Battleground Wisconsin

We welcome Anthony Alvarado from Rise Together for a special interview to discuss the movement to use healthcare centered screening to prevent youth substance abuse in Wisconsin. We discuss a report released by Rise Together, Citizen Action and other advocates showing 1 in 2 Wisconsin students who've experimented with risky substances continued to use. We review the report's progressive solutions to ensure more young people in Wisconsin stay on a healthy path. To learn more and get involved with the statewide coalition of advocates and activists working to address the heroin/opioid epidemic in Wisconsin through early screening and brief intervention. Visit http://www.citizenactionwifund.org/sbirt. To view the full student report, visit https://www.weallrisetogether.org/advocating-for-change/

We welcome Capital Times associate editor & Nation Magazine writer, John Nichols, to discuss why Scott Walker’s presidential campaign ran aground with GOP voters and what Wisconsin can expect going forward from Walker. John also offers his advice for progressive leaders on how to capitalize on this moment of opportunity in Wisconsin. We also discuss Citizen Action’s new Wisconsin Economic Opportunity Agenda to create good jobs and the increased role of healthcare in the developing Democratic presidential primary.

We welcome organizer, Anna Dvorak, to discuss the new Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative she leads. Anna joins the panel and helps us review the 3 hour GOP debate marathon. We also talk about new Democratic legislation to bring key functions of WEDC into a new state jobs agency. In addition. we discuss the closing of a Wisconsin voucher school which closed 9 days into this school year and the retirement of State Supreme Court Justice Patrick Crooks, creating a critical Supreme Court Election next April.

We sadly say goodbye to Jennifer Epps-Addison who is leaving Wisconsin for Los Angeles after a decade of leadership in Wisconsin's progressive community. The podcast will miss her! Michael Rosen, president of AFT Local 212, joins us to discuss the new Milwaukee Area Technical College’s “MATC Promise” which guarantees free tuition at the tech school for low income, recently graduated high school students. We also talk about Rep. Robin Vos’ latest effort to gut open records, a GOP legislator tries to blame WEDC’s failures on the former Commerce Department and we recap Labor Day 2015

Candice Owley, president of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (WFNHP), joins us to discuss changes in the labor movement, including new organizing opportunities and why WI Working Families is a priority for WFNHP. Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin’s Nicole Safar also joins us to talk about new conservative effort in the state legislature to remove federal health care funding for PPWI clinics. We also discuss continued WEDC outsourcing & the CapTimes editorial calling for the closure of WEDC, Walker’s love of walls and more.

Our back to school podcast looks at the growing teacher shortage in Wisconsin and the country. We also discuss the continued staff turnover at the discredited WEDC, increasing the minimum wage for tipped workers, and more.

We welcome Brandi Grayson, co-founder of Young, Gifted and Black and Nate Hamilton, co-founder of The Coalition for Justice to continue the important conversation between #BlackLivesMatter and white progressives that we began on last week’s podcast.

Robert Kraig tells you everything you need to know about Scott Walker's plan to turn the clock back by repealing the health care law, ending care for millions of Americans and dramatically increasing the cost of health insurance for tens of thousands of Wisconsinites.

We are joined by the State Director of the new Wisconsin Working Families, Marina Dimitrijevic, to discuss the new independent political organization’s launch and plans for future. Sen. Dave Hansen tells us about his new legislation to ban companies engaged in outsourcing from WEDC taxpayer assistance. We also pick up on the important conversation between #BlackLiveMatter and white progressives that was sparked last week in Seattle at the Bernie Sanders event.

We welcome Tanya Atkinson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin to talk about the right wing’s latest attack in women's health in an effort to move our country back to the 1950’s. We are also joined by Jenni Dye, research director at One Wisconsin Now Institute to review her new research on 4 years of failure at WEDC. We discuss Gov. Walker and the GOP’s effort to end the non-partisan Government Accountability Board before the 2016 election and create a partisan organization. Citizen Action of Wisconsin organizer Anita Johnson joins us to talk about her voting rights education work being featured in Penzey Spices back-to-school catalog.

We welcome Jennifer Giegerich from the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters to discuss the implications of Scott Walker’s campaign promise to all but eliminate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. We also talk with Jennifer about the sudden restructuring and slashing cuts to the DNR. In addition, our panel discusses the latest WEDC revaluations, on-going attack on open government, funding for a new Milwaukee Bucks arena, a new racist comment by Sen. Ron Johnson, and the 50th Birthday of Medicare and Medicaid.

We discuss Scott Walker and the GOP’s efforts to expand their cloak of secrecy over open government in Wisconsin. We welcome 13-year-old Leslie Flores from Waukesha, who recently made national headlines by confronting Scott Walker on immigration in Iowa. The panel digs into the latest WEDC scandals. We also look at progress on fair wages, including a discussion with Dave Somerscales from SEIU Local 1 on the fight of Milwaukee janitors for a living wage, and New York's new $15 minimum wage for fast food workers. We also examine how the Obama Administration is pressuring Wisconsin to negotiate lower health insurance premiums, and Scott Walker's bellicose campaign rhetoric, threatening an attack on Iran on his first day in office.

We discuss the democracy imperiling Wisconsin Supreme Court decision to end the John Doe case against Gov. Walker and conservative groups for illegal campaign coordination during the recall election. We welcome Sen. Chris Larson to review this week’s vote in the state senate to help finance a new arena in Milwaukee.

This week we review the GOP's "dumpster fire" state budget which will restrict economic opportunity in Wisconsin. The budget failed to get 12 Republican legislators to vote for it. Jorna educates us on the new lawsuit against the state over 2011 Election redistricting, arguing the current legislative maps are so partisan as to be unconstitutional. We also preview Scott Walker's presidential campaign announcement on Monday evening in Waukesha.

Media Call: New Wisconsin Polling on Health Care Issues Impacting State Budget Citizen Action of Wisconsin will be joined by Public Policy Polling and members of the Joint Finance Committee to release new poll results on key health care issues. The polling was conducted March 6-8, and had a sample size of 1,071 Wisconsin voters. Questions include whether Wisconsin should accept enhanced federal funds for BadgerCare, and whether Governor Walker has responsibility to take action to protect Wisconsin residents from a possible U.S. Supreme Court decision that could take health insurance subsidies from over 184,000 Wisconsinites.

Citizen Action of Wisconsin joins State Senator Kathleen Vinehout and State Representative Melissa Sargent on a media call to announce a contingency plan in case the Supreme Court takes health insurance subsidies away from over 183,000 Wisconsinites. The announcement of the legislation coincides with U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments on the case of King vs. Burwell, which could take tax subsidies away from over over 13 million people in states that did not set up their own federal health insurance marketplace under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Participants on the call will make the case that it is malpractice for Governor Walker and the State Legislature not to create a contingency plan in the the Supreme Court takes health insurance subsidies away. Many Wisconsinites just above the poverty line were dropped from BadgerCare by Governor Walker and the Legislature in 2014 and pushed into the federal marketplace. In addition, many people on the federal marketplace have preexisting conditions, an

Recorded 1:00pm 2/16/15 Citizen Action of Wisconsin will join State Representative Daniel Riemer on a media call to announce new Iowa-style legislation to accept the federal funds for BadgerCare and make private health insurance more affordable. Announced on Presidents Day, those on the call will share how Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and many other Republican Governors have accepted the federal funds in alternative ways and how Walker can accept the funds to cover tens of thousands who lost BadgerCare and save the state hundreds of millions of dollars.

Citizen Action of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Council on Children and Families will host a media call to explain a new method for Wisconsin to accept the federal Medicaid funds for BadgerCare on its own terms. If Wisconsin requested a waiver from the federal government based on Iowa’s approved model it would allow substantial federal funding to pay for Wisconsin’s current insurance options, reducing the cost of coverage and saving the state hundreds of millions. Data will be released on the amount low income consumers would save. Savings to the state in the next state budget will also be discussed. Speaking Robert Kraig, Executive Director, Citizen Action of Wisconsin Jon Peacock, Research Director, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families State Representative Daniel Riemer Kevin Kane, Lead Organizer, Citizen Action of Wisconsin

Report finds continuing regional disparities on cost, inflation, and quality Wisconsin Health Insurance Premiums Tripled since 2000. Citizen Action of Wisconsin released its 9th Annual Wisconsin Health Insurance Cost Ranking report Wednesday morning on a statewide media call. On the media call to comment on the report were U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore and State Senator Chris Larson. The full report includes 11 charts ranking the cities and regions of Wisconsin on health insurance costs, rate of inflation, and quality. This year’s report finds wide disparities between higher and lower cost regions of Wisconsin, as well as large differences in the rate of health insurance inflation. There is a 22% variation in the large group market between the lowest cost metro area (Madison) and the highest cost area (Rhinelander), which amounts to a difference of $1,763 per year for single health coverage. On the small group and individual market, the report finds even higher regional disparities of as much as 42% be

Governor Walker has kicked over 62,000 Wisconsinites off BadgerCare by rejecting billions of dollars in federal health care funds for the program. On November 4th, Vote for Mary Burke! Mary Burke will accept the federal funds for BadgerCare.