exact same goods come into your country at a low tariff, and they compete with your people. That's just idiocy.
What sort of brain power does that take? Well, especially when a lot of the countries that we're up against in this will subsidize their own product. Yes. And so they're, A, getting it for cheaper than we can get it. They're getting their product for cheaper.
And like you said, we can't compete. And that's kind of what the word is, protectionism. Isn't that the proper word for that? Yeah. Well, then let's protect ourselves. Bingo. Yeah. So that's kind of where we are. Either let's protect ourselves. To the same degree you're protecting yourself or let's level it out totally. One way or another, it's going to get leveled out. And that's what Trump's trying to do. All right. We'll be back. Stay with us.
Here's to conversation over dinner out instead of over TV. Here's to places where they remember your name. And here's to the millions of Americans who, every night of the week, Enjoy adult beverages and drive responsibly. Drink responsibly. Drive responsibly. A message brought to you by the American Beverage Institute.
I don't know why my son would ruin himself with alcohol. Is someone's drinking breaking your heart? You might be surprised at what you can learn in an Al-Anon family group from people just like you. Call 1-888-4ALANON. Or go to alanon.org. It's Travel Tuesday, and Alaskans know what that means. Another great place to a great place. From Alaska Airlines Club 49. Mike Porcaro. Behind the mic of your 50,000-watt blowtorch.
News Radio 650 KENI. Live from Anchorage, it's your news and information blowtorch. Like having a conversation on your... For my Sunshine here, 37 in Palmer, 39 in Soldotna, 37 in Homer, Talkeetna is at 35, Fairbanks is at 20, and minus 7 up in Prudhoe Bay. Well, we've got fluoride here in the water, do we not, Darrell? Yes, yes, we do. We'll figure that out. Remember when the assembly, when Mayor Bronson cut the fluoride? Yep.
you know, a couple hours or something, and the assembly went nuts. Remember that? Yeah, they lost their mind over it. Yeah, they were like, oh my gosh, you know, the worst thing that could ever happen. Everybody's teeth is going to fall out. Yeah, well, you know, it's interesting because Utah, the state of Utah, is set to place a ban on fluoride in public drinking water, making it the first state to ban fluoride in the drinking water.
The bill, House Bill 81, awaits Governor Spencer Cox's signature, setting a precedent as the first state to put a ban in place. told Fox News that she's been working on this policy since early last year, noting that fluoride is federally regulated as a prescription drug. Yeah, well, it's got a lot of, I mean, there's dangerous things to it out there. Well, community water fluoridation is informed consent, she says, which is foundational.
to good health care. And when you have good health care and you don't have informed consent, you can't have the two. You've got to have them both. She said, I believe strongly in individual choice when it comes to what prescriptions we put in our body. Okay, that makes sense. She said, only two of Utah's 29 counties practice community fluoridation allowing the opportunity to find data for children's tooth decay.
With a sample size of more than 70,000 children from the last 12 months, there is no significant difference between counties that add fluoride and those that do not. Now, I'm sure there are people out there that are going to take issue with that. Maybe they are, maybe they're not. But I'm just telling you what they found in Utah. More than 200 million people in the United States receive fluoridated water through community water programs.
Grand Rapids, Michigan, was the first city to implement water fluoridation in 1945, according to the CDC. The American Dental Association President Brad Kessler told the Associated Press, got tried and true evidence of the safety and efficacy of the public health initiative with the additional fluoride in the water. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Make America Healthy Again supporters have been outspoken about banning fluoride. Fluoride is an industrial waste.
associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopment disorders, and thyroid disease, Kennedy wrote on X in November. That doesn't sound too good. A study published in Environmental Health Perspectives on July 20, 2012 conducted by researchers from Harvard found strong indications that fluoride may adversely affect Cognitive development in children. So you kind of wonder, you know, what are the benefits and what are the...
Downs down stubs strokes here Meanwhile the American Dental Association says that fluoridation the water Has basically reduced cavities in the 20th century? So, I guess then the question is at what cost and what's the science? Well, one of the things that makes me think of Mike is they made us remove lead from everything because lead caused, you know...
Dehabilitating effects to our mind and our children. Then we're going to start adding something into our water that does the same thing. Well, not the same thing because it's not lead, but similar. That's what they're saying. You know, we've got fluoride in the water in Anchorage. Did anybody ask me if I wanted it? No. I don't have fluoride in my water because I have a well. And you're on a mountaintop.
So it's kind of like, okay, I guess if I wanted to put fluoride in it, I could. I don't wish to do that. I'm happy with the water I've got. But, you know, if you're in the city... you're going to get fluoridated water. Now, is it a danger? I don't know. We don't know over time. I mean, has it reduced cavities? Apparently it has.
Is it safe? Scientists have said it is, but then you've got other scientists who say it's not, and it causes all these things. So I guess the question is, how much is the right amount? How much is too much, and should you have it in there at all? And the real question here, I think, comes back to your own civil liberties, which is, I didn't tell you to put it in the water.
I don't want it in the water. Can I get water from the city or from the water utility that doesn't have fluoride in it? And the answer is you probably can't. And the answer is there's water companies around town. If you want water to drink, you can go, and I see a lot of people doing this, they go and fill up, you know, jugs of water at these, you know, water places.
and take them home and have basically that or a water cooler in their home that doesn't have fluoride in it. So I suppose you have to do that, but you have to pay extra, right, for that. I guess the assembly may have to grapple with this at some point, because if we start looking at this...
How many cities in Alaska do we know? I'm actually looking at that right now, Mike. And so far, the only cities I'm finding with fluoride in Alaska, let's see, I've got Kodiak, Dillingham, Bethel. I think Juno took it off. Juno took it off. They do not have it in their water. anymore, or at least not added to their water, because some places have natural fluoride in the water. Anchorage, so far I've come up with Bethel, Dillingham, Kodiak, Anchorage, and...
Well, J-Bear, but they're part of Anchorage. This is a huge list I'm scrolling here. And that's, oh, what's this one? Gnome. Gnome has got a fluoride in their water. Gnome, that's another Gnome. Let's see here. You know, I didn't find Barrow. Barrow has it in theirs. Looks like some of the military bases up there do, but I haven't found just straight Fairbanks yet. Yeah, North Slope Borough does. Arctic Northwest, Buckland has it.
Cotsview has it. So it's kind of scattered. I mean, literally, though, the majority of it, Sitka's got it. Oh, Fort Greeley. There we go. Maybe I'm getting close to Fairbanks here. Like I said, the way they've set this list up, it's not necessarily... Alphabetical. Who's that? Who's that? Yeah, it's interesting that Juno took it away. There's a bastion of liberalism if I've ever seen one. It's interesting, though. Juno took it away, but I'm on this site. It's basically a fluoride site.
where it's all about fluoride across the whole United States. And it still says Juno has fluoride in its water, but I think it's because it's naturally occurring. Yeah, I don't think they add fluoride. No, no, they definitely don't. That is on the list that they do not add it. So I've got to look into that more to see if it is naturally occurring. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the city assembly or...
government or whatever it is down there, decided that they didn't want fluoride. We've got listeners in Juneau, so if you're down in Juneau, tell me. You guys have fluoride in your water? I'd like to know what else is in the water down there. That would also be helpful. Oh, man. I still don't think it's the water. I think it is that when our legislators get down there, somebody brings them a plate of cookies, and that's it right there.
Yeah, well, I think there's some sort of thing going on down there. They're adding something to the water. I think they are. All right, 517. We'll be right back. Report traffic problems to NewsRadio 650 KE&I by dialing pound 250 on your wireless phone and saying total traffic. All right, welcome back. It is 521. Let's go to Dan Kendall. Hi, Dan. Hi, Mike. You enjoying the sunshine? I am. I don't know if you heard Jeff Moenfels on earlier.
But I'll tell you what, he was enjoying it, too. But unfortunately, we can't do anything outside. No planting yet, is what he said. Yeah, he said, don't mow your lawn yet, and that kind of thing. But I was out actually raking, so I guess I'll have to stop that. Yes. Well, I'm a senior citizen now, and I have my share of senior moments, and so one of my friends gave me a book.
Can I say the name of the book? Sure, go ahead. Regenesis, The Brain Doctor's Guide to Health. And in the book, it tells you what to do as a senior citizen. And one of the things to avoid is... fluoride. Really? Fluoride isn't good for your brain. But it did say to have good dental health and keep your teeth clean and rinse your mouth and all that kind of stuff. It gave me a bunch of other things, too, but since you're talking about fluoride, we need to know all the facts, I guess. Exactly.
And we've had it in our water system for a long time. You were on the assembly. Do you remember when it went in? No, I don't. I'm just kind of assuming it was there when I moved to Anchorage. That was when I was 12. Well, that was in 1850. Yeah, something like that. Just having fun with you, Dan. We need to have a good discussion on this. And, you know, as people put lead in things as discussed earlier, we need to have a good scientific discussion on flora. Yes. And teeth cleaning.
The defense for it is, well, it stopped all these cavities and that kind of thing. But we need to have a good, thorough discussion. Well, maybe we need to get a couple of dentists on or something. And just have them talk about in their practice what they see. And I know there's a couple of places. We kind of went through some of the places in Alaska that don't put fluoride in. Juneau, I thought, was an interesting place because it's kind of a progressive town.
Didn't always used to be that way, but it's kind of a progressive town, and they don't have fluoride. I would think that they would probably be a place where they would be putting fluoride in the water. Mm-hmm. But people do things for different reasons, and so we need to, I guess, kind of understand what they're doing. Well, even sometimes, Dan, when we understand what they're doing, it still doesn't make any sense.
Particularly in Juneau. Yes, exactly. Hey, on another topic, the anniversary for the Great Alaska Earthquake is coming up on March 27th. Right, and I was going to mention that you should call in because you had offered to do that, and I would love to hear your reminiscences of what that was like. My sweet, lovely wife... was here at the time, and she said that's something that you don't forget. No, I remember that better than what I did yesterday. So, yeah, no, I'd love to have you...
I'd love to have you come by, you know, or call in and just kind of go through it. I think it would be great. Did you get my e-mail? Yes, I did. I got your e-mail, and it would be great to have you on. Okay. I'll plan on that. I'll probably call in at 4.30 or something in case there's some news right before that. But the story is we all need to be prepared because we live in Alaska.
And the volcano can go off. We can have a tidal wave from the Aleutian Islands. You know, many things can happen. And so we just need to be prepared. Yeah, we do. And especially, you know, we were talking to the governor a couple weeks back, and he was talking about, you know, what would happen if that port closed. Now, did the port close during the 64 earthquake? The Anchorage port didn't, but the Port of Valdez, Cordova, Kodiak. Right.
a lot of other ports closed, and so it was very difficult to get food to those places. Yeah, exactly. Well, Valdez, there wasn't much... much recognizable in Valdez. No, there wasn't. We need to be prepared because in Valdez, just heads up, we had the earthquake and Tank farm, both tank farms caught on fire. But the next day, the army from Fort Wainwright came down and brought supplies and food.
And bail Valdez out. So that kind of stuff happens. But you need to prepare for the immediate situation. Absolutely. And we just had, you know, I remember in 2018 we had that 7.2. And, you know, that was the biggest one I've ever been through. I think it was 5.6 in 18. Well, we had a big one, didn't we? It was.
And that earthquake, it was kind of random at the damage it did. It knocked this house down and took down this approach ramp to the highway. And I had to place a couple doors in the house. Yeah, Eagle River kind of got some damage. It's funny because like every place else, one house was down, another house was still standing up. I think everybody had some damage to their homes. We were lucky. We lost a glass. That's it. That's the only damage we had. That was good.
But, yeah, I look forward to talking about the Great Alaska Earthquake. And if you look that up online, I've told my story in several different ways to different publications, and so it would be good to... Look that up ahead of time, and then we'll have a good discussion on the 27th. Sounds good. All right, Dan, I appreciate that as always. We look forward to it. Okay, take care. You bet. All right, 528. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. NewsRadio 650. KENI. 533. Welcome back.
We did find out that the Palmer, Fairbanks, and Juneau do not add fluoride to the water. So that kind of answers that question. Kathy, you're on. Hi, Kathy. Hey, Mike. I've never let a dentist put fluoride in my teeth. Ever since I heard this, I don't know, I was listening to something years ago, that fluoride is like a byproduct. I think of rat poison or something, and that the Nazis used it. I can't remember the exact detail. They used it on the people in the concentration camps. And that...
And that it disrupts something with your thyroid. What? I've never had a dentist put that in my mouth. That's what... So Robert Kennedy was talking about that. He mentioned all the things in neurological problems. Again, the question is how much. It's good versus bad, and I think it's going to have to be up to people in various jurisdictions to determine whether or not they want to have it in their water at all. If they do, then have it in there. If they don't...
Utah did something which I think is interesting because they were saying that they don't want to have it in their water. They're banning it because there's not informed consent. Now, I don't know when we put it in our water up here in 1953, I believe, if we had any sort of vote.
of whatever we had. We had a borough and a city government at the time. If we had a vote on that or the people voted on it, I don't know. We were still a territory, but that didn't mean we... couldn't make determinations for our own cities. So I don't know how it happened, but it's been in there. And I just remember the big to-do that happened when Bronson stopped the fluoride flow for, you know, five hours or something.
I thought there were a couple of people on the assembly that were going to have, they went into a conniption or something. It's like, relax, you know. But I think they like to be in conniptions. Whatever a conniption is, I don't know. It can't be good. No, it sounds pretty bad. Yeah, well, you know, hey. He connipt his conniption.
That's right. Sounds like something from the Borscht Belt. Well, I'm sure it is. Don't do it with the conniptions. Get out. Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, now we know that you are fluoride-free. Yeah, I have a well. Yeah, well, you know, I like having a well. Yeah, I love that well. All right, well, I appreciate that, Kathy. You have fun. You have fun, too. And the Kenai Safe. Oh, yeah, I will. Okay. Okay, bye. All right. 522-0650. So...
Darrell, you were mentioning some countries in Europe that don't have fluoride. And I thought it was an interesting list. Yeah, it's actually quite the sizable list also. I didn't realize how many countries in Europe did not have it. Let's see, it's Italy, France, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Hungary, and... Switzerland all do not have fluoride in their water. Wow. That's like most of the industrialized Europe. Yeah, that is. Well...
Again, it's going to be something that I think individual jurisdictions need to determine for themselves. Do you want it or not? I don't... I mean, I'm hearing two sides of a story. But the one thing I do know is that you can buy... fluoride toothpaste so if you really want to you know put fluoride on your teeth and stuff you can brush your teeth with fluoride toothpaste but that's your choice you know you don't have to do that So I mean, I'm not a dentist.
So I don't know any more than what I'm reading. And, you know, you read something about how wonderful it is in terms of preventing tooth decay and dental health. Then you read something else that said it's not... Not good. You know what's really funny here, Mike? I just had to look because after I read that list of European nations that don't have it, England, Britain, does fluoride their water, and we all know about British teas.
Okay. Maybe it had to do with the care of the teeth as opposed to the fluoride. I don't know. Now, I've got cousins from England, and their teeth are nice. I shouldn't have generalized all of them. But, I mean, that's that kind of, you know, that fat American, the fat American, the Brit with bad T's. Right. Well, there's always some truth to stereotypes, right?
Some small grain of sand always in there. I mean, I fit the American one. I'm fat and American, and I should probably be British because I got really bad teeth, so. Okay. All right, 539. 522-0650. The doc will be in tomorrow. He's in tonight, too. He will be on live tonight at 6.05, and then he will be joining us at 4.05. Tomorrow, live, we've got some questions for him. If you have a question for the doc and you wish that he answers it, well then, here's what I'm suggesting. Send it to me.
at blowtorch907 at gmail.com. That's blowtorch907 at gmail.com, and I will make sure that the doc gets it, and he can take a whack at it for you. All right, let's go to Dustin. Hi, Dustin. Hello, how are you today? I'm good. How are you? Oh, no complaints. The sun is out, so it's a good day. Yeah. So really quick, I don't want to take up your airtime, but...
When I was growing up, I'm in my 40s now, but I was always told that fluoride puts holes in your brain and it makes people conform. It makes people obey better. So I don't know how deep of a rabbit hole that is, but that's what I was always told. So thank you for your time, though. Thank you very much. You bet. Have a great evening.
Thank you, Dustin. I appreciate that. So right along the lines of what he's talking there, Mike, that kind of goes back to what Kathy was saying about the rumors of the Nazis using it. Now, this has not been proven. There's a lot of people who say it's not true. said that they used it at that time was to make the prisoners docile, because I guess that's supposedly one of its, quote, side effects.
Just so, so happy after I brush my teeth. I don't know. We'll see if we get riots in Utah after this. I don't think so. No? Okay. People in Utah are fairly well behaved. Utah's not one of these places where there's trouble. You know? I mean, you didn't see riots in Salt Lake City. You know, the people in Utah seem to be well-behaved and have a sense of community and a sense of a social contract with one another.
Utah doesn't seem like an angry state to me. Oregon, eastern Oregon, doesn't seem angry. Western Oregon does, but not eastern Oregon. I don't know. All right, 522-0650. Let's go to Chuck. Hi, Chuck. Hey, Mike. How are you doing today? I'm good, thanks. I was going to say, that explains something. If the fluoride makes people listen and obey, that must be what the mainstream media is feeding the liberals. Okay. That probably explains it.
I mean, if you look at all major cities, they're really liberal and they all use fluoride. They do, yes. Including ours. Yeah, see, there you go. It's kind of starting to come around and understandable now. Yeah, I'm beginning to see the light here, Chuck. Yeah, the shining of the poor IT. Yeah, you've got to live in a place with a well, and then you can kind of do whatever you want.
Well, if you look at all the rural areas, you know, like in the big states, they all probably would live on some kind of well water, and they're all conservative, so it's kind of making sense now. Okay, so there we go. Fluoride equals liberal. Okay. Exactly. All right, Chuck. Have a good day. Thank you. You too. All right, 5.43. Why don't we take our break, and we'll be right back. Now, back to the Mike Porcaro Show with Crash on NewsRadio 650 KENI.
Some research over the break about fluoride and foods which contain said fluoride. And I'm very surprised at finding out which of these foods do contain fluoride. I guess one of the highest... fluoride levels is in potatoes, particularly russet potatoes. They have a large amount of it in it. And then they said grapes is another one. And those you can get a lot of it from because there's so many ways you can eat them and use them. You can get more fluoride into
your system, but here's a few of the things that got it. Seafood, blue crab, oatmeal, coffee, tea, black tea, spinach, a wide variety of vegetables have it, wine. You don't need fluoride, Mike. You've got it in all your wine. You're probably getting plenty of it there. I know. So that's the main ones I've seen. I mean, they've listed a couple others like generic, like fish and stuff like that. But I literally was very surprised at the natural levels of fluoride out there.
Right, and it's in the food, but it's a small amount. Oh, very small amount, very small amount. And that's part of why they said they needed to add it to the water, was because you really had to eat so much of these different foods to... get the fluoride levels up up in you um and so they said you know what let's just you know throw it in the water but now we've got it in the toothpaste so it kind of is a moot point as far as i can figure
Well, I mean that's a you know, that's a question that your dentist certainly can answer right for you And I think some people have questions they should talk to their dentist. That's the person that you trust with your oral health, and that's the person you should be listening to because...
They care about your oral health. They're your dentist. You know, you're their patient. They want to make sure they take good care of you. And good care is important. But like anything else, you've got to be a part of the good care.
kind of follow through on what the recommendations are as well. All right, 548. Ukraine today accepted a deal put forward by the Trump administration during a meeting in Saudi Arabia, which is a significant step forward in securing a ceasefire agreement and bringing an end to the war with Russia. We'll take this offer to the Russians, and we hope that they say yes, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio. We hope the Russians answer to that.
He said the best goodwill gesture the Russians can provide is to say yes. In response to Keeve's willingness to accept Washington's hard-fought preliminary proposal, President Donald Trump agreed to lift a pause on U.S. security assistance to Ukraine, effectively immediately. and renewed U.S. intelligence sharing, Rubio said if and once Moscow agrees to the preliminary agreement,
The real negotiations can then commence. This is very serious. Today people will die in this war. They died yesterday, and sadly, unless there's a ceasefire tonight, they'll die tomorrow. The President wants this to stop. We've gone from this war is going to end to how will this war end, said Mr. Walls from the State Department. Issues involving the return of children abducted by Russians and the return of prisoners of war will be addressed in a second phase of negotiations.
It was confirmed today that the Trump administration and the Ukrainian delegation discussed substantive details on security guarantees to ensure lasting peace between the two nations that neither Kyiv nor Washington and have yet confirmed the elements of those discussions. Both delegations agreed to name their negotiating teams and immediately began negotiations toward an enduring peace.
that provides for Ukraine's long-term security. The United States committed to discussing these specific proposals with representatives Meanwhile, the Ukrainian delegation reiterated that European partners shall be involved in the peace process. Rubio said a mineral deal will also be discussed at a future date. So this is kind of what's going on after the fractured meeting and discussions that happened in the White House a couple of three weeks ago.
Sounds like maybe these talks will get on track and a ceasefire hopefully takes effect and then the serious negotiations of... Ending this very, very brutal conflict will take place. It's horrible. It's just horrible. Horrible, devastating, and it is going to have effects for 50 years down the line. All those men and women and children that have been, had limbs taken off of them. This is Russian and Ukrainian. That's going to make a huge impact.
later on in the years for medical care for them. And it's kind of weird, though. You notice that for three years we've been told... There's no way to negotiate a peace in this war. This war is just, it's going to be fought out to the end, all of this. And when Trump said, you know what, I can solve this, you know, this quickly, and everybody laughed at him. Now, he wasn't able to do it on his first day in office because nobody would let him.
But he's been in office, what, just about, oh, just over a month, like 40-some days, something like that, 45 days. Am I right in that? Yeah. Maybe it's a little longer. Well, the 20th of January is when he was sworn in. So 10, 40, yeah, about 50 days in there. And he's already got them now at the table. with the ceasefire and i mean like i said even though some of them are throwing temper tantrums um things actually getting done well and i think that it has to get done i mean there's there's
There's a whole generation of Ukrainian young men that are gone, along with Russian young men that are gone. I mean, Putin started the thing. For whatever reasons, Putin starts things. And, you know, you look at all of the brutality of this, and it just has to stop. You can't continue with this. you're going to destroy two countries. Well, the method of warfare is just so crazy. I don't know how many people out there have actually watched...
what they're using and stuff, but their weapons are just psycho crazy. I mean, I watched a video where they used a drone that poured... Oh, I'm having a brain lock on what it was. Extremely flammable mixture of charcoal, aluminum, and rust. It is thermite. That's what it is. They actually had these drones flying and dropping thermite.
in these forests and literally lighting everybody up and on fire. And thermite is, if you don't know what it is, it is horrible, horrible stuff. Yeah. It just immediately starts a hot, hot fire. So I just, you know, it's a situation where no one wins these things. Only people that wins are the weapons producers and the ones who go in afterwards to clean it up. Because the other thing, once this is all over with...
We've got to clean out millions of cluster bombs, those little packets, those deadly little packets that have been dropped all over Ukraine and Russia. And in the meantime, we've got, I know there's a Ukrainian population here in Alaska, and I would hope that these folks can find some comfort and solace in our country. They've been through hell. And I think it's time. When you see stuff like this happening, this is when there is a reason why you open your arms and take people in.
That's a difference to me than somebody just jumping across the border because they want to come to the country. Huge difference. Anyway, let's hope that this thing takes place and holds because... Then you've got Gaza. There's another problem. You kind of wonder why anybody wanted to be president. I mean, you look at all the trouble spots in the world.
And, you know, it would drive you nuts in terms of what's going on. And you think to yourself, you know, maybe people could get along, and then the answer is now they can't. It's ingrained in multi-generations for one group to not like another group. And that's okay if we don't like the other group. Just don't kill each other.
Try to figure out how to live together. And that's kind of how the world should work. But it doesn't work that way all the time. What you're saying there is it's kind of like the history of the world part two. Yep. Anyway, Doc is coming up. He will be on live, Daryl, with you tonight. Yep, he's power napping right now. At 6.05. And then tomorrow... The doc will be joining us live as he does every Wednesday. And I've got a number of questions for him. And it should be fun.
He has a lot of fun being challenged by some of the questions and answering them. And so don't miss that. That's just one of the highlights.