Le Show; 2018-05-20

From deep inside your audio device of choice. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a special, no, this is an extra special edition of the show. The first half of it will deal with some rather disturbing news of the Olympic movement. Michigan State University is going to pay $500 million to victims of Dr. in quote Larry Nassar's sexual abuse. It's believed to be the largest settlement ever in a sexual misconduct case involving a university. Attorneys representing 332 claimants reached the agreement with representatives from Michigan State during a mediation meeting this week. The University's Board of Trustees agreed to the deal in principle, interesting word to use. The settlement did not include provisions about policy or acknowledge the claims made against Michigan State.

Take the money! Michigan State's agreement stipulates that $425 million will be distributed to claimants who are currently part of the lawsuits, an allocator will determine how much each person will receive, but they didn't tell you about that job in high school. Counseling, the remaining $75 million will be held in reserve for two years in the event that others come forward and make claims about Nassar's abuse. The settlement did not require any of the claimants to sign non-disclosure agreements, so it wasn't negotiated by Fox attorneys. I'm very happy that we're done with litigation said former Jim Nassed, racial, den Hollander, the first woman to publicly accuse Nassar of sexual abuse more than 18 months ago. As part of a plea deal, Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in state prison for a criminal sexual conduct. More than 200 people provided victim impact statements at a sentencing hearings in January. He's currently serving a 60-year federal prison sentence. He pled guilty to child pornography charges,

but the lawsuits claim that Nassar sexually abused his patients, many of them young female athletes, for more than two decades. They said that other defendants had opportunities to put an end to Nassar's abuse and failed to do so. They argued that those organizations were accountable for allowing the former doctor to prey on young women for as long as he did. Other named defendants were USA Gymnastics, the US Olympic Committee, a local gym where Nassar sought patients on a weekly basis and specific individuals at some of these institutions. Institutions, these parties have not yet reached a settlement agreement. Michigan Attorney General's office said it will continue at ongoing investigation into whether anyone else at Michigan State committed any crimes while dealing with Nassar. We're not done, said the attorney represents dozens of Nassar's survivors. He says there no date schedule for future negotiations with those other defendants. The lawsuits claim that several women raised concerns about Nassar

by talking to other Michigan State employees as early as 1997 and that those employees did not properly report the claims. For example, former Gymnastics coach, Kathy Cleggges, retired shortly after she was suspended by the athletic department in February of last year, she was accused of discouraging former youth gymnast Larissa Boyce from filing an official report about Nassar's behavior 20 years earlier. The university has started the process of firing William Strample, a tenured professor and former dean of the medical school. Who do they think they are, USC? As Nassar's former boss, Strample allowed they now disgrace Dr. to return to seeing patients while he remained under police investigation for a 2014 claim that eventually resulted in no charges. Strample was himself charged with sexual misconduct and several other crimes earlier this year. USH Gymnastics just part of the Olympic movement.

It is a movement and we all need one every day. Today, we're going to discuss part of that movement in some depth with a journalist who's taken, pun, not intended, a deep dive into part of the Olympic movement known as USA Swimming. He's an investigative reporter for the Orange County Register in California. Scott reads, Scott, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. The headline of your story, which the story appeared in early February in the register and it's taken us a while to get you on this program, was a shocking one on the face of it that hundreds of swimmers in the USA swimming program, which of course leads to the Olympics, among other things, have been sexually abused

over a period of many years. How did you get into this story? What sparked your interest or what called your attention to it? Well, there was a few local coaches in Orange County. Orange County, as you know, has been a big hot bit of international swimming for decades. And there was a few coaches in our area who were involved with underage swimmers and once you started pulling on the string and just kept unraveling and unraveling and went all the way to the top of USA Swimming, which is the national governing body. And you found this guy Chuck Wielgas, is that how he pronounces his name? Wielgas, yeah, Chuck Wielgas, who says in a blog post that is printed in your story, I wish my eyes had been more open to the individual stories of the horrors of sexual abuse. And he's been there, or he'd been there for a couple of decades before he passed away. What was, what were his eyes not open to?

Well, they were open and people continually confronted him with these cases and he just didn't want to see it because he was more worried about protecting the brand of USA Swimming and his corporate sponsors than doing the right thing by these young swimmers. So you have at least 11 cases, either Wielgas or other top USA Swimming officials, declined to pursue sexual abuse cases against high profile coaches, even when presented with direct complaints. Right. You are basing this on a trove of documents. Tell me a little bit about what they are and how you got to them. Well, we have, there's a thousand and a thousand pages. There are deposition transcripts, emails, memos, letters. There's a correspondence between George Miller, who at the time was a congressman from the Northern California and James Comey, who was then the director of the FBI about this issue.

And it repeatedly, Wielgas shows that Wielgas was confronted with sexual abuse and he ignored it. There's cases going back almost from the beginning of his tenure in 1997 until the bitter end when he passed away last year that he repeatedly would not pursue these cases. James Comey, when he was director of the FBI, so the FBI was involved in investigating some of these cases. Right. In 2014, George Miller, the US representative from Northern California, wrote Comey and asked him to investigate USA Swimming, which the FBI did. What they found were not really sure. We haven't seen any evidence of what they found, but they definitely looked into this issue. And were you able to foyer out what the FBI had found or was that beyond scope of what you were doing? We so far, we've not been able to obtain any documents that shows what their findings were

other than the fact that they were pursuing a few leads. Some numbers that appear in your story that are kind of eye-popping. In the 20 years that Wielgas was in charge of USA Swimming, at least 252 swim coaches and officials haven't been arrested, charged by prosecutors or disciplined for sexual abuse or misconduct against individuals under 18. These coaches and officials have a total of at least 590 alleged victims, some of them abused while attending preschool swim classes. And now that last phrase can be read two ways. Classes that occur before school or on people who are too young to attend school. Which is it? These are preschool, you know, grade school children. Wow. Young kids, very young kids. Low single digit ages, right? Yes.

Pre, you know, first grade. USA Swimming board members and coaches acknowledged they were aware of statutory rape cases that occurred during national team trips to major international competitions. When was this? This is in the 90s. Under Wielgas. Was case where any of those cases taken to court? No, they were not pursued. The buck was just kind of passed. USA Swimming since 2010 is kept a list of more than 30 coaches and officials flagged by officials after being arrested or accused by law enforcement of sex crimes, including rape and child pornography, but not disciplined by USA Swimming. Who's on the board of USA Swimming? It's a pretty incestuous board that kind of, it's people who grew up and moved up in the swim world and have kind of, this is self perpetuating situation. And there's not been a lot of turnover. It's the same old people who've been there for, you know, for decades. And that's a big part of the problem.

You have in your story this, which, I mean, the eyes can just keep popping for so long. USA Swimming has paid $77,627 to lobbying firms to lobby against legislation in California that would have made it easier for sexual abuse victims to sue their abusers and the organizations they worked for, that legislation, I guess, did not pass? It did pass, and then Governor Brown under pressure from the Catholic Church did not sign it. Really? Really? And the other one that jumps out along those lines with the, you know, the lobbying firms in California is right around the time that Miller was writing, Komi asking for Komi to investigate USA Swimming. USA Swimming hired a Denver kind of crisis management firm, paid him $133,000 to, for crisis communication and reputation management. Well, we all can use that, right?

Right. And this was in what, what period of time? This is 2014. This was right around the time that Miller wasn't trying to enlist Komi into looking into USA Swimming. Uh-huh. Now, I think the story rings should bring a bell with people because we've just, around the time that the story was published, we're witnessing the denouement of the story of Larry Nasser who was involved in the USA Gymnastics team and sexually assaulted more than 150 young athletes in his, um, reign of near terror. Uh, that's, that was a shocking figure dwarfed by what has gone on in USA Swimming, correct? Right. Because, for a long time, and at least, I think even now, there's an element of some deniability of the Dwendals each day within USA Gymnastics. They didn't know about Nasser. They should have known about Nasser, and they enabled Nasser by this culture they created.

But in the case of USA Swimming, the top officials were repeatedly presented with cases of sexual abuse, and they did nothing. Now, you say this didn't start with Walgas. So there's history to this, yes? Right. It goes back decades and decades where it was commonplace for high profile coaches to have a teenage girlfriend or, or, and it was, you know, known and, and kind of accepted. It was like, uh, like a perk. George, the aforementioned Congressman George Miller writes, and you quote him in your piece, as a result of my staff's investigation has become clear that child sexual abuse and sexual misconduct have plagued USA Swimming since its inception in 1980. So we didn't have, we had swimming, we had swimmers in the Olympics. What was the USA Swimming was organized aside from what we're learning now to do what? Prior to 80, it was part of the AAU, the Amateur Athletic Union, with like a track of field in Gymnastics.

And then with the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act, they became, they created their own national governing bodies. So the USA Gymnastics, USA Track, swimming. And so swimming was, you know, was just put together in Colorado Springs, this, this governing body to, to, uh, organize the sport in the United States to pick Olympic teams and, and, and national teams and, you know, and to pursue this, um, international glory. The Olympic dream. Right. Right. The Olympic dream that, that, you know, for way too many is, is, is the Olympic nightmare. But that, but that, that dream, selling that dream enabled a lot of this, to go on because these athletes, in, in many cases, thought, well, if I, if I don't do what this guy wants to tell me, he's not going to take me to the Olympic. That's a major dynamic and a lot of this abuse, both in Gymnastics and swimming, that the whole these guys have on these athletes and that dream helps, helps facilitate this abuse. You, you quote one athlete about a coach, Norm, have a craft, have a craft, have a craft, have a craft, who says, she says, Norm was always telling my mom, and I, I will give you the recipe to make it to the Olympics. All you have to do is follow it.

And that recipe included. I included sexually abusing her in her, in her mid teens, convincing her to buy a camera so she, they could see she could, she could video stream her showers. At some point, she had a nightmare about a dog collar. So for Christmas, he bought her a dog collar and a leash and made her swim, you know, do a swim workout while he was pulling her on the leash on, on the pool deck. Yet this guy, there's been repeated a request to US Gymnastics to ban this guy, and he's never been banned. Has he ever been sanctioned in any way?

He's been never been sanctioned in any way. He reached out a court settlement with, with, with, with, with, Jancy Thompson. And, and the thing about this really disturbing about have a craft is, so have a craft. Abused just at a disgusting level, Jancy Thompson for several years. But several years before that, you say swimming officials were well aware that have a crop was abusing sexually abusing other girls in the San Jose area. And, in fact, have a craft abuse. A young swimmer in San Jose came up at a meeting. USA Swimming had their own offshore insurance company. And during, during one of those meetings, the have a craft abuse of this prior, prior situation with a swimmer came up. And, and, and again, nothing was done. And, and, and something still has been done. It's, if, if norm have a craft can't be sanctioned by USA Swimming, I don't know, you know, what, what, what it takes to, to, you know, to ban somebody. I've read most of your piece. It's, it's an, it's an exhaustive piece.

Is it the longest piece ever to appear in the Orange County Register? Do you know? I believe so. I, I should think so. As far as I've read, and I've read, as I say, most of it, I have not seen any reference to the male swimming program. There, I mean, there, there has been sexual abuse of, of male swimmers. There's been a, a couple recent cases where coaches have been banned for, for abusing male swimmers. A lot of these young, young children cases are, are, are male swimmers. It's, you know, it's not just, it's not just young girls. It's, it's, it's young boys as well. But these coaches have been banned, which contrasts with have a craft situation. So, what does it take to get banned when you've got the case of have a craft as a, as an example of what it takes not to get banned? That's a really good question. So, some of these recent bands have been, people have actually been arrested for, for sexual abuse.

They have a craft. He was, he's never been arrested. Like I said, he, he's had this, at a court settlement. There's, there's, there's thousands of pages of documentation of his abuse. There's some more depositions. There's a police detective in San Jose, who was, who gave statements about prior allegations. There's, there's plenty there. But the, the, the, what would always say, I'm not going to pursue rumors or I'm not going to, we have to have a victim come forward. Well, in the, in the have a craft case, you've had a victim come forward with, armed with, like I said, thousands of pages of documents and Susan Wozner, who at the time was the director of their quote, safe sport program refused to budge and, and, and lift a finger about have a craft. What is the safe sport program? So the safe sport program is this program. They were kind of pushed and shoved into, to raise awareness of sexual abuse. It's the education element of it. There is, there is the, the disciplinary part of it where you, you banned or sanctioned coaches.

It was, it's basically was lip service to, to the issue. They spend, I think about, like the last figure I saw for 2016 was they spent $345,000 on safe sport. And at the same time, they spend over a million dollars on something called the Golden Goggles Gala, which is like this, you know, end of the year award show. You got to have an award show. You, you mentioned numbers, their, their numbers in your piece as well, about USA Swimming, $39 million in revenue in 2016, 3.7 million to corporate officers, trustees and key employees, 4.9 million in employee compensation benefits. While this, I guess this was just last year, heading USA Swimming, paid nearly a million dollars. It's a nonprofit, right?

Right. All these, all the national government bodies in the Olympic, as you like to say, a movement are, are nonprofits. So, if you're, if you're paying those kinds of salaries, it's, it makes sense because otherwise you'd have to do something else with the money, right? They wouldn't go to the, there are no stockholders for it to go to. Like, you could, you know, maybe you could put it in a safe sport, just a thought. Yeah, just a thought. But that maybe it's a possible legal defenses. This piece, as I say, came out in February. Has USA Swimming had a public response? Yes, they've, they've, they've put together a couple of task force to, to look into this issue. The guy who replaced wireless is trying to appear at least proactive. I mean, the main, the main thing that's driving this is that they're under investigation by Congress. There's a hearing next on May 23rd, where the US, the head of USA Swimming and, and these other national government bodies are going to appear before the Senate committee with fine sign and curvature and, and that crew.

And, and so they, I think a lot of this is driven by that. So they can go to Capitol Hill and say, well, look, you know, we have this task force. We're looking at this. We're taking this very seriously. You know, we haven't done anything for 20 years, but now we're, we're on top of it. And the piece suggests that one of the major impediments to doing anything about it is an organization called the American Swimming Coaches Association. Tell us a little bit about that. Right. That's the problem. So that's basically the, the, it is the Swim Coaches Association. And, and it's the most powerful thing in American Swimming is run by a guy by name of John Leonard. We always somehow seem to find whenever there was a task force or some kind of committee looking at addressing sexual abuse and swimming, Leonard always found a way to get himself on that committee. And then he would just, you know, jam up the gears. And there was an email we had at one point where he says, I hate this whole topic, but yet he continued to force his way onto these, these committees and, and kind of gum up the works. And so he, he was a big part of Chuck wireless power base. And so wireless was always careful not to offend, you know, this, this, this constituency.

And does, does USA coat, sorry, does the Swimming Coaches Association, what's their financial relationship if any to USA Swimming? I don't think there really is one is just, you know, all the top coaches belong to this. He, Leonard's just a really influential guy, he's kind of the guy behind the scenes pulling the strings a lot of the time. And, and like I said, a lot of these big name coaches who are power brokers in the sport are also, you know, at the kind of on the board of directors are presidents of this, of this Swim Coaches Association. And they've, I'll give you an example, a guy who's a longtime board member on the American Swim Coaches Association. I'm going to have George Block, who's a business guy in, in San Antonio.

He was a mentor to a, a young swim coach by name, Adam Dusenberry. So Adam Dusenberry was in a coach at Mission Viejo, had a sexual relationship with a young teenage swimmer that he was coaching. We reported it, he was banned. George Block hires Adam Dusenberry to work at it, economically challenged children's foundation that he was connected with in San Antonio. So basically you have a guy who was banned from sport for being, having sexual misconduct with a young swimmer and you turn around and you put him in a Texas nonprofit dealing with young children. And George Block is a long time board member of the American Swim Coaches Association. So these named individuals that you've talked about in your piece, aside from the USA Swimmings Organizational Response, have these named individuals responded to the piece that you published? No, not no.

So silence is their best defense at this point. You know, we tried repeatedly for months just to get USA Swimmings to talk to us and they wouldn't talk to us. Now let me, let me switch the focus a little bit from the story to the story behind the story. It does come as a surprise to a person who reads a lot of papers that this depth of investigative report would appear in the Orange County Register, which has been like a lot of newspapers, like almost all newspapers outside of New York and Washington. The subject of repeated cost-cutting efforts by its ownership. How did you manage to convince the Orange County Register to give you the resources and the team to do this? And how long did this project take you? We were on this basically on an offer a couple years and to be honest with you, we had hoped to run it last spring and then Chuck Wallace died and we felt like it was in bad taste to run it at that time. I've been really fortunate at the Orange County Register. The Orange County Register, despite all our cuts, has always been really committed to investigative journalism.

I have an editor, the paper Todd Harmanson, who just decided that this is, you know, what we're going to do in my sports center, Tom Moore and assistant sports center by the guy named Chuck Scott, who kind of babysat this through most of the time. They were totally committed to this. And, you know, I think when you're cut and you have limited resources, you've got to pick and choose what you're going to do. And unfortunately, for us, the registers decide that we're going to do investigations. That's going to be kind of our calling card. We're going to have to sacrifice other things, but we're going to pursue these kinds of stories. And I've been, I mean, I'm really lucky because I know if I was at a lot of the papers in similar situations, you know, the editors just laugh, you know, we're going to run a, you know, 300 story on swimming and give you the time to do it. And it's like, you know, no way. The next question may be a little less comfortable, but I got to ask it. This piece ran in February. As I say, that was the time when the story of Larry Nasser, the USA Gymnastics Doctor, so-called, was on live television for the sentencing hearing and was getting all this press coverage and Larry Nasser sort of became a household name for at least a couple of weeks. What kind of pickup in other media has your story had?

It's couldn't could pick up. We were originally going to run it in March. Then, like I said, in January, these congressional committees started looking at USA swimming. I got a little nervous, I'll be honest. And so we ran in the middle of the Olympic Games, which is not ideal. I guess it isn't. It isn't. But it's been picked up by mainstream media. It got quite a bit of attention. And we we we've done a lot of reporting on USA sexual abuse in the USA Gymnastics going back to 2004. And it did not always get picked up by, you know, I'd say, you know, the kind of the beltway media East Coast. The mainstream, the big, the big brand name. The big boys. But this one did. Right, right. So- The drive by media as Russia says.

So what's the status of USA swimming in the three months since the piece has come out? Have you heard from any parents saying it's still going on? Have you heard from any parents saying, boy, they sure are on the straight and narrow now. After I've do shown the spotlight on them. Have you heard from any parents? Unfortunately, we're still hearing from parents saying, will you please look at this coach? Will you please look at that coach? Wow. And, you know, unfortunately with a lot of this stuff when you start turning over rocks, a lot of a lot of crap comes out. And so it's not going away. It's not going to be solved overnight. And, you know, a lot of higher and PR firms and everything is not going to not going to solve the problem. Reputation management, sir. Reputation management. Yeah. R.M. Not PR. So now we have the spectacle of USA Gymnastics with at least one. Do we believe, I mean, you said you've done a lot of work on USA Gymnastics. One could possibly jump to the conclusion that Larry Nasser was an aberration in the world of USA Gymnastics.

Would that be a correct conclusion, do you think? No, I don't believe so at all. I mean, I know, I mean, we've reported it on three high profile coaches, giving example, the first American woman to win a world championship is a woman by the name of Marcia Friedrich. She told us back in January that she was sexually abused by her coach. I've been named Richard Carlson when she was from ages 16 to 18. She recently, about two, three years ago, she filed a complaint with USA Gymnastics. They kind of drug their feet, drug their feet. They finally had a hearing 60 days ago. They still have not reached a decision on in this case. So she's been sitting around for 60 days waiting for a ruling and there is none. So slow walking it. Crawling maybe.

But my, I guess what I'm leaning up to is these are two very high profile Olympic sports, but almost all Olympic sports, except perhaps for triathlon, involve people under the age of 20 to a great extent. Are you starting to hear reports from parents of athletes in other Olympic sports? Yes, we have. And that's, you know, there's this big, that's kind of the part of the problem is this dynamic where you have these kids chasing the stream. They're really young. They've, you know, bought and totally to this chasing the stream. And these coaches will say, you know, if you trained 40 hours a week, if you don't eat this, if you starve yourself, if you do this, do that, if you have sex with me, I'll get you to the Olympics. It's all kind of part of this scheme. And so you're seeing this across the board. And I was on a conference call a couple of weeks ago with Larry Props, the head of the USOC. And he was talking about their Center for Safe Sport and they're overwhelmed with complaints.

They don't have enough resources to deal with all the complaints they're getting about sexual abuse. And so, and so what are they doing about it? Well, they're trying to throw more money at it. And when we'll see, I think these next six months can be really interesting to see if they can, I don't know, they can't get a complete grip on it, but at least kind of get their fingers on it. Because like, as we talked about, this is something that's been going on for decades. You can't solve it in a few months. Other situations where sexual abuse takes place, we find that people are either intimidated, either deliberately or situationally, out of reporting. That was the case with people in the motion picture business, the notorious case that we have seen in recent months. Aside from the fear of losing out on the, on the dream that's being dangled in front of them, have there been any attempts and, and aside from slow walking the complaint process when it's, when it's filed?

Have there been any attempts that have come to your attention of actual intimidation of people out of reporting? Yes, go back to this Doosenberry case in admission via a host of Doosenberry was a really talented young coach. He was fired by the club at one point, and there was basically a parent revolt because it was right before age group nationals. And the reaction to a lot of the parents were, well, you can't fire Adam. Doosenberry, my kids, you know, going swimming in nationals a couple weeks, how, you know, who's going to coach him? So it was, it was that kind of thing about, wasn't about, they were worried about the case, they were worried about their child and, you know, in the club's reputation moving forward, it wasn't about doing the right thing. And you see this, you see this a lot where these, these, these women or young men who come forward there, well, you're going to screw up, screw it up for everybody else. Scott, Scott, what are you working on now?

More of this, more, more, we've been, last few weeks, we've been working a lot on gymnastics. There's more swimming stuff to come. I had a story the other day about, USA Gymnastics was dropped by all these major sponsors in, in December and January. While this was going on, Nike was actually approaching, USA Gymnastics is about a, a new sponsorship deal. And it's, to me, it's kind of interesting that you have these two is giant company. You have USA swimming, both in midst of sexual misconduct scandals, you know, trying to put together a deal to, to move forward. One of the, one of the big meetings between Nike and USA Gymnastics came on the second day of the, the NASA hearing where Maggie Nichols and mother, Maggie Nichols was the first known victim of, of NASA's report to USA Gymnastics. Carrie Perry, the new CEO of USA Gymnastics was in the courtroom that day. And Maggie Nichols mom turned and, you know, and scolded her, you know, just ripped her for the lack of action by USA Gymnastics. And, you know, Carrie Perry was so upset by it by the, you know, a couple days later, she was on a conference call with Nike about, you know, moving forward.

Wow. What's the, what's the website for the Orange County Register? W, W, W, OC register.com. Okay. And, and is there a paywall? You are, we've just installed a paywall. You have a certain number of, it's like the New York Times. You have a certain number of stories and then you hit the wall. Okay. The Orange Curtain. I certainly recommend that people follow your reporting because you're, you're doing major work. And as you suggest, it's only going to get bigger because this has been going on for a long time. Scott Reed of the Orange County Register, congratulations on major, major work and the shrinking field of investigative journalism. And thanks so much for being with us today. Thank you, Harry. Thank you very much. And now that isn't gentlemen, the apologies of the week. It's so sorry.

U.S. clothing retailer, the gap is the latest company to apologize to China. For failing to reflect Beijing's territorial claims on a map shown in a t-shirt sold to North America, not in China. The offending t-shirt showed a map of China without including Taiwan. It also failed to show what China calls Southern Tibet, a huge swath of territory claims in the Northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and failed to draw a line around China's territorial claims in the South China Sea. Gap incorporated respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China. We've learned of a gaped brand t-shirt sold in some overseas markets mistakenly failed to reflect the correct map of China. We sincerely apologize for this unintentional error. As a responsible company, Gap incorporated strictly follows Chinese rules and laws. John Crick-Falousey, the creator of the Ren in Stimpy Show, has written a lengthy statement on Facebook apologizing to two women whom he pursued sexually when they were underage girls, attributing his behavior to undisguised bipolar disorder and poor impulse control. In the 11th page, Nodi apologized to the women for causing pain in their lives while also praising their talents and sharing fond reminiscences of the good times with them.

They also apologized to fans. One of the women responded to the post rejecting his remarks as insufficient. We don't accept this non-apology. Neither do any of the other girls. He doesn't bother to mention and it's a big pile of manipulative crap. She wrote. She was named, I believe, Robin Bird, not the one you're thinking of. Others called Crick-Falousey's statement Creepy. In this statement, Crick-Falousey also described himself as one of the few producers left who's willing to break creative boundaries. We get a plug for yourself in your own apology. Nothing wrong with you. Mundlein, Illinois trustee Dawn Abernathy has publicly apologized for negative comments she made about the village three weeks ago at the board meeting in April. She said installing new village gateway signs in Mundlein would be like, quote, putting lipstick on a pig. I love Mundlein and as a board member, we've worked very hard to improve our village. She said she apologized to any resident and to my fellow board members. Mundlein.

I say Mundlein, former US presidential candidate, Michelle Bachman, who in 2015 appeared to call for intensified efforts to convert Jews to Christianity as apologized for her past, quote, ignorant, unquote comments about the Jewish people. Speaking at an inter-faith Bible study organized by Lecude Lawmaker in Israel, Lecude is the conservative party there. The former Minnesota Congresswoman spoke generally and declined to acknowledge directly what comments she was apologizing for. Personally, I know that in ignorance, myself, I've stated things that I should not have said and I profoundly apologize and repent and ask forgiveness from all mighty God for my statements that those said in ignorance have brought pain, she said. Bachman asked forgiveness for the horrible and yes, I would say the arrogant way the Christians, I would include myself among them, have treated and regarded the Jewish people throughout history, unquote. In 2015, she told a right-wing radio station that the intensification of violence in the region signaled the return of Jesus, necessitating mass conversions, or at least look busy.

Some parents are upset after a month's senior in the Chicago area reportedly went on a tirade in front of elementary students about their commitment to Catholicism, the church is now apologizing. Month's senior George Saraskas of Incarnation Catholic Church in Palos Heights delivered their marks during a mass on Thursday. Allegedly calling the students, lousy Catholics, remarks came at a contentious time for the church, the Archdiocese of Chicago plans to close the school at Incarnation, the school of at Incarnation. At the end of the school year, amid attendance drops. They depend on the parents to get them the church and to get them to do events and it's not the kids fall at all, said one of the parishioners. The Archdiocese says it's committed to treating all students, parishioners, teachers, and staff in a manner consistent with our Catholic values. So other parents say it's something both kids and parents need to hear.

I'm not trying to take sides here, it says one parishioner, but my heart hurts for him. Church officials continue to look into complaints, there's no word on whether the month's senior will face any disciplinary action. It's just words, it's not like. And Cardi B has chimed into address the drama surrounding her recent collaboration with Rita Ora on a song called Girls. We never try to cause harm or had bad intentions with the song. She said the rapper in a tweet, I personally myself had experiences with other women. With a lot of women, she wrote on Twitter, adding she thought the song was a good song, and I remember my experience. In another tweet, she apologized to the LGBTQ community for using words that she wasn't aware were offensive. Song is about a woman kissing a woman. Imagine that. The apologies of the week, ladies and gentlemen, copyrighted feature of this broadcast. And on a related but different subject. Late night at a party, I heard a chance remark. Two eyes met, two others, stranger than a quark. I lipstick and be.

And fireworks went off. A hand embraced my tackle. And I didn't have to call. Something so picture happened in that kitchen. It wasn't the penis world. I kissed the girl. I kissed the girl. May not seem so special. But it's got me in a world like, I kissed the girl. I kissed the girl. No way it was the first time. No way it is the last. But she makes all the others disappear and fast. I kissed the girl. I kissed the girl. I got a kiss on my shirt. If you want to get the girl, I kissed the girl.

I kissed the girl. Music by religion. Be a name and a girl. Nothing rocked my world so much as kissing a real life world. You know, they love to mannequins. It made my heart stand still. But doesn't beat some flesh and blood. Nothing never will. I kissed the girl. I kissed the girl. I kissed the girl.

I kissed the girl. I kissed the girl. I kissed the girl. It made not seem so special. But it's got me in a world like, I kissed the girl. About time a man said that, ladies gentlemen, you know by now that Spooky Gina Haspel has been confirmed as the new director of the CIA. She supervised a torture site in, I believe Afghanistan or Thailand. And she wrote the memo, the cable authorizing the destruction of videotape evidence of CIA torture. Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, a great choice, but made me think that it's time now that we have three successive administrations in the torture tip, one that authorize torture,

one that ignored the duty to prosecute torture, and one that rewards a torture, it's time to take a look back musically at the Le Show torture playlist. But it's a pleasure, so rare, seeing captive scope air, let's go on and boarding you as A, let's go, it's not torture, if I say it, eat, those conventions are so old and quick, so let's do what we say, we never, ever do no way, let's go on and boarding

you as A, there is nothing like surfing, cause you can't get off if you want to. And it's really hard work, but for us it feels much more like play. If the tables were turned, we feel really burned, but let's go on and boarding you as A, let's go, boarding, it's not torture, if I say it, eat, those conventions are so old and quick,

so let's do what we say, we never, ever do no way, let's go on and boarding you as A, let's go on and boarding you as A, let's do what we say, we never do no way, today attorney in the Justice Department. It said it was cool. It was okay. It didn't cause

severe organ damage. That man, of course, was John U. Who? Who is it? The torture, Memo Man. You've got you as some detainees. You don't know what to do. Do you read them their Miranda rights or cover them with proof? Are you doing something illegal or proper through and through? There's only one guy to call. The one to ask is you. Thank you so much.

Who is it? He's in that secret clan. Who is it? The torture, Memo Man. Who is it? He had a clever plan. Who is it? The torture, Memo Man. Oh, you've got some evil doers. And they will not say good. A little pain in torment. You might change the point of view. But before you water, pardon. You wonder, could they sue? One guy has got the answer. The one to ask is you. Get your mouth out of talking about God. Who is it? He just wrote and ran. Who is it? The torture, Memo Man. Who is it?

He went and banned the ban. Who is it? The torture, Memo Man. All these laws and treaties. You want something new. This war may last forever. You need to turn the screw. He's teaching a lot, Berkeley. He'll drop the other shoe. The beloved rights expired. The one who knows is you. Who is it? Catch him if you can. Who is it? The torture, Memo Man. Who is it? He just banned the ban. Who is it? The torture, Memo Man.

Of course, administrations changed, and then it was the turn of the man who succeeded President Bush. To take on the responsibility, voice it on him by a certain law called the convention against torture. To investigate, and if necessary, prosecute, those American citizens who may have been guilty of committing torture. Instead, he just did this. He got to remember, we were really afraid. We'd ignored the warnings, then we got played. There was panic in the White House, panic of state, panic of the Pentagon. People were working really late. They were patriots. They cared, and they fought. With the contractors sold, they bought.

So we rendered some Arabs, but the help of the blocs. Like it or not. We tortured them both. How we didn't think it was torture for sight. That's what the White House Council said back in the day. Enhanced interrogation is how it was known. So we slapped and the water boarded and froze to the bowl. Sure violated our values and laws, but we were more scared than when we first saw draws. Some very good men did some very bad things, but who among us knows why the case bird sex? So we tormented some Muslims, then went out for some smokes. It hurts to say it, but we tortured some folks.

Now we could look backwards. We could game the blame. We could point fingers. We could wallow and shame. We could punish the guilty for each little flaw, as we're supposed to do under hand or national law. We could say we're sorry, which we never do, because we're exceptional. And so are you. So let's leave it at this. Let's leave it unseen. Let's look through the future. The white, the slate clean. You don't want to pursue this. Neither do I. It would be like busting me now, because I used to get high. So let's pretend we don't hear the screams and the croaks and just tell our grandkids.

We tortured some folks. No jokes. The white, the white, the white, the white, the white. Ladies and gentlemen, that's going to conclude this week's edition of Le Show the Program

It Turns Next week at the same time. If you listen at the same time on the audio device of your choice, that really is up to you. America is number one, and it would be just like America being number one if you didn't read it, join with me then. You already thank you very much. Uh-huh. Tip at Le Show. Share Po to the San Diego Pittsburgh, Chicago, and exile. And Hawaii desks. Thanks as always to Pam Hallstedt and to Jenny Lawson at W.W.N.O. and New Orleans. Thanks. Especially today to Steve Gregan or Gregan. Steve at Waterfront Sound in Manhattan Beach, California, and Billy Therio at Audio Works here in New Orleans for help with today's broadcast. The email address for this program.

Your chance to get cars I talk t-shirts for that big Memorial Day party and the playlist to the music heard here on almost forgot about the playlist all at harryshurah.com. And me, thank you for asking. I'm on the Twitter at the harryshurah. Thank you. The show comes to you from Century of Progress Productions and originates through the facilities

of WWN on New Orleans, flagship station of the Change is Easy Radio Network, so long from the Crescent City.