You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime,
anywhere.
You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.
Now, from our Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Well, hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It is 6.06 on this Wednesday morning, May 7th.
It is another beautiful morning to have you here up north.
Live from Lake WSOTA, for more ever you're spending your mornings listening across the Civic Media Radio Network or
catching us on the app or social media or podcast.
Appreciate you starting your day right here.
I got a question for you.
What you been grilling?
Because, and if you haven't been, I mean, why?
It's been just perfect weather lately.
We had we had brought tonight before last, which also made for a nice lunch yesterday.
And, you know, the weather continues to be very good looking.
by and large for grilling.
Be careful, of course, there's a fire danger out there, so be sure you're doing this in a safe place, but this is just the perfect time of year for it.
And I may have been reminded of that watching the brewery game yesterday and all the people grilling in the parking lot as well.
There's just no better place than Wisconsin to do this, whether it's in a big old asphalt parking lot or in your own backyard.
Coming up on the program today,
Republicans running the Wisconsin legislature have now released the first list of actions they plan to take on the next state budget, starting with killing more than 600 items requested by Governor Tony Evers, also requested by a parade of Wisconsinites testifying at Joint Finance Committee hearings, help for childcare, gone, help for children being poisoned by lead paint or water lines, gone.
fighting PFAs and drinking water gone, expanding Medicaid to cover more families gone, repealing taxes on tips and utility bills gone, incentives to freeze local property taxes gone, and on it goes.
We'll chat more about that throughout the course of the morning.
We have a special guest in our weekly homeroom segment, Dr. Jill Underly, State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
We will talk about the state budget debate in Madison.
We'll talk about the harm being caused by President Trump's efforts to gut essential educational support.
And by the way, it's Teacher Appreciation Week.
So we'll talk to Jill Underly about all of that.
Joseph Becky is along as well later on, and we'll ask him this.
Has Senator Ron Johnson actually done everyone a favor in his most recent comments where he basically roots for killing Medicaid coverage for families who otherwise cannot afford health insurance?
by saying the quiet part out loud has he made it that much harder for other politicians to claim, without credibility, that they are willing to cut almost anything, but they promise not to harm Medicaid.
We'll talk to Joe about that as well.
While the cicada is coming up in our history lesson, James Kelly has some civic media news from across western Wisconsin.
Todd Alba will join us.
Maybe.
Depends on whether he wants me to yell at him again.
I'll tell you more about that in just a bit.
You can join us along the way as well.
Call or text the show at 855-75-CIVIC-855-7524842.
Again, you can use the Civic Media app or you can put comments in Facebook or YouTube.
We're on the Up North News Facebook page and YouTube page and now the Civic Media Facebook page and YouTube page as well.
Mary says on YouTube, grilling all year round.
Love that.
Love the dedication.
She's you grilling students about their upcoming finals.
I like that very much.
And Mary reminds us again, it's not just teachers week, it's also nurses week.
And we appreciate all of those folks who are engaged in all of that wonderful work.
Let's take a look at Brittany Merleau's statewide forecast and she will be here in just under an hour now.
She's going to tell us how a cold front will put the brakes on our warm up, but just for a little bit before we get to a weekend that'll be warm.
but maybe a little wet too.
So for today, cooler but still sunny.
70s in southwest Wisconsin, mid 50s by the Great Lakes and a northeast wind at 10 to 15 miles an hour tonight.
Clear and chilly, maybe a little frost up north.
with lows in the low 30s in northeast Wisconsin to low 40s in southern Wisconsin.
Again, a northeast wind at five to 10 miles an hour.
It is 50 degrees here in beautiful Chippewa Falls.
And meanwhile down at Radio Park in the greater Milwaukee area, we find ourselves saying hello to one Greg Bach, who I remember last year got himself a brand new grill.
And I do wonder if
If he's been able to break it in much yet, this spring, Mr. Bach, good morning.
Not at all, yeah, Pat, not one bit, but it will be happening.
I gotta, I think, sorry, I'm stretching everybody, that's really unprofessional, but point is, is I'm gonna take off the cover, I'm gonna clean it up, I'm gonna make sure everything works, and then I feel like making some, like, just really tasty salmon.
I have a really good
recipe
for salmon that I haven't used in a long time.
That
would be good.
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Oh, I'm liking that.
Yeah.
So I mentioned Mr. Todd Alba and what he tried to pull yesterday.
And I'm starting, for folks that missed it, I was just working around the house, mining my own business, taking care of some things because I'll be off next week.
Like
a good
American.
Like a good American does take a little time off now and then.
And being the responsible one, I went through on the on the calendar, the show calendar and
for the shows next week for the appropriate folks, I canceled those.
And then it sends an email saying this item's been removed from your calendar for this day.
Well, I'm just minding my own business, my phone rings, it's a number I don't recognize.
And so I let it roll the voicemail and then I see the message on my screen.
And it says, it's Todd Alba.
We're live on the air.
And I wanted to find out why you canceled me for tomorrow morning's regular appearance on your show.
And did I say something wrong?
Can you call me and let me know why I've been canceled?
Oh my God.
I did not call Todd back.
I have the link to join his show.
Why ring the phone when you can come in right through the front door?
So he's minding his own business about 10 minutes later when I show up on screen.
demanding to know why he hasn't read the full note, which would have explained you're not cancelled tomorrow, meaning today now.
It's for next week when I'm gone and, well...
hilarity ensued and I was gonna just leave it at that but now Tony just put this up on YouTube are you gonna call him live on air right now tell him he was scheduled for 6 20 and he missed it because that's initially what I thought when he first called and said we're live on the air I thought oh no did I miss my time to I'm on my on his show every week did I miss no this isn't our day but he scared the you know what out of me the
cookies out of you the absolute cookies out of
you
Do you do you have Todd's number handy?
I'm thinking Tony might be on onto something here.
Oh, I have it.
Oh, I have it.
I have his phone number.
We can explore that option.
OK, all right.
Let's see.
Tony, Tony says it was the spiciest I'd ever heard Pat.
I and Roger says, amen, Tony.
I was a little sorry.
I was a little bothered at Todd yesterday for that.
But should we see if he's
awake?
I, you know, Pat, I don't feel like being yelled at at six 15 in the morning.
Here's, that is the one thing that might stop me from that is, is the, the notion that if you still have to sleep, he may forget the FCC has rules against, you know, reacting in, in, in just a certain way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, Todd, thanks to Greg, you're off the hook.
Sweet dreams sunshine.
We'll see you at about 750.
In the Up North News daily newsletter today, a little overview of Wisconsin Dells water parks at a glance, some of the biggies and a link on how to get some of the best deals as you plan any of your maybe upcoming summer water park trips.
Also in the newsletter, easy to grow Wisconsin native plants to add to your garden and protect our little pollinator friends.
And again, in our weekend newsletter, I asked is it
Is it time to trade Yanis?
A lot of people saying no, no, do not do that, but there are folks as well who say it's time to rebuild.
So if you'd like to know more about all of that, get in on that debate, be part of our newsletter, head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com, click subscribe up in the top banner and be on board there.
I might have, I might have created a tempest and a teapot here.
I'm getting people who are just really hoping
We make some trouble here.
Cassandra, hey, I grew up in the Dells.
I can give you all the insights.
I like that.
Cassandra, go ahead and dish the dirt.
Just, and Tony, keep your eye on the dump button.
Yes.
Mark, morning news journalism.
You can't get on regular television.
No, sir.
Nope.
You don't, you don't, you don't get, uh, co-anchors, like calling each other in the morning on, on those live TV shows.
So
I'm just thinking about all the anchors I had when I was a kid.
Like you're like, I'm calling John drilling.
It's 5 30 in the morning.
I can just imagine my, my calling up, uh, the one of the morning anchor.
No, that just wouldn't work out.
Uh, Mr. Mathers is confused.
He's on the, the text line going, I have to go back and listen.
Did all this happen on air?
Yes, yes,
it did.
It did.
And, you know, Tony says, was it, was it a secret show special?
No, we, this wasn't during the commercial breaks.
This was right there on Todd's little program.
So, um, well, do you think he'll show now at 750?
I'll bet he does.
He's got to, right?
Well, yeah, I hope so.
If he doesn't,
if he doesn't show up, we're calling him.
I don't care.
Like
we're calling or do we do it?
Dude, now do I send him a note saying, you know, we've had to cancel the segment or something?
In light of previous events,
I decided
to discontinue your event until your appearance is until further notice.
Oh no, we can do better than that because we know who else is listening.
Let's blame Mathers.
Yeah, we just got a memo from Luke Mathers.
We've had to stop the cross talk between hosts here.
Oh God, he's so freak out.
He thought we'd just go nuts.
I want to do it.
Okay.
Let's turn to sports before this gets way out of hand.
Jake Bowers hit a two run home run as the Brewers got all their runs in the first inning of a 4-3 victory over the Astros on Tuesday, starting pitcher Chad Patrick worked a career high six and two thirds innings and carried a one hit shutout into the seventh.
Trevor McGill retired the side in order in the ninth for his fourth save in five opportunities.
The Brewers go for the sweep this afternoon.
We're the day game.
Then they'll be hitting the road again for Tampa and Cleveland for the weekend and early next week.
So we've got that day game today and the pregame begins at 1135 on several civic media stations around the area.
So 1135 head over to civicmedia.us to learn more about coverage of the Brewers.
I've not been paying much attention to the hockey and basketball playoffs.
I do see the Timberwolves lost to Golden State.
in the first game of their conference semi-final series.
I'm still just a little amazed that they eliminated the Lakers like they did.
So I'm not going to get too attached to the Timberwolves.
That is perhaps the most snake bit franchise in NBA history, but at least once again, much like Vikings fans.
You know, the Minnesota fans, God love them.
They've had nothing to cheer for since the Twins in 1991.
And, you know, they get to the postseason and they, they bring their fans to such, such a point.
And then like Wiley Coyote, they just go right off the cliff after that.
Instead of, instead of like, you know, I was just Icarus jumping off the cliff to fly to the sun.
Someone just tripped Icarus on the way out.
And you're like, what?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And honestly, I think Wisconsin, even though Wisconsin has, you know, we've got.
With the exception of our brewers,
you know, we
have recent championships.
It's still, we can still identify with that because we're not, we're not, we're not dynasty teams.
None of us are.
No,
no, it's a, you know, be in the smaller market.
It is a nice surprise.
Uh, when they, when they have great seasons, Cassandra says, seeing Josh Hader last night just reminded me of my anger at trading.
Oh, I was so
angry back then.
It really was.
We don't have enough
time.
We don't have enough time to talk about my anger.
Nope, nope, we'll just let it go.
Take a break, look at some of the news coming up next.
From the heart of America's Up North, live from Lake Wissota, thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings with or without extra heapings of sarcasm.
I'm Pat Critello and this is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
You know, media is so different now.
the headlines used to be very dry like you know dog bites man or whatever here's a journal sentinel headline this morning prince fielder's son had his first at bat in the brewers organization and guess what he did definitely not the headlines i grew up writing you know it's more of the
yeah yeah we know something you don't know that really brings up something that sticks in my crop grind
oh it's time it's time for what's sticking in greg's craw with greg bach
i on my phone
like I rarely fall into clickbait where they do the thing of like this band is going on tour after 42 years or this move.
This it's actually the worst ones are CBS is canceled this popular TV show and you click it.
And not only is it not in the first paragraph, it's not in the second, third,
fourth or
fifth.
It's like at the bottom.
Oh, by the way, it's this show like
It was Gilligan's Island.
They canceled it in 1972.
I just, I mean, that just goes to show for me personally that in this world, it's not about that story anymore.
It's about just getting that click through and being able to report that to advertisers so they can buy stuff and make the money.
And guess what?
I clicked on it so that you don't have to.
And the story by J.R.
Reckliffe says, well, that swing looks familiar.
Jaden Fielder, the son of Prince Fielder, hit a home run in his first professional at bat at the Arizona Complex on May 5.
Fielder, age 20, was signed as an undrafted free agent last year.
That's some talent in that family.
Absolutely.
Third generation now.
And let's see here real quick.
I just want to make sure.
J.R.
Radcliffe, though, will be on the show next Thursday.
He's on every other Thursday on Matt Naranair.
So you can catch him at 10.30 to give us all the sports breakdown.
This week we have Paul Noonan.
Next week is J.R.
Radcliffe.
All right.
Good to know.
Yeah.
Also in the Journal Sentinel this morning and certainly everywhere else in Wisconsin news, the announcement by Republicans that they are removing 612 items from Governor Evers' proposed budget, which is not
Of course, the world's biggest surprise in the past, they have made it a goal to expressly cut out a large swath of what the governor is proposing.
I mean, in the past, it has been everything from, you know, 200 items and then it was like 300 items and there was 500 items and this one is more than 600 items.
But it does mean that they will actually maybe
not scrap Evers entire document and go from there.
Maybe.
I mean, but that's really inside baseball at this point.
The bigger problem is what all the Republicans have have cut.
A lot of them are very popular policy proposals that would help with, for example, let's look at that tax brackets.
The governor has always wanted to have a middle class tax cut.
And so
the governor was looking for a new income tax bracket for filers who earn a million or more, or a half a million if you're a single filer.
Evers would have raised the income tax rate for people earning a million dollars or more.
Currently, the state's top tax rate is at the 420,000 level.
Now $420,000, that's still a pretty decent salary.
But what Republicans are saying is,
somebody who makes $420,000 is going to pay the same tax rate as somebody that makes a million dollars in income for that year.
And maybe the next year, maybe the next year, maybe five million, maybe $10 million.
And they still have to do the same tax rate as folks who are, you know, making far, far less comparatively.
For the governor, he dubbed 2025 the year of the kid.
He had proposals for K-12 education that totaled some $3 billion, but Republicans removed a number of those requests, including $300 million for mental health initiatives, like reimbursing school professionals, social workers, peer-to-peer suicide prevention, free school breakfast and lunches for all kids,
These are the same folks remember how they say it's not the guns It's not the guns.
It's the mental health.
We have a mental health issue with our young people so the governor proposed doing something about it and They're gonna cut it out
The Republicans also took out an evers proposal to add more filtration systems to water fountains To deal with lead hazards from like lead paint in old schools Also at in-home childcare providers Republicans want to remove 128 million dollars in student financial aid to encourage more low-income students to further their education
What else do we have in here?
They're removing proposals by evers that would have modified rules for voter ID, absentee voting, automatic voter registration to help encourage people to vote.
They also are going to remove a provision again that would allow clerks to begin processing absentee ballots the day before election day.
because again, it feels like they would much rather fuel the conspiracy theory that there's something untoward in Milwaukee because there's so many ballots, they're not done counting till the middle of the night.
The governor had proposed that health insurance companies with a demonstrated record of consistently rejecting consumers for their health care coverage, those companies would be audited by the state to see if they're on the up and up.
Republicans want to take that out and remove that level of accountability and transparency.
This would also hurt consumers looking for a break on prescription drug costs, extra money for PFAS monitoring.
It takes out marijuana legalization that's in there.
It takes out a 48 hour waiting period to purchase handguns.
The governor recommended an additional $2 million for the Wisconsin Black Historical Society.
Republicans said that they're going to remove that as well.
Again, we've only scratched the surface of some 600 ideas investing in education, protecting consumers, and every one of those things is going to be taken out this week by the Joint Finance Committee when Republicans meet to start to form their own budget.
They've held four public hearings, but we still don't really know what they want to put in the budget.
And when they do, by the way, there won't be more public hearings.
Basically, you're going to get what you get by the time the Joint Finance Committee is all said and done.
Hey, thanks for spending some time here as part of your mornings powered by UpNorth News.
We will have more live from Chippewa Falls, including Dan Schaefer after the Midwest Farm Report.
In case you missed it, and now with a three-hour show, there's a chance you might, we will occasionally bring you one of the previous day's 8.30 segments the next day here at 6.30.
Dan Schaefer is someone you'll probably hear many Wednesdays at this time.
The civic media political editor and founder of the Reconpopulation Area joined me to review this week's state capital calendar, specifically several bills that are giving us a sense of deja vu.
when talking about the Wisconsin legislature and it's a familiar pattern where the Republican leadership passes bills that they like, they sound good, makes them feel good, they know Governor Evers is going to veto them, he vetoes them, they attempt an override, they of course can't override and they would learn their lesson right and never try to pass bad bills like that again because they're not going to get signed into law.
No.
And that seems to be a theme with some of the bills in committee this week.
And Dan, I don't expect you to know the answer, but we'll ask it anyway.
Why?
Why passing the same bills over and over again knowing that Governor Evers is going to veto them?
We're in this era of divided government, and we have been since Tony Evers took office in 2019.
We're in the third year of Tony Evers' second term as governor, and the Republicans in those legislatures still haven't seemed to figure out that they are working in a space of divided government.
And so there's a package of bills that's making its way through the state legislature.
on reforming kind of the unemployment insurance program.
And as so many Republican initiatives on these types of things do, it is creating more barriers to access benefits, making it more difficult for people to, you know, to get benefits.
I heard some, you know, Democratic legislators called it, you know, basically a penalty for an added penalty for getting fired from your job.
And in this moment where, you know, Doge is
eliminating all sorts of jobs we just saw last week that the hundreds of jobs with AmeriCorps are being eliminated now doesn't seem like the time to
make extra make it even more difficult for people to access benefits.
They even are proposing to change Wisconsin's unemployment insurance program to rename it the Reemployment Assistance instead of unemployment.
Oh lordy.
That's that's that's that's downright Soviet out
of
them is to say well if we just you know relabel this as some kind of Reemployment Assistance that that's gonna fix everything when it does sound exactly like you know
kick kick a man while he's down kick a woman while she's down and jobless and looking for something we're not going to do anything about the childcare crisis that we talked about in the last hour with green Hendrickson and instead yeah we're we're talking about these extra hoops like according to the proposal
As I'm reading off of a Wisconsin Public Radio story here, for example, a person would need to have direct contact with potential employers and expand the current requirements that a person search for work every week while they're collecting unemployment insurance.
And that's, again, on its face.
People go, oh, I don't see a problem with that.
If you haven't been unemployed and you haven't faced that barrier of trying to make direct contact, if you've got a small business,
On your long to-do list is one of them making time to greet everybody that comes to your front door and says, hey, you got a job?
Or do you find some other way to get around it, making it tough to have direct contact, making it tough to justify getting your benefits?
It's just, it's one hoop after another that Republicans want poor people to jump through.
Yeah, I'm quoting again from that that same Wisconsin public radio story from a few weeks ago a modern Rivera Wagner said this body wants to add hoops and red tape Complications at a time when people are yearning for help not punishment and instead of extending a hand We're adding to add more government to track down fraud that barely exists So there's a number of different bills here that are part of this package They have all now passed the assembly and today they have a public hearing in the state Senate.
So, you know
As these continue to move through the tighter majorities now that we have in the Wisconsin State Legislature, I can expect these bills.
to pass but I would you know take note of some of those take some of those swing votes as they make their way through the Senate there's going to be some people who are going to be defending their record and if you are creating more barriers to I don't know let's say Medicaid at a time when our senior senator is saying we should cut Medicaid from the federal budget or in the federal budget
You know, that's going to create some problems for people downstream from these decisions.
It's going to create a
lot of problems for people downstream from these decisions.
And again, I always feel like I shouldn't have to say this, but because some people love jumping in conclusions in the comment sections, people go, oh, you guys are defending, you know, fraud and waste and abuse.
And we're just getting back to Ronald Reagan's, you know, welfare queen mythology here.
Of course, there are people who abuse a system.
Any system has people that come in and try to get around the rules.
But to take something and do something so radical with it with so very little fraud, it doesn't matter if you're talking about election fraud or unemployment compensation, again, you're picking on kind of the smallest thing to justify getting rid of the program when, you know what, just...
Be who you are and say, I don't think unemployed people should get help.
I don't think, you know, whatever.
At your extreme position here, Dan, and stop trying to, you know, just weasel around it saying, oh, this is all about waste, fraud, and abuse.
We've long since shown where that is just not substantial enough to justify throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
You're absolutely right and it's it's this constant tension that you have when it comes to these types of bills too because it's just like I think you you know Democrats want to say hey with let's you know at bolster the safety net Let's extend more options for for health care to people fund education all these different kinds of things and and be there for people when they when they need help and I think you know We're as we're looking at right now with some of these federal job cuts.
I think I think people need these types of these types of safety net
policies in place to be able to be there when people need them.
And this is what Republicans do over and over again.
They just chip away and find any way to weaken these programs so that they're ineffective and then people don't like them and then they can cut them.
And it's the same, you were kind of talking about it before with immigration.
It's just like, yes, we want to have reforms to...
the immigration system, it is broken, but what Republicans do to legal immigration, too, is just continue to chip away at all those pathways for people who want to go about the process legally.
And it's the same thing with these, you know, access to public benefits and this unemployment insurance and, you know, like you said, the Kremlin-esque way of calling it, re-employment assistance to go about this as well.
It's silly and sad all at the same time.
Let us switch gears talking with Dan Schaefer, political editor for Civic Media about Josh Schoeman, the Washington County executive.
And I talked a little bit about him yesterday just based on what little I've seen of him from the pandemic onward.
So as somebody who's down there in the Milwaukee area, talk to us a bit more about how he is perceived.
I certainly sense a stereotypical hostility toward Milwaukee.
I certainly heard him
playing up his support of Donald Trump's tariffs.
So I mean, is there anything that indicates he would be independent or should we be expecting again, like Tony Weed up in Northeast Wisconsin, try to get that early Trump endorsement and be be one with with all things Trump?
Yeah, I think he is, you know, very much a typical typical Republican in so many ways.
And, you know, one of the things that has
You know he has been part of he's been a regular on conservative talk radio in the Milwaukee market You know that's a really big thing and he gets his name out there And he makes certain headlines and and but he you know he talked in his launch video about You know about loving your neighbor and one of the things that he's done to raise his profile in a really significant way
has just been to bash Milwaukee and it's your typical wow counties versus Milwaukee type of thing.
You know, when the Milwaukee raised its sales tax about a year and a half ago now, he posted something out there saying that, you know, hey, come, come spend your money in Washington County instead of spending it in Milwaukee where you have a greater sales tax.
And it's just like, I get that if you're, you know, a small business and you're advertising, you know, buying furniture or something like that.
But it's another thing when you're a politician and you recognize that those shared revenue negotiations that happened went to save a bunch of jobs in city services, in law enforcement, in public safety, in all of these different areas.
And I think that was a really cynical ploy.
It kind of led to this back and forth between him and the mayor of Milwaukee, Cavalier Johnson, saying there was a comment involving Cracker Barrel, if people remember that.
at all.
But I also think I want to point this out from Showman's record as well.
So in 2022, he was making a lot of noise in this about a referendum that he was advancing in Washington County called the anti crime plan referendum to add 30 and a half positions to the Waukesha County or Washington County Sheriff's Department.
And he was really playing this up throughout the whole election cycle during the midterms.
As you know, hey, we're, you know, we're in this red county, we're going to fund our
police this was right you know in the height of the anti you know defund the police backlash that was happening in conservative politics in particular in the time and he made a lot of noise over the course of that fall saying that you know hey we're gonna do this Milwaukee cuts its police department we're gonna we're gonna fund ours blah blah blah blah blah well people voted against that referendum pretty resoundingly and in one of the reddest counties in the state he was he failed at his effort to
in this quote unquote anti-crime plan to
add positions to the sheriff's department.
And it failed pretty resoundingly.
Like it was a 56% of the voters rejected that.
So to me, that is it's just quite the record of non accomplishment to run on when this was one of your key policy initiatives on kind of a home run issue in a county that votes like 70 to 75% for Republicans most of the time.
And he was unable to get that passed.
So, you know, he's he's a divisive politician.
He bashes Milwaukee at the same time.
He talks about, you know, loving your neighbor and getting back to that type of Wisconsin.
He is he is a typical politician and he is part of the problem.
There was Dan Shafer talking to him yesterday in our 830 segment on the early Joaquin and the 2026 race for Wisconsin governor.
But getting back to the legislature, there are bills that could be helpful.
for the many challenges and opportunities ahead of us in Wisconsin.
And tomorrow morning, we're going to talk to a state senator about one of those bills.
Housing prices are higher than they need to be.
And there are more, there are many reasons for that.
But we should talk about one of them.
Hedge funds.
Wall Street hedge funds buying up houses and either holding and then selling them later for profit or turning them into rentals.
which reduces the supply of single-family homes for ownership, which drives up the price for the housing stock that is still available.
State Senator Sarah Kieske of Lodi is sponsoring a bill to ban ownership of single-family homes by Wall Street landlords.
These are bipartisan proposals that are being put up at the state level and at the congressional level as well.
They haven't received the traction to pass yet.
But are we getting closer to that point with the crisis of affordable housing in Wisconsin and around the country?
We will talk to State Senator Sarah Kieske as part of our peak under the dome in our state capital report at 830 tomorrow morning.
But Greg, getting back to what Dan Schaeffer had to say about Josh Schoeman and the governor's race.
Again, I said before, look, he's, Josh Schoeman's not like a rich businessman, like
Eric Hovdeer,
Tim Michaels.
Yeah.
But except for that part, what's coming out of their mouths is almost, you know, there's no separation.
No, not at all.
No, it's that constant.
We're good.
Everyone else bad and everyone else is Madison and Milwaukee because they're all thieves and liars and all it's just it's just the same.
Well, just give me a give me someone who actually just cares about Wisconsin.
I don't care what
party.
Somebody who cares about Wisconsin and all of Wisconsin, not
not just up north or whatever.
Today's history lesson is next.
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.
You're not going to find a lot of prettier intros to music than that from George Harrison, who released the song, Give Me Love, on this day in 1973, so 52 years ago today, as part of today's history lesson, and we are joined once again by Melissa Kay.
Good morning.
She's an award-winning director, radio host, storyteller from 97.5 WFHR and 105.5 WIRI, whose big
play premiered last weekend, right?
And how was it?
Oh, it was fabulous.
Everybody of the audiences, there was like this low rumble of laughter through almost the entire
show.
That's a good feeling.
It is.
That's awesome.
I'm so happy for you.
You just seemed like you were walking on sunshine thinking about this and doing it and pulling it off.
Yeah.
And you got one more weekend.
One more weekend Thursday, Friday and the matinee on Saturday.
Okay.
All right.
Reminds me.
I got to go.
My niece right now.
If you live in the Kenosha receipt area, my niece is starring in hairspray right now at the road theater.
So I
would love to see hairspray as a play.
I've only ever seen it as the movie.
Come on down.
And I think that would be fun.
I would have back in the day, I would have loved to do the James Marsden character on there.
That would have been fun.
Back to today's history lesson.
Hey, 25 years ago today in the year 2000, Vladimir Putin was inaugurated as president of Russia.
Imagine being leader of a country for 25 years.
What could go wrong?
What
I love about that is that he was there was there was a rule in Russia.
You could only be the president for two terms and then he became pro.
minister, and
then he became
president and changed and abolished that law.
Yeah, amazing how that happened to you.
You don't suppose that could happen anywhere else.
No, constitutions are made of paper.
That's easy to rip up.
Nightmare feel, guys.
Come
on.
All right.
Let's get back to the calendar, the history calendar on this day in 1824.
Marked the world premiere of Ludwig von Beethoven's ninth symphony in Vienna, Austria.
There are parts of it you are certainly familiar with.
You probably know the ninth as this part of the choral symphony, Ode to Joy.
They say it's about Joy, but they are screaming at you at the same time.
We're all awake now.
Yep.
Are you joyful?
Are you happy?
Come
on.
I want
coffee.
Maybe you're more familiar with the very beginning of Beethoven's ninth because that was the NBC News theme song to the Huntley Brinkley report back in the day.
Network news that jingles have come a long ways.
I get goose.
I still get goosebumps when I hear this part of the symphony.
Oh, yes So that was part of the Huntley Brinkley report in the 60s at NBC news A sad day at NBC news as they mark the anniversary of the birth of Tim Russert who would have been 75 years old today Passed away in 2008 way too young.
I was looking yesterday.
He was 58
when he had a hard sack and
died.
I need to know what the world looks like today with Tim Russert in it.
Well, Tom Brokaw in signing off the obituary of the special report said, I can speak confidently that NBC News will never be the same.
And he was right.
Had not been the same.
Number one song this day in 1977, you might have heard of it.
It's from the Eagles.
Another song with the intro, Goosebumps.
It's
the eagle,
I know, but still.
Yeah, yep.
And by the way, Melissa, a 52-second ramp.
So we got time to tell a story here, you know?
I know very well.
Sorry, it's
my
checkered past.
Oh boy.
Oh, forget the story I was going to tell for 52 seconds.
Go on, come
on.
Sure.
The
name of the rock band I was in.
What?
What?
Well, okay,
all right.
I'm sorry.
You don't just gonna be like I was in a rock band then walk away What was what was the name of it the K delights
the checkered past
it says was called
Checkered past.
Yeah,
were you guys a ska band or a punk band?
No, they were a hair band Classic rock band
Cassandra on YouTube, hot take.
I really don't like Hotel California overrated.
You
know, I've tried, I've tried for years to dislike the Eagles.
I can't.
They're so good.
It's just
so overplayed.
Well, this song, yes, but then you got to
listen.
Maybe a good song with you only heard it six times.
Listen to
it.
47,000 times.
Oh boy.
Wow.
I know the guitar solo by Hart.
Well,
everyone does.
I mean, that's not really.
No, I mean, but you can play it.
Could you still play it now or?
I
don't play
guitar.
Oh, OK.
I will challenge it.
I will challenge people to if you that's fine.
That's fine.
Listen to a song called Journey of the Sorcerer.
It's an Eagle song as well.
You'll recognize where theme song comes from.
So just Journey
of the
Sorcerer.
All right.
All right.
Today is a barrier awareness day.
It's also packaging design day, which when you think about it, the two have some similarities because sometimes packaging design can be a real barrier.
Make it easier, kids.
This is National Skilled Trades Day.
This is National Homebrew Day.
For those of you who like to make your beer at home, I haven't, well, I'll let that go.
I'm not a homebrew person.
Yeah.
I went to a
homebrew party once.
Did you like it?
Do you remember it?
It was very
interesting.
Okay.
Yeah, we
didn't drink.
We made beer.
Oh, okay.
And meanwhile, the other end of the spectrum from homebrew is the Cosmopolitan, and this is National Cosmopolitan Day.
So we've gone from the very hoppy and bitter to the very syrupy sweet.
There's a drink there for everybody.
Well, what's your next challenge, Melissa, after the play comes to an end this weekend?
Um, I want to transform my flower beds.
Oh, garden.
Every time someone talks about yard work, I get jealous.
I'm sorry, Greg.
No, I'm
helping.
I need
to work on my,
I need to work on my own.
That's the thing I'm talking about.
Thank you,
Melissa.
You might even have one.
Yeah.
Appreciate it as always.
We've got Dr. Jill Underly, State Superintendent of Public Instruction coming up as part of our homeroom segment here as part of mornings with Pat Crite-Low here across the Civic Media Radio Network.
Again, remember, you can find what we do over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
We'll be back.
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.
