i'm dennis anderson along with julie zenner and here's what's coming up on almanac north the 20th anniversary of the 9 11 terrorist attack on the united states is this weekend we will talk with the duluth priest who spent 15 days at ground zero working with first responders duluth landmarks will be lit teal colored this weekend part of an effort to raise awareness and funding for ovarian cancer research and this month marks the 30th season of almanac north we'll take a look back at some of our history these stories and voices of the region coming up right now [Music] hello and welcome again to almanac north thank you very much for watching and julie hard to believe but this show actually began 30 years ago this week and you've been here nearly from the very beginning i was but you were here even earlier than i was for a short time we had rotating hosts and i happened to be fortunate enough to be one of them that's right so a long time back so you have standing before i do well not necessarily and we'll have more on that anniversary later in the program but now let's start with the headlines thanks denny the saint louis county board set its preliminary levy at 156.5 million dollars this week that marks a nearly six percent increase over the 2021 levy but because the county tax base has grown over four percent the average taxpayer will see less than a two percent increase on the county portion of their property tax also this week the st louis county board recommended kim mackey as the next county attorney mackey is an iron range native who has worked in the county attorney's office since 2011. now if the board gives final approval mackey will replace mark rubin who is retiring at the end of september minnesota governor tim walsh this week appointed amy lucas avets as the new district court judge in carlton county she replaces judge robert mccully she's an iron range native and had been an assistant st louis county attorney at 9 11 remembrance ceremonies have been scheduled in duluth and superior on saturday duluth's event will begin at 11 a.m at amsoil arena at the deck it's open to the public face masks are required the university of wisconsin superior is hosting first responders service members and veterans to honor those who perished on 9 11.

20 years ago our nation was changed forever by the terrorist attacks on the world trade center and the pentagon the unimaginable image of new york's twin towers collapsing will never be forgotten for all of us old enough to remember joining us now is father john petrich who was dispatched to ground zero to aid the first responders in their recovery efforts and father petridge thank you for coming in tonight we appreciate you being here maybe you could you could start by giving us a just kind of a baseline of what you were doing at the time and why you were called into service well it was the morning of september 11th and mayor dodie called everyone into the emergency operations center for the city of duluth and so pastor hammack and i both showed up and we listened to everything that duluth was going to do because nobody knew what was happening is it bigger smaller and so they were trying to make some plans after that meeting the mayor turned to us and says when are you guys going and i was kind of shocked like you know to think that clergy from minnesota would go to many to new york uh so we made a call to the international conference of police chaplains that's a group that we have belonged to forever and asked what they had for needs and they said they needed grief counselors they needed stress managers they needed chaplains and so on the 30th of september john and i flew to newark new jersey you were better than two weeks there this must have left some indelible memories long days and interesting smells interesting sounds and a lot of people listening to their their stories i was talking to a port authority police officer who was wearing a tactical rig which is a special kind of holster and i said well that's interesting our guys wear those when they're on tactical deals he says it's all i got left everything else that i owned all my police gear was in the basement of that world trade center and when the building came down everything was destroyed and so that was what we were hearing and police officers and firefighters were working 12-hour shifts every day firefighters would work 12 hours at ground zero and 12 hours in the fire hall and then they would have a day off to go to a funeral or awake for a fallen member of their fire family uh but the stories were just riveting uh people talking about getting out of the buildings when we were at the port authority headquarters in new jersey one lady was saying everything she has to work with was in two boxes that was her whole office and walking around the scene of ground zero it was 17 acres and the pile of rubble was 95 feet high and then from the street there were eight floors below the street the basements and the parking garages and the railroad or the uh the subways and they were all destroyed and filled in uh and so it was like a big massive uh tragic mess and one of my boston police officers i was just looking at this again in one of my reflections as we were walking around he says it feels like we're walking on graves and they were trying to find as many people as they could while we were there they unearthed a stairwell with about 75 firefighters in it and that was largely some of the last full bodies that were found there were body parts and different things after that having being a a police chap chaplain on the site had to be pretty profound um what was the need there for spiritual counseling and for prayer at a time like that i carried in my disaster pack a bunch of rosaries little blue ones and anyone that wanted one could have one and people were going to the foundations of who they were um and that's why they were so respectful that's why they were so prayerful at times uh and they were whenever they would try to find someone or when they would find someone everything would shut down and they'd be silent and they go through their rituals to recover in a very respectful way one afternoon i was standing by the crime scene cops that's a on the liberty street side and fire chaplain from toronto canada came over and says you're a catholic priest and i said yes he says come with me so he went around the corner and a bunch of first responders paramedics wanted to go to confession so we did what you could only do we we turned an ambulance into a confessional father what made the biggest impact on you that you might carry for the rest of your life and perhaps has even affected your priesthood and certainly your chaplaincy the purpose that everyone had and you know they weren't shirking their duty they weren't running away they they're right there they wanted to find and bring resolution to so many families and that's part of what we were doing other are there people that you met or situations that really stick with you today that you think about sometimes maybe unexpectedly oh and the one interesting thing is on one of the thursday afternoons i became a medical person for the port authority medical team and we went to the port authority memorial service for their people that died few police officers and many of their civilian staff and so we were at madison square garden and i was doing whatever i was called to do listening standing around looking smart which is sometimes very hard to do uh during the uh the prayer they sang the ave maria and it was one of those uh broadway singer people and i have no idea what her name is so every time i hear the avi maria i'm reminded have you been back to ground zero i went back once about 12 years ago and walked through the museum area painful not really healing for my healing that was uh kind of fun to see well we were you know we were standing over here we were standing over there look at that i didn't even know there was blacktop on that street you know those kinds of things on one of the afternoons they erected a uh observation deck off of on the liberty street side liver street and church street where they came together and they were bringing uh police officer families and firefighter families the back way in onto that reviewing deck and they could see what was happening and feel like they were part of it a couple of us were assigned there for a couple of afternoons just to stand around and listen and so that was very interesting the way that they took care of families we have only about 30 seconds left and i maybe this is putting you a little bit on the spot but what's your prayer for this 20th anniversary celebration that it never happened not a celebration that it never happens again um major tragedies and we've we've had minor tread well every tragedy is major if it happens to you but this tragedy almost 3 000 people in one day and we have we have shootings mass shootings and we pray that those don't happen we pray that there's never another terrorist attack in the united states i'd like to say we never pray that we pray that there's never another terrorist attack anywhere in the world but where evil pops up its ugly head someone has to be there to stop it someone has to be there to say it's not good it's not right and you know people like myself and first responders and firefighters police officers come to clean up afterwards and the cleaning up is sometimes the hardest stuff to do all right well father john petrich thank you so much for sharing those memories i'm sure they're difficult for you thank you father appreciate it [Music] and now it's time for this week's edition of voices of the region each week we hear from a journalist in the area about the stories they are covering this week kaxe radio news director heidi halton from grand rapids is our guest [Music] this week we continued our conversation about bird deep population john latimer our staff phonologist and i talked with retired aitkin county land commissioner mark jacobs he's also the producer for these stories that we've been doing and he introduced us to ruth bennett ruth is a research ecologist with the smithsonian's migratory bird center she told us how something small like buying bird friendly certified coffee can make a difference in the birds that we see in northern minnesota back in the 90s some of the researchers from our center were down in mexico on a coffee farm and noticed that the shade trees above the coffee plants were just dripping with migratory warblers there were woods fresh in the understory so just a great diversity and abundance of migratory birds that breed in north america so based on those observations they started a research program to understand where in latin america on the winter grounds these migratory birds were located and if coffee farms really had something to do with the conservation of these species that research program led them to discover that coffee farms with a diverse shade tree canopy really provide the best habitat for migratory birds in the winter bird friendly coffee certification through the smithsonian according to marc jacobs our producer tastes better has a richer flavor and it all all while protecting the migratory birds that we see in northern minnesota there is conflict and fear and anger in our communities that we are hearing as school districts are making local decisions about whether to make masks mandatory and how to protect staff and students it's become very confusing what's going on brainerd has mandatory masking as does bemidji duluth is requiring them as well hibbing is recommending them not mandating them grand rapids right now is not requiring masks and walker hackensack akeley is not mandating masks as well we recently talked with the new superintendent there his name is brian dietz about how they are approaching this new school year so for example one of the pieces we talked about last week when staff was here for workshop week was we need to lean into students let them know that we care about them i love them and where they are here to support them so the social emotional needs of kids and building relationships and connections with kids is the most important piece we're starting with not only the first week here of school but throughout the entire year because you're right everyone handles this differently and knowing that again there's not really been a normal for 18 months and now we're going on to this third school year where there's been differences of how we've done things we need to be cognizant of that to make sure we're doing whatever we can to support the needs of our students we also talked to brian the superintendent of walker hackensack akeley about something new in their district we were fortunate to receive a 5.2 million dollar basically grant or donation to build a new level 4 program that will help facilitate the needs of students in our region we just actually finished construction in july and our punch list so it's actually opened up today and i think the best part is again that you know we have students all across the state all across the country that sometimes the needs that they have cannot be met in that main environment of their local school district this school has been built um and staffed accordingly so that again those students that need lecture assistance support we can give them that in an environment and help again them to be successful and then to transition back at some point to their home district as they prepare themselves for college and careers after high school mental health and the stigmas attached to it is something that we try to focus on here at kexe we strive to be media that has real conversations not conversations from a pedestal to someone lower than us but eyeball to eyeball on the ground kind of conversations john bauer is one of the hosts of our morning show and he has had his own lived experience with mental health i had an episode last winter where i just went off the charts i mean i i was crying i could not sleep i mean when you say three hours i was lucky if i got an hour and 45 minutes i didn't know what was wrong with me it was horrific and i lost my daughter to suicide and then i was recently divorced and i think that it all just culminated and i think i had like what i would call a nervous breakdown and it's tragic and i know exactly what you're saying you're there's no joy and you're around somebody that's having joy you're jealous of that joy at least i was hearing even hearing someone laugh was a struggle and i got on some medication and you know the first one you get on isn't necessarily going to work it's kind of a crap shoot and on my third medication i came around and i've gained my weight back clear as a whistle so everybody struggles this saturday is the fourth annual walk for life suicide support and awareness walk in grand rapids put on by the kiesler wellness center brings people together who have struggled and the people who care about them to be together to raise money and to raise awareness [Music] the minnesota ovarian cancer alliance light the night campaign is lighting up duluth landmarks this weekend the campaign includes the light duruth teal gala saturday evening at the deck almanac north producer greg grell spoke with board chair chris greer about how covid has impacted the work of the cancer alliance definitely has impacted it however we are still here for women and their families we our support groups are now virtual we are still here though you know we are raising funds for research uh we are you know talking to women we are supporting them over the phone um and we are about to have our first in-person event so we are so excited about that and we are following the cdc and the minnesota department of health guidelines and you know safety first so what kind of advances have happened uh maybe in the last year and a half two years since the last time you were able to gather in person so research has continued we are we have funded over nine and a half million dollars of research which is very very exciting we are making advances especially in the early detection test area uh dr amy scubitz at the university of minnesota is a leader in the nation and she is getting very close we're not there yet but we're so much closer um you know treatments are improving but we still have you know a long way to go and that's why we do what we do ovarian cancer is a very i would call it an underfunded and an under recognized disease i myself am a survivor of a late stage so i know how the symptoms can just barely whisper to a woman those symptoms can include bloating difficulty eating or feeling full quickly pelvic or abdominal pain as well as urinary issues and we tell women if they have any of these symptoms for more than two weeks please go to your doctor and discuss and if ovarian cancer is suspected it's very important to be treated by a gy and oncologist that specialist is important in the ovarian cancer journey it can actually you know increase your survival rates in your personal story obviously you uh you recovered so there are treatments that can be successful yes we certainly have many women who have survived however it is one of the more difficult cancers there's approximately 22 000 women in the u.s diagnosed every year and about 15 000 of those women you know do not make it so you know we still have a lot of work to do and the treatments are you know they're improving but you know we still don't have that cure that we all want and that's what this weekend is all about tell us a little bit about the light blue teal weekend and what's happening this weekend here in duluth absolutely so september is ovarian cancer awareness month and it is just so important to us um it's time to light duluth teal again and raise awareness in the northland so we are hosting a wonderful gala at the deck on saturday night september 11th we are lighting five uh landmarks in duluth teal to you know raise awareness and tell people about this cancer the um deck will be lit teal blenching mansion anger tower the silos at pure b as well as the radisson hotel and we are just so passionate about you know lighting the night so it'll be both friday and saturday nights and as far as the gala that's taking place at the deck if someone wants to go they need to call mocha right away to get in and that number is 612-822-0500 and it's going to be a very exciting event our silent auction this year will be available to viewers you can click on to our website and actually sign up there's no cost to take part in our silent auction um you know even if a woman or if someone can't attend the event they can still take part this way and help us raise money for research i mean we have really exciting items we have some viking tickets on the 50-yard line at the u.s bank stadium we have experiences such as kayak adventures and all kinds of wonderful things i think there's something for everyone sounds like a great event and chris greer from the minnesota cancer minnesota ovarian cancer alliance thanks very much for joining us today thank you very much 30 years ago this week almanac north had its very first broadcast it's been an honor and privilege to come into your homes each week to share information and stories from and about the great folks in this region there have been some changes obviously over the years including different studio looks and of course a few different partners for julie here in the co-host chair and here's a clip now from a couple of years back you might enjoy any favorite segments that that you remember or people that you interviewed that that kind of struck you i always remember when paul wellstone was on the show because he would come on the show and he was you know he had the fire in the belly and he was ready he was really ready to go the other the other segment i remember i don't know if you remember this one julie there was a guy at the 140th fighter wing who had to eject from a plane ah and he was talking about uh you know pulling that donut or whatever and talking about that experience i just thought that was it was just a fascinating segment to to hear about that yeah what about you darren i remember the fun you and i and greg have a lot of fun you know it's what we do is serious some of the topics we talk about are very serious but some of the topics you talk about are a lot of fun too so i remember the pizza every time before we get the show together we have pizza and i remember that and we had a lot of fun just talking about the issues before the show even started and just being around this environment is just i don't know it's infectious it's great some of my favorite memories over the years were just the great people and storytellers that came on on the program over the over the years you know davis helberg i think about that guy's institutional history of this region and he would come on with such colorful language and you know just bring all of these stories of the port and the waterfront to to life i remember a really fun segment that we had when don ness decided that he no longer wanted to be done i remember that he was very serious he dedicated a whole segment to it you know him explaining that you know he he always had thought that you know don ness and mr ness was his dad and he was always going to be donnie but he had to be a little more serious he came to a point in his career where he'd hear us say donnie ness donnie ness and it finally got to him i think and we're looking forward to the next 30 years here on almanac north if i can come up with enough haircuts for the why don't we get into 30 years we don't get pizza oh we come in pretty late these days you should work on that you've been around for a lot keep up with our latest post by following almanac north on facebook and twitter visit the wdse website for program updates upcoming events and more information about the station and download the pbs video app for on-demand viewing of your favorite pbs programs and danny you're going to be celebrating a broadcast milestone yourself later on this year in december i will have been on the air for 60 years so wow that's a long i'm going to give it 60 more that i probably won't be here with you at the end of that okay good luck to you my friend all right thanks for our guests and to the crew here in the studio with dennis anderson i'm julie zenner have a great weekend [Music] you