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This is Up North News Radio.
Now, live from our Lake Minnesota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Brightlow.
Thank you, Don Rue.
Good morning.
Welcome back to Up North News Radio on a passionate Lee, Wisconsin, brought to you by Courier Newsroom and carried by our friends here on the Civic Media Radio Network at 7.06 on this Wednesday morning, April 16th.
Meteorologist Brittany Merleau will join us in just a sec, along with Greg Bach from Radio Park coming up.
This hour, we will be talking to Robert Craig from Citizen Action and Heather Dubois-Bordon from the Wisconsin Public Education Network, basically an update on the state budget and the grassroots lobbying that is going on because, think of it as you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, okay?
Not everything that anybody wants is gonna get into the next state budget bill.
There's a lot of priorities out there, education, childcare, healthcare, natural resources, transportation, you name it.
and your state assembly rep and your state senator actually do want to know what your preferences are.
It may not jive with that, it may not mesh, but...
they need to know what their constituents are thinking.
And so we will talk to Robert and Heather about that coming up later in this hour.
We'll also talk to Todd Alba, find out what's on his show.
We'll talk about the lineup changes happening all across civic media starting next week sometime.
But first, let's get to that forecast.
Let the inquisition begin of meteorologist Brittany Merleau over temperatures that included at least last hour 19 and Hayward
Brittany, you know, that's pretty rough.
That's exactly it.
We're still doing this.
All right.
Well, you know, I mean, up north, you get that cold when you have a high pressure system and you get the clear skies, the
clear.
It's beautiful.
It's gorgeous up here,
right?
Yeah.
So I mean, the wind just finally died down, you know.
Yeah, it's great.
It's great.
So if you have a little crisp morning, it's worth it in the end because this afternoon is going to be fantastic.
That was a really nice way for Brittany to say, stop whining about this.
All right.
Leave me alone.
Yes, exactly.
They can handle it in Hayward, trust me.
18 degrees is a warm up, right?
But it
is ranging though all the way to 37 degrees right now into Sheboygan.
It's pretty nice by the lake, you know, the water holds onto the warmer temperatures so you don't get as cold.
But as we go through the day today, we've got a high pressure, like I said, undead sunshine.
Few clouds are going to move into the southwest area later on this afternoon and high temperatures today making it to those low to mid.
So it's the spring weather that I think we've all been waiting for.
Finally, the clouds are out of here.
A little bit cooler by the Great Lakes today.
Your highs are going to be in the forties and just enjoy it because we do have more rain headed our way.
Even some thunderstorms tomorrow and into Friday.
In fact, we'll probably be waking up to cloudy skies tomorrow.
Breezy winds, but they'll be out of the south.
So they're going to be warming us up to those mid to upper fifties with some sixties across the state.
But we've got those showers and storms sparking up by the afternoon, going into the evening, even into our Friday afternoon and night as well.
And then our temperatures start to take a little dip for the weekends, but we're staying dry with another big high pressure system that's building in and pushing the rain down to the south for the weekend.
It's one of those things where obviously we know we need the rain.
We're in drought or near drought conditions in many places here.
But
of course there's always a but but it's it's a holiday weekend it's Easter weekend that's right yeah well yeah and so might want to plan the indoor activities maybe the outside Easter egg hunt isn't a good idea it we already knew an outside Easter egg hunt wasn't happening here because somebody suggested it and somebody else said
You know, we still have a bear in the neighborhood, right?
Tipping over bird feeders and, and garbage cans and maybe hiding candy outside.
Pat,
if those kids really want the candy, they'll work for it.
I'm just, I'm just saying the kids are getting soft nowadays.
Back
in my
day with bears, tigers, lions, oh my, you wanted that chocolate.
You worked for it.
Bears
are
like, wow, this is way better than a garbage can.
It's
like
a bull.
It's
like a bull.
Timmy is hauled away.
Yes, exactly.
Alicia puts on YouTube.
It was chilly this morning, but beautiful to see the bits of pink in the sky at 4.58 AM.
Oh, that is amazing.
I love the longer days.
They are just making me happy.
Thank you.
Oh, thank you.
Yes, makes me happy as well.
Let's see what Rob says from Tigerton.
Good morning from Tigerton.
It is sunny and 26 degrees.
Greg, good thing you played the tic-tac-toe theme in the last contest because we lost Wink Martindale yesterday at the age of 91.
You mean?
Yes.
This thing?
This one.
There you go.
Yes, the legendary game show host, Wink Bartendale, passed away yesterday at the age of 91.
Brittany, you did not grow up in the age of game shows, and so Wink Martindale doesn't have, doesn't really resonate with you, does he?
No, unfortunately.
See, when we were kids, you know, in the early and mid-70s, after your morning news, and that wasn't, you know, the Today Show is like, what, seven hours long now?
It had just its two hours, and then it was two to three hours of game shows.
I mean,
it was game shows
galore, and it felt like Wink Martindale hosted half of them.
at any given time.
You know, his big one was Gambit, but then he moved on to Tic Tac Doe and a whole bunch of others.
He worked in radio.
He was one of the first people to interview Elvis Presley back
in the
day.
And of course, he had that nickname.
His real name was Winston, but somebody nicknamed him Wink.
What's funny is you go back because you can still see those old episodes on game show network.
You can just see how wildly inappropriate some of those hosts are.
I'm going to you, Richard Dawson on family feud.
Oh, of course.
Oh, yes.
It was, it was, shall we say another air?
You look back at old match game reruns and you're like,
Boy, the stuff they got away with in the 70s, you know?
Rob goes on to say, I was in Iola yesterday, went to the library, went for a walk around the Iola car show grounds.
I've got a doctor's appointment in Chano today.
We talked about 1977.
We didn't just have David Sol singing, don't give up on us, baby.
We had Sean Cassidy and the do run run.
Run, run, run, run.
And then a late ad from Rob Gambit was my favorite game show back in the 1970s.
It was basically based on Blackjack.
You know, you'd answer questions and you'd get a card and try to get 21 or not.
And again, much like we said about Slapstick, I wouldn't mind seeing some game shows come back that are actually games, not reality things where you've got to stab people in the back
and, you
know, drink this, you know, bear urine or whatever it.
I don't need any more reality shows.
I just want.
regular real fun game shows.
Actually, those have been making it come back.
There's a bunch on Hulu or like they are either prime time or like I watch Pictionary hosted by Jerry O'Connell.
It's just Pictionary.
Nothing.
It's just a straight ahead game show.
No, no reality, no bear pee.
It's all just fun.
Family fun.
Family
fun, that's
exactly what we need.
Family feud, right?
Does that count?
Yeah, as long
as the
host is better behaved, yes.
True.
We no longer live in an era where game show hosts can stick their tongue down a contestant's mouth every time they
introduce names.
Sorry, America.
Yeah.
We've come a long way, baby.
Yes, we have.
Still got a ways to go.
Brittany, thank you so much.
Have a great day.
You too.
Hey, reminder, you can sign up for a daily newsletter.
Head to UpNorthNewsWI.com.
Don't forget the WI and sign up for our daily dose of news.
And then of course, our Sunday morning newsletter with a focus on Wisconsin politics.
And today in the newsletter, it includes an article about
summer camp.
We talked about that earlier in the show here and the organized summer camps that kids uh and you know maybe teens and young adults would go to and the things that you could learn and the friends that you could make just a nice little way to start to think about summer because summer weather is going to get here.
eventually, but we just now have to start preparing and thinking about things like camp.
So get the details in that newsletter from Up North News.
Up North News is a separate entity from Civic Media, but we are so wonderfully proud to have this partnership in the mornings, which takes me to the lineup change, which is coming up next week on a particular day.
But I'm not going to tell you the day because we might have to waffle.
Greg, if you know this, sometimes the best laid plans.
Don't exactly work out.
So one of these days next week, it's going to be a little different around here.
Yeah.
Oh, we're putting up some new wallpaper.
Pack out a new bookshelf.
See, it started with the bookshelf and they said, Pat, that looks so good.
We're going to expand the show to three hours.
OK, so there you go.
Six to nine a.m.
is how this show will expand starting sometime next week.
It will be followed from nine to 11 by Matt Nair on air.
with Jane McNair and Greg Bach.
I'll cross most civic media radio network stations.
Other other local shows will continue in some places like over at WFHR.
They'll have a local show from 9 to 11 a.m.
Other shows are in a way being folded into other programming and we've heard a couple of comments about that from about Earl Ingram and about Chad Holmes and others that you know what what's happening with their lineups and
they frankly and ask them, don't take my word for it, but are looking forward to rather than having to fill two hours every day, they get to work on special projects, interviews, segments, a lot of which will be heard right here.
on our morning show as we go out and about to Wisconsin more often to talk to Earl, to talk to Chad, to talk to James Kelly and the Chippewa Valley, all kinds of other folks who are going to tell us the things that they're working on a much more you know statewide news-based morning show that we're going to have for you starting next week and you and Jane definitely will just
You know, take the ball from there at nine o'clock and keep the, keep the momentum going.
Absolutely.
I'm looking forward to it.
We're having, we are going to have a wonderful time.
We've got some.
I mean, we'll always have great guests lined up.
We're going to be making some small little tweaks here and there, but other than that, it's going to be the same great show from nine to 11.
And, uh, yeah, we're looking forward to the line change and coming on right after you and you might even stop by every, you know, let's say every other week.
Who knows?
Well, that's, yeah, I could do that.
I mean, I'm hoping Jane will still stop by as well.
Every so often.
Okay.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I
will, I will never speak for Jane.
She might be listening now.
I will never speak for you, Jane, but.
He said as he
as he slides the deadbolt on the
door over
there, you should let her come in here.
That's okay.
That's okay.
You're probably your preference.
It's your studio right now.
So anyway, next week, new lineup, more to be said about what's coming up later in the day.
I know Todd Alba's mentioned that he.
two to four, Maggie Dawn four to six.
It's all good.
It's all going to be fun starting next week.
And your input is always welcome.
Reach out through civicmedia.us through the website, listen on the app, tell us what you think and tell us how we can continue to be a destination for your listing pleasure.
or you're viewing pleasure.
We'll still be on Facebook and YouTube as well, which reminds me, yeah, we're gonna have to juggle around a few things, make sure that we get the video feeds just right, because who doesn't occasionally like to tune into the video and watch the consternation that develops when things don't always go according to plan?
I know, hard to believe, but that happens in morning radios.
See?
Thankfully, that orchestra is coming along with us as well.
When we come back, we'll talk about a little bit of the news of the day, things that former Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett had to say about what might happen to the U.S.
Embassy in Luxembourg, where he most recently served, and Brett Favre, for governor.
He says no, but he has been increasingly active in Wisconsin Republican circles.
We'll have more here on Up North News Radio, live from Lake Basota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
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.
I feel like this is the cultural portion of the show here.
Until people think of it as the theme to The Young and the Restless and all of the lack of culture that comes with daytime soap operas.
But before Young and the Restless used this theme, it was called Nadia's Theme.
It was composed by Barry Botkin Jr.
who was born this day in 1933 and it was used to accompany the
Highlights of Nadia Comanich, the Romanian gymnast at the Summer Olympics one year.
I didn't know that.
You didn't know it's always about the restless theme.
I didn't really know.
That's isn't that weird, though?
Like you think a TV show would have its own theme.
Well,
it did once it borrowed that one.
Yes, yes, it was now it was again, that's according to the internet where all things are true.
Yes.
It was originally called Cotton's Dream composed by Perry Botkin Jr.
and Barry D'Avorson.
Part of the soundtrack to a 1971 film, Bless the Beasts and the Children.
But it was also used for the highlights that ABC showed of Nadia Komenich during the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Again, one of the
early gymnasts who like scored perfect tens for her routines.
I mean, it was just very well-renowned.
And yeah, then young and the rest of us said, hey, this sounds good.
Let's take this.
So.
There you go.
That's another part of today's history lesson.
There is Brewer's Baseball coming up across the Civic Media Radio Network.
A coverage of the Brewer's versus Detroit starts at 11.35 this morning on several Civic Media stations.
So head over to civicmedia.us to learn more about that.
Also, in terms of the Brewer's, they did snap a three game losing streak beating Detroit last night five to nothing thanks to a one hitter.
thrown by Brewer starter Quinn Priester, who was acquired recently from the Boston Red Sox to help out a Brewer's pitching lineup depleted by injuries.
So Priester had a no hitter going through five innings.
He allowed a leadoff double in the sixth and then departed the game.
Four different relievers came in and didn't allow any base runners the rest of the way.
Reese Hoskins broke out of his early season slump by hitting a homer.
They will play again, like I said, at 12-10 today.
Coverage starts at 11-35.
They then have tomorrow off before three games at home against the Athletics of West Sacramento.
724 is the time now here on Up North News Radio.
And former Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett had some things to say about the prospect of the Trump administration cutting more things that include embassies in countries overseas.
Apparently in Luxembourg, where the former mayor served as US ambassador, is on a list of among 10 European embassies.
that might be closed as part of sweeping government cost-cutting efforts, according to a story by Lawrence Andrea in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Tom Barrett said it made no sense to squander that kind of goodwill that dates back 80 years to when the United States came in and really helped save Luxembourg from, you know, Nazi occupation and oppression.
But as Barrett said, and he also told Earl Ingram as well, you know who would really love the idea of the U.S.
closing some of these embassies?
China.
It allows China to move right in and fill the vacuum and make the case to Luxembourg and others that China could be a better ally to them than the United States.
And folks would say, oh, no, no, everybody knows.
They wouldn't do that.
No, you don't know that at all.
You think that the US sits on this mighty pedestal.
And for a time after we saved the world, after World War II, we did.
It's been a long time since then.
And people are now seeing, in the current United States government, some shades of things that...
We saw over a hundred years ago in parts of Europe it has led to global instability is led to a mistrust of the United States and if the US is going to be Retreating from parts of the world China is more than willing to come in and say we will help you with funding these things we will help you with trade and They'll take up the place on the world stage that the United States used to have all in the name of what exactly
that some billionaires and millionaires can have lower taxes because that's really all that we're going to get out of something like that.
And so Tom Barrett has some some wise words to heed about creating vacuums that other countries would be happy to fill.
It appears Brett Favre has been getting a little bit more politically active, but according to a journal sent an article from Molly Beck and Dan Bice,
He has no plans to run for governor next year in Wisconsin.
sources told the Journal Sentinel that earlier in the year, Farve had talked to a couple of Republican operatives about a possible political future in the state, but that it does not include running for governor next year.
The article then goes on to mention some of Brett Farve's social media posts that were done in support of Republican candidates or conservative issues.
And then, of course, the article goes on to say,
what might be troubling to Favre if he does decide to get further involved in politics.
You know, there's that whole part about being linked to a fraud scheme in his home state of Mississippi where.
some corrupt state leaders funneled $77 million in federal welfare funds that were supposed to go to needy families, and instead were siphoned off for special projects, including some backed by Brett Favre, like a volleyball facility at his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi.
Now, Favre hasn't been charged with a crime he has denied any wrongdoing, but his
adjacency to what should be a much larger scandal about corruption by state government officials in Mississippi is something that almost certainly would come up if Farve decided to run for office.
Now he did appear with Trump at a rally for Trump at the Rush Center in Green Bay about a week before the November general election.
So he probably will stay somewhat public.
But it occurs to me there might be another reason for that as well at least most recently and That is that Netflix in partnership with front office sports is about to chronicle the ups and downs of the football legend in a one-hour documentary called the fall of farve In other words, there might be a little bit of a you know
publicity angle to this.
Everybody loves to keep themselves in the news, even if the news isn't always good.
So whether Farve stays involved after this documentary has been released, certainly is, you know, TBA.
But we've got 18 months until the gubernatorial election really heats up.
And who knows who might jump in the race between now and then.
Back after this, you're up north.
I know you're half expecting to see Lester Holt or something right about here.
This is the election theme that NBC News has been using since 1976.
And we play it here because this is the anniversary of the birth of Henry Mancini.
and Henry Mancini composed this.
He had a theme for NBC Nightly News that was used throughout a big chunk of the 1970s, along with all the movie tracks and the shows and the hits that made the charts back in the 1960s, all coming from one very prolific composer, Henry Mancini, who had been born on this day.
All right, if you know nothing else about me and about Up North News and about this radio show,
It is that our mission in life is to overcome this particular mindset.
State politics is boring.
The legislature's boring.
The state budget is boring.
Nobody wants to talk about this.
And then people like me step in and say, wait a minute, the state budget, the state legislature takes the money that we pay in taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, fees, everything else.
and can do a lot of really important good stuff with that.
Things that are good for our kids, for our schools, for our healthcare, for our infrastructure, or they can, you know, put it down a rat hole, shall we say.
And those things don't just happen.
Those decisions aren't some kind of predestined magic depending on who's in the legislature.
lobbying still does some good and not just the lobbyists with, you know, nice suits and all that, but the lobbying with a lowercase L that's done by grassroots groups, by constituents, by members of these groups, and by some amazingly dedicated people who want to make sure that our state legislature is doing things with our resources that make our state a great place to live.
And
two of the people who do that perhaps more actively and with more passion than almost anybody I know.
Join us for another visit with an update on their lowercase L lobbying of the legislature.
Robert Craig from Citizen Action and Heather Dubob or non from Wisconsin Public Education Network.
Good morning to both of you.
How are you?
I'm good.
All right.
And Heather, I think that you are on mute, but you jump off of there and you say good morning whenever you like as well.
There you are.
How
are you?
I was just saying good morning.
Good morning, Pat.
Good morning, Robert.
It's so nice to have you guys back here.
Yeah, Tony up in Ashley puts it on YouTube.
Well, who cares if we have daycare or roads or we clear cut the force?
Not important at all, sarcasm he says.
And it's so true.
These things matter.
You know what?
I actually want to start there.
If I'm going to start all highfalutin like this, I'm going to do this.
Heather, why do you do what you do?
You could do a lot of other things.
Why are you so passionate about doing this gig and advocating for the education of our kids?
I want to pick up from what you said, Pat.
Why should we care?
There are so many things that people care about, but nobody has time to care about all the things.
So we need to focus on.
The things that we care about the most and then partner with others who care about the other things that we care about so that we can all get all the things that we actually need in our budgets in our schools in our communities in in our families and homes and make sure that we are fighting together for.
All of the things it really takes to make for thriving communities.
It's really such a simple principle.
And I'm just driven by a desire to see better across our communities and to demand better of leaders who seem content to ensure that we don't have the conditions to thrive where we live in Wisconsin.
And Robert, I know you like me.
We like to talk about the policies, the issues rather than ourselves.
But I mean, you have been also a leader in the grassroots field for so long.
Why?
What motivated you to start doing all this in the first place?
And you made a distinction, rightly so, Pat, between small L lobbyists and the ones in the fancy suits.
They're called contract lobbyists.
And some of them are very nice people.
You and Heather and I know them, Pat, but they're mercenaries.
They're hired guns and they're working for people, organizations, corporations that have a big interest in government.
It isn't for the common good, right?
Lobbyists like Heather and I we're working for grassroots groups of people that are not in it for themselves They're in it for their communities and for the common good.
So Heather mentioned education.
I would just say on healthcare
We have the most expensive and unaffordable healthcare system in the world and a lot of people are left out.
The only reason a lot of people have access to healthcare is because of what our federal and state government do.
And they're making decisions right now that affect when people have a fundamental right.
And if you don't have access to health and good healthcare, then you can't live a life of freedom and being able to pursue your own destiny and your own dreams.
Health is everything.
And the state budget is going to have a huge influence.
on that, particularly the decision on whether or not to finally expand BadgerCare in Wisconsin.
So we're
going to
get in more of this with health care and with education in a moment.
But I want to, Robert, start with you on something that we talked about in the last hour in our climate check segment.
And at the risk of oversimplifying things, I talked about the impression that I had in something like
wetlands protection and that now that is seen as a relatively bipartisan issue.
The New York Times had a story about, or I'm sorry, it might have been the journal Sentinel had a story about how Wisconsin's become this bipartisan model because of a bill that passed unanimously that offered grants to protect wetlands as a way of mitigating against flash floods as part of climate change.
And I said,
wait a
minute, when I ran for the legislature 20 years ago, one of the things that I always heard from the other side of the political fence was mocking the idea of protecting wetlands.
They would put like a canoe and a dry culvert and say, how is this a navigable body?
You fast forward 20 years and now you have a much more of a bipartisan view on the value of wetlands.
And I say all this, Robert, just to say when people go, why do you do this?
Isn't everything already predestined, predetermined?
And my argument would be, no, you are constantly talking to whosoever in the legislature at the time, hoping to bit by bit change their mind to see the value on things.
And if it weren't going to work, why would we be doing any of this anyway?
Do you share at least a little of that?
optimism about the long view of the Wisconsin legislature?
Yeah, I think we can even in this incredibly polarized environment, where you have two parties that are very divided on issues, you can make some kind of progress that way.
And there's certainly been some on wetlands.
And that that is in the public good, because as long as you have divided government, Democratic governor,
Republican legislature, and it could be vice versa in the future, then you're going to have to move certain things, what you can, with agreement of both parties.
But I don't want to get overly excited about that because there are limits, right?
We still have a Republican president who is busy gutting all of our environmental laws, and I certainly don't see any Republicans in the state legislature speaking out about that or talking about the state stepping up in order to fill that breach.
No, that's very true and so but again still in the you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take Heather when it comes to let's turn just to education and Where have we left things off with you in terms of the joint finance committee is currently doing its public hearings around the state and the last time that we Had you and Robert on here.
It was you know, what do you want people to say at these hearings?
What do you want them to say to their legislators?
How would you?
characterize the way that the budget debate is going right now and what people can be doing to make a difference?
Well, people have turned out in droves to tell their stories and to share their budget priorities at the first two hearings of the Joint Finance Committee, which were held day after the election on April 2, and then the Friday of that week in the
southern and eastern parts of the state.
And that committee now goes north.
They're having two more public hearings on the 28th and 29th, where people can go up to Hayward or Wausau on the 28th and 29th to testify.
And we have been tracking every word of their testimony.
If you go to Wisconsinnetwork.org slash budget.
you will see a link to our testimony tracker where we sit on the other end of Wisconsin Eye and literally write down every single thing that people come to testify about.
And the reason that we do that is so that we can report to people what those priority needs were.
And here's what we found.
Up to issues across the board at both of these hearings are the things that are best for kids.
public education, K-12 and higher ed, and pre-K and childcare needs, and healthcare, specifically Medicaid expansion.
And we had more testimony in those two categories than pretty much all the other categories combined with a bunch of single issue.
things too.
You can see a chart reflecting that on our Facebook page.
I just put the link to that in our chat so you can share it with your listeners.
And we know that people are in a desperate situation.
You've got two minutes to share your concerns at these hearings, but when you tell your story in a way that really shows what this means to your kids, your community, your family, and yourself, then that can resonate with lawmakers and also let folks know that
Our priority concerns are shared across the state, across Wisconsinites, and we expect our lawmakers to share them too when they decide on their priority budget allocations.
It really was an interesting graph to see.
It's a pie chart, basically, based on what people's priorities were.
Robert, no surprise to you that it was education and health care that people don't see as their highest priorities.
No, no surprise at all.
And both are greatly threatened.
Our schools have been shortchanged for a very long time by this legislature.
Healthcare has been shortchanged by not expanding Medicaid, which is the basic thing to do that because 41 other states have done it.
But there's even more to be done on healthcare.
And a lot of the testimony on healthcare is also terrified of the federal effort to...
We have permanent tax cuts, four and a half trillion to six and a half trillion worth of them for corporations and for billionaires and to pay for it by taking health care away from millions of people.
So these are fundamental needs.
I think what's really important about what was causing publicization at work and Heather doing here with tracking everything is, you see the disconnect between where people are and where elected officials are.
In a well-functioning democracy, there'd be a much closer match.
It would matter.
And this is not the first legislative cycle where education and healthcare are the top issues, where that would matter in the deliberations of the legislature.
And you know something's broken when that doesn't happen.
When legislators who are supposed to represent the public don't reflect what the public is actually asking for and wants.
Holy, Robert, I'm gonna look at the chart here and again, public K-12 education, childcare, Medicaid expansion, healthcare, prisons, farming, municipal services.
You know what?
I don't see anything in there about trans athletes.
You're right.
And I don't see anything in there about DEI or CRT.
Heather, it seems like some of the politicians may have one set of priorities, but it really sounds like you've got the people.
on your side in terms of what they think our legislators should be working on.
Yeah, and this sort of grassroots tracking is just one way that we have of keeping them honest.
We want to make sure that the priority concerns that actually impact us in our everyday lives are the ones that we're prioritizing at the state house and beyond too.
And if our lawmakers aren't going to
do that on their own, then it's really up to us to apply that grassroots pressure for them to do better and signal that we're going to demand better elected officials if they aren't going to pass a better budget.
That's why we're so
so concerned and working closely together across all of these important issues to make sure the budget that does get passed into law is one that meets our needs.
As you know well, Pat, we're in year 16 of budgets that haven't even kept pace with inflation for public schools.
We have failed to meet the needs of our communities in terms of providing for health care, child care needs, and in so many other areas.
And if this budget doesn't deliver on those things, I don't think the governor should sign it.
And we're gonna get into that more in a next visit because we've run out of time here, but I know we were talking off air about the potential of the governor vetoing a budget as opposed to a line item veto or Republicans in the legislature refusing to pass a budget bill unless, you know, they try to extort a larger tax cut for the wealthy from the governor.
A lot of that is the kind of the process stuff that we'll cover in another time.
But for now, if you want to get any of those comments out to your legislators, the email address again is budget.comments.
Thank you so much for the updates.
Always appreciate it.
Thanks for all you do.
Have a great day.
Thanks for having us.
All right, thank you.
When we come back, we'll talk to Todd Olba, see what's coming up on his program next.
This is Up North News Radio on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
Todd Alba's here, everybody.
And everybody loves Todd
Alba.
Todd Alba, the Dean Martin of Civic Media.
It was one more.
We had a very busy history lesson today.
It was this day, 61 years ago, 1964, needing one more song for his new album, Dean Martin Records.
Everybody loves somebody, which his friend Frank Sinatra had recorded in 1948.
But Dean Martin's version was the first to hit it big.
It actually knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts in August of 1961.
And so there's Todd Alba and the June Taylor dancers now as part of the new expanded.
Moving to midday, mid-afternoon Todd Alba show.
Mr. Alba, how are you?
Up top, I...
He's
trying
so hard to do a Dean Martin impression.
I heard it was 2 a.m.
instead of 2 p.m.
Is that right?
Yes, for folks that thought that Todd was moving from 2
to 4.
Yes, it's 2 to 4 a.m.
It's now the happy hour show.
It's also the dinner hour.
It's the old Frank Sinatra joke that when you go to Dean Martin's house, there's no drinking after dinner.
Now, you don't have dinner till 2 a.m., but then there's no drinking after dinner.
I forgot.
That's a great line.
No, I've been joined it.
I used to drive.
I've talked about this before.
For about a year, I drove Uber.
And my rule was I love taking people to the bars.
I'd never picked them up from the bars.
But now the news show is going to start right at bar time.
And it's going to be great.
We're gonna be interviewing all kinds of college kids at 2 a.m.
It's gonna be
fantastic.
No, 2 p.m.
2 p.m.
is when God will start to show next
week.
2 p.m.?
Yes.
Now I gotta rework the entire show.
I know, I know.
According to Tony here, it was 2 p.m.
but he broke too many of the text contest rules.
Dang.
Wow.
That's some inside baseball right there.
So again, next week, we'll make the change where our show goes from six to nine.
And then Matt Naranair from nine to 11, Tom Hartman from 11 to two, Todd Alba, two to four, and Maggie Dawn, four to six.
And then Nightlight with Pete Schwabba stays the same.
And I'm sure Pete's like, wait a minute, what?
Don't I get anything new?
Little something for the effort, maybe, but no.
This is my big question.
I'm glad Greg is here this morning because I forgot to ask this yesterday on Matt Nair on air when they were so kind as to invite me on.
And so Greg does your show as the producer.
He is the co-host of Matt Nair on air.
So Greg, are they giving you just like a jug under the desk?
Are they putting the... Are they putting it in a cabinet?
I mean, what?
I'm concerned about you.
Well, do you get a break?
between the two
shows.
So what's going to happen is, you know, the stadium pal, they've given me a complimentary stadium pal.
If you don't know what it is, Google it and ruin your
search history.
And
instead of
just a B12 shot, it's just going to be B12 continuously running into my arm for above five hours.
That's incredible.
No, it's incredible.
I admire you.
Thank you.
Yes.
PJ puts on YouTube.
Greg gets an IV.
I read that as Greg gets
a four.
No, no, no, no, no.
No, the way this is gonna work is you know the old playground, the merry-go-rounds where you had to push them, you know, and you'd push that merry-ground as fast as you could, like to the point where your friends would spin off
of
it if
you
spun it too fast.
Greg will, for two hours, he will spin this thing really fast and then at nine o'clock he's like, I'm outta here, I gotta get ready for the next show and I'm gonna have to sink or swim.
So he's gonna
push
that merry-ground as fast as he can.
And
the real answer is for two hours, I will be a producer in this show.
And then I believe Sam up in Madison will be taking over for the last hour.
Fantastic.
Yes.
There will be a bridge, something like that.
So how about you?
What are you working on this week?
I'm
working on.
I cleaned off my deck.
That was nice.
Got it ready for spring.
So,
uh, you know, I meant more the radio show, but
it
says
usually what the
segment is, is we tease everybody else's shows and what's coming up here.
But
if you've been talking about
the deck
on your show,
then Hey, you know,
Also tips.
Here's a little teaser, as they say.
Today we have Dave Mahoney, the former Democratic sheriff of Dane County, and Dale Schultz, former Senate Republican majority leader in the state Senate.
Also happens to be one of my former bosses talking and about fusion voting.
If you're ticked off about how... You ever heard of fusion voting, Patrick?
No.
What's this?
Really?
Yes, seriously.
It's in, I think, a handful of states right now at different varying degrees.
And this group, United Wisconsin, which Dave and Dale are co-chairs of in a bipartisan effort.
And it is meant to fusion voting.
The really short version is...
it would allow people to vote for the same candidate on the same ballot, but under two different parties.
So you could run as a Democrat in a more Republican district, but you could also run under United Wisconsin ballot or the Green Party ballot.
You only get one vote, you know, or your name will be counted once on each ballot.
But what it does is say, you know, Republicans say, well, I would never vote for a Democrat, but I would vote for the guy or the gal if they ran under like the Green Party or United Wisconsin.
So it just kind of tempers.
It's supposed to empower.
lesser voices in the political spectrum to give them more equality on the ballot.
I'm not explaining it very well.
I have
heard, no, you did just fine.
But I mean, I've heard of instant runoff voting.
I've heard the concept of the, you know, so-called jungle primary.
This is the first I've heard of this, honestly.
And I'm very intrigued.
I'm not sure what I think of it yet, but
it's
very intriguing.
Look
at you.
Teaching the old dog new tricks over
here.
I weren't brought from the same age, but yeah, it's once in a while.
But it's really actually really cool.
And I think again, we've all
and all of our shows, people just frustrated about what can we do.
Here's something, here's a group of people in a bipartisan manner who are trying to do something and give people an outlet.
And I think any attempts to do that are healthy.
All right,
so check Todd's show out to noon today for that.
Thank you, sir.
Appreciate
it.
My pleasure.
Education and
everything.
Greg Bach is back in two hours for Matt Nair on air here across the Civic Media Radio Network as well.
Thank you for being here.
Tomorrow we've got the congressional candidate Emily Berge and Joseph Becky joins us live.
perhaps with an announcement of his own.
That's all on Up North News Radio, live from Lake Wasota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll see you tomorrow morning here up
north.
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