President Trump lifted a twenty-year ban on mining near the Boundary Waters this week, just three years after the Biden Administration put it in place.

The issue of mining in the region has been a political football for years, according to Minnesota Public Radio correspondent Dan Kraker. He told our News Producer Faye Parks this afternoon that the fight isn’t over – and there’s still room for a moratorium on the state level.

Image courtesy: Jenny Salita via Flickr.

Madison schools’ most experienced educators aren’t receiving an equitable wage, after changes in the district’s compensation structure over the past two decades.

The school board has signaled plans to fix the inequity in the next budget. But the teachers union argues there’s no need to wait, organizing a rally ahead of yesterday’s school board meeting to put on the pressure.

Image courtesy: Faye Parks / WORT News.

On today’s show, host Dana Pellebon is in conversation with scholar Atinuke Adediran about her new book, Disclosureland: How Corporate Words Constrain Racial Progress. Professor Adediran studies the impact of corporations on social life, specifically how corporations apply the language of DEI. We saw a flurry of public statements from corporations following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. At that time, companies also pledged billions of dollars to Black causes.

Featured image of the cover of Disclosureland.

A conversation with children's book author Dean Robbins

Amarjit Singh (A.S.) Dulat was the head of the Indian government’s Research and Analysis Wing or RAW, the equivalent of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. He also served in the Indian Prime Minister’s Office in charge of peace efforts in Kashmir.

What makes Mr. Dulat remarkable is that he is someone who has been part of the highest level of the Indian establishment and he is a persistent advocate for dialogue and co-existence with Pakistan.

For an ex-chief of India's central spy agency to stake out such a position and stick to this in the aftermath of a bitter India-Pakistan mini-conflict that has left virtually no contact between the governments of the two countries is truly unique.

As can be heard in the interview, Mr. Dulat still asserts that dialogue is the only way out of the dead end the two countries currently find themselves in. But they are simply not talking to each other.

A.S. Dulat Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._S._Dulat

A.S. Dulat’s books

Covert: The Psychology of War and Peace

Kashmir the Vajpayee Years

The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace

A Life in the Shadows: A Memoir

The Chief Minister and the Spy: An Unlikely Friendship

This week on “Madison Mixology,” feature contributor Charlie Belawski brings in his friend Matt to talk about a cocktail of his own invention: “Matty P’s Ocean Breeze.”

They’ll go into detail about the ingredients and the inspiration behind the cocktail, along with the taste and how to make it at home.

Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission is responsible for regulating the state’s utilities. And the single item on their agenda Friday drew more than 2,000 public comments: an application to establish new utility rates for data centers.

Image courtesy: City of Port Washington, aerial rendering of planned data center campus.

Forecast from Monday, 4-27-26 by WORT 89.9FM Madison

This year’s cohort of college graduates will face fewer student loan forgiveness options than previous cohorts. That’s because there’s been a sea change in debt forgiveness under the latest Trump administration. On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes is in conversation with education reporter Nadra Nittle about the broken student loan system in the US and her recent article for The 19th.

Featured image of graduating college students in their cap and gowns via Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0).

With two county meetings and just a handful scheduled for the city of Madison, it’s going to be a relatively light week in local government.

Brenda Konkel and Rebecca Kemble have the rundown, in this edition of “Forward Lookout.”