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Welcome, welcome, welcome to Civic Media Mid-Mornings.
My name is Greg Bach.
I am your host, your buddy, your pal, your friend in warmth.
on this very, very, very cold morning.
If you want to be part of the conversation, you want to huddle together and be included in the chatter of today's news and coldery going on out there, call, text.
The number is the same, 855-752-4842-855-75Civic.
You can leave a comment on the live stream.
We are currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube, and the platform that we still call.
Twitter.
It's a packed show today.
Lots of great stuff ahead at 9 30.
We are going to be talking to Francesca Pica, who is a business.
business reporting intern at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Specifically, we're going to be talking about the state of real estate here in the state of Wisconsin.
I said state like three times there, Calvin.
Calvin, by the way, is on the boards.
Calvin Butenoff is on the boards.
And we're very... Oh, actually, she's gonna be on at 10 o'clock.
My mistake.
I looked at the wrong area here.
At 9.35, after the 9.30 break, it's Terry Barr, the genie of just about everything here at Civic Media will be joining us.
to talk about the stories she's working on, including a very inspirational story about a man who decided to just make a change in his life at a more advanced age.
So we want to have you run for that conversation because Terry is fantastic.
And then at 10 o'clock after the 10, 10 o'clock news, we were talking to Francesca Pica, a business reporting intern at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Then today, Calvin, by the way, good morning, Calvin.
Good morning, Greg.
I'm gonna ask a dumb question.
How are you doing?
I'm doing okay.
It's cold trying to keep my bones from breaking
Wow, it's very very honest.
Uh, yeah
It's very, very cold, folks.
And you don't need me to tell you that.
And I'd love to hear from you, throw a text on the line or put a comment in the live stream.
What is your temperature right now?
We flew the civic media mid mornings, weather balloon up in the air and currently in radio park in Racine where we're at is negative 14 degrees.
And I believe if I'm not mistaken, yep, feels like minus 40 right now.
So
Please, please, please.
I know I don't have to say this, but I want to say this because I just want you to stay safe.
I saw temperatures as low as below 27 in Park Falls right now.
I just want you to stay safe, stay warm.
If you're going out today, maybe pack some blankets in your car, a shovel for, you know, in case you get stuck, hand warmers, things of that nature, just in case something goes wrong.
That way you can stay warm and stay safe.
Just, I think that's, you know, just
Do that for me.
I'm your radio dad today.
I just want you to take care of yourselves.
And yeah, it's going to be like this most of the weekend.
We are in an extreme cold warning right now through, I believe, the rest of the morning into the afternoon and then from Friday into Saturday, we'll be having what's called an extreme cold watch.
It's going to be cold regardless.
So just be aware.
And yeah, that goes from
afternoon today, the cold, the cold weather advisory through middle of tomorrow, Saturday.
So just of course be aware, but I'm looking at the temperatures here, everybody.
And it's, I don't see anything above double digits until Saturday night, possibly a high of 17 on Sunday, possibly a high of 17 on Sunday, but it's just going to be very, very cold for the rest of the week.
And I mean, let's face it, we are in winter.
We are in Wisconsin and it is January.
We probably have about another month of this back and forth.
Cause I, Calvin, do you remember last week when it was 53 degrees, I think on Wednesday, it melted all the snow on my yard.
And then I was like, Oh, cool.
Are we out of this?
Nope.
Not even close.
So yeah.
So just, you know, I know it's the first thing we talk about at work, but please be aware, please be prepared.
And we live in Wisconsin.
Wear a second coat if you need to.
Take care of yourself and stay close to Civic Media because we will have ongoing weather reports throughout the day.
A great thing about Civic Media too is that it's the network but we own a lot of, we have a lot of radio stations here.
If you go to civicmedia.us and you go to the tab that says stations, you can drop down and find the station closest to you.
go to that website and then it will give you even more informed weather updates for you so you know what's going on in your community.
So civicmedia.us, look for your stations and then that way you can also, you can stream that station, you can look at the local news.
It's just a great way to keep your local happenings going on in your life.
So civicmedia.us.
I started the whole thing talking about the show today.
So at 9 35, we have Terry Barr coming on to talk about her stories that she's working on.
You can actually find on civicmedia.us slash news.
And then we're going to have Francesca Pica on to talk about the real estate market here in Wisconsin.
And I'll be interesting to hear her thoughts.
She's reported heavily on this and where we are as far as buying, as far as inventory, as far as prices going up or down, as well as we're going to talk about maybe some weird houses.
that have been for sale here in the state as well as some very, very, very expensive houses.
And then, and I'm hoping that maybe I'll talk to Calvin about this.
We'll get some fun music, but at 1035, it's the return, the second installment of take it or leave it.
The highly excited game show.
where senior producer Tucker comes on to the show and reads a list of various things to me.
And I simply say, take it or leave it.
And today we're doing the James Beard edition.
There was the James Beard nominations came out this week and a lot of Wisconsin restaurants and chefs were nominated.
So we're going to celebrate that.
We're going to talk about, you know, food we like, things we will or will not accept as far as a dining experience and maybe a cocktail or two with a funny name.
So.
stick around for that 10 30.
That's going to be taken to leave it with senior producer Tucker.
And then wrapping up the show today with this shouldn't be a thing.
So Calvin, you said you're trying to stay warm.
How was the dry?
So you were out in Western Waukesha County.
What was the temperature like out there?
Um, I don't know if I pay that much attention.
I think my car said maybe
When I left negative 10 negative 10, okay
Yeah, it's been negative like between negative 12 and 15 here and we're seeing in Kenosha So I hope everyone here if you know like I said drop it in the comments drop in the live stream Tell us what the weather has been like where you're at and just again, please
Stay safe because I want you to be healthy and happy.
Here, let's see.
Joshua in Wausau listening, WXCO.
Thank you so much, Joshua, for listening.
He says negative 24 in Wausau.
I know there's not a whole lot of difference between negative 14 and negative 24, but that seems like just a boatload of difference.
So, yeah.
I don't know why, I don't know why it seems to be shocking all the time that we are in Wisconsin and we seem to be always surprised by the cold.
But all right, let's kick it off with some news here.
And this is really, I think this is, I think this is, I think it's good news.
I do.
It's something that Jane and I had talked about for years on this show.
And that was the issue with PFAS.
Here in Wisconsin was forever chemicals as they're also known and there was a there was a bunch of money That was sitting in an account free for a long time 125 million dollars that had been sitting not allocated not talked about kind of ignored and What that money set to do was to address cleanup
getting folks bottled water if they needed it.
And just basically to help make sure that we can create a clean water system here in Wisconsin and keep the PFAs out of our systems.
And one of the things that always came up though was the problem of quote, the little guy getting in trouble.
That was one of the reasons why the Republicans didn't want to release the money because they felt like it would lead to
regular folks getting in trouble, prosecuted, I guess.
That's what some of the times they would say is that, is that they would be in trouble for not knowing that PFAs were in their water system or not knowing that they were the cause of PFA contamination.
Well, luckily in the Wisconsin public radio here, Danielle Keating with the byline, Governor Tony Evers and GOP lawmakers say a deal is within reach on addressing PFAs.
I think this is good news.
Governor Evers and GOP lawmakers say they are optimistic that a long-awaited deal is in sight over releasing now $132 million set aside to address PFAS contamination.
This is between the governor and a new bill that was authored by State Senator Eric Wimberger of Bocanto, Jeff Mercer of Crivets, both Republicans.
The proposal would create grant programs to address PFAS.
contaminations and exempt certain individuals and facilities from paying for Pifa cleanup under the state's spills law.
There was a bill that went through last year that was vetoed by Governor Evers because he felt like it was going to let polluters off the hook and limit the authority of the state's DNR.
And I think that's something we talked about a lot here is that
We want there to be a cleanup effort.
We want there to be clean water and clean land in Wisconsin.
But we also want to make sure that those who are part of the problem, they pay.
They are held accountable.
And we always talked about it in terms of businesses.
But when those who did not want to or at least the money spoke about, they spoke in terms of individuals who would be held accountable.
moms and dads, farmers, whatnot.
And I always asserted that, okay, if we're going to release this money, yeah, there's probably people out there who were part of, quote, part of the problem, not intending and certainly couldn't face a huge, uh, fine for it or some sort of that, that sort of liability.
So.
Let's protect him.
And that's what this amendment does.
It includes protections for innocent landowners, funding for emergency bottled water and around $80 million in grants for local government and $35 million for a grant program to replace or rebuild contaminated wells.
We heard last, we heard earlier a couple, like, I think it was like a month ago.
Angel Island up North, they finally are working on getting a new water system because their system was so contaminated with PFAs, they've been drinking bottled water for years now.
So this is all good work.
Now I do understand the concern that it says here that we want to make sure that people who are accountable, businesses, organizations actually do face some sort of consequence.
paying a fine or paying for the cleanup.
And when it comes to who gets the protections, that's for discussion, and that's for us to be aware of.
But I think this is a good step forward.
If you have any comments on this, if you are somewhere that is affected by this, 855-752-4842, 855-755 Civic, this is a matter we're talking about.
compromise.
We're talking about bipartisan.
We're talking about protecting our land and making sure people, I don't know, can have clean drinking water in their neighborhoods and make sure that their kids don't get sick from what's going on in the water or in the land.
So again, Governor Evers and GOP lawmakers say there's a deal within reach on addressing the PFAS and releasing long-awaited monies of over
$132 million to address the contamination.
If you have thoughts on this, let me know.
Drop it in the comments on the live stream of Facebook, YouTube, the platform.
We still call Twitter, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five civic.
We'd love to hear from you on this one.
Coming up in a moment, we're going to talk about Wisconsin Eye.
It looks like there's a road to our ability to watch our lawmakers work.
Coming up on Civic Media mid mornings, my name is Greg Bach.
Stay
tuned, stay warm, and stay close.
Welcome, welcome back to civic media, mid mornings here on civic media.
My name is Greg Bach.
I am your host, your buddy, your pal, the guy who is desperately trying to stay warm while I'm talking to you because it is darn cold outside, darn cold all over the state.
If you want to talk about that, if you want to tell me how cold it is, if you want to talk about what your plan is to, are you staying inside today this weekend?
I'm kind of doing the same thing.
I'm not, I'm not going anywhere.
Not at all.
If you want to be part of the conversation, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five civic is the number.
You can also leave a comment on the live stream.
We're currently live streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.
We still call Twitter still ahead.
We've got Francesca Pica from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
She is a business intern, a business reporting intern, business journalists intern talking about.
real estate here in Wisconsin.
And we just received a word.
Unfortunately, Terry Barr will not be able to join us.
She is not feeling well.
So we just say to her, feel better, have some tea, have some soup, rest and relax.
I want you to be very, very comfortable.
And I mean, it's kind of the weekend, you know, tuck in, just be warm, be comfy, take care of yourself if you're out there also sick.
So drink some tea, have some soup, relax, watch a TV show, read a book, just
take care of yourself.
That's all I care about.
PJ on the live stream says that in the Fox Valley right now is 17 below zero.
So that is officially, I think what weather people call cold.
I, so we've been talking about this on and off for the past few months because as of last year, Wisconsin I, which is essentially what's, I've heard it described as Wisconsin C span.
It was a, it was a
Station where you could watch our website where you could watch our lawmakers work voting Giving their speeches doing their thing it was our way of holding our lawmakers accountable and seeing what they are talking about in the capital while being the voice of the people well it lost its funding and it went dark as of a few months ago and it was in danger of just going away, but according to there is a lot of
There was a lot of problems with that.
A lot of people had an issue with the fact that we could not watch our lawmakers, the fact that there was no way of keeping them accountable through Wisconsin.
I, a lot of people don't watch it.
I understand that.
There are a lot of people who don't understand what it's about, but it's important because it is the fact it is a public tool to watch our public officials do what they do, earn the paycheck that we pay them as taxpayers.
And there has been a deal that is
being tentatively reached.
This is coming out of Madison via the assembly speaker and minority leader that is Robin Voss and Greta Neubauer respectively.
They've announced they've reached a tentative agreement to fund Wisconsin.
I was during a joint news conference.
The two said they plan to introduce a bipartisan bill shortly that would take $10 million originally meant for matching funds for the public affairs network and place it in a trust fund.
Interest from the fund would be used to finance the network's operations and Governor Evers has said that that he has not been involved in the talks on this bill, but this is something that I believe is very important and what's funny is that I
Pat Krightlow some time ago was on the show.
He said that this is a tool that's actually used quite a bit by lobbyists and lobbyists were very upset that A, it went away and B, it was not being funded.
So Calvin, it's a banner day, two stories in a row talking about bipartisan measures to fund programs that help the people of Wisconsin.
And I think that funding Wisconsin I is very, very important.
And I look forward to seeing where it goes from here right now.
As they said, it's a tentative agreement.
We don't know all the details yet other than they would fund it with ten million dollars and The interest that was gained through the trust would go to finance the networks operations also important that I believe it was 30,000 hours of of footage was available to watch from the past as research to
find out what our lawmakers talk about.
Again, this is about transparency in our government.
This is about holding our elected leaders accountable.
And in the past couple of weeks, there have been some problems because folks were coming in with cameras to live stream it and they were being shut down because there are laws in place.
There are rules in place that say you cannot live stream.
You cannot, unless you are,
a certain person, whether you are elected official or you are of a certain committee, you could not do that, which I found to be very suspect, but those bills have been around.
So one of them was around since 2005.
So I don't know.
But this is good.
This is great.
And I think that one, it being bipartisan is a very good sign.
It's always good to see when they work together, but also when we're seeing this matter of funding,
the wisconsin i something that people didn't really people didn't realize how much it was worth until it was gone and when a measure of accountability and transparency is taken away that's when people start to act and we saw republicans actually unhappy about this as well so it seems like this is a this is a bipartisan measure with good support and i hope it makes it all the way through as we know more we will tell you because if you want to because if you want to access the the wisconsin i you should be able to and hopefully this does
what exactly what's supposed to do.
And yeah, I'm very happy about this.
I like seeing these kinds of stories.
So we are going to take a short moment of a break.
We're going to go and grab some hand warmers.
We're going to grab some snacks and some water.
But when we come back, more news and do not forget Francesca Pica from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel will be here to talk about real estate in Wisconsin.
She is a business reporting intern and also
1035 the second installment of take it or leave it here on civic media mornings.
My name is Greg Bach.
That's Calvin Butenhof on the boards right there.
Don't go anywhere.
Stay tuned.
Stay warm and stay close.
Welcome.
Welcome back to civic media mid mornings.
My name is Greg Bach.
I am your host, your buddy, your pal.
And the guy who should have worn a hoodie to work today because it's even though it's not super cold here, it's still pretty chilly.
And we hope you're staying warm.
You're listening to us on the civic media radio network.
If you want to be part of the conversation, call or text 855-752-4842-855-755.
Leave a comment on that live stream.
We are currently, we are currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.
We still call Twitter still ahead.
We have, excuse me.
We have Francesca Pica, who is a business journalist and business journal intern at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel here talking about real estate, the state of real estate and what it's like in Wisconsin when you're trying to buy a house, especially for folks who may be younger.
millennials or Gen Zers who want to buy a house one day.
So, uh, Francesca will be here in the 10 o'clock hour after the news.
And then at 10 35, I'm very excited about this.
This is a new game we play every Friday.
It's called take it or leave it today.
It's the James Beard edition, the James Beard award nominees were announced this week.
There are a lot of chefs and restaurants from Wisconsin who are part of that group.
And we're going to talk about, you know, cocktails, drinks.
food, restaurant experiences.
Tucker's got a whole list and the whole, the concedas, he lists them off.
I say, take it or leave it.
And then I give my reason why.
And you can always be part of that conversation.
You can always tell us your thoughts on the matter by throwing a text on the line or by leaving a comment on the live stream.
Cause we love hearing from you.
This is news out of Washington will affect Wisconsin.
borrowers, student borrowers for sure.
It's coming out of, uh, uh, Sean in Miranda has the byline.
This came out early this week out of the examiner with us education department delays plans to garnish wages of students borrowers in default.
Uh,
I don't know about you.
I am very lucky.
My student loans have been, I paid them off a while ago.
It took a lot of work.
It took a lot of time.
It took a lot of planning, really, really intentional planning to pay them off, but they are, but I know a lot of folks who are not in the same situation, but less than a month ago, the agency said it would begin garnishing wages by sending notices to roughly 1,000.
borrowers in default in the first week of January.
And this apartment said that the temporary delay would allow it to implement major student loan repayment reforms under Republican tax and spending cut bill that President Donald Trump signed into law in 2025.
So it seems like something he signed.
I don't know about this.
Something he signed last year is going to influence the decision they made earlier this year.
to garnish the wages of people who are having a hard time paying their loans right now.
And do you have student loans?
Do you know someone who's to have student loans?
What are you guys doing to get through?
Are you making the payments?
Awesome.
Did you take advantage of the deferrals and the forbearances during COVID, during the lockdown?
I know people who did, who can, you know, for many, many months and in a couple of years as well.
It's tough.
It's not lost on me personally that I am without student loan debt.
I have other debt.
I have a mortgage and I have a car payment, but there's something about a student loan debt that just seems so overwhelming.
Kelvin, do you have student loan debts?
Are you someone who took out loans or did you pay?
Did you have a system or were you lucky enough to have your parents help?
I have student loans.
I went to a relatively cheap
school, I went to UW Whitewater and I got a $8,000 scholarship and I got some financial aid.
So I have just maybe around $30,000 a little less, which is still a lot, but it's not a lot compared to others my age.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing is when
I think for me personally, like I took out student loans.
I got a couple of grants because I went to school quote later in life to them.
Late 20s was later, but I ended up with a political science degree and about $45,000 in student loans.
And it felt insurmountable and I was very irresponsible for a while about it.
And then I had to be quite intentional and I made some big moves as far as like,
taking some savings and, you know, it just was about, I was like, do I pay off more now or do I do it?
Do I, do I pay it for like the next 30 years?
And I didn't want to do that plus it's good because I have a mortgage, but I want to know what you're going through and do you, I mean, have you
Where are you at with your student loans?
This is a big issue.
You know, during the Joe Biden era, it was about trying to get student loan forgiveness.
It was about trying to get people back on a path of being able to go to college, grab that education because we've heard from so many people.
I mean, on a weekly basis now, when we talk about the things that are really, really worrying folks, it's education and it's not just the quality of the education, which is very important, but how to access it.
And when we have
systems like this that are happening where people are saying, well, we're going to garnish you because you weren't able to pay.
That makes it not attractive.
Now, I know there are people who are out there be like, well, too bad, you decide not to pay or you shouldn't have gone to college.
I don't see that as a quality humane way of looking at it.
Folks are in trouble.
They need help.
There should be ways of being able to take student loan forgiveness off the table.
There should still be mechanisms for people.
who are in default to get them back to a place of being able to pay to get themselves to square so they can pay this off one day.
I don't think garnishing their wages is something that is helpful, smart, good, kind, I know, good and kind.
What a weird way of approaching it.
But I just think there are other ways of doing it, you know.
PJ on the live stream says, I'm waiting for my
TPD application to get finalized.
My loans are over $75,000.
I was in IBR.
I believe that I don't know what that one means for a long time while trying to get a job, but my degrees did not help.
Yeah.
You know, when we talk about that too, it's about what are we going to school for?
Earlier in the week, we spoke to Michelle Jackson from the UW career exploration center.
And you know,
I'm happy you got a degree, PJ.
I'm sorry that it did not help.
And I hope that you are in a place where it does now.
But the whole process of education and the access of education is something that we need to talk about.
And I think that alone is tough enough.
When we talk about how will I afford school?
How will I use my degree if I get one?
How will I get, like, you know, and just finding a job coming out of school, those are already a problem.
Those are already hard for people.
But when we talk about if you get into a place where you can't afford to pay, where you can't, excuse me, where you can't get yourself going on the payments you need to make, it's
really, really daunting to think, well, then the government's gonna come and garnish my wages, which doesn't help you for so many, like, doesn't look on your credit, doesn't, and you know, it takes away from the money you're making for your regular life, you know, whether you're trying to, I mean, I imagine that if you are in default in your student loans, you're not making a lot of money, and therefore, money might be tight.
I'm sorry to assume something if that's the case, but still, I don't know a lot of millionaires who are in default on their student loans.
When you're in default on student loans,
you are already having a hard enough time as it is.
I know a couple people who have been through that and it's not like they're sitting there polishing their Mercedes.
They're making decisions on what they can and cannot pay for.
PJ goes on to say, IBR means income based repayment, which I was on to for a while as well.
And so I'm happy to see that this program is going to be paused.
I don't think it is what it needs to happen to help students are
to student borrowers to get back on track.
It says the delay would give borrowers more options to repay their loans.
That's great.
I love that.
I think that's when the Department of Education steps in says, here are our programs.
Come up with a whole new set of them then.
We have forbearance, we have deferral, but really when it comes down to it, maybe it's time if we're not going to be looking at
Student loan forgiveness, maybe it's time to look at just a whole new plan on how to get people back on track, paying their loans, getting them to square because as I said, just for me, I mean, $45,000 is a lot of money and people I know are in it way, way harder, way deeper.
I remember talking to one guy, he said he was in it for a half a million dollars because he went to...
to medical school.
I almost said doctor school, by the way, Calvin.
I almost said doctor school.
PJ says options, sustainable wage jobs would help.
I mean, yes.
And that's, again, that's a bigger part of the conversation.
That's the, that's the, that's the whole pie we're talking about.
We're talking about jobs that sustain jobs that are, that are, they cannot be thrown overseas.
And this is just one little portion of it.
you know, how do we make it easier for people to not only access education, but also not make them terrified if they go into default that they're never going to come out of it.
So that's just something I hope to see, you know, it seemed like they wanted to do it and it was wildly unpopular and they stepped back and said, well, maybe we'll come up with more options.
So that's good.
Now, Calvin, really quick here.
Are you on, are you on the TikTok?
I
Not really not
really.
Okay.
I have become an old person and I watch Facebook reels
Wait a minute.
Whoa.
Whoa.
Whoa.
Hold on Hold on What does that mean you're old because why why why is someone old if they're watching it on I was told that you're old if you watch it on Instagram too
Well Instagram and Facebook are essentially the same
thing.
Yeah.
Well, I know
and I don't know I just feel like tiktok's more hip
Like tiktok is
like
the originator.
Everything you're seeing on Facebook Reels and Instagram Reels is just filtered to you from
TikTok.
There was a story that's been running through the headlines here, various papers that says TikTok strikes deal for new US entity ending long legal saga.
And this was all started.
I mean, this was, there was no problem with this.
If I'm not mistaken, Calvin, with TikTok until Donald Trump said, I don't like TikTok.
It's a Chinese owned company.
If it's Chinese owned company, they're going to be taking our data and taking our information.
And I mean,
What did that strike you when you heard that for the first time when all of a sudden, like of all the things going on in the world, you know, we're talking about access to education.
We're talking about healthcare.
We're talking about buying a house.
We're talking about affordability, grocery prices.
And someone says, TikTok's bad.
And you're like, is that the worst thing it is?
Is that what we should be doing?
Like, did you have any sort of opinion on that when you heard Calvin?
Well, I mean, I obviously
thought it was stupid.
This concern over our data,
It only seems to apply to China and I'm not saying we shouldn't be concerned about sending our data to China.
Yeah, exactly.
But we should also be concerned about the American corporations, the American government stealing and selling our data as well.
So I just, it's not really, it's not a real concern unless you actually look at.
all forms of data theft.
Oh, absolutely.
And that's, and that was my thought too is like, I'm pretty sure that we were talking to Facebook about, uh, about, uh, data access and, uh, uh, for an, and a doge and a former doge employee admitted to taking social security information and using it for his own benefit.
So when we talk about data acquisition and using it for whatever reason, I feel like, yes, all over the world, it should be, it should be a problem too.
And we'd show me a concern we should be looking at, but
I feel like this deal for China to create a new entity, to make TikTok a U S company is not at the highest level of concern here in this country, but I could be wrong.
If you have thoughts on it, let me know.
If, if you're afraid that TikTok and TikTok only is going to steal your data and not other U S companies.
Let me know.
I'd love to hear from you.
855-752-4842-855.
75 Civic is the number.
Don't go anyone.
When we come back, we're going to talk about an inspiring story about someone who decided to make a change at a later age in life.
Don't go anywhere.
You're listening to Civic Media, mid mornings here on Civic Media.
My name is Greg Bach.
I'm your host.
Stay tuned.
Stay close.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Welcome, welcome back to Civic Media mid mornings.
My name is Greg Bach.
I am your host, your buddy, your pal, your believer in personal warmth because it is very, very cold outside as we've been talking about.
We are on.
We are on the air live and we're happy to have you here with us.
You can always be part of the conversation, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five civic leave a comment on the live stream.
We are currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.
We still call Twitter.
Very excited to have you here this morning.
Still ahead after the 10 o'clock news, Francesca Pica is going to be here.
She is a business reporting intern at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel discussing real estate here in Wisconsin.
And got ourselves another installment of take it or leave it this time Yes
It's the fabulous new game show where our senior producer Tucker comes on the air and gives us a list of things based on a thing that happened.
And then I say things and tell you why.
So basically he has a list of things having to do with the James Beard Awards because the nominations came out this week.
And a lot of them are, there's, there are many Wisconsin chefs and restaurants who have been nominated for the award.
And we talk about them.
Tucker has a list.
I take it or leave it.
I give you the reasons why.
And I may even have some thoughts of my own today regarding cocktails in Wisconsin.
But you don't want to go anywhere.
Still lots of great shows still ahead.
And then this shouldn't be a thing to close it all out for the week.
And then I want you to all go home.
Just go home.
getting, get in the house bundle up because it's so very cold right now.
The civic media mid morning, weather balloon has been thrown into the air.
And right now we are sitting still at negative.
Oh, Calvin got warmer.
Got warmer.
It's negative 12.
Feels like negative 37.
Yeah.
We did it.
We were talking about bipartisan measures earlier.
Now we got, it's getting warmer outside, but we are still in an extreme.
cold warning.
So please be aware.
We are going to go into extreme cold watch, uh, this afternoon into Saturday.
It's still going to be low double digits into the single digits, very, very cold, windshield factor.
Stay safe, stay warm.
If you're going to be traveling, make sure you prepare, take some blankets, hand warmers.
It's just.
Please do that.
I'm, I'm, I'm being your mom and your dad, your grandma and your grandpa, all in one entity.
I just want you to take care of yourself and don't get yourself hurt in these cold, cold weathers right now.
John on the live stream says, no man, negative 17 in Oshkosh.
Still it's balmy.
Yep.
Let's put those shorts on, you know, don't, don't put shorts on.
Please do not do that.
But yeah, we're happy you're here today.
happy you're sharing time with us.
Really, really appreciated.
And we were supposed to have Terry Barron this morning.
We were supposed to talk about a story she was working on, a story she's following.
She did send us some audio.
So I thought I'd share that as well because I think it's a great thing to talk about.
And honestly, we'll have her back when she's feeling better.
And we will talk about the story on the whole because I think this is something for me personally that is very important because as I'm getting older,
The desire to try new things is still there in my heart, but I'll sometimes get discouraged because of my age.
I think to myself, I'm, don't get mad at me for saying this.
If you're older than me folks, I'm too old.
I, where do I start?
Where do I begin?
How do I do this?
And then instead of trying it, you, you don't.
And then you said, well, I should have given it a shot.
Should have tried it.
But this is a story that Terry's been following about one person who decided at a more advanced age to take up a new journey in health.
Calvin, can you play that clip, please?
As I looked at age 70, I mean, when you're out there in these races, there's very few people who are over 70.
I'm very thankful.
Before each race, it's really a reflection time of to say, this is really great.
I can do this.
So I thought with 70, that would be that mark to me is a real benchmark.
We all have friends, family who have left us or who have fought that battle through cancer.
And I think it's just a great message to send out there that we need to fight back, we need to live on, we need to do for others what we can.
And so this is a gentleman who decided to start doing 5k runs.
at that age.
And I believe wanted to, if I'm not mistaken here, let me pull up my little, a little cheat sheet here from Ms.
Terry Barr herself.
She said that a man turned 70 last year and his resolution for 2025 was to run 75 K's, something he'd never done before.
And I think, you know, whether it's a health journey or whether it is, you know, learning how to play an instrument or
For me, I've been wanting to start a very beginning journey on woodworking.
I think that's an important thing to talk about.
And we'll have Terry back.
We'll have Terry back on the show.
We'll talk more in depth about this story, get her thoughts on this, but you know, resolutions versus non, I mean, that's, that's a, you know, I think that's a, that's a.
a conversation to have because people will, you know, at the beginning of the year, say they want to do something and then they get discouraged and then it turns into something bad.
And I don't like people feeling like that, but if there's something that you want to try, if you are over a certain age, you say, Hey, I want to go for this.
I want to know about it.
I want to know about these things.
And we might not talk about them today, but you can definitely tell us now and we'll talk more about it with Terry when she's here, because I think those are important conversations I have out loud to say, yeah, I may be this age, but I want to try this because
As the gentlemen said, you never know.
You don't want to leave this world of regrets and saying like, yeah, man, I should have taken up archery.
That's right.
I said archery.
But when we come back after the 10 o'clock news, we're going to be speaking to Francesca Pica, who is a business reporting intern at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel discussing real estate in Wisconsin, affordability in Wisconsin and some of the.
weirder, crazier, more expensive homes here in Wisconsin, but don't go anywhere.
Grab a snack, grab some ham and warmers, get some water, come on back.
You are listening to Civic Media, mid mornings.
My name is Greg Bach.
Stay tuned, stay close.
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