The Recombobulation Area

We are just days away from Election Day for Wisconsin’s wild Democratic gubernatorial primary.

To offer a bigger picture perspective on the state of the race — and much more in Wisconsin’s discombobulating politics — Dan Shafer joined Aaron Rupar of Public Notice to recombobulate on this chaotic primary season. We also talked about Ron Johnson, Derrick Van Orden, Sean Duffy, Tom Tiffany, and all the Wisconsin Republicans who end up in Rupar’s frequent viral cable news clips.

For a beat-by-beat breakdown, check out our topics and timestamps below:

(00:00:00) — Intro, guest welcome, and what “The Recombobulation Area” means
(00:02:40) — Tony Romo, the Tavern League of Wisconsin & drunk driving
(00:04:15) — Wisconsin’s gubernatorial race goes national (DSA vs. establishment battle)
(00:04:38) — Francesca Hong’s rise
(00:05:24) — Hong’s CNN moment: the “cancel Thanksgiving” tweet controversy
(00:06:41) — New polling: Hong’s commanding lead after Barnes drops out
(00:07:37) — Why Hong is surging: national attention, ground game, service-industry background
(00:10:55) — Hong’s dominance with young voters; the data center moratorium issue
(00:12:34) — How the establishment lane imploded (Rodriguez campaign finance scandal)
(00:14:42) — Crowley re-enters the race with Evers’ endorsement
(00:16:53) — Looking ahead: Hong vs. Tom Tiffany in November
(00:17:02) — Tiffany’s far-right record (2020 election objector, birthright citizenship, Juneteenth vote)
(00:24:82) — Voter question: will moderates balk at Hong’s DSA ties?
(00:25:15) — Comparing to Ron Johnson’s 2022 win despite similar election-denial baggage
(00:26:32) — Ron Johnson’s conspiracy theories and Uline family backing
(00:31:51) — Mandela Barnes’ 2022 loss, 2026 dropout
(00:38:00) — Down-ballot: Derrick Van Orden’s competitive 3rd District race vs. Rebecca Cooke (or Emily Berge)
(00:40:20) — 7th District GOP primary: Sean Duffy’s 26-year-old son-in-law, Michael Alfonso
(00:47:41) — Sean Duffy’s fading Wisconsin presence & the still-unaired “road trip” show
(00:44:21) — Closing thoughts

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With just days to go before the Aug. 11 primary, we have reached the silly season of the Democratic gubernatorial campaign. So, Angela Lang joined the podcast to ask: Have we lost the plot?

We pondered that questioned, Angela had a few things to say about David Crowley’s recent comments on “the establishment” as a “slur,” what the term “the establishment” even means anymore, Tony Evers’ involvement in the primary, what was the real turning point in the race, and more.

Plus: As fellow Milwaukeeans, we wondered: Who is going to win Milwaukee County? As folks will often reference, Bernie Sanders won 71 of 72 counties in the 2016 presidential primary in Wisconsin. The one county to go for Hilary Clinton? Milwaukee County. Could results next week show a similar map? Could Crowley carry Milwaukee? Or, could the emergence of Democratic Socialists in the city bring stronger results for Hong?

Much to discuss, folks.

For a beat-by-beat breakdown, check out our topics and timestamps below:

00:01: Intro, and catching up — last time they podcasted together (May 28th)

01:52: Plug for Dan’s article on down-ballot primary races (Assembly, Senate, congressional)

02:32: “Losing the plot” — old Thanksgiving tweets dominating coverage of Francesca Hong

07:19: Whether Hong should keep doing national media (CNN interview) as the race nationalizes

09:39: What they’d rather be discussing: Trump’s endorsement of Tom Tiffany, policing, ICE and local response

11:44: David Crowley calling “establishment” a slur — the clip and the reaction

15:10: What does “establishment” even mean anymore? — buzzword fatigue and the DSA-vs-establishment framing

21:46: Sara Rodriguez’s campaign finance scandal and exit as the real turning point

23:14: The legislative bill that split Democrats over the summer, and Tony Evers’ involvement in the primary

27:24: Milwaukee’s role in the race — 2016 Bernie Sanders comparison, union endorsements, yard-sign spotting

33:17: The generational divide — Marquette poll numbers among younger voters

35:11: “Blue no matter who” — does it cut both ways for moderates if Hong wins?

37:22: Wisconsin’s ideological extremes — comparison to Sens. Baldwin and Johnson

39:05: Marquette polling: Hong essentially tied with Tiffany in head-to-head matchups

41:35: Roots of polarization — the Scott Walker recall and a decade of gerrymandering

42:28: The independent streak in the Fox Valley and western Wisconsin

43:47: The “attention economy” and Trump-era campaign tactics (wedge issues like Thanksgiving)

46:47: Candidate forums and how much the Democratic field actually agrees on policy

48:20: Sign-off — closing thoughts on primary-season Facebook posts

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The Wisconsin Politics Group Chat podcast features Dr. Kristin Lyerly, Pat Kreitlow of UpNorthNews, Kate Duffy of Motherhood for Good, and Dan Shafer of The Recombobulation Area.

There is now less than a week to go before Wisconsin’s Aug. 11 partisan primary, and your friends at the Wisconsin Politics Group Chat podcast are here to break it all down.

The chat reacts to results from the U.S. Senate primary in Michigan, Francesca Hong’s recent national media appearances (including That Thanksgiving Answer on CNN), discusses primaries happening up and down the ballot, and much more.

This episode aired live on Pat Kreitlow’s UpNorth YouTube Channel on Wednesday, Aug. 5, at 9 a.m.

For a beat-by-beat breakdown, check out our topics and timestamps below:

02:52: Michigan Senate primary results: El-Sayed vs. Stevens
06:52: What Michigan means for Wisconsin (and what it doesn’t)
10:24: The frenzied final week of the governor’s race: ads, mailers, and the Crowley–Evers roadshow
13:35: Can we trust the polls? Late polling and growing skepticism
16:39: David Crowley, endorsements, and his Milwaukee County record
20:24: Francesca Hong, consistency, values, and working in a GOP-controlled legislature
23:42: Hong’s old tweets, the “canceling Thanksgiving” controversy, and campaign strategy
32:48: Kelda’s poll: how to spot a questionable poll
36:14: Dark money: Republican spending in the Democratic primary
42:27: Abortion is back on the ballot — and Tom Tiffany’s record
44:17: The Attorney General’s race: Josh Kaul vs. Eric Toney
47:43: Down-ballot rundown: congressional, treasurer, and legislative primaries
52:48: Make your voting plan (no early voting Monday!)

You can find every episode of the Wisconsin Politics Group Chat on The Recombobulation Area’s podcast feed, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Substack.

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Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has had a rather unique campaign in his run for governor, to say the least. He dropped out of the race in early July and endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez a day later, not realizing she had misled him about an unraveling campaign finance crisis in her campaign.

Ten days later, he’d officially re-launch his campaign, and do so with the backing of Gov. Tony Evers. Since, he’s picked up a number of labor union endorsements, and has been hitting the road in an effort to get his message across the state, in this last-minute sprint before the Aug. 11 primary.

The campaign in this primary — perhaps the most discombobulating primary in American politics — changed again last week, after former lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes dropped out of the race, days after the one and only debate, and after polls from State Navigate and Marquette University showed State Rep. Francesca Hong with a commanding lead.

So, just 16 days after Crowley re-entered the race, and just eight days before Election Day, I sat down with Crowley at Dandy, a vintage furniture store and event venue on West Vliet Street in Milwaukee.

We talked about what he considers his top accomplishments in his six years at the helm in Milwaukee County, what he’d want to do as governor if Democrats were to win a trifecta, his thoughts on eight years of divided government in Wisconsin, how he is seeking to reach voters outside of southeastern Wisconsin, his relationship with Democratic Socialists in county government in Milwaukee, whether the Democratic Party has a problem with “elitism,” Francesca Hong’s recent rally with Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Hasan Piker, what it means to build the “broadest coalition possible,” why union support matters to him, and much more.

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Ben Wikler, the former chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, is out on tour, promoting his terrific new book, “This Is The Plan: How to End America’s Meltdown and Save Democracy.”

I joined Wikler to host the event in Eau Claire for a live conversation to talk about the book, Wisconsin’s especially discombobulating campaign season, and much more, on topics from gerrymandering to the filibuster to “the establishment” to state legislative races to the news of the day on Ken Martin and the DNC. He even explained why he agrees with Sen. Ron Johnson on something (yes, really!).

And in case you missed it — which, hey, you might have; there’s a lot going on these days! — we have full audio of the event here.

The event was introduced by Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, who is also running to be Wisconsin’s next Lieutenant Governor. Wikler and I joined next, at the wonderful Pablo Center at the Confluence, and talked for about 30 minutes, before we answered a few questions.

Event audio recorded by Jonathan Klett, mixed by Jennie Brand.

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It’s been another busy week in Wisconsin politics, with the one and only debate happening Tuesday at Marquette University, two new polls showing Francesca Hong opening up a sizable lead over the rest of the field, and a news cycle unfolding at breakneck pace as we get closer and closer to the Aug. 11 partisan primary.

Your friends here at the Wisconsin Politics Group Chat podcast are here to break it all down.

For a beat-by-beat breakdown, check out our topics and timestamps below:

00:00 — Intro: recapping a big week in Wisconsin politics
00:42 — Debate recap: format and moderators
03:30 — Pat’s debate takeaways
05:04 — The state of the field and Francesca Hong’s lead
06:10 — Why the other candidates didn’t attack the frontrunner
11:12 — What’s next for Barnes, Crowley, Brennan, and Roys
16:26 — The missing healthcare questions
20:14 — Working with the legislature
21:29 — Down-ballot primaries and previewing your ballot
22:26 — Inside the spin room with Dan
28:05 — Comparing the Marquette and State Navigate polls
31:25 — Undecided voters and leaners
33:44 — The candidates as Breakfast Club characters
35:42 — Listener question: how to decide your vote
39:18 — Hong’s campaign style and ground game
44:08 — Looking ahead to the general election
47:43 — The generation gap in the polls
50:51 — Predictions for the final stretch
52:03 — The 3rd Congressional District and 17th Senate District primaries
58:21 — Closing thoughts on unity after the primary
59:54 — Plugs, voting reminders, and wrap-up

The Wisconsin Group Chat podcast features Dr. Kristin Lyerly, Pat Kreitlow of UpNorthNews, Kate Duffy of Motherhood for Good, and Dan Shafer of The Recombobulation Area.

Find the previous episode of the Group Chat here.

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A new poll of the Democratic primary in the race for governor in Wisconsin was released today by State Navigate, with support from UpNorthNews and Main Street Action.

Here are the headline results, showing State Rep. Francesca Hong of Madison with a huge lead.

UpNorthNews first reported on the results of the poll, and you can find Pat Kreitlow’s full story here.

You can find State Navigate’s breakdown — which includes extensive graphics, deep-dive crosstabs, and just a wealth of information — here.

Chaz Nuttycombe is the executive director of State Navigate, and if you are a longtime subscriber here at The Recombobulation Area, you are already familiar with his work. He does some of the best polling you will find of state legislatures around the country, including in Wisconsin, where I have used his analysis as a core piece of the mammoth Wisconsin State Legislature I write every election cycle.Nuttycombe’s work was previously under the name “CNalysis”, but he’s now running State Navigate, which has extensive data on elections up and down the ballot in Wisconsin. Check out their Wisconsin forecast here.

Among the many takeaways, beyond Hong’s huge lead, is just how much data centers have emerged as a significant issue in this race.

Nuttycombe also writes in his breakdown that, “The re-entry of David Crowley into the race has almost certainly crowned Francesca Hong as the Democratic nominee.”

Following that re-entry, the Milwaukee County Executive moved into a virtual tie in second with former lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes, who also has the most second-place votes in the race.

But, bottom line, as Nuttycombe said: “I think this primary is done.”

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Over the past two weeks, the Democratic primary in the race for governor has turned into absolute chaos. Candidates are out, candidates are in, politicians are making endorsements, people are freaking out about the establishment, and this is all very discombobulating.

Nobody knows anything, but the Wisconsin Politics Group Chat — Dr. Kristin Lyerly, Patrick Kreitlow of UpNorth News, Kate Duffy of Motherhood for Good, and Dan Shafer of The Recombobulation Area — is here to try to make sense of all of it.

We talked about all that’s happened over the past two weeks, the upcoming Marquette University Law School Poll, an upcoming poll from UpNorth News (👀👀👀), Kelda Roys’ campaign, Francesca Hong’s campaign, Mandela Barnes’ campaign, David Crowley’s campaign, Tony Evers’ endorsement, and much more.

Oh, and we also talked about the guy on the other side of the aisle, Tom Tiffany, and why he’s an especially problematic candidate, maybe the most far-right candidate who has ever run a statewide race in Wisconsin.

We also talked about some of the news as it was breaking in real time about whether people who may have already voted absentee can change their vote.

Just three weeks until the Aug. 11 primary, folks.

EPISODE DETAILS:

00:00 — “Democrats in Wisconsin are going through it”

01:54 — The two-week recap: Crowley out, Rodriguez implodes, Crowley back in

03:33 — Why the Marquette poll will be confusing (+ a new poll is coming)

07:29 — Endorsements: which ones actually move votes?

11:41 — The Kelda Roys puzzle: doing the right things, not breaking through

15:42 — Does anyone outside Milwaukee know David Crowley?

17:16 — Where are all the TV ads?

19:42 — Has Francesca Hong pulled ahead?

25:31 — Could Fran actually govern in a divided state?

30:18 — Mandela Barnes: dark horse or falling stock?

33:52 — What to watch for in the Marquette poll

35:54 — The 70,000-ballot problem: spoiled ballots & the WEC ruling 44:22 — Tom Tiffany: the record behind the folksy ads

51:07 — Embrace the chaos + debate preview (July 28, WISN 12)

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The last two weeks of campaign politics in Wisconsin have been extremely discombobulating, to say the least.

Since Tuesday, July 7, the following has happened:

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley ended his campaign
Crowley endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez
Rodriguez announced she was firing her campaign manager over a major campaign finance crisis
Campaigns filed their finance reports, covering the period from Jan. 1 - June 30
The Republican Governor’s Association made a multi-million dollar ad buy widely believed to be designed to boost Francesca Hong’s campaign
Rodriguez ended her campaign
Crowley announced he was be re-joining the race, and did so with the endorsement of Gov. Tony Evers

It’s been a lot.Amid all of this, so much of the talk seemed to surround a certain candidate in the race, so we wanted to hear from her herself.

What does she think of Crowley rejoining the race, with Evers’ endorsement? Does she see this as “the establishment” lining up against her? What does the term “the establishment” even mean to her?

What does she think of Act 12, the consequential piece of legislation many Crowley supporters were talking about at his campaign re-launch event? What’s happening with her campaign’s vaunted ground game? What is her big picture view of Tony Evers’ time as governor? And if she comes up short in the Aug. 11 primary, would she back whoever the Democratic nominee ends up being?

She answered those questions and more, speaking in downtown Milwaukee.

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Today is is a rather discombobulating day for a variety of reasons. For one, here in the city of Milwaukee, we are experiencing the worst wildfire smoke here that I think we’ve ever experienced here in the city. The air quality is atrocious and everything smells like a campfire — and not in a good way. It’s really, really bad.

Secondly, scrolling social media to see Giannis Antetokounmpo being introduced as a new member of the Miami Heat gave me a bit of a visceral reaction to this visual. This never should have happened. Giannis should have been a Buck for life. Ugh.

Third, we are in the middle of the most discombobulating week of the election cycle for the Democratic primary in the race for governor.

Campaign finance reports for everyone running have just been released, and it would be an insane amount of information to parse in normal times, much less when one of the seemingly top candidates is having their campaign implode over a campaign finance crisis.

So, I am discombobulated. So today’s podcast might seem a little unhinged. But I am thrilled to be talking to one of my very favorite people to talk to — Greg Bach. Greg was the host or co-host of many different shows on Civic Media, and I used to talk with him every Friday when he was co-hosting “Matenaer On Air.”

We talked about these discombobulating times, the big picture of the Democratic primary, and much more.

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The Wisconsin Politics Group Chat of Dr. Kristin Lyerly, Patrick Kreitlow and Dan Shafer (we missed Kate Duffy this time!) got together once again to talk about all the latest happenings in Wisconsin politics, diving deep into the emerging scandal for a candidate that seemed ascendant just a few days ago.

Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez fired her campaign manager over mismanagement and inaccuracies in campaign filings on Sunday, faced the press at a news conference in Madison on Monday, and now, folks are left wondering if her campaign can continue.

We talked about all of that and more.

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State Sen. Kelda Roys is making the case that she’s the candidate in the Democratic primary for governor who can get things done for Wisconsin, and as the person in this race who is the biggest threat to Republicans in a general election.

“I think the Republicans looking at this race do see me as the biggest threat to Tom Tiffany because I will eviscerate him,” she said. “I will hold him accountable for every horrible thing that he has done to our state. I can do so effectively, and build that broad coalition that we need not just to win the general election, but also to deliver the Senate and the Assembly so that we can actually have a Democratic trifecta and then use it and govern. I’m just excited about, and not afraid to use power, to get things done for Wisconsinites.”

In this conversation, we talked about lessons learned from her 2018 campaign, her experience in the legislature and serving on the powerful Joint Committee on Finance, the potential of a Democratic trifecta, how her message translates statewide, and much more.

Plus, given the news of the day surrounding Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez firing her campaign manager “after discovering serious mismanagement and inaccuracies in campaign finance filings she prepared,” we talked about her reaction to that, too.

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The Wisconsin Politics Group Chat of Kate Duffy, Dr. Kristin Lyerly, Patrick Kreitlow and Dan Shafer got together once again to talk about all the latest happenings, from socialism scaremongering to data center moratoriums to the Democratic primary in the race for governor (controversies, microprimaries, etc.) and beyond.

We also talked about the end of Child Care Counts (on June 30) and the beginning of postpartum Medicaid extension (on July 1), and about the many congressional primaries happening in races all over Wisconsin.

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The Wisconsin Politics Group Chat got together once again to talk about all the latest in the news of the week.

The show streamed live on Patrick Kreitlow’s Facebook page and YouTube channel, and now, you can watch the full show here.

Among topics discussed: The Democratic primary in the race for governor, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley’s place in the race, the fourth anniversary of the Dobbs decision and the impact it continues to have, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program, and the Bucks trading Giannis Antetokounmpo (and my column about how he saved basketball in Milwaukee).

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The Blake Matthew Mindful Memorial Foundation was founded in 2021 following the loss of Blake Matthew Fenwick, a beloved son, brother, friend, and young Wisconsin man whose life ended far too soon after a struggle with mental health challenges.

What began with a father’s desire to honor his son has grown into a statewide movement focused on making mental health support more accessible, personal, and effective.

The Foundation’s first program was a scholarship initiative, funded with Blake’s inheritance. As community support grew, so did the mission. Through annual fundraisers, partnerships, and grassroots community support, the Foundation has now helped more than one hundred individuals access mental health and wellness services through its innovative Tinman Coin Wellness Grant program.

Unlike traditional approaches that focus solely on crisis intervention, the Foundation embraces a broader view of mental wellness. Recipients can access a growing network of wellness partners offering services such as counseling, breathwork, yoga, support groups, retreats, mindfulness training, and holistic health coaching.

In 2026, the Foundation launched the Tinman Trail, a structured wellness pathway designed to help participants build practical skills for emotional regulation, resilience, self-awareness, and long-term wellbeing. The program combines clinical lab testing, breathwork, community support, education, and healthy lifestyle practices into an accessible, community-based experience.

Today, the Foundation serves individuals and families throughout Wisconsin and continues to expand its network of wellness providers and community partners.

To support this vision, the Foundation recently launched its most ambitious initiative yet: the 10,000 Hearts Campaign.

The idea is simple.

What could happen if 10,000 Wisconsinites each contributed just $5 per month?

Together, those small monthly gifts could create a sustainable source of funding for wellness grants, educational programming, scholarships, and community-based mental health initiatives across Wisconsin.

The campaign is built on a simple belief: meaningful change happens when ordinary people come together to support one another.

One heart can make a difference.

10,000 hearts can help transform a state.

Learn more at blakestinman.com.

The Blake Matthew Mindful Memorial Foundation is an official sponsor of The Recombobulation Area, and this podcast is a sponsored episode.

To learn more about sponsorship opportunities, email: therecombobulationarea@gmail.com.

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Joel Brennan is one of now six candidates running to be the Democratic nominee for governor. He was the secretary of the Department of Administration for much of Tony Evers’ first term as governor, and before that, was the president and CEO of Discovery World for more than a decade in Milwaukee.

It was around that time that I met Brennan, when I was a reporter at the Milwaukee Business Journal, and wrote a few stories about developments happening at Discovery World, and talked to him for an interview. I find him to be a compelling individual and an intriguing candidate. Far from the flashiest or most well-known, Brennan could prove to be a dark horse in the race, as his record of experience lends itself well to the ability to take on role of governor.

In this conversation, we talked about what he’s learned over the past few months while running for governor (his first time running for elected office since losing a State Senate race in 2003), what he would want to do if elected, how he’d approach working with the state legislature, and much more.

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The Democratic Party of Wisconsin held its annual convention over the weekend in Madison. And as you might expect, the Democratic primary in the race for governor was the big topic at this year’s event, with candidates hosting hospitality suites and delivering speeches and jockeying for position to be The Nominee.

Kate Duffy of Motherhood for Good, Pat Kreitlow of UpNorth News and Dr. Kristin Lyerly were all there in Madison on Saturday and Sunday, and shared stories and insights from being in the building for speeches and being there for the festivities of the convention weekend. Dan Shafer also chimed on with his takes on the state of the race, which you can find more of here.

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The future of the Stadium Freeway is something we’ve covered a whole lot here at The Recombobulation Area.

Almost exactly five years ago, I wrote a piece as part of our multi-part “Expanding the Divide” series on why we should tear down the Stadium Freeway and convert it to a boulevard, opening up opportunities for housing and development and better connection between neighborhoods.

Here’s that column, to refresh your memory:

About a year later, change did begin to actually happen. Mayor Cavalier Johnson, County Executive David Crowley and Craig Thompson, then the secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, stood together at Washington Park to announce they would be initiating a study to reexamine the future of the Stadium Freeway.

I wrote about this at the time, too.

But that was May 2022, and since, a 1.5 to 2-year study turned into a nearly four-year study, and as Jeramey Jannene at Urban Milwaukee reported in mid-May, the determination of what’s next is that … another study is needed.

You can read his piece about this here.

Or, you can listen to our conversation in the podcast and video here. While there appears to be broad support for converting this old, hulking freeway spur into a boulevard, any concrete action on the project still seems years and years away.

Along with discussing this project, we also talked about Jeramey’s recent reporting on a number of topics, including:

Wisconsin Center District CEO Marty Brooks (who was discussed at length in a recent podcast episode with Gary Witt of the Pabst Theater Group) now cleaning out his office as the board has considered removing him from his position
After Congressman Bryan Steil got in some hot water over celebrating funding for lead pipes that he voted against, as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we talked about what is actually happening in the city of Milwaukee when it comes to lead pipe replacement. Milwaukee’s lead pipe replacement has become more efficient and less costly, and they’ve been able to replace more lead pipes because of it, but the program is still at risk. Read more here.
2026 has been dubbed the “Year of Housing” in Milwaukee by Mayor Cavalier Johnson, and we talked about a recently proposed project to use funding from downtown projects to fund housing and infrastructure west of I-43 in the King Park neighborhood. Read more about that here.

Urban Milwaukee is a terrific publication and you should really be subscribing. Do that here.

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In light of the Callais decision, the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition is firing up its demand for an Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) that empowers citizens — not political parties.

For the past year, they have been building public support for a draft proposal that aims to be transformative in how Wisconsin draws its maps. On Thursday, June 4, they are holding coordinated statewide rallies in Madison, Milwaukee, Appleton, Menomonie, Janesville, Green County (Monroe), Wausau and more. Find out more about the “Our Maps, Our Say” rallies here.

Listen to this episode featuring Organizing Director iuscely Flores and Coalition Volunteer & Relational Organizer Nicole Gabriel, where they talk about the work they’ve been doing to build a “Wisconsin model” for redistricting, how the gerrymandering arms race is impacting this debate, and what’s in store for the June 4 rallies.

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Angela Lang and I always have a lot to talk about when we get together, so for these podcast episodes, we each bring three headlines or topics to discuss.

This time, my headlines were:

WPR: Failed surplus deal would have sent Wisconsin budget into the red, analysis finds
NPR: Transportation Secretary Duffy filmed a reality show, funded by firms he regulates
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Schlitz beer production ends after 175 years

And for Angela, they were:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Tom Tiffany says Jan. 6 defendants ‘possibly’ are owed restitution
Fox 6: Watertown band members play LGBTQ+ history song banned by board
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: This report says Milwaukee is the top US city for creatives. Here’s why

This episode is sponsored by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition, which is hosting “Our Maps, Our Say” rallies in cities across the state on Thursday, June 4.

Find out more about the events and register to attend here.

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Emily Mills recently won a Milwaukee Press Club GOLD award for their column, “How AI is harming Wisconsin’s path to renewable energy.” So, they joined the podcast to talk about that prescient piece, how the politics of AI and data centers has taken off as a major issue over the past year, and how this is an issue that does not cut along traditional political lines.

We talked about that piece, along with Emily’s latest column, on “habitual drama king” Kirk Bangstad, and his run for governor.

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Thanks so much to everyone who came out for our LIVE PODCAST event at Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery in Milwaukee! It might not have been April 14, but we still showed up for the 4-1-4! Turns out you can celebrate Milwaukee Day on May 7, after all.

Our guests for the podcast included Angela Lang and Kristin Brey, and we were also joined by Milwaukee Day founder Andy Silverman and 414 Day Executive Director Mocha Harris, as well as Carmen Murguia, sales director at the Milwaukee Courier, another publication that, like The Recombobulation Area, has recently come under the umbrella of Civic Media.

It will always be of the utmost importance to us at The Recombobulation Area to build community, and that community would not be possible without the city we call home: Milwaukee.

Topics discussed include: How much we love Milwaukee, the final year of the Milwaukee Public Museum, the driving in the city (and construction on I-94), Milwaukee Record's "Mandatory Milwaukee" feature, the origins of Milwaukee Day, the latest on the holiday, what's happening at the Milwaukee Courier, and much more.

Video credits:

Video Editor, Tony Zimmerman
Audio Recording Engineer, Chris Kasper
Video Producer/Audio Editor, Aaron Zommers
Additional Editing, Jennie Brand

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

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The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.

Thanks so much to everyone who came out for our LIVE PODCAST event at Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery in Milwaukee! It might not have been April 14, but we still showed up for the 4-1-4!

Our guests for the podcast included Angela Lang and Kristin Brey, and we were also joined by Milwaukee Day founder Andy Silverman and 414 Day Executive Director Mocha Harris, as well as Carmen Murguia, sales director at the Milwaukee Courier, another publication that, like The Recombobulation Area, has recently come under the umbrella of Civic Media.

It will always be of the utmost importance to us at The Recombobulation Area to build community, and that community would not be possible without the city we call home: Milwaukee.

Thanks again, y’all!

Production and engineering for this episode by Chris Kasper and Aaron Sommers.

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

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Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation recently held a pair of Public Involvement Meetings about the future of the Lake Interchange in Milwaukee, otherwise known as 794.

This stretch of interstate highway between the Marquette Interchange and the Hoan Bridge has been a topic of debate for several years, since it was identified that it would need to be replaced, with a price tag well into the hundreds of millions of dollars. In the years since, many have argued that this stretch of highway would be better off being significantly reconfigured, or perhaps even torn down entirely.

The meetings that have been held over the past week are part of the the third round of public involvement meetings that have been held on this project, with the first being in August 2023, another in November 2025, and now yet another here in the Spring of 2026.

You can see the latest materials released as part of the public meeting here. BizTimes also has a good breakdown of the various proposals here.

Rethink 794, which has advocated for removal of the freeway, had its own reaction to the latest here.

You can also watch this episode on our YouTube channel here:

And here’s what we had to say about the project in 2023:

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

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Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.

Our guest for this episode is Angela Lang, the co-executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities and an award-winning contributor here at The Recombobulation Area.

Whenever Angela and I get a chance to catch up, there’s always a lot for us to talk about, so for these episodes, we use a format we call “three headlines.” We’ve done this a couple times before, but if this is your first time hearing one of these episodes, we each bring three headlines or topics to discuss, they can be about anything happening in the news, but at least one of them has to be a Milwaukee story. We don’t show these to each other in advance, so you get some genuine reactions here.

Topics for this episode include:

Recent flooding in Milwaukee and the questions that arise about the city’s infrastructure
The recent candidate announcements for those running for Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2027, including Pedro Colón and Lyndsey Brunette (and Angela’s recent column)
Detained Islamic Society president Salah Sarsour, and Congresswoman Gwen Moore’s recent trip to visit him at the Clay County Jail in Indiana — and free speech issues in the second Trump administration
Milwaukee County’s tremendous success battling opioid overdoses, where the number of deaths have been cut in half since 2022.
The city of Milwaukee’s recent decision to limit operating hours for food trucks downtown past 10 p.m.
Milwaukee Alderman Peter Burgelis running for Congress in the 1st Congressional District — a district he does not live in, and the political fortunes of Republican incumbent Bryan Steil

Watch at the video above, or on our YouTube Channel here:

Angela and I will be part of The Recombobulation Area’s LIVE podcast event next week at Anodyne Coffee in Walker’s Point on Thursday, May 7. The great Kristin Brey will also be joining the event. Find all of the details here:

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.

Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.

The 18th annual Milwaukee Film Festival is happening from April 16 - 30, with nearly 250 films screening as part of the festival. The Recombobulation Area is proud to be a Community Partner on three films in the Documentary Festival Favorites Program — “The Dads,” “Seized,” and “Your Attention Please.”

If you missed it last week, we had the opportunity to talk with the filmmakers behind “Your Attention Please,” so be sure to check that one out.

For this episode, we are joined by the new Marketing Director at Milwaukee Film, Milan Zori, whose work you might also be familiar with as the legendary Milwaukee illustrator Dwellephant, and who is a friend of The Recombobulation Area (and a fellow Milwaukee Bucks superfan).

We talked about what’s unique about this year’s festival, the amazing film community that exists in Milwaukee, how the festival has grown over the years, and much more (including, of course, our beloved Milwaukee Bucks).

You can also watch on our YouTube Channel here:

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.

Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.

The Spring Election in Wisconsin was just a couple short weeks ago, and while the big headline statewide was on Chris Taylor’s landslide victory in the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, one of the local elections that drew a lot of attention was the race for mayor in the city of Waukesha, where Council President Alicia Halvensleben, a Democrat, defeated longtime Republican state representative Scott Allen.

Mayor-Elect Halvensleben will be sworn in as mayor on Tuesday, April 21, and she joins us here on the podcast on the eve of becoming mayor.

Topics discussed include: reflecting on the campaign, Election Day, shifting political tides in Waukesha County, and what’s next as she becomes mayor.

Watch the video above, or on our YouTube Channel here:

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.

Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.

The 2026 Milwaukee Film Festival officially kicked off last night with the premiere of “UECK” at the Oriental Theatre. Over the next two weeks, nearly 250 films will screen as part of the festival, which runs from April 16-30.

The Recombobulation Area is proud to be a Community Partner for several films at this year’s festival, all of which are part of the Documentary Festival Favorites Program, including “The Dads” (on fathers of trans and nonbinary children), “Seized” (on the police raid on the Marion County Record in the small town of Marion, Kansas), and “Your Attention Please” (on social media and the attention economy, and fighting back against Big Tech).

I recently had the opportunity to talk with the filmmakers of “Your Attention Please,” which screens on Saturday, April 18, and on Thursday, April 23.

Director Sara Robin and producer Jack LeMay joined us to talk about the film, and they will be in attendance at the Saturday screening at the Oriental Theatre at 1:15 p.m.

As someone who is entirely too online myself, this film gave me a lot other think about, both on a personal level and from a policy standpoint.

“Even over the course of making the film from 2023 to now, you can see this marked shift in the average person that you talk to,” said LeMay. “When we approached people three years ago and said, ‘is this one of the major issues we’re facing?’ or ‘is your relationship with your phone dysfunctional?’, (or) ‘is it at the root of some of the issues you have in your life?’, most people would say it probably has something to do with it, but they’d be skeptical of how deep that problem really gets. Now, we have a lot more people saying, ‘thank god this film is coming out, I’ve been thinking a lot about this’.”

“(Attention) is something that’s being taken away from us,” said Robin. “Our focus is not as much in our control as it used to be, and as we want it to be. So, I think understanding the immense power that’s on the other side of that is a really helpful first step to realizing that this is a really difficult battle for the individual, but it’s a really important one.”

Watch the trailer below, and find times to screen the film at the Milwaukee Film Festival here.

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.

Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.

Today is April 8, 2026, and that means we just wrapped up the Spring Election here in Wisconsin. There’s a whole lot to recombobulate on as we dig through the results from races across the state, but the big headline is from the statewide race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, where Chris Taylor delivered a resounding landslide victory over Maria Lazar, winning by an astonishing 20-point margin. Not only does this mean a 10-year term on the state’s highest court for Taylor, but it means the court will remain in liberal control through at least 2030.

ICYMI, here’s my column on Taylor’s astonishing victory:

There will be much more to dissect and analyze with this race and others across the state in the Wisconsin Spring Election — our usual “10 Takeaways” deep dive is coming soon — but first, we wanted to talk a bit more about this enormously important Wisconsin Supreme Court race.

To do that, we were joined by someone who knows these state Supreme Court campaigns well — Sachin Chheda, who has led or co-led six campaigns for Wisconsin Supreme Court, including three races to help win this majority, with Justice Rebecca Dallet in 2018, Justice Jill Karofsky in 2020, and Justice Janet Protasiewicz in 2023.

We talked about the big picture for these Wisconsin Supreme Court races, why candidates matter, how political realignment is driving some of these shifts, and how the template for success in these campaigns was set with Justice Dallet in 2018, which began the liberal winning streak, where five of the last six state Supreme Court races have been won by the Democratic-aligned candidate.

PLUS: A couple reminders:

On Saturday, April 11, Dan Shafer will be joining “Laughing Liberally Milwaukee” at their monthly political comedy show at Comedy Sportz. The show starts at 8 p.m., and features comics Raegan Niemela, Chloe Mikala, Diego Avila, Alecia Altstaetter, and sketch comedy troupe The Accountants Of Homeland Security. Details here and tickets here.
We are less than a week away from our LIVE PODCAST on Milwaukee Day, April 14! The event will be held at Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery, beginning at 5:30 p.m. It’s free to attend, families are welcome, and the podcast will feature Angela Lang of BLOC, Matt Wild of Milwaukee Record, and several special guests. Find out all about it here, and RSVP to attend on Facebook here.

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.

Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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This is a special edition of The Recombobulation Area.

Gary Witt, president and CEO of the Pabst Theater Group, sits down with Dan Shafer for an extended conversation, backstage at the Riverside Theater for an exclusive video podcast.

Gary Witt is one of the most interesting people in Milwaukee to talk to. He always speaks his mind, he always has a lot to say, and he brings a perspective that exists outside of the typical circular conversations this city seems to be constantly having.

For the last 24 years, Witt has led what’s now called the Pabst Theater Group, helping oversee the transformation of the Pabst Theater, Riverside Theater, Turner Hall Ballroom, and so much more. He’s been one of the central figures in the revitalization of downtown Milwaukee in the 21st century, and for someone in his position, he is remarkably unguarded about what he has to say about … pretty much everything.

“I’m not here to keep things status quo,” he said. “I’m here to talk about how to make things better.”

Witt has been in the news recently because of his staunch opposition to a proposal that’s been out there to potentially tear down the Miller High Life Theatre to build a new convention center hotel. That concept was one of the conclusions drawn in a recent report from Hunden Partners put forth by the Wisconsin Center District. The Pabst Theater Group took over much of the booking and operations of the Miller High Life Theater in 2022, so perhaps some of that opposition is to be expected, but this goes well beyond that. Witt accuses Wisconsin Center District CEO Marty Brooks of having his “thumb on the scale” with this report, questioning the very validity of the “study,” saying it had a preferred outcome all along.

“Stop calling it a study. It was Marty Brooks’ request to get a hotel built because his ego is so large that in the final two years of his contract, instead of the board giving him the guidance of taking his final two years and hiring someone to take the baton from him and work toward the future, Marty has been entrusted with the next 20-30 years of $300-400 million of debt that hotel will cost us, that, long after he’s gone and sunning his buns in Florida, we’ll be stuck with taxpayer debt for building a hotel that will likely kill the hotel industry in the city.”

While we talk at length about this discussion around this concept of a plan and why it’s misguided — “We can’t afford errors in Milwaukee because we have too many things wrong,” he said — this conversation is about much more than Witt’s criticism of this particular proposal, or the High Life Theatre in general, or even the future of downtown at large.

“I’m tired of development downtown. Anyone will tell you we’re losing population in the city of Milwaukee, and we’re not losing population from a bunch of white people who are moving into The Couture, we are losing population from people in the poverty level who cannot find living in this city sustainable. I have distrust and disdain for our leaders of today who don’t take on the “p word” — poverty — and look at real world solutions.”

Along with talking about what’s happening with the Miller High Life Theatre, we talked about the bigger picture, and whether downtown Milwaukee has arrived at another inflection point. We also talked about the new venue downtown, Landmark Credit Union Live. We talked about independent music venues and helping form NIVA (National Independent Venue Association), dealing with Ticketmaster and Live Nation, the convention and hotel business in Milwaukee, the history of leadership at the Wisconsin Center District, and a whole lot more.

As the conversation unfolded, we also talked about things like regional transportation and its impact on the metro area’s economy, challenges with Mitchell Airport (other than the actual Recombobulation Area, of course), and Milwaukee leaders not focusing enough on fighting poverty.

Witt also had a few especially critical things to say about philanthropy from this generation of Milwaukee’s business leaders — “Get the fk out there and start writing some f*g history and stop putting your name on buildings and st,” he said — so be sure to stick around until the end of the podcast for that.

Witt has a whole lot to say about a great many things — takes on takes on takes, truly. But he is someone who cares deeply about Milwaukee and this city’s future, and his unique perspective is always genuinely thought-provoking.

I’ve had these longer conversations with Gary a number of times, and they always go in some unpredictable directions, and this is no different. So please enjoy this conversation with Gary Witt.

Let’s recombobulate.

Find the following topics throughout the podcast (times approximate):

2:00: Conversation begins: “I’m not here to keep things status quo. I’m here to talk about how to make things better.”
5:00: On the Wisconsin Center District-commissioned study and Witt’s opposition to the concept of tearing down the High Life Theatre for a convention center hotel
19:00: Digging in to the Hunden Partners report and the history of leadership at the Wisconsin Center District
33:00: Why the Miller High Life Theatre is unique in Milwaukee and Wisconsin’s live event landscape
44:00: Is downtown Milwaukee at another inflection point?
49:00: Regional transportation and the spatial mismatch of jobs in the Milwaukee metro area
56:00: How this generation of philanthropists in Milwaukee’s business community needs to step up
1:00:00: On Milwaukee’s newest music venue, Landmark Credit Union Live
1:05:00: On Ticketmaster and forming NIVA

The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.

Video filmed by Max Martinson. Editing and additional production by Jennie Brand.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 23 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

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Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer and at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social.

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Dan Shafer and Angela Lang each bring three headlines from recent news stories in politics from Wisconsin, Milwaukee and beyond.

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The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.

The first Marquette University Law School Poll of 2026 was released this week, and this survey of political opinion of Wisconsin voters included a ton of information about our state’s ever-evolving political landscape.

Charles Franklin, the longtime executive director of the poll, joined The Recombobulation Area to talk about the results.

After the poll results release program, Franklin talked with the media about the poll, saying “It used to be that all politics was local. Now, all politics are national.”

All politics now being national is a major theme of this poll, where about two-thirds of voters are disconnected from major upcoming state elections and primaries, but have strong views on national political issues.

Franklin discussed this and many of the other results from this poll, including rapid shifts in public opinion on data center developments, how the details matter in questions on immigration and mass deportation, and so much more.

And if you missed it, my super-sized analysis of the latest poll is available here, with much available for free subscribers and the full breakdown available for paid subscribers.

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he became the Political Editor of Civic Media. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 23 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.

Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer and at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social.

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

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The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.

Angela Lang is the co-executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC) and has been a longtime contributor at The Recombobulation Area, winning several Milwaukee Press Club awards for her work.

Angela and I haven’t had the chance to catch up in a while, so we got together for this podcast today to talk about a whole lot of things. We each brought three headlines or topics to talk about, so we could cover a lot of ground.

Topics discussed include:

Tony Evers’ final State of the State address, and the governor’s legacy
See: Wisconsin Watch: ‘As Tony Evers delivers his final State of the State, he remains crosswise with the GOP Legislature’
The crisis around grocery stores closing in predominantly Black neighborhoods in Milwaukee (and whether “food apartheid” is the right way to describe this ongoing problem)
See: MJS: ‘Milwaukee alders introduce resolution declaring food apartheid a public health emergency’
The Republican-controlled state legislature advancing proposed amendments to the state constitution that are anti-DEI, and what those implications might mean
The organizing win behind the Milwaukee Police Department’s decision to ban facial recognition software
Democratic candidate for governor talking about ICE and immigration
See: MJS: ‘Dem governor candidate Rodriguez says she ‘misspoke’ about aiding ICE’

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he became the Political Editor of Civic Media. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 23 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer and at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social.

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The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.

Mark Becker is the former chairman of the Brown County Republican Party, a party he has now left. In 2024, he was part of Wisconsin Republicans for Harris-Walz. He also hosts the radio show and podcast, “Rational Revolution,” which airs on Saturday and Sunday on the Civic Media network.

I always enjoy talking politics with Mark, who has a unique perspective and always has a lot to say. On this latest episode, we talked about looking ahead to the 2026 midterm elections, the race for governor (and the candidate forum I hosted in January), and whether or not Wisconsin is really a purple state.

We also talked about how this is Tony Evers’ last year as governor. He’ll be giving his final State of the State Address this week (Tuesday, Feb. 17, 7 p.m.). And in the state legislature, the Assembly and Senate are racing to their imaginary deadline to complete their session before going off to campaign for nine months (we’ve, uh, discussed this broken dynamic before). With all of that happening, is this the end of a certain era in Wisconsin state politics?

You can watch the full conversation, which features a final segment with Becker’s take on the Super Bowl halftime show, in the video here, or listen in the official podcast feed embedded below.

Becker also recently wrote this column here at The Recombobulation Area, about Alex Pretti, fellow alum of the Green Bay Boys Choir.

One more thing: Last Friday, I joined my friend Greg Bach on the final episode of “Civic Media Mid-Mornings,” which has been broadcasting in the “Matenaer On Air” 9-11 a.m. timeslot since Jane’s retirement in December. But don’t worry, Greg will soon be back on the airwaves, and you’ll hear more about what’s in store in the coming days.

Listen to that episode with yours truly here, or watch the video below, at about the midway point.

“Rational Revolution” video edited by Dominic Lee.

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he became the Political Editor of Civic Media. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 23 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.

So, we have something a little different for you today. There is, of course, a ton happening in the political universe in Milwaukee and Wisconsin and beyond, but as anyone who follows me on social media knows, I am a huge, huge Milwaukee Bucks fan. And we just endured a roller coaster of a week as Bucks fans, with Giannis Antetokounmpo being in trade rumors all the way leading up to the NBA trade deadline. But after all that, Giannis is still a member of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Here to recombobulate with us after a discombobulating week is Milwaukee sports radio legend Bart Winkler.

Bart hosts the “Into the Winklerverse” podcast and you can find the latest episode here.

Oh, and thank you, Giannis. Please never leave us.

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he became the Political Editor of Civic Media. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 23 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.

After 44 years behind the microphone, legendary Milwaukee broadcaster Jane Matenaer is retiring.

She made the announcement on the show she hosts, “Matenaer On Air,” on Monday, Nov. 3, alongside co-host Greg Bach and producer Calvin Butenhoff.

“I really want to take this opportunity to say: thank you,” she said, making the announcement. “Thank you for four decades of welcoming me into your homes and your cars and your garages and your barns or wherever you listen to the radio. Thank you so very much. I have been so fortunate for the last 44 years…You grieved with me, you celebrated with me, you gave me words of comfort and encouragement and congratulations and well wishes.”

Her final show as host of the program will be on Dec. 12. A parade of guests will be appearing on “Matenaer On Air” over the next several weeks to celebrate her amazing career.

Along with that celebration is a little reflection — on more than four decades in radio. To do that, I sat down with Jane at our Radio Park studios in Racine to talk about her remarkable journey. We covered everything from her first time behind a microphone, to the decades she spent hosting morning shows in Milwaukee, to the global (and beyond!) sensation that was “The Packerena,” to her last three years at Civic Media, which she calls “the proudest of my 40-plus year career.”

Watch the full interview above, or see our special feature story, “Jane says farewell,” here.

Video edited by Tony Zimmerman, engineered by Calvin Butenhoff.

Listen to “Matenaer On Air” every weekday from 9-11 a.m. on the Civic Media network, and find podcasts from every show here.

You can find the episode where she announces her retirement embedded below.

Share a message with Jane and with “Matenaer On Air” by emailing JaneSays@civicmedia.us.

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The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-timeNINETEEN-TIMEMilwaukee Press Clubaward-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.

Every week, David Nir of The Downballot and Aaron Rupar of Public Notice talk politics in a live show on Substack, and this week, the spotlight turned to Wisconsin, so I was invited to join and discuss the latest in our discombobulating politics.

Among those topics we discussed was Tony Evers’ looming decision over whether or not he is going to run for a third term as governor (and my opinion column on the matter), who might be running for Republicans, the post-Gerrymander elections happening in the Wisconsin State Legislature (and the chance for a trifecta in 2026), and what’s ahead for elections in the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Be sure to subscribe to The Downballot and Public notice for all of their fine work.

Check out a clip from the conversation — on Evers and passing the torch, and reflecting on what happened with Joe Biden in 2024 — below:

Thank you Howie Noel, Ray Grosch, and many others for tuning into my live video with Aaron Rupar and David Nir! Join me for my next live video in the app.

ICYMI…

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he became the Political Editor of Civic Media. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 23 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-timeNINETEEN-TIMEMilwaukee Press Clubaward-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.

For the last six years, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has been run by Ben Wikler. In that time as chair of the party, Democrats and Democratic-aligned candidates have won seven of ten statewide races, including flipping the balance of power on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

But in April, after yet another win in a pivotal Wisconsin Supreme Court race, Wikler announced he’d be stepping down as chair. The party will be electing its next chair in less than a month, at their upcoming convention on June 14 and 15 in Wisconsin Dells.

Wikler sat down with The Recombobulation Area for an extended interview on the latest news around Elon Musk and his political spending, Wikler’s run for DNC chair, and his surprise endorsement in the race for WisDems chair. We also talked about where the Democratic Party needs to go from here, how the party can do a better job communicating with voters, whether the Democrats have a credibility problem with regards to Joe Biden’s age, whether more people from Wisconsin should be working on campaigns, and much more.

You can also listen to the interview as a podcast on Civic Media here, on Apple Podcasts here, or embedded below from Spotify.

You can also watch this interview on YouTube.

Production and engineering by Aaron Zommers of Civic Media.

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he became the Political Editor of Civic Media. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 23 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

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The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-timeMilwaukee Press Clubaward-winning weekly opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.

There’s been a whole lot happening in recent months as Donald Trump has returned to office as president, and Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has begun to take a wrecking ball to various federal agencies, making drastic cuts to the federal workforce.

We’re beginning to see the effects of this at the state level here in Wisconsin, and recent reports have indicated that mass layoffs are happening at agencies within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which has a significant presence in the state.

Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes is helping tell the stories of real people directly impacted by these layoffs.

“The moment calls for important conversations with people who’ve been impacted by devastating cuts by the Trump administration, aided by Elon Musk,” said Barnes. “I just wanted you to hear what is going on in the lives of everyday folks who are taking this challenge head on, but are not taking it lying down.”

One of those Wisconsinites impacted by these cuts is Katia Wanish, who until recently was a wetlands engineer at the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which is part of the USDA. She shared her story with Barnes in this special edition of The Recombobulation Area podcast.

“I really feel like there's a lack of dignity,” she said of the experience. “I just felt like I was completely erased from the system one day. I essentially received a blank email — nothing written in the message, nothing saying “Hi Katia” or anything like that — a blank email with an attachment telling me that I was terminated. Just that shock of not even feeling like I was a person in that moment, that they couldn’t take a second to write something in the body of that email really stunk. And I was terminated for performance. Which, I’m still trying to figure out why exactly. I received multiple awards in my time as an engineer; I was nominated for junior engineer of the year. It’s just kind of confusing why I was terminated for performance.”

She was treated, as Barnes put it, as a “pawn in a billionaire’s game.”

Wanish had been hired to the position at the beginning of 2025, and was part of the round of DOGE firings on “probationary employees,” which included both new hires and people recently promoted — the latter, essentially, in her case.

In her conversation with Barnes, she talked about how this role she was hired for was a “dream job,” and that this experience has made her feel “helpless.”

Barnes said that’s the purpose of the way DOGE and the Trump administration are carrying out these actions, saying he “fundamentally disagrees” that there’s nothing you can do in these moments.

“I know you can feel like you're powerless, but that's the purpose of this all,” said Barnes. “It is to make you feel powerless. And if you submit — as many people feel that leaders in Congress are doing right now, submitting to the will — then there's no hope for anybody. And so I just want you to understand that there is still power that you do have even if it seems like you don’t.”

Watch the full video above, or listen to the episode as a podcast here on Civic Media, or embedded below.

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The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-timeMilwaukee Press Clubaward-winning weekly opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

Here in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention, there is a lot going on. Most of this is taking place inside the United Center, but there are other events happening all over town. Yesterday afternoon, I attended one of those events hosted by an organization called The Next 50, a group that focuses on the next generation of Democratic leaders, with a particular focus on those in state legislatures.

This event was called the “Reverse Coattails Roundtable”, and featured several state legislative leaders from swing states, including Sen. Mallory McMorrow from Michigan, State Rep. Sam Park from Georgia, and Greta Neubauer, the Democratic leader in the Wisconsin State Assembly.

Here’s some video from that event.

Here’s another, featuring McMorrow on what Wisconsin can learn from Michigan.

After the event, I had the chance to sit down for a conversation with Neubauer. We talked about reverse coattails, and how races at the bottom of the ticket might help candidates at the top. We talked about the changing enthusiasm for Democrats, with Kamala Harris as the nominee, and we talked about Tim Walz and what he and Democrats have been able to do with a one-seat legislative majority in Minnesota. We also talked about new maps, and the chances for Democrats to win the majority in the Assembly. She thinks it can happen. She even predicted they’d win 52 seats.

We also talked about Republicans like Robin Vos advancing more constitutional amendment referendums. We talked about what legislative Democrats have done in Wisconsin to protect the governor’s veto. We talked about a lot more, too.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Democratic Assembly Leader, Greta Neubauer.

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 18 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-timeMilwaukee Press Clubaward-winning weekly opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

In less than a week in Wisconsin, voters will head to the polls for the August partisan primary.

Statewide, voters will decide on a pair of proposed amendments to the state constitution. If you want to learn more about those, head over here and check out the latest from Marquette University professor Phil Rocco.

But that’s not the only thing voters will be deciding on next week. With new state legislative maps, there are more contested primaries happening in Senate and Assembly districts than there have been in more than a decade. There are also a number of primaries happening in congressional races.

Perhaps the most interesting of those primaries is the one happening in the 3rd Congressional District, where Democrats are looking to win back a seat now represented by Republican Derrick Van Orden.

The three candidates running are Rebecca Cooke, Katrina Shankland, and Eric Wilson. Cooke and Shankland are the top two contenders in this primary, and the race has gotten a little spicy as we get close to primary election day.

Joining us to talk about this race is Anthony Chergosky, political science professor at University of Wisconsin - La Crosse.

We discussed the big picture of the campaign, the geographic divide in the race, some bad blood surfacing in the final weeks before the primary, and more.

One last thing: Be sure to VOTE on Aug. 13! Take a moment to check out what’s going to be on your ballot here.

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 18 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

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The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-timeMilwaukee Press Clubaward-winning weekly opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

If you missed it earlier this week, I had the opportunity to sit down for a 35-minute one-on-one interview with Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

You can watch the video here.

Or, you can watch it on YouTube.

You can also read the column I wrote about the experience here.

Interviews like this are made possible because of the support of subscribers like you. Upgrade to paid today and help fund more recombobulation!

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 18 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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The Recombobulation Area is a ten-timeTHIRTEEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

On Tuesday evening, I filled in as the guest host of WTMJ At Night (formerly WTMJ Nights) on 620 WTMJ. You can listen to the show here as a commercial-free podcast.

I was joined by several terrific guests.

Dr. Ben Weston, chief health policy advisor for Milwaukee County, joined to discuss the County's new reckless driving dashboard (which you can see here).

Jeramey Jannene, president of Urban Milwaukee, joined to discuss upcoming local elections in Milwaukee, and President Biden’s visit to the city (and the announcement set to happen when he arrives).

Rob Henken, president of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, joined to talk about their new report on Milwaukee Public Schools and the upcoming referendum (see that report here).

Thanks for listening!

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The Marquette University Law School Poll is the gold standard of measuring public opinion in Wisconsin, so here at The Recombobulation Area, we take a close look at each new poll. See all of our previous breakdowns here.

NEW THIS YEAR: After each new poll in 2024, we’re going to be sitting down with Charles Franklin, executive director of the (top ranked!) Marquette University Law School Poll, to discuss the results.

For this podcast, Franklin and I sat down to discuss the results from the new poll (available in full here!), the presidential race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in this incredibly important battleground state, state-level polling on the governor, legislature and state Supreme Court, and much more.

Be sure to also check out our in-depth breakdown of the new poll here.

Thank you for reading The Recombobulation Area. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagramat @therecombobulationarea.

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The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

A couple months ago, Omar Shaikh and I got in a bit of a disagreement on Twitter.

Actually, let’s back up a bit first.

In early December of last year, Gov. Tony Evers signed a bill passed by the Wisconsin State Legislature to keep the Milwaukee Brewers in the city until 2050. The bill, committing more than $500 million in public funds to the stadium, passed with a bipartisan vote in November, and among the pieces of the deal that emerged through negotiations was the creation of a task force to study the possibility of developing around American Family Field — something we’ve called the “Beer District.”

This “Beer District” concept is something we advocated for here at The Recombobulation Area in a 2022 guest column by urban planner Robin Palm, as well as in our Milwaukee Press Club award-winning column from 2021, “Tear Down the Stadium Freeway in Milwaukee.”

This idea gained a considerable amount of attention since this column was published, and is something that leaders like Mayor Cavalier Johnson and County Executive David Crowley have expressed support for. The mayor, in particular, advocated for a “Beer District”-type of development to be part of future plans during negotiations over the bill to keep the Brewers in Milwaukee.

While it was encouraging to see a task force and study on a “pathway to development” make the final bill, what was not included in the legislation was any firm commitment to take any concrete action at the study’s conclusion.

In the days following the bill signing, A.J. Bayatpour of CBS 58 reported on the possibility of future development around the ballpark. As part of that report, he interviewed Omar Shaikh, in his role as the chairman of the Home Crew Coalition, a group formed to advocate support for the bill to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding for upgrades and maintenance at the Brewers stadium, keeping the team in Milwaukee for the foreseeable future.

In that report, Shaikh said he opposed the development of a “Beer District,” saying it was unrealistic.

That’s the part I disagreed with, and I took to Twitter to voice that disagreement. We had a little back-and-forth over this, and eventually agreed to sit down for an interview on the topic.

So, this week, we got together at 3rd Street Market Hall for a one-on-one interview to talk about the “Beer District” concept.

“You know what, I'll say this,” said Shaikh. “I probably shouldn't have said I'm in opposition to (a “Beer District”). I don't think that's fair that I said that. I actually might be for it…I just don't see how you can make financial sense of it. I think it's on an island by itself over there. Listen, in a perfect world, you do the “Beer District,” build Menomonee Valley, and you tie (it to) downtown — believe me, I believe in growth of neighborhoods that would tie us together — I just don't see it happening. I just don't.”

Shaikh and I also discussed his work with the Home Crew Coalition, this week’s news about 3rd Street Market Hall having a presence in American Family Field, the RNC in Milwaukee, being “more bullish on Milwaukee” than ever, and much more.

You can hear our full conversation here as a podcast. We also have a full transcript of this interview, and paid subscribers to The Recombobulation Area can read that here.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

Last night, I was back in the host chair at the 620 WTMJ studios at 3rd Street Market Hall to host WTMJ Nights!

You can listen to the full show here as a commercial free podcast.

Guests for the show included:

Claire Koenig of VISIT Milwaukee, talking about the upcoming Milwaukee Museum Days (Jan. 18-28!), where you can get free or discounted admission to so many of Milwaukee’s wonderful museums
Charles Franklin of the Marquette University Law School Poll, talking about the results from the Iowa caucus and if Donald Trump is on track to win the Republican nomination
Justin Garcia of the Bucks Radio Network, talking about our beloved Milwaukee Bucks at the midway point of the regular season

I also took some time to discuss Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ comments on new maps submissions, where he accuses Democrats of a “political gerrymander,” which is quite the instance of the pot calling the kettle black, especially as legislative Republicans’ maps submissions are the only clear outlier of the bunch (per John D. Johnson’s nonpartisan analysis).

You can also listen to the full episode of WTMJ Nights here or on your favorite podcast app. The Apple Podcasts and Spotify links are embedded here.

Also, ICYMI: I was on WTMJ N.O.W. with Steve Scaffidi yesterday for our weekly segment, and you can listen to that here, or in the podcast link embedded below.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

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This was a monumental year for Milwaukee, and many of the big achievements we saw this year can be traced back to the leadership of Mayor Cavalier Johnson and County Executive David Crowley.

The Recombobulation Area had the opportunity to sit down with these two dynamic leaders for an extended interview on the year that was, and so much more.

You can listen to the full audio podcast here, or you can watch the full video interview here.

Find our full coverage of this interview with Johnson and Crowley here at The Recombobulation Area.

Audio recorded and mixed by Podcamp Media.

The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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This was a monumental year for Milwaukee, and many of the big achievements we saw this year can be traced back to the leadership of Mayor Cavalier Johnson and County Executive David Crowley.

The Recombobulation Area had the opportunity to sit down with these two dynamic leaders for an extended interview on the year that was, and so much more.

You can watch the interview right here on Substack, or head over here for our full coverage of this interview, where you can watch on YouTube, listen as a podcast, and read several stories featuring quotes from this interview.

Video edited and produced by Katie Shafer. Filmed and recorded by Podcamp Media.

The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.news/subscribe

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The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

In case you missed it, Dan Shafer guest hosted WTMJ Nights on 620 WTMJ on Friday evening.

We had a terrific group of guests who joined the show. They were:

Evan Goyke, state representative from Milwaukee who is now running for the office of Milwaukee City Attorney, on his campaign and on his 10+ years in the State Assembly
Dora Drake, state representative from Milwaukee and the chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, on the UW System funding deal negotiated with Republican leadership, and the controversy over the university’s DEI programs within those negotiations.
Jeramey Jannene, president and founder of Urban Milwaukee, on upcoming local elections in Milwaukee.

You can also stream the show on Apple Podcasts…

… and on Spotify.

Thanks for listening!

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.news/subscribe

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The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

In case you missed it, we hosted WTMJ Nights last night on Newsradio 620 WTMJ!

It was a three-hour show, and we were joined by regular Recombobulation Area contributors Angela Lang (in studio!) and Phil Rocco to discuss their latest columns, and then we were joined by Justin Garcia of the Bucks Radio Network to talk about our beloved Milwaukee Bucks with just one week to go before the start of the regular season.

The full show from last is available commercial-free here, so have a listen!

You can also stream the show at Newsradio 620 WTMJ here.

And listen on Apple Podcasts here.

And on Spotify here.

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

PLUS: More recombobulation on the radio!

Tuesday with Steve Scaffidi on WTMJ N.O.W.

Tuesday with Patti Vasquez on WCPT 820 / Heartland Signal

Tuesday on As Goes Wisconsin

Wednesday on Town Call Wisconsin

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

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The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The issue of Child Care funding is a major one in Wisconsin, and this year, it has taken on an especially partisan tone in Madison. Earlier this year, Republican legislators blocked a proposal to continue funding a program called Child Care Counts, in a 2:30 a.m. vote of the state’s budget writing committee.

Child Care Counts is a program that has helped stabilize the child care industry during the pandemic, helped raise wages for early care educators, kept costs down for parents and families, and was recently recognized by the Wisconsin Policy Forum with an award for innovation in state government. But the federal dollars that have been funding that program are now running out, putting thousands of child care centers at risk of closing.

That 2:30 a.m. vote, however, was not the end of the story. Gov. Tony Evers called a special on workforce challenges, and the highlight of that session was more than $350 million to continue the Child Care Counts program in Wisconsin. Oftentimes, these special sessions are met with a gavel-in, gavel-out approach from state Republicans, but this time in the state Senate, at least, the bill is being considered. Yesterday, there was a public hearing on that bill, and many child care providers, parents and experts spoke in favor of the bill and of funding Child Care Counts.

Among those providing testimony in that hearing was Democratic State Senator Kelda Roys, who has been among the most vocal champions of child care funding, and she joined us to talk about these issues.

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-funded publication. To help support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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The Recombobulation Area is a six-timeTEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Ten of “Bird on a Wire”, Lu Ann and I were joined by Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

We talked about the county executive’s path to a career in public service after facing certain challenges growing up in Milwaukee. We also spent a lot of time talking about shared revenue and local taxes as the bill reshaping the system and allowing Milwaukee to raise its sales tax makes its way through the state legislature. Crowley has been instrumental in negotiating key aspects of that deal, and he shared a lot of insight and information about the legislation that’s coming together.

For a short clip of that conversation, on a thorny debate on referendum and sales taxes, go here:

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

Episode One with Dan Shafer
Episode Two with Evan Goyke
Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield
Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski
Episode Five with Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson
Episode Six with the “Grandma Brigade”
Episode Seven with The PerSisters
Episode Eight with change makers in southwestern Milwaukee County
Episode Nine with Nicole Otto

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

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The Recombobulation Area is a six-timeTEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The “Bird on a Wire” podcast series has featured conversations on hope, civility and action, hosted by LuAnn Bird. For Episode Ten of the series, LuAnn and I sat down with Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

The full episode will be available shortly, but we’re sharing this six-minute clip from the conversation as part of The Recombobulation Area’s ongoing coverage of the shared revenue and local sales tax bill.

State and local leaders right now have been hammering out a deal about overhauling the state’s shared revenue system, and allowing Milwaukee, both city and county, to raise a local sales tax.

One point of contention within that debate has been on whether that sales tax issue should go to a public referendum or whether it should be voted on by members of the Milwaukee Common Council or Milwaukee County Board.

There’s been disagreement among legislative Republicans on this issue, with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos favoring a public referendum and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu favoring “enabling legislation” that would allow the vote on the sales tax to be taken by Common Council and County Board members, for each respective sales tax.

In our podcast, Crowley said he supports the “enabling legislation.”

“Enabling legislation gives us much more certainty,” he said. “Because if this if it does get voted down, we're going right back to the state to have this conversation.”

Mayor Cavalier Johnson has also expressed support for “enabling legislation” over a public referendum on this issue.

Crowley also explained the precedent in having a vote like this be one conducted by these local legislative bodies, and broke down the changes in the sales tax pitch.

Because if this if it does get voted down, we're going right back to the state to have this conversation.

LuAnn Bird, a resident of Hales Corners, also talked about how a public safety referendum failed to pass by just four votes in that community.

Along with the comments in this six-minute excerpt, Crowley said this of ongoing negotiations:

“It would be unfortunate for us to get rid of a statewide fix because the one thing affecting one community.”

Be sure to subscribe to get the full episode in your inbox.

See more of The Recombobulation Area’s coverage of the shared revenue bill, including the multi-part series analyzing the bill by Marquette Professor Phil Rocco, here.

Learn more about the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, and listen to the latest episode, here.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagramat @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

View Details

The Recombobulation Area is a six-timeTEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Nine of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is Nicole Otto. Nicole is a mental health counselor who works with children. In this episode, LuAnn and Nicole talked about some of the difficult realities young people face when it comes to challenges with mental health.

There’s a great quote that they reference that’s actually come up more than once in this podcast series. It’s from Desmond Tutu and the quote is this:

“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

Episode One with Dan Shafer
Episode Two with Evan Goyke
Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield
Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski
Episode Five with Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson
Episode Six with the “Grandma Brigade”
Episode Seven with The PerSisters
Episode Eight with change makers in southwestern Milwaukee County

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

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The Recombobulation Area is a six-timeTEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

One of the most important pieces of legislation impacting Milwaukee and Wisconsin is currently working its way through the Capitol in Madison. That is the bill on shared revenue and the relationship between state government and local government in Wisconsin. The bill introduced by Assembly Republicans is big and messy and complicated and approaches change to the state’s broken shared revenue system very differently than what Gov. Tony Evers proposed as part of his budget earlier this year.

At The Recombobulation Area, we’ve been working on learning more about this bill and what it would mean, and Marquette professor Phil Rocco has now written three installments of a series breaking down the bill and how things would change for local communities across Wisconsin. He joins us today on the podcast.

But if you missed those, read them here.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagramat @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

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The Recombobulation Area is a six-timeTEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Eight of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is joined by Tom Spehert and Chris Baumgart.

In this episode, LuAnn talks with Tom and Chris about organizing and making change in southwestern Milwaukee County. They also talked about the work LuAnn and Chris are doing to address accessibility concerns at the Hales Corners Library.

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

Episode One with Dan Shafer
Episode Two with Evan Goyke
Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield
Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski
Episode Five with Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson
Episode Six with the “Grandma Brigade”
Episode Seven with The PerSisters

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

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The Recombobulation Area is a six-timeTEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

Last night on 620 WTMJ, I guest hosted WTMJ Nights!

We started the show talking about the Bucks firing head coach Mike Budenholzer — news that happened less than an hour before the show started!

Then, Tricia Peterson and Renae Henning of Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed (WECAN) joined to talk about the Child Care Counts program and why it’s so important that funding to extend the life of this program is in the state budget. So far, it has made it (even as more than 540 other items were cut), but its future remains uncertain.

Then, we talked about the Stadium Freeway. Next week in Milwaukee, the first public involvement meeting for reimagining State Highway 175 will be held at the Washington Park Senior Center on Thursday, May 11, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Learn more about that meeting and WisDOT’s plans here. You can even go right to an interactive map to share comments on the project online.

And here’s what we wrote about this reimagining project when it was announced:

And here’s our (award-winning!) opinion column from 2021 on why we should tear down the Stadium Freeway.

As part of that conversation, we were joined in studio by County Supervisor Peter Burgelis, who represents the district.

Burgelis was also at yesterday’s public hearing in Madison on the shared revenue bill, where he testified in committee, so we discussed that news, too.

The full show is also available at 620 WTMJ here.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

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The Recombobulation Area is a six-timeTEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Seven of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is joined by The PerSisters. The Persisters is a group of women that got involved in political action following the 2016 election and the Women’s March. They started the PerSisters with a few women in Wauwatosa and the group has now grown to a community of hundreds. Now, they meet every Friday and celebrate every new member’s first time making a call to their U.S. Senator.

The leaders of the group, Lisa Williams and Cheryl Juech — who are actually real life sisters themselves — joined LuAnn for a terrific discussion on how to take action in your community.

“The thing about hopelessness is, it’s easy to do nothing. Hope means there’s work to do,” said Cheryl Juech, adding, “When the sun rises, so does the hope.”

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

Episode One with Dan Shafer
Episode Two with Evan Goyke
Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield
Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski
Episode Five with Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson
Episode Six with the “Grandma Brigade”

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

View Details

The Recombobulation Area is a six-timeTEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Five of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is joined by the “Grandma brigade.” That would be JoAnn Stasiewicz and Jean Parulski.

Jean and Joann were the first people that LuAnn called when she decided to run for State Assembly last year, and they have been getting together to talk about politics and taking action for years. In this podcast, they talked about their paths to getting involved in politics, last year’s campaign, getting involved in school board races in Wauwatosa in the Spring Election, flipping Hales Corners for Justice-elect Janet Protasiewicz, and much more.

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

Episode One with Dan Shafer
Episode Two with Evan Goyke
Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield
Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski
Episode Five with Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

View Details

The Recombobulation Area is a six-timeTEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The race for Wisconsin Supreme Court happened a couple weeks ago now, but since it was such a big deal for the future of politics in this state, there’s a whole lot for us to still be talking about.

As we said over and over again in the months prior to this election, you cannot overstate the importance of this race. The ramifications for the victory for liberal justice Janet Protasiewicz, flipping the ideological balance of power on the state’s highest court, are going to be profound.

So, as we continue to recombobulate over these massively important election results, we were joined by Dan Kaufman, who is the author of the book “The Fall of Wisconsin”, an outstanding and poignant account of the era of conservative conquest in the state, that was published in 2018. He has also written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and The New York Review of Books. His most recent work was in the New Yorker, where he wrote a brilliant in-depth feature story on the race in the weeks before the election, and then wrote another piece last week after Janet Protasiewicz’s resounding victory in the election.

On those results, Kaufman said he “felt like it was the culmination of a lot of anger over the past twelve years of essentially living under minority rule, with a radical overturning of the states past.”

Dan and I talked about what those elections results meant for Wisconsin, and he also shared some stories from his reporting, we talked about how Robin Vos deserves blame from his party in their losses in these statewide elections, about how Republican coalitions in Wisconsin have changed post-Trump, and whether or not this is the moment where Wisconsin finally stops falling.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

View Details

The Recombobulation Area is a six-timeTEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Five of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is joined by Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson.

Dr. Wilkinson is a resident of the district where LuAnn ran for Assembly, and they met while LuAnn was campaigning and knocking on doors. Wilkinson is a doctor and a surgeon who has treated victims of gun violence, and that has inspired her to get involved in efforts to pass gun safety legislation.

In this podcast, they talk about the work they are continuing to do not only to advance gun violence prevention bills, but combat the fatalistic attitudes on gun reform. It’s an important conversation.

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

Episode One with Dan Shafer
Episode Two with Evan Goyke
Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield
Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

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The Recombobulation Area is a six-timeTEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Four of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is joined by Sarah Godlewski. You might know Sarah from her time serving as the State Treasurer, her run for U.S. Senate, or her work helping elect women in the Wisconsin state legislature. One of those women that Godlewski supported was indeed LuAnn Bird. So, these two had a lot to talk about on this episode.

Godlewski also discussed the Rally For Your Rights tour that has been happening all over the state. The final two events from that tour are this weekend in Milwaukee on Saturday, April 1 and in Madison on Sunday, April 2. She will be speaking at both events.

Godlewski also contributed a guest column here at The Recombobulation Area about what she’s seen on this tour. You can read that piece here.

If you missed the first three episodes in the series, you can listen to them here (Episode One with Dan Shafer, Episode Two with Evan Goyke, Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield).

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagramat @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

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The Recombobulation Area is a six-timeTEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

We are just days away from the Spring Election in Wisconsin. And while the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court will be on the ballot statewide, there are a whole lot of other races happening in communities all over the state.

One of those is the special election in the 8th Senate District. This district includes parts of Ozaukee, Waukesha, Washington and Milwaukee counties.

This is a very important race because it will determine whether or not Republicans will gain a two-thirds supermajority in the State Senate. Longtime Republican state senator Alberta Darling retired late last year, creating an open seat. And while this district has been in GOP control for a long time, this is a part of the region here in southeastern Wisconsin that has seen its political leanings shift significantly in recent years.

The Democratic candidate running to flip this district is Jodi Habush Sinykin, and she joined the podcast to talk about her background, why she’s running for State Senate, the top issues in the race, and more.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

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The Recombobulation Area is a six-timeTEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Three of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is joined by Christopher Porterfield. Porterfield is the lead singer and songwriter from the acclaimed band Field Report (yes, he also provided the theme music for this podcast series).

He got involved in LuAnn’s State Assembly campaign last year in a variety of ways, perhaps most notably by helping create the “Bird Songs” concert series. Porterfield has continued his journey into political action and is now a candidate running for Whitnall School Board.

Chris and LuAnn had a lot of wonderful stories to share on the podcast. We hope you enjoy.

If you missed the first two episodes in the series, you can listen to them here (Episode One with Dan Shafer, Episode Two with Evan Goyke).

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagramat @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

View Details

The Recombobulation Area is a six-timeTEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

"Bird on a Wire" is a podcast series featuring conversations about hope, civility and action. LuAnn Bird has had a career in civic action and making change, from serving on school boards to working with the League of Women Voters to running for Wisconsin State Assembly, and this podcast series aims to continue many of the conversations that began during her remarkable and unconventional 2022 campaign.

If you missed our newsletter introducing this podcast series, check it out here.

If you missed Episode One with Dan Shafer, listen to the full episode for free here.

Episode Two features State Rep. Evan Goyke of Milwaukee. Enjoy!

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

View Details

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

"Bird on a Wire" is a podcast series featuring conversations about hope, civility and action. LuAnn Bird has had a career in civic action and making change, from serving on school boards to working with the League of Women Voters to running for Wisconsin State Assembly, and this podcast series aims to continue many of the conversations that began during her remarkable and unconventional 2022 campaign.

If you missed our newsletter introducing this podcast series, check it out here.

The first episode of this series is with LuAnn Bird and Dan Shafer. They discuss Bird’s path to a career in public service, the tragic accident that altered the course of her family’s life, and take a look ahead at what’s to come in this 10-episode podcast series.

Listen to the podcast in the media player above, or watch it as a video podcast on YouTube here.

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield. Video was edited by Steve Grisetti.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

View Details

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The Spring Election in Wisconsin is now less than one month away. And on the ballot statewide in that April 4 election is the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, where Janet Protasiewicz and Daniel Kelly are competing to be elected to a 10-year term. That election will determine the ideological balance of the state Supreme Court, with conservative justice Patience Roggensack retiring, leaving an open seat.

It’s been about two weeks now since the primary and we’re looking ahead to the general election. So to help us recombobulate, we’re joined by Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette University Law School Poll, to talk about primary results, statewide trends, key regions, turnout and much more.

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-funded publication. Support our work and become a paid subscriber (just $5 to start!).

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

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The Recombobulation Area is a six-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For the last couple weeks, I have had the opportunity to be the guest host for “Connect MKE,” the local news program at CW18 and My24 Milwaukee.

If you missed the episodes live, you can check out the interviews here at The Recombobulation Area in podcast form. You can also watch the full episode linked below on YouTube.

This week’s episode featured a segment on races happening in the Wisconsin State Legislature, under new Republican-drawn maps. I talked to John D. Johnson of Marquette University to discuss that issue. For the next segment, I talked to Kristina Hoffman of the Milwaukee County Transit System about raising ridership and the many new things happening this year in public transit in Milwaukee.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. His work was recently featured in The New York Times. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

View Details

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

This week, I had the opportunity to be the guest host for Connect MKE, the local news program at CW18 and My24 Milwaukee.

The episodes aired on Sept. 10 and 11, but if you missed them, you can check out the interviews here at The Recombobulation Area in podcast form. You can also watch the full episode linked below on YouTube.

This week’s episode featured a segment on the universal free school meals program that was implemented during the pandemic but is now ending for this school year. I talked to Erin Gretzinger, a reporter at Wisconsin Watch, who wrote an in-depth story on this topic.

And then for the next segment, I talked to former alderman and current budget director at the city of Milwaukee Nik Kovac. The first budget proposal from Mayor Cavalier Johnson will be presented to the Common Council on Sept. 20 and Kovac talked about the challenges the city is facing and took a look at what’s being proposed for the 2023 budget.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. His work was recently featured in The New York Times. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

View Details

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

Thanks to everyone who joined The Recombobulation Area at Boone & Crockett for our event: “A Conversation with Cavalier Johnson”! It was a terrific event and we appreciate all of your support.

For those of you who subscribe and were unable to attend, you can listen to the full conversation here, in podcast form.

Topics discussed include: the city of Milwaukee’s relationship with the state of Wisconsin, rising violent crime in the city, and the future of the Stadium Freeway and infrastructure in Milwaukee. Plus: The mayor answered several questions from those of you who joined us at the event.

We’re planning to host more events in the not-too-distant future, so stay tuned, and we hope to see you soon!

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To help fund our work, consider becoming paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

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The Recombobulation Area is a weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The city of Milwaukee just held its first open mayoral primary since 2004. The results are in, and the two candidates receiving the most votes are Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson with about 42% of the vote and former alderman Bob Donovan with about 22% of the vote. They will go head-to-head for the April 5 general election.

Joining us to recombobulate after the election and talk about all of this is Jeramey Jannene from Urban Milwaukee. We talked about everything from Cavalier Johnson’s dominant primary performance to the overall turnout numbers to Bob Donovan’s likely vote total in the general election, and more.

We also referenced the following election results map by John D. Johnson, research fellow at the Marquette Law School Lubar Center, a number of times during the podcast, so take a closer look at that here.

See the full results from the primary via the Milwaukee County Clerk — who, as always, ran a safe, secure and efficient election, and should be thanked for their important work.

Lastly, be sure to vote on April 5. The future of your city depends on it.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won ten Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

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The Recombobulation Area is a weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The City of Milwaukee is going to have an election for mayor. On February 15, we'll have a primary that could prove to be the most competitive mayoral primary in a generation.

Here at The Recombobulation Area, we’re going to be covering that election and getting into the issues. As part of that coverage, we are interviewing the candidates. Paid subscribers will be able to listen to full audio of those interviews and read a full transcript of what each candidate had to say.

Help fund our work and subscribe.

This is part of our interview series with the candidates for mayor of Milwaukee. Each candidate was asked the same series of questions on topics including local control, the covid-19 pandemic, segregation and racial disparities, economic development, population growth, immigration, transportation and infrastructure, reckless driving and vehicles thefts, public safety, and education. At the end of each interview, we had a “lightning round” with some more lighthearted, Milwaukee-specific questions.

Free subscribers will be able to read many of these answers in stories in the coming days. Paid subscribers will have access to the full interview as a podcast and as a transcript.

If you missed it, be sure to listen to our interviews with Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic, entrepreneur Michael Sampson, and community activist Ieshuh Griffin.

Stay tuned for more of our coverage on the race for mayor in Milwaukee.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

View Details

The Recombobulation Area is a weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The City of Milwaukee is going to have an election for mayor. On February 15, we'll have a primary that could prove to be the most competitive mayoral primary in a generation.

Here at The Recombobulation Area, we’re going to be covering that election and getting into the issues. As part of that coverage, we are interviewing the candidates. Paid subscribers will be able to listen to full audio of those interviews and read a full transcript of what each candidate had to say.

Help fund our work and subscribe.

This is part of our interview series with the candidates for mayor of Milwaukee. Each candidate was asked the same series of questions on topics including local control, the covid-19 pandemic, segregation and racial disparities, economic development, population growth, immigration, transportation and infrastructure, reckless driving and vehicles thefts, public safety, and education. At the end of each interview, we had a “lightning round” with some more lighthearted, Milwaukee-specific questions.

Free subscribers will be able to read many of these answers in stories in the coming days. Paid subscribers will have access to the full interview as a podcast and as a transcript.

If you missed it, be sure to listen to our interviews with Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic and entrepreneur Michael Sampson.

Stay tuned for more of our coverage on the race for mayor in Milwaukee.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

View Details

The Recombobulation Area is a weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The City of Milwaukee is going to have an election for mayor. On February 15, we'll have a primary that could prove to be the most competitive mayoral primary in a generation.

Here at The Recombobulation Area, we’re going to be covering that election and getting into the issues. As part of that coverage, we are interviewing the candidates. Paid subscribers will be able to listen to full audio of those interviews and read a full transcript of what each candidate had to say.

Help fund our work and subscribe.

This is part of our interview series with the candidates for mayor of Milwaukee. Each candidate was asked the same series of questions on topics including local control, the covid-19 pandemic, segregation and racial disparities, economic development, population growth, immigration, transportation and infrastructure, reckless driving and vehicles thefts, public safety, and education. At the end of each interview, we had a “lightning round” with some more lighthearted, Milwaukee-specific questions.

Free subscribers will be able to read many of these answers in stories in the coming days. Paid subscribers will have access to the full interview as a podcast and as a transcript.

If you missed it, be sure to listen to our interviews with Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson and Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic.

Stay tuned for more of our coverage on the race for mayor in Milwaukee.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

View Details

The Recombobulation Area is a weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The City of Milwaukee is going to have an election for mayor. On February 15, we'll have a primary that could prove to be the most competitive mayoral primary in a generation.

Here at The Recombobulation Area, we’re going to be covering that election and getting into the issues. As part of that coverage, we are interviewing the candidates. Paid subscribers will be able to listen to full audio of those interviews and read a full transcript of what each candidate had to say.

Help fund our work and subscribe.

This is part of our interview series with the candidates for mayor of Milwaukee. Each candidate was asked the same series of questions on topics including local control, the covid-19 pandemic, segregation and racial disparities, economic development, population growth, immigration, transportation and infrastructure, reckless driving and vehicles thefts, public safety, and education. At the end of each interview, we had a “lightning round” with some more lighthearted, Milwaukee-specific questions.

Free subscribers will be able to read many of these answers in stories in the coming days. Paid subscribers will have access to the full interview as a podcast and as a transcript.

If you missed it, our first interview in this series is with Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson. Listen here.

Stay tuned for more of our coverage on the race for mayor in Milwaukee.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

View Details

The Recombobulation Area is a weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The City of Milwaukee is going to have an election for mayor. On February 15, we'll have a primary that could prove to be the most competitive mayoral primary in a generation.

Here at The Recombobulation Area, we’re going to be covering that election and getting into the issues. As part of that coverage, we are interviewing the candidates. Paid subscribers will be able to listen to full audio of those interviews and read a full transcript of what each candidate had to say.

Help fund our work and subscribe.

This is part of our interview series with the candidates for mayor of Milwaukee. Each candidate was asked the same series of questions on topics including local control, the covid-19 pandemic, segregation and racial disparities, economic development, population growth, immigration, transportation and infrastructure, reckless driving and vehicles thefts, public safety, and education. At the end of each interview, we had a “lightning round” with some more lighthearted, Milwaukee-specific questions.

Free subscribers will be able to read many of these answers in stories in the coming days. Paid subscribers will have access to the full interview as a podcast and as a transcript.

If you missed it, we published one story with quotes from this interview on Acting Mayor Johnson’s vision for growth-minded urbanism in Milwaukee. You can read it for free here.

Stay tuned for more of our coverage on the race for mayor in Milwaukee.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

View Details

The Recombobulation Area is an award-winning weekly opinion column written by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

It’s official: Milwaukee is going to have an election for mayor. In less than two months, we’ll have a primary, and on April 5, we will be electing a new mayor.

Tom Barrett, the city’s mayor of more than 17 years, was unceremoniously confirmed as the Ambassador to Luxembourg on the evening of Dec. 16. Cavalier Johnson became the Acting Mayor on Dec. 22.

Since then, we’ve seen new policies and proposals from some of the top candidates, one candidate has left the race (State Rep. Daniel Riemer), other candidates are joining the race (State Sen. Lena Taylor, State Sen. Chris Larson), and this is all pretty discombobulating.

To help us recombobulate, we were joined by Jeramey Jannene, president and co-founder of Urban Milwaukee, who covers City Hall like no one else in the city.

We talked about the candidates, the issues, and the big picture for this race.

Listen through the above player, and if you want to add the podcast episode to the platform of your choosing, click “Listen in podcast app.”

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes the award-winning column, The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

View Details

The Recombobulation Area is an award-winning weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

“Should I-94 Be Expanded?”

That was the question posed at the afternoon panel discussion at the Urban Spaceship Conference at Nō Studios in Milwaukee, on Tuesday, Nov. 9.

The larger event, a day-long national urbanism conference curated by NAIOP Wisconsin and NEWaukee, featured a variety of speakers and panel discussions exploring “the intersection of people and place,” doing a “deep dive on top trends, and future ideas in urbanism.”

Being the big topic that it is, the I-94 panel discussion drew a crowd, and panelists Cheryl Nenn of Milwaukee Riverkeeper, Michael Bradley of Urban Spaceship and Steve Baas, formerly of the MMAC, now of the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, debated the issues, with yours truly moderating the discussion.

What resulted was a lively — and occasionally contentious! — discussion on the billion-dollar mega-project. The full panel discussion is available here for you to listen to, only at The Recombobulation Area.

Each of the panelists had been interviewed at length on this topic previously for The Recombobulation Area’s “Expanding the Divide” series. You can read the full series here.

The panel was introduced by Jeremy Fojut, chief idea officer and co-founder of NEWaukee.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes the award-winning column, The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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The Recombobulation Area is an award-winning weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

One of the biggest stories in Wisconsin right now is the battle over redistricting. Maps that will be in place for the next decade are now being discussed and debated in the Wisconsin state legislature.

In my most recent column, I wrote about the new maps being proposed by state Republicans, which takes one of the worst gerrymanders in the country and pushes it even further to the extreme. Those maps were the topic of discussion at a public hearing at the state capitol last week, where not one member of the public stepped forward to speak and voice support for those maps. Not one person.

But many people showed up to testify against those maps over the course of a nine-hour hearing. One of those people is Sachin Chheda, director of the Fair Elections Project. He joins us at The Recombobulation Area to discuss the public hearing, what’s next for the redistricting process, the coming court fight over new maps, the People’s Maps Commission, how these maps impact every piece of public policy in Wisconsin, and how to get involved.

There’s a lot of wild news stories going on in Wisconsin right now, and while those stories might last a news cycle, these maps will last 10 years. It’s really important that people not let this get lost in the shuffle.

“If you at all are affected by what your government does, you’re going to want to care about gerrymandering and stopping these rigged maps that are proposed by Republicans,” said Chheda.

Committee votes are coming this week and floor votes are coming next week on these maps, so go to fairmapswi.com or fairelectionsproject.org to find ways to get involved in this work and the fight for a fair playing field in Wisconsin.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes the award-winning column, The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

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The Recombobulation Area is a weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

Disclaimer for listeners: There are some keyboard sounds in the early part of this podcast that might be distracting. Honestly, I just made the silly mistake of putting my recorder too close to the keyboard. The sounds don’t last the whole episode (I figured it out soon enough), so if you get annoyed, just hit that 30-second skip button a few times. Apologies for the error.

The Milwaukee County Office on African American Affairs is still very new. It wasn’t until 2017 that this office became a reality.

Milwaukee is home to some of the most startling racial disparities of any place in the country, so the mission of this office is vital, and its existence was long overdue.

Now, this office’s mission of initiating a “long-term effort to improve the condition of Milwaukee’s African American community” is reverberating throughout county government. Milwaukee County has since become the first jurisdiction in the United States to declare racism as a public health crisis. Milwaukee’s new County Executive, David Crowley — the first Black man elected to serve in the role — has made achieving racial equity a top goal of his new administration.

In July, Crowley appointed Jeff Roman to lead the department.

“Jeff Roman is an organizer and a mobilizer,” Crowley said in the press release announcing his nomination. “With Jeff at the helm of the Office on African American Affairs, I’m certain we can bring together our communities and institutions to achieve health and racial equity for all.”

Roman previously worked as a commissioner and chair of the Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission, and has also worked in leadership roles with Urban Roots Milwaukee, Milwaukee County Brighter Futures and Milwaukee Minority Male Achievement Program, and the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute. His nomination was later approved by the County Board.

The Milwaukee County Office on African American Affairs (OAAA) is currently holding a series of virtual open house meetings to talk about what’s next for the office under Roman’s leadership.

Before this week’s meeting, Roman sat down with The Recombobulation Area to talk about his background, the work that brought him on the path to this role, what’s next for the OAAA, and much more.

“We are all a part of the solution,” Roman said during our conversation. “We are all responsible and need to all be held accountable for making the Milwaukee that we want to see today, tomorrow and in the future. And the burden of doing that work can’t fall on certain communities or certain people. We all play a role.”

Learn more about Roman and the work the OAAA is doing at county.milwaukee.gov/OAAA.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

View Details

The Recombobulation Area is a weekly column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

David Crowley is a state representative from Milwaukee, representing the Assembly District 17, which includes several neighborhoods in the city of Milwaukee’s west and northwest side, such as Uptown, Enderis Park and Capitol Heights.

Chris Abele’s unexpected decision to step down from his role leading the state’s largest county has upended the spring election, making the Milwaukee County Executive campaign the race to watch in local politics. The Feb. 18 primary is just around the corner, and the two candidates with the most votes will advance to the April 7 general election.

To preview the race, The Recombobulation Area interviewed the top three candidates — County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb, State Senator Chris Larson, and State Representative David Crowley. You can read the extended Q&A with answers from all three candidates here.

The Recombobulation Area interviewed the three candidates. The interviews were all conducted separately, all by phone, largely asking the same questions, Q&A style. These were all recorded, and paying subscribers (such as yourself!) will have access to all three interviews.

Thank you for reading The Recombobulation Area and supporting independent journalism.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit recombobulationarea.substack.com/subscribe

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