Battleground Wisconsin

Candice Owley, president of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (WFNHP), joins us to discuss changes in the labor movement, including new organizing opportunities and why WI Working Families is a priority for WFNHP. Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin’s Nicole Safar also joins us to talk about new conservative effort in the state legislature to remove federal health care funding for PPWI clinics. We also discuss continued WEDC outsourcing & the CapTimes editorial calling for the closure of WEDC, Walker’s love of walls and more.

Our back to school podcast looks at the growing teacher shortage in Wisconsin and the country. We also discuss the continued staff turnover at the discredited WEDC, increasing the minimum wage for tipped workers, and more.

We welcome Brandi Grayson, co-founder of Young, Gifted and Black and Nate Hamilton, co-founder of The Coalition for Justice to continue the important conversation between #BlackLivesMatter and white progressives that we began on last week’s podcast.

Robert Kraig tells you everything you need to know about Scott Walker's plan to turn the clock back by repealing the health care law, ending care for millions of Americans and dramatically increasing the cost of health insurance for tens of thousands of Wisconsinites.

We are joined by the State Director of the new Wisconsin Working Families, Marina Dimitrijevic, to discuss the new independent political organization’s launch and plans for future. Sen. Dave Hansen tells us about his new legislation to ban companies engaged in outsourcing from WEDC taxpayer assistance. We also pick up on the important conversation between #BlackLiveMatter and white progressives that was sparked last week in Seattle at the Bernie Sanders event.

We welcome Tanya Atkinson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin to talk about the right wing’s latest attack in women's health in an effort to move our country back to the 1950’s. We are also joined by Jenni Dye, research director at One Wisconsin Now Institute to review her new research on 4 years of failure at WEDC. We discuss Gov. Walker and the GOP’s effort to end the non-partisan Government Accountability Board before the 2016 election and create a partisan organization. Citizen Action of Wisconsin organizer Anita Johnson joins us to talk about her voting rights education work being featured in Penzey Spices back-to-school catalog.

We welcome Jennifer Giegerich from the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters to discuss the implications of Scott Walker’s campaign promise to all but eliminate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. We also talk with Jennifer about the sudden restructuring and slashing cuts to the DNR. In addition, our panel discusses the latest WEDC revaluations, on-going attack on open government, funding for a new Milwaukee Bucks arena, a new racist comment by Sen. Ron Johnson, and the 50th Birthday of Medicare and Medicaid.

We discuss Scott Walker and the GOP’s efforts to expand their cloak of secrecy over open government in Wisconsin. We welcome 13-year-old Leslie Flores from Waukesha, who recently made national headlines by confronting Scott Walker on immigration in Iowa. The panel digs into the latest WEDC scandals. We also look at progress on fair wages, including a discussion with Dave Somerscales from SEIU Local 1 on the fight of Milwaukee janitors for a living wage, and New York's new $15 minimum wage for fast food workers. We also examine how the Obama Administration is pressuring Wisconsin to negotiate lower health insurance premiums, and Scott Walker's bellicose campaign rhetoric, threatening an attack on Iran on his first day in office.

We discuss the democracy imperiling Wisconsin Supreme Court decision to end the John Doe case against Gov. Walker and conservative groups for illegal campaign coordination during the recall election. We welcome Sen. Chris Larson to review this week’s vote in the state senate to help finance a new arena in Milwaukee.

This week we review the GOP's "dumpster fire" state budget which will restrict economic opportunity in Wisconsin. The budget failed to get 12 Republican legislators to vote for it. Jorna educates us on the new lawsuit against the state over 2011 Election redistricting, arguing the current legislative maps are so partisan as to be unconstitutional. We also preview Scott Walker's presidential campaign announcement on Monday evening in Waukesha.