June 21, 2026

Mister Rogers Stamp Returns, Whale-Spotting AI, ALS Drug Progress, Golf Ball Pyramid Record

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: the USPS is reissuing the 2018 Mister Rogers Neighborhood stamp after it won an encore contest by over 40,000 votes, returning as a Forever stamp with souvenir sheets. In San Francisco Bay, an AI detection system called Whale Spotter uses thermal cameras to spot whales day and night and alert ships to slow down, addressing a rise in gray whale deaths, many from ship strikes. A JAMA study reports tofersen (Qalsody) slowed and sometimes reversed symptoms in a specific form of ALS, with over 20% showing improved strength and function after three years, including a patient who moved from wheelchair use to a cane. In Texas, volunteers set a world record by stacking 19,019 golf balls into a pyramid without adhesives. In Wisconsin, a driver ignored road-closed barricades and drove into wet concrete, prompting a safety reminder.
00:00 Five Good News Intro
00:10 Mister Rogers Stamp Returns
01:28 Whale Spotter Saves Whales
02:32 ALS Drug Breakthrough
03:56 Golf Ball Pyramid Record
04:25 Driver Sinks in Concrete

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hi there, I'm Johnny Mack with five

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good news stories. Good news, The Mister Rogers stamp is back.

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The US Postal Service held a stamp Encore contest, a

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public vote to celebrate the Postal Services two hundred and

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fiftieth birthday. They put twenty five stamp designs up for

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a vote and asked people to decide which one deserved

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to come back. Competing in the field where Disney characters

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snoopy popsicles, Poka dots, Mister Rogers won by more than

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forty thousand votes. The original Mister Rogers Neighborhood stamp was

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issued in twenty eighteen. Isaac is the Postal Services Chief

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Processing and Distribution Officer. He said, when we issued the

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Mister Rogers stamp at twenty eighteen, we offered a print

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run of some twelve million. That might sound like a lot,

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but mister Rogers really took us by surprise. Within just

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a few weeks, the stamps honoring this humble, soft spoken

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man had sold out completely, so they're bringing it back.

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The original design was a photograph of mister Rogers and

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his signature cardigan alongside King Friday. The thirteenth and is

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now returning as a forever stamp in Pains of twenty.

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This time there are also four image souvenir stamp sheets

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featuring Rogers and his other beloved characters from the Neighborhood.

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The stamp designer Drry kept the design in the spirit

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of mister Rogers. She said, it's all about the man

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and his universal appeal, which will carry on. The best

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I can do as a graphic designer is to portray

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him clearly, straightforward and without gimmicks, just as he would

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have wanted. Good news for whales in San Francisco Bay,

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and there are a lot more whales than you realize.

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A new AI power detection system called well Spotter has launched.

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It runs around the clock scanning the water for whales.

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When it spots a whale, it sends real time alerts

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to ferry operators and cargo ships so they could slow down.

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Thomas Halls, the director of operations for San Francisco Bay Ferry,

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and explain they'll be able to make adjustments way before

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they get anywhere close to the whales. It will help

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us track data over time and see where the whales

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are camping out, so we can adjust our roots during

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whale season avoid the areas completely. Here's why this is

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a big deal. Last year, twenty one dead gray whales

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were found in the Bay Area. That was the highest

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number twenty five years. At least forty percent of those

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debts were caused by ship strikes. So far this year,

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at least ten have passed away from the same cause.

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The system uses thermal cameras that can operate at night

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and through the thick fog that's common in the Bay Area.

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When they first switched the system on, detections came flooding

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in almost immediately. Douglas mccaulay's, the director of the lab

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behind the product, said, suddenly of a full sense of

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how much whale activities in the space honestly put me

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a little bit on edge. This is pretty exciting, especially

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if you know anybody affected by ALS. A drug called

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Tofaerson to fr Sen brand name calcidy q al sood y,

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has apparently shown remarkable results in slowing and in some cases,

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actually reversing symptoms of a specific form of ALS. A

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new study published in the medical journal JAMA found that

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more than twenty percent of patients who received the drug

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showed improved strength and function after three years. Wow. Doctor

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Timothy Miller is with Washington University School of Medicine in

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Saint Louis, and he said, this is the first study

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where we see a really dramatic stabilization and slowing. I

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think we know from this study that ALS is treatable.

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He called the improvement results not just stabilization, but actual improvement.

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He called it eye catching and wowing. He explained, after

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three years, you would normally expect zero patients to show improvement.

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Jessica is thirty seven. She developed symptoms in early twenty

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twenty two. Her left knee kept buckling. By the end

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of the year, she was dependent on a wheelchair. She

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started taking to Ferson in December of that year. A

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few months later, she explains, one night in March, I

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went to walk up my stairs and my body just

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naturally took the step. My husband was behind me. We

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looked at each other and he was like, did you

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just do that? Between then and my next doctor's appointment,

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I started using my wheelchair a little less and then

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a little less. These days, she no longer uses a wheelchair.

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She's getting around with a keyne that's great job. Doctors

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in Texas, three golf fans decided the best way to

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honor golf was to stack nearly twenty thousand golf balls

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into a pyramid as one does yes. Michael, Debbie and

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Terry led some volunteers at Brinbrook Lake. Their Finnish pyramid

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contained nineteen nineteen golf balls stacked in thirty eight rows

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that beat the previous world record of seventeen five seventy

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five set in twenty twenty two. The team was not

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allowed to use any adhesives, nothing else to hold the

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balls in place. Okay, folks, if the sign says road closed,

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there's probably a reason. In Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, a driver

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came across a barricade blocking off a section of highway

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at the interchange of I forty one on National Avenue.

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The barricade was there for a reason. There were signs,

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there were barriers, everything was marked. The driver didn't care,

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moved the barrier to the side and drove right into

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the wet concrete. The pickup trunk sank and there it sat.

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The police showed up. They had to bring a road

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crew that had heavy machinery to pull the truck out.

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The Wisconsin Department of transfer Rotation posted about it on

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social media, saying the driver had cemented their inability to

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adhere to signs. They remind us crews place barricades and

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signs for your safety and theirs. Please never remove or

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ignore road closed signs or any other types of barriers

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where this might happen to you and those your five

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good news stories for today. Have a great day.