Despite some of the DOGE efforts being held up in court, the State Department continues to eliminate many of the peace, human rights, and conflict resolution programs in the State Department. Independent agencies have estimate that the loss of international aid programs have resulted in the death of 225,00 children in the past 6 months. Ursala Knudsen-Latta details these ripple effects of Trump's indiscriminate slashing of State Department programs.

Kevin Kamps from Beyond Nuclear gives an update on two issues currently being addressed in the courts and legislatures: an U.S. Supreme Court approval for a consolidated interim nuclear waste storage facility in Texas, and issues surrounding Holtec's attempt to restart the Palisades power plant in western Michigan. He discusses Beyond Nuclear's plans, and how you can give your input on these issues.

This morning the Wisconsin Supreme Court ensured access to abortion care in the state by ruling that an 1849 law banning abortion cannot be enforced. This news comes on the heels of the three-year anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the US Supreme and in the same week as the US Congress could vote to defund Planned Parenthood. To talk about the status of reproductive rights, host Ali Muldrow is joined by Analiese Eicher of Planned Parenthood, Wisconsin.

Featured image of an abortion rights activist via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

Former news executive Melanie Sill describes the information crisis facing us, the implications for democracy, and how people can recognize good journalism.

Today on the too Turnt Up Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Tara Wilhelmi and Antoine McNeail, Black love as liberation: talking about family, fatherhood, and parenting … plus Tara’s thoughts on 3’s Company.

More information on and resources for fathers, help expunging your record, and more, check in with Urban League of Greater Madison at ulgm.org.

Catch up with our conversation from last fall with Laura Ford-Harris from Black Men’s Coalition about the free eCornell resources: https://www.wortfm.org/put-your-name-on-the-line/ and https://www.bmcdc.org/cornell

More resources for Black fathers and the Black Father’s Pulse Podcast from regular WORT guest and sometimes Buzz host, Dr Alvin Thomas: https://thomaslab.humanecology.wisc.edu/

Music from today’s show: https://spinitron.com/WORT/pl/20874793/Tuesday-8-O-Clock-Buzz

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

The Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee met in executive session today to finalize their proposal for the state’s next budget.

WORT reporter Shayna Clark has this update.

Image courtesy: Chali Pittman / WORT News

For residents serving time in jails and prisons, text messages, emails, and phone calls are their most immediate contact with loved ones on the outside. But those communications come at a cost – and third-party contractors turn a profit.

The Dane County jail’s current communications contract is set to expire this fall and county leaders are now weighing other options – including one that would ban physical mail at the facility.

Members of the public and elected officials raised concerns about the controversial proposal at a recent committee meeting, reports the Capital Times.

For more insight into the debate, our News Producer Faye Parks spoke with freelance reporter Sarah Eichstadt.

Image courtesy: Nate Wegehaupt / WORT News.

On this week's edition of Stuff Yer Face, feature contributor Emily Tucker talks with the enthusiastic ice cream maker and owner of Stellie's Ice Cream, Stella Buckley. You may have tasted Stellie's ice cream from her bike cart at the Dane County Farmer's Market, and now you can stop in for a sweet treat on Tuesdays through Sundays at the new brick and mortar space on East Washington Avenue.

Many people conflate the anti-communist Red Scare of post-World War II America with the Hollywood blacklists portrayed in movies and TV shows or, particularly in Wisconsin, with McCarthyism. Today, guest host Christina Lieffring speaks with Clay Risen about his new book, Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America, in which he shows that the movement was much bigger than one industry or one man. The Red Scare was the first time there was a large-scale conspiratorial fear of the federal government such that progressive ideas became un-American.

Featured image: the cover of Red Scare by Clay Risen.

The Richland Center-Santa Teresa Sister City Project has focused on friendship, information about Central America and help solving everyday problems for 38 years.

From 1987, when during the Contra war Richland Center was paired as a sister city with the municipality of Santa Teresa, Nicaragua and then, in 1997, when the Santa Teresa mayor asked for Sister City help in protecting sea turtles and helping the people of the remote villages of the Chacocente Wildlife Refuge on the Pacific coast, they have worked together.

And that collaboration has been impressive.

In the five villages in the Chacocente refuge and 17 villages in the buffer zone, villagers subsisted on an economy of slash and burn agriculture, sales of turtle eggs and raising cattle. None of these benefited the remnant of rare tropical dry forest where they live. Remote and difficult to access, villagers were forgotten and left behind.

But over time through visits and meetings and talks, major problems like chronic preventable diseases, lack of education, sale of eggs from the turtle nesting beach, degradation of the forest and lack of hope were identified. Then, together plans were made and carried out.

In this interview Richland Center members talk about what it’s like in the Chacocente refuge now and the significant changes the collaboration has made.

For inspiring information about the Richland Center-Santa Teresa Sister City Project, the group has a delightful website (http://www.santa-teresa.org/ ) with access to newsletters and descriptions and photos of the hard work that’s been done and celebrations of victories large and small.

Photo of Post-secondary students by Alma Susana Chávez