HOAs and Horrible Liquor (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.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Todd Albaugh, along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, as our engineer producer on the board.

It is six minutes past the hour of two o'clock.

On this Monday, back to work, August 4th, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.

Glad to have you along after a nice weekend, a little smoky, a little breathing, maybe a little sore throat because of all the Wild West fires smoke in the area.

But otherwise, pretty darn nice summers.

Glad to have you along back at the helm.

Many thanks to Parker Olson, who filled in last Friday.

We missed you.

How was your weekend?

Great.

Thank you, Parker, very much for filling in.

I had a doctor's appointment that it ended up taking me...

Longer than I thought it went went a little longer and then I had to pick some stuff up from the pharmacy on the way back But I caught them at their lunch break.

It was just a series a comedy of errors Those

things always happen, but

then I went to the mile of music in Appleton and that made up for it because it was a lot of fun

Well, very good.

Glad you had a little R&R time.

Spent Saturday.

Here's the deal.

I did not have a lot of plans, and I've been on the road a lot for the show.

We love doing that.

But it turns out, Zomers, when you live alone, nobody does the laundry for you or helps out.

Very true.

So

there was some laundry I had to do, and that's what I thought I should do.

But then my parents, my godson's, Curtin Floresy, called, and they're my kayak companions.

And I said, you know what?

Grab life by the horns and enjoy it.

So we ended up doing about a four hour kayak paddle down the lower Wisconsin River put in just below the dam.

that prayer to sack, and then went all the way down to about Maisa Mady, and it was a lovely, lovely afternoon, no better thing to kind of relax yourself than get out there on the lower Wisconsin on the kayaks, so that was a lot of fun.

And then I got to, did my house chores yesterday, took a little walk down here by Lake Bendota, so all in all, not too bad at all, gonna be another, just talking to our producer, Luke Mathers.

I guess Director of Operations is his correct title, but he is giving us to go ahead.

Wednesday, we're gonna be up in La Crosse for the show covering the Fusion Voting event up there.

Excellent.

And so that should be a good opportunity to talk about Fusion Voting on Wednesday from La Crosse.

And then on Friday, we're doing the show from Shono.

So it's gonna be a little bit on the road here this week as well.

Hope you're with us all week long for our new shows.

Coming up in hour two today,

What's worse are fun and silliness, neighborhood covenants, or no restrictions.

We'll talk about that a little bit.

I have feelings on this, by the way.

Coming up at the bottom of this hour from Wisconsin Watch, very important story from reporter Janelle Mella on Measles.

and vaccination rates in Wisconsin.

There have been over the weekend, timely, timely indeed.

Unfortunately, as new cases of measles being reported in Wisconsin, and Janelle will be here with reporting from Wisconsin Watch on that very important subject.

But right now, I want to kick off the program with a friend of mine, a mentor of mine, joining us from the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

He is the former Wisconsin State Senate Majority Leader, longtime Senator, Democrat representing the popular area.

and Northern Wisconsin, a place like Bayfield, Ashland, Superior.

The great North Woods, Bob Jouk joins us via stream yard.

Senator Jouk, a pleasure to have you along.

Thanks for being here.

Well, what a pleasure it is to see you as well, Todd, and couldn't help but feel like I should have been with you on the kayak going down the lower Wisconsin.

Well, I... And you're right, there's so many beautiful places to go and enjoy this wonderful state that we live in.

I applaud the effort through your program and others to try to remind people of what's good and great about Wisconsin.

It's the people who live here and what they do to make a difference in helping others.

Well, thank you very much.

And for those that might know, you know, my former boss, Dale Schultz, Republican, worked very closely with Senator Jalkin and the late great Senator Tim Cullen.

for the majority leaders from different parties working together on issues like mining and forestry and redistricting.

But that afforded me the opportunity, the privilege, the honor to hang out with Senator Jelkin.

And for those that don't know, Bob was quite the conservationist historian.

And I know one of the things you're really passionate about is the Native American culture, not just in northern Wisconsin, but in particular, you taught me so much about the rice beds and the conservation areas up there.

the lower Wisconsin River just literally flows into some of those same topics.

I know those are things that are near and dear to your heart.

Well, you know, there's a number of tribes in northern Wisconsin that have played a very important part in personally in my life.

My mother lived in Locke de Flambeau, one of the five Chippewa tribes in the north.

And so it's really become personal to me in my heart.

about their traditions and their culture and their communal way of living and working together with their children to try to preserve the traditions and strengthen tribal life.

So it's been a long and difficult time, but in many ways it's getting much better.

They're really promoting education and healthcare.

These tribes have wonderful healthcare facilities and they have a growing population of young people who are going on to college and getting degrees and coming back into the tribal communities to try to spread that notion onto others and make a difference in their communities.

And so I feel really fortunate to have represented Redcliffe and

at Bad River and St.

Croix, La Coudre, and Lac de Flambeau in my time.

It was a wonderful, wonderful experience.

Difficult at times, especially with tribal spearfishing and the controversies that took Wisconsin and boat landings back to Mississippi days.

But I think we've come a long way.

Yeah, absolutely.

And certainly thank you for all your work in making, helping make progress up there in the Northwoods and for the state of Wisconsin.

Senator Jock is our guest.

I asked you to come on in pretty short notice, so I appreciate you.

Making time for us and it was in light of of what happened towards the end of last week We covered this a little bit on Friday and then over the weekend for those that might not have been look at the news cycle Maybe spending more time on on the Wisconsin River or other places in Wisconsin and nothing wrong with that by the way, but some pretty disturbing news coming out the state of Texas and

I want you to help us sort through this center job from Wisconsin perspective for those that haven't heard Governor of Texas Greg Abbott is called a special session of the Texas Legislature

for the distinct purpose of redrawing the congressional maps redistricting of sorts, although it has precipitated directly for President Donald Trump, who did not deny it over the weekend.

In fact, when asked by reporters, is it true President Trump that you're trying to get more seats out of Texas?

He cut them off and he said, yeah, five seats.

So, Donald Trump is telling Governor Abbott, Republican in Texas, redraw the maps to create

five more Republican-leading districts because, of course, Trump and the MAGA leadership in D.C.

are deathly afraid that in the midterm elections next year that Democrats could take back control of the House.

So Abbott is willing to capitulate, to genuflect politically to Trump on this.

And so now over the weekend, breaking yesterday into today,

Many of the Democrats in the Texas legislature have left Texas for Illinois in order for there not to be a quorum so that the remaining legislature, mostly Republicans, cannot pass this or vote on it.

Senator Jouk, you were a key part of the Wisconsin legislature in the state Senate back in 2011 in this state when Governor Scott Walker

was pushing through, and most Republicans, my former boss Dale Schultz, the lone exception in the Senate, trying to pass through Act 10, which would have broken bargaining rights, and ultimately did, unfortunately, for public workers.

Democrats in the state and the state Senate, yourself included, went to the beautiful Clock Tower Hotel in Rockford to put the pressure on.

Talk to us a little bit about, from your perspective, what's happening in Texas, and how that relates to what you all did back in 2011 in Wisconsin.

Well, in some ways, they're very similar.

The proposals were being driven not for any public benefit, but rather completely to create a political environment that was better for the Republicans to minimize democratic voice and the public's understanding of what they were creating.

In many ways, this is even more dramatic than what Walker was doing.

Because what's happening in Texas is really un-American.

It is undemocratic by every stretch of the word.

And it could have the impact of affecting the decisions directly that impacted people throughout the country if the Republicans were successful.

and enacting that legislation, keeping the house by five seats that they somehow have gerrymandered to their preference.

It's also nationalized because it's forcing Democratic governors in states controlled by Democrats to say, we'll have to do the same thing.

And it whittles down this whole notion

It elevates gerrymandering to its highest point in which I'm not sure what the way back is to a sense of something that was normal.

Clearly, reapportionment was something I really didn't like as a lawmaker.

I had a fairly democratic district by its nature.

But in that conversation was always about people strengthening their own political might.

not getting the right kind of representation that gave people power to their word in the legislative process.

And so this has got really far reaching impact on our democracy, on our nation's decisions that would be made in the next election.

And I'm very worried about the direction that we're going.

Senator Jelke, Senator Bob Jelke, a Democrat from Poplar, former Senate Majority Leader, is joining us via StreamYard.

Senator, about a minute here before our first break.

We'll come back and we'll talk about where this leaves us in terms of redistricting and the Democrats after we come back.

But quickly, give us this perspective on what's happening now with the Democrats leaving the Texas legislature for Illinois.

Like you folks did in 2011 Democrats leave in Wisconsin.

It not only does it stop kind of technically the proceedings, but it brings awareness to the situation

Absolutely it mobiles people throughout this country.

I I've run into people Every almost every week when I'm traveling outside Wisconsin Where people want to talk about it?

They just see the decision we made as a subsort of an heroic gesture and I didn't

I don't think any of us saw it that way, but it's how the public viewed it in a sense that people were standing up for things that mattered to people elsewhere.

And it really pushed the button of understanding and action, I

think.

Our friend the late great Senate Majority Leader Tim Cullen I think you had to do something in your district that night So you were a little late joining us for dinner and we walked into a restaurant bar place I think it was in Superior and there were I don't know there were a dozen maybe 15 people at the bar and I just kind of

a

goofy thing I said ladies and gentlemen States Senator Tim Cullen and the place went up for grabs I mean even even in Superior they knew exactly what you all as Democrats had done and he always loved that story because

made him look like a rock star and my former boss Dale shows not so much and and so Tim always loved that.

Well it's it's amazing that Governor Wallace's daughter

one time and she said, you're my hero.

State

Senator Bobby Junk is part of what makes Wisconsin great.

We'll come on back, talk more with him after this on the situation in Texas and the path ahead for Democrats.

Should they now get involved in partisan redistricting as well as a counter?

Come back after this.

having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the Tunnelball show on the Civic Media Radio Network.

It is Monday, August 4th, 2025, 22 minutes now, past the hour of two o'clock.

Somers on the board.

Glad to have you along with us from the text line on the Civic Media app, listening on WLCX, a great station in La Crosse.

Penny asks, do you have more information on the Fusion voting event on Wednesday in La Crosse?

Time and place, please.

We're going to be there doing our show on Wednesday in La Crosse.

Yes, we do.

I'll go through all of that after the bottom of the hour before we bring on the Wisconsin Watch people.

But very quickly, it's at 1230 this Wednesday at the Black River Beach Neighborhood Center.

There is no fee for attendance, but registration.

is required, you can visit LeaderEthics, all one word, LeaderEthics.us.

And we'll give you all that information.

Uh, after the bottom of the hour, there's also a streaming option as well.

So we'll go through that.

But right now I want to finish up our great conversation with our friend, former Wisconsin state Senate Majority Leader Bob Jelke, Democrat, a poplar who joins us from his home in Northern Wisconsin via StreamYard talking about what's happening in Texas, where the Democrats and most of them, the Texas legislature have gone to Illinois to stop a quorum in the, in the.

Texas legislature, thereby stopping Governor Greg Abbott's power grab, my word, at the behest of Donald Trump, to redraw the congressional map lines with the directive from Trump, which he confirmed this weekend.

He wants five more Republican-leading seats for a five-seat pickup in Texas, potentially, depending upon how the elections go.

And Senator Joe's perspective as a Democrat at the time in 2011, the state Senate,

who left Wisconsin to help stop Act 10 and Governor Walker's power grab here to break public unions, Senator Jelke helped me with my memory because, you know, there are parts of that era that I kind of block out.

But as I recall, by leaving the state, you were in fact able to stop the vote from happening for a while, two weeks, a month, whatever it was, three weeks, ultimately, as the memory serves,

Scott Scott Fitzgerald ended up getting some kind of Well shaky legal advice they split the bill and so they basically passed it because without you guys Because they said there was no money involved and we all know what happened after that But you were able to stop it for a while and as we said before the break more importantly Perhaps you brought awareness that lives to this day

Well hundreds of thousands of people throughout Wisconsin became

a vocal representation of the decision we made because they saw the outrage.

Not only did we leave the state on a Friday morning to create awareness in the state, to give the public a chance to better understand what is being proposed, but it was.

also to slow the process down.

They wanted to do the legislative process in five days and literally not giving the public who was showing up in Madison in speaker after speaker 24 hours a day, they wanted to deny them the opportunity to have any voice.

Yeah, that's a great point.

I'm

really glad you brought that up because I remember when Governor Walker and his entourage walked into the closed Senate Republican

conference and announced this and people looked at each other like, holy hell, the Republican senators didn't even know this.

He never ran on it.

Walker didn't answer your app.

That's a really important point that you gave the public a time to digest this.

At one time, there were a hundred thousand people on the lawn of the of the state capital.

And number continued to grow.

And you talked about the Republican caucus.

You were as a staff member involved in some of those behind the scenes caucus discussions.

Know that many of your members, Republican caucus members were not in support of this.

Didn't like the idea.

Didn't want it to happen.

And so not only were we trying to give the public the opportunity to better understand it, but to begin to put some

pressure on those Republican members to say, wait a minute, let's find some middle ground.

And there was plenty of middle ground to be found on the whole question of negotiations, timelines, and other things with labor unions.

The labor unions were willing to come to the table, admitted it publicly, were willing to make many concessions.

And so there was no argument about what the issue was.

The issue, however, the hidden issue was that the governor simply wanted to destroy unions, take away their voice.

and deny the public the opportunity to better understand

it.

Another great point because there was room for opportunity to come together.

Senator Dan Campanquil across the time was almost there.

My former boss would have stopped it, but essentially he was bought out by the big money during his congressional race over there.

And that's a whole other story.

We'll have to have you back sometime and talk about that.

I want to give you the opportunity, Senator, two minutes left here, a little under that.

What should Democrats in your opinion do now in nationally these different states who control state legislatures, should they

participate in this, I'm going to call it partisan gerrymandering, to stop basically perhaps a takeover of the government by MAGA that you can't get back.

I hate to hear myself saying this, but I don't think they have any choice at this moment.

I mean, what your ultimate goal for Democrats is to stop the Texas legislature from enacting.

I don't think we're going to be able to do that.

So therefore,

You have to try to create a momentum in other states to create more democratic opportunities.

The ultimate winner will be in November of next year.

If the Democrats do enough of it, it seems to me that that will be the ultimate judge of whether this was a necessary idea, not necessarily a good idea.

Uh, Senator Jouk, a former Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader.

I cannot tell you how much it means to me to have you on the show today.

Have your perspective.

It's a unique one.

It's an important one.

We'd love to have you back again.

Thank you so much for being here today.

Thank you very much.

Our pleasure.

Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Jouk, come on back.

We'll talk a little measles and vaccinations on the other side with Wisconsin Watch.

It's an important topic.

You do not want to miss it.

It's the Toddleball Show for Monday on the Civic Media Radio Network.

wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.

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

It is 35 minutes now, past the hour of two o'clock on Monday, August 4th, Zombers on the board.

Many thanks to former State Senator Bob Jouk for coming on today, talking about that situation in Texas.

Important indeed.

Spent quite a bit of time last week when it broke here on this program.

Continue to follow it because ultimately this could be one of those things where if this is allowed to go through in Texas,

Democrats could counter either in Illinois and or places like California.

And it really can come down to the fight for democracy.

So a very important issue which we will continue to follow.

Speaking of democracy, talked about it there before the news update with Pam, farm ag update with Pam Yankee and Midwest Farm Report.

Wednesday on this program we're going to be back on the road up in beautiful lacrosse for the leader in ethics event on fusion voting called reviving a forgotten fix for a broken system.

On the docket is Lee Roche, the executive director of Leader Ethics and a plaintiff in the legal suit to reestablish the legality of fusion voting based upon the conditions on the Wisconsin State Constitution.

Also, Dave Mahoney, former sheriff, Democrat of Dane County.

My former boss, one of them, Dale Schultz, former Republican state senator of Richland Center.

Christine Andrews, the executive director of United Wisconsin.

Rusty Cunningham, former publisher and executive editor of La Crosse Tribune and the River Valley News will moderate the program.

It is open to the public.

It's a one hour program.

Starting at 12 30 in the afternoon this Wednesday August 6th the location is the Black River Beach Neighborhood Center on Rose Street lacrosse There's no fee for attendance, but registration is required to register go online Simply go to leader ethics all one word leader ethics dot

U.S.

Leaderethics.us.

Zomers has all that information.

We'll put it in the show notes as well.

So you have that.

We'll be talking more about it as we get closer to Wednesday.

Right now, 37 past the hour of two.

We turn our attention to another great organization here.

Always love it when they stop by Wisconsin Watch.

You can find all this, all their work at WisconsinWatch.org.

That's WisconsinWatch.org.

One of their fine reporters, Janelle Mella, is here in the studio with me.

Good afternoon, Janelle.

How are you?

Good afternoon.

I'm good.

How are you?

I'm doing well.

Thank you.

Thanks for coming in.

Before we get into this very important reporting on measles, the first time anybody stops by, we always like to ask the question.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you grew up, and how you got into journalism.

Yeah, sure.

So I'm originally from a really small town in Illinois, Gilbert's, Illinois, if you've ever heard of it.

Yeah, and I'm currently a journalism student at Northwestern University.

I am going into my junior year upcoming in the fall.

But yeah, my journals and journeys started pretty young.

Not direct journalism, but I've always had a strong passion for storytelling and specifically telling the stories of others.

So as I got older, I kind of combined that with a passion to pursue a career that

told the stories of other people and made people feel heard and seen as that's what I believe journalism should be.

So yeah, fast forward to college at Northwestern.

I'm studying journalism and I write for the school paper, The Daily Northwestern, if you've ever heard of it.

Yeah.

And yeah, since then I now work for Wisconsin Watch, which for those of you who don't know it, it's a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news outlet based in Madison, but we cover issues across the.

the state.

Yeah, I'm in turning there this summer as a Scripps Howard Fund intern.

And I mainly cover rural issues around the state of Wisconsin.

And yeah, my most recent focus has been on the measles story that about to talk about today.

Well, glad you're here.

And, you know, I'm obviously a little partial to the Wisconsin J School.

But I'm going to quickly add one of my four bosses, Scott Kluge, before he was a congressman, he was a longtime journalist as a graduate of J School at Northwestern.

And they do some really great work.

And was there a big

story that the Northwestern paper down there broke here.

Yeah, it was a year ago or so.

What was that big story that they had a lot of press for it

over the summer?

It was to do with the Northwestern football

team.

That's it.

That's it.

Yeah.

And that was as we have we have people with badger hair all the daily card along.

I don't even like to say anymore.

student newspaper, you guys are journalists full stop because you're you're doing important work breaking stories.

And I think that gives me a lot of hope for the future of this industry, people like you.

Yeah, absolutely.

I, you know, I'm still kind of growing as a journalist and figuring out the industry myself, but definitely student papers and Wisconsin Watch definitely helps with that as

well.

Absolutely.

Well, happy to have you here.

Let's get right to this story.

The headline reads, I would never wish it on anyone.

measles resurgence spurs memories of past toll in Wisconsin.

Sub-headline, decades after contracting measles during the pre-vaccination area, residents recall how infection disrupted their lives.

Measles is now returning to the U.S.

and nine infections were recently confirmed in Accanto County.

This is a great story.

It's a long-form story, which I love.

I would encourage all of our listeners and viewers to go to WisconsinWatch.org to read this.

I could tell you're a storyteller because you bring these stories of people to life.

Was that, as you did your research for this story, was that your choice to tell this through the lens of people who had experienced this?

Yeah, so actually my editor, Jim Milwitz,

kind of prompted the idea based on, we did a call out a while back for our readers to kind of just let us know about their perspectives on measles and anything they had to share.

And a lot of folks had kind of mentioned, Hey, I had this when I was much younger, like, I don't think people understand how terrible of a disease it was.

And so he kind of brought that to me and was like, it'd be kind of cool to, to kind of look more into this, reach out to some of these people.

And so yeah, as I began talking to more people and reaching out, that's kind of what I learned.

It was like,

the story was almost told through their voices.

And I didn't have to do a lot of, you know, the storytelling myself.

They each had a very unique story to share based on measles and their experience with it.

And so I kind of had that guide in my future reporting and, you know, doing more of the research into what that time was like and kind of what that means today.

Your story date lined as August 4th here over the weekend.

Even more reports of measles outbreaks across Wisconsin.

So certainly timely indeed.

What are the people you start with here is?

Somebody that I know really well Dorothy Thompson from my hometown Richland Center I know her for like 30 years through the campus mainly a great community person Done so much for the community, but tell us a little bit about Dorothy So I've known her for 30 years.

I did not know this about her until I read your story.

Tell us about

it.

Yeah Yeah, she was one of the first people that I had reached out to and she kind of gave it

that kind of little antidote at the beginning, like she would never wish on anyone.

She had an experience so terrible that it stuck with her for years after.

And that was kind of a big thing I learned with talking to people.

It was like, you know, many of these people are in their 70s and 60s now, but they remember such a critical time when they were like five or six years old.

So Dorothy was one of those people.

And one of the things that she had remained vivid in her mind was like being packed in ice.

And that was something like...

you know, I don't think I would see nowadays or see people, see people talk about that.

So listening to that and kind of just being like, wow, like I wasn't alive during this time.

I wouldn't know that, but like she's sharing that with me and I get to share it with other people.

So yeah, it was a really eye-opening experience to talk to people who just like this is how bad it was.

And

like these were the treatments that don't exist anymore.

And what struck me.

hearing Dorothy's story through your reporting.

My mom lives in the same town, Richland Center.

She's a couple of years older than Dorothy, but this is an era when everybody wanted to be vaccinated pretty much.

My mom tells stories of, hey, after church in the small town, everybody went and stood in line in the hospital to get a polio vaccine or whatever it might be.

And Dorothy was one of those people that experienced this when many people her age haven't because of vaccines.

Yeah, and that's something we learned as well, just talking to people.

Some folks who had it were like, when vaccines in general came out, like you were saying, people were very like.

very eager to get them just because after experiencing, you know, the toll that a lot of these diseases took on them.

And so, yeah, it's kind of shocking now not to see that.

We're speaking with Janelle Mella from Wisconsin Watch.

Her story is up online right now at WisconsinWatch.org.

Very important story, very interesting story on measles in the state of Wisconsin.

The history is told through the lens of several people who have lived through this.

One of the things in this story, Janelle, that again just struck me was some of the newspaper accounts of...

back in the day.

Here's one from August 14th, 1930, headline, 31,287 deaths in state last year, department says.

This is just incredible, the amount, this is from the Appleton Post Crescent, also in the Journal Times of Racine from 1960, measles parties, peril to children.

But before we had vaccines, people would say, well, your kids got that.

I want my kid to get it so they get natural immunity, right?

Yeah, that was a big shocking part of my reporting was learning this phenomenon called measles parties.

And it was essentially where people, it was so common back then that people were getting measles that at one point doctors even recommended that people expose their children to the disease saying, hey, if you get it.

early on, then maybe you won't get the hard parts of it later on in getting over with now to have immunity.

But as time goes to show, measles parties didn't eradicate the disease, but yeah.

But I also, again, through your storytelling and the story of Wisconsin, watch one line here from your story.

A Door County resident, Pam Goodlett, recalled measles about from 1963 as a 13-year-old.

She says, quote, I was ill and bedridden for weeks.

When I was finally able to get up, I was a skeleton.

My pants couldn't stay up and my clothes hung on me.

End quote.

The report is really powerful because there's so many people that I think they look at this as a cold and I'm not here to diminish COVID because some people died many people died of COVID but now nowadays people like I know that's just like a bad cold.

This is nothing to do Pun intended I guess sneeze at this is deadly serious in some cases

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think what's even more dangerous about it is that it's a disease people haven't seen in so long.

So it's resurgence kind of brings back almost some of that refreshing.

And we spoke to a lot of public health departments about that just about like, you know, since it's something many nurses may have not even been around during the time and now have to treat like, how are they preparing for that?

So it was nice to see that many of the public health departments have been preparing and now that it has hit Wisconsin as of this weekend that, you know, there's some safety behind that.

One of the other things, the other story here of the person you interviewed, Peggy Haas, age 69, a registered nurse in Waukesha County, became a firm believer you write in vaccines after witnessing the damage measles could inflict.

In your reporting, is one of your takeaways?

I don't want to overstate it.

You keep me honest, but part of these people speaking out, is it to say, look,

You younger folks didn't live through this.

You don't understand the danger and put science before politics.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think.

Yeah, one of the one of the main things that I took away from it was like, these are stories of people that actually happened and maybe stories that weren't all captured in newspapers at the time.

And because, you know, now it's years later, we can actually see some of those long term effects that weren't visible in the past when people first contracted them.

So, yeah, it's kind of it was going to be a way as like eye opening for people who, yeah, like myself,

who

have no idea of that time besides reading newspapers, but it's nice to hear accounts of people who live today, but also lived back then.

to share their stories.

Just a couple of minutes left here.

You talked about vaccines being a turning point in public health.

What haven't I asked you that you think is important for our listeners to understand about this story and about the situation as measles, unfortunately, is back in Wisconsin?

Yeah, kind of a part of those call-outs we did.

A lot of people...

had some uncertainty about whether they were vaccinated, whether they should get vaccinated, and whether they had measles as a child.

And I think a big takeaway we found was it's always better to be safe.

So to check in with health care providers and trusted doctors to know what next steps are, and it's always safer than not to be

safe.

Janelle Mella, thank you for Wisconsin Watch.

This story and more at WisconsinWatch.org.

Thank you for your reporting.

Great story.

Yeah, thank you.

Our pleasure.

Come on back, talk more about this on the other side.

the mic.

Zommer is behind the board.

You will cross Wisconsin and on the Civic Media app.

Glad to have you along.

Eight minutes before the hour of three o'clock.

Many thanks to great reporter Janelle Mella of WisconsinOwatch.org for being here to talk about this very, very important story on measles in Wisconsin.

Following up to that.

Great interview and her telling us about this story at Wisconsin watch one of the sub headlines in this story Says how health officials are responding says but the virus is back with the US seeing more than four times as many infections in 2025 than all of 2024 in terms of measles and it has now been detected in Wisconsin in account in a Contel County quote

All of the cases were exposed to a common source during out-of-state travel, unquote.

The state health department said in a statement over the weekend on Saturday.

They went on to say, quote, DHS in coordination with the Conto County Public Health is working to identify and notify people who may have been exposed to the measles virus.

At this time,

No public points of exposure have been identified, and the risk to the community remains low."

Story in Wisconsin Watch goes on to say Wisconsin is vulnerable to an outbreak due to its relatively low childhood vaccination rates.

It is just one of 15 states that allow vaccine exemptions for medical, religious, and personal belief reasons.

No Wisconsin County close to reaching the vaccination rate of 95 percent is considered the benchmark for herd immunity protection.

Public health officials are bracing themselves to respond.

This is serious stuff, particularly for people with young children, particularly with people on immune diseases, particularly for the elderly.

And now it is here in Wisconsin.

I crossed it over for a second in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, by the way.

It says, one case of measles was found through testing at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, while the other eight were identified through symptoms, according to a statement released on August 2nd.

So.

In this case in Oconto County, it appears over the weekend, it must have been a family or a group that went traveling outside of Wisconsin and then brought it back.

Because of HIPAA rules, and I know our friend Jane McNair and Greg Bach and Matt Naran air touched on this this morning as well.

Because of HIPAA rules, the law basically regarding medical rules, there's only so much they can say.

They can't say, well, it,

It happened specifically to this family or this address.

But you wonder, right?

Did they fly to wherever they were and flew back?

Did they drive?

We don't know.

And that drives home the point why it is so important to have vaccinations up to date because we don't know.

We don't know the person sitting next to us on the plane or sitting next to us in a crowded restaurant, whether they've had their vaccinations or not.

So you have your vaccination to protect yourself.

And the really scary part is that my former party has gone all in on the drinking of the Kool-Aid on this on the right.

Robert Kennedy Jr.

one of the biggest anti-vaccine people out there even he's walked back some stuff and at the end of the day would question under in a Senate committee said well I probably really not the person you should be taking advice from when it comes to vaccines oh now you tell us thanks appreciate that Whoever you vote for for president at the top of the ticket for governor for whoever you vote for

I encourage you, I beg you, don't put political rhetoric before your kids and your family and your own health.

If you want to drink the Kool-Aid on tariffs and taxes or whatever, I mean, I think that's pretty bad in itself as well, but what we're talking about here is life and death.

And many thanks to the people who had the courage to tell their stories like my friend Dorothy Thompson of Richland Center and everybody else in this great story at WisconsinWatch.org and for Janelle Mella for her great reporting.

These folks like Dorothy Thompson are coming forward because they want to warn you because they want to let you know this is not political BS.

This is real.

People have died many people died thousands tens of thousands and many people live through it barely So this is not a hoax This is not some quote-unquote woke propaganda or left-wing.

Wow everyone characterizes this ain't that This is real So get your kids vaccinated

Don't drink the Kool-Aid on this, if you're on the right.

Do the right thing by way of your kids, because God forbid, come a day, if you don't vaccinate them, where they're lying in the hospital bed on a ventilator, and then you get religion, figuratively and literally.

And you try to make a deal with God, please spare my child.

I'll do anything.

I believe in the power of prayer, but I also believe that sometimes there are lessons to be learned and consequences to be realized by making bad choices on our own point.

Don't be part of that.

Vaccinate your kids.

Measles are real.

Great reporting by WisconsinWatch.org.

Come back with hour two after this.

What's worse?

Neighborhood covenants.

Luke's never heard of that word or no restrictions.

Come on back after this on the All About Show.

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 Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.

Welcome into hour number two of the big program.

It is six minutes past the hour of three o'clock on this Monday, August 4th, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.

Glad to be along with you from the World Headquarters in downtown Madison.

I'm taking it that it's actually clear skies, Zombers, but it looks overcast because of the smoke.

Somebody, here's what's happened, and I'm not sure there's a meteorological term for this or not.

Somebody has smoked a large bowl in San Francisco, and the smoke has gone up into the air, and the entire country now is high.

That's what's going on.

That explains a lot Wouldn't that be something that would be something wouldn't that be something?

No, no, no actually there's what there's there is and here's the thing You get some of these Republican yahoos like Tom Tiffany up north here, Wisconsin.

He's writing letters writing angry letters now and now a couple of state

uh, senators or assembly people, they got nothing better else to do at their time.

They think, whoa, we'll, uh, we'll get into this too.

We'll write nasty letters to, to, uh, to Democrats too.

And the candidate of all people, they're picking on the Canadians and they're saying this entire thing is caused by Canadian wildfires.

And what they forget about is there's a lot of wildfires in Utah and Arizona and the Grand Canyon and all this that are blazing as well.

So it's not just a Canadian problem as it turns out.

But anyway, it's it's causing real problems.

I'm not sure about you But the some people are really struggling with this because of my breathing or whatever my breathing doesn't seem to be bothering that bothering me that much But I have like a constant sore kind of throat a little

bit.

Yeah, I've had a little bit of that too and on days when I've been outside more a little bit of weird breathing stuff and like it just It is unfortunate

Stay inside if you can, especially if you have asthma.

Yeah, absolutely.

So

stay, uh, hang in there.

It's supposed to eventually get better.

Well, Scott Madison on WMDX says, I've smoked three packs of Canadian wildfires so far today.

That's pretty

good.

That's pretty good.

Well done, Scott.

Maybe we'll hire you as a writer.

Anyway, it's supposed to, it's supposed to clear off.

Eventually at one point here this week will but otherwise other than the smoke It's gonna be a lovely week highs and like the 80s and sunny and not too humid So it's the dog days of August summers.

Yes one thing I'm grateful to the smoke for is that it brings the temperature down a little bit by absorbing some

heat Scott another us party Steve Listing in beaver dam on WMDX says you got a backwards time if someone smoked a huge bowl things would be better

Well, there's always that coming up a little bit later The Brewers obvers speaking of things are hot the Brewers red hot Mike Clemens a great sports reporter, of course following it for us the Brewers are in Atlanta tonight to kick off a series with the Braves

Pre-game show around 545 first pitch at 615 a local time in Wisconsin the Brewers on a big win streak lead the Cubs the Cubs by two in the National League Central Gonna play a cut here in a bit from Logan Henderson The Miz is out for a couple of days or more.

He's on the a 15 day IL list and So they brought up Logan Henderson

And there's a great story about how he got to the game yesterday before he got the big win.

We'll talk a little bit about that.

Also, Lonnie Anderson, which is a name that will mean next to nothing to you, Zomers.

But for many of us, it was a...

Big name in a lot of ways Lonnie Anderson dead over the weekend the star of one of the greatest that comes on television WKRP in Cincinnati the girlfriend and former wife of the great late Bert Reynolds So we'll talk about the life and times of Lonnie Anderson as well a what's worse coming up in terms of neighborhood covenants now our operations director Luke Mathers says he had never well, I should say never heard of it, but he

He was not familiar with as familiar with the term covenants as home owners association So we'll discuss that as well.

But first when I get to a couple of calls didn't have time to get to last hour 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 Jack in Merrimack Jack, how is the how's the smoke out there on the ferry or are you in a different location

today?

different location today, but the smoke is 153 here, and that's not good.

No, not good at all.

Well, take care yourself,

Jake.

I love these guys that are criticizing the way the Canadians are handling, you know, hundreds if not thousands of forest fires by saying, yeah, neighbor, your house is burning down.

Stop.

spending the smoke to us.

I mean, you know, let's at least try to do something that's helpful.

Right.

Agreed.

Anyway, my comment from the the

Let me just

quick set it up, Jack.

We had former state Senate Majority Leader Bob Jock, Democrat, a poplar on talking about this story out of Texas.

We redistricting stuff where that's what they're calling it.

Donald Trump telling a Republican governor Abbott in Texas, hey, redraw the maps to make it easier to win five more seats.

I need, it's like the thing you had in the election in Atlanta.

I need so and so more votes.

He tells Abbott, I need five more seats.

to have a special session, Democrats in the legislature in Texas fleeing to Illinois to at least slow down that process.

And Jock was talking about the fact that Democrats did this in Wisconsin in 2011 to slow down the process when Scott Walker put Act 10 upon Wisconsin with little to no notice.

Go ahead, Jack.

Well, in my opinion, Joe Biden made two very serious errors.

These two things should have been pop.

on his radar when he assumed office.

And the first thing is not rebalancing the Supreme Court.

We've seen the corruption and the other stuff that has happened with the Supreme Court, reversing precedents of years and decades.

The second thing, though, is that he should have

pushed to get that John Lewis, uh, uh, voting rights act

through,

um, what we need in

1964 voting rights act.

Yep.

Yep.

Then they don't know the, the, uh, the, not the, uh, not the one in, uh, you know, from the, the 20th century, I'm talking about the recent one that, that I think it actually didn't pass the house.

It's a

re-up.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

Okay.

In any case, what we need is a federal law.

that unequivocally state all citizens, all adult citizens have the right to vote and anything, anything that interferes with that right is illegal and will be prosecuted if it's individuals that are causing it.

I mean, this kind of thing has got to stop.

We've got to get rid of.

things like that egregious gerrymandering, things like what Wisconsin just did, which is 170,000 people purged from the voting rolls, and there's no proof that they are not legal voters.

That's the thing.

The onus of proof should be on people that are challenging those.

And I realized that that's in Wisconsin law, I think.

No, if I recall correctly.

But the bottom line is that's got to stop.

Yeah, I appreciate the call, Jack, but I gotta go, but quickly yes or no on this or at least a couple of sentences here.

I would jowk on this.

I mean, as someone who does not want deeply partisan gerrymander maps, if Texas really does this, I don't know the Democratic controlled states have a choice but to fight fire with fire and try to save democracy on this.

Well, and I'm with you on both counts.

Gerrymandering is

We should always be choosing districts by non-partisan commission.

But at this point, we don't have much choice.

Yeah.

Thanks, Jack.

Appreciate it.

Have a great day, Jack and Merrimack.

It is 15 minutes past the hour of three o'clock.

Time once again for what's worse.

Let's go.

Time once

again.

For what's worse, nothing to give away, no prize, money involved, it's your chance to have your voice heard across all 10 news talk sports stations in the Civic Media Radio Network.

Glad to have you along, no better place to advertise than the Civic Media Network.

Give us a ring a ling, dial us up on the interwebs at civicmedia.us.

Would appreciate your sponsorship, partnership, great place to get your word out.

All right, category today.

We've alluded to this and this is, I think this will be an interesting discussion because I think Mathers and Zomers are on the side of covenants.

We never really heard of the word or the term, maybe heard of it.

All right.

But not widely used.

Home owners association is something you said you're more familiar with.

Yeah.

Commonly abbreviated as HOA.

HOA.

Now, where I grew up in the Southwest part of the state, it's.

A covenant.

Does it in your neighborhood?

Does it in your community?

Are there covenants?

I think covenants, too bad Maggie Dawn isn't here today because we could ask her, but I believe, I'm no lawyer like Maggie, but I believe covenant is the legal word, maybe Jim Santel.

We could dial Jim Santel.

Covenant is the legal term that governs a homeowners association.

So

a homeowners association is made up of several covenants.

In other words,

If you live in a neighborhood, you say, okay, people on this street and this street in this mapped out area, there are a certain number of rules you have to operate under.

For instance, you can only use natural materials on the street facing side of your home.

It has to be like wood or stone or brick.

Can't be like vinyl siding.

Or certain paint colors.

Or certain paint colors.

Or you

can't park your car in the driveway.

Or you can't, maybe not so much car, but maybe like you can't have a boat or RV vehicle parked in the driveway for more than a 24 hour, 36 hour straight time period.

Those are the types of things that we're talking about.

So the category today from the old writers, what's worse, neighborhood covenants or no restrictions.

Neighborhood covenants or no restrictions.

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

And you could also dial us up, hit us up on the Civic Media app, Texas.

That's the one I was looking for.

You can text us on the Civic Media app.

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

What's worse?

Covenants, a neighborhood with covenants or a homeowners association, or no restrictions.

PJ, watching on YouTube as you can as well, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter.

PJ says, I would never buy a home in an HOA neighborhood, Home Owners Association neighborhood.

Really?

Never, PJ says.

I

would certainly prefer not to.

Really?

This is fancy.

I think this is, I think this is a fascinating discussion.

What's worse, neighborhood covenants, i.e.

Home Owners Associations, or...

No restrictions eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two now I was on the city council Richland Center for a couple of terms and This is a pet peeve of mine because I I think You know when you have people that are just junky and sloppy it brings the entire neighborhood value down

I think we have to talk about this.

Come on back.

We'll talk about it with you.

855-752-4842.

What's worse, neighborhood covenants are no restrictions.

More after this on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Our house, in the middle of our streets.

Our house, in the middle of our... Our house, here as a crowd.

There's a way so they

can... We'll come back to the title of our show on the specific media we're running up.

Working this 22 past the hour of 3 o'clock of Monday, August 4th.

Your house, our house, it's part of this perspective.

Are you a homeowner or not?

We're right in the middle of what's worse today.

Controversial.

What's worse neighborhood covenants i.e.

a homeowners association or No restrictions Neighborhood covenants or no restrictions.

What's worse eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two You can also text us on the civic media app or chime in on Facebook YouTube Twitter our ongoing contributor our friend Jeff Perry

Jerry Petty saying my HOA just sent a tersely worded letter to Canada complaining about the wildfire smoke.

I expect this probably to be gone shortly.

This problem to be gone shortly.

And see

Jeff's sarcastic comment here points out exactly why I loathe homeowners

associations

because it's a bunch of people.

who want control over other people's lives, but have not succeeded in gaining that professionally or personally.

And

so

they take the time out of their boring lives to boss other people around and tell them what to do.

And it often, you know, laundering money through HOAs.

Like I've just read so many horror stories.

But now you're talking about like Hollywood type of HOAs.

There are a lot of coveted areas or HOAs in Wisconsin that are not in multi-million-dollar home areas.

That's true.

I feel like at that point then, there's also the middle ground, there are some... No house has no restrictions, I guess is what I'm trying to say, because there's still city rules.

What's worse?

Neighborhood Covenants, HOAs or no restrictions?

855-752-4842.

Let's go to the phone lines.

Ted, listen in in good old Appleton home of Harry Houdini.

Ted, Neighborhood Covenants or no restrictions, what's worse?

Well, let me put it to you this way.

You don't need an HOA to have a Covenants in a subdivision.

True.

The developer owner.

can put a covenant and register it through the register of these in the colony.

But you can also wipe your, you know what with this, because unless the petitioners still alive to enforce the rules, they're null and void.

Right.

That's a great point.

And I'm a little familiar with this, having been on the city council, which will center a little bit.

because you're right, it all comes down to the legal, like the attorneys, right, how it's written.

But yes, a developer can say, I would have developed this parcel of property, have 10 lots on it.

And by law, I, as the developer, control the covenants until the majority of lots are sold.

So until six lots are sold, at that time, those six homeowners or lot owners

have the ability to create a homeowners association.

And so you're right.

The covenants can still happen without an HOA.

And that's more common, I think, than people realize in the state of Wisconsin,

Ted.

Oh, yeah.

And, you know, half the rules are unenforceable.

That's the thing a lot of people don't realize, you know.

Again, how much money one side has and how good of an attorney.

Exactly.

Thanks to your reference to your San Francisco smoking not smoking.

Hey, dude, you got any cheetos?

Thanks to appreciate you.

Yeah.

I hate five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.

Let's go to the phone lines cam and Appleton as well.

People are listening to Apple to their light it up cam neighborhood covenants are no restrictions.

What's worse?

I would say neighborhood covenants by far and large are worse you have a The fact that they're legal is kind of crazy to me because it almost seems they can get bullied out of the money, right?

But there's also what else is legal is that you can call each of the people that live at those places and Tell them that you you yourself are on the HOA board and

and then tell them that you're distributing out to them their mandatory distributed bloodhound dog, and that each one of them are gonna be expected to maintain and keep it up.

And you can do this exactly once legally to each house in the area.

All right, that might be a long shot, but here's a slightly more serious question, Cam.

People that move in there, I mean, if they're doing their due diligence, they know they're moving into an area that has confidence or HOA, so that's their choice, right, to move in there?

No, actually, because my parents moved in, and this is true.

This is not a screw-around thing.

My parents had moved into a place in Minnesota at one point in my life, and they were never presented with the paperwork for the HOA.

They never signed any of that information.

They were never shown it when they moved in or knew about it before going in.

Then they built a fence and put foundation down to put a hot tub hut thing into...

the area and they were, the HOA complained.

But then when they went to court over it, the court was like, well, you guys didn't have them sign anything.

So they're allowed to do this.

Wow.

I would have thought that your parents would have had a case against the, against the realtor because the realtor.

should have disclosed that when they bought the property that, hey, this, this property is in an HOA.

I think that goes back to the realtor.

But again, I'm, I'm not here to play attorney on the radio, but that's an interesting story camp.

Appreciate it.

Thanks for your listeners.

Have a great day up there.

A beautiful Appleton.

Once worse, neighborhood covenants or no restrictions, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.

Heather in beautiful Eau Claire, Wisconsin, listening to WCFW.

The tap says, I know covenants can be nitpicky and annoying, but neighborhoods that have junk everywhere are.

Way worse.

No restrictions are worse.

There you go.

I think.

I think this is a more complicated topic than

it seems.

We have a lot of, we have a lot of, I don't think we, I don't want to stop this.

I think we need to do a farm news update with Pam Yankee and the great folks at Midwest Farm Report.

And we're going to get to a lot of these texts and comments.

We'll keep it going on the other side.

What's worse, neighborhood covenants are no restrictions and WKRP.

is a little less noisy.

After the death of Lonnie Anderson over the weekend, we'll discuss that, and the Brewers, speaking of hot, are hot as well.

Don't go anywhere, it's the All Ball Show from Monday on The Civic

Media.

One of the best sitcoms in television

history from CBS.

The

Great Theme Song of WKRP in Cincinnati on CBS from 1978 to 1982.

One of the great stars of that program, Lonnie Anderson, who played a struggling radio station's empowered receptionist on WKRP in Cincinnati, died yesterday just before her 80th

birthday, according to the Associated Press.

Anderson died at Los Angeles' hospital after a prolonged illness, according to her longtime publicist.

Publicist said, quote, we are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear wife, mother, grandmother, Lonnie Anderson's family said in a statement.

WKRP in Cincinnati ran 1978 to 81 CBS was set.

in a flagging Ohio radio station trying to reinvent itself with rock music.

The cast included Gary Sandy, Tim Reed, Howard Hessman, Frank Bonner, and Jan Smithers, alongside Anderson as the sexy but smart Jennifer Marlowe.

As the station's receptionist, the blonde and high heeled Jennifer used her sex appeal to deflect unwanted business calls for her boss, Mr. Carlson.

Her efficiency often kept the station running in the face of others incompetence.

That was the great part about this character.

And Lonnie Anderson, who was very attractive, very well endowed as you might say, blonde hair, blue light,

And the way the script apparently was originally wrote, it was kind of this blonde bimbo type of character.

And Lonnie Anderson, to her credit, said, I'm not playing that.

If you want me, I want the character rewritten to be smart.

And so they really did it well to play both sides and where she used her kind of looks and finesse to outsmart people.

And she was never really the butt of the joke.

It was always the men of the show who were the butt of the joke and to seem to be incompetent.

And it always came down to, well, you know, Jennifer was actually the person kind of running the place.

Anderson starred on the big screen, of course, alongside Bert Reynolds, the 1983 comedy, Stroker Ace, a film that could not be made today.

And the two later married and became tabloid fixtures before divorcing in 1994 Reynolds died in 2018 Anderson wrote in 1995 autobiography my life in heels Which she said was about the growth of a woman a woman who survives It's about my childhood the death of my parents my career my divorces and my children then of course the trauma of my marriage to Burt Lonnie Anderson of the great show at WKRP and Cincinnati dead

at the age of 79.

It's a great, if you've never seen the show Zombers, it you could probably still see it on like, I don't know, Nick at night or something like that.

I've seen a little bit and it was very funny.

As he says with a completely straight face.

I'm

not watching it right now.

Just talking about it.

For those of us who worked in radio back in a certain era.

It is spot-on.

You've known it.

I wish Jay Matt and I were here because you could have tested this.

Every station has a herb tarlick, the sales guy who dresses in plaid suits.

Every station has a Dr. Johnny fever, the overnight guy who is a little out

there.

Couple screws loose, maybe.

Well, yeah.

Every station has a Les Nessman, the news guy who's a little square and takes the news a little too seriously.

And so for those of us who worked in radio at the time and continue to do so, it holds a special place in our heart.

And Lonnie Anderson, every station had the receptionist who was a little smarter than the station manager, but didn't have the title or the pay.

And so it's a great show.

Well, I highly encourage you to pick up on streaming or I think they still sell it on on DVD But Phil and Eni from Michelin Center have often said we could write a reboot of WKRP

might have to do it

Withhold the names of the guilty Lonnie Anderson dead at the age of 79.

All right back to this cell.

What's worse?

I thought turkeys could fly.

There you go.

Well, from the great Thanksgiving episode.

I think we've discussed that on this show before.

Yes, we have.

Mr. Carlson, yeah.

Chris, Chris, our own Casper says, we're living the reboot.

Well, yeah, a lot to be said for that.

All right, back to the story.

Did Mark want to weigh in on Lonnie Anderson, or is he weighing in on what's worse?

Do we know?

All right, well, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.

What's worse?

Neighborhood Covenants or No Restrictions.

Let's go to the phone line.

Mark impertisag.

Mark, what's worse, Neighborhood Covenants or No Restrictions.

Well, I'd probably say the Neighborhood Covenants, but I actually called in that WKRP actually did get on some topical issues.

I mean, it was actually a trans character that came in there that her truck was trying to hit on this woman and I turned out that she told her that she used to be a man.

I forgot about that.

Mr. Carlson stood up for freedom of speech and for freedom of thought because his minister friend was all bent out of shape over the Beatles song Imagine, and Mr. Carlson gave him a lecture on that.

It just says Imagine.

It doesn't say that he's, you know, he just says Imagine, you know, that he had a rather passionate, you know, defense of free speech.

So the show didn't just, it wasn't just a laugh riot.

I mean, they actually did hit on

on actual issues.

I mean, it's from time to time and up and down the dial.

It was a good show and it was interesting how that Jennifer was probably one of the smartest ones along with Bailey.

Bailey was brilliant as well.

Another one was brilliant as well and probably that's probably something that ticked off a few conservators, smart assertive women on the show and

They may not have liked it.

I mean that it is

Yeah,

I

appreciate it mark.

Thanks for calling in thanks for bringing up that point because it's a really important one Yeah, it wasn't just a great comedy They they tackled some tough topics of the day that we're still tackling and did it back then back in the late 70s and and early 80s appreciate that Gary By the way, my sister says they have the whole series on DVD.

How about that?

All right

I know what we're doing this winter.

We're sitting down watching the whole series.

What's worse, neighborhood covenants are no restrictions.

On normal exammers, we end this at the bottom of the hour, but we've gotten so many texts I wanted to carry this through.

Lots of lots of people weighing in on this one and I want to get to some of these some of these texts listening on WMDX a brand new listener a librarian We appreciate our librarians out there says no one is going to tell me what color to paint my house The librarian in me says no restrictions homeowners associations Violate our rights signed a librarian.

I love that.

I love the discussion.

What's worse neighborhood covenants?

or in some parts of the state known as home owners associations or no restrictions.

Matt, whatever, great UPS drivers in the RC listening on to be RCE says, no restrictions is worse.

I'll put up with a boomer yelling at me about garbage cans.

If it means I don't have to look at decomposing jack-o-lanterns.

Now, that's a pretty specific one.

I think there might be some.

Some resentment there.

I think I think there might be But you know, there's some truth there, right?

There are people that leave their their decomposed Jack lanterns up until they put up the Christmas decorations or were Valentine's Day Megan listening in some prairie on the MDX is no restrictions would be worse people can be very Oblivious to how rude they're being to their neighbors, especially in regard to their volume at night

Well, that's another thing right sometimes certain neighborhoods say like you can't have outdoor parties after midnight or something like that

What that I mean no matter your neighborhood you can just call the police if they won't answer when you try and knock on the door be like hey shut up

Could be a city ordinance on on that kind of thing as well eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two what's worse neighborhood covenants or homeowners associations or

No restrictions.

Listener on W.A.U.K.

and walkie-shot.

No restrictions is worse than 2025.

As we've seen from the very top down, you cannot trust people to be reasonable and to compromise.

In fact, if you have some restrictions in place, it doesn't mean people will follow them.

I am rethinking this.

Maybe the reverse is true for the same reason.

Yeah, it's very hard.

It's just like the whole Texas thing.

You know, when do you say abandoned the rules because there's too much at stake?

Luckily, in this case, the consequences are a lot less dire.

Decomposing pumpkin is not nearly as bad as democracy.

Carolyn WMDX in Madison says, HOAs are worse.

I had a purple house for years.

My ex-sister-in-law hated it, but everyone else loved it.

pretty sure HOA would not have approved.

Probably not.

Probably not.

I think we have pretty much all of the texts on there.

Did we

get the Jack and Merrimack

text?

Oh no, let's see, if you got that one.

He said,

uh, commonance are definitely worse because unlike city ordinances, they can be used to harass certain people.

In a nearby neighborhood, an acquaintance of mine just resided his garage, leaving the windows.

They were painted.

A few months later, he got a letter threatening a fine unless he quote unquote fixed all his windows because one had started peeling.

I won't say anything about him except that he's not a straight white guy.

Well, there you go.

And yeah, I think that's an unfortunate but good example of where it could be misused, right?

Julie in Warsaw, the CWXCO up in beautiful Warsaw says, I would not buy a house in a neighborhood that doesn't allow clotheslines.

Climate change is real.

That's another example of, you know, perhaps,

that neighborhood would not allow a clothesline.

I think those are more, maybe they're not extreme examples, but I, so as long as I think we know where you're at, but go ahead, what's the worst?

Neighborhood covenants are no restrictions.

I think that neighborhood covenants, while they have a purpose, I do think they're probably worse.

And my biggest argument for that is a few months ago, Peter Rapeine, managing editor of eBombs World, told us a story about a crackhead named Bobby, who lived in his front lawn.

You would never get stories like that.

And that was that was I that that's crazy story.

Good point.

And I loved it.

Very good point.

Look, somebody was on a small town city council and it was also owned a farm in a real area.

I think like where my farm is at the town of Bloom and Richland County, unzoned area, which means you want to buy 50, 100 acres out in the country.

you can deal with it as you want because nobody's looking at your building really, what you do with your property is, and I'm fine with that.

I just think in a, in town, in a city where you might only have, you know, 15, 20 feet between houses, I think that it's better to have some sort of uniform restrictions.

The main one for me is, I saw this in our town, I've seen it in other towns across Wisconsin, that someone comes in and what, today the average price of a home is what, $350, $375,000?

Something crazy

like that.

So you make an investment and everything's fine.

and then some Yahoo moves in next to you and works on a car and then it's two cars and it's a lawn tractor and then it's three lawn mowers and then it's a snowblower and it's a snowblower.

And pretty soon you got a junk yard and you got leaves and you got weeds and you got rodents and then you go to sell that five or 10 years from then nobody wants to buy your investment because the junk yard next to you.

And I think that is not good.

And so I would say for that reason.

No restrictions is worse.

All right, good discussion.

We'll come back.

Talk about Merlotte and the Brewers.

Merlotte?

Merlotte.

Merlotte.

After this.

Stay tuned.

Welcome back to the title ball show on the civic media radio network.

It is eight minutes before the hour of four o'clock ABC or CBS News depending on which of our great stations you're listening to comes up at the top of the hour.

Followed by a check of weather and sports followed by the Maggie Dawn show in for Maggie today on vacation.

The wonderful the talented Matt Ross child.

Don't go anywhere.

Matt will have a great program for you coming up immediately following us.

So then Night Light with Pete Schwabba from Six Until Eight.

A couple of breaking news stories at this hour.

First of all, following up on our top story on this program today, just across the wires, CBS Democrats prevent Texas House from moving forward with Trump-backed congressional map.

just to create about 20 minutes ago.

So keep it here.

Keep you abreast of this.

But developing now, Democrats, at least for now, have prevented the Texas House from moving forward on the Trump-backed congressional map.

Also for our listeners on WMDX here in Madison, breaking courtesy of Channel 3000, the CBS affiliate here in Madison.

The University of Wisconsin police department is on the scene of an active police incident on the east side of the UW Arboretum again here in Madison avoid the area on the east side of the UW Arboretum campus police calling it an active scene at this hour continue to follow civic media news and we will update you on that all right

Here now, if you missed this show like Zomers did on Friday, we had Parker Olsen in for Zomers.

And we came up because what's worse on Friday was what's worse, Malort or Blackberry Brandy.

I

wish I was here for this

because

I had

both.

I didn't know what the hell Malort was.

I had to look it up and then it was a big thing.

Parker text texted the wrong Dom and we thought the Dom didn't know who I was we were very confused anyway It was it wasn't quite a show and so here now joining me at the desk for those watching on the stream our own Carol head of traffic Helicopter is not different kind of traffic right Carol absolutely You're the one that keeps all the commercials on the air that keeps us on the air and we appreciate you very much

Thank you.

Yeah, so you what so for these purposes are you from Chicago?

originally born in Chicago, but raised in Madison.

So I have what I call a dual citizenship on both sides of the Cheddar Curtain,

which is a friend of mine.

So how did you come to acquire Malort?

I bought it.

I was curious.

It's made from the same stuff as Absinthe.

And I have a writers group that drinks Absinthe because it's fun.

And Malort is similar, but not.

black licorice, which I hate.

And then I went to a show in Chicago where one of the, it's an improv comedy show, and one of the guys in the show will do a few shots before doing this thing.

And in New York, they did the drink of their choice, but in Chicago, they did malort.

And I thought that I had to try it.

What is it?

So she's been kind enough to bring in, I'm not sure kind is the right word, but she's brought in malort liquor.

I have it in front of me and I've heard it tastes like ashtray butts or something like that.

My favorite one I saw was it tastes like heartache and pencil shavings.

That's a really good one.

I also really like I saw someone describe it as it tastes like a racetrack.

All right, I'll regret this perhaps but you know the only way I'm you know, you gotta live I'll try anything once unless it kills me.

Do you want me to join you?

Sure come on over.

Come on over.

Well, uh, so here now I'm pouring just uh, do you do this as a shot?

Yeah,

you do a shot.

I mean, I don't have

shot glasses.

Yeah, I'm not doing an entire shot here, but uh, all right Zabers, here's, here is Malort, a Wisconsin boy.

Have you had this before?

I have maybe like five

times.

All right.

Here we go.

Down the hatch.

Cheers to Malort.

Screw the cubs.

Now it went down fairly smooth, but the back end is ridiculously terrible.

Judas Priest.