>> The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original
production. >> We want to figure out
who won our election on Election Day.
>> Several new state election laws proposed at
the Capitol. But solutions to problems are not
promised. I'm Frederica Freyberg
tonight on "Here& Now". A state lawmaker pushes for
earlier counting of absentee ballots. Plus, the
latest candidates to enter next year's race for
governor. An expert on autism explains recent
claims about the cause of the condition. And finally,
we learn how federal cuts are impacting a tribal
radio station in Wisconsin. It's "Here& Now" for
September 26th. [MUSIC]
>> Funding for Here and Now is provided by the Focus
Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
>> First, an immigration enforcement operation in
Wisconsin late this week. The joint operation,
including the FBI in Milwaukee and Ice agents,
arrested 21 people in Manitowoc County. The FBI
says all those arrested are in the country illegally,
with nine of them targeted for suspected involvement
in the sexual assault and human trafficking of
children. An immigration rights organization in
Manitowoc said this about Thursday's arrest, quote,
it is both reckless and harmful to connect all
those detained today with allegations of sex
trafficking. At least one of today's actions targeted
a group of dairy workers who gather every morning in
the same place and ride together to work. At the
Capitol. A new slate of legislative proposals would
speed up the return of election results by
allowing the counting of absentee ballots the Monday
before polls open and make. A Siegler changes,
including security for absentee ballot boxes. The
Republican author of the bills is looking to work
across the aisle on the measures. But even those
Democrats agreeing to a bipartisan process don't
yet support the proposals. So where do any of these
election rules stand? We asked the Assembly
Assistant Majority leader and Vice chair of the
Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections,
Representative Scott Krug. I spoke with him earlier.
Representative Krug, thanks very much for being here.
>> It's great to be here. allowing an early count of
absentee ballots on the Monday before a Tuesday
election? >> Yeah, we just know from
the last few cycles that Milwaukee has been the the
later reporter amongst the election results in the
state of Wisconsin. It's led to conspiracies that
there is late night ballot dumps and all kinds of
conjecture that's built from that and exploded over
the years every time we have a statewide election.
So the answer is to do what 43 other states do, and to
figure out a way that we can get the ballots counted
and people can go to bed knowing who won the
election on Election day. >> What kind of support do
you have for that? >> You know, the state
Assembly voice voted last session. This session,
we've got to figure out a way to get it through the
state Senate. So we've got to do it a little bit
differently than we did components of the absentee
processing on Monday are the same as they were last
session. But now it's combined with a few
different ideas. So we've got to build some support
in the state Senate to get there.
to do with new security rules for ballot drop boxes.
>> Yeah. >> What do those look like?
>> So what we did is we worked with some groups to
do some polling to see what the most important issues
in elections were. And the two things that people
talked about the most were knowing who won the
election before they go to bed and making sure drop
boxes are safe and secure. So this bill combines those
two ideas and says all the guidance from the federal
government on drop boxes, all the guidance from the
for size, standards, locations, dates and times
of uses. And we're going to do what other states do and
video record the use of drop boxes in the state of
Wisconsin. >> So when President Trump
says he wants to ban mail in voting and go back to
hand-counting ballots, you said in an article I read,
quote, we put out the fire. He stokes it. What do you
mean by that? >> Yeah, there's a
competition, right? Is every time we get to an
answer on what Wisconsin election should look like,
and under the Constitution, we have the right as a
state to decide what our elections look like. So our
bill package does talk about a lot of the things
that President Trump has brought up about security,
knowing who the person is, who's voting, things like
that. But we also want to know, like I've said a few
times, that we want to know who won the election on
Election day, going back to hand counting or not using
machines delays that into perpetuity. So just trying
to set aside the conjecture that the machines are the
problem or that we're having late night ballot
dumps. We can still do absentee voting by mail in
Wisconsin and get the job done on Election Day.
>> Now you're looking for bipartisan agreement on
these bills and held a news conference this week with a
Democratic lawmaker. Here's what she had to say.
>> I do not endorse any of his bills and his package,
and I don't support the current draft of Monday
processing or absentee ballot guidelines. But
setting that aside, today, we are meeting the moment
our country and our state has never been more divided
and more contentious. The partisan divide has become
not just contentious, but even hostile. Rep Krug and
I will continue to model that civil conversations
and debate can happen in the same room, from the
same podium, and with the same goal in mind, in spite
of diverging ideas. And as I have told him, I look
forward to this spirited debate in a future
committee hearing. >> So this is this is super
interesting that Representative Snodgrass
endorse your proposals, but she stands beside you. What
is this about? >> We have struck up this
relationship on elections the last three years, ever
since I took the committee that each other at least
know what the others are doing, that we don't want
to surprise each other first and foremost. That
second, we talk about concepts before they come
to committee so we can have an idea of what we're
trying to have an exchange of ideas on. And third,
that we sit in that room in front of the public and
hash out our differences when it comes to what we
think is the most important issue in Wisconsin, it was
just elections. We know that the building is seen
as you know, elections are a proxy for almost
everything that we do. If we don't have safe, secure
elections and trust in our system, people aren't going
to trust anything else we do in the Capitol. So this
relationship is built just on the idea that we want to
make sure we each know what we're doing.
Democrats, as you know, who decry your efforts, saying
the bills add in partizan poison pills that come from
the, quote, extreme flank of the Republican caucus.
Referencing things like rules around election
observers. What's your response to that?
as the extreme flank of my party, I don't know how to
tell them, you know, who might actually be. But
these are things that we've talked about in committee
the last three years, whether it's ballot curing,
whether it's drop boxes, whether it's Monday
processing. There's nothing new in any of these in any
of this project that we're working on. It's just the
way that they're combined. I think that makes them not
understand exactly what we're trying to accomplish.
>> Have you worked with Governor Evers on any of
this? Do you expect him to sign this into law should
they pass? >> You know, and that's
what I told the legislative Democrats, is that, you
know, to be bipartisan, they don't necessarily need
them all to agree. I need the governor to agree.
Right. And we're in this place now where I think the
governor recognizes he wants to get some more
things done. And like I said, I think the most
important area that he could find some bipartisan
support and build a legacy is securing our elections
and building trust for everybody in the state of
Wisconsin. So, yeah, we are, you know, engaged in
conversations with the sure they understand
exactly what we're trying to accomplish and how, for
these bills all working together can expand access,
ensure results, and make sure we build confidence.
>> Representative Scott >> Absolutely. Thank you.
>> Two more candidates have entered the race for
governor of Wisconsin. First, this week, current
U.S. Congressman Tom Tiffany, a Republican who
represents the Wausau and northern Wisconsin area.
Tiffany is closely aligned with President Donald Trump,
especially on immigration policies. Tiffany joins one
other Republican in the race, and throwing his hat
into the ring is former state lawmaker Brett Halsey.
Halsey represented Madison in the state assembly just
more than a decade ago. He is the sixth Democrat to
announce a run for governor with 43 and counting. Data
processing centers are popping up all over
Wisconsin. Like the Microsoft Data Center in
Mount Pleasant, where the tech giant is developing a
100 acre site. After buying it from Foxconn. Data
centers contain servers and drives to store, process,
and disseminate data. Companies like Microsoft,
Amazon, Google and Meta operate large scale data
centers. The Great Lakes region is a popular site
for them because of the large amounts of water.
Data centers need to cool the equipment. But what
about the electricity needed to run them? What
are the implications of that usage? We turn to Line
Roald, professor in the UW-Madison Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering. And thanks for
being here. >> Thank you for having me.
>> So we know that everybody talks about the
millions of gallons of water that are needed to to
cool these data centers, but how much electricity do
they need to do all that processing like this.
Microsoft. 1 and Mt. Pleasant.
>> Yeah. So it varies quite a bit by data center and
the type of data center. But the Mt. Pleasant data
center I think, is supposed to use about 450MW of power.
And that is a lot. That's about the same amount as
all the households in Milwaukee together.
>> And so if you if you talk about 43 data centers,
obviously not all is large as that, but across the
state of Wisconsin, that's sucking a lot of power.
>> Yes it is. Yeah. And the projection is moving
forward with even more particularly of these very
large data centers coming, is that it will consume
really a lot of power that is going to change, really
the scope of use of electricity in Wisconsin.
>> So this growth of these centers seems explosive,
right. And all of a sudden, have you been surprised by
it? on data centers and their
energy use since about 2018. And back then it was
already clear that we are likely going to see an
increase in energy use from data centers just because
it's getting harder. It was getting harder to keep up
the efficiency gains that have allowed us to do ever
more computing with essentially kind of the
same amount of electricity. So for a long time,
electricity use was fairly flat. But then now. So you
were expecting that there would be an increase. But
of course, with AI and these large language models
and these very, very large models that need really,
really large data centers for training and inference,
it's really been quite explosive, I would say. So
it's a bit unprecedented for the grid to see this
amount of growth in this short time period.
>> In Wisconsin. Do we have the capacity to provide the
electricity? are hundreds and hundreds
of megawatt of power that is just kind of laying
around being, waiting, waiting to be used. And so
we don't necessarily have the capacity to meet all
that demand as it is today. And so we are going to need
new infrastructure, new transmission lines, new
power plants in order to meet that demand, because
it's also not like the regions around us
necessarily have that energy there.
>> So what about the cost of this energy demand? And
then that infrastructure of which you speak, does that
get passed along to the consumer? Like am I going
to see it in my electric bill?
How much of it and how that cost will be spread. So you
can imagine that when more people want something, the
price sometimes tend to go up, because there's maybe a
limit to the supply of that of electricity, but also
the way utilities do things is that they build
infrastructure to meet the demand of their customers,
and they have to file what is called a rate case with
the Public Service Commission in order to
determine how that cost is being covered. So they have
to ask for permission to spend that money to build
that new infrastructure, and they have to talk about
how they are going to consumers. And there's a
lot of open questions in exactly how that is going
to happen. And so I think both in Wisconsin but also
elsewhere in the country, there's a lot of questions
of how this might impact consumer bills. And frankly,
to be to to be honest with you, I am not entirely sure
where where the Public Service Commission, for
example, will land with that, how the utilities
will do things, and also what kind of contracts
these companies are able to get with the utilities. A
lot of that will determine how energy bills will or
might change. >> What would happen in
peak times like summer. Can the grid in Wisconsin
manage that load, and are there concerns about
blackouts or that kind of thing?
during peak times in summer, it can be challenging to
meet the demand as it is today. So we have seen in
past years that there has been warnings by Nordyke,
who is the regulatory body that has been saying that,
okay, there could be challenges meeting peak
during summer peak hours. And so what we might be
seeing is that there is a need for more demand
response. I mean, you might be familiar with, for
example, energy rush hours where the utility says,
okay, I'm going to control the thermostat in your home
and make it a little bit warmer during those peak
hours to reduce the amount of electricity that we need
in order to cool the house. During summer when it's
very warm. And so of course, this happens. If it happens,
it happens at a household level. There are very small
changes in energy demand, and the effect comes from
many, many people adjusting their temperatures at the
same time. So we could see more of that. But we could
also see that data centers actively participate in
this and that they are able to reduce their energy
demand during those peak to do so, we are going to
need less infrastructure. There would be less stress
on the grid, and there would be a lower chance
that there would be large Blackouts, typically.
Hopefully we will not see that because utilities are
quite good at predicting energy demand and
particularly large data possible to know a little
bit in advance how much they will use, so hopefully
we would not get there. But but there's definitely an
increased stress on the grid that could be
challenging to manage. >> All right. Well thank
you very much, Professor Line Roald. Thanks. Also
this week, abortion provider Planned Parenthood
of Wisconsin announced that it will temporarily stop
scheduling abortion appointments as of next
week, calling it a pause. Planned Parenthood says
it's due to recent federal budget changes that affect
its ability to receive Medicaid funding online.
The organization said it will, quote, provide the
full spectrum of reproductive health care,
including abortion. As soon as we are able to. In other
medical news, the Waisman center on the UW-Madison
campus is a leader in research and care of people
with autism. So what did professionals there think?
When, this week, President Donald Trump told pregnant
women not to take Tylenol as his administration
warned of an association with acetaminophen and
autism? At the same time, the FDA commissioner also
announced the agency would work to fast track a folic
acid metabolite called leucovorin to treat autism.
Direct Admit. Weizmann Centers Autism and
Developmental Disabilities Clinic. Lily Wagner joins
us. And thanks very much for being here.
>> Yeah, thank you for having me.
>> So first, the announcement that Tylenol
associated with autism in children. Is that true?
>> I think the best answer that we have, and that we
can tell patients of ours confidently, is that the
really good science and that. Tylenol causes autism.
We do have decades of research showing that
things like maternal fever and pain during pregnancy
can have significant risks, including including some
developmental delays or differences. But but no,
there's there's no evidence of a causal relationship at
this time. your clinic been getting
from families about this? >> Yeah, I think as you can
imagine, we have a lot of moms who are feeling a lot
of different things right now. Very distressed. Very.
A lot of guilt, a lot of worry about this. And I
think one thing that we're trying to tell families is
that they don't have to make the decision about
whether or not to use Tylenol by themselves. You
know, we were trying to really encourage them to
reach out to their trusted health care providers,
their pediatrician, their own personal doctor or ob
gyn, and have them walk them through the studies
that are showing these associations and walk them
through the recommendations that are put out there by
professional organizations because, you know, it is so
confusing. All the mixed they should they should be
able to get guidance from people they trust.
children diagnosed with autism has been on the rise.
Do researchers know why? >> Yes. So the the newest
prevalence rates it has been increasing for
probably prevalence has been increasing for the
past 20 years. I think now we're at one inch 31 as the
most recent numbers. And they're likely there are
many different reasons for that. There is increased
access to services, there are better children are
being identified much earlier. They're being
identified. We have better screening practices. The
diagnostic criteria has changed over time. There
are likely also some genetic and environmental
factors that, you know, I won't speak to directly
because that's not my field. But certainly there is not
one cause. And I do just want to point out that the
use of acetaminophen Tylenol has has plateaued
or decreased over the past 20 years, so it would be
hard to explain the decrease in that with the
increase in autism. If if there was a causal
relationship. cure or treatment for
autism, the drug Leucovorin. Leucovorin Leucovorin. Is
that promising? >> You know, I think I
think potentially promising is a nice way to describe
it. I think right now there is not enough scientific
evidence to support it as a treatment for autism. Again,
I would encourage any interested families to talk
to their healthcare providers about whether
their specific child could potentially benefit from
Leucovorin. There is not enough evidence to support
it as a treatment right now, although there are some
larger randomized controlled trials underway
across the country. >> Could it could it cause
unrealistic hope for >> Yeah, I think I think
when you when you put a promise of a treatment out
there before there's the science to support it, it's
not helpful. And I think it can just add to the
confusion and kind of chaos going on right now. Yes.
>> What should people do families do with this
information coming from the federal government right
now? >> You know, I think I
think back to what I said, I would really encourage
families to reach out to providers that they trust
and listen to their recommendations because
they're basing their recommendations on science,
on evidence. And I and I also want to say that it's
very harmful to the autism community. I think the way
that some people are talking about autism as a,
you know, something that needs to be cured or, or
something that's harmful to families. I think autistic
people really add so much to our society, and we
should really be working to identify ways to better
support them. Yeah. >> All right. Lily Wagner,
thanks very much. >> Thank you.
>> In northern Wisconsin, the only tribal radio
station in the state won't see federal funding from
the Corporation for Public Broadcasting after this
week. Following the cuts, 88.9 FM says it will
explore unconventional ways air in collaboration with
Ikt, formerly Indian Country Today. Here and now
reporter Erika Ayisi visited Woodland Community
Radio in Hayward to learn more. We should mention
Wisconsin Public Media also lost CPB funding. Here's
Erika's report. >> And we're going to miss
that greatly. 40% plus now between 40 and 45% of our
funding. That's a bunch of money is going away.
>> Jeffrey Jones, host of the afternoon show, wants
listeners to know how much federal funding would be
lost due to the vote to defund the Corporation for
>> Now, more than ever, we need our listeners. So
again. drive asking listeners to
hear his he'd for donations. >> We have an extra week of
of coming to you, our listeners, to ask for your
support to expand. >> Kaardal Houdek, general
manager of Woodland Community Radio, says the
station needs generous support to keep Wisconsin's
only tribal radio station on the airwaves.
>> For next year, we're going to have to look for
approximately $230,000 to to maintain what we have
going. >> Received funding
distributed by CPB. It was defunded in July as part of
President Donald Trump's Rescission Act of 2025. The
administration took back $1.1 billion in
Pre-allocated CPB funds, threatening the operation
of 57 tribal stations across the country. Like
88.9 FM in Hayward. >> It kind of breaks my
heart to see it, but that's what's going on in this
world today. And we're we get the repercussions of
that. >> Houdek says. W.o.j. B
self generates funds through listener donations,
underwriting and leasing their radio towers.
>> We actually made over $250,000 last year on our
own. >> But Harbeck says the
rural radio station needs more.
>> We're not going to be able to make it with
listener donors and underwriting together.
Still not enough. >> JB is on the Lac Courte
Oreilles Ojibwe Nation Reservation. Houdek says
they went on the air in 1982 out of activism
amongst the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe tribal
members. >> The creators of the
station were concerned about not having a voice
and not being heard. >> Boat landings were
spears or fishing are packed with protesters,
cops and reporters. >> In the late 80s, Harbeck
says Ojb educated listeners about tribal sovereignty
and ceded territory during the Walleye Wars.
Spearfishing controversy. >> You're going to take
everything that's allowed to anybody else, and that's
not right. >> A lot of people
misunderstood or didn't care to understand the the
treaty, the hunting and fishing rights of the
Ojibwe people in, in northern Wisconsin.
>> Welcome. Welcome to Ojb. >> Thank you. And today,
Horlbeck says listeners, tune in from the Northwoods
and beyond. Operating at 100,000W, reaching nearly
100 miles in every direction.
>> We just barely get up to superior. But if you get up
on the hill in Duluth, we reach that far. We'll reach
down, you know, maybe as far as Amory, as far east
as easily Park Falls. >> Hubbard says he's
hopeful that his conversations with Native
Public Media, a Native American based public
broadcasting organization, will help generate funds.
>> I think they could come up with something
significant. >> As he waits for South
Dakota Senator Mike rounds to make good on his promise
with the Trump administration to take $9.4
million of unused climate change money and reallocate
it to certain tribal stations.
>> I think it included the most needy tribes I know.
We made the list. >> A list hasn't been made
public, but Harbeck says the staff and volunteers at
Ojb are up to the challenge. >> I'm Jeff and it's the
afternoon here on reserve. >> And Opportunity.
>> We're broadcasting from Lac Courte Oreilles.
>> To keep their community programing on the airwaves.
>> So we're going to have to do something above and
beyond to generate the funds that we need that are
unconventional to what we're used to doing.
>> Music from Perfume Genius here on B, from the
new one called. >> Reporting from the Lac
Courte Oreilles Reservation. I'm Erica Ayisi for "Here&
Now" and ICT. >> For more on this and
other issues facing Wisconsin, visit our
website at PBS Wisconsin. Org and then click on the
news tab. That's our program for tonight I'm
Frederica Freyberg. Have a good weekend.
>> Funding for "Here& Now" is provided by the Focus
Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.