Happy Sunday! 

As we discussed on Friday’s radio show, it’s important that we all seek a proper balance in how we take in the many, many headlines that accompany what President Donald Trump is doing in office. His administration has embraced a “flood the zone” strategy, making it harder for Americans to know which posts are meant to be entertaining distractions (like claiming Canada should become a US state) from the stories that truly impact our lives, like thousands of veterans being laid off in order to help fund more tax cuts for billionaires.

The answer isn’t to tune out all news. (That’s why we appreciate you being here today.) But we also shouldn’t wallow endlessly in the flood of confusion and anger. That’s just not healthy. Our job is to give you a brief read on the things impacting Wisconsin life today so that you can then go out and enjoy the rest of your day across our beautiful state. 

Do you have advice on finding that balance that you’d like to share? Feel free to drop us a line.

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

I know, I know, we just had elections. But we have a huge one coming up in April, which will decide control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.  

Join us at the Overture Center in Madison on March 12 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 button below to learn more and register.

Last week, we told you how Wisconsin’s private school  voucher program now costs taxpayers more than $700 million per year, and we asked your thoughts on the future of using public money for private schools?

A. Keep growing the program as an alternative to public schools.
B. Keep it, but freeze it at its current level.
C. Keep it, but trim it back to families in greatest need before it becomes a behemoth.
D. End it now. It’s already costing too much to fund TWO parallel school systems.

Nearly 80% were quite adamant about the need to eliminate the program immediately.

As Arlys pointed out: “Siphoning funds away from public education has caused cuts which lead to districts relying on referendums to cover basic operating costs.”

Here’s this week’s question: Have President Trump and Elon Musk gone too far with their so-called efforts to cut spending? Plenty of the president’s own supporters felt he was going to be more selective about identifying what the administration has called “unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hardworking American citizens.”

A little over a month in, Trump and Musk have instead targeted healthcare for veterans, fired national parks staff that ensure visitors have positive experiences, and stripped funding from medical researchers who try to find cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer. Are those folks radical interest groups?

Let us know – where should Trump and Musk go from here?

A. Full steam ahead. Someone else can clean up the mess later.
B. Pause the “pause” in spending cuts. See how things shake out for a while.
C. Shift responsibility to a bipartisan citizens’ commission to identify wasteful spending.
D. Reinstate several key positions before people get hurt—and the midterms become a Republican disaster.

Hit reply or email me directly at pat@couriernewsroom.com, and we may share it in a future newsletter or on UpNorthNews Radio.

(Photo by Salina Heller)

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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. 

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👉🏼 Politically Motivated State Audits – Once a widely respected panel that stuck to bipartisan investigations over state use of taxpayer dollars, the Legislative Audit Committee in recent years has instead been more likely to launch investigations in line with Republican campaign strategies. This past week, the committee co-chairs promised audits designed to influence public opinion of upcoming election campaigns: One will investigate the standardized test changes made by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly, who is up for reelection on April 1. The second is another investigation into how Gov. Tony Evers’ administration handles grants. In neither case have there been examples or justifications raised that would trigger an audit in less divisive times.  

👉🏼 Russian Roulette with Unvaccinated Kids – Even as new US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. puts a hold on multiple vaccine projects, Wisconsin health officials are extremely concerned about the plummeting rate of childhood vaccinations—especially in light of the recent measles death of an unvaccinated child in Texas. This marked the first death from measles in the country in more than a decade. In 2013, 88% of two-year-olds in the state received at least one dose of measles vaccine—by 2023 that had fallen to 82%, with some Wisconsin counties seeing rates closer to 60%. Read more on our website.

🚨 My view: Having been a state senator and a congressional candidate, I know a few things about taking criticism in public. It comes with the territory.

That’s why it’s important to note that the staffer for Congressman Van Orden, the one who decided to break a commitment to meet with constituents (as noted above), isn’t some young intimidated rookie. It’s Brian Westrate — former longtime Republican Party chair for parts of western Wisconsin and an experienced communicator to broadcast and print journalists. 

That’s what made it so out of bounds for Van Orden’s office to try to blame constituents for Westrate’s failure to show up. A statement said the members of Chippewa Valley Indivisible had created “unprofessional conditions” in order to “ambush the congressman’s staff.” 

That argument’s hardly in keeping with Van Orden’s well-groomed image of a tough-talking former Navy Seal who never passes up a chance to be confrontational. If members of his staff believe a few elderly Chippewa Valley residents who don’t want their healthcare benefits cut are scary enough to qualify as an “ambush,” perhaps we’ve identified the people on the federal payroll who ought to be in the next round of mass firings by Elon Musk. If you can’t stand the heat, stop asking us to send you a paycheck.

See you next week.