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This is your WGBW Daily News Roundup for the talk of Green Bay, 97.9 FM and 50.90 AM.
For 97.9 WGBW News, I'm Lisa Hale.
In less than a month, hundreds of thousands of visitors will come to the Greater Green Bay Area for the NFL Draft 2025.
Traffic, however, is already starting to be affected.
Starting at 7 AM tomorrow, O'Neill Street and Armed Forces Drive in Ashwabanan will close.
So crews can begin building the massive stage for the draft. Closures will be in effect until May 10th when the stage comes down.
More closures will happen as the draft gets closer.
Wisconsin voters have already broken a record for this election before we even get to April 1st. Savannah Tomay Olsen explains.
About half a million Wisconsinites have already cast their ballot for the spring election.
Looking at the data, that's about double the number of people who voted absentee in the 2023 state Supreme Court race.
It's part of a growing trend that kicked off during the pandemic. More people are exercising their right to vote before Election Day.
According to numbers from the Wisconsin Elections Commission about half the people who voted early voted absentee in person,
the other half return their ballot directly to the clerk's office through the mail or via Dropbox.
We'll get the final count of absentee ballots for this election on Monday. For Civic Media News, I'm Savannah Tomay Olsen.
Early voting wraps up at noon today in Ampleton and in Green Bay in Ashkosh at 5 PM this afternoon.
Voters in Wisconsin shouldn't be put off by President Trump's latest executive order. Civic Media's Joanne Krulatz reports.
Trump's executive action requires providing proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.
Jay Heck with Common Cause in Wisconsin said Wednesday that the April 1st election in Wisconsin for the Supreme Court for the Department of Public Instruction and many, many local races is a state election, not a federal election.
Heck said it's also unclear whether the order is constitutional and will withstand challenges in court.
He said the intent appears to be to sow confusion ahead of Wisconsin State Supreme Court election in which Trump has endorsed conservative Waukeshaw County Judge Brad Schimmel.
Trump is also demanding that all ballots be received by election day.
Ballots received later than that are not counted in Wisconsin.
In a posting on his social media site ex this week, billionaire and friend of the Donald Trump administration Elon Musk announced that a voter named Scott
with the last initial of a from Green Bay is the first one million dollar winner for signing a petition to oppose activist judges.
Musk has been accused of trying to buy the election for Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice for conservative judge Brad Schimmel, who is running against liberal back judge Susan Crawford in a race that is supposed to be nonpartisan.
Jay Heck of Common Causing Wisconsin calls the payments a last minute attempt to influence the election.
Voters will cast their ballots Tuesday.
The State Building Commission is deadlocked on Governor Tony Evers' capital budget.
Republican lawmakers argued that more discussion is needed, so the $4.3 billion plan now goes to the Republican led joint finance committee with no recommendation.
State Senate President Mary Felskowski told Evers that a lot of worthy projects are being proposed, but she's concerned about the level of new bonding.
This is the fourth straight time the commission has deadlocked. Evers' proposal includes $493 million for Wisconsin's prison system.
And among those projects proposed in the capital budget is the governor's plan to close Green Bay Correctional Institution by 2029.
Area leaders and prison officials have recommended the closure of that over 100-year-old facility for years.
The facility, designed to hold 750 inmates, has a population of over 1,000.
The governor's proposal also includes turning the state's oldest prison in Lapan into a vocational training facility for inmates.
In the wake of mass layoffs in the federal government, the governor has announced an effort to recruit some of those displaced workers.
Governor Tony Evers announced a series of job fairs, as the state's Department of Workforce Development attempts to recruit recently fired federal workers.
Eight virtual events are being held in April to find workers in key fields such as health care, engineering, and law enforcement.
Evers says he wants to give displaced federal workers a fresh opportunity.
The federal employees in Wisconsin are getting bumped out of their jobs. They're doing good work. People wonder why they're being laid off to begin with or fired.
And so we know they're good workers and we have always have vacancies in state government. We want to make sure that they have a good landing place.
Registration for the virtual events is free. Evers says he hopes the recruitment effort brings talented workers to the state government and communities in Wisconsin.
Find out more information on the DWD website. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Call announces that the state will receive nearly $22 million from Kroger for its role in the opioid crisis.
The company and the state came to a consent agreement last week and payments are expected to begin coming later this year.
So far, Wisconsin has received about $75 million in opioid settlement funds and is expected to receive over $780 million in total.
As part of the agreement, Kroger will also be required to closely monitor its pharmacies and report suspicious activity with opioid prescriptions.
I'm embarrassed to admit it was the word necessary that knocked me out.
So the students competing in the state's largest spelling bee in Madison this weekend have my admiration. More than 50 students from all over Wisconsin will compete.
They've already won their school level, district level, and then regional level. The top two competitors from this weekend will head to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
It's the National Bee's 100th anniversary. Only nine students competed in the very first version back in 1925.
I'm Lisa Hale, 97.9 WGBW News. For news anytime, log on to WGBW.FM.
The brewers lose to the yanks. Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with sports. The brewers losing 4 to 2 on opening day at Yankee Stadium.
A positive was Vinny Capra getting to start at third base and hitting a home run on his first at bat of the season.
I thought it was a pretty special moment. Yeah, I mean, a witness will be trying for the first at bat to want to do suck to the plan and kind of end up working out.
Brewer's pitcher Freddie Peralta and Capra shot that sailed over the left field wall.
It was impressive, you know, and the same time it's a little weird because we can get a little used to seeing and doing it during spring training.
Hopefully that he keeps doing it in that way. I think that he has a lot of things to prove. Do things for him, for his career and for the team.
The crew loaded the bases top of the 9th, but former brewer Devon Williams got out of the jam, retiring Jackson Turiel and Christian Yelich for the save.
The two teams have the night off. They'll play tomorrow at noon. NBA bucks basketball tonight.
They host the Knicks in Milwaukee with sports on Mike Clemens.
On your entertainment beat, I'm Peach Wabo. If you're headed to the theater this weekend, here are some flicks that might be worth a look.
If you're in the mood for a horror comedy, check out Death of a Unicorn starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega.
As a father-daughter duo, headed to a party when they accidentally kill a unicorn.
The film is pulling an almost fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes at 57% and its rated R.
Another horror film opening is The Woman in the Yard about an ominous-looking woman who mysteriously appears in a family's yard and gives dire warnings.
No reviews in yet, so proceed with caution.
Action fans might want to check out Jason Statham's new movie called A Working Man, where Statham's character is a mild-mannered construction worker with a special forces military background.
You might think you've heard this story before, but no. This is much different than his last film where he was a trained killer hiding his identity as a beekeeper.
In A Working Man, Statham goes after the human traffickers who have kidnapped his boss's daughter.
Be careful out there, folks. Pretty much everyone with a mild-mannered job is a trained killer.
Let's go to the movies.
Actor Bill Murray does not have many regrets over his 50-year career, but the Lost in Translation star appeared on the Howard Stern Show recently and did say he regrets turning down Clint Eastwood.
Murray was enamored with some of Eastwood's earlier work and called him.
Eastwood asked Murray if he would ever do another military role along the lines of stripes.
Murray told Stern he had sort of been there, done that attitude, and passed on what was most likely the film Heartbreak Ridge.
And to this day, he still apologizes to Eastwood.
Apparently, the phrase raw-dogging has more than one meaning.
Actor Patrick Warburton has taken credit for creating the practice by way of his character putty from Seinfeld.
Raw-dogging refers to a travel trend in which a passenger boards a flight with no form of entertainment and doesn't even sleep.
They just sit there and stare like putty did on Seinfeld.
Sound fun? It might be until it drives a lane crazy and she breaks up with you.
Yellowstone appears to be birthing yet another spin-off.
Luke Grimes will revise his role as Casey Dutton.
There are no storylines available yet, but the show will be produced by MTV Studios.
Other Yellowstone spin-offs include 1883 and 1923, which is currently in its second season on Paramount Plus.
Another anticipated Yellowstone spin-off will star Cole Hauser and Kelly Riley as Rip and Beth.
Ageism is still alive in Hollywood, but it's not as bad as it used to be for women, according to actress Kate Blanchett.
The actress recently told Business Insider that when she started in the biz, an actress had a shelf life of five years.
In Blanchett's case, it probably doesn't hurt that she's an Oscar winner.
The actress is in the midst of a 30-year run with no sign of let-up in sight.
The Elizabeth Star credits more women producers and writers in positions of power that are more likely to develop roles and content for women.
For more show of his fun, tune in to Nightlight with me, Peach Wabo.
Weeknights from 6 to 8 p.m. on the Civic Media radio network.
It is going to be Cloudy's showery and drizzly today with a high in the mid to upper 50s this afternoon.
We may catch an isolated thunderstorm late this afternoon into tonight.
Tomorrow, Cloudy with scattered rain 42 with more rain could be heavier rain likely tomorrow night.
It is Sunday. I'm meteorologist Sean Cable. Outside now, it's 40!
That's your WGBW Daily News Roundup from Civic Media.
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