Here & Now

Here & Now for March 13, 2026

Announcer:
The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

Tammy Baldwin:
I believe that we need to be clear-eyed about why the price of gas is going up.

Frederica Freyberg:
Global economic impacts and the price of oil add to the fallout of a war with Iran. And Iranians voiced the personal toll of the ongoing conflict.
I’m Frederica Freyberg. Tonight on “Here & Now,” we hear from Iranians in Wisconsin watching the war unfold in their homeland. An important bridge connecting Superior and Duluth awaits federal funding. We hear from candidates for Wisconsin Supreme Court and governor, and an Oneida program maintains traditional tribal foods. It’s “Here & Now” for March 13.

Announcer:
Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:
Watching and living the war from afar. That’s what Iranians in Wisconsin face as they worry and wonder about family and friends there cut off from communication. “Here & Now” reporter Steven Potter spoke with two Iranian people in Milwaukee about being so disconnected from loved ones during these times, and the hopes they have for their homeland after the war.

Steven Potter:
Watching the war in Iran unfold from thousands of miles away is causing a lot of worry for Wisconsin residents like Zara Fakhri and Ali Soltani. Communication with loved ones still in Iran is infrequent at best.

Zara Fakhri:
It’s because of the blackout. There’s no way to call them. So they’re calling us directly by the phone lines. And the quality of the call is terrible. What they say is always that we’re — we are okay. Everything is fine.

Steven Potter:
Have you been in contact with friends and family that you have in Iran?

Ali Soltani:
Yes. Internet is cut off, right? So my sister just yesterday through landline had called me. They all have moved to smaller cities, so they’re not in Tehran anymore. Even in the small cities, a couple places where — these are the garrisons and security forces, places that have been hit. She knew about those. But Tehran is really a lot of people hear a lot of loud noises, the bombing and scare some people of course.

Steven Potter:
Fakhri and Soltani have different feelings about the United States and Israel beginning the war in Iran and removing the country’s supreme leader from power.

Zara Fakhri:
It was the last option for us. At first, we were so happy because of the intervention that we were waiting for. After that, we got really happy and thrilled because of the death of the Khomeini. But we all knew that it’s not just one person, it’s systematic. We cannot say that and topple that government down just by killing one person.

Ali Soltani:
We have always opposed foreign war. It’s a very brutal regime. So some people, because they were fed up, they said, “Oh, United States come and attack.” That kind of mentality. But foreign interference will never end up well in the long run.

Steven Potter:
But Fakhri and Soltani do agree that it should be the Iranian people who decide who leads their homeland, and it should not be the leaders of other countries who choose Iran’s next government. Who should lead Iran?

Zara Fakhri:
Whoever Iranian people inside Iran and Iranian people outside of Iran agreeing with.

Ali Soltani:
We want the U.S., the international community, to let the Iranians — after 120 years of fighting for freedom, we don’t want to go back to another dictatorship. It doesn’t matter how you sugarcoat it. It’s a dictatorship. We don’t want to go to one man rule. We don’t want no clergy. We don’t want no Shah. We want a non-nuclear, secular, democratic republic based on rule of law, that if you don’t like somebody, you can vote them out, right? Just like U.S., just like France, just like many democratic countries.

Steven Potter:
What resolution are you hoping for in the end?

Zara Fakhri:
Getting rid of Islamic regime. Iranian people doing their job to make the country free and having a secular government and better place and showing the world what is real Iran and what is real Iranian people, and how it could be a better world with peaceful country in the Middle East. That’s what we are looking for.

Ali Soltani:
We want the U.S. and every other country to recognize our right to choose our own form of government. That is what’s dear to us. And that’s what actually, in the long run, is for the benefit of Iran and the international community.

Steven Potter:
Reporting from Milwaukee, I’m Steven Potter for “Here & Now.”

Frederica Freyberg:
An iconic connector between Superior, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota is set to close early next year. The Blatnik Bridge opened in 1961, and now more than 65 years later, is scheduled for reconstruction. According to the governor’s office, more than 33,000 vehicles cross every day and more than 265,000 transport trucks traverse the bridge each year. In 2024, former President Joe Biden visited Superior to draw attention to funding just over $1 billion for the project, as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law. But now, U.S. senators in two states and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, have written letters to the U.S. Department of Transportation to release that funding so the project can proceed. Superior Mayor Jim Paine is part of the chorus calling for the grant money to be released and is heading to Washington to personally appeal to DOT and Secretary Sean Duffy so the project can get going. He joins us from Superior and mayor, thanks for being here.

Jim Paine:
Yeah. Of course. Thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:
So how critical is it to get this funding released sooner rather than later?

Jim Paine:
Well, at first we’ll be okay because the — there are some delays built into the project. The problem is the later we start, the later we finish and the effect of the closure of the bridge is significant. And that’s what we’re preparing for. And any extension of that closure is problematic for the economy and quality of life of both Superior and neighboring Duluth. So the later it starts, the later it finishes.

Frederica Freyberg:
What has the U.S. DOT told you about when that might happen?

Jim Paine:
Nothing. And until now, we had reasonable assurances that this was going to happen. There was a lot of uncertainty at the start of this presidential administration, but that was supposed to have been resolved that this project was going forward. So this is a very frustrating delay.

Frederica Freyberg:
And Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, of course, knows the region, having represented it and knows the importance of this bridge.

Jim Paine:
I would hope so. I would think so. This is a vital connector, not just for the cities of Superior and Duluth or the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota. This is an international connector. The age of the bridge already limits the freight loads. There’s almost no freight that moves over it, but it’s going to be a vital connector for international shipping between Michigan, Canada, northern Minnesota, really the entire continent. It’s a very vital connection. The Secretary of Transportation should understand that and recognize this. Look, one of the most important things to note here, there is no question about the fact that this bridge is closing. It is at the end of its life. It is going to close. The only question in front of us is whether it’s going to reopen with a new bridge and when.

Frederica Freyberg:
So when the bridge closes, how will people get across?

Jim Paine:
There’s another bridge. The Bong Bridge is another major connector which can handle the load, but it’s going to create significant bottlenecks. If you look at even a map of Wisconsin, you can see Superior is sitting as a nice little hat there at the very northwest corner, and it already creates some backlogs. When enough freight is moving through the city, that will become demonstrably worse during bridge closure. So the longer that lasts, the greater the impacts on quality of life and commerce.

Frederica Freyberg:
Meanwhile, your city has already expended money toward the eventual replacement of the bridge. What is the preparation and that expenditure?

Jim Paine:
There’s been millions and millions of dollars in prep. A lot of it has been relocation of whole businesses, some of them as much as 100 years old that were operating at the foot of that bridge. We cleared it all out and look, we did our part. We spent a significant amount of public, local money, city of Superior money to help relocate businesses, to improve transportation networks, to actually rebuild streets, improve them, to mitigate traffic, to prepare for faster and more efficient emergency response during bridge closure. We have done our part. The state of Wisconsin, the state of Minnesota have done their part. Everything is ready. We’re waiting for the federal government to live up to its end of the deal.

Frederica Freyberg:
And so the new bridge is supposed to be up and operating by, what, 2031?

Jim Paine:
Hope so. This is a transportation project, and any transportation project involves delays. So an unforced delay like this, a, what seems to be a political delay only adds to the uncertainty and complexity of an already uncertain and complex project.

Frederica Freyberg:
So Republican lawmakers say the funding will be released and it’s not in jeopardy. You just used the word political. What do you think the holdup is?

Jim Paine:
I honestly don’t know. I’ve worked with many different state and federal administrations at this point, including the Trump administration. And while there have been — there’s been plenty of disagreement on priorities, I’ve never dealt with this level of chaos. I don’t know what the holdup is. I appreciate that lawmakers are saying that it will be released. Well, then release it. Sign the document. Show us that we have the money so planning and preparation can resume. I don’t know if it’s so guaranteed, let’s hear that from the Secretary of Administration. Words do not build bridges. Actions do.

Frederica Freyberg:
Mayor Jim Paine, thanks very much.

Jim Paine:
Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:
In the last few weeks, President Donald Trump has continued to dredge up conspiracy theories about his election loss to Joe Biden in 2020. Election controversies are often settled in court. The Wisconsin Supreme Court election is less than a month away, pitting conservative candidate Judge Maria Lazar against liberal candidate Judge Chris Taylor. “Here & Now” senior political reporter Zac Schultz interviewed the candidates about an important Supreme Court decision from the 2020 election to ask them how they would have ruled.

Protesters:
We won. Let’s go.

Zac Schultz:
In the days after Joe Biden won Wisconsin and the race for president in 2020, Donald Trump and his supporters immediately began spreading election conspiracies. Among his efforts to overturn the election, Trump’s campaign sued in Wisconsin, attempting to throw out 220,000 ballots in Dane and Milwaukee Counties, the two largest democratic areas of the state. The case reached the Wisconsin Supreme Court as Trump v Biden and with conservatives in control of the court, it was Justice Brian Hagedorn who sided with the three liberal justices to deny Trump’s request and refuse to take the case, saying the campaign did not have standing to sue. The three other conservatives did not say whether they would have sided with Trump and thrown out the ballots, but they would have taken the case. We asked the candidates in this election how they would have ruled if they’d been on the court.

Chris Taylor:
I would have rejected that effort. Again, that stands in contrast with my opponent. My opponent has been supported in the past in her Court of Appeals race by the same individuals that led the charge in trying to overturn our 2020 election. I think that was the right decision. That was, again, a one — only a one vote decision, which is alarming because if that case had been successful, hundreds of thousands of votes in the state of Wisconsin would have been thrown out. And that’s alarming to me.

Zac Schultz:
Judge Lazar, like the conservatives who dissented in that case, focused on whether Trump had standing to file suit.

Maria Lazar:
This is sort of an area that’s really deeply in flux with our state Supreme Court. They have issued several opinions that have gone around the edges of it, and so I’m not going to comment any further on where they would go, because I honestly believe that standing is going to come back up in our next term. So when I’m on this court, I don’t want to have someone say, “You said in an interview, so now you can’t rule in this case.”

Zac Schultz:
As far as whether someone’s going to say, “Well, you didn’t answer the question. Trump v Biden, would you have overturned all those votes?” Can you give me a reaction to that?

Maria Lazar:
I have answered the question, but with respect to overturning votes, I strongly believe that every vote should be counted. So every legal valid vote should be counted. So I wouldn’t comment, and I don’t actually know the parameters of how they were going to try to disenfranchise or not disenfranchise voters. So I really don’t have any further thing that I can say about that case.

Zac Schultz:
Reporting from Madison, I’m Zac Schultz for “Here & Now.”

Frederica Freyberg:
On the current Supreme Court, former Chief Justice Annette Ziegler announced this week she will not seek reelection, opening another seat on the high court for the spring election of 2027.
Last week, we reported on exploratory mining happening again in northern Wisconsin. The company GreenLight Metals is looking for gold and copper and other minerals in Taylor County. After the repeal in 2017 of Wisconsin’s old mining law, Wisconsin’s “Prove it first” law, otherwise known as the mining moratorium, was passed in 1997 and required mining companies to demonstrate where anyone had safely operated a metallic sulfide mine for at least ten years, and also where a mine had been safely closed for ten years. The mining company and environmental groups disagree on whether that standard could be proven if it was still in place today. In 2017, Republicans in the Legislature, led by then state Senator Tom Tiffany, eliminated those provisions. As part of our continuing series examining the biggest issues in the race for governor, “Here & Now” senior political reporter Zac Schultz asked the candidates about mining.

Zac Schultz:
GreenLight Metals, the Wisconsin chapter of the Sierra Club and the Friends of the Yellow River are well aware control of the Legislature and governor’s office could flip this fall, meaning the regulations governing mining in Wisconsin could be up for debate. We asked the leading candidates for governor what they thought about mining in Wisconsin, and if they would seek to change the current regulations.

Missy Hughes:
You know, I think that we’ve seen decades of ignoring people’s rights when it comes to some of that land, whether it’s our tribal nations in the state and also ignoring the economic — I’m sorry — the environmental impact on some of our areas. Natural resources in Wisconsin are the basis of our economy. We have to protect them, while at the same time we have to use them responsibly. We have to make sure that our mining laws are in tune with current mindset around how we protect people’s rights in the land and protecting the environment with making sure that we keep using the resources in a responsible way.

Mandela Barnes:
There has to be community buy in and community input for people who have made their homes in a, in an area, you know, 20, 30 years passed down, generation to generation. I think that folks should have some input on what happens in their backyard. And all I’m saying is have the conversation. That’s the important part. When we have those times where mining may come up and in a part of the state, yeah, we’ll talk to the community. Like, let’s talk it out because the only thing that happens is more resentment if that conversation doesn’t happen.

Francesca Hong:
I am staunchly opposed to the type of mining as well as drilling when it comes to Line 5. I have been vocal about my opposition there. I think the dangers that this is presenting to communities who have already seen services be cut, their schools, you know, closing. I think that having this type of, you know, this type of harmful — these types of harmful groups coming in to impact local environments and the quality of life. It’s, it’s really unfortunate. And I think it’s very important that we look at how to hold these corporations accountable.

Sara Rodriguez:
What I think we need to do is to make sure we have a really good environmental assessment for permitting for those mines, and to make sure that we are talking with the local communities. If Tribal Nations are involved, we are having those open conversations with them and making sure that we’re not having the environmental impact that would be negative for Wisconsin.

Joel Brennan:
I think one of the most important things that we have in Wisconsin, a differentiator that we have in Wisconsin versus other places around the country, is the natural beauty, the ability that we have to go out and enjoy Wisconsin. And that’s not a partisan issue. That’s not an ideological issue. That’s a vision that we share for the state. And so as we think about anything that would do any potential harm to the state of Wisconsin, I think we need to be very cautious about that. I think there are issues around economic development that I think we need to try to find that right balance. And if it’s time to revisit that issue or it’s time to have that conversation, I’d be all for it.

Tom Tiffany:
I thought we did a good job of writing the last mining bill for two reasons. One is we made sure that we had the toughest mining law in the United States so that we are going to protect the environment. We also provided for local control. I think it’s really important for locals to be able to have input in regards to these projects. But this is something, I mean, we’ve got a long, great history. I mean, we have a miner on our flag, right? And we have a long, proud history of mining here in Wisconsin.

David Crowley:
Well, it’s about working with the local municipalities, working with the groups and stakeholders that are on the ground and making sure that the work group that we can put together are giving us the best information possible to make the best decisions. That’s going to have a huge impact — that can have a huge impact on the environment, as well as a new industry here in the state of Wisconsin. And so you have to take that on a case-by-case basis and really working with all the stakeholders to make sure that we’re making the best decision possible.

Kelda Roys:
I think the current law has worked well for us. I want to see mining companies prove first before they open up a hillside and pollute our water that they’re going to be able to extract things in a safe way that is consistent with our natural resources management and our environmental goals.

Zac Schultz:
Reporting from Madison, I’m Zac Schultz for “Here & Now.”

Frederica Freyberg:
To combat health disparities on the Oneida reservation, Ukwakhwa or Our Foods is using a $250,000 grant to provide culinary knowledge and ancestral education to the Oneida tribal community. “Here & Now” reporter Erica Ayisi traveled to De Pere to learn more about the “From Seed to Table” program. This report is in partnership with ICT, formerly Indian Country Today.

Erica Ayisi:
Eldon Powless is an Oneida chef. He’s making lunch at Ukwakhwa or Our Foods kitchen on the Oneida Reservation near Green Bay.

Eldon Powless:
Here I get to just do what I want. They’re just like, as long as it’s — as long as it tastes as good and it’s nutritious. Go ahead.

Erica Ayisi:
He says his Northern Comfort Bowl is an Indigenous take on southern comfort food.

Eldon Powless:
I wanted to do like a little twist on that and use wild rice and use the beans that we have and whatever we have available local.

Erica Ayisi:
Ukwakhwa isn’t a restaurant, but Powless is their guest chef for this week’s meal. He says he uses some heirloom Indigenous foods that are harvested on their farm the Oneida way.

Eldon Powless:
I try to, like, incorporate whatever we can get locally.

Erica Ayisi:
His recipe of diced celery, onions, carrots and locally sourced wild rice are added to a butter cream sauce with roasted corn. Black beans simmer in braised smoked ham hocks on the side. Stephen Webster is director of farm and culinary operations at Ukwakhwa. He says their “From Seed to Table” grants with the Wisconsin Partnership Program subsidizes sales of hot lunches made by indigenous chefs to restore wellness to their diets.

Stephen Webster:
They get a stipend. They cook about 80 to 100 meals for the community. The community then puts in orders. How many we want, and then we pretty much disburse those meals throughout the community.

Erica Ayisi:
Webster says their grant program offers community members meals rooted in ancestral knowledge for modern living, integrating traditional ingredients like corn and beans with contemporary cuisine.

Stephen Webster:
The goal of this was to try to expand people’s palates.

Erica Ayisi:
The grant also subsidizes hands on meal preparation workshops using products harvested on the reservation.

Stephen Webster:
We’ve had people make maple seed cookies, which blows my mind sometimes where I was, like, it was — there was no gluten in it.

Erica Ayisi:
Webster says in this first year, the program is meeting its goals.

Stephen Webster:
We did 1,393 meals just through the Hot Meal Noon program. And then we did another 80 some meals through the meal prep class.

Erica Ayisi:
Webster says meals like the Northern Comfort Bowl would cost about $30 each in local restaurants, but Ukwakhwa is able to offer it here for $13 to the Oneida community due to the reduced pricing by the grant. Webster says he hopes to continue the same pricing when funding ends.

Stephen Webster:
But now I feel like we’re much stronger from a logistics standpoint to take on this stuff in the future.

Erica Ayisi:
Webster says both food programs help the Oneida community reconnect to their Indigenous foodways from a time when their ancestors were relocated from New York to Wisconsin in the early 1800s.

Stephen Webster:
When they came here, again, it was they were following Christian missionaries, but there were still people who practice our traditions, our language and all that other stuff. And a lot of those seeds came with them as well.

Erica Ayisi:
What did they tell you about Indigenous cultivation?

Stephen Webster:
The biggest one that most people are aware of is companion planting: the Three Sisters style of planting.

Erica Ayisi:
He says maintaining Oneida’s agricultural methods of planting varieties of corn, beans and seeds next to each other is a balancing act of traditional and modern farming.

Stephen Webster:
For two or three people like me and my wife to do it, we have to use the tractor. We have to do stuff, but we still make it a point to hand plant and hand weed and so forth to keep those traditions alive.

Erica Ayisi:
Twice a month, the Ukwakhwa team delivers their culturally relevant meals to seven different drop-off sites along the Oneida Tribal Department’s route. Webster and the Ukwakhwa staff and volunteers packed up his truck with dozens of hot and ready, preordered meals prepared by that week’s chef.

Stephen Webster:
Hello there.

Woman:
Hi.

Stephen Webster:
You going to buy one?

Woman:
Yeah, I am.

Stephen Webster:
All right.

Erica Ayisi:
Toni House picked up her three meals at the Ukwakhwa farm, reflecting on her childhood memories of food insecurity from colonization.

Toni House:
I remember what it was like to be hungry as a child, you know? And I remember thinking, how come people didn’t hand me good foods?

Erica Ayisi:
She says the program will help younger children have an appetite and desire for healthy Indigenous meals.

Toni House:
Nutrition right here impacts three generations automatically. Scientifically, we know that now.

Erica Ayisi:
Back in the Ukwakhwa kitchen, Powless says traditional Indigenous ingredients can be cooked with love and risk while exploring new recipes.

Eldon Powless:
You don’t have to be super traditional and make it a certain way. You can incorporate it however you would like.

Erica Ayisi:
Webster says “From Seed to Table” incorporates the past …

Stephen Webster:
Make sure that we, kind of like, go back as much as we can.

Erica Ayisi:
… for a healthier diet in the future.

Stephen Webster:
To what maybe our ancestors were eating to help combat some of that and address some of that.

Erica Ayisi:
In De Pere, I’m Erica Ayisi for “Here & Now” and ICT.

Frederica Freyberg:
For more on this and other issues facing Wisconsin, visit our website at PBSWisconsin.org and then click on the news tab. That’s our program for tonight. I’m Frederica Freyberg. Have a good weekend.

Announcer:
Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.