Redistricting Has Become Political Warfare (Hour 1)

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

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

Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.

and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Tom Alba, along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer on the board.

It is Wednesday, July the 30th, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite, and it is... Pump Day!

There we go.

Halfway through another work week.

Rain coming down right now at the World Headquarters in downtown Madison, Wisconsin on State Street.

cloudy skies but a steady drizzle all morning here.

Forecast calls for more showers and garden variety.

Thunderstorms as they say across the state.

I love that term garden variety Thunderstorms here and there across the across the state and then kind of clearing off now if you're a listener on WM DX in Madison or if you're planning to drive in for the concerts on the square tonight and it's already the final concert on the square on the Capitol can't believe it but that has been postponed until tomorrow night

due to the rain.

So be aware of that, contrast to the square here in Madison, postponed until tomorrow night, before I forget, July the 30th, the birthday of my compadre, as we say in Spanish.

In other words, the father of my godson's, Kurt Kohler, in Monroe, Wisconsin.

Although he's traveling, I understand for work this week, but a happy birthday to Kurt, it's Kurt's birthday, so Kurt.

Happy birthday to you, my friend.

Always appreciate Mr. Kohler.

Always appreciate our guest on Wednesdays as well.

He is the host of mornings at Pack Crite Low every morning from six until eight.

He joins us from the lovely Lake Wistosa Studios, Mr. Pack Crite Low.

How are you, Pat?

Here he is, here he is, getting some errands done.

I hold in my hand.

I feel like, connect the magnificence, you know?

I got the envelope here.

But I know the contents of the envelope.

It is my second half property taxes that are due tomorrow.

So I bring that up simply as a public service to listeners who go, oh, oh, oh.

Can't forget that.

Can't forget that.

I appreciate that

property taxes due tomorrow.

So I got to drop this off at the post office right after this fine appearance on this fine radio program.

You know, I had the farm and, you know, at that time of year for people to pay in those two increments like that, it always comes so fast.

For some reason, the July one comes up because, you know, the end of the year is the end of the year.

That's like, oh, Jesus, July.

Right.

So that's where.

I was, I give myself a little pat on the back for remembering back then to put something in my Google Calendar for today.

Because otherwise tomorrow I would be hearing about this and going, oh my gosh, it snuck up on me.

So sometimes, sometimes I remember to put something way in advance on my Google Calendar.

Wonderful invention.

When

you use it,

when you ask the key,

many people

remember to use

it.

Many

people say that to me.

We were making, we were making plans for this weekend.

I was all set to go.

I'm like, something was nagging at me.

And then I got a text late yesterday from somebody I haven't seen in a long time saying, Hey, are we still on for dinner Friday?

Oh, yeah.

That's right.

When you texted three weeks ago, I did not put that on my calendar.

Yeah.

It's, it's those kinds of things sneak up fast.

So, uh, remember folks, if you owe property taxes, the.

The first half, if you pay it that way, is due today.

Our normal friend, Trig V. Olsen, Senior Advisor of the Lincoln Project, has copped out again.

No, no, no, he's- Our normal friend, Trig V. Olsen?

No, come on, let's not give him too much credit.

All right, he's traveling, he's traveling.

As he talks about this program, his wife is originally from Lithuania, and this is really cool.

They go back, he and his wife-

take their two daughters back there over the summer for about a month or so every year to make sure they stay in contact with their grandparents and their family and his kids are bilingual in Lithuanian.

So he got in late, the plane was delayed as many flights are these days and he called me and actually he had one of his daughters call me

doing a very good British accent.

Oh, great.

And it's like, uh, hello, Mr. Auble.

This is Mr. Olsen's secretary.

And then he gets on, he goes, Todd.

I only had an hour of sleep, and it's going to be 10 o'clock in Lithuania.

Do you really want me to come on at 10 o'clock with only an hour of sleep?

I said, nope.

No, I do not.

I do not.

The

listeners do.

I'm like, oh, unfiltered.

Trig me after dark.

I said, nope.

We'll see.

But he goes, tell Pat I'm going to be talking to you guys next week from the beach.

I said, OK.

So he'll be back next week.

Good.

By the way, the Brewers, I got for those watching on the stream, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, I have my Milwaukee Brewers, Bob Uker Jersey on.

Brewers, big couple of wins, the last couple of days, but holy cow, as the late great, holy, Harry Carey might say, the Cubbies have come back in game three, and the top of the fourth is the Chicago Cubs five, the Milwaukee Brewers one.

Yeah,

that's okay.

Our free ticket Friday winner, Jim and Brookfield.

He sent us a picture that you can see if you're on the stream.

Hey, look at that.

I can join the game right now from those great club level seats.

Look at that.

I love those seats.

I was in those seats last Friday, Friday afternoon for a game just like that.

And it is a lot of fun, obviously more fun when they win, but a lot of fun.

That's great.

I'm glad, so glad he sent that.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Jim.

And the game can be heard right now across many of our civic media radio stations over the air.

We're not able to stream the games on the civic media app, but you can hear them over the air in places like Oshkosh, Richland Center up in beautiful WBZH in Hayward.

There was one more.

I'm forgetting, Pat.

You know, I can't remember the

last

one.

I didn't hear the whole story.

You can hear about many.

Richland Center.

You always forget Richland Center, don't you?

But you can join Pat starting at six o'clock on Friday and then Jane and and Tom Hartman, myself and Maggie Dawn all day long, free ticket Friday, your chance to be in those seats, just like Jim was today.

Hopefully the, I mean, it's only the top of the fourth, still plenty of time for the Badgers to come back.

We've seen

this, we've seen this a lot throughout.

So I'm, I am not concerned yet.

Yeah, absolutely.

So how, but you were there Friday, you said Pat?

Friday afternoon did not go well for the team then but again still a lot of fun brought a couple of the grandkids the three-year-old and the six-year-old Went looking for the playground that they said was out in the right field corner Only to find out that there's some construction going on in the right field corner So we did eventually find where they had moved the playground to

But, you know, a three-year-old and a six-year-old, they don't really get into the game so much.

So you have to remember it's more of a family experience, which means Grandpa got them a big old bucket of cotton candy.

Oh, good

for you,

Grandpa.

And occasionally, my daughter would share like one of the peanuts, you know, in the shell there.

And all the three-year-olds knew to do, she just put it on the ground and she stomped on it.

because it was funny.

Right.

When she saw the

shells on the foot, people eat the peanuts and then they throw the shells down.

So she thought, well, that's where the peanuts belong.

And then she'd stop on it and then she bent down to try to pick it up to eat it.

It's like, no, no, no.

No.

It's OK.

Here's exactly.

Jim in Brookfield texting in and saying I'm having a great time.

Thanks, Pacific Media.

Hoping for a rally.

Thanks again, Jim.

Thanks a lot, Jim.

We got that.

Mark on the watch on Facebook.

Pat was talking about paying his property taxes today, first half they're due, says it would be nice, Mark says, with the property taxes getting so high because of Republicans failing to fund schools where they should be funded, that one could pay them in four payments.

Well, that'd be nice, Mark.

Quarterly would be nice, yes.

That would be bad at all.

Pat, I like your input on this.

Pat follows, and you do a great job on mornings.

with Pat Crite low every morning, talking about public schools and Wisconsin public education network.

But we were up there last week for, for their statewide summit.

And we had a member of their name escapes me right now, but a member of the Green Bay school board who did offend.

Do you remember the name?

Yeah, it was Laura McCoy.

See, young minds.

I love it.

Thank you.

I know the youth.

They're, they're so on time.

Laura McCoy came on and Pat, I want your take on this because I, this is a question that I'm going to be asking every

candidate for state legislature coming up in 2026.

What Green Bay has done is they worked with the city council.

and Mayor Gengrich up there in Green Bay to pass something whereby when people get their property taxes in the coming year, it is going to be a transparency issue where the school portion of their property taxes is going to be delineated out now in the Green Bay school district.

So the property taxpayers can see exactly the amount of their own property taxes that they're paying towards schools

but has been taken away from Green Bay public schools and given Devoucher schools this issue of transparency.

I think it's brilliant.

Your thoughts,

Pat.

brilliant, overdue.

Democratic lawmakers have been trying for about a decade, maybe longer, to get this kind of honesty and transparency on our property tax bills, so that people know how much is being skimmed, my word, right off the top.

Because before state aid goes to public school districts, before that happens, the allocation for the voucher program is taken first.

And then what's left goes to the public schools.

But on the

tax bills year after year after year you just see a line there like I do that says Chippewa Falls school district and you go oh I cannot believe this much money is going to the school district it's not it never was that's the combination of the two they don't break down how much of it is skimmed to go to the voucher program for years Democrats have been proposing this Republicans in the legislature have always not allowed it to come up for a vote or voted it down and so finally at the local

level.

You have people in Green Bay leading the way to saying, well, if the legislature doesn't want to be honest with property taxpayers, we will.

We'll break it down on the bill.

And, you know, congratulations.

That's great.

It's way overdue.

So now that they're, they're in Green Bay, they love talking about this, that they led on this.

And I just said, keep talking.

Let's keep getting other communities to do this.

As long as we make the point.

that this should have been done a long time ago, and there are certain people who want to hide the true cost of the voucher programs, rapidly approaching a billion dollars a year from you, the property taxpayer.

A couple of things on this, talking

to Pat quite low.

Mornings of Pat quite low.

A, I agree with you, Pat.

B,

We had a representative, Amon Rivera-Wagner, on our show last week up at Green Bay as well, talk about a Rockstar legislator, in my opinion.

But I think this is a great example when city councils work with school boards to get this done, because it takes a joint effort, so different parts of government working together is fantastic.

But to your point, Pat, as well, this is exactly what we need, because if I'm just a...

I'll just say I don't like this, but the average taxpayer.

Well, they're not obsessed with maybe the political stuff like you and I are.

And

they

say, well, hey, I keep my property taxes keep going up.

The school district keeps passing referendums.

What do they do with all this money?

I think that's a fair question from your average taxpayer.

But this is showing people, hey, yeah, you are paying that, but we are not getting it.

The referendums you're passing aren't even going to your own kids or grandkids.

Great.

That same like a transparency came with the federal pandemic aid, where again, the Republican led legislature said, well, we're going to continue to shortchange schools by the amount of the federal aid because now you get this federal aid to backfill it.

And you get school districts saying, well, wait a minute, what happens when this pandemic aid runs out?

And the answer is, well, you're just going to have to jack your property taxes that much higher to backfill what had been the federal aid because the state

meaning the Republican legislature since 2011 has not kept general state school aides up with the pace of inflation for all this time that they've been in the majority school districts fall further and further behind.

And as you know, I'm sure you heard this a lot.

Zero increase in general state aides in this new

budget, which means the cycle of referendums is only going to continue.

So anything in this ongoing parade of referendums that brings a little more transparency to why we are where we are, we'll get more people to do what I always say, vote yes on the referendums, vote no on the politicians who made you have to go to referendum all these times.

Well said, Pat, quite

low.

No, this is great.

And we need more of it, more transparency, because when people really understand where their taxes are going,

I think that makes a change to your point, Pat, how they vote in the legislative contest.

We're gonna come back, talk to Pat a little bit about redistricting new news out of Texas today, and how, what kind of impacts it may have here in Wisconsin.

Don't go anywhere, it's Todd, it's Pat, it's Wednesday across Wisconsin on the Civic Media.

Ready to work.

The reason why Oh, I can't say I have to let you go And run away After what you did I can't stay on

We're 23 now past the hour of two o'clock on Wednesday, July 30th.

Zomber as we don't play enough birds on this show.

I love the sound of that.

I love the song.

We don't play enough of the birds.

What made me think to do so is because Pat's here because last time I played a bird song He was here and he sent a private message.

He was like yes more birds

Did he really that's great.

Yeah, you played eight miles high which I really enjoyed

Zahra's a little a little under the radar message there be glad with some of these legislators that are

Voting for, not voting for transparency.

Be glad when they're gone.

So nicely done, Zomers.

Welcome back, Pat Crite-Lo.

Mornings of Pat Crite-Lo every morning from six until eight is our guest here on Wednesday.

Pat, take a look at some of the headlines today and I find this fascinating.

Well, first of all, very quickly, and I'm not sure I've had a meeting before the show, but it's just going to be across what I'm seeing now.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris has announced that she will not run.

for California governor in 2026.

Again, former Vice President Harris saying she will not run for California, California's governor in 2026.

Of course, she was a US Senator there before she became Vice President.

And there was some speculation that she may run for California governor next year, which would may or may not preclude her from trying to run for president again in 2028.

So by passing on the California governor's race, as that indicates, she may or may not be a presidential candidate, what we'll see.

But I just find that interesting.

And it ties in with the subject I really want to talk about, Pat.

And again, scanning CNN's cover page.

I mean, they're talking about the Fed holding interest rates steady, talking about Hamas, Harris not running again.

High noon issues a recall after selling some vodka seltzer mislabeled a Celsius energy drinks So so that's that's what making the headline what is not making the front page of of CNN and something that broke a couple hours ago and that is Texas governor Abbott Republican has released what they're proposing as the new Texas congressional maps

And in short, and Pat, maybe you've had time to look at this more than I have.

This is just kind of coming to my attention here last hour or so.

But it appears now what the Republicans in Texas and Governor Abbott are doing are gerrymandering the congressional maps in Texas, which if all things went quote unquote the way they usually do, which means that Texas might pick up an additional five Republican seats.

And there's a lot of speculation about Democrats picking up.

Taking control of the house now Gavin Newsom Democrat current Democratic governor of California Signaling that he's not gonna let this stand that this goes through in in Texas that California is gonna redo the way that they do

New map a new what Newbury district Dean of course all the Schwarzenegger a different kind of Republican at a different time in a bipartisan fashion went directly to referendum of California voters and they set up a nonpartisan commission so now now you have this back and forth for For using this power pat and I want your take on this because I get it What what Abbott Republicans in Texas are doing is a hundred percent wrong is basically rigging the election potentially Do you let that stand?

if you're a Democrat as power to stop it.

But if you do, does that take away Democrats' ability to take the high ground when it comes to

redistricting?

I ask you, Pat Crightlow.

Before we get into the X's and O's of it, let's just make sure that we are clear on one thing.

This is a new era that we live in now where not only are you not penalized by your own supporters for cheating, you are now expected to cheat.

This is so this is strange so far from the American ideals of honesty and integrity and Incredibility and again lifting I shouldn't say lifting politics Bringing politics down to the gutter level of you know entertainment and professional wrestling and things like that and say you you know You're our team so you can take a heel turn and you can cheat and we expect that of you

The reason you haven't seen Democrats do that by and large is because Democrats would still say, um, two wrongs don't make a right.

We're not here to embrace that.

We're not here to cheat.

We're going to win.

Honestly, you've made the hill a little steeper for us, but we're going to do it.

But having said that, this one is so blatant, so nakedly partisan and ambitious that while I would not suggest it, if I were in the legislature, I would not propose it.

If you were in a deep blue state where Democrats had the ability to do this without paying a penalty, I can no longer say that I would advise against it.

Because again, it is just so obvious what they're doing.

This is not honest political debate.

This is essentially political warfare.

And in war, all things are fair.

Nobody asked for this war, except the people who started it.

and that's where we are at this point this is the level we have sunk to until voters stop rewarding people with whom they would normally agree but say no this is too far

Maybe this Texas map is too far.

Maybe the whole Jeffrey Epstein thing is too far.

I don't know.

But right now, I cannot, in good conscience, tell the people of New York or some other deep blue state, you know, you really shouldn't do this.

Maybe they should.

Maybe that's where we've come.

And that's what it takes to get us to independent redistricting moving forward.

I want to be respectful of your time.

Do you have time to come back, at least for part of the next segment, to continue this or you've got to run?

Buddy, I'm here for you.

Let's see.

That's the

kind of guy Pat Crichtlow is.

Because I just really appreciate your insight on this.

And I think this is a really important discussion for everything that you just said.

I don't really disagree that much with you.

I've been a proponent that, hey, I wanted fair maps in Wisconsin.

I didn't want maps that tilted democratic or partisantly democratic.

I just wanted fair maps.

But I think you bring up this great point that this is essentially political warfare, but...

It's also a war over democracy in this country.

And that could be the thing that really gets killed by this political warfare.

This is really important stuff.

Nobody's talking about it.

Pat Crite low.

We're going to talk about it with you.

Call in 855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Pam Yankee, farm update next.

And then more talk on this redistricting and the consequences after this on Civic Media.

and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the title ball show on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Glad to have you along.

35.

Now past the hour of two o'clock on a rainy Wednesday, at least here in downtown Madison.

Pat Krightlow, our guest here.

A little extra time because Trig V is an international traveler man of mystery.

So, Pat's been kind enough to say, I'll chill with you for a few more minutes here on Wednesday.

We appreciate that, Pat.

Rain up at Lake Wysota right now

or blue skies.

No, not blue skies because of the wildfire smoke.

We've got we've got some clouds out there, but the the rain is is well enough to the south that it is not a concern here.

And it is my hope that there will be a little boat ride on Lake Wissoda later on this afternoon.

Good

for

you.

By the way, Pat pulled in on his quote unquote pontoon to Green Bay and it was beautiful.

I posted a picture.

And it was beautiful.

Okay.

That was a genuine lol when I saw that yacht that you posted.

Did you like that?

That was good.

Somebody

pulled into the Fox River.

I mean, this, it was a huge yacht.

I mean, I didn't even know they could put those things in the Fox River.

And, uh, I, I'm like, oh, I got a rasped a little bit, but yeah, that was, that was something else.

It really was.

Uh, I would, that would, that would almost scare me.

I mean, it would.

Yeah.

But I get, you know, it gives me a better appreciation for the people we're dealing with when it comes to things like, you know, big, beautiful bills and billionaire tax cuts and things like that.

Exactly.

I appreciate you stick around, Pat, because what we're talking about again, by the way, quickly, the Cubs now five to two still as the score over the Brewers in the bottom of the fifth.

So Brewer's trying to come back here in game three of the series.

You can hear it over the air on many of our stations and civic media, but this issue pad of redistricting.

remapping, not making a lot of national headlines right now.

And I really think it should to catch folks up.

And if you trade Wilson normally here on Wednesday's traveling of the Lincoln project, his boss or one of the founder co-founders of Lincoln project, Rick Wilson has a great sub stack today.

I'd highly encourage you to check it out.

It's called the redistricting arms race.

Why Democrats

must fight fire with fire.

Of course, Rick Wilson, a former Republican, and to Pat Crichtlow's point before the break that this really is political war.

And Wilson makes, you know, he points out again that Governor Greg Abbott, Republican in Texas, this is not a case like Wisconsin where there was a lawsuit and they said, look, this wasn't done legally.

We have to redraw the lines.

No, no, no.

They're habits calling a special session of the Texas legislature to come in and redraw the maps essentially out of spite purely for political reasons and and Rick Wilson makes the the point in there and now apparently in Florida where Rick Wilson is based Ron DeSantis is considering and saying he might do the same thing now in Florida

and so rick puts a bunch of things that he knows florida law or legislature pretty well things that democrats could be doing and rick wilson says in texas even if the claims the current districts violate the voting rights act is built on sand given the glp map map makers previously testified under oath that they didn't use race in drawing them that's perjury or its manipulation either way wilson says i'm famously not a lawyer

it sure looks actionable.

So Rick Wilson is saying Democrats should take it to court.

He's calling on leaders like Keem Jeffries and Gavin Newsom to flock to Texas like locusts and do media down there.

And then he says, finally, that Democrats should be going to war, political war over this.

And he condones Democratic states.

redrawing maps, if that's what it takes, because he said, like an arms race, this is deterrence.

Pat Kratlow?

Well, yes, because again, much like the people that gutted campaign finance reform, all Democrats would be foolish then to say, well, we're still going to abide by campaign finance limits that no longer exist, because we think that's just the right thing to do.

That is, you know, the central bringing a knife to a gunfight situation that we've got going on here.

Look.

The right wing plays the long game on this.

All right.

This dates back to the Supreme Court's Shelby County decision of 2013.

which basically gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and said that the former states of the Confederacy no longer have to, you know, abide by certain requirements before they make changes to things like maps.

Then people said at the time, this is going to lead to gerrymandered maps.

And of course, we heard, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, not not not now.

Anyway, fast forward a dozen years.

And that's exactly what the culture has become.

And it takes us to this place.

Today is the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Medicare Medicaid Act.

It has taken the right wing 60 years, but they are closer than ever before to gutting that part of the social safety net.

Days later was the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In other words, next week marks the 60th anniversary.

of the Voting Rights Act and similarly the right wing is closer than ever to making it essentially meaningless and continuing its assault on democracy in this country as well.

If you want to weigh in 855-752-4842 855-752-4842 or you can text us on the Civic Media app talking about this story here out of Texas saying that Republican Governor Rick Abbott saying that he's going to call a special session.

of the Texas legislature to redraw the maps blatantly in favor of Republicans, which could be in addition to five or six seats out of Texas in the House of Representatives to help give Republicans the absolute power in DC.

Let's go to the phone lines.

Mark, listening in prayer to sack.

Mark, thanks for listening.

What's the?

Well, it's particularly ironic because if I remember right, that the Voting Rights Act used to be celebrated by Republicans as well.

at least in at least you come on actually say whether they actually did or not celebrated but i think uh... to heck with this i mean wisconsin republicans are hauling now that a group is uh... now suing uh... taking the case to the wisconsin supreme court to redraw wisconsin's map and i think you know it draw mr tiffani and mr van odd one and maybe came twenty weed uh... out of their districts uh... by you know i'd reverse gerrymandering those guys i mean that

hypocrisy there is just just calling to me that these guys are you know they're not one wisconsin republican is decrying texas is doing this out by a guest they're not condemning you know greg avid or any any of the texas legislature for entertaining this idea so turnabout is fair play and that uh... it you know that pat is right we have to go to war over this and uh... uh... that and point out the fact these guys just want to resurrect the confederacy i mean

Perhaps the Union was too merciful to the Confederates after the Civil

War.

Thanks, Mark.

I appreciate it.

I'm not sure I go quite that far, Pat.

But, you know, I'll make clear, especially today's day and age, we're talking about political warfare.

We're not talking about

violence.

Physical violence.

And look, there's enough of that talk on the right.

There's a lot of talk about, you know, militias and things like that.

Nobody's talking about that.

We're talking about the tactics that you would otherwise not use in politics because, you know, we're supposed to be better than that.

But

at some point when you are faced with the people

who are trying to literally undermine your democracy, you have to turn to the tools necessary to preserve any kind of a sense of balance.

I wish it weren't at this point, but this is where we are.

It just reminds me of back when they split up Dakota into North Dakota and South Dakota.

So they could have four U.S.

senators instead of two, you know, twice the number of congressmen, which was, again, you know, some of these things are as old as the Republic.

But you know what?

Maybe it's time to create, you know, East New York and West New York, whatever it's got to

be.

Let's 855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Let's head down the road for Pat's at Lake Wissota to Jean in Eau Claire.

Let's see the WCFW, the tap in the Chippewa Valley.

Jean, what's that?

Good afternoon guys outstanding show this this is you know I'm 70 and I'm paying a long time paying attention live for a long time what's going on my government I've never seen anything like this in my entire life.

I've never seen we're not one Republican will stand up against the things that are taking place in our country right now making enemies of our our countries both sides of us going out on the world stage making

you know, deals with, you know, pretty bad people that we wouldn't want to even associate with, the lies, the deception, and the disgusting behaviors of the United States Supreme Court and the money involvement in there.

I mean, this is unbelievable.

You have to fight fire with fire.

They use those tactics.

You use them right back because we're talking about

the America as we know it and the future for all the young people.

I mean, this is so disgusting.

I just can't believe what I'm seeing, what I'm hearing and Epstein that was brought up by Trump and Republicans and they wanted to get all those people.

They were not telling truths about it needs to come to the public.

It really does.

So I'm supportive of getting that stuff out.

Thanks guys.

Have a good day.

Outstanding.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Pat to Gene's point there like I'm a former Republican and and I can say I want as closely as we can get to nonpartisan Decision-making on redistricting as possible.

That's my stance, but also Gene's point where you talked about earlier that This is something where my former party if they use these sorts of political manipulation This could be the tools they need to get to one party rule into perpetuity

And that's the goal for far too many people on what is now what is the far right?

You know not the mainstream Republicans who wanted to solve problems who wanted to govern rather than rule There are still ordinary Americans like that all the time.

They keep wishing Trump away They keep wishing away the the demagogues the people who want to create a theocracy here, but at some point you have to actually vote

for the people that you do not normally agree with, but at least stand with you on American values, like democracy.

We'll go back to fighting later about, you know, tax rates and things like that.

But right now, the, this is an existential crisis for our country.

What some of these, you know, far right people in power are doing right now.

And it's an all hands on deck situation, which is really tough to do when our media ecosystem is so fractured and failing us and covering, you know, what was it?

Katy Perry and Katy Perry and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had dinner.

Oh, well, that counts as political news.

And that's on the front page of CNN right now.

I mean, when you go, why are we like this?

It's there's multiple reasons.

That's one of eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.

Let's go quickly to Jack.

in Merrimack.

I just like saying that.

Jack in Merrimack.

Jack got about a minute.

You're on with Pat and Todd would see you.

Oh boy.

Well, where do I start?

First of all, let me say I respect everything that Joe Biden did.

I respect him as a person and a politician.

He did the best he could.

I think, however, he did not do two things that he should have done.

The first thing that he should have done is

realigned that Supreme Court.

And there are good reasons for expanding the court to 13 members.

I won't go into it because there's not time.

The second thing he should have done was put through the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

A lot of this stuff wouldn't be happening if that had been done.

Having said that, yeah, we definitely have to start fighting fire with fire.

We've got to start taking this kind of

Essentially an oligarchy that's approaching a dictatorship to the court.

Jack, I'm against the clock.

Pat,

I just think you understand the passions that are involved in this now and I want to caution against it.

I want to caution against, you know, crossing a certain line and keep that spirit of John McCain in us rather than, you know,

crossing a terrible border.

Well said, Pat Crite-Lake.

You hear him every morning from six until nine across the Civic Media Ready Network.

Thank you, Pat.

Have a great day at LiquidSode.

I'll talk to you soon.

Come on back more after this on the Civic Media Ready

Network.

It's been fun doing it.

Welcome back to the title ball show on the Civic Media.

We're working 52 minutes past the hour, two o'clock, that's eight minutes before the hour.

And I know people, and I appreciate the heads up.

I forget there's a delay sometimes if you listen to us on the stream or whatnot, and there's a delay in case somebody says something that's supposed to, it's called the dump button.

Not when you gotta go to the bathroom, but when you say something you shouldn't, then Zomers pushes it and it.

Deletes

the last few seconds

exactly so because of that and and I forget who brought this to our

attention Yeah, one of our listeners texted in is like what's worse

a

show host who never says the time or one who's always a minute late like well You know what good point?

We often forget about the delay when we say them the exact minute right because it'll be between minutes Usually it might be a minute later.

So you know what person off

by the time I say it's eight minutes before the hour of three o'clock it's seven

Now it's six and

a half.

Now

it's six and a half.

So just be aware of that.

All right.

So again, let's get a quick update here on the Brewers game.

The Brewers, the Cubs in that last game or three game series, Brewers have won the first two.

Cubbies are trying to get revenge.

It's the top of the sixth inning.

Cub six.

Milwaukee three in the top of the sixth with one out.

So we'll continue to

track that hopefully the Cubs can get a loss here another another L and the Brewers can sweep this series but we shall see coming up in hour number two what's worse a hot water or air conditioning addition we'll talk about that in hour number two but I want to finish up this discussion because again it's I think this is really important and it's just

This is the kind of stuff that frustrates me from legacy media, mainstream media, whatever you want to call it.

I'm, and I use a lot of stuff from CNN off their website because there is usually a written pretty well, that or CVS.

I'm looking at the front page of the, of CNN.com right now.

And vice, former vice president, Kamala Harris saying she will not run for California governor in 2026.

All right, that's fine.

You've got stuff here about a tsunami.

in the Pacific from last night, caused some damage in Russia and Japan.

All right.

That's fine.

But then you've got on the front page, Ozzy Osbourne's funeral.

All right.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau having dinner with Katy Perry in Montreal.

And actually, this is, I am entertained by this part of this one.

Oriola Teresa's fans have been begging for a mashup for a decade and now it's here.

There's going to be recess Oriole soon.

And I'm not saying that's not important, but I'm just saying for a legitimate news organization on their front page to not have this story that broke only a couple of hours ago.

I just think it's fascinating.

And that is that Republican governor Greg Abbott has said that he is going to call a special session of the Texas legislature to redraw the maps.

Essentially my words out of spite and for political reasons.

There's no lawsuit pending that I've known of in Texas Enforcing this like in Wisconsin.

He's just saying look Basically paraphrasing Trump needs a few more seats of Republicans to maintain control of the House of Representatives next year So we're gonna redraw the Texas maps to make sure he gets at least five and Cory Booker United States Senator

on the floor of the Senate yesterday, took it to his own party, because Pat Kratlow was part of the Wisconsin legislature as a Democrat.

Rick Wilson, a former Republican operative today in his sub-stack, said, Democrats need to not be weak-need on this especially.

They need to fight political fire with political fire, because if and when the MAGA Republican folks

get absolute control through political trickery, it's going to be really hard to get that back.

So here's Cory Booker taking it to Democrats yesterday on the U.S.

Senate floor.

Democratic Party needs a wake-up call.

I see law firms bending a knee to this president, not caring about the larger principles, that those free speech rights that you could take on any client, why are you bending the knee?

I see universities

There should be bastions of free speech bending at the knee to this president.

I see businesses taking late night talk show hosts off the air because they dare to insult a president.

I see people who want mergers suddenly think that they have to pay tribute to this president.

And what are the very people here elected?

to defend the Constitution of the United States saying, oh, well, today, let's look the other way and pass some resources that won't go to Connecticut, that won't go to Illinois, that won't go to New York, that will go to the states he likes.

That is complicity.

with an authoritarian leader who is trashing our Constitution.

It's time for Democrats to have a backbone.

It's time for us to fight.

It's time for us to draw lines.

And when it comes to the safety of my state, being denied these grants, that's why I'm standing here.

Don't question my integrity.

Don't question my motives.

I'm standing for Jersey.

I am standing for my police officers.

I'm standing for the Constitution.

And I'm standing for what's right.

and dear god if you want to come at me that way you're gonna have to take it up with me because there's too much on the line right now in america as peoples do process rights and freedom of the speech rights and secret police are running around this country picking people up off the streets who have a legal right to be here there's too much going on in this country

that's democratic uh u.s senator cori booker on the floor of the u.s house yesterday a fiery speech in my opinion not unwarranted

And look at the former Republican left the party in 2011.

I don't want either party to have absolute control.

I just want a fair political fight.

I want fair maps.

But these Republicans today, well, they're not even real Republicans.

They're Maga folks.

And I'm talking about the people in office.

And if Rick, pardon me, if Greg Abbott.

in Texas is going to manipulate the maps to ensure absolute control, then Cory Booker's right.

Senator Booker's right.

Democrats can't be weak-need.

Got to have a backbone because democracy is on the line.

Come on back.

Hour two is straight ahead.

What's worse?

Don't go anywhere.

It's the Todd Allball Show across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Ready Network.

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

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

Across

Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.

and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Todd Alba, along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer.

It is Wednesday, July 30th, 2025, and it's a great day to be Wisconsinite, and it is... Pump Day!

That's right.

Welcome into hour number two of the big program.

Six minutes past the hour of three o'clock.

Glad to have you along from the World Headquarters of Civic Media in downtown Madison on State Street.

a constant drizzle.

It's one of those days, summers of a summer rain.

And it's the kind of perfect day.

It takes me back to Richland Center, back when I was in school, middle school or even high school, I guess, maybe still.

And my maternal grandparents, my grandpa and grandma Wallace, had a nice home on Hazelton Street, East Hazelton.

And it was a stone house and they had a big front porch.

out on the front, the front of the house.

And it's the kind of day that you could take a drink, a book, something, because if we didn't have devices back then.

So you'd take a book or a drink or whatever, and you'd lemonade or what have you, and you would just sit out on the front porch and you'd watch and you'd listen to it rain.

Pork sitting is a lost art.

It really is.

And you would hear the rain on the leaves and the heavier downpours out.

out on the street, and it was so soothing and so calming.

And sometimes on a day like today, where it was a little bit, I guess, kind of sort of cooler, but raining like that.

Grandma would make chocolate chip cookies or something like that.

You have fresh, the smell of fresh bakery in the house and the rain coming down, the smell of fresh rain.

That's well said.

It's a lost art.

So that's the kind of day it is for me

today.

Yeah, you know what?

That gives me, that's a good idea.

I should maybe do some of that tonight if it's still raining.

Yeah, just stick your head out.

Don't don't listen to the devices until we're off the air and and just enjoy the rain.

Enjoy the rain.

It's a beautiful summer day in summer.

It's already 30th of July.

One more day left in July and then we're in August.

Oh, I don't know when to the dog days of August and in July coming up at the bottom of the hour.

Lots of jimmies on the air.

You got your Jimmy Fallon.

You got your, uh, uh, who's the other one?

I can't say the other Jimmy.

You got, uh, Jimmy Fallon.

And then you got, uh, uh, Jimmy Kimmel.

Yeah, that's it.

I couldn't

think of it either.

I don't know

why.

I knew it was a K, but I just kept thinking Jimmy Kimmel.

We've got our own Jimmy.

Jimmy Cusco is going to be here at the bottom of the hour.

New changes.

In fact, when we were up in Green Bay here last week, I couldn't believe it.

I'm going to ask Jimmy.

When we when he comes on at the bottom of the hour it had to be like the first day that it was legally The football team was able to practice or one of the first days because last Thursday I'm up there and at Green Bay Preble High School beautiful facility and there's their football team already practicing I couldn't believe it and so high school sports is a

Not very far away, Jimmy's going to be in talking about changes to the WIAA, the governing body of high school athletics and what's new in high school athletics for the fall.

Speaking of sports, things have gone from bad to worse for the Brewers in the three game last of the three game series against the Cubs.

Chicago coming back with a vengeance.

They are angry.

You wouldn't like it when I'm angry.

It's incredible Hulk time for the Cubs.

Eight.

to three Cubs over the Brewers right now in the bottom of the six.

So still time, but starting to get late.

The Brewers just have not played today the way they have the first two games.

Chicago eight Milwaukee three in the bottom of the six.

You can hear that over terrestrial radio, as they say, many parts of the state here on the civic media ready network.

Heather checking in on Facebook watching us on Facebook.

You can watch this on Facebook YouTube Twitter Says we are sitting in the camper with windows open listening to the rain while watching you nothing better than rain in the camper Well, that's

true

a sister brother law up at the Dells well deserve time off up there That's also a thing that we did with our grandparents

Camping and you listen to the rain hit the camper very

soon.

That's the best when you're outside You can sit underneath some kind of something listen to the rain and read like you said Especially if you have like a dog with you or something, right?

It's very peaceful Frank

Frank is up there at the Dells.

They've got they've got the rain and they got a dog

Also, I think we forgot the most important Jimmy talk show host Jiminy Glick Jiminy Glick.

Yes, there's Jiminy Glick

So tell me.

Yes, Jimmy click.

He's he's fantastic.

So anyway, I'll update you on the on the brewers.

Hopefully you're enjoying your your rainy day here across the state of Wisconsin.

So we're going to talk a little sports at the bottom of the hour with our own Jimmy, Jimmy Cusco.

And then, uh, Zomers, I forget.

Have you traveled to Europe before?

Yeah, I've been to London and a couple other spots in England.

Look at you.

International traveler man of mystery.

I suppose I am not

I am not I've been to Central America been to Canada I have never been to Europe.

I'm not allowed to go in

But

anyway news on travel out of France France they're they're tired of quote-unquote half naked visitors

So we'll tell you about that in this hour as well.

But right now, 12 minutes past the hour of three o'clock.

Time once again for What's Worst.

Let's go.

Time once

again for What's Worst.

Nothing can wait.

No prize.

What do you involve?

Just your opportunity to have your voice heard across all 11 news talk stations.

as of today across the state of Wisconsin here on the Civic Media Writing Network.

Glad to have you along and loved to have you as an advertiser.

And before we go any further, again, a big shout out and thanks to the great NFL Hall of Famer, NFL Iron Man, Waigu beef farmer Joe Thomas for having us out to his farm yesterday in Southwest Wisconsin at Six Springs Farm.

Really a great show a lot a lot of fun many thanks for Joe for letting us be out there and one of the one of their partners in Six Springs farm and Hall of Fame beef by the way if you want to Find out about this go to Hall of Fame beef comm very simple Hall of Fame beef comm is the website to go to for that or and or you can go to their friends Prem meets in

spring.

It's a

It's sixspringsfarms.com.

Oh, I

thought there was a Hall of Fame beef.

Oh, no, it worked.

It just took a little while to redirect it.

It brings you eventually to sixspringsfarms.com.

So either one

six, that's fine.

Sixspringsfarm is plural or Hall of Fame beef.com.

Go to either one of those to find out more or Prem Meats, which speaking of sponsors is where our fine civic media sponsors on our sister station in Richland Center WRC.

Oh, we appreciate.

Prem Meats sponsorship out there, but they do the processing for Hall of Fame Beef and Six Springs Farm.

So that was my whole point in this is be like Prem Meats and give us a ringling at civicmedia.us on the interwebs and one of our great sales people will be happy to have you join our sponsor family here at Civic Media.

All right, a little cooler today because of the rate at least here in Madison.

But it's been hot lately.

I don't have to tell somers.

It's been it's been very hot sticky and so timely timely indeed our category for what's worse today Hot no hot water or no air conditioning No hot water or no air conditioning 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 what's worse no hot water or No air conditioning

Give us a ring eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two or you can text us on the old civic media app By the way also a shout out to our friend Chris geesey who is the our occasional on-site producer Does it out of kindness for me?

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it a lot.

He always does a great job.

He does and he did the video for us yesterday It was the key person because he he works for Joe Joe Thomas and six Springs Farm does Almost all their media for them and so he made the connection and that would not have happened yesterday without Keezy So many thanks to Chris for helping us set up and also he's just a heck of a nice guy Absolutely to hang out with them and have a beer so

Many thanks to him.

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

What's worse, no hot water or no air conditioning.

Have you ever been in the situation, Zamas, where for whatever reason, the boiler, the hot water heater, whatever went out and you had to take a truly cold shower?

I don't think so.

I think I'm lucky in that regard.

Not that I haven't you know been without hot water before it's just it was in a situation where you know what I'm not doing any crazy physical activity right now I can put off a shower for a day or something like that or like I need hot water Well, the tea kettle works.

I can get enough to do what I need to do

No, I I appreciate that I have been a couple of times apartment hot water heaters have gone out and I'm like I'm not going to the office Stinking and so you kind of force yourself to go in there

But the coldest shower, I'm not sure if I've said this on the air or not.

The coldest shower I've ever taken in my life.

Years ago, one of my first probably six trips, been to El Salvador and Central America 39 times and counting.

Great country, love the people there.

But especially when I first started going there in the 90s, it was not uncommon to not have hot water.

And so we were in a suburb of

of San Salvador, the capital, a popo, a popa, a popa.

We were in a popa at my friend's sister's house, very nice house, but it was just, it was very simple.

The shower was just a pipe out the side of the shower wall.

And all it was, it was one knob, not two.

And it was just cold and we had to get to the U.S.

Embassy and we had to leave there at like 4.30 the morning.

So I was taking a shower at 4 a.m.

in a poppa in El Salvador.

It felt like needles hitting my skin.

It was cold.

And all I'm gonna say is George Costanza had nothing on me in terms of shrinkage after that shower.

It was freezing.

So, so I've had, I've had a couple of really cold showers in my life.

What's worse, no hot water or no air conditioning.

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

Julie, listening on WXCO in beautiful Wausau, Wisconsin, says we don't have air conditioning, but we take showers or use the dishwasher every couple of days.

So no hot water is worse.

All right.

There you go.

It's a popular, I think, opinion there by Julian Wasson.

Chris in Jamesville, listening on WMDX, says, my wife and I say, no hot water is worse.

All right, very good.

Megan, in some prairie, listening on WMDX, says, no hot water is worse.

Bruno says, no air conditioning is

worse.

Oh, I was trying to read the wrong one.

No air conditioning is worse.

Being too hot makes me crabby.

Well, I think that's probably pretty, uh, pretty popular as well.

What's worse?

No hot water or no air conditioning.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Let's go to the, uh, the YouTube channel.

Watch it on YouTube.

It says, Tim says, the worst is that my employer turns the hot water on in the summer and off in the winter.

Washing your

hands is always risky.

What?

If you turn off the hot water in the winter, you're going to destroy your pipes.

Yeah.

Well, I mean,

I

guess there's still water in it, but it's just that it'll freeze.

Well, but you have cold.

The cold water side doesn't freeze.

It's just we

have

water in there and it moves through it.

Well, we'll come back.

We'll debate this a little bit.

Take your phone calls, texts and off the web as well.

What's worse, no hot water.

or no air conditioning, 8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2, it's what's worse for a Wednesday in the All-Ball show on the Civic Media Ready Network.

I try so hard, my dear, to show that you are my every dream.

Yet you're afraid each thing I do is just some evil scheme.

A memory from your lonesome past.

Keeps us so far apart.

Why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold, cold heart?

Welcome back to the Town Hall Bowl show on the Civic Media Network, 23 past the hour of three o'clock.

Who was that on the vocals there?

Hank Williams.

I thought it was, but I didn't want to seem to reveal my stupidity if I was wrong.

So yeah, though, the late great.

Hank Williams.

What's the name of that song?

Cold, cold, hard, cold, cold, hard.

Very good.

What's worse?

No hot water or no air conditioning.

That is the question.

Eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.

Now Zombers has put up already.

So I thought, well, we were talking over the break here in the secret show.

We could always watch this on streaming and find out what we talked about when we're not over the broadcast air.

It's not dramatically different, by the way.

No.

Um, but people are walking out on state street right now.

It's raining here.

Madison umbrellas were out parasols.

Do people use parasols anymore?

I don't think so.

All right.

Anyway, they're out there.

I thought, well, let's take a look out at a Sam Davidson street cam.

And I went to move it over there.

Now here's the deal.

Uh, a big shout out to our engineer, Chris Casper, by the way, because they installed new proper microphone arm stands.

They're beautiful.

because for a long time we were using blue books because they redid the studio and it took a while for things to come in, which is fine.

But here Casper, God love him.

He put in these beautiful arms for a microphone.

So now it is very lovely and great for the microphone.

And so I went to use the the street cam and it's now did John and Gordy do this?

Yes.

They have taped down our morning crew here at Madison.

John and Gordy have used some sort of tape.

I'm nervous if there are also zip ties and scissors involved.

What are they doing in the morning here?

But they have taped down the same day it was the street cam so I can no longer move it over to the window.

So

they must have had issues with the cable pulling.

And so that they couldn't you like they use the camera every morning to see either John or Gordy Or we use it in the afternoon to look at people,

right?

We just like to be we're just watching people watching I was gonna say peeping Tom's not that

But

we're just looking at people on the street

And here now, there's a bottle of vodka over there on the counter.

What is that?

Well, it's labeled as rubbing alcohol.

Rubbing alcohol.

That's also what's in there.

All right.

A couple old speakers and whatever.

But that's that you can see now.

If you're watching on the stream, you can see a little bit of Fairchild and State Street down there.

It is raining outside the window.

All right.

Well, do we have to?

Do we have to?

Do we have to buy our own street cam now?

Is that it?

We'll see, I guess.

That's fantastic.

That made me laugh.

I went to move it.

I'm like, wait, it's taped down.

26 past three o'clock.

What's worse, no hot water or no air conditioning.

PJ, watching on YouTube, says no hot water.

I've had to boil on the stove top to take a bath when my water heater failed in my house.

I then installed a tankless heater.

Problem solved.

Those are very popular.

They are

and I hear there's got no up at her You never like run out of hot water, which I was I guess I still kind of take long showers, but I used to I Used to drain the hot water heater and it made my family very upset We're rightfully so because I wasn't one paying the bills So I hear that PJ.

Uh, let's see here

Heather watching on face to Facebook says face tube.

I wasn't face tube Facebook says we've had both break in our house The AC was a nor annoying, but the basement flooding with the broken hot water heater was way worse What a mess all right eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two Casper again many thanks to Casper for putting in these beautiful arms these microphones.

I feel legit now

It makes me, because you know, I come up short every day as a host, but when you got great equipment in the studio, you feel like you're pretty good.

Yeah, you know, it makes you feel professional.

Right, exactly.

I might not rarely am, but it makes you feel better when you have so many things to Casper.

He says, no AC is much worse being an old bald guy.

I can take a shower at about 45 seconds if I have to.

Number one, he's younger than me, so I wouldn't call him old.

You wouldn't.

No.

No, I wouldn't either.

I just had to say it.

Nicely done, Zoners.

Thanks.

45.

Now, that kind of reminds me, years ago, my paternal grandparents took the grandkids like eight of us at the time on a trip from Wisconsin to South Dakota.

They had a pickup truck with a topper on it.

And seven of the eight grandkids were just put in the back with the topper on it, with some cushions and a blanket and a luggage.

And my youngest cousin wrote up my granddad and grandma.

That's a true story.

You couldn't do that today.

Oh no, but not legally.

No.

And so there was like whatever, eight grandkids plus my granddad and grandma.

And my granddad said, all right, everybody gets two minutes for their showers.

And he was, I mean, if you weren't done in two minutes, get out of there.

And you knew you better.

Wow.

So, yeah, Casper, a quick shower at 45 seconds.

What else we got there is onwards with the old text line, text line.

Roger, in Steven's point, says, no hot water is worse.

I was always without air conditioning in the house until I bought my house 20 years ago.

Yeah, I mean, people forget houses didn't come with central air back in the day.

There's a lot of houses that.

Yeah, it is relatively recent.

Yeah, it's not abnormal for a house not to have central air.

Also, Connie in the six oh eight off the text line says no air conditioning is worse.

You can always heat water in a large pot of the stove.

I've had to do this on my water heater was out.

All right.

Very good.

What else you guys?

Yeah,

we're up to time.

All right.

Zombers quickly.

I know your answer.

Yeah.

No one who listens to the show will be surprised for me.

No AC is worse, but I have health reasons for that.

You have health.

I'm going to say this might surprise.

I'm going to say.

No AC is worse, because it gets stuffy to sleep with no AC.

I don't know.

I'm gonna say no AC, no air conditioning is worse.

Alright, come on back.

We're gonna talk about the French being ticked off that naked visitors don't go anywhere.

It's the all-most show in the Pacific media.

Now we're talking about West Jimmy Costco.

Yo, that's right.

fun doing it.

Welcome back to the title ball show on the Pacific media.

Ready to work 35 minutes now past the hour of three o'clock on a rainy Wednesday, at least here in downtown Madison, July 30th, Zomers on the board.

Glad to have you along.

Now, here's the deal before the break.

I said, come on back.

We'll talk about this story because I guess I'm very excited to talk about it because it's so ridiculous.

French resort town cracks down on half naked visitors.

And I will we'll get to that before the end of the half hour But as we're going to break somers goes, that's what we're gonna talk to Jimmy Cusco about it.

No No, no, no, no Here's the deal our friend Trig Wilson who usually comes on on Wednesday the world traveler that he is his plane got delayed on his way to Lithuania to see his family and he goes You don't want me to come on with an hour asleep at 10 o'clock local time.

Do you I said no I do not and so he couldn't make it and so Luke Mathers

Kindly said well, how about if I give Jimmy Cusca a ping as they say now don't nobody calls anybody's armors don't we're gonna ping them because I'll ping Jimmy Cusca and see if he and I said well sure if he if he has time and and he's such a great guy such a nice guy Then he said yes

And I just didn't write it down on my card.

And so I went to break.

I was so excited about the half naked visitors in France.

I forgot about what we were doing.

So that said, talking about either naked visitors to French or WIA high school sports, the one, the only civic media sports director, Jimmy Cusco live from Southwest Wisconsin.

Jimmy, how are you?

Hey, you know, I was all ready to go on high school sports, but I'm happy to do the.

Well, well, we'll get to that in a little while.

I appreciate, but I appreciate your versatility.

You're a broadcaster who can do it all.

And that's fantastic.

We'll talk about the French story because probably part of the funny thing is that I can't pronounce half the name, the village names in the story.

So that'll be, that'll be entertaining in and of itself.

More seriously, Jimmy, you are sports director here at Civic Media.

We appreciate you.

You call sports high school.

You call, uh, uh, you to be a Platfield Games on the collegiate level.

My alma mater, you do it all.

You're here today primarily to talk about, and I can't believe we're going to say this.

Tomorrow's the last day of July.

We're going to be in August and like it or not, high school fall sports season is right around the corner.

it is and you know for for a lot of the sports now the contact part of the summer ends tomorrow so football ended earlier this week because the first football practices are on Tuesday next week which is sort of the official start of actual student activity in high school sports in Wisconsin.

Believe it or not the first actual competitions happen August 14th in one of the sports and then football gets underway August 21st so

you know, August, we turned the page to the new school year.

And yeah, it is really hard to think about because, you know, hey, we're in July, we're thinking we're in the prime of summer, but bam, we're already to football next week.

And it's, I tell you, it's, it's exciting every year for this, but at the same time, you kind of wish summer was a little bit longer because you could hang on to it a little

bit.

Yeah.

I told you, especially for educators, I mean, they feel like they just got off of school, you know, last week and here they are having to talk already pretty soon about going back to school.

Now, clear something up, Jimmy, because.

I never played football.

I was, I was the manager for Coach Avidus Rip at Richland Center.

It was a great time had by all, but it might just get old enough.

I don't remember correctly, but it seems early for any sort of football activity to be taking place in, in practices.

We are up at Green Bay Preble High School last Thursday at our show up there talking about education and they have a beautiful new addition there, including a beautiful new football field at Green Bay Preble.

I look out.

And here's the football guys and the coaches going through drills already.

So I don't want to get anybody in trouble, but were there violations here or has football practice already started?

One of the things I noted, I wrote an article for Civic Media and its websites.

I went up earlier this week, talked about all the changes to high school sports this year.

And it feels like this year we've had more changes than past years.

And one of those changes that was voted on in the annual meeting by school administrators this past April was changing summer contact.

So summer coaching contact days in Wisconsin used to be limited to just five days.