Addressing WI’s Housing Crisis with Brittany Carloni (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.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Ta-da!

Along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer on this Monday, October 20th, 2025.

It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite.

Welcome, everybody, to the World Headquarters of Civic Media Downtown Madison on a crystal blue autumn afternoon at the intersection of state and fair child.

Great to be along with you.

Aaron Zommers, let's take a look right away at the old Sam Davidson street cam for those watching on Facebook, YouTube.

Twitter-ish Twix.

Look at that.

Look at that beautiful downtown Madison right

now.

It's a gorgeous George Day outside.

Yes, it is.

Look at that.

Leaves now starting to fall after turning yellow here.

Those are Boxelder.

I'm not sure what they are, but buses going by, people out there.

Zommer's Island got some beautiful Wonder State coffee before the show, and your hat blew away twice.

It did.

Yeah, the first... It's windy.

It is pretty windy.

The first time my hat blew away off my head.

The second time I just wasn't holding it tightly, and I felt very dumb.

All right, we'll check in.

Very kind passerby caught it for me.

Yes, a very nice person caught your hat.

So that was good.

Lots and lots to get to today.

Stick around at the bottom of the hour.

By the way, Jane McNair, our friend and colleague who's been joining us on Mondays from Mondays at McNair.

Very busy.

She's a very, she, she's a woman in, uh, in demand.

So her public demands her.

So she'll be back next, next Monday.

No, she had a couple of things to do.

And, and so she'll rejoin us, uh, next Monday, but have no fear because stepping into the, uh, into the time slot, we have Brittany Curlone from Wisconsin watch is going to be here.

She's been here before, uh, a fascinating new story at Wisconsin watch.org as Wisconsin faces a how, a housing.

affordability crisis and how lawmakers and candidates for governor plan to address it.

So Brittany has broken down the announced candidates thus far for governor.

So she'll be here in studio today next to me at the bottom of the hour looking forward to that.

Also gonna talk a little bit about Kings protest rally over the weekend.

Over 7 million people nationwide turned out.

A big crowd down here in downtown Madison, I know Milwaukee, and then smaller places all across small towns, villages, cities across Wisconsin.

And guess what?

Peaceful.

Turned out fantastic.

People a lot about a lot of fun.

Lots of US flags waving.

Some some fun costumes kind of Halloween came early and people went out and demonstrated to exercise their first amendment right and no major incidents to

report.

Even across the whole nation extraordinarily peaceful if I recall there were like a hundred thousand people out in New York and not a single person was arrested

Yeah, it was a good time to have but also I did not get out still trying to recover from we'll get into this maybe later on hour two

The old a salivary glan stone is still there my neck and so we've now started medication We'll get into but I'm fine.

I'm fine It's just my wacky health situations.

They if nothing else they give us bits for the show Also, I feel a little weird first time in a long time.

I'm not wearing Brewer apparel because unfortunately the Brewers were not able to overcome the incredible Los Angeles Dodgers.

So hey a Tony in game four

Three home runs pitched a marvelous game, probably one of the best games in baseball ever, period, for Shohei Otani and the Dodgers.

So, hey, crew had a great season.

In hour number two, we're gonna take your calls on your favorite Brewer's Memories this year in 2025.

So we'll get into that a little bit in hour number two as well.

And before I forget, our friend Kelly Call,

One of the producers of just a bit outside story of the 82 brewers speaking the brewers Kelly call Celebrating a birthday today.

Oh happy birthday the Libra that he is so happy birthday Kelly call out there in beautiful Los Angeles, California Hope he and his lovely wife have a Wonderful day on the shores of somewhere beautiful along the Pacific so Have a great day Kelly.

All right lots to get to today also an hour number two

Our new, uh, our new segment Wisconsin fun fact and what's worse for you as well.

So, and so we'll get to some sports.

Of course, Packers last night managed to equal out not, not pretty, but they got it done.

So congrats to the pack as they continue their, their winning ways down there against the Cardinals last night.

So we'll talk more Packers and, uh, and Brewers.

In hour number one, but first of all some breaking news as we come on the air here on a Monday on October 20th 11 minutes now past the hour of 2 o'clock and and this is fascinating to me this is fascinating because you don't see this often and What it is is the treasure for the Wisconsin or Republican Party of Wisconsin has resigned and

Retweeting or putting out there into the public space her letter of resignation I don't know this guy, but he's associated with the Wisconsin Attorney or turning points USA like the Wisconsin chapter or whatever Brett Galasuski or Galasoski don't know him, but he puts out there on on Twitter and Lawrence Andrea from the Journal Sentinel

Tweeted this, he said, a pretty scathing review of current Republican party, Wisconsin leadership here from outgoing executive committee member.

That's from the reporter, the journal Sentinel.

Now, Brett Galizowski, the guy from trading points, USA, Wisconsin says, quote, big shakeup at the top of West GOP.

Treasure Kelly Rue resigns.

Ideologically, Kelly and I didn't always align.

I'm further to the right.

We both knew it.

But we had real conversations about reforming the movement.

He goes on from there.

He says it should be a wake-up call for everyone.

I'm not going to read the entire letter.

It's being put out there.

It was politics.

I believe civic media is going to put it out there as well.

But I find this interesting, Ms.

Rue.

the now former treasurer of the state republican party says quote i am writing to formally resign my position as treasurer of the republican party of wisconsin rpw effective immediately says after careful consideration i have concluded that i can no longer meaningfully contribute to our party's executive leadership under the current circumstances the absence of a strategic plan

defined objectives and measurable outcomes as well as budgetary issues have created an environment in which progress is difficult to assess and nearly impossible to achieve.

And she goes on on for that.

It is a scathe letter and basically says that I'm going to read this one more sentence here because I think this kind of encapsulates it.

Quote, recent election results in Wisconsin are clear if RPW.

does not drastically change its approach to everything, leadership, fundraising, messaging, organizing, addressing issues that Wisconsinites care about, then it will no longer play a role in deciding our state's future."

That from Kelly Rue, the now former chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

We heard some of this this summer during the RPW convention state convention annual state convention.

There was kind of uprising of Further right.

I know for some people they're like how could it be further right?

But it can of the further right maga folks tried to unseat Brian Arthur shimming the chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin that was quelled quelled and Shimming got another term as party chair now.

He is the first paid

full-time paid chair for the Republicans, I'm not gonna say forever, but a long, long time.

When I was part of that party, which I left the Republican Party in 2011, but when I was involved, it was a volunteer you gotta stipend, basically.

And then the executive director was the full-time paid position, but now the chairperson shimmying

is the full-time paid person.

And there's a lot of discontent, it seems, within the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

Don't forget now, with the new maps on the legislative side, there's going to be even more of a challenge for Republicans to hang on to both houses of the legislature next fall.

A lot of political observers saying that the state's seven.

is in biggest jeopardy of falling into Democratic hands, or if you're a Democrat, picking it up and putting it into Democratic hands.

But I think this is an interesting development.

We'll see if it goes anywhere, or if it's just kind of one discontented person.

But anyway, the treasure of the Republican Party of Wisconsin is out.

We'll see what the fallout is.

Coming up on 16 now, past the hour of two o'clock.

Other big stories today, and I haven't not heard that it just kind of came out here and whist politics a while back.

And as my friend TJ might say, this is rich.

News from Republican Congressmen of the Third District, Derek Van Orden.

Headlines, Dairy Group, Van Orden.

call for immigration law change to help farms.

Now, if you've been following this program or many of our other great programs here at Civic Media, you'll know, kept up that Derek Van Orden has been out there and right along with Trump on immigration, throw them all out, deport them, get rid of, bring ice in, put more, voted to put historic levels of money into ice.

And we on this network, this program and myself included, me particularly growing up in a farming community by grandparents or dairy farmers, been saying, be careful what you wish for, Derek, because a lot of our ag economy in Wisconsin, particularly our dairy industry, would shut down if not for migrant labor.

And let's be honest, both legal,

and quote unquote illegal or undocumented and many of these folks are not people that you know came across the border or whatever snuck over they came here maybe on a visitor visa or or a temporary work permit and it simply didn't get approved or it's still bogged down in red tape and expired so they're technically quote unquote undocumented and van orton is hope throw them all out get rid of them well here now the chickens have come home to roost

The American Dairy Coalition, American Business Immigration Coalition and U.S.

Representative Derek Van Orden at the World Dairy Expo advocated for immigration law changes to bolster the agricultural workforce.

Van Orden, Republican of Prairie to Sheen said he wants to create a program attached to the U.S.

Customs and Border Protection's app that allows anyone.

who participates in the department's self-deportation program to also participate in a program that grants them legal protected status for one year.

Quote, it's about an 80% solution.

He said during the press conference, right now, any one of your workers can get on the CBP One app and push a button.

Then I'll give them a plane ticket and a thousand bucks to get home.

I want another button.

Add it on there.

where you push the button and you go to a legal protected status for one year.

Unquote from Van Orden.

Without immigrant agricultural labor, the U.S.

would become quote unquote inherently dependent on foreign nations to feed its own people, he said.

Really, Derek?

Really?

No crap, Sherlock.

So a lot of people have been saying for a long time.

Well now that Orton's hearing from ag producers in Wisconsin Saying you got to stop this Or a we're gonna go out of business or B We're gonna start relying on foreign nations for more and more of our food supply and there's no reason for it Was America let alone Wisconsin has the ability to create their own food their own drinks milk But not without labor

And if you think that Van Orden has found religion, we'll come back and tell you who else is talking about maybe foreign countries giving us our food supply, but this guy is fine with it.

In fact, he's advocating for it.

More on this on the other side.

It's the all ball show for Monday on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Wherever it may lead, and having fun doing it.

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

Glad to have you along.

22 now, past the hour of two o'clock on this Monday, October 20th, at Zommer's on the board, talking about this whiz politics story today.

Headline Dairy Group, Van Orton, calls for immigration law changes to help farmers.

The American Dairy Coalition, American Business Immigration Coalition, and Republican, Derek Van Orton.

Are now calling I Got up.

We got us or we're kind of short of time here So I'm gonna skip I'm gonna kind of condense this a little bit for you and this just this guy's been a congressman now for three years plus it shows he has virtually no understanding of how the immigration system works because he's saying on the on the CBP app the custom border protection app

that you right now can push a button, click on something and you'll be set up with a plane ticket and a thousand bucks to self-deport to go home.

He wants to add another button where you just push it and you go into immediate legal protected status for a year so you can still work on Wisconsin farms.

That's not how it works.

It's very, not very, but it's much easier to just

Say, here's a thousand bucks go home.

Then to go through all of the process to become legal.

That is part of the reason, a large part that we have people who are undocumented now.

It's not that they, they all came here.

Of course, some did.

It's not that they all came here, quote unquote, illegally crossed a border.

Many came with legal visas, but because the system is so messed up.

and they don't get an answer yes or no, their current visa expires, and then they become undocumented.

If it was that easy, Derek, with a push of a button on an app, we wouldn't have as many undocumented people.

But now he's afraid, he's gotten religion on this.

After being on the throw-em-all outband wagon, now Van Orton is very upset.

Very concerned because he thinks that the US will become inherently dependent quote-unquote on foreign nations to feed its own people if we don't do this.

Yes.

Yes, Congressman Van Orton.

People like me have been saying this for a long time.

He says, quote, I'm saying out loud what no Republican wants to say.

If we don't retain our current ag labor force, our farms are going to close, unquote.

That's what we've been saying, Derek.

The fact that people who entered the US illegally would have to first exit the country and then return through illegal port of entry is a crucial part of the bill, he added.

Again, he does not understand how this works.

If you go out and you've been deemed undocumented or illegal,

At least and I was an expert at this one time it's been a while since I worked at immigration But I knew these laws backwards and forwards while I was immigration specialist for congressman Clug it used to be you would have to go home for ten years Before you were allowed to reapply to come back in Look let me let me make clear.

I'm glad he's got religion now But where what did he think he knew exactly where this was going you guys?

And at the time he didn't care he wanted to score votes and political points But now the chickens have come home to roost and now he wants to take care of a very specific industry Ag which I'm all for but what about the construction industry?

What about the food industry?

The service industry who also rely on these same folks

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

Let's go quickly to Gene on WCFW, the capital, Claire.

Gene, thanks for calling.

We'll see you.

That's my representative.

He's all show, no go whenever there's some kind of problem, like even the medical issues that we had losing our hospitals here.

He was there right from that camera and didn't do a gall darn thing.

So I hope the farmers wake up.

because everything comes that comes out of his mouth.

He does not do or follow up.

He did other things too, but I won't go into it right now.

Thank you

for bringing it up.

Thank you, Gene.

Yep, appreciate it.

Well, I gotta say, I mean, I'm glad that that Van Orton's got religion now, but why is that?

Because he's realized that a lot of people were right and he was wrong.

And now he's looking at his own constituents and he's taking the heat.

There's one other guy I told you before the break.

who's concerned, maybe not so much, about bringing in food products from foreign countries.

As a matter of fact, Donald J. Trump, President of the United States this weekend, flying back from Mar-a-Lago after playing golf as the government was shut down and military doesn't have money to buy food.

Donald Trump commented on high beef prices.

No worries.

Donald Trump has an answer.

If you're a beef producer in Wisconsin, listen up.

With soybeans in one Argentina you're you know, you're looking to do that deal with Argentina the bale swap so Are we expecting a

deal with you?

I assume you're talking about beef.

Yeah to get beef prices down The only price we have that's high is beef and we'll get that down and one of the things we're thinking about doing is a beef from Argentina

beef from Argentina you heard that right the president of the United States in order to get beef prices down for consumers

It's thinking about flooding the US market with foreign beef Bringing in beef from Argentinian farmers To undercut Wisconsin beef farmers You can't make this stuff up We have time for the other one Argentina the 40 right now

Now, let's wait.

We'll wait.

Okay.

We'll come back.

We'll save that.

We'll titillate him more because he said a lot about agriculture this weekend, folks.

And this is why, and we'll get into this in an hour or two, or maybe a little bit later this hour, here now, we're seeing the real results of the No Kings protest because it's not always the people that carry signs, although that's important.

That's great.

It's the discontent.

It's people that might have voted for Donald Trump.

and said, wait a minute, I didn't vote for this.

I'm a beef farmer.

I didn't want my prices undercut by Argentinian beef.

I didn't want my workers thrown out of the country.

People are waking up.

And Republicans are a little nervous.

Come on back.

More on the other side.

It's the Tahleball Show for Monday on The Civic Media.

Ready to know.

on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Great tune.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Great tune picked out by our next guest, Zommer Spaniel, spitting it on the board here.

35 minutes passed the hour of two o'clock on Monday, October 20th.

Glad to have you along.

Making her second appearance on the show since being named the state government and politics reporter at Wisconsin Watch.

Pardon me, Wisconsin Watch.

Provide her story and all the other great work at WisconsinWatch.org.

That's Wisconsin Watch.

Brittany Carloni.

Welcome back to the show.

How are you?

I'm doing great.

I'm doing great.

I had a little bit of a cold last week, but I'm feeling a million times better and the weather's beautiful today.

I know,

right?

It's a pretty good Monday.

It's a great Monday.

We were talking before we got on the air here.

We'll get more into this later on in the show.

But yeah, tough to watch the brewers go down in four games, but...

But I mean, after that game by Shohei Otani and the club, I mean, the LA Dodgers right now are just one of those hot streaks.

And nobody expected, other than maybe the guys in the clubhouse, the Brewers to get as far as they did.

I know.

I would love to have seen them gone to the World Series, but I'm just happy that we beat the Cubs.

Exactly.

100%.

And

you're a Milwaukee gal.

You're

right.

Absolutely.

And you're going back to, you said maybe this weekend,

and

your dad's a big Creedence Clearwater

revival guy.

Yes, he is.

Yes, he is.

So that was an honor to your dad.

Oh, absolutely.

All right, very good.

Well, it's great to have you here, Brittany.

Thanks for coming back over on a Monday.

Of course, we're very, very early in the Wisconsin governor's race, but one of the things that

It's been around for too long, and it's only getting worse.

And we did shows in Waukesha last week.

We did shows in Warsaw, but from Waukesha to Warsaw.

And we've done around the state before, one of the major issues that I hear folks talking about is housing.

The affordability.

A, particularly if you're a younger person, how do you afford to get into your first home?

If you're an older person on a fixed income, how do you stay in your home with rising property taxes?

And if you're someone who's trying to rent, how do you keep up with rental costs?

You know, the old adage was, what, a 30-year budget should go to your housing?

Yeah.

But that's a very few people, including me, can do that anymore.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, even when I came back to Wisconsin,

six weeks ago at this point, trying to find a place to live.

And for me, like the speed with which I had to move here, just looking at the cost of apartments, like a rental cost, it's like, it's crazy.

So it's like whatever kind of spectrum you fall on as far as what you're looking for for housing and what the affordability is, it is a challenge.

Yeah, it really is.

I think it's going to be a key race, not only the governor's race next year, but also legislative races.

Absolutely.

And so you've written this great article, headline Wisconsin faces a housing affordability crisis.

Here's how lawmakers and candidates for governor plan to address it.

Again, this story by Brittany Crony can be found at WisconsinWatch.org along with her colleagues work as well.

I think this is a great opportunity and kind of set this up.

I'll read a couple of the first lines here.

It

says the medium.

price of a home in Wisconsin rose nearly 120% over the past decade from $155,000 to $337,000 according to data from the Wisconsin Realtors Association.

What a powerful way to open up this article, and that says it all.

Yeah, I mean, I truly...

I would tell anybody out there who's interested in this, or even just learning about this, the data on the Realtors Association's website, it was eye-opening to me as I was kind of digging into that last week, because that kind of jump, I mean, there's so many things from the pandemic to, there's all these economic things that have happened in our country in the last 10 years, and just to see that kind of jump, knowing, again, we spoke about,

It's, it's hard to afford a lot of things, but everybody needs a place to live.

Right.

Yeah.

And you saw, again, you're setting up greatness article at Wisconsin Watch, housing costs rose 120% over the past 10 years in that same time period.

Wisconsin's median income has only increased about 50%.

If you're lucky it went up 50%, but your housing costs are going up 120, you don't have to be a smart guy in math, and I'm certainly not.

Even I can figure that literally does not add up.

No, no.

Those numbers were startling, and I'm sure it would be great to see maybe another 10 years from now some of these proposals that get enacted.

Maybe those numbers change, but the way it's...

It's happening right now.

It's not a great sign.

And another part of this article at Wisconsin Watch that I love is that you right away get into what bills are in the legislature.

So there are housing bills making their way through the legislature, you're right, touch on multiple avenues to boost the state supply of affordable housing.

Let's take a couple of those up.

Yeah, so I actually even wrote down a couple of them because there are...

as many things are at the Capitol, things get very nitty gritty, and it's hard to explain that out to a regular person.

I think the couple that I got into here, there's one on TIDS, which is residential tax increment districts, which not a very exciting topic when you say that out loud.

But the one of the bills being proposed by the...

Republicans who are leading that bill like there's a series of Republican led bills that are going through the legislature right now and that bill would really focus on doing a pay-as-you-go process for some of the infrastructure that developers and builders need to construct housing like often those costs happen.

like the like builders put those at the very end of the process.

And that makes the price of a startup home much, much, much greater than say, if that happens, like those costs can get paid throughout the process of it being built.

And that's one avenue that legislators are looking at.

Another one is accessory dwelling units.

And when I was in Indiana, I think they called these like granny flats or where you can essentially have like in a garage on your

a property or like a shed, not like you want somebody to live in a shed, but like a nicer attached unit.

A tiny

home, I

think.

Exactly.

Some people,

you know, maybe between 900 and 500 square feet.

Exactly.

Looking to allow that like one accessory dwelling unit on a property.

And then another bill that I focused on in here was about a condo conversion grant program.

There's a portion of a WIDA loan program that was created in the 23-25 budget cycle.

Essentially lawmakers have said there's a portion of this loan program that isn't being used and the idea would be to provide grants to help developers and builders convert multi-family units into condos so people can have other avenues to afford living.

in a certain type of

space.

the great author here of this, Brittany Curlone, from Wisconsin Watch, talking about housing crisis in Wisconsin and some of the things the legislature and gubernatorial candidates are being to address this.

I was trying to think of the exact insiders, keep me honest on this, but we had Democratic State Representative Madra Vera Wagner on the show here a while back.

I know he has a bill, a bipartisan bill, that would be modeled after...

Habitat for Humanity.

Yes.

Yes.

And so making it more affordable would be accessible to everyone, right, Summers?

Yeah.

And so I give him credit for doing this in a bipartisan fashion.

I know you put some of the Republicans and Democrats in your article here who are working on this.

Does this give us a glimmer of hope?

Do you think they can get something done, Brittany?

I mean, this...

Oh, uh, oh my apparently we've been having camera

problems

I figured I saw a way of- Yeah, thank you, I appreciate it.

Yeah.

It looks like it has started working.

Okay, good.

Going back to that 2023-2025 budget cycle, Governor Evers and Republican lawmakers worked together to get, I think it was about 500, just north of $500 million in grants to start some of these affordable housing projects.

So there has been bipartisan-

support and bipartisan momentum in the past.

And I think Democrats and Republicans across the state, even in a press conference I was sitting in on a couple of weeks ago, Robin Voss was like, all of us, when we go back home to our communities, this is something we hear about.

And I do think given the elections next year, I think this is something that people want to be able to go back to their districts and say, look at what we're able to do, look at...

these things that are actually putting, I think people hope solid examples of success coming out of that building.

I think that's what everybody really would hope for.

I

sure hope so, because we have to find a solution to this, and I think it's just a good reminder that

It's not just folks who are unhoused that you might see literally on the street.

There are people living out of their cars, out of their vans.

There are people who are crashing with friends or family because they don't have their own place to stay.

So it's not just what we might think of as obvious, unhoused, but there's a lot of people who are struggling.

that we don't know, and there are co-workers, there are friends, there are classmates, and this is something that's affecting, and it's not just the quote-unquote poor areas of urban Wisconsin.

Exactly.

There are a

lot of rural places in the state.

Exactly.

And a lot of more wealthy places, where you'd be surprised what people are doing.

Yeah.

I mean, they're by the grace of God, go on.

Yeah, exactly.

And I do think, again, going toward, as we transition to talking more about the positions of candidates for governor, I feel like there's not a lot of issues where if you reach out to campaigns and say, tell me more about your plan for X to get seven of the nine people who are running for governor to actually respond with more information about what they want to do, or at least some more information about what they want to see if they get that.

office next year.

I think that also shows this is something people care about.

We're talking Brittany Corloni from Wisconsin Watch, our great article here, Wisconsin Housing.

Let's start right off here.

We've got a couple minutes for the first break.

You start off with Republican U.S.

Representative Congressman Tom

Tiffany.

What

did he tell

you?

Obviously, I don't have a word for it.

Oh, you

do.

But I know that his focus was

really kind of removing regulations that are tied to some of the costs that go into housing processes like zoning.

I know he has also talked a lot about freezing property taxes and I obviously like that adds a cost to housing as well but a big part of what his campaign spokesperson who sent his information to me said it's really that like regulation side of things that he's concerned about.

And then I think there was another part where he's really interested in shifting some of the state's assistance programs toward homeownership rather than some of the renting processes.

I know you're here for the news side of it.

I'll do the opinion side.

This is Todd

talking.

I find it fascinating and disappointing because, for Tiffany, because, look, I get it, developers don't need the red tape, but how does that transition into people being able to afford?

Because...

I don't know, a lot of these bills, there's never like a connection where developers have to offer an affordable price to the,

to the renter

or the owner.

And a

lot of times they will pocket that, that savings, you know, for themselves, but

that's,

again, that's Todd's opinion, not yours.

Uh, campaign spokesman for a Republican, Josh Shulman, uh, from the Washington County executive also talked to, you know, I know a little bit about Heart and Homestead earned payment incentives.

Yeah.

Some of those programs were really fascinating to learn about again as somebody who.

who has only been back in Wisconsin for six weeks.

I think that program specifically deals with home down payment loans to help deal with the costs of, like people can earn back, pay back those loans through.

through fundraising and... No, I

think we'll come back to the other side, but I think this is at least slightly more realistic to helping the actual person try to get in a home.

But we'll come back and talk more about it with a pretty colonial Wisconsin watch.

You'll listen to the all-ball show and the Civic Media ready number.

the tunnel ball show on the Civic Media already network eight minutes now before the hour of three o'clock ABC CBS News the top of the hour check of weather a great sports reporter Mike Clemens trying to get back from Arizona Packers squeak by last night and we'll have a what's worse for you while Wisconsin fun fact

and more coming up in hour number two right now.

We have Brittany Carloni, the state government and politics reporter from Wisconsin Watch here at the table in the studio at the World Headquarters of Downtown Madison.

Love it when that happens.

Her great news story here at WisconsinWatch.org entitled Wisconsin faces an affordability crisis, a housing affordability crisis.

Here's how lawmakers and candidates for governor plan to address it.

All right, Brittany, we left off with Josh Shulman just to kind of put a fine point.

on that, the Washington County executive, Stevens be focusing more on the consumer with down payments for loans.

And when I spoke to campaign folks with his campaign staff, they're really focused on that these have been provenly successful programs in Washington County.

And that's something that he'd like to take statewide.

So it's interesting.

It's like a different.

a different kind of approach.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I'm not endorsing anybody in this race, but I do find it refreshing that Showman appears to be not on the more maga side of things, that he's trying to look at something that affects consumers

more.

So

I think that's promising.

Lyle, let's move to the Democratic side.

You started off here with Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley saying that he would gather alone leaders in all parts of the state.

Yeah, when I spoke to folks with his campaign last week, they kind of tried to put this into perspective.

Wisconsin, there's a lot of different communities across the state.

Something that works here in Dane County might not necessarily work up north.

And I think he...

They also put this into perspective that in the same realm that there are different communities across Wisconsin, there are a lot of different communities across Milwaukee County.

And he's worked on trying to bring affordable housing not only within the city of Milwaukee.

He pointed to projects in Oak Creek and other parts of Milwaukee County that you wouldn't expect would necessarily need more affordable.

affordable housing.

You're right in here that Crowley has done this with his parents to build affordable housing throughout Milwaukee County.

So he

literally has experience in this.

Crowley does.

So it's near and dear to his heart.

Yeah, absolutely.

Let's move on to State Representative Francesca Hong, Democrat of Madison, in a statement.

As governor, she would use a combination of tax incentives, zoning reforms and public bank backed construction.

financing stabilization.

That seems like a lot.

That is a lot.

This is where you can get to see that in a different realm from

Tom Tiffany, there are some of the Democratic candidates have other approaches when it comes to like the regulation sense of let's look at these other avenues to make sure that costs stay down as opposed to the idea of like let's take these regulations off so that way it's easier to build things.

Moving on to a State Senator Kelder Royce, Democrat of Madison, saying that she would direct more tax dollars, more dollars that

is, to

existing affordable housing programs to speed up the time it takes.

for developers to get necessary funding.

So her point of view when I spoke to her about this was that...

The state has a lot of really good programs already in place, but I think something she said to me was, time is money.

And when there are a lot of processes for developers and different types of people to get through to get to building a house, we need to put more into these programs to make them easier to get through, to get to building houses.

You write, additionally, Roy said she would encourage more market rate housing development and expand support systems such as housing vouchers.

to help ease costs of buying a home.

You're right, Crowley Hong and Royce Olex Press Interest in Right to Counsel program that provide free legal representation for tenants at risk of eviction, which I think that's really

critical.

You also talked to former Weedick director, Missy Hughes, head of Wisconsin, former head of Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.

It's basically say I'll get back to you.

Yeah, yeah.

I think it's one of those things where some people don't have...

Some candidates might not have a full plan at this point and might still be trying to talk to folks across the state.

But I

think you do a great service here in your article because I find that revealing because I don't know how you plan to run for governor of this state and launch a campaign without being aware and having at least a rudimentary position on something like that.

Mm-hmm, I especially when you were the weedic director by the way Yeah, I mean I think that I think that says a lot about missing huge again Todd's opinion beer vendor writer Ryan Stern had said he would be open to increasing subsidies for lower-income housing across the state

And that was about all I got on that

front.

So Lieutenant Governor Sierra Rodriguez didn't get back?

No, I did reach out.

And I tried to connect there.

And I'm still more than happy to talk to anybody about this going forward.

But no, I was not able to hear back.

As they

said in the old game shows, Lieutenant Governor Rodriguez, not a match.

The board goes back.

You might want to give a real call, but Wisconsin Watch calls probably a good thing to call back.

Again, I would advise everyone who's listening to this interview, go to WisconsinWatch.org.

That's at WisconsinWatch.org to read this.

I think it's informative.

Because again, unlike Todd, you're not giving opinions on this.

You're reporting what campaigns and candidates are saying, what people already in government are putting out there.

And I think the important thing is you and

Wisconsin Watch are bringing this discussion to the forefront.

And I think that's how we start having movement on the affordability housing crisis in the state.

Yeah, and I hope that like these kinds of stories, I hope to continue doing these kinds of stories.

And I hope this kind of information can help people because anything in the next 365 days, we're going to hear a lot.

And I want to make sure people know what they need to know when they go to the polls next year.

So hopefully, hopefully this helps somebody out there.

No, I really hope it does.

I think it will, because again, it advances the discussion.

And as I've said, we're going to keep on on this show, you're welcome back anytime.

But affordable housing.

Housing in general, this is a crisis in the state, and I think it becomes embarrassing for a lot of people.

It's like, oh, I can't afford that rent, or oh, I'm getting evicted, or, you know.

People don't like to talk about these things.

They're, I don't want to say taboo, but it's embarrassing.

And I think open and honest discussions are the way we make advancement in progress.

Absolutely.

Thank you very much.

Brittany Carloni, Wisconsin Watch, state government political reporter.

Have you back soon?

That sounds great.

All right.

Stay tuned.

Hour number two is straight ahead of Wisconsin Fun Fact and what's worse and more.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the all ball show for a Monday across Wisconsin on the Civic Media.

Ready to work.

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 on the board.

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

Welcome into hour number two of the big program on this Monday, October 20th, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.

Glad to have you along here.

Big hour ahead.

Many thanks to Brittany Carloni of WisconsinWatch.org for being here in hour number two, hour number one.

I'm half loopy.

You understand Thomas because, uh, uh, I tried to lay low this weekend.

Mom was in town on Saturday.

He caught lunch with her on the west side of town.

because boy, you did not want to be downtown Saturday.

You did not.

With the, uh, the No Kings, uh, uh, rally, and then you had Ohio State in to beat up on Wisconsin.

And, uh, the farmers and so it was a, and he got John Nolan down to one, one lane in either direction.

It was the definition of a traffic nightmare in Madison on

Saturday.

Yeah.

One of my roommates was at the No Kings rally and he said that.

You know, it was a huge, two parallel streams.

People go in one way, all wearing red and white to Camp Randall, and then everybody else in crazy outfits go in the other way.

And eventually he was like, okay, this is way too slow and just went home.

Really?

He

didn't go.

Did you go?

He had eaten enough.

Oh, did you go?

I did not.

I was visiting family.

That's right, you were in Manitowoc this weekend.

I had thought about going, but I did not go.

I laid low, except I wouldn't have a lovely lunch at mom on the far west side out in Middleton, in CP territory, as a matter of fact.

And otherwise, I laid low.

My voice is still not 100% as I said to you all last Friday.

And just you know, I don't get like flu style.

I don't get that kind of sick often, which I'm very thankful for.

But when I do get something is bizarre stuff.

And so I was diagnosed last Friday with a salivary gland stone.

I already have kidney stones.

Now I have the same type of calcium.

So you get these apparently in your your salivary glands and so my left.

Side of my lower jaw is kind of swollen up and it's kind of the lymph node is kind of and it's affecting my voice and I told you all last week the doctor God love him He I said how do you get that he goes?

I don't know bad luck Well, I did some research over the weekend Well, like legit like the Cleveland Medical Hospital and

the Mayo

Clinic

I like

that stuff and it turns out that if you do a lot of I should say do

Sound like I'm doing coke if you if you take a lot of acetaminophen

or anahistamine I'm sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Yeah, anahistamine.

No, don't go on the Thailand all train

Anahistamine which is and I have allergies and and so I've I've used Claritin like it like it was you know candy for years trying to you know keep my allergies at bay well apparently a Lot of anahistamine because it dries up your your mucus and it makes it thicker in your cell saliva

that can bring on salivary gland stone.

So I think I've given myself this, trying to stay away from allergies.

And so now I'm not using that.

And I'm, and he said, the only thing I can really do is suck on sour candy.

And so I'm doing, uh, sour patch kids and water all weekend.

So I laid low after lunch at mom on Saturday.

And then my friends, uh, Jonathan, Alison Klein, and, uh, uh, there's son Parker.

And we went to the red and white Badger basketball game and finally something to be happy about with Badger athletics.

So that was a good time.

That's good.

And you know, I do think that the doctor was ultimately right.

It is bad luck because you have crappy allergies and you were unlucky there.

So anyway, I talked to the doctor this morning and now we're going to try a course of antibiotics to see if he's one of these.

And I get it.

You know, some doctors are like.

Whatever and then other who I don't want to do that.

He's one of these that not it's not my normal doctor and you know, well, I am really I'm really leery about giving antibiotics, but maybe we should try this.

I said, yes, let's do that.

Let's try this.

So now after the show, I got to go pick up the old antibiotics.

This reminds me of my days back in college.

Got some antibiotics cleared it right up.

All right.

Anyway, that's about Todd's medical conditions.

It's 11 minutes past the hour of three o'clock.

Let's try this time once again for our new segment, Wisconsin Fun

Fact.

That's

right time once again for Wisconsin fun fact for today October 20th on October 20th 1940 a record breaking muskelunge ie musky was caught on the Chippewa flowage near Hayward, Wisconsin We've been there been there are friends Jane and Greg Hayward, Wisconsin the musky weighed 69 pounds

a fact that seventh grade me wishes that he'd known.

That's right, that's how we play Wisconsin Fun Fact.

I

like that music.

That is a fun

fact.

It's a fun fact, right?

Tell all your friends.

Seventh grade me, sitting in Ken Lewis's class, wishes that I'd known.

He taught me a lot of great things.

I don't believe we ever talked about the record musculage.

I think there is one word that is most appropriate to you to respond to this fact, and that is nice.

Nice,

yes.

Very nice indeed.

All right.

Let's see.

Should we do the things?

Should we or should we?

There's so much there's so much news to talk about.

Let's let's as long as we are on the no kings Let's talk a minute or about that because there was all kinds of hype and build up to this by Republicans and Maga Then it was gonna be oh, you know Hamas Anti-American haters all that well turned out no a lot of American flags a lot of silly costumes as Zomra said all participating and saying look

We're still America.

We're not going to be ruled by any dictator, as former Joint Chiefs of Staff General Milley said.

We're just not going to do, we're going to stand up to a lot of these terrible things that the Trump administration has done, which is ignoring the Constitution.

So Mike Johnson, little Mike Johnson, Speaker Mike Johnson, went on ABC's This Week program with Jonathan Carl yesterday, and he had to admit,

Pretty peaceful.

Here is Mr. Speaker.

So let's start with the No Kings.

As you called these hate America rallies, what do you mean by that?

Well, that collection of folks that I listed were certainly part of it.

We congratulate them on a apparently violent free speech exercise.

I was a First Amendment lawyer for 20 years.

We defend that right.

But the irony of the message is pretty clear for everyone.

If President Trump was a king, the government would be open right now.

If President Trump was a king, they would not have been able to engage in that free speech exercise out on the mall, by the way, which was open, because President Trump hasn't closed it.

In the last shutdown, 2013 era, President Obama closed the national mall, closed all the national parks, didn't allow people to engage in all this.

So, I mean, they needed a stunt, they needed a show.

Chuck Schumer needs cover right now.

He's closed the government down because he needs political cover, and this was a part of it.

Uh, Speaker Mike Johnson admitting that, well, you know, I have to congratulate them.

They were peaceful and it wasn't Hamas and it wasn't Antifa and it wasn't terrible.

It was actually very fun and safe.

Americans simply exercising their first amendment rights.

Who

to

thunk?

Who to thunk?

Uh, not to be done.

Donald J. Trump flying back from a round of golf at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yesterday on the plane was asked about the No Kings rally as well.

What is your response to the protests over the weekend?

I think it's a joke.

I looked at the people.

They're not representative of this country.

And I looked at all the brand new signs, I guess it was made for by Soros and other radical left lunatics.

It looks like it was.

We're checking it out.

The demonstrations were very small, very ineffective.

And the people who are whacked out, when you look at those people, those are not representative of the people of our country.

Besides San Francisco.

I'm not a king.

I'm not a king.

I work my ass off to make our country great.

That's all it is.

I'm not a king at all.

Donald Trump calling no kings people whacked out.

Whacked out.

And say we're very small.

Seven million people, two million more, that came out in June.

at the No Kings Round.

So they're only growing at our very own Jane Matt, pardon me, Jane Mattenair of Mattenair on Air with Greg Bach this morning was listening to their show.

Jane participated and she was talking about it in Waukesha or Milwaukee, wherever she was at, she ran into people that are Republicans that were there as well.

Say, look, we voted for this guy, but this ain't what we signed up for.

So it's not a bunch of whacked out people.

By the way,

Saying that George Soros or people you know gave them or created these signs and people have some so many great It reminded me of college game day sign sign everywhere sign My favorite sign and I believe this was in Madison or Milwaukee.

I saw a lot of different things over the weekend This is my favorite sign somebody had a sign that said quote Mike Johnson blocked me on grinder That's

pretty

good

Mike Johnson blocked me on Grindr.

That was one of my favorite signs of the, of the No Kings rally this weekend.

Let's go quickly.

Go ahead.

Let's not

forget.

Also, Mike Johnson, did you ever do, like, projects and presentations in school?

Like, people can make signs.

Yeah.

I guess that's more to Trump.

But

as it turns out, let's go quickly to Charles listening on WAUK in Milwaukee.

Charles, thanks for calling.

We'll see you.

Hey, good afternoon, guys.

So, Mike.

watched and I drove down and did the rally ML walkie and set it to one no kind of a walk in.

And we're not whacked out.

We're Americans fighting for democracy and it was great to be amongst the human race.

People from a lot of different backgrounds were there.

Old, young, different, different nationalities.

There was no hate speech.

And yeah,

Tons of people so I'm not sure what they're talking about.

I think they're they're still but hurt because there were no issues, right?

You know able to come together.

Yeah, all these people were able to come together and and and try to Celebrate rooting for democracy and then hey, we just can't sit back and allow our democracy to run away.

It's weird that

They, Republicans say to complain, oh, this is not going to happen.

This is not going to happen.

And they end up happening.

Project 2025.

Almost 50% of that has taken place already.

You know, well, Trump wasn't going to do this.

Well, he's done that.

And so they burned me out with this.

Well, this is not going to happen.

And, well, these things are happening.

Right.

Charles, welcome to the clock, but thank you for calling my friend to AUK.

Let's go to Mark and Perlis Sack.

Let's see, I'm the MDX of Madison.

Mark got about a minute.

Let's see.

Yeah, there was.

There's well over 400 people at the bridge over paraded over the Wisconsin River at Sock City here.

I saw one estimate over 600 people were there.

Wow.

And it just, but even at 400, it's amazing.

It's incredible.

And

I

didn't see any, I didn't see very many professionally made signs.

Everybody's making their own homemade signs and I can, and you mentioned the song, Signs, Signs, everybody said, how does that song end?

The guy made his own very own song.

Thank you, Lord, for thinking of me.

I'm alive and doing fine.

Right.

And we have to, you know, Donald Trump is not our king.

And he was coming back from playing golf once again.

How many times has he played golf since he's been president?

Right.

Great.

Thank you, Mark.

I appreciate it.

I'm going to tell you, Trump was right.

Johnson was right.

There was one No Kings rally that went very, very wrong.

that could have caused a lot of injury, and we're gonna expose it on this show on the other side.

Well, it is what's worse.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the all-ball show on the Civic Media.

Ready to

know where.

was very creative and very good.

Tells me your favorite sign was.

We are gonna get to, and look, I don't admit this very often, but Donald Trump said this, Mike Johnson said it, several Maka Republicans said before the weekend that there was gonna be trouble, that people could be harmed.

Things could go terribly wrong and in one instance it did they were right We're gonna expose it Gonna tell you why Trump and Mike Johnson were right about this.

It was it was very dangerous Gonna tell you why But first right now time for what's worse.

Let's

go

Time once again for what's worse, nothing to give away, no prize for what he involved, but it is your chance to have your voice heard on all 10 news talk sports stations of the civic media, rating up work across the state of Wisconsin.

Don't worry, I'm really going to tell you why I agree with Trump and Johnson, why they were right about the dangers of the No Kings rally.

We'll get to, but we got to, we're up against the clock, we got to get this in.

All right, here we go.

Timely indeed, a lot of people were out partying this weekend.

at the No Kings Rally, both dancing and singing.

So today's category, what's worse?

Bad dancing or bad singing?

Bad dancing or bad singing?

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

Or you can text us on the Civic Media app.

If you don't have it, download it today.

Go to your Apple or Android device, your app store, type in Civic in the search bar.

C-I-V-I-C media.

It'll pop up little C-M logo.

Click on that.

Takes less than a minute to download and it is free.

Gratis, etc.

Won't cost you a dime.

It's what Gail King over there at CBS calls a deal.

The Civic Media app, get it today.

What's worse, bad dancing or bad singing?

8-5-5, 7-5-2, 4-8-4-2, 8-5-5, 7-5-2, 4-8-4-2 Summers.

I predict for those watching on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twix, X, I particularly enjoyed the graphic today that CP has come up with.

What's worse, bad dancing, featuring Donald Trump doing his white person biting the lip, his hand clenched going back and forth, doing that move to YMCA, apparently.

or bad singing, which I don't know that I agree with this.

They have a 1970 something era photo of Sonny Bono, of the great duo Sonny and Cher, but just Sonny, Sonny Bono, with his great mustache, his open collar, his collar shirt, his collars are as big as 737 wings, his gold chain.

So it's sunny bono now has been called out by the people as bad saying what's worse bad singing or bad bad dancing 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 Zabers

I can see why people would say that I mean he has a distinctive voice that some people might not say is

Very good, but it also fits the songs they do.

Yeah, and I like he can hit notes.

It's not like he's like

Our friend Jeff Perry could probably tell us exactly that exactly I'm sure sonny had some solo hits, but of course his big his biggest hits came with his wife and the next wife share And the son I used to watch the sonny's share show back in the day

It was a great, it was a funny program.

I heard that it was, it was like I was no, I wasn't even thought of it at that point in my life.

No, you weren't.

Sony and share Joe watching on YouTube says the bad singing pick should be a prozan belting out the national anthem.

Yes, Joe.

Now that is some legendary

singing was bad singing 100 percent agree.

What's worse, bad singing or bad dancing?

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

John, listening on W-I-S-S in Oshkosh, beautiful Oshkosh.

John, saying a bad singing is worse.

I can't, or I can turn my chair, but can't shut off my ears.

Glad I'm glad I stopped myself.

Uh, you know, he didn't mean there was a typo.

Yeah, sure.

You can't shut off your ears there.

Uh, Steve, I'm not horrible.

Listen to the MDX as bad singing is worse.

I enjoy watching bad dancers are going to chuckle on watching them flounder around when in Madison on WMDX as bad singing is worse than bad dancing as it's easier to close my eyes than plug my ears.

I came and Appleton said an Oshkosh and to be ISS my favorite sign.

Oh, that's not okay.

Very good.

Uh, let's see here.

Uh, so I think we're caught up on the what's worse.

What's worse bad dancing or bad singing eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.

Now I'm not going to say I'm a great dancer.

My best dancing days are probably behind me, but my sister and I used to be a pretty good duo on the dance floor.

I can see that, you know, the sibling relationship.

She's a very good dancer and and you know, she took dance class from the Betty Hayes School of Dance.

I took dance classes,

but it didn't

take.

Didn't take?

Can't you do like traditional like waltzes or whatever?

Yeah, I mean that was more what it was or like tap dance and stuff, but also I did it.

I mean

I haven't taken them since the major growth spurts, so

I don't think I could.

Bad singing, that's uncomfortable, because it's uncomfortable, like I remember, I'm not gonna name names, years and years and years ago, there was a Christmas Eve service where there's one individual saying Ave Maria and like saying all the verses and it was tragically bad.

And my sister and I, sitting there at the pew, we were heading to bite our tongue.

And because of, you know, we wanted to laugh because it was so bad.

Well, Trump would have danced to that.

He was.

Right.

And she thought it was, of course, fantastic.

So that's uncomfortable for the audience when you're caught in a situation of bad singing.

Mark, in part, in fact, says a revolution without dancing or singing is a revolution not worth having.

Like the song says, it doesn't matter if it's not good for anyone else to hear, sing.

Sing a song.

Come on back.

We will tell you why Trump and Johnson were right about the No Kings protest.

It was dangerous.

We'll reveal it on the other side.

It's the all-most show on Pacific Media.

Time now for Pam Yankee, the West Farm Report.

Don't go away.

We're 35 minutes now past the hour of three o'clock.

Gonna get to lots of news happening here.

I'm gonna tell you why for, this is serious, why I agree with Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson that the No Kings rally was dangerous.

I'm gonna give you a specific example to prove that.

Also some breaking news out of Washington.

We're going to get to you in just a minute.

But first of all, want to finish up, I believe Troy in beautiful Mount Horrib.

We'll see you on WMDX here out of Madison.

Troy, did you want to play button up what's worse here?

What's worse, bad singing or bad dancing?

Give me a D flat.

Bad singing is worse.

Well, now Troy, I have a feeling you're an actual better singer than that.

Not much.

But look, Troy, by the way, we got you on the phone here.

You are one of our winners in those tickets for the world premiere of the great film, new film, No Packers, No Life last week.

You were down there with your lovely wife.

We got to see you as Omers and I did.

Give us a quick review.

Be honest.

What do you think of No Packers, No Life?

I wish I could have called when you were talking about it the past couple of days before, but I couldn't.

Anyways, it was fantastic.

My wife said on the way home, that was a feel good movie and we needed that in these times.

100%.

And it was fantastic.

I'm

really glad you enjoyed it.

I loved it.

Glad you enjoyed it.

And glad your wife is.

Thank you for coming down, guys.

Great to see you.

Also, Jim in Brookfield was there.

Got to see him and his wonderful wife.

It was good meeting you, Zomers.

Yeah, you too.

Absolutely.

Thanks, Troy.

Have a great day.

Thanks for listening to MDX of Madison.

And I believe Terry Across Plains wasn't able to get there for the reception, but she had her somewhere there for the movie.

We just didn't work out to meet them.

So.

Yes.

And I know, I believe Breton Brown, dear, I know.

Was also there?

Yeah.

Very good.

So to all of our winners last week, thank you for being there.

The film is still in theaters.

If you want it to be extended beyond this week, get out and see it.

I'm going tomorrow again with my buddies Rob and Jeff, Weedy and Scandan.

Three old guys going to go to the 910.

at Marcus Cinema here in Madison.

If we can stay awake.

We'll try to stay awake.

But get out there and see it.

Again, this great story of Japanese Packer fans coming over to Wisconsin and the relationships.

It's a great feel good movie.

Great for Packer fans, but also even if you're not a sports fan, you're gonna get something out of it.

No Packers, no life.

You can learn more about the film at nopackersnolife.com.

nopackersolife.com, or you can buy tickets for the movie by going to marcustheaters.com, marcustheaters.com, showing in Southeast Wisconsin, here in Madison, La Crosse, Gurney, Illinois, Green Bay, Wisconsin as well, and maybe other select theaters.

So check it out, go out there, because just like just a bit outside, the Brewer's Film, if you want this to come to your town,

then get out and see it soon.

The more people go, the more Marcus will keep it around, because at the end of the day, it all comes down to the dollar sign, as Jack said.

And it is another one that's great to watch with a crowd because it's just fun.

It's such a pure bundle of joy.

Absolutely.

38 minutes now, past the hour, three o'clock, lots to get to.

This breaking news...

I was gonna say not much surprises me anymore, but it was unexpected, but it shouldn't be and I want during the blast break I Want to make sure this is real.

That's the arrow we live in just because you have a photo doesn't mean it's real but confirming this through multiple news agencies at this hour this one from the Washington Post as of about oh

10 minutes ago 15 minutes ago demolition crews this afternoon began tearing down part of the White House To build President Donald Trump's long desired ballroom despite his pledge The construction of the 250 million dollar addition would not quote-unquote interfere with the existing building Construction teams were demolishing a portion of the East Wing

with a backhoe ripping through the structure according to a photo shared the Washington Post and two people who witnessed the activity and spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe it.

A cluster of people, including members of the Secret Service, stood in the steps of the Treasury Department to watch the construction unfold.

Said one of the people sounds of construction were also audible on the White House campus Trump has long touted his plans for a 90,000 square foot structure that would nearly double the footprint of the main building and its east and west wings He'd also suggested the construction would not affect the existing White House again

Washington Post amongst other major news organizations confirming with photographs and people at the scene despite saying he would not Donald Trump demolishing part of the current White House in order to build his Gilded Age ballroom and Yet the government today is shut down People not getting paid cutting off snap benefits after this month military people

not getting paid either.

The arrow of Donald Trump.

All right, I told you I'd reveal this, sorry to keep it going so long.

Uh, Trump and Mike Johnson, several Morgan Republicans warned that the No Kings rally over the weekend could be dangerous, hostile, life threatening even.

Well, guess what?

They were right in one instance.

And by the way, I don't hear this being talked about much today on major networks.

You would think a story like this might be in the first 10 minutes of a national newscast, but thank goodness for the reporting of the New York Times.

The place that things got dangerous at the No Kings rally was in California, but it's not exactly what Trump and Mike Johnson might have thought.

because the danger didn't come from the people participating in the No Kings rally.

It came from the Trump administration itself.

Dateline, California, a 155 millimeter shell fired during a live fire demonstration for the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton on Saturday prematurely detonated.

dropping fragments of the shell on a California highway patrol vehicle and motorcycle that were part of Vice President JD Vance's protective detail according to a patrol report.

No officers were hurt in the mishap, which dropped shrapnel onto the vehicles parked on a ramp to a major freeway that had been ordered closed by Governor Gavin Newsom.

The governor

had objected to the plan to fire over the freeway Interstate 5 and ordered a 17 mile stretch closed against the guidance of military officials who said it was safe for it to remain open.

This is an incredible story.

And we, I think, David, do we have time?

Did we mention this last week?

I forget.

I

don't think so.

I had it printed.

Again, it was one of those days where I had so much news to talk about.

I could only get to one thing, but I was going to say that not many people are talking, that the strategy by Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, and Trump was, hey, it's the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps, which, by the way, salute them.

Wonderful.

But they thought, okay, we'll send Vance out to California and we will shoot off live ordinance across a major interstate to disrupt the No Kings rally in Southern California because it was close to where one of these big protests were supposed to happen and that will really tick off the protesters.

Gavin Newsom said, you're not flying live ordinance across a freeway.

So he shut it down say you're putting people in danger and the military and Trump and Hank Seth said oh, you're overreacting Knowing this was gonna cause this big disruption and that it would it would turn, you know Difficult for people in California and make Newsom look like the idiot Well, it turns out that Gavin Newsom may well have saved people's lives Because the military set off a live ordinance flew it across

Interstate 5, a 155-millimeter shell, and it malfunctioned.

And it exploded over the freeway.

And guess what it hit?

It didn't hit the protesters because Gavin Newsom kept them away.

It hit our law enforcement, the very people that Maga and Trump say they support.

This could have killed someone.

Back to the New York Times story, Mr. Newsom had warned the Marine Corps about their plans to fire artillery shells over Interstate 5.

The West Coast's main North-South artery could pose hazards for motorists on the stretch between Los Angeles and San Diego.

The closure he ordered on Saturday caused significant backups on the portion of the Interstate, which is used by approximately 80,000 people daily.

Mr. Newsom said in the statement quote we love our Marines and we owe a debt of gratitude to Camp Pendleton But next time the vice president and the White House should not be so reckless with people's lives for their vanity projects on quote I Mean this is unbelievable.

They are now flying 155 live millimeter live shelves over the public Just because

to show off, to make it difficult for the No Kings rally folks.

The Marines, according to the New York Times, fired howitzer shells across Interstate 5 on Friday evening as rehearsal, apparently without incident.

The Marine Corps said before the event that the exercise would occur, quote, on approved training ranges and compounds with established safety protocols, unquote, without the need to close public roads.

Thank goodness Gavin Newsom said maybe we should be a little bit more careful I

Mean common sense is just gone with these people ordering these actions because I Why why would you do this?

Why would you fire live ordinance?

Yeah over people's heads?

It's uh,

it's a little unbelievable quite frankly.

I want to go again.

I want to move this long cuz I

This might spend some more time on this tomorrow.

This from the Washington Post today.

Headline, Rubio promised to betray U.S.

informants to get Trump's El Salvador prison deal.

This again, a story not being talked about today.

Quote, the days before the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to the notorious prison in El Salvador, the president of that country demanded something for himself.

The return of nine MS gang leaders from US custody Secretary of State Marco Rubio on March 13th on a phone call with Salvador and President Naid Bukeli promised the request would be fulfilled according to officials familiar with the conversation, but there was one obstacle Some of the MS-13 members Bukeli wanted were quote-unquote informants under the protection of the US government

Rubio told Bukele.

To deport them to El Salvador, Attorney General Pam Bondi would need to terminate.

The U.S.

Justice Department's arrangements with those man Rubio said he assured Bukele that Bondi would complete that process and Washington would hand over the MS-13 leaders.

Rubio's extraordinary pledge illustrates the extent to which the Trump administration was willing to meet Bukele's demands as they negotiated.

Rubio and Trump sold out U.S.

informants in a witness protection program to get a political deal done.

The dangers of this, I cannot explain to you, but we'll attempt to do it on the other side.

This is the Todd Albel show on the Civic Media Ready

Network.

Welcome back to the title of all show on the civic media radio network eight minutes now before the hour of four o'clock at the top of the hour ABC or CBS News depending upon which of our great stations you're listening to check of weather a great sports reporter Mike Clemens on details of the Packers I talk about that about that a little bit more tomorrow as well

Eeked out of when Micah Parsons basically saved the game in that new kicker.

Uh, record, a history record setting kick for the Packers.

Clemens love details on that.

And then another great addition to the Maggie Dawn show from four until six, followed by a great addition of night light with Pete Schwab.

All right, lots to get to here.

Last few minutes.

Uh, this Washington post story that, uh, Secretary of State Marco Rubio kind of deal with Salvador and President Naim Bukele.

in order to get these Venezuelans to the Salvador and Seacot prison without due process.

Bukele said he'd do it, but you've got to release these former MS-13 gang members that you have in the United States.

Rubio says, great, but guess what?

There's a couple three of them here.

that were informants that helped us, and so we put them in a witness protection program.

And Bukele says, I don't care, I want them back.

So Rubio tells Pam Bondi, after she got a new hair extension apparently, hey, you gotta basically break the law, put years of US protocol at risk, all these promises that if you inform, will protect you, gone.

The Washington Post writes the deal would give Bukele a possession of individuals who threatened to expose the alleged deals his government made with MS-13 to help achieve El Salvador's historic drop in violence, officials said.

For the Salvadoran president, a return to the informants was viewed as critical to preserving his tough on crime reputation.

Here's the deal, cut cut to the chase.

Some of these people