Democrats’ Soul Searching (Hour 2)

Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglo powered by UpMorth News.

Now, for my Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of UpMorth News, Pat Craiglo.

Hey there, Wisconsin.

Good morning.

It is 6.06 on this Tuesday morning, April 29th, 2025.

Another beautiful morning to have you here up north, live from Lake WSOTA from wherever you're listening across the Civic Media radio network or on the Civic Media app.

You might be watching on YouTube or Facebook or catching us by podcast, but we appreciate you starting your day right here on this day.

This special, special day, the 100th day of the Trump administration.

I'll pause for applause here.

Oh, nope, hearing none.

I'll carry on, yes.

It's a milestone opportunity to outline the many many many many many many many ways that it turned out to be a not very good idea to elect a convicted criminal with a chip on his shoulder who is willing to take out his frustrations on every non-billionaire American.

On the bright side, his attempts to meddle in Canada's election just back a backfired spectacularly worthy of Wiley Coyote.

We'll talk about that during the day, as well as Governor Evers joining the parade of lawsuits looking for courts to remind Trump of the things he's not allowed to do.

In this case, slash education funding for Wisconsin kids.

Later, we get to re-combobulate.

Dan Schaeffer starts his stint as a regular for us.

The Civic Media Political Editor has this week's big stories to watch for.

His site, the re-combobulation area, also included recently a guest column by Green Bay Mayor Eric Enric.

And he talks to us about that, what the mayor put in his column, and the mayor tells us what he thinks Democrats need to change to win more elections in 2026.

Sharita Booker outlines our most popular social media posts of the past week or so, including the high dollar value of really old cheese.

Our community editor, Christina Laurie, will be along as well.

Talk a bit more about the successful NFL Draft in Green Bay.

Chad Holmes and Dan Hagen are here to tell us about stories they're following up north as well, plus Greg Buck at Radio Park and meteorologist Brittany Merlot, who tells us that there's a brief break.

And a cool down here for the weather, then more rain before the week comes to an end.

It was a stormy one last night, including a tornado that appeared to touch down briefly just south of Eau Claire.

No significant damage reported anywhere.

The state forecast for today calls for a few light showers in the morning up north and to the east.

Breezy and cool today with skies clearing throughout the day.

Highs will be near 50 up north to near 60 in the southern part of the state.

A northwest wind diminishing from 20 miles an hour down to about 10.

Then by tonight, mostly clear and chilly.

Frost is likely up north.

Lows up here around 30 degrees.

Upper 30s in the southern part of the state.

Winds will be light and out of the northwest.

Along the way, feel free to join us here by phone, by text, or the comment sections out there on the interwebs.

Our phone number and the text line, 855-75 Civic, 855-7524842.

Again, you can call or text from the Civic Media app or you can put a comment down on the Facebook or YouTube pages of Up North News or Civic Media.

You can also email us radio at Up North News, WI.

There's just so much stuff that I just listed there, Greg Boggs.

This three-hour thing has got us so busy.

We are like the

busiest boys in radio.

Aren't we though?

I mean, look at this.

There's so much stuff here.

So much happening.

And yet, we managed to pull it off

day after day.

I mean, I don't use the word heroes a lot, but, but call it what you, I mean, I mean, others

would say,

I'll

accept a parade.

Yes.

I mean, by all means, we're, we're very happy with that.

So we'll, we'll cover all of that ground today.

I know what I wanted to ask you.

I did not have time before the news.

We had a little tech issue here.

So I just pulled up the, the, the map of temperatures across Wisconsin.

What does the temperature say down there at Radio Park in Racine?

Right now, weather reads, let me take a look here.

74, mostly cloudy, feels like 78 with a high of 71 and a low of 40.

That is exactly what I'm looking at on this map.

It says 75 in Kenosha.

Yeah.

In superior, it's 37.

Yeah.

It's 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s

are all here.

When I went to bed last night.

It was 79 degrees.

Wow.

I had to open the windows.

I had to turn the fan on.

And what I didn't realize is that the heat managed to be turned on as well.

So like I woke up like my, like, if you could sit, my hair is like wavy curly because of the humidity and all this stuff.

And I just did not, not, not sleep well.

I think Pat, I think a nap is in Greg's future.

Ooh.

See, now I'm now at an age where that sounds enticing.

Remember, once upon a time, you were like, no, mom, I don't want to take a nap.

I want to do whatever I want.

You know what I want to do now?

I want

to

take a nap.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I

always look at kids when they get all squirrely.

I'm like, child, you will appreciate the

day.

Yes, we will.

So like I said, it's 43 in Hayward right now and in Amory.

It is 46 degrees here in the Chippewa Valley, 50 in Wasaw, 50 in Rapids, Green Bay is at 61 right now, Madison 64, and it's 72 in Milwaukee.

It's 48 in La Crosse.

Like I said, just a crazy range of temperatures across the state at the Sour.

On our website over at upnorthnewswi.com, let's see, stories that we're following there, Donald Trump has ended a program to encourage and recognize schools that pollute less and are more energy efficient.

Fortunately, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is stepping up to fill some of the void.

In our newsletter today, put together by Christina Laurie, and again, we'll talk to her a little bit later on, but it is pollinator time.

We have all of our crops and flowers that are dependent upon the little buggers who are in peril because of human encroachment.

and a changing climate.

We can't necessarily change those things, but there are things we can do a little differently that put us in a more responsible position in that whole circle of life thing.

There are things you can plant, there are things you could do a little less of, and it's all outlined in our newsletter.

Head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com, click subscribe in the top banner.

So to get to the headlines here and then Sharita Booker will join us in less than 10 minutes now.

The 51st state, Canada, has said, we don't want to hear that nickname anymore.

We're kind of done with that.

We're done with the jokes.

When snap elections were called in Canada a few weeks back, it seemed like conservatives were poised to take power.

Donald Trump had just taken office.

It felt like there was this kind of red wave sweeping across.

And then Trump took office and started talking smack about Canada, started a trade war.

And next thing you know, we have surprising results out of Canada.

A stunning turnaround for Prime Minister Mark Carney's liberal party that won Monday's federal elections.

primarily out of promises to continue to confront Donald Trump over the trade war and jokes about annexation.

It may not quite be a full majority in parliament for the Liberals, but they certainly could cobble together with some of the smaller parties to pass some legislation.

And again, the person that you have to thank for that up in Canada is Donald Trump.

This is

not unlike what happened during his first go-around in the White House where, again, he won the election that put him in office.

He then proceeded to lose the House, proceeded to lose the Senate in special election after special election and in the midterms, and it seems to be happening on its way to happening yet again as the guy's in office.

He can do whatever he want for himself, but

He has a tendency to drag people down with him, which takes us to Derek Van Orden, who yesterday got the formal endorsement of Donald Trump on the truth social.

Greg Bach giving us the two thumbs up there.

I mean, why even hold the election?

What that is is Donald Trump looking at his polls and flailing and grabbing anything and sometimes what you grab you pull down with you and Derek Van Orden might be one of them.

Somebody who is seen to be in such a swing district and in such trouble that he was looking for the Trump endorsement early, something to wave around and say, see, we're still joined at the hip, which is not necessarily what Wisconsin voters look for.

Yeah, I mean, granted, I'm not saying that, well, I think Derek Van Orton is unpopular, not as unpopular as Trump, but he's sinking slightly less than Trump.

So it's not much of a reach.

And also, like, I don't want this to happen, but there's part of me based on the Susan Crawford situation.

I'm like, Hey, Elon, you want to try to put a bunch of money into this one too?

Come on, let's see what happens.

It was just it was really something to see this this post come up I thought well maybe maybe it's you know again a prank or something but no it's it's here where Derrick is working hard to champion our great farmers in American agriculture.

No, no.

Let's see.

Strengthen our incredible military.

I don't know.

We've laid off a bunch of veterans from the, from the VA.

Derek Van Orden has my complete and total endorsement for reelection.

He will never let you down.

That kissing sound you hear could be the old kiss of

death.

Man, I just sorry folks.

I'm stretching right now because Papa bears tired, but I just I read that yesterday and I go I just said to myself like God, I kind of felt bad for Derek

because it doesn't

it doesn't it doesn't really

I don't think it helps.

I mean, anyone who supports Derek Van Orton supports president.

I don't see a lot of people like, well, I'm a

fair-minded

liberal Democrat who really likes Derek Van Orton.

I feel like if you endorse Dan Orton, you're endorsing Trump and vice versa.

So him endorsing isn't a huge shock, but I also, you know, maybe Derek Van Orton's like, hey, just turn off the house lights.

Just hide behind the couch.

We'll just pretend this one time.

Yes.

But no.

And again, still a long ways to go.

So the fact that they feel the need to do that endorsement now is rather telling.

Now, as I wrote in the Sunday morning newsletter about this week marking Trump's 100 days in office, here's the thing I want to be fair about.

This whole notion of what became doge, it started with good intentions.

Here's the line that Donald Trump told the New York Economic Club last September.

He said, quote, I will create a government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial performance and audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms.

Now I'm going to read that again because Joe Biden could say that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, any Republican, any Democrat could say these words that are clearly written by speechwriter.

I will create a government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial performance and audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms.

People heard that.

We're like, okay, sounds good.

Now, everything I'm about to tell you.

should have the sound effect of crusty the clown or sideshow Bob stepping on a rake, okay?

Because yes, we all can say there are things you'd consider wasteful spending, but veterans health care, healthy food for low-income families, public health, let's see, libraries, school lunches, farmland conservation,

lower utility bills, jobs at the National Weather Service, cancer research, humanitarian aid, suspending FDA testing on milk.

All of this has made it clear that this was never about going after truly wasteful spending.

This was about cuts for the sake of cuts to pay for billionaire tax cuts, and Americans are tired of it.

Sharita Booker is up next.

From the heart of America's Up North, live from Lake Wissota, thanks for making this a place to spend part of your mornings.

I, Pat Crightlow.

Thank you.

We are joined now by Sharita Booker, social media manager here at Up North News.

Sharita, how are

you?

Good, Pat.

How are you?

Very good.

Thanks.

Let's take a look at some of the posts that are getting lots of traffic in recent days here.

One of them was put up by our parent company, Courier Newsroom, as well as Up North News, all about Governor Tony Evers, his partial veto powers, and the

Shall we say multi-century amount of school funding increases that that partial veto allowed for?

Tell the folks a bit more about that and some other reaction to it.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently ruled that Governor Evers' veto from last year is totally legal and it locks in more money for schools for the next 400 years.

So in a 2023 budget, lawmakers approved a $325 per student funding month for just two school years, but Evers cleverly used his partial veto power to strike a few characters, changing the expiration year from

2024-25 to just plain 24-25.

That means Wisconsin public schools are set to keep that funding boost until the year 24-25.

And that post had almost 50,000 likes on our Instagram.

Pat James said, love this, using the authority Republicans gave to themselves against them.

And Izzy said, the people of Wisconsin, don't we all love Governor Evers.

He's a legend.

We've gotten rid of the so-called

Vanna white veto where you can strike individual letters to create new words We got rid of the version called the Frankenstein veto where you could strike out words and form entirely new sentences But there isn't anything like that for individual digits and characters in a bill If that's proposed Here's the thing.

I think whoever supports or opposes it.

It will probably depend on whether

they have their person in the governor's office.

And that's a very cynical thing to say, Sharita, but I'm willing to put a little money on it that you're feeling about the veto depends on whether you're wielding the pen or not.

All right, 100% agree.

So the other post from the political realm that got a lot of attention happened last week on Earth Day.

And all we did, all we did was point out what the White House put up on their website.

with a headline that said, on Earth Day, we finally have a president who follows science.

Shreya, a lot of folks, had thoughts on that.

Yeah, a little bit.

That post is totally contradicting considering that over the past four months alone, the administration has pulled the U.S.

out of the Paris Climate Agreement again, approved logging in national forests and ramped up coal mining across the country on top of other things.

That post had more than 700 likes on our Facebook and almost 2,000 on our Instagram.

And Elizabeth Calley said, in his defense to him, a baking soda volcano is good science.

And Gareth Jones said, follows and quotes.

as in lags behind, in his case, miles behind.

I'll tell you what, this is at first, I really did think it was the onion when it was coming up.

And this was one and again, look, a lot of the stuff that Trump and the administration does is designed exactly for this.

Okay, it's meant to distract and you're you're chuckling and everything else.

and you're not thinking about the things that actually impact the economy and impact, you know, people's bank accounts and their future hopes and dreams for childcare, to buy a home, all of that.

But we're gonna walk and chew gum here, and we're gonna continue to point out those things, even as we mentioned, the ridiculousness of a post like that.

And finally, let's go with Wisconsin food, and there's nothing quite like Wisconsin cheese.

I mean,

It's delicious.

It's prevalent.

But in some cases, it's also really valuable, Sherita.

Wisconsin's hooks cheese company dropped a 20-year-age cheddar for $209 a pound.

And it's an ultra-rare, ultra-aged cheddar that is only available for the fourth time ever.

And you can get it online or at...

Fromage Nation.

We're going to give the whole fromage treatment to it.

Yeah.

but only while supplies last.

What did folks say about that?

Sydney said, have gotten it twice.

It's amazing cheese.

If you are able to splurge on it just once, I recommend.

And John McKevitt said.

Car Valley's 15 year old cheddar is the best I've ever tasted.

I can't wait to try this.

And Karen Damari said, Hey, it takes 20 years to get it to market.

And Sandy pork now said, I was lucky enough to enjoy this last release.

Oh my gosh,

it's true.

And it's true.

And look, again, young Pat would have been like, Oh, whatever, it's old cheese.

So what?

And

at some point I think it was a hooks I don't know if it was a 10 a 15 may have been a 20 where you just get a taste of it and you go holy cow this is what people are making a fuss about and it's not just cheese I may have mentioned before that the best birthday present I got on my 50th birthday over a decade ago now was when my good friend who loves bourbon as much as I do brought over some Pappy Van Winkle

I mean the like the top of the line stuff and at first I was like is he giving me a bottle of pappy and he's like no no no settle down cowboy I'm bringing you a shot and he poured you know just an ounce worth and it was just the the best

Tasting thing if you are a bourbon drinker same goes for these cheeses and these aged cheeses I know other people feel this way about wine or you know other other food or beverages I don't know if you have something like that like if you've got the money to splurge You would do it

actually I

can't lie.

I've paid a couple hundred for a ball of tequila before so Wow

I'm not gonna judge you on that because, and again, I didn't learn this till later in life.

Tequilas and rums, good examples.

Welcome to liquor talk here, folks,

really in the

morning.

Tequilas and rums, the stuff that we normally associate that you can get at the corner bar, no, no, no.

We're talking about the stuff that is aged for many, many years, 10, 15, 20 years, and it's much more, in the case of the rum, it's darker and smoother, and the tequila, the same, is just

much smoother that, yeah, if that's something you are willing to splurge on, you should absolutely go for it.

And I have a feeling you do not regret that purchase.

Absolutely not.

It was something I could sip on, didn't have to throw it back, and it lasted a while, so it was well worth the money.

For that story and so much more, check us out on social media, and Sharita Booker does it all, our social media manager, and up North News.

Thanks, Sharita, very much.

Have a great day.

You too, Pat.

Back with more after this.

you

Hey, welcome back.

Coming up tomorrow, how is lead paint in Milwaukee schools still a thing?

I will tell you, a Republican-controlled legislature that has been underfunding all schools for years and years and has told Milwaukee kids at risk of lead poisoning tough luck.

Tomorrow we will talk to Jennifer Hofschulte from the Wisconsin Public Education Network in our homeroom segment about the ongoing effort to change all that.

Also, tomorrow a new bill raises this question.

Should Wisconsin utilities get an advantage when it comes to new transmission-aligned projects or does that stifle competition?

All that and more tomorrow here on the program.

But right now we are joined by Christina Lawyer, a community editor who puts together our newsletter.

Sign up for it at UpNorth News W.

You heard a lot about the NFL draft yesterday from Kristen Lyrely and from Selena Heller, who was out there.

There was one thing we didn't really get to.

That was the players that the Packers picked.

And so Christina Laurie is here to set us on the right track.

Christina, hello.

How are you?

I'm great.

How are you?

It's no, it's no wonder that the players kind of got second billing this time around because it's been.

80 years since our state last hosted a draft.

Yes, and it was, it was a big party and it was a big success by all accounts.

Again, not everybody wants to stand around in a parking lot and listen to whatever it was, 257 names picked, but for the festivities themselves and for the number of people who showed up, this was a pretty cool thing.

It was and actually okay, so you mentioned no one wants to sit around and wait for 257 picks well not everybody Well actually one player was super patient the Packers third round draft pick.

I love this story

Yes, so he actually didn't even get an invite to the draft in the first place.

His name is Baron sorrow and He just came anyway

and good thing he did because while he sat alone on day three in the green room the Texas defensive lineman not only heard his name called but he had it called by the Packers and he got to walk out on stage in front of his future home crowd of fans Roger Goddell went back on the stage to call his name and the two if you have not seen this video please watch it it's great not tear up you must not have a heart

I

was out there.

I was out doing yard work at the time and I'd come in for a break, you know, get some ice water or whatever.

You know, I had the draft on just in the background.

Wanted to see what all was going on and it's up.

Nope.

Green Bay is about to pick.

I'll wait and see who they get.

first was very surprised that the commissioner came up to the podium kind of in street clothes basically and then called the packers pick and I loved how he said at the podium and he's here with us today and he was the only guy left in the green room and was welcomed as an absolute

hero.

So it was just all the best circumstances for him to come in.

So it really was, you know, a great story.

No different than the Packers first round, the first pick.

Also just great stories for the Packer fans who gathered there.

When you also juxtapose it against players like Shadar Sanders, who could not have been more cocky this whole weekend.

So you'd rather have the Packers picks.

And their first round guy, he, the Packers just

we know they've already picked right because immediately in his first conference for the Packers he explained how he plans to use his signing bonus and you know a lot of players will I've heard players you know buying their parents a car or maybe buying their parents you know the watch they always wanted.

Matthew Golden wants to buy his grandma's house back.

She lost her property a couple of years ago.

It was someplace.

He was almost in tears describing this.

He called it the place where he grew up.

He has his greatest memories there.

And as luck would have it, it's on the market right now.

So he's going to buy that house back for his grandma.

He just I mean, I don't know what else to say.

It just like gives me goosebumps thinking about it that in the heat of the moment, the greatest moment of Matthew Golden's life, he made the story about his family and not himself.

You know, one of the things I really liked about how ESPN and ABC covered the draft was with all of the players that for whom they had video, which of course was everybody in the first couple rounds, but even some afterwards as well, almost every video within the first 10 seconds or so.

showed the parents and put their names up on the screen and had them talking about their parents.

It was if somebody said for the draft coverage, somebody get me somebody from Mayberry RFD.

What can we do to make this as American as possible?

And what I mean by that, Christina, is that in a couple of different cases, these parents were immigrants to America and they had created, you know, a life for themselves and their son

was just drafted into the National Football League.

If that didn't give you goosebumps about the great American melting pot, especially in this day and age, I don't know what will.

I loved that the parents were played up and the grandparents at times as well.

And I love these videos that are coming back.

This is like one of the positive things of social media because now we're seeing all week long a lot of colleges are sharing videos of their players answering the call to hear who they got drafted from.

And Wisconsin, so their safety for the past four years is this guy named Hunter Woller.

He grew up less than 15 minutes from Camp Randall.

a lifelong Badger fan.

He was scouted by a bunch of teams super early and he committed to Wisconsin.

I think his sophomore year of high school, because he said for him, that is it.

That is the pinnacle.

He's like the ultimate Wisconsin guy.

And then to get to hear his name called, he was a, you know, third day draft pick, but he's on an NFL team and he got to hear his name called the Colts, which is

great news, you know, Wisconsin fans will know that he gets to reunite with Jonathan Taylor, one of the best running backs in the game.

So that will be fun.

But when you talk about emotions and thanking parents, do yourself a favor and just go on the Wisconsin footballs social media pages.

They've shared this video everywhere, but it's Hunter answering the phone call.

And he once he hangs up, he's surrounded by his family, and he just goes

Colts and that's all he can get out before he starts crying and his family comes in for a hug And I'm even tearing up telling you this because it just it's incredible It takes truly not just a team but on the field but a team at home to get these players where they are and that's you know It's about more than just sports.

Can I go off topic for a moment?

I'll come back to the draft but about the draft and all of these young men

Not knowing necessarily what team they're going to, except for the ones at the very top.

And even then, sometimes that's not guaranteed.

We need to hear the name.

It reminds me that being married to a physician, and I'm sure I'll talk to Lirely about this on Friday as well, medical students have something called Match Day.

where they pick the residency programs they wanna go to after all the interviews, and the residency programs, they rank the med students that they would like to take on as residents, and then a computer figures it all out, puts all the names and envelopes, and on, I think it's March 30th or something like that, all these med students everywhere gather together on Match Day at their med schools, they open up the envelope, and they find out where they matched at.

And so between that and the NFL Draft,

Wouldn't it be something if more of us had something like that?

Like, you know, if everybody who was changing jobs had to change jobs at like a certain time a year and on that day, everybody opens up the envelope and finds out where their next job, where do you match at?

That would be, that would be interesting.

I wish more people had a chance to experience that.

Well, I don't know if it was like this when you were in college and I

Ended up not being part of the Greek system, but for universities where the Greek system is a big thing They have something similar called bid day at least for the girls and sororities where they all Have their envelopes in their hands of like what sorority they're gonna join and they all open them at the exact same time and then they run off to whatever house it is It Greek life was a very big thing.

I went to the University of Illinois So like this was like thousands and thousands of girls all in one place and then they'd run off to their

thing.

So that's a lower stakes version.

I would say that the NFL's version of this is the best because they're also finding out that they're making thousands and thousands of dollars.

Medical students, they're getting to find out where they're going to have the opportunity to spend their own money.

Yes, and

go

deeper into debt until your residency is all done.

It does occur to me that I have actually done a version of this called election night, where I matched once and did not match two other times.

And trust me, matching is a lot better than not matching.

But let us get back to the draft here.

So we've talked about two of the

Packers, uh, draft picks.

We talked about the first round and the third round.

Uh, what else struck you from everything that went on in and around Lambeau field?

Well, what was funny is that, um, there's obviously like a lot of inner division, just smack talk that always happens between Detroit and Green Bay.

You know, in Chicago.

Yep.

Yeah.

Well, we've talked before, you know, about like

the Ubers like are they more Packers fans or are they more Lions fans so that rivalry in particular is really deep rooted even more so because Detroit hosted this draft last year and their newspaper the Detroit Free Press just had a field day trying to like keep every headline they wrote was just about how the draft is you know second to Detroit not as big of crowds.

you know, their main headline was Green Bay falls way short of Detroit's NFL draft attendance for round one.

You know, Detroit had 275,000.

Packers only had 205,000.

But I just want to get the facts straight here.

First of all, Green Bay never promised to host the biggest draft.

They promised to host the best draft.

And after watching that, I'm not sure you could have any questions that there was a whole lot of heart in our draft.

Also,

Detroit's population is 633,000 people.

Green Bay's is 106,000.

So they more than doubled the capacity of their city on a single day all weekend.

They increased it by six times the amount.

So if Detroit wants to say they won, they're going to have to show us the numbers that they pulled in 1.2 million people to be anywhere.

close.

Let's see the multiples here, Detroit.

You know that you can't pull that off.

Also, let's see the Super Bowl rings.

Whatever makes you feel better.

We're very content with what we were able to pull off here.

It was a lot of fun.

It may not be back here for a while, so everybody

definitely made the most of it and now we can look forward to how our picks do and the rest of the team goes as we get that much closer to training camp and then the season opener.

Christina Laurie, thank you so much for helping us revisit a great weekend and we'll look for the stories that you're doing including your sports newsletter which is now a monthly regular thing, right?

Yes, please sign up for it because I was going to say even though even if you missed this year's draft there's plenty of reasons to plan a visit to Green Bay coming up.

I will be talking about that in a few future editions that I have in the works, but...

It's a very low impact newsletter.

We only send it out once a month.

So we're not going to be inundating your inbox.

It's a good way if you've never signed up for a newsletter before.

If you just want to like dapple and you don't want to add to your reading list, we just send it on the last Saturday every month.

It's going to include three feel good stories.

You don't have to have a bunch of background sports knowledge to enjoy them either.

So please go to our website and sign up.

All you do is just on our homepage at the top.

subscribe

right there at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

Christina Laurie, thank you very much.

Have a great day.

You too.

One more note on

this being the 100 day of the Trump administration before we take a break here that on the 99th day, Governor Tony Evers announced that Wisconsin has joined another lawsuit to prevent the Trump administration from doing something they ain't supposed to be doing in this case cutting more than half a billion dollars in federal funding from the U.S.

Department of Education saying that essentially this is spending that was passed by Congress and as was shown during the Nixon administration

White Houses are not able to cut the spending that Congress approved of.

Now, this particular Congress wants to roll over and play dead and not exercise its oversight, but Evers and governors of 18 other states want courts to remind the president of what he can and cannot do.

Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12 up in Rhinelander will join us for today's history lesson coming up in just a bit.

I'm Pat Critello on the Civic Media Radio Network.

One of life's great injustices is that Tammy Terrell was taken from us way too early at the age of 24 From a brain tumor and yet in her short life.

She was born this day in 1945 She did these songs with Marvin Gaye nothing like the real thing ain't no mountain high enough.

You're all I need Just an immense talent who we lost in 1970 but Tammy Terrell born this day 80 years ago

And then there's Willie Nelson.

It's his birthday today as part of today's history lesson.

Let's bring in Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12, WJFWTV and Rhinelander.

Mr. Hagen, how are

you?

Well, I thought you guys' eyes looked a little bloodshot this morning, but you know, Willie Nelson's birthday, so it makes sense.

And this is a guy who, yeah, maybe you associate with bloodshot eyes.

But his nickname is Blue Eyes because of this particular song that we're playing in honor of Willie Nelson's birthday.

Oh God, that voice.

So we know that through use of substances for medicinal purposes.

And medicinal

purposes only.

Yes.

Willie Nelson is still with us.

Do you happen to know, Mr. Hagen, how old Willie Nelson is today?

He's got to be 92.

Wow.

Wow.

Look at this.

Is that

right?

92 years old today.

Oh my.

Yes.

Just a guess.

Yeah.

Let's see, more people born on this day who are not with us anymore, composer Duke Ellington, born this day in 1899, Carl Gardner, the lead singer of The Coasters, born this day in 1928, Dale Earnhardt was born this day in 1951, and of course lost way too early at the age of 49, Leslie Jordan, actor you

might

remember from Will and Grace, born this day in 1955.

I was waiting for you to tell me something about Leslie Jordan.

I can actually tell you

something.

So he was on a TV show before when he died called call me cat with, uh, and the episode they did after he died was one of the most emotional pieces of television I've ever watched in my life.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

They were

like, they were weeping on the show.

Oh, funny guy.

Oh, beautiful man.

Beautiful man.

Yep.

So Willie Nelson is 92 today.

Dwayne Allen is 82.

He is the lead singer of the Oak Ridge Boys.

I love the Oak Ridge Boys.

They always sing like this.

They have their own style.

Yes, they do.

Jerry Seinfeld is 71 years old today.

Kate Mulgrew is 70.

Daniel Day-Lewis is 68.

Michelle Pfeiffer is 67.

And you know who else is 67 today?

Jan Brady, Eve Plum

from

the Brady Bunch is 67 today.

Today, Tommy J. Did

we do those things where we look up in the squares, you know, and

look who we left?

Oh,

yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Right?

Yeah.

I'm looking down at you if you're watching on social media.

Wait, it's Eve Plum's birthday.

She was Jan Brady.

Yeah.

Oh, wrong button.

Sure.

Okay.

So I just wanted to play that.

Yeah.

Carrying out now.

Singer Tommy James of Tommy James and the Chandels is 77 years old today.

If anybody younger than me goes, wait, is this the Tiffany song?

I'm gonna be unhappy with you.

Hey, Dan, have you ever heard of Tiffany?

No, don't, don't, don't do that.

Don't do that.

You don't want to

start this today.

We'd have to be in a mid-range between us and Dan over here.

Andre Agassi is 55 years old today.

So is Uma Thurman, born the same day in 1970, 55.

Carney Wilson of Wilson Phillips, born to the Beach Boys Brian Wilson and his first wife, Carney Wilson is 57

today.

And let's see, two more historical notes.

Dandy, did you, does anybody you know drive an Oldsmobile?

Do you still see any Oldsmobiles on the streets of Rhinelander?

I saw one town car the other day, but no

Oldsmobile.

Yeah, Oldsmobile, the last one was built this day in 2004.

Wow.

And ending 107 years of vehicle production.

And then finally, this day in 2011, so 14 years ago,

was the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton took place at Westminster Abbey.

That was a big deal 14 years ago.

Did that resonate as TV watching for you, Dan?

Absolutely.

All my friends and I can't remember what year did you say it was?

2011.

of

the

Who is that?

I remember, I remember some adolescent arguments about Pippa or Kate, okay?

I'm not proud of it.

It is, it

is.

Hey, everybody has their ginger versus Marianne or Betty versus Veronica.

Always Marianne.

Yep.

Monica versus Rachel.

We know.

This is National Supply Chain Day.

Great.

You're not going to hear that one at the White House.

And finally, this is National Zipper Day.

It marks the first patent for a hookless fastener that was submitted by a Swedish-American electrical engineer who is credited with designing the modern zipper.

For modern technology of 1913,

That was a super big deal.

Dan Hagen's going to stick around and tell us what kind of things he's working on for NewsWatch 12 up in Rhinelander, but let's at least get to, we haven't talked to you about this for, well, since much earlier this month, the Hodag dome had deflated right before election day.

Is that still in progress trying to get that dome reinflated?

That's right.

And to provide some context, this is a really important item for the community.

It's been around for maybe four years, and people use it for walking.

Older folks use it for walking.

The local sports teams use it.

In addition to that, we get...

a lot of tournaments.

So those were neglected as well, but it's in the process of being built.

It should be back by the end of May.

Let's come back and talk more about that and other stories.

Also in our next hour, Green Bay Mayor Eric Gennrich on what Democrats need to fix if they want to win more elections.

All ahead here as part of.

Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Crichtlow powered by Up North News.

Now, from our Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Crichtlow.

Thank you, Don Rue.

Good morning.

It is 7 0 6.

Nice to have you here up north on this Tuesday morning, April 29th.

Coming up yet this morning in our next couple of hours here, Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich on what Democrats need to fix if they want to win more elections.

in 2026.

We'll also talk to Chad Holmes, we'll talk to Dan Schaefer from the Reconbobulation area.

who now will join us regularly on Tuesday mornings.

And we've got Dan Hagen here as well as meteorologist Brittany Merlot and Greg Bach at Radio Park.

Just a lot going on today.

But let's start Brittany with whatever was going on last night.

And that would have been the severe weather that we dealt with.

I know that for a short time there was a tornado scene just south of Eau Claire.

How else do you want to summarize what was a rather loud evening out there across Wisconsin?

Well, I first and foremost want to say it actually turned out pretty decent We thought it was going to be a lot more active a lot more tornadoes out there widespread damage and stuff like that But we actually had too much shear at the low levels Which means the winds were just moving too fast around there and it kind of mixed things up and it messed it up

for a severe outbreak, which is good news.

I wanted to be wrong.

I wanted to bust and have a lot of that severe weather be not as bad.

And that did happen, but we did see some strong storms move in as that last line pushed in.

Like you said, Southern Eau Claire County, there was a possible tornado.

I mean, there's pictures of it, structured damage.

And it looks like it may have gone from Fall Creek to Augusta.

And then we are also looking at that storm that stayed tornado warned in towards Greenwood and then intensified again towards Spencer and Udini also again in towards Antigo and we've got wind gusts that were clocked into Rhinelander at 55 miles per hour also here into Wasa and Rothschild 55 mile per hour wind gusts says that line hit and heavy heavy downpours.

I mean we're looking at

quarter-sized hails scattered and a lot of those storms as well.

So trees did come tumbling down.

They were on top of power lines.

There's about 2,600 right now this morning without power.

There were some small fires as those trees were on the power lines.

But overall, all in all, besides that one possible tornado, that's all we were really looking at across the state.

Well, and again, better to be on notice about these things that could have possibly happened.

And in fact, for a little corroboration here, let me go to Robin Tigerton, who says, good morning, it's cloudy and 49.

We had an inch of rain.

There was a possible tornado near Matun in Northwestern Shawno County, tree damage downlines.

He says, my friend, Mary Ellen Schaefer, saw a tornado near her residence near Augusta, southeast of Eau Claire.

Tigerton had a 45 mile an hour wind gust and then to add insult to injury along with all the severe weather.

My allergies have been bothering me in recent days.

I

heard the

same thing from my wife who did not sound like herself on the way home and she said, yeah, I looked up the tree pollen.

It's off the charts right now.

So

it really is.

It's terrible.

One of my eyes right now is just like almost swollen shot.

I am just struggling this morning.

So I feel the pain.

Take those allergy meds early because it's pretty bad across the state.

Exactly.

Cassandra says good morning.

I'm excited to head up to Wausau today for the final budget listening session of the Joint Finance Committee.

I prepared a short testimony on special education and public schools.

And so good, you know, nice morning for a drive here.

So Brittany, I'm glad it didn't get as bad as

You know, we all feared, but again, part of it was people were ready and on the lookout for

it.

Exactly.

That's a good thing.

All right.

Exactly.

And now this morning, we've got warm temperatures down south and light snow up in the north.

It's, it's a wild, wild day, you know, in just 24 hours, everything can happen in this state.

So it's 34 degrees right now in Solon Springs.

Very light flurries flying south of Lake Superior.

It is 73 degrees in Kenosha with sun shining by Lake Michigan.

We are going to be sunny for most of us today.

It's going to be cooler.

It's still breezy.

Highs will be in the upper 50s down south.

We're looking at highs just in the mid 30s far north by Lake Superior and those winds will calm down by tonight.

We've got frost possible.

in northeast Wisconsin and some mid 30s as far south as the state line.

So we're getting pretty crisp in the morning tomorrow, but we will warm things up back to the mid to upper 60s for tomorrow.

It'd be nice to see maybe maybe even some seventies in the next few days.

dare

one hope.

I know

you're

doing your best.

Brittany, thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Talk

to you a

little bit later on.

Coming up on Matt and Air on Air, Mr. Greg Bach, you've got a special guest, a certain mid-afternoon host coming up later this morning, I believe.

If you really put your minds together and we really make it work, Todd can hear this, that we have the great Todd Alba on the show and somewhere he's blushing going, shut up, Greg.

Todd, for as boisterous as he can be sometimes, is yes, rather humble to a fault.

And if you pay any compliment, you pay him any compliments and he just crumbles, you know, unlike the rest of us narcissists over here.

And coming up on the Maggie Dawn show from four to six today, Jeremy Jean

with Milwaukee as a microcosm.

Also, Atanya Bjarke with some new Wisconsin polling numbers, all that coming up across the civic media, the radio network.

But Dan Hagan is here with us now from NewsWatch 12, WJFWTV in Rhinelander and talking a bit more about stories that you've been following up there.

We were talking just before the break about the hodag dome and getting that repaired and re-inflated and everything else.

When you look

Back at the month of April here is I assume that's going to be at or near the top of the list of stories that you all covered up there in the month of April.

Yeah, I would say that's the defining story.

The other one is the storm damage, the incredible storm damage that we saw in Forrest County.

That's a county east of Rhineland, or includes Crandon, Leona, Wabino, and the ice storm that we received was just devastating to that community.

People were without power for pretty much the entire week.

There was no

There's no school Monday through Thursday in many of the schools in Forest County because they didn't have power and the people at home didn't have power.

But eventually it was all fixed up, but just they're still picking up the pieces from that storm, which was really beautiful as terrible as that sounds.

A really beautiful ice was just lining all the trees and had a cool effect, but brought a lot of damage to it as well.

Well, weather is funny that way because what the other thing that you really started seeing.

late last evening on the backside of the storm, you know, the severe weather rolls through, but you could also see.

the sun setting when when the storm has passed just enough and the skies they weren't clearing but they were brightening and you could you could in some areas see the sun going down but before that just an amazing orange sky there were a lot of photos of rainbows up because when you have these evening showers and the sun hasn't quite set yet you get that you get the beauty of these ice storms uh i mean we we've talked so often about how beautiful these things are how beautiful nature is if nature doesn't kill you

you know,

that goes

both ways.

Yeah, no, I saw some beautiful rainbow pictures like some of the best I've seen, you know, so yeah, double-edged sword.

Well, what else have you been working on up there lately?

We spent so much time with you on the history segment that we don't we kind of gave you a short shrift as far as the other things that keep you and your your newsroom colleagues busy.

Well, I played Dungeons and Dragons last night.

Nice.

And I got absolutely trounced and I have a hypothetical for both of you.

Okay.

All right.

I'm asking for a friend, but let's say you and a girlfriend break up, right?

What is, is there a waiting period between going on a date or seeing another individual?

Okay.

So I have to get some context here.

I have to get some context for a friend.

Was this person happy in the relationship at the end like where they were where they like oh god.

I just got dumped.

I don't know what happened

Let's say the person is the dumpy more or less,

okay

wait the dumper not the dumpy.

Hello.

We're

in the relationship

Say hypothetically we're playing a hypotheticals, right?

Yes.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah,

okay.

Let's say Let's say like a year and a half.

No, don't do it.

Don't do it

Don't tell your friend not to do it Okay Or at the very least tell the person you if you're gonna go out today be upfront honest and Open don't sure don't be this don't let this friend be you know

trying to just feel good in the moment because it's not going to work.

It's not going to help.

I think let's transition to just a dating show on Up North News.

What do you say?

When did this become Dr. Box dating advice?

Oh,

dude, I can do this.

Civic Media, are you listening?

I will do a show about relationships happily, easily, and you could pay me in quick trip gift cards.

Do you notice how I retreated Homer Simpson into the bushes over here?

I was waiting to talk about the Rhinelander food pantry celebrating its

20th anniversary and

suddenly- I can talk about that.

Is there still time or did I

blow it?

Can you now?

No, you've got time, yes.

Okay, well, you know, pantries up here are facing a massive shortfall in funding.

There's this thing called TFAP.

I can't recall what the acronym means exactly, but it was basically enacted during COVID and the administration has stopped that funding abruptly.

The Rhinelander food pantry in particular is losing a lot of highly nutritious food sources such as meat, dairy, eggs, so they have to try to come up with a way to overcome that.

They're stockpiling a lot of food right now to put it in the freezer, but it's a huge problem that they're facing and other pantries are facing as well.

Yeah, this was the TFAP was the emergency food assistance program created through the CARES Act early in the Biden administration through the coronavirus crisis and provided, you know, millions for food assistance to help, you know, prevent or prepare for or respond to the COVID outbreak and obviously with that funding running out.

with the economy still being what it is, as you know, from the stories you're doing up there.

I mean, you can't just flip a switch and, oh, everybody has enough food all of a sudden.

You know, it doesn't work that way.

And an astounding fact is there's a 43% increase in individuals going to the Rylander food pantry just over the last year.

So demand is increasing, yet the funding is decreasing at the same time.

And it's a recipe for some people being hungry, unfortunately.

And by the way, not just that, but another program that we talked about last week included talking to a couple of farmers from your area who were part of a program that ensured that locally grown food was winding up in local food pantries, but also in local school cafeterias.

So the kids weren't just getting all this bulk, you know, industrial food, but they were getting, you know, locally grown products as well.

That's another one of the things that has been cut.

So I'm quite certain that on this 100th day of the Trump administration, there are folks in the Rhinelander area and elsewhere talking about these ongoing cuts and how to process that.

Where do they go from here?

The food pantry in Rhinelander being just one of many examples, I'm sure.

Yeah, that's right.

No, that was the other thing I was going to mention is these farmers as well have planted their crops anticipating this funding to be here, right?

I'm anticipating this partnership to exist and it doesn't exist anymore.

So they're stuck with these crops.

You know, hopefully they find something to do with it.

But that was a really cool partnership that started that ended abruptly.

Yeah.

So we've covered that and we've covered

Greg Bach's new show, Dr. Love, which will

be on the way, so we're... I'll be your sidekick, Mr. Hart,

okay?

Mr. Hartbreaker

or Mr. Broken Hart?

Dr. Love is Mr. Hart.

We're definitely gonna have to workshop this one a little bit more here.

Dan Hagen, you can catch what he's doing at WJFWTV and Rhinelander News Watch 12.

Dan, always great to visit with you.

Have a good week.

We'll talk

to you next week.

Mr. Hart signing off.

Okay, we'll talk to

you later.

Still ahead on this Tuesday morning, we are going to be talking to Green Bay Mayor Eric Gennrich about what Democrats have to do differently to win more races in 2026.

We'll talk to Chad Holmes about stories that are being followed in the Wausau area.

And of course, Dan Schaefer from the recombobulation area will join us.

Brewers were off yesterday.

They are in Chicago to take on the White Sox.

Coverage begins at 605 on

several civic media stations at thecivicmedia.us to learn more.

From the heart of America's Up North, live from Lake Wissota, thanks for making this the place to spend a part of your mornings.

I'm Pat Critello on the Civic Media Radio Network.

We're going to be hearing from Green Bay Mayor Eric Enrick in less than 15 minutes here and then we're just about an hour away from talking to Dan Schaefer from the recombobulation area.

By the way, it was Dan's Recombobulation Area site where we first saw the guest op-ed from Eric Enric on what Democrats need to do in 2026.

You can read everything that Dan and his guests, columnists, write about over at therecombobulationarea.news.

Again, therecombobulationarea.news.

I mentioned earlier as well that Cassandra, I believe it was, was heading to Warsaw.

for the Joint Finance Committee.

Yes, it was Cassandra saying that she was going to be talking, hopefully giving testimony on special education and public schools.

There will be a lot of people gathered in Wausau for that meeting of the Joint Finance Committee.

But if you can't make it, it's okay.

It is still very easy for you to jot down some thoughts and tell the legislators on the Joint Finance Committee what you think their priorities ought to be.

in the state budget.

Go to your email machine and send them to this address budget.comments at legis for legislature legis.wisconsin.gov so one more time budget.comments at legis.wisconsin.gov and give give your legislators a piece of your mind.

Well, this does mark the 100th day of the Trump administration and Well, the way I see it on on his 100th day back in the Oval Office President Trump awoke this morning to the election results out of Canada and he lost I mean indirectly he he wasn't quite running for anything in Canada except to maybe an exit as the 51st state It was a loss just the same

And that surprising result from the Canadian elections might guide Wisconsin and the rest of America.

In its handling of the remaining days of the Trump administration, we are 100 days in, we have brace yourself, 1,362 days to go.

The previous 99 days can be fairly described as all pain and no gain.

hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, a condition that in any other situation would be seen as an economic catastrophe.

Uncertainty caused collapse in the financial markets, putting at risk the retirement security of millions of Americans.

A trade war without any well articulated battle plan is going to possibly leave store shelves empty.

And that'll happen well before the holiday shopping season if nothing changes.

And in a development that maybe isn't personal to the average American, but arguably as serious, our Congress has gone comatose.

It's once boisterous Republican leaders have been reduced to supplicants who don't dare offend their party leader by engaging in the very oversight that our nation's founders handed them.

as a way to ward off attacks on democracy, the likes of which we see nearly every day, including now in a Milwaukee courthouse.

Some folks would say, well, this is exactly what Donald Trump promised.

He did say, I will be your retribution.

Well,

That's the kind of raw meat that his supporters devour.

They devour it with gusto, but his message to mainstream America was much different and it was centered on economic responsibility.

This whole doge thing started with what many voters thought were good intentions.

He said last September to the New York Economic Club, I will create a government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial performance and audit of the entire federal government.

and make recommendations for drastic reforms.

And that all sounded harmless enough because everybody thinks that they can identify something that they would consider to be wasteful spending.

But here are the examples of wasteful spending that have affected people in Wisconsin.

Veterans health care.

Healthy food for low-income families.

A UW-Madison study to figure out how the COVID virus replicates in order to improve future vaccines.

That's wasteful spending.

Putting local farm food and local school lunches, farmland conservation, Wisconsin libraries, Wisconsin museums, programs that provide lower utility bills, jobs at the National Weather Service, jobs at the Environmental Protection Agency, cancer research, humanitarian aid, suspending FDA testing of milk.

I could go on and on, but here's the point.

There is no point.

The administration has not shown how any of this chaos is supposed to make things better in the long run for the economy and our lives anytime soon.

And it's not as if all this savings will be put into our pockets.

We've talked about this before.

All of these cuts are simply meant to offset massive tax cuts geared toward the massively wealthy.

It is nothing more than a transfer of resources away from the middle class and moving on up.

If this has become that obvious in the first hundred days, one can only imagine what things might be like on day 200 unless this president sees a perpetual public pushback against things that voters surely did not vote for.

And that's where we turn to Canada, where again, after months of Trump insults and tariffs and jokes about annexation, the Liberal Party there not only avoided the electoral catastrophe that was initially predicted,

But instead, it nearly won an outright majority in Parliament yesterday.

Prime Minister Mark Carney won by taking the fight directly to Trump and emphasizing national sovereignty.

He said, we are over the shock of American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons.

Noting that the mutually beneficial system Canada and the US had shared since World War II has come to an end.

And it should be a reminder to everybody on this side of the border who's been taking part in an ongoing series of demonstrations, big and small, that the general public does not follow politics on a regular basis.

And the only way to remind them of Donald Trump's true record is to never stop making it a public issue.

Or as Todd, Todd Alba likes to say, keep banging your drum.

It's working.

We saw proof of that north of the border.

just yesterday.

We will be hearing from Green Bay Mayor Eric Gennrich coming up next here as part of your mornings.

I'm Pat Crightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Coming up, one hour from now, Dan Schaefer from the Recombobulation Area and Civic Media's political editor.

It is at his site where you will find a recent op-ed from Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich, entitled, Where the Democratic Party Should Go From Here.

What do you want for this country?

Is it an authoritarian oligarchy or a populist democracy?

You can read it all at Dan's site, therecombobulationarea.news.

A few days ago, I spoke with Mayor Genrich, who is also a former state legislator, and I asked him about the genesis for this particular column.

You know, I've been very fortunate to have worked in state politics to have served in the state legislature, to have worked for a congressman now to be, you know, serving at the local level.

So I've had, you know, kind of a diverse viewpoint of how politics can be practiced at a multitude of different levels.

And, you know, my opinion is just one of many, right?

but felt like I had something to say or at least wanted to put something out into the ether.

And so, you know, put this op-ed together.

Grateful to Dan for publishing it.

To your point, you know, I think I, like a lot of people really encouraged, obviously, by the state Supreme Court election.

But, you know, that's the kind of election that our voters are well placed now to turn out for.

You know, that kind of advantage is not necessarily the same coalition who's going to come out for the next presidential.

That demographic, that electorate is going to be much closer to what we saw in 2024.

So it's encouraging, no doubt.

And I think it's a really great indicator for other special elections to play out between now and 2026.

And even, I think, gives me a lot of optimism for how things might turn out in 2026.

You know, we can't simply allow for our prospects to rise and fall based on the kinds of people that turn out for elections.

I think it's really important for Democrats to think about those voters who used to be on our team and who have kind of shifted away from us.

And the reality of that is more working class folks

working class people of color even have shifted away from the Democratic Party and we've got to figure out how to get them back.

Do you have a leading theory on what it is that caused Democrats to lose them?

Was it something Democrats did or did Republicans somehow improve on their messaging and persuasion or ideas, I guess?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's a combination of factors.

And for me, it's not entirely about ideology.

I think some of it is really

honestly about disposition and how you view the party, how it relates to the status quo, how voters, how closely voters associated Democrats with the status quo, with the establishment.

And so I think we've got to do a much better job of letting people know that we're not satisfied with the quality of the lives of everyday Americans.

The original title of the op-ed was kind of based on that bumper sticker, which I referenced in the piece, which is we the people are pissed.

And I think we've got to do a better job as elected officials, as Democrats, in really empathizing with that feeling and making it clear that we're pissed too.

And we've got a lot to be indignant about when it comes to the America that...

corporations have created for us in a lot of respects and we've got to make it clear that we're interested in pushing back on that, you know, breaking up monopolies where they exist and really fighting for working people.

Well, and that's the part that gets to that really gnaws at me is there are definitely people who feel like we should just blow up the whole system that don't defend the system, don't defend the status quo.

Okay, I hear that.

But now I see a bunch of people blowing up the wrong parts of it.

They're blowing up due process.

They're blowing up checks and balances.

They're blowing up programs that have funded all manner of essential services rather than blowing up, like you said, the monopoly power and other things that are really causing that discomfort to people.

And how come Democrats haven't been able to do a better job of that?

Is it that they're

not wanting to, you know, cheese off some of their allies or just something else.

Right.

Yeah.

I mean, it's hard to diagnose that entirely.

But I do think, you know, a person that I reference in the piece is Ezra Klein who, you know, I listened to a pheromone, haven't had the chance to read his book yet.

But, you know, I think his analysis is a little bit like.

you know liberals or democrats have kind of prioritized process instead of outcomes and I think I've I've witnessed that working most closely with with a local bureaucracy but also being familiar with with state and federal bureaucracies and I think unfortunately there you know there are elements of the democratic coalition that you know are a little bit

too focused on process and aren't as enthusiastic and really pushing towards the outcomes that people want to see.

You know, the legislation that came out of the Biden administration and the Democratic Congress that served with him is and was and is history making.

Really, I mean, tremendous kind of policy achievements with the American Rescue Plan Act, bipartisan infrastructure law, you know, inflation reduction, chips and science.

some tremendous stuff included in that, but the American Rescue Plan Act was really the exception of that basket of policy in the sense that that's the kind of stuff that was implemented immediately.

It did not honor existing bureaucratic requirements in many instances, and as a result, those programs were created rapidly, that money flowed directly to local communities.

I think

you know, in in some respects, that's a good playbook for us.

You know, we've got to create good policies, but we got to make sure that they're implemented in a timescale that that makes sense to people.

That part is true.

And when it comes to the book abundance that Ezra Klein has written along with Derek Thompson, I believe, and they they lay out the problems that can come from over regulation and too much process.

But I also do see

the pushback that's coming on that book and reminding people that it's not just red tape for the sake of red tape, but the fact of the matter is a lot of that delay in the process.

came from corporations themselves that have put things in the process that have stalled clean energy projects and have stalled broadband expansion and have stalled, you know, housing and construction rules that could be fixed.

And it always seems to come down to that notion of taking on corporate monopoly power and influence.

I mean, you can be against, you know, for example, government

waste.

But then we have to realize, you know, that there's a lot of folks from Elon Musk on down that think we're the waste, you know, that that they're talking about, that people are, like you write, are uncomfortable with undocumented immigration.

And yet these are the same people who blocked a bipartisan solution.

These are people who say they're against inflation.

But their solution has been things like a trade war that's going to drive up prices and it really does come back to a point that you made that that Joe Biden and other Democrats had all these things the American rescue plan the bipartisan infrastructure law the inflation reduction act the chips and science act

How did they not turn all of that into a well-oiled self-promotion machine that said, no, you're not going to get it all next week, but it is all on the way.

And you and I both know how that struggle is very real watching progressive messaging over the years.

Right.

No, very true.

And I think, you know, Joe Biden, a truly decent man.

you know, a history making president in many respects with regard to the legislation that I touched on.

But obviously not, not a very effective communicator.

And I think, you know, that hobbled the Democrats going into the 2024 election obviously made a change there at the 11th hour.

But you know, that was a difficult situation to navigate and not having somebody in the White House who could fully utilize the bully pulpit that comes along with that office.

was a challenge.

I mean, one thing just to, and I would reinforce everything that you were saying as far as, you know, a lot of the, you know, a good portion of the red tape is oftentimes associated with interest groups who have kind of captured the process intentionally.

But, you know, one of the examples I pointed to in the piece was the reconstruction of our Mason Street Bridge, the Tillman Bridge, which is in downtown Green Bay.

And it's a 10-year project.

You know, it's it's an existing bridge that we have to replace Is that a timescale that we're really comfortable with you know to replace an existing bridge You know, it's gonna be have a smaller footprint footprint Hopefully be much better oriented for pedestrians and cyclists and things to be modernized But you know, the Empire State Building was built in 500 days or whatever it was about that bridge in

Pennsylvania built in 12 days.

Yeah, so like you the point you made earlier

when it needs to get done, it can get done.

And so clearly there is room to improve processes without throwing the baby out with the bathwater knowing that some of these processes were put there for a reason, for some kind of safeguard.

And that's where we need good, responsible people who are in the midst of all that, people like you, who are writing about these things.

So looking forward then, Mr. Mayor, do you feel like

a lot of these discussions since November and since the progressive, you know, victory here back in April are going to take Democrats and progressives to a better place when they're running in the midterms in 2026.

Yeah, I mean, I really do feel pretty good about things.

I mean, just to see the way that everyday people have mobilized, of course, to turn out, you know, for the state Supreme Court race, but

even just with the demonstrations now that are taking place regularly.

And I think it's really incumbent upon elected officials to kind of take their cues from voters who have stepped up on their own, not necessarily with a lot of direction always.

coming from Washington or Madison or other places, I think it's important for elected officials to honor and trust the sentiments of our base and of working class people and deliver, you know, as best as we can on what we think they're asking us to do.

You can catch this column again at the recombobulation area that Dan Schaeffer puts out.

Look for the guest column from the Green Bay mayor.

Eric Enrick, thank you so much again for joining us.

Always great to talk to you.

Thank you, sir.

Thanks so much,

Pat.

and a reminder that we will be talking to Dan Schaefer in just a little bit more, but I again can't help but note that for folks who said last year in November that they just wanted to blow up the whole system.

No, you didn't.

You wanted to blow up the parts that weren't working for you.

And instead, the parts that are being blown up are the parts that were working for you.

The most

notorious I guess I could bring up is that during the Biden administration we saw the creation of the consumer financial production board and during the Obama era as well of taking care of consumers and that's one of the first things that Trump and Elon Musk blew up and it was a way to make sure that that banks were not nickel and diming you to death and that they weren't opening accounts in your name without you knowing it and all kinds of things like that.

I will say again for the record, whenever you hear deregulation, you should think not about regulation, but of protection.

I'm not telling you every regulation is good, but I'm telling you a lot of times when you hear about deregulation, it's about getting rid of protections.

It's about getting rid of consumer protection.

It's about getting rid of worker protection.

It's about getting rid of environmental protection.

And I understand some people say, well, there's too many environmental protections and that just leads to red tape.

But deregulation isn't just about environmental protection.

It's about protecting consumers.

It is about protecting workers.

And consumers and workers are under attack more than any time we've ever seen.

And it's those actions over these past hundred days that have taken what was the strongest recovery.

and has turned it into a near-recession with home sales down sharply in Wisconsin in March compared to the previous year.

We'll continue on with warnings with Pack Rightville across the Civic Media Radio Network coming up right after this.

Now of course I'm old enough to tell you that I had several favorite moments of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and one of my favorites was the the unexpected walk-on

where Johnny would just be talking to Ed McMahon and suddenly the band would strike up into thanks for the memories and Bob Hope would come walking out from behind the curtain and the audience would go wild because nobody was expecting Bob Hope.

What a treat this is that Bob Hope the legend is showing up on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and I can hear the I can hear the giggles.

I believe that the same things happening here with a surprise walk on appearance by Todd Alba ladies and gentlemen.

So

yes, I am I'm the father of Morty to that quite low.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank

you, Johnny.

You know, you could do worse.

Yes, I could.

I could do a lot.

So what we've what we've got here is a little again pulling the curtain back behind the scenes of a radio production and changing the show times and changing

dates and changing the clocks and changing the

music

and the graphics.

We've had to go through all of these things that our listeners have come along with on the journey as a music clip isn't quite so or that somebody changed the color of our graphics before.

And then there was that time about a month ago where I said, Todd, I can't be on your show on Wednesdays.

Can we move it to Tuesdays?

And we did, but now we've changed the lineup.

And so

We suddenly realized we're not sure if he's supposed to be on the show Wednesdays or Tuesdays.

Am I supposed to be on his show Tuesdays or Wednesdays?

So folks this week you get a double dose of Todd Alba today and tomorrow Lord willing and a fair wind blowing

Let's correct the record

I can't figure out.

That knows exactly where I'm supposed to be.

No,

no, no.

I can't figure out where I'm supposed to be.

It's, uh, you know who I need this morning?

I need Dan Schaefer because I'm a completely discombobulated.

I need to recombobulate myself.

I don't know how Dan Schaefer keeps his track because he's not only appearing, uh, here in just over a half hour, but he is on Maggie Dawn show later today.

Uh, I'm sure he was on, uh, with Greg and Jane.

Very recently