You're listening to Civic Media. You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app. Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
This is your WFHR Daily News Roundup for locally grown radio 97.5 FM and 13.20 AM and WISC country 105.5 FM WIRI in Wisconsin Rapids.
WFHR and WIRI News. I'm Melissa Kaye.
Advocates are pushing for greater funding for special education in Wisconsin. Savannah told my Olsen reports.
At least 15% of students in Wisconsin public schools have individualized education plans. That means they have some sort of special education needs. That's more than 120,000 kids statewide.
For every dollar spent on special item Wisconsin, the state only reimburses about 31 cents. That's among the lowest in the nation. Families filled a room in the capital yesterday advocating for more money and resources for special needs students.
An effort years daughter Maya has cerebral palsy and other diagnoses. I asked for her bus staff to be trained in seizure response. And I was told there's no funding.
Therefore, Maya's life is at risk for 45 minutes every morning and every afternoon.
Because the people who are close to her can't keep her safe because there's no funding.
She has the medicine on her wheelchair if they were trained to use it they could. But there's no funding.
Right now, Wisconsin schools portion of the state budget is the smallest it's been in 30 years. For civic media news, I'm Savannah Tome Olsen.
These families were there because Republicans were expected to unveil their proposal for education funding yesterday.
This is one of the big sticking points between Republican leaders in the legislature and Governor Tony Evers. Evers claims Republicans won't compromise and fund education, childcare and the UW system enough.
Republicans claimed the state couldn't afford it. The hearing was set for one o'clock yesterday afternoon and was delayed three or four times throughout the day.
The hearing finally began last night after six o'clock. It continued later into the night. We'll have more on their proposal later today.
It's been a long journey from the old swamp in to the rotunda of the state capital.
Chief Justice Ann Walsh Bradley has spent 30 years on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Bradley was the first to have been elected to the state's top court without having first been appointed.
She's the third woman on the court total after Shirley Abrahamson and Jeanine Gasky.
Bradley and her colleagues reflected on her path the power at a ceremony at the Capitol on Thursday.
There they traced her roots in Richland Center to her time spent as a teacher to a legal profession that wasn't always welcoming to women.
She told us early on how she envisioned her role as a judge and I'm quoting her.
Because the experiences of a woman are different, I will be bringing that socialization process with me,
much like other judges who are hunters or fishers, bring their experiences with them.
Her longtime friend, Christine Bremer Mogley, over her long career, Bradley's participated in roughly 28,000 cases.
She's heard thousands of oral arguments and authored roughly 600 opinions.
But on Thursday, her focus wasn't on the past.
It was on a warning about the rule of law.
The independence of the judiciary is not a partisan value.
It is a constitutional imperative.
We must make sure that those who speak thoughtfully about the role of courts and the rule of law are not silent.
Chief Justice Bradley's final day in the court is July 31st.
newly elected Susan Crawford will take the seat after her.
Civic Media News Director, Shelley Pittman reporting from Madison.
A man has been arrested in Nikusa in connection to the April death of Sarah Wilkinson.
On Monday, Nikusa police arrested 53-year-old Paul J. Hardwick.
Hardwick has been booked into the Wood County Jail on charges of first-degree reckless homicide and possession with intent to deliver cocaine and THC among other charges.
On April 1st, Nikusa police responded to a call for an unresponsive female.
They found 41-year-old Sarah M. Wilkinson.
First responders attempted to save her life, but Wilkinson could not be revived.
A search warrant found illicit drugs in the home where Wilkinson was found.
The primary cause of her death is believed to be from ingesting drugs she obtained from Hardwick.
Hardwick is being held on a $25,000 cash bond. His initial appearance is scheduled for June 16th at 1.30pm.
Attorney General Josh Call says Wisconsin has joined a multi-state coalition in filing an amicus brief in support of California's lawsuit to block President Donald Trump from federalizing and deploying the National Guard.
The coalition argues that President Trump's memo federalizing the National Guard gives him unlimited authority to deploy the Guard of any state for a period of 60 days.
They claim the action is unlawful and could prevent states from deploying their National Guards in response to natural disasters and assisting in drug enforcement operations.
Property owners in the area may see Davies tree service crews working to trim tree limbs close to power lines.
Wisconsin Rapids Water Works and Lighting Commission says these professional tree trimmers are performing a critical task to help prevent power outages during high winds or storms.
This dangerous job should only be handled by trained professionals, so don't attempt it yourself.
Watch for the orange workers ahead sign and orange traffic cones surrounding the Davies tree service equipment and crews as you travel in the area.
I'm Melissa K for WFHR and WIRI News.
The Brewers battle the cards. Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with sports baseball game two of the four game series tonight as the crew hosts the Cardinals Milwaukee with a six to nothing win last night.
Thanks to the debut of 23 year old Jacob Mizorowski on the mound who lasted until the sixth before battling leg cramps.
Of course, I don't want to leave like that. I feel like I could have kept going, but you know, cramped up and stuff happened.
I think it just came on in between innings there. He had that long inning. He thought it was okay. He went out there. It's in his thigh and in his calf and twisted his ankle a little bit on that.
It started to lock up on him. We just didn't want to chance anything, you know.
NFL Packers mini camp wrapping up in Green Bay. The thing that it's most positive I would say for the most part we had pretty good attendance.
We had the majority of our guys here for the duration. And I think that it's been fun to kind of watch how these guys grow, especially guys maybe going in their second year.
There's so much further along than they were a year ago. That's Packers head coach Matt LaFour was sports on Mike Clemens.
On your entertainment beat, I'm Peach Waba. 62-year-old Tom Cruise said recently he wanted to act into his 100s.
It sounded crazy at first, but just yesterday, 99-year-old Mel Brooks just announced he is bringing back space balls. Brooks will produce the film with Josh Gad, but will also be part of the cast and play a character called Yogurt, parodying the Yoda character from Star Wars.
Brooks has not appeared on screen since 2005 when he appeared in the reboot of the producers. Brooks wrote and also starred in the original space balls in 1987 alongside John Candy and Rick Moranis and a host of other hilarious people.
There is no supporting cast announced just yet for the new project, although Gad is expected to be one of the stars.
In the original, Brooks, who was just a spry 55-year-old, played General Scroobe. The new script has no title as of yet, but Amazon MGM, is planning a theatrical release for summer 2027 when Brooks will be the ripe young age of 101.
David Lynch was prepping in Netflix series before he passed away earlier this year at the age of 78.
According to IndyWire, he had assembled a cast of his favorites, including Naomi Watts, Kyle McLaughlin, and Laura Dern, for a show he was prepping called Unrecorded Night.
Lynch's daughter Jennifer, also a filmmaker, says there was a finished script that might now be released as a book, adding that she and her siblings would not try to make one of his ideas themselves.
Sources say the show was set in Los Angeles in Old Hollywood, would have been nice to see what he did with that.
Actor Harris Yulin has passed away at the age of 87.
Yulin's credits include films like Ghostbusters, Scarface, and Clear in Present Danger, but recently he was probably most recognizable for his role as Buddy in Ozark, the old tough guy who lived with the bird family.
Yulin was nominated for an Emmy Award for his guest appearance on the show Frazier.
He was an old school actor who had passion for the craft and was a solid addition to any cast he joined.
Glenn Powell's ex Gigi Paris says she was told not to visit the set of anyone but you by none other than her boyfriend, Glenn Powell.
Paris appeared on the too much podcast on Tuesday.
Paris said that Powell and the producers of the film wanted people to think there was something going on between the two to help promote the movie.
That is when she drew the line and broke it off with Powell.
Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between a rom-com on or off screen.
Somehow David Letterman's Netflix show, my next guest, needs no introduction, is only getting an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Ultimately, it doesn't matter because Letterman is a legend, and Netflix knows it too.
The streamer has renewed the critically acclaimed, at least 81%, show for a fifth season.
The show won a 2024 Emmy for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special.
Letterman is older, but still in rare form, and even a better interviewer on this show than he was on his late-night talker.
Check it out.
From our show, it's fun.
Tune into night light.
With me, Pete Schwabba.
Weeknights from 6 to 8 p.m. on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Partly to mostly cloudy with a chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms today are high in the mid to upper 60s this afternoon.
Scattered storms tonight with a low in the upper 40s to low 50s tomorrow.
Scattered showers and thunderstorms with a high in the upper 60s to low 70s.
I'm meteorologist Sean Cable.
Outside now, it's 53.
For more information, visit www.scivicmediaapp.com.