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All across Wisconsin from Civic Media, this is Up North News Radio.
Now, live from our Lake Basota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Breitler.
Hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It is 6.06 on this Tuesday morning, April 15th, 2025.
It's another beautiful morning to have you here up north.
Live from Lake Basota for more every year, listening across the Civic Media Radio Network, the Civic Media app.
watching us on Facebook or YouTube or catching us on demand by podcast.
We thank you very much for starting your day right here.
I got a question for you.
If the Republican Party of Wisconsin wants to win a statewide election, what do you think of this idea?
Let's run a middle-aged businessman, a wealthy middle-aged businessman for a high-profile statewide seat.
And if they do, will it end up any differently than Tim Michaels or Eric Hovde?
We'll tell you about the guy who has filed the paperwork to form a political action committee and potentially run for governor, whether Tony Evers runs or not, coming up in the program today.
Also, we'll talk to Sharita Booker, our social media manager about some of our more popular social media posts of the past week.
Then later this hour we'll talk to State Representative Lee Snodgrass of Appleton who has a new bill out that is seeking to ban billionaire bribery of our elections because those really rich business guys have figured out ways around campaign spending limits.
One of the more recent tricks involves paying people to sign a petition.
because we're not paying for your vote, right?
Wink.
So we'll have that with Representative Snodgrass coming up.
In our second hour, we'll talk to Sean O'Malley, a Wisconsin native and a Wall Street compliance expert who knows a thing or two about tariffs and trade and stocks and bonds.
And this time around, we're going to talk about bonds, not not Gary US bonds, but US government bonds.
One of the surest investments
on the planet until Donald Trump came along and rocked global certainty in America's willingness to pay its debts.
I mean, when you when you see the American government breaking its contracts with farmers, with export import deals, and so on,
Small wonder people are curious as to whether U.S.
bonds or the investments that they have been for generations until this guy came along.
So we'll talk to Sean O'Malley about that.
We'll talk to Chad Holmes about his program coming up in Wausau right after this program.
We will talk to Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12 and Rhinelander as part of today's history lesson.
And he will also join us for a game called, which is more valuable to you, your car or your favorite cheese?
All that and more on the way.
Brittany Merlo's forecast for the state today says we start to dry things out briefly before rain ramps up again on Thursday and storms slide in for Friday.
Brittany's state forecast for today decreasing clouds by afternoon.
We'll start to see a little sun late in the day, but otherwise blustery.
Mid 40s up north, low 50s in the south for highs today, a northwest wind at 15 to 25 miles an hour.
Tonight, clear and chilly, lows up north in the low 20s, near 30 in the southern part of the state and a northwest wind at five to 10 miles an hour.
In the Up North News daily newsletter, sign up for it over at our website, upnorthnewswi.com.
This is the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic and there were about 50 passengers or so that had some kind of connection to Wisconsin that we talked about in today's story.
And also a story about plasma donation, the things that you need to know to be a plasma donor and make a difference in the lives of many people.
And don't forget, we have a weekend newsletter as well.
It comes out on Sunday mornings.
It includes our question of the week, a lot of good responses coming in on the question about toll roads.
Nothing that's being proposed right now, but we're just feeling, you know, we're taking the temperature of the room on toll roads.
In Wisconsin, we give you a couple of different options.
People are telling us that they're all good with it.
They're skeptical, but they'd consider it.
Absolutely not.
Maybe do it under these conditions.
So again, in our newsletter, you'll find that question, but you can always reach out to us as well.
Our email address is radio at upnorthnewswi.com.
Again, radio at upnorthnewswi.com.
You can always reach this show, of course, by calling or texting 855-
75 civic eight five five seven five two four eight four two you can also use that civic media app to call the show or text the show and of course you can hop into the comment section as well and it appears like there's it's just oh the trolls are out early today greg buck tell them what they want it's
day leave us alone
i know it's uh
It's an interesting collection of gibberish that we're finding there, and we'll take a look at that a little later on.
It is tax day, so 414 day has been replaced by 415 day, and I did look at my bank account thing, I called it up this morning, and boy, they didn't waste any time.
We had filed the taxes, we had to pay in, and they plucked that money out of our account right after midnight, so.
Take it away guys.
You got the money
here.
I mean, here's something I'm sure the trolls were like, um, I can say this with cool confidence, uh, not since since 2017, 2018 afterwards.
I have never received a federal refund ever really before that.
I always got a little money.
Maybe maybe one year, you know, you get that.
You're like, Oh, wow.
That's a nice refund.
Ever since about 2017 2018, we've had to pay in this year even more.
We had to pay even more.
Love love tax breaks Pat love tax breaks.
It's so good for me as a middle class person.
Just man, let me eat them up with a spoon and some honey.
Oh, we're gonna talk to Sean about this again about this whole notion of
the the Trump tax plan from 2017 and again I don't call it the Trump tax cuts of 2017 because again they gave the minimal amounts of cuts possible to the middle class to be called a tax cut but what people learned belatedly was like that was just like a little a little tease you know and then eventually you found out that the deduction had been changed and other things have been changed in a way that hey wait a minute.
The millionaires and the billionaires, they get to keep their tax breaks.
Ours were only around for a short time.
I don't understand.
How could you not understand?
That was the plan all along.
And it will be the plan going forward as well if they're able to basically renew the 2017 plan and not do anything differently in terms of middle class tax relief.
Yeah.
So
they don't bet.
But don't worry.
Don't you worry.
They do not care about us there.
They do not.
They will not worry.
Fifth boat where they can park their fourth boat next to.
Yes.
I don't worry for a moment that there's anybody there at the moment who's caring much about us.
But again, the rest of us who are playing by the rules for the moment.
Pay our taxes, we carry on.
And the thing that I said yesterday when I was filling in for Maggie Dawn as well, and I may have mentioned it here, but if you just know you can't get things finished, oh, it was you that actually inspired this.
Fill out the extension and say, look, I'm going to file these in August, yet you have to make some kind of a payment, but at least you don't skip it.
That's a bad idea, because the only people that can skip paying their taxes and not worry, again, millionaires and billionaires, because Trump shut down all that enforcement at the IRS level.
So if you're a regular schmo,
Yeah, better pay the taxes.
They're coming after you for that.
And I'm glad you mentioned that really quick.
I've seen some memes, you know, memes really based in new sources and journalism.
Pat, when those IRS agents were coming after individuals to get their back taxes and unpaid taxes and things of that nature, it wasn't waitresses, line cooks, steel workers and things like it was billionaires and multimillionaires who decided they were like, I'm not going to pay my taxes.
Those are the ones they were going, not regular folks.
Not regular people.
They might get audited.
They might get it knock on the door if they're not paying their taxes.
But that project was going after the hundreds of millions of dollars that have not been paid to this country, to you, to me, to fix things and start wars.
Which, you know, the further away we get from the 2024 election, I guess, I hate to say angry, but the angrier I get about.
Joe Biden, the Biden White House and Democrats being unable to promote some of these very simple concepts.
Like we're the guys that finally went after millionaire tax cheats.
Yeah.
And all of the other things that I feel like we've done a better job talking up what the Biden administration did than the Biden administration.
Oh, God, yeah.
I would.
And it's just Greg, Greg, Greg, right away, reaches first face and starts rubbing.
We know, we know.
Pat, I'll see your
Biden administration and raise you up.
Evers administration too.
Come on, guys.
You've done things.
Talk about the
things.
It's not
bragging.
It's informing.
Get on a podium.
Put out a press release.
Get in front of a fire at the White House and say, hey, you know how you like to play by the, you know, good Americans don't cheat.
Good Americans do the work.
This is what we're doing.
And then follow up with for you.
Yes,
in fact,
I'm cranky this morning.
We're just picking up where we left off yesterday.
I'm thinking as well that there was a press release by the Evers team yesterday and it was, I think I've got it right here.
Yes, announcing.
$3 million in grants to support small businesses statewide.
And this is great, but it again makes this mention in here that it builds off the success of Governor Evers' popular Main Street bounce back grant program.
Let me remind you folks, because I feel like I've reminded people more than anybody else, that was $10,000 apiece going to nearly 10,000 small businesses during and after the pandemic.
And it kept more businesses open, and it prevented more vacant storefronts on main streets everywhere.
And yet, and again, I know the governor's election isn't until next year, but whether he runs or not isn't the point.
Everybody should know about this program.
It was such a wild success.
And yet, it's just indicative of, like you said, of there's not nearly enough horn tooting going on around here by people when they actually get something good done.
Dems are the worst at horn tooting.
You hear that?
Get your horn, get your horn tooting ready.
Okay.
We're tooting fired up.
I'll do
my horn right now.
Did my taxes finish them.
They're done.
Thank goodness.
There you go.
Yeah.
paid, ready to go.
When we come back, we are going to talk to Sharita Booker, our social media manager, and later on, we'll talk about, you know, what happens when another, you know, rich Republican business guy decides that he wants to run for statewide office and whether to expect any different kind of result.
Wherever you're listening across Wisconsin on this Tuesday morning, when you're here, you're up north live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're darn tooting.
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.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get
started.
This would be Nancy and Frank Sinatra, something stupid.
The number one song back in 1967, the only father-daughter duet to top the Hot 100.
And yes, we checked on Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole and Unforgettable, peaked at number 14.
Here now is our social media manager.
Head up in our news, Sharita Booker.
Sharita, how you doing?
Fit Pat, how are you?
Doing good, thanks.
Always...
interesting to see what people are engaging with.
And again, by the way, engagement doesn't always mean they like what we're posting about.
Just look at the comment sections during this radio show on YouTube or Facebook to see what I mean.
But things get engagement, you know, up or down.
Sometimes it's decidedly one way.
Sometimes it's very much an even mix.
So we've got a couple that are political in nature and then we'll end on a happy food note here.
But the news last week that more than two dozen students here and hundreds of students nationwide were being told, you know, you're done, get out of here, get out of this country.
That really struck a nerve with a lot of folks, didn't it?
So Trump revoked visas for 27 international students and alumni from across the UW system calling them, quote, lunatics.
These students now have to leave the U.S.
immediately with no warning period or no grace period.
And the UW system said they got no explanation and don't believe the students did anything wrong, even if they attended protests.
That's still a free speech and it's still legal.
Back on March 27th, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said over 300 students visas were pulled because students were causing.
quote, chaos on campus, but there's no truth or proof of the claim.
That post had almost 2,000 likes and more than 500 comments on our Facebook.
Christine Hems said, another ridiculous decision affecting too many smart, good people these days.
And Leslie Russell said, these students are not terrorists.
They are future doctors, scientists, researchers, et cetera, and they are entitled to free speech.
They are admitting to scrubbing their social media for any mentions of Israel or Gaza as a reason to revoke their visas.
This is so cruel and short-sighted.
Yeah, we're not really going to dwell much on this.
I've had a lot to say last week about how disgusting this is and that this won't be the end of it and that picking on folks who want to come to this country and get an education and take it back to their home country or even stay here, there's just, again, there's no valid reason.
to be targeting folks and anybody who paints them with a broad brush as terrorists is simply blinded by politics.
But again, that post got a lot of engagement.
As does one, anytime we bring up the two landmark uniquely Wisconsin businesses, Quick Trip and Culver's.
And I know we did this once upon a time for the Zitlo family that runs Quick Trip.
But one of the stories that was posted recently had the very
A direct headline.
Let's talk about Culver's political donations, specifically Craig Culver, but tell us more about the post and the
Turns out the Wisconsin-based Burger Joint and Custer Chain has donated to both Republicans and Democrats over the years like Scott Walker and Tommy Thompson on one side and Gretchen Whitmer and Jim Doyle on the other side.
One thing's clear though, donations have been made to Trump and Culver says they focus more on community than politics.
Their franchise owners have to work in store and give back.
locally and support young farmers through their Thank You Farmers project.
That post had more than 300 likes on our Instagram.
And Steve Otter said, this is a long quote, but I thought it was nice what he said.
He said, thank you so much.
So many of us are actively choosing where we spend our dollars, especially when they are stretched so thin these days.
Culver's general philosophy and how they approach their business is great.
I've gotten to know many of their employees as a patron and they love their jobs and how they are treated.
Love how they bring in local schools to work our best around and let them raise needed money.
both the learning and lucrative opportunity.
Bravo Craig and Bravo Culver's and Janine Alpy said, Phew, I'm so happy.
I don't have to boycott them.
Okay, we've
had this discussion about quick trip as well.
And there are people who overwhelmingly make their donations for philosophical purposes.
And there are people primarily in the business world who make donations because they they see it as
the price of access and I will tell you as a former state legislator that it's it's very uncomfortable that people feel they have to be that way and to give money to give access but that is that is how some people feel about politics and so whether they predominantly give to democrats or republicans what you often find is they give predominantly to who's ever in power right now and that's really where we have to leave it because you'd have to talk to some of these people individually
to know right where they are.
But similarly, the customers have the right to know these donation records, their public record, and then decide if it's going to influence, you know, where they purchase things, you know, up or down.
All right, we're worn out on politics.
Let's let's wrap up with food and
In this day and age, it is, I'm going to tell you, you can get engagement with just a simple headline, the right kind of headline.
I'm looking at a headline card here online and Sharita, read that short little half a sentence and then take us from there.
Wisconsin's best burger is Ever Heard of a Poached Burger at Peace Hamburger Stand in Prairie Ducine.
They've been perfecting this unique method since 1909.
so to keep their burgers juicy they simmer them in an onion infused broth right on the grill and that four ounce burger is also the only thing on the menu and when you order it's simple either with or without onions no cheese included and it looks quite interesting i guess in the comments they didn't think it looked that but that appealing uh michael andris said on facebook nope then they're done that zero flavor
And on Instagram, Jorge Martinez commented on saying, that looks gross, LMAO.
And Kate replied to him and said, haha, I guess when I saw the picture was not expecting it to look like that.
Well, you never know.
You never know.
And obviously, they've been doing this for a while, and people have a liking for it.
And again, people will get back in the comments and say, well, there's this local joint.
There's that local joint.
I have, of course, in the past from Eau Claire shouted out the amber in and the Courtney house as great homemade burgers.
I have never heard of a poached burger.
This looks rather like what they call in Iowa, the loose meat sandwich, which is essentially a sloppy Joe, but just the ground beef and maybe the onions and maybe some seasoning.
But if it works for some people, okay, good for them.
It definitely generates a lot of attention.
And you, Sharita.
You're telling me before you don't really have a favorite local burger joint in Milwaukee.
But I do like cops.
They're nice little thin patty.
It does me good.
I'm good with that.
I seriously, I am because some places that you're going to have this half pound, three quarter pound monster.
No, I don't need a monster.
I just want a burger.
It's just a nice basic burger.
Make it juicy and flavorful and you got me.
All right.
Well, we've certainly got some people talking now, whether it's politics or food, you can find those posts and more search for up North News WI.
If you want to find out what Sharita Booker is posting on behalf of the whole team here.
Sharita, thanks so much.
Have a great day.
Thanks, Pat.
And did I ask it of you as well?
He said pivoting to Mr. Bach, a favorite local burger joint in the area, not a chain, but one place.
Oh God, that's a, geez.
There's a great place in Milwaukee called Camino that has really good burgers.
It's at the top of my dome.
I'm sure I'm just going to think of
one
during the commercial
break, but yeah.
We'll be here.
We're here till eight.
Take your time.
It's not a big, not a big deal.
Representative Lee Snodgrass on billionaire loopholes after this.
You're up, North.
back now and happy to welcome to the program uh representative Lee Snodgrass of Appleton uh friend leader what's what's what's the what's all around good guy where do we go with that one all around fabulous person i'll come up with the right superlatives here representative snodgrass how are you
I'm very good.
Thanks for having me today.
Well, it's just nice to see you and so happy to hear what you're working on here.
And if folks missed it at the top of the hour, let me say again, we can talk about Citizens United all day, and that's fine.
We can talk about the Buckley-Vallejo decision all day long about whether money should be treated as free speech or not.
But you also have to keep proposing things that keep up with the times.
And given the recent times here in Wisconsin, Representative Snodgrass along with her co-authors have come up with a new proposal to avoid the latest form of billionaire bribery that's coming to Wisconsin elections.
So Lee, tell us a bit more about what you are proposing there in the assembly.
Absolutely.
So as everybody knows,
election bribery is illegal in Wisconsin.
At least they should know that.
But very recently, days before the last election, April 1st, we saw billionaire Elon Musk try to skirt the system a little bit.
He was having people, paying people to sign petitions, where he was then taking those petitions, the people who had signed it.
And using it sort of as a lottery to offer up a million dollars at a rally in support of Brad Shimmel, the Republican or the more conservative candidate, I'll say.
And obviously, that didn't sit well with a lot of Wisconsinites.
It certainly didn't sit well with me and a lot of my colleagues.
So we decided to introduce a bill that would essentially expand election bribery to include signing petitions, political petitions.
during that very specific campaign window.
We don't wanna get in the way of free speech outside of a campaign window, but inside that campaign window, paying people to sign petitions, no more.
Yeah, it just seems to make so much sense.
And yet, the larger issue is when people will say to me, like, you liberals, you like regulations and the regulations are voluminous and there's so many regulations on my comeback as always,
they wouldn't be that way if people would stop trying to find ways to get around them.
So yeah, it should just say no bribery.
But now the law clearly needs a little bit more added to it.
like this whole notion of publicity stunts and giving out money for signing petitions.
I mean, you and I both know having run races and that this whole thing about signing petitions is a relatively new thing in the internet age.
boy, I hate to disappoint too many people here, Representative Snodgrass, but you know, those those petitions don't normally get printed out and you know, handed to somebody.
There's a lot of shall we say, you know,
data mining that's going on here.
You don't have to do these things.
There's many other ways to be active, but this is not your classic petition.
Like I've, you know, I've got a grievance against the government and I want to petition the government that way.
That is not what we're talking about at all.
Right.
Yeah, I mean, it was very obvious.
I mean, if you look at the first tweets and the first announcements that Elon Musk had out there, he was essentially saying, hey, we'll pay you to
to register to vote.
He was saying, we'll pay you to sign this and you also have to be a registered voter.
It's wrong to think that somebody from outside of Wisconsin with billions of dollars can come into our state literally days before a very contested election and to sort of funnel money in as an incentive to get a certain class of people, a certain type of voter, to his events, to the polls engaged.
If you can't do that on ideas alone and the quality of your candidate or the issues that you're running on Then you probably shouldn't be doing it and you certainly shouldn't be paying people to to become engaged that way
No, and it it reminds me of the whole notion of issue ads and I remember when this first came up because I was anchoring the news in Eau Claire at the time it was right ahead of the
2002 or 2004 election cycle, or no, I'm sorry, 1998 election cycle.
And this whole thing of issue ads that couldn't be regulated as long as they didn't have magic words in there and the magic words were, you know, vote for or vote against.
And it's why you see all these ads that say, call Representative Snodgrass at blah, blah, blah, blah, blah or call this person and tell them blah, blah, blah.
And you go, that's a political ad, right?
And they go, no, that's it.
That's an issue ad.
That's, that's free speech.
I don't know who they think they're fooling anymore.
And I think it's great that you and others are finally saying enough of the, of the, trying to fool the voters, call these things what they are.
Yeah.
You know, a lot of people, um, you know, of course, when you introduce a bill, you're going to people who are for it and against it.
And, you know, the criticism that came out was more from people that said, what are you going to do about George Soros?
And you should get the money out of that, which is, as you discussed earlier, you know,
That is also a problem, and we would love to solve that, but we're going to need some federal government cooperation to solve that.
And I think the one thing that I try to remind people of, and I know my Republican colleagues heard the same thing, when we were all knocking doors, people were disgusted by the amount of money that was dumped into the presidential race.
People were tired of the ads on TV.
They were tired of the mailers in their mailbox.
We're all tired of it.
Great.
Let's have some campaign finance reform.
But this specific issue was to really say, if the courts couldn't do anything because Elon changed his language and whatever the next billionaire or millionaire that comes in, we need to make sure that our statutes are updated to address the tactics that those who are trying to have undue influence are using.
We are talking to State Representative Lee Snodgrass about a new bill that would make it tougher for billionaires to come in and try to buy elections or bribe voters through the use of these so-called petitions and other ways that folks are trying to interfere with what are already free and fair elections and yet are trying to undermine election integrity.
So I look at an issue like this.
and it should be bipartisan.
Again, we should all agree that people with more money than we could ever dream of shouldn't be able to just spend unlimited amounts and drawn out the voters and drawn out the candidates for that matter.
But that gets us to, as well, something called the SAVE Act that was being voted on in Congress.
And there are multiple issues with the SAVE Act, and I'm gonna have you outline them.
But I'm setting it up by saying that in the olden days,
The type of problem that there is in the SAVE Act, especially for married women, this again should be an absolute bipartisan slam dunk.
What are we even talking about here?
And yet it's not.
So can you tell us a bit more about the SAVE Act and why it should be a bipartisan thing to oppose?
Well, I mean the SAVE Act is at this time a federal bill that would make it harder for people to vote and we've seen this happen in Wisconsin.
You know, obviously we all just want eligible voters participating.
But what the SAVE Act is going to do is it's going to disenfranchise a lot of people.
The proof of citizenship that they need to show, which by the way, already you were asked when you registered to vote, are you a legal citizen?
And it isn't a crime to say otherwise.
So we've already got that box checked.
We don't need the proof of citizenship.
But more importantly,
the reconciliation of names on passports versus if somebody gets married and they decide to take their spouse's name.
This puts in particular mostly women in a position where they have to go back and they have to essentially prove that they are who they say they are even though they've had this legal last name change with marital status.
Now we can go into the politics of changing last names, but the bottom line here is this country needs to make it easier and more accessible for eligible citizens to vote and stop making laws that
put up more barriers, more hurdles, more documents for people to chase when they already have proof of residency and citizenship.
It should not be harder for people to vote.
And we need to talk to our US Congress members to make sure they do not pass this.
And I'm in no way saying when we talk about Project 2025 and measures like this that were in it, that we tried to tell voters about it last year, I'm not saying that, you know,
every Republican, every politician out there that supports the SAVE Act is also somehow trying to reduce the rights of women to vote.
But I am saying the number isn't zero.
And you only have to look at what JD Vance said once upon a time about, well, maybe households should only have one vote until you have kids.
I think you agree with me, Representative Snodgrass, the number is not zero of those.
I mean, we just have to look at
what people have been saying in the legislature about supporting childcare counts
they think of women who are out there working.
There's something rather insidious out there that is very ugly, but again, it is there to some degree.
I mean, I'm not normally a paranoid person, but there's definitely some people who are frightened over the toppling of the patriarchy.
I mean, the more power that women as an individual and as a body get.
And you know what?
We're still behind.
We still don't have an ERA, Mehmet ratified.
We still are not up to men when it comes to equal pay for the same job.
So the fact that we are moving backwards in this country by trying to control women's bodies, by trying to control women in the workforce, by saying that we're not going to be able to help with child care expenses, and frankly, by making it even harder for women to prove they are who they say they are when they have been legal voters for...
Years in this country is sickening and not at all surprising frankly under this current climate
It is we're talking to state representative Lee Snodgrass and when it comes to the full state budget and the joint finance committee is in the midst of doing its its public hearings right now and I haven't asked a legislator this question for a while here and It's it's always a kind of a touch you want to ask but I always feel like I have to look for that those green shoots someplace Okay, is there anything you you can look at and say?
I think this might be the bipartisan thing that that shows up in the budget.
For example, I used to say, this has got to be the budget where they finally expand Medicaid for postpartum care from 60 days to 12 months.
I used to say that's a slam dunk.
I don't even know if that I can say that.
So am I missing something or do you think there might be something out there in the state budget that will be surprisingly bipartisan?
Well, so your point about postpartum Medicaid expansion we have
an enormous amount of bipartisan support.
I think we now have
67
signed on.
So we have the means to pass it.
And I'm pretty sure that we are going to end up being the only state who has not passed that, literally, because Arkansas was the other state and they have made movements to pass it.
So this is not a place Wisconsin wants to be.
We have one party who espouses family values and saying that they care about moms and kids.
This is the best way.
you can do for that.
But what else is going to be in the budget?
I'll tell you one thing that I've heard of that I know.
Rep Kharagavara and I introduced, we're going to introduce a bill about period poverty and making sure that tampons were not taxed.
I believe that's going to be in the budget.
I believe that that in diapers is going to be included in the Republican budget.
So that's one little green shoot you can hopefully cross your fingers and count on.
There, there, I feel like I've been searching for this for months and you finally helped me out on that and I appreciate it very much.
So getting, we'll close as we opened up here talking about your bill and the assembly elections committee that you serve on.
I know last week I took issue with the chair whose name escapes me for making a comment like- Chairman Maxi.
Yes, he would get rid of the central count facility in Milwaukee if it were up to him, which-
needless to say, I think is an ill-formed opinion at best.
But my opinion, notwithstanding, what is the environment like on that committee so far this session?
The environment on the committee has shifted a little bit.
I had a great working relationship with Representative Scott Krug.
He's now the vice chair.
Chairman Maxey is a little less forthcoming.
He doesn't give me as many heads up on the bills and meetings, and there's a little bit lack of cooperation.
And certainly I was blindsided by his...
sudden dislike of Central Count, specifically only in Milwaukee, which I think is pretty revealing.
Central Count in Milwaukee, that's not our business.
They're doing a great job.
And frankly, a larger facility, plenty of room for people to observe.
I don't know why he'd want to mess with that.
It's actually, I think, harder to observe at some of those smaller places.
And frankly, I don't think the state legislators should get involved in what a local municipality decides to do in terms of counting their votes.
So long as they're making sure they're doing it with all the checks and balances in place, that's not our business.
State Representative Lee Snodgrass, Democrat of Appleton.
Is there a pollinator bill that's coming up this session?
Yeah, I just had a meeting with
my staff.
Our pollinator package is going to be rolling out in mid-May.
And we took a look at it.
We had bipartisan support last time.
Hope to move it forward this time again.
I think I know who I'm talking to in about a month.
Lee, thank you so much.
Appreciate it.
Yeah, it was nice to join you.
Take care.
You bet.
Back with more after this on the Civic Media Radio Network.
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Happy birthday to Dave Edmonds, the singer-songwriter from Wales, is 81 years old today.
We'll hear another one of his tunes coming up in our seven o'clock hour.
Before we welcome in our regular Tuesday guest, today's history lesson is full of doom and gloom, so I'm just gonna get that out of the way now, okay?
On this day in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln died after being shot the previous evening.
On this day in 1912, the Titanic sank with more than 1,500 lives lost.
The Boston Marathon bombing was this day in 2013.
The Cathedral of Notre Dame caught fire this day in 2019.
And Tone Locke had a number one hit this day in 1989.
Just tragedy everywhere.
And now we can welcome in the happier stylings of Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12, WJFWTV in Rhinelander.
Mr. Hagen, how are you?
I think I'm going to stay home today, right?
I mean, just odds are, if anything bad is going to happen, it's going to be today.
Alicia says, right there on YouTube, do not buy a lottery ticket today.
Or maybe you do.
Or could I have the number 13 over and over again?
Exactly.
How are things in your neck of the woods?
I mean, I woke up to some snow here.
I don't know if that's hard to believe down there.
But yeah,
we
have what would Brittany Merleau say?
Smattering.
You're flirting with
flurries.
Flirting with flurries.
There we go.
I love her.
Her weather language is the best.
Happy birthday to Chris Stapleton.
He is 47 years old today.
Throw
a cowboy hat on me.
I look just like him.
I
love this man so much.
A lot of people do.
We have a great voice.
Seth Rogan is 43 years old today.
Leonardo da Vinci was born this day in 1452 and Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier and debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers this day in 1947.
The next birthday here is Roy Clark.
And most people hear Roy Clark and they think, oh yeah, one of those goofballs from He-Ha and he plucked his banjo a little bit.
If you didn't know this, Roy Clark before He-Ha was a very accomplished guitar and banjo player.
Here's him from sometime in the 1950s doing something called the 12th Street Rag.
He was also a very accomplished fiddle player as well.
Oh,
was
he?
Yeah He was amazing he was and and funny, you know look up Roy Clark the odd couple too.
There's
oh, seriously
Yeah, he was on the show and he just shows up and plays guitar because that's what you did back in the 70s
Yes, that's true.
You just and he did if you watch him play live like this show like this clip.
He's always making these sheshire grin Cat eyes.
work with the audience while he's playing Yes,
I totally I totally know who this is, but maybe there's some viewers out there who don't so
Maybe what that
maybe we should explain it explain him him What I'm trying to say is I don't know who this is
We just spent the past minute and a half explaining him.
I know,
but you like
jumped to level three and you kept talking and we missed level one and two.
Let me guess, He-Haw was not something that you saw in reruns or anything like that.
I thought that was just what Cowboy said when they, you know, got a
cat.
That's He-Haw and He-Haw was Contrified Laugh-In.
I'm going to have to explain Laugh-In now.
Now we got to explain Laugh-In.
Actually, you know what?
It raises a great point.
You know what we need nowadays?
We need another He-Haw.
We need just some family-friendly, home-spun humor.
And in fact, when I was filling in for Maggie Dawn yesterday afternoon, we had on the producer of a movie, and it's a silent movie called Hundreds of Beavers.
slapstick.
Oh, you've seen it.
Okay.
A lot of slapstick in it.
We were saying we just need more laughter.
Not everything can be the, you know, the Avengers or here, how about this?
Look at these birthdays today.
Emma Watson is 35 today.
From Harry Potter.
Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones is 28 today.
Again, perfectly fine franchises, but you know, you're not going to yuck it up the whole time, and we just, we just, we need more laughter, Dan.
Yeah, we should use some more, get some more comedies in there.
The movie industry is just going to retread things right now.
A lot of rerun
or a lot of
reviews.
If you want something absolutely mind-blowing, beautiful, funny, and wholesome.
hundreds of beavers is so fun because
you
don't know what you're watching.
You're incredulous for like 20 minutes and then you just let
it
happen.
I said it's kind of in that Napoleon dynamite thing where Fred, first you're looking at going, what is this?
And then by the end of it, you're like, this was the movie trailer.
I didn't know that I needed to see today.
So there you go.
So we're going to play back parts of that interview a little bit later in the week, perhaps, but hundreds of beavers.
Look it up.
It's mostly available by streaming.
It's been in a couple of theater showings, but go to.
go to Amazon or iTunes and pay for it as opposed to YouTube and that way they get a couple of bucks for the effort here.
One more song to tell you about on this day in 2006, Mary J. Blige was at number one on the R&B chart for her 15th week with this
song.
And this broke the record of 14 weeks at number one on the R&B set the previous year by Mariah Carey for We Belong Together.
Obviously, this is tax date.
You got your taxes in, Dan, right?
I mean, a guy like you, a TV anchor with, I'm sure, a fleet of accountants who have to help get this thing filed.
I
thought my parents did that for me.
I need to do that.
Maybe you might have to make a phone call during the news break here.
Uh, and today is a national American sign language day.
Can you hang around until after the news and do a little, uh, a little game with us?
Absolutely.
I'm always game.
All right.
It's a, it's a very simple game.
It's called cars versus cheese, which is more valuable and we'll explain why coming up.
Uh, also we will have Sean O'Malley coming on to talk about not just tariffs and trade like he has before.
But what his Wall Street career tells us about what happened in the bond market last week when one of the safest investments on planet Earth was rocked because of President Trump's ongoing global.
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