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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Critello powered by Up North News.
Now, from our Laquasota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Critello.
Look at this, we've made it to the third hour, 8.06 right now on this Tuesday morning.
April 29th.
Nice to have you here.
Uh, Sam is on the board in Madison.
Greg will be back in an hour for Matt and Air on Air and uh, coming up in just a little while, we'll have Dan Schaefer of the Recombobulation Area talking to us about some of the events that he is following in Wisconsin politics this week.
Not the least of which is Friday's arrest of a Milwaukee County judge, but also in a moment, I'm going to be talking with Chad Holmes about a judge up north taking note of that arrest and essentially threatening to shut down court until judges have assurances that we're not going to see this kind of political circus in their courtrooms.
It's led some Republican lawmakers at the state and federal level to call for judges like that to be dismissed.
And so we're going to get into some of our Republican legislators playing footsie with fascism and trying to intimidate judges the way that Donald Trump is trying to do.
We'll get to that in just a little bit with chat homes.
But first, we're going to talk to meteorologist Brittany Merleau and get another update on the forecast if you missed it earlier.
There was a report of a small tornado.
I saw the video of it by Augusta, south of Eau Claire.
Last night, a tornado that came down briefly.
What else are you seeing or hearing out there for damage or possible twister sightings, which all thankfully weren't nearly as bad as we feared it could get?
Yes, I'm so glad that it was not an outbreak like we had thought it was going to be.
A lot of things changed throughout the evening, so that was actually good that we just have the one tornado that we're looking into.
Of course, that look to have touched down just before 8.15 last night from Fall Creek, which is in Southern Eau Claire, to about Augusta.
And of course, the National Weather Service is going to be surveying that damage today.
And with the light of the day, we're starting to see what has actually been done out there.
I have just seen pictures so far and
and heard of structure damage, but I haven't really gotten into the depth of it and I can't really tell how strong that was just yet.
So that's why the National Weather Service does that.
We also have high wind reports across a lot of Northern Wisconsin where gusts were about 50 to 60 miles per hour.
Whithee got 60 mile per hour gusts, Rhinelander 55, Wausau at 50 miles per hour is knocking trees down into power lines.
Small fires were happening from that and of course power outages.
I believe there was about 2,500 still without power across the state.
So cleanup is going on.
I know a lot of trees were definitely hurt with that.
Those winds were strong.
That rain was heavy.
We picked up a good inch to an inch and a half of rainfall.
And now we're on the other side of it.
Temperatures are still falling today.
Really warm down south right now.
We're probably going to drop another five to 10 degrees as we go through the afternoon.
We'll have a little warm up and then.
We slide cold tonight.
We're actually looking at frost, actually a hard freeze in northeast Wisconsin, frost making its way all the way into southern parts of the state overnight tonight.
And then we warm things up tomorrow with a partly sunny start.
We've got mid to upper sixties, much more mild throughout the day and some scattered showers moving in south later.
But this temperature range right now, I mean, I'm looking at the live map here.
Kenosha 73.
Meanwhile, up in Superior, it's 37, and at Sol and Springs, it's 34 degrees right now.
So you get your 30s in the Northwest, some 40s, some 50s, some 60s, some near mid 70s.
This says you'd think that there'd be even more instability with this, or is that just, you know, the as the storm moves away, we're going to see a more uniform spread of temperatures.
Right, so yep, it's that cold front moving through that's why we've got the 40 degrees spread The front is still in Wisconsin and then the reason why it's not sparking anything up is because Yesterday we had the low pressure itself actually really kind of nudging itself in creating more lift We had a jet stream that kind of ramps up around eight o'clock at night and that's exactly what happened and it really fueled those storms so it's a good thing that
the energy just isn't there this morning, so that's why everything is fizzled out.
All right, sounds good.
Brittany, thank you very much.
Appreciate it.
You're welcome.
All right, have a great day.
You too.
And now Chad Holmes joins us from the Walsall area as well, 98.9 WXCO.
Mr. Holmes, how are you this morning?
Doing good.
How are you doing, Pat?
I'm all right, although I will say I want your take on some current events here that involve some
some folks from the legislative branch up north here and it deals with Friday's arrest of Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan which was of course politically motivated and wholly unnecessary and we've talked about that at length in terms of what would actually went down at that courthouse but it has led other judges and I think rightly so to express their concern
about wanting better guidance on how to handle this when federal agents come into local courthouses and disrupt things to try to make arrests.
And that included an email to judges, to fellow judges sent by Sawyer County Judge Monica Isham, who said she's thinking of not even showing up to court until she gets that guidance on how to handle things with ICE agents.
And that I think is a very
real concern out of her.
And yet whether you're talking legislators like State Senator Romain Quinn or members of Congress like Tom Tiffany, they're saying things like Judge Isham should step down or be removed from office for daring to exercise her First Amendment right to say something ain't right here with this, shall we say, totalitarian streak.
from federal agents and it's just an amazingly reckless thing in my view for Tom Tiffany and Romain Quinn and others to be sane.
Well the whole point of what they're saying again is whatever King Donald says King Donald should be able to do and at some point again you're exactly right that there should be guidelines here.
This idea that
one branch of government is running roughshod over the others.
The legislative and the judicial branches is not the basis of this country.
And Donald Trump and his minions keep talking about how they respect the constitution and they don't show it.
And again, a question was asked.
And sometimes you have to, I would say, put some pressure behind it to get some answers.
And I think that's what this judge is trying to do.
Because these ICE agents, you talk about the word rogue,
I think you can put a bunch of ICE agents next to that term in the dictionary because right now the rogueness from the top of that administration right through to the bottom and people that don't respect the Constitution and don't respect the rule of law and don't respect due process, people have to stand up and I say good for this judge and it does not surprise me one bit.
Tom Tiffany was gonna grandstand to the far right because that's that's basically what he does.
Well, and again, we have a Congress that is comatose right now.
And if this had been, I think back to the Bill Clinton administration, when the phrase Jack booted thugs was used whenever, you know, Bill Clinton dared to try to enforce law and order.
If if this were going the other way, and
judges seen as Republican thought that their courts were being disrupted.
Jack Booted Thugs would be the nicest things that Tom Tiffany and Romain Quinn would be saying.
But let me change to another story here out of your neck of the woods and that of course would be your mayor, Doug Denney.
and insisting that members of the ethics board there in Wausau should be replaced because the current members terms are expiring even though they can stay on board until the city council names replacements and it there's indications that the city council tonight will say we're not we're not going to name those replacements yet especially since as is noted here in the Wausau pilot and review and you mentioned
quite forcefully as well.
One of Doug Denney's nominees to take over on the ethics board is a big donor, Kevin Hermione.
And it's not just a big donor, because I don't think there, I don't think it would be an issue if Doug Denney received a donation from Kevin Hermione as a candidate for Mayor Wausau.
because we all have that, I think, right to be able to support candidates and at the same time, feel like in a situation like this, be able to be an impartial person that would take the evidence and make a decision.
The case, in this case, it is Kevin Hermanine giving $5,000 to a Meg Ellison fronted fund for Doug Denny's defense of this very issue that's being investigated by
the ethics board.
I'm not sure whether somebody like Kevin Herman named who gave $5,000 to pay for legal bills for Doug Denney to fight the Dropbox issue would be the most impartial person when it comes to making a decision on whether or not Doug Denney broke any rules in this matter.
I think that is an obvious conflict of interest right there.
And also I find a very interesting concerning Mr. Herman named four weeks ago.
He voted in Moseley.
Now all of a sudden he's a resident of Wausau.
And really?
Yeah, I mean, he says, well, I bought a condo recently in Wausau.
And from this point forward, I'll be voting in Wausau.
He has been president of the Moseley School Board and that term just ended.
In fact, I don't know how the transition is occurring.
this in during this time frame so the so yeah of all the wash saw residents that he had chosen he took the guy that just moved in from moseley who voted in moseley this very
month as as the church lady dana carvey would say how convenient
that he just happened to
move in just then i
tell you it's one of those wonderful coincidences where it shows the sun is shining on the man
Yeah.
And look, I've also seen either letters to the editor comments going, why is this still a thing?
Why is this still why is the ethics?
I think I saw the same one this morning, right?
Yeah.
And saying, look, this thing of the mayor, taking it upon himself to engage in a heist of an absentee ballot dropbox, in my view.
This was now we can say many months ago.
And
I get that he hasn't taken responsibility for his actions.
But again, you know, justice delayed is justice denied.
And again, even if it's just a slap on the wrist for this guy, he hasn't even gotten that yet.
And it's only given it's only emboldened him to make these increasingly political moves.
Is there any rhyme or reason as to why this this and the criminal investigation are taking so long?
Well, and the thing about it that's really ironic is that folks that would like to see
We call it justice be done or at least responsibility be had Are not happy but also folks that are I think supporters of the mayor are saying well, why is this taking so long?
Well, yeah, I don't know I and I think that it really is one of those situations where I'm gonna I'm gonna come out and say if you're rich or you're powerful Everybody walks on eggshells.
We got to make sure every eye is dotted every T is crossed but when it's somebody who doesn't have rich money or financial
power
or
political power, you can walk all over them and get things done really quickly and not have due process under law.
So again, I think it's another, I think, rather significant example of
unequal justice within our society.
Yeah, without a doubt.
And it seems to me, maybe it's just because I'm married to somebody in the medical profession, but the word you should be looking for is triage.
And even though, yes, there are other people on the court docket ahead of you, whatever the case may be, and I'm thinking of Donald Trump's cases and cases like this, a court should be able to triage and say, okay, this thing, we're going to move this one up.
And I think that is done to some degree.
I'm just thinking it needs to be done, you know,
much better, much better when you consider some of the, you know, the Democratic small D institutions and norms that are at stake, but it's something we'll continue to follow.
And Chad will keep us updated on it from his home base over at 98 nine WXCO.
Chad, thank you very much.
Appreciate the update.
You bet.
All right, still ahead.
on this fine, fine Tuesday.
I had to double check, right?
Yes, we'll be meeting with Dan Schaefer.
And that's all coming from the heart of America's Up North, live from Lake Wissota.
Hey, thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.
I'm Pat Crightlow on the Civic Media Radio Network.
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The Milwaukee Brewers were off yesterday.
They're now on the south side of Chicago, getting set to take on the White Sox.
In a three-game series that starts this evening, coverage begins at 6.05 on Civic Media Stations in Richland Center, Oshkosh, Racine Kenosha, Park Falls, and WBZH up in Hayward, the newest Brewers affiliate up north.
The Milwaukee Bucks will be hoping to avoid elimination tonight, taking on the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 of their Playoffs series.
I sense Dan Schaefer will have opinions on that, not just political stories coming up when we chat with him less than 15 minutes away.
There was a news conference yesterday involving folks from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and it was all about a report that they put out on what Congress and the Trump administration could eventually do in terms of Medicaid cuts
and the impact on Wisconsin, on people in Wisconsin.
Now, to be clear, the Trump, Elon Musk, you know, Derek Van Orden, Tom Tiffany budget cuts, they haven't happened yet.
The House, Republicans in the House, voted on a package that has massive cuts in it.
Senate Republicans voted on one with a smaller amount of cuts, but punishing cuts just the same.
And those differences still have to be worked out.
But either way, if one of these packages does eventually pass and Donald Trump signs it into law, things will not go well for the many, many, many people in Wisconsin who count on Medicaid, known as Badger Care here, in order to have stable and affordable health insurance coverage.
And that's what Medicaid is.
You know, Robin Voss and others would like you to think that Medicaid is some kind of welfare payment.
It's health insurance.
It's health insurance that keeps people from going bankrupt.
It's health insurance that keeps people from delaying care, because when care is delayed, it becomes more expensive.
And if they can't pay the bills, you know who does?
We do.
So you can either have health insurance, which costs less upfront, or you can pay more later on.
So.
How bad are we talking about here?
Well, according to DHS, depending on what route the federal budget goes down, the state could lose up to nearly $17 billion over the next 10 years.
That's if some $880 billion are cut from programs that are overseen by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Now, here's the thing.
The House
Energy and Commerce Committee is charged with cutting $880 billion.
What they're not saying is, well, we're going to cut Medicaid.
So they can deny, they love to Derek Van Orden and others, they love to, we're not going to cut, not going to vote to cut Medicaid.
No, they're going to vote to tell this committee find ways to cut $880 billion.
And that can't help but include Medicaid, which again, could hurt Wisconsinites to the tune of $17 billion over the next 10 years.
Now, you can learn more details about this over at the Wisconsin Examiner.
Go to WisconsinExaminer.com.
Eric Gunn was also in on this news conference and has his usual fantastic write up about these things.
He notes that in Wisconsin, Medicaid covers about one million residents.
up to the age of 65.
It covers long-term care for people with disabilities and the elderly.
All told Medicaid covers 20% of state residents.
Medicaid covers 40% of all the births in Wisconsin.
Medicaid covers 38% of all Wisconsin children.
And Medicaid covers 60% of Wisconsin residents who are in nursing homes.
For folks who think of Medicaid, that's just a handful of people who are looking for, you know, handouts and they should be paying for these things themselves.
No, no, those are the statistics right there.
Medicaid is a huge part of everyday life for people throughout Wisconsin, in part because our health care system and especially our health insurance system is so screwed up.
Now the Affordable Care Act
took a big step forward in providing stable and affordable health care coverage to more Americans.
But ever since it passed in 2010, Republicans every step of the way have obstructed any efforts to improve upon it or to fix any deficiencies that were seen in it.
And Wisconsin remains one of only the last couple of states to not accept the federal funding to expand Medicaid so that more families can be covered, more working families, by the way.
all sorts of families on Medicaid have jobs.
They work.
But part of what this report looked at is not just the cuts, the dollar cuts that could come to Medicaid, but also the way you would cut by putting more barriers in front of people who need Medicaid coverage, reporting requirements, otherwise known as red tape.
The people that love to talk about deregulation, the people that love to talk about red tape,
Well, a big part of their plan here is to add red tape so that Medicaid recipients suddenly don't qualify anymore because they can't keep up with the paperwork because of the work requirements or the work requirements are ratcheted up to the point where they can't work and care for people at home, whether it's children or an aging parent or themselves, depending on a disability or some other condition.
Wisconsin Medicaid enrolls about 191,000 adults per month who don't have children.
And nearly half of them, this report says, could lose their Medicaid coverage if there is a work requirement because they simply wouldn't be able to be able to report the hours or report the wages.
And as a result of that barrier, they find themselves on the outside looking in, again, still needing that health coverage, still needing that health care.
but not getting it anymore, meaning that they don't seek care until it now endangers their health, and, by the way, ratchets up the cost for all the rest of us, either in our health insurance or in our taxes.
We'll continue to follow this as Congress says we're not cutting Medicaid, but they actually can't help but.
Dan Schaffer's on the way, live from Lake Wissota.
I'm Pat Krightlow on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Coming up later today on the Maggie Dawn show from four till six here across the Civic Media Radio Network, Jeremy Janine from Urban Milwaukee.
We'll talk about Milwaukee as a microcosm.
Tanya Bjork will be along with some new Wisconsin polling and it says here Dan Schaefer.
What a coinkie dink.
Dan Schaefer is with us now where he runs the recombobulation area, the Civic Media political editor.
And before we do political talk with Dan Schaefer, it's time for sports talk with Dan
Schaefer.
Dan Schaefer, how are you?
I'm doing well, Mr. Critello.
Wonderful to be with you here on Mornings with Pat Critello.
And now that you have this extended time here in the morning, that means I can join you every Tuesday.
So I'm thrilled to be doing so.
We are thrilled to finally
have a humane slot for people with young children that can finally join us at 8.30.
So yes, very glad to have you
here.
That's right.
The kids are at school and we're ready to rock with you here.
It's perfect.
Ready to
join all the yacht rock and all the other fun that you have here on Mornings.
Well,
it's how much fun is it going to be tomorrow if we have to talk about the box being eliminated in the first round again by Indiana?
And.
Let me just go ahead and piggyback the next thing on to it because yesterday, or maybe it was this morning, I forget.
All right, I heard it again for the first time this season.
Won't be the last time.
The bucks need to, you know what I'm gonna say next, trade Yannis.
Nope,
nope, nope.
I can't hear those two words.
in that order under
any circumstances.
Here we are, here we are again.
Look, the struggle was happening before Dame Lillard went down with a torn Achilles, right?
So he's out for a good long time.
Those injuries can go for about a year.
So that's really tough,
really tough.
Yeah, not great at all.
But Dan, if this...
does not go well tonight.
It's another first round elimination.
I mean, can you peg it on anything in particular or was it, you know, a cavalcade of things?
I think it's that cavalcade.
I think there are many factors contributing to the Bucks not being
Especially competitive this year.
I think you know, they're they're still a good team They're in the playoffs there, you know, you as long as you have Giannis you have a chance to win Any game but I think you know that the fact them the Bucks being a championship contender I was not coming into these playoffs with expectations that I would be Hanging another banner here in recombobulation area headquarters if you can see behind
me.
Yes, I have a Bucks banner behind me
I didn't expect to be hanging another one this year.
I was hoping that, you know, perhaps they could make a little bit of a surprise run.
But, you know, they came into this series and they were not favored to win.
And I was not exactly expecting them to win.
So I don't think Doc Rivers has done a particularly great job as coach.
I don't think the roster around.
Yanis and Damian Lillard has been really the type of high-level competitive roster that you need to put together to make a championship run.
And, you know, the great teams that we have had here in Milwaukee for the past, you know, almost, you know, however many years that the championship window has been open kind of feels like this is the moment when that championship window is really getting slammed shut, which is quite the bummer.
And it is unfortunate because we risked turning into the Anaheim Angels all those years they had Mike Trout and just could not do anything with one of the best players around.
It's certainly not the only time this has happened in sports, but it you always it leaves you longing saying we could have been we could have done so much more.
I can't leave sports without talking about the NFL draft being up in Green Bay.
Well, how did you think of that?
It seemed like it went awfully well.
Yeah, I was so impressed by... I didn't get a chance to go, but now I'm kind of regretting that I didn't go.
I wasn't really, you know, I'm an NFL fan, but I didn't want to stand around listening to picks for like an entire day with 120,000 people or whatever it was, 200,000 people.
But...
It seems like just from all the reports and all the talk of people being there that Green Bay did a phenomenal job.
And I think you gotta give it up for Packer's president and CEO, Mark Murphy here.
Coming at the end of his tenure as president and CEO, he's passing the torch.
What a concept, passing the torch
once
you reach a certain age in leadership.
I wonder if there's anything that can be learned from that in any capacity.
But I think this is really the crowning achievement for Murphy and for Packers fans and just bringing this type of event.
He said they're never going to have a Super Bowl at Lambeau and having the second biggest event of the year that the NFL hosts every year there.
I think it was a pretty remarkable experience for all involved.
So kudos to the city of Green Bay and Merrick Enrick and Mark Murphy and all the good people up in northeastern Wisconsin.
Well, since you mentioned Mayor Genrich, you know that we had him on an hour earlier talking about the column that he wrote for the Reconbobulation Area about what Democrats need to do differently in 2026.
And so we heard from him in his own words last hour, but for folks who missed it, and certainly your impressions having looked at and published the column.
What did you make of his prescription for Democrats so that they don't take for granted
the success of the Wisconsin Supreme Court race moving forward.
Yeah, I think, you know, I was thrilled to have an opportunity to publish that piece.
And I think, you know, there's so much of it that I agree with Merrick Enric on.
I think what, you know, one of the points that he made that I think really stood out to me is that there has, there's almost like there's this divide between action and inaction.
In certain corners of the Democratic Party, I think there's certain Democrats who get too comfortable once they get elected and I think What he was talking about with certain projects that were part of you know the bipartisan infrastructure law or the inflation reduction act and those things taking really a while
to get moving, to see the impact from positive legislation, legislation that I supported, legislation that I think would be a good thing.
But so many of those aspects of that law have just taken a really long time for people to actually see the effects of them.
I think there's going to be a lot of groundbreaking from that law that might happen now under Donald Trump's presidency.
So I think that is a really key aspect of it.
You have to deliver for people.
to show them that the government is is working for them and can't you know and I think there's there's certain ideological aspects that he talks about as well and you know kind of leaning into the economic populism side of the party in particular but but I think it's also you know part of it is just action versus inaction and just like the ability of Democrats to actually show people that they're getting things done and getting things done quickly.
I think it relates a lot to what Chad Holmes and I were talking about recently when it comes to court cases, whether they involve Donald Trump or Wausau Mayor Doug Denny with the absentee ballot dropbox removal, is that the longer those things go on, the more frustrated people get.
And the same goes for these projects.
I mean, there's a role for regulations.
There's a role for safeguards, but if you
you know, aren't also triaging the process, whether it's a court calendar or building a bridge or expanding broadband, you're going to lose the people who would benefit the most.
Now they talk about blowing up the system.
But as I discussed with Mayor Genrich, when they blow up the system, you often end up blowing up the things that were actually working on your behalf.
And that's what we're seeing now, certainly in these first hundred days of the Trump administration.
I can't believe it's only been a hundred days, right?
We're at this hundred day marker.
I think everybody in the national media universe is talking about these hundred days.
I feel like I've, I've got a few more gray hairs in my beard after these hundred days.
That's for sure.
Yeah.
There's,
there's only how many more days did we say yet to go?
1,300 and something.
So buckle up everybody.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But, you know, just one example that Mayor Genric talked about in his column was that, um, you know,
We have to have a more effective people-focused government at state, local, and federal levels.
What we don't want, and I'm quoting right from him here, is a Department of Transportation that imposes a regulatory regime so stultifying that it takes 10 years to replace a bridge in downtown Green Bay.
Like, these are the type of things.
that have to happen more quickly.
The gears of government have to have to move more quickly.
And I think there is this divide, I think, in democratic politics where it is action versus inaction.
And you're seeing that in kind of the response to Trump's first 100 days too.
I think you have some leaders saying that, you know, oh, we just have to like wait and
And, you know, Trump will, uh, Trump will cause all these problems of his own.
And then I think you have other leaders saying, you know, we need to bring the fight to him everywhere that he can.
And I tend to, I tend to agree with the latter, uh, of the different blocks of Democrats right now.
And I think that you have to keep things in front of people.
It's, it's part of the column that I read and in publishing today about Trump's hundred days is you look at those elections in Canada that just took place and the surprising win by the liberals, but look at what they did.
They ran against.
Donald Trump and highlighted all of the ways that he has insulted or economically hurt the country.
And if you don't have that same kind of attitude toward the American public, if you just assume they're going to know that all these things are happening, they're not.
And they end up making votes based on vibes rather than on the actual things that are taking place.
So the people who are engaging in this ongoing series of demonstrations and marches and everything else,
I think they'd be wise not to lose the
momentum.
Absolutely.
And I think, you know, there was a speech from Illinois Governor J.B.
Pritzker over the weekend that he gave in New Hampshire was just talking about, you know, some Democratic leaders are going off to do podcasts and some are really bringing the fight.
And I think that's what we need to see from every level, I think, too.
And I think, you know, we saw the Hannah Duggan arrest here in Milwaukee County.
last week and you know that's an opportunity we got we got a lot of statements from a lot of elected officials in the day in the you know hours and days that followed that but I just want I think we need to I think that arrest is just the tip of the iceberg for what's happening.
With with ice with with immigration enforcement and and what have you and I think it's gonna be really important for people to be vigilant on all levels
There were people in the immediate aftermath calling on Governor Evers to eventually say that he was going to use the National Guard to protect judges and courthouses in the future I don't know that that was a realistic path because you know the president could just
federalize them the way he did, you know, with in Little Rock, Arkansas back in the late 1950s.
But the point was being to take some kind of action, even if that action is again, continuing to remind people this is not normal, what is happening here.
And we're seeing it now with more judges, we just spoke about judgeship up north, saying that again, they want some guidelines on how to handle these things.
And instead of guidelines, they're getting Tom Tiffany, Romain Quinn and others saying, well, maybe these judges ought to just leave office.
I mean, we're setting up nothing but confrontations here, which certainly seems like Donald Trump's recipe for success.
And it's like there's this Trumpian paradox at play for this too, right?
Where he's so about, you know, he says he's about law and order and enforcing legal immigration or whatever.
So, well, you shouldn't have to break the law and trample the Constitution.
to do that.
You know, it's like you're breaking the law to enforce the law.
It's just it's it's mind boggling
the
approach being taken here.
One text I want to take care of off the text line from Mark and Sussex for 30 years, Democrats have said that Republicans are going to take your social security, Medicare and Medicaid.
That's the big lie this station spews.
Remember the Paul Ryan ad sending granny over the cliff.
Mark, I will say again,
That wasn't because they wouldn't have gotten away with it if they could have gotten away with it and this time around with this budget process They are very close Dan to getting away with it, which is why we're still talking about it
Absolutely.
I mean it's it's been such a huge part of Republican politics over the years just going after the quote-unquote entitlements and
you know, if they had, if they were able to do it, they would do it.
Dan Schaefer writes the Reconpopulation Area.
He is political editor here at Civic Media and will be visiting with us on Tuesday mornings and going forward at the more humane hour of 8.30 in the morning.
Tomorrow we're going to be talking about lead in Milwaukee schools and also the debate over building new power transmission lines in the state.
So stay tuned for that on the program.
I'm Pat Krightlow reminding you that it's all about every one of these words in our national promise, liberty and justice for all.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
The Brewers are back in action after a day off there in Chicago to play the White Sox.
Coverage begins at 6.05 on several Civic Media stations.
Head to the website civicmedia.us to learn more.
Dan Schaefer back with us now from the Reconpopulation Area.
Dan, I have never been to a Brewers Cubs game and the Brewers will be playing the Cubs starting Friday when they finally return from their long road trip.
Have you ever been and is it indeed basically, you know, Wrigley Field North still?
at this point when they play?
They do like to call it that when so many visitors come up from Chicago and really take over parts of the city.
So I live on the west side of Milwaukee, which is very close to the stadium.
And there are a lot of Cubs jerseys that you will see around the area when the Cubs come tonight, especially if it's a weekend series.
So it's going to be a lot of blue and red.
Yeah.
And especially being, you know, a division series with the Cubs well ahead of the Brewers right now in the division.
So yeah, very important game is coming up here.
Can you explain to somebody very far from Milwaukee now?
And I lived there for a time and I love the city and I love its many quirks.
But I have to say, I did not really follow the quirk of the abandoned boat.
And it's now led, it's gotten the attention of members of the legislature.
What is the story of the abandoned boat of Milwaukee?
So this is it's a become this local oddity And it is just my friends over at Milwaukee record have been covered that covering this extensively But there is this boat a 30-some-foot boat that was purchased by this couple who from Mississippi who bought this boat and managed walk and wanted to sail it back to Mississippi and then they got caught in a storm the first time that they were
sailing it in Lake Michigan and they had to kind of abandon ship right around the Milwaukee marina and the boat has been stuck there on Lake Michigan on the lakefront.
for the past six plus months now.
It's been there since last October.
And it has become kind of this funny thing in Milwaukee.
People will go down and take pictures.
There's a bunch of graffiti on there.
You may or may not find a recombobulation area sticker that I put on there on Milwaukee Day.
But it has just become this strange thing.
And they have not been able to figure out how to move it.
And then it got frozen in the water over the winter.
And now the mayor of Milwaukee, Cavalier Johnson, made a big show.
trying to move it last week.
And in that process, they still were not able to move it.
And so, you know, there's a lot of issues that Milwaukee is facing right now.
You mentioned before the break there that we're going to be talking about some of the issues with lead and drinking water.
There's a big issue with lead in Milwaukee public schools being found to be more widespread.
But two Republican legislators didn't step in and release a bill on any of that.
State Senator Rob Staffsholt and state representative
and Zimmerman put forth a bill in response to the presence of this boat in saying that people who abandon their boats in Wisconsin could face prison time under this new bill.
Obviously, this is pretty silly, and it's just another example of Republicans in Wisconsin always being laser focused on the issues that matter.
Oh, laser focused indeed, or anything that they can call attention and try to make Milwaukee look bad, otherwise known as plain politics, which is what some of these folks managed to do best.
The recombobulation area has a happy hour.
coming up.
And I say that with, you know, I've been proud to say that Up North News, you know, held its first ever public event not long ago that formed about the state Supreme Court race.
It was so fun to do it.
It was so great to meet people who had been reading Up North News or following us on the radio.
And now you're doing this kind of a happy hour.
So I'm looking forward to hearing more about it.
Yeah, we've got a happy hour coming up at one of my favorite breweries in Milwaukee, Third Space Brewing.
We're getting together on Thursday evening, five to seven.
All are welcome.
But if you are a paid subscriber to the Reconbobulation Area, your first round is on us.
So we are looking forward to getting together and sharing in some community.
And one of our priorities at the Reconbobulation Area has always not just been about, you know, producing great content, covering news and politics in Milwaukee and Wisconsin.
but also about building a community around that.
And we get that online sometimes when people share a photo in front of the actual recombobulation area at Milwaukee's airport.
And we get that sometimes when we have these little events from time to time, like we have this Thursday at Third Space Brewing in Milwaukee.
So again, all are welcome.
But if you are a paid subscriber, your first beer is on us.
How about that?
I think that's great.
As a paid subscriber, I'll be looking for my drink ticket in the mail and then cash it in at some few.
your point here.
As far as what you're looking forward to this week, there is an economic forecast luncheon that's coming up.
Who's doing that and what are you hoping to or thinking you will be hearing about it?
Yeah, I think, you know, given everything that's happening with the tariffs right now and how much of an impact that is that is going to have on Wisconsin's economy, with politics is hosting this forum tomorrow on that.
So I think, you know, I believe that will be streaming online somewhere as well.
But we've got that happening this week.
We've got joint finance committee public hearings happening.
I think today's today's hearing is in Warsaw.
And so, you know, lots of lots of conversations happening about the future of the state, the future of the economy.
And given some of the news we even saw this morning with Amazon and the Trump administration, I think these are going to be some pretty timely conversations.
Oh, without a doubt.
So I'll close with this from a standpoint of civic engagement.
Joint Finance Committee, Hayward yesterday, they're in Warsaw today.
Do hearings, do public events like this still matter when it comes to putting together a state budget?
I think they absolutely do.
To the extent that the Republican leadership listens to them, that's a different question.
But I think it is really important for people have this opportunity to make their voices heard and say where they want the state to be allocating its dollars in the next state budget.
I think the way that the government works in this state, everything really goes through the state budget process.
This is the biggest thing our state government does over two years.
And so I think it's really important for people to make their voices heard as a smart person once
told me, participation is power.
And I think that's an important point to remember.
And again, folks can put in their input by email as well, budget.comments.legis.wisconsin.gov.
Dan Schaefer, thank you very much.
We'll talk to you next week.
Talk to you next week, Pat.
Thank you so much.
Oh, thank you.
We appreciate it very much.
Coming up, Matt and Aaron here with Jane Matt and Aaron, Greg Bach.
And our thanks to all of today's guests, including Chad Holmes, Dan Hagen, Dan Schaefer, Sherita Booker, Eric Gennrich, and all of you.
Enjoy your Tuesday.
We'll see you back here tomorrow morning, 6am.
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