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WSUM News Team compiles recent news in under 5 minutes every Monday through Thursday. Originally aired on the 91.7 FM stream, each newscast is re-posted in audio form.
INTRO GOOD (DAY) EVENING MADISON! YOU’RE LISTENING TO THE 5/6 O’CLOCK NEWS UPDATE ON WSUM 91.7 FM MADISON STUDENT RADIO. I’M TALULA HAYES.
IN THE NEWS TODAY,
IN STATE NEWS,
Whitewater Republican Sen. Steve Nass is set to retire later this year after almost 40 years in the state legislature. With his term running out later this year, Nass said his service quote “has been one of the greatest honors of [his] life,”. He began in 1990 when he was elected to represent the 31st Assembly District and held that position until 2014 when he was elected to represent Wisconsin’s 11th district in the state senate. In the past, Nass has had a complicated relationship with the University of Wisconsin System during his time as chair of the Assembly’s Colleges and Universities Committee. In 2007, Nass campaigned to cut funds for certain UW-Madison programs, including the sociology department and UW-Extension School for Workers, claiming they are quote “too far to the left,”. During his time on the legislative board, Nass accused UW of discriminating against men and criticized UW courses teaching white privilege.
IN INTERNATIONAL NEWS,
Medical evacuees from Gaza are entering Egypt as the Rafah border crossing has been reopened. Around 20,000 Palestinians are in need of medical aid and hoping to pass through the border, according to Gaza health officials. Previously, it was unclear if anyone would be able to pass through; currently, few personnel are able to pass through their vetting system and no goods can be transferred. This crossing was originally closed in May of 2024 by Israeli troops. After its reopening, the office of the North Sinai governor confirmed the first Palestinian patient was able to cross the border via ambulance. When the ceasefire went into effect in October, Israel was given military control of the area with a majority population of Palestinians. Prevalent violence in the destroyed area has continued, with Gaza hospital officials saying an Israeli navy ship had fired into a tent camp, killing a 3-year-old Palestinian boy. Around 150 hospitals across Egypt are prepared to receive patients evacuated from Gaza moving forward. Over 100,000 patients have been evacuated from Gaza since war began, however after Israel took control of the border, evacuations have slowed to around 17 patients leaving a week.
IN ECONOMIC NEWS,
President Trump nominated Kevin Warsh to be the next Chair of the Federal Reserve. Warsh previously served as an economic advisor to George W. Bush and a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors during the Great Recession. On the Board, Warsh was an inflation hawk, souring on the central bank’s aggressive response to the 2008 financial crisis and calling for the Fed to wind down expansions of its balance sheet. He later joined the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and was the runner-up for the top job at the Fed in 2017. Jay Powell was ultimately selected. Powell has drawn ire from the White House for not cutting interest rates quickly enough and is the target of an unprecedented federal criminal investigation that he says is politically motivated. That criminal probe is likely to pose trouble for Warsh’s nomination in the Senate Banking Committee. A Republican member, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, has pledged to block all Fed nominations until the investigation into Powell is resolved. A “no” vote from Tillis would be enough to stall Warsh’s nomination in committee; any other floor tactics to advance the nomination would require support from Democrats, which is unlikely to materialize. If confirmed, some experts say Warsh may not be a standard hawk or dove on the Board and instead expect him to focus on shrinking the Fed’s balance sheet. Similar moves from Powell at the start of his tenure prompted a market selloff and a quick pivot to easier money by the Fed. For WSUM News, I’m Daniel Stein.
IN ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS,
A Federal Judge strikes down President Trump and the US Department of the Interior trying to halt construction on a windfarm in New York on Monday. This is now the fifth time the courts ruled against President Trump in his effort to stop wind farms from being built on the East Coast. Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for D.C. issued a preliminary injunction that would allow the New York project to restart construction while the legal battle continues. This was in response to the Interior Department ordering all work to halt in December. Officials justified this move by saying the Defense Department found the projects to be a national security threat. The farm is in federal waters about 30 miles east of Montauk Point, N.Y. The project is already 45 percent complete. If the project is completed it is expected to generate enough renewable energy to power 600,000 homes. The move by President Trump is his latest in the saga against renewable energy. He has often gone on record calling climate change and renewable energy a hoax, and trying to restart fossil fuel operations in the U.S.
For WSUM News, I’m Nathan Jahn
TURNING OVER TO SPORTS, HERE’S WITH AN UPDATE
Badgers sports have a busy weekend with a mix of wins and losses. Both hockey teams travelled to Minneapolis to take on the rival Golden Gophers. The Men’s team continued their losing streak getting swept in both games. They lost the first game one to four and the second game four to eight, moving them to 15-9-2 on the year. The number one ranked Women’s team split their series, in their first games without the five olympians usually on the team. They lost the first game in overtime three to two, then answered back with a dominant six to one victory Saturday. Men's Basketball concluded their three game homestand with a 92 to 82 victory over Ohio State. Both Nick Boyd and John Blackwell added more than 20 points to power their offense. The Badgers travel next to Indiana to take on the 15-7 Hoosiers looking to win and improve their record to 17-6. Men's Tennis had a matchup on Friday and a doubleheader on Sunday and won all three matches. The Women's team had a similar schedule winning both doubleheader games on Saturday and losing to Texas on Sunday.
For WSUM News, I’m Nathan Jahn
OUTRO: THANK YOU FOR TUNING IN! FROM THE WSUM NEWS BOOTH, I’M TALULA HAYES. HAVE A GREAT EVENING MADISON!