Wisconsin from Civic Media.
This is Up North News Radio.
Now live from our late Minnesota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Breidler.
And good morning.
Welcome back to Up North News Radio, unabashedly, Wisconsin, brought to you by Courier Newsroom and carried by our friends on the Civic Media Radio Network.
It is 7 0 6 on this Wednesday morning, March 5th.
Nice to have you along coming up.
At the bottom of this hour, Congressman Mark Pocan will give us his take.
He was in the House chamber last night for President Trump's address to a joint session of Congress.
I expect that if it's a Siskel and Ebert thing, we might see two thumbs down from the Congressman, but I don't want to be a spoiler alert on that one.
We'll also talk to Todd Alba later as well.
We have three guests coming up in a matter of minutes from two different school districts in the state, a lot of referendums on the ballot on April 1st.
Again...
So we will again go over the reasons why that is and why property taxpayers are being asked to make up the difference for a legislature that continues to fall behind inflation and its own commitments to our public school students.
But first, it is a amazingly gross morning out there in parts of Wisconsin weather-wise and meteorologist Brittany Merleau is here to tell us a bit more about it.
Brittany, good morning.
How are you?
Good morning.
I am pretty tired.
This storm has worn me out, but it's also very interesting.
Keeping me on my toes, we've got a lot going on out there.
Yeah, I mean, here in Chippewa Falls, the rain must not have cut over right away because we have a lot less than I would have expected overnight.
I mean, maybe two inches, but certainly other people are getting more for snow overnight.
Yes, they have.
Right now, reports just came in from Phillips at 7.3 inches.
Rhinelanders coming in at 6.8 and even butternut at 6.2.
So areas are definitely getting hit up north here in Wausau.
I woke up this morning, 5 a.m.
It was just a slushy kind of slump out there, but now it has switched over.
It is all snow.
It is flying sideways.
We've got winds gusting up to 40 miles per hour already.
It's a Hayward Eau Claire.
You're feeling that as well.
they're sustained at a normal wind at about 25, so.
We're going to have a very, very windy day.
Whiteout conditions are expected where it's still snowing and the snow is still going to flip over.
Now it's starting to move in towards the Dells area into Stevens Point and it's cornering the Fox Valley as we speak.
So expect a winch remix first, a very slushy, icy kind of form, and then it'll flip to all snow as we go into the next few hours here.
So a winter storm warning up north remains in effect until six o'clock tonight.
That's from La Crosse to Stevens Point to Rhinelander and North.
We've also got a winter weather advisory in effect until nine o'clock into the Fox Valley and the Dells and then a window.
advisory to for those 40 to 50 mile power gusts from Fond du Lac into Reedsburg, Madison and Milwaukee.
Speaking of those cities, Madison, Milwaukee, you're not out of the clear just yet.
This will flip to snow this afternoon and we are looking at around an inch or two into the Madison area and probably a trace to an inch towards Milwaukee.
So it will get slippery.
You will see some of it, but the brunt of it is definitely staying north.
So up north, this should wind down later on this evening.
few flurries still do fly into the night.
We do have sunshine on tap tomorrow, but today that cold front's moving through.
It's going to be in the afternoon.
Highs pretty much in those 20s statewide.
just so gross.
You know, that it's crunchy.
It's slippery.
You know, the snow was wet and heavy.
Rob says good morning from Tigerton snowing in 34.
The rain switched over to snow around 5 30 this morning, an inch and a half of rain before it changed to snow.
He says many schools in north central Wisconsin are closed.
29 eastbound was closed by Highway S near Marathon City.
And the roads are snow covered and slushy.
or that slush is turning to ice.
He says, be careful shoveling snow.
It will be a heart attack snow hard to push.
And like you said, Brittany, it's going to be warming up.
So, you know, if it doesn't, uh, if it doesn't need to be moved, I mean, that's tough to say in the six to seven inch places, but other places, you might be okay letting it slide.
Right, right.
You might be okay because
we're looking
about freezing as we go through tomorrow and the sun will work its way on it.
So there's some hope.
All right, Brittany, thank you so much.
Have a great day.
Thank
you.
We'll talk to you a little bit later on.
Coming up across the Civic Media radio network this morning on Matt Nair on air, Mr. Bach, I believe you have Darren von Ruden from the Wisconsin Farmers Union coming up at 11 o'clock this morning.
Darren von Ruden from the Wisconsin Farmers Union.
I like the beat of that.
That's fun to say.
Yeah, it's going to be an interesting discussion.
We're going to be talking about all sorts of things like right to repair and, you know, other matters having to do with the farming community.
And I always love
having Darren on the show.
He's always on the first Wednesday of the month to discuss all that is happening in the egg world.
Just a fantastic guest.
Maggie Dawn will have Jeremy Janine from Urban MKE on at 2.30 and State Senate Democratic Leader Diane Heselbein at 3.05 and then Night Light with Pete Schwabba tonight includes Milwaukee Entertainment Reporter Chris Ferran at 6.35 tonight all across the Civic Media Radio Network and here at Up North News remember that you can get our daily newsletter sign up for it over at UpNorthNewsWI.com and follow us on social media as well.
For the rest of this
hour.
We've got three special guests here.
Wendy Dzerik is past superintendent for Marinette, Paula Grzinski, also from Marinette.
We'll be talking about the school referendum there.
And Denay Walsasak from the Prentice Referenda Committee is joining us as well to talk about the many referenda on the ballot across Wisconsin come April 1st.
Paula, Wendy, Denay, good morning.
How are y'all?
Thank you so much for being here.
For folks who are regular listeners of the show, the theme will be familiar, but it's one we're going to continue to hit anyway.
because there are, once again, so many school referendums on the ballot.
Now, the folks who are here are representing their school district, their community, the people who believe in their public schools.
They're not here necessarily to critique the Wisconsin legislature to the point that I will, so just bear that in mind as they make the case for voters in their districts to show their support for whatever reason.
So, Denay, let me start with you over in Prentice and tell us what is on the ballot coming April 1st.
And really, that's just to operate.
And when we're operating the way that we are, it's bare bones.
So it's just really crucial that this passes because if it doesn't, it's just kind of a spiral down from here because right now we're struggling to keep enough teachers.
We currently have
We're down a janitor, we're down a secretary, we're down interventionists, we're down, we're gonna have a speech therapist, which my son needs, and they tried to hire twice this year.
Our elementary through...
high school principal we only have one principal for a whole school system she's currently teaching math right now because it's no one wants to come to a school whose future is uncertain so right now we're just struggling just to make it and operate bare bones so this is just a really important thing for our community to understand like this is our shot to just kind of keep going and
help our school out and help the kids in our community to get a good education right in our community?
Well, the way that you put it at a recent rally for public schools, and this was captured extremely well in the Wisconsin Examiner by Baylor Spears, who wrote up the story and quoted a lot of what you just had to say.
And, you know, you said it's affecting our community, our way of life.
I ask you from the people of Prentiss, don't let us fade away.
And I'll tell you, Danae, that line got passed around a lot around Wisconsin because it's not just Prentice, I'm not minimizing what you're going through, but public education in Wisconsin in many places almost seems like it's at risk of fading away in our small communities.
What we have is just our school and our community are so tied together.
We don't have all community events happen at our school.
The community supports our school.
The school supports the community.
We work in unison or just deeply together and we can't survive without each other because we have that foot traffic.
from the games, the concerts, the performances that bring in the families, the grandparents, friends, and people from out of town that come into Prentiss and they go to the gas station, they go to the hardware store, they'll get their hair cut, you know, they go to the grocery store.
It's just really important to keep our families here and give them their services because a lot of our families don't
have the resources that they do need because being real we are underserved and I mean that's all over Wisconsin with the rural areas and this school is so important because it's it's that heart of our community because you can have the social workers come in to help.
We have different types of programs like we like right now all of our students get free
breakfast and lunch is because of the income and poverty level in our community.
And so it is just vital for some of these kids to have the programs and different resources available to them and their families getting embraced in our community and the staff that comes to our school and works at our school to help them get to those points and different things that they do need to be successful and their children to be successful as well.
Not just academically, but just like mental health wise or physically emotionally It's just it's just kind of for everything right now.
So it's just a lot on the line and
it
It really is about a community and Wendy, can you set up the same situation in Marinette?
Tell us what what you're asking folks to to approve on April 1st.
Well, the school district in Marinette did a facility study to determine that they.
to excuse me, determine what they need for their middle and their high school facilities.
And so they are asking for a $48 million capital referendum, not an operating referendum like Prentice is.
And this would fund major building system upgrades to improve safety, security, and renovate some of those middle and high school learning.
spaces, specifically the TechEd area.
Marinette has a large industry and we love to keep our students in the area.
So we have a vibrant TechEd program that we want to make sure is up to date and modern and aligns with industry standards.
Paul also from Marinette, but you and I have known each other from political circles for a long time here.
And so you are especially talented at threading the needle and helping people understand that this is not a function of some school districts, you know, being greedy and not good stewards.
There are political reasons in Madison or even Washington that lead to this, but also not simply relying on politics as a scapegoat because this is a community issue.
So
There really is with every one of these referendums I've learned, a real communication effort that goes into this.
And as I get set to ask you about it, I realize I hadn't looked at the clock and I'm up against a commercial break.
So Paula, hold that thought.
And then we're gonna jump into communicating to a school district and to its voters the importance of supporting these referendums because of factors that are often out of their control.
We'll be back in two minutes.
This is Up North News Radio on the Civic Media Radio Network.
The sky is crying.
We are continuing our conversation here on a couple of more school district referendums happening around Wisconsin.
We've been talking with Denay Walsesack from the Prentice Referenda Committee.
Wendy Dzerick is past superintendent for Marinette.
Paula Grosinski is in the Marinette area as well.
And Paula, we were going into break by talking about communicating all of this to a district voters.
So how do you describe
basically what it is that you're trying to do on behalf of your community school district.
We want to make sure that they really understand the importance of their vote, that the school can't spend this money unless the voters approve the referendum.
And so we want to make sure that they understand the three specific areas, the renovating the learning environments, improving safety, and then addressing the aging systems, the failing plumbing and things like that.
So really,
making sure that in addition to the school district, right, where a separate entity from the school district, they're doing a fabulous job.
As Wendy said, the school district has a tab on the district website that goes through this, but just lending a little bit of extra community support through social media and some other things that we're doing to make sure people really have the facts so that they understand that their yes vote is critical.
It is very much so, but like I said, there is that tie into a legislature that for 16 years also hasn't allowed state aid to keep up with inflation.
And so you have legislators who represent a lot of these districts whose actions have been a little bit less than helpful.
Does that make your job?
that much harder when talking to voters that there are some local legislators who appear to be at cross purposes with your own school district goals and needs?
I don't think so.
I actually think it makes it easier to explain why their vote is important, why their yes vote is important for the referendum, or why their vote in a November election for their local assembly person or senate person is so critical.
It's not some
out there while it doesn't really affect me.
It is critical.
So it's actually a great tie-in to talk about the importance of the referendum and talk about how the local legislators aren't supporting our school district and how voters, not at this April election, but down the line, the voters can actually make their voices heard with the elected officials and how important it is for them to actually
do what they say, which is support their local
communities.
Uh, Danae, coming back to Prentice for a moment and I'm, uh, I hope I'm not getting two apples and oranges when talking about the national political climate, but I, I'm just wondering if the current, what I would describe as a feeding frenzy of spending cuts at the federal level and the fact that there's now all of this exposure about the damage that some of that is doing.
which is not to say that, you know, there isn't too much spending, but the cuts that are being made are in some pretty essential places and people are talking about that, the harm to veterans health care and national parks and things like that.
Donate, do you get any sense that maybe in some way this is helping folks in your district and elsewhere see that
Yeah, there's a lot of spending out there, but we have to concentrate on the spending that is good, the spending that is most beneficial to people in our community, whether it's veterans or in this case, whether it's school kids.
Do you feel like there's a case to be made there for the difference between good spending versus higher property taxes?
In our community, a lot of the concern, the community really cares about our kids.
They really do.
And they care about our school because, like I said, it is the heart of our school, excuse me, heart of our community.
But yes, they're angry.
They're like, what's going on?
Why is there this money here?
Why is there a surplus?
That's nothing to brag about when we're suffering over here.
And around here, there's a lot of land.
So there's a lot of big taxes coming in.
We have anywhere from a 12% to 49% in these different municipalities on how they're taxing their property to pay for our school portion.
And so that was a big is a big hurdle for us to get over to say we the school didn't do that.
The state is deciding to do it this way with your taxes, but we also need to get more from you just to operate.
So.
that makes them like okay well we're trying to get the point like let's do this now and then we continue to go forward from here and then we we go to our legislators we need we need them to understand.
And Wendy, that is probably the toughest part of your job or anybody's job is that the school funding system is already ridiculously complex.
And so it's not easy to explain what has led to the need for a referendum, even with a state budget multi-billion dollar surplus.
But clearly you feel you and your neighbors are up to the challenge or you wouldn't be doing this.
Absolutely, and the Marinette School District has been a good store of the community dollars.
Looking on the website, people will notice that it is $30 per 100,000.
I believe that would...
be taxed would would change in your taxes if the referendum were passed so they were definitely looking at a time looking to go at a time when it would be the most fiscally I guess favorable for the taxpayers to come in but it is hard because the formula is different but with the revenue limits districts have to
be respectful of those they cannot change those unless the taxpayer says so so it really is a local decision by each community which makes it difficult sometimes because people say well why do we have to spend this money the neighboring district didn't spend it or why are you asking for more than the neighboring district or why are they asking for different things so it is complicated and it is
It always requires a district to...
be sure they have all their ducks in a row, of course, when they go out to referendum, so they can explain the why.
And if you notice in Marinette's referendum, it's nothing frivolous.
It's all basic needs.
If it were your home, you'd have to do the same things to it, to maintain it and live in it.
And that's what the district is asking for, just basic needs to be sure that the Marinette kids receive a great education
in a
safe way.
And it's about getting those details.
It's so easy to just simply say, that's a lot of spending compared to, no, here are the reasons behind it.
Here's what we're asking for.
Look past just the declining enrollment numbers and things like that.
It takes really dedicated communication.
And I really
Don't see how anybody is better than the three people that are on this screen right now to do that in their communities.
Wendy Deseric is past superintendent for Marinette.
Proleg Grzinski joins us from the Marinette area.
And today, Walsh's act from the Prentice Committee.
Ladies, thank you also very much.
Good luck to you and we wish you all the
Thank you.
When we come back, Congressman Mark Pocan will be here on Up North News Radio from Chippewa Falls on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I've decided I can't just keep playing generic circus music when I talk about some of the things that happen under the big tent in the nation's capitol, so...
Three Dog Night has already done it.
So you're gonna hear more of them as we have segments like this one with Congressman Mark Pocan talking about the president's address last night.
By the way, we talked about it in our last hour as well.
If you've ever missed an hour of the show and want to listen back to it, head over to the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
And from there, you can not only find the stations, you can find the shows and you can listen to
past hours.
And in the last hour, I offered this very gross oversimplification that said basically the error that we live in now.
If you win a presidential election, one of your prizes is that you get to give your campaign speech all over again, and the party on the losing side has to sit there and listen to it.
Congressman Polkhan had to subject himself to that in the House chamber yesterday and joins us this morning.
Congressman, good morning with apologies for the oversimplification, but I don't think it was anything other than a campaign address, right?
Well, you know, the biggest thing they're working on is this tax cut for the wealthiest, the transfer four and a half trillion dollars, kill a bunch of programs for the middle class and people aspiring to be and then load more onto local property taxpayers as well to pay for the loss in programming.
So then you're going to get hit twice to pay for that tax break.
And I think that was in there for all of about two minutes out of the
14 hour speech.
So, you know, it was much more of a campaign speech.
It was much more of like his rally for the Republicans.
But he ignored what they're actually doing in Washington.
And I don't blame them, I guess, because it's pretty dumb stuff.
It's very unpopular.
It's literally, you know, shutting down programs that we benefit from.
So it was Donald Trump and his classic form.
It was, and in doing so, I think like you said, basically trying to put some kind of a positive spin on the wreckage that has ensued over his past few weeks here.
And again, with the acknowledgement that this might be a case of rose-colored glasses, but there is the potential that we will look back on this time and that more Americans than before will say,
Well, yeah, federal and state budgets, they are really big, but they do pay for a lot of things that I just never thought about until now.
Things that don't affect me, but I don't want veterans health care to be cut.
I don't want the national parks to be closed.
I don't want farmers to lose out on their conservation checks and things like that.
There just might be at the end of all this, a slightly greater appreciation for the work of actually governing a country.
really hard now to get that information out because by the time they do the tax bill, which is what they're trying to do is as quickly as April.
That was the original plan.
Trump wanted to do it in his first 100 days, but they need to get additional bodies from people he appointed out of the house into the house to do it.
But if people don't know about the cuts prior to that,
They're just only going to experience them after the fact when it's too late to change anything.
But already, people can't get appointments as easily at the VA hospitals.
Already, farmers aren't getting their grants.
Even though the Trump administration says no farmers lost their grant, we've got obviously many, many, many in Wisconsin.
you know, Organic Valley alone losing their dairy business innovation grants.
It's been announced.
We've got people who federal employees at
across the country.
I mean, 85% of the public employees are outside of Washington DC, in places like Wisconsin, 18,000 people are losing their jobs.
And, you know, Steven's point, there was an agency that works, I'm trying to be a little bit obscure on purpose for the family's sake, but an agency that works with farmers, I did a farmers union event in Chippewa Falls, they invited Democrats and Republicans.
No Republicans showed up, Derek Bannon, Jordan Tom, Tiffany, or any of the state legislators from the area, Republicans, Democrats did.
And they announced at the end, someone that many people work with, out of one of the agencies in Stevens Point, found out he had lost his job through these purges that Donald Trump's doing, and the person took their life that night.
And this is just the real-life ramifications of what's happening.
But if people don't know that, and they just get their information from their own social media, the problem is it may be too late before they realize the real consequences.
Yeah, we've really come to appreciate here and one of my Courier Newsroom colleagues Billy Ball in North Carolina had a video about this yesterday where he said, you know, the gap in this country isn't so much about Democratic versus Republican messages as it is about good information versus bad information.
And so many people are getting
bad information or they're not getting all of the information.
And much like we talked about with our three guests from the school districts in our last segment here, so much work now more than ever has to go into communicating what all is behind this to a public that frankly doesn't like to hear a lot about politics.
But if you can't convey, you know, the impact of these cuts, the people that are getting bad information are just going to think, oh, yeah, he's just cutting wasteful spending.
It's
So then it's even a bit harder to combat because some people are kind of taken
The gullibility of anything Donald Trump says is true.
And I can pretty much guarantee we're not going to have Greenland.
Canada's not going to be our 51st state.
You can go down the litany of things he says that won't be true.
But people, if they are not aware of what he's doing around these cuts.
I mean, education, the fact you had a segment education, Pat, they're cutting 45% of the federal funding for education.
In that bill they passed, the Republicans voted for last week in Congress.
If you start cutting Title I and IDEA funds, which are very likely going to have to happen with a 45% cut, that's going to affect local property taxpayers because you can't make class sizes as big and fire as many teachers as would be required.
So some of that could very likely go on the property tax.
So now, in addition to state taxes going up because of some of the cuts there, your property tax is going to go up.
You're paying like two or three times for those tax cuts for Elon Musk and Donald Trump, but you won't know about it.
until after it's done, unless we really get this information out the next 30 to 45 days.
I mean, it really is a case of kicking the can or passing the buck, I think would be the better analogy.
You have a legislature that has been short changing school districts for 15 years and making local school districts look like the bad guys asking for more revenue.
And now the same thing is happening from Republicans in Congress who are also passing the buck down to the local level.
There's also the smoke and mirrors about
accomplishments.
And I'm talking in this case about tariffs with Canada and Mexico, where, again, we have been warning people that these are going to lead to price increases.
It's going to lead to economic disruption in both countries.
And yet the White House is now making noise that, well, we might lift those tariffs as early as today.
We think we're going to make a deal.
The thing that I don't think gets conveyed out there is that people might be thinking, wow, that Trump, he sure is good.
I mean, he
He put tariffs in on Tuesday and they were lifted on Wednesday because Canada caved.
He's got such a, a, a, a stick basically of talking tough, but then he gets the other side to agree to like one little nugget of something.
And then he says, I want, I want, when there really isn't going to be any significant change, I don't think in how we deal with Canada and Mexico in the end.
But the chaos
Our number one trading partner is Canada from Wisconsin, number two, Mexico, number three, China.
I guess what countries he's putting tariffs on.
Guess what that means?
We all pay more.
He hasn't addressed the economy like he promised in November.
That's why we're paying more for things like eggs and all kinds of other stuff.
This will make things go even more expensive if he actually continues on it.
But you're right.
He folds like a cheap deck of cards.
And, you know, I think though,
This is my opinion to only Pat, but I think as long as we're in this debate about the tax stuff, you're going to have some tariff debate because I think ultimately they're not going to be able to do the cuts that Republicans have recommended committees find.
So they voted to cut Medicaid, but when the actual vote comes back, the specific vote, they're hearing it from their constituents right now.
They're not going to be able to do it.
So he's going to need funny money.
And he can have funny money by claiming how much he'll bring in from tariffs.
And then instead, at the end, when all that doesn't come true, all of that tax cut for Elon Musk will just go on the national debt like the last time.
But that means our kids and our grandkids get a chance to pay for that so that Elon Musk and Donald Trump get that tax break.
Well, that gets us to the question of democratic messaging.
Of which, you know, you excel particularly well, but it's it's something that you and I know party-wide Continues to be a challenge in that it's pretty well known from folks who study this stuff that Donald Trump, you know grew the national debt He grew the deficit.
He was a king of deficit spending and yet
that didn't seem to stick to him.
Now you have that same challenge this time around with a tax bill that again is going to make our debt worse and yet there doesn't appear to be a magic wand for Democrats to help more Americans understand that this guy is coming not with benefits but with a great big price tag.
I think it's more true than ever.
I think leaders are having a little bit of a hard time going, do we focus on the cuts?
Do we focus on the debt?
Do we focus on the economy, which we should probably because that's where Trump said is worst right now and he was at his best in November, but they're trying to juggle it all.
people are giving us all of us record numbers of phone calls to our offices and emails.
Every member I've talked to has got that.
So people are tuning in, especially people who have a family member on Medicaid, which by the way in Wisconsin is one out of three kids are on Medicaid for their healthcare.
55% of our seniors in nursing homes, my mom was in her final years.
45% of adults with disabilities living independently are on Medicaid.
So
It affects real people.
So the calls we're getting are largely around Elon Musk.
Why is this unelected billionaire with all these federal grants being able to manipulate federal money?
That just seems like corruption.
And then it's about the cuts, especially around Medicaid.
So I think people are actually a little more plugged in that are affected.
We just got to get some of the folks that may not think they're affected yet to also understand because there's a reason why the Republicans are told not to do town halls right now.
because they've all been abysmal.
Well, we're going to help make sure that people like Derek Van Norden and Tom Tiffany have to have town halls.
And, you know, this Saturday, I think we're going to give people an opportunity maybe in Derek's district to come and talk to a member of Congress.
It won't be their own, but we're going to figure out how to do
that.
Well, and that's the thing that people have been clamoring for is to provide all these opportunities, get Democrats in front of cameras, talking to folks about this.
Here's a great text that came in from Eric.
saying good morning, Pat and Congressman Pocan.
Talking about the reporter who challenged the White House spokesperson on why they're not prosecuting all of the alleged fraud that they claim to have found.
Could Dems please start asking these kinds of questions specifically in front of reporters and expose the line.
Thank you for what you do.
Basically the question is about that they keep saying they're going after waste, fraud and abuse and yet I don't see anybody actually prosecuting fraud.
So maybe, maybe it's just cutting for the sake of cutting.
Well, and
been,
you know what show, you know, they have no idea what they're doing.
Elon Musk has no experience in federal government.
The largely 20-somethings that he's got working with him have no experience in federal government.
And they're doing these deep cuts.
And when they post them, the first time they posted, the first cut they said they did was $8 billion.
Well, that was the entire budget of ICE.
The actual thing they did was $8 million, only 1,000 times off, but $2.5 million already been spent.
So maybe it really was $5.5 million.
The next three items were the same item just three times written differently.
And the fourth item, I think it was by a 20 factor, they were off again on the cost.
They have no idea what they're doing, yet the claims are off the charts.
Again, part of this is the misdirection to find that funding for the tax break.
So cutting programs the middle class need and people who need a little extra assistance, fake waste, fraud and abuse, the real fraud and abuse is this doge commission.
And then ultimately,
After the fact, it'll all go on the national debt.
And then again, long after these things have already taken place, we're going to be paying for this.
And one thing that we won't have time to get into is this notion of setting up a national cryptocurrency reserve.
I mean, no potential for fraud, abuse, and oligarchy in there, or the gold card to get in.
Oh, so many things we have to cover in later visits with Congressman Mark Pocan.
Congressman, the list isn't getting any smaller.
keep adding to it and we'll talk again real soon.
Sounds good, Pat.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
Have a wonderful day.
When we come back, Todd Alba from the conveniently named Todd Alba show will be joining us to talk a bit about the the president's speech last night and again, holding a measure of sanity and balance in all of this and again, reminding people.
It's all about the homework.
Taking things at face value.
Don't take us at face value.
We've all got Google machines.
Take a look at the headlines, look at trusted new sources, and don't just let any one person tell you what's going on.
Use us for support.
Kind of like the way a drunk uses a lamp post for support, not illumination.
We'd rather
One more for Andy Gibbs birthday, a little shadow dancing as they play with the numbers in Congress.
Is it a cut?
Is it going to tax cuts?
Are you going to see the savings?
It's all shadows.
Here's our favorite shadow dancer now, Todd Alba, his show can be heard noon to two weekdays across the Civic Media Radio Network.
Mr. Alba, how are you?
I'm doing well.
Thank you.
I already went out shopping this morning based on the last night's speech and buying extra stocking up on toilet paper.
That's a lot of toilet paper
there.
Could I could I suggest maybe adding meta-muscle to your diet?
Towers
of TP.
Yes.
I don't know.
Look, I just look at it as there was a chance for something more substantive there.
Not that Donald Trump was ever going to give you something worse, but it was a campaign speech.
It just, it just is what it was.
And like every other campaign speech last year, we have forgotten it.
We're just moving on.
There's, there's, there's other things to do.
I for one am happy that we appear to have only gotten like maybe, maybe two inches of snow.
It's going to be a lot of ice, but I don't have to run the snow blower today.
I can just let this thing melt over the next couple of days.
Other folks aren't so lucky.
So please be careful out there.
If you're moving snow or if you're.
You're on those slippery surfaces.
Um, what are you, what are you going to be talking about today on your fine program?
We'll, we'll talk a little bit of a speech.
We got you, we got Trigby Olson.
Although Trigby tells me now that he can't come on until hour number two.
So, uh, he's avoiding
me again.
Yeah.
I guess so.
He's a very, very big man.
That guy
holds like a cheap deck of cards,
I tell
you.
Very busy man.
No, he's, uh, okay.
I'll come on the show.
It's fine.
I'll come on.
It's fine.
Welcome.
Welcome.
Come on.
Poor man.
Strig V. Greg Bach
is here.
He's not, he's not so much though.
He's not the Lincoln project.
He's with the Mary Todd Lincoln project.
It's a totally different group all together, but.
Yes.
Greg, this is why you're the comedian and why I don't do improv.
So I'm glad to again defer to you.
Okay, so Trig V in the second hour.
That'll be, that'll be
just.
I was actually named after Mary Todd Lincoln.
Shut up.
No, I'm serious because allegedly in our genealogy that my like my great
great grandmother of my mom's side.
Her last name was Todd and of the Todd Lincoln of America.
Supposedly I'm related to Mary, not Lincoln, but Mary Todd Lincoln.
I think that might be a...
a bit of a stretch when you're naming your baby is to go.
I mean,
well, it was named after like my great grandmother, Todd, you know, whatever.
I mean, look, mine
was very simple.
My dad's name was Jerry.
It was Jerome Patrick.
And so I'm named Patrick Jerome.
I don't know that I would have gone back, you know, four to six generations to pick a name.
It's like, uh, uh, we will name you Jebediah Alba in for the, for the great, great, great grandfather that immigrated
here.
This is also true.
My dad wanted to name me because his name is Jim James.
He wanted to name me Jesse James Alba.
Of
course.
No way.
No.
No.
With Bo Cephas at that point, you know, we're just doing word salad here.
Yes, we are.
But
we have two unknown facts about time.
I know, I like that.
The other thing that I wanted to make sure I emphasize because I asked you about this yesterday.
is is road trips because again with the with the
snow
coming and everything we've been talking about baseball.
I got to see a spring training game last week.
Thanks to you and others for filling in.
I appreciate that very much.
You're welcome.
And
that and that and that it probably won't be that long.
I don't think you have anything in the hopper yet but I I'm just saying I'm here to encourage you the moment you I'll never forget you know you made that trip up to Amory along with Jane
Mattener.
It's back.
It's back.
Yes.
And, uh, I, I can't wait.
I, maybe it's just the snow that's doing it.
I'm just itching for spring and all those signs of it, like baseball
and
like Todd on the road.
Well, you have a question.
We've debated this on the show because Pam Yonkey has a, uh, fabulous farm babe, less farm report, uh, has a promo going right now.
And it's, it's right here in Dane County.
So it wouldn't cost the company very much at all.
Uh, there is a bit, the testicle festival.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, boy.
Here we go.
Do I do I call it a testicle festival and broadcast from there?
Up for the yes or no.
Do you have the colonies to do it?
Oh, there we go again.
This is why that's the guy that should be doing improv not over here.
Oh,
boy.
Hey, it's it's it's worth exploring, you know.
I've
done that for quite a while, but anyway,
I'm not, I'm not going there in so many ways, but to, to learn more from Pam, you can hear the full Midwest farm report weekday mornings starting at five on civic media stations and Hayward, Oshkosh, Amory and Richland center or use the civic media app.
Civic media app is a great.
Yes.
No, man.
I was going to say the civic media app is a great way to catch the Todd Alba show as well.
It is.
And Pat Crichtlow.
Yeah, we might be like, well, I want to go up and do a show on your pontoon boat.
I do too.
We've got to make that happen this year.
Oh, yes.
Can I be your producer?
Yes.
Now I've got the equipment.
I've got the starlink.
I've got the battery so I can go anywhere now.
I don't have to have a power outlet.
Yes.
On the text line, Tom from Jackson.
Yes, go.
I assume that means the aforementioned festival
festival.
Get off the air.
I don't know.
That could be it.
Just yes, just go, whatever, whatever gets it done.
So there you go.
That's that's our outlook for this week with Todd looking forward to spring and the activities that we may do and the activities that some of us definitely will not be doing.
But Todd might stay tuned for that.
I think road trip to opening day.
That's what I'm saying.
Road trip.
All y'all come down.
Oh, that's all just
opening day.
And if not an opening day is a Monday.
If that works out great.
If it's not, and you know what, any other game, any other game on there for you as well.
So let's do it.
Mr. Alba, thank you so much.
We'll talk to you over the noon hour.
I'm looking
forward to it.
Okay, Greg Bach is back with Matt Nairnair.
Two short hours from now, so stick around for that as well.
Tomorrow on the program, we've got two more members of the Wisconsin Legislature joining us, including State Senator Latanya Johnson, who is a member of the Joint Finance Committee that writes the budget, and State Assembly Rep Russell Goodwin, a new member of the Wisconsin Legislature.
We'll talk about his opening weeks working in Madison.
Up North News is the Wisconsin Outlet for Courier, a pro-democracy news network.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
Thank you for joining us on this Wednesday.
Enjoy your day.
We'll see you tomorrow morning at six here up north.
