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This is Up North News Radio.
Now live from our Lake Minnesota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News at Brightlaw.
Hey, good morning.
Welcome back to Up North News Radio on a bash of the Wisconsin brought to you by Currier Newsroom and carried by our friends here across the Civic Media Radio Network.
It's 7 0 6 on this Monday morning, April 7th, 2025 coming up at the bottom of the hour here.
A couple of guests from the Chippewa Valley Healthcare Cooperative are talking about their project to create from scratch a new independent nonprofit community hospital to help a region that was hit hard by two hospital closings last year by one out of state entity.
Are we turning the page on corporate medicine?
and getting back to health care the way it used to be at the local level.
We'll talk about that coming up this hour.
Let's see, we'll also have Jane McNair previewing her show for the coming week.
Selena Heller is here to talk about the demonstrations held across Wisconsin on Saturday.
Dr. Kristen Lyrely is here as well because we need a chief morale officer and meteorologist Brittany Merleau is here because every show needs a scientist and we
have
two.
We have two along with Dr. Lirely.
We've got one that studies the weather for us.
And I understand, because I'm not in the area right now that I'm normally in, but that Wisconsin was sunny but cold for a lot of those demonstrations and whatever else you were doing over the weekend, Brittany.
Yes, it sure was.
Crisp out there, but the sunshine was nice and now it's been replaced as the cold front moved through the state through the evening and overnight hours.
We've got flurries flying, especially north and east in the state and temperatures are crisp.
We're at 21 degrees and superior.
up to 45 degrees in Kenosha, but when you put North winds on top of that, they're gusting around 20 to 35 miles per hour at the moment.
And that's making it feel like a mere eight degrees into Lady Smith.
So pretty crisp.
Um, yeah, we've even got a winter weather advisory in iron County right now until about 10 a.m.
Where you've got another two inches of snow left to accumulate and we're still looking at flurry chances throughout the day, especially on the eastern side of the state.
Now we're not looking at crazy accumulations.
That's for sure, but it's cold.
It's blustery.
It's windy and our highs today are really only going to go to the upper 20s far northeast and upper 30s far southwest.
mostly cloudy, kind of dreary day, but there is good news because tomorrow the sunshine will be bright and beautiful and abundant.
We'll all climb to the low to mid forties and maybe that doesn't sound the best, but we are warming up every single day and into the weekend by Sunday.
Some places are going to hit 70 degrees.
Yes, please.
That would
be great.
Where I am this week out in the mountain west was a little bit warmer and nicer.
And I again, I love Wisconsin, love Wisconsin.
But there is something about this time of year out in this part of the country, where the mountains aren't snow covered, and they're not snow free, there's snow capped where you could draw a pencil across all the mountains.
And that's where the snow cap is where the where the melting line is.
It's so gorgeous.
It's just now the trade off, of course, is 200 inches of snow in the wintertime.
But other than that, you know, so hopefully we can send some of that warmth out your way before two terribly long sure sounds like it.
Yes, it's coming.
I'm
excited.
All right.
I got to dig through.
We are very popular online today.
shall we say.
And so Rob, forgive me.
I got to scroll back a ways to find out everything that you say here.
Here we go.
Good morning from Tigerton.
That's cloudy and snow 30 degrees.
Roads are slippery and northern and eastern Wisconsin.
Last night I had a cheeseburger at Rachel's Roadside near Wittenberg.
Yesterday I got old Molly washed.
For folks that don't listen regularly, that would be one of the vehicles.
That's the name for my Chevy Malibu in Wittenberg.
I watched the Final Four Saturday night, still figured that Duke pulling a six point lead with 30 seconds left against Houston.
Yes, I didn't see that live, but holy cow.
I mean, if you want, you want.
You want drama in your final four.
And he says it's Severe Weather Awareness Week with a tornado warning test Thursday at 1.45 and 6.45.
Meteorologist Brittany Merleau, can you confirm?
Yes, yes, it is a severe weather awareness week.
So when these tornado sirens go off, just pretend it's real, actually have a plan in place, practice it and get that muscle memory going because in a state of emergency, when it is happening, let me tell you, you forget a lot of things.
So get the plan going, get an emergency bag together, make sure you know what to do.
All right.
And Rob says five of my favorite people on a Monday morning.
And
he concludes by saying swear at the snow, not the
people.
I believe Rob and the online listeners and viewers know exactly what we're talking about.
Rob, thank you so much.
Brittany, thank you.
Have a great day.
You too.
All right.
So the weather was a little crisp out there for folks in Wisconsin that were
part of the hands off rallies.
But again, anywhere from three to five million people found events near them to send a sign that what's happening here, not only is it not what they wanted, that's fine, people lose elections all the time.
But it's not normal.
It's not working.
It's hurting real people.
These are things that were not, you know, ever promised like, you know, lack of due process and, you know, threatening to cut Social Security and, you know, tanking the stock markets.
But this is where we're at.
So people did take to the streets to express that.
And Selena went to the one in Eau Claire, which did we ever see a crowd estimate on ultimately how many people were at that particular one?
Yeah, some of them are saying 1700 people.
I don't know that.
I didn't count them.
You didn't count them?
No, I did not.
I could not see everyone.
Yeah, you put your okay.
Yeah, I have counted people in the past at events.
So I'm not past that.
But no, I'd seen 1500 or more.
And I've seen reports of like 2000 and Appleton.
But I mean, just like hundreds and some of these smaller communities was really something.
So as you were talking to the folks at the Eau Claire one,
Tell us more about the environment there.
Yeah, they were all mobilized by either, like you said, cuts to services, slashing of jobs.
people setting out to build this massive, visible kind of national rejection of everything that's going on.
And one of the things in Wisconsin that was different in other states, it was kind of the unique thing we have going on here where we could celebrate the big victories of last night, one that big Supreme Court win.
So that was kind of one of the things that people could celebrate in their homes quietly, but then it gave people an opportunity to
kind of celebrate Wisconsin and the people in Wisconsin who made that big vote and kind of showed the world that we were just kind of not stepping down here in Wisconsin.
So one of the speakers here is Senator Jeff Smith.
And this was kind of similar to a lot of the speakers in the state, I think, where we celebrated that that big Crawford one last week.
So here's Senator Jeff Smith.
But this is not about one person.
This is not about
even one party.
This is about America.
This is about the state of Wisconsin.
And thank you Wisconsin
for leading the way.
You have inspired the world.
And that is not an exaggeration.
Yeah, who would have thought our little our little state Supreme Court race here.
would have that kind of an effect.
Oh, Dr. Larley has her hand up.
You knew that?
Okay.
All right.
Tell us more.
Yeah,
we've got spunk here in Wisconsin.
Not everybody likes spunk, but we do.
Who else did you talk to, Selena?
Another one of the speakers was Laura Benjamin.
She's a former city council person from Eau Claire.
She's a small business owner and a lot of the speakers kind of had a topic.
Christian Phelps talked about the importance of education and the cuts happening in that realm and just kind of different topics.
So Laura Benjamin is the small business owner.
She kind of talked about that and just kind of what we can all do together and what good can come of things like this.
We can have free childcare and we can have free state college.
We can afford paid family leave and create affordable home ownership opportunities.
We can solve food insecurity and provide clean energy and clean water to everyone in the United States.
We can guarantee marriage equality trans rights bodily autonomy and gender equality Don't let them tell you that we can't because the billionaires want us to believe that there's never enough for us while they hoard enough money to end poverty and food insecurity overnight The only thing stopping us is the billionaire class refusing
to give up their grip on our future.
And when we finally properly tax the rich and mega corporations, we can build a society that benefits all of us.
So I can already hear the comment section, you know, lighting up any place going, oh, there it is.
It's more free stuff.
But if you listen to the full sound bite, Selena, the whole point being the undertone of this is we are a prosperous nation.
And we were once more prosperous for more people when we had a tax system that more fairly
did things with our tax money that made the entire nation great, rather than just allowing us to have, I've lost track now of how many billionaires we have.
And so for anybody that might have thought this was some far left fringe thing, Selena, there was just a lot of folks there that said, probably they never expected to be politically active, but the system that's been created right now, they recognize how off base it is.
And the signs showed that too.
We have good things going on and we don't want our bad history to repeat itself in other countries and things like that.
And what we have in America is...
Good.
And
people want to celebrate the positive things, too.
And I think that was the sentiment at these rallies.
And you could just tell from the people just coming together and just, you know, being there and, and feeling those things together.
And like, what, what we need to do just to realize, you know, the good things that we have going on in this country, because they're not all.
all bad, like they're they're made out to be.
Right.
So
Dr.
Lerly, you know, now that we have this election passed us, and the congressional midterms aren't for like a year and a half.
So what can folks do between now and then?
keep reaching out to your leaders, keep using your voices, whether it's in person, you know, sending the traditional kinds of letters and phone calls or social media, whatever it is, we've got to make sure that our leaders know that this is not working for us.
And however it hits you the most, whether it's VA benefits or Medicaid or childcare, whatever it is,
talk to them about that, these leaders don't get it.
Like they, and we, I don't understand everything about everything, but there are certainly things that we could teach the people who are leading this country.
If they choose to listen, if they choose to listen and not have quite so many empty chairs out there, shall we say, we'll continue the conversation with Kristen Lyrely, Selena Heller, Greg Bach, and then we'll talk about healthcare, the future of healthcare in Wisconsin coming up later this summer.
This is Up North News Radio on the Civic Media Radio Network.
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John Oates one of the few times that Daryl Hall allows him to sing lead.
Are
you
having a moment because it's John Oates birthday?
Because we know you love Holland Oates.
I do.
And there's Daryl Hall now.
John Oates turns 77 years old today.
Let's do a little sports here at just about 22 past the hour.
The loving feeling is back for both the brewers and the bucks.
You see what I did there as they had some nice wins over the weekend.
Let's start with the brewers.
Good news, a little bit of bad news as well.
First of the good news, Jackson Churio homered twice, five RBIs.
and the Brewers beat the Reds 8-2 on Sunday.
Brewers pitcher Chad Patrick allowed one run and only two hits over five and a third innings for his first major league win since starting the season 0-4.
The Brewers have won five of their last six, but the Brewers have to deal with losing another pitcher to injury.
This time it's Nester Cortes, the one who gave up three home runs on three pitches to start the season.
Settled down he pitched six shutout innings Thursday again Cincinnati, but he's now on the 15 day injured list with a strained elbow So basically the the brewers five-man pitching rotation to start the season
There's only one healthy pitcher in there still.
It's Freddy Peralta.
The Brewers have had seven starting pitchers and one reliever on the injured list at some point.
The Brewers are on the road now.
They're off today.
They have a three game series in Colorado starting tomorrow evening.
Broadcast starts at 7.05 on several Civic Media radio stations.
We're into the final week of the regular season for the NBA.
The Bucks are assured of a playoff spot.
They beat New Orleans last night, 111 to 107.
They are now on a four-game win streak.
So this final week of the regular season for the Bucks looks like this, home tomorrow against the Timberwolves, home Thursday against New Orleans, and then a road and home series with Detroit at Detroit Friday, and then home against Detroit to wrap up the regular season on Sunday.
And for hockey fans,
A big historic night in the NHL.
Alex Ovechkin got his 895th goal yesterday afternoon to pass Wayne Gretzky.
Mark that I think a lot of us thought was never, ever going to be broken and was.
So there's a little bit of sports for you at 624.
I was mentioning during the break.
About watching and hanging out with a couple of the grandsons.
How do I how do you know?
Let me give you this visual representation for folks on Facebook or YouTube the 11 year old when I first saw him
This is what he had.
This is a this is a container of cheese balls bigger than my head bigger than anybody's head There there have to be a thousand cheese balls in this thing and I know that when when I was 11 years old This was health food for me.
I could not get enough of that So that's how I know but I also know that if time allows we're gonna go see the Minecraft movie maybe tomorrow evening and yet
I'm not hearing great things about it.
Our own Siskel and Ebert, which would be Kristen and her sons, weighs in on this, Kristen.
I am not basing this on any sort of knowledge.
I personally have no opinion, but all of my children who grew up playing Minecraft, they say it's bad.
I want to see it because, you know, Jason Momoa.
I want to know what they were expecting out of a good
Minecraft movie like like, oh my God, you've seen movies like the Bicycle Thieves and Godfather, but Minecraft with Jack Black and Jason Momoa.
All right,
Academy Award.
Let's get in here.
Let's get in here.
These are the same kids, though, who watch videos of people playing video games.
Yeah,
you know, like, do you
do you do you think I take the movie critiquings of 14 year old?
No.
Who's the movie meant for?
Well,
that's kind of what I was wondering.
The wallet of some executive in Hollywood.
That's what it's
about for you.
You need just enough to bring in the kids, but you're not going to bring in the parents without a little something for them.
Hello, Jason Momoa.
You know,
we saw the Snow White movie last weekend.
I
like the dwarves.
They were really funny.
I was
gonna say that too has not gotten great reviews.
I liked it.
Okay.
Let's see.
Did you really look this up, Greg?
Oh,
I did.
Container cheeseballs.
Go ahead and read what you sent me there.
A standard 23 ounce.
That's cheeseball.
Barrel container contains approximately 529 cheeseballs.
Not the one who's holding it.
530.
Oh my gosh.
Where are
you?
There
you are.
You're welcome.
Yeah.
We laugh because we have to because otherwise we look at the stock market and it's going to open at least 5% lower after overnight futures trading, markets in Asia, markets in Europe.
Kristen, you're almost at retirement age.
Do you look at your portfolio?
And I said, because you can retire way too young, okay?
That's why I said it.
How do we approach this?
How do we look at this?
Because I'm
I'm much more of a you know what we'll we'll get there when we get there We've tried to move things to safe haven in the meantime But I do know people in in my age group that I think freak out is the appropriate term right now
I actually used to be a financial planner in my past and these are, yeah.
This
is just for me and Greg.
This is just for me and Greg.
Greg, what were you saying exactly one hour ago?
I was saying that like, you know, it's going to be something like you.
every time we talk to you, it's something new.
It's, oh, what you guys don't understand is in a former life of mine, I actually invented the stovetop pipe.
And the Stoffers people were very, very happy with my, I mean, it's just, the things I've invented, everything I've done, there's nothing you haven't done.
Okay,
continue, Kristen, you were a financial planner.
Yeah, for a little bit, which is like a useful skill to have.
And the last thing you want is for people to panic.
So like if you are in your 20s, 30s, like be aggressive, this is an opportunity to buy.
That's all true.
But if you're our age, Pat, you're definitely looking at the market thinking, whoa, like I'm going to need to use this money.
And the market is actually below now where it was a year ago.
All those gains have been wiped out.
So it's really scary.
And I think that is really hitting home for a lot of folks our age, but we can't panic.
We've just got to.
Tuck it in and don't sell.
This is not the time to sell.
Hold on to it.
Don't look at it every day because that's just going to make you feel.
uncomfortable.
And just do what you can, you know, I mean, there's there's no great advice.
There's nothing any one of us can do as an individual.
Well, and I said, I said, this too shall pass.
I mean, obviously, a lot of damage is going to get done.
But at some point, there will be some somebody else calling the shots.
tariffs will look a lot different for all the people talking about capitulation by other countries right now.
They're just trying to placate Trump right now.
Don't don't kid yourself into thinking we're in any kind of a permanent situation here.
Everything is in flux.
So
Lena Heller is far too young to talk about retirement accounts, so we're just going to let her go.
Thank you, Ms.
Heller.
Have a wonderful day.
Thank you so much too.
We'll talk about Chippewa Valley Health Care next year at North.
Welcome back to Up North Use Radio on this Monday morning.
A little Shania Twain there.
Again, her album, Come On Over, went to Diamond this day in 1999.
You can hear our history lesson every morning at 6.50 Central Time.
550 where I am for this week, but happy to turn back toward Wisconsin and welcome our next couple of guests here, Bob Crowsey and Mike Sanders, and we're going to be talking much more about the state of healthcare in the Chippewa Valley and the effort to start a new independent community non-profit hospital after the abrupt
loss of two hospitals, Sacred Heart in Eau Claire and St.
Joe's and Chippewa Falls.
And what this might mean for healthcare around Wisconsin and the rest of the country as well.
Mike and Bob, good morning.
Thank you both for being here today.
Good morning.
How are you, Pat?
Very good.
Good to see you both.
I'm really looking forward to talking about this subject.
Bob, let's start with you.
Tell me your role with the Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative first.
Sure, Pat, I'm the chairperson, my co-chair is Patty Darley, and we formed the cooperative just over a year ago so we could address both the medical and the economic void that was created by the closing of the two hospitals in our communities.
Okay, and Mike, you're an advisor?
Yes, I'm with 1,100 partners and serve as lead advisor for the cooperative.
So I've been working up in the valley for
Pretty much every week since last February when this crisis hit.
I'll bet you have.
Let's give a little local history before we get into what this means for health care for anybody who might be listening here.
The two hospitals that I mentioned in the Chippewa Valley were run by a Springfield Illinois based health organization, Hospital Sisters Health System, HSHS, and
Everybody knows everybody knows health care is in flux in this country, especially places that serve smaller areas and yet it was such an abrupt announcement and execution of the closing of these two hospitals It was a monster shock to health care, but also to employment in the Chippewa Valley and
Bob, the fact that you and Patty Darley and others stepped up kind of reminded me of back when the old Unirole Tire Factory closed in Eau Claire, you know, all those years ago.
And instead of just rolling over and saying, Oh, what was us, you know, we'll have to figure out something.
You and others said, let's figure out something right now.
What were some of those early discussions like before you really formed the health cooperative and made plans to maybe construct a new hospital?
Pat that comparison you just gave between this closing and the URL closing back in the 90s is spot-on and We saw this as both a medical need because there was only over 25,000 patients that Before this closure were it were being admitted and serviced at those two hospitals and now they have no hospital home to go to the other void is that
If those patients can't be serviced in our communities, they still have the need.
They go out of town and all of that economy goes with them.
So we knew this was a very serious situation.
It's not as dramatic because we're not manufacturing our product, but nonetheless, it's a very serious economic event going on right now.
And Mike, you are no stranger to the notion that hospitals and clinics have been closing around the country, especially in rural areas, but not exclusively in rural areas.
Yes, there certainly have been closures around the country.
I would say, though, most of them, I mean, there have been urban consolidations, but most of the rural closures have been hospitals that very small and lost their doctor and can't recruit.
These two hospitals were full.
The average census was 120 during the year prior to their closure.
I mean, they had over 200 million in revenue, so they were active, but struggling.
This was not like the need went away.
The need is still there.
And about a third of the hospital capacity in the valley was lost, essentially
overnight.
for folks who that who know the area well enough to say well I mean you've got two other big heavy hitters big players in the area you've got Mayo and you've got Marshfield Clinic and they both have hospitals in the Eau Claire area and and they have clinics and so you know was was this really necessary uh I guess again
It's pretty easy for me to assume that these other two players could only take up so much of the slack.
But Mike, where I'm really going with this question is whether we're seeing some kind of a shift in the landscape that instead of these big players that what you're working on, an independent nonprofit community hospital, is that going to be, are we moving back in that area and away from mega clinics?
Well, first of all, I would say that Mayo and Marshfield, which is now Sanford, they have stepped up and done what they could to cover the demand.
But we hear stories daily, the physicians hear stories daily from their patients of long wait times and the capacity just isn't there.
And what we're trying to do is exactly what you said, create a locally governed hospital, community hospital owned by the people.
We have a cooperative model
We have over 1100 members and that grows every week.
So that is the group, the membership, which elects our board of directors and ultimately governs and makes decisions locally.
I think what I heard and I think what we've seen in other parts of the country, the frustration with corporate health systems who maybe aren't as close to the people, aren't as close to the community,
looking at maybe more numbers than need making decisions.
And I mean, we have somebody on our board of directors who was on the board of directors of HSHS at the time of the closure.
And this person found out about the closure the same day the employees did.
So they were on the board, but zero community input.
Yeah, it was such a shock.
The model we're trying to
to offset local governance.
Bob, I'm going to ask you about the local model in a second.
I should, though, offer the usual disclaimer that my wife is an OBGYN with the Marshfield Clinic Health System, now in partnership with Sanford, working out of the Rice Lake area.
But Bob, to bring it back down to the...
In our
research, Pat, we know that.
I know you know that.
Not all the listeners might yet.
That's all fine.
Thank her for her services.
Well, I do all the time.
Bob, what makes you feel that something locally operated, independent and non-profit, can find its way into a market that does have some larger players in it?
Well, to be quite honest, we don't know.
We've done all the groundwork up to this point to allow the community to decide.
We know that the capacity is still there.
We know that there's long waiting times even, and we also understand that the other hospitals are doing their best.
There's no argument that they're not trying their best, but when you bring one third of the market and distribute those to two other hospitals, it's just impossible.
So we think this is the only solution.
We think it's the best platform going forward so the community can decide, not some headquarters in some other state, what the patients of the Chippewa Valley need and how we're going to respond to it.
So one of the, I'm sorry,
go ahead, Mike.
The other thing I'd add is Pat, we work very closely with the independent physicians in the community.
And if you look at what makes for a strong hospital, it's
There has to be demand, community demand.
There has to be a strong medical staff and obviously a building.
We lack the building right now, but we're working on it.
And we have a strong partnership with the independent physicians, most of whom are on Oakleaf Medical Network.
They have a primary care base of about 50,000 patients.
And it's a struggle.
I mean, they have patients, but no hospital.
We're trying to provide the hospital solution.
And so let's get to the hospital solution on that because again, when when HSHS closed these two hospitals, there was thought about just getting somebody else in to take over one or both buildings.
You're actually at this point, it's looking like kind of a bifurcated route where you do want to construct a brand new hospital, but you are looking into using St.
Joseph's in Chippewa Falls as a bridge before that can happen.
So Bob, let me start with you first.
Why even talk about a new hospital rather than just trying to run something locally operated out of one or both of the current buildings?
Sure, great question.
Well, first of all, we have to build a new hospital because the current building in Chippewa Falls is 50 plus years old.
And it just is not up to the specifications that a new hospital would be.
So.
In that, I mean, not just the quality of the building, but the efficiency that we're going to get from a new hospital so that we can have providers who want to come there and offer services to patients is just at the top of the chart for us.
However, we also realized that time is not on our side.
And we wanted to open up the Chippewa Falls Hospital, the old St.
Joe's.
or sooner so that we could get those services for the patients that need them and relieve some of the pressure in faster order.
So that's our strategy.
So Mike, what is the current plan to have a transition at St.
Joe's, but then where are you looking at and what would folks see in this new hospital if and when it's
built?
acquired a site in Lake Halley for the new hospital.
It's kind of adjacent to a Marquardt Motors in that area off the highway.
And what we're planning for is a 48-bed hospital that would be full service.
So we would have an emergency department, surgical suites, labor and delivery.
That was a huge gap when the labor unit at
Sacred Heart closed, cancer, a full-service cancer program, cardiology, outpatient surgery, kind of a full-scope hospital on that property.
And so we get a lot of questions about, well, how does that compare with Sacred Heart?
And they struggled, and we're probably building about one third of the capacity that was lost.
It's gonna be very focused.
Our team has been trained in lean process improvement principles that we're going to be Applying to not just the design, but the organization and the structure Working in partnership with River Valley architects.
We've selected to design the building with us.
So it's going to be a Very focused on efficiency and customer experience and
high quality operation.
All right.
And I want to add just one more thing about the site at St.
Joe's another issue and we've talked to the state about that building and getting it licensed and and they've been very supportive but one of the things they said they wouldn't hold us to is building efficiency standards which are in the building code today and at St.
Joe's has a significant issue with the exterior of the building and the windows and
It's something that HSHS looked at years ago, and it was a 10 plus million dollar investment.
So they've kind of said, if you're using for a few years, you can just let that slide.
But if you were going to be there long term, you'd have to invest in that.
And it's pretty much putting a lot of good money after a really old building.
Yeah, and that's what a lot of folks who are like, well, why not just, you know, repurpose?
And there are times as I learned as a legislator on the State Building Commission, there just are simply times where it is less expensive to rebuild new.
Just one minute left here, Bob.
So for folks that are hearing this in the Chippewa Valley and are supportive of your efforts, is there anything that they can do that would be helpful to you and to show their support?
Well, I think
Probably the best thing is go to our website or to get more information because even though we have over a thousand members, which we're very happy with, it's important that we get the message out that we're trying to fill the void for the patients of the Chippewa Valley.
And through their help, we'll be able to accomplish our goal.
All right.
And that would be
Chippewa
Valley Health
Cooperative.org.
And next Tuesday, at six o'clock, we have a community meeting at the Pablo Center.
All are welcome to come and ask questions and get more details.
Perfect.
All right.
Mike Sanders, Bob Krause, thank you both so much for telling us about Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative and good luck
with everything
moving forward.
Can't wait to get an update from you guys.
We will wrap things up with Jane Mattener right after this.
This is Up North News Radio on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
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It's really early in the morning to be talking to Pat and Greg, but she's here anyway.
Jay, Matt and Aaron are on air weekdays 10 a.m.
to noon Across civic media radio network.
Well 10 am to noon for now anyway.
Yes, all this teasing of upcoming This is so fun.
It's so fun.
We know I'm staying stuff.
I don't know
if we're allowed to say anything at all.
I'm sorry overlords
Hey, take it up with Dr. Legley.
She was first and who's going to yell at her, right?
No one.
No one.
Nobody.
No one should yell
at her.
At your peril.
Hi, Jane.
How was your weekend?
It was great.
I did a little work outside and yeah, trying to catch up on the getting rid of all the detritus from over the winter and cleaning out the flower beds and all that stuff and detritus.
I
like that.
You know, here's what
here's how it was described over here.
Sherry did the same thing.
back and ship will falls, just picking up all kinds of sticks and limbs and things that come down in the backyard, you know, before you can mow for
the first
time, you got to get all that out of the way.
Well, the boys here, you know, we're with their dad and you know, up in the mountains, one of the things they like to do is go horn hunting or antler hunting.
And so they go looking for antlers that have been shed and things like that.
And so, you know, the 11 year old was saying how they found a nice little six point rack.
Usually they find bigger ones.
And we said, oh, your grandma did that too.
She was antler hunting today.
It's just tree antlers.
You know, that had fallen off and everything.
It's not nearly as exciting, but
no, definitely not.
And now I have all kinds of questions about the deer who are shedding their antlers.
Like on the day that happens, do they go, wow, my neck feels so much better.
I just, I don't know
that.
Wow.
Is there an antler fairy that leaves them a quarter or a
handful of corn?
Yes, they leave them corn.
I love
that.
I love that.
Yeah, yeah, if only we could just, you know, rub up against a tree enough times and oh, the fat just falls right off.
There you go.
That would be great.
Let's see from she's you remember that it's still cold for the good insects.
So don't clean up too much.
Oh, interesting.
Oh, and then we're going to hear about the pollinators before too long.
I mean, no Mo May is going to be here right before you know it.
Yeah,
you
can kiss my butt on that one.
I did that last year.
I'll never do that again.
Wow.
No, I'm
sorry.
The movement on that was so mean, so mean.
Oh
my.
Yeah.
Cause they were trying to make you feel guilty for mowing.
I'm like, dude, you then here was my thing.
You want me to do no mome?
That's fine.
You come to my house on June one and you mow my lawn then.
Get a sickle.
I bring my scythe.
Yes.
To maintain my lawn.
So normally we're here finding out what Jane's gonna do on her show this week, but I feel like we're workshopping possible topics for the future an entire hour on no Mo May
But take that for what it's worth.
What are you actually planning on this week?
Well, over the weekend, some of the entertainers on the network that was fined almost a billion dollars for lying to its audience, they were talking about how the tariffs are going to bring masculinity back to this country.
Because
there's a
big concern about that.
So I will be very curious to talk to folks.
Their contention, Pat, is that
The tariffs will open up all kinds of jobs for people who want to be roofers and Landscapers and all of those things and I had someone that I used to work with at a different radio station who started a land I'm sorry a residential irrigation
business with a friend.
They could not find young white men to work for them for all the money in the world.
So this whole contention that the tariffs are so great and they're going to bring back menly men jobs and men will be jumping up to sign up to do this.
I will be very curious to see what kind of response we get.
Yeah, well, as Tony, Tony puts up on YouTube.
Oh, another random reason for the tariffs.
Yeah.
Yeah, let's let's again, again, there's so many fairy tales that are told out on the right side of the political spectrum.
Among them is that there's just all these lazy white people just sitting on couches collecting government checks.
And if we just make them suffer, then they'll come work in the garden.
And, you know, nobody's talking about turning, you know, that we need slaves.
There's a big difference between slave labor and immigrant labor.
And
migrant labor versus, you know...
actual labor.
Yeah, in other words, migrant labor could be paid a decent wage instead of being taken advantage of.
But that would take immigration reform.
And you can't have a party that's not serious about immigration reform, also saying, Oh, we're going to bring all the jobs back.
Yeah, who's going to do those?
There's not enough.
There's not enough people on couches everywhere to fill these gigs.
I'm glad you're taking that up.
Yeah, I just they are obsessed with masculinity over on that channel.
I think I don't know they need a consultant or something.
But anyway, we're also
going to have a beyond the cheese segment, which we're very excited about where we highlight a business outside of dairy in Wisconsin.
And Jeff Burns is the president of the Winebrenner shoe company, and they make thorough good boots.
And so he is going to be joining us to talk about their company they're doing.
Well, in December, they were planning an expansion in Marshfield.
We'll see whether or not these tariffs are a concern to them.
But I'm very, I'm very much looking forward to learning about the Winebrenner shoe company and the
those great, thorough, good boots that they make.
And if there is any possibility, they might put rhinestones on them down the road.
A
little bling.
Things that you can't say, but I'll say on my show, are the boots bad to the bone?
Well, they cost you one bourbon, one Scotch, one beer.
Oh, my God.
That's all my George.
Your poor
grandson.
They should be so lucky protect them protect them.
Yes.
And before we wrap up, you know, we were all done with our break into spring text to win contest.
But I am sure that you had just a truckload of winners over there.
And, you know, we want to thank everybody for being a part of that
as well.
It was so much fun.
It really was it was it was just delightful to see all the names come in and I love seeing where everyone is listening.
Yes, because it just kind of, you know, gives a little me a little place in my mind where everyone is and it was
It was fantastic.
And there must have been and I didn't check this with with management, but there must have been, you know, they sometimes said there would be these like little extra texts.
And if you follow through, you get an extra entry.
Yep.
And one of them must have been, you know, what's your name and where you're from because we get a stream of those and it felt so good.
Didn't
it?
I just, yes, it was wonderful.
Jane, thank you so much.
Thanks a lot, Pat.
Jane and
Greg will be back for a matinee hour and air two short hours from now.
Thank you guys.
All right, we will do this again tomorrow.
from this undisclosed location in the Mountain West.
Have a wonderful Monday.
We'll see you Tuesday morning here up north.
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