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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.
As expected, Republican budget writers will extensively rework Governor Tony Evers' two-year state spending plan.
Republicans who hold the majority on the legislature's Budget Writing Joint Finance Committee have signaled for weeks that they essentially plan to build a new 2025-27 budget from scratch.
That's similar to how they've handled the three previous Evers budgets. When the committee meets today, they'll strip more than 600 policy items out of the budget that the Democratic Governor proposed earlier this year.
Items to be deleted include the Governor's proposed fifth-state tax bracket for Wisconsin's highway journeys, along with proposals to legalize marijuana, expand Medicaid eligibility, and increase state funding support for childcare providers.
The Finance Committee will send its finished product to Evers this summer, a 32-year-old woman from Milwaukee faces two felony counts of stalking and three counts of unlawful phone use after she allegedly made hundreds of threats.
Hundreds of threats towards employees of the Wapong Correctional Institution. Investigators say Trina Brown called, texted, and emailed hundreds of threats to several prison employees. She made her initial court appearance in Dodge County Court on Wednesday.
Wisconsin has joined another multi-state lawsuit against actions taken by the Trump administration. On Monday, the coalition of states filed a lawsuit challenging efforts to overhaul the Department of Health and Human Services.
In March, DHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a restructuring plan that would result in the elimination of 20,000 employees and the closure of half of the agency's regional offices.
The lawsuit alleges that crippling programs that have previously been approved by Congress violates the separation of powers.
Is the disbursement of state funds fair? Maybe not. Stuart J. Wattles has that story.
A Marquette University analysis shows Wisconsin's revamped state aid formula under Act 12 benefits smaller Republican-leaning communities.
Wisconsin watch reports that towns under 5,000 residents have seen aid triple while larger cities like Milwaukee and Madison received minimal increases.
It's led to accusations of political bias in the GOP-crafted population tiered system. Democrats argue the formula disadvantages urban areas.
Two national aquatic animal dealers were convicted in eight Wisconsin counties, including Brown, Marinette, and Shaboykin counties, for shipping the illegal and invasive crawfish to schools, residents, and businesses.
The North Carolina and Indiana-based dealers were each issued 20 citations for offenses.
The Wisconsin DNR says non-native crawfish are illegal in Wisconsin due to disease concerns, their ability to out-compete native species, and the substantial cost of restoring infested sites.
A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers has introduced a bill that would make it easier for advanced practice registered nurses to care for their patients. Savannah Tomay Olsen reports for Madison.
The bill would create a new license for highly qualified nurses so they could practice on their own without needing to partner with a doctor.
This has been a point of discussion for years as Wisconsin nursing advocates have said nurses can help in the provider shortage.
And the legislature has passed this bill before, but twice now, Governor Tony Evers has vetoed it, saying the standards weren't strong enough.
So new requirements have been added to this version. Democratic Senator Calde Royce.
We know that too many Wisconsinites in every part of the state struggle to access affordable high-quality health care.
And that's really what this is about. That's why we were all able to come together. Advanced practice nurses provide excellent high-quality health care.
And this bill will enable them to do that to even more patients.
Republican Senator Patrick Teston.
I'm hopeful it's going to have a speedy route throughout the legislature, and hopefully signed into law so we can become the 28 state in the country that recognizes the incredible work our APRNs do on a day-to-day basis.
Teston says they have a deal in place with the governor, and he plans to sign it this time.
For civic media news, I'm Savannah Tomay Olsen.
Did you know it's national travel and tourism week, a time to celebrate our state as a critical economic driver.
Brittany Relo tells us more.
The data from last year comes out next month, but in 2023, Wisconsin's tourism industry saw a 5.4% increase from the prior year, and raked in $25 billion.
We also welcomed 113 million visits, and saw the highest ever overnight stays at nearly 46 million.
Breaking records again, year after year, and on average, the people sticking around longer tend to spend about three times more than a person stopping by for just the day.
This has economically grown every single county in the state. It's also supported over 178,000 part-time jobs and generated 1.6 billion in state revenue.
Governor Evers wants to contribute to the growth of the industry. In his 2527 budget, he wants to invest in the Wisconsin Arts Board, hire more staff for Wisconsin Office of outdoor recreation, and add incentives to bring more film productions, TV shows, and creative endeavors to our doorstep.
And of course, continue promoting Wisconsin as a premier, business, cultural, and recreational destination, as well as establish a new grant program to support Wisconsin's rural creative economies.
This summer's travel season, travel Wisconsin is running summer signs saying, here's to those who Wisconsin.
It's an advertisement campaign in 14 Midwestern markets, including the newly added Peoria, Illinois.
The press release says the campaign tries to inspire travelers to experience the magical moments of summer, while highlighting Wisconsin's celebratory spirit and welcoming nature.
For Civic Media News, I'm Brittany Malau.
I'm Lisa Hale, 97.9 WGBW News. For news any time, log on to WGBW.FM.
The Brewers are at 538 games into the season. Hi, I'm Jimmy Cusca, filling in for my Clemens. With four of the regular starting the game on the bench, Milwaukee fell into an early hole and never recovered Wednesday, losing 9 to 1 to the Houston Astros.
The only scoring for the Brewers, one of just four hits on the game, came from this Eric Haas solo home run.
Haas a fly ball in the deep left center field, and his goal is gone.
The Brewers are on the board on the Haas home run.
That call courtesy of fan dual sports Wisconsin manager Pat Murphy, so the Brewers faced a tough picture.
The story of the game is the kid for them, the big shoulders, that kick and pitch.
You know what I mean? That kick and pitch. That sinker change up thing or whatever he's got going, that's really, really good.
That kid was good. They dominated us. Now we had four basic under one year service time players in there against them.
Murphy said he's frustrated with the lack of urgency that his team had after only being down three to one for most of the game.
With this adversity and that kind of stuff, I'm not happy by any stress because we also haven't played great baseball.
And again, we've kind of misplaced our edge on a day to day basis. There wasn't a win tonight urgency.
Milwaukee gets the day off today before playing the race in Florida this weekend for a three game series.
Marquette is adding its first varsity sports since 2013. Women's swimming will become the school's 17th varsity sport and will begin competition in the big east in 2025-26.
It's the first varsity sport added since women's lacrosse 12 years ago.
The move comes as the school is moving men and women's tennis and track and field to non scholarship sports offerings next year.
Filling in for my clements, I'm Jimmy Cusco with Civic Media Sports.
On your entertainment beat, I'm Peach Waba. While the summer box office has arrived, there are no anticipated blockbusters opening this weekend,
but good variety for your viewing pleasure. Juliet and Romeo is pretty much the same story, but filmmakers opted for pop music instead of iambic pentameter.
If horror is your game, check out clown in the cornfield. Clowns are creepy, as are cornfields. That's an absolute frightfest, and it is pulling a 93% on rotten tomatoes.
And it wouldn't be the start of the summer movie season without a good action comedy like Fight or Flight.
The film stars Josh Hartnett, who plays a secret agent, trying to restore his rep while being trapped on a plane with other secret agents trying to kill him.
Also in the action spy thriller realm is the film Shadow Force, starring Carrie Washington, who plays a spy, who is also married to a spy, which breaks the spy rules.
So naturally, they are in danger and must protect their child.
If these films don't get you excited, check out Centers or Thunderbolts.
And if you see any of these films, would love to hear about them on Nightlight next week.
Let's go to the movies.
The comedian Nate Bargazzi might not be a comedian for much longer.
Despite selling 1.2 million tickets to his stand-up shows last year, he has huge aspirations beyond telling jokes.
He just finished hosting SNL for the second time and will host the 77th Emmy Awards.
He has multiple deals in various stages of production, including comedy specials, sitcoms, and films, and wants to develop podcasts, music, and more.
Bargazzi says everything he produces will be family-friendly.
According to Deadline, Bargazzi wants to follow in the footsteps of Walt Disney and create a theme park in Nashville called Nateland.
This is getting weird.
He says the person who is running Disney now is just a businessman who doesn't care about audiences.
The future founder of Nateland says whatever he does moving forward, it will be with the audience in mind.
He might actually be more ambitious than he is funny.
Remember when Hollywood made straight-up comedies? They might actually be back.
Friendship opens in a limited release this weekend and stars Tim Robinson as a man who moves into a neighborhood and tries to endear himself to his fellow neighbor dudes, led by Paul Rudd.
I've seen the trailer several times in front of other movies, and it absolutely looks cringeworthy and beautiful.
It is currently pulling a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.
There is certainly no rush in making sequels these days.
36 years between Top Guns, 35 between Blade Runners, and 13 between Avatar's.
Keeping up the trend is the 1999 romcom, 10 Things I Hate About You.
Which looks like it's getting a sequel 15 plus years later.
The obvious title should be 20 things I hate about you, but the sequel will most likely be called 10 Things I Hate About Dating, according to People Magazine.
Director Gil Younger says there will be a nod to the deceased Heath Ledger in the new film, a release as a way as they are still writing the script.
For more showbiz fun, tune in to Nightlight with me, Pete Schwabba, weeknights from 6 to 8 p.m. on the Civic Media, Radio Network.
It is going to be mostly sunny today with a high in the mid to upper 50s this afternoon.
The wind will be out of the northeast at 5 to 15.
Tonight mostly clear, we'll drop to 34 tomorrow.
We'll be mostly sunny with highs of the upper 60s to near 70 degrees.
I'm meteorologist Sean Cable.
Outside now it's 46!
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