They Got What They Wanted

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart podcast.

Speaker 2 This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something.

Speaker 6 Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity?

Speaker 8 They may be happening to you without you knowing.

Speaker 4 If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA.

Speaker 3 OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.

Speaker 15 Learn more at don'tsleep on osa.com.

Speaker 7 This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

Speaker 16 If you're a maintenance supervisor at a manufacturing facility and your machinery isn't working right, Granger knows you need to understand what's wrong as soon as possible.

Speaker 16 So when a conveyor motor falters, Granger offers diagnostic tools like calibration kits and multimeters to help you identify and fix the problem.

Speaker 16 With Granger, you can be confident you have everything you need to keep your facility running smoothly. Call 1-800GRANGER, clickgranger.com, or just stop by.
Granger for the ones who get it done.

Speaker 18 Every day, it's the same thing for my treatment for opioid addiction. It reminds me of my addiction.

Speaker 18 Every day, it's the same thing for my treatment for opioid addiction. Every day, it's the same thing.

Speaker 18 Every day.

Speaker 19 Day after day, does treatment for opioid addiction leave a bad taste? Visit rethinkyourrecovery.com to learn more and find a doctor.

Speaker 1 Meet Lisa, a mom who starts the holidays full of cheer until the to-do list takes over. Untangling lights, prepping for the class party, wrapping gifts.
She was running out of time and energy.

Speaker 1 Then Lisa discovered Air Tasker. She posted her tasks, set her budget, and local taskers helped with everything.

Speaker 1 Lights strung, cupcakes baked, gifts wrapped, even a cardboard sleigh for the school play. Suddenly, her holiday spirit was back.
Now she spends less time scrambling and more time making memories.

Speaker 1 Download the Airtasker app or go to airtasker.com.

Speaker 22 Airtasker, get anything done.

Speaker 16 Coolzone Media.

Speaker 23 On February 11th, 2025,

Speaker 23 The city council in Scottsdale, Arizona wrote an epilogue to an episode of this show that I thought was already over.

Speaker 23 On February 26, 2004, a bomb went off in Scottsdale.

Speaker 23 A pipe bomb concealed in an inconspicuous-looking brown box exploded in the hands of the man the package was addressed to, Don Logan.

Speaker 23 Inside the box was a note. One he didn't get a chance to read that day.

Speaker 23 The bomber demanded that Logan, the director of the city's Office of of Diversity and Dialogue, cease and desist his corrupt activities.

Speaker 23 But he didn't.

Speaker 23 Don Logan carried on the work of trying to make the city of Scottsdale a safe and welcoming place for people of all races, genders, and sexual orientations.

Speaker 23 And after he retired in 2007, the office continued that work under a new director.

Speaker 23 A poster printed last year for their Scottsdale for All campaign shows Scottsdale residents of all backgrounds smiling under the hot desert sun.

Speaker 23 A Sikh in his turban, a woman in her hijab, a man in a wheelchair, black and Hispanic residents, visibly queer and gender non-conforming people, all working together to make their home a more inclusive place.

Speaker 23 With a shoestring budget of a fraction of a percent of the city's overall operating expenses, The office put on community programming, did outreach to underserved communities, and provided trainings to city employees.

Speaker 23 Until last week.

Speaker 23 Just two weeks shy of the 21st anniversary of the bombing that nearly killed Don Logan,

Speaker 23 the Scottsdale City Council voted 5-2 to finish the job, closing the Diversity Office and ending all city funding for programming and training related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Speaker 23 The weird little guys of decades past may be in federal prison for their crimes, but their ideas are alive and well.

Speaker 23 And you don't need to don a pointy white hood or a swastika armband to force hateful ideas on a city.

Speaker 23 A smart pantsuit will do just fine.

Speaker 23 I'm Molly Conger,

Speaker 23 and this is Weird Little Guys.

Speaker 23 This episode is not about a new weird little guy.

Speaker 23 We are, unfortunately, revisiting the aftermath of the actions of a guy we've already spent a few episodes discussing.

Speaker 23 Back in October, when the show was still pretty new, there was a week where I didn't quite get it together to have a full episode ready to go in time.

Speaker 23 I was in court for a trial for a couple of days. I had a death in the family.
I had to travel out of state for a wedding and the 60 plus hours it takes to put an episode together just weren't there.

Speaker 23 So one of the episodes that month was a sort of cobbled together collection of personal reflections on the work so far and patted out with some odds and ends, things that hadn't made it into past episodes that I thought were interesting, and updates on some stories that had come to light light after they aired, things like that.

Speaker 23 And the episode actually came out pretty good,

Speaker 23 I think.

Speaker 23 And I decided that the format could be useful for future emergencies. You know, every couple of months I could revisit past episodes and tie together loose ends.

Speaker 23 Maybe there were new developments and old cases.

Speaker 23 It would be a good release valve for me, and I think it's something you all would still enjoy.

Speaker 23 I keep a document where I add those odds and ends as they occur to to me, but I haven't needed to use it.

Speaker 23 I don't actually need it this week.

Speaker 23 I find myself writing an update to an old episode, not because I had to fall back on my emergency plan for a filler episode, but because we all find ourselves in something of an emergency.

Speaker 23 I prefer to write stories about the past.

Speaker 23 Stories that are over.

Speaker 23 They don't always have happy endings. In fact, they rarely do.

Speaker 23 The good guys don't always win. More often than not, there aren't really any good guys at all.

Speaker 23 Even when the story ends with some federal prosecutor putting a violent white supremacist in prison, there are usually uncomfortable questions about why it took so long.

Speaker 23 Why certain co-conspirators weren't charged, how much information law enforcement ignored, or how complicit their informants and undercover agents were in the harm that was done.

Speaker 23 But at least at the end of the episode, the story is over. A case is solved, someone was held accountable, and maybe we all learned a little bit of history.

Speaker 23 Lately, though, I've grown increasingly uncomfortable with just how contemporary my stories of the past are starting to feel.

Speaker 23 Storylines are recurring.

Speaker 23 Fringe ideas, ones that I had to dig for hours through decades-old forum posts to find,

Speaker 23 are now coming out of the mouths of elected officials on the evening news.

Speaker 23 Every day, it feels like, I'm reading executive orders that sound like they were written by a stormfront poster who graduated last in his class at law school.

Speaker 23 I don't like it.

Speaker 23 I'm much more comfortable. digging through the archives than I am talking about current events.

Speaker 23 There's another show in the CoolZone Media family that does incredible work compiling a weekly roundup of the terrible news coming out of the White House.

Speaker 23 It Could Happen Here puts that ongoing series out every Friday.

Speaker 23 But I've been hiding from the calendar invite our producer sends for that.

Speaker 23 I don't want to talk about the president.

Speaker 23 Unfortunately, I think I have a responsibility to explicitly connect these stories from the past to their present-day consequences.

Speaker 23 So this episode is a sort of coda to a series of six episodes that ran in December and January.

Speaker 23 Beginning with the episode called Ku Klux Cable Access TV that originally ran on December 4th, all the way through the five-part series on Dennis Mahan ending in mid-January.

Speaker 23 I know it's a big ask to expect you to be familiar with the storylines running through nearly six hours of old episodes. So I'll try to jog your memory as we go without repeating myself too much.

Speaker 23 Last month, Costco shareholders rejected a proposal from the National Center for Public Policy Research, a right-wing think tank, that attacked the company's diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.

Speaker 23 What goes on in corporate boardrooms isn't really my wheelhouse. But I know this kind of shareholder activism isn't exactly novel.

Speaker 23 And it certainly wasn't the National Center for Public Policy Research's first foray into shareholder activism. Far from it.

Speaker 23 The think tank founded something called the Free Enterprise Project in 2007, a nonprofit whose whole mission is filing right-wing shareholder resolutions. On their website, they claim that 90%

Speaker 23 of all right-of-center shareholder resolutions are brought by their organization.

Speaker 23 And they've spent nearly 20 years attacking sustainability efforts and diversity initiatives at companies like Apple, Microsoft, Target, Progressive, UPS, IBM, Ford, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, Best Buy, the list goes on.

Speaker 23 But this particular shareholder proposal felt nauseatingly familiar. The National Center for Public Policy Research was trying to do in 2025

Speaker 23 exactly what the neo-Nazi group National Alliance had done in 1988.

Speaker 23 And that's a strange side story I covered in the episode called Ku Klux Cable Access TV back in December.

Speaker 23 To refresh your memory a bit on that side plot,

Speaker 23 after a Nazi terrorist cell stole $4 million from a Brinks truck in California in 1984,

Speaker 23 some of that money made its way into the hands of National Alliance leader William Luther Pierce.

Speaker 23 And with that stolen money, Pierce bought a large tract of undeveloped land in the mountains of West Virginia where he would establish his Nazi compound.

Speaker 23 But he also bought 100 shares of stock in AT ⁇ T.

Speaker 23 And in 1988, the group made their first of three attempts to force the company to end their affirmative action program.

Speaker 23 At that meeting in 1988, chairman of the board, Robert Allen, denounced the proposal, saying,

Speaker 23 As a shareholder of a sufficient number of AT ⁇ T shares, this organization has a right to offer a shareholder proposal. But we we find the intent and wording of this proposal highly objectionable.

Speaker 23 Especially objectionable is the argument that some of our employees, because of their race, are less qualified than others.

Speaker 23 This proposal is completely contrary to the policies, the culture, and the character of ATT.

Speaker 23 It is in the proxy only because we could not convince the Securities and Exchange Commission to allow us to drop it.

Speaker 23 And their proposal was voted down by the company's shareholders in 1988, 1989, and again in 1990.

Speaker 23 In a later interview about that 1990 shareholders meeting, National Alliance member and convicted pedophile Kevin Alfred Strom claims that he got a standing ovation after his presentation of the proposal.

Speaker 23 And he says he gave a rousing speech about the rank injustice and insane business practice of discriminating against whites.

Speaker 23 Strom complained that despite broad support from a very large portion of the shareholders, the proposal only failed because a handful of establishment hacks who hold the majority of shares voted against it.

Speaker 23 And much like the ATT board chairman's denunciation of the Nazi proposal in 1988, Costco's board of directors were clear in their rejection of the 2025 version of the same idea,

Speaker 23 writing,

Speaker 23 We welcome members from all walks of life and backgrounds. As our membership diversifies, we believe that serving it with a diverse group of employees enhances satisfaction.

Speaker 23 The board devotes a portion of their statement to discussing the ways in which diverse hiring practices are beneficial to the bottom line.

Speaker 23 Having employees from diverse backgrounds informs their purchasing choices, allowing them to offer products that appeal to all kinds of customers.

Speaker 23 And customers, quote, like to see themselves reflected in the people in our warehouses with whom they interact.

Speaker 23 But the board's statement doesn't just hide behind shareholder value. It isn't just about the bottom line.

Speaker 23 They firmly believe it makes good business sense, of course,

Speaker 23 but it's also a moral imperative.

Speaker 23 The board writes,

Speaker 23 this is our code of ethics.

Speaker 23 Our focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion is not, however, only for the sake of improved financial performance, but to enhance our culture and the well-being of the people whose lives we influence.

Speaker 23 Look, am I a die-hard Costco fan?

Speaker 23 Yes.

Speaker 23 Am I wearing my favorite sweatpants as I type this?

Speaker 23 Yes, I write every episode of this show in my Kirkland signature brand sweats with the Costco logo embroidered on them. Would I be thrilled if Costco offered to sponsor the show?

Speaker 23 Buddy, I'd be over the moon.

Speaker 23 But I don't want to get carried away praising any corporation, especially one that doesn't actually have a great track record when it comes to union organizing.

Speaker 23 I'm not so naive as to think very many truly moral stands have ever been taken in corporate boardrooms.

Speaker 23 But this statement is a bold one, and it's one I think they can really be proud of.

Speaker 23 They take aim at the authors of the proposal, calling out their feigned concern for shareholder value that they've couched this policy position in.

Speaker 23 Writing, quote, the proponents' broader agenda is not reducing risk for the company, but abolition of diversity initiatives.

Speaker 23 And they make it clear that they are very aware that this think tank has published a document called Balancing the Boardroom, which describes its shareholder activism as fighting back against the evils of woke politicized capital and companies.

Speaker 23 And just like the eerily similar proposal put forward by literal neo-Nazis 37 years ago, this one failed too.

Speaker 23 Except no one's laughing this time.

Speaker 23 In 1988, the press covered National Alliance's efforts as a sideshow. Those Nazi freaks from a compound in the mountains didn't belong in a boardroom.

Speaker 23 Today, that same idea is taken very seriously.

Speaker 23 Not long after Costco's shareholders voted down the proposal, the attorneys attorneys general in 19 states penned a letter to Costco's CEO, warning him that he had 30 days to end the company's DEI policies.

Speaker 23 There is a heavily implied threat that those state attorneys general would do

Speaker 23 something to the company if they failed to comply.

Speaker 23 But there's no clear explanation of what, if anything, the company has actually done that would allow any legal action to be taken.

Speaker 23 The president's avalanche of executive orders attacking civil rights don't have the force of law behind them that would actually outlaw a private company's HR policy.

Speaker 23 It's not clear yet how this is going to play out,

Speaker 23 but I'm willing to bet it involves some questionably legal state-level enforcement actions and a lot of lawsuits.

Speaker 2 This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something.

Speaker 6 Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity?

Speaker 7 They may be happening to you without you knowing.

Speaker 4 If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA.

Speaker 3 OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.

Speaker 15 Learn more at don'tsleep on osa.com.

Speaker 7 This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

Speaker 24 Psoriatic arthritis symptoms can be unpredictable.

Speaker 16 I had joint pain and I couldn't move like I used to.

Speaker 25 I needed relief.

Speaker 26 I got Cosentix.

Speaker 16 It helped me move better.

Speaker 27 Cosentix Seccukinumab is prescribed for people two years of age and older with active psoriatic arthritis. Don't use if you're allergic to Cosentix.
Before starting, get checked for tuberculosis.

Speaker 27 An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur, like tuberculosis or other serious bacterial, fungal, or viral infections. Some were fatal.

Speaker 27 Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms like fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or cough. Add a vaccine or plan to, or if inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen.

Speaker 27 Serious allergic reactions and severe eczema-like skin reactions may occur. Learn more at 1-844-COSENTIX or COSENTIX.com.

Speaker 25 Ask your dromatologists about Cosentics.

Speaker 1 Holidays with kids and family? Magical, but let's be honest, overwhelming. Between hanging lights, cleaning, wrapping gifts, and prepping for the in-laws, the list never ends.

Speaker 21 That's why I use Air Tasker.

Speaker 1 With a few taps, I found local taskers to decorate, organize, and even assemble that toy castle Santa, aka grandma, is bringing. I also got someone to play our family elf for photos, because why not?

Speaker 1 Airtasker saves me time so I can actually enjoy the season and the people I love. Download the Airtasker app or go to airtasker.com.
Airtasker, get anything done.

Speaker 22 All right, who's ready for another cocktail? Yes, please.

Speaker 20 Whatever that last one was, it was incredible.

Speaker 21 That was a Bartesian margarita. Bright, smooth, perfectly balanced.
You'd swear it came from a bar.

Speaker 28 That came from the Bartesian cocktail maker?

Speaker 29 Yep, pop in a capsule, press a button, and boom.

Speaker 22 Bar quality cocktails at home. My friend swore by it, so I finally got one.

Speaker 17 I tried the old-fashioned earlier.

Speaker 20 Honestly, it's the best I've had outside an actual actual bar. Right?

Speaker 21 Over 60 craft cocktail options, ready in under 30 seconds.

Speaker 29 And Bartesian's running their biggest holiday deal. Up to $150 off cocktail makers right now.

Speaker 28 Wait, up to $150?

Speaker 31 That's huge. Exactly.

Speaker 29 Holiday hosting just got way easier.

Speaker 31 Make your holiday gatherings unforgettable with Bartesian, the cocktail maker that crafts smooth, bar-quality drinks at the touch of a button. Save up to $150 on Bartesian cocktail makers.

Speaker 31 The biggest savings of the year ends December 2nd. Don't miss out.
Order now at Bartesian.com/slash drinks. That's B-A-R-T-E-S-I-A-N.com slash drinks.

Speaker 23 The story I sat down to write, though, is about Scottsdale, Arizona.

Speaker 23 When I finished that five-part series of episodes about Dennis Nahon, I was ready to be done with him.

Speaker 23 I never expected his story to spin out in so many directions, but once I started writing it, there was no way to condense his life into anything less.

Speaker 23 For more than a month on this show, we followed Dennis Mahon all over the country, the world even.

Speaker 23 From his childhood on a farm in Illinois, to his rise to prominence as a regional Klan leader, and his years as Tom Metzger's right-hand man in the White Aryan Resistance.

Speaker 23 He won a lawsuit against Kansas City for his right to broadcast a racist public access TV show.

Speaker 23 And he lost a lawsuit to Fred Rogers.

Speaker 23 He was deported from Canada, banned from Germany and the United Kingdom.

Speaker 23 He was investigated as a suspect in a male bombing that killed a federal judge and accused by a federal informant of helping plan the Oklahoma City bombing.

Speaker 23 After a lifetime as a self-professed serial bomber, he was finally caught in 2009 and he'll spend the rest of his life in prison for the 2004 bombing of the Scottsdale, Arizona Office of Diversity and Dialogue.

Speaker 23 Through the lens of Dennis's life, I learned some history that I would never have otherwise encountered.

Speaker 23 In the third episode in that series, I talked about a lawsuit his twin brother Daniel filed against American Airlines after he was fired for creating a hostile work environment.

Speaker 23 Daniel had been involved in the company's Caucasian Employee Resource Group, an an employee affinity group for white people.

Speaker 23 The issue wasn't that employees were organizing around whiteness. The company actually had no problem with that.

Speaker 23 The problem didn't arise until Daniel wore a Nazi t-shirt to a meeting with management about the Klan-inspired pamphlets he made for the Employee Diversity Fair.

Speaker 23 In my research for that episode, I explored the kind of surprising history of employee resource groups.

Speaker 23 It sounds like corporate HR hot air, but they originated in 1970 with the National Black Employee Caucus at Xerox.

Speaker 23 After the Rochester riots in 1964, the president of Xerox invested years and millions of dollars in diversifying his workforce, eventually leading to the creation of the first corporate employee resource group.

Speaker 23 I didn't set out to learn about a photocopier company's radical investment in black community development in the 60s, but it's a history I'm grateful to know now, as the modern employee resource group is on the chopping block.

Speaker 23 Like corporate diversity initiatives, ERGs are under attack after Trump's executive orders on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

Speaker 23 Just last week, the Seattle Times reported that the employee resource groups at the shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, had been suspended in response to those executive orders.

Speaker 23 Mark Layton, the president of the Bremerton Metal Trades Council, said that those orders were demeaning and a little derogatory. And he told the paper, quote, we don't have any token people here.

Speaker 23 You can either turn a wrench or weld a joint, do the work required, or you don't work here.

Speaker 23 At an event last year, Shipyard Commander Captain J.D.

Speaker 23 Krinklaw praised the employee resource groups, saying, quote, these groups allow us to build better teams and increase our ability ability to contribute.

Speaker 23 They are critical to who we are as an organization.

Speaker 23 And Mark Layton emphasized to the Seattle Times that those affinity groups don't give their members any special workplace privileges or advantages.

Speaker 23 They only exist as a way for employees to network and support each other.

Speaker 23 A recent article published by the Society for Human Resources Management, a professional association for people working in HR,

Speaker 23 indicates that there is a growing anxiety in corporate America about how to comply with these confusing, questionably legal missives coming out of the White House.

Speaker 23 Their advice is that ERGs that are open to all employees likely do not violate these new White House policies.

Speaker 23 But some private companies are choosing to end these programs out of fear and confusion.

Speaker 23 For federal employees, those groups are gone. Not just the ones centered around race, all of them.

Speaker 23 ERGs may have started with the Black Employee Caucus, but in the decades since, the idea has grown to encompass a wide variety of shared characteristics and interests.

Speaker 23 A lot of them are still centered around protected class identities like race, gender, disability, and sexuality.

Speaker 23 But most companies with ERGs also have groups for working parents, groups for veterans, groups for new hires, people with particular hobbies, or things like people who want to get together after work and clean up litter.

Speaker 23 I hope these affinity groups will continue their work, continue supporting and advocating for one another,

Speaker 23 even if they aren't allowed to be listed on the company website anymore.

Speaker 23 And I guess I can't talk around it anymore. I've been avoiding getting to the thing I sat down to write.
The story I spent all those weeks writing, all 40-some odd thousand words of it.

Speaker 23 It all led up to one thing.

Speaker 34 The bomb.

Speaker 23 A lifelong racist, a man who claimed to have bombed abortion clinics and synagogues, A man who ran hotlines and newsletters dedicated to spreading the word of white supremacy, took drastic, violent measures to end the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion in Scottsdale, Arizona in 2004.

Speaker 23 He failed.

Speaker 23 The bomb went off, yes.

Speaker 23 Don Logan and two other employees in his office were injured. Logan's injuries required multiple surgeries and skin grafts.

Speaker 23 Renita Linyard would later testify that doctors had been unable to remove a piece of shrapnel that had entered through her eye and lodged itself in her brain.

Speaker 23 But But the people Dennis Mahon tried to intimidate with that bomb said no.

Speaker 23 They didn't back down. They wouldn't let a Klansman's bomb dictate city policy.

Speaker 23 They won.

Speaker 23 Dennis Mahon went to prison and Scottsdale, Arizona maintained its commitment to being a more inclusive city.

Speaker 23 Like I said, Most of these stories don't really have happy endings, but that part at least was as close to one as I'm likely to get.

Speaker 23 So it hit doubly hard when that turned out not to be the end at all.

Speaker 2 This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something.

Speaker 6 Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity?

Speaker 8 They may be happening to you without you knowing.

Speaker 4 If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA.

Speaker 3 OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.

Speaker 15 Learn more at don'tsleep on osa.com.

Speaker 7 This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

Speaker 24 Psoriatic arthritis symptoms can be unpredictable.

Speaker 16 I had joint pain and I couldn't move like I used to.

Speaker 25 I needed relief.

Speaker 24 I got Cosentix.

Speaker 16 It helped me move better.

Speaker 27 Cosentix Secukenumab is prescribed for people two years of age and older with active psoriatic arthritis. Don't use if you're allergic to Cosentix.
Before starting, get checked for tuberculosis.

Speaker 27 An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur, like tuberculosis or other serious bacterial, fungal, or viral infections. Some were fatal.

Speaker 27 Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms like fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or cough. Had a vaccine or plan to, or if inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen.

Speaker 27 Serious allergic reactions and severe eczema-like skin reactions may occur. Learn more at 1-844-COSENTIX or COSENTIX.com.

Speaker 25 Ask your rheumatologists about COSENTIX.

Speaker 35 The busiest time of the year, it's here.

Speaker 28 You've got parties to go to, work to wrap up, and a house to decorate.

Speaker 16 But who has the time?

Speaker 28 With Airtasker, finding help is easy.

Speaker 35 Post your task, set your budget, and let local taskers handle the rest.

Speaker 32 Party planning?

Speaker 17 Done.

Speaker 32 Lights? Hung. Stress?

Speaker 28 Reduced. You can even get someone to build a gingerbread house that doesn't collapse this time.

Speaker 28 Download the Airtasker app or go to Airtasker.com for a season with less stress, less mess, and a lot more fun. Airtasker, get anything done.

Speaker 29 Every year, I promise myself I'll find the perfect gift.

Speaker 20 Something they'll actually use.

Speaker 29 And love. This year, I found it.

Speaker 18 The Bartesian Cocktail Maker.

Speaker 20 Oh, that's the one that makes cocktails at the push of a button, right?

Speaker 22 Exactly.

Speaker 21 Over 60 bar quality drinks from martinis to margaritas, perfectly crafted every time.

Speaker 29 I got one for my sister, and maybe for myself too.

Speaker 20 Smart.

Speaker 28 It's the season of giving and sipping.

Speaker 21 And right now, you can save up to $150 on Bartesian Cocktail Makers.

Speaker 20 That's a real holiday miracle.

Speaker 29 Because the best gifts bring people together and make the holidays a little easier.

Speaker 31 Give the gift of better cocktails this season with Bartesian. Mix over 60 premium drinks at the touch of a button.
Save up to $150 on Bartesian Cocktail Makers. Don't wait.

Speaker 31 This offer ends December 2nd. Shop now at Bartesian.com/slash Brinks.
That's B-A-R-T-E-S-I-A-N.com/slash Brinks.

Speaker 23 Last week, I was scrolling idly past the daily parade of horrors on my social media feed when I saw a post from a friend of mine.

Speaker 23 I wasn't trying to see the news, I was trying to avoid the news. I just wanted to see silly little posts from my friends.
A futile endeavor, really, because a lot of my friends are people like me.

Speaker 23 Journalists, researchers, collectors of terrible facts about terrible men.

Speaker 23 And the post that caught my eye was from Nick Martin, a journalist who has spent years researching and writing about right-wing extremism.

Speaker 23 He also happened to work at the East Valley Tribune back in the early 2000s. So at the time of the bombing, he was covering news in the Phoenix metro area.

Speaker 23 And by the time Dennis Mahon was brought to trial, Nick was covering the story for Talking Points memo.

Speaker 23 And it was from Nick that I first got this news.

Speaker 23 His post read,

Speaker 23 in 2004, white supremacists bombed the city diversity office in Scottsdale, Arizona in an attempt to destroy it.

Speaker 23 Last night, as part of the new anti-diversity panic, the Republican-led city council finished the job.

Speaker 23 I saw that post on Wednesday night, which is coincidentally usually the part of each week when I realize I do need to figure out what next week's episode is going to be about.

Speaker 23 So I really had no choice.

Speaker 23 21 years after that bomb went off, the Scottsdale City Council did exactly what that bomb was meant to do.

Speaker 23 In a 5-2 vote, they passed an ordinance stripping all city funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion, ending the work that Don Logan nearly died for.

Speaker 23 So I watched the meeting, and I read every email sent by Scottsdale residents to their city council about that agenda item.

Speaker 23 51 people spoke at the meeting. Only two were in favor of ending the diversity program.

Speaker 23 223 emails were sent about the ordinance.

Speaker 23 Only 27 were from people in favor of the proposal. Two of those emails were actually identical messages sent a day apart by one man who also spoke at the meeting.

Speaker 23 I listened to every one of those comments.

Speaker 23 I read every one of those emails

Speaker 23 and I wept.

Speaker 23 People from all walks of life showed up to speak out against the ordinance.

Speaker 23 The CEO of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce made an economic argument. Former city counselor Betty Janick said the ordinance was unnecessary and mean-spirited.

Speaker 23 The city code already requires merit-based hiring. This wouldn't change anything.

Speaker 23 A rabbi reminded the counselors that loving your neighbors is a mitzvah.

Speaker 23 The city's LGBTQ liaison, an army veteran, practicing attorney, and transgender woman, seemed to almost dare them to tell her to her face that she's a DEI hire.

Speaker 23 And then a dozen or so comments in,

Speaker 23 someone mentioned the bomb.

Speaker 23 Neil Shearer had been the city's human resources manager back in 2004.

Speaker 23 This was personal for him.

Speaker 37 Almost 21 years ago today, a man affiliated with the white Aryan Resistance sent a pipe bomb through the mail addressed to my friend and colleague, Don Logan, the first director of the Office of Diversity and Dialogue.

Speaker 37 Don was seriously injured when he opened the package, as were two of his co-workers.

Speaker 36 It strikes me beyond ironic.

Speaker 37 that a convicted felon, white supremacist, through hate-filled and violent means, could not succeed in silencing the diversity office, yet the city council could accomplish the same end by shutting down the office through a simple majority vote of the council in your first 30 days in office.

Speaker 23 And then a few minutes later, I realized Don Logan was there.

Speaker 23 He was in the room.

Speaker 23 He first appeared on camera standing behind Jan Dolan, who'd been the city manager at the time of the bombing.

Speaker 23 He placed a hand reassuringly on her shoulder as she approached the microphone to speak.

Speaker 38 Don Logan,

Speaker 38 who was the diversity director when I was the city manager, who they tried to kill,

Speaker 38 I ask you,

Speaker 38 do not try to kill diversity and its efforts.

Speaker 23 Logan flashed a bright smile when she said his name, but it vanished a millisecond later as Dolan reminded counsel that he'd nearly died for the office they were killing.

Speaker 23 Speaker after speaker urged counsel to rethink this course of action.

Speaker 23 There'd been no study done to evaluate the claims they were making about the negative consequences of the city's diversity program.

Speaker 23 A pastor who had in her prior career worked as a corporate employment lawyer asked where their evidence was that the city had ever hired a substandard employee simply because of their background.

Speaker 23 A member of the city's environmental advisory board said that he had called the diversity office himself to ask if any member of city council had even bothered to speak with them about their work.

Speaker 23 And the only one who had was Marianne McAllen, who voted against the ordinance.

Speaker 23 Many of the commenters who identified themselves as Jewish had words specifically for Councilman Adam Quasman.

Speaker 23 Quasman is Scottsdale's first Orthodox Jewish counselor.

Speaker 23 Last month, he tweeted a photo of the front desk at City Hall, and in the photo he circled the Scottsdale for All pamphlets that are available to visitors.

Speaker 23 His post read, You can't walk into Scottsdale City Hall without being bombarded with DEI.

Speaker 23 This poison will be rooted out of our beautiful city.

Speaker 23 One speaker gently reminded Quasman that the Torah commands them to treat strangers with kindness.

Speaker 23 Others asked him if he would be sitting up there wearing his kippah, if not for the work that had been done to make the city a more inclusive place.

Speaker 23 Another sharply asked Kwasman if he recalled a certain man in Germany who'd used the word poison to describe their people.

Speaker 23 And then Don Logan himself spoke.

Speaker 23 Speakers were only given a minute each, cut down by the mayor from the usual three, so he didn't have a chance to give the comment he'd prepared. But his message was clear.

Speaker 39 This is personal for me.

Speaker 39 People have moved on from the bombing of February 26, 2004. But every day I'm reminded of what happened that day and why it happened.
And it happened because of how I'm packaged. An anti-diversity

Speaker 39 extremist

Speaker 39 who I never talked to, never knew,

Speaker 39 that attacked me and my colleagues because of what we represent. Now I read this packet here.

Speaker 39 There's nothing in this packet that suggests to me that diversity, equity, and inclusion is a threat.

Speaker 23 For over an hour, the people of Scottsdale pleaded with their city council. Don't do this.
There's no reason to do this. The proper steps haven't been taken to adopt an ordinance like this.

Speaker 23 Council hasn't thought through what will happen next. Who will manage the city's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act?

Speaker 23 And what about the serious potential economic side effects that a decision like this might have?

Speaker 23 Several commenters warned that the city would take a massive hit if Major League Baseball were to take this as a sign that they should move spring training to a more progressive city.

Speaker 23 Councilwoman Solange Whitehead gave a passionate speech laying out the facts.

Speaker 23 This ordinance was brought before council without going through the typical process, avoiding any input from the public or city staff before it came up for a vote.

Speaker 23 If it had gone through the usual steps, it probably would have been clear that this is a solution in search of a problem.

Speaker 23 The city code already requires merit-based hiring, and the city already complies with laws prohibiting hiring quotas.

Speaker 23 Council members Marianne McAllen and Solange Whitehead fought to defer the the ordinance to a work study session to do the work that should have been done before the ordinance came before council.

Speaker 23 But they were outvoted.

Speaker 40 Well,

Speaker 40 let me speak to that. Do you all want to do this over again and do a work study?

Speaker 40 I don't see the point of that.

Speaker 40 You've all been here. I think that would not be a good worth

Speaker 40 use of your time or or the city's resources.

Speaker 23 Mayor Lisa Borowski dismissed the booze and jeers, saying it wouldn't be a good use of city resources to follow that standard procedure, which would have included a work study.

Speaker 23 And then with very little discussion, they adopted the ordinance over the dissenting votes of Councillors McAllen and Whitehead.

Speaker 23 Councillors Barry Graham, Kathy Littlefield, and Jan Duboskis said very little during the meeting.

Speaker 23 But something about the way Mayor Lisa Borowski and Councilman Adam Cuasman spoke made me a little curious about their backgrounds.

Speaker 23 And wouldn't you know it, Adam Quasman is no stranger to making loud and wrong assumptions when it comes to being kind to our neighbors.

Speaker 23 In 2014, when he was serving as an Arizona state legislator and running for Congress, he attended an anti-emigration protest in Oracle, Arizona.

Speaker 23 The Pinal County Sheriff had whipped up a social media frenzy, claiming that he had obtained leaked information from the federal government that illegal migrant children were going to be bussed into their small town.

Speaker 23 Quasman was eager to make a scene, to exploit the suffering of these children, to make a political point.

Speaker 23 But it turned out those children were actually just fine.

Speaker 34 Adam Quassman was making a speech.

Speaker 23 The reason why Lady Justice holds a blindfold over 50.

Speaker 34 But then the Republican congressional candidate suddenly stopped. He got word a bus was heading down the road and took off for it.

Speaker 9 Anything else, thank you.

Speaker 34 It's what Quassman and the Oracle protesters were waiting for. A confrontation with a bus full of migrant children.
Quassman tweeted from the scene, bus coming in. This is not compassion.

Speaker 34 This is the abrogation of the rule of law. He included a photo of a yellow school bus.

Speaker 41 I was able to actually see some of the children in the buses and the fear

Speaker 41 on their faces.

Speaker 27 This is not compassion.

Speaker 34 That fear on the faces of migrant children, Quassman told me he saw in Oracle. There's just one problem.
Those weren't migrant children on the yellow school bus.

Speaker 34 They were YMCA campers from the Murana School District. Do you know that was a bus with YMCA kids?

Speaker 28 They were sad too.

Speaker 34 Reporters at the scene saw the children laughing and taking pictures on their iPhones.

Speaker 23 As for newly elected Mayor Lisa Borowski,

Speaker 23 she's actually served on council once before, from 2008 to 2012.

Speaker 23 And her interest in local politics began shortly before her first run for council. She was inspired by the experience of helping her brother Todd wage a successful effort to overturn a city ordinance.

Speaker 23 The ordinance in question, a ban on lap dances, would have destroyed Todd's business, a chain of strip clubs in the Scottsdale area.

Speaker 23 During her most recent campaign for office, Borowski assured voters that she had no business relationship with her brother.

Speaker 23 The question was asked not because voters might take issue with the nature of Todd's business, but because her brother Todd Borowski is under investigation after a lawsuit was filed by multiple men who claim they were drugged in the club's VIP lounges, and they woke up to find that tens of thousands of dollars for champagne and lap dances had been charged to their credit cards.

Speaker 23 The Mirror's brother seems like a real character.

Speaker 23 This has nothing to do with anything, but as I was poking around, I did find that Todd Borowski attempted to trademark a logo reading, Tompa Bay Buccaneers.

Speaker 23 Yes, Tompa, T-O-M-P-A, not Tampa.

Speaker 23 I assume he had some kind of plan to sell slightly misspelled Tampa Bay Buccaneers jerseys, but it must not have worked out because the trademark is dead.

Speaker 23 And despite her protestations that she has no involvement, in her brother's business dealings.

Speaker 23 She did fail to mention during the campaign that she she was employed by the same law firm that represents her brother in a lot of lawsuits.

Speaker 23 This position doesn't appear on her LinkedIn page, and the firm quietly removed her from the website sometime in June of 2024.

Speaker 23 But in 2022, Lisa Borowski was hired by Dennis Walenchik to work in his firm's new Scottsdale office.

Speaker 23 And her name still appeared in filings for one of the firm's clients at least as late as August of 2024.

Speaker 23 Though I can't find any filings that indicate she actively worked on any of her brother's cases.

Speaker 23 Just last month, Dennis Wilenchik helped Todd Borowski settle a class action lawsuit brought by dancers at his clubs, alleging a variety of labor law violations.

Speaker 23 And local news reports quote Dennis Wilenchik as Borowski's lawyer in that suit filed by the men who claimed they were drugged and robbed.

Speaker 23 The only client at Wilenchik and Bartness whose case I did find Lisa Borowski's name on is Ron Gould,

Speaker 23 a county official in Arizona who claims he was threatened over his refusal to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Speaker 23 But the firm's ties to 2020 election hijinks run pretty deep.

Speaker 23 They also represented Alan Dershowitz in his efforts to evade sanctions ordered by a federal judge after he was involved in a failed lawsuit brought by Kerry Lake.

Speaker 23 And before Dennis Walenchik's son Jack passed away last year, he was heavily involved in the plan to send fake electors to DC to derail the certification of the 2020 election.

Speaker 23 In December of 2020, Jack Walenchik sent this email to the Trump campaign team.

Speaker 23 Quote,

Speaker 23 We would just be sending in fake electoral votes to Pence so that someone in Congress can make an objection when they start counting votes and start arguing that the fake votes should be counted.

Speaker 23 In a follow-up email, he clarified that alternative votes is probably a better term than fake votes.

Speaker 23 And then he put a little smiley face emoji.

Speaker 23 Jack Walenchik also represented the Cyber Ninjas, the private company hired by Arizona Republicans to audit the 2020 election.

Speaker 23 They hired Walenchik in their battle to withhold company records from a congressional investigation.

Speaker 23 And the firm represented Sheriff Joe Arpaio for many years.

Speaker 23 When Trump pardoned Arpaio in 2017, it was Jack Walenchik who accepted the pardon documents on Arpaio's behalf.

Speaker 23 Like I said, Lisa Borowski's name only appears on filings in the Ron Gould case, at least as far as I was able to find.

Speaker 23 But it is worth connecting the dots, I think.

Speaker 23 Because when Trump fired off a half-baked executive order banning diversity programs, one of the first mayors to jump at the chance to performatively comply had a history with a law firm that was deeply connected to the effort to prevent the certification of the 2020 election.

Speaker 23 After the city council meeting last week, Don Logan spoke with reporters.

Speaker 23 He was disappointed, but not surprised at the outcome, telling one reporter that after he found out the city had refused to conduct a study session, he knew how the vote was going to go.

Speaker 25 I gave my blood for the work that we did here, and my message to them is shame on them.

Speaker 23 I won't claim to know very much about the inner workings in Scottsdale City Hall. in the present day.

Speaker 23 I did look over some city budget documents and the city web pages related to the work done by the Diversity Office, but I couldn't tell you exactly what the Scottsdale City Council might have learned from a study session about the current state of affairs of their diversity office.

Speaker 23 But I suspect they may not actually know why Scottsdale was one of the first cities in the country to establish a full-time position of this kind.

Speaker 23 It wasn't because of wokeness.

Speaker 23 This is one of the things that ended up on the cutting room floor in those five episodes about Dennis Mahon.

Speaker 23 But I did spend some time during my research back in December learning a little bit about the political climate in Scottsdale in the late 90s, the years leading up to the establishment of the Office of Diversity and Dialogue in 1998.

Speaker 23 It wasn't great.

Speaker 23 In 1997, The city settled a lawsuit filed by former Scottsdale police officer Jesus Torres.

Speaker 23 Torres claimed he'd been fired for refusing to stay silent about racism within the department. In 1995, Torres said he witnessed white officers use excessive force against three Hispanic men.

Speaker 23 One of the men had a visible boot print on his back, which he claimed was from an officer kicking him.

Speaker 23 Torres didn't witness the incident, but he refused to cover for his fellow officers, telling them, I won't lie for you. I won't cover up for you.
I don't believe in the Rodney King mentality.

Speaker 23 And And after that night, his performance reviews suddenly turned negative. And within a few months, he was fired.

Speaker 23 In his lawsuit, Torres claimed that it was standard practice within the department to refer to upscale parts of town as the NNZ,

Speaker 23 which stands for the No N-word zone. A fact that another officer confirmed under oath.

Speaker 23 During the trial, a female officer broke down in tears on the stand, sobbing as she admitted that the department had a racism problem.

Speaker 23 The comments made both to the press and in court by city employees were kind of shocking.

Speaker 23 A sergeant testified that it was Torres who was racist, that he had a chip on his shoulder and he was overly sensitive about race.

Speaker 23 The city's own attorney smeared him as quick to cry discrimination and soft on Hispanics, saying his actions drove a wedge between himself and the quote Anglo police officers because he was an advocate for Hispanics first and police second.

Speaker 23 And just weeks after the city settled that suit with Torres,

Speaker 23 they were back in hot water again.

Speaker 23 After a black woman was paraded through her apartment complex in nothing but handcuffs and her underwear after police were called to respond to a domestic dispute.

Speaker 23 When she filed suit against the city, the police department's own spokesman told the paper that she was quote taking advantage of recent allegations of racism in the department to gain financial advantage.

Speaker 23 In public statements justifying their decision to force this woman to walk outside barefoot with her breasts exposed and menstrual blood running down her legs, the department claimed it was a matter of officer safety.

Speaker 23 This 100-pound, nearly naked woman was so frightening to them that it wouldn't have been safe to allow her to put a shirt on.

Speaker 23 The department does not appear to have commented on the decision to dispatch an officer with his own documented history of domestic violence on a call for a domestic disturbance.

Speaker 23 And then in December of 1997,

Speaker 23 so not long after Torres settled his lawsuit with the city and this new lawsuit was filed, Reverend Oscar Tillman, president of the Arizona NAACP,

Speaker 23 was promising to disrupt the Phoenix Open, the third stop on the PGA tour and a massive tourist draw that pumped millions of dollars into the local economy.

Speaker 23 And Tillman said that he wanted proof that the city wasn't just paying Jesus Torres that $100,000 to make this problem go away.

Speaker 23 He wanted them to promise an independent investigation into the allegations of widespread racism within the department.

Speaker 23 Just before Christmas, Tillman had a closed-door meeting with the mayor.

Speaker 23 Immediately afterwards, he called off his planned protest without explanation.

Speaker 23 And as the calendar rolled over to 1998, Don Logan, an assistant city manager at the time, announced that the city staff had put together a report recommending that the city council establish an office of diversity to conduct community outreach to minority residents and handle internal investigation and mediation of complaints of discrimination.

Speaker 23 The city manager insisted that the report's timing and its recommendations had nothing to do. with the demands made by the NAACP.

Speaker 23 But the timing kind of speaks for itself.

Speaker 23 And when the city settled later that year with the woman that cops had perp walked in her underpants, it was their new diversity officer who spoke to the press, not that foul-mouthed cop who couldn't help but double down on maligning the victim.

Speaker 23 Don Logan told the Arizona Republic that the city's internal investigation had determined that the officers acted improperly,

Speaker 23 though not because of her race.

Speaker 23 And during Don Logan's first year as the director of diversity and dialogue, the Scottsdale Police Department was facing the possibility of not just more scandal, but federal indictments.

Speaker 23 In 1999, the city of Scottsdale spent at least a quarter of a million dollars on a high-priced defense attorney.

Speaker 23 to guide their police officers through the grand jury process as the Department of Justice investigated allegations that officers were engaged in tax evasion and civil rights violations in relation to their off-duty shifts, working security for a nightclub frequented by black patrons.

Speaker 23 In the late 90s, Club Tribeca was the only club in the Scottsdale area that had a hip-hop night, which made it the only club in the area with a majority non-white crowd.

Speaker 23 And for several years, the club was locked in a legal battle with the city of Scottsdale.

Speaker 23 Club owner George Delk went public in 1997, not long after the Jesus-Torres suit was settled, with allegations that the off-duty cops were demanding to be paid in cash and that they refused to fill out tax forms.

Speaker 23 Delk also claimed that the officers routinely threatened, intimidated, and maced the club's Black and Hispanic patrons, and that one officer he spoke to told him outright.

Speaker 23 that the department considers any gathering of more than 10 black people to be a riot.

Speaker 23 and quote, we don't hesitate to use chemicals on them.

Speaker 23 The department changed their policy on moonlighting after these allegations were made public.

Speaker 23 But the city was determined to force the club out of business, unsuccessfully going after their live music permit and their liquor license.

Speaker 23 In the city's effort to shut the club down, they cited police department claims that the club's activities were generating a disproportionate number of calls for police service.

Speaker 23 A legal battle ensued, and when the club's lawyer finally got the city to produce these actual police records that the claims were based on,

Speaker 23 he says the numbers were wildly inflated and that they'd padded the figures with a wide variety of unrelated nearby incidents like traffic stops and citations that were issued in the neighborhood during the daytime when the club wasn't even open.

Speaker 23 In the end, after an 18-month grand jury investigation, no one was charged.

Speaker 23 But the allegations alone underscored the need for the kind of public relations boost their new diversity office could provide.

Speaker 23 The city of Scottsdale was one of the first cities in the country to establish a full-time diversity director

Speaker 23 because they needed one.

Speaker 23 Their police department couldn't go a month without not only violating someone's civil rights, but running their mouth about it in the paper.

Speaker 23 What may have started off as a necessary compromise to prevent protesters from upsetting golf fans and put a friendlier face on the city's constant press releases about settling civil rights lawsuits really does seem to evolved into something meaningful.

Speaker 23 And for just $250,000 a year, which is, even before you adjust for 25 years of inflation, less than the price tag for the lawyer they had to hire to dig their cops out of a DOJ investigation.

Speaker 23 The Office of Diversity oversaw the city's federally mandated ADA transition plan, addressed complaints about violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, oversaw the city's compliance with federal civil rights laws, investigated and mediated complaints of discrimination, provided staff support to the city's Human Relations Commission, oversaw the city's employee resource group, provided voluntary trainings for city departments on topics like inclusion and civility, organized community outreach and cultural celebrations, provided professional development for city staff, and secured the grant funding for a scholarship program for students with disabilities.

Speaker 23 They put on Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations and programming during Black History Month. They didn't hire and fire.

Speaker 23 They didn't force white men to sit through mandatory white guilt seminars like a clockwork orange nightmare or whatever imaginary horrors the Republican Council members pretend goes on in DEI workshops.

Speaker 23 By all accounts, it seems as though the city councilors who voted to abolish the office never actually bothered to find out what it does.

Speaker 23 And now city staff will be in a bind trying to reassign staff and ensure the federally mandated elements of the office's work are still getting done.

Speaker 23 Because for now, at least, Someone still has to file Title VI compliance reports. Someone still has to manage the city's ADA transition plan.

Speaker 23 The Scottsdale City Council jumped on the Trump train and they made a big symbolic gesture.

Speaker 23 Those executive orders taking aim at diversity programs in federal workplaces didn't require the city to roll back their own diversity programs.

Speaker 23 They didn't just comply in advance. They performed.

Speaker 23 This was a show.

Speaker 23 Councilman Cozman tweeted last month, you can't walk into Scottsdale City Hall without being bombarded with DEI.

Speaker 23 This poison will be rooted out of our beautiful city.

Speaker 23 The poison they're trying to root out isn't DEI.

Speaker 23 Diversity, equity, and inclusion is today's branding, but they can call it whatever they want. Affirmative action.
wokeness, reverse racism, anti-white discrimination, whatever.

Speaker 23 What they mean is civil rights.

Speaker 23 And what they want is segregation. When every woman, black person, or trans person they see is a potential DEI hire,

Speaker 23 what they're really asking for is a return to a world without the Civil Rights Act.

Speaker 23 Call it whatever you want, but I'm begging you to see it for what it is.

Speaker 23 An attempt to eradicate whole swaths of the population from public life.

Speaker 23 to make boardrooms and classrooms and legislatures the exclusive domain of white Christian men.

Speaker 23 Dennis Mahon didn't build that bomb because of some carefully considered ideas about municipal hiring practices. He did it because he saw a flyer for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Speaker 23 Just like Councilman Cozman, walking at his city hall and getting worked up about seeing the Scottsdale for All pamphlets.

Speaker 23 Six months before the bombing, bombing, Dennis Mahon called the diversity office.

Speaker 23 He'd seen an advertisement for upcoming events celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, and he couldn't stand it.

Speaker 23 He left a voicemail mocking the office for putting on the events, and he used racial slurs and he laughed at the very idea of celebrating Hispanic culture.

Speaker 23 And the message ended with a warning.

Speaker 23 We've got lots of support.

Speaker 23 The white Aryan resistance is growing in Scottsdale.

Speaker 23 There's a few white people who are standing up.

Speaker 23 Dennis Mahon's idea of standing up for the white man in the face of the poison of diversity was building a bomb.

Speaker 23 And today,

Speaker 23 21 years later, five members of the Scottsdale City Council finished what he started.

Speaker 23 They didn't do it with racial slurs and pipe bombs this time around.

Speaker 23 Sitting on the dais in City Hall, gavel in hand, Scottsdale Mayor Lisa Borowski presided over a meeting that used city ordinance to do what Dennis Mahon failed to do with explosive ordinance.

Speaker 23 He tried to kill Don Logan,

Speaker 23 but they killed the city's diversity office.

Speaker 23 Weird Little Guys is a production of CoolZone Media and iHeartRadio. It's researched, written, and recorded by me, Molly Conger.
Our executive producers are Sophie Lichterman and Robert Evans.

Speaker 23 The show is edited by the wildly talented Rory Gagan. The theme music was composed by Brad Dickert.
You can email me at WeirdLittleGuyspodcast at gmail.com.

Speaker 23 I will definitely read it, but I probably will not answer it. It's nothing personal.

Speaker 23 You can exchange conspiracy theories about the show with other listeners on the Weird Little Guys subreddit.

Speaker 23 Just don't post anything that's going to make you one of my weird little guys.

Speaker 2 This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something.

Speaker 6 Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity?

Speaker 7 They may be happening to you without you knowing.

Speaker 4 If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA.

Speaker 3 OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.

Speaker 15 Learn more at don't sleep on osa.com.

Speaker 7 This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

Speaker 33 Honestly, honestly, honestly, no one wants to think about HIV, but there are things that everyone can do to help prevent it. Things like PrEP.

Speaker 33 PrEP stands for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, and it means routinely taking prescription medicine before you're exposed to HIV to help reduce your chances of getting it.

Speaker 33 PrEP can be about 99% effective when taken as prescribed. It doesn't protect against other STIs, though, so be sure to use condoms and other healthy sex practices.

Speaker 17 Ask a healthcare provider about all your prevention options and visit findoutaboutprep.com to learn more. Sponsored by Gilead.

Speaker 32 The holidays get hectic fast. That's why I start with Air Tasker, where you you can get anything done.

Speaker 28 From decorating and cleaning to assembling furniture, wrapping gifts, or running last-minute errands, local taskers make it all happen.

Speaker 28 I just post my tasks, set my budget, and actually have time to enjoy the season. I even got someone to dress up as Santa for my dog's photo shoot.

Speaker 28 This year, my holidays look amazing without the stress.

Speaker 35 Download the Airtasker app or go to Airtasker.com.

Speaker 28 Airtasker, get anything done.

Speaker 30 Para los grandes, para los chicos, para los bajos y los

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart podcast.