Transcript
Brian Schimming Agrees With Van Orden… Mostly (Hour 1)
The Todd Allbaugh Show · Mon May 19, 2025
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 a-
Good afternoon, everybody.
I'm Todd Albault.
I'm the fantastic Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board, our producer and engineer.
It is six minutes past the hour of two o'clock on this Monday, May 19th, 2025.
It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.
Welcome in, back to work, back to school for most, although a lot of the universities and colleges are out for the summer.
Some of the high schools finishing up, lots of graduations coming up this weekend.
I will be attending one at Madison Memorial.
No, no, no time.
You're going to Eau Claire.
Eau Claire Memorial, my favorite youngest niece, Isabel, graduating this weekend.
We're going to be doing the show up in beautiful Chippewa Valley in the Eau Claire area on both Thursday and Friday of this week.
We may even get our friend Pat Krightlow involved on Friday.
On Lake Wissota, weather dependent, stay tuned for that.
On Wednesday, Aaron Zomers will be doing the show from beautiful Kopkes Greenhouse, the town of Dunn, just outside of the city of Oregon.
Looking forward to that.
So big week lined up, Zomers.
all kinds of things going on and looking forward to it and nervous anticipation big show today today Today today coming up at the bottom of the hour State Senator Kelder Royce from the 26th district which encompasses much not all of the city of Madison She is a member of the joint committee on finance better known as JFC She's gonna be along with gonna be a weekly thing or as much as her schedule allows and we appreciate it so very much
Senator Royce is gonna be here talking a little bit about what's happening on joint finance committee and also how this affects all of us as Wisconsinites because of course this is the budget writing committee the committee that takes care of the spending of the vast majority of not all of the tax money that we pay in to the state
the state coffers.
There is now, according to Bob Lang, the indisputable director of the finance, the state's finances, the finance director, Bob Lang.
According to them, the state of Wisconsin now has a 4.3 billion with a B surplus.
So, you know, lots of money to go around.
And that you would think that would mean, hey, great, we've been fiscally responsible as a state.
So why don't we take a look and look at our state priorities and say, how can we give some of this money back to the taxpayers, to Wisconsinites in terms of services, whether it's K-12 education, whether it's childcare, that might make some sense.
Unfortunately, there are some folks, key words some from my former party, Republicans,
who either A, don't wanna spend any of it, or B, want to give it out in, and Republicans and Democrats, let's be honest about this, over the years, have been guilty of this, they like to say, oh, let's give it back directly to taxpayers in the form of basically a rebate.
So they wanna send us all anywhere from 100 to 200 or 300 bucks, which you know, you think, well, great, that's nice, nobody's gonna say no to 100 bucks, but could that money be better spent?
on services that the vast majority of Wisconsinites need.
So we'll have that discussion with Senator Royce coming up after the news update at the bottom of the hour.
Then in hour number two, we have Tom Kircher.
Tom Kircher from Wisconsin Watch is gonna be here.
Now, here's the deal.
We had Jack Kelly from Wisconsin Watch, but like most of the men in my life, he left me.
Well, he didn't leave you.
No, not me personally.
No, Jack has gone on to great things.
He has a new personal opportunity within the University of Wisconsin Vet School, and very, very happy and excited for him.
But we're gonna miss him at Wisconsin Watch, but now we have Tom Kircher, who is, we're gonna have our first date together.
Our first on air.
We're looking forward to having Tom from Wisconsin Watch.
Gonna talk a little bit about the Republican State Convention.
which was held in Rothschild, I believe, over the weekend.
We're going to play a clip from that in a minute.
But Tom will be here, update us on some of the happenings, the Wisconsin State Republican Convention, what news came out of it, if any.
And also, he wrote a great piece at Wisconsin Watch on a bit of bipartisanship.
Yes, as a matter of fact, I think it's always important in these days of hyperpartisanship, there are a few things where Republicans and Democrats are working together.
One of those
in terms of energy and the future of nuclear energy here in the state of Wisconsin.
Tom wrote a great piece on that at Wisconsin to watch, so we will talk about that with him as well.
And we have an egg addition, an egg addition of what's worse, sunny side up or over easy.
He is an anti-eggite.
to use a Seinfeld term.
He doesn't like eggs.
I love eggs, as a matter of fact.
Me too.
So we'll talk about that.
Also, Wendy McMahon, president of CBS News, is out resigned this morning as the Trump administration continues to try to pressure CBS and Paramount Global over their coverage.
We'll talk about what it means to, again, a further chink in the armor of the free press in the United States of America and have some fun a little bit along the way as well.
I want to talk to you about Milwaukee Brewers for a second.
They're back in action on the Milwaukee Brewers radio network across many of the stations here at Civic Media, including Richelon Center, Oshkosh Racing, Kenosha Park Falls and Hayward.
They're playing tonight against the old Baltimore Orioles.
Game time, the pregame show set for 605 tonight across many of our stations on Civic Media.
So be listening to that.
The Brewers taking on the Baltimore Orioles.
Great story on ESPN today.
on the on the website, a great written story, an actual written story, not video.
Great written story on Christian Yellich and his travels, his relationship with the late great Bob Euker.
And now Yellich sees himself as really a leader in the Milwaukee Brewers Clubhouse.
Here's something I learned according to this story, which I thought was really, really cool.
Yellich took it upon himself to mentor some of these guys like Bruce Terrang.
and Sal Freilich, who are now either in their second or first year respectively, full years as big leagueers, and with these guys, and even Jackson Cheerio, when these guys got drafted by the Brewers, Yellich took it upon himself, even though he was at the top of his career, 18, 19, 20, those years.
These guys were starting out at 18, 19-year-olds, and Yellich started texting them directly, just saying, hey,
How are you doing?
Welcome to the organization.
You're going to make it up to the big show, as they call it at some point.
Anything I can do to help you get here, don't be afraid to hit me up.
And continue to reach out to them as minor leaguers and Terrang and Freilich, Churio, saying how much that meant to them to have somebody, everything that was going on with Yelich, yet he cared enough about them as people.
to build this relationship.
So by the time they got to Milwaukee to join Yelich as a teammate, they already had this friendship, this relationship, and Yelich credits that to Bob Euker, saying that when Yelich got traded from Miami to the Brewers in 2018, the Brewers sent a plane to pick Yelich up, and on the plane was Robin Yacht.
iconic Milwaukee Brewer, and also Bob Uker was on that plane.
And from that day, Bob Uker taught Christian Yelich, look, it's just about building relationships, man, asking people, hey, where are you from?
Where did you grow up at?
What do you like to do outside of baseball?
Just getting to know them as people first, and that that's more important than saying, hey, what did you bat last year?
And I thought that was such a great takeaway, a great lesson once again, that we can learn from sports from the great late Bob Euker.
As we say on this show a lot, just get out and talk to people.
Have a relationship with a real person, and that's really what builds community.
So I thought I'd pass that along for what is worth
Have a good weekend, Summers.
Well, I found my way up to Shawna, Wisconsin, hung out with my dad's stepmom a little bit, had a good time with them, toured around Shawna Lake.
good time had by all and then found my way to Richland center before the weekend was done and checked in some friends there saw mom for a minute and then back so lots of windshield time but all in all not a bad weekend at all glad to be back with you like I say it's gonna be a big week this week we'll be on the road at Kopkes greenhouse in the town of Dunn here in Dane County on Wednesday and then two shows up in the beautiful Chippewa Valley on Friday pardon me on Thursday and Friday all right we're gonna talk a little bit later
to, as we said, Tom Kircher from Wisconsin Watch about the Republican State Convention in a Rothschild over the weekend.
But I wanted to start out with this because I thought this was this was pretty good, in my opinion.
So Derek Van Orton, the Trumper from the Trump congressman from the third district of Wisconsin, was up there and talking to reporters as he likes to do.
And one of the reporters asked him.
I believe it says Emily Fanon asked him, asked Van Orton.
And by the way, Emily Fanon is from CBS 58, great television station there in the Milwaukee area.
Asked him, why do you think Republicans lost, have been losing in the spring elections for, for a Supreme Court?
And basically Van Orton says, because we have too many elections, we're going to let you listen to it in the original vernacular.
And then the reporter goes up, the same reporter, and asks Brian Shimming, the chairman of the state party, do you agree with Van Orton?
And he goes, I always agree with Congressman Van Orton.
What do you say?
He wants to get rid of spring elections.
But I mostly agree with, here it is, here's Van Orton and Shimming this weekend at the state Republican Party.
What do you think went wrong or what goes wrong in spring elections here in Wisconsin?
Republicans don't vote, period.
Like, we just don't vote in spring elections.
How do you change that?
I don't think we should have a spring election.
I think we need to, these guys in the state house, I think they should get rid of that and fold it into a midterm or a four year cycle.
It makes no sense for us to have three elections a year.
Why do we do that?
Just even from an efficiency point of view, it doesn't make any sense.
Spending money doing this, campaigning, people running around, there is exhaustion from the previous election, and it's just not functional.
And so, the time, place, and manner of elections is determined by the state house, and I think they should get rid of the April election and roll it.
into one of the two year cycles.
I agree with what Derek Van
Orton said.
He just said he wants to get rid of spring elections here in Wisconsin.
I agree with almost everything that Derek Van Orton said.
That is classic Brian Shemin right there.
Isn't that great?
So again, Derek Van Orton, Congressman Van Orton from the Third District, wants to get rid of spring elections.
just have one big election in November.
And when they, and then the reporter, the clip, you can't see it obviously through the radio, but it flashes a few minutes later.
The same reporter asks the state party chair, who by the way, hung on to his title as state chairman over the weekend.
He was challenged.
It was shot down.
And the reporter says, do you agree with Congressman Van Orden?
And before they could finish, she was, I always agree with Congress.
What do you say?
He wants to get rid of spring elections.
I mostly agree with Congressman Van Orden and a big shimmy laugh.
What do you think about Daring Van Orton calling to get rid of April elections in Wisconsin?
855-752-4842.
855-752-4842.
Come on back, it's a Monday edition.
It's the All Ball 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.
Welcome back to the Ta-Dong Ball show on the Civic Media Ready Network.
Twenty-two now past the hour of two o'clock on the Civic Media Ready Network.
Is that the Jimmy Buffett shingle?
Is that on the Van Orton door in DC?
I just like
All right, very good.
Very good.
Talking about the Republican State Convention over the weekend.
We're going to do more on this subject in hour number two.
But played you the cut there from CBS 58 over the weekend when the reporter asked Congressman Van Orton, why do you think that Republicans, even though it's technically not a partisan race, we all know that Republican Party backs the conservative candidate in judicial races and the Democrats back the liberal candidate.
So why is it that liberals keep winning the Supreme Court races and Derek Van Orton claims is because we have too many elections Just you know, there's too much democracy going around and say we he wants to get rid Derek Van Orton wants to get rid of these spring elections in the state of Wisconsin and Then the reporter goes up to the state chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin Brian Arthur shimmy
and asked him if he agrees with Derek Van Orton to hear us the reaction from the Shem Sham.
I
agree with what Derek Van Orton said.
He just said he wants to get rid of spring elections here in Wisconsin.
I agree with almost everything that Derek Van Orton
said.
I find this highly entertaining because
Back in my days as a Republican, I sat down at the, he likes to hang out at the Edgewater Pier here in Madison and I have a Diet Coke.
Shemin does not drink.
And so he has a Diet Coke down on the pier of the Edgewater.
Back in the old days, he used to go down there shirtless.
And, and he, when he gets going and telling stories and he has some great stories, he has a great laugh, a guttural laugh like that.
He likes to pound the table when he, when he, when he tells a joke.
So when he finds out that one of his own congressmen wants to get rid of these spring elections, he quickly amends his comments to say, I agree with most of the things that Congressman Van Orton says.
The bottom line is Derek Van Orton is too wackadoodle, even for the chairman of his own party in the state of Wisconsin, Brian Arthur Shimmie.
What do you think about this?
A sitting United States Congressman calling to get rid of the spring election in Wisconsin, 855-752-4842, 855-752-4842.
Jameson in Pennsylvania says, I'm in PA, so my voice matters less there on this, like two elections primary and the final.
In the rare need a special election, otherwise here in Pennsylvania, we have closed primaries.
So, independents don't get to vote and you can only vote by your party.
I think that's a big problem too for another day.
Actually, Jameson, this is a really great subject.
And yes, we don't have time right now to suss this out.
But I was talking to a longtime friend of mine who has worked in politics.
I will not name him.
But he brought up just this morning to me about this subject, that if Wisconsin would have open primaries,
Meaning that I mean most people know that right now when we go to vote in a primary election, you only get to vote for one party.
So you can vote the Republican primary, the Democratic primary, the Green Party primary, so on and so forth.
But you can't vote for one candidate in the Republican primary and another candidate in the Democratic primary.
And if we had open primaries,
You might end up having more centrist candidates get through now the argument is Well, the other major opposition party is going to mess around Quote-unquote in our primary.
So let's say there's a Republican primary for US Senate But there is none on the Democratic side the Democrats would go vote for the easier candidate to be other Republican side Maybe I don't know but
But wouldn't it be refreshing for people to vote for the more centrist candidate?
It's a little bit like right choice voting or fusion voting.
The idea is so that.
More centrist candidates make it through primaries instead of the people who are so stringent on both sides of the aisle.
I think it's a decent.
I think it's a decent, a decent idea.
Tony Tony, uh, watching on YouTube says, I like what Joseph Pecky said to you, Todd, about primaries, quote, more democracy.
is never a bad thing, unquote.
Well said, Tony.
Of course, Joseph Peckie, running to be the chairman of the Democratic Party in Wisconsin.
So we'll see we'll see how that goes.
But anyway, we'll continue to find again in hour number two, we're going to talk with the Wisconsin Lodge folks about more.
There was there was actually a straw poll over the weekend at the Republican Party convention asking the delegates this and they.
They worded it.
Some people say it's a little odd.
They worded the question.
Right now, the U.S.
Constitution bars anybody from happy to third term, assuming that doesn't change.
Who do you like?
And I honestly think the reason they did that was because they had to qualify it because if they just said, who are you backing in the 2028 Republican primary right now, overwhelming, they would have said Trump.
So they had to kind of qualify it like that.
All right coming up here after the break and I do a little news weather sports Pam Yankee By the way who is on our friend Jane McNair show this morning?
Matt and air on air listen to that was fantastic Pam Yankee giving some great advice from the Midwest farm report talking about a mental health and Farmers and giving out some if you didn't hear it go back listen Jane show this morning on the podcast you could also check out Pam Yankee at Midwest farm report
really great information on mental health for our farmers right now across the state of Wisconsin.
But they were talking this morning a little bit about mental health and farmers.
And when we come back after the farm report, we're going to talk with one of our great state senators here in the state of Wisconsin.
Kelder Royce is going to be in talking about the state budget and joint finance committee, the Milwaukee Business Journal.
The group is backing the University of Wisconsin's calls for increased public funding.
Last Senator Royce her thoughts on getting more money to the UW system.
That more we come back is the all ball show on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome
back to the title of the show in the Pacific Media Ready Network 30.
five minutes now past hour two o'clock on a Monday, May 19th, 2025.
Our next guest happens to be a Wisconsin state senator representing the 26th district here for much of the city of Madison, the University of Wisconsin in Madison amongst them.
She is a member of the Joint Committee on Finance.
And as the song said there, played by Zomers, happens to be a Swifty Mom as well.
How cool are you, Senator Royce?
Thanks for being here.
How are you?
at home, at home, absolutely.
Senator Kelner-Royce is our guest.
Senator, always glad to have you on.
I appreciate you making this effort through the committee process, the joint, the budget process for JFC, and kind of cool our world headquarters for Blockway from the Capitol.
But not a lot going on in the joint finance committee now, what, for the second week in a row?
I mean, you know, we are...
At this point, we should be knee deep in the budget process.
But the Republicans can't seem to get their act together on even kind of straightforward agencies where we haven't been noticed for any hearings this week.
And they said they were going to give us 72 hours notice, which puts us already at Thursday afternoon.
So likely we weren't in last week.
We're probably not going to be in this week.
I don't know when we're going to pass this budget.
I mean, if we're not even getting to it before Memorial Day,
We're going to have a very difficult time meeting the needs of our local government and school districts and passing that budget by the statutory deadline.
Not necessarily an unprecedented, but I think it's fair to say maybe unusual to go a full two weeks this time of year without any meeting at all.
That's what fascinates me as a former Republican that my former party just can't seem to get their stuff together.
We'll keep it clean for Radio Todd, but
I find it fascinating when they have the control and remind people the makeup of this.
There's only four members correct of, of the minority party on JFC.
Yeah.
That's a 12 members of the majority Republican party and four Democrats.
So that, you know, it's not like it's close.
Like they could afford to lose a couple of members on some of these votes if they needed to, but that's just not how they've operated.
They don't allow any dissent within their caucus.
So whatever they do in that closed room, they just come out there and lockstep.
which seems odd to me again, and we've heard stories.
I know my colleague, Jane Matt, in her show has talked about this, that, you know, full well before our listeners might not know the process, these meetings tend to be long.
That's not unusual.
But we had a couple here that drove all the way from Barron, you know, almost four hours last week, to come down and talk about childcare with their elected officials.
And
at least the assembly was in session and that individual is here and they would not even meet with the constituent as someone who serves as a staffer that built it for a long time.
I just find it abhorrent that, you know, I guess I'll ask it to you.
that commute for your district is pretty short, but if you have someone from your district that wants to at least say hello, my guess is you probably do everything you can to take time for
I do, and you know, I'm often double and triple booked because I'm on multiple committees, but I think that making sure that your constituents get to see you and talk to you and yell at you or shake your hand or whatever it is is a core part of the job, and it's really disappointing.
My office actually ends up responding to a lot of people and they say, you know, we couldn't, we didn't hear back from our representative.
We've emailed, we've called.
The only person who wrote back was you.
And, you know, you don't even represent anywhere near our district.
But I think people deserve to be heard.
I do too.
And again, this, this issue of not meeting for now, seemingly going to be two weeks when we have issues like childcare.
And, and again, for listeners that weren't with us on Friday, as I understand, Senator Royce, to help me.
correct me if I'm wrong, that this was already a problem that childcare folks were facing prior to the pandemic, pandemic comes along, federal money comes in to help, but basically becomes a bandaid.
Now the federal money isn't gonna be there.
And now Bob Lang at the fiscal bureau estimating where it's still at four billion plus in state surplus money, it would seem to me that there should be some dollars to make up for that loss of federal aid.
I mean, our child care system is facing collapse.
Already, it's incredibly inaccessible for people, right?
There are so many more kids that need slots than for every slot.
In a lot of parts of the States, it's three or more kids for every one slot that's available.
And then even if you do get a slot, the cost is unaffordable for parents.
And, you know, I had my first kid 11 years ago, I had to get on the wait list years before I was pregnant to get an infant slot.
And with my most recent...
baby, we had two kids in college at the University of Minnesota.
It cost less to send those to my step-daughters to college than to send our one baby to daycare as an intern.
And parents just can't afford it.
What our guests on Friday from Barron County said, they heard from Republicans in the state capital, and I believe I'm staying corrected, but I believe at least one was on the joint finance committee.
They looked at this couple, how much they're charging per student.
in Barron and put the blame on the provider and said, well, you have a bad business plan.
You can't be charging that low overrate and still make it.
And they said, that's all.
You can't charge the prices that folks do in Madison or Milwaukee because the folks in Barron don't have that high income.
If we charge a higher rate, we're going to be out of business and our clients have nowhere to go.
I mean, you know, what Republicans are really saying is,
having kids is something that only the wealthy should be able to do, right?
And also that investing in that time of life when 90% of brain development happens, birth to five, that we just don't care.
We have no interest as a state in supporting that.
And to me, that is crazy because we understand as a society that it benefits all of us for every kid to have a good public education.
That's good for us.
It's good for our economy, for our society, keeps them out of trouble.
You know, that's why we have public higher ed, because we want smart people.
to have the opportunity to live the life that they want.
Why don't we do that?
And the most expensive and the most crucial time of childhood, birth to five, to say nothing of the fact that
we need those parents in the workforce and they want to be in the workforce so they can support their families.
We're talking with State Senator Kelder Royce here of the 26th district in the Dane County area, most of the city of Madison here, certainly on the west side, talking about her role the joint finance committee.
Senator, you also serve still on the on the committee overseas higher ed in the in the state of Wisconsin?
When you represent the flagship university, University of Wisconsin, Madison, which I got my motion W hoodie on, mom would be disappointed.
She doesn't like to be wearing a hoodie on the air, but I'm representing, I'm representing UW mom.
I'm very passionate about it.
As you know, I know there was an article in the Milwaukee Business Journal over the weekend and President Rothman of I still call EW system says Milwaukee business groups back.
They now call it University of Wisconsin calls for increased public funding.
I find this interesting, Senator, because.
Business folks are not, you know, quote-unquote left-wing softies.
They're about job... No, I said derogatory for the right uses, but the business community is about job creation.
They're about having people prepare.
We did our show at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee about a month ago or so, and folks now there are so integrated in both the business community
and making opportunities, although they don't use the term DEI, of course, but about having opportunities for folks from all different backgrounds because they're like, it makes Milwaukee better.
Talk to us about, do you think that Republicans are going to find some sort of compromise with you folks on the Democratic side to make it more funding for our UW system?
I mean, I hope so because our universities have been cut and cut and cut for 15 years as costs have been going up.
And that is not sustainable.
No matter who you are, Todd, or where you're from in the state, if you're willing to do the work and you want to go to college, that should be a pathway for you.
That is what our public universities are for, so that we're not leaving anybody behind just because their parents weren't rich enough or they didn't come from the right zip code, right?
And if we want our public universities to succeed, we have got to fund them.
I mean, I'm a small business owner.
I'm an entrepreneur.
And I was just touring an incredible small business in Jamesville this morning, about 300 jobs.
They are working literally on solving the energy problem on nuclear fission, one of the most incredible potential opportunities.
And by the way, along the way, they're detecting and helping to treat cancer.
So this is a company founded by a UW
PhD in nuclear physics.
He hires UW graduates.
He hires people from the technical colleges.
He said, if it weren't for that, his business couldn't be here.
And if we want businesses like that that create good paying jobs for their communities, we have got to be funding the University of Wisconsin.
As you travel around the state, I was up at the Green Bay area this weekend, and there's a strong tech program in that part of the state as far as across
I still believe that our tech universities, colleges have a vital role in this state, but it seems to me that politically speaking, that those two entities have been pitted against itself, that the Republicans have basically said, oh, you don't need a liberal arts degree, a four-year degree.
You can just go to the tech schools.
It would seem to me that our four-year...
graduate programs are vital, particularly in the STEM areas of engineering and building a new engineering school here at Madison.
But how do we get rid of the partisanship senator and focus on the true needs of all Wisconsinites and provide educational opportunities for everyone?
I mean, my God, those are like a generation out of date.
We need to be thinking about how can we help everyone thrive?
How can we have a productive economy in a world that is dominated for good or ill by AI?
How can we equip people to do work that is meaningful for them and lets them support their families while still
having time with their family and being able to live in a community where they can afford housing, right?
Like these are the big problems that we need to be tackling.
And the idea that we're going to be pitting some forms of education against others, I just think is so ridiculous.
Like we don't have the luxury of arguing over this nonsense that Republicans want to keep us mired in the past.
We have to think about what is the vision for the future and how are we going to help make sure that the next generation is able to thrive and access that part of the American dream of
wanting your kids to live in a better world than we did.
Because right now, our kids are not getting that from us.
If you ruled the world, one by four bosses likes to say, if you were the committee co-chair, or if you were governor and could write it in your own vernacular, what do you think the best path forward is for, I'll still call it the University of Wisconsin system, recognizing there are new challenges, but how do we still fund them to keep it viable, the Wisconsin idea that the borders of our state are the borders of our university?
I think we make a real public commitment to funding the university, but also keeping our hands off it.
One of the problems that our universities have had is that the legislature wants to control who gets to teach, what they teach, what books the students are able to read, can they build a new dorm?
To me, that is crazy.
No other Big Ten University operates under those kind of...
antiquated constraints.
So I, you know, I want to listen to and learn from the smartest people, whether it's in physics, whether it's in engineering, whether it's in healthcare.
I also think, you know, when we think about a new technology driven future, the humanities become even more important, right?
The ability to communicate with each other, the ability to be creative in your thinking and strategic, things that AI can't really do well, right?
We have got to, you know,
figure out what it is that is special about humans and be investing in that, and higher ed helps us do that.
I'm calling it audible, so I apologize.
We're going to be talking with Wisconsin Watch here in the next hour.
One of the stories by Tom Kircher, he's going to be our guest, is entitled, Bipartisan Support Builds for Studying Nuclear Power in Wisconsin.
It's SB 125, introduced back in March, which required the State Public Service Commission, which regulates electric and gas utilities in Wisconsin, to conduct a nuclear power siting study.
feelings, thoughts?
All this comes down to the dollar sign, right?
Sure does, son.
State Senator Keldor-Royce, thank you so much for your time.
We appreciate you as always.
We'll talk to you next week.
Find out maybe the Howard Markline is called a meeting.
How about that?
Love it.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Senator Royce here.
Come on back.
Talk a little bit more before we get into the Wisconsin Watch portion of the show.
We'll see you at the All Ball Show on the Civic Media.
Ready Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
and having a little fun along the way.
Welcome back to the show.
Everybody's on the board, all but on the mic.
It is now eight minutes before the hour of three o'clock coming up an hour number two.
A little what's worse for you.
Sunny side up or over easy.
Eggs, that is.
What's worse?
By the way, did you know that our, our owner and CEO has chickens?
Sage Wild has chickens?
He does.
He was offered.
He said they have a plethora of eggs and he was willing to give some away.
So how about that?
This is what I get for
general
He's a multi-talented guy.
You can run a media company, you can write code, and he raises chickens.
So how about that?
So maybe he has feelings on the sunny side up over easy.
We'll talk about that in hour two.
And also, got to chat a little bit about Wendy McMahon, the president of CBS News, announced this morning she is stepping down, resigning as the tension continues to rise.
between the Trump administration and CBS Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS News now, and they want to do this merger with another big media company, not quite as big as Paramount.
And Sherry Redstone, which owns CBS Paramount, she really wants to get this merger done until she wants to appease Donald Trump.
Because Trump is saying that I don't like you personally.
I will basically tell my FCC, it's not his FCC, but that's the way
to say no.
And so apparently Sherry Redstone, the owner of CBS Paramount, is at odds with Wendy McMahon, who by the way, the final episode of the season of 60 Minutes,
the quintessential news program at CBS they had their last regular show of the of the year of the of the broadcast year because now they go into kind of reruns and they kind of refresh in some of the episodes over the summer but they take the summer off they'll come back with all new episodes in the fall so the last episode of 60 minutes aired last night and it was this morning that Wendy McMahon said
I think she said, I'm at odds, we're at odds between the CBS ownership and myself about the direction of CBS news, which is being viewed by many as, I think there was one anonymous CBS news reporter who told CNN, there is a feeling that there is a purging coming within CBS news and CBS in general.
Certainly looks that way.
And it's it's extraordinary just extraordinarily disappointing for Someone who has an affinity for the CBS brand because I don't know I guess because my my grandparents as a kid They always watched Walter Cronkite and then later Dan rather they will watch the local CBS affiliate Channel 3 here in Madison and then the first job and radio I had was at a CBS radio news affiliate WRCL Richland Center, which of course now as part of
of civic media.
And so I've just always had this deep respect for the history of the news at CBS.
And to see that great iconic news source, and don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of great reporters and producers at CBS, amongst them of course, Scott Pelley, who I think is just the cream of the crop.
Anderson Cooper works double double duty for CNN and and CBS You've got Well, I mean long Bob Schieffer, I guess is still technically part of even though he's retired for a long time CBS news, but Leslie stall one of the great reporters at at CBS.
She's been there forever and then some of the daily people as well and O'Keeffe who covers a lot of the political parts of CBS and
Scott McFarland, who I think is one of the absolute best people in terms of covering the state capital, Jan Crawford, one of the really premier reporters in terms of the court system in the US.
So all these people and many, many more who have gone out of their way to continue the Edward R. Murrow commitment for those of you who might be too young.
Edward R. Murrow was one of the great radio and then early television reporters at CBS.
His sign-off line was good night and good luck and then they made a movie out of that was George Clooney held produce and it was one of the Supporting characters and now they brought it back It's running right now on Broadway out in New York as a stage play in which now that Clooney is aged Naturally into the role.
He is now playing Edward R. Murrow in that stage adaption and adaptation of good night and good luck and there's a long history of people
Edward R. Murrow amongst them, who sacrificed his own career because at the time he had Joe McCarthy, of course, from Wisconsin, that seat is now held by Ron Johnson.
The irony is not lost there.
But people like Edward R. Murrow and many, many more who over the years have said, no, I'm not going to sacrifice my journalistic integrity for a paycheck.
And to go along with...
What's the word I'm looking for, I guess, to push down the truth.
They've said, no, the truth comes first.
I'm no Edward R. Murrell, I'm certainly no Walter Cronkite or Dan Rather, I never will be.
But, and this is, we've said before, I don't consider this, this is not a journalistic news program.
It's a news talk analyst program.
But I apply journalistic integrity and standards to this show.
I'm not interested in doing things to gin up or get clicks or anything like that, or enhance things.
I'm here to suss out the truth, to look at all political spectrums, conservative, liberal in between, and simply, as Anderson Cooper says, try to keep people honest, including myself.
That to me, the great privilege of coming on this air every day, having this microphone,
I try to have a little bit of fun, try to lighten things up and make people laugh a little bit.
But also, when we're talking about news, to bring people the facts, the truth.
It's as simple as that.
I'm not a member of either Republican or Democrat.
I'm a member of no party.
And so, just looking at the news and saying, look, here's the facts, I think that's a valuable service.
So,
I'm very disappointed that CBS and Paramount have pushed out Wendy McMahon, and I hope that Sherry Redstone metaphorically grows a pair and stands up to Donald Trump.
We'll come back and talk to Wisconsin Watch's very own Tom Kirchner after this as the Civic Media Ready Network's title will
show.
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.
