You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
All across Wisconsin from Civic Media, this is Up North News Radio.
Now, live from our Lake Basota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Brightlow.
Hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It is 6.06 on this Monday morning, March 24th, 2025.
It's another beautiful morning to have a year up north, live from Lake Basota, for more ever you're listening across the Civic Media Radio Network, or on the app, or by podcast, or on social media.
Thank you for starting your week right here.
I have got a question for you.
to get things reset for our another political work week.
Have you seen the updated totals about fraud uncovered by the Trump administration?
I mean, in case you didn't know, defrauding the government is a crime.
And if Elon Musk's project is about uncovering fraud, well, we need to be prepared for a whole lot of criminal indictments, mugshots, indictments and more.
So the updated number zero.
Zero arrest for fraud.
Just wanted to reset the week for you with a little reminder of where we stand as we enter week 10 of the Trump regime.
I'll pause for effect.
Yeah, this is only the start of week 10.
Be strong team.
Hey, on the plus side.
Only three days until the Brewer's season opener in New York.
Only seven days until the Brewer's home opener.
Only eight days until election day, which means only nine days until we're free of political ads for the rest of the year.
Hold for applause.
Okay.
And no more days to wait until Civic Media's next text-to-win contest.
You only have to wait for one more hour.
For new batches of chances to win cool prizes can't wait to tell you about it 59 minutes from now With a just about a week to go till the state Supreme Court election Brad Schimmel has let go of any final pretenses to be you know Anything moderate thanking Donald Trump for his endorsement and certainly heeding the words of senator Ron Johnson who says Schimmel will owe Elon Musk if he wins
The world's richest man isn't hiding it.
He's trying to bribe as many Wisconsin voters as he can, offering $100 as part of a publicity campaign to help state Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimmel.
But while $100 is nice to have in hand, does it come close to offsetting the drip, drip, drip of what Trump's trade wars are going to do to Wisconsin wallets?
We will talk to the chair of the W. O'Claire Economics Department about that.
Well, here's some audio when we visit with Selena Heller from a recent legislative hearing that featured several anti-trans bills.
And you're going to want to hear the audio from an older gentleman who came to testify in favor of those anti-trans bills until he heard hours of testimony against them and had a bit of an epiphany.
And we will recap a busy weekend in sports.
You think we're going to be talking about basketball?
Only a little bit.
Playoff hockey had most of the drama from the weekend.
I am absolutely exhausted and cannot wait to tell you all about the very, uh, very fun, but dramatic weekend that, uh, those of us had who loves and playoff hockey to reach the show by a phone or by text, eight, five, five, seven, five, civic eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.
But more importantly, use that civic media app.
You're gonna need that app in our next hour to text us as part of our text to win contest or put a comment up on Facebook or YouTube and again, we'll tell you all about Texting to win all about the prizes how often we do it and everything else coming up in Just a couple of moments here, but first let's check temperatures around the state at the bus stop at 610
It's 29 degrees here on Lake Wissota.
Amory 27.
Wasau's at 27.
Wisconsin Rapids 28.
La Crosse 31.
Green Bay's at 30.
Madison's at 31.
Milwaukee at 34.
And at Radio Park in Racine it is 35 degrees as we welcome in the one, the only, Greg Bach to the program.
Mr. Bach, good
morning.
No, don't do that.
Don't do that to yourself.
You got all these buttons in there.
I'm going to do this together.
We're doing affirmation time with Greg Bach.
Ladies and gentlemen, now coming to the stage, Greg Bach, live from Radio Park in Racine.
There we go, see?
I need to find that one.
How was your weekend?
Oh my God, it was very, very, very busy.
Yeah, this month has been very busy with shows.
We've had like four shows and five shows and six shows and actually seven shows in one weekend.
But this weekend was very fun.
Harry Cundabula was in town.
It was great to see him.
I hadn't seen him in a while.
It was great to catch up with a friend.
And we had some fun times I was performing.
And then yesterday, it was my first day off in three weeks where I had like nothing to do, no radio, no comedy, no nothing.
and it was exactly what I thought it would be.
I watched a great show on Netflix, Pat.
Oh yeah?
The Residence.
It's a Shonda Rhimes show.
This is the second time I'm hearing about this.
I heard about it from somebody over the weekend.
Tell us
more.
It is, and I say this in the most loving way possible.
It is, if you watched After Party on Apple TV Plus or you enjoy the Knives Out,
films.
You're
love this.
It stars Uso Aduba, who was on Orange is a New Black.
She
crazy eyes and it has an all star cast.
Jean Carlo Esposito is playing a character.
He stepped into a place because it was originally cast Andre Brogher who died last year.
Bronson Pinchot is in it.
Who else is
in
it?
Edwina Finley is fantastic.
Like this is just a wonderful, wonderful cast.
I can't, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
And we watched it, I watched the first episode yesterday and finished it yesterday or Saturday, finished it yesterday.
It was so good.
Russell Park is in it.
I watch anything with Russell
Park.
I, again, we'd never heard of it.
And then some friends brought it up over the weekend and said, you got, you got to watch the show.
Got to watch.
So we, we'd made a mental note about it.
So to hear it again from you, just reaffirms, we got to look this thing up.
It's going to be, it's going to be fun.
Oh, Jane Curtin is in it.
The legendary
Jane
Curtin is in it.
She's just great.
Jason Lee, who I made me so happy to see.
It was a great, it's a great show.
I really, it's a really great, just you got nothing to do today.
sit around, watch the
show.
Do that because other people are just sitting around watching basketball or something all weekend long.
So they probably need something else to watch.
I on the other hand was all about the college hockey
college hockey
college hockey.
Oh boy.
Let me let me start with the non Wisconsin team first folks.
Regular listeners know that my I have a son in law who works with the hockey team out of Western Michigan.
Go Broncos.
And they, they were in the final of their conference tournament, which is played in St.
Paul.
So Sherry and I went out there to watch a couple of great nights of hockey and in the championship game for the conference championship, the Broncos were down to nothing to, who was it?
Now I forgot, oh, University of Denver, because they'd beaten University of North Dakota.
the night before, and in both cases had to come from behind.
And in the championship game, the Broncos were down three nothing in the second period.
And we thought, well, we can't leave our son-in-law.
We can't, you know, we got to show our support, so we're going to stick around.
They came back with a late goal to tie things up, take it to overtime, at which point we were already exhausted.
That was like.
after 10 p.m.
on Saturday.
Overtime, no scores.
So intermission for the second overtime, we're like, well, in for a dime, in for a dollar.
So much for our plans for after the game.
And the Broncos scored a few seconds in and won their conference championship.
And...
Next for this is for men's college hockey now is the NCAA tournament.
And so, you know, congratulations as the Broncos head off into into the brackets there.
But for the women, their national championship was this weekend.
And so I got home yesterday afternoon from a busy weekend, watching those two hockey games.
I turn on the TV and there's the Badger women.
Yeah.
Playing for the, for the women's national championship.
I'm like, okay, so I'm kind of watching that out of the corner of my eye, uh, seeing once again that the, you know, Wisconsin women, they, they had been, uh, down, uh, they had to come back and tie things up.
Uh, let me, let me get it here.
The, the, the Badger women had only lost once all throughout the regular season.
One loss.
Yeah.
And it was to Ohio State.
So who were the Badger women playing for the national title?
I'll give you one guess.
The Ohio State.
Yeah, yeah, the Ohio State.
Badgers down 3-1 early in the second period, and they were down 3-2, clock sticking away, 19 seconds left.
Ohio State is 19 seconds away from a national title when the Badgers are awarded a penalty shot.
Kirsten Sims puts it in the net with a
perfect left to right fake and it is off to overtime.
I'm just like, no, I can't do this again.
Three minutes into the extra frame, it's Kirsten Sims again, scores the Badgers win the national title coming back from down two goals to win an overtime four to three.
And by the way, that's the same Kirsten Sims who has a freshman two years ago scored the game winning goal for the last time the Badgers won a national title.
So she did it again.
Do you think she ever pays for a beer again on State Street?
Is what I would say.
if she were old enough to legally drink, but she doesn't turn 21 till August.
So enjoy all that free lemonade, Kirsten Sims.
And, uh, congrats to the Badgers on a record eighth national hockey
eight national titles for head coach, Mark Johnson.
That is a nice little dynasty that she got over
there.
It's an Ocho Pete.
Oh, playoff hockey.
I just love it.
Playoff
hockey.
Bucky, but this is the week.
This is the week.
The Brewers tomorrow get on a plane.
They fly to New York and they will open the Major League Baseball season on Thursday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.
I'm
excited their baseball is here.
Oh, I know.
And we need it because the basketball news has been mixed at best.
The Bucks are in Phoenix tonight.
They have won two out of the first three games on their current five game road trip.
But then there's the NCAAs, the Padgers.
I didn't see any of this game.
Uh, because I was at the hockey game, but never once had the lead in Saturday's second round game against BYU.
Then they lost 91 89, despite John Tange scoring 37 points.
The first player to crack 30 in tournament this year.
He's a machine.
And yeah, just looking at the social media comments, a lot of people very unhappy right now with the badgers, but you go play better if you think you can.
Yeah.
And the Marquette men also, I mean, they lost their first round game to New Mexico.
So there goes your rooting interest for the NC two ways.
You can just watch your brackets after this.
But again, congratulations to the Badger women on becoming national champions.
Let's pause here.
And when we come back, we will unpack some of the headlines, including who Brad Schimel is going to owe.
If he happens to win that state Supreme Court race next week, wherever you're listening across Wisconsin on this Monday morning, when you're here, you're up north.
Live from
on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
The fans are awake right now if you're hearing that.
Now the Chicago Blackhawks made that song Chelsea Dagger famous.
That was their goal sound.
And thanks to Greg Buck for adding the proper goal scoring horn in there.
I'm here for you buddy.
There was that.
Let's see.
North Dakota, I think they had a song by Pitbull that they played all the time.
Scoring a goal in hockey.
Tony's got this right.
Can we just talk about how great the Wisconsin women's hockey team is all show?
I don't want to hear about shimmeling.
You know, honestly, I
wouldn't have a problem with that because frankly, I've I'm shimmeled out.
I'm he's such a
but
There's more.
I know.
There's more to Brad Schimmel that we have to talk about that we'll get to in just a second here.
But first, got to tell you what's in the daily newsletter.
Sign up for it over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
This is National Cocktail Day, as we'll mention in today's history lesson coming up.
And so let's see, the editors at Food Network have published their 50 States of Cocktails list.
The one for Wisconsin, of course, no surprise.
It's a brand-new old-fashioned, of course.
But you can hear more about, you know, old-fashions and cocktails and in other states, what do they specialize in?
But Christina also talks about
four classic Wisconsin cocktails and how the best way to make them at home.
And of course, some of the day's news as well.
Sign up over at upnorthnewswi.com.
And then of course, there's our weekend newsletter as well.
I put that out on Sunday mornings.
And along with summing up the political news of the week, I also ask a question of the week.
And this week, it's
the degree of government involvement in health care.
And it ranges from A, none whatsoever.
Everybody's on their own to buy their own health insurance.
B is that you have some kind of a...
coverage of catastrophic events, major accidents, illness, all that.
C would be the Affordable Care Act.
Just kind of tweak it a little bit where you're using public money, but people buy insurance.
in the private marketplace.
They just get help for doing so.
And option D is just going full single payer.
Every other developed country on earth has figured out how to keep people from going bankrupt because of health care.
Why can't the US do it?
So folks are sending in their answers to that and you can do the same by being part of our newsletter subscription base head over to Up North News W I dot com.
All right, today's civics lesson is about capitalism.
Folks, capitalism is an economic system.
It's not a religion, but you wouldn't know that by hearing the way some other people talk.
Let's hear from Senator Ron Johnson, who was recently a part of a talk show, a talk show with Elon Musk on his own network, X, formerly Twitter.
It was a live half hour discussion.
The tech billionaire talked to one of the Senate's richest dudes about the Wisconsin Supreme Court race because both of them are Well involved into backing Brad Schimmel and what stood out for a lot of us was this particular comment from Ron Johnson on the race
They're just in your face I mean they have no shame that they tell you what we're just gonna take
those two congressional seats back.
We're going to redistrict these things.
They always accuse Republicans of gerrymandering, but they are the gerrymanders, and they have no problem doing it themselves, and they brag about it, and they pay for it.
So again, we all know how crucial this election is.
Yeah, this election is crucial because otherwise, if Ron Johnson gets Brad Schimmel back in there,
Wisconsin gets to go back to those gerrymandered maps, which is really, yeah.
No, thank you.
I just, you know, just, you know, hold on.
So I'm sorry.
I got to, I mean, I want to make an apology to Ron Johnson.
Way to go, man.
I just want to, you know, your nuance to look at the, the election process here in Wisconsin based in history and what really happened.
I mean, it just, he boils it down to, no, you are.
I know you are.
Boy, what
a, what a great, what a great leader for this state.
The senior senator from, from Wisconsin, Mr. Ron Johnson, Doug, you guys are dumb.
Who thinks, uh, thinks somehow we have all forgotten who actually wrote the gerrymandered maps of the past decade.
And then Ron Johnson went on to say that if Schimmel wins, he will have.
Elon Musk to thank because Elon Musk is putting some 15 million dollars into the race already and is is now also offering hundred dollars to voters Offers a hundred dollars if they'll just sign a petition to oppose activist judges So it's not it's not completely a bribe wink It's all about game respects game
Look, Ron Johnson worships money Elon Musk does as well.
He wants to be the world's first trillionaire.
Worship of money doesn't mean that their view of capitalism is what we should all aspire to.
Their version of capitalism actually isn't really even capitalism.
They love their faith in the infallibility of the market and they see no role for government at all.
To them, any government role
any oversight is to them exactly the same as communism or socialism where in those systems government micromanages and megamanages all things about the marketplace.
It does not matter if you're a Keynesian like me or a libertarian who's honest about the big picture, everyone across the capitalism spectrum who is not a far-right ideologue understands that government has a role to play.
in guarding against the excesses of the very wealthy, the robber barons, the hedge fund managers, the Tea Party, and all the other players in the marketplace who seek to corrupt the marketplace through greed, monopoly, indifference, and political ownership.
And Ron Johnson personifies that group.
Call him Ola Gark's robber barons, call him wannabe rulers of a second gilded age, whatever, but understand that he and Elon Musk and Donald Trump and all the tech bros
who have some level of control over information out there on the internet, all these guys are looking at capitalism and the role of government through a single lens.
If it's good for business, it's good for them.
Now, they'll sing you another song.
They'll tell you if it's good for business, it's good for everyone because their benevolence will trickle down and create prosperity for workers, low prices for consumers, creative ingenuity that protects our resources and educates our children, ends wars and makes our streets safe from the criminal element.
Some of them might even believe it, but believe me, most of them don't.
They stopped back at what I first said.
If it's good for business, it's good for them.
And that's all that matters.
The rest is just a snow job to win power.
So when Ron Johnson tells you Brad Shimmel will owe it to Elon Musk if he wins and puts corporate conservatives in charge of the state supreme court, believe him.
He doesn't mean Shimmel will owe him as any owes him a beer and a handshake.
He will owe Elon Musk unquestioned allegiance.
Brad Shimmel gets that and he's fine with it.
More after this, you're up
On this day, March 24th, 2006, Hannah Montana, starring a 13-year-old Miley Cyrus debuts on the Disney Channel.
Back then known only as the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley played a middle school student who is secretly a pop star.
The best of both worlds there was the theme to it, and of course Miley would go on to become a pop star herself.
Similarly, our show is visited on Monday mornings
by a mild-mannered suburban woman known to her sons, simply as mom, to her patients as doc, to the members of Durand-Durand as that woman who needs a restraining order.
But when exposed to political injustice, sexist policymaking, or just any nearby cameras and microphones, this simple girl from Kokona becomes Dr. Kristen Lirely, International Advocate.
action figures sold separately.
So, our own Hannah Montana joins us this morning as Chief Morrell Officer of Up North News Radio, Dr. Lirely.
Good morning.
That whole restraining order thing was resolved in the 80s.
Yes, but you know.
Maybe it was the
90s.
Maybe they still watch out for you.
I don't know.
Can I tell you what I did last night that kept me up until midnight?
Um, sure.
Um, I was flipping through the channels and grease was on and I couldn't turn it
No.
And I started to realize all the things that I learned as an eight year old from a different perspective, like what a hickey is.
And nice girls are fine, but girls with big hair who wear black leather have much more fun.
You learned that, didn't you?
Noted.
The more you know.
Do I
not
have that thing in my file?
My goodness.
by the way, yes, along with the grease soundtrack, now we've put Chelsea Dagger in your head as well.
Was there a goal song when you were Goldie Gopher, the mascot?
Did the Gophers have a particular song that they played after every goal or was that, did that predate the goal song era?
Probably, but we were cheering so loud you couldn't hear it.
Well,
that and you, I mean, you've got the, the Minnesota Rouser and, you
know, we played the Rouser, but it was the band.
I figured as much.
Okay.
Um, but it was a good weekend up north.
Yeah, it was good.
I delivered a baby.
Okay.
And there were northern lights and they named the baby Aurora, which was so cool.
And it was a secret.
It was all like, you know, she came out and we were like, and the name and they were like, Aurora.
And I said, oh, there are northern lights tonight.
And they said.
Really?
It was so cool.
You get the bestest moments.
Oh my gosh, my job.
Every day I go to work and I get to be part of someone's life changing day.
It is the coolest job on earth.
And that's just her radio part, folks.
Then she goes and
does all
the doctor stuff, which is awesome.
And then all the other stuff, everything you do, the everything you do.
Yes,
everything.
Which includes some political stuff here, where Brett asked us on Facebook, please explain why what Elon Musk is doing is illegal.
And that, of course, would be the aforementioned $100 bribes.
Because he did the same thing during the presidential election as well.
While they're basically they ran out of time before a Pennsylvania court Could take up and you know an appeal and take this all the way through because again, they're they're running out the clock if you do these things late it gets too late for a court to tell you to stop it and Kristen there is just Again that we even have to ask why offering to pay people a hundred dollars a week before an election as what
Everybody can tell is it a PR campaign for Brad Schimmel is it's a commentary on how cynical we've all not we've all but so many people have become that they don't immediately look at this and are sickened by it.
It's like one of many things isn't it and when they did this back in the presidential it was what forty seven dollars that they offered to pay that.
Apparently they didn't actually come through with and then there was the million dollar giveaway which I heard they also didn't come through with that as well so not only is it illegal but.
people are getting again.
It's a
con.
No, you want to see my shocked face?
What?
I am shocked that that folks who are known for cons and griffs did the same thing.
Did you see the Brittany Kinzer mailers that came out in the Milwaukee area?
No.
Oh, they say vote for Brittany Kinzer.
She's a Democrat.
Three different sets of mailers that came out that clearly say Democrat Brittany Kinzer.
folks britney kinsor is not a democrat
not a democrat not even close now she
doesn't even say that she is a democrat this is clearly that dark money
meant to influence your vote and trick you into voting for something that you don't want to vote for.
Yeah,
I mean, again, there are folks who will take the magic of the First Amendment and then, you know, turn it into their own perverse political, you know, pleasures.
And that will include just flat outline about party affiliation and other language.
Elon Musk, a lot of his money has gone into ads that, again,
pretend to be for Susan Crawford, but they're actually working against her because they ascribe some far left positions to her that she has not taken, that she's not said anything
about.
but
my favorite my favorite thing about that x thing that the chimmel and ron johnson and musk did together was that there were lots of uh technical difficulties and musk at one point was like he had in his own universe he couldn't hear what anybody else was saying and he was apologizing to people for the technical difficulties and chimmel and johnson were trying to tap dance and make everybody you know feel like just stay engaged and then musk kept coming back to the two congressional seats the two congressional seats that democrats are trying to take
away and that could flip the balance of Congress.
And you know, I get that except, you know, Wisconsin is a super purple state.
If I remember, we're the state with the closest margin.
We
And we have eight congressional seats, and currently only two of those seats are held by Democrats.
The other six are held by Republicans.
That just doesn't seem to represent the people of Wisconsin.
What do you think?
Not
even close.
Not even close.
But again, the focus on the gerrymandered maps was about the legislative districts because it was the more...
egregious and needing to be rectified situation, but the congressional maps are no less gerrymandered again in that sense that There's in no universe are 25% of Wisconsin voters Democratic and yet it's a 75 25 split in terms of congressional seats So again like like I say often about the far right every assertion is a confession
And when Ron Johnson asserts that, oh, Democrats are the gerrymanders, trying to get you to not look at what Republicans actually did back in 2011, which was to gerrymander the maps in the way that we have now.
Now they've been fixed at the legislative level.
By and large, Democrats now have a fair fight in 2026 to potentially take the majority.
But Congress, those rigged maps are still there.
And so it's why
you had to work as hard as you did in the eighth.
It's why, you know, the third is looked at so closely because the other six just aren't anywhere near the purple that those districts are.
So it's why all the attention is there.
It's so wild to me how Ron Johnson can make that kind of assertion.
With a straight face, right?
With a straight face.
I mean, living in Northeast Wisconsin where we had three state senators who all lived within five miles of each other with the old maps.
Now that we've got new maps, we went from having two representatives in the state legislature to five in Northeast Wisconsin.
And that doesn't even feel like enough.
So it has been a game changer for us in Northeast Wisconsin.
It's been a game changer for us across the state.
It's clearly much
more fair and to hear Ron Johnson turn around and say that the Democrats are trying to tip the scales like oh buddy I don't think so
yeah well and
Of course, in the third district, you've got Tony here asking on YouTube, can we please get rid of Derek Van Horten as very, very civil personality and communication style?
When
we talk about
him, he hears us and
gets
angry.
I know, but it might be you, Kristen.
It might be part Greg, but I think I just think he's got a thing for me.
I mean, who else would
you?
He definitely has a thing for you.
When we left this last week, I talked about how he'd come on and made a couple of fat jokes on there because somebody hears a couple of pounds.
What I haven't told you is that five hours later, he came back to that post and posted another insult on there.
It's so weird to live inside somebody's head rent free like that.
Like five hours later, he's like, I got to go back and say some more stuff about that.
You're a member of Congress.
And
your glasses make
your nose look smart.
Have some self respect.
I tell you.
This is the world we live in right now.
I know
and it seems perfectly normal to folks who, you know, say, well, this is just, this is just an extension of the wrestling that we see on TV rather than actual public service.
And when you get to that point, he said, turning toward a serious topic, I mean, you, you get things like what we talked about with Matt Henney from Courier Texas on Friday, but I wanted to bounce this off of you as well.
You've got things in Texas where a midwife.
is getting arrested.
And where you continue to people go, well, that couldn't happen here.
I don't know.
I could.
I can think of a couple of DA's in Wisconsin and a couple of sheriffs where it obviously could.
So, you know, I'm sure you're watching Texas, you know, with, shall we say, interest.
We're all watching Texas.
Texas is the Canary in the coal mine, and we knew this was going to happen at some point.
This midwife was specifically chosen for many reasons, and now we get to watch how this all plays out.
I don't even have words.
I mean, all I want to do is take care of my patients.
I just want them to get the health care that they need and deserve so that they can live healthy and prosperous lives.
That's not happening in places like Texas.
It's not even happening in places like Wisconsin.
Our 1849 criminal abortion ban, it's on ice right now while the Supreme Court is looking at it and trying to decide about whether this is a feticide law or an abortion law.
Most of Wisconsin cannot, people living in most of Wisconsin cannot get access to comprehensive reproductive health care.
And I'm not just talking about abortion.
I'm talking about.
Contraception.
Delivering their babies.
We're losing obstetrical units in rural parts of the state like crazy.
Just wait until Medicaid and Medicare are defunded the way that the GOP is intending to do.
We're hearing about it now, but when rubber hits the road, it's going to be incredibly painful.
We've talked about the potential cuts to Medicaid through a couple of different frames, but it is that frame of rural health care.
Never set abortion care aside, and if you want to, set women's health care aside.
And if we just focus on rural health care, what happens if Medicaid goes away?
People go, well, what?
They'll still need help.
They'll just go to the cities.
Do you know what wait times are like now if you can even find a doctor who's taking new patients and you remove
Medicaid from the equation.
I can't even try to describe what it's going to be like for rural residents who need anything other than the most routine, easy to plan for care.
Yeah, people don't want to go to the city.
They're not comfortable in the city or they don't have vehicles.
They don't have, they can't afford gas.
They don't have anybody to watch their kids.
There are so many barriers that, you know, many of us can overcome, but many others cannot.
And when they can't, they just don't get the care.
And when they don't get the care, they do poorly.
Yeah.
I mean, and now.
Add to that for set aside Medicaid for a second.
And now the social security closing social security offices, changing the rules that people won't be able to phone in.
If they, if they need to make certain changes, they either have to get online, which many rural people and many older people are not online and don't know how to negotiate it, or they have to go in person, do an office, even as they're closing the offices.
They closed the office in Green Bay.
Yeah.
In Green Bay.
That's a pretty big city.
Yeah, and Alicia notes properly.
There's no public transportation in rural areas, right?
It's not like you can just get on the bus and go, okay, well, I'll go take care of this and I'll be back.
There's no Uber either.
No, no, there's not.
This is such an assault on rural Wisconsin and rural America that again, I would expect that much like when George W. Bush talked about privatizing social security and then, you know,
got stomped in the 2006 midterms.
I don't, I think the 2026 midterms are going to be a real referendum on this, along with the election eight days from now.
Is a real referendum on Elon Musk and whether this is what rural Wisconsin really wants.
Let's pause here.
We'll do today's history lesson coming up next.
I'm Pat Crightlow from Europe North.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,
Welcome back.
This is Up North News Radio and today's history lesson for this Monday morning, March 24th.
And that's Sheryl Crow singing a song about Steve McQueen, the movie actor in a lot of action movies in the 60s and 70s, who was born this day in 1930, passed away in 1980.
Selena Haller from Up North News joins us as well.
So does Whiskers, the real star of the show here.
Showing Selene exactly who's boss around here.
Also on the birthday list today, Jim Parsons from the Big Bang Theory 52, Allison Hannigan from what?
What?
I'm sorry,
Sheldon being 52 is just weird for me.
And I know he's
not Sheldon,
but I
know still.
Yes.
Sheldon is 52.
Allison Hannigan from How I Met Your Mother.
And what was your, what was she on before that?
Was it Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
Okay.
She's 51.
Peyton Manning is 49.
Peyton
Manning is only 49.
Yeah,
Peyton Manning.
You know, your, your, your retired career starts, you know, in your mid 30s.
It's just crazy.
Corey Hart, former Milwaukee Brewer, is
43 today, not to be confused with the sunglasses at Night Singer.
We'll talk about him later.
Also, birthday today, happy birthday, 76 to singer Nick Lowe.
We're right in Kristen's wheelhouse now with little Nick Lowe.
it.
I always get Nick Lowe mixed up with Nick Cave, wildly different
Very different.
Yes.
I'm so British.
Curl to be kind with Nicholas.
Happy birthday to him.
Alicia writes on YouTube, loved Steve McQueen in The Great Escape.
My brother and I used to get it from the library so much her mom banned us from getting it.
So there you go.
There's a movie recommendation, Steve McQueen in The Great Escape.
And Tony says, listen to Peyton Manning, never retire.
All right.
So always stay active.
I don't know, Louis Anderson, the late great comedian was born this day in 1953, gone way too soon in 2022.
Elvis was formally drafted into the army this day in 1958.
The Bee Gees had a number one hit this week in 1979.
Look at
Kristen is just loving the music today.
All
right.
The two fighters do a great cover of this time.
Who?
Who?
What?
The Foo Fighters.
You said Foo
Fighters, do you?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, they do.
They do.
Uh-huh.
Oh.
Well, we have something for great to look up here.
That'll be fun.
So this is the beach.
He's doing tragedy again.
Number one hit this day in 1979 for them to prove they don't just do disco.
On this day in 1989 and Prince William Sound in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez spilled a quarter of a million barrels of crude oil after running aground.
On this day in 1972, the Godfather opened up in movie theaters.
Don Rosen, who's on WRJN right now, he told me he went to go see at the movie theater last night.
Oh, yeah.
They're playing this weekend.
That's so cool.
It's the anniversary.
Singer Naina is 65.
She was born in West Germany and had this 1983 hit.
Is this song where I had the German version picked but Greg was over there going English is the official language now deal with it
right, you know you guys just talk you guys just talk I'll get to your stupid German
song It's okay.
It's okay.
It's past.
It's all right on this day in 2005 Carrie Underwood was a contestant on American Idol in season four
did a performance and Simon Cowell predicted she would go on to win the contest.
She did and sold more records in the U.S.
than any previous Idol winner, though Kelly Clarkson has sold more records worldwide.
Let's see.
Let's go back to the 80s here.
On this day in 1986, Lionel Richie won the Oscar for Best Original Song for Say You, Say Me from White Nights and released this day in 1986 was a song by Howard Jones.
So many buttons.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my
God.
This song takes me back.
Uh-huh.
He's so good.
I saw him in concert in the city a couple of years ago.
Did you
really?
Uh-huh.
This just reminds me how much I miss VH1.
We always joke about MTV.
Remember MTV used to play music videos?
Yeah, and we all had to switch over to VH1.
And then
we all just switch over to certain age to VH1 to see music that was more age appropriate for us.
And now that's gone, too.
What are you gonna do?
Let's see, we mentioned earlier that this is National Cocktail Day and you can read about Wisconsin cocktails in today's newsletter.
Again, brandial fashion.
That's pretty much it.
I don't know if anybody else is it.
I know Sherry will drink a Moscow Mule every so often.
Those are good.
Yeah.
This is National Cleaning Week.
Okay.
This is National Roommate's Day.
Funny how they go together.
Yes, right?
Let's see.
This is National Cheese Stake Day.
This is National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day.
We like that.
And Kristen won one serious one for the doctor here.
This is National Adverse Drug Event Awareness Day, which I've got to think is something that every so often creeps up where you go, okay, I'm prescribing you this, but look out for that or something like that.
It's like, you got to know, especially drug interactions, right?
Like don't don't take this with that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well
said, doctor.
That was worth the med school
tuition right there.
What do you think?
It's like risks and benefits.
You have to talk through all that
stuff.
Okay.
All right.
Dr. Whiskers, any opinion there from you?
It's okay.
All right.
When we come back, Celine is going to have some interesting audio from a gentleman who was at a legislative hearing about some anti-trans bills.
And
And he had come in to testify in favor of the anti-trans bills.
And Selena will report how he had a bit of a change of heart after listening to people who were speaking out against said bills.
So Selena will have details on that.
Kristen Lyer will be back.
Greg Bach as well.
I'm Pat Crightlow.
This is Up North News Radio for this Monday morning, March 24th.
We have your chance to win.
We kick off a new text to win contest coming up next.
You're up north.
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.