Thursday, Jun 25: A Beloved Local Meteorologist Is Retiring

Today on the pod, we're talking to Joan, a method actor and Scratchers enthusiast. So, Joan, what do you like about playing Scratchers? Well, as a method actor, it's about becoming the ticket. Scratching up, down, stage left, stage right. So what's your motivation? Because your performance feels so real. Oh, I was just tapping into my inner Scratchers. Incredible. Yes. Bravo me! Scratchers, from the California Lottery. A little play can make your day. Please play responsibly. Must be 18 years or older to purchase, play, or claim. WBSN presents the Tim Weisberg Show. Streaming live on WBSN.com and the WBSN app. Call 508-996-0500. Send us app chat messages and open line voicemails using the WBSN app. The Tim Weisberg Show. Welcome back in. Hour number two of the program on Thursday morning. 508-996-0500. App chat and open line voicemails on the WBSN app. And got an app chat message from Mr. M who says, you had a great question the other day about what city council person you would like to see as mayor. Let's flip it. What city council person would you not want as a mayor? I mean, you can certainly answer that if you'd like to. 508-996-0500 or app chat or open line voicemails on the WBSN app. For me, I don't really have a preference. What I would like to see is I would like to see whoever is running for mayor next for there to be a serious challenger. It's been a long time since we've had a mayoral race in New Bedford that was a serious race. And not trying to belittle those who have run against Mayor Mitchell, but they just don't have the financial capability, the fundraising capability, and honestly, the resume to defeat John Mitchell. I mean, his last two elections were against Tyson Moultrie, who the first one, the first campaign, I would say was a disaster because, I mean, he stormed in here to get on, it was just, it was not well thought out. And then the second time around, it was so under the radar. I don't even think people remember that he ran against him. I think Charlie Perry had a good approach. I just don't think he could match up to the fundraising ability and the support that Mayor Mitchell had. So it's been a while, and I'd like to just see a competitive race, whether Mayor Mitchell runs again or not. But I'd like to see, obviously, if he doesn't, then it will certainly be a competitive race. And I don't know what that fundraiser on Monday night means. Would you be having a fundraiser like that just to be a mayor when you've already got $400,000 in your account, according to the Office of Campaign and Political Finance? So if you've got $410,000 and your last three races here in New Bedford were not anything you really had to spend a lot of money on, because Mayor Mitchell never makes a decision in April that he's going to be running again, and then starts spending money in April. He waits until the summer to decide. And so if that's the case, if you are running later, you're certainly not spending as much money. But when you're already the incumbent mayor, you don't have to spend as much money. Somebody else needs to raise $400,000 to be able to compete with him. Maybe not that much, but still a significant amount of money. So I think you're trying to raise more funds if you're trying to raise your profile. And maybe that's the case. Maybe the children being older, college age or beyond, then you say, okay, well, now I don't have to be home as much. So now I could work in Boston. Now I could be traveling to Boston every day. Now maybe, and again, just speculation here, but maybe I don't need to stay in New Bedford. Maybe we could sell our home and live closer to Boston. It certainly would be probably easier for everybody in this family, right? So we'll keep an eye on that. We'll speculate about it, because that's all we can do, because you know how tightly he plays everything to the vest when it comes to that. 508-996-0500. I wanted to bring something up to you that if you're not aware of, do you watch WCVB, Channel 5? Do you watch their local newscasts? If you do, you're probably familiar with the meteorologist that they've had on for a couple of decades now, more than 20 years at WCVB, Mike Wellingham. Mike Wellingham announced last night on the air that he would be retiring at the end of June. So he will be stepping down, and the weeknight role will go to Chief Meteorologist Cindy Fitzgibbon. And Kellyanne, I don't know how you, is it Cicely's, Chickalee's? She's the weekend. I don't get to see any of the weekend news. She's going to be the new weekday, eye-opener and midday meteorologist. And they're going to be hiring a new, or announcing the new weekend meteorologist in the coming weeks. But as you know, there's been a lot of shakeup lately in the Boston news media. There's been a number of people, if you follow any of them on social media like I do, you've seen a lot of them make the announcement that they're stepping away. It's not that they're even stepping away and going to another station, which is what normally happens. So the people who work in the Boston market generally, they start off somewhere else. They start off on a smaller market, and then they work their way up to Boston. And then they might move on from Boston to an even bigger role, New York or LA or Chicago or a national position. And that goes for anybody, reporters, meteorologists, anchors, anybody. But what you've seen instead is a lot of these folks are just transitioning out of the media industry. And I think there's a couple of things. I'm sure behind the scenes, there are cutbacks in these companies. And they realize that maybe meteorology is one of those areas. Because that is one job that I think is in danger of getting replaced by artificial intelligence. A person that gives you the weather on television isn't just a weather person. They're a scientist. They're a meteorologist. They study, and they make the predictions. And they consult with other meteorological sources to see what they're saying to come up with a consensus idea of what they think the forecast will be. It's not like it was back in the old days when I could go apply for a job as a TV weatherman because I have a broadcasting background. I mean, people don't want to see me on their TV every day. But I have a broadcasting background, so I would go and do that. The weather people could also be the people who played Bozo the Clown. That was the mindset that they had about it. It was just somebody to stand up in front of a map and talk about the information that they got from somewhere else about what the forecast would be. But as people wanted more and more accurate weather, or at least as accurate as you can get, then they needed to bring on the actual meteorologists who are the ones that were figuring out that. So instead of just putting a talking head on TV that would read the meteorologist report, the meteorologists went to work for the TV stations. And yes, they were looking for the ones that were visually appealing as well. But now in 2026, I think accuracy matters and delivery matters more than appearance necessarily. I say that knowing that most of the meteorological people that we have around here are also not terrible to look at. But that's kind of the evolution of that job. And so maybe AI is stepping into that role of becoming that new predictor. And then if that's the case, you get back to the point where, well, we don't need a scientist to deliver this information anymore. We just need somebody who can speak and point to a map. And maybe some of these meteorologists are saying, I don't need to be around for that. I can go work for the National Weather Service or somewhere where what I'm passionate about still matters. So that might be something for the meteorology side of things. Reporting, I just think that they're saying, we don't need to have as many people out there in the field. We can get more user-submitted content. There's all kinds of reasons why they wouldn't have as many field reporters. And then sometimes I think it is just that the industry is changing so much that they're cutting back in how much they can pay these folks and they can go make more money. A reporter leaves reporting, leaves journalism to go work for a PR firm and instantly makes more money. So unless you're one of the really big Boston TV anchors, you're probably gonna make more money working for a PR firm. So that's why I think a lot of this is a variety of different reasons why people are stepping down. But in the case of a guy like Mike Wonkum, he's been doing this for 35 years on Boston television, 20 years with WCVB. It's probably time for him to not have to get up and go to work every day. He just wants to retire. And I remember him from Channel 56 because my grandparents were big viewers of the news at 10. My grandfather usually went to bed either, if not at 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock, he would go to bed after the news at 10. My grandmother would stay up a little bit later. She'd usually turn in about midnight because she would watch the news and then she would watch Perry Mason reruns. Because I would sleep on the living room floor when I slept over her house. And so I'd just be down there in my sleeping bag while she was watching Perry Mason. So I watched a bunch of Perry Mason too. But that was their routine. So I got to know Mike Wonkum as the meteorologist on the news at 10 on 56. I didn't even realize until a few years ago that he was on Channel 5 because I don't really pay that much attention to local news. I thought Cindy Fitzgibbon was on Channel 25 until a few years ago when I realized, oh, she's moved over to Channel 5. But that's kind of the nature of it. People move around. We used to have Christina Shalhoub giving us the news in the morning when we were tied in with ABC 6. She's now at Channel 7 in Boston. So people move around. It's not uncommon. But this is a well-deserved retirement and an opportunity now for someone to get in there on the weekends. And now the question becomes, does WCVB hire a meteorologist to fill that role? Or do they look for somebody who can just deliver the forecast on camera and they say, well, we can get the information elsewhere. We can get the information from AI. See, AI to me still hallucinates way too much for me to depend on it for the weather. It could just say, and there's a chance for a snowstorm this weekend. Like, what? What are you talking about? And then you would say to it, why do you think there's a chance for a snowstorm? Explain. And it would say something like, oh, I guess I was imagining that. Thank you for catching me. Like, no, no, no, we don't want that. So anyway, congratulations to Mike Willinkum on his retirement and on a great career. And on giving us what I always thought was a pretty accurate forecast, as accurate as you can be anyway. 508-996-0500, app chat and open line voicemails on the WBSM app. And if you wanna read more about Mike and his career and see his goodbye, you can check that out. Although he's still there till the end of the month. But you can see that on WCVB's website, wcvb.com. But they also had a story, though, that I read this this morning. And so in Hanson, there's an apartment building, like one of those townhouse-style apartment buildings. And a nine-year-old boy was seriously injured after he fell from a third-story window yesterday afternoon. And when the first responders arrived, they found him suffering from serious injuries. He was treated at the scene, excuse me, and then taken by ambulance to a medical helicopter, and was flown to a Boston-area trauma center. So no other details were given about what happened, about who was watching him at the time, how did he fall. But when you look at this, I mean, I don't know how to predict the fall that he would have taken. But generally, a story is assumed to be 10 to 15 feet. I don't know if there's an exact measurement. But basically, the rule of thumb I was always taught is it's 10 to 15 feet for each floor. Because you might go in and you might have a 10-foot ceiling. And then there's a little bit of space between your ceiling and the person above you's floor. And so you probably got 10 to 15, at the most, 20 feet between stories. So I can't really judge this. But I'd say 30 to 50 feet seems like a good bet based on this photo that I'm looking at. That's a hell of a fall. I had a cousin that had to jump out of a third-floor window during a fire and shattered both of her wrists and I think her forearms. But she survived. She's OK now. But that made TV news back then. We went to visit her. We're like, hey, you were on TV. But that was a very scary situation because she jumped down onto a concrete sidewalk. And if she hadn't braced herself properly by putting her arms out in front of her, that might have been her head bouncing off the concrete or her neck snapping. So she was very lucky. Or maybe something else stepped in. 508-996-0500, app chat, open line voicemails in the WBSM app. Let me get a break in here. We'll be back in a few moments. Today on the pod, we're talking to Joan, a method actor and Scratchers enthusiast. So Joan, what do you like about playing Scratchers? Well, as a method actor, it's about becoming the ticket. Scratching up, down, stage left, stage right. So what's your motivation? Because your performance feels so real. Oh, I was just tapping into my inner Scratchers. Incredible. Yes. Bravo me. Scratchers from the California Lottery. A little play can make your day. Please play responsibly. Must be 18 years or older to purchase, play or claim. Maybe it was a family vacation or a school field trip. But there you were, standing in awe at a national park. We are the National Park Foundation. And together with you, we're creating a future where every person, every generation gets their chance at an unforgettable moment. Today, tomorrow, forever. Donate at nationalparks.org slash foundation. How's Tommy doing now? Much better. You said it was asthma? Yeah, he started with this cough and then he was wheezing. That's terrifying. Doctors said hidden triggers can make it worse. Things like dust, mold and even pests. Pests? Yeah, droppings and allergens from cockroaches and rodents can seriously impact children with asthma or allergies. I had no idea. We're making sure our home stays pest free. Don't let pests put your family's health at risk. Visit pestworld.org to learn more. A public service message from the National Pest Management Association. Wake up weekday mornings with the Tim Weisberg Show. 1420 AM and 99.5 FM WBSM. All right. We have a few moments here before we're going to go to the news. And then when we come back after the news, we will have today's edition of the Gen X Files brought to you by Rewind Restaurant and Arcade in Wareham. We want to remind you that WBSM wants to see your patriotic pride with our Red, White and You photo contest. To celebrate America's 250th birthday, we're looking for your best Red, White and Blue photos. Show us your family, your pets, your backyard barbecue, your holiday decorations, whatever shows your all-American spirit. You can upload your photo onto the contest page at WBSM.com or on the WBSM app and then get your friends and family ready to vote starting next Monday, June 29th. The winning photo scores a $250 Amazon gift card and will crown the champion on July 4th. There's just a few simple rules. No professional photos. No AI images. Just real South Coast pride. Enter now in the Red, White and You photo contest at WBSM.com and on the WBSM app. All right, so we are going to go to the news. Before that, though, we got an app chat message from Becky. Becky, we had asked the question of, you know, what city council would you like to see run for mayor, be the next mayor? And Mr. M said, how about asking them which one they would not want to see be the mayor? And Becky wrote in and said, I want Mary for mayor. You know, she'd get the job done. So if you'd like to see Mary run for mayor, you can encourage her to run. She's got a lot of ideas, that's for sure. But could you imagine midweek with the mayor, midweek with Mayor Mary, giving her a microphone here on WBSM for an entire hour and having her interact with callers? That would, I would vote for that. I don't know how well she would do with the rest of the job, but I would vote for at least that portion of it. All right, we got to go to the news here. When we come back, we'll have the Gen X files. Stick around for that. But now Mike is going to tell you all of the top stories of the day. Big decisions expected from the Supreme Court today, an airport death reported in Iowa, and the Mega Millions jackpot close to a half billion dollars. From the Cottage Street Motors WBSM Newsroom, this is WBSM News. Some major decisions could be coming from the Supreme Court today. The justices set a self-imposed deadline to finish their work by the end of June. And there also are decisions involving several high-profile cases yet to be released. They include transgender athlete bans and President Trump's birthright citizenship order. A woman was pronounced dead at the Des Moines International Airport yesterday. Emergency responders and police responded to the scene and performed life-saving measures. However, the woman died before getting to the hospital. Police do not believe any criminal actions contributed to her death. An autopsy is scheduled. New information coming out about a deadly fall at Madison Square Garden. It happened during a Goose concert on Saturday night when 51-year-old Paul Cukor fell over a plexiglass barrier. Witnesses are now claiming the man appeared to be drunk before that fatal fall. The victim was reportedly with his wife celebrating their 25th anniversary. Police do not suspect any foul play, and the medical examiner has yet to determine the exact cause of death. In New York, I'm Liz Ratabali. June is Migraine and Headache Awareness Month. Dr. Imad Emestilek, a migraine specialist at Cleveland Clinic says the extreme weather, whether it's cold or heat, changes in the barometric pressure, like when temperatures drop quickly and intense storms, can all trigger a migraine. Always have your good rescue or abortive medication on you because the earlier in a migraine phase where you take your rescue medication, the more likely you're going to prevent the migraine from occurring. In addition, strong-smelling perfume and drinking too much caffeine can also cause a migraine. The doctor recommends folks drink plenty of water during the summer to help prevent them. Doctors diagnosing patients after years of symptoms have stumped them, thanks to artificial intelligence. Researchers from OpenAI and Boston's Children's Hospital took data from 18 patients and plugged the data into a newly developed AI model. That led to a diagnosis that was confirmed by a lab. Researchers hope the new model will be able to help scores of Americans who have rare diseases or health issues. The study is in the New England Journal of Medicine. I'm Mark Nefield. The Mega Millions jackpot is up to nearly $500 million after no one won Tuesday's lottery drawing. Millions across the country were hoping to win $467 million, but nobody matched all six numbers. So the grand prize for tomorrow's drawing will be at least $489 million. The cash option is that of around $220 million. A remake of the Blair Witch Project is on the way. A reboot of the found footage film will hit theaters in September of 2027. The film is being backed by Lionsgate, with plot details being kept secret for now. The original Blair Witch Project released in 1999 and considered one of the most successful indie films ever, bringing in $250 million at the global box office. It followed three student filmmakers who go missing while making a movie about the legend of Blair Witch. Most people are planning summer outings, vacations, shorts, and barbecues. But for retailers, it's already the holiday season. That's because the traditional retail calendar keeps merchants buying and planning three to six months in advance. They analyze trends and hope they pick the correct hot item for the upcoming holiday season. The National Retail Federation says they hit the mark about 65% of the time and push the holiday creep early to get you to part with your cash. Last year, Starbucks released its Pumpkin Spice Latte on August 26th, but no pressure. I'm Brie Tennis. Tiger Woods making his first public appearance since getting out of rehab. The 50-year-old golfer was charged with suspicion of driving under the influence in March after being involved in a rollover car accident on the Florida coast and was given the option of rehabilitation. TMZ says he's been getting rehab in Switzerland since early April and returned to Florida briefly last month to support his girlfriend, Vanessa Trump, during her breast cancer treatment. Woods finished rehab about two weeks ago and made his first public appearance on Tuesday when he delivered remarks at a PGA Tour event in Connecticut. I'm Tammy Trujillo. It was the Colorado Rockies over the Red Sox 8-6 yesterday afternoon. Sox host the Yankees tonight at Fenway, first pitch 7-10. And now your WPRI 12 forecast, brought to you by Family Heating & Cooling in Westport. Mostly cloudy for us today, 75 to 80, around 65 tonight. Staying cloudy tomorrow, light rain in the area, 73. Lower 70s on Saturday with showers and partial sun closer to 80 on Sunday. I'm Mike Roberts, WBSM News. Stay up to date with New Bedford's News Talk station, WBSM, and get breaking news alerts and all of our content on the WBSM app. This WBSM News update is brought to you by Stevie's Wine & Spirits. Look for the purple dot to try before you buy. Only at Stevie's Wine & Spirits in Fairhaven. You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of life, the facts of life. There's a time you gotta go and show you grow and now you know about the facts of life, the facts of life. When the world never seems to be living up to your dreams and suddenly you're finding out the facts of life are all about you, you. It takes a lot to get them right when you're learning the facts of, learning the facts of. The Gen X Finals. And a little trivia for you, that theme song written by the singer Gloria Loring and her then husband, Alan Thicke, who would later star on Growing Pains. And that's Gloria Loring singing that song and she was also a featured star of Days of Our Lives. All right, let's take a look now at some of the events that mattered most to 80s and 90s kids on this date. The Gen X Finals are brought to you by Rewind Restaurant and Arcade on Main Street in Wareham. We will start with our celebrity birthdays. Singer-songwriter Carly Simon, she might be listening over there on the venue, she celebrates her 83rd birthday today. Good Times star Jimmy Walker is feeling dynamite at age 79. U.S. Supreme Court judge Sonia Sotomayor is 72. Ricky Gervais of the British version of The Office is 65. Angela Kinsey of the U.S. version turns 55. Freaks and Geeks star Linda Cardellini is 51, while her fellow Freaks and Geeks co-star, Busy Phillips, turns 47. Ghostbusters, Afterlife and Scream seven-star McKenna Grace celebrates her 20th birthday today. In 1984, Prince released his iconic sixth studio album, Purple Rain. The album, which featured his band The Revolution, also served as the soundtrack to his film of the same name, one of the world's best-selling albums of all time. Purple Rain remained at the top of the Billboard 200 for an astonishing 24 consecutive weeks, while it produced two number one hits, When Doves Cry and Let's Go Crazy, as well as the top 10 singles, I Would Die For You and the title track. The album went on to win two Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. In 1988, on this date, Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Hillel Slovak passed away of a drug overdose at the age of 26. Also in 1988, with Foolish Beat, 17-year-old Debbie Gibson became the youngest female artist to write, produce and record a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1991, Martina Navratilova won her record 100th singles match at Wimbledon, defeating Elena Reinach of South Africa 4-6-6-2-6-4 in the first round. In 1993, Nora Ephron's romantic comedy, Sleepless in Seattle, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, opened up in movie theaters. In 1994, with Grunge still going strong, Stone Temple Pilots debuted at number one in America with their second album, Purple, and held the top spot for three weeks, eventually dethroned by the Lion King soundtrack. In 1995, during Elastica's set at the Glastonbury Festival, concert goer Anthony Glenn, Anthony Genn rather, stepped on, jumped up on the stage and danced naked for about a minute while the band played on. I guess the connection was made. In 1997, at the NBA draft, Wake Forest power forward Tim Duncan was the first pick by the San Antonio Spurs. Rick Pitino's still salty about that. In 1998, on this date, Windows 98 was released. In 2002, Maroon 5 released their debut album, Songs About Jane, Jane being lead singer Adam Levine's ex-girlfriend. It slowly found an audience and became a surprise hit over a year later, thanks to songs like Harder To Breathe, She Will Be Loved, and This Love. In 2004, rapper DMX was arrested on charges he and another man tried to steal a car from New York's Kennedy Airport. DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, was and Jackie Hudgens were held at the city's Port Authority police interrupted, were held at the city's Port Authority police. They interrupted a dispute. The pair were arrested on charges of attempted robbery, criminal impersonation, and criminal mischief. A spokesman said a preliminary investigation indicated that DMX may have identified himself as a federal agent. He was like, uh, federal agent, yeah. Anyway, 2006 country star Keith Urban married Australian actress Nicole Kidman, who was previously engaged to Lenny Kravitz and previously married to Tom Cruise. Urban and Kidman announced their divorce in 2025. We come to the Gen X files for stories like this. Somehow heartbreak feels good in a place like this. In 2014, Beyonce and Jay-Z kicked off their on the run tour with a show in Miami with a couple co-headlining. The tour was one of the most profitable ever on a per show basis, averaging over $5 million per show. And in 2020, the Dixie Chicks changed their name to the Chicks in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Dixie is often associated with the American South during a time of slavery. Their name was a play on the Little Feet song, Dixie Chicken. The rebranding came two weeks after another country trio, Lady Antebellum, changed their name to Lady A. That's the Gen X files for June 25th, 2026, brought to you by Rewind Restaurant and Arcade in Wareham. Retro fun, great food and games galore. And remember, be kind, please rewind. All right, 508-996-0500. App chat and open line voicemails on the WBSM app. Don't ask me why I know so much about the Facts of Life theme song. But you know, the Facts of Life was a spinoff of Different Strokes. Alan Thicke wrote and sang the theme song to Different Strokes. So I'm sure they went back to him and said, we'd like to have you do the song for Facts of Life. And he's like, well, let me introduce you to my wife. A show about a girl's school would probably be better suited to be sung by her. People forget that's what the Facts of Life originally was. If you ever watch the early seasons of it, it took place at a girl's boarding school. And even when they moved into the house with Mrs. Garrett, I think they were still students at the beginning, maybe. I don't know, I forget. But imagine that, it's like, hey, we went to this boarding school. Now we're all going to go move out together and we're going to take our teacher with us. Or I think she was like the housemaster. I forget what her actual job was. But before that, she was the housekeeper for the Drummonds on Different Strokes. So I watched a lot of TV as a kid. So it's all still up there in my brain. 508-996-0500, AppChat, open line voicemails on the WBSM app. Before I go to my next break, I want to tell you about our friends over at The Butcher Shop where you can get yourself something delicious right now. Actually, yeah, they open up in a few minutes. You can get yourself something delicious where it's not like going to the supermarket. I can't stress this enough. I was in the supermarket yesterday, stopped in, I needed a quick dinner. So I grabbed rotisserie chicken. But I always kind of take a pass by the meat department. And I just, I can't bring myself to spend money on a steak at a supermarket anymore, knowing that The Butcher Shop is better quality for about the same price. And unlike the supermarket, I know when it's cut because it's getting cut right there for me. Unlike the supermarket, I get it cut the way that I want it. How much fat do you want it? How thick do you want it? I can talk to Joe or Eric and tell them all the details of exactly how I want it. And that's what I'm going to take home. And there's nothing like throwing that meat onto the grill, hearing it sizzle, and knowing that you're in for a treat. So if you want to experience The Butcher Shop, you've got to just go down to 123 Dartmouth Street, walk around the store, see all of the different things that they offer, everything from steak to soccer balls. But see the way that they have built that store for a way to serve the community. It's not like a supermarket where you go in and it's like, here's all the items that the distributors think that you want. It's all stuff that's there because you've asked for it or you've needed it. And that's why I call it a real old school neighborhood market. So stop into The Butcher Shop, 123 Dartmouth Street in New Bedford. Just take a walk around, take a look and I guarantee you, you're going to be walking out of there with something. Whether it's bringing home some celebrity pork chops, some of their giant chicken wings, their homemade linguiça or chorizo. Maybe it might be picking up some hot food, having that for lunch or for dinner tonight. Maybe you're going to bring home some casserole, their potatoes, the Portuguese potatoes there, they make them better than anybody. So you'll probably walk out of there with something, both something to cook and something to eat right away because you're not going to be able to wait. So check out The Butcher Shop, 123 Dartmouth Street in New Bedford. All right, I got to go to a break here. We will be back in a few quick minutes. This portion of programming on WBSM brought to you by South Coast Health, Advanced Medicine, Mork. Nobody does it better than Regent Seven Seas Cruises. Enjoy all-inclusive, unrivaled luxury with unlimited shore excursions, indulgent cuisine, personalized service and more aboard spacious, all suite ships. Visit rssc.com to experience the unrivaled. Today on the pod, we're talking to Megan, trapeze artist and Scratchers enthusiast. So Megan, what do you like about playing Scratchers? Well, they're easy to play when I'm hanging around. OK, like when you're relaxing? No, like when I'm hanging on the trapeze. I swing upside down, then do a quadruple somersault all while playing Scratchers. Watch this. Ta-da! Unbelievable. I know, right? Scratchers from the California Lottery. A little play can make your day. Please play responsibly. Must be 18 years or older to purchase, play or claim. Hey! So I have a mouse. No big deal. Actually, mice contaminate food and spread disease. Bedbugs? In my suitcase? No, our hotel was spotless. Actually, bedbugs like any place there's people and cause itchy red welts. So I saw a cockroach. OK, three. It's no emergency. Actually, cockroaches can trigger asthma and spread disease. Household pests are a health threat. Learn how to protect your family at PestWorld.org. A public service message from the National Pest Management Association and the CDC. The best words to hear at the TSA security checkpoint? You're good to go. All it takes is a little preparation. Get to the airport early. Bring a carry-on bag that fits in the overhead and have an acceptable ID. Not all state-issued IDs will cut it. Check out TSA.gov slash ID and see which TSA acceptable IDs make the grade like a real ID or passport. Before you jet, do a little prep and you're good to go. Check out TSA.gov slash ID or the MyTSA app. You're waking up with the Tim Weisberg show. Call 508-996-0500. Send us app chat messages and open line voicemails using the WBSM app. So there was a disturbing story that I read yesterday that I didn't get to bring up yesterday morning on the show. But now the mother involved in this story is speaking out. And ABC 6 has it. Their website now is coastalabc.com. So if you want to check out this story, you can see it there. But what happened was, Tuesday morning, a mother was bringing her child to school at around 7 a.m. And they stopped into the Dunkin' Donuts, the Dunkin' on Washington Street, and were heading toward Kennedy Plaza in, this is in Providence, when a stranger approached them. And allegedly attempted to abduct her young children. She said, I was holding one side of the stroller. He's grabbing the other side, pulling the stroller, tilted, screaming, save the kids, save the kids. These are not your children. And I was screaming, saying, please let go, please let go. These are my children. And he proceeded to punch me in my face multiple times. So Providence Police said bystanders jumped in to help, assisting the mother and preventing the children from being taken. But this guy obviously has some issues. And so he was trying to take, trying to abduct her children from her and saying, these are not your children. And she's like, no, these are my children. And then he punched her repeatedly in the face. He's been identified as Dennis Pimentel. So he has been charged with attempted kidnapping of a minor and assault. But just a scary situation, but that's where we're at. When people are already having mental health struggles, and especially if they start getting into stuff that's posted online, there's so much fear mongering about children online. Of course, you want to be vigilant and you want to know that your children are safe and you want to help keep all children safe. But it just seems like there's this cesspool of false information when it comes to children. You see these posts that go viral all the time of there's somebody at the Target store abducting children. And then the police have to come out and put out a post saying, this isn't true. Because the posts always say something like, the police are aware and they won't do anything. They say they can't do anything until they walk out of the store with whatever it is that they're saying. And the police will put out a post saying that's not true. Of course, we would respond to the scene. Of course, we would handle this, take it seriously. These posts are not real. And we've done a number of stories on them over the years. A lot of times what happens with these posts is they're shared all over social media. But the name of the town changes. And then so they're trying to get local people to share these posts and make them go viral. And they do. They get thousands of shares. And then inevitably, after a couple of days, the person that posted the original post goes back and changes that to now it's like an ad for get Ray-Ban sunglasses cheap. And so it's just spamming an ad, but it's doing so by playing on people's emotions. So a lot of times those things do kind of make people turn a blind eye and be like, oh, it's another one of those hoaxes again. But in this particular case, this guy physically grabbed these children and punched the mother in the face. 508-996-0500. Good morning. You're next on WBSN. Oh, my God. That's like unbelievable. I'm glad you broke the story down for us. Wow, that's scary. Mad crazy scary. Yeah, I mean, you know, that's when in the 80s, we were always told to be careful of people that tried to abduct children. And I always used to wonder, like, how often does that really happen? I've never known anybody that somebody's tried to take them. But it seems like it is something that's happening more and more. Yeah, well, I'll tell you, this is crazy. I mean, don't like, all right, I'm just going to tell the story. So I was at the mall and I was sitting in the parking lot for a while. I wanted to go to the movies and I had time to kill. So I just got there and I sat over by where the Texas hat shop is, the new one. You know where they make the boots and the hat there? Yeah, Boot Barn. Yeah, that's it, Boot Barn. So I'm sitting over there and there's this one tree and I got right next to it. It had shade, I was happy. And do you know, killing that time, I saw this white Ford pickup truck and this black Ford pickup truck come around the whole, it had to have gone the whole way through the mall in order to still come, keep coming by in the same direction. And I kept watching them. And then the white truck, the man, he had a young little boy in the truck with them. And, you know, you just, you know, I just look and notice that. And then, I don't know, the same truck comes by because it had certain, certain detail to it. And the little boy wasn't in there. And he's driving around. I said, wow, he must be waiting for his wife and his son to hurry up and get done shopping. So I played it off that way. And then when I saw this black Ford pickup truck, it was hard to see in because this guy had tinted windows, but it was the same truck because of what was in the back of the truck. And so anyway, this happened for a while. And I said, this is weird. And I thought, I think he's like kidnapped, snatching somebody. And I said, no, because the police will be here. People will be screaming or something, right? But it almost made me feel like back in the day when you see something, say something, you know? And I thought, yeah, no, you gotta give people the benefit of the doubt. I mean, I would want somebody to give me the benefit of the doubt, but it did make me think, like, how easy is it for that to happen during the day? And then look what happened. Some crazy guy trying to take the kid. So I would guess if I saw that truck, I'd think the same thing. It's just somebody driving around, waiting for somebody to come out, not sure what door they're going to come out, just driving around, looking for them. Right. Well, yeah, I just came in time because bored. But yeah, anyway. My dad used to like to do that. My dad used to like to just drive around the parking lot. Nowadays, he'll go park and he'll take a nap until you come back. But in those days, he would just keep driving around and circling around, waiting for you, just for something to do. Well, it's a big enough mile that we can drive around it. That's for sure. If you get bored, waiting for somebody. So I went into the movies. Oh, first, I want to say, I would vote for Ian Avery as the mayor. But if there was a mayor, a mayor for the mayor for a day, oh, man, that would be fantastic. I wish there was a way we can make that happen. Does the mayor ever have a day like that where somebody can, you know, be the mayor for the day? No, I don't think that would be legal. I don't know, just pal around with him. No, I don't think you can do that. I don't think there's a bring your Mary to work day. So everybody should have a mirror. Well, we all do have a mirror in our life. I was going to say, everybody should have a mirror in their life. I'd be her. I'd be her publicist to make sure she doesn't say anything. Yeah, she can have you be her buffer. I got to hold you there. I got to get one more break in here. Yeah. Oh, and I just want to let you know that movie Obsession is horrible. I walked out. They gave me a free movie cast after. All right. Noted. Thank you. Have a good day. All right. I got to get this break in. We will be right back. And drain and sewer technicians are needed right now at the quickly growing bass ready router. They're looking to add more drain and sewer technicians to their growing crew. Experience is preferred, but they're willing to train anybody that has the right attitude. So if you're looking for a job, that could be, you know, pretty rewarding to go there and help people out in some of their most anxious moments. This could be the job for you. You can learn more or you can apply now at BassReady.com. That's B-A-S-S-R-E-D-D-Y BassReady.com to apply. And also remember that website just in case you need their service Bass. Now that Wendy's has these new biggie deals, everyone in the family can get what they're craving from nugs to JBCs. The parental units can get an $8 biggie bundle. The eldest who think they're so grown can get a $6 biggie bag. And the little one who can do no wrong can get a $4 biggie bites. You know, assuming they have a credit card. No, I'm kidding. We take cash too. $4, $6 and $8 biggie deals for the whole family. Only at Wendy's. Price and participation may vary. Single items at regular price. Prices may be higher in Alaska, California and Hawaii. Today on the pod, we're talking to Joan, a method actor and Scratchers enthusiast. So Joan, what do you like about playing Scratchers? Well, as a method actor, it's about becoming the ticket. Scratching up, down, stage left, stage right. So what's your motivation? Because your performance feels so real. Oh, I was just tapping into my inner Scratchers. Incredible. Yes. Bravo me. Scratchers from the California Lottery. A little play can make your day. Please play responsibly. Must be 18 years or older to purchase, play or claim.