You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
It's the John and Gordy show.
Wouldn't you like to know weather, boy?
sucks.
What made me think this was a good day to stop drinking?
What if you want coffee?
Coffee.
Coffee.
Black coffee.
Coffee.
Coffee.
want us
like
Well, do
is.
On 92.7 FM, WMDX.
away, boys.
the switches.
You said
Sam?
Sam.
Okay.
71 degrees currently high.
In fact, it feels like 71 degrees.
Does it?
Yeah, I don't think it's quite that warm.
High.
High of 89.
today and a low tonight of around 69 degrees, possible thunderstorms this evening.
So we'll see about that.
Not, not a real big possibility, but that's
You know, I came out against fireworks the other day.
Did you?
Yeah.
But, you know, people, if you do it responsibly, you know, more power to you.
I read a, well, a city memo from Sun Prairie saying, they're illegal here.
No one, no one can fire off a firework in our city.
Really?
Yeah, that was their memo to the friendly folks in Sun Prairie.
You can't do it.
Somebody asked a very simple question.
Really?
If I have fireworks, can I shoot them off?
No, you can't.
No one can.
It's not possible at Sunbrow.
No way.
Good luck with that.
OK, man.
He always gets into the weeds with this stuff.
We love that part of it.
But at some point, I look at the big picture, and I'm looking at what they're doing, how they're destroying this country from the...
executive branch to the administrative branch, the legislative branch to, you know, of course, you know, the Congress.
What's the one with the courts in it?
Judicial branch?
Judicial branch, is it?
Wow.
Yeah, there's a lot of little things, you know, Antigo made the press and they talked about that, yeah.
And it's an interesting story out of Antigo, so we'll talk to you what...
Tim Slacker.
Tim Slacker.
Are you having a moment?
It's going to be a long morning.
Maybe I walked in today.
You know it, right?
I said we
have
I
It's so jam-packed.
I can't remember anybody's names that are part of the show anymore.
I was listening to Schwabba, I remember his name.
But anyway, he was talking about that documentary on smart studios that will be going on at the Edward Music Hall.
All whatever.
So anyway, they're going to have that film there.
This is like a 10-year-old
go.
Alright, let's switch that up now.
Alright, so second question.
Actually, what would you guys say?
You guys had soup, right?
Yeah, I'd rather listen to Slurping Soup.
Alright, second question.
Would you rather be seated on an airplane between a couple that's arguing or next to a crying
Okay.
Well, if you're from the Flatlands, it's not a great place to be.
And he was really not a lot to see, except for Flatland.
Of course, you know, you head north of the Cheddar Curtain.
Yeah.
And suddenly everything just brightens up.
You know, you got the Dells just waiting for it.
The Dells, yes.
moment.
Don't pass me over.
No, no, no.
Don't pass me by.
See, I can see good things for you tonight.
Yeah, good things for you.
No, no, no.
Don't pass me
over.
No, no, no.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get
started.
Every morning.
Every day.
Yeah, look out, look out.
to beat
Big finish.
Yeah, keep rocking.
Bring
Look out for 92 FM,
Whoa.
club.
And he played these cassettes for the music bed.
Back in the day.
And then he did his impressions of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra.
Yeah.
Great stuff though.
Oh man, he was, he was just.
Terrific singer.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And a lot of fun.
And to appear on the show, you know, you take that kind of chance, you know, you got nothing to lose.
Good guy.
Can we get the AOC cut cued up and ready to go?
All right.
All
You can find them at 4706 Cottage Grove Road, Madison.
They offer fast and flexible appointments.
Jim and Sarah will take care of you there.
They help people change their lives.
Their number one goal isn't just selling hearing aids.
It's improving the quality of life through better hearing.
MadisonHearingAidCenter.com, great website.
Check it out.
You can get a free hearing test right there to get you started.
It's Madison Hearing Aid Center, 4706 Cottage Grove Road in Madison.
Okay.
Let her
Thank you.
And I thank the chairman.
You know, President Trump had issued some statements throughout this process saying and urging, insisting that this bill does not cut Medicaid.
He's also said some things.
You know, he says he doesn't think I'm too much of a smart person.
And I'll tell you one thing.
It doesn't take a smart person to know if you're being lied to.
President Trump, you're either being lied to or you are lying to the American people.
because this bill represents in the text of this bill the largest and greatest loss of health care in American history.
17 million Americans will lose their health care on this bill, not undocumented people, not quote unquote the disgusting term illegal, but 17 million Americans will have their health care cut from this bill on this point of tax on
as one of the only people in this body who has lived off of tips, I want to tell you a little bit about the scam of that text, a little bit of the fine print there.
The cap on that is $25,000.
While you're jacking up taxes on people who make less than $50,000 across the United States, while taking away their snap, while taking away their Medicaid, while taking, kicking them off
of the ACA and their health care extensions.
So if you're at home and you're living off tips, you do the math.
Is that worth it to you?
Losing all your health care?
Not able to feed your babies?
Not being able to put a diaper on their bottom in exchange for what?
This bill is a deal with the devil.
It explodes our national debt.
It militarizes our entire economy and it strips away healthcare and basic dignity of the American people for what?
To give Elon Musk a tax break and billionaires the greedy taking of our nation.
We cannot stand for it and we will not support it.
You should be
The Dales and Door County, I'm going to Cheeseland.
It's going to be bright and beautiful through the day.
Highs in the mid 80s this afternoon.
and it's going to heat up over the fourth of July holiday weekend.
This portion of the show brought to you by Virlo Mattress.
You can wake up and sleep better on a Virlo Mattress.
A lot has changed since 1958 when they opened their doors, but some things have remained constant.
They're still direct to consumers, providing superior products at unbeatable prices.
Virlo Mattress, two Madison locations, east side.
Westside and go to Verlo.com for more information.
We're
Welcome to the program.
Good morning Tim.
Good morning.
Good morning.
How are you guys?
We're doing okay.
You know, I'm wondering why they didn't have this commercial scale sawmill here in Wisconsin at the time I was in school.
But, but Antigo has this thing going.
And this sounds really interesting.
You, you, you were talking about it in your latest podcast.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Fill us in a little bit on this thing.
Well, you know, we've been focusing a lot lately on busted pencils on, I guess you could maybe one way of phrasing it is alternative
education.
You know, what is there out, you know, I don't want a four year degree and $150,000 in debt to work at Costco.
You know, things like that.
work.
It
great place.
And so we've been, you know, what are these other pathways and people think of the trades?
And yeah, you know, let's focus on those because those are, you know, essential occupations and skills.
And what we, you know, in fact, it was our producer, Jacob, who brought us this story from Antigo where in combination with the University of Wisconsin system up there,
high-tech wood cutting.
Yes.
Well, and it's just like you read this and my my thing was is like oh so they got a sawmill up in the north woods big deal
course of course they do you know and So really we're gonna we got to train people on how to put stuff through a saw you know other than you know
Keep your yeah keep fingers away
And so, yeah, an apprenticeship on wood cutting would be, you know, at the end of the day, you have all your fingers.
You're
Yeah, you're a skilled woodcutter.
And actually, what this piece does is points out that, no, this is the whole science of wood and the technology of the saws and the new systems in there and how to analyze the different trees and the woods and the type of cuts and how many different cuts you could make for economic benefit and how to mix these
It's a high-tech job to be a woodcutter, and there is a place in Annaco up in the Northwoods that is saying, you know what, we've got a facility, and with a grant from the University of Wisconsin system, they put together this facility that...
really can give people an alternative higher education in a high-tech field, in an industry that is right there at home in the Northwoods.
And I think what I really like about this is that
This is one of these opportunities that creates economic independence for people to stay in their communities and add and contribute to rebuilding particularly those rural towns that have been hit so hard.
do that.
Yeah.
You know, last time I saw that was like, you know, Superman could do stuff like that.
Exactly.
Yeah.
You know, but who knew that your chat GPT could see through wood?
I know.
bunion.
But yeah, this is really an interesting thing because, you know, I
I hail from Middleton where my kids went to Middleton High School and on the board they always had the new jobs that
they were training for you know it would change maybe a couple of times a year but you could take certain classes and train for those specific jobs so this is just another extension of that and this is really something else you know I mean the safety aspect of it though I mean the insurance coverage for something like this might be extensive
Well, you know, I could actually bring my Uncle Jewel up there who's missing a couple fingers.
end of the
know, and just hold up his hand, you know, like that and go like, okay, you don't want to, and he's from Hungary, you don't want to be like Uncle Jewel.
is a great program.
And what we've been trying to do on busted pencils is to really is to make people aware because it's kind of some of those things now where it's this, you know, what, what are you going to do after high school?
And it's like, if you don't know about these options, people are not going to, you know, take them up.
And so you're wrestling against to
two kind of things there's the culture of well you know uh if you go to college you're the smart kids and if you go to trades you're not the smart kids and we're we're trying to take away that idea of going everything you do
After high school and during high school.
This is all education.
Yeah, and you know, it's leading you and this isn't Oh, I didn't go to college.
I went to saw mill school.
It's like no, you know what?
I went to saw mill school.
I learned about yeah artificial intelligence and its implementation in wood cutting Understanding the science of wood, you know, it really isn't and I said this story kind of I think creates an image in people's heads
of, you know, people pushing, you know, logs through a big bladed saw and cutting them in half and moving on.
I think if you paid it, you know, in the show, I said, and you guys remember this, you know, the Waltons, you know, they owned a saw mill, right?
Yeah, that was there.
you know but but that that's not the image that we need to put across here this is again this is a highly skilled highly educated workforce that is doing this work and this work is something that you're not going to export across overseas you're not going to do this i mean you know the north woods of wisconsin uh the forestry the lumber industry is there um the idea now too of creating
opportunities for people who live in those communities to get a higher education in a form that says, you know what, this provides a real economic opportunity to contribute.
And I said, you know, what we're fighting against to in a lot of these small rural areas are brain drains that
kind of put forward the idea that, you know, if you got to get out of here, you got to get educated, therefore you can go and work and make money once you get out of here.
I'm saying, you know, that that's not a great message or, or, you know, an exercise if you're trying to actually restore and keep communities healthy.
And we're real, you know, we want to keep our rural communities healthy and thriving.
right?
And that's this is part of that problem.
You know, at least you get training in school.
But if there isn't anything that interested you in high school, then how do you pick where to go next?
And we talked about this, too.
You know, some there are fad occupations to get into maybe temporary occupations.
We know technology will advance them into something completely different at one point.
So, you know, students are kind of left wondering, what should I do?
How do I pick a subject?
How do I pick an occupation?
Yeah, well and that is an issue we know some kids are yeah They're not informed going back to this making sure that they know that these opportunities are out there to give them a thought of going I'll try this the other thing was to is to see this program and this is kind of the work I'm doing here in Pennsylvania It's a partnership with the University of Wisconsin system and this idea that you know Well, I'm gonna be a woodcutter the rest of my life.
Actually, you're working with the UW you're doing this work.
You might go out and work
for a few years and but you're going to be able to imagine and go well you know what I'm going to come back to UW because I actually want to take more of a passion and really understanding the science of wood and there's an opportunity and so that's the other thing is just to communicate that this isn't the end
your
trade your job your this is an educational experience that's going to
Open you up to some ideas.
You're gonna do some work and it may even ignite another passion that you're now able to continue to pursue and so I think that's the message of Higher education is
is
to try to recommend that we're lifelong learners and that these things that we have out here These are just options to continue our education and so when you see industry and higher education working together such as what's happening in antigo
that what that's really doing is trying to create pathways that allow people an alternative to, hey, you know what?
I really like doing this high-tech wood cutting.
I'll stay here.
Oh, I'm doing this and it's with the University of Wisconsin.
I think I'm going to transfer the skill set and the credits that I accumulated at the Sawmill to the UW and put it towards a degree.
And so it's, you know, again, it's just a great story that we need to be talking about every time we see these opportunities.
Yeah, continuing
We're talking to Dr. Tim Slecker from Busted Pencils, and Tim, we talked about the lumberjack industry and the wood cutting industry, but also...
you know, future opportunities in the dairy industry.
We were talking with our friend Pam Yonkey, the family, the fabulous farm base, the other day about automated milking barns, you know, that keep, that are really way more efficient than the old ways of doing
Yeah, super technology.
Yeah.
I want to know that's an app we need to invent is the app AI app that looks at a cow and says this is a good milk and
amazing.
Like I said, I, you know, cause when we can identify which cows make skim milk, 1% chocolate milk.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
No more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no
no more kings, no
more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings, no more kings,
Hey, we want to invite you to enter one of our new contests here for Sugar River Pizza.
We're doing pizza parties this summer and you and your office.
Folks could be a part of the pizza party.
place could be involved with this just go to our website WMDXradio.com and when you see the pizza party from Sugar River Pizza pop up the top of the screen click on that banner and you'll find out how you can enter to win a pizza party from Sugar River Pizza and John and Gordy and WMDX.
Yeah and when we bring the pizzas
It'll be a fun time.
house.
What a surprise.
And then when it went to the Senate it changed a little bit and then he started panicking because they changed a few things in that big bad bill that would affect Wisconsin rural communities.
Derek is a big supporter of the rural communities by accident, really, just because he's from there.
Anyway, he was begging Governor Evers.
He was relying on Governor Evers to sign our budget in the state immediately before the house signs on to...
the big bad bill
sent
So if you could just keep track of all this stuff.
So anyway, I want you to get a little history of this.
This is Derek Van Orden saying, oh, man, he isn't going to sign on anything that makes cuts to Medicaid and puts puts those hospitals at risk in the rural communities.
Let's listen.
And so far, Republicans are coping with this fundamental obvious contradiction by just
lying their constituents and just falling in line.
Let me give you an example of how this kind of thing works.
So Derek Van Orton is a Wisconsin Republican and he's an interesting case because he represents a true swing district that's also rural in character, okay?
And back in March, boy, boy, he got all wound up and
sounded like he was sticking to his guns
I have very, very few hard lines when it comes to
these issues that we talk about regularly.
One of them is this, and I've been crystal clear with the leadership in the house here.
If during this budget reconciliation process, they're going to try to cut rural health care, I am not on board.
I will not be on board with a package that if anybody is trying to cut any type of rural health care, it's just not going to happen on my watch.
Well,
so that was his red line back in March.
Then
later, he voted to pass a House version of the Trump bill that did exactly what he said he would vote against.
Republicans like Van Orden at some levels, you can see they understand cuts to health care would be devastating their communities.
Crossing Trump would be devastating to their future political prospects, not to mention it probably involves like having to deal with a lot more security, frankly.
why Republicans have been lying so consistently to their own constituents about just what the bill
So anyway, we know where Derek stands on this thing, you know, so he voted for it anyway.
So he sent a memo out to Governor Evers saying the state budget includes an increase to the state provider tax rate, which by the way, state providers of health care in the state
contribute a little bit of money to Medicaid in order to pay for all of these things that are going on in the state, the real hospitals and the care that they get, and that is going away under the new bill, the big bad bill in Congress right now.
That goes away for some states, but there is an exemption, and that is that the states that did not sign on to expand at Medicaid get to keep whatever
whatever form of tax they had upon these healthcare providers.
So it's a Medicaid expansion state that can't do that, but Wisconsin isn't part of that.
So they allow 6% to remain untouched in this new bill.
But Wisconsin has a 1.7% tax rate that goes to help Medicaid
pay for all of the services that they provide.
So anyway, he says, pass this bill, pass this bill in the state.
So we can keep our, we actually, I think they're increasing this from 1.7 to 6% in the state budget.
I'm not sure, I'd have to check on that.
But anyway, he's begging the governor to sign it.
Well, the governor signed it.
So now we're all safe and ready to go.
But he was panicking.
He wanted the governor, a Democratic governor to bail his ass out.
That's my point.
That's why I'm bottom lining it here.
to
Stay tuned.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.