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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.
Hey, good morning.
It is 806.
Nice to have you here up north on this Wednesday, June 18th.
I'm up here in Chippewa Falls.
Parker Olson is in Madison Studio A2.
We will be joined shortly by Earl Ingram, and then later Melissa Baldoff.
James Kelly will give us an update from our Chippewa Falls newsroom as well.
But first, here's meteorologist Brittany Merleau to tell us that there's some rain going on out there.
And then there's going to be some more rain.
And then there's going to be some heat.
some high heats.
You really simplify it, Pat.
Yeah.
That's
basically what's going to happen.
It's wet and then it's hot.
Thankfully, I don't have to give you the specifics.
Brittany tracks all of those things.
So here's where she says it's going to go.
Here we go.
It's summer, right?
Not officially yet, meteorologically it is, but the first day of summer is just two days away and we are definitely going to be feeling it.
So here's what we've got going on this morning.
It's upper 50s, temperature-wise up north.
We've got some sunshine, lucky you.
Down south, not the same.
It is cloudy, overcast, low 70s.
It's a little bit warmer and we've got some rain moving in.
Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, you're about to get some.
Also, more is moving into western parts of the state, south.
A lot of southern parts of the state are going to get hit with some soaking rain today.
We could see some thunderstorms embedded in there too.
And far southeast, you could see some potentially flash flooding events going on because you could get an inch to two inches of rainfall total throughout today.
So areas down south, it's going to be a soaker up north, a little bit less of that.
We will get cloudy and we will see chances for showers and storms, especially this afternoon and evening, but none of them are really looking strong or severe.
So as we
go through tomorrow we are going to start to heat things up a little bit more upper 70s to the low 80s showers and storms are expected again in the afternoon and then another round at night which could be strong to severe and then of course more on Friday as a warm front lifts through those have the potential to be strong to severe once again and then we're going to be in the sauna that's what I'm calling it because two points are going to be in the mid 70s which is
Pretty impressive.
That is very muggy, hot and humid conditions.
Paired with temperatures in the 90s, our heat index is going to feel like 100 degrees on both Saturday and Sunday.
So start hydrating right now.
So we've got grandkids coming to visit the younger ones this weekend, three and six years old.
And so at first we thought, well, okay, pontoon ride, that's
going to
be a must.
But then we looked a little bit more about the forecast and decided that we got ahead to the garage today.
We got to dig out all those sprinkler toys.
Oh, that's perfect.
A little kid slip and slide and of course all the little, you know, little water guns and things like that.
So if anybody's interested, right low backyard, we'll have all the water toys out this weekend.
That is the best way to stay cool and have some smiles too.
How adorable.
I love it.
You know, when you mentioned the first day of summer, it gives me that every season changes.
I get this whole thing about the earth, you know, being on its axis the way that
it
is.
And
that's
why, you know, you have
Like up at the North Pole, you're going to have six months of daylight, you know, as opposed to six months in the wintertime of complete and total darkness.
And it's still, I know this goes way beyond the weather, but why are we tilted the way that we are?
It's 23.5 degrees because I looked it up because that's what you do.
But
why?
Why are why is it tilted that much, which gives us seasons and all those other good things.
But, you know, there's.
speculation that maybe a long time ago you know there was a collision somewhere and you know out there that knocked knocked us off our axis a little bit
But it's just about
right.
Yeah.
I mean, it feels like the kind of thing, you know, as some other planet went, oh, I'm just going to slide by you right there.
Don't worry about me.
Yeah.
And they
said, oh,
yep.
Yeah.
They said, oh,
that's exactly what happened.
Of course.
Yep.
And so that's just my, my every three month appreciation for having seasons
because
trust me, you know, there's a lot to be said for living in the Caribbean and don't get me wrong.
There was a lot of good stuff about it.
But when you leave and then come back, you realize how much you missed actual seasons.
Oh,
100%.
You know, I'm a big fan of that.
So sometimes you look at things with new eyes.
Thank you, Brittany.
Appreciate it.
Have a great day.
You're welcome.
You too.
And there's my transition to looking at things with new eyes.
And that would be bringing in Earl Ingram here to be talking about things that he covers in Milwaukee for Civic Media.
There he is, the pride of Washington High School.
Earl, how are you?
I'm
doing fine.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
Thank you for being here.
When I say looking at things with new eyes, what I mean about Milwaukee is this.
Sherri and I live there.
from 1987 to 1991 while she was attending the medical college and both our daughters were born at the old St.
Luke's Hospital down there in Milwaukee.
And as you know, with, you know, with any major American city, it goes through its cycles and the cycle in the late 80s, early 90s was not necessarily kind to Milwaukee.
And I go back there now and look at it with a new set of eyes and I, you know, I fall in love with it all over
again, each time going down there at the improvements that are being made, obviously, it is far from perfect.
There's always work to be done.
But the fact that there are people willing to do that work, and it leads us into one of the stories we wanted to share this morning, and that's the Milwaukee skyline, which back in 1987 was one building, you know, the old US bank building, and whatever it's called now.
That skyline looks a lot different after all these years, and there are folks around the country that have taken notice.
Well actually I'd say folks around the world.
Yeah.
Architectural Digest has rated Milwaukee skyline as one of the top 17 in the world and that's an amazing you know accomplishment for the city of Milwaukee considering it's in competition here in the United States when you think about skylines you think about New York City
Chicago, Seattle, you know, and those types of cities.
And then you also think globally, you think about, you know, Hong Kong, Dubai, Tokyo, Shanghai, Toronto, those are all spectacular skylines and now Milwaukee is listed as one of those top 17.
And so for people who live in this state who have not
visited Milwaukee.
They have no concept, no clue whatsoever about the beauty that is downtown Milwaukee and the skyline that continues to evolve.
Well, and again, it does so in a way that
When you go, well, wait, it's one of those smaller cities.
Well, yeah, what you don't have there is you don't have the clutter.
You have the diversity of the designs, which means the diversity of the usage that's in there.
And again, it really reflects improvements that have been made in the city over time.
And I mean, those improvements are continuing to this day.
I mean, you've got something that's going up there.
What's it going to be called though?
The largest ever
Timber constructed building, something like that?
It's called the Edison.
It's a mass timber, an engineered product created by combining layers of lumber into strong material touted for its environmental benefits and aesthetic appeal.
Milwaukee had the largest building of that nature and they held that for a few years and then in
Wow, why am I blanking?
Australia,
they
eclipse that the tower that Milwaukee has had the honor of having the largest building and we now turn around and we're eclipsing the one that they have in Australia.
But beautiful, beautiful architecture, beautiful, beautiful building.
And so again, if you, people who haven't been downtown Milwaukee,
the aesthetics of it during the summer.
We're about to kick off Summerfest on tomorrow.
And if you haven't been to the Summerfest grounds in that lake that's been developed to some degree spectacular.
The the building itself that as Earl mentions called the Edison and it is going to be 32 stories tall 378 apartment units there and again most of the Materials will be coming from US supplies But not all of them by any stretch of the imagination and I do recall seeing a story sometime back that you know Donald Trump's tariffs are are gonna cause some some issues with construction here
because again we get we get a lot of timber say from Canada for example one of our best allies but Donald Trump is picking a fight with all of our allies here and I can't even tell you for sure or all if these
tariffs on Timber are going to affect the building of the Edison Tower.
I don't know if they know because with Trump you get something one day and then you hear something else the other day, which again, if you're building one of the largest ever, you know, mass timber buildings, that's got to be a little perplexing.
Well, I'm pretty sure that it probably is because I don't know if that timber is produced here in this country.
And so their plans for erecting this building had been in the makings for somewhere around three to five years.
And now they broke ground just the other day.
And so we'll see.
But after it's all said and done, it's going to be another beautiful, beautiful addition to what is absolutely a beautiful, beautiful downtown Milwaukee.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
I was looking at, I did just find an article from Tom Dakin in the Journal Sentinel about the imported materials that are there and some of those imported materials are not going to arrive until spring of next year and so
apparently it's noted in the in the article here that creates a lot of uncertainty regarding how trade negotiations are going to ebb and flow over these next over the next year or so here but when all is said and done
because this mass timber type of construction is more environmentally sustainable.
It is closer to carbon neutral.
It's gonna reduce construction costs.
And again, it just comes back to the smart kind of construction that's going on in Milwaukee and some of these other cities because, I mean, Earl, anybody can slap something together, but when you actually put some thought into the process.
You end up having a downtown that is much more, you know, workable as a result and where people actually still want to work and play.
And the funny thing is for all the grousing you hear from some of our suburban friends out there, they still need a place like Milwaukee to come work and play.
Well, absolutely.
And that will be forthcoming in the next month or so with all the different festivals and all the different activities that take place in downtown Milwaukee.
Yeah, they sure will.
Not the least of them being the the Brewers taking on the Cubs.
Now they're doing that at Wrigley right now, but you know, that Central Division showdown, you know, we'll be coming back here to Milwaukee before you know it.
The Cardinals were just here in town last week.
The Brewers, unfortunately, are on the losing end of yesterday's opener of that series with the Cubs.
I believe the final score was five to three here.
There was this two-run home run by
Isaac Collins at one point and unfortunately Chad Patrick the starting pitcher just couldn't hold back a fifth inning rally so the Cubs go on to win by a score of five to three.
The Cubs are now up in the division six and a half games over these second place spruers.
They'll go back tonight to Wrigley Field and try to even out the series.
The pregame will be starting at 630 on several civic media stations.
Jacob Mizorowski will be pitching in his second
second ever Major League game and that's good news because I mean the kid had a no-hitter
through five innings, but then was feeling some cramps and some soreness and left the game.
I was fearing the worst, but apparently, you know, things are okay that he's getting set to get started against the Cubs here again tonight.
So you can hear that on several civic media stations.
A local update is coming up next for some of you.
For those of you hanging here, we're going to continue our conversation with Earl Ingram.
I think we'll get into a little summerfest chatter coming up.
And when we're all back together in our next half hour, we'll be talking to
Melissa Baldoff.
That's all here from the heart of America's Up North, live from Lake Wissota.
Thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.
I'm Pat Crite Low and this is the Civic Media Radio
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We have got Civic Media reporter James Kelly coming up a half hour from now from our Chippewa Falls newsroom to tell us about the stories he's covering.
In that part of the state, meanwhile down in the southeastern part of the state, we've got Earl Ingram here and we're going to be talking about the Juneteenth holiday, which is tomorrow.
that an increasing number of communities and businesses are recognizing.
So we wanted to find out how Milwaukee is marking Juneteenth.
But Earl, obviously, because it's still a relatively new holiday for a chunk of the population, I think we need to explain once again the origins, the long ago origins of Juneteenth, which are frankly finally getting recognized, finally getting their due.
But tell us what it's all about from the beginning.
You know, Juneteenth.
day has been celebrated going back to the 1800s.
And what really transpired is people didn't really understand 1776, the birth of our America's independence.
And so people celebrated Independence Day for this nation, but that wasn't the case for slaves.
And so people often say, well, why does that need to be a Juneteenth?
day and Independence Day.
There's already an Independence Day.
Well, it wasn't for all Americans.
And so the ancestors of our ancestors didn't didn't get that feeling.
And it was back in Galveston, Texas, where the first time that people realized that, you know, slavery had ended.
And so, you know, because of that, this history, which should be American history, right now, we've got a president who's doing away with all history, especially history that relates to people of color in this nation.
The story and the history of Juneteenth Day and what transpired and the freedom and the importance of that needs to be taught in this nation so that history is never forgotten.
So Juneteenth Day in the city of Milwaukee is without question one of the largest Juneteenth days in the entire country And I have certainly celebrated it since its inception back in about 1972 I was 18 years old and I remember the excitement With having this opportunity to bring all those people together and I think we was probably in about a
ten block radius and to see your community together and celebrating something as important as the end of slavery.
You know, the physical ending of slavery is worthwhile and something I'll never forget.
And it is worth noting when you talk about the current administration I mean this is marked because even though you know the 13th Amendment had been ratified and even though the Civil War had for all intents and purposes ended
It wasn't until June 19th, 1865 that an army major general told the last group of slaves that they had been freed or enslaved people that they had been freed.
They wouldn't have known about it.
And there's definitely, that's definitely in keeping with a political class of people in this day and age that would do whatever they could to hold people back if they could.
And it's why...
I think so many of us were happy that former president Joe Biden recognized it as a holiday.
So you have this celebration that's going to be happening in Milwaukee tomorrow.
A lot of places will have holidays tomorrow as well.
And in many ways, it does get us rolling on the Summer Festival season in Milwaukee.
And I was going to ask you about Summer Fest.
And of course, why would I not be surprised to hear you were at the first Summer Fest back in 1970?
Well you know Summerfest and the lakefront in 1970 was far cry from what it is today and it was never will forget it was gravel muddy and the Jackson five then Michael Jackson and Jackson five one of the first acts and I remember him as a very young boy and a group of us gathering together and enjoying that but to see where it's come
to now it's an it's an international internationally recognized festival and uh and one of the best in the entire world that takes place every year kicks off tomorrow uh june 19th uh there there's a new twist to it this year june 10th day part of it will be celebrated uh on the festival ground so it's an exciting time um
in addition to the fact that there'll be 30 to 40,000 people gathered within a 10 block radius.
If you can envision 30 to 40,000 people in a 10 block radius, that's what Juneteenth Day is.
I'll be there the entire day on tomorrow and seeing people that you hadn't seen in a long, long
time.
it's a bit of a homecoming I guess is is one way that you could put it and uh look there there have been some festivals already you know Polish Fest for example was last weekend uh you've got uh let's see we've got the uh Bloody Mary festivals listed on here there's uh what are the Harley Davidson homecoming is on July 10th there's Rainbow Summer July 14th Bastille Days is on July 17th I mean on and on it goes and uh
Again, I feel fortunate to have lived there at a time when Summerfest was, you know, again, this was 30 years younger and was still very accessible.
But if anybody's never been down there early, you got you got to tell them to go.
You got to tell folks, get down, get down there and attend this stuff.
It's it's just too fun to miss.
Well, and it's really if you look where Summerfest is situated, it's the most expensive.
plot of land in the city of Milwaukee and actually in the state of Wisconsin.
And it's right there on Lake Michigan.
We're not talking about a river walk.
We're not talking about things that are built on rivers.
It's built on a lake, a beautiful, beautiful lake.
And that's what makes it so inspiring.
It's beautiful.
The breeze is amazing and can't recommend it enough.
Earl, thanks as always for the visit.
Have a wonderful day.
You as well.
All right.
Coming up next, we're going to talk to Melissa Baldoff.
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time for our climate check with political strategist Melissa Baldoff who also had a busy weekend at the state democratic convention where her hubs Joseph Heckey will join us tomorrow and talk about the campaign for state party chair.
As usual everybody puts on a you know a unified face for for Devin Remacher but Joe could not have been more gracious in thanking Devin and William Garcia and Melissa I think you'd probably had a special thank you.
to all the folks who helped back Joe during his campaign.
How are you doing today?
And yes, thank you so much to everybody who supported Joe, of course, but also just everybody who was able to show up and attend that convention.
It was a really lovely weekend.
And it was a fun and different experience for me having been to
uh, so many of these as somebody who was a staff person for, uh, with STEMs and helping to put on the convention for a number of years and then, you know, attending them, you know, with various, uh, you know, bosses or, you know, candidates, clients over the years.
Uh, and so this was, you know, my first one just kind of going to and, but not really just going to because I was there with my husband running for, uh, for
Party office.
So it was a little a little bit different experience all around but still a good one.
Yeah, very much so and I had forgotten and I've done this a couple of times now showing my age but the convention moved to a Saturday Sunday format recently Well, I don't know how recently but I was used to it being a Friday Saturday thing
And I will take note that former state party chair Mike Tate had a post the other day about that, you know, this was an interesting experiment, but maybe we should revisit the Friday, Saturday format.
I'm not going to say one is right or wrong.
I don't know if it's preference or logistics or whatever you want to call it.
But if if if it was up to me, I'd still make it more of a Friday, Saturday thing.
I don't know if you notice any difference in terms of turnout and
uh difference um so the there were you know less than a thousand votes cast for party chair at this convention in the last time uh 10 years ago the last time there was a very hotly contested party chairs race um you know there were like 1400 13 or 1400 votes cast so um it was a significant drop-off and there was also a big drop-off in the number of delegates um that
you know, registered versus who voted.
So, you know, I agree with Mike Tate that it's, you know, an opportunity to look at, you know, did the old format work better?
I know that part of the reason people in the first place wanted to switch to Saturday and Sunday was just concerns maybe about is that easier for people, you know,
then trying to take Friday off of work.
But I think that there's good points on both sides.
Like you said, it's something to look at.
I would also say it's something to look at if there are virtual options for attendance, if there are ways that people can maybe vote for a party chair at their congressional level caucus.
You know, I just think there's a lot we can talk about as a party to be more inclusive, to make this more accessible because, you know, going away for a weekend in the Dells over Father's Day weekend is not cheap.
And, you know, we want to bring in more people.
And, you know, if you can't afford to go stay at a resort or a hotel nearby for the weekend, you know, you're priced out of going if you're maybe somebody who doesn't work, you know, Monday through Friday, nine to five job.
and you have to work on the weekends, then you're not able to go.
If you're a single parent, who doesn't have anyone to watch your kids so you can go, you know, those are all things that make it, you know, put up a barrier to people being able to participate in the process.
And as Democrats, you know, we believe in making our party more accessible to everybody.
And, you know, if we want to bring in more people and get them as a part of the process, I think it's,
you know,
From Ardethon Facebook, I was sorry to see Jill come up short, but I hope you two will continue to be very visible because I think you are the future of Wisconsin Fair and Honest Governments.
That was nice of you, Ardeth.
Thank you for bringing that up.
Ardeth.
And not everybody from the family could be a part of the convention because there was split allegiances.
There were people that had to get over to Polish Fest, but for good reason I hear.
So usually our family is at Polish Fest and usually quite a number of Joe's family is working at Polish Fest.
And this year we have we have royalty in the family.
I am so proud of our niece Everett, who is a little Miss Polish Fest princess.
We were so sad that we were not able to be there in person to cheer her on in her
in her pursuit of the crown.
But other family was there to support her, cheer her on.
We got to see video and are so proud of her and her sister, Micah, who was also a runner-up in her age group.
So we're very proud of our little Polish princesses and look forward to celebrating Everett's reign alongside her.
being at other festivals with the family over the summer.
That is just wonderful.
And I do believe German Fest is another big one that you and Joe like to attend.
Yes, again, July 25th, 26th, 27th.
So be on the lookout for that.
We were talking with Earl Ingram in our last segment about all summer fest and all the other festivals all summer long in the Milwaukee area.
You really do want to check it out.
Let's turn our attention to what's happening in politics and this one's a little unusual because I mean
Obviously, in these climate check segments, we do want to talk about the virtues of things like the Inflation Reduction Act and the tax credits that are going to create a whole new generation of clean energy jobs.
So I'm not diminishing those in any way, shape, or form when I set it up this way, Melissa, to say the house Trump big bloated boondoggle of a budget bill.
took out a lot of those credits and also, of course, would do tremendous damage to Medicaid and all these other essential services.
Now the bill's over in the Senate and Senate Republicans there are not at all chagrined about what they're hearing about cuts to Medicaid and other vital programs.
In fact, they added more cuts.
onto Medicaid and things like that.
But they did salvage in their bill some of the green energy tax credits, which really tells you something about their priorities.
I mean, yes, it's good for the climate.
It's good for all that.
But I mean, actually made deeper cuts to Medicaid so that they could preserve some of these clean energy tax credits.
It just says something about priorities these days.
But I guess we'll take out the good news, take away the good news from it that
these tax credits, uh, you know, or have some life support again to create new jobs in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
Excuse me.
Yeah.
Um, so they did make some improvements to the house.
But they are still making very significant cuts to solar, wind, and other incentives here.
So I would say this is definitely falling short of being supportive of clean energy tax credits.
But there are still some Republicans, Senate Republicans talking about it, and there's still a little bit of time for some...
So movement, and that's why we need people to keep talking to their senators and their members of Congress, because there is still opportunity to make changes here, which I think is the biggest takeaway people should have, that their voices and their advocacy have made a difference so far and can continue to do so.
We've got some time.
I mean, things are moving.
There's that self-imposed July 4th deadline.
There is not a whole lot of room left between now and then for Republicans to meet that deadline.
It's looking more and more likely that they won't make it.
Either way, though, the urgency is real that we need folks reaching out and talking about this and talking about this publicly.
What we're seeing from the Senate version.
is that they still would be phasing out these tax credits, you know, they would just do it a little bit more slowly.
Right.
Which is, you know, which is slightly good news.
Slightly less worse.
And by the way, just to show that they are still almost entirely in lockstep with Trump's priorities, the the EV incentives that are meant to move the US away from fossil fuels, those would be gutted even more rapidly.
under the Senate bill.
So, you know, it is really a case of self-interest where they see something that we've talked about in this segment before that a lot of the clean energy jobs being created thanks to these tax credits and the Inflation Reduction Act are actually happening in red states.
and in red districts at a far greater rate than in districts and states that have democratic elected officials.
And so they're seeing the thing that is, you know, most narrowly in their self interest and saying, Oh, well, we're we're good with those after all, I guess.
But I mean, that's the only reason it has nothing.
There's nothing altruistic about this whatsoever.
With that, of course not.
There's there's nothing here that's, you know,
Doing the good doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do The motivation to do the right thing would be to you know, absolutely protect themselves and their interests But if we can but if we can get something positive out of that That selfishness, I'll take it, right?
You know if they if the outcome is that we get the right policy Whatever the motivation is, you know, I'll take it but it's
you know, it's not the it's not the ideal way to get this done.
No, our theme today less worse.
That and that's right.
Sometimes you take what you can get Melissa Baldoff.
Thank you so much.
And we will talk again real soon.
All right, sounds good.
All right, thank you so much.
Coming up, a local update is next for some of you, followed by Matt Nair on air with Dr. Kristen Lierly joining in at about 9.30.
For those of you hanging here, we will wrap up the program with some Western and Northern Wisconsin news headlines with James Kelly right here in Chippewa Falls.
And tomorrow, Todd Alba, Chad Holmes, Sean O'Malley, Joseph Pecky.
Remember, you can follow me over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
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.
All right, let's visit with Civic Media reporter James Kelly in our Chippewa Falls office, which is not too far from the
Lake WSOTA studios and with with air conditioning that is definitely up to the challenge of the season.
That looks like a hoodie on there, Mr. Kelly.
So you are you are ready for the upcoming heat wave here.
Yeah, and you know, just in case you want to do a remote show on the lake again, just, you know, it's quick drive, quick drive for me.
Absolutely, absolutely.
I'm going to be checking out the pontoon later today.
We're going to start with a solar project, which Melissa and I were actually going to talk about in our climate check segment that XL Energy is working on.
But you've got an update on it as well.
So I thought we'd make that the first thing for your segment here.
Tell us about this 10 mile creek solar project in St.
Croix County.
Yeah, so I think the interesting thing about this solar project is that it's the first one that I really remember seeing strong opposition to when it was first announced.
A few thousand people signed a petition against it saying they were concerned about, you know, the effects it could have on the environment and wildlife.
But they held a public meeting recently, Excel Energy to announce that they had gotten the leases from all the nearby private landowners that they needed to build the project.
So now they're planning on submitting their application to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin by the end of the year, which could take a year to a year and a half to review.
So it's not exactly on the way.
It's not opening anytime soon.
But the goal is to replace the energy production that's going to be lost when a coal-fueled power plant near Stillwater closes in 2028.
Oh, yeah, what is that, the King, the name of it, I forget.
It's a name for somebody.
Yeah, the Alan S. King power plant.
There we go.
Alan S. King.
I always thought it was for the old comedian.
No, not that Alan King.
And so that thing will be decommissioned, and so it leads to the solar project.
So, I mean, are they thinking that's going to be like an even swap there?
Is the project going to be that big?
Well the project is right now estimated to power nearly 150,000 homes in the area.
The first phase of construction would bring 300 megawatts and they're also kind of thinking about maybe moving up the battery storage phase of the project to phase one.
So we'll see.
It's still a couple years to go.
They still need to get approval from the state.
There's still some local opposition to it.
But it doesn't seem like that's going to be enough opposition to prevent this project from going forward.
OK.
Obviously, it was a very busy weekend with all of the No Kings protests that were going on.
It sounds like you got two, at least a couple of them.
Yeah, I hit Eau Claire in Chipwool Fall as I passed through.
Eau Claire was certainly bigger.
Early on when I was there, the organizers were estimating that there were a little over 2,000 people.
And by the time I came back, after the actual March, they were saying, actually, we're thinking closer to 3,000 now, even Sydney Greening.
who organized it with Chippewa Valley Indivisible, said even the law enforcement authorities called and said, well, we got a few more than we thought, didn't we?
They did.
We
heard from her.
Selena Heller played some sound from her on Monday morning about it just exceeding her expectations.
And again, the friendliness, the positivity of the crowd.
They were there to protest something, but they did so in a manner that was not at all a
a strain on law enforcement or anything like that, it really went as they'd hoped and better.
Yeah, I saw a few minor counter protesters, not even really counter protesters.
I saw one woman kind of hanging outside the side of her truck, waving a Trump 2024 flag.
I was like, OK, if that's like the worst that counter protesting is going to get today, I'm going to just call this an all around great event for everybody.
I think it worked out well.
Our Trump supporter got to blow off some steam that way, so that's just fine.
And there were, I mean, those weren't the only events in Western or Northwest Wisconsin by.
any
measure?
No, we had Menominee, Ashland, I believe Hudson had one in River Falls, Rice Lake, Superior, they were all over Northwestern Wisconsin.
Obviously couldn't travel to all of them unfortunately as much as I would like to.
No, but you could definitely tell on social media folks were posting from everywhere and it was very much a unifying event for folks.
Let's talk about some school districts up in our neck of the woods here.
We had, of course, one of the
finance folks from the Eau Claire school district on earlier in the day talking about the fiscal challenges that they have and the ways that you can work with that at a small district level is to maybe you know consolidate positions maybe do some job sharing and so what's happening with a couple of districts up north.
Yeah, so a committee for the Spooner Area School District actually recently approved this plan.
It'll have to go to the full school board still.
But essentially the plan is to share four positions with the Northwood School District and the Shell Lake School District.
Shell Lake also another one of those schools that failed to pass a referendum on the April ballot.
So they're having their own budget struggles.
It would include three administrative positions from Northwood.
That's the director of people services, a finance manager and food service director.
And I think the most interesting one is a
physics teacher from Shell Lake.
So we're getting to the point where schools are now sharing teachers to handle their budget issues.
It's a unique solution to a problem that probably shouldn't exist.
It shouldn't exist.
And it's going to mean reduced opportunities for some kids who have an interest in some fields or the other.
And again, reflects the fiscal realities of what we're dealing with today.
All right, let's close on a lighter note.
And it's always a lighter note when I get to talk about goats, and especially if they're tackling buckthorn or some of the other invasive plants that are out there.
And I can't explain my fascination with maybe getting a goat someday.
to explain just the level of animosity I have toward the buckthorn that's growing along my property line.
But in Superior, they're giving the goats a go.
Yeah, they are given the goats to go at Billings Park.
They have a problem with buckthorn, which is an invasive species.
So they've just fenced off a certain area and they let the goats loose for about a week and a half.
Apparently the goats like to eat the buckthorn.
It's better for the soil, better for the environment overall, better for other wildlife in the area than maybe pesticides or other removal methods of this invasive species.
But it's nice to see the goats being put to work.
And the before and after is going to be striking because again, you get whatever algorithm, you know, your social media, you know, you, you get what you get in return.
You click on a couple of goat videos.
And next thing you know, I'm getting all these videos of before and after when, when the goats are pending properly to eat just the things that you want them to eat.
And it is amazing what they get done.
They've done this in Wausau and other places as well.
James Kelly, following all this for us from Chip Will Falls.
Thank you, James.
Have a great day.
Have a good one.
All right.
Good to see you.
And nice to have everybody here for one more edition of these mornings powered by Up North News here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Matt Nara Nara is next with Dr. Kristen Lyrely coming up at 9 30.
My thanks to today's guests and an invitation to have you join us tomorrow morning.
6am right here up north.
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