Weekend America Voices
Karen Fritsche
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Karen Fritsche is a freelance public radio producer currently based in Los Angeles, Calif. In her ongoing quest for (pocket) change, she works as a fill-in producer for APM's "Weekend America" and KPCC programs like "Airtalk," "Patt Morrison," "Morning Edition" and "Talk of the City." When Fritsche's not pre-interviewing political wonks, Iraq war vets or Jesus-stealing pranksters, she spends her time writing fiction, taking pictures and wandering the globe.
Recent Stories
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Revisiting the Deadly Force Tour
Last January, "Weekend America" ran a profile of the R&B cover band Groove Alliance. Their lead singer, Mike Pacheco, is an Army major. When Mike went to Baghdad for 15 months, his fellow band members joined him there to play some benefit shows. Now that Mike back with his family, he's frustrated that Americans seem to care more about "Iraq" the policy debate than about the Iraqi people.
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Revisiting Mike Gravel
A while back we did a story about a video called "Mike Gravel Rock". It isn't running on TV, but it's all over the internet. We see presidential candidate Mike Gravel in a park by a lake. He stares at the camera for a minute and eleven seconds in an extreme close-up, then turns, picks up a rock, throws it in the lake, and walks away. That's it. It begs for an update.
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Stories about Coming Home
Whether home is the place you grew up in or where you live today, anything can happen when families and friends gather. We talk with listeners about some of their surprising, funny and sad holiday homecomings.
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A Mormon Moment in Politics
Clytee Gold is the only Mormon in a family of evangelicals. She tells Bill Radke what impact Mitt Romney's candidacy has had on her life.
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Living Room Diplomacy
Miriam Zimmerman and Elias Botto are members of the Living Room Dialogue Group, an organization based in San Mateo, Calif. The group's goal is to bring Jews and Palestinians together to talk about Middle East politics and to foster understanding. Weekend America host Bill Radke talks with Miriam and Elias to get their reactions to this week's Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Md.
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Broken Angel
For nearly 30 years Arthur Wood has been turning a brick building in Brooklyn into a handmade sculpture. It's called Broken Angel and it has become a cultural icon in the neighborhood. But last October a fire broke out. That's when the real trouble began. We talk with Arthur Wood and his son Christopher about their home.
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Teaching War
This week President Bush laid out his new strategy for Iraq. And for the first time he also acknowledged that mistakes have been made. We'll go to West Point, one of the country's leading military colleges, to find out how the Iraq war figures into the coursework. Then we'll talk with Lieutenant Colonel Ike Wilson, who teaches policy and strategy courses at the college.
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Sago Anniversary
This past Tuesday was the year anniversary of the Sago Mine disaster in West Virginia. Twelve miners died after an explosion trapped them underground for two days. One miner survived. When a tragedy like this strikes in coal country, it impacts everyone. And the communities around the mine have pulled together to heal over the past year. Emily Corio of West Virginia Public Radio has this report.
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The Baby Jesus Chronicles
Last weekend in Bellingham, Wash., a Jesus statue was stolen for the third time this year. In Plaistow, N.H., one was plucked from its cradle and replaced with a beer can. Basically, where there's a nativity scene, there's a good chance there'll be a manger kidnapping, and rarely does the baby Jesus get returned. But in Buffalo, N.Y., an 18-inch plastic figurine was stolen 2 days before Christmas, last year, and returned to its owners' doorstep 8 months later, along with a photo album chronicling where he'd been. We investigate.
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De-Coded
Virginia State Police are bidding a 10-98 (that means assignment completed) to those codes you know from old cop shows: 10-108 (officer down), APB (all points bulletin), One Adam 12 (okay, that one was made up). The problem is, not everyone can remember what all those codes mean and that can cause major problems in an actual emergency. Bill Radke talks with Lt. Col. H.C. Davis of the Virginia State Police about switching to plain English.
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Fly Like An Eagle
This weekend, locals and tourists are braving freezing temperatures and falling snow to watch eagles in action at the Bald Eagle Festival in Haines, Alaska. The majestic birds are gathering by the thousands along the mostly frozen Chilkat River to feast on spawning salmon. It's a great show. The eagles, who mate for life, show their affection by locking talons with their lovers and dramatically free falling through the sky. We hear eagle tales from Al Batt, the emcee of the festival and a self-described bird freak.
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At Sea
A few weeks ago on the show, we met Tim Troy. He was the only American entered in a race, called the Velux 5, in which he would sail solo around the globe. We talked with him from his yacht in Bilbao, Spain, where the race was about to start, and he told us about the challenges he was about to face trying to sail the world alone. Bill Radke catches up with Tim Troy, on dry land, and finds out that things didn't go according to plan.
