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On the Civic Media radio network, this is a special live edition of Mornings with Pat Critello powered by Up North News.
Pest Not Live from Lake Basota where he normally is.
Instead, he's live, but he's kind of stuck in Canada.
Joining us now is the founding editor of Up
North News,
Pat
Critewell.
The OBGYN is the one telling Regina jokes around here.
So good morning, everybody.
Welcome back.
It is 606 here in Regina's Saskatchewan on the Prairies, 706 back in Wisconsin.
Nice to have you along as we get rolling here with an up north, up north, up north, up north edition of the show.
It's not just that
Tony's making comments up north in Ashland or that Kristen Lyrely's up north in Hibbing, Minnesota, but somebody had to be up north of the border for the weekend and tried to get back yesterday and his flight was canceled.
So we're going back to the airport in Regina, even before the show is over to try to make sure I can get home again and see if they'll let me back through.
But in the meantime, today we've got Jeff Mandel from Law Forward joining us at the bottom of the hour here to talk about the group's efforts to avoid future instances of attempted billionaire bribery of our elections.
In our eight o'clock hour, we'll talk to author Laura Bird about memoirs.
Oh, they're not quite the same as autobiographies.
And then she's got several great recommendations for memoirs that you can put on your summer reading list.
We'll talk a little sports from over the weekend.
Jimmy Costco will be along.
John and Gordy from our Madison Civic Media Station will be here.
Jane Mattner will preview her show coming up next on the Civic Media Radio Network.
But first, I can report that from up here, it was sunny and near the mid-80s, Brittany, yesterday, where my first sunburn of the year
came in Saskatchewan of all places.
Wow.
Any any chance that that streak of warm weather continues when I get back to Wisconsin?
Hopefully today?
Well, the warmth will be here.
We're waiting for you.
I promise you that sunshine.
that's going to be far in a few between unfortunately.
So we do have spots of it right now this morning.
It is much further off to the east and down to the south.
We are looking at swaths of moderate rain trying to roll in now towards Madison area.
We've also got a few tiny little storms popping up from La Crosse up north just to the east of the Chippewa Valley.
Of course those will be moving east as they go through this late morning.
Otherwise this afternoon pretty calm out there.
We will see partial sunshine highs will reach
about 80 to 85 degrees today.
It's gonna be warm.
It's gonna be muggy.
You can already feel it.
It's kind of sticky out there this morning.
Plus, we've got chances for strong to severe thunderstorms pushing through this evening.
So, as this warm front lifts in, storms are gonna be sparking up and a cold front does move through behind that.
So, this evening, probably around six to eight o'clock or so, far northwest, it's probably the worst chances for these storms to have some large hail.
damaging high wind gusts and a tornado is possible too.
So keep an eye on that.
This area of course will be from Polk to St.
Croix to Pierce counties and then a slight risk still continues into the Eau Claire, Chippewa Valley, even up towards Douglas County and all the way down towards Trempelow County.
Those are severe areas where we are looking at those storms still staying strong.
Now as they move towards the central parts of the state and off east through about
evening.
Now this is after dark, probably around midnight or so to be towards the Dells and Green Bay and then overnight towards Madison and Milwaukee.
It should weekend.
Of course, hail and high winds are still possible, but that tornado risk kind of winds down as we go into the evening.
So that's moving through this evening and we're still going to hang on to the heat and humidity tomorrow.
More storms are going to be popping up.
We'll keep tracking that for you.
We got to get through today first.
So stay weather savvy this evening.
All right, we will do that.
Brittany Merleau, thank you so much.
Appreciate it.
Yeah.
All
right.
Uh, geez, we were so busy in our last hour.
I didn't even...
get to the Brewers taking three out of four from the Cardinals over the weekend, which was a pretty nice deal.
You had Christian Yelich hitting a home run.
Trevor McGill escaped a jam in the ninth inning and gave the Brewers a three-two victory over the Cards in the finale of that four-game series.
The Brewers took three out of four from St.
Louis.
They've won four out of their last six.
Today, the Brewers have their first day off since the start of that 10-day homestand, which they split five wins, five losses.
Now they're on the
road this week with three games at Wrigley against the Chicago Cubs, then a weekend series next weekend at Target Field against the Minnesota Twins, and as for the Brewers playing the Cubs in this upcoming series, again off today, but it resumes tomorrow at Wrigley Field.
Pre-game begins at 630 on several civic media stations.
Head over to CivicMedia.us to learn more.
The NBA Finals are tied up at two games apiece.
Game five is tonight in Oklahoma City against Indiana.
And up here in hockey, the Stanley Cup Finals where folks up here would normally be rooting for maybe Calgary or Edmonton.
Edmonton is in the Stanley Cup Finals and they are down three games to two.
Florida could clinch the cup tomorrow, game six in Florida.
But if Edmonton wins, game seven will be Friday in Edmonton and
Believe me, everybody around here, everybody around here is, you know, we'll have Oilers Gear and just be rooting to finally give Canada their first Stanley Cup in a long, long time.
And Kristen, you've got enough hockey going up around you to know that there are probably not a lot of Florida Panthers fans up on the range there.
Yeah, no.
I mean, I'm like 30 minutes away from the US Hockey Hall of Fame.
It's all about the hockey up here.
But we don't get that so much in Wisconsin because we don't have a pro team.
No, I know.
And we haven't seen the wild or the Blackhawks do much in several years in terms of advancing.
So for us, it's much more of a national thing here, whether a Canadian team is going to win or not, or a team from Florida.
I think we got to lean in more with regards to hockey on.
Badger women's hockey because
they are awesome all the time.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, no, we have championed them a lot here and we'll continue to do so.
Let's see, from Robin Tigerton, he says, gotta go find it here.
Good morning from Tigerton.
Cloudy in 55, I was busy Saturday doing a mowing job with the recent rains and warmer weather.
I will be busy mowing lawns while dodging the raindrops.
He said last night he had homemade pizza at his sister Lori's house in Caroline.
She and her granddaughter Evelyn are going to Belgium for a two week tour.
Let's see, he says his thoughts and prayers are with the families of the two Minnesota lawmakers.
It's sad why people have to have different political views that can't get along and talk about their differences.
Says that yesterday his cousin Lori Gripentrog passed away.
She operated Matthew's supper club in Clintonville and gave me a spaghetti dinner for my birthday.
stay on the family farm when we were growing up, and then again wants to say five of the best people to wake up to on a Monday, Pat, Kristen, Selena, Brittany, and Parker.
So thank you very much for all of that.
Cassandra adds, by the way, congrats to Kakana, softball, for winning the state title.
Go, ghosts, woo, woo!
Not just the state title, an undefeated season, all the way through, not a single loss to Kakana.
Did they
lose ever?
I don't
think they
lose at all.
I think they lost one game last season and I think they've won five years in a row.
They're ridiculously good.
This is not the Kokona I went to high school in.
This is a whole new thing.
Yeah, Kristen's gone.
We can be good at sports now.
Uh, congrats to all the champions, Kokona in division one, Denmark in division two, point net in division three, Michakot in D four and Belmont in division five.
Those are all of your state softball champions.
So thanks to everybody for reminding us to, uh, say.
our best to all those softball teams for a great season.
Selena Heller talked to one of the organizers of the Chippewa Valley No Kings Rally, one of many that were held across the country over the weekend.
So Selena tells us a bit more.
We've introduced or we've spoken to the organizer.
We've heard from her on this program before and you got a chance to talk to her with her thoughts on how things went over the weekend.
Cindy Greening is the leader of the Chippewa Valley Indivisible group that organized the No Kings rally here in Eau Claire on Saturday and then also Chippewa Falls later that day.
So there are different estimates of the crowd size or either 3,000 to 4,000 or just over that.
So there is a big turnout and she said it was it was kind of one of those events and days that kind of restores your faith in humanity kind of a thing.
So it was just a positive thing and this is
what she had to say about the event on Saturday in Eau Claire.
The main thing we started with, honestly, we talked about refreshing the Tree of Liberty and that we were getting together because there are no kings in America, not now, not ever, and that we were here to celebrate we the people and to fight for our democracy and stand for our rights, that we were going to stand together with our friends and neighbors in our community to protect
seniors to protect veterans to protect children to protect people you know to make sure that we had a government that worked for us and not the billionaires and that we had economic justice for all people so that a decent week of work gave you a decent living that was our stand and then and our chant was we are peaceful we are joyful we are free and we love democracy.
And so one of the things she said, even though like you have to keep having more events and more rallies going forward and kind of the things to do next.
And one of those things to do next is involve more people.
And so that's what she talked about here.
One of my favorite things that happened yesterday in my speech, I said, you know, we need to welcome everyone.
I welcome everyone who's here.
The Dems are here.
The progressives are here.
The 5051 is here.
The Working Family Party, the unions.
And I hope our Republican friends are here and the whole audience cheered.
And I'm like, you guys, that's awesome.
We need them.
thank you for cheering we want our republican friends with us and so it was amazing that was like one of those moments that gave me goosebumps seriously because there was no like booing there was nothing it was just like yes they are our community too we want them safe too and so that's what we're working on now getting more people to join us and then working on these things that are supporting the people who have money
so that we can have a representative government with a vote for us and what we need.
So she said it was just a kind of a just generally a nice positive event where they set out on a march and there were so many people this march was almost two miles long and The beginning did got back and the end still hadn't left.
Yeah
Yeah, it was just the people waited patiently an hour and to get in to be in that line to march around the town and it was just a neat event.
She said
Wow was it that?
That's an amazing turnout.
And Kristen, you said you saw a great turnout in northern Minnesota of all places.
Yeah, we had over 500 people in a town that only has 3,000 people.
Pretty impressive.
And they were all over the place.
I mean, if you looked at the No Kings maps, they were up in Canada.
They were in Europe.
They were in Guam on almost every continent because people, there are Americans everywhere.
There are people who stand with us everywhere.
And I love your point, Selena, about it's not Democrats.
It's not Republicans.
It's about us.
Yeah.
without a doubt.
Kristen, we've got a minute here before break.
You want to tell us what is happening on the Dr. Kristen Lyrely show?
Oh my gosh, we had such a great light episode over the weekend.
I just had a nice conversation with Pete Chwaba.
Pete, our host for Nightlight on Civic Media.
He unpacked some parts of his history.
He was a stand-up comedian, and he had this great movie that he directed, produced, wrote, and starred in called The Godfather of Green Bay.
I'm determined to turn it into a cult class.
watch for it this fall.
the Godfather of Green Bay.
It's so good.
There's the Macarena.
They're all these little green.
I mean, if you love the Packers, if you get Northeast Wisconsin, you got to see it.
Okay.
Well, there you go.
All right.
Well, we'll look forward to that.
Kristen Lierly is with us here as is Selena Heller, Up North News reporter and still ahead, we will be talking to Jeff Mandel from Law Forward, then author Laura Bird, yet before things are all done from the heart of America's Up North, all the way to the Canadian
Thanks for making this a place to spend part of your mornings.
I'm Pac Rightlow and this is the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll be back.
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Well, getting back to the news of the day now at 7.23 here across the Civic Media Radio Network, I'm Pat Krightlow along with Kristen Lierly and Selena Heller.
I do have to note that before the tragic events in Minnesota over the weekend, there was some other news I was going to be spending more time on, and that was the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee working on a new state budget.
And deciding rather than going along with Governor Evers and improving mental health resources in our schools,
or even staying flat, they cut the funding.
They put a cut into the funding of mental health resources.
You know, the same people, Kristen, who tell us when there is some kind of a terrible shooting incident, oh, we don't need to do anything about the guns.
We need to take care of mental health.
It's a mental health problem, and then they go and do this.
And we are experiencing record numbers of mental health issues as a population right now.
We need more resources in mental health, and we just frankly don't have enough.
I'm way up in Northern Minnesota.
We admitted somebody from Southern...
in Minnesota, they went right through the cities and came right up to us because there were no resources there for them.
Come on, guys,
let's
work together.
And you there's such long waiting list to get in and that's something you don't need a waiting list.
You can't have a waiting list for months, months to get to somebody.
Yeah, I mean, it just it just won't get done.
So I wanted to make sure to pass that along.
There was also the military parade in Washington, DC over the weekend, which
Again is no knock on our military.
I have said the army deserved a better 250th birthday than to become one president's vanity project and it was
Underwhelming I mean the the crowds especially we I thought maybe there'd be a lot of people going there to protest the parade And then that just would have given Donald Trump what he wanted, you know confrontation Instead everybody rallied and did stuff in their hometowns all around the country and it was I don't want to say it was crickets for the parade But it was the next best thing like the last part of the parade was like one tank
and the crowd was so small you could hear it squeaking as it went
by.
Importantly, I think we have to mention that they don't drill for this.
You know, in other countries, they drill for parades.
Our army does not drill for parades because that is not something that we don't have to do a show of strength.
We are the United States army.
So happy birthday to the army.
Thank you for all.
You're like moms.
You're always there.
You're not showy.
We know we can count on you.
We are so profoundly grateful and sad that this president felt that he needed to co-opt your birthday for his own party.
Yeah and and at Selena at such a price at 45 what that 45 million dollars could do for veterans in Wisconsin.
Yes.
For their health care.
Oh so much.
I read so many things over the weekend about that kind of thing and you know and all of the veterans who were out in the know.
Kings rallies too.
And that just goes to show, you know, they have they have different thoughts on that matter.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, again, there were there were veterans there that there were World War two veterans at some of these places saying I fought Nazis the first time, you know, willing to do it again.
There were places where elderly veterans were, you know, arrested because they were protesting and, you know, law enforcement at some community or another didn't like what what they were doing.
But
No, it again, it cuts across all demographics, including Republicans, including veterans, including fiscal conservatives, you know, who looked at the cost of that parade and who look at the budget cuts and see that the budget cuts are just going to billionaire tax breaks.
And so those aren't the kind of budget cuts that they were looking for.
So that to me, Kristen, was
One of the main themes of the weekend was the unity.
There was unity in grief, of course, at what happened in Minnesota, but there was unity and purpose as to why people wanted to get together this weekend and send this message.
And rallies aren't for everyone.
There are a lot of people who feel uncomfortable in those big environments where, I mean, let's be honest, especially in Minnesota,
People were warned not to go there because of the potential for conflict.
But there are so many other ways, too, where you can show your support for each other.
Pay more attention to good news outlets.
You can volunteer in your community.
You can do something as simple as call an old friend and have a real conversation that has facts and feelings in it.
We need to reconnect with each other.
And a rally is just one place where you can find like-minded people who feel the same way that you do about what's happening in this country and where we can take it.
Yeah, and we can do these things with a minimal drama.
I was in a chat group with some family members.
Again, lovely people, but as they were starting to go off on a tangent about vaccines, you don't have to pick a fight.
I just calmly grabbed the proper fact check about what they were talking about, dropped it into the chat and
that was kind of the end of it, because again, it's just like, look, we can all talk, but let's go find a trusted resource and see what they have to say.
Not the kind of honestly garbage that Robert Kennedy Jr.
was saying about the polio vaccine and killed more people than it helped or something.
Just something ridiculous with, again, no evidence, no nothing to back it up.
And we should just simply expect
and if you're not sure about something, then just keep poking around, Kristen.
We don't get to say to Dr. Lierly, well, we'll just agree to disagree.
No, one went to medical
school.
I don't mean to assert my dominance in this situation.
I want to have a conversation.
You know, when I am meeting with a patient and their family in an exam room, I want to hear everything that they are worried about.
I want to debunk misinformation because there's so much out there.
When we hear Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
talking about polio or about how he's going to have the cure for autism come September, you know that that is political and that is misinformation.
There is no cure for autism.
It is multi-fact.
There are lots of different things.
And yeah, there's an environmental aspect to it.
But vaccines are not the cause for autism.
Vaccines have been an incredible advance in public health.
They've saved so many lives.
And we need to have these conversations.
If we don't, misinformation will fill in the gaps and people will die.
Catch the Dr. Kristen Lierley show on the Civic Media Radio Network over the weekends and Selena Heller on social media for Up North News, search for Up North News, WI.
Selena, bring your cat to work day.
Thank you.
There you go.
Take care, Kristen.
I'll talk to you later in the week.
Let me know if you need any help with your Regina Sunburn.
Oh, geez.
One more.
How to get one more.
Moving on, we'll talk to Jeff Mandel from Law Forward next here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
So, live radio is fun.
Live radio can be funny.
Today is
the day of all days.
Today of, yeah, exactly.
Let me tell you before we tell you why we don't have a guest coming up here.
I will tell you that, again, for folks watching on social media and they're going, why is there a fake background behind you?
Well, because I'm in a friend's guest bedroom in Regina where I'm currently stranded.
And there's nothing on the walls here.
So I took a picture of the backyard where I would love to be doing the show, but it's too far away from their router.
And you can't really see Parker from here, but look around in here.
There are prairie dog holes in this thing.
There are prairie dogs out in this backyard.
They're on a couple of acres here.
I
didn't
realize there
was that much nature there.
Wow.
Oh yeah, yeah, so I go upstairs and sherry's up on the deck there, you know, and taking in the sunrise, and is watching the prairie dogs.
Frolicking in the backyard.
So I got that going for me, which is like if you're gonna be stuck in Canada for one extra day, you know You may as well make the best of it with the prairie dogs Anyway, so I'm I'm upstairs doing that and then come back down and expecting to see Jeff Mandel from law forward and we've we've learned a lesson here today about the the worldwide reach of civic media and the many studios that you have and you often hear me say that Parker is in studio a2 well, they're
There is an A1, and it's where John and Gordy do their show for the local Madison Station.
And that's the one that you see when you first walk into the Civic Media offices.
You see that spacious A1.
Parker's in a broom closet down the hall.
Yeah, pretty much.
That's A2.
And it works.
It works fine, especially since he put that Civic Media banner up behind him so it no longer looks as sparse as this guest bedroom looks.
So at least we know.
However,
When our guest arrived and only saw Studio A1 and the guys there said, well, we don't have you down as a guest, Jeff headed back out so we don't have Jeff Mandel here right now.
So it's somebody that will reach and rebook at another time and put them on there.
In the meantime, you get me talking about prairie dogs and things like that.
Hey, I like that.
I
can listen
to prairie dog talk.
Yeah.
Totally does, and we have other things, of course, to go over things that we didn't think we'd have time for because of the events over the weekend and the guests that we have and everything else going on.
For example, the Democratic State Convention did take place over the weekend, and a new chair was elected, and it is Devin Remaker.
Devin was the former executive director of the party.
He was endorsed by Ben Wickler, the outgoing chair, and one, he...
had a lead after the first round of voting, not quite a majority, and then what happened is they used ranked choice voting.
And so the person who came in third in this case was William Garcia, so he was eliminated.
And in ranked choice voting, if you're not familiar with it, you don't just fill out a ballot with one person's name.
you can rank the candidates as many as you want or as few as you want.
In this case, I'm guessing almost everybody ranked a one, two, and three on theirs.
And so with William Garcia coming in third and being eliminated, they look at all of his ballots and say, okay, now take his.
number two choices and go over here.
And when all was said and done, there were just enough more votes for Devon Remaker to give him a majority and hence a victory over Joseph Pecky in this race.
Though I don't doubt for a moment that Joseph Pecky and William Garcia are going to stay active and positive and united.
That's what the party is looking for, heading into the 2026 cycle, when they're taking on people like Derek Van Orden.
And I believe Tony's putting up on YouTube right now.
Can we just riff on how awful Derek Van Orden is?
I think like a whole segment, swearing optional.
Yeah, swearing don't have to be optional because of, you know, the way that radio works.
However, in light of the murder of a
Minnesota lawmaker and her husband and the shooting and wounding of another Minnesota lawmaker and his wife.
Derek Van Orden was among those spreading misinformation and essentially downright gleeful almost in their sounding about, oh, this was a far lefty who shot and killed these people and wounded these people.
And that wasn't the case at all.
This was a typical white Christian nationalist who would work for security firms who had done some preaching that could very easily be called politically extreme.
And he was one of theirs.
But because it wasn't obvious at first, people like Van Orden and Scott Walker and Utah Senator Mike Lee were spreading misinformation in, again, an almost gleeful way.
And then when somebody called out Van Orden on it, and I don't have the exact tweet in front of me, but saying something about, you know, we'll get you next time.
And it was obvious from anybody's point of view that this person was talking about at the ballot box, Derek Van Orden, coming up for reelection in 2026.
And again, a sitting congressman had to do the most juvenile of things and say, what do you mean next time?
Is that a threat?
I'm gonna have you reported or something like that.
That's the kind of insecure person we have representing Congress in the third district right now in Western and parts of Central Wisconsin.
And again, I could spend time telling you the kinds of things that Scott Walker said or others that said it.
I'm gonna leave it there to say that, thank goodness, there are now places like Civic Media, Up North News, Courier Newsroom, and others because there's no, I have no confidence that some of the more traditional media sites would tell you all of this.
Instead, they would simply get away with it or they would, they would.
say something about, well, somebody was fact challenged or premature in their speculation about the events.
No, they were straight up passing along misinformation, which, again, any old keyboard warrior can do that.
Not an elected official.
Again, there's supposed to be a higher standard.
And when Tony puts on YouTube there, you know, the thinnest skin politician I've ever seen, he's not kidding.
because we've talked about this with Van Orden and others.
I think of legislators, a good example would be State Senator Romain Quinn up in Rice Lake.
They love to get into the comment sections and mix it up with people.
And by mix it up, I don't mean simply setting the record straight.
I'm talking a level of insults and things like that that are just, again, should be beneath the dignity of the office.
And I know we talk a lot about how we get cynical about politicians and we don't hold them to as high a standard as we should.
The fact of the matter is we should.
The fact of the matter is we do spend so much time trashing politicians that now far too many politicians think, well, I guess that's what we're supposed to be is we're supposed to be down here in the gutter.
It's certainly the kind of thing that, you know, Donald Trump normalized starting 10 years ago today when he went for that ride down that escalator.
We don't have to let that happen and that was really a big part of the point of view of the rallies So I mean look you're you're gonna have people that would rather Make up impressions of the of that military parade much like Trump's first inauguration and try to talk about crowd size and that it was all of that no
our wonderful military was co-opted by a president who was as insecure as Derek Van Orden or anybody else.
Cassandra puts up on YouTube, honestly, two people were brutally murdered and all they wanna do is develop conspiracy theories.
Imagine how their children are feeling today and Hartman's son is getting married later this year and now his mom and his dad won't be there.
Again, they're humans and yet we've had such a trend of
dehumanizing politicians that come from other politicians who either dehumanize their opponents or they dehumanize people like immigrants.
And that's the thing to keep in mind about this particular tragedy, when this happened.
It's also part of what led to the conspiracy theories to begin with.
And what I mean by that is, let's talk about Representative Melissa Hortman for a moment.
the one who was murdered along with her husband.
She had been Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives for six years prior and actually should have still been Speaker, but when Donald Trump won election in November, there were enough other close races that for a time the Minnesota House of Representatives was split down the middle, 67 and 67.
And so in a power sharing agreement, Melissa Hortman stepped down as speaker, served instead as Democratic leader and a Republican was serving as the speaker.
They're doing their state budget cycle right now, same as here in Wisconsin.
Unlike Wisconsin, where state government doesn't shut down if there's no budget deal, then the old budget just continues.
In Minnesota, there can be a shutdown of state government if a new budget bill isn't passed.
And that means a lot of essential services don't get carried out.
Melissa Hortman made the politically courageous decision to understand that sometimes you don't get everything you want, but you still serve the greater good.
It brought her much pain to agree to this budget deal where Republicans were threatening to shut down state government.
unless the budget deal included a provision that would make undocumented immigrants in Minnesota ineligible for the state's version of Medicaid, the health care program for low-income residents.
So again, let me make this clear.
This was Minnesota Republicans saying we will shut down government because we want to tell fellow human beings they're not human enough for us to get help when they're sick.
or ill or in an accident.
Hortman, being the leader of the Democrats, did not put anybody else at political risk.
To make sure that the bill would pass and state government would continue on, she was the lone Democratic vote.
So that that bill would pass, I would imagine 68 to 66.
And she was in tears afterwards.
She told reporters afterwards, I know people will be hurt by that vote.
But she said, I did what leaders do.
I stepped up and I got the job done for the people of Minnesota.
It did lead to speculation and rampant misinformation that it was that vote that triggered what they wanted to believe was a left-wing gunman who killed her and her husband and shot and wounded another legislator and his wife.
But this gunman's history is very much in line with growing right-wing violence.
it was clear this was something that he had been planning for a time.
There were the preparations there.
And while we don't know his full motives, let's say this much.
The Minnesota House of Representatives is now one Democrat short.
And for a time, the Minnesota Senate will be one Democrat short.
It too is closely divided.
And the only right thing to happen right now
is for the Republicans in the Minnesota House and the Senate for that matter to say that there will be one of their own members who will not be casting votes, that you will not let murder determine the voting majority and political control in the Minnesota legislature.
That's a must.
It's an absolute must.
Maybe it's happened already, I haven't checked.
I certainly don't expect Republican leadership to be defiant about this somehow.
They joined with Minnesota Democrats in condemning these killings.
And by the way, the same happened for the big four in Wisconsin, where the Democratic and Republican leaders all made statements together condemning this violence.
You cannot allow it to change the voting counts.
in these places because if we do, I mean, I already fear we're going to see more of this as it is, it's just not something we want to encourage.
John and Gordy and Laura Bird are in her next hour here on 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.
Where the Prairie dogs are gallivanting here in Saskatchewan.
Welcome back to the program packed right low up here in Regina, stranded, heading to the airport soon.
Hoping today's flight will go off without a hitch.
Then there's Parker Olson in Madison A2.
If you missed that story, he's not an A1.
We'll talk to John and Gordy about that coming up in 15 minutes.
And Jimmy Cuska joins us right now to talk about sports as well.
Jimmy, how are ya?
I'm doing great.
It's funny.
The last time I was in Canada, I was covering Northwoods League Baseball.
The Eau Claire Express played Thunder Bay.
So that's the last time I actually got to go to Canada, and that was more of a work thing.
So I'm a little jealous of you because Canada is awesome.
It is awesome, and we had a lovely time.
We just weren't expecting it to be extended by 24 hours.
There's a Tim Hortons, of course, everywhere here.
So we had our Tim Hortons coffee and a donut at the airport, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and finally they announced that they
You know, can't fix whatever is with the plane and it's canceled.
So if nothing else, you know, in about an hour or so, I'm going to get another Tim Horton's breakfast and coffee and a donut.
And we'll see if things go better before I try to escape Canada once again.
So we've had a busy weekend in sports.
You had the brewers taking three or four from the Cardinals.
And now it's another big week for the brewers.
They get today off, but it's not much rest given what lies ahead of them this week.
This week is a massively important week for them because they have a chance to make up some serious ground in the standings.
They'll play the Cubs for three games this week, and the Cubs, of course, are leading the NL Central.
So for the Brewers who are still trailing in the wildcard race, they have a big opportunity to move up.
And what is really shaping up to be a pretty crowded chase for that wildcard spot?
But more importantly, if they want to get back into it in the division, I mean, this is a big opportunity for them here in the middle of June to start making some ground.
up making some moves.
We've seen in MLB already that just seeing what teams are doing, the Red Sox just dealt away their best player for prospects yesterday.
I mean, we're getting close to the trade deadline and everything else.
In the MLB, things are fascinating this time of year.
Who did the Red Sox deal away?
Deltaway, Davis.
Big, big time hitter.
You got you at the San Francisco
for four prospects.
So, wow.
Okay.
As for the Brewers yesterday, Christian Yelich, Homer, Trevor McGill got out of a jam in the ninth inning to give the Brewers that three, two victory over the Cardinals, taking three out of four.
Quinn Priester pitched six innings, giving up only one run.
So again, the on again off again Brewers pitching, you know, was on again yesterday.
And now this is their first day off since that started that 10 game homestand back on the road.
Cubs, then Twins, Cubs starting tomorrow, 6.30 the pregame on several civic media stations.
Jimmy, what was your thoughts on the departure of a key member of the Packers roster, Jair Alexander?
You know, for the Packers, this is...
was this was coming months ago.
I think we knew this was happening for a while.
There wasn't going to be a happy ending to that one.
Money's involved and everything like that.
A big contract, a big amount of money was due to him.
And the Packers just couldn't rely on him.
And we heard it from Brian Gudekunst that, you know, they've they've they've put a lot of
of effort into making him available.
They've given him plenty of time to come back from injuries, things like that.
But boy, the price tag was just a big one to swallow if you weren't going to get him for the majority of games this year.
So be curious to see where he goes.
He's obviously going to have a lot of interest.
Defensive back is a very important position in the NFL.
But the way the contract was, it just wasn't going to happen the way for a happy ending without him changing his contract.
It wasn't going to be Jair and Green Bay too much longer.
No.
Let's go to high school next, then.
The softball championships were held over the weekend.
Congrats to Kakana for an undefeated season in Division I, Denmark in D2, Poinet D3, Michikot, your Division IV champion, and Belmont in Division V, as we continue, Jimmy, a busy postseason tournament time for spring high school sports.
Yeah, this week is a great week because state baseball is one of my favorite events to broadcast from.
This is being held at the Wisconsin Timber Rattler Stadium in Grand Chute.
So for people that go out there, if you're a fan of high school sports, the baseball state championship is a good one.
And then, of course, Girl Soccer at the E-Line Soccer Complex in Milwaukee is later this week.
And then that's it for high school sports.
Believe it or not, we're done.
High school sports for this school year is over.
And then it's just a little more than two months away from high school football on August 21.
So we are at the end of the school year for high school sports.
And it wraps up with a couple of great tournaments to enjoy with baseball and girls soccer.
I feel like we get into that time where we're Jimmy and we're Chad Holmes.
They just kind of hibernate.
They go into a little hovel and they curl up for a while.
And then it's football time again.
Let's see.
But we still have winter sports going on.
The Stanley Cup finals continue tomorrow in Florida, where the Panthers could clinch the Stanley Cup.
But if Edmonton can win in Florida, they
They will force a game seven on Friday night in Edmonton, and I might stay up here in Canada just for that.
That could happen.
The NBA Finals, they have game five tonight in Oklahoma City.
That series is tied 2-2.
Any thoughts on the basketball or the hockey there, Jimmy?
I want to say this.
I am insanely jealous that you were in Canada during the Stanley Cup finals.
Just going to put that out there.
That is way cool.
What's great about both of these series, they might not be the big name teams that are in the finals in either sport, the NHL or the NBA.
But I tell you what, these are two very entertaining finals.
The NBA finals being now a best of three is absolutely fascinating.
There's a lot of young players, a lot of young talent for both Oklahoma City and Indiana, which is awesome.
The NBA finals being a best of three at this point.
I know that they're small market teams.
The NBA people are probably tearing their hair out.
But that's a fantastic finish to the NBA season.
The NHL, like you said, we
Game 7 is a possibility if we get to that this week.
There's nothing better than Game 7 and playoff hockey.
Nothing.
Honestly, nothing in sports.
And then finally, back to the basketball.
And Orlando making some kind of a big trade.
What does that do to the speculation on Yanis and Milwaukee?
I tell you what, if Desmond Mayn is worth four unprotected first-round picks, what is Yanis worth?
You know, does any team have that kind of move to make?
I mean, does the Bucks take anything less now than four first round draft picks for someone like Giannis if they were to deal?
I don't think he gets traded, but that trade is fascinating just on a number of levels in that the trade value for any star in the NBA has gone up with that trade.
All right, Jimmy Cosco, thank you so much as always.
Have a great Monday.
Thank you.
All right.
Hey, coming up in our eight o'clock hour, we are going to have author Laura Bird.
But first, we're going to talk to John and Gordy.
We're going to get an updated forecast from meteorologist Brittany Merlot.
And remember, you can follow my team at Up North News all day long.
If we're not stranded in Canada, you can get our newsletter, social media, our website, upnorthnewswi.com.
And of course, here, mornings on the Civic Media Radio Network.
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