The House Of Representatives Votes To Gut Healthcare (Hour 1)

Live on location, 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 Todd Albault along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer.

It is Thursday, May 22nd.

2025, it is a great day to be a Wisconsinite.

Welcome in.

We are live on location once again, and I hope that you're watching us on StreamYard, or, well, we're streaming on StreamYard, but watch us on Facebook, on Twitter, X, Twix, or YouTube, because what a background here.

We are on the banks of the Black River here in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, at the Markholm Green.

not home grinned, but the Mark Holm Green Memorial boat landing here on Black River in Black River Falls.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Glad to have you along.

Mr. Zahmer is back at the World Headquarters in downtown Madison on State Street.

Zahmer, how the heck are you?

Doing well.

It's pretty nice here, too.

Not as nice as it is there.

You know, I'm not out in the beautiful outdoors.

So, you know, but, but it's not raining.

So we take that.

Okay.

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Uh, well, I tell you what, we were, uh, we were planning on doing the show at, uh, uh, Eau Claire today up at Eau Claire, because we're going to be there a little bit later on today.

But as, as, as things would happen, I got out of Madison a little bit.

Here's what happened.

I, uh, we do these remote shows.

I have a battery pack.

It's called a jackery.

Jackery is the name of the battery pack.

And I'd forgotten that at the World High Court, so I had to stop down

there.

So by

the time I went to Richland Center, because I'm picking up mom because we're going up to Eau Claire to see my youngest nieces, Isabelle, her graduation.

And so by the time I'm like, we're not, we're not going to make it, but all the better.

Because I love nothing if not a great adventure.

I said, well, we'll stop.

We'll find some place along the route to do the show because with the Starlink satellite and the battery pack, you can pretty much do the show from anywhere.

So we pull into Black River Falls and that was great.

And we found this great location here because we're going to be talking in hour two today.

Not going to want to miss it.

Alex Madorski of the associate director of government relations of the nature conservancy is going to be here on this.

talking about the great outdoors.

I thought what better place to talk about conservation than along the banks of the Black River.

So that worked out great.

Couple of things here as we go throughout the afternoon.

Number one, I thought that I was the last person to use the battery pack and I always plug it in and add for I'm done.

When I picked it up this morning, it was unplugged and when I

Plugged it in just now.

We are down to 30 now it's 32.

We've just gone for three.

We're down to 32% on the battery pack So we'll see does the battery pack end before the show or does the show end before the battery pack So that'll be fun.

That'll be a lot of fun to watch as we go throughout the next two hours also

you know when you're along the river it's nature and so I set up the uh the satellite down by the river and mom's along she's on the on the bench over here she was um I don't want to worry you but you want to come here look at this uh I set up the satellite right next to a nest of snakes there are snakes zombers mere feet from where we're broadcasting from

snakes why'd it have to be snakes

That's exactly right.

The great Indiana Jones line.

Snakes.

I don't have a petrified fear of snakes, but you know when you have your back to them during a show.

So mom's job, she's just outside a camera range with a stick.

She is making sure that the snakes do not attack me during the show.

It's literally a nest of snakes.

They're like in a pipe right by where I set up the satellite right on the banks of the Black River.

And just before we go on the air,

A bird flew over and took a crap right on the picnic table, missed me by about six inches.

Can you confirm that?

Have you ever

been pooped on by a bird,

Todd?

Yes, I have, actually.

Have you?

Yes.

Once I was standing in the driveway, I will remember this forever.

I was probably in like second grade, but I was walking up.

My dad asked me something.

Don't remember what he asked, but I remember I said yes and gave a thumbs up and it cracked on my thumb.

well there you go so uh... it's great to be outside as they say these are the things that make the show interesting cuz i mean if we're just sitting there in the studio talking about the news of the day come on i mean anybody could do that but i mean when you're when you're when you're up against the battery pack you gotta net a nest of snakes uh... about uh... fifteen yards from you

Yeah, birds go attacking you now.

That's that's a challenge see if you can if you can do a show So it's this will be a lot of fun because it's a beautiful day here in Black River Falls coming up in at the bottom of the hour our old friend James Kelly the the bureau chief Northwest Bureau chiefs of chief of civic media news is going to be joining us from I believe chip wall falls from our WCFW the tap

I was listening to the station on the way up here, and I heard a promotion for the show today.

I said yesterday, joining us from Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

WCF, I looked at my mom and I said, or close, close to it.

Look, look, we got close.

We're in Jackson, beautiful Jackson County, which is right next to Eau Claire County.

And

it really is beautiful.

It's a beautiful day.

It's an absolutely beautiful day So James Kelly is gonna be in it gonna be talking about what's making news in this part of the state This was one of the things I love about traveling and finding out what makes Wisconsin great is You know sometimes we get kind of enamored with our two big cities of Milwaukee in Madison But no as it turns out there's a lot of people that are paying attention to things outside of those areas So James Kelly will be in talking about Northwest Wisconsin and we may see if we could gin them up a little bit

and ask him about his beloved New York Yankees and their juiced bats.

So we'll talk to James Kelly coming up a little bit later about that.

And then of course we have What's Worse and Timely, Timely indeed, as Mike Lucas says, we did not plan this, but the What's Worse for today Heights or Water.

And we're right next to the water.

I would say maybe it depends whether there's snakes next to the water.

And also I feel like it's you know as far as common fears go it's extreme heights or really deep water because those are things people are afraid of

Yes, yes, absolutely Anyway, so it's gonna be a great day on location here then tomorrow we'll see what happens if it's a day like today

Instead of the black river behind me you may end up seeing a lake with soda our old friend Pat Crite low has offered us to come up there for a little cookout at a maybe on the pontoon boat We'll see you're hoping so we're all over we're all over this way as we all over this week as we get ready for

Memorial Day, our friend Jeff Perry, our ongoing contributor on Facebook says, let's get some wagers going.

Can we get some odds from Vegas on today's show?

Which comes first?

Battery pack runs out of juice, snakes attack Todd's mom, or birds poop on the equipment.

That is a great idea, Jeff.

That is a great idea.

I...

The snakes seem restless because it's it's warmed up in the last hour It's beautiful right now and the snakes have because I did not either a I was my was mere inches from the snakes and did not see them as I set up the satellite or B They've just come out as the weather is warmed up.

So the snakes seem restless.

I will say that This is actually really fun I enjoy shows like this.

You got a snake because you got just something do a

gently

I gave mom, uh, I could, I found that all I could find is a smaller stick, but she's pretty good at snakes.

All right.

That's

all.

As long as, as long as they're not a rattlesnake, she's pretty snake friendly.

Yeah.

As long as you know

what to

do and you're not going to freak them out.

I mean, you'll be

fine.

Yeah.

I think we'll be absolutely fine.

Well, let's tell you a little bit about beautiful Jackson County here and in particular Black River Falls as long as we're here because these are one of the things we love doing.

Get now on the road and giving you a taste of flavor of different parts of Wisconsin and what makes Wisconsin great.

So Black River Falls, beautiful Jackson County here in Northwest Wisconsin.

It is the county seat of Jackson County in 2020.

Census said that the population was 3,523.

Now, if you would have asked me without looking it up, I would have said it was closer to 5,000 or 6,000, but no Black River Falls, just over 3,500 people.

And here's something interesting.

And I just saw our friend Robert Pilot the other day in Madison of the host of Native Roots Radio every evening on civic media.

And Black River Falls is home.

to the headquarters of the Ho-Chunk Nation in Wisconsin.

And of course, Robert Pilot, part of the Ho-Chunk Nation, he is a legislator in the Ho-Chunk Nation and told me just the other night that his term is now expiring and running out.

So he said to have some more time to come on our show and I can't wait for that because...

One of the things I love when I travel around Wisconsin is you realize the rich and important history of Native people here in the state of Wisconsin and the Ho-Chunk Nation.

vital history, so integral and intertwined with much of our great history here in the state of Wisconsin.

Also, there's large monument to Black River Falls veterans of World War I, World War II, and the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, as well as two local Medal of Honor recipient, Mitchell Redcloud Jr., which was put up near the Chamber of Commerce building.

Name the field of honor.

The attached plaques provide accounts of the veteran services.

The site is also the start of a four mile foundation trail assigned hiking and bike path that encircles the eastern part of the community.

If we pass that actually as we came in there, it's really, really well taken care of.

And I know Zamar and I put together a brand new show.

We're gonna air on Monday for Veterans, pardon me, for Memorial Day.

and again just as a reminder Memorial Day of course set aside for those who fell in the line of duty and in service but it's also

Certainly appropriate to take a moment and pause and reflect on the service of everyone who is we set veterans day aside in November to remember all veterans, but in particular those who fell in the line of duty this Memorial Day.

We're going to have one of the administrators for the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs on on Monday.

He oversees the veterans cemeteries at very, very interesting and important work.

So hope you tune in on on Monday.

for that.

But again, how many times on earth, we talked a little bit about this with Triky Olson and Pat Critelow yesterday.

We drive through these communities in Wisconsin.

We probably have some.

I know we have one in Richland Center.

You might have one in Manitowoc as well.

these veterans memorials, but how many times do we actually stop and read them and understand the importance and the significance of those right in our communities who have given all and given back to our

land?

Not enough.

That is the answer

there.

Yeah, absolutely.

So they do it really well here in Black River Falls.

If you're up here, it's right on the main drag here as you're going through Black River Falls, great veterans memorial to World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and of course that Medal of Honor, the highest military honor that a person could have to Mitchell Red Cloud Jr.

here in Black River Falls.

So if you're ever in the area, stop in here.

Black River Falls is the focus of Michael

Lessie's book, Wisconsin Death Trip, which used photographs and newspaper cuttings to highlight the harshness of life in the community during the late 19th century and the effects had on the psychology of the inhabitants.

So right there, just another little...

bit of history as well as a vibrant downtown here in the Black River Falls, like a lot of communities in Wisconsin kind of gone through different periods where, you know, big box stores come in as an effect downtown, but they've really done a lot to try to revitalize the downtown here in Black River Falls.

And of course, Black River, a great place to kayak or

or canoe as well.

Part of what makes Wisconsin great.

Blackfriar Falls here in Jackson County.

Come on back, take a look at some headlines for you and then coming up at 230 James Kelly with the news of the area.

A reliable location in Blackfriar Falls.

It's the Todd Almol Show right here across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to Taliban show live on location from beautiful Black River Falls along the banks of the Black River here at the Mark Holm Green Memorial Boat Launch.

Beautiful day, kind of fluffy clouds, blue sky, river pretty calm behind me here as we sit on the banks of the Black River coming up hour two.

going to talk to alex madorski who is the associate director of government relations at the nature conservancy talk about the uh... the knowles nelson uh... bill a little bit more and and uh... uh... we talked about that with tia nelson here uh... month ago so for for birthday and the stewardship fund

how important that is as we go through this budget process in madison the joint finance committee right now deciding how our tax dollars will be spent in historically things like the nature conservative or the uh... the stewardship fund and conservation in general have been

you know they've been able to find some common ground with that but so far and particularly in the assembly with speaker Robin Voss he is uh not signaled that so far so we're going to talk a little bit with uh alex here in hour two about uh where we could maybe find some common ground is there hope to keep funding the stewardship fund here in wisconsin and other issues of conservation coming up at the bottom of the hour james kelly our northwest bureau

Chief for Civic Media News is going to join us and talk about this region of the state.

Northwest Wisconsin, very, very important to the state.

Of course, they had some issues in terms of health care, one of the big hospitals in the Eau Claire Chippewa Valley shutting down.

Now maybe some plans to have another hospital take its place.

But what happened last night in Washington, DC?

And here is how we like to frame these things.

Lots of things happening in Washington, DC, the fire hose of information, as they say.

But how does it affect us here across the state of Wisconsin?

I want to spend a couple of minutes on that.

Last night, the reconciliation bill passed the House of Representatives by one vote.

By one vote.

I believe two of the Republicans took a pass on it, voted no.

One Republican voted present.

and all the democrats voted against it but here's a thing i was listening to i was listening to another uh... radio program this morning and the whole absolute i'd i'd never even occurred to me till she said this absolutely right about this the vote past last night the house reconciliation bill by one vote one vote yesterday or overnight before yesterday one of the democratic house members

passed away after being diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.

Since the election, three Democrats have died.

And so this person was pointing out, she's absolutely right.

Had it not been for the death, and you know, feel very, very bad for their family, had it not been for the death of this Democratic member, it might not have passed.

I bet those three Democrats would feel so bad if they were still around,

right?

But there is and you know, we talked about this with the whole David Hogg issue I don't want to go too far down this path But there is a point that there there is a point to be made here that some of these people who are long in the tooth shall we say If they stay too long and they die in office there can be actual consequences to this so I mean

Yeah, I think there's a fine line between

ageism and also self-awareness of when you can no longer do a job.

Yeah, exactly.

so reconciliation bill passed by uh... by one vote i'll look at it with politics dot com now uh... it says that the trumpet uh... this is a quote from u.s representative quendall more democrat on the walkie in response to this she says quote the trump administration continues to weaponize the justice system to score political points and intimidate others as member of congress is part of our duty to conduct oversight of the executive branch my colleague was performing this work when she visited the great

detention center in her district.

That is Gwendolyn Moore, Congresswoman from Milwaukee talking about the arrest earlier this week of U.S.

Representative LaMonica MacGyver, Democrat of New Jersey, who's now been charged with assault after an incident outside an ICE detention facility.

According to his politics, Wisconsin Dems are arguing the reconciliation bill the past last night.

Actually, it was early this morning.

They got 5.30 or 6 o'clock Eastern time.

Mike Johnson kept him in Congress all night long.

Republicans are largely standing beside it.

House Rules Committee held a hearing on the bill beginning at 1 a.m.

yesterday and Rep.

Gwen Moore slammed the tax cut plan during her speech over six hours into the meeting.

Moore said, quote, we're sitting here bragging about so-called savings and what are we going to do with these savings?

What are we going to do with the savings?

Are we going to take these and savings and reduce our debt?

Nope, we're not going to do that.

Moore said, these tax cuts are so massive that we don't have enough kids to starve.

We don't have enough people to deny health care.

So we're just going to ask Americans to finance tax cuts for billionaires on the national debt on quote, that was representative Gwendolyn Moore.

As we said, the bill passed last night, two 15 to two 13 largely along party lines.

The two Republicans, Warren Davidson of Ohio and Thomas Massey of Kentucky voting no, one Republican, Andy Harris of Maryland voted present.

and two Republicans not voting.

And now goes to the Senate.

U.S.

Senator Tammy Baldwin, Democrat of Madison in a press conference on the bill said it would take away health care for 2,000, pardon me, 230,000, 230,000 Wisconsinites to fund these tax breaks for the super wealthy.

Senator Baldwin said, quote, folks, you don't have to have a hearing at one in the morning when you are proud of what you're doing.

You've got a congressional hearing at one in the morning if you're trying to hide

what you're doing for the American people.

Look, if they were just cutting waste, fraud, and abuse, they wouldn't be rushing this bill through under the cloak of darkness.

Unquote, could not agree with Congressman Baldwin more.

And the office of U.S.

Representative Mark Pocain, a Democrat of the town of Vermont in Dane County, told Whist Powell, takes in a message ahead of the vote.

The representative's quote will not be voting for that garbage bill.

We shall see.

There will be implications.

In particular, really bad for rural health care.

We'll talk more about that with James Kelly next.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the Toddled Ball Show live on location here in Black River Falls on the Civic Media radio network.

on location on Black River.

As a matter of fact, the beautiful shores of Black River in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, Tahmaw Ball, along with Zomers back at the World Headquarters down in Madison.

Glad to have you along here on a Thursday, the 22nd of May, 2025.

It's beautiful out here, Zomers.

It's absolutely beautiful.

I thank you for playing that.

That's one of my favorite songs, actually.

It's a great tune.

And yeah,

it

really does look

beautiful out there.

Yeah.

One of my other favorite people here at Civic Media.

We're always proud and happy to have him join us.

He joins us for the beautiful plush studios in downtown Chippewa Falls.

It is James Kelly, our Northwest Wisconsin Bureau Chief for Civic Media News.

James, how the heck are you?

Well, I'm good.

You know, there might not be as much sunshine inside of the office here as you're getting broadcasting from outside, but there's less snakes, so.

Good trade

off for me.

Exactly.

If you didn't join us at the top of the show, Todd set up the Starlink satellite here right next to the Black River because there was no obstructions and it was a cement surface.

What I did not know until after I got it set up is the pipe right under the cement surface contained a nest of snakes.

Hopefully they will stay about 10 to 15 yards behind me until the end of the

broadcast.

I'm not sure how I'm going to get the satellite dish back, but.

Yeah, if you start sounding maybe a little off, maybe like you're falling asleep at the wheel here, we'll just, we'll get EMS out there for, for anti them.

Is there a neppy pen for anti-Venom?

Yeah.

Are you a anti snake?

I just snakes bother you, James.

I don't love snakes, that's for sure.

We

didn't really have that much of a problem with snakes on Long Island, but we did get some water snakes, some garter snakes, and

you just

don't like seeing them.

Well, that's the thing we know it from earlier visits that you're not a native of Wisconsin although you're doing a great job covering the state of Wisconsin the Northwest but you're you're a Long Island New York guy and Well, we'll get into sports a little bit later because I know you're your beloved New York Knicks are right in the middle of the playoffs Let's start a little closer to home though James.

We talked right before the break here last night out in Washington DC the house for our representatives passed the reconciliation bill by

by one vote, the slimmest of margins, it basically took a Democrat dine, not made up, actually real, in order to pass this bill last night.

And I think what's interesting to me, James, is the implications of what this means across the state of Wisconsin.

And right before the break, we read a quote there from US Senator Tammy Baldwin, Democrat of Wisconsin, saying, this is gonna really have a real impact when it comes to healthcare.

And I think in particular, real healthcare

Nobody's covered this subject better at Civic Media than you, James, about what has gone on in Eau Claire.

Just remind viewers again of the already health care concerns and crises you folks are facing in Northwest Wisconsin and what this might be.

Yeah, so a little over a year ago, the HSS hospitals in Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls both closed, as did a number of Prevea clinics in the region, just taking away, you know, general.

primary care from residents in addition to the two hospitals.

Now, especially in Chippewa Falls, that's problematic because it was the only hospital here.

It also operated as the county morgue.

So the county has

to come to an

agreement with another place to kind of temporarily serve as the morgue and kind of get them up to that code.

There have been plans for new hospitals.

They're going to take a while.

The soonest would be the partial reopening of St.

Joseph's later this year if that's deemed financially viable.

But once those announcements started coming out, my first question to pretty much every elected representative from here and even Governor Evers was if Medicaid is cut as we've heard many, many times.

Is there a way that these hospitals can survive on their own?

Because the reason the HSHS hospitals closed a year ago was because they were not getting enough in Medicaid reimbursements.

That's from Governor Evers, the secretary of the Department of Health in Wisconsin, and pretty much every nurse, staffer, anyone at the hospitals that I talked to during the closing.

Every single one of them said, we are not getting enough in Medicaid reimbursement.

So if Medicaid money is not going to be coming in for these new hospitals,

It creates a little bit of a financial hiccup.

Governor Evers referred to it as they'll be playing behind the ball from the

start.

It's still interesting to me.

Obviously, a guy would take concern as well, but so interesting.

I mean, where we are here in Black River Falls today, we're literally maybe five blocks away from the Republican Party headquarters, very prominent storefront down here.

You see a lot of Trump flags in this part of the state still, a lot of signs there still up for Trump advance.

And it gets back to this question, James, of

people voting against their own self-interest, and then you're reporting and just living in the Chippewa Valley area.

What's your sense of this?

Has this really hit people yet?

People that might have voted for President Trump and Vice President Vance in November, has it hit them that this is going to have real implications for the Chippewa Valley area in terms of health care?

Or do you think this is a situation where they just don't feel it yet?

I actually think the first people that it really did hit was the farming community here.

When contracts were being canceled and you have to very carefully plan how you're gonna operate your farm throughout the year for when are you gonna get the best crops?

When are you gonna get the most crops?

When is that gonna be ready?

When is this gonna be ready?

So when I think some of those contracts and uncertainty about SNAP, which gets a lot of local food, that really started to, I guess,

not wake people up, but make people start questioning like, hey, this is something that we have to address because we're making those plans now.

And Medicaid is no different.

I can't even count how many town halls in the last two or three months that are specifically based on Medicaid.

And the type of coverage that especially people with disabilities or people who have children with learning disabilities or maybe autistic and nonverbal and need a very

significant amount of hands-on care.

It's these people who are going to suffer first.

And then as the situation continues to get worse and you might see some more rural hospital closures, more people are going to have to go farther.

EMS services are going to be stretched out further.

It's going to be more of a rough situation.

And I think when people start to see, well, the hospital nearest me just closed because they weren't getting enough in Medicaid reimbursements, I think they will then realize that maybe this was not the best move.

We're talking with James Kelly, our Northwest Bureau Chief for Civic Media News and our WCFW, the TAP headquarters in downtown at Chipwell Falls on a Thursday here.

James, I really appreciate you bringing up, you know...

whether it's snap benefits or or whether it's helping kids and particularly those with with uh challenges because the narrative that my former party likes to put out there is you know oh these are these are young white guys uh who aren't working able-bodied people that aren't working that's the narrative they're trying to put out there that that's who we're going after and i i

That, in my opinion, that's a cover-up of Assad, because what these cuts did, and I think it's important to also remind listeners.

This ain't done yet.

This cake is a long way from baked because this still has to pass the U.S.

Senate, and right now, the votes are not there.

We'll see whether Trump can strong arm them or not.

Ron Johnson, Republican Wisconsin, is one that says he's a no, but because he thinks it doesn't cut enough in spending.

Uh, to get back to what you picked up on or what you said earlier, James, that these are very, these cuts that may go through if passed the House and signed by Trump, this could have real implications, not just in Northwest Wisconsin, but all over and in particular in rural areas where this affects a lot of people.

Yeah, and all of these things are interconnected, right?

You know if if you're not able to pay for Extra care for a child who needs it you can't go to work and and I know up in like the Barron County area One of their big struggles right now is just building more housing because they have so much Availability in the job market so many jobs that are going unfilled right now The problem is they don't have enough housing to bring people in from other parts of the state to say move here build here like

Let's build your life here in Rice Lake or Barron County as a whole they just don't have the housing for it so they're going that way and you know if more people have to leave the workforce because they can't afford to you know pay out of pocket for very specific and specialized care for someone who needs it or they're not able to afford their own medications so they can't work anymore that's gonna have an economic impact as well.

I grew up in southwest Wisconsin, a rural area in Richland Center, and a lot of times people had to, you know, for more complicated procedures.

drive into Madison or maybe La Crosse.

But I know all across Wisconsin, Northwest Wisconsin is not an exception for some folks driving to a larger city or different place for care.

It's just not an option.

Either they live alone or they can't afford the gas and this sort of thing.

So it's a situation where a lot of really good people could be harmed because they're not going to have access to rural health care across the state.

Yeah, and that's actually something Dunn County is working on they're doing a new pilot program in the month of June where they're gonna offer Sort of public transportation bus services in different quadrants of the whole county So obviously you can't run, you know all day every day bus service in the more rural areas of the county But people still need to go to Menominee for say doctor's appointments or just to go to a restaurant or shopper or whatever So they're doing a new pilot program.

That's just aimed at

taking a bus, go out there, call ahead if we'll come pick you up and we'll bring you to Menominee and we'll bring you back.

Wow.

Very, very interesting.

All right, James, let's move on from rural health care, which of course is, to me at least, I think one of the biggest implications of this huge reconciliation bill if it is passed by the Senate and if it's signed by Trump.

But let's move on from that.

What other news could we share with people across the state?

What's going on in beautiful Northwest Wisconsin here?

Now, well, this is appropriate since you're right there by the river.

Earlier or later last week, the city of Hudson got crews out onto the St.

Croix River and removed another one of those abandoned boats that now lawmakers are looking at some pretty serious legislation to be up to $10,000 in fines and maybe nine months in jail for this.

Really?

Now, this is fantastic because a lot of, I heard you on Crite Low Show on mornings to pack Crite Low from six until nine.

He'll appreciate the plug because a lot of

a lot of focus and jay matt there's obsessed with uh... deep deep deep uh... thought uh... almost as a mel's uh... deep thought uh... down there in milwaukee which uh... reached all kinds of havoc they finally got that off of the uh... lake michigan shoreline but tell us more about this boat uh... in this part of the state which was stranded right for even longer

Yeah, since July.

So it's been almost a full year that it's been out on the St.

Croix River.

It was a 54-foot yacht named Sweet Destiny.

Sweet Destiny's Child.

I'm pretty good.

Yeah, a couple weeks ago, the city started warning the owner, hey, if you don't take care of this, now that like...

The winter's over.

We're gonna start finding you they passed an ordinance back in October to make it like hundreds of dollars of fines And then eventually they said well, let's just get a bunch of neighbors and city crews out there and we'll patch it up Get it seaworthy and we'll tow it away for good and we won't have to worry about it anymore

What's going on with these abandoned boats in Wisconsin?

Can't people steer anymore?

What's

going on?

I don't know.

And you know what?

The neighborhood that I grew up in on Long Island was

on

the North Shore.

And it was pretty much right near the beach.

So we had kind of a marshy area in our neighborhood.

And for the longest time, there was an abandoned boat out there.

And we always said, we're going to go swim out there one day and see

what's in that

abandoned boat.

We never did.

Our parents said, you will definitely die of some weird disease.

All right, come on back more.

James Kelly on the other side.

We're on location at Black River Falls.

It's the all ball show on the Civic Media, Radio Wisconsin.

We're a roller of the river.

Welcome back to the title ball show of the Civic Beauty already done work real live on location.

At the, uh, let me give the name right here, Mark Holmgreen.

Not Holmgren, the Mark Holmgreen Memorial Boat Launch here in Black River Falls.

We are right on the Black River.

No boat stranded here.

We are joined by our Bureau Chief of Civic Media News of Northwest Wisconsin, James Kelly, who reports there was a Destiny's Child boat.

So where was it again at?

Where was

it stranded at?

Sweet Destiny,

the name.

Oh, Sweet Destiny, not Destiny's.

Sweet Destiny, where was that?

Where the boat was it was on the St.

Croix River

on the St.

Croix It could have been Trig V. Olsen's boat.

You know, he grew up over there.

Yeah, St.

Croix River.

I hope he's not catching those fines.

No But is it still there?

They got rid of it finally.

Yeah, they did.

They did.

They got it on Friday.

All right.

Very good.

James Kelly joins us from WCFW the tap in beautiful downtown Chippewa Falls.

Glad to have you.

Now, what are you doing tomorrow, James?

Tomorrow afternoon.

Oh, tomorrow afternoon.

You know, I did hear a rumor from Pat Critlow that there might be a boat going out on the water for a live show.

That's depending on the weather.

If we don't have to wear ice skates, we may launch the SS Minnow, captain by Captain Stubin, better known as Pat Critlow.

And so if you want to come on over to Lake Wissota and join us for the show on the pontoon, you're more than welcome.

Yeah, I'll bring this on screen.

All right, very good.

We'll come on over.

There may be a beverage or two and a brat.

We'll see.

But that'll be very, very exciting.

We're looking forward to that.

All right, James, any other news, newsy things before we get into some more fun here?

Oh, so much newsy stuff.

Muskie season's opening up north.

Yeah.

Yeah, a few days ago, Governor Evers asked the U.S.

Small Business Administration to designate Douglas County as a hub zone, a historically underutilized business zone with the upcoming Blatnik Bridge Reconstruction Project work going on.

There's a lot of community organizing trying to make sure all of those businesses are able to remain viable during a pretty lengthy construction project.

Yeah, we were up there last winter when the former president of Biden announced the funding under the Infrastructure Act.

That's a huge thing for the economy there, both in the superior area as well as Duluth over Minnesota.

So big, big happenings there for sure.

Yeah, that would definitely, getting the hub zone designation would definitely be a big help there, especially right now.

Yeah, absolutely.

We'll certainly hope all goes well there.

Anything else, Mr. Kelly?

Anything else?

Well, what kind of news are you looking for Todd?

Whatever you, yes sure.

We have five

minutes

or four minutes.

Give us some fun James.

Yeah, productive news up in Ashland.

A bunch of local businesses are doing a PB and J drive.

Trying to just kind of address the food insecurity issues going on up there because some of the local food shelters are saying they're seeing some more

active use of their food shelves, about 15%.

A lot of housing projects going on in the Eau Claire Dunn County area.

Actually, earlier this week or earlier last week, the Eau Claire City Council approved a one-time $40,000 payment to help a local homeless shelter in the downtown area here stay open.

That's run by the the diocese of lacrosse, the Catholic Charities, Sojourner House.

So that was a that was a pretty big story.

Considering if it had closed for the summer, there wouldn't have been many other places to go.

And again, I heard you talking with Pat Critello about this some mornings with Pat Critello.

Explain in a minute or two here, other counties are now bringing homeless people there and essentially dumping them off at Eau Claire because I think they're going to be taking care of.

Is that right?

Yeah.

So when it happened over the winter and over the fall,

the Eau Claire City Council asked Attorney General Josh Call to kind of look into this and see if it was legal.

And the agencies involved kind of went back and said, no, no, no, we talked to these people.

We told them where they were going.

We explained to them that we don't have the resources here to shelter them or get them food.

And they agreed to go to Eau Claire.

The problem is there is a very

much growing homeless population in the Eau Claire area.

And they are sometimes coming from other areas of the state because there are more services here, which is putting more strain on the services that we do have.

And, you know, increasing costs was one of the things that the Sojourner House might have had to close over the summer for.

And there's not exactly a lot of short term answers for for unaffordable housing in Eau Claire is a pretty low vacancy rate, just not a lot of empty housing.

Well, and I appreciate you following this, and that's another great advantage of the Civic Media app for people living in Madison or Milwaukee or Green Bay.

Dial up WCFW to tap, follow James, because these are really, really important stories that all of Wisconsin should really be concerned about.

All right, James, let's have a couple of minutes left here before the top of the hour.

Your beloved New York Knicks growing up in New York, you first, you knocked off the Celtics, the defending world champions, and now you're up against the evil

Indiana Pacers who took out my books, and last night, the Chokeside, the Reggie Miller Chokeside for the Pacers, what's going on?

It was every nightmare I've ever had about the Knicks, which they've always felt like the most cursed organization in professional sports besides the Jets.

It's just everything that can go wrong will go wrong with all the injuries last year, losing to Indiana, and to lose game one, I was in rough shape last night.

But I feel like they can come back with it because they're kind of a hot me there up I would say one of not the hottest team go to the playoffs the NBA

Absolutely, and I think just the fact that I know Jason Tatum got hurt in game five, but the Knicks had already won that game, so they were gonna be up 3-1 on the Boston Celtics.

I would have been shocked if they had won two games, period, in the series and lost.

I would have been like, okay, we're not as far off as I thought we were from competing with them.

But to win the series was incredible, and then to just go from that to what happened in the last three minutes of regulation in game one of this playoff series.

It was not very fun for me.

well i wish you all the best of luck is i do not want the pacers to win if they knocked off the the buck so uh... you know i i wish you all the best of with the nicks uh... the the juiced bats for the Yankees there they still hit well

They are Aaron judges.

He dipped under 400 yesterday.

Tragic.

Yeah, better get him out of here.

Ship him off.

But they did win the subway series against the Mets.

Juan Soto's grand return to the Bronx.

All right.

Well, that's good.

All right.

Appreciate that.

Well, we'll keep pulling from the Brewers.

Appreciate you, James.

Basically, on the pontoon boat tomorrow, you can find all James's work at WCFW.

Thank you so much, James.

Kelly, appreciate you.

Thanks, guys.

All right, talk to you soon.

Come on back.

We'll talk conservation with Alex Madorsky after this.

We're on location at Blackbird Falls on the Civic

Media.

Live on location, 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 Todd Albaugh live on location here in Black River Falls and the banks of the Black River here at the Mark Holm Green Memorial boat launch where a boat has just launched.

It is Thursday, May 22nd, 2025.

It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite.

A beautiful day here along the banks of the Black River.

Mr. Isomer is our producer and engineer back at the World Headquarters of Downtown Madison.

If you were not with us in our number one week, I can tell you that we're monitoring a couple of things here.

Number one, our battery pack, we started at 39%.

I can tell you we're now down to 23%.

percent on the remote battery pack.

So I'm feeling good, Zomers.

I thought if we got to hour number two with 20 percent, we'd sneak in so it appears that the show will end before the battery and the power.

So that's good

news.

Thank

goodness.

Also,

Yes, thank goodness.

Also, of course, we're coming to you live via the Starlink satellite.

And I set up the satellite dish.

I thought this is great.

It's a cement foundation right on the boat launch here.

What I did not know is the pipe underneath of the cement contained a nest of snakes, which came out and started sunning themselves.

I can tell you they have not attacked yet, so we have no...

We have no snakes on the show yet, but we have an hour left.

So that is the status of our outdoor show today, Summers.

Yes, your sister commented on Facebook, Heather saying, you are the most incredible host flying without a pair issue.

Snakes, battery issue, bird poop.

Yes and a bird crapped on the about about a foot from us right before we went on the air, but don't this is the great outdoors This is what makes Wisconsin great because it's safe.

It's when you go when you're in a studio

Everything is calm.

You know everything is going on.

What really matters, can you get out there in nature, take on the elements and have a little fun.

Have a little, it keeps you on top of your toes, Omers.

It reinvigorates the soul.

That's what we say so often.

Get out, as the kids say, touch grass and enjoy nature, right?

So coming up a little bit later.

Yeah, absolutely.

Coming up a little bit later this hour are what's worse, our category for today, timely, timely indeed.

What's worse, heights or water?

Heights or water.

So that's coming up a little bit later this hour.

But we bring on our next guest here, speaking of conservation, speaking of getting into the great outdoors.

He is the Associate Director of Government Relations for the Nature Conservancy.

He joins us live via StreamYard.

Alex Madorski joins us.

Alex, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much for having me, Todd.

It's our pleasure and for those watching on the stream on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, the like, now you have a beautiful green screen of a lake behind you.

People are wondering over the break asking, am I in front of a green screen?

No, I can tell you that this shot is live and in person.

Yes, unfortunately, this is a green screen, but we're looking at a beautiful green space up in Presgyle, very top of the state, Vilas County, and preserved in part using the the Knowles Nelson Stewardship Program, that part of the state.

Very, very appropriate, and Debra to get into that in a minute, but I always like when we have a

people on the show that never been here before, like me, who spent some time in the state capitol.

But tell folks a little bit about yourself, Alex, where you grew up and how you got into working for the Nature Conservancy.

Sure.

So I grew up in majestic Cleveland, Ohio, Todd.

It's got a better rep that it doesn't deserve.

Great cities, no Wisconsin, of course, no Madison.

You have Lake Erie.

Yeah, grew up on the shores of Lake Erie.

and came to UW Madison to go to college.

My grandma, who was one of the people I got the political bug from, was a badger for Stevenson, Adlai Stevenson, way back in 1952.

She passed a few years ago in 95, so she was one of those.

folks who volunteered on campaigns every two years.

So I knew what a great school this was from her.

And when I started looking around to go to colleges and I checked the campus out, I thought this was the place for me.

So came to college here, started working on campaigns and in the state legislature went home to get a law degree and practice law for a couple of years.

But, you know,

Litigation wasn't really my thing, so I came back to work in the legislature, worked for a decade for four different state legislators, and I've been at the Nature Conservancy and loving it for six years now.

I think that's fantastic.

I've visited Cleveland and I think you're right.

It does get a bit of a bad rap, but boy, I spent time.

I went to the Rock and Roll Museum, Hall of Fame Museum there right on Lake Erie.

You got the Brown Stadium at the time.

I went there.

It was still relatively new, but also you could walk to it from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame right there on Lake Erie.

Lots of things to do there, but again,

I think Cleveland was really smart.

Is it too much being a native Clevelanders, how do you say it?

I

mean, I

think Cleveland was really smart situating those two things, the Brown Stadium and the Rockville Hall of Fame on Lake Erie because there's a whole district of kind of conservancy and conservation all along there where people just hang out and enjoy nature as well.

Absolutely.

It's a beautiful lakefront and it reminds you of the

remarkable things that can happen when you employ those conservation principles in urban spaces.

So it's a really beautiful place and most of that development all took place during my lifetime.

So I grew up

in a place in time where they sort of told you don't dive into Lake Erie because you're going to come out with three eyeballs and gills.

And now most of the lake, although there have been algae incidents in the past, is clean and it's healthy and it's home to a lot of great species.

You can fish for walleye.

And it's a great example of what we can do if we put our minds into

conserving things for anglers and for everybody who enjoys lake environments.

It's a great success story and you're absolutely right.

It's a great example.

I think we need to look to more of these.

When we do things the right way, when we invest in conservation and our natural resources, it can pay a dividend back because there's a huge economic boom in Cleveland.

That part is why I understand it.

It draws a lot of people there.

It's not just taking care of the earth.

It's also providing economic benefits as well.

Let's move a little bit closer to home.

I like to say Wisconsin is always home.

I think it's interesting you decided to come back here because I think that's part of what makes Wisconsin great is that it's not just in Wisconsinites like me, but when we bring in folks, whether it's from Cleveland or all other parts of the state or parts of the country to Wisconsin, our diversity is our strength.

And now you find yourself as the Associate Director of Government Relations for the Nature Conservancy.

and tell us a little bit about the Nature Conservancy, what you all do, where you're located, and how people can get involved.

Absolutely.

So the Nature Conservancy is the world's largest environmental organization.

We are in 79 different countries.

I have about 6,000 colleagues worldwide here in Wisconsin.

We've been helping to protect nature and all the species and human beings that thrive in it since 1959.

And we've protected over 240,000 acres of some of this state's most beautiful, wild lands and waters that everyone can enjoy for free and all of our preserves.

And we work very hard on that.

We work very hard on tackling climate change because we know all 240,000 of those acres are at risk if we don't do something about that.

And we also do a lot of work with sustainable agriculture.

It's been a fascinating

process for me, Todd, since I joined the Nature Conservancy.

I come from three generations of lawyers with smooth city hands.

I didn't know much about farms when I joined the Nature Conservancy and seeing what conservation groups and farmers can do when they work together.

So we all have cleaner water to drink has been an absolutely unbelievable experience for me.

So I love doing that work as well.

We're talking with Alex Bodorsky, Associate Director of Government Relations for the Nature Conservancy.

So help me understand is there, for lack of a better term, a Wisconsin chapter where you focus just on Wisconsin issues, the tie-in nationally, internationally, or how does that work?

Yeah, so we have the Wisconsin chapter.

If I wanted to use our nerdy internal language, we are the Wisconsin Business Unit of the Nature Conservancy, but we are in all 50 states, I should mention, in addition to all

79 countries and we work closely with our colleagues in the Midwest as well as in DC on all sorts of policy issues.

My primary focus is on state-level policy issues.

We're based in Madison.

We have a shiny new office in one of those fancy new buildings on the Capitol Square.

Come by and visit me sometime.

Sure, absolutely.

Yeah, that would be great.

I'd love to show you around.

So that's where we're based, but we have preserves all over this state in the Northwoods and the Baraboo Hills near Macquanago.

So it is really a pleasure to work for the Nature Conservancy.

It's done so many wonderful things in this state.

And I'll admit, before I joined TNC, I was probably a consummate in Doorsman.

I didn't make it outside.

quite as much as I should have.

And one reason it's been great working for TNC is especially in the post pandemic world, this is not an original observation, but people really started getting outside to keep themselves grounded and to keep themselves sane and healthy and doing all those wonderful things.

One of the things I love about

conservation issues is at least it should be theoretically something that brings folks together as a former Republican myself who left the party in 2011.

I mean you look at from Teddy Roosevelt even through Tommy Thompson we are Tia Nelson daughter of former U.S.

Senator and Governor Democrat Gaylord Nelson was on the show on Earth Day and and she said look I mean Tommy likes to point out that he put more land into preservation in Wisconsin than my dad did when he was governor and so at one time these were issues that brought folks together

and one of those is the the Nulls Nelson Stewardship Fund whether you're talking former state senator Rob Cole's from the Green Bay area to the Democrats Rob Cole's Republican these again were issues that brought people together a minute left here so we'll pick it up on the other side but talk to us a little bit about where we're at with the Nulls Nelson Stewardship Fund

Sure, so I'll quickly introduce that program to your listeners.

The Noles Nelson Stewardship Program is named after two great Wisconsin statesmen.

One Republican, one Democrat, Governor Warren Knowles, who started our state's first land conservation program, a Republican, and the great Tia Nelson's father, Senator Gaylord Nelson, who founded Earth Day.

And it says it all there in the title, I like to tell people.

Its bipartisan program should continue on this basis.

And it's wildly popular with voters, whether they vote for Democrats, Republicans, or they consider themselves independent.

So it is very much in that spirit.

of Bipartisan Wisconsin Conservation Leadership.

Yeah, it really is.

We're going to come back and talk more with Alex Madorski on the other side, the Associate Director of Government Relations at the Nature Conservancy.

because whether you're someone who considers yourself more on the liberal side and just wants to go out and walk through the woods or whether you're someone who might be more of a Republican voter, not to say there aren't Democrats that hunt as well and say, well, I'm just all about going out and hunting.

All of us at Wisconsin, you can't do any of those things if nature isn't able to do its job and keep it safe and keep it clean.

So these programs should be helping everybody and they do.

We'll come back more and talk more.

Alex Magnorsky on the other side.

We are live on the banks of the snakey black river in black river falls It's the tunnel ball show on the civic media

Welcome back to the Taliban show live on location along the banks of the Black River, a beautiful Black River Falls, Wisconsin, and across the Pacific media-running network.

Our friend and ongoing contributor, Jeff Perry, saying, Zommerers, you should play Union of the Snakes by Duran Duran.

Well done, Zommerers.

Nicely done indeed.

uh... the snakes have not moved they're still in there they're still in their uh... little uh... den i guess you call it uh... more importantly we're joined uh... to talk about other conservation issues that don't include snakes by alex madorsky the associate director of government relations at the nature conservancy alex of before to break introduced a little bit the nobles nelson stewardship fund for republican governor war knowles former democratic governor and u.s.

senator galore nelson who started founded earth day

What does this program mean for the state of Wisconsin?

And why does it appear to be, if not in danger, certainly a concern right now as we look at the current budget process in Wisconsin?

Well, it means everything.

It means a lot.

I was thinking about this interview, Todd, today, before I joined you to chat.

And when we talk about that outdoors, it does everything from protect

wildlife species to protect wetlands.

It also, for local units of government, does things like create trails, creates parks, helps protect them.

You're on a boat launch today.

There's a whole sub-program of this Knowles Nelson Stewardship Program that's dedicated to making sure boaters can enjoy that activity.

Every acre of land we have at the Nature Conservancy based on this program is open to all nature-based outdoor activities as we call them, including hunting, fishing, and trapping.

And those are such an important part of our state's cultural heritage that I'm glad we can offer that to every Wisconsinite and everyone who wants to visit this state.

for free.

It's a public-private matching grant program so we don't get this money for free from the state government.

We got to show up at the table and explain to the Department of Natural Resources.

Here's what we think we can do.

Here's what we think we can protect and here's what we think people can use.

So here's the money we can bring to the table.

Can you help us out?

The program, I think, is not unique in facing some challenges in the legislature to the extent that...

That process doesn't always move as smoothly as perhaps most Wisconsinites would ideally like, but that's one reason we continue to go back to the legislature and tout these polls that say 93% of Wisconsinites support the stewardship program.

That's true, whether you're talking to a Democratic voter or a Republican voter, it doesn't matter what part of the state you're talking to people in, they support this program and they want to see Wisconsin.

continue to be a conservation leader going forward.

I think it's so important to point this out because, again, there's a lot of rhetoric right now, particularly from my former party about handouts, about quote-unquote welfare programs.

There's a lot of focus in DC right now, but also some of it in the state capital.

Really important to point out that the Stewardship Fund, it requires to have private partnership money as well.

And so you have to prove, as you said, that these programs are for the public good.

There's this era where everybody wants to talk about your efficiencies and the made-up thing of Doge and all that.

are really well thought out.

They're really well overseen and they're really well administered.

I think that's right.

The Department of Natural Resources has a great process, a competitive process that people who want these grants go through.

They're looked at by.

real estate appraisal professionals who have experience in the relevant sorts of environments and ecosystems that we're talking about.

And it's really a win-win, especially as I think if you look at traditional industry in Wisconsin like forestry.

42 billion dollar a year industry.

Look at the fastest growing sector of our economy and that's tourism 25 billion dollars a year.

Between those two things we're talking about hundreds of thousands of jobs a year and this program supports that sustainable forestry.

It supports protecting an environment that people want to

come up from the Chicago suburbs or wherever they may spend their money on some some old fashions.

It's some supper clubs in addition to the hunting and fishing and other activities they want to do up here.

So it's a win-win in every way I can think of for the environment and the economy.

The time always goes too fast.

Gonna have to have you back on soon.

But Alex, you have about two minutes.

Talk to us about the implications of the stewardship funded agriculture in Wisconsin.

Sure, so the Stewardship Fund doesn't directly involve agriculture, but I can talk to you a little bit about some overlaps there, the work the Nature Conservancy does.

We're really proud, and this is consistent with the bipartisan theme, to work on something we call our Clean Water Initiative with the Dairy Business Association.

clean wisconsin another environmental group and wisconsin land and water there are states county conservation staff organization historically sometimes these groups butted heads and we said it doesn't have to be that way

let's

set sit down develop a shared agenda

who cares, who used to be in what party or whatever, and let's hammer some good things out, like planting cover crops that help us get clean water and really help soak up the carbon so it doesn't go out into the atmosphere.

It helps us do things like producer lead watershed groups, which are farmer lead groups.

They talk to one another, implement the best practices, and it helps.

This group is advocating for money for our county conservation agents as well.

They are the boots on the ground that work with farmers to implement the nutrient management plans that they envision on their farms to keep things safe for us.

And we have the Great Lakes as a wonderful natural asset.

And we have access to so much wonderful dairy food here in the state of Wisconsin.

We can keep our water clean at the same time, and that's why I love working with ag groups and farmers as well, to make sure we work together, build that nonpartisan dialogue to get to great conservation outcomes and economic growth in this

state.

Alex Kodorski of the Nature Conservancy, you have a great job of explaining this.

Thank you very much for being here.

Thanks for what you do.

You're part of what makes Wisconsin great.

Come on back.

Thank you so much, Todd.

I hope you have a

great

day.

Be careful with those rattlers up there and black

balls.

Okay

back after this.

Don't go

wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the Towel Ball Show live on location in beautiful Black River Falls, Wisconsin on the banks of the beautiful Black River.

Check this out.

If you have the ability to watch us on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twix, whatever you want to call it, the visual.

I mean, this is a picture perfect day.

As it's, I would say, well, I should just check here.

Might as well not guess, right?

That's why we have smartphone bombers.

60 degrees, a beautiful balmy, but it feels warmer because the sun's out.

The wind's not too bad.

And we are here on the banks of the Black River at the Mark Holm Green Memorial Boat Launch, where we just had a pontoon boat go in bombers behind us not too long ago here.

And tomorrow.

We'll see if the waters don't rise and the the sunshine holds we may well be on the SS Minnow better known and captained by the great Pat Kraitlo.

This is how good Pat Critello is.

Not only is he a former Democratic state legislator, not only was he a long time a news anchor of television in the Chippewa Valley, not only is he the host of Mornings of Pat Critello here at Civic Media from 6 until 9, he also is a licensed cruise boat captain on Lake Wissota.

And so we may be over there on Lake Wissoda tomorrow with the show.

It could be me quite low James Kelly and a cast of thousands on Lake Wissoda tomorrow.

So I'm not gonna wanna mention or not gonna wanna miss that.

Tonight, a big shout out to my favorite youngest niece, Isabelle.

Isabelle, she's graduating.

from Eau Claire Memorial High School tonight.

So mom and I will be there.

We have brought our parkas and our winter boots.

It's gonna be chilly.

The thing doesn't start like seven o'clock and it's at the track field.

So I feel like it's gonna be a little chilly, but looking forward to that and staying around till Saturday because the party is on Saturday.

So looking forward and congratulations to Isabel and congratulations to all of our high school and college graduates.

across the state of Wisconsin.

So this time of year is always filled with hopefulness, right?

Lots of great graduation speeches.

The world is your oyster.

Get out there and see the day.

So congratulations to all those graduates across the state of Wisconsin.

Okay, now it's 37 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, nothing to give away, no prize money involved, but it is your chance to have your voice heard across all 11 news, weather, talk, sports, networks.

Affiliated stations across the state of Wisconsin know better way to have your business your product Advertise that on civic media check us out at civic media dot US Civic media dot US you can find out how you can join us as one of our great sponsors here like Gordy Kopke where we were yesterday as a matter of fact and late word tomorrow now on the show our old friend Peter Rapine is gonna be here with a week in review and also one of the folks from the

Wisconsin Badger honor flight Brian.

I believe his name.

He'll be here and maybe a visit from our old friend, uh, uh, great to you.

So all kinds of great things.

And as, as well as being on a pond tube boat with packed crite low.

So a jam packed Friday and we're giving away four tickets tomorrow all day long on civic one set of four tickets to a

future Milwaukee Brewers game in those beautiful club level seats.

Be listening from past show all the way through Maggie's show for chances to win, including our show tomorrow.

We'll give you a keyword.

Download the Civic Media app so you can enter tomorrow.

All right, here we go.

As we said, timely, timely indeed on the category today because we're right next to the Black River here in Black River Falls, a beautiful body of water, part of what makes Wisconsin great today's category.

What's worse?

Heights or water Heights or water 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 or Textus on the aforementioned Civic Media app if you don't have it now is a great time to get it go to your app store go to the search bar type in Civic CI VIC media it'll take about a minute

It is free to download.

It's what CBS's Gale King calls a deal.

The Civic Media app.

What's worse, heights or water?

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-8-2-8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

I'll get it right yet.

I was thinking about it.

I was driving up here, Zomers.

I was listening to our great friend and colleague who comes on every morning from 9 until 11, Jane McNair, Matt Nair on air.

And she and Greg Bach now were talking.

Did they announce this at the meeting?

Because I don't go to the meetings much anymore.

There's a new feature I hear.

coming to the Civic Media app where people can leave, uh, voicemail messages.

Is this true?

Have you heard about this?

I know nothing about it, but I believe it.

We're usually the last to know.

No, I believe it to be true.

I believe it to be true.

And this was a part of a thing that we said months ago.

We said, wouldn't it be great if people could call and leave us stories that they might have about civic media?

And here now, our idea has come to fruition.

And so I'm very happy.

I'm very happy about it that it's come to fruition.

And so I'm looking forward.

new people leaving us voice messages that we will play on the air.

Cam and Appleton just texted in in all caps.

Voice messages, you say?

Yes, exactly.

Exactly my point.

All right, what's worse?

Heights are water.

Heights are water.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

This is because people have real, real and phobias or fears of both heights and water.

My dad grew up in a dairy farm.

He fell into a cow tank, I think when he was like three years old, and has a fear of water to this day.

So, you know, there you go.

You gotta be careful about that.

But some people can't go up.

you know, more than a couple of stories up when they get petrified.

So what's worse, heights or water, 855-752-4842, 855-752-4842.

AJ, in Madison, listening on WMDX, says heights are worse because I can swim.

Alright, there you go.

Or can't swim.

Very good.

Or can't, alright, that's right, because he can't swim.

Also, somebody

sent in a voice message about the voice message feature.

It's already here.

The

voice message feature is already live Strangely, it doesn't say who it's from so I don't know

who that is really that was pretty good.

That was pretty good I Didn't know this and again, we should really start going to the meetings This is a lot.

I think this will be a lot of fun.

I think this will be a lot of fun the people can call and complain

That now we can now we can solicit voice messages just don't get arrested for solicitation All right, what's worse heights or water heights or water eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two or

You can call us on the our text us on the civic media app.

Let's go to the phone lines Ali up here and I'm not quite in the Northwoods yet Ali because I'm south of highway 29 I'm in Black River Falls, but Ali in the Northwoods Ali Heights or water was worse

Well

First off, it sounds like you're having a wonderful time there.

And I'm going to throw this all into your lap.

They are both equal because if you are out in the water and you hit a drop-off, that could be a terrible thing.

So

the

combination

is

definitely

worse.

Not that I had not thought of that Ali, but this is a great Steve

Listen to the show, you're bound to get practical advice from our great listeners like Ollie, because you're right Ollie, right?

Like this time of year, people are venturing into the river or into the lake and you forget there can be drop offs and you know, it's like mom and grandpa always said, the current is what's going to get you.

So be aware, be, you know, don't do anything stupid when you go into the water this weekend, wear a life jacket and be aware that there are drop offs and then

You can be SOL so you're right water and a drop-off not a good combo

That's right, and I have a quick little story for you.

Yeah, please my

husband My husband's mother was deathly afraid of snakes and she used to haul water from the creek for for their house when the kids were little and he took one day he took a

dead snake and he tied it to a fishing line and drew it across the spot where grandma was walking and scared her to death.

Oh my gosh.

Lucky the poor woman didn't have a heart attack.

Yes, and he certainly got in trouble for her.

I'll tell you.

I bet he did.

Oh, thanks for sharing that, Ollie.

That's a great story.

Thank you so much.

Have a great day up there in the Northwoods.

We will technically be in the Northwoods

tomorrow.

Well, thank you.

We're working, but thank you.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Some people at Civic would say I'm always on vacation.

I'm just permanently out to lunch.

What's worse, heights or water?

Heights or water?

What is worse?

855-752-4842, 855-752-4842.

Len in Madison on the text line listening to WMDX says water is worse because I don't know how to swim and I can't breathe underwater.

With heights, I appreciate and understand the gravity of this situation.

Oh, I like that.

That's very good.

Well done.

Well done.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

Let's go to Fred, listening on WMDX in Cottage Grove.

Fred, heights or water?

What's worse?

Height is worse.

I got legs and arms.

I can swim, but I sure can't fly with it.

That's

true.

We're not birds.

That's bird.

Well done.

Well done, Fred.

Have a great day out there.

A beautiful cottage grove.

Casper back at home at MDX says, let's combine the two.

Your parachutes failing and landing in a lake would be awful, but better than landing on land.

Well, thanks for those encouraging words, Casper.

All right.

Well, as we have here, let's see.

That's the last

one so far.

What?

Go

ahead.

That's the last one so

far.

Go ahead, Summers.

Oh, that's the last one.

All right.

All right.

Very good.

All right.

So, so there you go.

Anything else?

Feel free to call in 8-5-5-2-4.

Troy and Mount Horrib

is now on the line.

Oh, very good.

Our old friend Troy out there, Mount Horrib.

Troy, heights or water, what's worse?

I don't mind either one.

I was mostly

just

calling to say that was me on the next thing.

Oh.

Now see, you're, you are more informed about the internal workings of our own company than Zamas or I.

I made the meeting.

Troy is such an avid and dedicated listener that he is now included in the meetings.

That's fantastic.

I love that.

Well, have a great day out in beautiful Baltimore, Troy.

Thank you for calling in.

We appreciate that.

That's fantastic summer see those are the kind of listeners those the kind of dedicated people you want listen to the show people that can tell you what's happening That's really fantastic.

All right, I was I will tell you what we think on the other side heights or water 8557 5248 4 2 come on back We're gonna wrap it up snakes and all on the black river on the civic media bring up work

Welcome back to the Tahleball show of the Civic Media Radio Network.

We are live on location the banks of the Black River.

A beautiful Black River Falls, Wisconsin here at the Mark Holmgren Memorial Boat Launch.

It is a beautiful day here.

It is now eight minutes before the hour of four o'clock coming up at the top of the hour.

ABC or CBS News, depending upon which of our great stations you're listening to, a weather update by Bertie Merleau.

It's beautiful.

That's what the weather is.

And then our old friend Mike Clemens with the sports report coming up here as well.

I can let you know, Zalmers, that the battery is down to 14%.

So it appears now with eight minutes left, we're going to make it under the wire, which is this is great on site research, which means if we have 38% of a battery left, we can do a show.

How about

that?

Perfect.

Great to know.

I hope we don't have to

use

this information, but it's good to

have.

but could have and uh... also the snakes down but mom now has googled it she's googled it up and uh... discovered we have a nest of watersnakes right next to the satellite they are non-poisonous so that's good to know by the way this has been a fantastic show uh... and people ask what do you love about working radio this is it

This is it.

I love it because it's live.

You're working without a net, and we meet great folks.

We have great locations like this, and there's always some excitement.

I mean, that's what makes this a lot of fun.

So this has been fantastic.

All right, let's finish up on what's worse.

Heights or water, 855-752-4842.

Our friend Gordy Kopke, where we were yesterday down in beautiful Oregon, Wisconsin, or the town of Dunn, Kopke's greenhouse.

Gordy.

Heights are water.

What's worse?

Well,

as a person who has bird DNA in my genetic makeup, I was one time a licensed hot air balloon pilot.

I also fly ultra light.

And one of my favorite pastimes is hiking up in the Alps.

So I'm not afraid of heights at all.

I did water.

I never really learned to swim until I was about 20.

I did pick up wind surfing for a while, but I'm a bird man.

So that's my favorite.

That's fantastic.