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Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Critello, powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Minnesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Critello,
who's had one bubble tea and is curious.
We'll talk more about that coming up.
Good morning, 7.06.
Welcome back.
Nice to have you here on what used to be called Up North News Radio.
Greg, it took me until like...
Eight seconds before the top of the hour news break on the what fifth sixth time we do the show to get the name of the show wrong
Hey, man, it happens.
It's probably gonna happen again.
It's like when you write the wrong year on your check or whatever.
It's yes,
you know and Well that and it's I'm still having trouble with my own name in the show not something I was necessarily pursuing so it's like welcome to mornings with me
You know Schmatt bright low.
All right
We you know, we it's called mornings with pack everything is abbreviated, you know in work documents So up north news used to be UNN now the show is abbreviated MPK.
Maybe that's what I go with Welcome back to MPK.
No, you know,
no, I don't
like it.
Okay.
Well, it doesn't work for everybody I mean, I can't say well, let's let's get the weather now with BM, you know, Brittany.
No, don't do that.
See?
Everything's a little Brittany.
How are you?
I'm pretty good.
We're actually struggling with some allergies, but otherwise.
Oh my
goodness.
Yes.
My wife has terrible spring allergies.
I feel awful for people because they want to welcome spring and Sherry really wants to get out there and plant things, but she also gets so miserable.
It's just.
Awful and they haven't like invented the perfect medicine for it because either get drowsy or it you know gives you weird dreams or Everything pot.
Nettie
pot.
I'm hearing pot.
I'm hearing a proposed solution from the peanut gallery.
What do you
think?
It's not a cure, but it definitely I've been I do a nutty pot three times a day because of my procedure that I had on my nose a couple weeks ago and it relieves pressure Cleans out your sinuses and it won't you won't feel like better better, but you'll feel a little bit better
Yeah, no, that's worth a try or
or like a turkey looking up in the rain.
I'll drown myself, you
know,
either either one it's gonna be one or the other That's your fault
then
Let's see, uh, Robin Tigerton says he has made a doctor's appointment for his allergy and also noted that Shona County had two tornadoes Monday night near Burnham wood
and Matune, and we'll get to more of what Rob had to say a little bit later on, but I was mentioning 24 hours ago that there were reports of a tornado south of Eau Claire.
Turns out there were what, four reports?
Four different little tornadoes that came down briefly, and thankfully did not, they could have done a lot worse, but it was a busy night Monday night, but now, oh my goodness, so lovely out there.
Yeah, now it's not too bad.
Shame it won't last.
Tell us more, Brittany.
We can't catch a break.
I mean, I guess yesterday was our little bit of a break there.
But right now we are below freezing and a lot of the northern parts and even into Black River Falls and places into Door County, you fall below freezing already this morning.
And so there's frost out there, temperatures in the cross.
You're the warmest at 41 degrees right now with a lot of sunshine east and south.
But the further north you go, there's a lot more cloud cover up there.
But everybody today is going to see
increasing clouds as we go through the afternoon because we've got another storm system down to the south that wants to swipe us.
And of course, that's going to bring some rain in.
So before we get there, we're still going to warm things up today low to mid sixties with increasing clouds, of course, drizzle pushing into the southern parts of the state this evening.
And we're also looking at that rain ramping up as we go through the overnight and into tomorrow morning, mainly hitting harder down south.
But of course, up north, we could see some light showers and some light drizzle.
as well as we go into the overnight and tomorrow morning.
Now tomorrow stays damp, dark and dreary, mostly cloudy skies, high temperatures, a little bit cooler, low fifties to low sixties tomorrow.
And then we've got a little push of cold air that comes through at night, which is going to fire up another line of showers and storms.
Now that starts at four o'clock Northwest works its way through this date overnight into.
Friday morning and Friday morning go figure we can see some flurries flying just south of Lake Superior.
So we've got a little bit of winter still mixing in frost and flurries with tornadoes and damage and rain rolling in.
Spring is wild allergies to but overall we're not looking at severe weather as we move forward through the rest of this week.
We're just looking at some more rain headed our way.
I don't I don't do much for camping but I really feel bad for anybody that would like to.
get some camping in between the cold and the rain, maybe the allergies as well.
This is not, this is not camping friendly weather yet, for sure.
No,
not yet.
Yeah, good question.
Good morning from Tigerton.
It's cloudy and 34 degrees.
I have an appointment in Shano today and then get instructions for my colonoscopy on Monday.
To be honest, I wish it was over.
Rob had it done twice.
It's absolutely fine and it's very important from a health standpoint.
So get her done.
I go to church tonight because Sunday beginning the prep, I'm hoping to begin mowing season on Saturday.
We were talking about oatmeal cookies and bubble tea.
Earlier Rob says when I was a kid I'd go to my grandpa layman's house and get a fresh oatmeal cookie that was a real treat back in the day and She's you wants to get all the bubble tea says Greg if you don't like all the ice then you know Just get your own tea mix for it and Adam says go for the cheese tea look it up
I
don't
I don't know again.
I'm intrigued.
I also mentioned in the last segment the Minecraft movie and the lava chicken song and then they also scream out chicken jockey and like people throw their popcorn you you shouldn't throw your popcorn but I did send the six-year-old a t-shirt that has Steve's lava chicken on it and we'll play the song again just because there's another chicken song that's that's out there but first before Steve's lava chicken goes away here's the song
And
then Shizyu adds, the latest awesome song is Chicken Banana, which again, normally I'd be like, I have no idea what you're talking about, but sure enough, as I was doom scrolling yesterday, up comes the Chicken Banana song.
I haven't had time to look it up, but this is our nation and its productivity level in the year of our lord.
There it is.
Oh,
wow.
This is nightmarish.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Well, that's in my head now forever.
Yes.
You never know what's going to catch on.
I did want to say, Brittany, before you go with the temperatures being what they are, you know, 30s in the morning, 60s in the afternoon.
The one thing I don't miss now is as a parent and getting your elementary school kids ready.
and you want them dressed up, you know, and have your coat in the morning, it's still in the 30s, and some of them don't want to, especially middle school, they're like, no, I don't have to, and they're freezing.
But then in the afternoon, they forget to bring their coat home, because it's in the 60s, and so then the next, so, I mean, there's times you have like two, three different coats to put on your kid, or you put on one of your, here, you're wearing dad's sweater now, because you need something, and you left your two other coats at school.
So, I would remind people,
at the end of the school year, even if you don't think you're missing anything, go to your schools lost and found.
I am amazed at how much stuff goes unclaimed at the end of the school year from parents who just assume their kids' coats evaporated or something.
It's there.
My iPod.
No, I don't think it's that.
But definitely the coats at this time of year, it's so tough to.
And then the high schoolers, oh my gosh, the fights I used to have with.
My first born where she'd be like, I guess you can't get on the go to school in your pajamas.
Dad, they're sleep pants.
Oh,
one ever
sleep.
Girls have got it down now, though.
Yoga pants are pretty much sleep pants, right?
Oh,
yeah.
You're
always in yoga.
And then, and then the best invention ever, jagging.
It's really, hey, you guys like yoga pants?
You want them to look like jeans?
Perfect.
I like I said, I don't, I don't miss that.
Uh, Rob writes in, I have more coats in my truck than I do in my house.
Yes.
Yeah.
I've had that in the car sometimes as well.
So
that's my
problem
too.
Yeah.
I,
hmm.
Okay.
Brittany, is it not always the best when he starts and then he's, he has second thoughts like, should I say this or not?
So I used to work at a place and they had.
attire restrictions.
And I what my
white walls or radios?
No, no, no,
no,
like
pants.
Oh, clothing attire attire.
My gosh, Pat.
And I don't have a problem with women wearing yoga pants.
No problem with that whatsoever.
But I have a pair of designer sweatpants that were given to me for Christmas.
They were like a nice Christmas present.
Idris Elba, the actor has his own clothing line and they
Someone gave me a pair of his sweatpants.
Nice one.
And
I went to work wearing these very expensive sweatpants, expensive to me.
And I got told I couldn't wear them.
I'm like, these are like more expensive than jeans the kids are wearing.
What?
I was so mad because men don't have yoga pants.
We don't have a version of yoga pants.
Yes.
No,
you
don't.
No, I did.
I did buy from a different line.
You see these things like, oh, sweatpants that you could wear out.
They look like jeans.
And so I did buy a pair that supposedly looked like jeans and I wore them once.
I was so self-conscious the whole time, like everybody knows these are sweatpants.
No, I'm not fooling anybody.
You just scream in the
middle of Costco.
I know they're sweatpants.
So I now have, you know, lounge, evening lounge where they cost too much.
You have sleep pants, Pat.
Yes, sleep pants.
Thank you.
Yes, that's exactly it.
Cassandra writes on YouTube with a seven-year-old and a four-year-old.
I feel this coat issue in my bones.
Yes, we totally understand that.
Brittany, thank you so much.
Have
a great day.
Thanks, guys.
You too.
And
we'll see you again.
Well, what am I telling her?
Great day.
We'll see you again right after the 8 o'clock news.
We got this whole three-hour show here going now that we get to tell you about, including some of the things that are coming up later here across the Civic Media radio network.
And before,
Mr. Bach tells you what's coming up on Matt and Air on Air.
I'll tell you that on Todd Alba.
He's got film critic Tim Grierson on his five favorite Nicholas Cage movies.
On Maggie Dawn, we've got State Senator Dora Drake.
And on Nightlight with Pete Schwabba tonight, comedian, podcaster Mike Schmidt and the owner of the Chilton Theater, Mike Radu.
Now meanwhile, Matt and Air on Air follows this program from 9 to 11.
Yeah.
And you have.
We have Dr. Kristen Lierly at 930.
We're going to be talking about, you know, we'll talk about what we talk about.
I won't lie.
I can't remember right now, but I believe we're going to be talking about HHS.
And then also at 10 o'clock, we will have David Drake, who is from UW Extension.
And we're going to be talking about the works to try to get rid of protection for dangerous species that's happening in the federal government right now.
to lift certain protections on endangered species.
He is a professor from the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at UW-Madison.
And then at 1035, Emma Schatz, who is the digital comms coordinator for Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, talking about Fat Bird Week, that's happening.
Fat Bird Week, which is next week.
It's exactly what you think it is, Pat.
Yeah, it's
voting on, as it says on the website.
Voting on your favorite bulbous bird.
Eight chubby contestants.
Good Lord.
In a
single elimination
bracket style.
Oh my gosh.
Oh look at this.
Cassandra was at the Joint Finance Committee meeting in Warsaw yesterday.
Oh Greg, one of the people with hundreds of beavers.
The movie was at the Joint Finance Committee meeting yesterday and made me think of you.
Because
artists care
about where they live.
And it's it is it's still sitting there.
She's you says I like that I got to jam out to chicken banana on my drive to work Thank you guys ps.
Leap pants is a lovely turn of a phrase
That's putting it very mildly.
Brewers beat the White Sox 7-2 last night.
They do it again this evening.
6-05, I believe, is the start time across the Civic Media radio network, several stations picking up the game, and then they play again tomorrow afternoon.
And finally, come home to American Family Field to play the Chicago Cubs in a weekend series.
And the bucks were eliminated last night, losing an overtime to Indiana 119 to 118.
Our homeroom segment coming up in just about 15 minutes as we do every Wednesday and meet here every morning, live from Lake Wissota.
I'm Pat Kratlow.
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.
Welcome back.
It's a Wednesday morning, April thirtieth, just about seven twenty three now across the Civic Media Radio Network live from Lake Wissota.
I'm Pac right along with Greg Bach and we mentioned earlier in the program that we were going to get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the induction ceremony later this year.
The honorees were announced on Sunday night, I believe during American Idol and I was just going to list them and let it go at that.
And then Greg, let me know.
He has feelings and so I returned to my rock and roll Hall of Fame list and by the way if you have feelings on this 8 5 5 7 5 civic 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 Bad company Rock and Roll Hall of Fame worthy.
I you know what they're they are in a small group of of bands who have a song
That is the name of their band.
That's the name of their record bad company is a song called bad company on their album called bad company.
I Love black Sabbath same thing run the jewels same thing.
I like any band that does all three in one shot.
So Okay, I
will say this
the
entire class you'll read off I have no problem with any of them being in the rock and roll Hall of Fame
I'm
a little
peeve that Warren Zevon and Salt and Pepper are getting special recognition rather than full admission.
Ah, I think
that's bunk.
Oh, so is that this musical influence award?
Is that their way of saying you guys get to go here in the hall of the very good?
I think so.
Yeah, I don't think it's the same as it's a special.
It's a special award.
It's nothing.
Nothing you shake is I'll never get it.
But I don't know.
I'm pretty sure it doesn't come with full induction into the Hall of Fame.
Okay, but I mean, it's like those things where you're in an exhibit in Cooper's town, but you're not actually in the Hall of Fame, but you're like, yeah, I am.
I'm in an exhibit.
We're gonna give you a
lifetime Academy Award achievement because you never won.
So it's we're doing
this for
us.
Yeah.
So the entire class I'm fine with and that's bad company.
Yeah, hold on a bad.
I'll go through that company.
I'm just gonna say I had some great tunes.
I don't know that it's Hall of Fame worthy.
That's, that's where I am.
I think people were starving for somebody that still sounded like the Beatles.
You know, oh wait, that was bad finger.
Nevermind.
Okay.
Chubby, chubby checker.
Chubby checker.
Yep.
How is he not in there already?
Yeah, he should have been in like the second or third class in my opinion.
Yeah.
Uh, Joe Cocker again, legendary.
Cindy Lauper that gets into the thing of like, now I remember when they were new and unusual and everything.
Is it Hall of Fame worthy?
Arguably for representing the genre of the early 80s music.
Yes.
For Cindy Lauper.
Outcast.
I don't know.
Go ahead.
Outcast is a revolutionary hip-hop band.
They changed the sound.
They helped bring attention to the South when it comes to rap music before.
Then it was either East Coast or West Coast, and that was it.
And they brought a flavor and a style and an individuality to their type of music that hadn't been heard before or not been popular before, I should say.
Okay.
Soundgarden.
Absolutely.
They're, they're one of the, you know, Nirvana in Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and Alice, Alice and Shane should be in there, but they're not.
But like they're the bands, like they were at the forefront of alternative and grunge before they even had those titles.
And let me say this about Soundgarden.
I may have actually heard a song from them once, but I was busy listening to Neil Diamond records over here.
So I got nothing.
The White Stripes.
White Stripes.
You know, Jack White, one of the most like iconic figures in music nowadays, one of the big like rock and roll stars is something you don't see a whole lot of anymore, like Dave Grohl and Jack White.
But the White Stripes two piece band from Detroit Garage Rock, just making excellent music and very influential.
And of course, we mentioned Salt and Pepper and Warren Zevon will get the Musical Influence Award.
to which Shizu puts on YouTube participation award shake my head.
Oh, spicy comment
from Shizu.
And then Cassandra, we love that you put up comments on YouTube.
Please.
I'm not mocking you.
This was just so perfect.
This was perfect in the age of spell check or, you know, you hit enter too soon that I have to put it up here on screen as well.
Cassandra originally wrote on YouTube.
Once they put Madonna in there, I was fine.
And then she adds or she puts a correction.
Done.
Once they put Madonna in there, I was done, but it came out fine in the beginning.
Don't you hate when you do that?
No, that's not what I meant to say.
Ah, I should have said this.
Um, though that's, I mean, that's a fair, that's a fair point.
I get that people don't like the fact that hip hop artists are in the rock and roll fame, but to me it's all rock and roll.
It's all about.
You're
saying
it's all rock and
roll?
It's all
rock and roll to me.
And my only complaint is that fish didn't get in.
They are a heavily influential, influential band.
They've sold 13 million tickets and they've been around for 40 years.
They've played Madison Square Garden sold out 87 times.
And so the fact that they didn't make, and they, and in the, in the fan vote, they had, they just whooped everybody else in the fan vote.
So.
They'll get in eventually.
And one of their set pieces, we had this conversation with Jane earlier on Monday about this, that one of their set pieces from that, that one of their New Year's Eve shows from Madison Square Garden is a permanent fixture at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
So the fact that they're not in on the first ballot is ridiculous to me.
And I kind of, it's how I feel about.
bad company too.
I feel like the Rock and Roll Hall fame is not very friendly to 70s arena rock.
Jam
bands, they're not very friendly to either.
It takes an overwhelming force from the audience to make them budge.
She has an opinion on YouTube as well.
That goes right in.
I think she must agree with you about something.
She says, still mad about sticks, Greg.
Boston isn't in the Rock and Roll Hall.
Boston.
Uh huh.
Come on.
Yeah, sure.
I have a coworker that loves fish.
You've seen them over 20 times.
We tease him about it.
Cassandra, you never listen to fish then.
You'd fall in love with them.
You listen.
That's what everybody says.
Yep.
All this stuff I should be listening to.
I
can curate a fish playlist for anybody.
Tell me what you what you think of them and I will curate a list that will work for you perfectly.
Well, I like this.
Okay.
Again, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame live November 8th on Disney Plus.
Four plus hour concert.
Totally worth it.
It'll be on Hulu the next day, November 9th, and then a condensed version on ABC sometime in December.
When we come back, we will have our homeroom segment where we will talk to a guest from the Wisconsin Public Education Network about getting lead paint out of Milwaukee schools.
Honestly, how is this still a thing?
That's coming up next, live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
If you were watching last week tonight with John Oliver this past Sunday night, your ears might have perked up to hear them talk about Milwaukee Public Schools and the lead paint that is still in Milwaukee Public Schools and how Milwaukee officials turned to the Centers for Disease Control for help with their lead paint problem and were told that the Trump administration basically fired everybody and ended the program that deals with lead paint in schools.
you know, again, tax cuts for the very wealthy.
You got to pay for them somehow, kids.
When you say, how is lead paint still a thing?
We'll ask our guest in just a moment here.
But can I give you a hint in the beginning?
Here are some of the buildings in Milwaukee Public Schools found to still contain lead paint.
And the year they were built, Fernwood Montessori School, 1927, Robert LaFollette School,
1898, Troll Bridge School of Great Lakes Studies, 1894.
Francis Brock-Starm's Early Childhood Center, 1893.
Albert Kegel School, 1890, Golden Maier Lower Campus, 1890.
Maryland Avenue Montessori School, 1886.
We are teaching our children in school buildings built in 1886.
while we're building multi-billion-dollar sports arenas and other things.
It would seem to me that our state legislators could be doing a better job of taking care of our kids and keeping them from getting poisoned in our schools, and our next guest happens to agree with that.
Jenny Holfschulte has been helping out with the Led Safe Schools Milwaukee Grassroots Advocacy Group, as well as the Wisconsin Public Education Network.
Jenny,
Good morning.
Thank you for joining us this morning.
Good morning, Pat.
Happy to be with you
again.
Certainly when I talk to anybody from the Wisconsin Public Education Network, we understand the almost generation-long battle that we've been fighting to have our education of our kids better funded out of Madison.
And we will get to the legislature's responsibility for this in a moment.
but because you've been active in this particular issue, I wanted to give you a chance as well to kind of give your 30,000 foot view of the issue.
What is it that got you involved in it and what is it that, what are some of the things that you and parents would like to see done to finally remove this lead paint danger from our schools?
Thanks for having me, Pat.
And thank you for that question.
I will say my involvement with blood safe schools, Milwaukee came as a group of parents were rallying together to ask questions of the district and to just get more information as.
you know the lead crisis as it's been characterized has been making the news and so I was actually invited in to help give a even wider perspective about disinvestment and budgeting but I will say as a Milwaukee Public Schools parent of now 21 years it does concern me deeply about deferred maintenance and other things and you know I think when you have a building stock as old as MPS is you're going to have
led in the schools and the historic disinvestment generational, as you put it, has led us to this point where, you know, the buildings have led in them and it's being exposed.
It is being exposed and these are, so these are, these are known issues.
We've known about this for some time and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has, of course, done a stellar job of following this in some of their writing, including a timeline of the issue.
And believe me, in no way, shape or form does this take MPS, the school district, off the hook.
There's plenty to say about, again, deferred maintenance and how they manage a budget.
But you can't help but look at this, Jenny, and not look at the larger issue of why our school budgets everywhere so financially challenged.
And it's a condition that the public education network has been trying to inform folks about for quite a long time now.
For sure.
My, our oldest son just turned 24.
And when he was three years old, I asked the question the first time about why schools in Wisconsin were so unequivocally funded so unequivocally, right?
And so I feel like we've been, we've been asking this question since the 90s with revenue caps.
And then what we've also experienced since the early 2000s is actually a hostile legislature towards public schools.
And the Wisconsin Public Education Network is definitely not an apologist for the missteps of public school districts.
But we do believe in the public being involved in the public schools and that the public and the district, the professionals and the educators know best of all what kids and students need.
And those needs have fallen short to the ears of the legislature.
We are now currently, oh, go ahead.
Oh, no, you said we are now currently doing what?
the budget process for the State of Wisconsin, the last hearing wrapped up yesterday.
That's the mandated time for input from the public, but that doesn't mean the public should stop calling their legislators, calling Governor Evers.
I know that a lot of times people, especially perhaps your listeners, Pat will say like, well, the governor's a Democrat, so he'll do the right thing.
You know what?
People need courage, they need support, and they need to know what their constituents want.
in order to make those right moves.
And in the last budget, Governor Evers did disappoint the education community for public schools across the state.
And we want him to know that we still have an expectation of him to be the education governor and that he can push back and he can use his bully pulpit to get the things kids in schools need in Wisconsin.
A reminder to folks that while the Joint Finance Committee hearings are done, you can still have input on what legislators should put in the state budget in your opinion by sending an email to budget.comments at legis.wisconsin.
budget.comments.legis.wisconsin.gov.
We're talking to Jenny Hofschulte and MPS Parents and also an organizer for the Wisconsin Public Education Network.
And as we talk about this in our segment every week, and we talk about the chronic underfunding of schools, a problem like this does enable us to shift from the focus on, you know, what happens in the classroom to having enough funds to maintain the facilities.
And we have seen such an increase in referendums out there not to build anything new.
A lot of people say, oh, they want to build a new sports facility or a new computer lab or whatever.
No, this is, I always use the phrase to keep the lights on, but really it's so much more than that.
And it may be to replace an old boiler or it may be to replace a leaking roof or it may be
to finally get rid of the lead paint that's in these buildings that date back to the 19th century.
Jenny, do you feel like more folks are understanding as time goes by the need for state funding to adequately cover infrastructure as well as instruction?
Yeah, we've definitely seen a giant increase in the less vanity projects and the more keeping the lights on as you would say, Pat.
I mean, at the Wisconsin Public Education Network, we definitely
want to keep our focus on imagining the Wisconsin where the legislature and the majority party does prioritize our kids in schools and that they are starting investing in our schools up front so that communities don't have to spend all this time and energy going to referendum.
If anyone's ever served on their local referendum team, a yes committee, it's an incredible amount of work.
It's a huge grind and those types of conversations, getting your community to elect to raise their own taxes to help
keep the lights on, it foes a lot of consternations in communities.
It's hard not to get a little bitter over time about how much energy advocates for public schools are spending trying to keep these referendum flowing, these dollars flowing when the legislature has the power to do the right thing for kids.
they most certainly do.
Shiju writes on YouTube, there's minimal assistance from the state budget.
Those not in education don't realize how little is actually paid for by the state and how much is from the taxpayers.
And it's really, it's from taxpayers in two different areas, either from the state where there's a lot of income tax revenue, which is more progressive as opposed to the property tax at the local level, which is not nearly, it's more regressive instead.
Cassandra notes who, she went to the Joint Finance Committee meeting
in Wausau yesterday.
What I learned at the meeting, districts have to take from their general funds to cover shortfalls in things like special education reimbursement.
And we've talked about that, Jenny, quite a bit as well, that there may be a growing consensus among legislators that they have to do even more for special education funding reimbursement
because if they do, then that does free up some of the local dollars for things like letabatement, roof replacements, other infrastructure needs.
So this is all connected in budgets, but you've got to have the will to actually fund the whole thing, meaning public schools in Wisconsin.
And that sounds like it's still an ongoing challenge.
It is an ongoing challenge.
And it's a difficult time in the capital.
with the majority party does get to dictate who sits on committees, what the makeup is of majority parties versus minority party affiliations on these different committees.
The Joint Finance Committee is heavily Republican right now by design, but the margins within the assembly are much closer.
And so the less time they spend in joint sessions, the less opportunity Wisconsinites get to see that they are increasingly being represented by pro-public.
legislators and right now I think the majority party is feeling a little bit of a crisis and I do think it's an opportunity they're going to have to answer to their constituents with our fair maps and it's true we are taking enormous amounts of money out of regular budget
in order to cover the services for special education, which is 100% the right thing to do.
I do think sometimes this conversation sounds like it's pitting, you know, regular education students versus special education, and that's not the case at all.
It's the right thing to do.
The wrong thing to do is to reimburse private voucher schools up to 90% of their special education services, which they did in the last budget while maintaining this around 30% reimbursement for public schools, which just seems, you know,
continues to be asinine decision-making to harm the majority of children in the state of Wisconsin for the benefit of a few.
And while the subject of lead in water pipes is not exactly the same as lead paint in schools, they both are very real public health threats, especially to our children.
So I would remind people that yes indeed back in 2019,
Republicans had a chance to put $40 million in the state budget for lead pipe replacement, but they took it out in the words of state legislator John Nigren at the time.
He said, my understanding is that the proposal, a vast majority of it is going to Milwaukee rather than people from Marinette funding, you know, rather than having people fund lead replacement in Milwaukee.
I'm not sure that that's necessarily fair from a taxpayer standpoint.
And that is an indefensible thing to say, Jenny.
And that attitude is still there that, well, if it's just going to Milwaukee, then we don't have to vote for it.
I mean, it's indefensible.
And I wish I hadn't been living in that for the last 21 years, Pat.
Every time I've been to Madison to stand up for and to advocate for students of Milwaukee, I hear racist tropes.
I hear
incredibly insane things from legislators that have no idea perspective about the city whatsoever.
And it is much easier to kick at Milwaukee than it is to take a hard look at our inequities of the state and to do something about it.
I actually, we see some of this kicking comes from our own local against the public school district as well.
You know, the city of Milwaukee and the Milwaukee public schools aren't always working together.
We've saved off several mayoral takeover events.
I just
imagine a Wisconsin where we're all on the same team.
And the same team is the future of Wisconsin.
And that's for the kids across the entire state.
If if only we could finally get back
to that
place or get to that place.
Jenny Hofschildi from the Wisconsin Public Education Network.
Jenny, thank you so much for the background.
Appreciate all that you're doing.
And thanks for joining us this morning.
Thanks, Pat.
Have a great day.
All right, you as well.
Hey, thanks for spending your mornings with us live from Lake Wissota here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pat right now.
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.
Looking ahead to Friday, we will be talking to Brian Kennedy, the mayor of Glendale.
He's also the head of a national organization of local elected leaders
encouraging others to run for local office, to which we say amen.
Can't do enough to encourage people to run for their local city council, town board, school board, county board, whatever the case may be.
You can really make a difference that way.
Todd Alba is back with us just like yesterday, but in his new time slot, which was actually his old time slot, but he's here at his cool new time Wednesdays, two to four.
across the Civic Media Radio Network.
Mr. Alba, how are you?
I'm great.
I'm fantastic.
Just like I'm like Groundhog's Day.
I just keep this the same.
He just pops up.
Yep.
Yep.
753.
He
just pops up out of the little box here on the screen.
Yep.
Sunday morning.
Sunday morning share.
Oh,
yeah.
I don't want to trigger you, but.
Well, yeah, I do.
Oh, Lord.
I
will.
Yes,
you do.
Because we, of course, spent a lot of time yesterday talking about the first 100 days of Donald Trump in office, only 1,341 to go, yay.
But again, the New York Times, what is with the hero worship here?
It is, here's their
top
headline.
What are they doing?
Their top headline.
After being arrested and shot at,
Trump takes on second term with a new fervor.
Donald Trump acted like a man on a mission to transform America and exact retribution against his enemies.
And then you go inside and it says, having escaped prison and death, he didn't escape prison, he escaped accountability.
Having escaped prison and death.
Donald Trump has returned to power seeking vindication and vengeance and has done more in his first 100 days to change the trajectory of the country than any president since Franklin Roosevelt.
What?
The actual bloody hell is that?
Is that an opinion piece or is that a story?
It's an analysis piece, it says.
Analysis by Trump apologist Peter Baker, who is the New York Times Chief White House correspondent, but this is hardly the first, you know, cream puff.
I think that line right there
smack of the middle says it all retribution or revenge.
That's exactly what this has been.
And he's talked about that.
Thus the entire time he's been running since 2021.
That is very true, but he has also tried to talk at times to a, you know, moderate audience.
And when he talked about the whole concept of what would become doge, it was all about, we're going to do an audit.
We're going to, we're going to look for these things.
And no, they didn't.
They just started, you know, slash and burning.
And now Trump's excuse, and you heard it in the interview yesterday.
Oh, well, we said there was going to be a period of transition.
We said there was going to be pain.
No, you didn't.
No, you didn't.
Todd, did I mishear him?
because I will say again, no, you didn't.
You said on day one, prices are coming down on day one.
We're fixing Ukraine.
Yeah,
you lied.
I had I had not seen this analysis or headline or whatever you want to call it, New York Times.
I think it's pretty a pretty simple answer because I'm a simple guy and it's also really disturbing.
It's that now corporate America more than ever before.
We know it's always happened this way to an extent, but never before have we seen an all out.
unapologetic ploy play to one individual person in the press United States to gain favor so that the government of the United States either a doesn't punish them in some way or b rewards them in another so that they can make more money and I mean this to me seems to be the New York Times making a an inside
decision that we're going to suck up to Trump.
You saw Bill Owen, the longtime executive producer of 60 Minutes on CBS Resign last week.
Because of this, he felt pressure from Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS News, that he could no longer run 60 Minutes the way he had before because he was getting pressure from above.
We've seen CBS in the middle of settling a lawsuit that
They were on the right side of we've seen ABC pay 20 Disney pay 20 million plus to Trump for a lawsuit They were on the right side of and so and yes just yesterday Amazon said they were going to put next to on on Amazon Prime How much the Trump tariffs were going to cost Amazon buyers?
Trump picks up the phone calls the owner of Amazon Jeff Bezos guess what it doesn't happen and I think once again, it's getting
more difficult to see the line between a quasi-state-run media and independent journalism.
Well put, really well put.
So there goes our 100 days.
Well, I'm sure we'll have something to say at the 200 day point.
But look, if you know the Todd Alba show for nothing else other than cutting edge political commentary, you have to know the other important thing about the Todd Alba show.
is he will remind you every day.
It's a great day to be a Wisconsinite because here in Wisconsin, you can have guests like film critic Tim Gryerson listing your five Grayson listing your five favorite Nicholas Cage movies.
And why are all five
of them?
Why are all five of them the rock?
Thank you.
Well, that's
Tim that day.
I don't know.
We try to have a little bit of fun.
You have to.
You have to.
I still believe all the headlines out there because I'm fortunate if I get to travel around and I get back to Richland County a lot and get to Eau Claire a lot and get down to Milwaukee pretty real quite frequently not just for work but to where my friends and family are and and I don't know I think that if we just stop and take a moment it really is a great place to live and work I see all this weather happening all over the all over the country and
Geez, I mean, Wisconsin is still in that area that's pretty darn good in terms of a place to live and a place to work.
And so I feel blessed.
And it was so while we have a national film critic like Tim Gerson talking about, yes, Nicholas Gage.
And that's what, again, that's what we need.
As Greg and Jane call it, a palette cleanser.
Yes, exactly.
Got to have those things that we need in our mind
folks.
Yep.
Look at that.
Todd will inform you and Todd will delight you again today from two to four.
Thank you, Mr. Alba.
wonderful day.
You're welcome only because Pat Krightlow and Trigby are going to be reunited.
It feels so good today.
Right.
Okay.
I'll show up with old man Trigby there.
Greg Bach is back in one hour for Matt and air on air as well.
Thank you gentlemen.
Remember you can follow my team over at Up North News all day long at Up North News W I dot com.
And of course right here mornings on the civic media radio network.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
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