Thursday, March 5, 2015

A night in the Wisconsin State Capitol.

We're off to Madison to cover the great Right to Work debate. We're told debate could go until 9am. Here is our experience. 

1:45pm Exactly 24 hours after starting my work day Joe has dropped me off at home. That was an adventure!  Republican speaker Robin Vos says he took a nap, meaning he had more sleep than me!  Time to catch up on shuteye. 



9:45am  RIGHT TO WORK PASSES.  A flury of activity follows.





 



8:59  The vote is near.  This is my view.  Full house.



8:07  Everyone is in their seat.  All amendments defeated.  We're on to the FINAL debate which will last an hour.  There is light at the end of the tunnel.



7:48 I joined the WAKEUP crew for a live hit.  I'm not sure if I made any sense.  Very fun to hang out Deandra!  We threw out the competition. 





6:30  "REFER TO SMALL BUSINESS COMMITTEE" will haunt my dreams.  We've been debating (almost entirely democrats speaking) since about 10PM last night.  The proposal is dead on arrival whenever this is voted upon. 



6:11  HERE COMES THE SUN.  I opened the blind behind me.  It is pretty.  In here, they are STILL discussing referring this bill to the small business committee.  Debate expected to end at 8.  Vote by 9.  ALL NIGHTER!





6:00am  A lawmaker's alarm clock just went off on his phone.  We're in the home stretch! 



5:16am  Mandela Barnes (D-Milwaukee) has been on the mic for like an hour.  Meanwhile, I'm caffeinated.  It should last... oh 15 minutes.






5:00am  SOOO SWEEEEPY.  Not me.  Some of these lawmakers.  This is why you don't save you're good stuff for 5am.  Tough crowd.  BTW, we're still debating whether or not to send this to committee.




4:35am  We're still discussing whether or not to send this bill back to committee (which again will not happen.)  We're 16 hours into the debate.  So here's a GAME!  Peter Barca just tweeted this out.  Can you find photojournalist Joe?!





4:14am  MORE FRIENDS!  Just ran outside to give Deandra and Del our video.  Deandra has got us covered for Fox 6 WakeUP starting at 4:30 from outside.  We're sticking it out inside to stay on top of this GREAT DEBATE!  9AM OR BUST! 




3:30am  Mr. Belding (Dennis Haskins) is tweeting.  Not sure what's stranger, that, or the fact I follow him on twitter.  Also please #PrayForJoe.  He looks sleepy. Deandra from the morning crew says she has stopped to get us caffeine on her trip to Madison.  Help is on the way.  As far as debate, we're still talking about whether or not to send the bill to the small business committee (which will not happen).



3:02am  I just talked to Republican State Rep. Dave Craig "We're going the distance."  He then helped get me ice water (HUGE THANKS) It allowed me stay lucid enough at 3am to notice how cool the door knobs are here!




2:22am  It's been 12 hours since they booted the public out of the gallery.  Boy, it feel like it was yesterday.






2:03am  They are discussing Oklahoma.  Some other state shutouts tonight:  Minnesota (A LOT) and Indiana.  Meanwhile I could have sworn this bag of gummy bears was full a couple hours ago.



1:22  The most action from early Friday debate has come from this drafty window.  They tried to fix it.  It even has its own hashtag #Brrtowork.  It's still cold.  





1:01am  The debate on the doomed "should we send this bill back to committee" continues.  I think I'm getting loopy because I have chair envy.  Top picture are lawmaker's seats.  Bottom, my seat (PS Jenna texted me to remind me its broken).







12:27am  Do I look sleepy?  We've been on debate about whether or not to send this bill back to committee (which will not happen) for hours.  BLOG ON!



12:06am  IT'S FRIDAY!!!!  The debate paused to wish a clerk a happy birthday.  Everyone cheered.  That has been the most excitement the last 2 hours.  Now back to debate.  Twitter is keeping me going.  Not sure what Joe is thinking about.  My current thought "Tonight might be a nice night to start drinking coffee."




 10:45pm  Our 9+10 live shots are in the books.  Man it is cold outside!  I promised I would not go back inside without food and caffeine.  the only place I found with both was an Irish bar!  I witnessed a really bad first date as I waited for the food.  I'm now back inside the Capitol.  9am here we come!











9:34pm  I've been super busy the last few hours trying to log and write scripts.  I've moved to the SAT truck with a new team!  We've fed the script and getting ready for 10PM.  YAY TEAMWORK!






6:30pm  My butt hurts.  Uh oh.  So I stood up to take a picture of other people sitting.  MY FRIENDS FROM THE MEDIA.



5:51pm  I would be lying if I told you this sheet was not saving me tonight.  Assembly seating chart.



.
5:22pm  All the action appears to have happened in the morning.  Debate continues.  No one is in the gallery (all booted early this afternoon)  We're getting lots of history lessons.  I've heard 2 references to ancient Egypt!





4:03pm  Changing of the guard. 






3:34pm We've made it to Madison. 







2:01pm Joe and I have left Brown Deer. With debate already underway for the last 5 hours we are heading to Madison to meet up with our colleagues. 


Sunday, March 1, 2015

What does this breakfast burrito say?

Ashley and I can not agree on this burrito from Comet Cafe.  Does this say SHH! Or 1945?