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

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Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Albault along with Mr. Aaron Zommer as 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.

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 Mark Holm Green, not Holmgren, 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.

Well, I tell you what we were we were planning on doing the show at Eau Claire today up at Eau Claire because we're gonna be there a little bit later on today But as as things would have it I got out of Madison a little bit.

Here's what happened.

I 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 Headquarters.

I'd stopped down

there.

And 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, 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 someplace 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 Blackford 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 the show.

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 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 from 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

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't 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.

It 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 because 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

And yeah, birds are attacking you.

Now that's a challenge.

See if you can do a show.

So this will be a lot of fun because it's a beautiful day here in Black River Falls.

Coming up at the bottom of the hour, our old friend James Kelly, the Bureau Chief, Northwest Bureau Chief of Civic Media News, is going to be joining us from, I believe, Chippewa 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 can 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.

Well, 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.

Um, anyway, so, uh, 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, uh, Lake Wissota.

Our old friend, Pat Critello, has offered us to come up there for, uh, a little cookout at a, maybe on the pontoon boat.

We'll see.

Here's hoping.

So we're, we're all over.

We're all over this week 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 Tom's mom, or birds poop on the equipment.

That is a great idea, Jeff.

That is a great idea.

The snakes seem restless because 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 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, getting out 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 hutchunk nation he is a legislator uh... in the hutchunk nation and told me just the other night that his term is now expiring and running out so you sort of have some more some more time to come on our show i can't wait for that because one of the things i love when i travel around wisconsin is you realize the rich important history of native people here in the state of wisconsin and the hutchunk 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, well taken care of.

And I know Zahmar 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 gonna have all 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 words, we talked a little bit about this would trick the Olson and Pat Crite low 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.

It has 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 and it has 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.

Black River 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.

Reliable location in Black River Falls.

It's the Tata Ball Show right here across Wisconsin on the civic media.

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Pursuing truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to Tahleball 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.

I'm going to talk to Alex Madorski, who is the Associate Director of Government Relations at the Nature Conservancy.

Talk about the Knowles Nelson bill a little bit more and we talked about that with Tia Nelson here.

uh... month ago so for it for earth day 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 are the uh... the stewardship fund and conservation in general have been

you know that they've been able to find some common ground with that but so far and particularly in the assembly with speaker robin bossy is uh... not signaled that so far so we're gonna talk a little bit with uh... alex here in our two about uh... where we could maybe find some common ground is there a hope to reduce uh... 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

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 healthcare, 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's 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 what's been a couple minutes on that last night the reconciliation bill passed the house of representatives by one vote by one vote i believe two of the uh... republicans took a pass on it voted no one of republican voted present and all the democrats voted against it but here's a thing i was listening to

I was listening to another radio program this morning and the whole was absolute.

I never even occurred to me until she said this.

Absolutely right about this.

The vote passed last night, the House Reconciliation Bill, by one vote, one vote.

And 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 by one vote looking at with politics calm now It says that the Trump this is a quote from us representative Gwendolyn Moore Democrat on Milwaukee 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 and as part of our duty to conduct oversight of the executive branch my colleague was performing this work when

When she visited the immigration 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 West 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 them in Congress.

all night long, while 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?

What are we going to take these and savings and reduce our debt?

Nope, we're not gonna 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.

That was Representative Gwendole Moore.

As we said, the bill passed last night, 215 to 213, largely along party lines.

The two Republicans, Warren Davidson of Ohio and Thomas Massey of Kentucky voting no, one Republican, Andy

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, cannot 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 representatives 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.

We are rolling on the river.

We are here live on location on Black River.

As a matter of fact, the beautiful shores of Black River in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, Tahoe 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.

We're seeing 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.

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 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 Northwest Wisconsin and what this might be.

Yeah, so a little over a year ago, the HSHS 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 the county has

to come to an

agreement with 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 HSS 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, I would say concerning 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.

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 Chippewa 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 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 is that in my opinion that's uh that's a cover-up of facade because what

these cuts 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.

But 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 going to 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?

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's show on mornings at Pat Crite Low from six until nine, he'll appreciate.

the plug uh... because a lot of a lot of focus and jay matt narrs upset with uh... deep deep deep uh... thought uh... almost as a mouse on deep thought uh... down there in the walkie 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, alright, pretty good.

Sweet Destiny, alright.

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 is 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 is the all ball show on the Civic Media Radio Wisconsin.

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Welcome back to the Tahleball Show on the Civic Media Radio Network.

We're live on location at the, look at the name right here, Mark Holm Green.

Not Holm Green, the Mark Holm Green 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?

Or was it straight at it?

Sweet Destiny,

the name.

Sweet Destiny, not Destiny.

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.

He grew up over there on the St.

Croix River.

I

hope he's not catching those fines.

No.

Is it still there?

They got rid of it finally.

Yeah, they did.

They did.

They got it.

They

towed it on Friday.

All right.

Very good.

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

Glad to have you all.

Now, what are you doing tomorrow, James?

Tomorrow afternoon.

Oh, tomorrow afternoon.

You know, I did hear a rumor from Pat Craylow 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 Mino, captain by Captain Stubing, better known as Pat Critello.

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.

Maybe 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 musky seasons open up opening up 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 you looking for Todd?

Well, whatever.

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 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 unaffordable housing in Eau Claire.

It's

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 live in Madison or Milwaukee or Green Bay.

Dial up WCFW the 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

Indiana Pacers who took out my books was and last night the Chokeside, the Reggie Miller Chokeside for the Pacers Lab.

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.

Like 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 going 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, because I do not want the Pacers to win after they knocked off the Bucks.

So, you know, I wish you all the best with the Knicks.

The juiced bats for the Yankees, are they still hitting well?

They are.

Aaron Judge is, he dipped under 400 yesterday on

the

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.

I'll see you on the pontoon boat tomorrow.

You can find all James' work at WCFW.

Thank you so much, James.

Kelly, I 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 Blackfriar Falls on the Civic Media.

Ready

now.

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