Finally, We’re Replacing Todd With Artificial Intelligence (Hour 2)

From the Civic Media World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.

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

I'm Todd Allball here at the World Headquarters of Cinec Media in downtown Madison, Wisconsin along with our producer and engineer Aaron Zommers and Parker also glad to have you along here on a very busy Monday, June 23rd, 2025.

I have breaking news to start the show later on.

We'll have a state senator Keldor Royce talking about the joint finance committee and breaking news from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in regards to cuts there.

And also in hour number two, Matt DeFour, the state bureau chief of Wisconsin Watch, will be in talking about AI and news making.

But first we begin with the breaking news of the day here in downtown Madison, but around the world according to CBS News and others.

A couple of hours ago, Iran said today that

has launched attacks on the U.S.

Al-Udeid air base in Qatar two days after the U.S.

struck three nuclear sites in Iran.

Explosions were heard in Qatar as witnesses said they saw what appeared to be missiles over the country, according to multiple news agencies.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had targeted the U.S.

air base at Al-Udeid in Qatar with a, quote, devastating and powerful missile, unquote.

Iranian state media earlier today announced an operation launching missiles attacks against U.S.

bases named, quote, Annunciation of Victory, unquote.

The U.S.

defense official confirmed that the base was attacked by short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles originating from Iran today.

At this time U.S.

officials say there are no reports of U.S.

casualties.

They said officials are monitoring the situation closely and will provide more information as it becomes available.

Joining us to discuss these latest

development today and also over the weekend.

We appreciate him being with us.

He was with us on this breaking news over the weekend on Saturday.

We so appreciate it.

Stephen Zunez, Professor of Politics and Director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco joins us now live via StreamYard.

Professor, once again, thank you so much for taking your time.

Good to be with

you

again.

It's a busy day to say the least.

So you joined us over the weekend at these initial U.S.

strikes against Iran.

What do you make today?

Because I think last time we talked and many people, as you watched the morning news shows yesterday and other things, the apprehensions seemed to stem around what was, and I think most people agree, there was going to be some sort of Iranian response here.

What do you make of this response in Qatar today?

We are reporting is that the Iranian

and government gave the Qatari government a heads up to let them know, hey, we're just targeting US bases.

What do you make of this response today?

In certain ways, it's a relief because it does seem to be a limited attack.

And certainly, Trump's position was basically, you know,

We just bombed you, now we want peace.

You can only imagine somebody going to a bar and punching somebody else and

say, oh, I

want peace now.

It's

all over now.

You

know

it's your

fault.

And Trump indeed said there'd be a massive retaliation.

We'd bomb them like you've never seen before, far worse than they've gotten from Israel.

And one couldn't imagine again that Iran would not respond in some way.

Here is the question, how are they going to respond?

Is it going to be in a manner that Trump would go ahead and do the massive bombing and things escalate, things go out of control, the Strait of Hormuz would be closed, interrupting the oil supply, and the ripple effects in the global economy, and all sorts of people killed.

And there are all sorts of terrible scenarios that we're considering.

But it seems like the Iranian government is basically taking a middle ground.

Again, they couldn't just roll over and not respond.

But by doing it in such a way that they warn people ahead of time and that the amount of missiles that came over were actually fairly small.

Now, the Israelis have done a lot of damage to

Iran's military capability, but they still have a lot of missiles that they could have done a swarm attack They could have killed a fair number of Americans not just in Qatar But in Bahrain United Arab Emirates Q8 Iraq we have like 40,000 troops Within just a couple hundred miles of the Iranian border not to mention our ships and the Gulf and you know So if they were really out to kill a bunch of Americans that they could have done it and so this is so it's a It's real relief.

You know that they did not

go to the more maximalist response that they could have done, both in terms of the fact that there aren't large-scale American casualties, but also it will reduce the likelihood that the United States will respond in turn and have things spiral out of control.

to help us to understand, and I wish we had an entire afternoon to do one of your classes.

I took Middle Eastern history back in high school years and years ago.

I find it a fascinating region of the world.

Certainly a lot of, I think most Americans would look at it as a lot of chaos.

It's very complicated, hard to understand.

Help break this down for those of us here in Wisconsin that might not understand this part of the world as well as you do, Professor, in terms of

The Iranians have had a problem with Americans for a long, long time.

Those of us old enough for us to remember the hostage situation during the 1980 presidential election between Carter and Reagan and ever since then.

And take us if you can, Ken, a little bit from that.

They give me a couple of minute background.

I know it's way too short of time, but a quick couple of minute background and then up to how that ties into what the Obama administration maybe started

W. Bush, I'm not sure, but the Obama administration, Trump one, Biden, now Trump two, about trying to have inspectors in Iran.

There were negotiations going on, and the difference between that and the enrichment for Iranians to make a bomb, and why that's important, we could come back and spend more time on it.

But that's kind of the context I'd like you to help us understand if you'd be so very kind.

I'd like to start a little further back,

actually.

Sure, please.

I mean, Ron, formerly known as Persia.

has been a major regional power for like 2,500 years.

So they don't like being treated like some Caribbean island or Central American country where the US can basically send in the Marines or whatever and make them do what they want to do.

There's a lot of national pride.

Now, most Iranians do not like their government.

But they are very proud of their culture.

And if you're listeners who know anyone a Persian background knows the pride in their heritage and their history, and they don't like being jerked around.

They don't like being told that, oh, Israel can have nuclear weapons.

Pakistan have nuclear weapons.

India have nuclear weapons.

We can have nuclear weapons.

But Iran, you can't even have a civilian program that has the potential.

Down the road of becoming weaponized and so that stirs up a lot of nationalist sentiments You don't have to be you know support of the I toller or anything like that anything like that say hey wait a minute, you know, this isn't really fair and It's concerned about the history of the US.

I mean they they're back in the 1953 they had a nationalist prime minister who sees the British oil companies that that were exploiting the wealth of the nation without

giving hardly anything in return, their big international sanctions, and the U.S.

K-men, the CIA, came in and overthrew the elected prime minister.

And they brought back from exile the Shah, that's basically the Persian word for emperor, who ruled as an absolute monarch, quite brutal, his subopt, a dreaded secret police that were trained by the United States, tortured and murdered many tens of thousands of people.

And it was the United States that said, hey, this is a great ally here.

Why don't we help them develop nuclear power?

So this is an important piece to note that it was the United States that started Iran's nuclear program.

when the Shah's regime was so effective at wiping out the leftist and nationalist and liberal and secular opposition, but they couldn't completely get into the mosques.

And so when they had the revolution, they took on a strong Islamist characterization, practically a pretty reactionary Islamist characterization, which is a little unusual because the Iranians, compared to a lot of predominantly Muslim countries, have not been super religious, ultra conservative, you know, whatever.

So it was a real shock to go from,

or secular authoritarian regime to a religious authoritarian regime.

And they didn't have, one of the first things the new regime did was they abolished the nuclear program.

However, when Iraq invaded and the 1980s used chemical weapons on a massive scale and the world didn't respond,

There are some Iranians that maybe we need to develop nuclear power and at least have an option of developing a nuclear weapon to protect ourselves as a deterrent.

So again, this is important to emphasize to those Iranians who didn't think about wanting to maybe get a nuclear bomb, maybe that being an option in the future.

It was not to destroy Israel, the United States.

It was my most countries have had a nuclear deterrent.

And so especially when the US invaded the countries to their immediate east and west, Afghanistan and Iraq, when you saw them listed as the axis of evil along with Iraq and North Korea, and when Iraq got rid of their nuclear program and got invaded anyway and North Korea developed nuclear weapons, they're still in power.

Maybe there's a lesson there.

Maybe you do need some kind of deterrent.

But again, there's no evidence you're actually going to develop a bomb.

But even having that potential got a lot of people concerned, given the nasty nature of the regime, despite their anti-imperialist rhetoric, they've engaged quite a few imperialist machinations themselves in the region.

And again, I think most listeners know it is, I'd say, a pretty nasty regime.

But they did agree under Obama to eliminate

a huge portion.

of their nuclear program.

It reduced its number of centrifuges to enrich uranium to a little more than 5,000, which is far below the number needed to achieving, to process uranium to the 90% level needed for nuclear weapons.

In fact, they agreed to, they eliminated 98% of their nuclear stockpile.

They restricted the level of enrichment to 3.67%.

They decommissioned the Iraq reactor, which could produce plutonium.

They allowed inspectors to look at everything from mining and milling, conversion, enrichment, fuel manufacturing, nuclear reactors, spent fuel, everything, one of the most comprehensive inspections regimes ever, and they were abiding by it, 100%.

Despite

that not to interrupt, but they had the deal was correct me if I'm wrong you had to have UN or or inspectors were from neither country go in Exactly party to verify this and

everybody thought all this nuclear crisis everybody's been freaking out for years is over, you know took a decade of posturing two years of Intense negotiations, you know, I met with the Iranian Foreign Minister actually in 2019 when I was in Tehran and he talked about how he had less than 50

one-on-one meetings with John Kerry, the then US Secretary of State, going over the agreement line by line by line.

And then Trump comes in, and even though Iran was totally abiding by it, he threw it out, and said, I can negotiate a better deal.

Of

course he didn't.

This is not some real estate thing.

And so Iran said, OK, if you're not going to divide the deal, we don't have to either.

Because by pulling out of the deal, the United States imposed these really draconian sanctions on Iran

And part of it was that they would punish any government or a company that didn't go with the sanctions as well.

So that meant a lot of other countries and everything.

So it ended up really hurting the economy.

And Iran destroyed billions of dollars worth of equipment to return for lifting the sanctions.

And the US said, too bad.

It's

over.

And here's the thing, I can't emphasize this enough.

You know what, I'm gonna stop.

This is called a tease, professor, because we're up against the clock.

So if you want to know the key thing that Professor Zunez is gonna tell us, stick around for two minutes.

You'll find it out on the other side.

Professor Stephen Zunez of the University of San Francisco, help us break down this breaking news as Iran has attacked or attempted to attack US military bases in Qatar.

It's the title of our show for a Monday.

Don't go anywhere.

You're listening to Crossroads.

on the Civic Media, ready to

work.

Welcome back to the Ta-Dong Bowl show on the Civic Media Ready Network across the state of Wisconsin.

Glad to have you along on a Monday, June 23rd, 22 minutes now past the hour of two o'clock as we continue to follow breaking news at this hour.

Iran said that has launched an attack

on the U.S.

Air Force of the U.S.

Base, rather, Al Udeed Air Base in Qatar.

Just two days after the U.S.

struck three nuclear sites there, so far no word of any U.S.

casualties.

It seems that so far reports are the interceptor type of missiles have stopped those ballistic short and mid-range reported missiles from actually landing on the U.S.

Air Base here.

Here to help us sort through all of this, we appreciate it.

So very much joining us live via StreamYard.

of San Francisco, Stephen Zunez, the Professor of Politics and Director of Middle Eastern Studies.

at the University of San Francisco.

Professor, again, thank you so very much.

We're up against the clock.

The computer cuts me off, whether I want to or not.

So that's why I had to stop you.

And you're just about, you're giving us the history here.

And this is a fantastic history of why things are the way they are to a degree.

And you got to the point of saying that in recent times now under Obama, then into a Trump one term, that there was this deal of,

the Iranians basically supervised or inspected is probably a better word to make sure they weren't enriching their uranium and cradium nuclear bomb and worked pretty well and then Trump cancelled the deal and he said here's the important thing to remember please go ahead.

Yeah the important thing to remember is that when you hear Trump and other Republicans

as well for that matter as leading democrats uh schumer and jeffreys and and schiff and rosen and federman and others who've been supporting israel's war on on on iran they're saying we must prevent iran from having a nuclear weapon okay fine i don't i don't want to have a nuclear weapon either but they don't say then let's return to the iran nuclear deal they're saying let's go to war

So it's not an issue of whether or not someone believes around to develop nuclear weapon is that you want to do it through diplomacy You know which had already been successful or do you want to go to war?

with you know, not only the horrific casualties that have been going on in both Iran and Israel and and

And now with the U.S.

involved and the risk of something much larger.

I mean, again, so this is the real issue that a lot of people, both the Republicans and the Democratic Hawks seem to be ignoring.

That if you really don't want to get a nuclear weapon, go back to the treaty that made it, that their agreement, that made it impossible, especially since it's unclear, despite Trump's claims, whether they actually did destroy everything, they could actually rebuild.

And even though they've killed some top scientists, they've got plenty of more scientists.

And if

anything is going to make Iran motivate, maybe we do need a nuclear deterrent.

So this won't happen again.

So help me explain, or help me understand this, Professor Zunez.

And we got a little over about five minutes here, a left.

Just from a cultural, we hear this, you know, quote unquote,

death to America that for as explained by some religious reasons that the Iranians are never going to give up because they believe in this almost religious thing where where Israel and the U.S.

has to be wiped off the face of the map to accomplish religious goals.

I guess I'll put it in those.

Is that just

complete bunk or what is that?

That's a myth.

That's a myth.

And there's some deliverance translations.

For example, the claim that a foreign president Ahmadinejad who hasn't been in power for more than 20 years.

who was quoting Ayatollah Khomeini, who died way back in 1989, said that we want Israel to be wiped off the map, therefore that's Iranian policy.

No, that's not Iranian policy.

In fact, the phrase wiped off the map.

It doesn't even exist in the Persian language.

A more accurate translation would be vanished from the pages of time.

And when I made a judge like that, he said, look at the map of the Soviet Union.

Do you see it anymore?

No, you see Russia and the other countries.

In other words, you don't want Israel to exist as Israel.

They want to be Palestine.

That doesn't mean physically destroying Israel or killing the Jews.

Remember our big mistake in Vietnam was that we saw communism and that's a totalitarian movement trying to take over the

world.

So we've got to respond militarily, not realizing that first and foremost, it was a nationalist movement, you know, by it was communist led, but it was a nationalist movement by people who are sticking up for their own country from foreign invaders and a puppet regime in Saigon.

Similarly with Iran, we.

miss out on the fact that, yes, it's an Islamist Republic, but first and foremost, it's nationalist and it's asserting that.

And when we have these double standards, when

we

have these threats, when we have these things, it creates this kind of reaction.

And so the more we bond in Vietnam, the more streets we sent, the more the resistance.

And similarly, the more we attack Iran, the more the resistance we're going to get from them as well.

And I apologize.

We have two minutes left, but give us your brief answer if you can.

With Hamas and Hezbollah weakened at least to a large degree.

allies gently at least of Iran, with Iran now hit at least to some degree, having less technology, and with the lack of Arab allies in the Middle East really calling this latest strike by the U.S.

out over the weekend, is there a chance, at least a chance, that what Trump administration did over the weekend, and could this actually lead towards a larger regional acceptance of Israel and U.S.

policy, and could this actually bring some sort of peace, or is that just unknown yet?

I mean, it's doing just the opposite, just getting more and more resentment at the United States and Israel.

Even critics of the Iranian regime, again, point out this double standard in terms of Israel itself as a nuclear power, as over 90 nuclear weapons.

Israel won't be accepted until they grant their Palestinian freedom, either in a viable two-state solution or in a binational state with equal rights for both people.

I mean and and and the failure to for that to happen is what's led to the rise of extremist groups like Hamas which came only after Israel and occupying the West Bank in Gaza and Hezbollah which which emerged only after the Israeli occupation in 1982 that the parts of southern Lebanon and similarly I mean ISIS emerged after the US invasion of Iraq that you know when when you try to when you when you when you invade and occupy kill a lot of

civilians.

That's when the that's the extremism that that comes up.

You don't make people moderate by by by bombing them and killing them, especially when you have such high civilian casualties.

Yeah, Stephen Zune is a professor of politics and director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco.

Amazing background, amazing knowledge.

Appreciate you so very much.

We'd love to have you back on again.

Thank you for your time today.

My pleasure.

Stay with us.

We're going to have State Senator Kelder Royce next, talking about things closer to home.

The Joint Finance Committee, University of Wisconsin System.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the title of our show for a Monday on the Civic Media.

Welcome back to the title ball show on the civic media ready to work 35 minutes now past the hour of two o'clock of this Monday, June 23rd, 2025.

Zomers dialing up a little bluegrass there.

By request, off of our next guest playlist here, she has been joining us so kindly to join us every Monday here through the budget process.

State Senator Keller-Royce representing the 26th District, which includes much of the city of Madison here in Dane County.

She is a member of the Joint Finance Committee during this busy budget process.

Well, not as busy perhaps as we'd like.

But

Senator, first of all, welcome.

How are you?

Glad to be here.

I wish I was doing a little more work on the budget, but

I hear that.

So first of all, Bluegrass.

What's that band

called?

That band is called I'm With Her.

And it's kind of it's three women, each of whom is kind of an all star in their own right.

And they recently played here at the Overture Center in Madison.

And I'm now obsessed and can't can't

turn it off.

It's one of the main things I enjoy about you.

You like music and different types of music.

So that's that's fantastic.

Sad songs right now out of the state capital if I could be so

bold

Lisa the joint finance committee You were here last Monday afternoon

And on Monday night, I was able to kind of break a little bit of news that bought these $87 million worth of cuts that were aimed at the University of Wisconsin.

Why still call it system?

They call it University of Wisconsin now by the Republicans on your committee.

That leaked apparently some, some people on JFC Republicans got

a lot of

calls and they decided, boys, we better not do this.

And they pulled it back and we haven't seen hydro harem since.

That's right.

I mean, and you know, like their cars.

or even at the Capitol.

So I don't know what they're even doing.

But I think it's good because it shows that making cuts to our essential public services is something that Republicans know they'll pay a huge political price for.

And so a lot of them just don't want to walk the plank, but the problem is the extremists are still driving the bus, right?

And so they're in this kind of dilemma of do they follow the extremists and try to get the votes on the Republican side?

Or do they realize that that's a losing battle and actually try to save their seats, win elections, and be responsible governments?

Help me understand this a little bit, if you can.

Maybe you can, because I've been asking you about the quote, unquote, other side.

Our friend, Trigby Olson, who used to work for guys like Tommy Thompson, Scott McCallum, before he went off to DC and worked for John McCain and others, he knows Robin Voss pretty well.

They kind of came up through college at the same time.

And Trigby on Wednesday pointed out that there might not be another legislator at the building that knows or has been involved with the UW system longer.

Robert Voss was actually the first student regent on

the

UW Board of Regents.

and he's a proud graduate of UW Whitewater.

Senator Steve Noss, a Republican, is a graduate of UW System.

Less proud, I would presume.

Probably less

proud, but the fact is, I guess what...

I wanna ask your comments on, your thoughts on, is as a former Republican, I just look at it as hypocrisy.

I mean, even former Governor Scott Walker, who likes to call UW System a quote unquote woke den of indoctrination, and then he sends Trigby Olson, our friend, Christmas cards, very proud of his son graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

So my point is, these folks know the value of UW education.

They put their money into it.

So is it just appeasing their base?

Why are these guys, mostly guys, but I guess gals, mostly guys, just so adamant of making UW the villain?

I mean, I think a lot of it has to do with the way they have boxed themselves in.

You know, 15 years of gerrymandering has insulated them from the concerns of most Wisconsinites.

It's allowed them to kind of ignore all the, every single one of us in Wisconsin who would be proud for our kids to go to UW, any campus, and especially Madison.

And when they don't have that electoral accountability, they will only respond to their base and the most extreme voices in the party.

And of course, if they can try to make a wedge issue, try to divide us, rather than bringing people together, it's easier for them because that's the kind of political calculus that they've set up.

Yeah.

There is a story just broke about a half an hour.

It was published about a half an hour ago at Channel3000.com.

The

CBS affiliate headlight here in Madison says UW Madison tells schools and colleges to trim budgets amid federal.

and state funding uncertainty.

We did first couple of lines.

Dean and vice chancellors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which Senator you represent, will have to make tough choices in the coming weeks.

University leadership said today the budget cuts about the next fiscal year rather.

Schools and colleges will be required to cut their base budget.

by 5% of their fiscal year 2026 fund 101 allocations.

You can explain what all that means.

All other parts of the universities that receive fund 101 monies, including administrative, will have their base budget cuts by 7% in fiscal year 26 allocation.

To the late person, Senator, explain what all that means and is this predicated

on not having the new budget, or what is Chancellor Mnuchin really looking at

here?

Well, I would say this is basically the university being responsible and trying to figure out what are some worst-case scenarios here.

They're not just facing the prospect of not having a state budget, but they're also facing potential significant cuts in the federal government, cuts to student aid that really affect the most vulnerable students, the kids who probably have the most to gain from college, changes in

international students, you know, for the University of Wisconsin-Madison in particular, we're a destination for the best and brightest all over the world.

That is maybe not going to continue to be the case under the Republican administration in Washington.

So they're looking at all these things and saying, well, we're going to have to make some very, very difficult choices.

It means that student services are going to be cut, classes are going to be cut, majors are going to be cut, and potentially campus-wide, if you want to look at systems as a whole.

we're talking about additional closures of campuses, right?

So if you're just extrapolating.

So I think, you know, the state budget is one component of it, but just more broadly, I think there's a lot of challenges in higher ed right now.

And to me, it's infuriating because I and people in my generation and older than me have benefited tremendously from access to higher education and great public education.

And, you know, it is

outrageous that we are pulling the ladder up behind us and taking those opportunities away from young people and kids today.

We're speaking with Stay Sarah Kelder Royce of the 26th District of Wisconsin here in Dane County She is also a member of the Joint Committee on Finance better known as a JFC Senator before we move off of the of the University's part I would be remiss.

Oh, we haven't talked about it on this show in a long long time But I want to get your take on this.

I'm you know, I'm a little long the tooth little gray the beard I've been around long enough to work have I worked my former boss Dale Schultz Senate Majority Leader of the Republican side I was in the building as they say

when the University of Wisconsin system had a huge surplus

in the

rainy day fund.

And Republicans who like to say we have to be conservative with taxpayer dollars, we can't overspend, they actually voted on something called Joker.

And they demanded, they made the university get rid of all of their resources.

Explain this a little bit and why that is so important

today.

And we've seen it wasn't just then, right?

The problems have done this a couple of times where the university knows that the state is not a reliable funding partner and has not been for a long time.

I mean, certainly under Walker, but even before that, right?

State support has really shrunk dramatically.

It's maybe a third of what it was as a percentage of UW's budget compared to when I was born.

So trying to manage that and be responsible, they were

want to have a buffer.

They don't want to be completely dependent and have to immediately fire professors and turn students away if the state decides to reduce money.

But then Republicans say, oh, they've got a surplus.

They don't need money.

So we're going to slash it or we're going to take that money and force them to spend it down just to keep the doors open.

Well, you can't have it both ways.

I mean, either you want public

agencies to be responsible with their money, and that means saving and having some money for a rainy day, just like the state has money in a rainy day under the current governor, several budgets in a row.

But you can't use that then as a cudgel and say, well, then we're not going to fund you.

Yeah.

I just think the hypocrisy, again, in my former party, to want, quote unquote, fiscal conservatism, which I'm fine with, but then to

penalize the UW for being fiscally

conservative.

Right, exactly.

Because it just shows that they're not.

I mean, you know, here's this so-called accountant, because we've had an accountant as head of our finance committee for the last several budgets.

And what has he done?

But, you know, bring his school districts, the municipalities that he represents, to the brink of bankruptcy.

No, senators talk about Howard Markle and the co-chair of the joint finance committee.

He used to live in his district.

He likes being called Howie.

I guess.

Oh, I don't know.

He never asked me to call him that.

I actually don't.

I know somebody went to school with him.

He doesn't like that at all.

That's why I keep saying it very quickly, quickly, really.

But we have before the first break, I want to come back to talk about other things in the capital.

Let's talk a little bit in terms of joint finance committee.

Are we really headed here, Senator Royce, towards.

no budget at all, and just keeping the same spending, and if so, what does that mean for some of the key issues that you're concerned about?

Well, we are so far behind on the state budget.

I mean, it's by statute, it has to be done June 30th, and there are a bunch of kind of time sensitive things that we need to get done by then.

in order to get federal money, right?

So this could be catastrophic for all kinds of departments and state agencies if we don't get the budget done on time.

More broadly, it means that our school districts and our local governments are not gonna know how much money they're gonna have to spend.

And if we go back to what they were getting in 2023, obviously we've had big inflation since then, right?

And it's not gonna cover their current costs.

So this could be really disastrous for all the public services that we rely on.

We've talked about it on this program.

I know our friends, Jane McNair, Greg Bakker, Matt Nair on air from 9 until 11 have talked about it as well, other programs.

But what I'm really, I don't see one side, namely Republicans talking about this, if there is no budget for whatever reason, if the spending holds where it is, that is still a huge loss for our childcare providers in this state.

That's right.

And explain why that is in terms of the lack of federal funding.

Sure.

So for the last 20 years, we've lost over half of the providers in the state, right?

We've got a situation where in the majority of the state, there are three kids who need care for every one child care slot.

And the main reason is because it's very expensive to provide care for young kids.

You can't outsource it.

You can't have AI do it.

There's no chat bot that will change a toddler's diaper and take them out to play in the snow.

And the amount that it costs is outpacing what families can afford.

For so many people, it's more than the cost of their mortgage or their rent.

It actually is more than the cost of college to send a baby to childcare, to a good, high quality, early childcare center.

And so families can afford it.

And yet the workers are making poverty wages just because the economics don't match.

This is a situation where there's a market failure and there needs to be public investment.

So in the pandemic, when you saw...

just the bottom fallout of the childcare industry, and everybody also realized, hey, this is essential.

We literally cannot work without childcare.

Anybody who was on Zoom at that time knows why you can't work without childcare.

And so the governor took money that was from the federal government, and most states did this, part of the ARPA plan.

put money into a program called Child Care Counts, which gave money directly to providers to bridge that gap between the cost of providing that care and paying a living wage to their provider so they were able to stay in the classroom and stay in the industry and what parents can afford to pay.

And that's what we should be doing.

So just make sure that I understand this is in layman's terms.

that we use federal funds during the Biden administration and Governor Evers put that in place to kind of put a bandaid over what was already a problem

with healthcare.

Now the Trump administration is seemingly ready to cut those funds off

if there's no... They're running out.

I mean, those funds are gone now, right?

So they are running out in a few weeks, and the last of them I think will be September 30th.

So if we don't put new public investment in from the state level,

That's it.

There's no

cavalry

coming to save

us.

So even if your Republican colleagues are going home to their districts and say, well, we'll be fine, because even if we'll just keep operating like we were, even if there's no state budget, that is a major cut to childcare providers, correct?

It sure is.

And they better talk to some parents and providers in their districts.

Yeah, absolutely.

We're going to come back, talk more at State Senator Keldor Royce here on a Monday edition of the Todd Allball Show.

Don't go anywhere.

Senate Republicans are okay with them holding or having guns on the session floor, but not other people will discuss after this.

Don't go anywhere on Civic Media Network.

Sunlight

breaking through the plight Someone shouts come on it's time

Rushing out the

door and

buckle up

Welcome back to the title ball show on the civic media radio work eight minutes now before the hour of three o'clock coming up at the top of the hour news from ABC and CBS, of course, updating us on the latest attacks on U. S bases in Qatar.

The last couple of hours or so will maintain our vigilance on bringing you the latest on that also weather and looks like maybe a few storms and parts of Wisconsin later this afternoon and into tonight.

Some may be severe, so be aware of that.

And then a great sports reporter, Mike Clemens, followed by what's

First in hour two, we'll give Senator Royce a little heads up.

We'll let her answer first.

Our guest of this half hour is State Senator Calder Royce, Democrat of the 26th District.

Also a member of the Joint Finance Committee.

Senator, quickly, what's worse, Heat Wave or Cold Snap?

Ooh, I'm gonna say Heat Wave.

Really?

Yeah.

Why is that?

Why is that?

Well, because...

I don't know, you can always start a fire and warm up and drink some cocoa, and it's not bad to be in bed covered in a slinket.

I guess I think what happened to be

outside, maybe I've just become soft, but it seems like we haven't had one in a while,

but like those

Arctic, whatever they call them

things,

where they last for two weeks and go in and out of, I don't know.

No, I don't, I mean, I'm not saying I like it.

I prefer just temperate weather, like Hawaii all the time, why not?

But if you're making me choose, yeah.

All right, fair.

On to more serious issues.

Over the weekend, another great program up front from WISN in Milwaukee.

They interviewed Senator, one of your colleagues, the Republican side of the aisles, Chris Kappenga.

And I heard Jane McNair talked about this before.

I've been mispronouncing his name.

Dan Schaefer had it right of our, of course he is

our political editor.

Of course he does.

I mean, he knows everything about the Capitol.

Probably knows what I had for breakfast before I even.

Yes, so Senator Capaga was on upfront over the weekend, and they asked him about security.

You and I, Senator,

talked about

this last week in light of the tragedy, the assassination in the Minnesota legislature a couple of weeks ago, and they asked him in terms of security, and well, here's the cut from upfront over the weekend.

Do you want metal detectors at the front entrances?

Yeah,

I have not been through another capital that has not had a metal detectors and it's going beyond that at this point.

There are systems out there and we learned this when we researched them that will actually detect any type of weapon or dangerous object.

So it's far beyond metal detectors, but it's gone now because we need to have a higher level of security just because of unfortunately ingenuity out there with how you can hurt people.

Do you

also want guns prohibited from inside the capital?

or on the floor?

Yes.

What Indiana, for instance, it's a great example that I bring up a lot is that Indiana is extremely conservative and pro personal protection.

So what they allow is they allow legislators to carry into the building for protection, which I always do.

I always have been...

armed to protect myself, especially when I'm up in the front in the president's spot.

That was, I just felt it was very important.

But the general public, they don't need to have their weapons in the people's house.

In the people's house, it's their representatives who are elected.

That's the voice of the people.

I need to be protected as a public servant, and so does everybody else who's been elected into that spot.

We should not be worrying about our lives walking into that building.

So you still want lawmakers to be able to carry you

inside and

on the floor?

Absolutely.

State Senator Republican Chris Kappenga on the program Up Front WISN over the weekend, Senator Royce, reaction.

Well, I agree that we shouldn't have to risk our lives, but I believe everyone deserves to be safe in the Capitol, and the presence of guns

buy anyone makes us less safe and that's you know that's not just true in the capital it's true at the grocery grocery store church schools right concerts the idea that of everybody just armed to the teeth just means that you could end up with a tragedy or an accident that turns deadly and you know in wisconsin legislature actually i believe that there was you know years ago one legislator shot another

Of course, that was the assembly, not the Senate.

But, you know, it doesn't make me feel great to think about my colleagues carrying a gun, and maybe they just decide one day they've had enough of what I have to say.

And, you know, nobody should feel silenced or threatened or intimidated by a gun.

And, you know, we had a member of the assembly who was the Speaker Pro Tem, Bill Kramer, who always kind of...

Gave me a little bit of a weird feeling and he made it known when that he was packing heat and he was standing up at the front of that room and He ended up later being unfortunately convicted of sexual assault.

I mean fortunately convicted but unfortunately committed sexual assault and You know, I just think nobody should get a special exemption there.

Well, and my feeling is

nobody should be packing heat at the

Capitol, except for the Capitol Police.

And

to me, again, it's the hypocrisy

of

Copinga saying he can sit on the floor and have a handgun, but other people, like the general public can't.

I mean, it's either gotta be one way or the other.

And again, for my former party that likes to say back the blue, to me, it says they don't have any confidence in the Capitol Police

to keep them safe.

And who opposed the expansion of concealed carry?

It was obviously law enforcement.

You know, my dad was a police officer.

Trooper briefly and spent his career in law enforcement.

And he always said, you know, it's so much more dangerous for law enforcement, the more people have guns and the more places they take

them.

I don't want to see fourth graders lining up for two hours going through

a metal detector.

And you know, there's something really beautiful about having this building that belongs to all of us be open.

I want it to still be open.

I don't want anyone to be able to bring a gun, but I want it to be open.

A

minute left.

My former party, the Republicans, seemed to be in a little bit of.

chaos or chaos?

Yes, it's a little bit of disarray.

I mean, they've got, obviously, what's happening federally with this right-wing revolt against the right-wing presidency and a call for the state party chair to step down even after he was just reinstalled.

And then, of course, here at the state level, we've got a legislature where one party can't, or one house can't count to get a majority of votes to pass a budget, and the other ones, you know...

trying to negotiate directly with the governor, so who knows?

Yeah, if you want to get a hold of Brian Shimmings, Edgewater Pier, he'll be having a Diet Coke.

Oh, that sounds great.

A little

hitherto unknown fact.

At least that's

what he used to do 15 years ago.

I'm not sure if he's still there or not.

Well, it's not a bad way to spend the day, even a, you know, soupy heatwave day like

today.

You can always find State Senator Keldler-Royce on the job at the Capitol.

You can find her here on Mondays, the budget process.

Senator, thank you so much.

Thank you.

We appreciate you.

Stay tuned.

What's worse is next.

Do you agree with Senator Royce that the heatwave is worse or isn't a cold snap?

And we'll talk with Matt DeFour on AI and media.

Is Todd going to be replaced?

We'll find out next hour on the Civic Media Ready Network.

The answer is yes.

From the Civic Media World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.

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

Alba.

and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Albault, longer outstanding producer, engineer, Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.

It is six minutes past the hour of three o'clock on this Monday, June 23rd, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.

Glad to have you along with us here for the World Headquarters of Civic Media in downtown Madison on State Street.

Looking out the window.

Sunny skies love the high clouds right now fluffy clouds here Zomers on the board didn't have a chance to talk in hour number one Zomers, but you made it through Zomers is is heat Anti-heat and so yeah, he but he made it through he did not melt and also we have in the Producers booth our very own Parker Olson who is joining us where we have double producers Parker welcome.

How you doing?

Well, thank you, Tom.

I'm doing pretty good.

How are you doing?

Doing fantastic.

Great.

Parker is here today because he's going to be filling in for Zommer's Wednesday or Thursday?

Thursday.

Thursday.

That's right, Thursday.

So Parker, of course, does the great Pat Krightlow show.

Mornings with Pat Krightlow every morning from six until nine.

He's been on the program as a grad of UW Whitewater, who just won the Big Division III World Series in baseball.

And today,

Parker and our human resource director Jacqueline were dancing a jig because her very own Tigers LSU Tigers won the division one baseball champions

We're very happy.

We are very proud alums right now.

You are Jacqueline had her her

LSU Jersey although that that's pretty normal attire for her.

Yes, it is.

She's very proud LSU grad Well, I happy to have everybody along here and on the show Many thanks to state senator Kelder Royce for being on and our number one and also to Professor Stephen Zunez of the University of San Francisco on that breaking news that our national ABC and CBS Folks are continuing to cover that is that Iran has a

tried, at least attempted to retaliate against the U.S.

forces that are stationed in Qatar after the U.S.

bombed three nuclear sites in Iran.

Reports are that none of the bombs, these short-term ballistic missiles, has actually touched down or done major damage to any of the U.S.

Air Force bases, but we will continue to

monitor that and bring you the latest as it becomes available.

Coming up in this hour, at the bottom of the hour, we're going to talk more about state news with state bureau chief and our friends at Wisconsin.

Watch Matt DeFord.

Been a while since then.

Matt has been here looking forward to that.

Matt is going to be in talking about some of the headlines of Wisconsin on this Monday.

And one of them is he's been working on this AI project and it's interesting that Parker is here because it wasn't mad, I don't think, but one of the other great writers, journalists at Wisconsin Watch, did a review of the biggest talk news programs in Wisconsin and who was telling the truth, who wasn't, and what kind of AI was going on.

What we've learned here is that Pat Crichtlow

is a liar.

No, it's not what we've learned.

What we've learned is that Pat Krightlow is a much bigger program than Todd because they didn't even listen to my show.

They said the only program at Civic Media that's worth listening to is Pat Krightlow.

That's true.

There was no value judgment.

It was just

we're going to get a sampling.

Well, it was the biggest show in Wisconsin.

They wanted to get a sampling across different networks, too, though.

Right.

But Pat did very, very well.

There was a couple of tiny little minor things.

But anyway, so we're, Matt is back to talk about that and AI, artificial intelligence in news gathering, what this all means for us here in Wisconsin and other news of the week.

So Matt will be in here at the bottom of the hour.

Right now though, Mark is, do we know what Mark wanted to chat about?

We don't know.

All right.

Well, let's find out.

Let's find out what Mark wanted to chat about.

855-752-4842.

Mark and Perna Stack is on the hold.

Mark, thanks for calling in.

What do you want to talk about?

Yeah, I have plenty of firearms, including handguns, but I have no need to carry them around everywhere I go.

And for Mr. Kapenga, the cautionary tale of what came out of Utah, where a safety observer was there and saw somebody brandishing, supposedly brandishing a firearm,

And shot three times and killed an innocent bystander.

I mean, so his copinga, that well-trained that he knows exactly what the hell he's doing, that he was going to be able to defend himself with his weapon.

I mean, we've all seen the old westerns.

There's Cajun, I'm channeling my dad, and God rest his soul, but he was a big fan of the westerns.

And a lot of those westerns,

the way the lawmen cleaned up the town is that you've got to tell you to turn in your weapon and and uh... you didn't need to carry it around with you everywhere you go that's one thing they're looking forward to in these times is that not the need to be carrying a weapon wherever the hell you went right and for mr capenga i mean that how does he know he's going to react you know quickly enough to get to some kind of situation or misjudge a situation right and injured kill somebody

that have nothing to do with what the hell he's doing.

Right, exactly.

Mark, thanks a lot.

I appreciate the call.

Mark was talking about the story we talked with Senator Royce with.

To be ISN, the folks...

Uh Now I got it my head weekend update from as up front up front.

That's the program Not the weekend update on SNL a very different program then up front as it turns out But no up front had us there a copy our cap and go cap and go now we're told is the correct pronunciation saying that he packs heat

on the Senate floor.

Also, Senator Van Wongard has bragged about packing heat, and over the weekend saying that he's all four legislators packing heat, but he doesn't want anybody else to in the state capitol and wants to put in metal detectors.

I also, I...

For those of you who are not watching the stream, you should have seen Senator Royce's face when he said like, I always have a gun.

She's just like,

uh,

excuse me.

That would have been good information for me to have.

Right.

Exactly.

So you don't mispronounce Kappa and his name or

you'll get a Kappa.

Exactly.

All right.

It's 12 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 give away no prize money involved but it is your chance to have your voice heard across all 11 news weather sports stations in the civic media radio network the largest privately owned radio network in Wisconsin only behind our friends at Wisconsin Public Radio which by the way

I'm gonna do that maybe a little bit later, but boy, some sad news coming out of Wisconsin Public Radio, let like a dozen people go cancel four programs and in part, in part at least, to this lack of state funding for Wisconsin Public Radio.

But if you would like to advertise, no better place to advertise than right here on the Civic Media Ready Network, check us out.

at civicmedia.us and our sales department would be happy to work with you and make you one of our sponsors, one of our partners, one of our friends here at the Civic Media Ready Network.

All right, Somers, as the great sports reporter, Mike Lucas, is fond of saying timely, timely indeed, the category for today's what's worse, heat wave or cold snap.

Heat wave or cold snap.

What's worse?

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

You could also text us on the Civic Media app, don't have it you say?

Well, the only, I like to remind people of this, the only better time than today, because today or yesterday rather, yes, the best time would have been having it yesterday.

The second best time to download the Civic Media app today, right now.

So go to your App Store, your Apple, your Android device, type in Civic on the search bar, Civic CIVIC Media.

It'll pop up a little CM logo.

Click on that.

Takes less than a minute.

It's free.

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

The Civic Media app.

Text us on the Civic Media app.

What's worse, Heat Wave or Cold Snap?

Matt and Milton saying Heat Wave is worse.

as more suffering follows, such as death, drought, etc.

So not saying a heatwave is worse.

What's worse, heatwave or cold snap, 855-752-4842.

Also, Larry, listening over in beautiful Deerfield, Wisconsin, VW MDX says, given we're in a climate crisis, heat is worse.

In 2023, there were over 2,300 heat-related deaths in the U.S., a 107% increase since 1999.

Globally, it's much worse.

Read the novel Ministry of the Future, one of the Obama's suggestions, and you will understand why heatwave is worse.

Now, Larry, that is some good research right there.

That's not just fun.

Those are facts that we could all use.

So thank you, Larry, for giving us a...

Well, found it.

Well, researched answer on there.

What's worse, heat wave or cold snap?

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

Connie, listening on WMDX here in Madison, Connie from the 608 says, I would rather have a cold wave as I could put on more clothes.

In a heat wave, you can only take off so many clothes.

in public, unless it's the naked bike ride.

See out there, that's exactly right, Connie.

That's exactly 100% right.

And does anybody know this is happening?

I think it already

happened.

Did it already happen?

The naked bike ride?

A week or two

ago.

Because I was I was home now over the weekend celebrating mom's birthday again.

I

don't like where this is going

Happy birth and we got talking about the heat wave and how many clothes you could take off and she and she said something along the lines of well Maybe you can be in that naked bike ride.

I said no I'm not doing the naked bike ride

Well, that's what I always say I'm giving away my answer everyone already knows my answer Anybody who listens to the show knows that I am gonna say the heat wave is worse, but I always say that

When it is cold out, you can always add more layers or move around more and generate heat.

When it is hot, you can only take off so many layers legally.

And even if you go beyond that, it still is not enough.

And God love you.

I'm happy that you're here, Zomers.

I'm happy you're a producer.

It's not negative towards you.

But I feel like you're either in another life or maybe in the next life when you come back, if you're in a reincarnation, I feel like you were an Eskimo one time.

Perhaps I think maybe you're bored of the Arctic Circle eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two Let's go to Mona in Madison.

I love that alliteration Mona in Madison listening on WM DX Mona heatwave or cold snap what's worse?

Mona are you there Mona?

Mona

Mona Lisa must not over there Mona Mona is there.

Mona is not there.

Well, Mona if you if you could hear us Mona call back because there seems to be a snafu Which stands for situation on anyway, there's a snafu in the in the phone lines and give us a call back Maybe the phone lines are just too hot

Maybe

the heat has melted the phone lines apparently eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two

What's worse, a heat wave or a cold snap.

Our friend, Gordy Kopke, where's Gordy at?

There he is, Gordy Kopke down in Oregon.

By the way, he's a great sponsor, Kopke's greenhouse in the town of Dunn.

Just outside of Oregon, I head on down if you're in the area, still some great value, great buys, great plans, no better place than Copkeys Greenhouse.

Gordy, listening on WMDX, says, Todd, what's worse, this heat wave or the cold wave on January?

Now, see, Gordy is very specific about this, this particular heat wave, or what do you say, or the cold snap?

The cold

snap in January.

See, I'm going to give away my answer, which is, which is fine.

I.

I tend, I said this was Senator Royce.

We haven't had one in a couple of three years, but those, what do they call them?

Arctic blasts.

Polar vortex.

That's it.

Those polar vortexes, it lasts for like two weeks and it's like 35 below with a wind chill.

It's just unbearable, unbearable, but I don't like those.

I don't like those because going in and out of your car and all that sort of thing.

So, I don't know for me.

I guess with a heat wave, if you don't have to be outside, I guess I prefer the heat wave.

But maybe I'm in the minority.

Come on back, we'll find out what, uh, we'll find out what Parker thinks.

Heat waiver, a cold snap and wrap that up.

And our friend, Matt DeFour, is coming up to talk about AI.

Will Todd be replaced?

It's the All Ball Show on a Monday on the Civic Media.

Ready?

Network.

show on the Civic Media Radio Network 22 now past the hour of three o'clock.

Glad to have you along.

Here was Zomers on the board.

Parker as well.

The category right now we're wrapping up.

What's worse?

Heatwave or a cold snap?

Heatwave or a cold snap?

855-752-4842-855-752-4842 or Texas on the Civic Media app.

Our great friend

The award-winning Terry Barr, Terry Barr Media, host of Max & Gradio.

The one of the co-hosts of Max and radio great show every Saturday night six until 12 on the aesthetic media media radio talk network and by the way How nice and Terry to tune in because I wouldn't blame her if she was a little salty because we Interrupted their great program with the big breaking.

Well, it wasn't really us Trump decided to bomb Iraq and so what what more Iran brother pardon me and what more can we do?

We had to do a special report and so we took some of their air time.

So thank you Terry

for now holding it against us.

I asked the question last segment about the naked bike ride, the annual naked bike ride in Madison and whether or not it happened.

Here now, Terry Bell, Terry Parr brother, pardon me.

I'm gonna end up with a naked bike ride.

Terry Barr has said the naked bike ride was this past weekend.

It was hot in capital letters, but heard there was still a great turnaround.

I mean, with the heat, with the heat alone, I mean, I don't want to get too far jumping this road, but with the heat alone,

I mean, can you imagine?

I mean, just sweat and everything.

You'd fall off your bike seat.

Yeah, I feel like you need to lay a t-shirt over the bike seat

or something,

especially if you get off your bike for any amount of time and the black just heats up.

You're going to burn yourself and it's

going to be

very unpleasant.

Right.

Very unpleasant indeed.

So thank you, Terry, for that great information.

And thanks for thanks for watching.

My sister, Heather, watched you on Facebook.

saying a heatwave is bad for all the reasons given.

But honestly, a cold snap means I have to put on socks, socks and clothes, toe, shoes, yuck.

I'm gonna say cold is worse.

My sister hates, she likes her, her Birkenstocks and her flip flops and all that.

And she also says, the kids slash students call me out and say, your dogs are out.

It's not cool, I guess, but too bad kids.

Your

dogs

are

out?

Is that it?

Really?

That's a thing for toes.

Really?

Your dogs

are

out?

So at a rare moment where I'm not wearing socks, one of my roommates would be like, Aaron, the dogs are out.

The dogs.

Well, this now, I'm not sure how far we want to go down this, but Parker, well, first of all, Parker, what's worse, a heat wave or a cold snap?

Heat wave is definitely worse than cold.

Really?

100%.

Why?

It's just, you feel grosser when it's hot out.

It's very simple.

Yeah, I think that you get sticky.

That'll go along with.

And uh, but now you said it, you know, I guess you said on the streaming audience you wear your socks to bed

I do wear my socks to bed.

Yeah, the dogs are never out the dogs are out about Once a day and it is for a shower.

Do you

swim with your socks on?

Well, I guess I don't swim with my socks on.

No, you got me there Todd

Do you just you do you feel vulnerable when your socks or your feet are exposed?

I get I don't know I now that I'm thinking about it.

I think my feet sweat

Quite a lot and I know that's contradictory But my feet are sweating and I've got them like on the sheets and on my blanket That's worse than

just

letting in my socks to me.

There's so many questions I won't ask on the air Zombers you wear socks all the time.

Yeah, I have to though they're compression socks and so I I don't really have a choice in the matter unless

I

just want to pass out every time I stand up

If Zomrus here's the point if Zomrus didn't wear socks it'd be like those fainting goats Yes, yes, it would that's the way the show would would operate so keep your sock for the love of goodness gracious keep your socks on Zomrus

I Always do

except

what I'm sleeping.

I don't wear them when I'm maybe next maybe next year But the button the naked bike rides always on like a weekend, right?

Yeah, all right

So I was going to say we we can't I couldn't do the show while on the naked bike ride and quite frankly is probably better than I don't.

Yeah, I feel like having cameras there would be a bad move.

No, we would not do cameras on the naked.

No, it would not be

that would not be that at all.

All right.

Well, there you go.

There's anybody left on the on the app that we didn't get to.

Oh, Steve Lodi.

Oh, here.

Chuck and his Troy says a heat wave is definitely worse.

Uh, who do you have a Lodi back up there?

Let's go back up there.

There's Steven Lodi says, in my experience, a heat wave is worse.

Robert McFarland on MDX says a heat worse.

Our heat wave is worse, baby.

Robert feeling spicy in McFarland.

Kathleen in beautiful Liberty.

Sorry, Libertyville.

on AUK says, for me, I think cold snap is worse.

I hate putting on all the clothes and sweaters and hats and gloves.

Maybe I'm being selfish.

No, Kathleen, I'll go along with that.

Chris in the Jamesville says, second best time, oh, the second best time and download the app was yesterday when the heat wave started.

The first best is today while the heat wave continues.

Heat wave, please.

Some must think that cold is worse there.

David in Richland Center says a heat wave is worse.

Nobody wants to see an old farmer with.

his t-shirt.

Well then there's also the farmer tan.

My grandparents were farmers.

He always got rolled up like that and you get the farmer tan, right?

Let's see here.

Gordy says, oh Gordy, yeah, he says the cold weather doesn't make me, it doesn't make me so damn grouchy.

And Gordy knew that the bike ride was yet Saturday.

Now, did Gordy, did he sell his plants on the square in the morning and then go to the bike ride?

Hey, Gordy, to each their own.

I got no enjoyment here at all.

DJ, in Warsaw, listening on beautiful WXTO.

It says a heat wave is way worse.

I've done the miserable summers in Texas and there's nothing worse than being consistently wet and disgusting.

Hard to agree.

I swear there is always a quarter cup of water hovering around in my shorts.

Oh really?

Okay, the DJ in the saw.

All right.

Well, that's how we play what's worse.

Stay tuned.

What's better is Matt DeFore, the State Bureau Chief of Wisconsin Watch, talking about AI.

Will there be an artificial intelligence version of Todd and the media?

Find out after this.

Stay tuned for a news update here on the Civic Media Brain Network.

Welcome back to the Tahleball Show at the Civic Media, ready to work 35 minutes now past the hour of 3 o'clock here on a Monday, June 23rd, Zomers.

Tyler, is it AI music?

Is that what

it is?

It's the theme for Terminator 2.

I never saw that.

You

gotta.

It's such a good movie.

I saw Terminator 1, but I don't think

I ever saw the Terminator, I'm not sure.

Terminator 2 is better.

Is it really?

Yeah, I just show my kids those movies.

It's

really.

All right, we'll have to check that out with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

All right.

Very good.

All right, enough that foolishness.

Welcome back to the show on to more serious matters with a friend of the show.

He's been on the program before.

Wonderful guy, great journalist.

He is a state bureau chief of Wisconsin Watch.

Mr. Matt DeFour joins us live and in person here at the table at the World Headquarters.

Matt, how you been?

I've been good.

I just got back from New Orleans, actually.

Now,

this is fantastic.

We talked to the first part of the program.

One of our human resource director, Jacqueline, is a native of Louisiana, of Baton Rouge.

And so she's her and the LSU Tigers just won the national championship for men's baseball.

They've got a good team.

I'm taking it you didn't go down there for the baseball.

No, I was down there for the investigative reporters and editors conference the huge conference like you know a few thousand people Investigative journalism is going really strong especially in broadcast actually.

There's a lot of yeah, it's it's been I mean you've got your pro-publica in New York Times But you know the NBC CBS and all their local affiliates.

There's a lot of people down there Just embracing the the whole need to investigate what's going on

I

think for me I saw that I talked a little bit about this on that on this show the tragedy the assassination in Minnesota here a couple weeks ago of the former speaker there being gunned down her husband her own home and then the state center and his wife also being gunned down and they survived so far but I thought the work of the Minnesota Star Tribune the folks at WSECO some of us to your point some of these local on-the-ground journalists they got them

most accurate and best information way far ahead of the networks.

Well, and that's why Wisconsin Watch began in 2009 as an organization that recognized the reduction in investigative reporting happening in small newsrooms and midsize newsrooms and large newsrooms across the country.

It started by, you know, former Wisconsin State Journal investigative reporters and D&D Hall.

And, you know, that's what we as Wisconsin Watch are trying to keep strong is some element of investigative reporting.

in Wisconsin, but I think we're doing pretty well.

I mean, we're doing well, but there are other organizations and news outlets that are continuing to do it too, so.

But yeah, that was a big theme in New Orleans, so.

Any other interesting tidbits besides the fifth quarter or whatever that's called, the French

Quarter.

The French Quarter.

The fifth

quarter is very, very different.

That happens at Camp Randall.

Besides the French Quarter.

See, I'm more Wisconsin than Louisiana.

It was fun because as you've probably been to New Orleans, the fun part is not necessarily the conference.

I'm not.

You've never been to New Orleans.

I've never been to New Orleans.

Well, this was a place worth checking out.

I'll give you a couple tips.

So

one was the Mahogany Jazz Hall was around the corner from where I stayed at the Marriott, where the conference was, and got to see a guy named Big Joe Kennedy.

Tickling the Ivory's he was playing with their sort of jazz all-stars group.

He's a UW Parkside grad.

Wow.

So

yeah, he's played in Racine Kenoshes from Illinois originally, but It was cool to have that Wisconsin connection all the way down south.

That's super cool.

Yeah down there.

There's a Wisconsin this Kennedy very different than Louisiana senator Kennedy down there

probably a

very very completely different guy

exactly right.

Yeah, he's he's he's no

John, John, what can he do?

Do

you have the cut?

Do you have the cut somers?

We like to keep some from Senator Kennedy cuts on hand just just to lighten things up down again.

Here's one.

I'm like, I'm was better than sex.

My friends who are upset, I would say with respect, you know, call somebody who cares.

The great U.S.

Senator Kennedy from Louisiana.