Here & Now; 805

July 31, 2009

Here and Now, domestic partnership status, Wisconsin's domestic partnership status declaration begins Monday. The lead attorney challenging the state's domestic partnership status joins us via telephone from Tuscon. He's Brian Raum of the Alliance Defense Fund. Christopher Clark, Senior Attorney for the Midwest Chapter of Lambda Legal, the firm defending the constitutionality of the state's domestic partnership policy, will be in the studio with Art. ground water protection, After review of groundwater that warned in the central part of the state in particular springs and creeks were going to dry up due to pumping of agricultural and municipal wells. Some legislators were concerned. Robert Jauch = 'That if that water supply is drying up, we could look like Texas.', ground water protection, The Natural Resources Joint Committee held a day-long hearing at the State Capitol on Wednesday. We were there. We'll follow up the playing of a sound bite from that meeting meeting with a talk segment about new proposals to protect Wisconsin's ground water. Committee Chair Democrat Spencer Black will be in the studio as will Republican Committee member Neal Kedzie. Both will appear in Madison studio. national health care, Should national health care be largely a public run program or one that includes private insurers through cooperative coverage plans? We'll hear from both of those interests as they operate in Wisconsin. Bill Oemichen, president and CEO of Cooperative Network and Robert Kraig, who works toward public health care models as Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, will be in the studio. Don't Bottle Water, Peter sings about the politics of water. California water bottler Chrystal Geyser wants to drill for and sell Wisconsin ground water from the Oxford area. Sung to the tune of 'Smoke on the Water' by Purple Haze.