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Now, from our Lake Basota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
All right, the coffee cup has been refilled.
Let's do this.
Third hour of the program today on this Wednesday morning, May 28th, live from Lake Basota.
Let's see we've got Parker Olsen on the board and Greg is back in one hour and meteorologist Brittany Merleau is standing by to update the forecast for us.
We'll be talking to Earl Ingram in just a few moments here.
We'll get into the lead problems in Milwaukee and what if
anything the Trump administration is doing about it or what they say they're doing about it.
We may get into a very high-profile murder trial that's about to get started in Milwaukee as well.
Dan Schaefer still ahead.
We may talk to James Kelly from Chippewa Falls about stories that he's following for civic media too.
And the Brewer's got a big walk off home run grand slam from Christian Yelich to beat the Brewer's yesterday five to one in 10 innings.
So on that happy note, let's go to meteorologist Brittany Merlot, because the weather is well, look, it's it's a little rainy.
It's quite quite damp here in Chippewa Falls actually as well.
But there's there's still a need for the rain before, especially for got a big warm spell coming up, right?
I agree, yes.
We are still, 5% of the state is in a drought that is far south in the state, right along the state line.
So you can use every single drop.
There is still abnormally dry conditions, both far north and far south.
Good chunk of the central parts of the state.
We're good to go, but you know, we could always use extra rainfall.
We're not looking at too too much today, only about a quarter of an inch.
You've already seen that in places just south of La Crosse already this morning.
This line is pretty much extending from Eau Claire all the way through Madison and then down into Chicago this morning.
It is going to continue to lift north through the state late this morning through this afternoon.
And then we could see some spotty small storms start to spark up later this afternoon, maybe around three to five or so.
Those are not expected to be strong or severe, but we could see some more moderate rainfall with those.
Now, of course, it's going to be darker and damp and kind of dreary all day today.
The winds are barely moving.
Temperatures are very comfortable anywhere from about 50 to 60 degrees right now.
And then highs today will reach the mid sixties far south.
You're going to be a little bit cooler with that rain out there and then about 70 up north.
That's the highs for today.
And of course, the rain stops by tomorrow.
It'll be done by midnight actually, but the sun will be peeking out tomorrow in full force as we go into the weekend.
We will keep
getting warmer, more humidity and mugginess is going to start to seep in by Friday and then by next week it is going to be feeling like summer or to be dripping sweat with the humidity and heat headed our way because we're looking at mid 80s with dew points in the mid 70s next week.
Really?
So this weekend is kind of the Goldilocks end of all of this which for a whole bunch of people who are planning graduation parties or weddings or anything like that you are their hero.
So good.
Good.
Yes.
It's fantastic.
Nothing but sunshine, dry conditions, perfect temperatures.
Perfect.
This weekend's fantastic.
That's great, Brittany.
Thank you so much.
Have a great
day.
You're welcome.
Talk to you later.
Hey, by the way, if you ever miss one of our previous hours, the six a.m.
hour, the seven a.m.
hour, you want to listen back to a guest that was on.
You can always head to civicmedia.us and right there, we put all of the shows on the website and you can call them up as individual each hour.
is its own episode.
So you don't have to listen to like a three hour show.
You can listen to, you know, just the six AM hour, for example, and catch something that you missed.
All the show descriptions are on there.
We tell you who the guests were and
You could get this by podcast as well.
And I'd say go over to Spotify.
I actually just became a Spotify customer recently and you can catch your podcast that way or through Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
However you do it, we'd love to have you take us along so you can listen on demand on those days when you can't happen to catch it on the radio.
And yes, Tony says, how about on YouTube too?
Yes, we, we could, you could watch it on YouTube live and comment as Tony and Cassandra and everybody else does throughout the course of the morning.
You can add your comments too.
And as far as a show highlights go on YouTube, well, that's, that's my next project for Tony is just to make like the, the 10 minute condensed version.
All, all the really funny stuff.
Well, the really funny stuff would be a three-minute show, but we put some guest stuff in there, too.
So maybe we go about doing that.
A reminder to reach the show, not just in the comments sections on YouTube or Facebook, but you can call or text us 855-75-CIVIC-855-752-4842 and use that Civic Media app to call or text us as well.
Let's bring Earl Ingram into the program now.
Talk about a couple of matters that he's following in the Milwaukee area for Civic Media.
Earl, how are you this morning?
I'm doing fine, Pat.
How are you?
I'm great.
It's so nice to have you along here.
And I want to start first with the whole lead paint, lead in the water situation there, especially in light of the comments by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, who said something along the lines to a CNN anchor of, you know, we've got a team in Milwaukee working on this.
And Earl, it took about eight seconds for that to be proven not to be the case.
And
I feel like that illustrates in a nutshell the ongoing problems Milwaukee's having finding allies to get this lead problem rid of once and for all.
So before I respond to what Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
said, I think we need to clarify a couple things.
Number one, the lead crisis is a national crisis.
True.
And so people
Link Milwaukee to the lead crisis and the problem with that is they fell understand that this is all over the nation It's in rural America.
It's in it's in urban centers and and yet because it's it's connected to urban centers.
I think people are Not looking at what's taking place in their own backyards.
And so what we plan on doing I know in the coming weeks and months
is putting together a national series, a 12-part series that's gonna have the top scientists and doctors across this nation to express and explain and wake people up to the scourges of lead paint.
and lead in the water.
That's all over this nation that's causing mayhem and the fact that we have a nation that's covering all of this up.
We have politicians and others on both sides of the equation who have refused to address this lead issue.
And so as long as it's considered to be a Milwaukee problem and an urban problem, it's not getting the necessary exposure that it should be receiving.
Earl, you are 100% correct and I should have made that clear from the very beginning as well.
I've just become so used to the antagonism or antipathy toward Milwaukee from legislators that frankly, even in asking the question, I bought into the framing rather than acknowledging that when Republican legislators said a couple of years back, well, most of the money would go to Milwaukee, what they were really doing was they were saying that
for some of the communities in their own districts that you didn't even count that we're so anti-Milwaukee that we will ignore the lead problem in the rest of the state just to spite the state's biggest city.
You're talking to a guy who's 70 years old who's lived in Milwaukee for all 70 of those years, born in Milwaukee and will die in Milwaukee.
And so I know all of those things that have been going on at Infanitum in this state.
and the fact that they can't ignore what is taking place in our city.
It's kind of ridiculous considering that only 38.6% of Milwaukee is black.
And so the rest of it is white, a majority.
And so when you...
look at it with a jaundice eye, you don't just punish the people of color in the city of Milwaukee, you punish all the other residents as well.
And I will say this to you Pat, when people
I think people fell understand that exposure to lead can affect can affect multiple body systems and in particularly harmful to young children.
We constantly talk about all of the crime and all of those things that are taking place in the city of Milwaukee.
This statistical evidence that will point to the fact that for generations, children have been poisoned by lead in this city.
as it is even in rural America.
We talk about right now Milwaukee public schools and what's happening there.
Well, I would say that people need to look at the schools wherever they are.
Any building that was built before 1970 contains lead.
And so people are being contaminated and the scourges of lead and what it leads to especially in pregnant women.
and their fetuses and the babies is a tragedy.
And the fact that our nation says it can't afford to eradicate the scourges of lead are unacceptable.
When you talk about the fact that children who are our future, what can be more valuable than the future of your nation are being poisoned by this and we're the wealthiest nation on earth?
And yet we don't seem to be concerned enough about the future of our children, which are the future of our nation that we work collectively to eradicate this.
And you talk about buildings built before 1970.
My goodness, there are like.
four or six Milwaukee public school buildings still in use that were built not before 1970 before 1900 that are still in use and obviously still have these these lead paint issues because they face the the budget pressures that come from a legislature that is insisting on budget austerity and you know sticking it to Milwaukee is you know Tommy Thompson famously said all those years ago so this is a national concern
This is something that the US Department of Health and Human Services should be paying attention to.
So when Secretary Robert Kennedy made that false claim about helping out in Milwaukee, again, it only adds insult to injury and shows us in my mind, we have an HHS secretary that for all of the other questionable views that he has, either does not know the seriousness of the lead issue or doesn't care.
And I'm not sure which is worse.
So Milwaukee Public Schools has 156 schools.
And when you talk about being able to somehow go back and track those 156 schools and determine which ones are lead laden and which ones aren't, it's going to take over a decade.
And so it's not just what is happening now.
It's the fact that generations have come through
that situation and have been poisoned by lead and when we talk about crime as this big issue and we want to build more jails and lock people up, it's like fools go.
Because as long as you're poisoning generations of children, part of the problem with children being exposed to lead is the damage that it does to their brains, especially in the early development of those children.
And so when you look at the damages being done, it's nonsensical to me that the cost that we wind up having to pay down the road by not fixing this problem early on is where we are now.
And so when you see so many young people whose lives have been turned inside out and upside down because of the scourges of lead, then you understand the impact and why this has to change.
Oh, it so does.
From the legislature, from the Trump administration on down, Earl Ingram is talking to us much more about that.
Also coming up in this hour, we'll be talking to Dan Schaffer, civic media, political editor and founder of the Reconbobulation area, and much more.
And then, of course, tomorrow, we've got some of our usual friends on there, Joseph Peckys joining us, Chad Holmes.
We'll also talk to Jeremy Granger from Wisconsin Action.
A lot coming up here, live
from Lake Wissota.
Hey, thanks for making this a place to spend part of your mornings.
I'm Pat Critello, and this is the Civic Media Radio Network.
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.
Welcome back.
It's a Wednesday morning.
It's May 28, 2025.
Nice to have you along.
We'll be talking to James Kelly about 30 minutes from now about stories that he's following in Northwest Wisconsin.
But right now, our focus is on Southeast Wisconsin.
And we're talking with Earl Ingham right now.
Earl, I'm bringing in a heavy disclaimer to this next story.
I do not normally like talking about crime stories.
They happen everywhere.
I don't like having Milwaukee feel singled out.
But this particular trial I'm going to be talking about is one that is getting a lot of television attention.
It involves the murder of a 19-year-old woman, Shade Robinson.
The trial is going to be Maxwell Anderson, who was on a date with her, is accused of dismembering her body just over one year ago.
When I'm looking at something like this, Earl, and I know down there in Milwaukee, every TV station is going to be following it nonstop, giving it all the coverage.
And my hope is, and maybe outlets down there are already doing a good job, that we don't just make this about the murderer and the guy that's on trial, but don't forget that this victim, Shadi Robinson, was not just a person.
She was a young woman who had everything ahead of her in all kinds of skills, education, dance, and all of that was taken away way too early for her life to simply be remembered by one sensational murder trial.
Well,
You know murder unfortunately is is commonplace in our nation and in far too many times in the city of Milwaukee But what makes this one?
I think stand out more than anything else is a couple things number one Shawty Robinson was a black woman in the fact that Maxwell Anderson is a white man is always going to bring that kind of attention
even if, you know, it was different and it was a black man who murdered a white woman.
Certainly that's the way our society is.
But I can tell you that part of what is the conversation is in black Milwaukee, which makes up 38.6% of the city of Milwaukee according to the latest census information, is that there's two blacks that are on, you know,
this this jury and so one black man and one black woman and the conversation that's going on in our community is how can that possibly be and why is it the case when we talk about a jury of your peers and and the fact that you know the percentage of the jurors who in my community people say
There should be, the number should certainly be greater than two out of 12.
It's a conversation that is going to be had, it's being had before and it's certainly going to be had afterwards and people will be asking those questions.
Yeah, this is something that the pool started with 73 potential jurors.
It was reduced down to 12 women and three men.
As you mentioned, two black jurors and the court proceedings are getting underway right about now at the Milwaukee County Courthouse and obviously something that's going to be getting a lot of attention in that area.
If I can head down the road the other way a little bit toward American Family Field, I see that there's going to be
a study finally about the potential for, you know, commercial development around the Milwaukee Brewer's stadium, which I'm sure in part has been inspired by what has been happening in the so-called Deer District around Pfizer Forum where the Milwaukee Bucks play.
And I just wanted to get your own thoughts on both of those.
If the Deer District has been a positive development in downtown and whether something like that for American Family Field is something that's in your mind either overdue or not needed or irrelevant, what are your thoughts on that?
Well, two things.
Number one, we as the taxpayers certainly had to pay increased taxes.
in order for a billionaire, the guy who owns Mark Antinasio, who owns the brewers, to be able to do the things that he's getting ready to do at the same time, they cut the payroll.
And so the brewers that we are looking at now, and not the brewers that we saw last year before this major increase in taxes that the taxpayers had to pay in order to beautify and make it more palatable.
for Miller Park to be what is going to be.
And as they move down the road and more money that is going to be able to be realized by the owners of the brewers should be reflective in the team.
And yet that's not the case.
And now as far as what took place in the Deer District, you can move two miles outside of the Deer District.
and it is chaos and mayhem and that community has not seen any support financially or economically.
So when you look at it from the perspective of citizens of Milwaukee, I get it.
It's kind of a Camelot down at the Deer District.
But again, it's shameful that two miles outside of the Deer District is just chaos and it's
feast of famine.
Yeah, we're not seeing the ripple effects as we should.
So something to be mindful of as you look for potential new commercial development in other places.
Earl Ingram is following all this and more for all of us at Civic Media out of the Milwaukee area.
Earl, it's always great to talk to you.
We will visit again next week.
Yes, sir.
All right.
Thank you very much.
So again, just for a little bit more background there, the
Ballpark has a public owner.
It's called the Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District and they're now requesting proposals from consultants to help develop a ballpark development report.
Do you keep it with all of that asphalt out there for tailgating?
Do you look for some commercial development?
I like Earl's point that whatever the case may be, this is going to raise money.
just as the the Deer District raised money and is it going back into the community or is it just another business investment for billionaire owners?
We've got a lot of ground to cover yet here on the show.
It's a Wednesday morning.
It's May 28th live from Lake Wissota.
A reminder, you can sign up for our newsletters this morning.
We talk about it being National Hamburger Day and where do you get some of the best hamburgers and who sells the most hamburgers in some parts of Wisconsin.
So sign up for that newsletter over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
from Chippewa Falls, I'm Pat Critello.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
It's May 28th, but I'm looking way back at an Up North News post from late December that was already previewing some of the top
live concerts coming to Wisconsin in 2025.
It mentioned, you know, Kelsey Ballerini, who was going to be appearing at Pfizer Forum.
There was Cody Johnson.
Tyler, the creator, had a concert coming up and Justin Timberlake.
On and on, it goes for the first part of 2025.
It also includes Def Leppard at SummerFest.
But it's only grown, especially in the country music area.
and in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this morning it says country music is dominating Wisconsin's summer concert season like never before and looks at some of the headliners for the annual Harley Homecoming.
has much more of a country feel for it this time around.
At the BMO Pavilion in Milwaukee this summer, some of the big stars there booked would be the Avid Brothers, Raleigh Green, the country band Red Clay Straves, at the Raven Milwaukee, country breakout star Megan Maroney.
Her concert has long since sold out Alpine Valley.
which was always a mecca for rock tours.
Their big concert so far booked this year are Thomas Rhett, Willie Nelson's Outlaw Music Festival, Tyler Childers, and even Summer Fest will include some draws like Lainey Wilson to the amphitheater.
And then there is the big one.
And that would be Morgan Wallin with openers Miranda Lambert and Ella Langley, headlining the first concert at Camp Randall Stadium in 28 years.
And that'll be coming up on June 28th.
You've got Beyonce winning awards for her country album.
It is more country out there than ever before.
And Parker, it makes me wonder for somebody like you.
I mean, here in Eau Claire, I've been to Country Jam, Country Fest, before it changed its name over here.
in Cadot.
Do you have your own experience with some of these many country live, live country concerts that we have going on around Wisconsin?
I don't think I've ever been to any, but I know a bunch of people who go to country thunder, I think it's called.
I can't think of where
that is.
It's
somewhere down here.
Yeah.
And I know a bunch of people that have gone to that.
Country is kind of one of those things that is up and coming again, it seems like.
Yes.
I don't know, but it's an acquired taste, it seems.
It's very divisive.
It can't be well even in country and you know long before the the buzz about Beyonce's album and what's country and how do you define it you had artists along the way that Thought that country was getting too electric.
It was getting too rock I love she's on YouTube saying and I am a small bright light of k-pop in my area There is nothing wrong with that But I
I do like the fact that you have these venues out here with so many of them not just for your big names you know for Morgan Wallin and Miranda Lampert and all that but you always get a chance I think in country more than in other genres to see up-and-comers who then eventually
do become stars.
I mean, I recall being at Country Jam and seeing Faith Hill and Tim McGraw when they were nobodies and going, God, these guys are good.
You know, and they turned into something, seeing Alan Jackson when he was much younger.
And again, just an up and comer.
I'm not the world's
biggest attender of live concerts.
But that is one of the best things is when you see somebody who isn't a star yet and go, they just might make it.
Yeah, I always love finding new music.
That's kind of like a goal of mine that I have is to find someone before they come big.
And that's just, yeah, country, you can do that.
I recall it was in college.
And so obviously, again, we're going way, way back.
But I remember working at the college radio station.
And there was somebody there who she loved finding all the new music.
And she was just so insistent that this group, Tears for Fears, was coming up.
They were gonna be the big thing, the big thing.
And they were, they had one hit then another.
And then I remember talking to her like, I don't know, a year or two later and saying, boy, I'll bet you're really loving all this Tears for Fears music.
And she was like, oh no, no, they're old news.
You know, she was, she was old now.
only about finding, you know, the up and comers and the new ones.
And, you know, good for her.
That worked out.
So like I've had a lot of opportunity to go to concerts, but I don't know that anybody has better concert stories than I do.
And by stories, I mean things that you'd play the sad trombon on.
We've talked before about how
At my high school prom, the entertainment, the musical entertainment was Florence Henderson of the Brady Bunch and Tennessee Ernie Ford because they were playing at the celebrity dinner theater next door where we were having prom.
So you had to sit through that show before you could go to our prom in another ballroom and see a local band that was playing.
That was one story.
My first, people talk about first concerts, okay?
Who you saw in your first, my first concert.
Donnie and Marie.
And why?
Because they were playing at the Minnesota State Fair.
Donnie and Marie had, you know, this show on in the 1970s and my sister was absolutely gaga for Donnie and Marie and wore my mom down to the point where, you know, and she had to take all the kids.
So there we all are, you know, all four kids, you know, and I'm the oldest and then, you know, the three younger ones are all there in the stands.
And so I can't fix it.
Donnie and Marie was my first concert.
And I got one more.
Well, again, one of my earliest concerts would be Helen Reddy because I was my high school girlfriend at the time who was married to, or not married to, her father was an executive at 3M.
And this was at the 3M annual dinner, which was at the St.
Paul Civic Center back in the early 80s.
And I mean, this wasn't just like a company dinner.
This was like with live entertainment.
and out comes Helen Reddy singing I Am Woman and some of her other things.
So I don't have the most auspicious list of early concerts, but I definitely have the ones that can tell a story.
You've got luck,
it seems like.
I've got luck of some kind.
Yes, that would be one way to put it.
I wanted to see if anybody had added on to this.
Well, Mr. Manners is jumping on saying that he's become more a fan of indie folk, which he thinks gets categorized as country, like Parker, a big fan of finding artists before they get big.
Greg Box getting ready for Matt and Aaron air but sent me over a note saying you should check out Lady Bird, great band with country folk and punk influences and really good songwriting.
So good for them.
Shizyu follows up.
Standing outside the hall for seven hours, getting in for the sound check, then almost forced back outside without using the bathrooms.
The guards led us, but then we had to hear the sound check continue as they were doing their little bathroom break as well here.
On the text line, Tom from New Berlin.
Helen Reddy was my first concert at Summerfest, front row center.
It's not just me.
You see?
because sometimes you get taken to shows and they become
the
thing that you remember.
On the other end of the spectrum of live shows are the ones that you think they were a one hit wonder and then you realize they actually have much more talent than they let on.
In my case, it was Rick Springfield.
Remember Jesse's girl and a couple
of other hits from
the 80s and 80s.
Why am I asking Parker?
That's of course not.
Exactly.
Anyway, you're thinking, you know, that Jesse Springfield, he's a one and done kind of thing.
Well, he was appearing at Rockfest in Cadot and we were there to see other groups.
It escapes me who it was.
Maybe it was Boston that year or Hart, I'm not sure.
Anyway, Rick Springfield's on the undercard.
Rick Springfield had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand by the time it was done.
He was a true showman.
The way he was working the crowd, there was so much energy.
People were singing along to, I think he had three top 40 hits, you know, besides Jesse's girl, they were singing along to that.
And you're thinking, I'm cheering like crazy for Rick Springfield.
But again, it comes down to are you, you know, can you put on a show?
And if you can, you know, well, that's great.
You know, good for you.
I would rather see a really good storyteller than a like really good singer.
You know what I mean?
Like somebody who can actually put on a show and just be fun with you for an hour and
a half,
two hours.
Well, not everybody is because when I mentioned Alan Jackson, Alan Jackson's never been, shall we say, an electric performer.
He literally just stands there and plays guitar.
But the songs were so good.
you know, telling a story or whatever that people naturally followed along.
Alicia puts up on YouTube, mine were all Christian rock.
And then Shiju adds there's some decent Christian rock bands that you don't even realize are religious.
That's a whole discussion right there is Christian rock and the ones that are, I'm going to say the word preachy and people think I'm using it improperly.
And those that are more in the the entertainment storytelling end of it.
like country and like other genres as well.
It's why I'm glad there's a song Writers Hall of Fame, not just the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, because I didn't know that.
Oh, oh, well, we're gonna have a conversation sometime about these songwriters.
Okay, all the fame because
Sometimes it is the person who's doing the singing.
There are plenty of singers in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, but you know, then others, they're just behind the scenes.
Adam puts up Arlo Guthrie is one of the best live storyteller musicians that's out there.
Certainly have heard that as much as well.
So you need that whole package to get things done.
And some artists, they have staying power.
There was Rick Springfield all those years later, and
Folks who listen to the show remember last year or no earlier earlier this year when the heck was no, it's late last year Where did I take sherry?
To see air supply when they were in Milwaukee and they were marking that they had been together for nearly 50 years and there they are in Milwaukee singing them a lot of love and Lost in love and all the other love songs that air supply does and they put on a good show You know a good show is gonna sell regardless.
Yeah
I enjoyed seeing Hozier, if you know him at all.
He's from Ireland.
Really good show.
He was so fun.
He's just a funny guy.
That's
what
I need is just somebody that's got a good personality.
Is he the one that had the big hit last year?
You're too sweet for me.
Yes, it is.
Yeah.
I say that only because and I'm not.
ripping the song, but yeah, you ever notice sometimes there's a song and it's the one you hear every time you turn on the radio.
Yeah.
That was for, that was for me for 2024.
It was, you know, if I'm just moving around on music stations and it was like, every time I hear I'm going to take my whiskey needs, you know, a coffee with black on my bed, it's like, yes, I get it.
Yeah.
I get
it.
Um, and especially since, and now we're really getting into songwriting here, said the guy who's never written a song, but there is a difference in a song like that where it's the same chorus and you hear that same chorus repeated like six times through the song.
It kind of, for me, it gets a little irritating.
Contrast that to writers like, say, Billy Joel and or I think Stevie Wonder was another one of them.
Like the second chorus will always be a little bit different.
And then you'll come back to the first chorus, you know, after the third verse.
That little bit of variety in songwriting, I really come to appreciate.
Don Henley is another one.
If I could talk to Don Henley, there would be a little bit about the Eagles.
But I really would want to know more about his songwriting because his lyrics are just so, so good.
I don't know if you have anybody like that that you wish you could talk to about, you know, what inspires them.
Oh, I don't know.
I gotta
think about
that.
I gotta listen to more music.
Like, I know I said that I like to find people before they're big, but I've gotta listen to... Everybody needs more music in their life.
It makes you happy.
It's the good stuff.
Let's go out with Shizhu on YouTube.
Can we talk about baby shark?
In terms of lyrics.
and now that's gonna be stuck in my head for a little while.
We will wrap things up for this Wednesday morning, May 28th, coming up in just a little bit.
Again, a reminder to sign up for our newsletters, plural.
There are all kinds now, including a weekend one that I put together for Sunday mornings.
Sign up for those newsletters at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
I'm Pat Krightlo.
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 baseball on your radio as early as later this morning on some stations across the Civic Media Radio Network.
Coverage begins of the Brewers Red Sox game starting at 11.35 this morning on stations in Richland Center, Oshkosh, Racine Kenosha, Park Falls and Hayward.
James Kelly joins us now from Chippewa Falls where he's covering the news for Civic Media for stations throughout Western and Northwest Wisconsin.
Mr. Kelly, how are you?
I'm good, Pat.
How are you doing?
I'm doing great.
Thanks.
Let's jump right into one of your stories here.
And we've talked about it a couple of times leading up to this.
The reminder to folks about supporting programs, food banks, and other things, because summer vacation's coming.
And it's not just that there aren't going to be classes for kids, but there also aren't going to be school lunches for some kids.
And that might be the one good meal they get all day.
Yeah, there's a lot of state programs as well, just across the country generally, where schools will continue to offer that food during the summers or even...
if schools do switch to like a four-day school week instead of a five-day school week they'll still have you know child care availability and food availability on that friday if that's the day they're taking off um but yeah a lot of kids really only get stable meals from school and when they hit the summertime they don't always have access to get that food again so this is just a program that's being run by the Hayward Community Food Shelf
Parents can register.
The official registration date has passed, but they still take late enrollments.
So you still have a chance to reach out and see if you can get your child enrolled in this.
They'll get up to 20 pounds of food a month.
And just kind of a way to make sure that kids are eating enough during the summer, even if they don't always have the best access to food.
Yeah, I mean it again shines a light on a lot of the cuts that are being made by the Trump administration and things like you know farm to farm to food programs farm to table programs and others that benefit schools and food pantries It's nice that community groups are stepping up.
It's it's a very laudable thing But again, it's happening because our tax dollars are being taken away from programs like that and not given back to us but moved to tax cuts for
other folks here.
We live in an era now that treats our rivers differently than we used to.
There once upon a time, if you wanted to dam, you put up a dam.
And as we've learned more about ecosystems and things like that, there are times when dams may not necessarily be needed anymore.
And you're following a story related to that by the US Army Corps of Engineers in Western Wisconsin.
Yeah, so they're proposing the removal of two dams along the Canikinik River.
It's actually one of two ongoing projects in that area.
Earlier this year, the Department of Natural Resources awarded a surface water protection grant to kind of build up the bank of the river to prevent sediment and nutrients from seeping into the water.
But over the years, the dam has kind of
degraded the river.
There's more sedimentation.
There's less aquatic diversity.
It's just one of those things where, you know, they're saying, if we just remove these dams, the river will return to its natural setting eventually.
Right.
And by the way, folks who might be confused, there's a KK River in far western Wisconsin.
That is a tributary of the St.
Croix River.
There's another one that is a tributary of the Milwaukee River in that part of the state.
And by the way, for that one as well.
there have been talk about, again, removing some of the man-made impediments that allow sediment to form and things like that.
I recall that with the Milwaukee River when I was working in West Bend, you know, 30 some years ago, they talked about maybe removing some dams.
They don't all get removed.
And then that leads to some issues.
There were some years ago in Bloomer,
where again, the DNR or the Corps of Engineers wanted to remove a dam.
It wasn't needed anymore, but it would have meant draining, you know, the lake that's there in Bloomer and folks had gotten rather used to it.
And so they said, well, you can keep it, but I mean, you can rebuild it, but it'd have to be in private funds.
And they managed to do that.
And so they've got it back.
But like you said, it comes with the sedimentation.
Lake Altoona is notorious for the sedimentation that's there.
So in all of these cases, you know, there are a lot of factors to consider that I'm sure
they're going to continue following out there in San Croy County.
Yeah, and that's an overall.
topic I guess of Western Wisconsin right now.
There's a much bigger focus on protecting the quality of water in rivers in the in the water table below the ground.
One of the big pushbacks against that concentrated animal feeding operation expansion in Pierce County is that there's not really enough of regulation on manure spread and they're afraid that that's going to be seeping into the water supply and just causing general pollution.
So you know in recent years there's been a much bigger focus put on just the quality of water and what's going into the water.
Yeah.
And as you follow stories up closer to Superior and Duluth, the, again, the problem of homelessness is in a growing number of communities in our area, Duluth, Superior among them.
And people are looking at different ways to address them, some more popular than others.
Yeah, so this is a it's a safe bay which is essentially a place where unhoused individuals who have a vehicle because quite frankly a vehicle is a lot more affordable than rent or a house Can park their cars vehicles trucks, whatever and sleep in them overnight now this
facility existed in Duluth already.
It was being run by CHUM, a nonprofit up there that is currently undergoing renovations and is not able to run that facility anymore.
So the city planning commission granted a permit approval for a local church.
to have that there.
And now some neighbors have appealed to the approval of that permit.
So it'll have to go back through the city council.
And now the site is temporarily shut down.
But this is not a problem that's unique to Eau Claire.
Ashland has had a number of problems with homeless encampments.
Duluth last year had a problem with an encampment just outside city hall.
affordable housing is a problem everywhere.
Very much so.
But I'd never heard that approach of people who are at least living out of their cars have a place where they can all go with their cars.
I know I've been working with Hope Village here in Chippewa Falls on their tiny houses program.
That's just a stone's throw away from where I am.
And that maybe this tiny houses is
approach is a way to address homelessness as well.
So again, many moving parts that James Kelly is following for us in Chippewa Falls.
James, thanks so much.
Appreciate you joining us.
Have a great day.
YouTube app.
All right.
Appreciate all of you joining us as well.
Tomorrow we'll have Jeremy Granger from Citizen Action On.
We'll have Sean O'Malley to talk about money and markets.
We'll have Chad Holmes.
We'll have Joseph Peckie and much more.
Up North News is a part of Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy newsroom.
Head to couriernewsroom.com to read much more.
And of course, Up North News, wi.com too.
I'm Pat Critello.
We'll see you tomorrow morning.
Up North.
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