8 O'Clock Buzz

In the very first association football World Cup, in 1930, the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team placed third.  It has never placed higher than 12th since, and didn’t qualify at all between 1954 and 1986.  Beginning in 1990, thanks to many efforts to promote the world’s most popular sport on American soil and the growth of high school and college soccer, Team USA began a run of  respectable performances in World Cup competition.  In 2026, with the USA, Mexico and Canada co-hosting the World Cup tournament, the U.S. team has a chance to make the quarterfinals for the first time since 2002.  How much of the USA’s World Cup performance is due to the development of professional club teams playing in the U.S. Soccer league system?  Forward Madison Football Club plays in USL League 1, the third division of the U.S. Soccer League System.  They’ve played home games at Madison’s Breese Stevens Field since 2019.  Conor Coloia is the co-owner of Forward Madison FC, and he joined the Monday Buzz on July 6, 2026.

The post World Cup Fever and Local Football Clubs appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

On June 23, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision in Landor vs. Louisiana Department of Corrections that has sweeping implications not only for the First Amendment, but also for Congress’s fundamental power to enact laws binding on private individuals.  In a 6-3 ruling, with the usual suspects in the majority, the Court ruled that prison inmate and practicing Rastafarian Damon Landor had no right to sue Louisiana prison guards who held him down and forcibly shaved off his dreadlocks.  This despite the fact that in 2000, Congress passed the Religious Land and Institutionalized Persons Act specifically to enable prisoners to sue for violation of their religious freedom rights.  Howard Schweber is a professor emeritus of American politics and political theory with the University of Wisconsin Department of Political Science.  He also holds an affiliate appointment with the University of Wisconsin Law School.  Howard Schweber joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on July 6, 2026.

The post SCOTUS Curtails Religious Freedom, Congressional Authority appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

In July of 2025, the Trump Administration announced it was terminating grants for LGBTQ+ specific hotline crisis services available by dialing 988.  In the year since, while generalized 988 Suicide and Crisis hotlines have survived by piecing together state and private funding, specialized services for LGBTQ+ people have disappeared.  Natalie Eilbert has worked as a mental health reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and is currently the Opinion Editor for the Cap Times.  She joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on July 6, 2026.

The post Trump Administration Terminates 988 LGBTQ+ Hotline appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Last week, House Republicans passed the Trump administration’s budget bill, which includes over $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. The fight is not over, according to Caring Across Generations’ Chief Program Officer, Nicole Jorwic, which put out a National Protect Medicaid 2025 Toolkit for activists; a series of fact sheets on Medicaid and how you can support it. Read her article on Accuracy.org, and check out their Toolkit.

The post Caring Across Generations’ Toolkit for Understanding and Saving ... appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

With reduction of Federal government oversight programs and relaxation of laws limiting corporate mischief, Project Director at Good Jobs First and author of “Dirt Diggers Digest”, Phil Mattara’s, article in Inequality.org “The Other Corporate Restraints“, is timely. In it, he discusses the role of state-level regulation and private litigation against unchecked corporate greed and misconduct, and urges the use the Violation Trackers database, which tracks banking, consumer protection, false claims, environmental, wage & hour, safety, discrimination, price-fixing, and other cases resolved by federal regulatory agencies and all parts of the Justice Department since 2000, with over 685,000 civil and criminal cases.

The post With Fed Gov’t Restrictions Relaxing, Who’s Watching Corpo... appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

With President Trump’s Proposed Rescissions Package and Budget Eliminating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) Funding, host Jan Miyasaki talks with WORT Business Development Director, Doug Holtz, and The Progressive Magazine’s Publisher, Norman Stockwell, about how these cuts could affect WORT and other public broadcasting in the U.S. Reminder, there is a 45 day public comment period, so show your support to your Congressional representatives!

The post CPB Defunding and the Potential Effects on Your Local Stations appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Today on the Pledge Drive Turnt Up Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Tara Wilhelmi and Kiki Pollard, it’s a pledge drive special, talking about the Greenwood Business District, known as Black Wall Street and scene of the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921, and more from their trip to the Black Wall Street Rally.  Plus a bonus trip through Tara and Kiki’s greatest fears, as represented by WORT pledge drive premiums.

More on Black Wall Street from the Tulsa Library: https://www.tulsalibrary.org/black-wall-street

More on the Tulsa Race Massacre from the Tulsa Historical Museum: https://www.tulsahistory.org/exhibit/1921-tulsa-race-massacre/

More Reparations for the Massage from the BBC:  https://bbc.com/news/articles/c9dqnz37v1wo 

More on the Black Wall Street Rally: https://blackwallstreetrally.com/ 

Listen in Madison at 89.9FM or online anywhere at wortfm.org.  Support your community radio with a donation online at wortfm.org!

The post Subversive History From the Community Crib appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

In the early twentieth century, in the wake of the Civil War and the failure of Reconstruction, thousands of African Americans fled the South and sought freedom from discrimination, jobs and opportunities in the rapidly industrializing cities of the North.  By the time they arrived in places like Chicago, Milwaukee and yes, Dane County communities as well, they found that fearful, nativist white residents had already slammed shut many of the doors of opportunity.  Inspired by federal mortgage guidelines, realtors, landowners, subdivision boards and neighborhood associations recorded documents on their property preventing the sale to blacks, Asians, Jews and others not perceived as “white.”  Although the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated such covenants in 1948, the records still exist to this day.  The Dane County Historical Society’s traveling “Unjust Deeds” exhibit and the Dane County Department of Planning and Development’s “Predjudice in Places” project work to identify those covenants and to help current landowners repudiate them.  Rick Bernstein is the Executive Director of the Dane County Historical Society and the Chair of the Dane County Heritage Preservation Commission.  Bridgit Van Belleghem, Senior Planner for Dane County Planning and Development.  They joined the Monday Buzz on June 2, 2025.

The post Finding and Repudiating Racial Covenants appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

In this short-term summer lull between elections, Wisconsin voters get a rare moment to catch their breath. State and local election officials, however, are still hard at work making sure the voting infrastructure hums smoothly, despite whatever curveballs demographics, staffing shortages, budget cuts, conspiracy theorists, pandemics or the Wisconsin legislature throw at it. Votebeat Wisconsin reporter Alexander Shur follows the plight of the town, city and village clerks who must deal with all this.  Alex joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing in the WORT Studios on June 2, 2025.

Photo of “Vote” sign by Richelle Wilson for WORT News.

The post Small Towns Struggle to Keep up with State Election Mandates appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Robert Craig, Executive Director of Citizen Action Wisconsin, talks with Tony Castañeda of the 8 O’Clock Buzz about a collective protest against the Republican intransigence regarding the Wisconsin State budget, and the need for Governor Evers to stand and fight for what is right.  The question becomes does he have the “ganas” for the battle.  The Republican budget drastically underfunds education, childcare, and Medicaid expansion and previously the Governor has fallen back on allowing the previous budget to remain in effect without addressing the inadequacies in the current budget.  It’s time for the Governor to get creative with his power of the veto.

Photo by rc.xyz NFT gallery on Unsplash

The post It’s Time to Stand and Deliver appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.