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And hey, how you doing?
It's mid-morning on Civic Media.
My name is Greg Bock.
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I'm your buddy.
I'm your pal.
And we are happy that you are here spending time with us today starting off the week
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We have a wonderful show for you today.
It's, uh, it's Monday.
We're here kicking it off me and sweet Cal B on the boards.
Good morning, Calvin.
How are you today?
I'm doing pretty good, Greg.
You know, the weekend blinked five, but
Yeah.
Time marches on.
Wow.
Man, you can always count on Calvin for not only words of wisdom, but just deep thoughts here on a Monday morning.
So, uh, yeah, we, it is, it is a Monday morning.
The weekend did go by fast.
I hope you had a great one.
If you want to tell us what you were up to, let us know.
Send us a text.
Give us a call.
Go ahead and drop a comment in the live stream.
We'd love to know.
But we do have a great show for you today at 9 35.
After the 9 30 news, we have Maddie Schaefer here.
Maddie is a reporter, a journalist here with civic media, and she is going to be talking to us about the story she's working on for our stations up at WBZ H.
and WHSM in the Hayward area surrounding the North woods.
From what I understand, we'll be talking possibly about the Berkey coming up and a wonderful event and iron river.
So that'll be happening after the 930 news.
And then at 1006 at the top of the second hour, I'm very excited about this and this is a discussion.
Emilio del Torre is the executive director of the Milwaukee Turners, Milwaukee Turners at Turner Hall.
They are a historic group in Milwaukee.
Their building is absolutely beautiful, historic, gorgeous.
I've seen many concerts there.
I've gone to, I've eaten in the restaurant many times, but one thing I didn't know until a couple of years ago was, was their work with human rights, immigration rights.
in the community and Emilio is going to be here to talk about that specifically about what are your rights and I know that's a very vague question and I feel a lot of you probably will be sitting in your chair or in your car or wherever you are right now saying well I know my rights but I think when push comes to shove and I use that phrase with purpose when push comes to shove it's important to know
what your rights are, how you can stand up for yourself and others, what you can do in a moment where you might be faced with an agent, an officer, someone who wants to impinge upon your personal freedoms, your American rights, your rights as being in this country, regardless of your citizenry.
But that's what we'll be talking to Emilio about this morning.
He'll be giving us an overview of what they do at the Milwaukee Turners.
what our rights are when we are faced with those situations and also things about immigration rights.
And they do run what's called a legal observer program as well.
We'll be discussing that too.
That's all in the second hour.
And then in the 1035, it's going to be audio sorbet.
And I saw this on the list and I'm going to go for it.
And I don't know where it's going to take us, but I want to try it on a Monday.
Calvin, are you ready to take a journey with me?
I'm ready.
I just wanna know what's on your fridge.
I saw this, what's on your fridge?
You have pictures, you have quotes, you have decorations, kids, you know, finger paintings, funny magnets.
Do you do a yearly cleansing start over?
Do you have Christmas cards from say five years ago like we do at my house?
I wanna know at 1035, audio survey, what do you have in your fridge?
Are there rules?
Are there, is there a waiting list for what can be on there?
Do you keep it clean?
You're like, I don't want anything.
I want to know.
We're going to audio sorbet it up.
And then finally at 10 at 10 52, we're going to close the show out with this shouldn't be a thing today.
It is the let them drink cake edition.
So if you're down with the protein powders, you might want to listen to this one because you might want to check the ingredients.
That's the, this shouldn't be a thing.
Let them drink cake edition today, but we are kicking the show off.
Talking about healthcare many stories this weekend Coming out of the news in both the Wisconsin examiner as well as Wisconsin public radio Coming from the GOP side and The one I want to kick off with is from Sean Johnson.
He's got the byline the title is Wisconsin's Ron Johnson talking to Democrats to about partial ACA fix now quick overview as we all know
The folks who enrolled in the ACA, also known as Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, there were what's called premium tax credits given to these individuals so they could help pay for those plans because individual plans can be very expensive.
So we as a government, they as a government, I'm not in government, worked out a plan so these folks who partook in that program would be able to get
what's called premium tax credits.
Those premium tax credits expired at the end of last year caused a lot of hubbub.
The Democrats held out and said we wanted to extend these tax cuts indefinitely.
These premium tax credits say tax credits indefinitely period done in perpetuity because their their belief was if we can give
multi-millionaires, millionaires, and billionaires, huge tax cuts forever, then we should be able to give these folks a premium tax credit for as long as they need to be on the ACA because it is expensive.
And there was no movement.
The government shut down.
The Democrats used that piece as leverage to
bring Republicans the table to talk about it to reopen the government.
There was a discussion that would that this topic would be promised by the GOP to be discussed.
The government then did open up and they have been having these discussions.
And there was a vote that passed through the House last week.
And that is fantastic to pass these premium tax credits.
And more and more Republicans have been getting on board because, you know, and I don't know why.
the cynical can say because they want to keep their jobs.
The people like me say maybe they're just listening to the folks in their district and saying, oh, we need to do something about this.
But Ron Johnson, who is one of Wisconsin's two senators, he is the senior senator.
He told PBS that Wisconsin, that he wants to help people who lose the ACA tax credits at the end of last year.
He wants to help people get those back.
But from what it seems, he doesn't just want to do a straight
out uh plan like like what they're doing in the hot what they did in the house what they passed in the house that's not what he's looking to do he wants to make some caveats as it will he said that the program that is that the democrats wanted this is quoted from him what i've been told is that there are enough democrats who will co-sponsor a a bill that has a limited approach
But right now, I think they're still holding out hope that they can extend all the subsidies.
I just believe that's dead on arrival here in the Senate.
We voted that down multiple times during the shutdown.
That's not going to happen.
So essentially, Ron Johnson is saying, yes, sort of, that there are caveats.
He wants to make it that you have to be of a certain
I believe he said it was 400% under the poverty level.
If I'm not mistaken here, it's basically, um, here we go.
Instead, Johnson said he's exploring a way to people, to people earning more of them, sorry, more than 400% of the federal poverty level who got cut off when the extended subsidies expired.
Some of these folks close to retirement are facing premiums of $38,000 a year.
Johnson said, so I'd like to help them.
I think
This is a situation where we should be helping everyone.
I don't know about you.
I've asked this question before.
Are you on the ACA?
Are you on the ACA?
What do your premiums look like?
Or worse, did you have to forego coverage because you can't afford it?
Because of these premium tax credits have expired, has this affected your ability to access health care?
I'd like to know that.
855-752-484-2855-75 Civic is the number.
You can leave a comment on the live stream.
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, 400% of the federal poverty level was $84,600 for a family of two in 2025.
Now, I don't know why we're putting a price tag on this in such a fashion.
a family of two who makes $84,600.
Now I'm not, unfortunately in this country, that doesn't mean you're living high on the hog, but it can't just be that because we're talking about all sorts of folks here.
We're talking about small business owners, independent contractors, farmers, all sorts of folks participate in the ACA and it can't be nickel and dime like this.
They need to pass these
tax credits, because it just helps them access healthcare.
And as we have spoken about in the past, when folks have access to healthcare, we are a better society.
People can be, people can see the doctor, they can get healthy, they can work, they can contribute, they can contribute to the economy.
There are economic benefits that are tied directly to a country that has a good healthcare system.
And right now,
We are sitting here with people who want to get their health care, but can't afford it and now Someone like Ron Johnson who I'm surprised is even coming to the table for this He is someone who ran on gutting and repealing the ACA.
That's what he ran on in his first Term he won on that he and he worked to they worked to try they voted on it many times in the house to repeal the ACA that never did
because it's popular and they know they'd be in trouble.
But I don't understand why someone like Ron Johnson is now putting a caveat on this and saying, these people, but not these people.
I just believe anybody who needs the ACA should be able to enjoy those premium tax credits.
I think you should tell him.
I think you should go to myvote.wi.gov.
I think you should call his office.
His office number is 202-224-52.
a five three two three two zero two two four five three two three Tell him if you want that you would like to hear you'd like for those tax credits to be extended for everybody and That we need to pass this now Today is Martin Luther King dr. Martin Luther King day he
is celebrated here in this country is this is a national holiday people have off work from today i'm hope that you are participating in a day of service if you can uh before we you know on the other side we're going to play a small clip of his final speech the day before he was assassinated but i just want to remind people that
This is a while this is a this is a day of celebration of the man This is a day of remembrance of the man in his message.
That is also day of service and talking with Serve, Wisconsin last week if you want to find out more about you go to serve wisconsin.gov To find out what you can be doing to maybe help out the community
Day of service here, Martin Luther King Day.
But when we come back, we're going to be talking about the primary taking place next month.
That's right.
There's a primary here in Wisconsin talking about what you can do, making sure you are registered to vote, making sure you know what's on your ballot, but don't go anywhere.
When we come back, we'll have more to discuss and then at the, at.
After the 9 30 news, we'll be talking to civic media's very own Maddie Schaefer about the stories she's working on up there in the Northwood.
So don't go anywhere.
You, uh, grab some water, grab some snacks, stay hydrated.
Give us a call.
Give us a text.
We'd love to hear from you.
855-752-4842-8578-5575 civic.
You are listening to mid mornings on civic media.
My name is Greg box.
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Stay close.
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Welcome, welcome back to mid mornings on Civic Media.
Sorry, I'm listening to Sam Cooke right now.
My name is Greg Bach.
I am your host, your buddy, your partner in crime, your co-conspirator.
And you are listening to us on the civic media radio network.
If you want to get in touch with us, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five civic is the number you can call or comment on the live stream.
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So go out, put it on your device, stay in touch, stay in tune, be in our lives.
We want to be in yours.
We're happy as always that you are sharing time with us.
especially on this Monday morning.
Today is Dr. Martin Luther King day, a national day of celebration, remembrance of, of solemn understanding of what he was and his mission.
Calvin was very nice to roll Sam Cook as our bumper music a day who's one of my, he's probably my favorite American singer of all time period.
I think he is the best.
And I wanted to just, you know, there are so many speeches from
Dr. King that you can play and I know that you know what I'm going to play is probably not the most original but it's also not I think what you believe you're about to hear because I think that Dr. King's message has been co-opted by certain individuals to fit their own narratives to allow a certain sense of belief and legislation exists and I was searching for something and I just found this
And I wanted to play it for you real quick.
Cal, can you play this?
This is from April 3rd, his final speech before his untimely death by assassination in Memphis at the Lorraine Hotel.
Please play that, Calvin.
Those were the wars of Dr. Martin Luther King, spoken on April 3rd, 1968, before his untimely assassination.
That is the, I've been to the mountaintop speech, and I just wanted to play that for you in celebration of Dr. King.
I'm not gonna pontificate too hard on it, because I understand.
If you're watching the live stream now, you'll understand why I don't want to pontificate too hard on Dr. King and his legacy, but I will let his words do the speaking.
And I want to talk to some people this week about it, uh, about who he was, but more about his words and how they evolved through time.
But I just wanted to play that for you and then follow it up with this.
We have an election coming up this year.
We have a few of them.
We have a spring time and a fall election.
The first to be held is going to be a spring primary.
If you have primaries in your area, you may not just because of how your ballots are set up, but.
that Tuesday, February 17th, the primary election that will proceed the April 7th general election, go to myvote.wi.gov to find out a few things.
First, you can find out whether or not you are registered.
That is very important.
I'm not going to get into a conversation right now about the roles and
names being scrubbed for various reasons.
I will say that if you have moved recently and you haven't re-registered, you need to do that.
If you haven't voted in a few years, you need to check and make sure, and you can do that by going to myvote.wi.gov to check your registration.
If you are not registered, you can register there.
As far as I checked last week, I don't believe ballots are up yet, but that is a resource for you to check what is on your ballot.
highly implore you to do so, especially as we closer to any election.
And it looks like we may that may have a constitutional amendment on there or a non-binding resolution because sometimes the language can be a little tricky.
And we wanted to code that for you in the coming weeks and months ahead as we see them come down the pike.
But.
Myvote.wi.gov is where you're gonna go to look at your ballot, to register your vote, or register to vote, to check your registration, and also, as I've said many times per show, but I'm gonna keep saying it, you can find out who represents you, you can call them, you can text them, you can email them, you can visit them, be respectful, tell them,
what you need from your leaders.
If you love the work they're doing, please buy God Almighty, tell them that.
I guarantee you they get far less things saying, good job than the other emails, texts and whatnot, but myvote.wi.gov to find out who are your leaders.
And if they aren't doing a good enough job leading, make sure you're registered to vote because they are applying or reapplying for jobs this year.
And if they're not doing it to your liking,
Let's get someone else in there.
But this is what we do in this country.
This is what we're still allowed to do.
Our voice is still important and it's still there to be heard.
Myvote.wi.gov is the place for you.
Dr. Martin Luther King, we celebrate your message, your love, your passion, your work.
When we come back, we'll be talking to Maddie Schaefer.
She is a reporter up in the North woods and we'll be talking about the story she's working on as well as just everything going on there.
Cause I don't know if you've been there lately, but the North woods are gorgeous.
So don't go anywhere.
You are listening to mid mornings on civic media.
My name is Greg Bach.
I am so grateful that you were here today.
Stay tuned, stay informed, stay close.
Welcome.
Welcome back to mid mornings on civic media.
My name is Greg Bach.
I am your host, your buddy, your pal and your local news and journalism enthusiast.
And I'm happy to have you here this morning.
Happy you're sharing time with us.
And if you want to be part of the conversation, you can always call or text 855-752-4842-8557, five civic leave a comment on the live stream, Facebook, YouTube and the platform we still call Twitter is where we are streaming currently coming up in the second hour.
at the top of the hour is going to be Emilio del Torre, who is the executive director of the Milwaukee Turners at Turner Hall.
We'll be talking about the work they're doing with regard to human rights, immigration rights, and knowing your rights, because as I said earlier, I think everyone believes they know their rights, but.
in a pinch in a moment.
It's good to have them right up here in your little brain box.
So we'll be talking to Emilio Del Torre later on in the show.
And did get a comment from Bill on the live stream.
He is on Facebook.
He said, instead of telling your listeners every time to check if they're registered, just advise them that if they have not voted in the last four years, they will not be registered.
And they will, they will not be registered.
They must re-registered.
Absolutely right.
Thank you very much.
Very true.
Very streamlined to it.
I just get all nervous.
I'm like, just always check.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I just want to make sure you are registered, but that's true.
If you've not voted in four years, you must re-register.
If you've moved, you must re-register.
And as far as I'm aware, Wisconsin not doing any nefarious stuff right now, but don't, don't at me on that one.
I'm just saying that in the moment, but let's move it along.
To our first guest this morning I'm very excited to have her on the show because I have always said and I do believe that local reporting is the most important reporting because it is where We find out the news that directly affects us and to talk more about that We are going to be speaking with Maggie Schaefer who is a civic media reporter here in Wisconsin for a WBZH and WH
WHSM.
Those are four hard letters to say together.
WHSM.
Covering the Hayward Area and the surrounding North Woods.
Welcome to the show, Maddie.
Good morning.
I got through that intro almost.
Good.
How are you today?
I'm doing good.
It's pretty cold out there
today.
I was just going to say, like looking, looking at the old, uh, the old, uh, mid-morning civic media weather balloon here, it says it's negative two feels like negative 26.
And I'm in radio park in Racine.
Dare I ask what it's happening up there?
Uh, it is negative 11 right now.
Oh,
I don't understand why we do this to ourselves, but well, we're happy that you are inside warm.
comfortable, relaxed, and I'm also happy that you are here today.
That's the amazing thing about civic media is that we are in, we are all, we are many states now, and I have many, many coworkers, and I feel like I'm always meeting new ones, so it's very nice to meet you and to talk to you.
Tell us, tell us first about you.
How did you find your way to the Northwoods, to the Hayward area, and like a background as far as like, you know, your, your work in journalism?
Yeah, so I actually grew up here.
I didn't grow up in Hayward, but about 45 minutes away.
So I lived in Drummond, which is a really small town.
It's got a population of 89 people.
Now 88 because you
left.
Yep, right.
You're right.
It's getting smaller.
Yeah But yeah, we used to travel all the time to go grocery shopping in Hayward, so I'm very familiar with the area But I moved out a drama to go to college at University of Superior, Wisconsin And I went to college there for communication specifically multimedia journalism
Um, you know, did all of my courses there and graduated and then, uh, got the job here with civic media.
So I moved from, cause I was living in Duluth.
So I moved from Duluth to Hayward and yeah, no, I'm working here back where I grew up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I just find that very interesting.
Drummond is a town of 89 people.
So it's like what, like.
What all comprises drumming?
Is it one of those things where he's like, we've got a, we've got a stoplight and we've got a general store and then you've, you've missed us.
That's it.
Not a single stoplight.
There's a gas station and I think one restaurant now.
And, uh, yeah, that's, we got a school and a library.
Oh,
I'm happy you have those two things.
That's very
important.
So yeah.
Yeah.
With your reporting up because, you know,
A lot of times people can say like, oh, the local news reporting is, you know, we found a local squirrel that looks cuter, but it's not just that.
When you're doing these reports, when you're looking at what's going on, it's about getting the people in the community, the news that like directly affects them, whether it's, you know, events or meetings or, you know, decisions from local lawmakers and what, you know,
in your time here with civic media doing the work you're doing for the stations.
What do you see in those communities that are most important that the people really connect to as far as what you report to what they really enjoy learning about?
Yeah, kind of anything and everything.
So I report on local government, you know, I go to the city council meetings.
It's the Sawyer County Board of Supervisors, and they have their separate committees.
So I try to go there and cover as much as I can for those kinds of things.
But another thing is like big events.
I mean, especially now that it's wintertime, everything's about, you know, wintertime activities.
So I've been to a lot of skiing events lately, which is all run by the Berkey Foundation.
And now we're getting ready to, you know, start.
planning for a Berkey coverage, because that's happening in February.
And that's the biggest thing around here in Hayward.
I mean, it goes from 11,000 to 13,000 people that participate in that race.
It's huge for the area.
But yeah, a lot of big events for, you know, wintertime activities.
I just did one in Iron River because I kind of cover, you know, not just Hayward,
but
wherever our listening area
is.
So I try to go around as much as possible and, you know, report from those other areas as well because there's not a lot of news reporters here in the Northwoods, you know, this area.
So I try to, you know, have something for everybody.
And that, I think, I think what you just said is one of the most important things to remember always is that, you know, we live on social media.
We live in 24.
I've got 24 hour news playing in the background here.
And, and that's, that serves a purpose and it's got a function and it's fine.
to a certain extent.
It's a little maddening sometimes.
But yes, what you're doing is going to those areas and finding out what's happening in those communities and telling people, especially when it comes to county board meetings and whether it's town hall, city hall, village hall, because
you know, we see all the time stories about I'm just going to pick a topic, you know, data centers, people are finding out more and more about data centers, and they're just sort of on those agendas and people say, I don't know what that's about.
So I'm going to go and then they listen to your report and like, I got to need to find out more.
And I think that's something that's really important that you as well as many of our reporters here at Civic Media do.
If you're just joining us right now on mid mornings on Civic Media, we are talking to Maddie Schaefer, who is a reporter for WBZH and WH.
SM in Hayward and the surrounding Northwoods area, but When you're talking to people and I want to get to one of the events you were discussing We were discussing in the break, but when you're talking to people What are the things that you hear from them that you know?
Make you say well, I don't even know who they voted for because it's all connective tissue It's the things that connect us whether it's you know, we're talking about whether we're talking about healthcare We're talking about education, but those things up in the Northwoods.
What do you hear from people as far as concerns of the community?
Yeah, I mean a big one right now is there's this project.
It's called the Forestry Revitalization Act and it's basically taking, you know, wood from our forest and turning it into aviation fuel.
So that's a big topic in the area right now.
It's also kind of a statewide topic.
But yeah, when I got my education, it was really important and instilled in me and my classmates to cover every side.
And it's important to listen to people whether you know what their political affiliation is or not.
But just to get more perspective on what's happening, what people care about, and going to the city council meetings and all that around here, that's a really big place to do that is to talk to people who
have different perspectives who know about these issues so you can learn more about them and then, you know, my job is to, you know, kind of simplify that for the people in the area so they can understand what's going on in this area too because it does affect them.
And I think that's another thing that's wonderful that you said too.
These are, you know, people can hear forestry cutting wood.
aviation fuel, they might think, what does that have to do with me?
Well, you know, you may live in Hayward and that affects you.
You could live in Milwaukee and that affects you, Green Bay that affects you.
And I think that's again, the thing that connects us all and helps us to formulate those opinions versus.
doing, I mean, to a certain extent, what I'm doing, which is there's an opinion base to what I'm doing.
Like, well, this is how I feel about it.
But what do you know about is also as if not more important, but talking about local events, I want to talk about something right now really quick here.
It says here that you attended a fishing event this week in an iron river.
And while that is a lot of fun, why they were doing it is beautiful.
So can you tell me more about this event?
Yeah, so this event is called Fish and Chicks.
It started in 2010 by this woman named Jodi Soderland and her husband Jeff.
Jodi was diagnosed with breast cancer and they wanted to start raising funds for breast cancer patients.
She unfortunately passed away in 2020.
But she handed off the torch to another amazing group of women who continued the event.
And they've been fundraising.
I think they've raised over $215,000 for breast cancer patients.
And it specifically goes to the patients.
giving them all of the care that they would need in treatment, whether that be gas money to get to appointments, food cards for their families, or just accessories like scarves or prosthetics, all of that kind of stuff.
But it's this giant fishing tournament that takes place in Iron River on Moon Lake.
Yeah, it's a really amazing cause.
And, you know, not only did I cover it, but I got to participate in it.
I know some of my family and friends also participated in it in the past.
So, um, yeah, it's just really awesome.
All right.
I'm going to be, I don't, don't call me city slicker, please.
Uh, city boy or whatever, but.
What is it then?
Like so I understand it's fishing.
I get it.
And I understand tournaments competition, but like what happens?
Is it a bracket style system?
Are you just trying to fish as much as you can?
Are you trying to find the biggest one?
Are there different categories?
What actually goes into the tournament itself?
Yeah, so it's more of like.
you know a fishing contest where you're trying to get the biggest I'd say but there is different categories so the biggest northern that was caught this year was 36 inches which that's pretty huge and then you know they do crappie bass so it's
They, you know, you want to catch as much as many as you can, but it's also based on size for whoever wins.
And I think it's, you get like whoever wins first place and there's a few people that do, you get like $200 for, for winning that.
So.
Yeah.
Is there a category?
I'm just asking for a friend here, Maddie.
Is there a category where if I cast, or my friend, sorry, my friend casts their reel back and they lose their bait and they accidentally hook their shirt on their hook.
bringing their shirt over.
Is there a category for that that my friend could win?
I mean, I think that would be considered the first time chick, but it is a woman only event.
Oh man.
Okay.
Well, well, luckily my friend is a woman who is very bad at fishing as well and has hurt herself many times and may have fallen out of.
a boat or three while trying to fish.
So we're going to talk more about the work that Maddie Schaefer is doing up in the Northwoods, including a place in quarter ray that while I didn't know existed, I'm not surprised does.
And also you mentioned it just now about the Berkey, which is coming up, world famous Berkey here in Wisconsin.
Talking more about that with Maddie Schaefer, who is a reporter for WBZH and WHSM up in
Hayward and the Northwoods, but don't go anywhere.
We're talking local reporting.
We're talking about the news that matters to our communities most here on mid mornings on Civic Media.
My name is Greg Baca.
I'm your host.
Thank you for being here today.
Don't go anywhere.
Grab some snacks, grab some water, stay hydrated, stay tuned and stay close.
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Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Welcome.
Welcome back to mid mornings on civic media.
My name is Greg Bach.
I'm your host, your buddy, your pal, and the guy who will probably help you change a tire if you need to.
But you are listening to us on the Civic Media Radio Network.
We are so happy you're here today.
It's me and sweet Calbee.
Cal is on the boards right now.
We are coming to you live from Radio Park in Racine, where is currently, let's check the weather balloon again, stupidly cold outside.
So yeah, it's minus two.
It's across the straight state like this.
Please stay warm.
Don't be a hero.
Put some gloves on, put a hat on.
Just be safe.
That's all we ask you to do.
We are talking here today with our buddy, our pal, my coworker and friend.
Now I'm going to say it, my friend, Maddie Schaefer here.
She is a reporter for civic media with WBZH and WHSM covering Hayward and the surrounding areas of the North woods.
We're talking about
her history, her, uh, what she covers in the area.
Uh, the fact that she comes from a place called Drummond, Wisconsin, which has 89 people, which I find fascinating, but we're talking about the story she's working on right now.
And we discussed a wonderful fishing tournament, uh, that took place recently.
But now let's turn to Kudere, as I was told, that's how you say Kudere to, uh, uh,
Well, is it is it a it's a house.
It's a tourist attraction that I'm not surprised exists with because of Wisconsin's proximity Chicago.
So tell us more about that.
Yeah.
So the it's called the hideout house and it's in Kudere, which is about like 30 minutes away from Hayward.
And, you know, apparently there's a few hideout houses in Wisconsin of Al Capone's.
But yeah, yeah, it's a really cool.
house tucked back in the woods, apparently used by Al Capone.
There's not too much history if you look online and look for it.
There's not too much that you can find about
it.
So it was really cool to go there and do the tour and learn a little bit about what they know about it.
It was owned by somebody.
before in like 2010, it went into bankruptcy and then it's now owned by the local Ojibwe tribe, Lakuta Ray.
And so the person that kind of runs and organizes the house and does the tours, she's a member of the tribe.
So yeah, I
got to go in and tour the entire place.
It's like two floors and then a basement.
And then there's also another house kind of up the road.
It's not opened up for tours.
So I don't know too much about it, but, um, you know, it's a big, it's a big, uh, kind of estate.
I think it was Al Capone's estate.
Um, and yeah.
Are there any secret passageways or secret anything like that?
It's like, like you press a book and then just something pops out and go back behind the house.
You know I've heard rumors that there's like tunnels on the house up the road that we didn't get to see.
But the really cool thing is there is these towers that People say were for gunmen so people would go and climb up in these towers and yeah surround the house.
My brain is only going to one place It's a bunch of guys and Sue's going yeah, you never get me cop.
I'm yeah Because that's I only watched movies about gangsters from the 1920s what I find for interesting is I had to look it up Kudere is From Racine it's northwest of here about five and a half hours, and I just think of the cars that were driven
back in those days.
And in my car, it would take him about five and a half, six hours to get there.
I imagine from Chicago it took them 38 days to get there.
with multiple stops because you're driving on these gigantic Model T's that probably can only go about 14 miles after.
We gotta take a break, fill it up with water.
So before we get out of here, you mentioned it earlier, the Berkey is coming up.
The Berkey is one of the biggest events in the Northwoods area.
It's been going on for a very long time.
I have friends who have, it's the Birkenbiner.
They've participated.
So what is going into Berkey Prep for both the group and for yourselves up there in the Northwoods?
Yeah, so today we're going to talk to Sean O'Connelli, which he's been marketing.
Oh, he's been
fantastic.
Yep, marketing specialist for the American Berkabiner Foundation.
We're going to kind of talk with him about, you know, what goes into, you know, planning for this event, kind of getting ready for it.
And then chat with him a little bit about how they want to do, you know, coverage and what the plan is, because me and my station manager, we're not familiar with.
how it goes for covering this.
So we're kind of getting more of those details today, but we know we want to do a lot of local coverage.
Talk to somebody who's from the area from Hayward who's been doing this race for years or somebody that's been doing this race and it's their first year, because there's a lot of people that come all over the place to come to this race.
So that's our plan is to try to make it very local.
giving people what they want to listen to, you know, people that they know that they see at the bar or at a restaurant, you know.
I
mean, the Berkey is from what I've heard.
I've always wanted to just, I don't want to do it.
I would, I would, I would make it like about 30 minutes and then that'd be, that'd be Greg, Greg buried.
in the woods.
We've talked to Sean before and they are an amazing group of individuals a couple of years ago because of the lack of snowfall here in the state.
They were saying like we could cancel as close as the week before, but they made it work with as little snow as they had.
They want to bring those people in because yes, it is a great, it's a great economic boom for the, for the, for the community, but also
people come in from all over the world.
And sometimes this is their time to see their friends once a year at this event.
So to make it go off is important.
And I think that's great.
And please tell Sean I say hello.
We'd like to have him back on the show to talk about it.
But that's wonderful.
I will be putting the stories in the show notes today as well as links to WBZH and WHSM folks.
If you want to check out those stations too, just go to civicmedia.us and then go to stations and look for those.
You can get the Civic Media app and you can stream those stations on the app and you can hear the stories that Maddie is working on.
Maddie, do we ever hear you on the stations too?
Yes, yep.
You can hear it.
All right.
Perfect.
Maddie Schaefer is a reporter for WBZH and WHSM covering Hayward and the other surrounding areas of the Northwoods.
She is my coworker colleague and friend here at Civic Media.
Thank you so much, Maddie, for being here this morning.
I appreciate your time.
Yeah.
Thank you.
This was a lot of
fun.
Wonderful.
Wonderful.
Say people have fun here.
When we come back, Emilio Del Torre is the executive director of the Milwaukee Turners at Turner Hall.
We'll be talking about human rights.
immigration rights and your rights and why it's important to remember them.
All that coming up, including audio sorbet and this shouldn't be a thing.
Let them drink cake addition right here on mid mornings on civic media.
My name is Greg Bach.
Be part of the conversation.
855-752-4842.
Go grab a snack, grab some water, stay hydrated, come back, stay tuned, stay warm and stay close.
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