Wisconsin Responds To White House Criticism On Medicaid, Wife Carrying Championship, Meth In Western Wisconsin

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In early June, a group of law enforcement officers from western Wisconsin announced that they had uncovered a large scale methamphetamine ring in the region. Veronica Rueckert and Rob Ferrett speak with one of the deputies involved in the ongoing investigation. Then they learn about the Scandinavian tradition of wife carrying and hear a response to the White House’s criticism of Wisconsin for not expanding Medicaid.

Featured in this Show

  • Monona Will Host Wisconsin Wife Carry Championship This Weekend

    If you’ve got a significant other who weighs at least 110 pounds and you’re looking to win some money and beer, Monona is the place to be this weekend.

    Over the next few days, the Monona Community Festival will host the 2014 Wisconsin Wife Carry Championship.

    “It’s really a unique competition,” said James Bisbee, president of the Monona Community Festival. “It’s comical to watch, although I don’t think the person carrying the person thinks it’s funny.”

    Bisbee said that because the sport is physically demanding — the person doing the legwork has to carry another person through a 253-meter-long obstacle course. Competitors race against the clock, while wading through water hazards, jumping over hay bales, and tiptoeing through tires scattered throughout the course. The best time wins, though there’s a 15-second penalty should the carrier drop his wife.

    Bisbee said the course is grueling, and the competitors that win are often physically fit and have trained for the event.

    “It’s not something where you have a couple of beers in the beer tent, and you say, ‘Hey, I can take my wife and do this,’” Bisbee said.

    Despite the sport being called wife carrying, Bisbee said he’s flexible as to who is carrying whom. That means friends, significant others and other loved ones are acceptable loads to be carried — as long as they meet weight requirements.

    “If you’ve even got a dog and it weighs a minimum of 110 pounds, we don’t care if you carry it,” Bisbee said.

    If the one being carried doesn’t meet that requirement, Bisbee is happy to strap a backpack to their back and weigh it down with rocks until the requirement is met.

    There are prizes for winning. The one being carried is awarded $5 for every pound they weigh, and the one doing the carrying wins the weight of the other in beer. Ideally, the pair shares the spoils, Bisbee said.

    In addition, the winning pair is qualified to participate in the North American Wife Carrying Championships, which make place in Maine. The winner of the national competition then gets to travel to Finland for the World Championship, where the sport has its roots.

    Bisbee said the Monona competition is the only sanctioned competition in the area, making it attractive for serious competitors.

    “We’ve had people from out of state come to compete in this, just so they can get qualified,” Bisbee said.

    A new addition this year is the 40-plus division for couples over the age of 40. Depending on demand, there could be plans to expand further.

    “We’d love to even get an over-50 competition, if we could,” Bisbee said.

    More information about the wife carry can be found at the Monona Community Festival’s website.

  • State Responds To White House Report Criticizing Wisconsin For Not Expanding Medicaid

    Wisconsin, at the decision of Governor Scott Walker, was one of 24 states that refused federal funding to expand Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act. This week the White House released a report criticizing the states that refused the funding, detailing the ways in which their health systems and economies were hurt as a result. Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health Services of Wisconsin responds to the criticism.

  • Curious Wisconsin – Wife Carry Championship

    The town of Monona is currently hosting the Wisconsin Wife Carry Championship, which challenges participants to, well, carry their wives or significant others through an obstacle course. The president of the Monona Community Festival talks about the origins of the competition, and what to expect from the races.

  • The Story Behind A Massive Meth Ring Bust In Western Wisconsin

    In early June, a group of law enforcement officers from throughout western Wisconsin announced that they had uncovered a large scale meth operation in the region. At the time time 20 people had already been arrested, but the investigation is ongoing and Deputy Police Chief Matt Rokus talks about the prevalence of meth in western Wisconsin and what officials are doing to stop it.

Episode Credits

  • Rob Ferrett Host
  • Veronica Rueckert Host
  • Chris Malina Producer
  • Galen Druke Producer
  • James Bisbee Guest
  • Kevin Moore Guest
  • Matthew Rokus Guest

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