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This is Up North News Radio.
Now, live from our Lake Wissota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Breitler.
Well, hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It is 6 0 6 on this Thursday morning, March 13, 2025.
And it's another beautiful day to say that down there, just lie to you.
I am not live from our Lake Wissota studio.
I'm in our beautiful Madison studio at the World Headquarters of Civic Media.
Thanks to last night's wonderful event.
with a preview of the state Supreme Court election.
It is still though another beautiful day up north as well as here in Madison and nice to have you here from wherever you're listening across the civic media radio network, app, podcast, social media.
It's just wonderful to have you here.
I got a question for you.
What did you think?
I'm assuming you watched the debate.
because you're up this early and you're a little news and information junkie.
So I think a few of you probably watched Susan Crawford and Brad Schimmel, these two judges who are competing for a seat on the state Supreme Court on April 1st.
We had several dozen people attending a watch party after our event, which I guess kind of served as the debate pregame, if you will.
And it was
It was interesting to hear, to watch a debate with a crowd.
I don't normally do that.
And so occasionally Brad Shimmel would say something and you hear the crowd go, ah, Susan Crawford would say something and the crowd go, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I think I knew where the crowd was on this one.
But we'll talk a bit about the debate.
We'll talk a bit about the event.
We'll talk to Joseph Pekki.
He always appears here Thursdays.
I normally talk to him late Wednesday Well, I did talk to him late Wednesday because he was one of the panelists for our event Great panelists along with Melissa Baldoff and so many others and so Joe gets at the heart of What has suddenly made this race different?
It's a Wisconsin Supreme Court race and we already knew a lot of the nation was watching the race
But even more so now, once the world's richest man decided to get involved, there really is a Trump Elon Musk referendum in the works here on this.
So keep that in mind when we talk about the importance of going to vote on April 1st.
Joe will have that.
It's Thursday and as often as we normally do, we get a state capital update from a state assembly rep and a state senator.
The state senator is Melissa Ratcliffe.
The state representative is Alex Jores and we'll hear from them about what they're working on at the Capitol coming up around 730.
Luke Mathers at 750 who's always floating around here in the Madison studio someplace.
He got me all set up here and now he's disappeared, scurried off to take care of some things, some work that he does.
It's a lot of work to stay
handsome and capable the way that he does.
And Greg Bach makes sure to remind him over and over again of his handsomeness and his capabilities.
And he's probably listening down the hall in his office, Greg.
So I'll let you fill in the rest about Luke Mathers.
Luke, if you're listening right now, give a big old heck yeah, we can hear you.
Nope.
All right.
So this is what I think to Luke actually.
Okay.
So I'm just
kidding.
So the event was good
yesterday.
That was fun.
The event was a lot of fun, went off completely without a hitch.
And I'm the first one to say if there's been, well, there was this hiccup or there was that.
And I tell you the team at Courier Newsroom, Matthew and Abby and Selena could not have done more.
to make this thing work as well as it did.
So
I'm
I'm extremely thrilled.
I just had to show up on stage and talk to some folks.
Todd Alba really made the broadcast work from a radio standpoint across the civic media radio network.
Dan Schaefer, Reconpopulation Area and Civic Media Political Editor that did a masterful job with the economy panel.
And the other thing Matthew from Courier did besides booking a wonderful
beautiful venue over across the street here at the Overture Center was setting up the debate watch party.
And I wondered if people were going to stick around or not.
Well, then I saw the the food that he had ordered a wonderful catering staff there at the Overture.
And I think every everybody stuck around for the debate and and the food.
because it was good.
It was just wonderfully hosted.
And I again, want to thank everybody who was a part of it.
So yeah, it was, it was a great thing.
So we're doing the show this morning, heading back up north and wrapping up the week from here.
And then we'll get Brittany's forecast because we're still somewhere on that roller coaster, right?
I mean, I'm looking at temperatures now in the mid twenties to lower thirties in Milwaukee and where you are in Racine.
But I have no idea where we're going from here.
I've heard severe weather.
I've heard big warm ups.
You know, oh, you know what?
Pretty sense me a forecast.
She does.
She does.
Oh, you know what?
I could read that.
Here it is now.
We just keep getting warmer and warmer.
She writes feeling like spring with even some mugginess creeping in for Friday.
Behind that, the first thunderstorms of the year had our way.
Oh no, followed by snow and blustery cold.
Brittany.
You're killing me here.
Here's your state forecast for today.
Partly sunny and warmer.
Highs in the upper 50s north to mid 60s south, a southeast wind at 5 to 15.
Tonight mild scattered clouds, lows in the upper 30s up north, low 40s in the south and still a southeast wind at 5 to 15 miles an hour.
And right now it is 27 up in Chippewa Falls, 25 in Hayward, 29 in Amory.
27 in Warsaw.
It's a 28 in Rapids 30 in La Crosse and in Green Bay Madison is at 27 Milwaukee 34 and 30 in Racine as we careen toward the weekend.
I don't know if I can
this
weather is just funny.
I mean, I don't know which jackets to leave in the car.
Clearly got to keep the snow brush in there too.
I'm just
I was, I was told that it was going to be nice.
I was told, I was told there would be no more winter.
I guess, I guess the, the ultimate question, what you can ask Brittany is that, you know, is, is, because the last time you all got socked with snow pretty hard and down
here in
Kenosha and Southeast Wisconsin was rain.
So
yeah, we'll see where.
Yeah, where where this winds up which again in spring's got to be a little tougher because you know you get that 32 degree line could be just about anywhere now at this point.
Well welcome to March Madness I guess the Big Ten Conference tournament is underway so there will be some Badger Men's basketball found out yesterday that Northwestern beat the Minnesota Gophers and so the Badgers will be playing Northwestern.
Coverage begins at 12.30 this afternoon on Civic Media Stations in Amory, Wisconsin Rapids and Richland Center.
Check out civicmedia.us to learn much more about that.
Then, of course, there's the Big East Tournament as well, where Marquette will be playing Xavier.
Later today later this afternoon and then the the Bucks are hosting the LA Lakers tonight as well So it is a truly prime basketball season at this point in the program here Let's see.
What can we cover in a couple of minutes here?
But let's let's talk just a bit more about the debate and then we'll get into Our event that served as kind of a pregame to it Looking at the Associated Press right up
The lead they take away from this is that abortion rights and the influence of donations from billionaires Elon Musk and George Soros took center stage in a sometimes testy debate Wednesday between the candidates for Wisconsin Supreme Court.
As you know, the winner will determine whether conservatives or liberal justices control the court.
There will be cases about abortion and reproductive rights, the strength of public sector unions, voting rules, congressional district boundaries.
It pits Waukesha County circuit judge, Brad Schimmel, who was a former state attorney general against Dane County circuit judge, Susan Crawford.
And so yeah, there was a discussion about the 1849 state law that interpreted one way.
would ban nearly all abortions in the state and is currently pending before the court.
Schimmel says, quote, the 1849 ban was a validly passed law.
I don't believe it reflects the will of the people of Wisconsin today.
Schimmel said the future of abortion rights should not be up to the Supreme Court, but should instead be decided by voters.
Greg, I know we've talked about this before That's a cop out.
He knows that there is no initiative in a referendum for a state constitutional ballot in Wisconsin Governor Evers has said hey, let's have one Republicans in the legislature have said nah, you know and if they can control the the state Supreme Court Then it really won't be necessary But every time I we hear that remember Ron Johnson used to say that all the time too and it's like that's not a thing I mean we'd live if it was a thing
You know, a vast majority of people in Wisconsin do not support a full-on abortion ban.
So for a candidate for Supreme Court saying, well, people should vote.
But in the meantime, it's a valid law.
I mean, just say it.
Just say you want the abortion ban.
Vote for me and you get the abortion ban is what I'm hearing from Brad Schimmel.
I firmly believe that if this is an issue that has got you on the fence, folks listening out there who haven't made up their mind, they may not know yet.
Brad Schimel's inability to make a claim on this and and really when he says let the people decide Shows he knows nothing either.
He's lying or he knows nothing about the the process of passing laws in Wisconsin But just remember what happened when Amy Coney Barrett Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh on before the the Senate the Senate Committee and said it's law.
It's fine.
Like we're not gonna mess with it
Brad Schimel is lying.
The moment he gets on that court, if he wins, he will make sure that if there's not the 1849 abortion ban, it's something similar for the 21st century.
I don't believe him as much as I can throw him.
And this whole, let the people decide with a referendum, either Brad, you are lying through your, your Elon Musk balk teeth, or you are woefully ignorant in how the process works here in the state.
And you should not be holding such a high.
high position in government.
Cassandra writes on YouTube.
How many polls does he need to see?
Because every poll that's done shows the majority of Wisconsinites don't want this law.
And they got, they got into the debating this, um, you know, unfortunately the state of politics is people are always looking for the Zinger and Judge Crawford got in the Zinger when at one point she referred to Elon Schimel.
Yeah.
trying to have an influence on this race, whether it's for abortion or business.
Here was the other red flag from Brad Schimmel for me.
There's going to be a measure on the April 1st ballot where once again, Wisconsin Republicans in the legislature are monkeying with the state constitution.
And there's a referendum on there that would enshrine voter ID, make it more difficult for some people to vote.
And Schimmel said he's going to vote for the amendment.
And he used the phrase voter integrity or election integrity.
At least a half a dozen times.
Yeah.
When I hear integrity, I don't actually believe it's integrity.
I believe it's voter suppression, but at least he was clear about.
where he stands on that.
So we'll talk more about his positions there.
We'll talk a bit more about the the debate, more about the event and much more along the way.
I'll stop shaking the laptop here in the Madison studio too.
It looks like we're having an earthquake or not.
We're rock steady.
This hotel coffee is amazing.
It's going to power me through the next one hour and 41 minutes, wherever you're listening with whatever coffee you're drinking across Wisconsin.
When you're here, you're up north.
We'll be back right after this.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
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started.
That is 1962 Neil Sedaka and this
Is
taking his own song from 1962 and Turning it into a sad ballad Neil Sedaka Has a birthday today Roger in Stevens Point puts up during the break on Facebook Happy 86th birthday to one of the last surviving links to 1950s music Neil Sedaka
He is the only artist to have a top 20 single in each of the four decades from the 50s through the 80s, all of which were at least co-written by Sadaka himself.
And I should point out that now at age 86, he's doing TikTok videos with like a grandson or something, giving, you know, dishing some dirt and telling some stories behind some of his best songs.
I wrote
all of Paul Williams hits.
You know, it was covered by so many, you know, captain to Neil, you know, had a few hits from him and many others.
And it would be great to have him and Carol King and Neil Diamond and all those folks who were those early songwriters talk much more about that process.
I would not be able to get enough of that.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Just tell me about that.
Just just I'll listen to you talk about writing monkeys hits alone.
That's it.
Yes, that would be a good one.
So we'll have more in today's history lesson coming up in just a bit.
But first, this detour about water.
Not not PFAS.
We're not talking about drinking water.
We're not talking about industrial chemicals or anything.
We're talking city water versus country water.
And I know that my wife is driving to work right now enlisting and she's laughing.
She's going, oh, I know where this is going right away.
I love living out in the country.
I really do, Greg.
I, you know, we have a well, we have a well.
Water is fresh and clean and pure and
wonderful.
That's great.
If there's one thing she knows is whenever I come into a city and I come to a hotel, we're in a nice little hotel here, not far from the station.
And I first feel that city water pressure in the shower.
It's like, oh,
baby and it's not like it trickles out of our shower head but you know it just kind of has this little flow but if people take for granted that in town you've got like real water pressure and I want that thing like on sandblast level and I was just digging it I am surprised I made it here on time.
Question?
Yes sir.
Isn't there, aren't there ways of adjusting water pressure even out where you live?
I mean, technology can like put a thing on the thing and then turn the thing up and the thing goes bad.
And you're like, ah, the water pressure is great.
My skin's off.
There probably is.
Maybe, maybe I just need a compressed air tank or something on there.
No, don't do that.
Don't do that because, because then, Hey, you see, that's a shooting start.
Now that's a falling pat.
No, I mean, that's one word where Dr. Craylow would be like, dude, do we really need that, you know, for the house?
Is that, is that necessary to be like, no, it's not.
And it makes me appreciate city water pressure that much more.
I was just gonna say your birthday is coming up later
this year.
Dr. Craylow, if you're thinking of things to buy it.
And I'm like, what's different?
Oh, look at, look down in the basement, what I've put next to the hot water heater for your birthday, dear.
I like this.
I like this dropping hints.
So, yeah, things are offset when you're at a hotel.
You get the hotel coffee, like this Styrofoam cup I'm holding in my hand, but you get city water pressure too.
See, it's, it's a little thing.
Truly, truly little thing.
Yeah.
That
makes me
happy.
I
don't disagree with that.
I love that for you.
I
love that
for you.
Thank you very much.
Hey, the Brewer's spring training schedule continues this week.
The Brewer's taking on the San Francisco, San Francisco Giants tomorrow at 3 p.m.
And you can hear the game on several civic media Brewer's affiliates, including the newest Brewer's affiliate up north at WBZH in Hayward.
So Brewer's Baseball, not that far away, a spring training game tomorrow.
Again, Courier Newsroom, which is our parent company at Up North News and put on last night's event, also has all kinds of other state outlets, newsletters, products.
One of them is Stop the Presses with Mark Jacob.
We will be talking to him tomorrow.
You can learn more over at couriernewsroom.com.
But if you like hearing Mark Jacob and Jennifer Schulze and Jim Santel, our Week in Review panel, quick little note.
that they will have a different time tomorrow.
They will appear at 7.05 instead of usually it's about 7.2730.
And that is because tomorrow we are slated to talk to Brittany Kinzer, candidate for state superintendent of public instruction.
She'll join us live at 7.30 tomorrow.
She is challenging Jill Underly for the state superintendent role.
It was something that was talked about a little bit.
during yesterday's Supreme Court forum, because the state Supreme Court will no doubt be asked to decide on a challenge to act 10.
And we'll also look at a challenge to the current voucher school program, which is closing in on a $1 billion price tag to taxpayers.
Brittany Kinzer supports the voucher and charter school program and also says she wants public schools to be strong in Wisconsin so we will ask her what her ideas are to do that and yet not be a drain on taxpayers and protect education for all Wisconsin kids so you'll want to tune into that but our panelists last night
had some things to say about that and believe that the Supreme Court election is going to be very key to protecting public schools all across Wisconsin.
There have been a couple of congressional town halls, not the in-person ones of course, because we heard how the crowd reacted in those places to the wrecking ball that Elon Musk and Donald Trump have brought into government.
Now they've become these tele town halls and I had a
friend on Facebook said he tried to watch Derek Van Orden's webinar Town Hall, but only lasted 15 minutes.
He started by saying that he can't hold an in-person Town Hall because, quote, there are a bunch of George Soros funded people traveling around the country disrupting meetings so congressmen can't hear from their constituents.
Come on.
I mean, this notion of, oh, well.
People disagree with me.
They must be paid agitators.
It is just so tired.
And from a guy who loves to talk about being this tough Navy SEAL, he claimed last night that Doge had found Doge, the Elon Musk thing, had found $50 billion in fraud at the VA.
And from there, he went on to repeat his lie that not one cent of social security will be cut in the budget resolution that he voted for.
That's technically true.
It doesn't say social security, but there's no way that you can cut that much money from the budget without cutting Medicaid Medicare social security and much more This friend noted that chat was disabled.
The questions were pre-screened I couldn't take any more and then he concludes by saying on the positive side He seemed sober and scared which is probably why we'll see more of these tell-it-town halls Last night's conversation with Joseph Becky just ahead of our debate or forum is coming up next you're up north
So here I am with Joe Specky.
We are at the opening center prior to last night's Supreme Court event.
Talking a bit about the significance of the race, Joe.
Nice to see it in person.
It is a bit of a change to have you in the flesh
right before
my eyes.
I know.
So here we are.
Of course, by now I will have talked about what was heard at the event.
But I'm just going to hit you up first with the same question we asked over and over again at the event.
And that is the significance of this race.
Let me ask it this way, though, because we've talked about this, a record amount of spending.
So do you feel like a substantial enough portion of the electorate gets it and is going to show up on April 1st?
Or is it going to take these two plus more weeks of heavy advertising for voters to go, hey, there's this right?
I should probably go be a part of this.
This is important.
I don't think we're there yet, but I think we're going to get there.
And I want to talk about reporting just yesterday, when you're listening to this.
An extraordinary story from Dan Weiss at the Milwaukee Journal of Sentinel.
About a mailer from Elon Musk's group.
Support Brad Schimmel because he supports Donald Trump's agenda.
This is a game changer.
This race is nationalizing before our very eyes.
And so where we find ourselves here in Wisconsin is on the precipice of something extraordinary.
Starting on Monday, the first ballots cast anywhere in the country, much less in a battleground state.
Wisconsin, of course, being the perennial battleground state.
We are the first American citizens who get to stand up and say enough.
This is not what we voted for.
Everybody knows it's not what I voted for.
It's not what you voted for.
But there are millions of Americans who cast a ballot for Donald Trump.
This is not what they were voting for.
They were not voting for an international trade war that is tanking the markets.
They were not voting for odds of a recession going through the roof.
They were not voting.
for tens of thousands of veterans doing important jobs like working at the VA to be thrown out on their butt with no role for Congress to play.
And so we find ourselves at this moment that is not unique in history.
I just finished this extraordinary book called The People and the Presidents.
about five American presidents who challenged the constitutional order and the ordinary, everyday American citizens who fought back and ensured that the Constitution held.
None of us are Ida B. Wells or Booker Washington or any of the incredible Americans who I read about in that book.
But we all get a say.
And I am here to tell you, folks, if you are frustrated, if you are disappointed, if you are mad as hell at what is happening,
Donald Trump and Elon Musk have made it clear.
This is the place, this April 1 race for the state Supreme Court is where you get to let your voice be heard.
And I say that as someone who, by the way, has no idea where Susan Crawford is going to fall on the constitutionality of something like Act 10.
And that's how it's supposed to be, right?
I know what kind of client she represented.
I know what administrations she worked for, but I'm not supposed to know or expect that someone in a robe who I vote for is going to vote my way based on partisanship.
If we do that, if we let that happen, if we let Brad Schimmel flip control of the state Supreme Court, then what we have contributed to is the end of law.
and where law ends tyranny begins.
That's what's at stake.
No pressure, Wisconsin.
To which I'm sure people are going, whoa, whoa, whoa.
I just thought this was a simple race for a Supreme Court, but it's not that you're nationalizing it.
It's
not
that the punditry is.
It's certainly not anybody related to the Crawford campaign, but it is the people behind Brad Schimmel starting with the world's richest man who is telling Wisconsin,
with things that he has paid for from his billions and billions of dollars, this is a national race, this is a referendum on my guy, Donald Trump, and who's gonna answer the bell?
And it's not just a
referendum on Trump, it's a referendum on Musk too.
The notion that someone can file suit in state court, Tesla, and then 48 hours later,
start plowing millions of dollars into their hand-picked candidates' campaign is not what the founders had in mind.
So even if you're fine with Trump, but you'd like to send Mr. Musk a signal, and by the way, it would seem that given what's happening to his stock price and to dealerships around the country, there are plenty of people who would like to send Mr. Musk a little bit of a message.
Here's your opportunity to do that.
This pay to play nonsense that if you are a wealthy individual and a big business tycoon, you get to pick the judges you want who will rule in your favor is nonsense because Wisconsin small businesses don't have that freedom.
The individual entrepreneur trying to bootstrap something out of their garage can't do that.
The playing field is being tilted.
We have seen this, we have felt this, it is part of why people are so frustrated with our politics.
If we don't stop this from happening, we have contributed to furthering the big guys getting bigger and the little guys having a harder and harder time getting ahead.
And by the way, the lawsuit that you were just talking about with Elon Musk that he filed it and now he's getting involved in the Supreme Court race,
It is rather innocuous.
It's about whether the people that make cars can also be dealerships.
I don't want to get too far afield, but remember the whole three-tiered thing with alcohol.
There's brewers and there's distributors and then there's retailers.
This is somewhat similar to it.
And look, people can disagree on the lawsuit, but it's really what's at the heart of this is whether any business owner involved in any lawsuit can then suddenly put
record amounts of money behind something, if so, we're no different than the gilded age of the late 19th
century.
Correct.
And we can't go back to that.
You are exactly right to draw that parallel.
I think the three-tier system works fine for alcohol in Wisconsin.
But you know where that was sorted out?
Through the legislature and with the governor.
That is regular order in the process by which these questions should be solved.
This is not rocket science.
We have checks and balances for a reason, and what Musk and Trump are trying to do is upend the constitutional order and say, might makes right, the bigger my pocket book, the bigger a check I can write, the more assured I am of getting the outcome I want.
And this notion of going from we the people to a government that is of, by, and for the billionaires,
is insane, and it is not what people voted for, and it is not what Wisconsin wants.
As we're talking about the significance of this election, and obviously the state Supreme Court race is the big kahuna, but the race for superintendent of public instruction is right up there, and then there is the notion, as I mentioned yesterday on the program, of the 90-some school referendums.
Another batch of referendums are up there.
So with such a clear choice,
at State Supreme Court.
Such a clear choice for DPI as far as somebody who's, you know...
very much for public schools and somebody who says they're for public schools, but also wants, you know, voucher schools and charter schools, and then all these school referendums.
It's not a presidential election, Joe, but there seemed just in all three of those areas, a message that is screaming to voters, this is worth your time to show
up for.
It is.
Listen, there's no question that the DPI race is the undercard.
That doesn't mean it's not important.
When you look at what has happened in Wisconsin,
with from the Walker era forward and this MAGA majority, it's not a Republican majority that's been running the state house, it turns out it's a MAGA majority.
And what they have been doing is steadily defunding public education and moving those resources into unaccountable voucher schools.
And they succeeded in expanding that program statewide.
Turns out most of that money, most of those vouchers, that taxpayer dollars, yours and mine,
ended up going to families that already were paying for private school, which is a fine choice to make, but don't expect me to subsidize it.
And the statewide cap being blown on that, they're still trying to go the way of more, more, more.
And all of the money in this race behind Brittany Kinzer is designed to do one thing, open those floodgates just a little further.
that means less money for public education, those K-12 neighborhood schools.
You know what else it means?
It means less money to keep the lights on in the ones that we have, which is why we have scores and scores of these referenda almost every time you go to vote.
You see something on your ballot going, I had another 1.6 million for the school, for a capital project.
Oh, we need another 8 million and ongoing budgetary authority.
Where does it stop?
It has to stop somewhere and it's not gonna stop.
If Brittany Kinzer and the school voucher advocates win this chair.
She will be appearing here tomorrow morning at 7.30 and so when she does.
If you were here with her, what is the one question you think that she should be asked tomorrow as she tries to unseat current state superintendent Jill Longerley?
Why should
anyone believe that you will defend
K-12 public education in Wisconsin, when your entire campaign is being bankrolled by people who have made clear their objective, destroy and defund public education in Wisconsin.
Switching gears big time, but because you are such a big Milwaukee Bucks fan.
I just wanted to see if you had any thoughts on the passing of Junior Bridgeman.
What a terrible story.
This breaks your heart that you know,
because that just happened to be following it almost in real time.
You get the breaking news alert that there is a medical emergency involving Mr. Brisbane and then within hours he's gone at far too young an age.
71 is too young to be leaving this mortal coil.
And so I know it's a sad day for the organization.
My heart goes out to he and his friends and family and loved ones.
It's just another sad day and another reminder to
Make every moment make every day matter and if we can do that you'll all be
all right Bucks fan and You're as passionate about our politics and policy as you are about your sports teams Joe and we always appreciate it Thanks for taking a little time with us on a very busy week.
You bet man.
Talk soon
And that was our conversation, which normally runs through the whole segment.
You could hear in the background, though, they were getting closer and closer to opening the doors and filling up the seats at the Overture Center.
So we had to kind of cut things short there so that we could get an event going and a very successful event that we had.
One of the moments that really struck me was right near the end.
Our third panel was on reproductive health care rights.
One of the panelists was Heather Martel from Chippewa Falls and she has been on this program before telling her story of And a story that's far too common of women and couples who want a pregnancy to be successful But then there's a catastrophic health event a fetal demise and an abortion is necessary That's that's what we we mean by abortion care and the the legal
and medical and the hostile crowds, all the barriers that she had to get through.
And she answered some questions as all the panelists did.
But then she kind of wrapped things up by standing up and asking the entire crowd through applause or show of hands, a series of questions.
Now, one of them was, you know, have you ever had an abortion?
But then she listed a range of pregnancy complications.
Again, that happened.
to people who want to be pregnant.
This is not where abortion is some matter of convenience.
And if there's one thing we've continued to say since the DOBS decision, it's that abortion care is so wide-ranging.
And Dr. Eliza Bennett, an obstetrician gynecologist, was part of the panel as well.
Michelle Velazquez from Planned Parenthood Advocates.
State Senator Kelder Royce.
And again, through that interaction with the crowd,
Helped everybody understand that there is somebody that you know likely who has needed abortion care for some reason and For as dr. Bennett, you know put it to have government to have Supreme Court justices in the exam room Not literally but figuratively is just wrong and unnecessary.
It's an unnecessary intrusion into health care So we talked about ways that look there's always going to be laws regarding health care
about a host of areas.
So how do you have that legal framework become something that defends women and doctors and their right to practice medicine to make decisions?
How is that legal framework something that is a shield rather than a cage that imprisons women and their doctors and couples and families into making choices that some politician wants to make rather than you?
And in explaining all that, hopefully the folks listening yesterday and the folks in the audience will talk to their friends and neighbors about the importance of voting on April 1st.
We'll have today's history lesson coming up next.
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Let's do today's history lesson the Beatles top it because it was 60 years ago today This day in 1965 the Beatles landed their seventh number one hit here in the States with eight days a week We mentioned that Neil Sadaka is 86 years old today He had hits starting in the 50s, but well throughout the 70s one that doesn't get played very much, but I
usually choose to play on his birthday, is a song about immigration and how we looked at immigration a lot different then than we do now.
Brooklyn's own Neil Sedaka, 86 years old today, has written or co-written more than 500 songs for himself and other artists.
Which I still I couldn't write one song because and you know anybody that has just tried on their own going I think I'm gonna read some what do you always end up doing you realize you're copying some other song Yeah, you're just going along and then suddenly you're like no no no that's that's that song there I don't know
how you
write
an original one I used to be in a band with a guy and he used to write lyrics and he goes I wrote this to I wrote this lyrics to this song.
I'm like
You realize we'll get sued right look no matter what like you like You got to write just the lyrics man.
Don't write to a tune itself because we can't replace the tunes.
They already exist Yes, yeah, that's that's enough.
That's called
sampling nowadays and it's it's not plagiarism No, it's sampling as long as I pay someone a check at the end
That's right.
Rapper Common is 53 years old today.
He was born Lonnie Lynn Jr.
in Chicago.
You now know him as Common.
On this day in 2007, Amy Winehouse's second album Back to Black was released.
It would go on to win five Grammy Awards for the for the following year, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year for this self-fulfilling prophecy.
On
this day in 2013, a papal conclave elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Rogoglio, who took the name Pope Francis as the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church.
He became Pope 12 years ago today.
Five years ago today, two landmark events to tell you about.
Breonna Taylor was killed by police officers in Louisville, Kentucky, forcibly entering her home.
The death sparked extensive protests against racism and police misconduct.
It was overshadowed that day by a national declaration when the president of the United States at the time declared the COVID-19 pandemic to be a national emergency.
That president was Donald Trump and I say this in all seriousness I wonder if that same guy would declare a national emergency today if it happened or if we would just get more of the you know, it's a hoax It's a it's a George Soros conspiracy You know that the guy at least pretended to care but now as we're dismantling, you know, the National Institutes of Health and
cancer research and, you know, USAID aid overseas.
The next pandemic looms larger than ever, in my
view.
Yeah.
I think I've said this before.
I think if another pandemic happens, it's going to have to be a thoroughly horrific visual for people to actually care.
Yeah.
And I don't think
I don't think if it was happening today, I don't think the president would do anything.
I think he'd say, he'd say, let's talk to our health guy, Bob Jr.
What should we do?
Spread some linseed oil on our bodies.
Sounds good.
I need to get back to the history lessons.
I need the diversion.
On this day in 1976, the number one song is by the Four
Seasons.
Sounds modern.
Sounds like a little remix version we grabbed here.
What?
Oh, my goodness.
Everything is this.
I'm getting the better version.
Yeah.
Well, while you do that, I'll tell you that with that hit December, 1963.
Oh, what a night.
But it made the four seasons the only act to chart number one hits before the Beatles.
during the Beatles and after the Beatles.
So there we go with Frankie Valley and the rest of the boys whose names I've never known and never will.
It's the boys.
Boy
one, boy two, boy three.
It's the four seasons.
You know, spring, summer, winter, fall.
Yeah.
On the national day calendar today, this is a day to salute canine veterans who help out with law enforcement.
This is International School Meals Day.
So this message to members of the Wisconsin Legislature and the majority party.
Hey, hi, glad you're listening.
It's International School Meals Day.
Why don't you all gather today and pass a bill to make school meals free for all?
And solve one problem in a bipartisan fashion.
And by the way, save money along the way.
Yeah, that seems pretty simple, you know, feed kids.
That's that's that hard.
That's a difficult.
No, and you know what?
It would also check off this box.
Today is National Good Samaritans Day.
There you go.
Be the good Samaritan.
This is National Jewelry Day, and this is National Popcorn Lovers Day.
And to mark Popcorn Lovers Day, I'm going to play a terrible song from 1972 coming up in our next hour.
So brace yourself for that.
How's that for a tease?
I was going to
say, or will you?
Because I'm in
control.
I cannot play that song and good conscience.
We'll give it a go anyway.
Coming up in our next hour, we will talk to State Senator Melissa Ratcliffe and State Representative Alex Jores about the latest going on at the state Capitol here in Madison, where we had a fantastic event on protecting justice for all the stakes of the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
Thanks to all of you for making that happen.
More of Up North News Radio coming up after the news here on the Civic Media Radio.
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