Plenty of Pain, No Gain (Hour 2)

Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglo powered by UpMorth News.

Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of UpMorth News, Pat Craiglo.

Well, hey there, Wisconsin.

Good morning.

It is 6.06.

On this Thursday morning, it is the 1st of May.

It's May 1st 2025 and it's another beautiful morning to have a year up north live from Lake Wissota from wherever you're listening across the civic media radio network and whether it's through the terrestrial radio station near you or an app on your phone or your tablet or maybe Facebook or YouTube as you do some doom scrolling or by podcast.

Thanks for spending the first part of your day right here.

I've got a question for you and it's decidedly off topic.

Compared to the stuff that we normally cover here, but I thought we could use a little change of pace today Would you live on a Caribbean island if the opportunity came up and not to retire?

You'd still have to be a working stiff nine to five.

Okay, would you do it?

It's pretty good.

It's not all sunshine and comfortable breezes I will tell you about yesterday's election day back in my old residence of the Cayman Islands coming up

I was watching a lot of coverage from the folks I used to work in TV with down there.

It's a different world, trust me.

So a little diversion to talk about today.

Also coming up on the program, of course, we will get back to the bare essentials of what's happening in Washington, Madison and elsewhere.

We'll talk to State Senator Jeff Smith and State Representative Jody Emerson from the Chippewa Valley.

Some of the latest Trump budget cuts that we're hearing about affect things in their neck of the woods like

community volunteer programs, you know, waste, fraud, and abuse like that.

And meanwhile, in Madison, Republican leaders in the legislature have been holding hostage for nearly two years now, money that was budgeted and approved to deal with a health care crisis in the Chippewa Valley.

We will ask the legislators if there's been any progress on that whatsoever.

We have another quote from Sean Duffy on Fox and Friends.

Turns out he is very afraid of New York City.

and you should be able to put your car wherever you want to put your car because this is America.

There are other members of Congress, still in Congress, now Duffy's now the Transportation Secretary, but members of Congress, you know, Derek Van Orden and the rest, who have had the opportunity to either end or modify the disastrous effects of Trump's trade war.

But after voting Congress yesterday, it becomes pretty clear that this Congress is comatose and is not going to do anything about it.

We'll talk to Joseph Heckey about that.

He's also a candidate for state Democratic Party chair.

If you missed yesterday's conversation with Melissa Baldoff, we'll play that for you at 6.30 this morning where we talk a bit about a bill that would.

changed the way that power lines are approved across Wisconsin.

So that and much more along the way and of course your input as well.

You can call or text the show at 855-75-CIVIC.

855-752-4842.

Do it by phone, do it on the app.

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Temperatures around the state are very mild compared to what we're used to around here as Greg Bach joins us from Radio Park down there in the Greater Milwaukee Metroplex.

He's got his brew crew shirt on.

I do.

He's looking very

seasonal.

It is.

Let's see.

The warm spot is actually here in the Chippewa Valley where it's 54 degrees right now.

Hey, where does that 52?

Amory's at 50.

Wausau 46.

Rapids at 46.

La Crosse 52.

Green Bay's at 48.

Madison's 48.

Milwaukee's 48.

So that's it.

Greg, you're 48.

Like it or not.

I turned 48 this year.

Well, there you go.

Oh,

wow.

I mean,

what a kawinky dink that is.

Cool.

Yeah.

Can I can I brag about dinner last night?

Absolutely first please brag about dinner.

That my new favorite method of making steaks in a cast in a cast iron grill.

But I know if people some people do this, they'll go, how did you not know about this before?

I'm a pretty late comer to the notion of reverse searing a steak, which if you're not familiar with it is you start by warming your oven up to 250.

Just 250 okay, and then Once it's heated to that temperature then put your stake in and it doesn't have to be thought I put a frozen stake in there and you just have to have your digital thermometer handy if it is thought it might only take 30 minutes if it's frozen it might take an hour, but eventually That thermometer is going to read a a target temperature.

That's about 30 degrees lower than what you want it when it's all done

So if you want it at say 140, you know, when it's all done, you you warm it in the oven to 110.

Okay.

All right.

Then you get your cast iron skillet ripping hot.

You throw a little a little bit of olive oil in there.

You throw some coarse sea salt up and down your steak.

And in three to four minutes, when that temperature when that thermometer hits the right temperature.

Oh, Greg, I'm telling you,

y'all got to make your stakes like this from now on.

I mean, so last year, um, we invested in a brand new grill and we used it once.

So this year I really want to use it a lot and maybe I'll, I will incorporate steak, steak advice.

There you go.

There's that way.

It's going to be right inside.

There's stakes involved in this advice.

There's stakes involved.

Yes.

That was

terrible.

No, it's like I said, it's a great way to ensure that it's already starting to cook.

So you know the problem is too often either on a grill or on a cast iron skillet.

You know, it gets plenty hot on the outside, but it doesn't cook

enough on

the inside, especially if the steak is a little thicker.

Yeah.

And this is just such a great way around it.

Just

tell you.

I love how happy you are about this.

I know.

I've made this like, I don't know, four or five times now.

And each time it gets a little bit better.

Yeah.

It's like, I have to tell the world about this.

So I just, just let him talk about stakes.

Just let him.

Yes.

He'll be fine.

He has to go back and talk about the newsletter at some point.

Just let him roll.

Here it comes.

Hey, we have a daily newsletter to tell you about over at Up North News.

Head to the website UpNorthNewsWI.com.

By the way, on the website.

One of our stories there is a Trump tracker, not of just the hundred days, but the promises that he made that that would be happening on day one.

And he did say this repeatedly.

Here's what you see on day one.

So we track that as for the newsletter.

Today's edition includes an article on flower festivals.

There are just about a half a dozen flower festivals in the springtime around Wisconsin that you could put on your road trip calendar.

So.

We'll learn more about that in our newsletter.

Sign up for it over at upnorthnewswi.com.

So should we do the little Caribbean diversion here?

Just

Caribbean diversion.

Sorry.

Yes.

Yes.

Billy Ocean's initial draft of that

and

then decided to go with Caribbean Queen.

All right.

So first off to rewind for folks that don't know this was this was for sharing me.

This was our midlife crisis.

Okay, the nest was recently emptied.

We were in jobs that were like, you know, okay, you know, and Sherry being an OBGYN, every field has different databases where you can see where the jobs are in your field.

They have that for radio and, you know, for plenty of other things.

And she would look at it every now and then, mostly just for fun to see, oh, they're looking for an OBGYN in this country or in this state, you know, in this beautiful, you know, area here.

And one day she comes home and says, there's, there's no PGYN opening in the Cayman Islands, which she knew is going to get my attention because we had been there like four times already on cruises, uh, for a conference.

We knew somebody else that, that had vacation there.

So we went with them.

So we knew we loved this place.

And I thought, well, this, this ain't going to work.

Then again, maybe it will.

So we did.

So we took a chance.

We took a chance and Sherry signed a three-year contract and delivered babies there for three years.

I got back into TV news there and you know, there's a lot to say about life there, but I bring it up today because yesterday they had their national elections.

And now I always have trouble saying national elections for three tiny islands with a total population of about 80,000 people.

for, you know, and half of them are Caymanians, half of them are expat workers, you know, from, you know, the, from the States, from Canada, from Britain, from the Philippines, from Jamaica.

But for the Caymanians who were voting on their leadership and voting for members of parliament, and again, I love the place, but I still chuckle at the notion of parliament for these little islands.

The parliament is 19 people.

It's what we would call a county board.

Yeah.

With.

with all of the local politics that go into it, including many attempts at parties.

They've tried different ways.

They don't just have a natural, like, Democratic and Republican party.

It changes.

They're all the time these teams and coalitions, and usually the result is that no party gets a majority, and so there's chaos.

Which was the result again last night?

So again, they will have to find their way through and decide which which click basically is gonna run the the show for a while But just to give you an idea that again politics is different everywhere Two big issues for them.

One is the trash dump.

They look they don't have one.

They literally have something called Mount Trashmore It's the highest site on the island.

It is a literal mountain of trash and they're all the time debating

what, what they can do about that, which is, is hard and it keeps catching fire.

It's a very hard thing.

But the other thing is cruise ships.

Now a lot of places, if you've been on a cruise, you know, some places have these beautiful, modern cruise birthing facilities where you come right in and they take care of everything.

They don't have that in Cayman.

They're the ship's dock offshore and these things called tenders, these little shuttle boats, you know, come and get people off the ship and bring them in.

And for years and years, they've been debating whether to build a birthing facility.

And for a while there, I think it had quite some support because it would be good for the economy, bring all these people in.

But so many people have come in now as visitors or as residents or as expats that now it very much has a backlash of going, no, why do we want to risk damage to the coral in the area?

And your island can only hold so many people in one day.

Do you really want mega ships coming in and dumping that many people onto the streets?

So there was a national referendum yesterday and the referendum failed spectacularly in asking, should we build a cruise birthing facility?

And so, you know, you'll you'll continue to have to use these little boats that make some people seasick as they go from the big boat off to shore.

You're doing great.

Just look at the ocean.

Yes.

Think think about all the watches you can look at at the jewelry stores and all the other trinkets.

Think about how you'll never be able to have a trip again like this.

Yes.

It was it was again, great experience.

Glad we did it.

Really glad to come home.

But to live in a British overseas territory with a

unique form of government, uh, with, uh, with these British style elections and British style courts was just that, you know, if you're going to have a midlife crisis, don't buy the expensive car.

Go live somewhere else

for a little while.

I was going to say, it's not, I mean, honestly, it's a pretty cool midlife crisis.

If you want to call it that because you did it with your spouse, you did it together.

You didn't just show up one day and be like, honey, I bought a boat.

Yeah.

Um, would you ever retire maybe not to there, but somewhere else tropical?

Do you think when the day comes when you're done,

we always thought that we would and we still might.

But then those pesky grandkids came along and it's

really worse.

It's so cool to be close to them.

So.

But you know what, eventually they're going to get older and go like, yeah, yeah, grandma, grandpa, whatever.

So.

Yes, it's, it's very possible that we might be back there.

And in the meantime, I, I, I miss my friends down there so much.

Tammy Suleiman, Andral Harris, Kevin Morales, Reshma, Raganath, Phillip, uh, Richter, Polar Bush, just, you guys are amazing people, wish you all the best and enjoy your life in paradise.

It's not

paradise every day, but it's still paradise.

We'll have more after this live from Lake Wasota, not the Cayman Islands this time, on the Civic Media radio network.

you

Well, let's see Jake Bowers hit a go-ahead two-run double in the eighth inning last night and the Brewers beat the White Sox six to four for their third straight win.

William Contreras went two for three to extend his hitting streak to nine games.

The

three-game series with the White Sox and the 10-game road trip for the Brewers comes to an end this afternoon.

Coverage begins at 12.35 on some of these civic media radio network stations.

Catch a little matinee baseball today with the Brewers versus the Chicago White Sox and then they're back home again tomorrow starting a series against the Chicago Cubs.

What did I not get to here?

Oh, there are, it's May 1st, so it's May Day.

So there are going to be some protests around the country today.

It's also International Workers Day.

Something's got going yesterday.

There was an Eau Claire, a sit-in.

at the office of Congressman Derek Van Orden.

Congressional candidate Laura Benjamin was one of the people that attended, and we'll actually be talking to Laura Benjamin next week about her candidacy.

She's the third candidate to declare in the third congressional district, the Derek Van Orden seat there.

But back to today's marches, Vosa's De La Frontera will have something that marches to the federal courthouse in Milwaukee.

And then up in Hayward, there's an organized demonstration today happening, not just not merely against, you know, Trump and friends, but also in support of Judge Monica Isham.

And she is one of those judges who was very concerned about the arrest last week of Judge Hannah Dugan in Milwaukee.

And

sent an email saying that she was considering just closing up the court until there was better safety guidance from her superiors as far as whether we're, are we doing ICE arrests in the hallways outside of our courtrooms?

Is that going to be the standard policy?

So she asked that question.

She wanted clarification.

She sent the email.

which, of course, brought all kinds of condemnation from Trump enablers, like members of Congress and members of the Wisconsin legislature, to the point where there's now going to be a march in Hayward today in support of Judgisham.

She's one of, if not the first Chippewa to ever be elected a judge in Northern Wisconsin, and now she is facing those job threats, even death threats.

And at this point, people are saying,

we have to gather, we have to show our support, and I just really wanted to tip my cap to the people who were posting on social media about this, not just the fact that they're going to be marching, but that there are rules of the road, like specifically,

Don't get in the road.

Don't, don't impede traffic.

If you're going to the courthouse, don't impede what's happening at the courthouse.

Don't give people any kind of a reason whatsoever to say, well, these, uh, these people are violent, et cetera, et cetera.

And it said, bring your own signs of positive support for Judge Isham.

Do not engage with any opposition Do not block business activity It says our issue is not with any of our local businesses Many who support our efforts and are worried about the rise of prices as they have to pass on the Trump tariff taxes that consumers have to pay and It said basically no matter how crazy some of the other supporters can be we are not going to take the bait

and we are just simply going to have a positive march in support of Judgisham.

That'll be happening this afternoon up in Hayward.

An area that is no stranger to Sean Duffy, who served as the Congressman up there for a time, is now the Secretary of Transportation and apparently is a big ol' Freddy cat.

Did I share with you, Greg, the audio of Sean Duffy commenting on Fox and Friends about the New York Subways or not?

Yes, you did.

Oh,

I did.

Okay, good.

Let me actually

hold on.

Give me 30 seconds.

Oh, that's, no, I have to set it all up anyway.

I just, I suddenly had this brain spasm or I'm like, did I, did I think it or did I actually do it?

And so remember last week, I mentioned a leaked memo from a U S attorney's office showing that the case that Donald Trump and Sean Duffy were making against New York City for their congestion pricing program.

The legal case for that was flimsy at best, but they were looking for any reason to attack Democratic governor Kathy Huckle and New York City officials who are essentially just doing what they're doing what toll roads do.

If you want to bring your car into Manhattan, you're going to have to pay more during rush hours.

It.

It makes sense.

This is why you have tolls to make transportation easier, safer, better, cleaner, and so forth.

And as we mentioned last week, the statistics are in.

It's working millions of fewer cars clogging up the roads and choking up the air.

But of course, Sean Duffy being on Fox and Friends didn't like that because it gets in the way of his freedom.

Here's how he described it during a recent visit.

She wants to take people off the road.

And she's taxing people to do it, raising money for the subway system in New York.

But then to put people in the subway, the New York subway is dirty.

It's

criminal.

People stand against the wall in the subway because they don't want to get pushed into

the

tracks.

So if you want to have people take the subway, make it clean,

make it

safe.

But by the way, I like freedom.

Let me let me drive my car if I want.

I

love that

you get that they there's applause.

There's applause.

I like freedom.

I like freedom.

Let me drive my car.

I mean, of course, Sean Duffy is used to that level of privilege.

You know, let me go where I want with my car.

I'm kind of a big deal.

I have a question for Mr. Duffy, Secretary Duffy.

You're from Wisconsin.

When you drove to Illinois, did you just go to the toll booth and say, no, I like my freedom.

You don't get my money.

I'm driving to the Gurney Mills Mall.

And of course, we know what he's saying about the subway is like, well, you clean up your subway.

But by the way, we're not going to give you any, any help for that either.

So, you know, again, it's, it's criticized what's there, but not help with solving the problem at all.

So once again, in so many instances, you have Republicans by and large who love to criticize the big city.

They're so afraid of the big city when really it's just a, it's a convenient punching bag.

and a center of commerce and activity.

And again, how about being part of the solution instead of part of the problem?

We'll hear from Melissa Baldoff coming up after this.

All right, let's bring in Melissa Baldwin, a little climate check, a little Wisconsin political chatter.

How's Melissa today?

I'm doing well.

Thank you.

How about you?

Doing okay as well because we're going to pick up where we left off last week.

We didn't have enough time to really get into the specifics of a debate at the state capitol on a bill that doesn't really cut neatly across

party lines.

This one's all about, I guess, competition when it comes to new transmission lines here.

And it's really got Republicans divided more than Democrats.

But to boil it down to its essence, Melissa, it really is about whether state utility companies would get first dibs, if you will, when it's time for those new high-voltage transmission lines.

And the thing of it is, when we talk about climate, Melissa,

transmission lines are their own kind of side issue in that, you know, we're talking about whether it's oil and gas and coal versus, you know, wind and solar.

But even if it's wind and solar, you still need transmission lines to get that power someplace.

And so it's, it's something everybody needs to pay attention to.

But it's, it's almost refreshing that we have something here that isn't exactly just a Democrat versus Republican kind of bill.

Yeah, look, it's always good to have a debate and it's good to have conversation and get to the best version of any bill that's going to pass, you know, and whether or not, you know, this is going to be something that does pass or not.

And if it's something that the governor will support or not, it's always good to have a conversation in the public.

and get to the best version of something.

So we want to have that transparency, that sunshine on the process, and make sure that the public is aware of what the intention is and how we're going to get there.

Because far too often what we have is these bills that are put together in private by the Republican leadership.

to, you know, to serve what their, their special interest friends would like to see.

And that's what gets passed.

And there's no, there's no public input.

There's nothing that is serving the will of the people.

So the fact that there's even a conversation here is positive.

It doesn't mean that we're going to get to what's going to be the best for the climate, what's going to be the best for the public.

Maybe we will, maybe we won't, but it's still a positive thing.

that there's a conversation here.

Yeah, and in this case, this version of the what's called the Wisconsin Energy Reform Act says that basically, Wisconsin utilities would would have a privileged position when it comes to, you know, new transmission line projects.

Under the guise of well, they're already involved in some of these and they would understand and you know, the benefit, it's kind of like, you know, by American type stuff, but you also have people saying, well, that would actually diminish

competition.

And so ratepayers would end up paying more.

And again, I'm not studied enough in it to know that one is necessarily better than the other.

It's just kind of a refreshing change of position.

It reminded me very much of my first year in the legislature 2007, when we did the smoking ban.

Now,

There is near universal agreement that the smoking ban has been a positive for Wisconsin You know our clothes don't reek of ashtrays when we get home from you know bars and restaurants people are healthier the air is cleaner But Melissa you you and I both know in 2007 it did not cut across party lines and that was that was a spirited debate to say the least

I Well, I'm sure it was so that actually predates my arrival in Wisconsin

Let

me tell you stories.

The main thing on this one is that it really was more of an urban rural in that anybody who had mostly cities in their district, you know, they wanted the smoking ban and people in predominantly rural districts did not want it.

They thought that that was an infringement.

And I had a district that was the north side, the northern half of Eau Claire.

And then a whole lot of rural area.

So I mean, I was right in the middle.

I was one of the deciding votes on not whether the ban would pass or not, but the folks in rural districts and bar owners especially thought, well, this is going to put us out of business.

They wanted a phase in period.

So the original bill was like 30 days.

They wanted like a one year phase in.

I suggested, I believe it was either 90 days or six months, I forget now.

And boy, was I vilified by the people who wanted the smoking ban immediately.

They were like, oh, you're just, you're standing up with big tobacco.

I'm like, no, we're still gonna do this.

We're just, we're looking for a compromise here.

And it was very frustrating to have, there were so many Democrats mad at me because I wasn't putting the smoking ban in immediately.

Well, in hindsight, of course,

It doesn't matter at all, not right now.

I mean, nobody remembers that debate.

I don't even remember what my amendment said.

I just remember at the time going, wow, we still do have debate sometimes on bills that don't cut neatly across party lines.

And, you know, here's one of them.

So, you know, it made for a great story if nothing else, right, Melissa?

Absolutely.

I'm just glad by the time I did move here in 2010, there was no smoking.

Yes.

Yeah.

Well, let's let's move then to a different matter of air quality and getting back to climate concerns.

Uh, new story in the Milwaukee Journal, Sentinel, uh, Maya Pandey, I believe is the reporter's name.

Headline, Milwaukee's air quality remains among the worst in the nation, according to a new report by the American Lung Association.

Milwaukee out of 228 cities tested for ozone pollution ranked, uh, 26th worst

right behind Sheboygan as 24th worst.

Obviously, a lot of that is related to industry, a lot of it from Northern Illinois and Indiana as well as Southeast Wisconsin, and unfavorable, you know, environmental conditions in terms of how the wind blows and everything.

But Melissa, this has been a perpetual issue, air quality in Southeast Wisconsin.

It absolutely has.

And this is something we've talked about before.

and had guests on, we know that folks down in Beloit, some citizen scientists have studied this issue, but this is something that one of the, I think most notable pieces to me from this report is that in the Milwaukee Racine and Waukesha area, it's getting worse.

We know that it's been bad, but across the Milwaukee Racine and Waukesha area,

it is getting worse.

And knowing that air quality is worsening is really dangerous.

So what it noted is that between 21 and 2023, the area averaged nine and a half days a year of unhealthy ozone levels compared to only 6.7 days in the previous year's report.

And Racine County ranked the worst.

in that area for the ground level ozone pollution.

So this is really a big problem that we know it's continuing to get worse on some of these factors.

And that's a big problem.

The causes, there are many, like you mentioned, some of the producer pollution.

the extreme heat, drought, wildfires are some of the main drivers as well according to the American Lung Association that are driving the worsening air quality nationwide.

We know I think folks probably remember a couple summers back wildfires in Canada caused some really significant air quality issues in Wisconsin and across a lot of the country.

So we know that

a lot is going on to cause this and it's really a problem that's worsening.

And it's something as we've talked about it over the years, again, when people said one debate air quality and some wanted it to be a state by state decision.

Obviously, it can't be.

We can't put up a wall between Illinois and, you know, Gary, Indiana and other places.

We can't put up a wall with, with, you know, Canada and its wildfires.

And so this needs to be a national effort and.

We're only helping ourselves in the process.

Again, we have people saying, well, you know, China's not doing their part.

So, you know, why should we punish ourselves?

Well, again, if we're always going to race to the bottom, then we're going to have air quality as bad as it was in the late 1960s and early 70s.

And while things are better than they were, you know, the article does note that we're talking about something like 900,000 people

are at higher risk in the Milwaukee area of the more serious health impacts that come with dirty air.

This is not a pick on manufacturing story.

This is a public health issue that just raises the point, we can always be doing better when it comes to air quality.

You can talk deregulation all day long, but you can also talk about doing a better job of not polluting from the stuff that you're making.

Absolutely.

And that's why it's such a concern what the Trump administration is doing at the EPA.

The EPA was established under Richard Nixon in 1970.

So for more than 50 years, we've had bipartisan support for the EPA.

And at times, of course, it's been stronger.

and had more teeth than at other times.

But generally speaking, there's been bipartisan support for the EPA's kind of dual mission of protecting our air and water quality and enforcing regulations to reduce emissions and reduce pollution.

And now we have a new mission at the EPA, which is to drive down the cost of cars and make small businesses more profitable.

And we know that they are not going to take steps to hold polluters accountable and address air quality and water quality.

not just that they maybe won't have as strong of regulations as we would want to see.

It seems that they don't really have any concern about enforcing regulations and really want to give polluters just kind of carte blanche to do whatever they want.

Well, I mean, let's call it what it is.

It's a pro-pollution agenda that they have, and it was exacerbated Monday when nearly 400 scientists across the country were informed by the Trump administration that their services were no longer needed to write a major report on climate change for the federal government.

It's known as the National Climate Assessment.

It's done every four years.

It was mandated under the Global Change Research Act of 1990, and instead an email

went out to all of these scientists and said, thank you for your participation.

We are now releasing all current assessment participants from their role because that's where we are nowadays, Melissa.

We will look for happier news down the road here, but we always appreciate the climate update so people know exactly what this administration is doing.

Melissa Baldov, thank you so much.

We'll talk to you next week.

All right, sounds good.

And as we're looking at the changing of the calendar, of course, we've got all the national day, this and that.

We'll talk about that in our history lesson in a sec.

But I couldn't help but notice some similarities here for the month.

May is National Clean Air Month.

May is National Allergy and Asthma Awareness Month.

And May is Lung Health Month.

All of them serving as a reminder that

We can control our environment.

We can control if we all work together ways to have cleaner air for ourselves, our kids, for our elders, and not the health problems that are associated with it.

So keep that in mind throughout the month.

Today's history lesson is next, as we always do, mornings up north and live on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Time for today's history lesson on this first day of May and Greg is be bopping to a little Judy Collins who today turns 86 years old

I first thought was like the author No,

no, no Judy Collins the singer.

Yes

the actress.

No, no, no I'm funny

So many Collins is out there.

Judy Collins, 86 years old today.

Another 70s soft rock singer Rita Coolidge is 80 years old today.

And Ray Parker Jr.

has a birthday today.

Ray Parker Jr.

71 years old today.

I didn't know until

working on this show that Ray Parker Jr.

was in a group before he was

You

did the

Ghostbuster guy.

Uh-huh.

And the group, of course, was Ray Parker Jr.

and radio radio RAY radio Ray Parker.

Yeah, I see what he did there.

I just got that.

The Empire State Building was dedicated in New York City.

Ninety six.

No, 94 years ago today.

Math is hard this hour of the morning.

This day in 1931.

So happy 94th birthday to the Empire State Building.

One more birthday to share here that would be country stinger Tim McGraw but Tim McGraw He and Faith Hill have been together for a long time.

I remember they were both new on the scene which was now 30 plus years ago Tim McGraw is 58 years old today

This is just peak 90s country.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah saw him at Country Jam in Eau Claire again long time back and I was like

This guy's going places.

And he

did.

There used to be a country festival, like a country jam in Waukesha.

I don't remember the name of it.

But the first artist played, I think it was like 2 PM.

Little known guy named Brad Paisley.

See, that's what I love about these festivals.

When you get to go, somebody just stands up and you go, I bet that one's going to go somewhere.

They're really good.

Yep.

Now, one who I didn't think, and the first time I saw him was at the Minnesota State Fair, Alan Jackson.

Because he just stood there.

He just stood there.

His great voice, great songs, but he just stood there.

He would walk to the one end of the stage and strum the guitar.

Midway through, he'd walk to the other side of the stage.

from the guitar, no showmanship whatsoever, but the music's good.

His

voice is so, I love Alan Jackson.

Yes, yeah, very much so.

Let's see, back to the history lesson.

On this day in 2003, the infamous Mission Accomplished speech made by President George W. Bush on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, where he declared that major combat operations in Iraq have ended six weeks after the initial invasion with the American death toll was 104.

Another 3,424 Americans would be killed in the war over the next eight years.

He really wanted his daddy's overseas war to happen.

Oh, I know.

And it's a price we still pay.

Yep.

On this day in 1956, a record was released by one Johnny Cash.

What happened to this

guy?

You know, I kind of faded into obscurity.

No.

Well, and there's another guy, not flashy, Stan Zern plays the guitar, but if the music is good, the music is good.

So Johnny Cash released this in 1956 as a pledge of fidelity to his first wife, emphasis on first.

Once the song became a hit and Johnny Cash became a big deal, it became a little harder to do that fidelity thing, struck up an affair with June Carter, whom he would later marry.

There's a really good documentary about his first wife, Vivian Liberto, Vivian Cash.

Very good documentary about just her struggles, her ups and downs and who she really was because people don't talk about her.

We don't talk

about her

enough.

No.

No.

Remember Elvis and Priscilla?

Elvis Presley and Priscilla Bolio were married on this day in 1967 in Vegas, of course, at the Aladdin Hotel.

Yeah, of

course.

On this, on this day in 1976.

The new number one song was by the Bellamy Brothers.

Yeah.

Get the tailgate.

This is classic 70s country

walk.

Oh, God, I love I could, you know, people will complain about like, oh, country politics and the national sound and the sun.

I love it all.

I honestly, there's really like, except for like the past like 10 years where it's like just

Barely country music just a few things here and there, but like this is great.

Okay, boomer.

That's right.

This

is

Today is International Workers Day, of course, as we noted from May 1st.

This is National Doodle Dog Day.

Like your your labradoodles, your golden doodles, not the ones that can draw.

No, there's a special day for those ones.

Yeah, dogs with opposable thumb day, but that's not today.

This is rotate your beer day.

Yeah, do you ever have

that?

I mean don't doesn't everybody like make sure the older stuff is in the front and the new stuff and apparently not I think

most likely if you're that kind of person that beer as the most of my house that beers for company and you don't care

Yeah, yeah, or for you know getting the brats ready to put there

you

go And then finally today is world password day

So once again, everybody call in 855-75CIVIC.

Tell us your password.

One,

two, three, four, five.

Extra points if you share your credit card number with the listeners as well.

So we did think of putting up a post asking if people had particularly noteworthy or dumb passwords that they don't use anymore.

Or just other kinds of stories.

And I do have a story about it.

I believe I told this on World Password Day last year.

My wife worked with a certain medical records system and she was not happy with it and she needed support all the time and one time the tech support guy said, well, can I can I go in through your computer and remotely?

Yes.

Okay.

I'm going to need your password.

Do I have to?

Yeah.

Well, the password was the name of the electronic medical record company sucks.

And the tech guy laughed and said, that's not the first time I've gotten that

password.

What's your password?

It's password.

Yep.

State Senator Jeff Smith and State Representative Jody Emerson are coming up along the way live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Live, across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.

Now, from our Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.

Hey, good morning.

It is 706 and it's May.

It's May.

It's Greg.

How does Justin Timberlake put it?

He puts it a very special way that only he can say.

So hold on.

Justin, what was

going

on for today?

Thank

you, buddy.

There we go.

I couldn't get it quite right with the same intonation that fervor.

Yes.

And he insists he didn't mean to say May.

It's me, but it's May.

Yes.

Here's Brittany Merleau, meteorologist and all around good patient person as we try to figure out how to pronounce the month that we're in here.

It's gonna be Brittany.

Uh, Robin Tigerton right away.

Happy Mayday.

We were talking about password, you know, password day.

We're not, we're not asking you to share any passwords, but Robin Tigerton says, when you talk about password, I remember the game show.

There it is.

Password with Alan Lutton, who was born and buried in Mineral Point, Wisconsin.

And his wife, Betty White.

Oh, that's right.

Yeah.

And she

never married after him.

She was like,

she did not.

She said, once you've had the best, why go anywhere else?

So I know.

Isn't that great?

Let's see a million.

Amelia says, happy May Day.

She's on YouTube says, as a May flower, I've been sufficiently watered during my walk into work.

Yeah.

It's definitely some April showers happening right now.

Right

now.

Yes, it is.

Right now.

Right now.

All right.

What's happening out there, Brittany?

Oh, we do have some moderate to heavy rain moving in right along that southern state line there, pushing in towards Madison, into Milwaukee, some decent rain rates.

You could hear some thunder rolling too on occasion and already a lot of the state.

Southern half of the state has picked up about a quarter inch of rain so far.

As I look down further south into Illinois, they've picked up an inch to an inch and a half in places.

So as this continues to lift north, more and more rain rising rivers too.

So keep an eye out for that.

We could see some blood warnings go out as we go through this afternoon and into tomorrow because it's going to be raining pretty much all darn day.

I'm so sorry.

It's going to dark.

damp and dreary day.

Overcast skies and temperatures today will make it to the low 60s far northwest.

That's because it's going to be a nicer day for you.

You're going to see a lot less rain in the northwest part of the state earlier today because this rain is moving in south.

It will spread scattered showers north by late morning and then in the afternoon it kind of switches.

The moderate rain will be in the northern half of the state while the southern half of the state this afternoon starts to dry things out.

but we're not done.

We've got two low pressure systems.

This is just the first one moving through right now out of the south.

We've got another low pressure this evening moving in from out of the west.

So that's going to spark up some light showers, maybe a few rumbles of thunder.

far northwest later on this evening and that is going to sweep across the state overnight.

So more rain expected overnight into early tomorrow morning.

A few of those showers could still be lingering and then we start to dry things out.

But of course it's going to keep us breezy and cooler tomorrow with mid 40s to mid 50s for our highs.

We are looking at a frost or potentially a freeze far north tomorrow night as those clouds clear out and then.

The nice weather hits.

The high pressure blocks in.

It stays for a good chunk of next week.

Temperatures are going to be warming and a ton of sunshine after that.

But when you get this rain and then the sunshine, allergies are already high.

They're going to spike once again.

Yeah, but still the nice temperatures, the prospect of several days of them and.

As far as the rain goes, there's a reason why it's needed.

Uh, Rob goes on to say good morning from Tigerton.

It's cloudy with rain and 43.

Despite the rain we have been getting lately.

There are still grass fires.

Three of them along I 41 near Kakana in out of gaming County.

There was also a grass fire along highway 22 northeast of Cecil and northeastern Sean O County.

Uh, but he also notes that, uh, grass will be growing, mowing season is here.

Rivers are rising as well.

So everybody take heat of.

of that.

If you're doing the no-mo-may that starts today, we are not.

Greg has made his feelings known on this, but whatever you do to protect pollinators, you go for it.

You do it.

We've got a ditch across the street that we don't mow anymore after we heard about all the pollinators and taking care of all of them.

So let's do what we can, especially with all that nice weather, the grass, like Rob said, is definitely going to be growing.

Oh, it is.

It's nice to see it's greening up too.

Yes.

My lawn definitely needs that.

I let it grow very long and then it was a beautiful emerald green and then I cut it and I'm like, oh, this is terrible.

Hey, Brittany, you know, we talk about music a lot at 650 and sometimes what is on the top of the charts.

I'd like to go a little further down the chart today.

This week's Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Do you happen to know the number 78 song in the United States this week, according to the Billboard Hot 100?

I'll give you a hint.

It's a, it's a hot hit that we have played on this show previously.

Oh gosh.

Um, is it the song that you guys always sing to me?

No, that's Wichita Leidner from Glen Campbell.

That is, that is not on the Hot 100.

I was

ready, man.

You didn't, uh,

Oh, it's not just in Timberlake's that May

song or whatever.

It's not, it's not just in Timberlake either.

Okay, grandma.

It might have something

to do with a movie that the kids like to go see.

From the Minecraft movie, the number 78 song, which sets a record, and I'll tell you what the record is in just a moment, is this little ditty from the Minecraft

movie.

Greg knows the words.

How can you not as often as we've played it?

And I dare say we may have played the song already more than any other radio station in Wisconsin and we're a talk station.

But I bring it up because at 34 seconds, it is now the shortest song in history to make the Billboard Hot 100.

And I give you the

17 second mix.

Yeah.

Yep.

I must say the cowbell.

I

approve.

You gotta have the cowbell.

But that is just the latest little bit of history from the Minecraft movie which I know Greg emphasized before that Jack Black took a bit of a risk to take this on and it is paying off handsomely.

The movie has now grossed $800 million globally.

I love

it.

It's at the moment the biggest movie of 2025.

Good.

And so Steve's Lava Chicken is just one part of it, but no.

is making music history.

It also has the chicken jockey trend that's become so chaotic according to the New York Post that several movie theaters have banned children from seeing the PG adventure action flick without a parent or guardian present because they engage in unacceptable behavior usually surrounding throwing popcorn during the chicken jockey part of the movie for whatever reason.

This is the cultural zeitgeist of 2025 boys and girls.

We're just we're just being run by a bunch of

Miss

Hannigans.

My goodness.

That was an anniversary, by the way.

Yeah, it was.

Rob jumped back on YouTube and says, what was the longest song on the Billboard Hot 100?

I bet you I'll bet you it was Let It Be by the Beatles.

No, it's no, it's what was the I'll look it up.

You're going to look it up.

OK.

His Google machine is going to do it.

So.

Heat waves

by glass animals.

Heat waves?

Heat waves by glass animals.

Oh, no, no,

no.

I'm sorry.

No, no, I'm sorry.

That's the song that's been the longest as far as chart position.

What song has been?

What?

You guys talk I'm looking at.

Okay.

Okay.

Andre 3000's I swear I really want to make a rap album But this is literally the way the wind blew me this time which clocks in at 12 minutes and 20 seconds

Okay,

debuted at number 90 on the chart But there was also a Taylor Swift song called all too well Taylor's version That for a time had the record at 10 minutes and 13 seconds.

That's the Jake Gyllenhaal song she did on SNL

Oh, OK.

Now, I was saying American Pie by Don McClain, but I think he's thinking top 40 there, not hot 100.

But

any

hope.

Cassandra writes in, the first movie that I saw Jack Black in was Saving Silverman.

Is it Saving?

Yeah, Saving Silverman.

My mom and I laughed so hard, and my mom kept saying, who are these people through laughing and crying?

That basically is Jack Black's entire appeal.

Is that people are going to laugh and go, what is this?

Who is this?

So you're good on

him.

It was it was Andre 3000, 12 minutes and 20 seconds.

OK,

yeah.

Luke Bathers

on the he says screaming free bird.

He is.

He's got free bird in all caps there, which by the way, free bird, the live version, which comes in at 16 minutes and something.

That was the song we used to play at the college radio station if we needed to leave the studio for an extended period.

My friends

was a working man by rush.

Mm-hmm.

That was back when there was a McDonald's across the street and you could you could drop the needle on that record and go get yourself a burger and fries and come back just for the end in time.

Tails behind the curtain and radio.

Also that

meal at McDonald's back then?

A dollar fifty.

Yeah, that would be the regular price.

Exactly.

All right.

Brittany, thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right, we'll see Brittany again in an hour with an updated forecast and forecast throughout the day here on up.

There you go.

See?

Did it, Greg.

Number two.

I went a week without giving the wrong show name and now I've done it twice in two days.

Hey, man, you got this.

I believe in you.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

Let's see.

There was a cabinet meeting at the White House.

Yesterday it was what is North Korean?

Is that the proper way to describe the North Korean ask the cabinet meeting with all the secretaries heaping praise on dear leader?

Hints of North

Korean.

Yes.

Wisps

of North Korean.

Especially when funny that you mentioned Annie because there's a great column here in the New York Times by Sean McCreech.

President Trump has a message for the nation's children.

Prepare to sacrifice for your country.

in talking about how there may be emptier than usual store shelves by Christmas time.

Trump said, you know, somebody said, oh, the shelves are going to be open.

Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they normally

would.

To

which the New York Post, which is how I stumbled upon the story, their cover is skimp on the Barbie with a picture of Barbie on the cover.

Yes.

Chef's kiss.

Oh, absolutely.

So kids, Donald Trump thinks you get $30 for Christmas every year and that you're going to have to make do and just get $2 and they might cost more.

He also thinks those kids are like Victorian age and they're all like no matter the gender, they're in like long dresses with curly hair coming them going,

mother, thank you for the dial.

And I love that the next line from Sean McCreech says this from the billionaire crypto salesman golf club operating Palm Beach by way of Fifth Avenue president with the Golden Office and the Golden Triplex apartment There he sat surrounded by the other billionaires with whom he has filled his cabinet telling the boys and girls of America They'll just have to make do with fewer toys this year for the greater good.

He's a villain in a movie Well, he is and and again if if he had said

Times could be hard, but we're gonna get to a better place.

Maybe you wouldn't have won the election.

I get that, but it would have been more honest then.

I'm gonna fix all this stuff on day one, and then afterwards go, ah, psych, you kids.

You get too many toys

anyway.

Nobody's bringing up the fact, though, that Elon said for quite a bit that we were gonna go through two years of, quote, pain.

Yeah, but again, the stuff that, they were saying the stuff that.

Schruppelstein yesterday.

Again, imagine it coming out of Joe Biden's mouth.

Absolutely.

And the think pieces after that.

Still coming up this hour, State Representative Jody Emerson and State Senator Jeff Smith from the Chippewa Valley, from the heart of America's Up North, live from Lake Wissota.

Thanks for making this a place to spend part of your mornings.

I'm Pak Rightlow on the Civic Media Radio Network.

That's a perfectly fine intro song, but I'd rather hear more Steve's Lava Chicken, especially delivered by an 11 year old grandson.

Oh, I think I have I have that right there.

Oh, great.

Hit it.

Lava chicken.

Steve's Lava Chicken.

Oh, yeah.

It's the oh, yeah, that I love.

Oh, yeah.

He's got this great vibrato.

Kid, you're going places.

I'm

telling you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Jake Bowers hit it.

Go ahead, two-run double in the eighth inning as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago White Sox last night, six to four.

It was the Brewers' third straight win.

William Contreras went two for three with an RBI to extend his hitting streak to nine games, and they will wrap up the three-game series and the 10-game road trip at 12.35 this afternoon across stations on the Civic Media radio network.

and have a chance to split that 10 game series, five wins, five losses with a victory today.

Again, catch the Brewers on Civic Media Stations in Hayward, Park Falls, Racine Kenosha, Oshkosh, and Richland Center.

So in talking about the prospect of a slump here, it's born of this.

There were new numbers that came out yesterday about the national economy.

For the first quarter, January, February, March, and GDP, the biggest measuring stick of the economy, it shrank.

The economy got smaller.

If you do that in two quarters in a row, that's the textbook definition of a recession.

So you don't know you're in a recession until you've gone six months and seen negative economic growth So we may very well be in one right now Not that anybody's rooting for it.

It just wasn't that hard to predict either given the approach that the current president has taken an approach that he has tried to blame on the previous president and

If you missed it yesterday, I know Todd Alba talked about it.

Some other folks did.

Brought up two different tweets from Donald Trump.

One in January before he took office when the stock market had a good day and he was taking credit going, this is a Trump stock market.

I'm not even in power yet and the markets are already responding to my coming in.

And what did we get this week from him?

This is Biden's fault.

This is Biden's stock market.

And he went on to say yesterday about the numbers.

That yes, the first quarter numbers are bad and the second quarter numbers might not be good either But that too is Joe Biden's fault.

So this guy's already seen indications of what the second quarter would look like Trying to blame Biden again Nobody's nobody's buying this the stock market just had the worst first 100 days of any president and it would be easy for a lot of folks to simply blame the president

But there's some other group of people who are quite culpable in all this.

And those, of course, would be the Republicans in the majority in the United States Congress.

And yesterday, there was a vote that could have made things better, but made things worse.

And it was a bipartisan measure.

There were three Republicans voting with all the Democrats, bringing forward a measure that would have ended the so-called emergency.

that Trump declared to impose these tariffs?

Because people have been saying, wait, can a president just do this willy-nilly, just put on whatever tariffs they want?

Well, they can under certain circumstances by declaring an emergency, but Congress then has the right to go in, pass a resolution that says the emergency is over, and these tariffs have to be withdrawn.

And so the Senate and the House have had ample opportunity to do this.

But yesterday in the Senate, except for three people, Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins, you know, the usual suspects.

No other Republicans in there could find the spinal fortitude.

to say this isn't working.

How about we as a co-equal branch of government assert a little oversight over the president?

So this is no longer just the president's thing.

It is Ron Johnson's thing as well.

He can say, as he has again recently, he's concerned about the tariffs.

He's concerned about the tariffs.

He could have done something about the tariffs yesterday, and he chose not to.

And look, even if it passed the Senate,

It would die right now in Speaker Mike Johnson's house.

Mike Johnson has said that presidents should be given wide latitude on this.

I mean, he really has surrendered Congress.

He is capitulated.

But it wasn't just Mike Johnson alone.

It was Derek Van Orden, Tony Weed, Brian Stile, Scott Fitzgerald, Glenn Grossman, Tom Tiffany.

Every one of them said they will not help you.

as the economy continues its free fall toward recession.

Coming up in just over an hour, we will talk to Joseph Pecky a little bit about that as well.

Let's see, on the text line, Len in Madison seems like every break in reporting on Trump should end with more on President Trump after the break.

And he has a little fun with the word more on old Len.

Which gets back to this notion the point of bringing this up is that again as we see often in the comment section So do we have a case of Trump derangement syndrome going here?

Do we have a case of rooting for a recession?

No on both points and specifically I got a comment yesterday Saying you know, what are you guys gonna do when you're proven wrong on tariffs and that they actually work and That's an important point to make I will be happy

to be wrong.

And that's what we need to hear from either side of the aisle in political discourse, is I have a position, I have a view, and if I'm wrong, then I'm wrong.

But I'm not going to artificially rig the game to be right.

If this all ends with a whole bunch of countries essentially caving in to Donald Trump and getting new trade detail,

new trade deals.

If new factories start building more cars entirely 100% in America, I'll say that I'm wrong.

I'm just betting that I won't be.

Hey, a reminder to sign up for our newsletters.

Head over to upnorthnewswi.com and get our weekday newsletter, get our Sunday morning political newsletter, and our new once a month newsletter about good stories in the world of Wisconsin sports.

Coming up next, State Representative Jody Emerson, State Senator Jeff Smith.

Thanks for spending some time here as part of your mornings.

Powered by UpNorth News, live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Chances are you were just listening to Pam Yankee and the Midwest Farm Report.

Did you know the Midwest Farm Report is on for an hour every morning, 5 a.m.

on Civic Media Stations in Hayward, Oshkosh, Amory and Richland Center and the Civic Media app.

Just head to that app and tune in one of those stations and you can catch the full Midwest Farm Report weekday mornings for the hour before we get going here at six o'clock across the Civic Media Radio Network.

Senator Jeff Smith and Representative Jody Emerson are standing by first one other news story to pass along out of Madison.

There actually was an investigation into the leak of a Wisconsin Supreme Court abortion order last year, but the investigators concluded that while it was likely deliberate, they were unable to determine who was responsible.

You'll recall that there are two abortion related cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

One is a challenge of the 1849 ban.

But the one that we're talking about here is a case that's been brought by Planned Parenthood, which is seeking a court to declare that abortion rights are protected by the state constitution.

And the people bringing the case wanted the state Supreme Court to hear it directly.

But before the state Supreme Court could issue that decision on whether they would take it up directly or not, the decision to take it up directly was leaked somehow.

And after a long and somewhat expensive investigation, it's still not clear who the leaker was.

And all seven justices simply said that this is something that was a breach of trust that the court had not experienced in its history.

And all seven justices condemned the leak.

So there's the latest on that.

That's over in the east wing of the capital down in the south wing of the capital.

You will find a state senator, Jeff Smith, and over in the west wing of the capital, you will find state representative, Jody Emerson.

You'll also find him in the Chippewa Valley, and you'll also find him on this fine radio program right now.

Jeff and Jody, good morning.

How are you guys?

Good morning, Pat.

It's good to see you,

Pat.

You bet.

Let's see.

You guys are both down in Madison this week.

You got business there, I assume, right?

Yes.

That's where I am.

Yes, you are.

All right.

Well, good.

We know where we're at right now in terms of the Joint Finance Committee going through the state budget.

It's a two-year state budget every year.

Typically has to be done by June 30th.

We're at the part of the process where the Joint Finance Committee has done four public hearings around the state.

Now they will come back to a room, I believe, in the north wing of the Capitol.

There, we've covered all four corners.

And they will hash out what they think should be in the state budget.

Jeff, we'll start with you.

All that public comment that went into these past four hearings, all the emails that are coming in, how much good do you think it'll do for Republican leadership to adjust whatever their original plan is for the state budget?

We're hearing all sorts of things, mostly that this budget is not going to be done on time as we keep hearing from sources on the Republican side, but I really am

I really think it's important that people also know the fact that the same night that the governor released his budget, Robin Voss was quoted as saying, it's dead in the water.

It's not going to move.

We're going to create our own budget.

And the budget that they just had hearings on and hundreds of people showed up in good faith to talk about was the budget that they already have told us they're going to trash.

I think that's so disingenuous because now when they create their own budget, as is the case that we hear they're going to do, we're not going to have a public hearing on that one.

By the time it gets to it, when it comes to the floor, we will have a budget that never had a public hearing.

And I think that's really unfortunate and seems to me to be pretty undemocratic.

Yeah, it really, uh, Jody, when you think about the process and people go, well, yeah, wait, you had these four hearings all around the state.

Yeah.

But we, we don't know what, we know what Governor Evers proposed budget is, but we, we don't actually know what the final Republican version of a budget bill will look like, much less be able to comment on.

Well, I mean, I think that's the problem is neither do they.

So I think we're hearing that this budget's not going to be coming on time.

And I think that's because they don't have the ideas for what they want to do yet that can keep their seats safe and also keep the communities invested in their version of Wisconsin.

You know, it's going to be devastating.

to local communities, especially school districts, our tech colleges, our universities, if we do not get this budget done on time or shortly thereafter, I mean, it can still come in sometime early July and not impact things.

When we're talking August, September, October, before the budget gets done, school districts have to set their budget based on what we give them.

as well and they're going to have a hard time doing that when they don't know what we're doing.

I was talking to President Rothman from the universities of Wisconsin the other day in a hearing and asked him what it would what would happen to the universities if we don't get this budget done on time and he said it's very possible we would have a mid-year tuition adjustment.

I don't think I've ever heard of that before in Wisconsin or any other state.

But

here we

are.

And there really isn't any good reason for it.

I mean, Republicans have been in the majority now for 14 years.

They know how this process works.

And yet, so often it seems like they're making it up as they go along.

And one area where we've certainly have seen that.

has been the funding for healthcare in the Chippewa Valley after HSH closed hospitals in Eau Claire and in Chippewa Falls.

Jeff, if I'm not mistaken, if we get to the end of this current budget cycle, June 30th, and that was $5 million, hasn't been released yet by Republicans, it goes away for good unless it's put in the next state budget.

Are you hearing any indications from Republicans that they will at least roll that money over while

You know, they still fight over how the money should be applied to help out people and this health care crisis in Western Wisconsin.

I'm not going to hold my breath that they're going to do the right thing.

$15 million is in

the current

budget 15 and and just yesterday, as a matter of fact, in a hearing on a different subject, our co chair Howard Markline was presenting a bill that he wants us to pass and actually fix something that he screwed up last time.

And I said, why should we fix?

I asked him, why should we fix something for you now?

How can I trust you?

Because you have not moved that $15 million to the chip valley that was intended.

And I slid down to the table a list of 10 instances when the Joint Finance Committee has done that exact thing on a 1310 request from an agency that they claim is illegal.

He ignored me.

and got walked out of the room.

So we're in a position where the Republicans do not want to help the Chippewa Valley.

Here's a note from Alicia on YouTube who did attend the hearing in Warsaw.

I asked a GOP legislator what he wants to see in the budget.

I kid you not, he said, I don't know.

We'll have to see what Republicans write up, meaning his leadership, meaning that, you know, there's so very little input that it's whatever Robin Voss and Devin Lemmehu want to put in.

And look, again, I've been there.

Russ Decker was the majority leader during my time there, and the majority leader has a lot of sway over what goes in it.

But I don't recall ceding everything to the majority leader and saying, well, you just tell me what to vote on.

I will.

I don't know, Jody, maybe that's just a thing with Democrats where it's like, no, you're not just going to give us marching orders.