🌞Happy ‘Spring Ahead’ Sunday! ⏰

Did you remember to set your clocks ahead last night? Increasingly, the answer is that we don’t have to remember. More devices than ever automatically make the change to daylight saving time.

Though it might be Tuesday by the time you remember the microwave clock is wrong. 

Oh wait, there’s also an old clock-radio in the guest bedroom. 

And for some cars that require a Ph.D. to change the clock, today begins the eight-month wait for it to be right again! Whether you’re currently on schedule or still time “zoned,” thanks for spending some time catching up on some Wisconsin headlines with us.

PS: If you’d rather not get this politics-only newsletter going forward, that’s OK. Just click here to unsubscribe to this edition.

Join us at the Overture Center in Madison on Wednesday evening for a series of panels with great insight into the stakes of the race. You’ll hear directly from people who can speak to some of the critical issues that could be decided by who wins the April 1 election. 

Admission is free, click the link above to learn more and register.

Last week, we asked how President Trump and Elon Musk should move forward with their massive assault on government services—or if they should pause or even backtrack. 

5% – Full steam ahead. 

3% – Pause the “pause” in spending cuts. 

43% – Shift responsibility to a bipartisan citizens’ commission to identify wasteful spending.

27% Reverse course before more people get hurt.

It doesn’t add up to 100% because there were a lot of folks who wanted both C and D, reverse the cuts and essentially start over with a bipartisan commission—or take some other approach.

An (A) from Joel: “I don’t think the pain is deep enough at this point to wake up a number of voters.”

The (D) answers were especially heartfelt, with expressions of how the cuts have been “cruel,” “dangerous,” harmful to democracy, and other expressions we can’t print here!

From Karen (among others): None of these suggestions. Put spending decisions back to Congress, where they belong. And hold members of Congress responsible for necessary trimming without damaging necessary services. This is a responsibility they have neglected for too long.

📚 Let’s shift gears this week. We all need to take a break now and then. How about a book? Or a book club? One of our recent radio guests was author Laura Bird, who told us all about how to find a good book club or create one that’s just right for you and your friends.

What are your thoughts on book clubs? Love them? Would rather read alone? Have suggestions to make a book club better? Hit reply or email me directly at pat@couriernewsroom.com, and we may share it in a future newsletter or on UpNorthNews Radio. Bonus points if you include one good book you’d recommend to fellow readers of this newsletter.

(Photo: Bernie Sanders Facebook)

🥰 If you like what we’re sharing, we hope you’ll share, too. Let a friend know about us. 

📻 We talk about all of these stories and more every weekday morning on UpNorthNews Radio, 6-8 a.m. on seven Civic Media stations across Wisconsin, and on our YouTube and Facebook pages. 

📱 And, of course, you can stay up to date every day through our social media feed—pick your favorite platform: Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok.

Wisconsin veteran James Stancil outside the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

👉🏼 Veterans Feel Betrayed – “I’m not dead weight. You’re tossing off the wrong stuff.” Those are the words of US Army veteran James Stancil, a supply technician at the VA Hospital in Milwaukee who recently spoke  out about the bloodbath of red ink coming from Elon Musk on behalf of President Trump. White House counselor Alina Habba’s response? “We have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people that actually work. We are going to care for [veterans] in the right way. But perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment, or not willing to come to work.” Read the full story from the AP on our website.

👉🏼 Trump Closing Local Customer Service Offices – More than a dozen federal offices in Wisconsin are facing closure, thanks to Trump administration’s cancellation of  real estate contracts around the country. Here, that includes Social Security offices in Green Bay and Wausau, an IRS customer service office in La Crosse, Bureau of Indian Affairs offices in Ashland and Shawano, and a USDA rural economic development office in Stevens Point. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel provides the full list.

👉🏼 Uncertainty Is Bad for Business – A survey by the Wisconsin Center for Manufacturing and Productivity shows fewer than half of 400 manufacturers surveyed think the business climate is headed in the right direction, citing the uncertainty about trade wars promised during the campaign by President Trump. Full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.

File photo of former WI Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman (AP Photo/Scott Bauer)

🔎 Remember Michael Gableman? You should. Wisconsin taxpayers shelled out at least $2 million for this former state Supreme Court justice to “investigate” the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin. He found nothing—but trouble. The state Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR) is considering a 75-page complaint filed against Gableman for his behavior and conduct. 

🕵🏻‍♂️ Among the many lowlights of his activity, there was the time he asked a judge (unsuccessfully) to jail the mayors of Green Bay and Madison for refusing his demand to undergo private questioning. 

🔄 Now it’s OLR that wants to question Gableman as they consider potential disciplinary action. And WisPolitics reports Gableman is refusing to sit for a deposition. 

🤷🏻‍♂️ You can’t make this stuff up. It’s not like one of Gableman’s “investigations.”

P.S. – On Friday at 7:30am, we’ll have a live interview with Brittany Kinser, candidate for state Superintendent of Public Instruction. She’s an advocate for voucher and charter schools and is getting vocal support from Wisconsin Republicans. We’ll ask her how she would manage two parallel school systems, how she would ask taxpayers to support both, and how she would protect and strengthen our local public schools. Tune in.