Welcome everyone to midday magazine for this January 19th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here at 330.
We're going to be joined by Stephanie Hartman, executive director of the Central Wisconsin
Cultural Center.
Looking forward to that.
Right now we have with us on the phone, Wisconsin State Senator Patrick Teston.
Good morning, sir.
Good afternoon.
Hey, James.
Happy New Year.
Happy New Year to you.
How have you been?
I'm hosting busy.
It's the final spring between now and the session, so it's been a lot of activity
down in Madison.
Testifying a lot of bills, getting bills passed, and so I'm going to work to finishing the
session strong, and then whatever advice to roll as far as putting 24, all right, successful
and ambitious.
Want to talk about that.
I also want to talk about those bills that you've been hard on work at.
We'll get to those in a moment.
First, we haven't gotten to talk since last year.
How was your Christmas?
How was your New Year's?
Oh, it's great.
We did a lot of traveling.
We spent some time back up in my hometown in Marinette for Christmas, and then spent
the New Year's at one of my best runs from college over in the Twin Cities, then came home
for a day, and then blew up the Arizona for a handful of days to get some golden and come
back and get back to work.
Very cool.
It's important to get that recharging time so that you can hit the ground running in the
New Year, right?
Oh, absolutely.
It's just nice to take a little bit of a break and, you know, get away from it.
The echo chamber of politics 24-7 and just take up the fee, relax, but now we got to
roll up our sleeves and finish out the session and still get some work to do.
You know, sir, I was fortunate.
I think like a lot of kids that grow up in a military family or a family with military
members in it, you grow up and you learn a little more of history than I think some
kids get to.
And one of the things that my grandfather taught me about when I was really young was
the code talkers.
And I saw recently that you helped in honoring them.
I want to talk a little bit about the work on that and a little bit if you don't mind
of how this came to be.
So, yeah, we've introduced legislation that's now passed out of both houses, which would
recognize the 14 Ho-Chung code talkers who served in World War II, and I think a lot
of times when we talk about the code talkers and the mission that they had where they
used their native language to transmit communications between our troops that were never cracked.
They were never decoded by the Japanese or any other enemy forces.
And it's really important, so it's been discovered in the last several years that we had 14
Ho-Chung members from the state of Wisconsin who served as code talkers and it hasn't been
made public until the last few years because of the secrecy of their mission.
Many of these individuals took it to their grave and the families members didn't know
about this until after it passed.
So there's been a lot of work done by folks over at the Ho-Chung Nation to really shed light
on it.
And earlier last year I had the opportunity to attend the Ho-Chung powwow outside Black
River Falls, which was just a phenomenal experience.
And so, aside from doing a vacation for them, we sat down and had a conversation on what
else could we do to help recognize their effort.
And so, came up with the idea to have the Ho-Chung Memorial Highway, which would designate
a portion from interstate I-90 from Tome all the way to the Minnesota, Wisconsin,
state line.
And I think it's just a small thing that we can do to really recognize their efforts and
thank them for their service because all of our drives here in the state, they serve
at a higher percentage than the rest of the general population and our armed forces.
And I just think it's just a really good thing to do to recognize their efforts and thank
them for their service.
It's been talked about in recent years, about helping keep the language alive and we've
done different things with highway signs and different classes that are available to
our universities.
Speaking of universities, University of Wisconsin recently announced that Native American
kids can apply to the school and free tuition.
There's so many things that have been being done.
And they're all important, all vital, all necessary, all good things.
But there's another aspect of this, too, that I hope is hitting home for people.
Yes, this is Native American history.
This is also Wisconsin history.
This is American history.
It's very important, I think, to have all of that together in this.
Oh, what's up, question.
And I know I've talked about this last fall, but when I had the opportunity to go through
the Veterans Museum archives, it's the fourth largest veterans archive in the entire nation
and tell us right here in Wisconsin.
And just seeing the rich history that Wisconsin's had going all the way back to the Civil War
and every other major complex sentence.
And the 99,000 artifacts that are housed there, every single one of them has a well-documented
story.
And it's important to preserve our history.
And the same goes for our tribal nations and our Ho Chiang veterans.
And that's why I was really proud to see that we had provide bipartisan support in both
houses and look forward to this becoming loss.
We can have the Ho Chiang Code Talker Memorial Highway.
Do you think that there are other things, whether it is related to the code talkers or not,
that maybe in the works are going on behind the scenes with junior colleagues as far as
the Ho Chiang nation or any of our Native American tribes?
Well, this is the main piece right now.
I mean, I'm certainly open because that was one question when I met with folks from
Ho Chiang Legislatures that do we even have a Native American War Memorial out in DC or
here in the state, and even they kind of looked at me and like, you know, it's a really
good question.
We don't know.
And so, you know, hopefully, you know, this may be spur some future conversations and maybe
other things that we can work together on.
That's a really good note, sir.
Yeah.
And that's great to hear.
You recently had the pleasure of meeting Annette and Don Huston of Stevens Point.
I want to talk about their visit to the Capitol with you for a moment, but I do want to do
this with the kind of context of one of the things that I've heard the most in talking
with you and any of our representatives or any of our people around here is they appreciate
about you, the transparency and the openness, the vulnerability that you give in many
of our conversations.
And I feel like you do that a bit on social media as well in particular Facebook page
with this particular couple.
Can we talk about that a little bit?
Yeah, absolutely.
So, these are our two constituents from the Stevens Point area.
That's why I had the privilege to meet and put down with last year and Annette's dealing
with MS and has been a just tremendous advocate for the last 30 years since she's been
diagnosed and her husband has just been an absolute rock star and angel and supporting
his wife.
And they come down every year to the Capitol to really advocate on their issues.
And there's a couple of bills that they're hoping to see get through and even know it's
right in the session.
And maybe we may not be able to get through this time, but as I told them, I'll continue
to work with them and it's dealing with pharmacy benefit manager which form this was legislation
that got an act in two sessions ago and it's been brought back to make some other tweaks
and modifications to it, which really, I don't know a lot of people know what PVMs are.
These pharmacy benefit managers are kind of a middle man between the pharmacies and the
pharmaceutical companies and as we're all aware with some of these very rare conditions
such as MS, the drugs that people have to get prescribed and put on just the main, a
basic function of living are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars which
for a lot of families, that can make or break them.
And so there's a lot of efforts in the legislature right now to try and rein in the high cost
of healthcare here in the state and so they were down with about 30 other individuals
out throughout the capital who were making the rounds and they're just a phenomenal, phenomenal
couple and really, I mean, it's one of those, it's easier than 30 years ago, it's going
to eventually end someone's life and we're at a point now where it's much more manageable
but it's still scary and so part of the, their efforts are when they come down as to
help inform and so if anyone gets diagnosed with MS, they're also there to be a support
network and system that help people, you know, kind of what to expect and walk them
through the process and deal with this disease.
I've had some friends that have struggled with MS knowing a bit about it.
It's difficult, there's a struggle to do to just get up to even go into the kitchen
or something to let alone to travel all the way to Madison because you believe so much
in this and speak on it, a credit to her, her husband and all the people that do things
like that and it's a nice reminder as well that we are the ones that help get these
things done, the constituents, the community, the people.
We help you guys find out what to do by going and showing up.
It's sure that an email can do a lot and a letter can do a lot but when you show physically
and you're actually at the capital to speak on these things, I imagine you and your colleagues
really hear that.
Oh, absolutely.
And, you know, even if we're not able to meet at the elected official in person because
oftentimes we're being dragged and running all over the building to be in ten different
places at once, but even if people just have the opportunity to talk to our staff, I
mean, by and large, they earn an extension of ourselves and so it's always any time
constituents come down, I try and make time to meet with them.
Even if it's just the pop and say hi, I'm sorry coming down, I got a run, please meet
with my staff.
I think it's so invaluable and anytime individuals communicate with their elected officials,
and I always tell them, I encourage that because I think there's this expectation that
we simply have all the answers and that's simply not the case and oftentimes, like
prime examples, meet and folks from the Department of Criminal Investigation yesterday
on things that deal with child abuse and sex trafficking.
And this was brought to my attention that CPS workers are not mandatory reporters.
When they mentioned that, I was just dumbfounded by this.
So I'm working with one of my colleagues, State Senator Jesse James, he's on this as
well that we're hoping that we can maybe make that change because it just, it floored
me that that wasn't a thing already, but it apparently it is.
Did they give a reason why, but it's not, they don't have to report.
It was, they really don't know, I don't know if this was the oversight when those statues
were created, but yeah, the one DCI officer who covers up in Northwest Wisconsin talked
about a very horrendous case in which a child with a number of different ailments was so
physically abused that it led to her eventual death and so many things could have been done
differently.
And so it was really a powerful conversation and really kind of eye-opening, and that's
the prime example as the wide zone for and to have those connections because oftentimes,
we know, we know, we don't know what we don't know.
On a number of levels, it's on all of us to be protecting our children better.
And it's good to hear that there's some work being done on that.
I want to first send a shout out again to Annette and Don Huston, a big thank you to them
for showing up and being there.
That was good on them.
And I want to dive right now in your mind if you'd hand full of bills that you've been
hard and work on because you've been working a lot of bills and I want to get to is make
sure we have time for all of them.
Can we start with the telehealth bill, can you explain to us what that is?
Yeah, so the telehealth bill is really going to codify in the state that you some administrative
rules that were drafted by the Department of Health and Human Services.
And I think this is one of the silver linings that there was any as a result of the pandemic
is that more and more providers are utilized in telehealth to deliver health care, especially
in underserved areas such as ours.
And initially, prior to the pandemic, many providers and even some insurance companies
were a little weary, a little bit skeptical and there's issues of how parity works with
things like Medicaid reimbursement, but a lot more four years later, just about everyone
has embraced this as a necessity as it relates to delivering health care.
And so we worked with the Department of Health and Human Services and worked on a bill
that essentially allow out-of-state providers who provide telehealth services to networks
here in the state to receive Medicaid reimbursement, which again aims to ensure that more people
can visit a doctor online, a nurse, and mental health providers, and so it's just another
one of those.
It's a small piece of a much larger puzzle on how we can better deliver health care here
in the state.
How long have you been working on this one?
We've been working on this one for a while and to the credit of the to our GHS Department,
I mean, they've done, they did a lot of the legwork as far as it came to craft and the administrative
rules.
And then we sort of came in and decided, well, let's just codify this in the law.
And we had a good conversation with folks on the department side and then working with
insurers and others who operate on the Medicaid front and by and large, everyone was in agreement
passing anonymously out of the state senate and I believe it's on its way to the governor.
Speaking of the Wisconsin State Senator Petra testing right now, sir, I'd like to get
into the bill regarding drivers at instructions and work zones.
This was an interesting one to me.
Yeah, you would think that it would be mandated when we teach new student drivers that they
should know how to act in a work zone or safety zone.
And because I remember when I was in driving school, we were told and taught that, but it's
not mandatory.
And so as we've seen in recent years where we have to strike the drivers who drive into
the rear ends of ambulances or fire trucks like we had a few years ago, that spark legislation
that I worked on with Representative Shanklin that became law last session or when you hear
the uncoarsion of cases where our construction workers already have a very dangerous job,
get struck, injured, fatally killed.
I mean, I saw at first hand what they deal with on a day-to-day basis when back in 2019,
I spent the day, or I should say, a night with American asphalt as they repaid the stretch
on I-39 between Steven's points over.
It was literally terrifying being up in a paper on a, with one way he flows down and
he's got cars and supplies zipping by you at 67 miles per hour.
So we just want to make sure that for all drivers' education courses that at least 30 minutes
is dedicated to teaching student drivers just the importance of being safe in a work zone
as well as on the scene of an accident.
And do you think that this is something that there's going to be additions to this as
far as kids and drivers add to you?
There's other ways that we need to adapt or change drivers' ed in the way it's been done
in years with so many changes to the roads and to just technology and everything.
Yeah, I think there's a strong case we made.
In fact, it was kind of late in the process and we're going to be working on the assembly side
to see if we can't get an amendment tacked on to also deal with school buses.
And another prime example where we had a constituent come down on a lobby day
for the school bus drivers' association day and talked about how there needs to be more
education and what people should do when they come across a school bus with red flash and light.
Now, again, I think the vast majority of the public would know, okay, red flash and light
means stop.
But again, we've got a lot of knuckleheads out there on the road who would rather be watching
YouTube videos or text and as are driving who have ignored that and unfortunately we've
had some unfortunate accidents in which kids have been struck and so we had an amendment
adopted, although it was kind of late in the process and some like colleagues grumbled
about it.
And it's interesting with this subject too because I think for a lot of people out there,
they're immediately thinking of young people of 17, 18-year-olds on their phone driving.
But the biggest culprits of this statistically, even from what I see just driving around, tends
to be people in my age range and people in the 30s and 40s that didn't grow up necessarily
with technology and don't seem to understand, they got to put the phone down.
So it's going to be really, I'm really curious to see where this goes not only with our laws,
but with just society in general, should be interesting to see.
Scholarships, this is another topic that you and I have been talking about as far as
getting good dental care in rural communities.
And there are scholarships at Marquette for this, it looks like, I want to talk about that
a little bit with you.
Yeah, so for the last several years, we have worked with the Marquette School of Dentistry
to create a rural scholarship program for dental students to go and practice and underserved areas.
So right now, roughly 50 out of 72 Wisconsin counties are considered dental deserts and
right here in the 24-cented district that includes wood, atoms, washera, Jackson, Monroe County.
And it's not that we have a shortage of dentists in the state, it's just where they're clustered.
Many of our dentists are more urban and populist areas.
And so we worked with the Marquette School of Dentistry to come up with an idea and a framework
that would provide scholarships for these dental students with the caveat that for every year
that you get these tuition verhance, you then have to spend 18 years in one of these dental deserts.
And two budgets ago, we got it incorporated into the budget.
Unfortunately, it was line item vetoed out.
But we circled back and kind of recalibrated and made some tweaks, modifications to the bill.
And now it's in a position where it's passed out of both houses.
And a prime example as to why a program like this is so useful.
So back in 2018, I had the opportunity to do one of my on-the-jobs with Dr. Miller,
who up until recently, he just recently retired or ran an operated gear creek dental.
He's a Marquette School of Dentistry graduate and always anticipated he'd go to stay in the
Milwaukee area, go to Madison, but yet he ended up in Toma, Wisconsin, and realized he could have
a very successful practice so much so that he was there for 30 plus years.
And it's one of those things where I think if you can show people what our communities have to
offer, that cost the living is low, the quality of life is great, and you can also have
a very successful practice. And more importantly, it's another way to help increase access to care
because when you talk to school administrators, the number one reason why kids miss school is
because of toothaches because they haven't been able to get to a dentist. And so I'm really hopeful
and I'm optimistic that we'll get the governor signature on this one and we can put our best
before to increase an oral health care here in the state. And I wanted to take a moment to
highlight the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs. They're currently accepting applications
for three veteran mental health grant programs. The deadline being next week, so I wanted to make
sure to touch on this and bring some attention to it. Yeah, absolutely. I mean,
clearly this is the the year of mental health. This is an issue that it's been at the forefront
and what I'm really happy to say and see is that this is not an issue that has been dominated by
one political party over the other. And this is a prime example where we've been able to shed
our partisan cloaks and work together on these important issues because it impacts everyone,
and especially in our veterans community. And so yeah, for some of these grants
for our CVSOs and other organizations out there that qualify, take advantage of it, and
if people need letters of support, never hesitate to reach out to my office because we're more than
more than happy to go to help in hand. We'll be sure to give the information to how you can
reach the Senator before we wrap up. And if you want to find out more information about that,
go to dva.wi.gov, dva.wi.gov. Sir, I can't go this whole show without asking you a tough question,
a hardball question. You know, that's how we do things around here at Midday magazine. Car will
do it. I'm going to do it. How are you celebrating? And what are your expectations for your green
bay packers this weekend? Oh, hi. I am cautiously hopeful trying to be as optimistic as I can,
but I think the last bread I saw, they had the Niners up nine and a half points though. I mean,
it's a tough team, but when you take a look at the, what the expectations were coming into the
season to where they're at right now, I mean, talk about a tremendous season. So regardless of
what happens, I think there's a lot to be proud of it. Yeah. And I don't know what that air and
Roger guy is, but I was like, forget about it. Yeah. I mean, first off, most of the people I talk to,
especially with like playmakers, our sports show, we do and everything. It really feels like almost
all my friends are packer fans and everybody seems to be on the same page. You're playing with house
money. You know, it's been a icing on the cake, beaten Dallas, some of these things. And really,
you came into this year wanting to see what you got and Jordan love. I think you got your answer.
I would feel pretty good about that going forward in the 2024 and 25 and all that.
Yeah. Well, even during the the game in Dallas, I mean, I didn't have any expectations for that game.
And so I attended an evil court of honor for four Eagle Scouts here in the seedest point area.
And at one point, I got an update for my phone. I went, oh, we count. I didn't even get a game.
I can't believe it. Yeah, they had to feel pretty good. I bet.
Sir, we always appreciate the time with you. Thank you so much. We're hoping, you know,
safe travels to you, the rest of the month, and we'll talk next month. If people have
filed questions and want to know more about some of the things we talked about today, how can they
get in touch with you? Yeah, if I don't need to get a hold of my office, feel free to drop us a
call at 608-266-3123. You can shoot us an email at SEN. My last name, testin at LEG.
IS.WA.gov, or follow us on social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
And then you see me out on a bomb. Never hesitate to pull me aside and chat.
Appreciate the time you take care of safe travels out there. We'll talk again real soon.
Thanks, James. Thank you. Well, a more midday magazine coming up right here on WFHR,
locally grown radio.
