The Recombobulation Area

The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The issue of Child Care funding is a major one in Wisconsin, and this year, it has taken on an especially partisan tone in Madison. Earlier this year, Republican legislators blocked a proposal to continue funding a program called Child Care Counts, in a 2:30 a.m. vote of the state’s budget writing committee. 

Child Care Counts is a program that has helped stabilize the child care industry during the pandemic, helped raise wages for early care educators, kept costs down for parents and families, and was recently recognized by the Wisconsin Policy Forum with an award for innovation in state government. But the federal dollars that have been funding that program are now running out, putting thousands of child care centers at risk of closing.  

That 2:30 a.m. vote, however, was not the end of the story. Gov. Tony Evers called a special on workforce challenges, and the highlight of that session was more than $350 million to continue the Child Care Counts program in Wisconsin. Oftentimes, these special sessions are met with a gavel-in, gavel-out approach from state Republicans, but this time in the state Senate, at least, the bill is being considered. Yesterday, there was a public hearing on that bill, and many child care providers, parents and experts spoke in favor of the bill and of funding Child Care Counts.

Among those providing testimony in that hearing was Democratic State Senator Kelda Roys, who has been among the most vocal champions of child care funding, and she joined us to talk about these issues.

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Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The “Bird on a Wire” podcast series has reached the end of its 10-episode run, but as a bonus for our loyal listeners, LuAnn Bird and Dan Shafer sat down together for one more episode to recap the series, talk about what we’ve learned and look ahead to what’s next. 

We also want to take a moment to thank all of our wonderful guests who joined us for this series to have these important conversations. We’d also like to thank Christopher Porterfield, who designed the logo for “Bird on a Wire” and provided the music for the series. And of course, we’d like to thank all of you, our listeners and subscribers . This wouldn’t be possible without your support. 

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

* Episode One with Dan Shafer

* Episode Two with Evan Goyke

* Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield

* Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski

* Episode Five with Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson

* Episode Six with the “Grandma Brigade”

* Episode Seven with The PerSisters

* Episode Eight with change makers in southwestern Milwaukee County

* Episode Nine with Nicole Otto

* Episode Ten with David Crowley

LuAnn will be hosting a live conversation this week with activist Tyler Kelly, who advocates against gun violence and has been doing so since he was at Franklin High School. You can RSVP to the event here.

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Ten of “Bird on a Wire”, Lu Ann and I were joined by Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

We talked about the county executive’s path to a career in public service after facing certain challenges growing up in Milwaukee. We also spent a lot of time talking about shared revenue and local taxes as the bill reshaping the system and allowing Milwaukee to raise its sales tax makes its way through the state legislature. Crowley has been instrumental in negotiating key aspects of that deal, and he shared a lot of insight and information about the legislation that’s coming together.

For a short clip of that conversation, on a thorny debate on referendum and sales taxes, go here: 

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

* Episode One with Dan Shafer

* Episode Two with Evan Goyke

* Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield

* Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski

* Episode Five with Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson

* Episode Six with the “Grandma Brigade”

* Episode Seven with The PerSisters

* Episode Eight with change makers in southwestern Milwaukee County

* Episode Nine with Nicole Otto

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The “Bird on a Wire” podcast series has featured conversations on hope, civility and action, hosted by LuAnn Bird. For Episode Ten of the series, LuAnn and I sat down with Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

The full episode will be available shortly, but we’re sharing this six-minute clip from the conversation as part of The Recombobulation Area’s ongoing coverage of the shared revenue and local sales tax bill.

State and local leaders right now have been hammering out a deal about overhauling the state’s shared revenue system, and allowing Milwaukee, both city and county, to raise a local sales tax.

One point of contention within that debate has been on whether that sales tax issue should go to a public referendum or whether it should be voted on by members of the Milwaukee Common Council or Milwaukee County Board.

There’s been disagreement among legislative Republicans on this issue, with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos favoring a public referendum and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu favoring “enabling legislation” that would allow the vote on the sales tax to be taken by Common Council and County Board members, for each respective sales tax.

In our podcast, Crowley said he supports the “enabling legislation.”

“Enabling legislation gives us much more certainty,” he said. “Because if this if it does get voted down, we're going right back to the state to have this conversation.”

Mayor Cavalier Johnson has also expressed support for “enabling legislation” over a public referendum on this issue.

Crowley also explained the precedent in having a vote like this be one conducted by these local legislative bodies, and broke down the changes in the sales tax pitch.

Because if this if it does get voted down, we're going right back to the state to have this conversation.

LuAnn Bird, a resident of Hales Corners, also talked about how a public safety referendum failed to pass by just four votes in that community.

Along with the comments in this six-minute excerpt, Crowley said this of ongoing negotiations:

“It would be unfortunate for us to get rid of a statewide fix because the one thing affecting one community.”

Be sure to subscribe to get the full episode in your inbox.

See more of The Recombobulation Area’s coverage of the shared revenue bill, including the multi-part series analyzing the bill by Marquette Professor Phil Rocco, here.

Learn more about the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, and listen to the latest episode, here.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagramat @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Nine of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is Nicole Otto. Nicole is a mental health counselor who works with children. In this episode, LuAnn and Nicole talked about some of the difficult realities young people face when it comes to challenges with mental health. 

There’s a great quote that they reference that’s actually come up more than once in this podcast series. It’s from Desmond Tutu and the quote is this:

“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

* Episode One with Dan Shafer

* Episode Two with Evan Goyke

* Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield

* Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski

* Episode Five with Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson

* Episode Six with the “Grandma Brigade”

* Episode Seven with The PerSisters

* Episode Eight with change makers in southwestern Milwaukee County

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

One of the most important pieces of legislation impacting Milwaukee and Wisconsin is currently working its way through the Capitol in Madison. That is the bill on shared revenue and the relationship between state government and local government in Wisconsin. The bill introduced by Assembly Republicans is big and messy and complicated and approaches change to the state’s broken shared revenue system very differently than what Gov. Tony Evers proposed as part of his budget earlier this year. 

At The Recombobulation Area, we’ve been working on learning more about this bill and what it would mean, and Marquette professor Phil Rocco has now written three installments of a series breaking down the bill and how things would change for local communities across Wisconsin. He joins us today on the podcast.

But if you missed those, read them here.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagramat @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Eight of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is joined by Tom Spehert and Chris Baumgart. 

In this episode, LuAnn talks with Tom and Chris about organizing and making change in southwestern Milwaukee County. They also talked about the work LuAnn and Chris are doing to address accessibility concerns at the Hales Corners Library. 

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

* Episode One with Dan Shafer

* Episode Two with Evan Goyke

* Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield

* Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski

* Episode Five with Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson

* Episode Six with the “Grandma Brigade”

* Episode Seven with The PerSisters

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

Last night on 620 WTMJ, I guest hosted WTMJ Nights!

We started the show talking about the Bucks firing head coach Mike Budenholzer — news that happened less than an hour before the show started!

Then, Tricia Peterson and Renae Henning of Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed (WECAN) joined to talk about the Child Care Counts program and why it’s so important that funding to extend the life of this program is in the state budget. So far, it has made it (even as more than 540 other items were cut), but its future remains uncertain.

Then, we talked about the Stadium Freeway. Next week in Milwaukee, the first public involvement meeting for reimagining State Highway 175 will be held at the Washington Park Senior Center on Thursday, May 11, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Learn more about that meeting and WisDOT’s plans here. You can even go right to an interactive map to share comments on the project online.

And here’s what we wrote about this reimagining project when it was announced:

And here’s our (award-winning!) opinion column from 2021 on why we should tear down the Stadium Freeway.

As part of that conversation, we were joined in studio by County Supervisor Peter Burgelis, who represents the district.

Burgelis was also at yesterday’s public hearing in Madison on the shared revenue bill, where he testified in committee, so we discussed that news, too.

The full show is also available at 620 WTMJ here.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Seven of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is joined by The PerSisters. The Persisters is a group of women that got involved in political action following the 2016 election and the Women’s March. They started the PerSisters with a few women in Wauwatosa and the group has now grown to a community of hundreds. Now, they meet every Friday and celebrate every new member’s first time making a call to their U.S. Senator. 

The leaders of the group, Lisa Williams and Cheryl Juech — who are actually real life sisters themselves — joined LuAnn for a terrific discussion on how to take action in your community.

“The thing about hopelessness is, it’s easy to do nothing. Hope means there’s work to do,” said Cheryl Juech, adding, “When the sun rises, so does the hope.”

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

* Episode One with Dan Shafer

* Episode Two with Evan Goyke

* Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield

* Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski

* Episode Five with Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson

* Episode Six with the “Grandma Brigade”

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Six of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is joined by the “Grandma brigade.” That would be JoAnn Stasiewicz and Jean Parulski.

Jean and Joann were the first people that LuAnn called when she decided to run for State Assembly last year, and they have been getting together to talk about politics and taking action for years. In this podcast, they talked about their paths to getting involved in politics, last year’s campaign, getting involved in school board races in Wauwatosa in the Spring Election, flipping Hales Corners for Justice-elect Janet Protasiewicz, and much more. 

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

* Episode One with Dan Shafer

* Episode Two with Evan Goyke

* Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield

* Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski

* Episode Five with Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe