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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Crichtlow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Crichtlow.
Good morning, it is 7.06.
Nice to have you here back up north on this Thursday morning, June 12th.
Coming up this hour, we're going to be talking to State Senate Democratic leader, Diane Hesselbein.
We'll get an update on state budget negotiations.
And how one apparent sign of compromise might be undone by yet another poison pill, the kind of thing that legislators like to tuck into bills or amendments that take what otherwise would have been a compromise and absolutely torpedo it.
So we'll talk to Senator Hesselbein about that.
Coming up, we also have meteorologist Brittany Merleau standing by to talk about what could be an off and on wet few days here in Wisconsin.
But first,
couple of days left for that scotty summer text-to-win contest.
It takes the Civic Media app, head over there and download it from the Apple Store or from Google.
You're going to go into the app, go to one of the stations, and then hit the text button.
because you can text any one of the stations.
You can text any one of the shows because, you know, there are different shows.
Some stations play music.
Some have news and talk, but you can text any of the stations from there.
You can leave a voice note for any of the stations.
You can call the stations as well.
And you can play this text to win contest using the text feature four times a day where folks are going to get $100 cash or a pair of Milwaukee Brewer's club level tickets.
And every entry puts you in the drawing for one of the grand prizes, either a Wisconsin Dells bearable
area we can get away or one up in Door County with some gas money to get you there.
There's a different keyword each time that you need to text to us.
So here for this hour, the prize is a pair of Brewer's tickets.
The word to text us is family.
F-A-M-I-L-Y.
We don't get a lot of six letter words in these contests.
We try to make them short and sweet, so family spell it correctly.
I've seen people get typos and then they're not in.
So family, F-A-M-I-L-Y, text that for a pair of Brewer's tickets.
Again, you have until the end of the hour to text us this hour's keyword.
Your next chances to play come at 11 a.m.
2pm, 4pm, different keywords each time.
So for this hour, for Brewer's Tickets, before the end of the hour, use that Civic Media app and text us the word family.
F-A-M-I-L-Y.
It's like a family over here where you've got Parker Olson over in Madison A2 as the little brother who gets his hair tousled and teased a little too often.
And Brittany Merleau is just that kid's sister who knows it all and is so pleasant as she relays the forecast to us.
And then we've got Robin Tigerton, who's kind of part family here too.
Telling us first off, Parker, I like your shirt.
Rob.
See, Rob, Rob gets it.
So I second that.
We'll get more for he's he's wearing folks.
I missed the last hour a pink what you would call uniform, what they would call kit because it's for the Madison FC soccer team, the flamingos.
So it's very pink.
It's very vibrant.
And that is the extent of what Parker and I know about Madison FC soccer.
in.
Yeah.
So, Brittany, we've got this stalled weather front here and
What is it?
Just like a pipeline of occasional rain?
And is it some of it going to be heavy?
Yeah, so basically this front is stalling itself out over the southern part of the state right now where we're already seeing rain moving in from La Crosse all the way to about the Madison area this morning.
It's pretty light right now, but off to the west it is a little bit heavier and it will become stronger as we go through this evening and tomorrow.
So a few things going on out there this morning.
Of course, temperatures are a little crisp.
We are going to get warmer today.
70 degrees will be our highs far north.
80 degrees still
We've got an air quality alert though right now until about noon.
That's for the northern half of the state.
Of course, wildfire smoke still sneaking its way into the area.
But then as the rain starts to move north, this front is going to slowly lift north through the afternoon and into the north woods.
This means the rain is going to ease in the southern parts of the state by this evening, and it's going to ramp up up north.
And it could be heavy at times too, especially as we go into this evening and overnight and into tomorrow too.
Then tomorrow afternoon, the front's going to start to lift back down through the state, digging the heavy rain from the north, moving it back to the southern parts.
And that'll stay through our Friday evening and into early
Saturday morning for the s whole system kicks on out o on sunday, we should all bring in more clouds, obvi temperatures.
I mean highs
And then of course, Sunday, we will warm up to about 70 degrees all across the state.
But so anywhere from about a half an inch wide spread rain to potentially two inches in places far northwest, kind of the Chippewa Valley by you, Pat, looks to be a little bit of the most rainfall.
OK, well, we've got the rain gauge ready.
We'll take it.
We'll handle it.
You know, then we'll mow the lawn place today.
because it's going to grow like crazy after that.
Good morning from Tigerton, writes Rob on YouTube.
It's partly cloudy and hazy, 57 degrees yesterday.
I mowed four yards in the Tigerton area, then went to Clintonville to get lawn mower parts, and then went to Shanno for my doctor's appointment.
He says he likes Brittany's shirt as well.
Thanks, Rob.
I'm just, you know, what am I?
I'll be your shirt and Pat.
Thank you.
I know I will and Rob notes and I just went online to confirm this that CBS's NFL today is going to be in Green Bay on September 7th for their pregame show before the Packers and Lions season opener that appears to be a new.
feature for the NFL on CBS is they're not going to travel to all of the games, but to, it says here, a few select matchups during the 2025 football season, including Lambo for that week one showdown between the Packers and the Lions.
So thank you, Rob, for the heads up on that as well.
I don't know why we're talking about football season.
We still haven't even really started, you know, full ons.
spring, you know, we've got, I
know, it feels like it, right?
Where's the summer temperatures before you get to football?
But the September games are always the best when it comes to football.
I know the weather's just gorgeous that way.
Yesterday, I did not get to the national day calendar.
And today, of course, on the history calendar, I kind of missed that as well.
So for folks yesterday, yesterday was a national German chocolate cake day, which
Sturs a lot of fights.
I recall last year Greg Bach and I really getting into it Why he didn't agree the German chocolate cake is the best cake pans down.
That's it There's just no contest in my book.
It's also national corn on the cob day, which seems a little early to me Yeah, yeah, that's true.
We're not doing that quite yet But today certified nursing assistants stay so all of our CNAs
Happy day to you.
Thank you for all you do.
It's national jerky day and it's national peanut butter cookie day.
Wow.
As we often try to avoid doing on the national day calendar, please do not mix.
Please no peanut butter jerky cookies.
That
would
work out well for folks.
Aha.
You ever see there was a place in Managua?
I don't know if it's still there or not, but you see these places that have like, you know, they advertise like
50 kinds of jerky or a hundred kinds of jerky and you know, am I looking for alligator jerky?
No, not necessarily, but you know.
I've had ostrich jerky
before.
You have had
ostrich jerky?
Didn't taste any different, but I did buy it just because it was an ostrich.
It's all marketing scheme.
Yeah.
All right.
Brittany, thank you.
In the next hour, we're going to talk about a sad day in history, an anniversary of an especially deadly tornado in Western Wisconsin.
And we'll talk to Brittany about that coming up in our next hour.
Coming up today on Matt and Air on Air, right after this fine program across the Civic Media Radio Network.
Let's see, they've got former US Attorney Jim Santel on just after 9.30.
They have JR Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sports reporter in the 10 a.m.
hour.
And of course, they always wrap up with, this shouldn't be a thing.
Maggie Dawn has Jeremy Janine from Urban Milwaukee on just after 4.45 this afternoon.
And this evening,
on Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.
Just after 6.30, you can hear Jenna Watkins talking about cyber security.
A little sports now at quarter past seven.
A complete game was pitched by Atlanta's Spencer Schwellenbach and Atlanta beat the Milwaukee Brewers yesterday six to two, taking two out of three from the Brewers at American Family Field.
Reese Hoskins did Homer for the Brewers.
Christian Yelich missed his second consecutive game with a swollen right wrist.
He was hit by a pitch in Philadelphia back on June 1st and then he aggravated the injury last weekend on a slide.
So Atlanta moves out and the Cardinals move in.
St.
Louis is here for a four-game homestand that starts this evening.
You can watch, or I'm sorry, you can catch the Brewers and St.
Louis pregame, 6.05 this evening on Civic Media stations out of Richland Center in Oshkosh.
We're seeing Kenosha Park Falls and Hayward.
Head over to civicmedia.us to learn much more about following the Brewers.
The NHL Stanley Cup Finals resumed tonight in Miami with the Florida Panthers up two games to one over Edmonton.
And in the NBA Finals, this is a genuine shocker to a lot of folks.
The Indiana Pacers beat Oklahoma City again last night in game three, 116 to 107, giving the Pacers a two games to one lead.
I mean, there was seriously a lot of talk about Oklahoma City sweeping this thing in four games, and now they're down to one.
Game 4 will be Friday.
in Indiana.
And in WIAA postseason action, the softball championships continue in Madison this week.
We will have Mike Clemens on Friday morning, tomorrow morning at 8 30 to hear more about that.
And what else the Brewers have got cooking?
You've also got Packers mini camp that's going to be going on.
So a lot to cover with Mike Clemens tomorrow.
And then we do a little bit more sports with Jimmy Koska around 750 on Monday mornings as well.
So it would be
Nice of you to come along, look and listen to what is happening in sports with those fine bookends that we've got on Mondays and Fridays.
All right, we're going to talk more with State Senate Democratic Leader Diane Hesselbein a little later this hour, but I did want to note that the potential for a compromise on the Knowles Nelson stewardship program in the legislature might be falling apart thanks to a poison pill.
There was just a few days ago an announcement that Republicans were going to support a big investment into the stewardship program that protects a lot of land for conservation.
There had been some Republicans who had talked about having, you know, scrapping it, saying that there already was enough land and conservation and that more needed to be done to develop the land that's up there.
Obviously, not everybody agrees.
And so the stewardship program
Would have stayed alive except as noted in an article by Laura Schulte in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel That bill now has what could be called a poison pill attached to it what's called a trailer bill that
Has not even been introduced yet.
So before this investment can be made to upgrade public lands Help with boat launches trails and campgrounds so that this land can be conserved and used for recreational purposes There are some other strings attached and the final sentence in this particular bill Says this bill would be rendered ineffective if the trailer bill isn't enacted alongside and
the journal Sentinel folks took a look for that draft of that so-called trailer bill, it doesn't turn up.
It hasn't been drafted yet.
It hasn't been submitted.
And so the bill could pass and people could say, well, look, we tried to invest in the stewardship program, but then they wouldn't follow up with the trailer bill.
Which is pretty much par for the course for what Republicans have done with other bills in the past and we'll talk to State Senator Diane Husslebine about progress on the state budget and any poison pills that might be in there coming up in just a bit.
Well, a local update is up next for many of you.
Others will stick around here, and we will have some notes from Western Wisconsin, including a proposal to put some money into a local treatment center that was closed down, which would be a fine gesture if Republicans hadn't been blocking money for those treatment centers for the past year or so.
Appreciate you being here live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network, powered by UpNorth News.
I'm Pat Crightlough.
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.
All right, again, family is the keyword this hour to text in the Scotty Summer Text-to-Win Contest for a pair of brewers' tickets.
Text in family before the end of the hour, and you'll also be in the grand prize shrines for those weekend stays in the Barabou-Delz area and in Door County.
All right, let's pull the curtain back a little bit on this show and how it works since we restructured and went to a three-hour show.
In two of those hours, not the six AM hour, but in the seven AM hour and in the eight AM hour, you'll notice that we have commercial breaks at about 20 past and 50 past the hour, okay?
During those times, some of our...
stations across the Civic Media radio network will be breaking away for local news, local stories, local hosts.
You'll be hearing from Chad Holmes and Wasar, Earl Ingram in Southeast Wisconsin, and some of the other fine folks.
Maybe James Kelly will have an update here in Northwest Wisconsin.
Anyway, during those times when some of the other stations have cut away, the stations that will still be here
are all in western Wisconsin here in the Chippewa Valley and in La Crosse and in Amory.
So we will try to pass along a few more local stories that we see throughout the course of a week during those breaks at 720, 750, 820 and 850.
We'll check in a little bit more with Jimmy Koska who handles news and sports out of La Crosse.
The aforementioned James Kelly who's in our Chippewa Falls newsroom.
at the heart of downtown Chippewa Falls at the corner of Bridge Street and Grand Avenue.
So if you're listening on the app or if you're watching us on social media and you're outside of these areas
Stick around because this is still your chance to steer the conversation toward other items that you think that folks in Western Wisconsin would like to hear.
And then when we get back to the top and bottom of the seven and eight o'clock hours, our full statewide audience is back, and we will have top stories and guests and more.
But as always, we want to get your texts, your voice notes, your comments, and your emails along the way.
So as I was looking at some of the headlines across Western Wisconsin here and we had James Kelly on yesterday for example talking about them But I see a note in the Eau Claire leader telegram That I wanted to pass along from reporter Chris Vetter who it feels like I've known him 25 years or more and does stellar work there for the LT and he writes the two Chippewa Valley legislators
are seeking $1 million in state funding to help reopen the Ellie Phillips Libertas Treatment Center in Chippewa Falls.
It was closed along with the nearby St.
Joseph's Hospital in Chippewa Falls and Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire when Illinois-based conglomerate HSHS shut them down just over a year ago, rather abruptly, I might add.
So you've got St.
Joseph's Hospital, which is
Almost a stone's throw out my window here in the Lake Wixota Studios, and then the Liebertaus Center is just down the street and has changed a tremendous amount of lives through its drug treatment counseling.
But it's shut down, as are the hospitals.
Well, two Republican legislators, Jesse James from Thorpe and Clint Moses from Menominee,
have introduced legislation which would provide the million dollars to Lutheran social services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan who would like to reopen the 50 bed treatment center.
Now Moses and James of course had all the rhetoric about what a great bill they had just introduced.
James wrote in a press release
Our top priority this session is investing in mental health and substance use disorder services and restoring access in Northwest and Central Wisconsin.
Really?
That was your top priority?
Because thankfully, Chris Vedder also made sure to include this reaction from Democratic State Senator Jeff Smith.
Let's be clear, Smith wrote to the LT.
Republican lawmakers who now claim to prioritize mental health are the same ones who repeatedly blocked $15 million in desperately needed emergency funding for hospitals all over the Chippewa Valley.
That money will expire at the end of June and absolutely nothing is being done about it.
You can't call yourself a champion for healthcare, Smith writes.
while turning your back on entire communities who are losing access to emergency rooms, OB-GYN care, and basic hospital services.
This selective concern is not leadership, it's hypocrisy.
People see through it and they're tired of politicians who pick and choose which lives and communities deserve care.
Thank you to Senator Jeff Smith for that.
There's sometimes...
There's courtesy in politics there should be but sometimes the the air kisses are just they annoy you and it's refreshing when Jeff Smith can call out a couple of his own colleagues because what happened is in the last eight budget two years ago as these hospitals were being shut down abruptly the legislature approved approved 15 million dollars
to help out with health care across the Chippewa Valley with the hospitals being closed, could have helped with physician recruitment, could have helped continue some services in other locations.
Governor Evers put some partial vetoes on it that they didn't like.
What the governor partially vetoed were ways that the legislature essentially wanted to micromanage the money rather than letting local leaders in the Chippewa Valley decide what's best for them.
You remember that whole party of local control the Republicans used to be?
As a result, Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee held a temper tantrum and withheld the money and are still withholding the money.
And of course, the current state budget expires in just a couple of more weeks here.
And that money will just go away unless it's put in the next new budget.
So writing a press release that you're introducing a bill to release $1 million of it.
Well, that's a real feel good moment there for Jesse James and for Clint Moses.
and for other Republican lawmakers, but Jeff Smith rightly calls out the fakery.
And if any issue said, set aside the partisanship and get something done for your constituents, grow up, this is the moment that is doing it.
Coming up later, we're going to have Chad Holmes, Sean O'Malley, Joseph Peckie, and other check-in with Brittany Merleau.
Then tomorrow we'll have Supreme Court candidate Judge Chris Taylor.
We'll have Dr. Kristen Lierly and our week in review panel.
Don't forget to sign up for our newsletters over at upnorthnewswi.com.
Thanks for spending some time here as part of your mornings.
Live from Lake Wissota, I'm Pat Critello.
You're up north.
Hey, again, we've got Brewer's baseball this evening, pregame at 6.05, and then Brewer's Cardinals on several Civic Media stations.
Head over to the website, civicmedia.us, to learn more.
A reminder, this hour's Scotty Summer statewide text-to-win contest keyword is family.
Use that Civic Media app, go to any station on the app, use the text button and text family, and you will be entered for two Brewer's tickets, club level seats, great seats.
And you'll also be entered into the grand prize drawing.
And that would be for weekend stays in the Baraboo, Dells area and the Door County area as well.
And another reminder, if you can't always listen live, you can listen to us as a podcast head over to Spotify and sign up for our show or Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
We'd love to have you along live or on demand.
Let's visit now with State Senator Diane Hesselbein of Middleton.
She's the Senate Minority Leader and joins us now to talk a bit about the state budget and other goings on in my former workplace over there.
Senator, how are you?
I'm doing well, Pat.
How are you doing this morning?
I'm good.
It's nice to have you along to get a little update on things.
You know, the last major update that any of us got on the state budget was hearing, well, first off,
somewhat surprisingly to some of us that that Republican leadership and Governor Evers or at the staff level had been talking for weeks and weeks here apparently but we didn't learn that until we learned that Republicans had apparently broken off negotiations and walked away that's the last we heard of it was was that kind of your understanding of how things had unfolded and was there any
any news, any breakthroughs to report since then?
The governor did meet with the Republican leaders, though, himself, and then staffed it as well.
And I think they were getting pretty close to an agreement, and unfortunately, the Republicans just walked away.
It's unfortunate, because I think if they would have went to their individual caucuses and said, look, we can get some of these things done, that there were their priorities, and the governor also wanted...
some of the governor's priorities funded in the budget, it seemed like that kind of a situation would be a win-win for the state of Wisconsin.
But unfortunately, the Republicans walked away and they are just doing the budget as they always have by themselves.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know how many times I have to say this.
With a $4 billion surplus, you can find a win-win.
There's no shortage of paths to a win-win.
And I did wonder,
how much of this was, you know, leadership driven or maybe leadership was actually close to a compromise, but they had some, you know, far right members in their caucus who who wouldn't vote for it.
I can, you know, think of a few of them off the top of my head.
But whatever the reason, I think the governor framed it pretty well in saying that he was willing to meet them halfway on tax cuts, even though
they wouldn't be exactly how he would have designed them, but that Republicans wouldn't meet him halfway on making some of the key investments that a state budget is supposed to do.
Is that your understanding as well?
Which again is what
what a budget process is supposed to be about to say, look, here are various priorities.
Let's talk about a couple of individual notes that may be part of this or may be considered on either side of the budget bill.
We just spoke in the last segment about the stewardship program and how it appeared Republicans that had introduced a bill that would, in fact, make some investments into the Knowles Nelson Stewardship Program.
to learn now that there's a quote unquote trailer bill that's attached which if it doesn't pass then the original legislation doesn't pass and I I tried to explain the concept of a poison pill without necessarily saying that this is what it is but this is what to be on the lookout for because I mean sadly senator this is this is not news of something that we've seen tried a few times in the past.
And I know I've had discussions with Republican colleagues about the importance of Knowles Nelson.
And certainly there have been a lot of environmental activists that have come in and advocates that have come in to tell us the importance of Knowles Nelson and those important green spaces that we're able to save all across the state of Wisconsin.
So I am hopeful that we're going to get something good done for Knowles Nelson.
I do not believe it'll be happening in the budget.
I believe it'll be something we'll be dealing with this fall.
OK, so.
Again, more more to come on on that one as well, which is completely understandable.
There's other legislation to consider.
So let's get to some that Democrats have introduced lately.
And that included packages of bills or package of bills, I should say, that is designed to essentially defend Wisconsin against some of the excesses of what the Trump administration is trying to do.
We spoke very briefly about it with Senator Chris Larson on Monday.
So I'm glad we've got a couple of extra minutes here to expound.
on it.
What are the ways that Democrats are proposing that could send a message to the Trump administration saying, you know, you can't do these things.
And if you do try to do them, here's what the state of Wisconsin would do in return.
Yeah, we have a whole package of bills that we were trying to be creative as soon as we saw what was happening in the federal government.
What can Wisconsin do?
What can we as lawmakers do in the state of Wisconsin to stand up to these mega Republicans and Donald Trump?
So one of them was protecting Wisconsin taxpayers from unlawful federal actions by withholding funds.
And that what that would do is provides the state, the Wisconsinist, a way to respond when the federal government fails to send money that was legally promised through Congress.
Certainly we know what
President Trump is doing with a lot of these actions is unconstitutional.
What can we do?
We can hold and block funds as well.
So we were looking at how to do that in a creative way that would make sense for Wisconsinites.
And I know that other states are looking at these bills and considering the same type of action.
Well, because again, it's not even clear that some of these actions are legal in the first place and so states have to look for, you know, whatever recourse they can get.
The one that really caught my attention as you mentioned being creative on these things was making sure that sensitive personal data couldn't be shared unless it was being done essentially in accordance with law, with existing law and not some executive order that, you know, may or not stand up, may or may not stand up in court when all is said and done.
So again, you've got
legislators who are not just looking out for the public dollars, but your own private data.
Honestly, that's something that we're hearing about at listening sessions and all across the state is people being worried.
Who has their data?
How are they using it?
Are they might being micro targeted?
Is it safe?
Is their own information safe out there?
So we did something to prohibit the state from sharing an individual's personally identifiable information with the federal government, just saying, nope, you can't have it.
It's not it's not safe for people.
There were some other, well, there were many things that Governor Evers put in the proposed budget and more than 600 of them were removed by Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee.
And so again, there's been legislation introduced by Democrats to essentially put some of those back, pass them a separate legislation if need be.
And that includes some measures on gun safety.
And I was really struck by a quote from your colleague, Senator Latanya Johnson of Milwaukee, who said here in an article from Wisconsin Public Radio,
Year after year, I've watched Republicans cut every single gun safety proposal from the state budget.
And year after year, we see more victims and families burying their babies.
And there is this real world cost of inaction that Senator Johnson is trying to get out there.
And all you can really do is again, hold up for the public, the newest bills that you're introducing and saying, somebody is trying.
I mean, we want background checks on every gun sale.
That's important that we know that people who want to own a gun can own a gun, but should they own a gun and background checks will make that be known.
Also a waiting period for the purchase of handguns.
That's extremely important.
We have people all over our state and they're going through maybe a mental health crisis and maybe they buy a gun to maybe harm themselves or others.
And this would just say
We're going to have a waiting period, cooling off period.
Make sure that you're okay to purchase this gun.
And some people might wake up the next morning and decide they're glad they didn't have that gun.
I have a former colleague, Jonathan Brostoff.
He was on the suicide task force.
He spoke about having these mental health challenges and how this would have helped him in his time of need.
Unfortunately, he made a decision to buy a gun and to end his life.
He stood up for this bill, knew what it would mean for Wisconsinites and him, and unfortunately, we did not have this bill in place to save his life.
So that is something that I know we'll be fighting for every single day as we miss our colleague every single day and can only think of what could be and what the city of Milwaukee would be like if he were still in it.
The other
one
And by the way, you say you want these.
It's not just you.
It's an overwhelming majority of people in Wisconsin in poll after poll after poll, you're talking 70 80% sometimes more for either background checks.
or waiting periods for handguns or red flag laws and I'm sure I haven't seen the polling but I'm sure it'd be the same on on ghost guns as well.
These are supported by such a broad bipartisan group of people across the state and across the country and it is it is really telling when Republican lawmakers in Madison, Washington DC and elsewhere can't seem to muster up the political courage to do something that so many of their constituents want.
And so many of their constituents want to be safe.
And so many of my constituents want to be safe.
I mean, it's gun violence.
It happens everywhere.
I mean, we had a place in Middleton, a business, that somebody brought a ghost gun in and started shooting.
Now, we're somewhat fortunate, you can say that.
But nobody has been, was injured or killed except for the shooter.
But still, the shooter was killed.
And the police officers that responded that day,
are still, some of them are still suffering from what they saw that day.
Some of them are still not on the job because of what happened.
So it's gun violence affects everybody in our community.
First responders, the people who are there when something terrible happens, kids.
I mean, where is it safe to go where you don't have to worry about getting shot?
I mean, Pat, when you and I were younger, we went to school and we had tornado drills.
They have gun drills now.
Kindergarteners have gun drills to figure out where to go and what a safe place is and how their teachers can keep them safe.
It
still breaks my heart to think of my grandkids are doing this in school and it traumatizes them when it happens and yet they have to do it again.
only for the lack of some courage by lawmakers in positions of power.
All right, well, let's look ahead here.
We've got some big do-ins at the State Democratic Convention.
Gonna be taking place this weekend in Wisconsin Dells.
Let's start with the state shares race.
You've got what I think are three quality candidates running for that post.
Is that something?
I'm going to get the impression that a lot of delegates are actually looking forward to this, that they want to hear from all the candidates and have a good, clean election.
Do you get that sense or do you think that there are some real divisions among the delegates for the candidates?
How do you think the weekend's going to go?
I think people have been showing up to these forums they've had in all the different counties.
to hear from these three great candidates to see who they're going to pick as the next chair of the Democratic Party.
I'm supporting Devin.
I've known him for years.
He's done a great job.
He always answers my questions, been helpful every step of the way.
I think he'll do a great job for our party, but I'm actually looking forward to talking to other people and hearing what they have to say as well.
Yeah, because we get not just Devin Remaker, but also Joseph Pecky and William Garcia all running.
And it's also an instant runout vote.
if I understand correctly.
And so that will be interesting to see how the votes break down and how that affects the election for chair.
We're talking to State Senator Diane Hesselebein and we'll leave it with the other conversation.
piece and we already we got reaction earlier today from Melissa Baldoff to this as well to the Dan Schaefer column that makes the case that Governor Tony Evers has been a great governor but he you know he should not run for a third term.
There's some folks that are saying well you're just handing the Democrats a gift and others saying yeah we got to have this conversation so you're going to hear the conversation Senator what's what's your quick answer to people speculating on the governor's plans.
Governor Evers has done a great job for the state of Wisconsin and I know he has made it quite clear that he wants to wait until our budget is over until he makes a decision if he is running again.
I'm sure he's going to hear about it all weekend at the convention and I feel bad for him because it's going to be like, well, I said, I'm going to wait, I'm going to wait.
He's done a great job and I know he'll make the right decision for himself and for the state of Wisconsin.
State Senator Diane Husslebein, the Senate Democratic Leader talking to us from Middleton.
Senator, thank you so much.
Great to catch up with you.
Thank you for the opportunity.
You bet.
Have a wonderful day.
Thank you so much for joining us as well.
Live from Lake Wissota, I'm Pat Critello and this is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Welcome back.
It is 7.52 on this Thursday morning, June 12.
Pack right low here in Chippewa Falls.
Parker Olson in Madison Studio A2 in his, resplendent in his Madison FC Flamingo's pink kit.
Yes, sir.
We got it right the first time.
It's a kit.
It's a kit.
That's it.
Go on.
All right.
Let's go down to kind of a walk for an update on a story.
Again, no good idea goes unpunished and the economy walk Rotary with their idea to have a non political 4th of July parade Got real political real fast and as a result Rotary Club is now reverse course and Politicians will now be allowed to take part in the 4th of July parade now back Originally politicians were encouraged to participate by either
walking with the city's official float or joining a community organization they're involved in or creating a non-political float with friends and family.
This all according to a journal sent an article from Hope Carnop and then they wanted the politicians to gather for a special moment of unity at the Village Green featuring the University of Wisconsin marching band.
Unfortunately, a statement from the club says, our intentions were widely misunderstood on the proposed approach caused considerable frustration and concern within the community.
We deeply regret that our message was not clear and led to any confusion or disappointment.
Now, if you missed it the other day, I said it.
At first, I wasn't crazy about the idea, having been an elected official and candidate who's been in these parades, but that the moment of unity celebration was actually a nice alternative.
And then instead of eliciting cheers or jeers during the parade, the elected officials could just, you know, again, go to the unity event, go to the, go to the beer tent, walk around the craft areas, whatever the case may be, do whatever else they want, but leave the parade to be free of politics.
That didn't go over so well with folks, you know, especially in Republican heavy economy walk who wanted to be able to march in the parade.
State Representative Barb Dietrich, a Republican who represents economy walk called the Rotary's decision bewildering.
She said her family is a dedicated ingrained part of economy walks rich history dating back to the 1950s, a third or more of the 150 years of economy walk being celebrated within this parade.
She says walking in the parade is not political.
It continues my personal ethos of service, greeting all of the wonderful people I serve, no matter who they are or what their personal beliefs."
Reads the statement from the local politician there.
Other communities hope rights have moved to limit political participation in parades, including Middleton in 2022, after Republican candidates lodged complaints that only incumbents who are all Democrats in that area could participate.
There was also, I'd forgotten all about this now, Waukesha's Fourth of July parade drew some conservative scrutiny after former Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde was told he couldn't participate while a Democratic congressional candidate could.
And if memory serves correctly, it was because he missed a deadline.
to do that.
And again, you know, leave it to some folks in politics or otherwise who think they are above the rules or the rules don't apply to them.
But eventually, I think that controversy got solved as well.
So again, for folks in the common walk, you're going to have politicians in the parade, you know, be nice, just the same.
And then talk to those politicians as humans.
Again, before or after the parade, let them know what you think and what you'd like to see done.
That's the way to get things done.
All right, you've got about three minutes here to get in the Scotty Summer Keyword in the statewide text-to-win contest.
Again, the word is family and the prize is for a pair of Brewer's Tickets.
I don't believe that Parker has yet been able to take advantage of the Civic Media Brewer's Tickets club level seats, have you?
hey, man.
Same here.
Yeah.
We've got these tickets.
And sometimes they're used in different ways, contests, and other friends and things.
And I'm a couple of hundred miles away.
You're a little far.
Yeah.
I want to get down there.
I do, too.
I just haven't been able to.
So I'm watching TMZ last night as I always do.
And people go, what, Siri?
You're a journalist.
You're a politician.
You wrap up with TMZ.
Yes, I do.
You know why?
Because it just shuts my brain off.
It is an absolutely brainless thing to watch.
I don't know half of the celebrities that they're talking about, but they do it in a funny way.
So I pay attention.
Their lead story yesterday was Aaron Rodgers being married to a mystery woman.
A mystery woman.
We know nothing about this person that Aaron Rodgers is married to, except that her name might be Brittany with an I. Might.
Wow.
Yeah.
So he finally just kind of nonchalantly answered a question saying, oh yeah, yeah, this is a wedding ring.
And that's all he's really said.
And look, if he's happy, and if she's happy, Brittany with an I, that's great.
That would be wonderful news.
It's just that
has a lot of the the coverage explains, including one by in the Journal Sentinel here by Christopher Coohegan.
I hope I said that right.
You know, he's had some very high profile relationships.
And the women with whom he's had relationships have not really, you know, there's the nice breakups.
And then there's the ones that talk about, I mean,
Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying.
And that there was, I don't know, emotional abuse maybe isn't the right way to go, but that, you know, there were difficulties and that Aaron Rodgers hopefully has changed his ways, shall we say, and is much more at making a relationship a partnership.
But regardless the the fact that again, you have to keep your wife hidden Is it because you know Shailene Woodley described their relationship as toxic for example?
I don't I don't know
kind
Okay, well again, we we wish him the best because that's that's all we can do and you know introduce her sometime
It could be fun.
Coming up in our next hour, Sean O'Malley, Chad Holmes, Joseph Pecky, Brittany Merlot, and more all right here live from Lake Rosota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
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