Wisconsin from Civic Media.
This is Up North News Radio.
Now, live from our Lake Minnesota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Breidler.
Thank you, Don Rue.
Good morning.
Welcome back to Up North News Radio on a fashionly Wisconsin brought to you by Courier Newsroom and carried by our friends on the Civic Media Radio Network.
It is 7 0 6.
It's nice to have you along on this Friday morning, February 21st.
Coming up as usual on Fridays, we've got this great weekend review panel with former U.S.
Attorney Jim Santel, who will tell us about President Trump firing the remaining Biden U.S.
attorneys, including one for General Wisconsin.
We'll have journalists Mark Jacob and Jennifer Schulzian, and we will be talking about such stellar New York Times headlines as
How did it go?
Trump appears to blame Ukraine for being invaded.
or something equally delusional.
We'll talk about that.
And then Dan Schumacher will join us from Northland College up in Ashland, which announced this week that it is closing at the end of the academic year.
Very sad thing.
And we'll talk to Dan about the situation up in the Ashland area and talk a little bit about sports as well.
But first on this Friday morning, meteorologist Brittany Merleau is here to tell us about the warm up that we keep here in his comment.
And so guess what?
We're one day closer.
We're one day closer to that warm up.
Good morning, Britain.
This morning.
It doesn't feel good though.
I'm telling you, it's pretty cold out there.
We've got those clear skies, but a beautiful day does lie ahead.
We have a ton of sunshine on tap for the southern half of the state.
A few clouds could filter in on occasion up north, but.
breezy day, winds gusting to around 20 miles per hour, but it's going to be a south wind and that's a good wind if you want that warmth.
So it starts today.
Moving on in, highs will reach those low to mid 20s.
So pretty much a repeat of yesterday, but it's pulling in the warmth.
By tomorrow, we will reach the upper 20 statewide.
It'll be a partly sunny day, a gorgeous, comfortable Saturday.
And then as we go into Sunday, we warm things up above freezing across the entire state.
mid thirties to upper thirties on Sunday will be a mostly cloudy day.
And this is when the wintery mix starts to push in mainly at night Sunday and into the overnight Monday morning will be a slick and slippery out there in certain spots.
And then it's actually a dry day, a cloudy day highs in the forties low to mid.
40s on Monday.
But we do have rain, regular rain rolling in Monday night, which flips to accumulating snow into our Tuesday morning.
And we have a dry Tuesday and even more wintry mix headed our way on Wednesday.
But we're holding those low to mid 40s from Monday through Wednesday.
It's gonna be melting some snow.
It's gonna be cloudy, foggy and wintry mix out there.
What are we thinking for the Berkabiner?
You know, the Berkeys just fine.
They're sneaking this all in ahead of it.
So tomorrow's highs will be at about 32 degrees into Hayward.
which is perfect.
It does climb above freezing on Sunday to upper thirties, but that's not too major.
And I think all of their events pretty much wrap up after tomorrow.
Okay.
And I say this because Todd Alba is up in Hayward and his show will be live from Hayward covering the Berkey.
So he's got plenty of guests related to that.
So tune in from noon to two across the Civic Media radio network from Rob.
Good morning from Tigerton.
It's clear and one below yesterday was a
Very nice day.
I saw people out snowmobiling.
which meant businesses were making money.
He went to a Sean O county wheel tax meeting.
The county is running a $2 million deficit and many rural counties and municipalities need money to maintain the roads and the bridges.
We talked about REO Speedwagon's high infidelity album and he says he had that back in the day.
I remember buying that record, saving money from bailing hay, picking rock and planting trees as a kid, which is how all good farm kids made money.
And then finally he wraps up by saying my three favorite people
I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Thanks,
Rob.
Rob.
I know.
My mom has seen Arjo Speedwagon seven times.
Wow.
And, yeah, Jackie Bach collects the rock.
But the thing is, the last time she saw them, she was like, I'm never going to go see them again.
I did not like it.
I'm like, what's wrong?
She goes, they didn't play any of their hits.
She went to go see them at an Admirals game when they were like touring on an album.
And so they weren't doing hits.
They were doing songs off their new record.
So she was.
really upset about that.
You know, but bands, you gotta know at this point, Brittany, we've all been to enough concerts where, when somebody goes, oh, I'm tired of doing the old stuff.
I'm just going to do new stuff.
Haven't they all learned by now?
Don't do that.
No.
When everybody goes to the restroom
or
feels their drink.
That song, you're sick of singing, is why you have, why you've got a nice house or whatever the case may be.
Good.
We are united in this.
Thank you.
We want to hear the song that bought you your boat.
Yes.
Yes.
All right, Brittany, have a good weekend.
We'll see you.
You too.
Okay, and Brittany will be here on Monday when Luke Mathers is filling in for me along with Greg Bach.
That again is come Monday.
You can get our newsletter from Up North News by heading over to UpNorthNewsWI.com and Christina Laurie has an issue today that includes a reality check.
that says despite his promise to make America healthy again, President Trump has pulled the country out of the World Health Organization and frozen all federal funding to the National Institutes of Health for research into cancer and other diseases.
She includes a note from somebody who was a radiation oncologist at the Miami Cancer Institute who wrote, I'm in route to San Francisco.
to present a PH3 trial concept for medically inoperable early stage pancreatic cancer to the National Cancer Institute Committee.
But that meeting was just canceled.
I now have free time to think about all the time that has been wasted.
Cancer is indifferent to politics and it impacts everyone and when it comes to stopping outbreaks, every second counts.
But as Christina notes, there is some good news here.
Research trials are underway at UW Hospital in Madison.
They will continue for now, but if this pause, quote unquote, continues, it could have ripple effects.
So she ends by saying, if you're in a position to donate, there are local hospitals, cancer clinics, and other medical nonprofits that could use your help now more than ever.
Like the American Cancer Society, Stand Up to Cancer, the Cancer Research Institute, St.
Jude's, the National Foundation of Cancer Research, and I would add, editorially, that is all fine and good, and you should feel free to donate, but for the love of all things holy, we should not be relying on charity alone to help.
find things like a cure for cancer.
But you can learn all that more in today's newsletter.
Sign up at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
There is also a new weekend newsletter that I put together just on political news of the past week that comes out on Sunday mornings.
And would love to have you subscribe to that and tell me your thoughts on that as well.
During the break, as I was looking through, you know, some social media sites, I
couldn't help but notice that one of our one of our good friends Emily Cephos, who ran for legislature last year, talked about being at a listening session for her state senator.
Actually, what she writes is I picked up our youngest after I went to a listening session tonight in the town I live in.
At the very end, I was berated for 10 minutes by my state senator about the
And I'm gonna use the word crappy, but the senator chose to use an expletive job that our public schools are doing as she made the case for vouchers.
Even though private schools won't accept kids like my youngest because they aren't legally required to have the supports that he needs.
And he reminds us all that all kids deserve an appropriate and adequate education.
so that they can achieve their full potential no matter who they are or where they come from or what learning looks like.
By the way, the public school that her youngest attends is incredible, and I'm grateful for them every day, writes Emily.
Well, that would be all fine and good, except that that state senator then got into the comment section.
And Rachel Cabral-Govara puts in all capital letters, you left out what else I said.
And so I'll put it here to be to be fair as well She says why don't you support public schools for all your kids?
Not just one and rather send the other two to private school I also said I would support private schools taking all kids equally if they have special needs and private assistance Lastly, I asked if you'd support increased payout for vouchers to private for special needs kids as you see in public school But sadly you played the political BS rather than that if anyone wants to meet me personally reach out and I will share where I stand
and Emily says hi in response and says simply public funds should go to public schools.
I'll take you up on the meeting and I'll reach out tomorrow.
This isn't political theater BS, just repeating what you said.
It's about kids like my youngest getting the services they deserve and not taking from public school coffers to fund private schools have a good night.
And so to Senator Guevara's point here, well, a couple of points here.
First off, as a
sitting state senator and I look we've never met you know that I was a former state senator you can take my advice or leave it stay out of other people's comment sections it's not your sandbox don't play in somebody else's sandbox you're a public official you've got a megaphone get on your page and say what happened but to jump in somebody else's just invites the many many many many comments that followed
berating Senator Govera for the points that she made.
And some of the points that she didn't make, for example, while public schools get about 30% reimbursement for special education costs.
Actually, I believe they raised it to almost 35% in the last eight budget.
Those same Republicans in the legislature set it up so that voucher schools get a 90% reimbursement on their special ed costs if they accept special ed kids in the first place.
It's two systems.
It is expensive.
It is blowing up to the point where in several other states Republicans are saying no more.
Which is why our question of the week in this weekend's newsletter is going to be about the voucher schools program and saying where do you stand on this?
A, keep it growing as an alternative to public schools.
B, keep it but freeze it.
at its current fiscal level.
C, actually let's...
keep it but scale it back a little bit so that it only goes those vouchers only go to kids from truly needy families and option D get rid of it entirely because public money should go to public schools.
So we'll have that question and certainly invite you to weigh in over on the Up North News Facebook page or the Up North News YouTube page where the show is running right now.
You can catch a live video feed and you can put comments in there about anything.
But it's certainly like your your thoughts on that question and
to the degree that you think it's appropriate for members of the legislature to take their time getting in other people's comment sections.
There is another senator in the Rice Lake area who is notorious for doing that as well and who really likes the back and forth.
And you can make the point that this has become like the public square.
But we also know that comment sections
are not the best opportunity to do these things.
You can't read tone always into writing.
You can't read sarcasm or humor.
And it's very easy to go all keyboard warrior, you know, and say things that you would never say to somebody's face.
So to the senator, I say, I'm glad you held a listening session.
Keep having them.
They're not easy.
Taking criticism is not easy, but it comes with the job.
and stay out of somebody else's sandbox.
You've got your own platform.
Our panel with Jim Santel, Jennifer Schulze and Mark Jacobs.
Coming up next, you're up north.
I gotta be ready.
I'm just kidding.
Actually, folks, uh, please, please remember you are on radio and there's, this is not XM serious.
Please do not swear.
It's been happening.
We
promise Greg, we promise.
Here we go.
Five seconds.
Well, it's not 80s Friday.
Although it could be given the the the Gen X lineup that we've got going on here.
But to reminder that R.E.O.
Speedwagon's high-end fidelity was the number one album this week in 1981.
My good friends Mark Jacob, Jennifer Schulze and former U.S.
Attorney Jim Santel are here as as we are every Friday to review some of the headlines and put some of the media coverage into perspective.
Everybody good?
Jim, you can't give me a thumbs up.
It's radio.
You got to jump in.
Jim, I'm going to start with you because we have talked a couple of times about in the Trump era, putting things in perspective.
There is a lot to talk about.
He's going to give us a lot to talk about.
There's a lot of chaos.
There's a lot of harm.
So you kind of have to, like you put it,
Pick your battles.
And so when I give you the headline that says Trump this week fired the remaining U.S.
attorneys under the Biden administration, including the U.S.
Attorney for Eastern Wisconsin.
This is this is one of the few things that is what, Jim?
Not a surprise.
Actually normal.
Right.
Exactly.
And again, in a week in which the president communities do amazing things, for example, on Tuesday.
basically adopted this thing called the Unitary Executive Theory and said that all the agencies now report to him, that's a thing to have your hair on fire about.
This one actually happens with every administration.
When I became the U.S.
Attorney, accepted an appointment at the Obama administration, I understood fully that when the president leaves, that political appointment also ends.
And so the headline is accurate, and that is that the president is now firing slash.
asking
And that's the point of keeping your eye on the ball.
It's what else he's doing with the US Justice Department, or DOJ, the Department of Justice, that we're going to, again, continue to get into and wonder, where are the guardrails?
And it's hard to know where the guardrails are, not just in the Department of Justice, not just in the Cabinet.
but in the Congress and occasionally in the media, which Mark is where I'm gonna turn to you for our first headline example of the week.
It was the most, in my mind, the most infuriating news of the week that truly put the U.S.
or at least the U.S.
government in line with Vladimir Putin.
And that would be enough as it is, but then it comes to the New York Times headline, the day after Trump makes these remarks.
It says from the New York Times,
President Trump on Tuesday appeared to blame Ukraine for Russia's invasion.
You should have never started it, he said, referring to Ukraine's leaders.
Which, again, I'm going to emphasize certain words here.
President Trump on Tuesday
appeared to blame Ukraine?
What is
And then in Washington Post comes up with its own little Swiftie where they say Trump's attack on Zelensky stirs fear of major US shift on Russia.
Not that there is a major US shift on Russia, which is obvious to anyone who's paying any attention.
But it stirs fear that it might happen, Pat.
I mean, you know, down the road somewhere, Trump might go against Zelensky.
I mean, keep up, guys.
Keep up.
Yeah.
Jennifer, you did the same thing.
You put together like an entire collage of headlines about this.
Right.
And boy, we'll get into the Cash Patel thing in just a moment, but coming back to Jennifer putting up on Blue Sky, you know, like eight different headlines, and all of them just completely, they're complete stenography.
of Trump from Politico.
Trump snaps back at Zelensky, blaming Ukraine for the war from CBS.
US envoy visits Ukraine after Trump blames Zelensky for Russia's invasion.
You shouldn't have ever started it.
Trump suggests to Ukraine to blame them for the war.
And Trump levels stunning criticism against Zelensky after Russia talks.
And Jennifer, again, you can only fit so much into a headline.
But the one thing I've really noticed in a headline is occasionally putting in like a parenthetical like They didn't you know blames Ukraine for starting the war they didn't or you know Just falsely claiming that they started the war and for folks who will go well, that's that's bias But let's again explain that you know reporting the truth and if you don't like the truth That's not bias
whether people want to say it out loud in political settings is one thing but journalists have an obligation to say when something is false and as we've discussed many times headlines are where it's at because people are not clicking through at the rate they should and even if they were clicking through it's not an excuse for the headline to be wrong and misleading and in this case it is so dramatically
incorrect and dangerous to say, to give anything like that credibility.
I continue to be stunned by it.
Russia started the war.
Trump claims otherwise.
I mean, I can come up with a million different options.
None of the ones that these guys
Go ahead, Jim.
Add to Jennifer's list.
I made reference before to this major story on Tuesday where the president basically
asserts complete control over the SEC, the Federal Trade Commission, the FCC, the National Labor Relations Board, and part of the Federal Reserve.
And you know what the times headline is?
Trump issues order to expand his power, and the first line says, seeks greater authority.
No, no, he claimed it.
And again, the language of this is so incredibly...
misleading.
The language is so very important.
And so we're going to continue that part of the conversation, including Cash Patel becoming FBI director with former US Attorney Jim Santel, journalist Jennifer Schulze and Mark Jacob.
More coming up right after this.
You're up north.
Mary Chapin Carpenter is 67 years old today.
Again, you can get our newsletter, head over to our website, upnorthnewswi.com, and stay abreast of everything that we're covering there.
We cover things on this radio show from Superior to Kenosha, from Dork County to Potosi, and on the interwebs all the way down to the Gulf of, kids, Mexico.
It's the Gulf of Mexico,
Mark,
The Associated Press still finds itself banned from covering the Trump administration from inside the White House for not using Gulf of America.
Should more be done by the White House Press Corps or other networks or anything to stand with the AP on this nonsense?
And obviously, stern letters work great with fascists.
They get very alarmed by stern letters.
So, yeah, they haven't done enough.
In fact,
I was reading that in the last press briefing that Caroline Levitt gave, the person who does that, she was not asked one question about it.
Seriously?
That should be the first question every
And if you're not going to boycott them, and I understand the thing as well, we're asking for access, so why should we give up access?
But if you're not going to boycott,
If you're not going to say, well, we're standing with AP, we're not showing up.
You ought to show up and ask question after question after question about it.
But then you get kicked out too.
But this is a war against the press.
The Trump administration has no intention of allowing the news media to be fair and accurate and have facts.
They're just going after them in many ways.
The FCC is harassing everyone.
I mean, they're doing what they do and they're doing what would be dictators do.
They
did
And it's not new.
It shouldn't be a surprise.
Jennifer, not to make excuses for the AP not being there, but what, how can you talk about?
How do you cover a White House?
How do you cover an administration when you're not allowed inside it, which I'm sure in the age of smartphones and texting and encrypted text messages is easier than it used to be.
But I mean, for the AP, the work still has to get done.
That's not to imply that I think the White House is correct in any way of kicking them out, but.
There is a flip side to being on the outside, and that is you're not just focused on what the White House is delivering to you.
You have to work around and actually look for other information, which I think would be a good idea.
You know, sometimes the White House press corps really serves as just an adjacent microphone for Trump.
um you know especially when they don't push back on them they don't keep asking the same questions um and they don't hold them to account um so sometimes they're a prop more times than not really um so being on the outside
Maybe there's a way then to, you know, you should have sources.
That's what reporters do.
Find other stories.
I mean, look at Wired Magazine.
They're not inside any of these agencies, but they are breaking story after story day after day about what Elon Musk and his hacker boys are doing in these agencies.
Reporters can get information in other ways and they should.
Oh, and with so many folks who are
you know, affected by this and willing to be sources now than ever before, especially in areas, you know, Jim, like the Department of Justice.
I mean, look, I admitted I was wrong.
I really thought there was no way Pete Hegseth would get enough votes that there'd be enough Republicans with a spine.
And I was wrong.
But then I thought, well, our FK Jr.
No.
And now this week, Cash Patel heading the FBI.
Can we go back to square one for just a moment though, Jim?
Cash Patel for folks who don't follow this stuff closely.
Why is this such a dangerous hire to be FBI director?
Aside from the fact that like so many of the other nominees and now appointees you just identified, he's got no experience doing this.
This is not a law enforcement person of the sort that prior directors have been including Jim Comey, Christopher Ray,
all these folks again appointed through the political process but nonetheless apolitical this is a man who's hugely political has identified for example in a book that he wrote not too long ago 60 people who are arguably on an enemy's list has said previously that on day one which is now today he's going to be reporting if he hasn't already in Washington DC to that building on 9th and Pennsylvania he said I'm going to shut it down on day one and turn it into a museum
of the deep state on day two.
Now, we'll see whether that actually happens or not, but that kind of cynicism, that kind of lack of experience, that kind of attack upon the very agency that you're assigned to supervise.
And the other important reason why your question is so important, Pat, is just this.
The FBI keeps us safe.
They prevent crimes from happening.
They prevent things from going badly.
They reach out to the community to do things that are important.
And if all of those things as we've gotten a sense already are being shut down, not only under him as we start his term, but also under Pam Bondi.
If all those things we pull back on all of that, our nation is less secure and we've got somebody in charge once again who's openly hostile to the very notion of law enforcement in our nation.
If the hair on the back of your neck does not stand up, you're not alive.
Well, and that gets us to not just not keeping us safe, but you know, politicizing the police and mark that would include the borders are Tom Holman, who has confirmed that he has asked the Department of Justice to investigate a member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Now, she responded with a post that said, go ahead.
Let the people see you for what you are.
But again, just hearing that a top official wants the Department of Justice to investigate, open up criminal investigations against members of Congress.
Again, those should be bigger headlines.
And for what?
For stating what's in the, you know, publicly obvious, which is the rights that people have, you know, if they're being investigated for immigration stuff.
All she did is, I mean, all she did is say,
Here are your rights.
Here's what you can do.
And it's still a free country, at least for now.
And she ought to be allowed to do that.
And the really scary thing to me is that now Trump has got all the law enforcement set up with Kashpatel and Bondi and all that.
And the guys with guns, he's got the security apparatus of the government.
all loyalists, all people who were election deniers four years ago and who will really do anything he says and anything to increase their own power.
It's a very scary time because now, a month in, he's got that security apparatus set up and who's he gonna go after next?
The director who's taking his office this morning,
also said not that long ago that he believes that the very agency now that he's supervising was in part responsible for putting together a conspiracy to make January 6th happen.
Oh my goodness, completely wrong.
And yet there he is.
And that takes us to now look, I've got two great journalists here and a former US attorney.
I'm starting to think we need to expand the panel to include a licensed counselor.
But instead, I'm going to put it on Jennifer yet again, to say
Jennifer, for folks that hear this and it's both enraging, it's overwhelming, you understand why people want to tune out.
I'm not asking you how to do this, I'm just having you kind of restate the obvious that I think we all need to find this balance of
Paying enough attention to be outraged and to demand action while at the same time not making it all-consuming although I mean honestly if you've just been fired from your job at the National Park Service or if you're a farmer who's not gonna be getting paid It is all-consuming but somehow or another we have to not let this Overwhelm us to the point that we just accept it all as normal
is that you have to feel like you're doing something to push back against it.
So not just scrolling through your phone every day, because that will make you insane and scared.
But what are you doing to raise your hand and say, I'm not OK with this?
You guys probably saw this.
There was a Republican congressman in Georgia.
near where the CDC is based last night, one easily in his last election, overwhelming crowd at a town hall meeting.
The people there, mostly Republicans, the reporters assumed because it's a Republican district, were furious and they were angry at him about letting Elon Musk do what he's doing.
They were just furious.
It was
really something to see how people, we have a role here, not just as journalists and lawyers, but as citizens, we can go and ask our elected officials, we can try to hold them accountable.
And I do think for many people that kind of action could be helpful.
Protest if you want, go to a town hall, call your congressman, let them know what you think.
They are listening.
Republicans are starting to get nervous.
They are, but again, it shouldn't just be coming from the grassroots.
There is a role for the minority party to play, no matter to what degree.
And for folks who weren't around on Monday, Jennifer was was here on Monday to talk at length about her recent column about the need for Democrats to have daily messaging and a better daily media strategy.
Jennifer, do you want to sum that up very briefly so that we
people know that Democrats can't just say, well, what are we going to
Sure.
My thought, and it's not mine alone, Shirley, is that we need a counter narrative like we had during COVID.
If everybody recalls Andrew Cuomo in New York, JB Pritzker here, lots of blue state governors started doing their own daily COVID briefings to share factual information as Trump was telling people to drink bleach.
And I think that sort of model
is a great idea for right now.
We need a counter fact-based narrative about what's going on to just have a national conversation.
Someone else suggested that the Democrats also hold hearings.
I think anything that helps get the message out to the entire country like that would really be powerful.
Absolutely.
And you can read that on Jennifer's a substack head over to substack.com slash at news Jennifer.
Mark, you've got your own stop the presses newsletter, which I have not peaked at yet.
So tell me what's what what are you talking about this week?
Well, I was talking about how how nobody wants to call fascist fascists, you know, and the New York Times was terrible about this, like it's tippy towing around that German party.
You know, people who don't pay a lot of attention should be really alarmed.
if they find out that neo-nazis are attempting to take over the government of germany and uh you know and maybe they've been fought you know beaten back uh lately because of all the publicity but they're you know they're coming forward the german democracy and we know bad things happen when the nazis take power in germany you know i mean it's not like this isn't a tough issue but and you got jd vance going over there and saying they got to be nicer to the neo-nazis you got elulan musk
you know, go into their meetings via video and, you know, giving them an atta boy.
I mean, the American government is supporting Nazis and authoritarians, Victor Orban and Hungary.
They're supporting the bad people overseas and because I think they want to be like them.
And it's, and the news media got to call it for what it is.
This is an authoritarian movement.
This is an attempt to kill our democracy.
It's not, and it's not more subtle than that.
This really is an attempt to kill our democracy.
Jim, we've only scratched the surface of legal matters.
What do you have coming up on Amicus, a law review this weekend?
We're going to do the latest outrages from Pam Boddy, things that she has articulated are going to be the policies and practices of pertinent justice.
And then as we sometimes do, we're going to go overseas, or at least stay in this atmosphere, and note that Brazil and the prosecutors there
have just recently indicted Bolsonaro, the former president, for doing what, trying to affect a coup there, and even to poison, to poison the new president.
There, there in that nation, they prosecute officials like that, and presumably at some point bring them to justice.
I'm sorry, can you do that?
I, I was, I wasn't aware that was the thing that
be, oh wait.
It has happened in multiple other countries, but for some reason we seem to have a problem with that with an actual coup here.
So here's Jim Santel tomorrow morning starting at nine.
You can get Mark Jacobs newsletter at stopthepresses.news and get Jennifer Schulze's sub stack as well.
Schulze's sub stack, sorry about that, Jennifer and Mark and Jim.
Have a great weekend.
Great to talk to you all as always.
later.
All right.
When we come back, Dan Schumacher will be here a little bittersweet talking about Northland College in Ashland and the news that they've had, which is rock in the community.
That is coming up next.
This is Up North News
We have
quality hosts coming up next week for Civic Media Mornings while I'm away to work.
that will be Luke Mathers on Monday, Chad Holm, or Dan Schaefer on Tuesday, Chad Holmes on Wednesday, Todd Alba on Thursday, then I will be back next Friday.
And Friday is when we typically talk to Dan Schumacher ostensibly about sports, occasionally Grateful Dead music and all kinds of other things.
What was on the Grateful Dead jukebox this morning there, Greg?
What
do we got, Dan?
No, I'm gonna let you take this one.
This is not fade away Orchard Park 1989.
My
how we, Jerry was clean.
Jerry was clean.
I'm glad we were taking the show full circle.
We started out at the very beginning talking about the 1989 Grammys and how Metallica lost out to Jethro Tull for best rock performance and the first ever best rap performance went to Will Smith for the theme from the Fresh Prince.
So it's
nice.
It was the Fresh Prince winning for parents just don't understand.
Oh, sorry.
Yes.
Oh, yes.
Oh, yes.
I'm sorry.
I will show some respect to Will.
myth.
But thank you, Dan, for salvaging 1989 from the musical garbage heap here.
You bet.
You know, thank you for coming on.
You didn't have to.
You could have said, you know, this is this has been a craptastic week, finding out that Northern College, after over a year of trying to find the funds to keep things operating, you know, donors, supporters, whatever.
And it's just not in the cards they announced this week.
shutting down at the end of the academic year.
So I mean, I know this is a blow to you and to the entire Ashland community, the students, everybody that's worked so hard to make this happen.
You know, as you know, that I've been doing this job for a long time, 35 years, and I've never experienced something like this.
So it was new, new truck, new water for me.
But
a lot of sad kids, got a lot, talked to a lot of parents on the phone, walking in the grocery store, you know, Wednesday night, stopped by a ton of people and just upset because it's been an institution 130 plus years.
I'm personally, professionally disappointed in how we came about it, but that's, you know, that's no here, no there, I can't, I'm not the one making those decisions, but
I thought we had enough money.
We were growing our enrollment back to the original amount that before the last year's announcement, things were trending in a very positive manner for the fall of 26, which I should say fall of 25 FY fiscal year 26.
It just, I don't know.
It came out of nowhere
was no warning.
Let's expand the circle a bit because this isn't an apples to oranges thing.
But it isn't apples to apples either.
But it comes back to something we have talked about that you first really gave me the heads up about.
And that was basically this demographic cliff that is facing higher education across the nation.
And Northern College is only the latest of
several small schools, including small UW campuses, that are facing this situation.
Can you explain the demographic cliff that schools are dealing with?
Sure.
That's when we started more sports to bring more enrollment in.
But we knew from the 2008 recession, the 2008 recession is what created 17 years later, 18 years later.
there's just gonna be less high school graduates.
I mean, we're talking 93,000 less high school graduates in the state here.
And this goes by state, by state, by state.
Everybody's going through it.
What you're gonna see with the UW system, every school's down except for lacrosse was even and Badgers held, Madison held tight, but they changed some of their out-of-state policies to allow more out-of-state students.
So, and now you're looking at the two year.
Colleges that the UW system owns you'll start to see those clothes because there's just nobody not gonna be of interest even to go to that level Because there's just not enough customers.
Yeah,
Yeah, go to technical school.
I'll then go right to work in some way and find a trade so it's it's a slippery slope and every college across America has has been managing it and we just
We didn't have enough money left over and enough time to solve our problem at Northland.
Yeah, so this sadly, this headline will almost surely be repeated.
It will be, it will be in state, not a state.
We will continue to follow your journey through this as well.
Did you, Bucks by the way, were winners last night, 1-16 to 1-10 over the Clippers.
Giannis is back after missing six games.
Bobby Portas, a 25 game suspension.
for mixing up a painkiller you can take versus a painkiller you should take.
And then the Four Nations hockey tournament to the NHL's alternative to the All-Star game, I think it was a huge success.
Now, Canada won an overtime, I think two to one, but it sure, from what little I saw of it, Dan, that seems like that is the way to go instead of an All-Star game, having the Four Nations.
They're teammates in the NHL, but they're on different nations teams and they're beating each other up.
I think it was a good
relief.
three fights in the first nine seconds of the game.
And so they're not going to do this next year because you'll have the Olympics.
But I really hope this comes back the year after that.
I think that would be just a heck of a thing they'd create for themselves.
thank you so much.
We love you.
We're looking forward to next adventures and have a good start to the weekend.
yeah.
Survivor.
Survivor.
I know you.
not resilient.
Dan will not fade away.
There
you go.
There you go.
Greg Bach is back for Matt Nair on air two hours from now, so tune in for that as well.
Thank you for being a part of Up North News Radio for this week and again, guest hosts Monday through Thursday next week.
I will be back next Friday.
Follow everything that we do at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
We are the Wisconsin Outlet for Courier, a pro-democracy news network.
Enjoy your Friday.
Civic media mornings come Monday.
I'll see you next Friday here up north.