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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Good morning, 806.
Nice to have you back here on this.
What is it?
Tuesday morning, June 10th.
Look at the screen, Pat.
You put the date right on there.
Tuesday, June 10th, 2025.
Nice to have you here up north, live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Let's see, we've got Parker Olson in Madison Studio A2.
Meteorologist Brittany Merlowe will be here in a second.
Chad Holmes will be.
Chad, did I ask you about studio letters last time around?
Oh, you're muted by the way, so well you take care of that.
Yes, you did.
What did we come up with?
Oh, you didn't care.
That was it.
Did you ever find out the letter for Wausau?
No.
I mean, I probably should make it up myself.
I can put a sign on the door.
I could do that.
I think I got that within my realm of responsibilities and I think that's maybe why next time we talk, I'll have something that has right on that door right behind me.
I don't know.
I got a feeling I'm going to keep an eye on my text line over here.
I think Mr. Mathers will be racing to take credit for the letter before, before you know it.
Uh, let's see on the text line from Lori in Hayward.
Good morning guys.
My dad and my grandpa would get up early and oftentimes stay up late to go fishing, but they'd always come home for a hot cup of coffee with a little splash of Canadian club.
or perhaps it was a little splash of something from grandpa's secret little brandy bottle.
Uh, we were all young kids and probably wouldn't know the difference.
Um, I think you would know the difference if there was some Canadian.
Well, I suppose when you're a kid, you don't know what's in the coffee, but we're, we're not advocating for that here at all.
We're simply passing a lot.
Oh, look at Tony.
Chad is in studio G for great.
Aww, Tony.
I'm
gonna have a
big G on that door come next time.
Tony Chad doesn't care.
How do you like that reaction?
No, it's
wonderful.
I like that one.
That's good.
All right.
Well, while I wait for that certain text from Mr. Mathers, let's turn to Brittany Merleau with a forecast that has today as potentially the driest day of the week.
Yes, it does.
It's finally here.
That
one day,
right?
One day, 24 hours in the break of rain right now.
Of course, there are still little sprinkles out there in central parts of the state, but barely, barely, barely, barely, mostly cloudy statewide.
There is some sunshine far south.
Enjoy it.
If you haven't, we are going to see that.
continuing to spread north.
So more and more clouds continuing to clear on out of here.
There is some patchy fog and Tomahawk and Phillips this morning.
Temperatures are in the 50s up north to about 60 degrees down south this morning and highs today are going to make it to the low to mid 70s all across the state.
Maybe some 80s far west towards the Mississippi and then maybe some mid 60s far northeast.
But otherwise a beautiful day becoming mostly sunny.
Of course that last light at 922 this evening and tomorrow even warmer.
We're going to the mid 80s down south.
to mid to upper seventies up north.
We'll start the day off with some sunshine, but there are chances as a front drapes right through the central parts of the state for some more showers and then some thunderstorms roll through late at night and especially far south in the state.
But we'll keep tracking that for you.
It's a little bit unsettled as we go through the rest of this week.
So enjoy it now if you have time.
So I may get in my hammock for more than 60 seconds.
You will.
Today's the day.
I don't think you were
on yesterday when I told the story of how happy I was to get all the yard work done just before, you know, this thunderstorm cell moved in.
We'd see it on our phones and like mo faster, you know, and I had been hoping to maybe spend an hour in the hammock after that.
And you see the rain is almost there.
So finished the yard work, jumped in the hammock, took the obligatory photo of my tennis shoes and the lake behind me that I'm in the hammock and then the rain started.
So I'm hoping today I get more than 60 seconds in the hammock this afternoon.
Here's hoping.
You deserve it.
You deserve it.
After all that yard work too, I mean, yeah.
That's right.
Today's the
day.
Oh, the landscaping's beautiful.
Good.
So those darn weeds come back.
Thank you, Brittany.
Have a wonderful day.
You too.
All right.
Chad Holmes is with us from 98.9 WXCO.
We'll talk a little news, talk a little sports.
You want to start with the sports?
You got spring postseason stuff and you're...
You're busy today even.
Yeah, heading, heading your,
heading your direction.
Yes.
You know where Augusta is, right?
Sure do.
Yeah.
Heading to Augusta.
Basically, when things wrap up around nine o'clock as sectional baseball going on today, a lot of sectionals around the state of Wisconsin.
There are 14 tournaments basically and the winners advanced to the state tournament next week and we're covering the marathon high school baseball team here and Have a game at one o'clock and if they win they would play at four o'clock as well So looking forward to that and was very happy to hear Britney say was gonna be dry today.
Yes Definitely, that's the thing is the spring high school sports.
I mean, especially baseball softball early in the season so many games are canceled so many practices are moved indoors and
deserve the season to end on a nice note and then it all comes to a head for the championships next week at Fox City Stadium in Grand Chute.
Do you go out there for that?
Yeah, I've been there in the past.
It's really cool to be able to
to go to a beautiful facility like that and any of the state tournaments.
I mean, I know it's a big thrill for the kids involved and the coaches and the parents, but it's also a big thrill for those of us who get the opportunity to broadcast as well.
So, you know, knock on wood.
It'll be a good day today and hopefully be able to head on over there next week.
Yeah, girl softball.
Meanwhile, the championships begin tomorrow in Madison.
Yeah, that's it's actually kind of cool because one of the schools around here DC ever says never been to state before and they're heading to the state tournament and it's always something very cool about a group or a school or a community that has never had that opportunity to be able to do it for the first time there's some Perennial powers that are always there seems like every single year and sometimes it does get probably a little bit old I know for the individuals involved it never gets old, but when it's like oh, they're back again here this year.
They're back again this year, but when you
see somebody new and the excitement that goes around that, it's fantastic.
And of all the state tournaments, I think in some ways the softball was the best one.
I went there about 10, 12 years ago in generally.
And it's like the perfect size because you basically get the Goodman field filled up to the rim.
It's a beautiful facility where the Wisconsin Badgers play.
You like to have that big game feel and you really have it with the softball.
It was really a fun experience the year that I was.
able to go down there and broadcast.
I have have a stupid boy comment here.
You know, I used to baseball, watching baseball.
And at some point, I want to say freshman in high school was the first time that I, you know, stumbled upon, you know, not intentionally, but come across this field.
And there's a softball game going on high school girl softball.
And up until that point, because again, there's no ESPN back then where you're seeing these, seeing these young women, you know, throwing 50, 60, 70 miles an hour.
And so as my first exposure to high school level,
girl softball and I was so hooked right from the guy was so impressed with the, with the pitching especially.
And you, you see why the sport has grown as popular as it has.
Why so many people were watching, um, you know, the college world series last week, for example.
And actually usually at this point where when the baseball ends, I get some time off from the play by play, but.
A few weeks ago, one of the parents on the softball time, and I was over broadcasting the softball game, said, well, we got this American Legion softball that just started a couple of years ago.
Would you be able to broadcast some of our games?
I said, well, if you can help us get a little bit of sponsorship.
We might
do
that.
So they came through with a little sponsorship.
So tomorrow night I'll be doing a American Legion softball broadcast here on WXCO as well.
But it shows that that's growing as well because that's something that's new.
I'm sure you've heard about American Legion baseball for a long time.
We had not had anything along the lines with the softball as well.
And also real fast this year here in Wausau, I know for sure.
I think this league has been around maybe.
at least for a year.
The Northwoods League, of course, is the Woodbat league.
And we have the Wasa Woodshucks here.
And of course, there's teams all over the place.
Well, Northwoods League has started a softball version as well.
Oh, and
Wasa has a team called the Wasa.
Good night.
And that's a lot of girls and a lot of guys are excited because as you said, it's a very exciting sport.
So now here at athletic park they have woodchucks games and now they also have wasa ignite games as well That's getting underway.
I think this week if I'm not mistaken.
So It continues to grow and it's great to see those opportunities I don't know if I told you this story about my mom was a really big into athletics But she went to school in the 60s in the late 60s and up to this day I mean she went on and in Wittenberg.
She won the Wittenberg golf
championship for women's multiple times back in the 70s and she played softball forever.
She still says to this day how much she wishes she would have the opportunity in high school to play sports, to play softball and basketball and stuff like that.
But that was before the early 70s when Title IX came through and gave the opportunities for girls and women.
You know, it's not that long ago that the girls did not have the same equal opportunities.
And I think it's important to recognize the folks that brought that to us.
I mean, the good that was done through that.
Oh, you mean those people who were discriminating against men, you know, to hear the Trump administration go after DEI right now?
Yeah, anyway, let's set that aside for a second.
The girls soccer championships are coming up next week in Milwaukee.
And then finally, the boys golf championships wrap up today at University Ridge in Madison.
So very busy postseason out there.
Actually, it was funny.
We were talking earlier during one of my local segments because my in-studio engineer crossed the wave.
His dad is the golf coach at wasa east and wasa east qualified their team for the state tournament So they're involved in it yesterday was round one today is round two.
So he's out there at university Ridge walking around with the wasa east Golf team as well.
So there's
all these little connections going on right now.
Yeah.
So I mentioned that in our Sunday newsletter, our question of the week really stemmed from our conversation last week about the editorial in the Wasaw pilot and review advocating for considering a city manager form of government instead of a mayoral.
And I wondered if do you think that sparked more discussions in Wasaw proper?
Was that more of a one off and it's not going to get any traction?
What do you
I think, well, it's going to be a process because obviously...
folks like us bring it up and I think Shareen is within the umbrella of what we do.
It does bring up thought, it brings up discussion, and this is something that's been around here in Wausau for a long time.
As long as I've been doing these kind of programs is that there has been a few folks that have been pushing for this and it's been pushed back, but I do think that maybe just right now the dysfunction in certain areas of our city government is leading to maybe a little bit deeper thought.
on it but I do think that as we talked about last week I mean there everything always looks the old grass is greener kind of feel but there's issues with the other way of doing it as well and I think hey having the discussion is a good way to do it but if it maybe makes things tighten up a little bit here at City Hall maybe it makes certain folks think a little bit about what they're doing at City Hall maybe that would be a good thing as well.
I will never forget my in college covering the Eau Claire County Board as a young cub reporter.
And they had an administrator's name was Ron Wampler, real professional guy.
And he would all the time have to correct there were like one or two people on the County Board.
And it was almost like, you know, the one of those Gilda Radner characters on weekend update, where she just start to spout off on something.
And Ron would be like, Fran, Fran, we covered that Fran is on page 12 of your booklet.
Fran, turn to page 12.
Oh, never mind.
So sometimes it's nice to have a little professional help in there from time
to
time.
Chad Holmes covers everything around the Wausau area.
New sports and more for 98.9 WXCO.
Listen to them on the Civic Media app as well.
Safe travels for the game today.
We'll talk to you a little later on.
Thank you, gentlemen.
All right.
Thank you.
Still ahead, we're going to be talking to Dan Schaefer, political editor for Civic Media and of course, founder of the Reconpopulation Area about the upcoming Democratic State Convention this weekend in the Dells.
From the heart of America's Up North, live from Lake Wissota, thank you for making this a place to spend part of your mornings.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
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.
The Brewers could only manage one run yesterday.
It was a William Contreras two-out single that scored Joey Ortiz.
And that's all she wrote for the Brewers.
One run.
Atlanta beat the Brewers 7-1 last night.
They will play again at American Family Field pregame beginning at 6-05 on several civic media stations.
And then a day game tomorrow with a pregame that gets underway around 12-35, 12-40 tomorrow.
So a little afternoon baseball tomorrow.
in the Milwaukee area if you're around or across the Civic Media radio network if you'd like to hear the game.
Florida walloped Edmonton in the Stanley Cup finals last night six to one so Florida is now ahead in the Stanley Cup finals two games to one over Edmonton game four is Thursday night in Miami in the NBA playoffs in the finals the
Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers will face off tomorrow in Indy for continuing that game, that series, rather that is tied at one game apiece.
Tomorrow here on the program, we will have Earl Ingram.
We have a
Melissa Kay as well, so we've got James Kelly.
It's like a big civic media day.
You've got Earl Ingram with the stories from Southeast Wisconsin, James Kelly with the stories from Northeast Wisconsin, and Melissa Kay from the Wisconsin Deles, sorry, Wisconsin Deles, Wisconsin Rapids area.
But more importantly, of course, when it's Melissa Kay, we're gonna get an update on
the pigeons.
I don't have the sound right
now.
Pigeon quest.
Yeah, I know we don't have an echo thing for the live mic, but we'll just have to do it in unison.
Pigeon quest.
I'm clipping.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's a keeper.
So Melissa Kale have that until Melissa just doesn't show up one of these Wednesdays at six fifty and just says I'm I'm just
she'll
be too busy taking care of the pigeons.
That could be it.
Yeah.
I mean maybe the FMLA covers pigeon care as well.
You never know.
Also we'll have our homeroom segment tomorrow.
We have the the departing and the incoming leaders for the Eau Claire educators union teachers union and Eau Claire talking about the school year and the challenges there.
And I believe we have a representative from the Green Bay area.
as well talking to us.
So a very busy Wednesday ahead here on the program.
Hope that you will join us.
Now, if you can't join us live, you can certainly join us by way of, you know, the podcasts.
And there are many ways to get that, of course.
You've got the Civic Media website.
You've got Apple.
And I had to admit a couple of weeks back,
I really didn't know much about Spotify because, again, being in what I like to jokingly refer to as the cult of Apple, just assumed, oh, everybody's got an iPhone.
Everybody's there.
Well, no, say all the Android people.
And in fact, of all of the podcasts that are out there, Apple has about 33% of the market, Spotify 37% of the market.
So I have been missing the boat on this.
So again, while we'd love to have you listening on the radio, if you got to do the podcast, head on over to Spotify and look us up.
You can just search for Wisconsin politics and you will see this show come up be a subscriber Take it along with you and not just on Spotify.
Of course, there's there's I haven't heard of these cast box Overcast I've heard of that one buzz sprout Do you use a particular podcast app at Spotify?
I've never heard of any of those things you were just saying
No, I don't either.
And of course, again, the website, Facebook, YouTube, tune in the Civic Media app as well.
So many ways to get us.
And just when you're on those Spotify and Apple music, make sure that you rate us.
Yes, please.
We would love that very much.
It helps.
All right.
So I left you hanging last hour about how in Wisconsin Dells they have unveiled the state's first mountain coaster.
At the Waterpark Capital of the World, it is a 4,000-foot-long thrill ride with no water involved.
Unlike traditional roller coasters, mountain coasters are gravity-driven, Christina Laurie writes, which means they use the natural incline to propel you down the track and you control your speed.
And unlike many other weather dependent attractions in the Dells, these coasters can operate year-round even in the snow.
Plus, mountain coasters are designed with the environment in mind, so you can enjoy nature without hurting it.
And then she gives the address.
It's on County Highway A in Wisconsin Dells to learn more about the first ever.
Let's see.
I clicked on the website here.
Just see what I get.
It's actually called WisconsinDellsMountainCoaster.com.
experience Wisconsin's only mountain coaster.
And I mean, I've I've seen these kinds of things before.
Again, on mountains that you ever see on social media, they've got them in like, I don't know, the Austrian Alps
or something
like that.
And you much like Bob's letting you go who in their right mind.
would do this, but there are thrill seekers out there who want to do this kind of thing, would you?
This seems
really fun.
I would love to do this, actually.
Yeah.
Really?
Yeah.
This seems really cool.
Well, I guess the one thing is, if it crashes, you won't really know.
It's going to happen so fast, you
know?
I don't think that.
Is that possible?
Is it possible to crash off of one of these things?
Oh, I'm sure.
Buddy, I work in the news business.
I've seen more ways for things to go haywire than, I mean, I used to refer to my AP, you know, teletype, the little news ticker
when I was
younger, and it was a literal teletype.
I used to refer to that as a death machine because all these ways would come over, you know, a 28-year-old Montana woman died when, and you look going, how could that possibly happen?
You know, but it does.
So I'm, I'm again.
Urging everybody to ride the mountain coaster.
I'm just saying don't never say never about anything and that's the reason I'm not going because that's when the never would happen Okay, again Christina Laurie had that article on our website up north news wi.com and Christina will be back here across the civic media radio network tomorrow evening in the seven o'clock hour She will be joining a peach wabba for a nightlight
And again, Christina writes our daily newsletters and now a Saturday sports newsletter as well.
So you get newsletter seven days a week out of us at UpNorthNews, at upnorthnewswi.com.
You click subscribe in the banner on top of the homepage.
It takes you to a page that gives you all three options.
You can sign up for one, two, or all three of our newsletters.
Coming up next, Dan Schaefer.
I'm live from Lake Wissoda, a great place to spend part of your mornings.
And this is the Civic Media Radio
Network, Dan Schaefer, right after this.
Hey, welcome back.
Let's talk to Dan Schaefer, Civic Media's political editor, and of course, the founder of the Reconbobulation area where he writes columns, has guest columns, and tells us about all things in Wisconsin and including Milwaukee area politics.
And he's got another column that is coming out very, very soon.
And talking about the State Democratic Convention, we'll get into that a little bit later.
Mr. Schaefer, good morning.
How are you?
Good morning, Mr. Kreitlau.
Doing well.
How are you?
Doing well, thanks.
Take note that the state budget continues to be at an impasse.
I have, of course, given my two cents on Republicans walking away from the negotiating table with Governor Tony Evers and whether there was actually anything new or surprising about it.
But maybe I'm a little too cynical, Dan.
Here's where you tell me how both sides were negotiating in good faith and they just couldn't get it done.
Well, that was the news coming in the middle of last week, late last week about the governor and various different entities within the Republican-controlled legislature releasing statements saying that they had reached this impasse.
And I've heard a little bit of rumblings about what happened.
I'm not exactly sure what it was all about just yet, but it just seems like Governor Evers was ready to meet.
Republicans, you know, halfway or whatever it is on some of their tax cut goals, their one economic policy, a tax cut, and was hoping for, as he outlined in his statement, funding for K-12 education, childcare, and UW system.
Clearly, the Republicans did not...
do enough on that.
I've heard some rumblings in particular on child care that they really did not come to the table in ways that many people were hoping for, especially considering how dire the need is on that particular issue when we're looking at a quarter to a third of child care centers potentially facing closure later this year because of this.
So obviously you would want to make that a priority in these negotiations, but
It seems they've fallen apart, and it seems that maybe what will happen next is Republicans will have the same process that we've had for the last three budget cycles in this era of divided government.
We'll have the Republicans writing the budget, and then Tony Evers will come in with his partial vetoes, and then the Republicans will get mad about those partial vetoes in the end.
Can we see this whole show playing
out yet again, Mr. Karitlow?
Yes, without a doubt, we most certainly can.
So when Speaker Voss was being interviewed on WISN TVs up front, he took offense.
He clutched his pearls, as one might say, and said, well, I mean, you're talking as if we were on zero.
We weren't sitting on zero.
We had proposals, and they just weren't good enough for the governor.
And it just reminds me of an old Republican trick we'd see.
every time there was a budget due, is they'd say, well, we are once again proposing a record amount of spending.
And what would happen is they'd basically, I'm just exaggerating a little bit, but they'd spend a dollar extra and say, look, last year we spent this much, this year it's a record.
Like, yeah, and it's so short of inflation or the growing need for this or that.
And so, of course, Speaker Vos can say, well, we weren't on zero,
But again, they're not sharing the actual numbers, but I have a feeling the numbers were effectively zero for the good that they would have done because let's just take childcare.
You said there's dire need out there.
Dan, you and I both know there are more than a couple of Republican legislators whose honest opinion is there isn't a dire need for childcare out there.
Right,
and we have...
And that is reflected in their priorities and what they've been doing in addressing this issue.
You know, the Child Care Couch Program that Evers is looking to fund worked.
It was a pilot program that they were working on before the pandemic that they were able to, you know, prop up with the federal dollars that were coming with pandemic relief money with some of those ARPA dollars.
They propped up this program.
It worked.
It worked.
It was a pilot program that worked.
How often do we actually see that in government these days?
But it, you know, raised wages for people who are childcare providers.
It helped those centers stay open and it helped keep costs manageable for families.
And the only way and that has been effective.
Now, Republicans last cycle talked about introducing some sort of, you know, kind of targeted tax credits and working with employers.
Well, they had this one tax credit that passed that Evers did sign.
And but the problem with it was that zero people, zero businesses took advantage of this tax credit in the first year.
Zero businesses.
How often does that happen?
Right.
So I think this is just an example of.
We need to stick with what we have seen.
It is proven to work and clearly Republicans did not do enough to come to the table on funding these childcare priorities and this is going to really make things difficult for working families in Wisconsin.
I have got to get the data on that one particular tax credit.
I recall hearing about it and not that zero businesses took part because it is now a tangible
example of something that we've talked about a lot in the 40 plus years of trickle down economic Reaganism supply side theories that are out there.
If you're okay, Mr. Republican politician or Ms.
Republican politician, if you're okay giving more money in tax breaks to the very wealthy because you believe that there will be this net positive effect as they make investments in the economy as they create jobs and everything,
Why wouldn't you also see that when you do that for, say, a childcare teacher or a small business owner, you actually get a bigger multiplier effect because they're not going to put that extra money into, you know, more stocks and bonds.
They're going to spend it directly in the local economy on some other small business who's going to turn around and probably spend it on another small business.
And if they understand why you would want to give big tax breaks,
I don't get why they wouldn't understand why you would help in something like child care where, again, you have a proven economic impact.
It's not even a question, Dan.
I'm sorry.
I'll just never understand
it.
Well, and this is a program that the Wisconsin Policy Forum, objective public policy analysis, some of the best that we have here in Wisconsin, gave the child care accounts.
program and award for innovation in government spending.
And here we have, and the report that I was mentioning about no businesses taking advantage of this tax credit is a piece from the Cap Times last week where they talked about how an outside consultant reviewed that tax incentive for the WEDC and said, quote, due to the high operational costs of childcare centers, affordability would likely be better achieved through a subsidy as opposed to a tax incentive.
No businesses have taken advantage of the childcare element of the tax program according to a spokesperson from the WDC.
Again, that's a piece last week published by the CapTimes.
So there's the solution out there.
Not the one that they proposed.
Maybe they should take a look at the other one.
So where we are in the process now is the Joint Finance Committee heads back into the meeting room and, you know, piece by piece starts to go through the state budget.
And essentially what they're doing is they're writing the Republican version of the budget bill, you know, not exactly working off what Governor Tony Evers gave them for his proposals.
But what emerges from this will be the Republican bill and they will add and
subtract some things.
And one of the things they're talking about adding is a tax credit for teachers who are buying classroom supplies, which again, shouldn't necessarily be a thing.
We're not talking, you know, they're buying a box of crayons here and there.
They're buying a tremendous amount of supplies because of underfunded schools.
But rather than funding the schools, Republicans are saying, Well, here's here's a credit on your taxes.
Yeah, isn't this ridiculous?
Like it just is.
Maybe we maybe we could cut out the middle portion of this whole thing and oh, I don't know Just fund the schools to begin with so that teachers don't have to spend their own personal dollars on classroom supplies and materials and all of that
Why not just fund schools to begin with?
Cut out the middle part of this ridiculous runaround that Republicans are doing.
Maybe just give the teachers the resources they need to make their classrooms the best places possible for their students.
It's funny,
as you were saying it, Tony was typing it on YouTube in the comment section over here.
Great
minds,
Mr. Zimmerman.
here's here's part of the answer to that is that of course like you said not every teacher will take advantage of the tax credit or won't make enough money to qualify for the tax credit so it's just like the child care example you gave and it's just like the Medicaid cuts where they say with a straight face there are no there are no benefit cuts but if they put all these hoops in place where you can't take advantage of them well you know that's that's too bad for you.
So we know the direct answer of of helping people don't cut their Medicaid, provide direct support to funding for schools adequately, provide direct support for childcare, but
That's that's not what we're getting at this point and I don't expect to see it necessarily in the Republican budget once the Joint Finance Committee is all done.
Before we go to break, I've got to ask you about the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
Their annual convention is this weekend.
Folks will be thinking, well, it's an off year, right?
I mean, there's no more elections this year, so it's going to be a slow affair.
It most certainly will not because there's going to be a big election coming up this weekend.
There is going to be a big election coming up this weekend for to find out who will succeed Ben Wickler as the chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
Of course, you've had all of those candidates on the show here on Mornings with Pat Critello, Devin Remaker, Joseph Hecke, and...
William Garcia.
William Garcia.
Apologies to Mr. Garcia having a little bit of a brain fart this morning.
The coffee maybe hasn't kicked in yet.
But we're going to see that vote.
We're going to see that vote on Sunday morning, I believe.
The convention is Saturday and Sunday.
So we'll see all the speeches, including one from Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, who is going to be the special guest speaker for the event.
And then we will, and there are a number of other offices that
that also have.
votes for them, you know, first, second vice chair on, you know, a number of other party officials, but the only one that has multiple candidates running for it is the chair position.
Like so, for example, Sarah Godluschi, Secretary of State is running for first vice chair.
She's facing no opposition for that.
So she almost certainly will be elected to serve in that position.
And so that will be, you know, an interesting component of this too.
But, you know, that chair vote also as well is
being held with ranked choice voting for the first time, that this was actually implemented in 2019.
One Wichler took over, but there have not been enough challengers to Wichler or an open seat to have ranked choice voting for this.
So I think that's gonna be an interesting element of this vote as well.
Oh, that that
was is going to be fascinating to break down those numbers.
You know, if it goes goes multiple ballots and see how the votes get allocated when the person that comes in third place is, you know, eliminated in the first round.
So.
That will be very interesting to see come Monday when all is said and done.
And of course, there will be some chatter at the convention about Governor Tony Evers as he's made clear repeatedly he's not going to make any decisions until after the budget is done.
But Dan, that's not going to stop delegates from talking.
I'm sure there will be multiple conversations about if this or that.
Well, look, part of what they're saying in this convention is that they are looking ahead to 2026 and the road to 2026 and the possibility of a democratic trifecta if they are able to flip the Senate and the Assembly.
But it's still an open question about who's going to be at the top of the ticket and what the race to become the nominee might look like.
And I think that should be a major conversation.
be outside of the convention, and you may be seeing something about that in the Reconvibulation area in the not-too-distant future.
The very not-too-distant future, and then, shortly after that, like four o'clock this afternoon, you'll be filling in for Megadon today, along with Angela Lange.
That's right, me and Angela and I think Matt Rothschild is going to be joining us for a little bit on the show as well.
But yeah, we'll be filling in from four to six PM this evening during drive time.
So make sure you tune to Civic Media.
on your drive home this evening to catch us.
Absolutely.
And of course, catch Dan's column, which he will be talking about, I'm sure this afternoon.
You know what?
I think all of us will be talking about it for sure.
Dan Schaefer from the Reconpopulation area is with us, and this is the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pac
Rightwell.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Tomorrow we'll have our homeroom segment.
We'll have Melissa Baldoff here with our climate check.
And in climate check, we're going to discuss how the US Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, wants to weaken fuel economy standards and says the Biden-era rule is illegal.
It's illegal.
to try to not have your cars polluting the atmosphere.
I'm sure Melissa will have some things to say about that.
James Kelly, Melissa K, Earl Ingram, all that and more coming up tomorrow on the program.
For our final few minutes here, let's continue our visit with Dan Schaefer.
Talk about what's happening at the Democratic Convention, some of the other stories that are talking about in Wisconsin politics as well.
There's going to be a shindig.
Is it Madison on Thursday for the new and yet departing Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court?
Yes, that's right.
Coming up, there is a big event happening in Madison in regards to the State Supreme Court.
For Ann Walsh Bradley, yes.
Chief Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, who has been Chief Justice for, I don't know, just a couple of weeks, I think, something like that.
But yeah, I'm trying to pull up the details here, but they're having an event to honor Ann Walsh Bradley at the Capitol in Madison, I believe, Tony Evers and a number of other members of the...
State Supreme Court will be speaking for this as well.
So we're getting kind of close to the end of this two-year cycle for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
And as Ann Walsh Bradley, kind of with this parting gift.
to a certain extent of having the opportunity to be Chief Justice for a short while and retire with that title.
Think of it as pregame for the Democratic Convention.
I know the Supreme Court is a nonpartisan event.
I also know which side of the aisle politicized it first, but it is going to be a CNB scene for Democrats and progressives everywhere to toast Chief Justice Ann Walsh Bradley before her retirement.
There's another story I want to ask you out of Milwaukee dealing with the possibility of red light cameras and I know that traffic accidents, crashes, hit and runs, fatalities have all been a
a hot topic for years in Milwaukee.
And so now you've got people hoping to see legislation that would install cameras that could automatically cite speeding drivers.
You know, no officer needed on duty.
Is that a relatively new idea?
And do you think it's going to have any legs?
Well, this it's not a new idea.
This has been introduced for cycle after cycle and it has had the backing of a number of Milwaukee leaders for quite some time And but you know, this is an issue I can I can kind of see both sides of when it comes to the the red light camera enforcement You know, I think some people might have some take some issues with that In a number of different ways, but the reckless driving problem in Milwaukee is is a
big problem.
We have, you know, I think the Mayor Cavalier Johnson has taken a number of steps to, you know, address some of the
certain things with building out different infrastructure, reconfiguring some of the way that different lanes are set up in different parts of the city.
But, you know, a lot of it relies on the state too, because there are a lot of state highways running through the city.
So there can be some confusion on how to address some of the most glaring problems, which can often be on state highways that are going through the city of Milwaukee.
But I think, you know, the people who are in support of this see this as just kind of a force multiplier.
because police in Milwaukee have a big job to do and traffic enforcement is only one part of it and it is incumbent upon some people to have a little bit more accountability for some of the people who are running red lights and speeding through intersections.
Racing down, you know, residential streets in the city, like this is a real problem.
So would it make a difference to have these these red light cameras or is it, you know, does this become, you know, kind of a civil liberties question to a certain extent, right?
Does this infringe upon, you know, not having an actual person.
Catch you speeding does that does that change the way this might be characterized?
So I think there there are a lot of questions involved with this but again, I think you know, we saw the mayor we saw State Representative or State Senator Dora Drake a number of other folks come forward in a press conference yesterday and for the fifth time Call for the state to take up this legislation
and a senator Dora Drake put it we can't
place police officers at every single intersection 24 hours a day, especially in what I would call the defund the police movement by the Wisconsin Republican legislature that has been, you know, underfunding municipalities for the longest time.
So
While there are due process concerns, there's also the death toll.
The Journal Sentinel article here says that in 2023, 77 people were killed in car crashes.
I had no idea.
Last year it was 67 deaths and so far this year 19 people have died in car crashes.
This is, if anybody goes, what are we trying to deal with?
That, we're doing 140, nearly 150 people killed in car crashes over the past two year period.
And it's a major like day-to-day quality of life issue here in Milwaukee.
Like, you know, when I go certain places, I will go out of my way to drive a longer route to avoid certain intersections or certain streets that I know are going to be problematic.
And, you know, there are a lot that the city is trying to do.
There are a lot that they are not addressing at all.
And they're just like basic common sense things.
that you come up to these intersections, come up to these streets that they could be doing differently, and that they are not.
But this is yet another thing that they have talked about to try and improve the quality of life for Milwaukeeans on a day-to-day basis, because the reckless driving here is absolutely out of control.
I usually will go to bat for Milwaukee on so many things, and y'all were mischaracterized on this and whatever.
The driving here is terrible.
It's terrible.
And so something has to be, has to be done one way or
another.
And obviously you want to look out for anything that might rig the system, but as somebody who, uh, in Arizona, two different times would open up an envelope like a week after I get home and there's a picture of me and there's a picture of the red light.
Like, yeah, I guess I'll be paying that ticket.
Dan Schaefer from the Recombobulation Area.
Thank you, Dan, very much.
Yeah.
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