On The Supreme Court Debate And Dim Sum Give Some (Hour 1)

Quarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.

and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Tom Albault along with our outstanding producer and engineer, Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.

It is six past the hour of 12 noon on this Thursday, March 13th, 2025.

Glad to have you all along here on a beautiful day in downtown Madison.

Here on State Street, the sun is out.

It's a beautiful day.

Gonna hit 70 degrees in much of Wisconsin by tomorrow and then 30.

by Sunday.

Yes.

So that's how I've been here in the state of Wisconsin.

Glad to have you along.

Big show today.

It's an all day and day here on the Todd Hallball Show.

Zalbert, I'm very excited about this.

Are you?

Well, yes, of course.

We've got a lot of

great Dan's.

We have all kinds of great Dan's at 1230.

We're going to have him very excited about this.

Dan Jacobs is going to be here via StreamYard.

He is a great Milwaukee chef, of course, and he is going to be here talking about the great event called the Sixth Annual Din Some Give Some Charitable Event sponsored by Open Table in Milwaukee.

Which is, in case you're wondering, not run just by Dan Jacobs, but also Dan Fenwright.

So two Dan's there.

Two for one Dan.

But one Dan's going to join us from that event.

But yes, you're right.

A total of two Dan's with that event.

And of course, Dan Jacobs involved with Top Shelf as well.

So looking forward to talking about that.

I love cooking, of course.

But right now,

honored by yet another Dan, make it three Dan's we're talking about today, the one, the only, he's probably, well, he's probably, he's our favorite Dan, the political editor of Civic Media, and also the founder of the Reconbobulation Area.

the one the only Mr. Dan Schaefer live and in person.

How are you doing,

Dan?

Live and in person from the studios here in the world headquarters in Madison, joining the Alba show.

Thanks for having me, Todd.

Always a treat to join you.

Well, I love having you here because it's just fun doing it in person.

And we had a chance to hang out last night.

We were a part of the Up North News event.

on the election coming up on April 1st for the Supreme Court Justice Race.

Was that

one that's

happening, April 1st?

As if we haven't talked about it

enough.

No joking.

Yeah, no joking.

But it was really, I thought, a great evening.

And I hope that the listeners tuned in last night on Civic Media.

We appreciate our owner and CEO, Sage Wilde, for carrying that.

And for Pat Krightlow and all the people in Up North News Radio for putting it together.

It was just, I found it very educational.

For me, we talked about education.

about the economy, we talked about reproductive rights, and then the election at large, and then we had a watch party for the actual Supreme Court race.

It was quite an evening.

It was.

And, you know, I love coming to Madison for these types of events because nobody, no place in the world does civic engagement like Madison, Wisconsin.

It's like, what is it?

Like a 90% turnout

for elections, something like that.

And, you know, so many people showed up to this event.

It was really, really a great one and got to, you know, interact with the crowd a little bit as I started my panel, asking people if they were registered, if they'd been voting.

A lot of people are ready to vote, ready to get out there for this one.

And I guess I take a little bit for granted having me, I grew up an hour from here in Richland Center.

And so we come into Madison fairly frequently, but now having lived here the better part of 20, 25 plus years, when there are events like this, I guess I just take for granted people are going to show up.

And I mean, I don't want to overstate it.

There were at least 100, 150 somewhere in there.

Easily.

Folks that showed up in person right across the street at the Overture Center.

And I just found it interesting.

you saying, you know, this is not necessarily the norm in other places around Wisconsin.

Right.

Or anywhere in the world.

Like Madison, no place in, really in the country votes and gets out and gets after it quite like Madison does.

And it was super cool because there were a couple of young people I would say in high school that showed up last night as well.

I thought that was really cool that their parents brought them and they weren't just sitting there on their phones.

They were engaged and listening the entire time.

Yeah.

People, you know, I think there was some sort of connection with like a voter stuff tomorrow type of group and all of that.

And, you know, the youth vote in this

election is going to be important because it's, you know, it's not a presidential race, but turnout is such a factor.

You know, we're only going to get what, like half to.

two thirds of a turnout of what a presidential year is.

And that's really going to be really going to matter if young people show up to the polls too.

Yeah.

We could talk a little bit more about that as the half hour goes on here.

But let's get to the second part of the evening.

And that was the actual debate between Judge Susan Crawford and Judge Brad Schimmel, both running for Supreme Court on the April 1st ballot.

When you and I were standing there for most of it, watching it together with this group at the Overture Center that came for the Of North News event, I was struck by a couple of things.

I said this to you after the debate of all the debates I've seen.

I'm a pretty tough critic because I've prepared candidates from congressional races on down for a number of years, but I thought last night's debate from a moderator standpoint

They kept it in control, but they kept it moving.

And quite frankly, from both candidates giving real answers, I thought it was worth the better debates I've seen at any level for quite some time.

Yeah, I thought it was really well run.

It was substantive.

You got they touched on a lot of different issues.

It didn't get bogged down and some some sort of like personal jabs really between the candidates or anything like that.

You know, I would recommend that people take the time to sit down and watch that one if you're, you know, if you still have questions about this debate.

I also think Judge Susan Crawford, I thought she did a terrific job.

And I

think, you know, I thought she was really in command.

threw out the debate and was kind of put a shimmel on the defense.

But I think he was, there were some points where he was really reeling to try to scramble.

And, you know, there were some points that he just outright dodged the questions.

There were some points where he seemed to be kind of backpedaling on a certain number of questions as well.

But I thought, you know, with Crawford, like she's the candidate who's not as well known.

in this race.

Schimel has been the attorney general.

This is now the third time that he is running for a statewide race.

Wisconsin voters know him more than Crawford.

And we saw that in the Marquette polling last week when it was somewhere on 40% of people don't have an opinion on Schimel.

And it was something like 60, 65% on Crawford.

And so for the people who are getting to know Susan Crawford as we get to crunch time here in this race, I think this is a really

a great window for people to understand the type of candidate that she is, the background that she has, and the type of approach she could bring to the bench on the Wisconsin Supreme

Court.

Concerned for her only from the standpoint for the things you said that shimmel's been a statewide candidate a statewide office holder He's gone through this before and it can be very intimidating for anyone who hasn't gone through that stuff before and we haven't I mean, I know you've seen her you've been everywhere as Reporting this for civic media and for the recapobulation area you've seen her in person I am not I mean not in person but you have but my point is I haven't seen her in a in a long-form setting like that

Yeah, we've had her on the airwaves and a number of different shows across the civic media network over the past few months.

And, you know, there's also been some kind of like live and in-person events that she's been speaking at.

And I think she's starting to hit the groove

with

her campaign right now.

And I was at an event last week in Milwaukee at the Rotary Club of Milwaukee that put on in partnership with the Milwaukee Press Club.

That was an interview that I thought she did really well in.

It was also Matt Smith who moderated last night's debate on WISN 12.

Emily Fanon from CBS 58 was there.

So it was like real questions from real journalists.

I also saw her at an event with Derek Mosley at Marquette University Law School.

And I thought that one at the Rotary Club that she had last week.

It seems to really start to click into place for her.

She was in command of the room.

She was answering the questions well.

And I think that was the version of Susan Crawford who showed up for that debate last night.

Very well prepared.

At there were points where Shimmel didn't quite have an answer for things.

And Crawford was just right there with something ready to say, something prepared.

So she seemed a thousand times more prepared for that debate than Shimmel did.

No, I totally agree.

And I put it in more crass terms.

Like, well, it was the Zalmers last week.

I said, you know, I thought part of the reason the judge and now justice protest, which run ran.

One Todd talk won her race is because of that debate I thought she came across as the alpha candidate that she was in control that she knew what she wanted She wasn't afraid of it and I would say the same thing last night in the debate last night I thought Crawford came across as the alpha candidate who knew what she who she was what she believed wasn't gonna back down and was well-prepared I'm not trying to say that that she will had a disastrous debate But to your point there were a couple of things it was softballs like it was some former

Supreme Court Justice in Wisconsin would you most emulate and he couldn't he couldn't name anybody.

Yeah.

And it just seemed so, it was bizarre that those questions came right, right at the very end of the debate.

And it's just like, yeah, we'll throw a couple like, you know, fun questions or softball questions.

And the fact that he was like flummoxed by those, it just didn't, you know, didn't reflect well on him.

No.

And the other, the other question I thought that Crawford really knocked it, knocked it out of the park was name a case where you're ruling from the bench upset some of your supporters.

Crawford picked the case where.

After Walker got defeated, Governor Walker by Tony Evers, the Republican legislature passed a bunch of stuff to clip the power, essentially, of the governor.

That came to Crawford's bench or her court, and she ruled, basically, mostly in favor of Republicans because she said I might not have agreed with it, but it was constitutional.

And and Schimmel could not name one case in which that happened for him.

Yeah, and there was also the question that just seemed like an obvious question that was going to be asked in this type of debate on the case involving the 2020 election and the Trump campaign's challenge to essentially overturn the election results in Wisconsin.

It seemed really obvious that that would be a question.

It's been one of the single most consequential cases that the Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled on in recent memory, and it had a case where one of the three conservative justices, or four at the time, sided with the liberal wing of the court.

And Wisconsin's Supreme Court was the closest state court in the country deciding with the Trump campaign

in

its ridiculous 2020 election challenges.

Shimmel just seemed completely caught off guard by this question.

And like, if you're doing a short list of questions that you're going to get in this, in this debate, that would be on it.

But he just did not seem prepared for that at all.

And Crawford seemed

more

than

prepared.

I thought the only gaffin, it's a small one by watch for these things was when the moderators asked Judge Crawford about a case that involved one of these former sex offenders and she gave them a perceived light sentence of four years.

And the moderator said, do you regret that?

And immediately she said, no, I don't.

And then she went on to say, because I followed the law, you and I both know that's going to get clipped out as a TV ad and it's going to be taken out of context.

Yeah, absolutely.

But, you know, and that's the thing.

It's like these, you know, having debates about the ads, it's just that's a frustrating dynamic because everything is being, you know, because of the record spending in this race, like so much of the communication that people are seeing, like to the extent to which, you know, people are tuning in for this debate, there's probably far more people who are going to be seeing the ads.

for this as opposed to the debate.

So like, that is a factor to consider as well.

But at the same time, I think there's a number of things from that debate that Schimmel said that the Crawford campaign is going to be able to clip threads as well.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Like I said, that was the only, the only note I had for her for the entire debate was fairly minor.

I thought that if I was on a scorecard, which I didn't really do, I've done in the past, but if I was going to do a scorecard, I would say that Crawford was far, far away the winner.

I think the camp, you know, I've checked in with a couple sources.

I think the campaign is really happy with how the, how the debate went last night.

And as Jay Mattner said earlier, the far rights only criticism of Judge Crawford was that she didn't smile enough.

So that's the only criticism, you know, she must have done pretty well.

What did Dan Schaefer and I talk about after a couple of beverages last night?

Why might the Democrats be in trouble?

We'll give you the actual sober details after this on the Todd Hall balls show on the Civic Media Ready Network.

you

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man.

Milwaukee's best.

It's a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity.

Hey man, what about Milwaukee, man?

It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition.

I think God would want us to go to Milwaukee.

And it lies between the pit of a man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.

Think about Milwaukee.

This is the dimension of imagination.

You are now entering the Reconbobulation Area.

And let me tell you, when you're in the Reconbobulation Area, it's even better when the founder of the Reconbobulation Area is sitting next to you.

Welcome back to the show as 21 past the hour of 12 noon on Thursday, March 13th.

Zombers on the board dialing up the only introduction.

Well, the introduction that could only be followed by the one the only day in Shaffer founder of the Reconpopulation area and our political editor here at Civic Media.

It's such a joy to hear that.

Whenever Sommers plays that when I'm here on the Alba show, it's such a joy.

It's so fun to hear that.

It's incredibly goofy.

But exactly the type of type of comedy I enjoy.

It's the

ethos of the reconbobulation

area

unique, well thought out and based in Milwaukee, but applicable statewide.

Absolutely.

Well, we have a very discombobulating politics here in the state of Wisconsin.

We all need a place to recompobulate.

Absolutely.

Speaking of discombobulating money.

And I know we talked about this across the network and a lot of different shows, but.

I don't think a lot of people enjoyed the Citizens United case for years ago in the US Supreme Court, which said, hey, money is speech and you can't limit free speech.

And so pretty much now there are no limits on campaigns just to cut right to the bone.

And we're seeing this now Dan Schaefer in Wisconsin once again.

Yes, a lot of money being spent on both sides, but no one individual more so than Elon

Musk.

really came into play in a big way in the debate last night.

I think there was a lot of people wondering if this election is going to be a referendum on Elon Musk and on what he is doing in the Trump administration with Doge, which all of the other craziness that he is bringing to Washington DC.

And this was something we talked about in our panel discussion as well, talking about the economy, talking about the fact that Tesla is bringing a case that could make its way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

And I'm gonna read a quote from a friend of the show, friend of the network, Joseph Pecky, who had characterized this very well.

He was on last

night.

He was ready to go.

He came in ready to fire.

So he said there, I'm gonna read his quote, and you can check this video out that we just published at the Reconpopulation Area.

as well.

So he says there are rules and laws of political gravity.

The extraordinary opportunity that we have in Wisconsin in just two and a half weeks is to be the first voters anywhere in the United States to send a message that is stop.

That's enough.

This is not what people voted for.

And I think hearing that comment from Zappecki and then hearing, you know, hearing Susan Crawford.

talk about Elon Schimel in this race.

I think it is really driving.

That got the biggest reaction in the watch party that we're at in Madison, that's for sure.

That really seems to be emerging as the dominant theme in this election.

Because of course, there was a ton of spending in the 2023 race with Janet Protaseo.

There's been a ton of spending in this race, but there hasn't been that spending from somebody who is like right next to the seat of power.

and changing things.

And so if Elon thinks that he can buy a state supreme court in Wisconsin, what's to stop him from getting involved and throwing his money around in every race at every level across the country?

And I think this is such an opportunity for voters in Wisconsin to be, like Zepacky said, to be the people who were the first line of people to stand up and say, stop doing what you're doing.

I couldn't agree more with what Zappecki said.

I couldn't agree more with what you said, Dan Schaefer.

The only concerning part for me as a pessimistic former political operative is I think that only works if the Democratic base is ginned up and ready to go.

Because say this is going to be a referendum on Trump and Elon,

I say, be careful what you wish for, because you might get it, because there's a lot of the Trump-Maga base in Wisconsin that is still because the effects haven't hit them yet.

And

they actually like what's going on.

They like all the cuts at the federal level, because it hasn't affected them.

Perhaps other folks who have a broader view of this, to yours, the Peckys point, to say this is not who we should be,

those folks have to be ready to go and vote, and one of the most underreported things, and here's what you and I were talking about over a couple of glasses of beverages, which are not coffee, which we have now, is that Marquette Law School poll came out last week.

I thought one of the most underreported points in that, well, you tell folks what we talked

about.

Yeah, so one of the things, and I have written breakdowns at the Reconbibulation Area about the Marquette University Law School poll, and one of the things that really stood out to me,

from that poll was the favorability rating of the Democratic Party.

Now, you know, not of individual Democrats like Tony Evers or Tammy Baldwin or whoever it might be, but of people's views of the Democratic Party at large.

And that was the opinion, you know, polling for, for that was really low.

I think it was like 30 some percent favorable to 60 some percent unfavorable across the board.

And then.

with independence, I think it was something close to like 15 to 20 percent favorable of the Democratic Party.

Like the party has some real, real deep challenges.

And I think even people who are, you know, vote Democratic have a lot of frustration with what the Democratic Party is doing.

So if you look at kind of the favorability ratings in that poll, you know, Trump was pretty close to 50-50, maybe a couple of points underwater.

Elon was somewhere more like 10 to 15 points underwater.

The Democrats were somewhere like.

20 to 30 points underwater.

So it was like, Trump's not that popular.

Elon's not popular at all.

But the Democratic Party had even worse favorability ratings than either of

them.

And you talked to a lot of people at Dan Shaffer and some of your reporting.

I know you found out that Republicans are ready to go.

MAGA is ready to go.

And they are doing doors in places you might not think.

Yeah, I think that was part of their strategy last fall in the election to not, you know, to compete in places like Milwaukee and Madison and Dane County and places that

Yeah, they know they're going to lose overall and not probably win a majority of votes.

But if they can cut into those margins a little bit, and we've heard stories of some of these Elon canvassers coming into some very blue districts, very blue neighborhoods in Madison and Milwaukee trying to cut into those margins.

And there are persuadable voters if you get out there and talk to people.

So I think over the last couple of weeks, it's really seemed like the Crawford campaign has been revving things up.

getting Ben Wickler back into Wisconsin and back into the fold.

And some of these, uh, some of these efforts, uh, you know, seems to be having an impact on that as well.

Uh, but you know, this is, this is going to be a close tight race.

And, uh, there's going to be, you know, I would expect even, even though we're past the threshold of most expensive state court race in history, like there's no stopping Elon from dumping another 20 million into this over the next few weeks.

And that is just debobulating.

But

Dan Schaefer, always great to have you here for the Recobobulation Area.

You make us feel better.

You help us understand it.

You can find all of his work at the Recobobulation Area and at Civic Media as well.

Thanks, Dan.

Have a great day.

You as well.

Thanks.

All right.

Stay tuned.

Another great Dan next.

Dan Jacobs talking about a great event in Milwaukee around food and a great cause.

Stay with us right here on the Civic Media.

Ready to work.

Don't stop

on the Civic Media Radio Network 34 now, past the hour of 12 noon on this Thursday, March 13th, 2025.

Zombers on the board dialing up by request off the Spotify list of our next guest.

You know him, you love him, especially if you're a foodie.

person in Wisconsin.

He has a renowned restaurateur in the Milwaukee area and has been on national shows like Top Chef and Beat Bobby Flay, but he is also here as a part of Main Street Alliance and talking about a charitable organization that he and others are part of.

We welcome Chef Dan Jacobs via StreamYard from Milwaukee.

Chef Jacobs, how are you?

I'm good.

How are you guys?

This is great.

Thanks for having me on.

Well, we are very excited.

I'm very excited.

I'm a foodie kind of guy.

I have the Food Network on.

I have the cooking channel on a lot.

I wish I were a better cook, a better chef, but I enjoy doing it.

But I enjoy others who are like yourself.

But, you know, we're all across the state of Wisconsin here on 11 different stations.

For those people, maybe that aren't in Southeast Wisconsin or who are not foodies, tell us just a little bit about yourself.

where you grew up and how you got into cooking?

Sure.

You know, I grew up in the Chicago land area, grew up in the city.

I moved, me and my wife moved to Milwaukee in 2011.

So we've been here about 14 years, it'll be 14 years next month.

Worked around, you know, in a lot of restaurants in Chicago growing up, and then four or five restaurants here in Milwaukee, and me and my partner, Dan Van Wright, opened up.

Dan Dan and Esther have nine years ago, which is crazy just stay out loud It just seems like time has flown But you know, we have Dan Dan Chinese American restaurant kind of a love letter to my childhood growing up like all major life events were at Chinese restaurants it seemed and You know, I think my happy place is you know, Chinese American food It's just something that comforts me and makes me happy in my thought

is that if it makes me happy, it's going to make other people happy.

So that's how kind of Dan Dan got it to start.

And then Esther Ev, our other restaurant is named after my great-grandmother Esther and Dan's grandmother Evelyn.

These are the women that cook for our families.

We honor them by naming that restaurant after them.

That restaurant kind of goes with a

a lot of, you know, it kind of just goes in different directions.

Like it allows, you know, complete creativity.

We can kind of put anything on the menu we want, which is really just kind of fun.

And it's a tasty menu and it really showcases, I think, some of, you know, showcases our creativity to the public.

It's just, it's a fun restaurant.

We also don't really take ourselves too seriously, like, although the food may be serious.

Um, one bathroom and estra is inspired by the Simpsons and Grateful Dead and the other bathrooms inspired by Star Wars and comic books.

So I love it.

I absolutely love it.

Oh, something you said, I

a couple sentences back that has come to soulful cooking from your grandmother.

I know that both of my grandmothers were great cooks.

They made food that made me feel better.

It was just part of our family.

And one of the most obscure cooking shows I ever saw, but one of the coolest and something I'll never forget, William Shatner had a short lived, I'm not sure if it was streaming or it was on some channel, where it was a brown bag, something.

He would bring a brown bag of a drink, alcohol, and then have a chef cook with him.

And he did this with Alton Brown one time.

And Alton Brown made him like this gravy in biscuits and they were just talking.

And Alton Brown said, you know, I don't like to be called a chef.

I'm a cook.

I cook because I cook for people.

That in the essence is what it's about cooking for the people that you love and making them happy.

And I just, when you said that, that really struck a nerve.

I mean, food is one of those things that has the ability to kind of, you know, cross all cultures, cross all.

you know, political divides, it's just, it's, the table is a way to bring people together.

And it's, I think it's one of the most beautiful things that we do.

Food has the ability to change people's, you know, view on the day.

It can come in a bad attitude or a bad mood.

And I think the greatest thing we could do is turn that bad mood around into a good mood.

It's one of, I think it's one of the coolest things you could do with food.

food is the gateway to so many different cultures.

It's how we learn about a culture is through food.

So I think food is just one of those, you know, things that's, and it's also, it's great because you never stop learning, you know, as a chef to, or a person just to have a career where I'm going to perpetually learn is great.

Like right now, was it we have my friend, Rosika, in town was on top chef with, and her food is

Tamil, Southern Indian, and it's very, it's very out of our comfort zone here.

And it's great because our team here at Dandan is going to learn so much this weekend about a cuisine that we don't know anything about.

And that's great.

That's, that's what food's all about.

I couldn't agree more.

I, you know, as a kid growing up in a 98% white town in Southwest Wisconsin and taking, you know, lots of trips to El Salvador over the years and the beauty and the simplicity of Salvadoran food and learning about that culture through food is one of the things that makes me the happiest to, to this very day.

I can't, you can't be a chicharron papusa, but that's another bottle of wine or, or, or, or drink.

One of my favorite things, one of my favorite things ever after twosas, like I literally lived off of them.

It's

just the best and like talking about an inexpensive way to keep yourself alive.

Yeah.

Papusas.

If you're not familiar, it's basically I'll put it in Todd terms.

It's like a stuffed tortilla and then they grill on a flat top and then you serve it with portillo and which is kind of a cabbage and then some some mild red sauce.

And it's you eat it with your real self adorned eat it with your hands also.

You don't use a fork and knife.

So it's beautiful.

It's great.

And

it's

And it's like all those kids who love their fermented stuff.

That fermented cabbage salad that goes on top of it is the

best.

I could eat a jar of it.

All right, let's talk a little bit about this event.

Coming up here, the sixth annual dim sum gives some charitable event sponsored by Open Table.

This is something that's very personal to you.

And tell us, Chef Dan Jacobs, what this is all about.

So yeah, during our like the run up to opening of Dandan in 2016, I was diagnosed with a rare neuromuscular disease called Kennedy's disease.

Kennedy's disease is very similar to ALS.

It's a degenerative disease where I am slowly, you know, losing abilities that I think, you know, I just up until

that started like holding onto things like these are things that are have become progressively more difficult like you can hear it in my voice too it's like you hear it in the like it's almost like a gravelliness in my voice and that's directly related to the muscles in my vocal cords um and how they're deteriorating um it's it's it's stuff and then being a chef is like you know this is a physical job and so you know it's it's great it's really kind of changed a lot of how I work um

But I think it was like the second time I went back for a checkup.

And when I realized that nothing, I thought, I was like, OK, cool, we're going to go back to this checkup.

They're going to give me a pill.

There's going to be a treatment.

We'll start working on something.

Well, there is nothing.

Having a rare disease is one of those super great things where there is no real treatment sometimes for these things.

And I remember I was very angry for an evening.

you know, I kind of cursed the world.

And then the next day, me and my wife, Kate, kind of really, you know, we kind of brainstormed things that we could do.

And so in became in some give some became like this annual event, I think we're, I think we've raised, you know, in the neighborhood of $110,000 or $120,000 this year is going to be our biggest event ever.

You know, we have over 30 chefs from

all over the country.

We're returning almost all, but I believe three of the Top Chef contestants from the season that I was on that season 21.

We have chefs from Chicago, chefs from Madison, from Milwaukee.

from Minneapolis like it's just kind of uh it's become this really big event so you know we're trying to raise you know through thankfully to our partners with OpenTable we're we're gonna hopefully raise upwards of you know 40 to 45 thousand dollars this year which would be our biggest amount we've ever raised in a one year.

I also side note there's this woman in Texas who outraises me for the KDA that's where all the funds go the Kennedy's Disease Association.

I am not a competitive person until a competition starts.

And then all of a sudden I'm like, I need to out raise this woman.

Like I was like, I can't believe this woman beats me every year.

So like,

this is my, this is my attempt to beat her.

I think that's fantastic.

You again, you know, my, my, my paternal grandmother had something called scleroderma, which is a rare neuromuscular disease.

And she kind of had the same she for a while was angry.

And then she said, you know, why not me?

and she became an advocate.

And I think that, you know, I hear that your passion, your voice, and I think this is just remarkable.

And obviously, very sore this has happened to you, but what you're doing to bring awareness and even better to raise these moneys to help find a cure and to treat this is remarkable.

Tell folks how they can get involved and be a part of this, Dan.

So, I mean, you can head over to Dan Dan's Open Table website if you want to book a ticket.

It is going to be

Sunday, April 13th from noon to three, it's going to be a walk around event.

So you can, you can really just walk around and sample, you know, 30 different chef's foods, stuff that you would never, you know, people that you might never have been to their restaurants before.

I mean, it's going to be a really, really fun event.

A lot of, a lot of music, a lot of good times.

We'll do some raffles.

We'll, you know, it's, it's just always kind of a real nice party atmosphere.

And then I attempt to make you all cry by the end of it with some sort of speech.

I think

better.

That'll happen as well.

Absolutely.

And we love our Wisconsin chefs or Wisconsin restaurants, but you're bringing in folks from all around the country, New York, New York, Durham, North Carolina, Chicago, Houston, and the list goes on and on.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's just really cool.

I mean, that's one of the things like chefs in the, you know, we have this

we have this bond and I think it's one of the coolest things if somebody asks for help everybody jumps in and it's not it's not just here I mean it's everywhere like I think every chef has this thing in them where they just want to help other people but I mean I think it's part of what draws

people like that to this industry.

Like it's it's definitely one of those things where we think we really enjoy helping our fellow chefs out.

I mean, we love helping anybody out.

But I think especially when it comes to our fellow chefs, we really jump in.

We're talking to chef Dan Jacobs of Milwaukee talking about his six annual event coming up dim sum gives some charitable event sponsored by open table.

We'll put all the details in our show notes will Mr. Zomer is our great producer, how you could get involved will continue to remind people as that date approaches as well.

Dan tell us a little

You're a part of this group called Main Street Alliance.

We've talked about it on this show before, but tell folks just briefly what this organization is.

I know you have a Day of Action coming up on March 18th.

Yeah, on March 18th, we have this Day of Action coming up.

So the Main Street Alliance is basically, they cultivate a network of entrepreneurs connecting them with resources to build sustainable enterprises and uplift their communities.

The Main Street Alliance membership drives state federal policymaking that gives a fair shot to small businesses and strengthens local economies nationwide.

The MSA represents 3,000 small business owners nationally in 2000 right here in the state of Wisconsin.

Basically we come together in

Madison, we meet with our local representatives and we tell them stuff that I think truly matters to small businesses.

Some of the things that I think are really needed at a state level, childcare investments, our childcare system is in crisis, and this has been a longstanding problem.

This isn't something that's just happening.

the workforce, childcare workforce is behind and fleeing for better paying jobs, honestly.

Like they're underpaid and they want to do something else.

Facilities are being forced to close, which raises rates due to the economic pressures, which is as a result, kids, parents and our economy are all struggling.

Small businesses are taking a particular hit.

Half of us want business owners named childcare access and cost is one of our top issues.

We see it right here at Dan Van, you know, one of our executive sous chefs.

He's got a daughter, his wife works, he works.

And I think our, you know, his main, it's one of these things where he has to choose or his wife has to choose whether or not to work.

or to have childcare because it's almost a push.

And if we want to stimulate the economy and stimulate growth and stimulate sales tax, this is a great way to do it.

If you can support the childcare industry and create a system that's a little bit more cost effective, it creates and stimulates jobs, people spending money, making that sales tax.

I think it's like almost a known brainer.

The other thing that I'm going to speak real quickly on is paid family, paid.

family medical leave.

You know, we have our general manager here at Dandan right now is on maternity leave.

We gave her four weeks of paid maternity leave plus six plus her two weeks of paid vacation that she's using up.

So total six weeks.

This is money that we are giving out of our pocket.

We have no no recourse on this money.

It's not covered by anything.

And you know, this is a high level employee.

And I think even from somebody who doesn't have children and you know, I whatever I

I see this as such an important thing.

Like in early childhood development, you need that family unit together.

And I think there's no way that we wouldn't do that.

But the fact that we're alone and our industry doesn't guarantee any sort of paid family leave.

It would be great to be able to do that.

You find more information at Main Street Alliance about their day of action on March 18th.

And don't forget to check out Esther Ev and Dan Dan when you're in Milwaukee, Chef Dan Jacobs.

Thank you very much.

We appreciate your time.

Welcome back anytime.

Thank you so much.

Our pleasure.

Dan Jacobs, everybody.

Stay tuned.

Hour number two, including what's worse straight ahead on the title of all show on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Wherever it may lead, and having fun doing it, welcome back to the Town of All's show on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Glad to have you along in this nine minutes before the hour of one o'clock.

First of all, how about Dan Jacobs?

Well, Dan Jaffer too.

It's a day of Dan's.

But Dan Jacobs, here's a guy who is a, we didn't have time to get into.

He appeared on Beat Bobby Flay and Top Chef.

But he lived such a full life, we didn't even have time to get into that because here's just a remarkable person who was a great award-winning chef.

He had something unforeseen happen to him in this Kennedy's disease and instead of just sitting around feeling sorry for himself, he says, no, I'm gonna be a guy of action, a person of action.

and now is raising over $100,000 to help defeat this thing.

And he has a positive attitude, and he's just a remarkable person to talk to.

Yeah, that's the best way to respond to adversity is to shine a beacon on it, to ask for help, and to take action to help other people with the same problem.

Yeah.

Chef Dan Jacobs really, really appreciate.

He's a busy guy and took time for us.

Esther Ev and Dan Dan are his two restaurants in Milwaukee.

If you get down there, please check them out.

They're absolutely fan Dan Tastic.

There you go.

As it turns out.

Number two, you know, the block that he was just in, it ends at 10 till basically.

I'm used to those interviews going to the top of the hour.

That's why I said hour two is straight ahead.

And I partner walked out and went to the bathroom during that break.

I realized, well, wait, I got 10 more minutes to do before the top of the hour.

It was all it was this close to being the Aaron Zahmer show.

Just for a few minutes, just for a few minutes.

Some breaking news for you courtesy of CBS News.

And yes, I guess I shouldn't say I guess it's good news, but I just feel for all these federal employees and and the ripple effect it will have on services and the ripple effect it will have on the economy.

Now here yet another turn, according to CBS News just breaking, a federal judge in California has ordered six federal agencies to reinstate probationary employees who were fired last month, finding that their terminations by the Office of Personnel Management were unlawful.

U.S.

District Judge William Olsup

in San Francisco handed down his order in a challenge brought by a group of unions against the Trump administration from the bench.

He said that neither OPM nor its acting director Charles Ezel had the authority to direct determinations across the agencies.

The order extends relief to fired workers in the Department of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury.

Alsup went on to say, quote, it's a sad, sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well, that is a lie.

Alsup said at the end of the hearing on the union's request for a preliminary injunction, the judge went on to say that, quote, that should not have been done in our country.

It was a sham.

in order to avoid statutory requirements."

The judge who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton noted that federal law allows for agencies to engage in a, quote, reduction in force, unquote, the government's name for mass layoffs, but doing so comes with several requirements.

The judge said, quote, it can be done if, if it's in accordance with the law.

This case is not about that.

What this case is about is really an attempt to do a reduction in force, unquote, through OPM.

He said that having OPM, the federal government's chief human resource agency, directed departments to fire probationary workers was, quote, an easy way to get a reduction in force underway and a gimmick, unquote.

I think we played it before in the show from gypsy.

You got to have a gimmick

if you

want to get ahead The judge just calling this a gimmick, which is exactly what it is We've talked about on this program before and my colleagues have as well It's all fair and good to have audits of government agencies to find out hey can something be done more efficient Do we really need this many people here?

doing this job or now with new technology can be done by fewer.

Are there some agencies or divisions that have outlasted their usefulness?

Those are all legitimate questions to be had.

But instead of using the scalpel, as the judge said, instead of going through the lawful review process of how you do that, you just take this mass action.

without regard.

And here's the big mistake that Elon made in saying, telling these people that they're being fired or their performance.

When many of them either A had in writing reviews of their performance, which said they were doing great, and or they had actually been promoted to new jobs.

because they were doing so well at their old job, they were promoted to new jobs, and that's why they were quote unquote probationary employees because they had been at their new job, which they got due to their great performance for less than a year.

And I think that's where Musk really messed up in saying we're firing you basically for cause for poor performance, but when the judge is looking at this, he's saying, well, where's the poor performance?

Turns out, if you just fire a bunch of people without actually looking at all at what they do or why they're there, it's not going to turn out so good.

No.

What you got yourself there is a gimmick, which is exactly what the judge said.

You kind of have a gimmick if you want to get ahead.

Well, Elon tried his gimmick.

Didn't get him ahead as it turned out.

Now our two is straight ahead.

What's worse is next.

Stay tuned.

ABC and CBS news updates are next.

It's the Town Hall Ball Show right here across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.