A Vernon County Sheriff’s Deputy was put on administrative leave after fatally wounding a 61 year old man the officer had been dispatched to check on following a call from relatives concerned about his welfare. Charley Preusser, Editor of the Crawford County Independent/Kickapoo Scout, joined Thursday 8 O’Clock Buzz host Tony Castañeda to talk about the incident and ensuing week-long delay in The Wisconsin Department of Justice-Division of Criminal Investigation releasing the name of the victim as well as the Deputy involved.

Photo courtesy of Scott Rodgerson on Unsplash.

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In 2009, husband and wife Andy and Dee Hall founded the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism in their family basement.  Now known as Wisconsin Watch, the center has become an award-winning model for a new kind of nonprofit, collaborative, independent journalism.  Its motto: Protect the vulnerable, expose wrongdoing, explore solutions.  Now, Andy and Dee Hall have announced their retirement, effective June 30.  Dee Hall has the distinction of being our most frequent guest on the Monday Buzz, bringing us stories ranging from reports on attempts to gut Wisconsin’s Open Records law to sexual harassment scandals in Sheboygan police department.  Now on her first weekday as a retiree, Dee Hall joins us now by phone.

 

Image by Michael_Luenen for Pixabay

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If, like many Madisonians, you are dependent on your bicycle for transportation, what do you do if your bike breaks down, and you can’t fix it yourself?  Sure, if you live close enough to a bike shop, you could walk it over… or maybe stick it on one of those Metro bus bike racks.  But, that’s not going to work for everyone.  Enter Ian Oestrich (A-strike), who founded Curbside Bicycles during the pandemic of 2020 to bring a mobile mechanic’s shop to where people need it. Curbside is starting their 2023 schedule of pop-ups, and Ian Oestrich joins us now by phone.

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Madison’s Starkweather Creek may hold the dubious distinction as the most polluted waterbody in Wisconsin.  On the Wisconsin DNR’s impaired waterbody list since 1998, the urban creek has suffered the loss of wetlands and springs, runoff from surrounding pavement, unsafe levels of sediment, toxic metals, chloride, e coli bacteria and lately, the forever chemical PFAS.

The City of Madison, Dane County and the State of Wisconsin have spent millions restoring Starkweather’s riparian areas, but water pollution, low oxygen and toxic algae blooms continue to plague the creek.  Now, the nonprofit Myco Rising is trying a new approach:  growing mushrooms to clean the water.  Joining us now in the studio is Aaron Cutler from Myco Rising.

Image by Mike Goad from Pixabay

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In 2022 the U.S. trade deficit increased for goods and services, but with regards to hate and extremism there was a significant surplus in exported racist and anti-immigration resources.  Heidi Beirich, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder, of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism joins the Thursday edition of the 8 O’Clock Buzz to talk about the growth of xenophobic developments in other countries and the support they are receiving from white supremist groups in the US.  Spreading false rumors such as The Great Replacement Theory resonates with movements in other countries as white Europeans feel their power and culture are under attack by immigrants.

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

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Bri LeRose, comedy writer and director, joins the 8 O’Clock Buzz and host Tony Castañeda and Eli Wilz to discuss the status of the work stoppage by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).  There hasn’t been much progress during the past weeks, but that could change after the dispute between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the AMPTP reaches a climax on their contract deadline of June 30. One of the main issues for the writers and actors’ guilds are the growing influence of streaming platforms like Netflix, and their business model which has left many writers and actors struggling to make a living.

Image by Lucas Bieri from pixabay

 

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Melissa Smith, Founder and Executive Director of Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife, joined the 8 O’Clock Buzz to let everyone know there is a Rally for Wolves planned for this Saturday, July 1 at the Capitol from 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM.  They will meet with Senator Tammy Baldwin to discuss legislation to de-list the wolf from the endangered species designation.

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Allison Sesso, President and CEO of RIP Medical Debt, talks about the activities of her organization, funded by crowd funding, individual contributions, church donations, and now money from the American Rescue Plan, to erase medical debt from low-income individuals (at 400% of the poverty level or below). The systemic failure of healthcare in the U. S. puts a tremendous burden of medical care on the poor, and RIP Medical Debt can erase that debt at a price of $1 for every $100 of medical debt, and have already erased more than $9 billion of medical debt in the country.

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Between 1819 and 1969, over 400 Indian boarding schools, many of them Christian, held forced Indian children — away from their families, culture, language, and traditions in order to Americanize them and convert from their pagan ways. Cindy Darcy, consultant on Native American Policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, talks about the introduction of a bi-partisan bill in the U. S. Senate to form a federal commission to investigate and make recommendations on how to make amends to the individuals and their families.

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In 2023, once again, the Poor People’s Campaign, Kairos Center, Repairers of the Breach, and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) are taking stock with the release of new, updated fact sheets that examine the state of poverty and inequality at the national level in the United States, as well as extensive data for each of the 50 states and D.C. Ashik Siddique from the IPS talks with Jan Miyasaki about the report, including some national statistics of the poor as well as information specific to Wisconsin, where more than 31% of the population are categorized as “poor”, 30% of individuals make less than $15/hour, and 77% of the workforce do not have access to paid sick leave. The fact sheet describes how re-allocation of some of the military spending can reduce the inequities.

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