Live from the Civic Media World Headquarters 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 Alba, along with an outstanding producer and engineer, Mr. Aaron Zommers, on the board.
It is six past the hour of two o'clock on this Monday, back to work, back to school, April 28th, 2025.
It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite here at the World Headquarters of Civic Media, downtown Madison.
Overcast, say very high overcast guys, partly sunny, some may call it here in downtown Madison.
Big show for you today.
Gonna talk about some of the news headlines over the weekend.
Take a look at what's happening to Washington, D.C., your calls as well.
And gonna talk sports with our sports reporter, Mike Clemens, in just a moment, but Mr. Zomber is first of all...
We have to get right to a special weather statement.
Eyes to the sky today will tell you the current temperatures.
It's 74 degrees right now in Madison, Wisconsin.
Contrast that to 42 in superior right now.
So quite the quite the contrast across the state of Wisconsin.
So of course that sets up a weather situation.
Let's get right to a special weather statement at this hour, particularly affecting our listeners in the FHR in the Wisconsin Rapids area and also over in WCFW, the TAP over in the Chippewa Valley area.
This is the National Weather Service, a strong thunderstorm impacting parks of Clark.
And Jackson counties just finishing up in those counties right now a while ago a strong storm was just over Black River Falls moving northeast at 55 miles per hour with this storm wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour and half in jail This is a radar Indicator indicated storm as far as impacts gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects minor
damage to vegetation is also
possible.
And so whether service asking people in the path of the storm to head indoors considers taking shelter in an inside building can tell you looking at live weather radar right now that storm they've been tracking is moving as we say 55 miles per hour.
It's now right around the the Neilsville area and heading towards Marshfield.
So people the Marshfield McMillan Stratford area.
This is just south and west of Warsaw.
The storm seems to be heading on track to
go pretty close, not directly into the Wausau area, so people will see NWXCO up in Wausau area.
Be aware, this storm is moving towards you.
The storm that was just south and east of Nicosia and Wisconsin Rapids, that is now mostly heavy rain as most of the thunderstorm activity has dissipated.
Not a severe storm at this point, but there is a very strong thunderstorm over the Sparta area moving towards Tomah right now, just to the east of La Crosse area.
And then just north and west of Osceo and kind of more towards the just east of Eau Claire to their cell there.
So be aware, keep an eye to the sky.
What's going to happen is as these clouds and parts of Wisconsin dissipate, that allows the sun to come in, which unfortunately on a day like today is a bad thing because that's going to make the air less stable.
And that has the potential of fueling these storms across the state of Wisconsin.
later on this afternoon and then even into the overnight hours tonight.
So keep your radios tuned to your favorite weather source or if you have a weather alert system on your phone, your weather radio, keep it intact.
Again, some places are going to see nothing.
Other places may see some very, very strong storms and severe weather.
We want to keep you updated here at Civic Media.
10 past the hour of two o'clock.
Let's go right now to our top story of the day.
It took Wisconsin by storm.
That's the NFL draft held in Green Bay over the weekend.
No one covered it better.
No one gave us the play by play better than our sports reporter, Mike Clemens, from Lambeau Field all week long.
He's kind enough to join us via phone.
Mike Clemens, have you recovered from the big NFL draft?
Maybe by Wednesday or Thursday or so.
A lot of hours and stuff, but good stuff.
You know, the best thing too about our stations to our civic media stations is because you get these updates from Brittany or Corey or the rest of the staff and whether it's on the app or just going across the state, you know, 23 stations, because I'm driving between Green Bay and Milwaukee and Madison and, you know, cover the teams.
It helps me plan out like, all right, I better get an early start to go on the draft.
Except for that cold rainy day Friday this thing drew 600,000 fans incredible second only to When it was in Nashville and Nashville was such a great backdrop on TV with the national bars the country music Everything that they had going on there.
That was back in 2019 over 600,000 fans even with that bad date you realize Now that in just three days Green Bay and the draft drew more people than it takes
10, 11 days through either Summerfest or the Wisconsin State Fair.
Wow.
That's
a huge draw,
right?
Yeah.
And how cool was it just, I mean, for those of us who weren't working it like you were, Mike, to watch this on, I spent a lot of my time on ABC, flipped back to ESPN a little bit, but to see all these Wisconsin references, to hear the Packers mentioned so often, I mean, just what a great boom for Wisconsin, the Green Bay, Greater Green Bay, Fox Valley area.
Yeah, so you know the Packers wait they don't trade up They wait till the their their time comes up at the rule of the 23rd draft overall on Thursday night in the first round and they take this Matthew Golden kid out of Texas 429 speed really fast good hands as well has to be if the Packers are gonna Use you know a first round pick on a wide receiver.
They had not done that since was it 2002 that they drafted Given Walker.
Yeah, it's been so long
Since the Packers used the first round pick that Brett Farve and Aaron Rodgers are waiting for on a wide receiver, that the kid that they picked, Matthew Golden wasn't even born then.
I love it.
That's how long it's been.
And, you know, he was on a lot of people's death charts, but there were some other moves that were made up there, so he was still on the board.
And so Goody can see that.
And then he used his third pick, his third round pick on another wide receiver out of TCU, saving you on Williams.
Now, how's this for Karma?
We said, so how do you think you'll get along with Matthew Golden?
He says, you know, when you're in college and then sometimes they come to you and say, Hey, we've got some, you know, some high school seniors that are looking at, you know, considering schools, could you put one up for the night?
Guess who we put up for the night.
Matthew golden.
Wow.
Wow.
And I'll hear the three years later, they're going to be teammates.
Yeah.
So just all kinds of stories.
So, you know, Mark Murphy with that terrific announcement.
to tell, you know, 200,000 people Thursday night.
All right, with the 23rd pick, the Green Bay Packers, we've taken a wide receiver and people get all white, you know, crazy.
And then that kid comes out with the gold coat and this Matthew Golden.
I mean, like seven, eight years ago, Todd, him and his mom are living in the back of a Walmart.
Wow.
Family took him in
in the
Houston area to help him get through high school to qualify to get into college.
Played at Houston, then he transferred to Texas, to the Longhorns.
They had an offensive program that's a little bit better.
And then this one that they picked in the third round, Savian Williams from TCU, that's a huge passing program.
And I was checking out their season last year.
They were throwing the ball anywhere from 35 to
50 times a game, and he played a lot of quarterback in high school.
I asked him about it on the Zoom call that we had, and so he's kind of a gadget.
He's six foot four, same size as Christian Watson.
Not as fast, like 4-4 speed, but you know, the scouts, they kind of remind you of Cordell Patterson, the former Viking and Patriots, who he could be a kick returner, that he could be a wildcat guy.
He threw a touchdown pass out of the wildcat last year for TCU.
So a versatile guy that Matt will force excited about, because I can use this guy in a jet sweep, I can use him for a variety of ways in the backfield.
Really, and you talk about these stories.
We're talking to Mike Clemens, our sports reporter here at Civic Media, who was at the draft all week long, long doing Yeoman's work for us reporting on the draft.
You talk about these stories, Mike.
And that's, we had Brandon Ewingon, the brother of Brady Ewing, former Badger and NFL player.
He talked about what it was like from a family perspective and watching your brother get drafted and the impact.
And that for me, I think, is one of my favorite parts of watching the draft are these
behind the scenes stories of what some of these kids have come up from and through.
And one of the great stories, and I want to, if you can talk a little bit about this guy, Baron Sorrell, who waited around, who was there on night one and two, but never got drafted.
And then he makes a surprise appearance, it was third or fourth round, and gets drafted.
I thought that was a great story.
And if there's anything I'm a little bit critical of.
is like, why only 16 players showed up for the first round on Thursday night when there's 32 teams picking?
And if you're the fans, you know, you're standing out there, I mean, that's what you want.
You want to see these players in person and their moment.
And so many of these guys like to stay home.
Is it because they don't want to be embarrassed?
Part of it is because I don't think they can afford it.
But this Barry and Sorrell out of Texas, he asked his dad, like,
Listen, I think I'm going to go in the second or third round.
Can we go to Green Bay?
So they had to pay for it and they brought along the family.
They had like eight people.
He didn't get picked Friday night.
So then they said, well, we might as well stay.
We're here, right?
I don't mind when I go.
I want that moment on the stage.
So then all of a sudden, Roger Goodell, he's got other people filling in, and they didn't have that many former players reading off names this weekend either.
But when Goodell finds out, hey, this next kid coming up here at 124 in the fourth round, is actually, he's in the green room, commissioner.
Oh, I'll read this.
So he goes out with a card, and he says, Barry and Sorrell, the Green Bay Packers select, Barry and Sorrell from Texas, and he's here, and he came out.
and brian good akin to gm said i had no idea who's in town i just right he was the next player my draft board you know we we needed to defend event a rush guy so then surrel after he gets his his shirt and his cap and a hug from the commissioner he goes walking across the street he goes inside lambo field
while
he does a lambo leap and then he comes and sees us
up there in the podium in the media auditorium and the family shuffles in and after he talks about you know his visit he had with the Packers what he did it you know as a past rusher for Texas and six sacks last year and 44 tackles then they said but you've got a lot of family here and friends that must mean a lot to you he breaks down crying I mean he for a minute because it's that passionate and at the end of the day
the packer scouts keep telling you over and over again you know you can run a great time at the combine you can lift weights you can have you know x amount of stats and break school records but we're looking for guys that not only love football but they need football they need football because those are the guys when you get them into green bay they're going to continue to work and improve they're not going to just stop working when they get their first couple of million dollars
They are adamant about about getting to a Super Bowl.
Yeah.
Jason Willte had a story at Channel 3000 over the weekend.
This quote from Matt LaFleur.
I'm sure you were there for as well.
I thought this really epitomized this Baron Surrell kid.
Well, Fleur said quote of this kid.
He said he's a big time culture guy.
We had a couple of guys from Texas come through here before the draft.
We always ask these guys, who are the best practice players?
Or if you're going to go to a team, who are you bringing with you?
They consistently, unanimously, always pointed to him.
I think that speaks volumes not only the type of player he is, but the type of teammate and type of person and competitor he is.
I thought that was a great quote.
His teammate was the number one pick.
Man, keep going.
I just thought that that gave me chills to hear that because, I mean, that's the kind of guy we want at Green Bay, right?
I mean, those are the kind of competitors you want for any team.
But I mean, it's really cool that Green Bay picks him up.
I want to make sure we get to the bucks.
But just your 30 second wrap, Mike Clemens, how do you grade the Packers overall draft this year?
It's a pack or draft.
I'll give it a B B plus hey, I'll take that whether that gets them over the top You know and give me six months to figure
that
out.
Yeah, about a minute left here News broke about 30 minutes ago bucks confirm Dame is out the rest of the season torn ACL bucks just seem to be snake bit
Yeah, the last night it's in the first quarter and the Bucks were go back on the defense and to me looking at the tape Todd it looked like Dame's right foot kind of slipped a little bit on the court He went to catch himself with the left foot.
He ends up pairing his left Achilles tendon So he had the blood clot in the right leg now it's a left tendon.
He could be out a year He turns 35 this summer bucks over 113 million dollars
It's a mess.
It's a mess.
You always help us straighten out.
Thanks, Mike Clemens.
Have a great day.
We'll check in with you soon live.
Mike Clemens, our sports reporter on the draft.
Stay tuned.
More after this on the All Bulls show in Civic Media.
Having fun doing it.
Welcome back to the title of all show on the Civic Media Ready Network, 22 now past the hour or two o'clock on a Monday afternoon, the 28th of April, 2025.
Glad to have you along.
Thanks to Mike Clemens.
Many thanks.
Our great sports reporter, Mike Clemens.
And I'm sure he had a great time, but I think a lot of how, oh, you know, you get to be at the draft.
I mean, lucky you.
You have it easy.
You get paid to do that.
And I know he loves it.
But I think a lot of people don't understand, particularly a guy like Mike.
I didn't have time to ask him, but I bet he wasn't just meandering around, having hot dogs.
I mean, they're in, I mean, because it was held in Green Bay, he told us this last week, they're in kind of their usual room, like in Lambo.
I don't know if there's any windows or not, and they're working.
They're working their rear ends off to, to get these cuts, to get these stories.
And sure, it's cool that you're there, but.
I mean, just nobody works harder at these things and has the inside track better than Mike Clemens.
And we
just, we appreciate him so very
much.
Keeping the inside track on anything, but I mean, I would say particularly modern sports with the celebrity status of so many athletes, it really takes a lot of work to cultivate those relationships.
And basically you just have to always be on top of it and always be in the right place at the right time.
And.
It's a skill that he's developed.
No, he's, uh, he's fantastic.
We always appreciate him stopping by Mike Clemens.
Uh, as we said, the bucks, just to clarify may have slipped up on the, on the other side, but it was confirmed about a half hour ago by the Bucks organization that Damian Lillard has a torn ACL
or Achilles.
I said,
I said ACL, it's a torn Achilles.
So, so, uh, thank you very much.
I appreciate the, uh, the, the clarification.
There's armor.
So, uh, wow, as we said,
with Mike.
I mean, this team, the Bucks, they're just, this is a must-get-win game now in Tuesday in Indianapolis.
So we'll see.
As Yana said earlier, one of Mike's reports, they have a great attitude.
Next man up, you gotta find a way to win, but their backs are against the wall and lots of money on the table, as Mike said, and now Dame out for well into next year.
if not the entire year.
So we shall see, but the Milwaukee Brewers have the day off, travel day for them.
They're going kind of sort of back home, back to the Midwest, but going to Chicago.
They start a three game series with the Chicago White Sox tomorrow night.
Across the civic media brewers ready network 605 pregame show in Richland Center, Oshkosh Park Falls Heyward racing Kenosha brewers taking on the white socks for three games starting tomorrow at 605 and then finally They're back in Milwaukee on Friday For a series against the dreaded Chicago Cubs the cubbies in town starting on Friday So brewers gotta win last night.
Hopefully they could continue on into Chicago
tomorrow night Want to get into a couple of newsy things for you over the weekend?
Gonna talk about we started this on Friday major things ahead for Congress because sometimes some of these more politically media sexy things Take precedent and we're gonna get into that But I want to start with 60 minutes For those of you who watch the broadcast still one of the most highly rated programs
on television 60 minutes every night on the Tiffany Network, CBS.
In the last minute, Scott Pelley, longtime 60 minutes correspondent at one time, the Evening News anchor on CBS.
And he closed the show.
We're going to play it and we're going to talk about it here.
60 minutes.
Pardon me.
Here's Scott Pelley in the last minute of 60 minutes.
In tonight's last minute, a note on Bill Owens, who, until this past week, was executive producer of 60 Minutes.
He was our boss.
Bill was with CBS News nearly 40 years, 26 years at 60 Minutes.
He covered the world, covered combat, the White House.
His was a quest to open minds, not close them.
If you've ever worked hard for a boss because you admired him,
then you understand what we've enjoyed here.
Bill resigned Tuesday.
It was hard on him and hard on us, but he did it for us and you.
Stories we pursued for 57 years are often controversial.
Lately, the Israel Gaza War and the Trump administration.
Bill made sure they were accurate and fair.
He was tough that way.
But our parent company Paramount is trying to complete a merger.
The Trump administration must approve it.
Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways.
None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.
No one here is happy about it, but in resigning, Bill proved one thing.
He was the right person to lead 60 minutes all along.
I'm Scott Pele.
We'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes.
And thus close last night's episode of 60 Minutes on CBS last night, the great Scott Pele.
I thought it was particularly well written and delivered as Pele always does.
I just, I really fell in love with Scott Pele's delivery and anchoring abilities during the 2016 election.
when he was anchoring the CBS News because he really stepped in to this, in my opinion, Edward R. Murrow-esque role.
Of course, Edward R. Murrow, the longtime CBS man who ended up losing his job because back in his day, he took on the company basically for similar reasons.
And then that, the book, I was a book first in the movie, Good Night and Good Luck.
And now it's a Broadway show with George Clooney and the title character.
out in New York.
And so there's a history at CBS of people just saying the intelligent like it is.
And we talked about this at the last week, but for this to come to a head over the weekend and for 60 minutes and Pelle to say this on the air, on their own network and call out their own network, I thought was extraordinary.
I thought it took courage and it was refreshing.
And kudos to them.
We're going to come back and talk about this.
855-752-4842.
Your calls are welcome.
855-752-4842.
What does this really mean in the context of what Trump's plans are long term?
What does it mean for democracy?
Come on back.
Stay tuned now.
A little egg update, sports and weather.
You're listening to the Tonal Ball Show on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back to this unalmost show of the Civic Media Ready number 35 now past the hour of 2 o'clock on Monday, April 28th.
Kind of a chill vibe there, Zombers.
What do you dial up?
Truth and honesty by Aretha Franklin.
Oh, very nice.
I didn't know that was the beginning of truth and honesty.
Wow.
See, I learned something every day just from our great producer, Aaron Zombers.
Think what you can learn.
No, most of the people tuning in probably have a better music knowledge than I do.
But it's always, that's one of my favorite parts.
Occasionally, Zommer's will surprise me.
And sometimes it'll be a good song.
And most of the time it is.
Most of the time it is.
Sometimes it's not.
A quick weather update for you as Brittany Merleau there in the break talked about very unsettled weather today across the state of Wisconsin.
Current temperatures, 74 degrees here in the capital city of Madison, Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, in Superior, Wisconsin, it's 42.
And that is absolutely fertile breeding ground for bad weather.
Oh, yeah.
So anyway, I want to update you particularly this is for our listeners in the Wasa area WXCO and also our listeners in the
Wisconsin Rapids area as well.
Strong storms looking to live weather radar right now.
We have a strong cell literally just moving over the city of Wasaw proper right now.
And then behind that, there's another kind of larger cell, almost a line really that goes from Abbotsford down through say McMillan and then Marshfield area all the way down to Pittsville, which is just
West of Wisconsin Rapids these storms are moving to the east northeast around 55 mile probably 50 miles per hour and have produced up to a half inch size hail So it's just under the technically the severe thunderstorm They have to have 75 mile per hour winds for it to be technically a severe thunderstorm But at 50 miles per hour is nothing to mess around with so if you're in the wasa area
or just south and west of Waslaw, say in McMillan and Marshfield, all the way down to Pittsville, that area, and then over towards Stevens Point even.
and just north of Wisconsin Rapids, all that area right now, you are the area for some strong storms right now.
So just be aware of that and keep it tuned to your favorite weather source because things are going to get better.
You look around Wisconsin like you're in Madison, you say, oh, it's great.
The sun's kind of out.
It's a warm day.
Unfortunately, when you have this type of fronts moving through and it's 74 in Madison, 66 in Milwaukee, 67 in Green Bay,
And then 42 and superior.
What's going to happen is when the sun comes in this afternoon, it's actually going to warm up and destabilize the atmosphere.
And so there is a chance across the state of Wisconsin at varying times between late of this afternoon, all the way through the early morning hours of tomorrow morning to have strong storms.
There is a chance.
of tornadoes in some areas.
Again, don't want to hype it up too much.
There might be parts of Wisconsin that see a little to anything.
There are parts of Wisconsin that could see all the way to a tornado.
So just be aware, be mindful and keep an eye to the sky and be aware of the weather as we go through this afternoon tonight and into the early morning hours tomorrow.
Before the break, we played that the clip.
of Scott Pelley last night on 60 Minutes calling out his own network CBS for basically forcing the resignation of Bill Owens, the longtime executive producer of CBS's 60 Minutes, a great article in Cord Cutter News.
It's kind of an insider media website, great website actually, cordcutternews.com.
And.
They talk about Owen's departure, making it a significant moment for 60 minutes, a program synonymous with investigative journalism for nearly six decades.
And what Pelley did not touch on there in calling out his network last night was that President Trump has sued CBS for 20 billion with a B.
$20 billion over an October 2024 interview with then Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump alleges the interview was deceptively edited.
It claims CBS has vehemently denied.
And all accounts and eventually 60 minutes did release the footage.
And it's not deceptive.
It's not deceptive at all.
What happened was as almost every interview was 60 minutes The correspondent sits down with the subject The interview might go a half an hour.
It might go an hour depending upon how much time the person being interviewed said they'd sit for Well, very rarely most of these stories on 60 minutes go 10-ish minutes Somewhere in there.
And so you have to edit that down
And so, like almost every other story, the profile on Vice President Harris got edited down.
Trump claimed that they edited it to change the meaning of what she said.
When you saw the unedited video, it was clear that was not the case.
Back to this article in Cord Cutter News, Owen's resignation also coincides with a critical juncture for CBS's Paramount, or part of parent company, Paramount, Sherry Redstone.
Paramount's controlling holder is reportedly seeking Trump administration approval for the sale of her media conglomerate to Skydance Media, led by David Ellison, son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison.
The New York Times reported in January that Paramount was in settlement talks with Trump and the Owens
Had reads the head of the Owens who was running 60 minutes had resisted apologizing For the Harris interview as part of any potential deal NBC News has not independently verified these claims In his memo Owens remained defiant about the mission of CBS CBS and 60 minutes saying quote
We will continue to cover the new administration as we report on future administrations.
We'll report from war zones, investigate injustices, and educate our audience.
In short, 60 minutes we'll do what it has done for 57 years, unquote, that from a memo obtained by NBC News from Owens.
Wendy McMahon.
President and CEO of CBS News informed employees via an email of Owen's departure, praising his contributions.
Apparently, Wendy McMahon has been very much on the side of 60 Minutes and Bill Owens.
But again, to kind of summarize this, Bill Owens, who runs 60 Minutes, was asked by the head honchos at Paramount.
Hey, you know, can you do us a solid Trump wants an apology?
as part of this settlement.
It's not just about the money.
Can you just apologize for what you guys did at 60 Minutes and then we can move on?
And Owens, to his credit, said no.
We didn't do anything wrong.
And I'm not gonna start apologizing just because my parent company wants to make a deal, a merger and make a lot of money and lay off more employees to satisfy Trump.
That is that is bending the knee to our institutional integrity And there are not a lot of people left in my opinion in this business in the media business who are interested in institutional integrity and maintaining truth And Bill Owens is one so he said no We're not gonna apologize at 60 minutes for what we did
And so the head honchos at Paramount decided to put on more pressure.
It's unclear whether Owens was going to get fired or whether he did this to send a message.
And there was this meeting as we reported last week, a meeting with all the correspondents of 60 minutes and Owens, which he told them first.
And as Scott Pelley said, nobody was happy about this at 60 minutes.
But it sends an important message this from another place called the rap.
It's an online.
I follow him on Twitter.
It's an industry magazine if you will site Says according to the rap this is a different story now, but it's connected.
I'm gonna tell you how Says days after president Donald Trump's victory in 2024 is presidential election Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zell off
expressed enthusiasm about a new administration potentially creating greater, quote, opportunity for consolidation, unquote, that would, quote, provide a real positive and accelerated impact on this industry that's needed, unquote.
Zolov did add that it's, quote, too early to tell, unquote, whether these hopes would materialize.
But he missed a more significant disclaimer.
that merger and acquisition dreams can quickly become nightmares if your news organization Angers the president That's chilling to me The story goes on to say CEOs might eventually get what they want in negotiating deals The main question is whether they'll be forced to throw their news operations under the bus
in order to achieve those aims.
That from the rap.
And this is where it gets dystopian.
That major news corporation, really entertainment, really, of which their news divisions are a part of the entertainment, in order for these deals to get approved by Trump-controlled FCC,
They're going to have to be willing to compromise and capitulate to a certain degree To not tick off Trump and his administration And this becomes a slippery slope Because you have good people like the folks at CBS 60 minutes
And I would say the vast majority of the reporters are fair and great news people.
We, we, uh, had their story in the Wisconsin judge last week from, uh, uh, I can't say his name.
I had on the tip of my tongue.
See mad cow's armors.
That's what it is there.
Uh, Scott McFarlane, Scott McFarlane, great reporter, follows the justice department, followed all the J six stuff, tells it exactly like it is, had great integrity as reporter.
But how many of these people are going to be allowed to tell the truth even when it ticks off Trump?
Without the parent company, whether it be Paramount, whether it be Discovery, Warner Brothers, Comcast, guys, gals, can you just tone it down a little bit there on that story?
And people are going to have to decide.
News people are going to have to decide what is more important to me.
My paycheck, paying my bills, supporting my family, or my internal morals and character, my journalistic integrity.
And again, I bring you back to Naib Bukeli, the president of El Salvador, who calls himself the cool dictator, quote unquote.
One of the first things Bukele did when he became president in 2019 in El Salvador was to start intimidating the two major newspapers, uh, sources in El Salvador.
La Prensa Grafica and Dia Rea de Hoy.
La Prensa was considered a more conservative paper.
La Dia de Hoy was the more liberal paper loosely.
And they started writing when, when he started, when Naim Bukeli started intimidating the Salvadoran Supreme Court.
They started writing articles, op-eds on him.
And Bukeli basically intimidated those two things to become their cheerleaders for Bukeli.
Trump has seen the blueprint in El Salvador, and he's trying to do it right here in the United States of America.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2, back after this in the civic medium.
I mean, fun doing it.
Welcome back to the title of all show in the Civic Media Ready Network.
52 minutes now past the hour of two o'clock coming up at three o'clock, a little news, weather and sports update 40, giving you a traffic report after the top of the hour, a little what's worse for you as well.
Right now, talking about what Scott Pelley did on 60 Minutes last night, calling out his own network, Paramount.
For putting pressure on executive producer Bill Owens to compromise their journalistic integrity Owens resigned and Then talking about this larger story at the rap other corporations like Discovery Time Warner Basically having to say well, you know to get some of these larger corporation deals done was best for our corporation We may keyword may
Have to appease the Trump administration when it comes to our news division LA Tom watching on YouTube Saying he's going to cancel his Paramount plus plus membership today Well, LA, I don't know you need to do that number.
I subscribed Paramount He's a big Star Trek fan.
That's where all the Star Trek stuff is that and other other programs as well I would say
Just my personal opinion, I think that's the kind of thing you do after we find out that Paramount has stopped a story at CBS.
I think we have to stand by Scott Pelley and those journalists at CBS in 60 minutes who are still doing by their own reporting the mission that Pelley said last night, none of our stories have been stopped.
It hasn't come to that yet.
It's kind of a clarion call.
Right.
So I think we have to continue to support journalists who are doing good things at Paramount or CBS or other places.
I think when you cancel subscriptions is when it comes out and they say that something's been stopped at the news division, just my two cents, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.
Let's go to the phone lines.
Gene up in beautiful Eau Claire on WCFW, the tap.
Gene, any strong storms come through there yet?
Not yet, but I have to tell you, you're doing an outstanding job there, sir.
Well, thank you.
Getting this information to the people, because this is the worst thing that they can start doing is messing with the press and messing with information.
And I do, by the way, have that good night and good luck.
And another thing, too, that I think is really important is what people can do and not stop their...
subscriptions, but what they can do is write to these people and say, hey, we're watching, we appreciate you giving us the truth, and that's why we support you, and we want you to keep on giving us the truth.
Just like civic media, given the truth, outstanding coverage, outstanding talk shows, and the people behind the machine they're answering the phones and keeping the shows running,
and um so I just want to say that and and really and seriously this is unbelievable and what I'm keep up the protests I'm watching these protests I love them signs get those signs out there Trump hates this because he can't hide it so thanks guys keep up the great work
love you have a great day thank you so much eight five five seven five two four eight four two let's go to Madison WMDX Joe and Madison Joe we were calling your name out on Friday or Thursday for the draft because you were
on you called in when Matt Ross Child was guest hosting last week and this great backstory on Vince Lombardi and the Packers and we use we credited you and we told that we told I didn't tell as well as you could but I appreciate you called into a to match show and and we gave you credit so thanks for that.
Thank you.
Thank you for that.
It's a great story and it really focuses on the fact that if you want to talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion, the star of that in our state was Vince Lombardi
and look at
the results.
The result has been fantastic.
If people want to check out that article, it's at Packers.com and it's really, really good.
So I'm happy to talk more about that.
I just wanted to add in on the 60 minutes thing and you know, I shouldn't laugh because this is awfully, awfully serious, but it just gives you a sense of just how far down the rabbit hole
we have gone.
It was apparently a first.
This is out of LA Times dot com.
And they were talking about the fact that this is this lawsuit has been ongoing, and that Trump has doubled down on the amount that he's requesting.
I believe it is 20 billion
that
he's now looking at.
And this is the part that just killed me, Todd.
He apparently Trump supporters were looking at the fact.
First off, both Trump and Harris were allowed the opportunity to be interviewed on 60 minutes.
Harris went on.
Trump declined.
Okay.
He had his form and he declined.
Okay.
So her interview ran on 60 minutes and they pulled a clip from what they had from the whole interview because as you know, our interview, they don't air the whole hour.
Usually it's edited down.
This is standard industry practice.
It's not particularly new to 60 minutes.
Everybody does this.
You do it if you're editing an interview.
Everyone does.
So at any rate, the point of view I would like to add in is just this comment.
So we know what we're dealing with, which is
There was a chunk that was aired on Sunday morning shows and then another chunk that was aired on 60 minutes.
And they are all, you know, get their undies in a bundle because they said there was a different answer that was given.
So in this, Trump's team accused Harris of being a weak candidate and get this prone to uttering word salad jumbles of exceptionally incoherent speech.
and that CBS manipulated the interview to make her appear more coherent and decisive, and thus the product, her, being more commercially appealing to people.
Whoa, are you kidding me?
Talking about word salad?
What a riot.
This is hysterical.
Absolutely hysterical.
Not to get you off, Joe, but I mean to your point, once CBS did finally, you know, release the entire thing, it's completely false.
I mean, you know, it's just the charge is completely false.
Yeah, I mean and just pretty pretty funny that this guy's talking about incoherent word shallots.
I
mean I just I mean let's just make that the next item that we have at our diner the incoherent word shallot You know can also call it the Trump special.
So anyway, I shouldn't be laughing about this It's incredibly serious because if the press goes down we're going down people and it's really really important But
my pleasure.
Thank you for listening to Joe.
It's a great listeners like Joe and Jean and everybody else I mean you guys are the ones that you know keep us going
both just kind of from a emotional standpoint, but also, you know, support the people that advertise on our stations, and that keeps us going as well.
Gonna come back with a What's Worst in Hour 2, and some more news headlines as well.
Your phone calls is the all the show for Monday.
You're listening to the Civic Medium.
Ready to know.
Live from the Civic Media World headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.
And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.
on the Civic Media Radio Network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.
Good afternoon, everybody.
I'm Todd Albault along with Mr. Aaron Zommerer, our producer and engineer on the board.
It is six past the hour of three o'clock.
Welcome into hour number two of the big program on this Monday back to work and back to school the 28th of April, 2025.
It is a great day.
to be Wisconsinite glad to have you along started the work week once again coming up a little what's worse for you and then then we're gonna uh finish up what we started on friday major things ahead for congress lots of things to take our attention the draft was great to have mike clemons on hour one talking about the draft that's important dame damey lillard out for the rest of the season and probably most of next year
A torn was torn Achilles, right?
A torn Achilles must win situation for the bucks in Indy tomorrow night.
So all that's important, all that's taking our attention, but what we don't, I don't think talk about enough is what's happening in Congress and some of these proposals that Trump is putting forward and how that might impact us here in Wisconsin.
Speaking of Wisconsin, Dan Schaefer, our great political editor here at Civic Media, letting us know in the last 20 minutes, Donald Trump endorsing Derek Van Orton, Republican incumbent in the third district on the western side of Wisconsin.
As Gilmer Pyle once said, surprise, surprise, surprise.
No, not really.
It's not a surprise at all.
Rebecca Cook, the only Democrat so far who has announced that she is going to challenge Van Orton.
We'll see more Democrats get in very early, obviously, year and a half out.
But Trump, interesting though, the timing, interesting the timing.
Republicans must feel that Van Orton is vulnerable for Trump already to be out there trying to save his guy.
DVO more of that as it comes forward right now at eight minutes past the hour of three o'clock We start our drive time weather and traffic check for you speaking of weather first of all Be aware as we've been talking about all afternoon long current temperatures across the state of Wisconsin.
It is a wide variety in Superior, Wisconsin right now.
It is 42 degrees 42
here in downtown Madison, 77.
That is a wide variety.
So as you see sunshine in parts of the state, unfortunately, that is not a great thing today because of those wide temperatures across the state that sets up a front.
And as that moves through,
The warm air as the sun comes out and it destabilizes the atmosphere and that creates some weather difficulties.
We've been tracking one cell in particular this afternoon moving across the state of Wisconsin.
This storm has a history of 50 mile per hour winds and half inch size hail.
We zoom into live weather radar right now.
This is affecting the Wasa area.
Right now this cell is over the water the city of Warsaw so for our illiciters the WXCO be aware of that all the way up to Merrill so from Merrill Basically all the way down to Mosin E and just moved through the Mosin E area and this is headed to the West Northwest Pardon me east northeast there we go east northeast and around 50 miles per hour if you live in Antigo right now
Be aware, this storm is headed towards you, Wittenberg area.
This storm is headed towards you.
Gresham could also pick up some of these strong storms.
And again, these at 50 mile per hour winds just under the severe limit.
So it's not a severe thunderstorm warning right now, but it's a very strong weather system indeed.
And just over the last 30 minutes or so, two more cells have popped up.
in an area where it went through before, just north of Black River Falls.
So our listeners on WFCW, the tap up there in the Eau Claire Chippewa Falls area, these storms are east of Eau Claire, just north of Black River Falls.
So be aware of that.
Neilsville area.
Looks like you're probably going to get hit again, not with severe storms, but with heavy storms right now.
These storms are going to continue to pop up throughout the afternoon and into the evening, overnight hours.
Be aware.
Again, some parts of the state might not get much at all.
but other places may get some very strong storms.
We just want you to be aware of that.
In terms of traffic right now in the Madison area for WMDX listeners, nothing really, no road closures, no super slowdowns, but parts of the belt line, there are some cars that have been disabled and off on the shoulder.
So be aware, you might get some Gawkers out there that are slowing down traffic, but no major traffic accidents in the Madison metro area at this time.
For our listeners on WAU,
Okay, a walkie-shot area, particularly the suburbs.
Once again, kind of normal afternoon drive times, slowdowns on Highway 41 going north and south from I-90, 94, pardon me, I-94, all the way up to Alternate 43.
So Highway 41 north and south, slowdowns there.
And also in the Milwaukee Metro area, I-43 going north and south.
North of the interstate there of 94 you're gonna find the normal slowdowns there for you as well So allow us some extra time as they say on this Monday afternoon It is coming up on 12 minutes past.
I should say just past 12 past.
It's past 12 past It's coming up past 12 past 12
past 12 past three
It's almost 13 minutes past the hour of three o'clock time once again for what's worse.
Let's
go
time once again for what's worse no prize money involved nothing to give away but it is your opportunity to have your voice heard across the state of Wisconsin on all 11 news talk sports stations of the civic media ready network no better way to have your voice to have your products your business advertised than right here on civic media go to civic media dot us to find out how you can join the civic media
team, whether obviously in the news today.
So are what's worse, timely, timely, indeed.
Pretty simple.
As I'm or as I may disagree, see what you think.
The category for today.
No clouds or cloudy.
What's worse?
No clouds or cloudy.
855-752-4842, 855-752-4842.
You could also text us.
on the Civic Media app.
Download it today, your Apple Android device, go to your app store, go to the search bar, type in Civic CIVIC media.
It'll pop up a little C-M logo, click on that, takes less than a minute, it is free, it won't cost you a dime.
We're pretty chill.
The Civic Media app, download it today and text in your answer as well.
What's worse, no clouds or cloudy.
eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two for those watching on Facebook Twitter X Twix as Craig Ferguson dubbed it on YouTube as well Great graphic by CP today No clouds has a beach a beautiful beach not a cloud of the sky bright sunshine and the other is kind of a It actually looks like a coffee farm if you want the truth and very cloudy
So what's worse, clouds or no clouds?
855-752-4842.
855-752-4842.
Let's go to Milwaukee, W-A-U-K.
Brian, listening in Milwaukee.
Brian, no clouds or cloudy?
What's worse?
Well, that's a tough one
because there's pros and cons to both.
Right.
With no clouds, you got a lot of sun.
and it can be, you know, the sun beating down and you can get a little bit sunburn really quick.
But then the other thing is, if it's cloudy and overcast, the humidity is going to get trapped in the clouds and they just sweat like a pig.
So I mean, the thing was, I cut the grass earlier today and it was funny because during the hour of cleaning grass, the sun kept coming in and out and in and out and out.
I was just like, well, you make it your micropeat sake, you're going to get a sunburn or I'm going to be humid the whole time.
You know.
Right?
I would probably have to say, probably have to say, what's worse would be probably the sun being out just because I know I burn like a crisp.
All right.
Doesn't matter how much sun, some motion I put on.
Got it.
No, I get it.
Some people are very sensitive to that.
So thanks, Brian.
We appreciate your listenership.
Thanks for being along with us.
855-752-4842.
855-752-4842.
What's worse, no clouds or cloudy?
Give us a call.
It could also text us on the Civic Media app like Steve and Mount Hora, listing on WMDX.
Steve says it depends on the temperature.
That's totally fair.
All right, that's that's fair indeed.
Give us a call.
What's worse?
No clouds or cloudy.
Zomers, you want to weigh in?
I think, yeah, it is a tough one.
Because I think I am genetically predisposed to being an underground dweller.
Are you a hobbit in another life?
A really, really tall hobbit, I think.
For many reasons I don't need to get into.
I don't tolerate heat well.
My eyes are very sensitive to sunlight.
Having no clouds is difficult because I need sunglasses and a hat or I will not be able to open my eyes.
And also I'll probably burn and get really sweaty.
But if it's cloudy and it's really humid, I will still also get sweaty, but at least I'll be able to see.
So I'm going to say no clouds is worse.
No clouds is worse for you.
No clouds is worse, you're saying?
For me.
But I understand I'm not what you would call normal.
Well, I wouldn't say you're just, you're sensitive person to heat and light.
You're better off in a dark, cool room.
Yes, very
much so.
You're like a potato or a rutabaga.
Certain plants.
You live well in a root cellar.
You know, you see all these foods that say, store in a cool, dry place, and that's me.
Stores, homers in a cool, dry place.
What's worse, no clouds or cloudy.
855-752-4842.
855-752-4842.
I'll we'll see if we get a couple more calls here before I Before I give you mine or while we're waiting Here's an interesting fact related to artificial intelligence one of my favorite subjects a late 2024 survey found that 67% of US respondents reported being nice to their chatbots of those who practice courtesy 55% of American AI users said they do it
Because it's the right thing to do while 12% did it to appease the algorithm in the case a case of an AI uprising That is one paragraph and an article entitled Sam Altman admits that saying please and thank you to chat GPT is wasting millions of dollars in computing power You can read the full article at futurism.com.
Wait a minute.
Yeah, I saw that article too
really
By saying please and thank you to your chatbot.
You're wasting millions of dollars in computing power
Yeah, it's just more things that has to process and figure out what's important for your questions
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2 let's go out to the RC quickly to be a RCE whistler in Richland Center whistler You got to make it fast, but no clouds or cloudy.
What's worse whistler?
No clouds no clouds
Oh, that's a great point.
That's a great point that if you have clouds, you can't see the northern lights or the Milky Way or anything else.
All right, Whistler, we appreciate it.
Have a great day out there in Richland Center.
It was just out there over the weekend.
Beautiful, beautiful country out there.
Come on back.
We'll wrap up worse and talk about the budget and Congress on the other side.
You're listening to the Todd Allball Show and you're listening to Cross Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.
you
doing it 22 past the hour of three o'clock across the state of Wisconsin all of all show on civic media take a look at traffic around the state start of your rush hour start of your drive time in the greater Milwaukee area I mean it's pretty pretty far west of Milwaukee more Wauwatosa area from the interstate 94 going east and west highway 41 interstate 41 going north and south really now
pretty much all the way from the Menominee Falls all the way down to you know just east of west or west to west Alice and the interstate that entire line of highway 41 north and south lots of slowdowns right now in both directions really starting to go from yellow into red there as is interstate 43 north and south from highway 94 up to i90
Could be a slow on both 41 North and South and 43 North and South.
So be prepared for those slowdowns in your afternoon commute.
Talking about what's worse right now, what's worse, no clouds or cloudy.
855-752-4842-855-752-4842.
You can also text us on the Civic Media app.
Pleased to have Judy with us in Lodi.
who says, unless she's listening on the MDX says, worse is no clouds.
I don't like it too bright and sunny.
It makes it harder to see while driving.
And I hate being blinded by the light.
I'm not a morning person with bright lights at all.
So there you go.
She's saying the, uh, worse is no clouds that she doesn't like the sun.
So thanks, Judy.
Appreciate you listening up there.
A beautiful low dye.
Also, Sean, back in the RC, WRCE in Richland Center, saying, no clouds is worse.
The fish bite better on a cloudy day.
Well, there you go, from a fisherman, a fisherman, right there.
And you agreed with that over the
break, right?
Yeah, sometimes he got to be willing to sit out in the rain a little bit if you want to get the best fishing time.
Makes him make some bite a little
bit better, right?
What's your thought?
No clouds or cloudy 855-752-4842-855-752-4842.
What do you think?
I will, for me personally, because I'm a light, I like light, I like the sun.
I mean, I don't mind a rainy day once in a while.
I mean, once in a while, especially during the summer, kind of like an afternoon, not like Damien Jean, but a nice afternoon or evening thunderstorm with kind of gentle rain for, I
find that kind of therapeutic.
Oh yeah, to sit out on the porch and just be in that atmosphere and smell that is great.
No, I
think that's therapeutic.
But in general, I don't like a string of cloudy days.
That kind of gets me down.
kind of depressed.
I'm a light person.
I like the sun.
So for me personally, I would say cloudy is worse.
So Zomers and I disagree.
He's a no clouds is worse kind of guy.
I'm overall a cloudy day is worse for me.
I figured he'd probably disagree on
that one
given how much time you spend in El Salvador.
Yeah.
Well, not lately, but yeah.
How much time you have spent in El Salvador.
Beaches, beaches, love that.
I like that.
It's just I enjoy it.
All right.
That was fun.
What's worse what's worse for today join us tomorrow an hour number two for the another edition of what's worse?
We started this on Friday want to get to it today Gonna start it pick it up after the bottom of the hour break major things ahead for Congress What a quick quickly recap a couple of things we talked about on on Friday one of them are recisions Recisions
Expect Congress to get President Trump's list of suggested cuts, which they have now for current spending items.
And they're known as Recisions.
Now, the Recisions, it could be up to $9 billion in spending, according to Punchbowl.
Great news source.
And Recisions differ from traditional cuts by Congress because these are things that are affecting this year's spending instead of...
Next biennium spending or next year's spending here, Trump is expected to propose current cuts, including possibly eliminating funding for the corporation for a public broadcasting could affect some 1500 local public media stations and PR and PBS.
Once Trump proposes the rescissions, Congress has 45 legislative days to accept or amend them.
Otherwise, his request lapses and funding stays intact.
Number two, reconciliation.
When last we left Republican lawmakers, they had passed the first critical step toward expanding and extending Trump's tax cuts in a budget resolution.
Remember that?
A lot of people voted for that.
Wisconsin Republican delegation voted for it.
So no, no, no, we're not making cuts to anything.
Well, they're kind of sort of technically right because the the rubber meets the road in reconciliation.
This blueprint opens up the reconciliation process, quote unquote, and that allows Republicans to pass tax cuts and some other agenda items through the Senate with a simple majority vote.
They do not have significant time if they want to make the deadline the budget resolution sets a May 9th deadline for committees to write the tax cut portion of the bill Doing this will not be easy the budget resolution left most of the hard questions unanswered among them How much spending must be cut and where those cuts will come from?
How much should the debt ceiling increase?
Which tax cuts should be added and for human for how long again?
That's why use the term where the rubber meets the road Republicans got criticized say well, you're cutting Medicaid you're you're cutting programs that affect the most vulnerable and guys like Derek Van Orton and Glenn growth, but others said no no no well again technically They're not wrong because what they passed first
was kind of the larger scale thing.
Now, to achieve those things, you can't move forward unless you make those cuts.
But now they have to vote.
Now they have to make those cuts in those programs that they said they weren't going to.
You can't have it both ways, boys.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.
Back after this, we'll get more into the major things ahead for the United States Congress and how it affects Wisconsin.
It's the All Bulls show at Civic Media on the Civic Media Ready Network.
you
We're ever in they lead and having fun doing it.
Welcome back to the title of all show on the Civic Media Network Glad to have you along on a Monday April 23rd 2025 35 minutes now past the hour of three o'clock
Take a look at our weather situation across the state of Wisconsin been tracking some severe, not so well, that's the thing.
They're not technically severe storms, but many of these storms, 50 mile per hour winds, half inch sized hail according to the National Weather Service.
Another is they kind of keep popping up along this same area, say from the Black River Falls area and then head from there north and east.
And so now one thing, another strong storm north of Marshfield headed once again to towards the Warsaw area.
And then another strong storm right now over Merrill.
So those are the two cells that we're watching right now.
Again, not technically severe, but strong storms.
And also for our La Crosse listeners right now, another line of storms just having moved through the La Crosse area.
And now just to the east of La Crosse, headed towards the Sparta and Verroqua areas right now, so I'll be aware of that.
Other places, some showers and storms popping up, nothing super strong right now, but keep an eye to the sky because...
It's going to be a rough night for parts of the state.
And again, some people are going to say, what are you talking about, Todd?
Because I'm not seeing her here or anything.
And there will be parts of the state that don't get a whole lot at all.
But there are parts of the state that are going to get strong storms because of the fact that in Madison right now, it's 77 degrees.
And in superior Wisconsin right now, it is in the mid 40s.
So we have this unstable air mass across the state of Wisconsin, and that's going to cause some weather problems as we go through the overnight hours into the evening and overnight hours tonight.
Checking traffic for you once again, normal to heavy or traffic than normal on the interstate areas around the Milwaukee area, particularly going north and south.
People trying to get north and south right now in the greater Milwaukee area.
I-43 from say 94 up to I-90 so that whole stretch of I-43 right now going slow be prepared for that and also I-41 going north and south from 94 pretty much all the way to just south of the nominee falls that entire stretch you're going to see slowdowns there so just be aware of that no major road closures although there are some disabled vehicles around the belt line in Madison right now not causing any complete road closures
but some disabled vehicles off to the side of the road may get some Gawkers.
So be aware of that.
Don't Gawk.
Just continue to drive.
That's what slows everything down.
You understand?
Don't make a second victim.
That's a good way to put it, Thomas.
Don't make a second victim.
Speaking of victims, the American taxpayer, right?
Talking about what's coming to Congress now that the Easter recess is over.
major things ahead for Congress.
Some of these things are not making the big headlines because of larger kind of more media sexy type of stories.
Trump going on true socials saying wacky things.
But these are things they're gonna have to be talked about in the coming days and weeks What are your what are your thoughts on this new budget coming up these new congressional votes 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 do you or someone you know use Medicaid Medicaid Now my former report my former party likes to paint this as quote-unquote welfare
Oh, we don't want to give people welfare.
Well, it turns out a lot of their voters are on Medicaid because Medicaid is not for people.
It's not singularly for people who are quote unquote lazy.
By the way, that's just kind of a more or less a myth.
Yes, of course, you're always gonna have a couple of bad apples and every barrel we're gonna try to game the system I don't want to say it never happens because then somebody's gonna bring up the one in a million case where it happens, but it's so rare that it's far far far exceed the instrument right especially after Tommy George Thompson when he was governor in a bipartisan way created welfare to work Makes it much harder to quote-unquote game the system but
Most people Want to work most people want to they're looking for a hand up not a hand out and So there are a lot of people in predominantly Republican voting areas of Wisconsin who are disabled veterans for instance People who went and served their countries overseas Have have PTSD or whatever the case may be they aren't able to work either fully or at all
And so part of their support comes from Medicaid money.
It might be our parents or grandparents who worked all their life, who saved up, who tried to pull themselves up by the bootstrap, great, upstanding members of our community, but in later life, develop things like dementia, Alzheimer's, whatever it might be.
And they had no choice but to go into elder care, to memory care.
Those places aren't cheap folks My maternal grandmother was in a nursing care facility last six seven years of her life Can be eight nine thousand dollars a month a month And for folks that can't pay it they don't get they don't get kicked out on the street once they go into that facility and their own savings is gone Medicaid takes over
So the future of Medicaid is up for grabs in Congress coming up the next few weeks as Part of the reconciliation process Republicans will have to grapple with how and whether they want to significantly cut or reform Medicaid The reconciliation instructions to the house make it mathematically impossible For that chamber to meet its goals without cutting back
on the funding of Medicaid.
And this is what Democrats have been talking about.
And this is what Republicans like Derek Van Orton, Glenn Grossman and Tom Tiffany and Scott Fitzgerald have all denied.
And as I said earlier in this segment, they get by with it kind of sort of because technically they're kind of sort of right.
Let me explain.
So the head the first step was the larger picture, right?
But it doesn't delineate how you get there in terms of funding and or cuts So the Republicans can look at you and say I didn't vote to cut Medicaid.
No, I didn't do that But congressman congresswoman you voted for an overall spending bill.
Yes
But I didn't vote for Medicaid cuts Which is technically true because this vote coming up This is where the rubber meets the road you see It's kind of like I don't even go grocery shopping, right?
And you say what what should we have for dinner?
Well, I would like a steak I like a fillet and I like
A bottle of wine, maybe a six pack of beer.
And how about, no, they have been passing them deli and they make these great chocolate cakes.
All right.
So let's see.
The top of the line filet, that's gonna cost you about, well, it depends on where you go and whatnot.
It could cost you 15, 20 bucks a pop.
So a couple of those will say 40 bucks for two filets, 20 bucks for a bottle of wine.
We're at 60 and then the cake is another 10.
So we're at 70 bucks for dinner.
And then you look at your debit card or you look at your phone or you look at your checkbook.
Well, we've only got $40 to spend.
So you have a choice, right?
You could have the filet and the wine and the chocolate cake and not pay your $70 electric bill.
Or you pay the $70 electric bill and you know, you have hamburger And a soda or something, I don't know If I make you an overly simplistic, but you get the point Congress has to do the same thing there's they're saying they want they they want filet in terms of the tax cuts they want for the corporations by the way But now they got to pay for it
So the reconciliation instructions in the house represented it makes it mathematically impossible for that chamber to meet its goals without cutting back on Medicaid That's where the largest things that Congress puts in funding where our tax dollars go But to make things more complex stand by The instructions to the Senate floor or to the Senate are far more loose in other words
The chambers will have to negotiate this part of the Trump quote-unquote big beautiful bill and expect a potentially sharp fight amongst Republicans over those priorities This is not gonna be just a Republican versus Democratic fight Because the way the chambers work the Senate can be more loosey-goosey about it
But the cows can't they got to have real numbers on this so stay and buy for that Also coming up nomination holds We at here's the deal I Like that here's the deal.
Here's the deal.
We particularly love raising what may be overlooked So here's the deal one by one a handful of Democratic senators have begun using a Senate procedure
called placing holds to slow down or block specific Trump administration nominees, either individually or in large groups.
At the minimum, a hold means that a nominee cannot be fast-tracked and approval may be significantly slowed down.
It can be de facto prevent a vote on a nominee altogether, depending upon the circumstances.
Here's a couple of examples.
Senator Brian Shetz, Democrat of Hawaii, I'm a fan.
He's placed holds on some 300 nominees, including all nominees for the Department of State.
Chant has written that he objects to Trump's gutting of the U.S.
Agency for International Development, better known as USAID, as well as cuts and actions affecting other agencies.
Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona has done the same for all nominees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, objecting to proposed cuts for that agency.
And see, again, you gotta gotta know the backstory, because what you're going to hear from Republicans on conservative talk is, oh my gosh, Democrats hate veterans because they're not, they're not confirming President Trump's
nominees to U.S.
Department of Veteran Affairs.
But the truth is Democrats like Diego, I believe he's a veteran, are saying, no, no, no, no.
You guys are gutting this agency.
You're taking away, so like when you call the VA to make your appointment or you're trying to get into VA if you're a veteran or a family member.
Now, because Trump and Musk and their made up agency of
Doge have cut so many people, and we're hearing stories about this now.
A lot of people are saying they're calling into the Department of Veteran Affairs, they can't get an appointment, or they're having to wait a lot longer.
And so, Democrats are saying, yeah, the reason is because Trump's cutting all these positions, so we're not gonna put more of your stooges in until you properly fund
Department of Veteran Affairs and stand up for our American heroes.
Back after this, we'll wrap it up as the all balls show on the Civic Media Ready Network.
Welcome back to the Taliban show on the civic media ready to work.
It is now eight before the hour of four o'clock at the top of the hour ABC and CBS News Followed by an important check of our weather a great sports reporter Mike Clemens comes on after that give you the sports report We appreciate Clemens going on our show today Be aware of the weather keep it tuned to your favorite
weather source throughout the afternoon, evening into the overnight hours as we're seeing some heavy storms pop up across parts of Wisconsin this afternoon.
Again, it's kind of an interesting to watch weather standpoint, but a lot of these storms have been popping up along the Black River Falls area and then had east.
Northeast and around 50 mile per hours some of those storms have been creating a gusty winds up to 50 miles per hour and then some smaller sized hail as well Another a couple of cells continue to pop up right now currently looking at weather radar.
We can see West and Northwest of Warsaw right now Right above Stratford have some strong cells there around the Merrill area just south of Tomahawk
Some strong storms right there right now and those are heading to the east northeast around 50 miles per hour and then Southwest ish, Wisconsin between Sparta and Tomah another strong cell right now that is moving about due east
with some heavy rains and lightning as well.
So 77 degrees right now in Madison, where we are, and my summers are at 46, was it, in Superior?
So, yeah.
Right around there, yeah.
It's a wide range.
of temperatures and that's part of what's creating some of these storms to pop up.
The sun has only got a few of those storms.
So I'll be aware of that across the state of Wisconsin.
Quick final check of traffic at this hour.
Again, the greater Milwaukee area.
If you're going north and south on Highway, pardon me, Interstate 43 in both directions from 94 up to 190.
Take some extra time or allow some extra time both north and south on I 43 slow going right now It is cleared up a bit to the west of there on I 41 north and south between 94 and all the way up to Menominee Falls But still some slow spots there as well under walkie-shaw a couple more disabled vehicles now off the road so
those are on the shoulder but again you might get some people kind of gawking there but it's not blocking traffic directly and then in the greater Madison area on the belt line again a couple of disabled vehicles off on the shoulder but nothing that is literally blocking traffic so that is a check of your weather and traffic update now at 55 minutes past the hour uh want to wrap this up
Well things I look I know this stuff isn't as sexy as what's on through social and some of the big headlines But I think it's I think it's important to keep our eyes on this these nomination holds the reconciliation You know things that are happening in Congress and in particular we're talking about these cuts to Medicaid Which again to reiterate this might be one of the most important things we've talked about all day
all day is that what Congress has already passed in terms of their overall budget, they cannot make that happen without significant cuts to Medicaid.
Either A, they can't make all the tax cuts they want happen, or B, we're going to see significant cuts in Medicaid.
And again, this does not mean quote unquote welfare.
These are our folks that have worked all their life
who are now retired and might be in nursing homes on Medicaid, it might be disabled veterans, lots of other folks.
Kids,
a lot
of kids.
Kids, right, thank you, a lot of kids.
So if you're concerned about this, I urge you to call your local congressperson.
I heard congressman Mark Pockean.
Talking about this on Tom Hartman show last week.
Somebody called in and said well when to be I think we should start calling our Republican Congress people and urging them to join Hakeem Jeffries only takes five to basically Unseat Johnson the speaker and and get things done.
That's a great thought But even Mark Pokan said look When someone goes to my website and they go to leave me an email
you have to type in your zip code.
And if your zip code doesn't match those in my district, you're not even able to allow to leave a message.
And he said, because I have two staffers to respond to all that constituent email, and I just don't have the staff to respond to people outside my district.
And as a former congressional staffer myself, I know that to be true.
So I understand the sentiment.
But it's much more effective if you call your own or email your own Congress person whomever that might be And of course in Wisconsin we have two us senators one Democrat Tammy Baldwin one Republican Ron Johnson So call them email them and say look we're not for these Medicaid cuts if that's important to you a couple more of these I guess one more of this nominee
Senator Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, put a hold on Trump's nominee for U.S.
attorney in Washington, D.C., a pivotal prosecutor in the Department of Justice system.
Schiff argues that the nominee is a Trump loyalist who helped organize the January 6, 2021, quote unquote, stop the steel rally and should be blocked.
I agree with Senator Schiff.
We know that Trump has pushed against any delays seeking his nominees confirmed at times threatening to upend the nomination system itself by launching recess appointments Watch for this area as a possible increased tension in the weeks and months ahead if it boils it will boil quickly Great show today appreciate Mike Clemens for stopping by Xamar is also Thank you always great work all of you for listening as well.
We'll be back tomorrow with another edition
What's worse as well?
Stay safe out there on the roadways, but also watch the weather folks.
It might get bumpy later on.
Until then, Todd, I'll say whatever you're fighting for, whatever you believe in, do not give up.
Keep banging your drum.
We'll see you tomorrow.
Bye-bye.
You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.
Good afternoon, everybody.
I'm Tom Alba, a longer than outstanding producer and engineer, Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.
It is six past the hour of two o'clock on this Monday, back to work, back to school, April 28th, 2025.
It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite here at the World Headquarters of Civic Media, downtown Madison.
Overcast, a very high overcast skies, partly sunny, sunny, some may call it here.
in downtown Madison.
Big show for you today.
Gonna talk about some of the news headlines over the weekend.
Take a look at what's happening to Washington, D.C., your calls as well.
And gonna talk sports with our sports reporter, Mike Clemens, in just a moment.
But Mr. Zomber is, first of all, we have to get right to a special weather statement.
Eyes to the sky today.
We'll tell you the current temperatures, it's 74.
degrees right now in Madison, Wisconsin, contrast that to 42 in superior right now.
So quite the quite the contrast across the state of Wisconsin.
So of course that sets up a weather situation.
Let's get right to a special weather statement at this hour, particularly affecting our listeners in the FHR in the Wisconsin Rapids area and also over WCFW the tap over in the Chippewa Valley area.
This national weather service, a strong thunderstorm impacting parks of Clark.
And Jackson counties just finishing up in those counties right now a while ago a strong storm was just over Black River Falls moving northeast at 55 miles per hour with this storm wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour and half in jail This is a radar Indicator indicated storm as far as impacts gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects minor
damage to vegetation is also
possible.
And so whether service asking people in the path of the storm to head indoors considers taking shelter in an inside building can tell you looking at live weather radar right now that storm they've been tracking is moving as we say 55 miles per hour.
It's now right around the the Neilsville area and heading towards Marshfield.
So people the Marshfield McMillan Stratford area.
This is just south and west of Warsaw.
The storm seems to be heading on track to
go pretty close, not directly into the Wausau area, so people will see NWXCO up in Wausau area.
Be aware, this storm is moving towards you.
The storm that was just south and east of Nicosia and Wisconsin Rapids, that is now mostly heavy rain as most of the thunderstorm activity has dissipated.
Not a severe storm at this point, but there is a very strong thunderstorm over the Sparta area moving towards Tomah right now, just to the east of La Crosse area.
And then just north and west of Osceo and kind of more towards the just east of Eau Claire to their cell there.
So be aware, keep an eye to the sky.
What's going to happen is as these clouds and parts of Wisconsin dissipate, that allows the sun to come in, which unfortunately on a day like today is a bad thing because that's going to make the air less stable.
And that has the potential of fueling these storms across the state of Wisconsin.
later on this afternoon and then even into the overnight hours tonight.
So keep your radios tuned to your favorite weather source or if you have a weather alert system on your phone, your weather radio, keep it intact.
Again, some places are going to see nothing.
Other places may see some very, very strong storms and severe weather.
We want to keep you updated here at Civic Media.
10 past the hour of two o'clock.
Let's go right now to our top story of the day.
It took Wisconsin by storm.
That's the NFL draft held in Green Bay over the weekend.
No one covered it better.
No one gave us the play by play better than our sports reporter, Mike Clemens, from Lambeau Field all week long.
He's kind enough to join us via phone.
Mike Clemens, have you recovered from the big NFL draft?
Maybe by Wednesday or Thursday or so, right?
A lot of hours and stuff, but good stuff.
You know, the best thing too about our stations to our civic media stations is because you get these updates from Brittany or Corey or the rest of the staff and whether it's on the app or just going across the state, you know, 23 stations, because I'm driving between Green Bay and Milwaukee and Madison and, you know, cover the teams.
It helps me plan out like, all right, I better get an early start to go on the draft.
Except for that cold rainy day Friday this thing drew 600,000 fans incredible second only to When it was in Nashville and Nashville was such a great backdrop on TV with the national bars the country music Everything that they had going on there that was back in 2019 Over 600,000 fans even with that bad day.
Do you realize?
Now that in just three days Green Bay and the draft drew more people than it takes
10, 11 days through either Summerfest or the Wisconsin State Fair.
Wow.
That's
a huge draw,
right?
Yeah.
And how cool was it just, I mean, for those of us who weren't working it like you were, Mike, to watch this on, I spent a lot of my time on ABC, flipped back to ESPN a little bit, but to see all these Wisconsin references, to hear the Packers mentioned so often, I mean, just what a great boom for Wisconsin, the Green Bay, Greater Green Bay, Fox Valley area.
Yeah, so you know the Packers wait they don't trade up They wait till the their their time comes up at the rule of the 23rd draft overall on Thursday night in the first round and they take this Matthew Golden kid out of Texas 429 speed really fast good hands as well has to be if the Packers are gonna Use you know a first round pick on a wide receiver.
They had not done that since was it 2002 that they drafted Given Walker.
Yeah, it's been so long
Since the Packers used the first round pick that Brett Farve and Aaron Rodgers are waiting for on a wide receiver, that the kid that they picked, Matthew Golden wasn't even born then.
I love it.
That's how long it's been.
And, you know, he was on a lot of people's death charts, but there were some other moves that were made up there, so he was still on the board.
And so Goody can see that.
And then he used his third pick, his third round pick, on another wide receiver out of TCU, saving you on Williams.
Now, how's this for Karma?
We said, so how do you think you'll get along with Matthew Golden?
He says, you know, when you're in college and then sometimes they come to you and say, Hey, we've got some, you know, some high school seniors that are looking at, you know, considering schools, could you put one up for the night?
Guess who we put up for the night.
Matthew golden.
Wow.
Wow.
And I'll hear the three years later, they're going to be teammates.
Yeah.
So just all kinds of stories.
So, you know, Mark Murphy with that terrific announcement.
to tell, you know, 200,000 people Thursday night.
All right.
And with the 23rd pick, the Green Bay Packers, we've taken a wide receiver and people get all white, you know, crazy.
And then they, that kid comes out with the gold coat and this Matthew Golden.
I mean, like seven, eight years ago, Todd, him and his mom are living in the back of a Walmart.
Wow.
Family took him in Houston area to help him get through high school to qualify to get into college.
Plated Houston, then he transferred to Texas, to the Longhorns.
They had an offensive program that's a little bit better.
And then this one that they picked in the third round, Savian Williams from TCU, that's a huge passing program.
I mean, I was checking out their season last year.
They were throwing the ball anywhere from 35 to 50 times a game.
And he played a lot of quarterback at high school.
I asked him about it on the Zoom call that we had.
And so he's kind of a gadget.
He's six foot four, same size as Christian Watson.
Not as fast, like 4-4 speed.
You know, the scouts, they kind of remind you of Cordell Patterson, the former Viking and Patriots, who he could be a kick returner.
Now he could be a wildcat guy.
He threw a touchdown pass out of the wildcat last year for TCU.
So a versatile guy that Matt LaFleur is excited about because I can use this guy in a jet sweep.
I can use him for a variety of ways in the backfield.
Really, and you talk about these stories.
We're talking to Mike Clemens, our sports reporter here at Civic Media, who was at the draft all week long, long doing Yeoman's work for us reporting on the draft.
You talk about these stories, Mike.
And that's, we had Brandon Ewingon, the brother of Brady Ewing, former Badger and NFL player.
He talked about what it was like from a family perspective and watching your brother get drafted and the impact.
And that for me, I think, is one of my favorite parts of watching the draft are these
behind the scenes stories of what some of these kids have come up from and through.
And one of the great stories, and I want to, if you can talk a little bit about this guy, Baron Sorrell, who waited around, who was there on night one and two, but never got drafted.
And then he makes a surprise appearance, it was third or fourth round, and gets drafted.
I thought that was a great story.
And if there's anything I'm a little bit critical of.
is like, why only 16 players showed up for the first round on Thursday night when there's 32 teams picking?
And if you're the fans, you know, you're standing out there, I mean, that's what you want.
You want to see these players in person and their moment.
Yeah.
And so many of these guys like to stay home.
Is it because they don't want to be embarrassed?
Part of it is because I don't think they can afford it.
Right.
But there's Barry and Sorrell out of Texas.
He asked his dad, like,
Listen, I think I'm going to go in the second or third round.
Can we go to Green Bay?
So they had to, you know, they had to pay for it and they brought along the family.
They had like eight people.
He didn't get picked Friday night.
So then they said, well, we might as well stay.
We're here, right?
I don't mind when I go.
I want that moment on the stage.
So then all of a sudden, Roger Goodell, he's got other people filling in, and they didn't have that many former players reading off names this weekend either.
But when Goodell finds out, hey, this next kid coming up here at 124 in the fourth round, is actually, he's in the green room, commissioner.
Oh, I'll read this.
So he goes out with a card, and he says, Barry and Sorrell, the Green Bay Packers select, Barry and Sorrell from Texas, and he's here, and he came out.
and brian good again to gm said i had no idea who's in town i just right he was the next player my draft board you know we we needed to defend event a rush guy so then sorrell after he gets his shirt and his cap and a hug from the commissioner he goes walking across the street he goes inside lambo field
while he
does a lambo leap and then he comes and sees us
up there in the podium in the media auditorium and the family shuffles in and after he talks about you know his visit he had with the Packers what he did it you know as a past rusher for Texas and six sacks last year and 44 tackles then they said but you've got a lot of family here and friends that must mean a lot to you he breaks down crying I mean he for a minute because it's that passionate and at the end of the day
the packer scouts keep telling you over and over again you know you can run a great time at the combine you can lift weights you can have you know x amount of stats and break school records but we're looking for guys that not only love football but they need football they need football because those are the guys when you get them into green bay they're going to continue to work and improve they're not going to just stop working when they get their first couple million dollars
They are adamant about about getting to a Super Bowl.
Yeah.
Jason Willte had a story at Channel 3000 over the weekend.
This quote from Matt LaFleur.
I'm sure you were there for as well.
I thought this really epitomized this Baron Sorrell kid.
Well, Fleur said quote of this kid.
He said, he's a big time culture guy.
We had a couple of guys from Texas come through here before the draft.
We always ask these guys, who are the best practice players?
Or if you're going to go to a team, who are you bringing with you?
They consistently, unanimously, always pointed to him.
I think that speaks volumes not only the type of player he is, but the type of teammate and type of person and competitor he is.
I thought that was a great
quote.
His teammate
was the number one pick, Matthew Golden.
I just thought that that gave me chills to hear that because I mean, that's the kind of guy we want at Green Bay, right?
I mean, those are the kind of competitors you want for any team.
But I mean, it's really cool that Green Bay picks him up.
I want to make sure we get to the bucks.
But just your 30 second wrap, Mike Clemens, how do you grade the Packers overall draft this year?
It's a pack or draft.
I'll give it a B B plus hey, I'll take that whether that gets them over the top You know and give me six months to figure that out.
Yeah, about a minute left here News broke about 30 minutes ago bucks confirm Dame is out the rest of the season torn ACL bucks just seem to be snake bit
Yeah, the last night it's in the first quarter and the Bucks were go back on the defense and to me looking at the tape Todd it looked like Dame's right foot kind of slipped a little bit on the court He went to catch himself with the left foot.
He ends up paring his left Achilles tendon So he had the blood clot in the right leg now it's a left tendon.
He could be out a year He turns 35 this summer bucks over 113 million dollars
It's a mess.
It's a mess.
You always help us straighten out.
Thanks, Mike Clemens.
Have a great day.
We'll check in with you soon in line.
Mike Clemens, our sports reporter on the draft.
Stay tuned.
More after this on The All Bulls Show in Civic Media.
Welcome back to the Toddleball Show on the Civic Media Birdie Network.
22 now past the hour of two o'clock on a Monday afternoon, the 28th of April, 2025.
Glad to have you along.
Thanks to Mike Clemens.
Many thanks.
Our great sports reporter, Mike Clemens.
And I'm sure he had a great time, but I think a lot of how, oh, you know, you get to be at the draft.
I mean, lucky you.
You have an easy, you get paid to do that.
And I know he loves it.
But I think a lot of people don't understand, particularly a guy like Mike.
I didn't have time to ask him, but I bet he wasn't just meandering around, having hot dogs.
I mean, they're in, I mean, because it was held in Green Bay, he told us this last week, they're in kind of their usual room, like in Lambo.
I don't know if there's any windows or not.
And they're working.
They're working their rear ends off to, to get these cuts, to get these stories.
And sure, it's cool that you're there, but.
I mean, just nobody works harder at these things and has the inside track better than Mike Clemens.
we just, we appreciate him so very
Keeping the inside track on anything, but I mean, I would say particularly modern sports with the celebrity status of so many athletes, it really takes a lot of work to cultivate those relationships.
Yeah.
And basically you just have to always be on top of it and always be in the right place at the right time.
And.
It's a skill that he's developed.
No, he's, uh, he's fantastic.
We always appreciate him stopping by Mike Clemens.
Uh, as we said, the bucks just to clarify may have slipped up on the, on the other side, but it was confirmed about a half hour ago by the Bucks organization that Damien Lillard has a torn ACL
or Achilles.
I said,
I said ACL, it's a torn Achilles.
So, so, uh, thank you very much.
I appreciate the, uh, the, the clarification.
There's armor.
So, uh, wow, as we said,
with Mike.
I mean, this team, the Bucks, they're just, this is a must-get-win game now in Tuesday in Indianapolis.
So we'll see.
As Yana said earlier, one of Mike's reports, they have a great attitude.
Next man up, you gotta find a way to win, but their backs are against the wall and lots of money on the table, as Mike said, and now Dame out for well into next year, if not the entire year.
We shall see, but the Milwaukee Brewers have the day off, travel day for them.
They're going kind of sort of back home, back to the Midwest, but going to Chicago.
They start a three game series with the Chicago White Sox tomorrow night across the Civic Media Brewers Rating Network, 605 pregame show at Richland Center, Oshkosh Park Falls, Hayward Racing, Kenosha Brewers taking on the White Sox for three games starting tomorrow at 605.
And then finally,
They're back in Milwaukee on Friday for a series against the dreaded Chicago Cubs.
The Cubbies in town started on Friday.
So Brewer's got to win last night.
Hopefully they can continue on into Chicago tomorrow night.
Want to get into a couple of newsy things for you over the weekend.
Going to talk about, we started this on Friday, major things ahead for Congress because sometimes some of these
or politically media sexy things take precedent.
And we're going to get into that.
But I want to start with 60 minutes.
For those of you who watch the broadcast, still one of the most highly rated programs on television, 60 minutes every night on the Tiffany network, CBS.
In the last minute, Scott Pelley, longtime 60 minutes correspondent.
At one time, the evening news anchor on CBS, and he closed the show.
We're going to play it and we're going to talk about it here.
60 minutes.
Pardon me.
Here's Cappelli in the last minute of 60 minutes.
In tonight's last minute, a note on Bill Owens, who, until this past week, was executive producer of 60 Minutes.
He was our boss.
Bill was with CBS News nearly 40 years, 26 years at 60 Minutes.
He covered the world, covered combat, the White House.
His was a quest to open minds, not close them.
If you've ever worked hard for a boss because you admired him, then you understand what we've enjoyed here.
Bill resigned Tuesday.
It was hard on him and hard on us, but he did it for us and you.
Stories we pursued for 57 years are often controversial.
Lately, the Israel Gaza War and the Trump administration.
Bill made sure they were accurate and fair.
He was tough that way.
But our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger.
The Trump administration must approve it.
Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways.
None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.
No one here is happy about it, but in resigning bill proved one thing He was the right person to lead 60 minutes all along I'm Scott Pele.
We'll be back next week with another edition of 60 minutes
and thus close last night's episode of 60 minutes on CBS last night the great Scott Pele I Thought it was particularly well written and delivered as Pele always does.
I just I really
fell in love with Scott Pele's delivery and anchoring abilities during the 2016 election when he was anchoring the CBS News because he really stepped in to this in my opinion Edward R Murrow asked Role of course Edward R Murrow the longtime CBS man who ended up losing his job because back in his day he took on the company basically for similar reasons and then that
The book I was a book first in the movie good night and good luck and now it's a Broadway show with George Clooney and the title character Out in in New York And so there's a history at CBS of people just saying that telling it like it is And we talked about this I know last week
But for this to come to a head over the weekend and for 60 minutes and and Kelly to say this on the air on their own network and and call out their own network, I thought was extraordinary.
I thought it took courage and it was refreshing and kudos to them.
We're going to come back and talk about this.
855-752-4842.
Your calls are welcome.
855-752-4842.
What does this really mean in the context of what Trump's plans are long term?
What does it mean for democracy?
Come on back state to now a little egg update, sports and weather.
You're listening to the Tonal Ball Show on the Civic Media Radio Network.
It's not almost so of the civic media-reading number.
35 now past the hour of two o'clock on Monday, April 28th.
Kind of a chill vibe there at
Oh, very nice.
I didn't know that was
beginning
truth and honesty.
Wow.
See, I learned something every day just from our great producer, Aaron Zombers.
Think what you can learn.
No, most of the people tuning in probably have a better music knowledge than I do.
But it's always, that's one of my favorite parts that occasionally Zombers will surprise me.
And sometimes it'll be a good song.
Most of the time it is.
Most of the time it is.
Sometimes it's not.
A quick weather update for you as Brittany Merleau there in the break talked about very unsettled weather today across the state of Wisconsin.
Current temperatures 74 degrees here in the capital city of Madison, Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, in Superior, Wisconsin, it's 42.
That is absolutely.
fertile breeding ground
Larger cell, almost a line, really, that goes from Abbotsford down through, say, McMillan and then Marshfield area all the way down to Pittsville, which is just west of Wisconsin Rapids.
These storms are moving to the east, northeast, around 55 miles, probably 50 miles per hour, and have produced up to a half inch size hail.
So it's just under the technically the severe thunderstorm.
They have to have 75 mile per hour winds for it to be technically a severe thunderstorm.
But at 50 miles per hour, it's nothing to mess around with.
So if you're the Wausau area or just south and west of Wausau, say in McMillan and Marshfield, all the way down to Pittsville, that area and then over towards Stevens Point even.
and just north of Wisconsin Rapids.
All that area right now, you are the area for some strong storms right now.
So just be aware of that and keep it tuned to your favorite weather source because things are going to get better.
You look around Wisconsin like you're in Madison, you say, oh, it's great.
The sun's kind of out.
It's a warm day.
Unfortunately, when you have this type of fronts moving through and it's 74 in Madison, 66 in Milwaukee, 67 in Green Bay,
and then 42 and superior.
What's going to happen is when the sun comes in this afternoon, it's actually going to warm up and destabilize the atmosphere.
And so there is a chance across the state of Wisconsin at varying times between late of this afternoon, all the way through the early morning hours of tomorrow morning to have strong storms.
There is a chance of tornadoes in some areas.
Again,
don't want to hype it up too much.
There might be parts of Wisconsin that see a little to anything.
There are parts of Wisconsin that could see all the way to a tornado.
So just be aware, be mindful and keep an eye to the sky and be aware of the weather as we go through this afternoon tonight and into the early morning hours tomorrow.
Before the break, we played that the clip of Scott Pelley last night on 60 minutes calling out his own network CBS for.
basically forcing the resignation of Bill Owens, the longtime executive producer of CBS's 60 Minutes, a great article in Cord Cutter News, kind of an insider media website, great website actually, cordcutternews.com.
And they talk about Owens departure, making it a significant moment for 60 Minutes.
A program synonymous with investigative journalism for nearly six decades.
And what Pelley did not touch on there in calling out his network last night was that President Trump has sued CBS for 20 billion with a B $20 billion over an October 2024 interview with then Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump alleges.
The interview was deceptively edited.
It claims CBS has vehemently denied.
And all accounts, eventually 60 minutes did release the footage.
And it's not deceptive, it's not deceptive at all.
What happened was as almost every interview was 60 minutes, the correspondent sits down with the subject, the interview might go a half an hour, it might go an hour.
depending upon how much time the person being interviewed said they'd sit for.
Well, very rarely, most of these stories on 60 minutes go 10-ish minutes, somewhere in there, and so you have to edit that down.
And so, like almost every other story, the profile on Vice President Harris got edited down.
Trump claimed that they edited it to change the meaning of what she said.
When you saw the unedited video, it was clear that was not the case.
Back to this article in court cutter news Owens resignation also coincides with a critical juncture for CBS's paramount our part of parent company paramount Sherry redstone Paramount's controlling holder is reportedly seeking Trump administration approval for the sale of her media conglomerate to skydance media media led by David Ellison
son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison New York Times reported in January that Paramount was in settlement talks with Trump and the Owens had reads the head of the Owens who was running 60 minutes had resisted apologizing for the Harris interview as part of any potential deal NBC News has not independently verify these claims
In his memo Owens remained defiant about the mission of CBS CBS and 60 minutes saying quote We will continue to cover the new administration as we report on future administrations We'll report from war zones investigate injustices and educate our audience in short 60 minutes will do what it has done for 57 years on quote that from a memo obtained by NBC News from Owens Wendy McMahon
president and CEO of CBS News informed employees via an email of Owen's departure, praising his contributions.
Apparently Wendy McMahon has been very much on the side of 60 minutes and Bill Owens.
But again, to kind of summarize this, Bill Owens, who runs 60 minutes, was asked by the head honchos at Paramount.
Hey, you know, can you do us a solid Trump wants an apology?
as part of this settlement.
It's not just about the money.
Can you just apologize for what you guys did at 60 Minutes and then we can move on?
And Owens to his credit said no.
We didn't do anything wrong.
And I'm not gonna start apologizing just because my parent company wants to make a deal, a merger and make a lot of money and lay off more employees to satisfy Trump.
That is that is bending the knee to our institutional integrity And there are not a lot of people left in my opinion in this business in the media business who are interested in institutional integrity and maintaining truth And Bill Owens is one so he said no We're not gonna apologize at 60 minutes for what we did
And so the head honchos at Paramount decided to put on more pressure.
It's unclear whether Owens was going to get fired or whether he did this to send a message.
And there was this meeting as we reported last week, a meeting with all the correspondents of 60 minutes and Owens, which he told them first.
And as Scott Pelley said, nobody was happy about this at 60 minutes.
But it sends an important message this from another place called the rap.
It's an online.
I follow him on Twitter.
It's an industry magazine if you will site Says according to the rap this is a different story now, but it's connected.
I'm gonna tell you how Says days after president Donald Trump's victory in 2024 is presidential election Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zell off
expressed enthusiasm about a new administration potentially creating greater, quote, opportunity for consolidation, unquote, that would, quote, provide a real positive and accelerated impact on this industry that's needed, unquote.
Zolov did add that it's, quote, too early to tell, unquote, whether these hopes would materialize.
But he missed a more significant disclaimer.
that merger and acquisition dreams can quickly become nightmares if your news organization angers the president.
That's chilling to me.
The story goes on to say CEOs might eventually get what they want in negotiating deals.
The main question is whether they'll be forced to throw their news operations under the bus
in order to achieve those aims.
That from the rap.
And this is where it gets dystopian.
That major news corporation, really entertainment, really, of which their news divisions are a part of the entertainment, in order for these deals to get approved by Trump-controlled FCC,
They're going to have to be willing to compromise and capitulate to a certain degree To not tick off Trump and his administration And this becomes a slippery slope Because you have good people like the folks at CBS 60 minutes
And I would say the vast majority of the reporters are fair and great news people.
We, we, uh, had their story in the Wisconsin judge last week from, uh, uh, uh, I can't say his name.
I had on the tip of my tongue.
See mad cow's armors.
That's what it is there.
Uh, Scott McFarlane, Scott McFarlane, great reporter, follows the justice department, followed all the J six stuff, tells it exactly like it is, has great integrity as a reporter.
But how many of these people are going to be allowed to tell the truth, even when it ticks off Trump?
Without the parent company, whether it be Paramount, whether it be Discovery, Warner Brothers, Comcast, guys, gals, can you just tone it down a little bit there on that story?
And people are going to have to decide.
News people are going to have to decide what is more important to me.
My paycheck, paying my bills, supporting my family, or my internal morals and character, my journalistic integrity.
And again, I bring you back to Naib Bukeli, the president of El Salvador, who calls himself the cool dictator, quote unquote.
One of the first things Bukele did when he became president in 2019 in El Salvador was to start intimidating the two major newspapers sources in El Salvador La Prensa gráfica and Dia de hoy La Prensa was considered a more conservative paper.
La Dia de hoy was the more liberal paper loosely
And they started writing when, when he started, when Naim Bukeli started intimidating the Salvadoran Supreme Court.
They started writing articles, op-eds on him.
And Bukeli basically intimidated those two things to become their cheerleaders for Bukeli.
Trump has seen the blueprint in El Salvador and he's trying to do it right here in the United States of America.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2, back after this in the civic medium.
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.
I mean, fun doing it.
Welcome back to the title of all show in the Civic Media Ready Network.
52 minutes now past the hour of two o'clock coming up at three o'clock, a little news, weather and sports update 40, giving you a traffic report after the top of the hour, a little what's worse for you as well.
Right now, talking about what Scott Pelley did on 60 Minutes last night, calling out his own network, Paramount.
For putting pressure on executive producer Bill Owens to compromise their journalistic integrity Owens resigned and Then talking about this larger story at the rap other corporations like Discovery Time Warner Basically having to say well, you know to get some of these larger corporation deals done was best for our corporation We may keyword may
Have to appease the Trump administration when it comes to our news division LA Tom watching on YouTube Saying he's going to cancel his paramount plus plus membership today Well, LA, I don't know you need to do that number.
I subscribed to Paramount He's I'm a big Star Trek fan.
That's where all the Star Trek stuff is that and other other programs as well I would say
Just my personal opinion, I think that's the kind of thing you do after we find out that Paramount has stopped a story at CBS.
I think we have to stand by Scott Pelley and those journalists at CBS in 60 minutes who are still doing by their own reporting the mission that Pelley said last night, none of our stories have been stopped.
It hasn't come to that yet.
It's kind of a clarion call.
Right.
So I think we have to continue to support journalists who are doing good things at Paramount or CBS or other places.
I think when you cancel subscriptions is when it comes out and they say that something's been stopped at the news division, just my two cents, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.
Let's go to the phone lines.
Gene up in beautiful Eau Claire on WCFW, the tap.
Gene, any strong storms come through there yet?
Not yet, but I have to tell you, you're doing an outstanding job there, sir.
Well,
thank you.
Getting this information to the people, because this is the worst thing that they can start doing is messing with the press and messing with information.
And I do, by the way, have that good night and good luck.
And another thing, too, that I think is really important is what people can do and not stop their...
subscriptions, but what they can do is write to these people and say, hey, we're watching, we appreciate you giving us the truth, and that's why we support you, and we want you to keep on giving us the truth.
Just like civic media, given the truth, outstanding coverage, outstanding talk shows, and the people behind the machine they're answering the phones and keeping the shows running.
and
um
so i just want to say that and and really and seriously this is unbelievable and what i'm keep up the protests i'm watching these protests i love them signs get those signs out there trump takes this because he can't hide it
Thanks, guys.
Keep up the great work.
Love you.
Bye-bye.
Thanks, Gene.
Have a great day.
Thank you so much.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4.
Tools go to Madison WMDX Joe in Madison Joe.
We were calling your name out on Friday or Thursday for the draft because you were on, you called in when Matt Ross Child was guest hosting last week and this great backstory on Vince Lombardi and the Packers.
And we used, we credited you and we told that we told, I didn't retell as well as you could, but I appreciate you calling into Matt's show and we gave you.
credits, so thanks for that.
Thank you.
Thank you for that.
It's a great story and it really focuses on the fact that if you want to talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion, the star of that in our state was Vince Lombardi
and look
at the results.
The result has been fantastic.
If people want to check out that article, it's at Packers.com and it's really, really good.
So I'm happy to talk more about that.
I just wanted to add in on the 60 minutes thing and you know, I shouldn't laugh because this is awfully, awfully serious, but it just gives you a sense of just how far down the rabbit hole
we have gone.
There was apparently a first, this is out of LA Times dot com.
And they were talking about the fact that this is this lawsuit has been ongoing, and that Trump has doubled down on the amount that he's requesting.
I believe it is 20 billion
that
he's now looking at.
And this is the part that just killed me, Todd.
He apparently Trump supporters were looking at the fact.
First off, both Trump and Harris were allowed the opportunity to be interviewed on 60 minutes.
Harris went on.
Trump declined, okay?
He had his form and he declined.
Okay, so her interview ran on 60 minutes and they pulled a clip from what they had from the whole interview because as you know, our interview, they don't air the whole hour usually.
It's edited down.
This is standard industry practice.
It's not particularly new to 60 minutes.
Everybody does this.
You do it if you're editing an interview.
Everyone does.
So in any rate, the point of view I would like to add in is just this comment so we know what we're dealing with, which is
There was a chunk that was aired on Sunday morning shows and then another chunk that was aired on 60 minutes and they are all, you know, get their undies in a bundle because they said there was a different answer that was given.
So in this, Trump's team accused Harris of being a weak candidate and get this prone to uttering word salad, jumbles of exceptionally incoherent speech.
and that CBS manipulated the interview to make her appear more coherent and decisive.
And thus the product, her being more commercially appealing to people.
Whoa.
Are you kidding me?
Talking about word salad.
What a riot.
This is hysterical.
Absolutely hysterical.
Not to get you off, Joe, but I mean to your point, once CBS did finally, you know, release the entire thing, it's completely false.
I mean, you know, the charge is completely false.
Yeah, I mean and just pretty pretty funny that this guy's talking about incoherent word shallots.
I mean I just I mean let's just make that the next item that we have at our diner the incoherent word shallot You know can also call it the Trump special.
So anyway, I shouldn't be laughing about this It's incredibly serious because if the press goes down we're going down people and it's really really important But
my pleasure.
Thank you for listening to Joe.
It's a great listeners like Joe and Jean and everybody else I mean you guys are the ones that you know keep us going
both just kind of from an emotional standpoint, but also, you know, support the people that advertise on our stations, and that keeps us going as well.
Gonna come back with a what's worse in hour two, and some more news headlines as well.
Your phone calls is the all the show for Monday.
You're listening to the Civic Medium.
Ready
to know.
but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.
You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.
Good afternoon, everybody.
I'm Todd Albaugh, along with Mr. Aaron Zommerer, our producer and engineer on the board.
It is six past the hour of three o'clock.
Welcome into hour number two on the big program on this Monday back to work and back to school the 28th of April, 2025.
It is a great day.
to be Wisconsinite glad to have you along started the work week once again coming up a little what's worse for you and then then we're gonna finish up what we started on friday major things ahead for congress lots of things to take our attention the draft was great to have mike clemons on hour one talking about the draft that's important dame damey lillard out for the rest of the season and probably most of next year
A torn was torn Achilles, right?
A torn Achilles must win situation for the bucks in Indy tomorrow night.
So all that's important, all that's taking our attention, but what we don't, I don't think talk about enough is what's happening in Congress and some of these proposals that Trump is putting forward and how that might impact us here in Wisconsin.
Speaking of Wisconsin, Dan Schaefer, our great political editor here at Civic Media, letting us know in the last 20 minutes, Donald Trump endorsing Derek Van Orton, Republican incumbent in the third district on the western side of Wisconsin.
As Gomer Pyle once said, surprise, surprise, surprise.
No, not really.
It's not a surprise at all.
Rebecca Cook, the only Democrat so far who has announced that she is going to challenge Van Orton.
We'll see more Democrats get in very early, obviously, year and a half out.
But Trump, interesting though, the timing, interesting the timing.
Republicans must feel that Van Orton is vulnerable for Trump already to be out there trying to save his guy.
DVO more of that as it comes forward right now at eight minutes past the hour of three o'clock We start our drive time weather and traffic check for you speaking of weather first of all Be aware as we've been talking about all afternoon long current temperatures across the state of Wisconsin.
It is a wide variety in Superior, Wisconsin right now.
It is 42 degrees 42
here in downtown Madison, 77.
That is a wide variety.
So as you see sunshine in parts of the state, unfortunately, that is not a great thing today because of those wide temperatures across the state that sets up a front.
And as that moves through,
The warm air as the sun comes out and it destabilizes the atmosphere and that creates some weather difficulties.
We've been tracking one cell in particular this afternoon moving across the state of Wisconsin.
This storm has a history of 50 mile per hour winds and half inch size hail.
We zoom into live weather radar right now.
This is affecting the Wasa area.
Right now this cell is over the water the city of Warsaw so for our illiciters the WXCO be aware of that all the way up to Merrill so from Merrill Basically all the way down to Mosin E and just moved through the Mosin E area and this is headed to the West Northwest Pardon me east northeast there we go east northeast and around 50 miles per hour if you live in Antigo right now
Be aware, this storm is headed towards you, Wittenberg area.
This storm is headed towards you.
Gresham could also pick up some of these strong storms.
And again, these at 50 mile per hour winds just under the severe limit.
So it's not a severe thunderstorm warning right now, but it's a very strong weather system indeed.
And just over the last 30 minutes or so, two more cells have popped up.
in an area where it went through before just north of Black River Falls.
So our listeners on WFCW, the tap up there in the Eau Claire Chippewa Falls area, these storms are east of Eau Claire just north of Black River Falls.
So be aware of that.
Nealsville area.
Looks like you're probably going to get hit again, not with severe storms, but with heavy storms right now.
These storms are going to continue to pop up throughout the afternoon and into the evening, overnight hours.
Be aware.
Again, some parts of the state might not get much at all.
but other places may get some very strong storms.
We just want you to be aware of that.
In terms of traffic right now in the Madison area for WMDX listeners, nothing really, no road closures, no super slowdowns, but parts of the belt line, there are some cars that have been disabled and off on the shoulder.
So be aware, you might get some Gawkers out there that are slowing down traffic, but no major traffic accidents in the Madison metro area at this time.
For our listeners on WAU,
Okay, a walkie-shot area, particularly the suburbs.
Once again, kind of normal afternoon drive times, slowdowns on Highway 41 going north and south from I-90, 94, pardon me, I-94, all the way up to Alternate 43.
So Highway 41 north and south, slowdowns there.
And also in the Milwaukee Metro area, I-43 going north and south.
North of the interstate there of 94 you're gonna find the normal slowdowns there for you as well So allow us some extra time as they say on this Monday afternoon It is coming up on 12 minutes past.
I should say just past 12 past.
It's past 12 past It's coming up past 12 past 12
It's almost 13 minutes past the hour of three o'clock time once again for what's worse.
Let's go
go back.
Time once again for what's worse.
No prize, money involved, nothing to give away, but it is your opportunity to have your voice heard across the state of Wisconsin on all 11 news talk sports stations of the Civic Media Ready Network.
No better way to have your voice, to have your products, your business advertised than right here on Civic Media.
Go to civicmedia.us to find out how you can join the Civic Media.
team, whether obviously in the news today.
So are what's worse, timely, timely, indeed.
Pretty simple.
As I may disagree, see what you think.
The category for today.
No clouds or cloudy.
What's worse, no clouds or cloudy, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.
You could also text us.
on the Civic Media app.
Download it today, your Apple Android device, go to your app store, go to the search bar, type in Civic CIVIC media.
It'll pop up a little C-M logo, click on that, takes less than a minute, it is free, it won't cost you a dime.
We're pretty chill.
The Civic Media app, download it today and text in your answer as well.
What's worse, no clouds or cloudy.
eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two for those watching on Facebook Twitter X Twix as Craig Ferguson dubbed it on YouTube as well Great graphic by CP today No clouds has a beach a beautiful beach not a cloud of the sky bright sunshine and the other is kind of a It actually looks like a coffee farm if you want the truth and very cloudy
So what's worse, clouds or no clouds?
855-752-4842.
855-752-4842.
Let's go to Milwaukee, W-A-U-K.
Brian, listening in Milwaukee.
Brian, no clouds or cloudy?
What's worse?
Well, that's a
tough one because there's pros and cons to both.
With no clouds, you got a lot of sun.
and it can be, you know, the sun beating down and you can get a real bad sunburn really quick.
But then the other thing is, if it's cloudy and overcast, the humidity is going to get trapped in the clouds and they just sweat like a pig.
Right.
So I mean, the thing was, I cut the grass earlier today and it was funny because during the hour of cleaning grass, the sun kept coming in and out and in and out and out.
I was just like, well, you make it your micropeat sake, you're going to get a sunburn or I'm going to be humid the whole time.
You know.
Right?
I would probably have to say, probably have to say, what's worse would be probably the sun being out just because I know I burn like a crisp.
All right.
Doesn't matter how much sun, some motion I put on.
Got it.
No, I get it.
Some people are very sensitive to that.
So thanks, Brian.
We appreciate your listenership.
Thanks for being along with us.
855-752-4842.
855-752-4842.
What's worse, no clouds or cloudy?
Give us a call.
It could also text us on the Civic Media app like Steve and Mount Hora, listing on WMDX.
Steve says it depends on the temperature.
All right.
That's that's fair indeed.
Give us a call.
What's worse?
No clouds or cloudy.
Zomers, you want to weigh in?
For many reasons I don't need to get into.
I don't tolerate heat well.
My eyes are very sensitive to sunlight.
Having no clouds is difficult because I need sunglasses and a hat or I will not be able to open my eyes.
And also I'll probably burn and get really sweaty.
But if it's cloudy and it's really humid, I will still also get sweaty, but at least I'll be able to see.
So I'm going to say no clouds is worse.
No clouds is worse for you.
No clouds is worse, you're
Well, I wouldn't say you're just, you're sensitive person to heat and light.
You're better off in a dark, cool room.
much so.
You're like a potato or a rutabaga.
Certain plants.
You live well in a root cellar.
Stores, homers in a cool, dry place.
What's worse, no clouds or cloudy.
855-752-4842.
855-752-4842.
I'll we'll see if we get a couple more calls here before I Before I give you mine or while we're waiting Here's an interesting fact related to artificial intelligence one of my favorite subjects a late 2024 survey found that 67% of US respondents reported being nice to their chatbots of those who practice courtesy 55% of American AI users said they do it
Because it's the right thing to do while 12% did it to appease the algorithm in the case a case of an AI uprising That is one paragraph and an article entitled Sam Altman admits that saying please and thank you to chat GPT is wasting millions of dollars in computing power You can read the full article at futurism.com.
Wait a minute.
really
By saying please and thank you to your chatbot you're wasting millions of dollars and computing power
8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 let's go out to the RC quickly to be a RCE whistler in Richland Center whistler You got to make it fast, but no clouds or cloudy.
What's worse whistler?
No clouds no clouds
Oh, that's a great point.
That's a great point that if you have clouds, you can't see the northern lights or the Milky Way or anything else.
All right, Whistler, we appreciate it.
Have a great day out there in Richland Center.
It was just out there over the weekend.
Beautiful, beautiful country out there.
Come on back.
We'll wrap up worse and talk about the budget and Congress on the other side.
You're listening to the Todd Allball Show and you're listening to Cross Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're
listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
Having fun doing it.
22 past the hour of three o'clock across the state of Wisconsin.
All of all show on civic media.
Take a look at traffic around the state.
Start of your rush hour.
Start of your drive time.
In the greater Milwaukee area, I mean, it's pretty, pretty far west of Milwaukee, more of a Wauwatosa area.
From the interstate 94 going east and west, highway 41, interstate 41, going north and south, really now,
pretty much all the way from the Menamanee Falls all the way down to you know just east of west or west to west Alice and the interstate that entire line of highway 41 north and south lots of slowdowns right now in both directions really starting to go from yellow into red there as is interstate 43 north and south from highway 94 up to i90
Could be a slow on both 41 North and South and 43 North and South.
So be prepared for those slowdowns in your afternoon commute.
Talking about what's worse right now, what's worse, no clouds or cloudy.
855-752-4842-855-752-4842.
You can also text us on the Civic Media app.
Pleased to have Judy with us in Lodi.
who says, list she's listening on WMDX says, worse is no clouds.
I don't like it too bright and sunny.
It makes it harder to see while driving.
And I hate being blinded by the light.
I'm not a morning person with bright lights at all.
So there you go.
She's saying the, uh, worse is no clouds that she doesn't like the sun.
So thanks, Judy.
Appreciate you listening up there.
A beautiful low dye.
Also, Sean, back in the RC, WRCE in Richland Center, saying, no clouds is worse.
The fish bite better on a cloudy day.
Well, there you go, from a fisherman, a fisherman, right there.
And you agreed with that over the break, right?
right?
Uh, what's your thought?
No clouds or cloudy eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.
What do you think?
I will, uh, for me personally, because I'm, uh, I'm a light.
I like light.
I like the sun.
I mean, there, there, I mean, I don't mind a, a rainy day once in a while.
I mean, what once in a while is just, especially during the summer, kind of like a, an afternoon light, not, not like damaging, but a nice.
afternoon or evening even in thunderstorm with kind of gentle rain for I find that kind of therapeutic
right No, I think that's therapeutic but in general in generally I don't like a string of cloudy days That kind of gets me down kind of depressed.
I'm a light person.
I like the Sun So for me personally, I would say cloudy is worse.
So some person I disagree He's a no clouds is worse kind of guy
I'm overall a cloudy day is worse for me.
that one.
Well, not lately, but yes.
How much time you have spent in El Salvador.
Beaches, beaches, love that.
I like that.
It's just, I enjoy it.
All right, that was fun.
What's worse for today?
Join us tomorrow on hour number two for another edition of What's Worse.
We started this on Friday.
Want to get to it today.
Gonna start it, pick it up after the bottom of the hour break, major things ahead for Congress.
Wanna quickly recap a couple of things we talked about on Friday.
One of them are recisions.
Recisions.
Expect Congress to get President Trump's list of suggested cuts, which they have now for current spending items.
And they're known as recisions.
Now, the recisions,
It could be up to $9 billion in spending, according to Punchbowl.
Great news source.
And rescisions differ from traditional cuts by Congress because these are things that are affecting this year's spending instead of next biennium spending or next year's spending.
Here, Trump has expected to propose current cuts, including possibly eliminating funding.
for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting could affect some 1,500 local public media stations and PR and PBS.
Once Trump proposes recisions, Congress has 45 legislative days to accept or amend them.
Otherwise, his request lapses and funding stays intact.
Number two, reconciliation.
When last we left Republican lawmakers, they had passed the first critical step.
toward expanding and extending Trump's tax cuts in a budget resolution.
Remember that?
A lot of people voted for that.
Wisconsin Republican delegation voted for it.
So no, no, no, we're not making cuts to anything.
Well, they're kind of sort of technically right because the, the rubber meets the road in reconciliation.
This blueprint opens up the reconciliation process quote unquote and that allows Republicans to pass tax cuts and some other agenda items through the Senate with a simple majority vote They do not have significant time if they want to make the deadline the budget resolution sets a May 9th deadline for committees to write the tax cut portion of the bill
Doing this will not be easy.
The budget resolution left most of the hard questions unanswered.
Among them, how much spending must be cut and where those cuts will come from.
How much should the debt ceiling increase?
Which tax cuts should be added and for whom and for how long?
Again, this is why I use the term where the rubber meets the road.
Republicans got criticized saying, well, you're cutting Medicaid, you're cutting programs that
affect the most vulnerable.
And guys like Derek Van Orton and Glenn growth, but others said, no, no, no.
Well, again, technically they're not wrong because what they passed first was kind of the larger scale thing.
Now to achieve those things, you can't move forward unless you make those cuts.
But now they have to vote.
Now they have to make those cuts in those programs that they said they weren't going to.
You can't have it both ways, boys.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.
Back after this, we'll get more into the major things ahead for the United States Congress and how it affects Wisconsin.
It's the all-bolts show at Civic Media on the Civic Media Ready
Wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.
Welcome back to the title of all show on the Civic Media Network.
Glad to have you along on a Monday, April 23rd.
20, 25, 35 minutes now past the hour of three o'clock.
Take a look at our weather situation across the state of Wisconsin been tracking some severe, not so well, that's the thing.
They're not technically severe storms, but many of these storms, 50 mile per hour winds, half inch sized hail according to the National Weather Service.
Another is they kind of keep popping up along this same area, say from the Black River Falls area and then head from there.
North and East and so now one thing another a strong storm north of Marshfield headed once again to Towards the Warsaw area and then another strong storm right now over Merrill So those are the two cells that we're watching right now again not technically severe but strong storms and also for our La Crosse listeners right now
Another line of storms just having moved through the La Crosse area and now just to the east of La Crosse headed towards the Sparta and Verroqua areas right now So so I'll be aware of that other places some showers and storms popping up nothing super strong right now, but keep an eye to the sky because
It's going to be a rough night for parts of the state.
And again, some people are going to say, what are you talking about, Todd?
Because I'm not seeing her here or anything.
And there will be parts of the state that don't get a whole lot at all.
But there are parts of the state that are going to get strong storms because of the fact that in Madison right now, it's 77 degrees.
And in superior Wisconsin right now, it is in the mid 40s.
So we have this unstable air mass across the state of Wisconsin and that's going to cause some weather problems as we go through the overnight hours into the evening and overnight hours tonight.
Checking traffic for you once again, normal to heavy or traffic than normal on the interstate areas around the Milwaukee area, particularly going north and south.
People trying to get north and south right now in the greater Milwaukee area.
I-43 from say 94 up to I-90 so that whole stretch of I-43 right now going slow be prepared for that and also I-41 going north and south from 94 pretty much all the way to just south of the nominee falls that entire stretch you're going to see slowdowns there so just be aware of that no major road closures although there are some disabled vehicles around the belt line in Madison right now not causing any complete road closures
but some disabled vehicles off to the side of the road may get some Gawkers.
So be aware of that.
Don't Gawk.
Just continue to drive.
That's what slows everything down.
You understand?
Don't make a second victim.
That's a good way to put it, Thomas.
Don't make a second victim.
Speaking of victims, the American taxpayer, right?
Talking about what's coming to Congress now that the Easter recess is over.
major things ahead for Congress.
Some of these things are not making the big headlines because of larger kind of more media sexy type of stories.
Trump going on truth socials saying wacky things.
But these are things they're gonna have to be talked about in the coming days and weeks What are your what are your thoughts on this new budget coming up these new congressional votes 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 do you or someone you know use Medicaid Medicaid Now my former report my former party likes to paint this as quote-unquote welfare
Oh, we don't want to give people welfare.
Well, it turns out a lot of their voters are on Medicaid because Medicaid is not for people.
It's not singularly for people who are quote unquote lazy.
By the way, that's just kind of a more or less a myth.
Yes, of course, you're always gonna have a couple of bad apples and every barrel we're gonna try to game the system I don't want to say it never happens because then somebody's gonna bring up the one in a million case where it happens But it's so
the
right especially after Tommy George Thompson when he was governor in a bipartisan way created welfare to work Makes it much harder to quote-unquote game the system but
Most people Want to work most people want to they're looking for a hand up not a hand out and So there are a lot of people in predominantly Republican voting areas of Wisconsin who are disabled veterans for instance People who went and served their countries overseas Have have PTSD or whatever the case may be they aren't able to work either fully or at all
And so part of their support comes from Medicaid money.
It might be our parents or grandparents who worked all their life, who saved up, who tried to pull themselves up by the bootstrap, great, upstanding members of our community, but in later life, develop things like dementia, Alzheimer's, whatever it might be.
And they had no choice but to go into elder care, to memory care.
Those places aren't cheap folks My maternal grandmother was in a nursing care facility last six seven years of her life Can be eight nine thousand dollars a month a month And for folks that can't pay it they don't get they don't get kicked out on the street once they go into that facility and their own savings is gone Medicaid takes over
So the future of Medicaid is up for grabs in Congress coming up the next few weeks as Part of the reconciliation process Republicans will have to grapple with how and whether they want to significantly cut or reform Medicaid The reconciliation instructions to the house make it mathematically impossible For that chamber to meet its goals without cutting back
on the funding of Medicaid.
And this is what Democrats have been talking about.
And this is what Republicans like Derek Van Orton, Glenn Grossman and Tom Tiffany and Scott Fitzgerald have all denied.
And as I said earlier in this segment, they get by with it kind of sort of because technically they're kind of sort of right.
Let me explain.
So the head the first step was the larger picture, right?
But it doesn't delineate how you get there in terms of funding and or cuts So the Republicans can look at you and say I didn't vote to cut Medicaid.
No, I didn't do that But congressman congresswoman you voted for an overall spending bill.
Yes
But I didn't vote for Medicaid cuts Which is technically true because this vote coming up This is where the rubber meets the road you see It's kind of like I don't even go grocery shopping, right?
And you say what what should we have for dinner?
Well, I would like a steak I like a fillet and I like
A bottle of wine, maybe a six pack of beer.
And how about, no, they have been passing the deli and they make these great chocolate cakes.
All right.
So let's see.
The top of the line filet, that's going to cost you about, well, it depends on where you go and whatnot.
It could cost you 15, 20 bucks a pop.
So a couple of those will say 40 bucks for two filets, 20 bucks for a bottle of wine.
We're at 60 and then the cake is another 10.
So we're at 70 bucks for dinner.
And then you look at your debit card or you look at your phone or you look at your checkbook.
Well, we've only got $40 to spend.
So you have a choice, right?
You could have the filet and the wine and the chocolate cake and not pay your $70 electric bill.
Or you pay the $70 electric bill and you know, you have hamburger And a soda or something, I don't know If I make you an overly simplistic, but you get the point Congress has to do the same thing there's they're saying they want they they want filet in terms of the tax cuts they want for the corporations by the way But now they got to pay for it
So the reconciliation instructions in the house represented it makes it mathematically impossible for that chamber to meet its goals without cutting back on Medicaid That's where the largest things that Congress puts in funding where our tax dollars go But to make things more complex stand by The instructions to the Senate floor or to the Senate are far more loose in other words
The chambers will have to negotiate this part of the Trump quote-unquote big beautiful bill and expect a potentially sharp fight amongst Republicans over those priorities.
This is not going to be just a Republican versus Democratic fight.
Because the way the chambers work, the Senate can be more loosey-goosey about it.
But the cows can't they got to have real numbers on this so stay and buy for that Also coming up nomination holds We at here's the deal I Like that here's the deal.
Here's the deal.
We particularly love raising what may be overlooked So here's the deal one by one a handful of Democratic senators have begun using a Senate procedure
called placing holds to slow down or block specific Trump administration nominees, either individually or in large groups.
At the minimum, a hold means that a nominee cannot be fast-tracked and approval may be significantly slowed down.
It can be de facto prevent a vote on a nominee altogether, depending upon the circumstances.
Here's a couple of examples.
Senator Brian Shetz, Democrat of Hawaii, I'm a fan.
He's placed holds on some 300 nominees, including all nominees for the Department of State.
Shant has written that he objects to Trump's gutting of the U.S.
Agency for International Development, better known as USAID, as well as cuts and actions affecting other agencies.
Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, has done the same for all nominees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, objecting to proposed cuts for that agency.
And see, again, you gotta gotta know the backstory, because what you're going to hear from Republicans on conservative talk is, oh my gosh, Democrats hate veterans because they're not, they're not confirming President Trump's
nominees to U.S.
Department of Veteran Affairs.
But the truth is, Democrats like Diego, I believe he's a veteran, are saying, no, no, no, no.
You guys are gutting this agency.
You're taking away, so like when you call the VA to make your appointment or you're trying to get into VA if you're a veteran or a family member, now because Trump and Musk
And they're made up agency of Doge have cut so many people and we're hearing stories about this now a Lot of people are saying they're calling into Department of Veteran Affairs.
They can't get an appointment Or they're having to wait a lot longer And so Democrats are saying yeah, the reason is because Trump's cutting all these positions So we're not gonna put more of your stooches in Until you properly fund the Department of Veteran Affairs and stand up for
for our American heroes.
Back after this, we'll wrap it up as
the All Balls show in the Civic Media Ready Network.
back to the Tahleball show on the Civic Media Ready Network.
It is now eight before the hour of four o'clock at the top of the hour.
ABC and CBS News followed by an important check of our weather.
Our great sports reporter Mike Clemens comes on after that.
Give you the sports report.
We appreciate Clemens going on our show today.
Be aware of the weather.
Keep it tuned to your favorite
weather source throughout the afternoon, evening into the overnight hours as we're seeing some heavy storms pop up across parts of Wisconsin this afternoon.
Again, it's kind of an interesting to watch weather standpoint, but a lot of these storms have been popping up along the Black River Falls area and then had east.
Northeast and around 50 mile per hours some of those storms have been creating a gusty winds up to 50 miles per hour and then some smaller sized hail as well Another a couple of cells continue to pop up right now currently looking at weather radar.
We can see west and northwest of Warsaw right now Right above Stratford have some strong cells there around the Merrill area just south of Tomahawk
Some strong storms right there right now and those are heading to the east northeast around 50 miles per hour and then Southwest ish, Wisconsin between Sparta and Tomah another strong cell right now that is moving about due east
with some heavy rains and lightning as well.
So 77 degrees right now in Madison, where we are, and my summers are at 46, was it, in Superior?
So, yeah.
Right around there, yeah.
It's a wide range.
of temperatures and that's part of what's creating some of these storms to pop up.
The sun has only got a few of those storms.
So I'll be aware of that across the state of Wisconsin.
Quick final check of traffic at this hour.
Again, the greater Milwaukee area.
If you're going north and south on Highway, pardon me, Interstate 43 in both directions from 94 up to 190.
Take some extra time or allow some extra time both north and south on I 43 slow going right now It is cleared up a bit to the west of there on I 41 north and south between 94 and all the way up to Menominee Falls But still some slow spots there as well under walkie-shaw a couple more disabled vehicles now off the road so
those are on the shoulder but again you might get some people kind of gawking there but it's not blocking traffic directly and then in the greater Madison area on the belt line again a couple of disabled vehicles off on the shoulder but nothing that is literally blocking traffic so that is a check of your weather and traffic update now at 55 minutes past the hour uh want to wrap this up
Well things I look I know this stuff isn't as sexy as what's on through social and some of the big headlines But I think it's I think it's important to keep our eyes on this these nomination holds the reconciliation You know things that are happening in Congress and in particular we're talking about these cuts to Medicaid Which again to reiterate this might be one of the most important things we've talked about all day
all day is that what Congress has already passed in terms of their overall budget, they cannot make that happen without significant cuts to Medicaid.
Either A, they can't make all the tax cuts they want happen, or B, we're going to see significant cuts in Medicaid.
And again, this does not mean quote unquote welfare.
These are our folks that have worked all their life
who are now retired and might be in nursing homes on Medicaid, it might be disabled veterans, lot to other folks.
Kids,
lot of kids.
Kids, right, thank you, a lot of kids.
So if you're concerned about this, I urge you to call your local congressperson.
I heard congressman Mark Pockean.
Talking about this on Tom Hartman show last week.
Somebody called it and said well when to be I think we should start calling our Republican Congress people and urging them to join the King Jefferies only takes five to basically Unseat Johnson the speaker and and get things done.
That's a great thought But even Mark Pokan said look When someone goes to my website and they go to leave me an email
you have to type in your zip code.
And if your zip code doesn't match those in my district, you're not even able to allow it to use or to leave a message.
And he said, because I have two staffers to respond to all that constituent email, and I just don't have the staff to respond to people outside my district.
And there's a former congressional staffer myself, I know that to be true.
So I understand the sentiment.
But it's much more effective if you call your own or email your own congressperson whomever that might be And of course in Wisconsin we have two us senators one Democrat Tammy Baldwin one Republican Ron Johnson So call them email them and say look we're not for these Medicaid cuts if that's important to you a couple more of these uh, I guess one more of this nominee
Senator Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, put a hold on Trump's nominee for U.S.
Attorney in Washington, D.C., a pivotal prosecutor in the Department of Justice system.
Schiff argues that the nominee is a Trump loyalist who helped organize the January 6, 2021, quote unquote, stop the steel rally and should be blocked.
I agree with Senator Schiff.
We know that Trump has pushed against any delays seeking his nominees confirmed at times threatening to upend the nomination system itself by launching recess appointments Watch for this area as a possible increased tension in the weeks and months ahead if it boils it will boil quickly Great show today appreciate Mike Clemens for stopping by Xamar is also Thank you always great work all of you for listening as well.
We'll be back tomorrow with another edition
What's worse as well?
Stay safe out there on the roadways, but also watch the weather folks.
It might get bumpy later on.
Till then, Todd, I'll say whatever you're fighting for, whatever you believe in, do not give up.
Keep banging your drum.
We'll see you tomorrow.
Bye-bye.
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.