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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Well, good morning.
It is eight oh six on this Wednesday, the last day of April, May Day tomorrow.
Nice to have you here up north.
Uh, Sam is on the board.
Greg is back in an hour along with Jane Mattener from Mattener on Air.
Uh,
Sam, good morning.
I believe the folks online are becoming much more aware of your presence here.
She's you right on YouTube.
Good morning, Sam.
So there you go.
Good morning.
You've got a fan.
So Brittany Merleau is with us as well, our civic media meteorologist to tell us what we've got a day that is starting off very bright.
Certainly nothing like the bumpy stormy stuff we had on Monday.
But again, bit of a roller coaster temperature and condition wise as we go through the rest of this week.
Yeah, it really is.
We've got another system sitting on our back doorstep after of course
Four confirmed tornadoes touched down in Southern Eau Claire County and one long-tracked in Shawnee County.
80 to 95 mile per hour winds were in those tornadoes.
EF0 to EF1 is what they were rated.
And of course, now we're trying to get past that severe weather with more rain sitting on the door.
And of course, we are looking at temperatures much cooler too.
Yesterday was a little crisp and cool.
Now we're going to warm things up a little bit more mild into the low to mid sixties today.
A lot of sunshine to start for a good chunk of the state, but it is cloudy, far northeast, and the rest of the state is going to become cloudy as we go through the afternoon.
So more and more clouds moving in as the system gets closer to us.
Right now it's raining in St.
Louis.
That drizzle will be headed our way by this evening.
Of course, the rain will be ramping up overnight, especially into our southern areas, and it's going to be working its way more widespread through the overnight and into tomorrow morning.
So a lot of us will be waking up to a damp and dreary start tomorrow with the rain lingering.
It does look like it dries out a little bit through the afternoon, but then we've got a front pushing through that's going to spark up some more showers and storms starting early evening far northwest and working its way ever so slowly through the state through the overnight.
And of course.
That's tomorrow night.
It gets cold behind it and it could flip to a few flurries flying around Lake Superior by early Friday morning for the system finally leaves us alone.
So what it's going to do with our temperatures tomorrow is drop us down to the low fifties to low sixties.
So slightly cooler and then we are going to be even worse on Friday mid forties to only near 50 degrees for high temperatures.
It'll be a cool and breezy end to the week.
But then a high pressure system moves in and it brightens the weekend.
We are all dry.
We're going to be in the sixties on Saturday and nearly seventies on Sunday.
See, that's that's going to make so many people happy.
And I believe the fishing opener is this weekend.
So the governor's fishing opener is happening up by Rice Lake.
And yeah, it's going to make a lot of folks happy.
I know I did still see on social media yesterday or the day before somebody in the U.P.
Posing next to the you know, the how much snow is still left there, especially on snowmobile trails where it was compacted And so there's still a lot of snow cover left in other places.
I know we've had years Where the fishing opener was practically delayed because there was still ice on some of the lakes.
So So
despite
the cool attempts that I continue to grouse about because apparently that's what bitter old men do But it has been nice.
We don't have ice on on all the lakes up north
You know, so that part is good.
She's your notes on YouTube.
Another good reason to live in Wisconsin.
A decent water table.
Agreed.
Nice and fresh and continually replenished because of forecast like that one.
Brittany, thank you so much.
Good to see you.
You're welcome.
Have a wonderful day.
Hey, a reminder that if you missed anything we did in the last two hours here across the Civic Media radio network, you can head over to the Civic Media website that of course is civicmedia.us.
And when you go over there, you can learn all about the shows, all about the stations, especially with that whole new lineup.
Now this show going for three hours, getting a new name, as you can see up there in the corner on social media.
You've got Jane and Greg from 9 to 11 now, Tom Hartman at 11, Todd Alba at his new time, two to four, Maggie Dawn from four to six, Night Late with Pete Schwabba coming up at six o'clock this evening.
So learn all about what stations have what shows over at the Civic Media website.
And of course, over what we're doing at Up North News,
That site is up North News W I dot com.
You can read about the stories that we're posting there all throughout the day.
Also sign up for our newsletters multiple as well.
And you can reach the show here of course at 855-75 Civic 855-7524842.
And it's not like we haven't provided a lot of fodder either for texts or internet comments or phone calls.
We have coverage just looking at my notes here.
We've covered bubble tea.
We've covered oatmeal cookies, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class, Sean Duffy saying we need to stop air traffic controllers from retiring and more people need to be out there making babies like Donald Trump wants you to do.
Eric Enrick and Dan Schaefer about what Democrats need to do differently in 2026 and lead paint is still a thing in Milwaukee schools.
When is the legislature going to take that seriously?
And yet to come, we're going to be talking about power lines, power transmission lines, the great big ones, and how there is legislation out there that would change who gets priority when it comes to building lines in the future.
And so Melissa Baldoff will be talking to us all about that in just a little bit over 20 minutes here as part of our climate check.
And we'll check in on some other state political matters as well, all here on the program.
Then tomorrow.
Usually on Thursdays at 730 we try to talk to a couple of legislators to find out what's happening under the big top in Madison.
And so I've called on a couple of Chippewa Valley friends for tomorrow.
So we will have State Senator Jeff Smith and Representative Jody Emerson will be joining me at 730 tomorrow to talk about things.
Among the things we're likely to talk about
would be something that's not necessarily in the Legislature's Avenue, although they're gonna have to make up the difference at times with all of these cuts that Donald Trump and Elon Musk have been throwing out there.
The most recent, again, look, when you think about, you know, the people who are wasting our federal dollars, all the waste and the fraud and abuse, I mean, we talked about it yesterday, you know, those veterans, right?
What a waste, huh?
Here's the latest one.
AmeriCorps, you know, young people doing service projects to serve their community.
Well, in the Chippewa Valley area, there is a facility called Beaver Creek Reserve.
It does a lot of good things, but they were notified yesterday that their grant through AmeriCorps, the Community Corps and Recovery Corps programs have been terminated.
It was something that took place immediately last Friday.
The letter that they got from the federal government said, it has been determined that our awards no longer support governmental agency priorities.
You must immediately cease all member and host site activities.
This is a final agency action and is not appealable.
The message went on to say that all members must turn in their host site equipment and return home.
Now Beaver Creek Reserve is one of five different AmeriCorps host sites in the Chippewa Valley.
To get this notification, according to a write-up over at the WEAUTV13 website, the Chippewa Valley Museum and Triple Play membership partner of Beaver Creek Reserve also was notified.
They helped recruit and train new volunteers.
The Girl Scouts of Northwestern Great Lakes lost seven AmeriCorps members, two who serve in Eau Claire.
Beaver Creek Reserve had partnered with the AmeriCorps program since 2015 and currently hosts six full-time AmeriCorps community corps members.
Four environmental educators, one volunteer coordinator, one avian field technician.
They accounted for 33% of the organization's staff.
The host sites paid $6,000.
$6,000 for each full-time AmeriCorps member.
Wow.
I mean, if that isn't just $6,000, do you know what that pays for in terms of billionaire tax cuts?
Anyway.
Beaver Creek Reserve has some 13,000 walk-in visitors annually.
They sponsor 33 summer camps, 40 spring field trips, 10 summer field trips.
There's 65 different educational programs.
There's a native plant sale, a butterfly house.
These are all things that, again, strengthen a community, provide a sense of service, help preserve some of the natural resources in an area.
And those were decisions that were made at the local level and at the federal government level to say, these, these are things worthy of expending resources on.
Shizyu writes, I'm so sad about Beaver Creek.
I just went there last Saturday to celebrate Earth Day week.
But again, just one more of the many things that in Donald Trump's first hundred days are being slashed and burned and going by the wayside.
In our first hour, we played a cut from Sean Duffy, the Secretary of Transportation.
Sam, I don't know if you still have that, you probably don't have it there in your booth, so I'll just tell folks about it, but he was on Fox News and he was whining about having to be part of a day of delays at the airport in Newark, one of the three airports that serves the New York City area.
The radars went down.
There's a shortage of air traffic controllers and Sean Duffy went on Fox News or Fox and Friends to talk about it and to say, well, if we could just get more of these air traffic controllers, if we could get the union to allow them to work longer than their current retirement.
For people who have some of the most stressful jobs out there and for federal government employees,
who have been told for these past hundred days that they're useless, that they're worthless, they ought to quit, you know, they ought to self-terminate and save the taxpayers money.
Again, it's not going to save the taxpayers any money.
This is an administration that is so anti-immigrant in any way, shape, or form, you know, people that don't look like them and think exactly like them, that they would rather tell
some people who are stressed and near retirement to stay on the job longer and tell people to make more babies rather than acknowledge how overdue we are for real immigration reform in this country.
And somebody put up a quote that I wanted to share from former president Ronald Reagan, that he made late in his presidency about the power of this nation being built as a nation of immigrants.
Ronald Reagan said, you can go live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman.
You can go live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk or Japanese.
But anyone from any corner of the earth can come to live in America and become an American.
We lead the world because unique among nations, we draw our people and our strength from every country and every corner of the world.
And by doing so,
We continuously review and renew and enrich our nation.
While other countries cling to the stale past here in America, we breathe life into dreams, we create the future, and the world follows us into tomorrow.
Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we are a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier.
This quality is vital to our future as a nation.
If we ever closed the door to New Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.
To which Donald Trump would look at that entire quote and say, mission accomplished.
We're closing the door to New Americans and we are surrendering our leadership in the world.
And for that, all Sean Duffy has for an answer is work past your retirement date and
Make more babies.
They did.
Why can't you?
Thanks for spending part of your mornings with us live from Lake WSOTA on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pat Krightlum.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
Melissa Balnoff is standing by, joins us for climate check and we'll talk some other Wisconsin political news coming up in just about under 15 minutes or so here across the Civic Media radio network.
First off in sports, the Brewers beat the Chicago White Sox Tuesday night seven to two.
Isaac Collins hit his first career home run for Milwaukee and Freddie Peralta pitched six innings of two-run ball.
The Brewers are still on their longest road trip of the season, 10 games.
They are now at three and five.
So if they can win tonight and again tomorrow afternoon against the White Sox, they will at least split that road trip.
They're doing pretty well against the White Sox.
They've won 11 of the last 12 games against the South Siders and they will do it again this evening.
6 0 5.
The pregame begins on stations in Richland Center.
Oshkosh, Racine Kenosha, Park Falls, and Hayward.
And even though the Brewers come home on Friday, it's almost as if the road trip continues because it'll be against the Cubs for a weekend series and plenty of North Siders will be coming up for that.
And then there's the Milwaukee Bucks.
They were up by seven points with 45 seconds left in regulation.
And I turned the TV off.
Figuring, okay.
Instead of being eliminated, they will live to fight another day.
So imagine my surprise to look at my phone a little bit later and see that they were in the late stages of overtime.
So I put the TV back on and watched the Bucks commit two turnovers in the final 29 seconds and the Pacers go past the Bucks, 119 to 118 in overtime.
for a four to one series victory.
And again, the buck's been eliminated in the first round.
And again, by the Indiana Pacers.
We talked to Dan Schaeffer, as you know, just about this time yesterday.
And I said, well, if that happens, you know, we're gonna hear it.
We're gonna hear it again.
It's time to trade Yanis.
It's time to trade Yanis.
Dan Schaeffer was like, absolutely not.
Does not wanna hear any of that kind of talk at all.
Although it is easy to see that the window might be closing.
on the buck's opportunity to advance, you know, further into the playoffs than they have these past couple of years.
It was just a rough one, but the season is now over for the bucks.
Couple of notes to follow along on the on the whole notion of Trump marking 100 days.
Certainly there are comments out there about what I just had to say about immigration saying, you know, this is all about legal immigration.
And of course, you don't want illegal immigration.
I addressed that, I said.
We need immigration reform.
There has never been in our lifetimes a more important time to be pro-immigration than right now.
This nation should be so amazingly pro-immigration, which means being pro-immigration reform.
And last year there was a bipartisan deal to get that done.
There were so many Republicans in Congress that knew we had to get this done.
And Donald Trump
said, nope, that doesn't help my campaign for president.
I've got to run with all this race baiting.
You've got to kill this bipartisan bill.
And they did.
And so it would be easy to say, okay, Trump got in.
That's what he wanted.
He wanted in.
So now pass the bipartisan bill and let him get the victory.
Do you see this Congress rushing to overhaul immigration and make it easier to have legal immigration in this country?
You do not.
because a bitter old race baiter once is gonna be one over and over again.
He does not want that.
He does not want immigration reformed and overhauled.
He would rather have the worker shortages here as long as he can continue to make the political points and do other things like cut, I don't know, meals on wheels.
We talked about AmeriCorps in the last segment.
Now there's a tiny division responsible in health and human services.
that is responsible for overseeing services for people with disabilities and older Americans.
And Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
is dismantling it as part of all these HHS cuts.
Meals on Wheels kids.
The tariffs, they continue to extract a terrible toll from Wisconsin from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from early this morning.
An economy walk manufacturer has been pulled into the deepening US trade war with China.
Century Equipment Corporation, which makes sampling and process equipment for various industries, says it just lost a $300,000 order because the Chinese customer
probably wouldn't have received the product ahead of a steep tariff threatened by China on American made goods.
The story by Rick Barrett goes on to say, Century had rushed to complete the work but was unable to get the products on a flight to China soon enough because of air freight transportation issues.
The logistics were out of control, said Rich Gaffney, Century's vice president of operations, putting the employee owned company in a tough spot.
About 25% of century sales are outside of the US in more than 50 countries.
And this is only going to go on and on with Wisconsin companies.
We noted earlier a study that had been done showing that of all the industries that are caught up in this trade war, it's not just agriculture, manufacturing, timber, all these other things, that Wisconsin is at the top of the list.
The only state that has double digits, 10% of the Wisconsin workforce.
works in industries that are going to be negatively impacted by Trump's trade war.
Wisconsin is quite literally on the front lines, literally going to be, no, not literally, figuratively going to be hit first and hardest by Trump's wrecking ball of a trade war.
And all kinds of folks who either supported Trump or don't care are going to get caught up in this and go, why?
Why?
We were, we were doing our thing.
I was delivering meals on wheels.
I was, uh, you know, helping folks at the Beaver Creek reserve and suddenly all these cuts, why?
Again, it's not going in your pockets.
It's to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.
That's exactly how this works.
And finally to close on immigration, there is a comment that says, you can't have a country with multiple cultures.
Well, that sounds about right.
Melissa Boldoff is going to join us and we'll do climate check and talk more of Wisconsin politics live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pat right now.
You know, if you can stick around for one more hour, one hour from now, Dr. Kristen Lierly will be part of Matt and Air on Air with Jane and Greg.
So you might want to stick around for that.
And a couple of other great guests coming up on Matt and Air on Air, and then I'll be showing up on Todd Alba's show coming up at two o'clock here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
All right, let's bring in Melissa Baldoff, a little climate check, a little Wisconsin political chatter.
How's Melissa today?
I'm
How about
doing okay as well because we're going to pick up where we left off last week.
We didn't have enough time to really get into the specifics of a debate at the state capitol on a bill that doesn't really cut neatly across
party lines.
This one's all about, I guess, competition when it comes to new transmission lines here.
And it's really got Republicans divided more than Democrats.
But to boil it down to its essence, Melissa, it really is about whether state utility companies would get first dibs, if you will, when it's time for those new high voltage transmission lines.
And the thing of it is, when we talk about climate, Melissa,
Transmission lines are their own kind of side issue in that, you know, we're talking about whether it's oil and gas and coal versus, you know, wind and solar.
But even if it's wind and solar, you still need transmission lines to get that power someplace.
And so it's, it's something everybody needs to pay attention to.
But it's, it's almost refreshing that we have something here that isn't exactly just a Democrat versus Republican kind of bill.
Yeah, look, it's always good to have a debate and it's good to have conversation and get to the best version of any bill that's going to pass, you know, and whether or not, you know, this is gonna be something that does pass or not.
And if it's something that the governor will support or not, it's always good to have a conversation.
in the public and get to the best version of something.
So we wanna have that transparency, that sunshine on the process and make sure that the public is aware of what the intention is and how we're gonna get there because far too often what we have is these bills that are put together in private.
by the Republican leadership to serve what their special interest friends would like to see.
And that's what gets passed.
And there's no public input.
There's nothing that is serving the will of the people.
So the fact that there's even a conversation here is positive.
It doesn't mean that we're going to get to what's going to be the best for the climate, what's going to be the best for the public.
Maybe we will maybe we won't but it's still a positive thing that there's a conversation here
Yeah, and in this case, this version of the what's called the Wisconsin Energy Reform Act says that basically, Wisconsin utilities would would have a privileged position when it comes to, you know, new transmission line projects.
Under the guise of well, they're already involved in some of these and they would understand and you know, the benefit, it's kind of like, you know, by American type stuff, but you also have people saying, well, that would actually diminish competition.
And so
ratepayers would end up paying more.
And again, I'm not studying enough in it to know that one is necessarily better than the other.
It's just kind of a refreshing change of position.
It reminded me very much of my first year in the legislature 2007 when we did the smoking ban.
Now,
There is near universal agreement that the smoking ban has been a positive for Wisconsin You know our clothes don't reek of ashtrays when we get home from you know bars and restaurants people are healthier the air is cleaner But Melissa you you and I both know in 2007 it did not cut across party lines and that was that was a spirited debate to say the least
me tell you stories.
The main thing on this one is that it really was more of an urban rural in that anybody who had mostly cities in their district, you know, they wanted the smoking ban and people in predominantly rural districts did not want it.
They thought that that was an infringement.
And I had a district that was the north side, the northern half of Eau Claire.
And then a whole lot of rural area.
So I mean, I was right in the middle.
I was one of the deciding votes on not whether the ban would pass or not, but the folks in rural districts and bar owners especially thought, well, this is going to put us out of business.
They wanted a phase in period.
So the original bill was like 30 days.
They wanted like a one year phase in.
I suggested
I, uh, I believe it was either 90 days or six months.
I forget now.
And boy was I vilified by the people who wanted the smoking ban immediately.
They're like, Oh, you were just, you're standing up with big tobacco.
I'm like, no, we're still going to do this.
We're just, we're looking for a compromise here.
And it was very frustrating to have, there were so many Democrats mad at me because I wasn't putting the smoking ban in immediately.
Well, in hindsight, of course,
It doesn't matter at all.
Not right now.
I mean, nobody remembers that debate.
I don't even remember what my amendment said.
I just remember at the time going, wow, we still do have debate sometimes on bills that don't cut neatly across party lines.
And, you know, here's one of them.
So, you know, it made for a great story if nothing else, right, Melissa?
Yeah.
Well, let's, let's move then to a different matter of air quality and getting back to climate concerns.
Uh, new story in the Milwaukee Journal, Sentinel, uh, Maya Pandey, I believe is the reporter's name headline.
Milwaukee's air quality remains among the worst in the nation, according to a new report by the American lung association.
Milwaukee out of 228 cities tested for ozone pollution.
ranked 26th worst right behind Sheboygan as 24th worst.
Obviously a lot of that is related to industry.
A lot of it from Northern Illinois and Indiana as well as Southeast Wisconsin and unfavorable, you know, environmental conditions and in terms of how the wind blows and everything.
But Melissa, this has been a perpetual issue, air quality in Southeast Wisconsin.
And this is something we've talked about before and had guests on that folks down in Beloit, some citizen scientists have studied this issue.
But this is something that one of the, I think, most notable pieces to me from this report is that in the Milwaukee Racine and Waukesha area,
it's getting worse.
We know that it's been bad, but across the Milwaukee, Racine, Waukesha area, it is getting worse.
And knowing that air quality is worsening is really dangerous.
So what it noted is that between 21 and 2023, the area averaged nine and a half days a year of unhealthy ozone levels.
compared to only 6.7 days in the previous year's report.
And Racine County ranked the worst in that area for the ground level ozone pollution.
So this is really a big problem that we know is continuing to get worse on some of these factors.
And that's...
That's a big problem.
The causes, there are many, like you mentioned, some of the producer pollution, also the extreme heat, drought, wildfires are some of the main drivers as well, according to the American Lung Association that are driving the worsening air quality nationwide.
We know, I think folks probably remember a couple summers back, wildfires in Canada.
caused some really significant air quality issues in Wisconsin and across a lot of the country.
So we know that a lot is going on to cause this and it's really a problem that's worsening.
And it's something as we've talked about it over the years, again, when people said one debate air quality and some wanted it to be a state by state decision,
Obviously, it can't be.
We can't put up a wall between Illinois and, you know, Gary, Indiana and other places.
We can't put up a wall with, you know, Canada and its wildfires.
And so this needs to be a national effort.
And we're only helping ourselves in the process.
Again, we have people saying, well, you know, China's not doing their part.
So, you know, why should we punish ourselves?
Well, again, if we're always going to race to the bottom, then we're going to have air quality as bad as it was in the late 1960s and early 70s.
And while things are better than they were, you know, the article does note that we're talking about something like 900,000 people are at higher risk in the Milwaukee area of the more serious health impacts that come with dirty air.
This is this is not a, you know, pick on pick on manufacturing story.
This is a public health issue that
just raises the point, we can always be doing better when it comes to air quality.
You can talk deregulation all day long, but you can also talk about doing a better job of not polluting from the stuff that you're making.
And that's why it's such a concern what the Trump administration is doing at the EPA.
You know, the EPA was established under Richard Nixon in 1970.
So for more than 50 years, we've had bipartisan support for the EPA.
And at times, of course, it's been stronger and had more teeth than at other times.
But generally speaking, there's been bipartisan support for the EPA's kind of dual mission of protecting our air and water quality and enforcing regulations to reduce emissions.
you know, reduce pollution.
And now we have a new mission at the EPA, which is to, you know, drive down the cost of cars and make small businesses more profitable, right?
And we know that they are not going to take steps to hold polluters accountable and address air quality and water quality.
And, you know, not just that they
maybe won't have as strong of regulations as we would want to see.
It seems that they don't really have any concern about enforcing regulations and really want to give polluters just kind of carte blanche to do whatever they want.
Well, I mean, let's call it what it is.
It's a pro-pollution agenda that they have and it was exacerbated Monday when nearly 400 scientists across the country were informed by the Trump administration that their services were no longer needed to write a major report on climate change for the federal government.
It's known as the National Climate Assessment.
It's done every four years.
It was mandated under the Global Change Research Act of 1990 and instead an email went out to all of these scientists and said,
Thank you for your participation.
We are now releasing all current assessment participants from their role because that's where we are nowadays, Melissa.
We will look for happier news down the road here, but we always appreciate the climate update so people know exactly what this administration is doing.
Melissa Baldov, thank you so much.
We'll talk to you next week.
All right.
Thanks, Melissa, very much.
Now, again, coming up tomorrow, we will talk to State Senator Jeff Smith and State Representative Jody Emerson as part of our weekly legislative update.
I'm Pat Crichtlow reminding you that, again, it's all about every one of these words in our national promise, liberty and justice for all.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
We've got Brewer's baseball across the Civic Media radio network, pregame at 6.06, Brewer's versus the White Sox.
You can catch it in Richland Center on WRCE or in the Oshkosh area on WISS in Racine Kenosha on WRJN.
Over on Park Falls WCQM and of course the new Brewers affiliate up north WBZH in Hayward for Brewers this evening and again tomorrow afternoon.
Let's welcome in James Kelly, Civic Media reporter from the Chippewa Valley in beautiful downtown Chippewa Falls, above the old Concella drug there on Grandbridge Street.
James, how are you?
I don't think that's what's below me anymore.
No,
no, Concella drug hasn't
been there for a while.
That's something our old timers say.
It's an Edward Jones office now that's down there.
But you know, you tell anybody basically 40 and up Concella drug.
Oh yeah.
where that is.
It's been gone for a very long time.
How are you doing?
I'm doing great.
How are you doing?
I'm doing great.
Thanks.
Hey, we were just talking about air quality in the Milwaukee area and how bad it is and climate issues.
Meanwhile, you have legislators from the Chippewa Valley who have introduced something called the Climate Accountability Act.
And they've noted this and so many other things as reasons why there really ought to be a change in state law that makes sure that we take these kind of climate and air quality issues more seriously.
Tell us more about it.
Yeah, so the Climate Accountability Act, which was just recently introduced, both Jeff Smith and Jody Emerson are signed on to it as is Christian Phelps, who was there at the press conference on Friday.
as was Jeff Smith.
It basically just calls for the legislature to come up with a plan.
For 2030, they want to cut carbon emissions by 52% by 2050, achieve carbon neutral emissions.
It's a lofty goal, but this specific act doesn't actually call for any policy changes, anything to be done.
It just calls for developing a plan to get there.
Well, and look, again, that is something.
as opposed to the the pro pollution stance that others might have and you know they take note I mean right right here in the Chippewa Valley if you're going along 29 in Lake Halley you're seeing a small solar farm that's out there you you know in your story that XL Energy is planning a 5,000 acre solar field you know in the near future there are other projects that are all going on even as we speak.
Yeah, and I think one of the important things that Representative Phelps mentioned on Friday was that it's not really a partisan issue in in his eyes people that he's talked to when he was campaigning whether they're
Democrats, self-identifying as Republicans, all of them care about conservation.
They all care about the environment.
I think that's one of the really interesting things about my move to Wisconsin was to find out, like, this isn't just a one-side issue.
Every single person here cares so much about conservation and puts so much effort into protecting the state's natural resources.
Well, again, there are those who, I mean, they do say we should talk a good game.
and then there's other folks that do want to see some more concrete steps that are taken.
They care about the air quality and the resources, and it's not just about, say, you know, manufacturing industries.
The same could be said for agricultural industries.
We are seeing a growing number of factory farms, otherwise known as CAFOs, and
You know, my stance has always been clear that if you're going to have what's a so-called factory farm, well, then you better regulate it like a factory, no different than anything else.
This is not simply a freedom to farm thing, shall we say.
And in Pierce County, there are people very unhappy that the DNR is issued a permit for one of these CAFOs.
Yeah, the Kefo is Ridge Breeze Dairy.
They're looking to expand their dairy operation by 5,000 cows, give or take, so right now they only have about 1,700.
So that would be around 6,500 cows in total.
Earlier this year the DNR granted a modified permit to allow them to do this, but that permit does not include...
Forcing the company to monitor the groundwater in the area.
So residents are concerned about manure spread They're concerned about nitrates in the water and now they have filed to challenge the modified permit
This I mean again, what did I just say?
You got to you got to be as on top of this as you would a factory and which includes all of the
proper monitoring that has to be done.
And we went through this right here in Chippewa Falls when they were building a sand plant here right along the railroad tracks north of town.
It's no longer a sand plant.
It turned out to be a fad, essentially.
But during the time that it was being planned, there was all this talk about, you know, the potential for silica dust and causing lung issues.
And I was always amazed that there were people against air monitoring.
and having as many air monitors around as possible.
So surely folks understand that in the case of this CAFO, monitoring is a good thing for your health.
And if you don't want it, that's kind of a red flag that maybe you're looking for shortcuts when it comes to our groundwater quality and things like that.
Joint Finance Committee was in Hayward and in there I'm sure came up the notion of all of the healthcare funding that Republicans in the legislature
have been sitting on.
Yeah, so that $15 million that was approved last year after line item vetoes from Governor Tony Evers to make it a little bit more flexible Has just been kind of sitting there for the last year.
We have had Plans for new hospitals crop up even St.
Joseph's could be opened as as late as the end of this year or as early as the end of this year But there's still a lot of help that needs to happen now and could have happened over the last year where that $15 million could have gone a long way the problem is
if we get through the state budget process in June, that money just goes back into the general fund.
It's just gone forever.
Yeah.
So, I mean, time is a waste and it would be great if state Senator Jesse James and others could stop being Republican apologists and actually work for their constituents in the Chippewa Valley who desperately need to improve our healthcare situation here.
The final note, of course, is that the governor's fishing opener is taking place this weekend in the Rice Lake area.
Are you venturing up?
I am not going to be venturing up.
Well, I did grow up along the water.
OK.
Yeah.
I did grow up along the water.
I fished a little bit when I was a kid, but I was never like super into it.
Let's wake up at 5 AM, hop out in the boat, see if we can catch anything big.
I just, you know, a little bit of dock fishing.
All right.
Well, we'll just get you up here on Lake Wissota sometime soon and see how you do, you know, without the pressure of the governor watching you, shall we say?
James Kelly, Civic Media Reporter and beautiful Chippewauffles.
Thank you, Jim, very much.
Thanks, Pat.
James Kelly, everybody, and thank you for being here today.
I'm Pat Krightlow, founding editor of Up North News.
It's the Wisconsin Home for Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy news network building a more informed, engaged, and representative America.
Follow everything that we do over at Up North News WI.com.
Have a great Wednesday.
We'll see you here tomorrow morning.
Up North, 6 a.m.
tomorrow.
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