Autocracy: Fake It If You Can’t Make It (Hour 3)

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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.

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

Thank you, Don Rue, and good morning.

Welcome back.

It's a Monday morning, June 23rd, 2025.

Nice to have you here up north, Parker Olson in Madison Studio A2.

John and Gordy joining us from A1 in a moment, Brittany Merleau giving us the forecast coming up as well.

First, a reminder, of course, we'd love to have you sign up for our newsletter.

Over at UpNorthNewsWI.com, click subscribe up in the banner at the top of the homepage where today, Christina Laurie has a story in there about frozen custard and what is it about Wisconsin that we love our frozen custard so much?

I mean, we like our ice cream too, but custard's really kind of something unique to this neck of the woods.

Parker, I was going to mention to you as well.

And, you know, actually, let's bring everybody at John and Gordon, Brittney and all that.

Let's

let's fix things right on air here.

Okay, let's

fix everyone.

Let's have one of us pull the curtain back moments.

So as I'm refilling my coffee in the kitchen and up comes on my phone screen, a thing from Spotify, saying that, you know, the podcast episode has dropped for the six AM hour.

Now, the title for the 6 AM hour was Iran Surrenders and then in brackets, sarcasm font.

Well, we've learned today that if you put it in the brackets, it doesn't show up in the title.

So right now, everybody thinks my first hour is about Iran Surrendering.

Not

even

being sarcastic about

it.

Wow.

I fixed that.

Do you fix that already?

I thought so.

I thought I fixed it right away.

Okay, well go Parker look and let you

go

well not not now, but you know at some point

here

We're not we're not gonna lose that many more listeners.

I mean a misleading title.

Yeah, but I'm all for good information not misinformation pet Spoken like a man straight out of college who still has

Like, great, yeah.

Optimism, desire, ambition,

all the things I miss so much along with my knees and one

of my shoulders.

Oh, those are pretty much gone.

Yep, we'll ask the guys how they survived the heat here in a bit, but Brittany, since you got the forecast duties here, how did you beat the heat or what did you do when you were out and about?

Yeah, so I went to the beach.

I went to Lake Superior, the free AC and tried to attempt to go in the water, but it was so cold there I didn't even need to.

No, there was no 100 degree heat index up there.

No, not at all.

It was in the mid fifties.

So

so you so you did it right.

All right.

I did.

And it's moving on out of here now.

Yes, it is slowly, but surely now there still is you know heat advisories for a good two-thirds of the state Pretty much the eastern and southern parts and that still stays there till about seven o'clock this evening So still feeling like the low 100s today still reaching the low 90s for a good chunk of the state But far northwest your eyes are gonna be in the upper 70s

Yeah, some free AC is rolling through, but there's a price to pay to get the cooler temperatures here, and that's going to come in the form of storms.

Some could be strong to severe, especially in areas towards La Crosse, into Wausau, then down into the Fox Valley, Madison, you're into that area as well.

These storms want to start around one or two o'clock in the afternoon, probably around Winona, La Crosse area, Wausau.

And they're going to start to build and become more numerous and maybe a little bit stronger with some high winds possible too.

And that is going to be a line as it pushes in towards the Madison Green Bay area.

And this is only going to be while the day lights out.

Once it gets dark, this thing fizzles out and becomes just rain.

So again, really high risk of some high winds and of course some heavy downpours.

Hail in a tornado is possible, especially early as these storms start to form.

But once they get into that line, I think that risk kind of goes away a little bit more.

still storms sparking up around noon again tomorrow.

The front is going to be sitting over southern Wisconsin.

It is going to continue some heavy rainfall and it lists north as we go through the rest of the week.

And then it starts to get out of here as we go into the weekend.

So a lot of heavy rain widespread one inch is expected.

Some places could get around three to five inches by the time this week is over.

So

this is again, you know, look for your target for mowing the lawn and make your target or you're going to regret it later on.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Okay.

I see how this works.

All right.

Thank you, Brittany.

Appreciate so much.

Coming up right after this program, Matt Nair on air, Jane and Greg have Civic Media's new news director, Shaly Pittman coming up at 9.30, Wisconsin bug guy, PJ Leish from UW-Madison's etymology department, and of course, this shouldn't be a thing, their segment coming up at 10.50.

On the Todd Alba show, 2.30 this afternoon, he will welcome in State Senator Kelder Royce from the Joint Finance Committee.

And the Maggie Dawn Show this afternoon, Matt Rothschild is the guest co-host with Elon Berman from the American Foreign Policy Council with a follow-up on the U.S.

attack on Iran over the weekend.

The other fun things we get to do here on this program are talking to some of the people who cover Wisconsin in other local areas.

We'll be talking to Earl Ingram on Wednesday.

James Kelly, who does the Northwestern part of the state.

Jimmy Kuska talks to us from covering things over in the Western Wisconsin area.

And it's so great that on Monday mornings, we get to talk to our Madison morning folks, John and Gordy, who join us from Madison Studio A1.

Guys, how are you?

Good.

Doing great.

Yeah.

Wonderful.

How did how did you guys survive the heat?

Do you have?

Well,

we're recovering.

Do you thrive on

it?

Yes.

No, no, it's the worst thing that could ever happen to me.

I'm really allergic to dew points.

So anytime the dew points are high, I you won't find me anywhere outside.

I am indoors air conditioning fans blowing like crazy.

Yeah, so we we actually ran into each other over the weekend in the Walmart parking lot on the west side of Madison and we decided, you know, we don't we'd never talk to each other once with the show is over.

We usually just go our separate ways.

And especially on the weekends, we don't really check in with each other.

You know, we have other

lives to lead.

But we ran into each other and we thought, well, you know, let's go have a beer somewhere.

That's right.

So that's what we did.

We went to a new place in town that a friend of ours owns.

And we had a nice cold one.

And so that's Saturday after.

So you had a

good time because I see this unfolding.

You get the beer each take a sip.

you look at each other's like, oh yeah, that's why we don't do this.

Okay.

Well, you know, when you're doing a morning show, having a beer is like a real downer.

You're ready to go to sleep

right after the beer.

We just

needed a nap.

Yeah.

But the funny thing about the heat, though, I mean, it was really hot down here in 93 degrees.

And the funny thing is, we were out there working in the yard really hard doing a lot of gardening, making sure that you know, we're getting ready for the

week long rain.

Our neighbors are doing the same damn thing.

All of everybody was outdoors working really hard in the yard with 93 degree temperatures.

Ridiculous.

I know because again, you got to because otherwise, if it rains and you don't get things done, it just gets really out of hand.

So no, I totally understand that part.

We actually took the pontoon out for the first time this weekend, Saturday and Sunday.

And

You kind of get, you know those little misters, you know, the fans that, you know, blow a little water on you.

You get that on

the lake naturally on a, it was really windy, of course, all weekend.

And so it.

you know, really chops up the water.

And you can get that speed just right that you can dunk all of your riders occasionally.

You just hit the wave, they get the spray.

Beautiful.

Nine out of 10 times, they're mad at you.

But this weekend, it was like, thank you.

Yes, I needed

that.

You know, yes, please.

We go upriver to a place called the Mallard.

It's just this little resort with like, you know, six cabins and some some campsites.

But then it also has a bar.

And so

a

lot of people come up river down river and they park their boat in there and they go get a cold one and they they sit around for a little bit.

And it's got this area where once a year they dump a truckload of sand on the river.

It's maybe 30 feet wide tops and maybe eight feet.

you know, before the water, before you get to the river.

And all of our grandkids over the years have always referred to it at a certain age like the beach.

They want to go to the beach.

I just think that's adorable.

I'm like, yeah, beach.

It's like this little pile of sand, you know, but but it works for them.

They they go hunting for, you know, crayfish and the or crawfish and, you know, in the rocks and everything there.

Yeah.

And after all these years, they still keep coming back.

These stupid crawfish.

Like, have you not figured out the kids are like biting your head off or whatever they're they're just like, Oh, look, my thing is, and then it flops over dead.

But, you know,

when the sand arrives,

yeah,

yeah, vacation.

When you hear the kids go like our yard is filled with, you know, squirrels and rabbits, it looks like something out of, you know, snow white or whatever.

But as soon as you know, all the little kids show up.

Boom, they're gone.

There is not a woodland creature to be found for the next, you know, three days until they realize that the coast is clear.

But it was still fun.

Well, I'm glad you guys beat the heat.

Now, Parker was telling us earlier, he was working the Madison Mallards game when that pitcher had a no hitter the other day.

And I've been to two Madison Mallards games, love them.

I've been to a few Eau Claire Express games as well.

St.

Paul saying, I love Northwood's league baseball.

I love minor league baseball.

Is it something that you guys, I mean, the team's been around for a little while now.

So do you, do you go to a game or two here and there?

Or does that something you did?

You used to do.

You don't do

so much to do a lot.

Long time ago, the Madison muskies.

Yeah.

Before they changed the name to the mallards or they got a different management or whatever.

It was the muskies.

Yeah.

We used to go to some of those

games.

Yeah, those were a lot of fun.

Haven't been out there for a while though.

But yeah, I love minor league baseball.

It just, it's the way it should be.

You know, it's families coming out to the ballpark and having a good time and they have more family activities, you know, in and around the ballpark.

So yeah, it's a good time.

In the old days with the muskies, they used to make fun of their mascot.

And they had a lot, you know, they celebrated the craziness of a musky.

Sure.

And that was great.

I don't know.

Did they do that now with a mallards at all?

I'm not sure.

I don't think so.

Are you familiar with the Savannah bananas?

Are you talking about them the other day?

Yeah, because I just

never heard.

I saw an ESPN and I was just freaked out over it.

I had no idea the banana bananas were around and who is the other team that they have?

I'm not sure who they play.

Yeah.

For

folks that don't know, it would be fair

to

call them

like the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball.

Yes, that's

exactly.

Yes.

Just

a lot

of

performance

performance, but they're talented.

They're not like they just happen to play baseball.

It's like, no, they can actually play baseball.

Yeah, and

do all these crazy things.

Yeah, I saw I saw the outfield or catch a fly ball out there with his

hand behind his back glove behind his back.

He clocked the ball.

Freak me out.

This is like my first introduction to entertainment in baseball.

Why don't they do this all the time in baseball?

You know, they dance between, you know, the teams setting up.

And or on the sidelines,

the umpires are involved and the whole team is involved and they get the fans going.

It's a great way to watch baseball.

Look

how much more involved it is now, not just at the minor league parks, but even you go to American Family Field or Target Field and they've now got stuff in the concourses, you know, for the kids to do, maybe pitch a ball through, you know, pass the radar gun or whatever.

And how different it is then.

I mean, if you still have to go to Wrigley or Fenway, these, these two things that were built in 1912 and how many generations of kids had to go there and dad goes and he's got his little straw hat on and says, no, you're just going to watch the game.

There's nothing else to do.

Exactly.

Nothing

else.

Just watch the game.

We got a lot easier now.

There's a lot of distractions to be sure if you just want to watch the game.

But I think most people welcome it.

And like I said, Madison's got a great setup for it.

as does Eau Claire.

I like to make a tour of some of these others.

I have not been to any of the others yet around Wisconsin.

Wausau, Appleton's got one.

So if we can get Parker to work on that, maybe start doing some remotes from some of these minor league ball parks.

Do you want that?

What would that be fun?

Do you want a night game for me?

No.

Nights with Pat Critewell.

No, we're totally six

AM up

there and we're just talking to the groundskeepers, you know, let them have all the fun stuff later in the day.

We're

talking to John and Gordy here from our Civic Media Station in Madison.

A local update is coming up next for a couple of you.

For others, we will continue conversing with John and Gordy and then later when we're all together 15 minutes from now, we are going to be talking to State Representative Francesca Hong about the state budget process, the process that

could be more bipartisan, but some people don't want it to be more bipartisan.

Alive from the heart of America's Up North here on Lake Wissota, thanks for spending part of your mornings up north.

I'm Pat Crightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

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Today, Christina follows Food Network's 25 iconic eats and drinks from America's Dairyland and top rated places to get them.

Today, it's all about frozen custard, plush and creamy and egg enriched with no sparing of butterfat.

This Dairyland treat is a Wisconsin phenomena, wrote columnist Teresa Allen coming north via the 1925 World's Fair in Chicago and first took hold in Milwaukee.

So people love their frozen custard, whether it's you know, cops, culvers, all the other places.

But John and Gordy continue with us here.

And guys, we were talking about

People still love their their ice cream joints.

There's always a local one someplace in Chippewa Falls.

It's Olsons.

Everybody talks about Olsons ice cream.

Eagle Rivers.

I mean, Monaco has got theirs.

We love those little shops.

Well,

we had a little vacation up in Eagle River one time.

We I guess they have rented cabins on a lake up there.

And and funny thing was we weren't ready for it.

They love ice cream up there.

There was a pirate ship that sailed

off of the docks of a ice cream shop on the lake.

And it was a gigantic pirate ship with the sails and everything.

And they went across the lake.

And it was it was very entertaining, but very strange to see that up north.

You know, sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's how much they like ice cream up there.

People got on board this giant pirate ship to sail across the lake eating ice cream.

You know why they do it for ice cream?

Because they don't have something like that for old fashions.

If they did,

then all the

parents wouldn't

be there as well.

And

they'd be

divided.

These ones like theirs with Brandy, they like theirs with whiskey.

But as far as going up, one of you guys said you had a cabin in the Monaco area?

Yes, my family did.

Yes, it was just wonderful up there.

In fact, the lake was great.

and they had a nice lakefront cabin, and it was the worst cabin in the world.

I mean, no one kept it up.

It was really dilapidated.

It was just bad.

And all these beautiful $500,000 homes were built around it, and they hated them.

They hated my parents.

They hated the cabin.

So, you know, we dealt with it.

That's the way it is.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've noticed over the years, you know, as you move further up upriver here on the Chippewa, that at some point there was and now we've been here 30 years, but at some point there's like this this unofficial line where you stop seeing houses and you start seeing cabins.

Yeah.

And it's almost like the the glaciers retreating is

the cabin line retreats as people are

building their homes.

And instead of admiring the little cabins, instead, I see like my daughters will sometimes they'll have Zillow on their phone.

And they'll be looking at the value of this particular house here, which is, you know, more than everybody in these radio stations, you know, combined makes, given the way some of these houses

are

constructed.

It's, it's, there's not cabin world anymore by any stretch of the imagination.

It really isn't.

And it's kind of tough for the school systems up there too, to survive because of, you know, the tax base up there.

Yeah.

Very few people.

It

blows up

everything.

Yeah.

I was telling you during the break being up here on on Lake WSOTA and that one of the bars here on the on the lake recently changed their name and we had company up from La Crosse over the weekend and they were asking why is this place you know renamed 1917 Lake WSOTA and I explained to them that that's the year that the dam was built and that the lake was formed you know being a man made lake by the old well now it's XL Energy but the old Northern States power company so

was soda was a combination of Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Every listener out there right now is going to, uh, but, you know,

I didn't know

that.

Okay.

All right.

But

then I got to tell them, you know, everybody here, the most famous movie blooper, you know, in local history is, is all about Lake was soda and 1917.

Do you happen to know the reference I'm making here?

1917.

No, to the movie Titanic.

Oh, the Leonardo DiCaprio character, Jack Dawson talks about he's talking about Oh, cold water, you know, I worked on Lake Wasoda in the winter times.

Well, he couldn't because the Titanic sunk in 1912.

So it's five years before

the

link.

And of course, everybody appears like,

oh, that's,

that's terrible.

I like pulled the movie back.

You know, they're like, no guys, it's artistic license.

It's, yeah.

Yeah.

But, but we feel very proud here because we've got the, the, the call out in Titanic.

Absolutely.

Woody Hall or Annie Hall from Woody Allen, you know, it mentions Chippewa Falls and, uh, and, and of course there's, um, Tommy Boy.

where, you know,

they're

driving that car all over and it's after the deer, you know, comes to, comes back to life in the back seat and everything.

And, and as it's getting to a halt, it stops at the science says chip will falls 100 miles.

So,

so look, we're not Madison.

We don't have State Street.

You know, we don't have the capital, but we got these little movie references, you know.

Well, yeah, I'd live on those.

Are you kidding me?

I mean, that's great conversation pieces.

You know, the thing here is also, you know, Wisconsin doesn't allow a tax credit for people of film here to do shows here, which is really sad.

And I think in the net in this current budget, I think they're finally going to allow that tax credits for filming here in the state and getting our name out there.

That would be fantastic.

Promoting the beautiful scenery and

all the great locations.

Yeah, because there are so many budding filmmakers just in Madison alone, but every college town around here, now everybody with their their camera can be an aspiring movie maker.

And so

Yeah, why wouldn't we try to do more to, you know, kind of burnish our, our image?

You know, I see all these other film credits that, you know, just,

you

know, Georgia or Canada or whatever.

It's like, yeah, let's make that happen.

Well, it's a real shot in the arm for small communities.

I mean, Johnny Depp was in a movie here in a small town here, right?

And people went out there to watch and see how it all unfolded.

It was I mean, it brought a lot of tourism into these towns.

Yeah, let's let's make

so it really helps.

Yeah.

Okay.

So there you go.

We've got our first policy directive for civic media.

Exactly.

We've never lobbied at the

Capitol before, but it's about time we started somewhere with

our new

Capital Lobbyist, Luke Mathers, put it on his to-do list.

Absolutely.

John and Gordy, thanks

so much.

We'll talk to you guys next week.

All right, Pat, thanks.

We'll talk to you later.

All right, coming up, we'll be talking with State Representative Francesca Hong about matters happening with the state budget and the bipartisanship.

Or lack thereof, up at the state capitol.

I'm Pac Rightlow, the Midwest Farm... Oh no, that's at 6.30 and 7.30.

You can hear the Midwest Farm Report.

We'll be back after this little break.

You're up north.

We may have set some kind of a record in the comment sections today now a lot of it has to do with the attack on Iran over the weekend with people going back and forth about what was constitutional or not and Other stuff, let's just not everybody plays nice in the comment section if you know what I'm saying So every so often it's a little tougher to sift through and find these things but here from Tony up here

Pat needs a backlight to separate him from his fancy new bookshelf.

If we're critiquing, it's hard to separate his black headphones from his black bookcase.

Well, Tony, let me grab my fancy new remote control here and let's try that.

Look at that.

Look at that.

We got it's it's not like high intensity backlighting, but it's not nothing.

So

it appears that you're missing a light.

I am missing a light.

I am.

Here's the problem with IKEA.

Oh boy.

So I ordered all this online.

I had it delivered and I saw the lights up here.

They look really nice.

They don't tell you that if you

do more than three lights, you need a separate little power adapter thingy.

So I have to

go looking up the power adapter thingy and then I can put up, you know, the fourth light that goes there.

But thank you

for noticing.

Now it's now it's going to bug everybody when they look at this.

I like to have attention to detail.

Well, that you got so there we've taken care of that.

It's a Monday morning.

It's June 23rd.

Appreciate you having having you here and we appreciate State Representative Francesca Hong who's joining us as well to give us a bit of an update on the state budget.

Busy being you know mom in the meantime and what do we what is it summer camp season now?

Yes, today is the first day of camp and of course, he did well and I just had to hover real quick to see if he was all good.

Aw.

Yeah.

Well, I was saying earlier, I had a daughter staying with me over the weekend and the two little ones, ages six and three.

They left, you know, mid show here, which is really tough because they're, you know, doing hugs and squeezes and kisses and everything.

I'm like, let's go.

I can't cry on the

radio to

stop it.

So I get it.

You know, we got to take care of family, especially given, especially your job, which has demands in all the weirdest times, you know, you never know when you got to go knock doors or go to a fundraiser or I don't know, pass some legislation.

which would be great to do if you all could get a chance to.

But you shared a clip recently of some committee interaction and

how

the committee chair just really wants to micromanage the conversation in a way that avoids talking about all of the things that go into a state budget.

It's not just about, you know, tax cuts for the well off, but there's health care, there's education, there's all these things that are necessary.

And, you know, you were simply trying to

I think make the point that we have a very interconnected budget if you're willing to make those connections

Well, I think First of all, I was responding to testimony from the bill authors regarding a bill that would have removed reoccurring referenda and so I thought that was a really great segue and would give me an opportunity to build some context around how

what would be driving the need for schools to go to referendum.

And the chair of the committee, Representative Joel Kitchens, felt as though that was not pertaining to the bill, interrupted me multiple times.

And even though I tried to reframe the question and add additional context,

he accused me of trying to always twist the conversation.

But especially when Republicans are saying things like historic investments in school and these increasing budgets, that

That's just not true.

And the latest votes that happened in the Joint Committee of Finance executive session last week, the Republican motion included $0 increase in state aid or equalization aid for K-12 public schools.

This has not happened since

Well, 2011, when Scott Walker administration actually decreased the state aid to K-12 public schools.

So it's incredibly unprecedented.

I don't love using that word because it's not surprising that the Republicans have very little interest in actually taking care of our kids.

But I think it's important for folks to know that what they are presenting in their motions is wholly inadequate.

And in addition to the $0 state aid increase, we're talking about

37% special education reimbursement, where remember that that is for private schools where public tax dollars are going to voucher schools.

They've received 90% reimbursement for the state for their special education costs.

And so we're pitting students against one another and in a time where we should be ensuring that every child has the needs has their needs met and opportunities to thrive.

We're picking and choosing how to fund our schools and really pitting our communities against one another to when we're forcing taxpayers to raise their own property taxes because the state refuses to fully and adequately fund our schools.

As you were trying to make these points and getting interrupted, I thought of the the time when Elizabeth Warren was trying to do the same thing in the Senate and actually was disciplined for continuing to speak and the phrase, yet she persisted, you know, came into the lexicon.

And I immediately thought of that watching you do this.

Because all all I thought you were trying to do, and this is I'm putting words in your mouth here, was to want to say to the Republicans, OK, look, you don't want these recurring referendums.

So you could maybe better fund

the schools, right?

We don't need the referendums.

And I just wanted one of them to go, Oh, no, no, no, we don't want to fund schools.

We just don't want you guys to have any

more

referendums.

I mean, at least be honest with folks that way that that's what this bill is really all about.

You just don't like that pesky democracy breaking

out.

We were presenting alternatives and solutions that again would eliminate the need to go to referenda.

And unfortunately having a conversation about inadequate public school funding is one that Republicans will continue to evade because it's something that their communities, people in their district are demanding.

And we saw that with testimony from all across the state.

where Wisconsinites showed up to tell Republicans and Democrats on the Committee on Joint Finance what their communities need, that we need a budget that reflects our morals, our values, our needs.

And unfortunately, the Republicans refused to listen, especially, and they showed that in their budget motion.

And so I've drawn some parallels to what we're seeing in Congress as well.

And it seems like you have

more demand than ever for bipartisanship or at least an attempt to talk to one another.

And yet in both Washington DC and Madison, you see a side of the aisle that is going out of its way to cut Democrats out of the conversation.

And I mean, look, I know there's a lot of people that favor this guy who'd love to bring autocracy to the country.

But we are not a land of one party rule yet.

And yet

it seems like it's really too much to ask that, you know, if they're going to need Democratic votes to pass a budget, maybe they would let you get a word in edgewise before they, you know, implode amongst themselves and can't pass a budget.

Well, Democrats are going to continue to fight for the needs of Wisconsinites and talk about what people are actually asking for in the state budget and how we use their tax dollars.

And they're asking for investments in childcare to make childcare services.

fully more affordable and available for communities across the state, especially our rural communities.

We need to be paying childcare educators, making sure providers have what they need to stay open.

They're asking for increases, actually demanding increases in public education, both K-12 and higher ed.

And instead, Republicans responded with, we're going to do an $87 million cut to the universities of Wisconsin.

And so Republicans can

I don't know, I think they really are in disarray and while we wait for them to get their act together, and though I would like to replace that word with something else, Democrats are going to continue to talk about what Wisconsinites want and are demanding of their government, of their representation.

Folks can talk about bipartisanship in terms of working together, but when the other side has continuously left the negotiating table, when they were left conversations with

the governor, I think it's really important that we show people who they are and who they are, our folks who refuse to listen to their communities.

And so we as Democrats have a deep responsibility to ensure that our message is clear that we are listening to Wisconsinites.

We are going to continue to fight for them.

And we have no problem going in to communities whose representatives are not listening and talking about how we can collectively

fight back and do better for our communities.

We're talking to state representative Francesca Hong and here's where we get into some speculation and again, I'm happy to be accused of overthinking something.

But you've got a couple of Republican senators already saying that they're not going to vote for the thing that appears to be coming out of the Joint Finance Committee.

in theory it could get to the point where Republicans don't have enough votes amongst themselves to pass a budget and you see some reporters writing well they may have to go get you know one or two votes from the Democratic side of things and my contention has been that this is very likely just a head fake this this just clears the the path for them to say you know we can't agree amongst themselves and we don't want to talk to Democrats so we're just not going to pass a budget that there's

For some folks, there may not even be an interest in passing a budget, because spending just continues at the current budget level, and they don't have to make any tough choices.

Is that wildly speculative?

Am I wildly overthinking this?

Or is a no-budget budget a possibility?

Pat, I always appreciate you being thoughtful and analytical.

I wouldn't say it's overthinking It's unfortunate that we are debating on passing a budget that Republicans have presented.

This is the Republican budget that they themselves are not agreeing on that again does

the needs of Wisconsinites.

I think it's important that we pass a budget that at least make sure that we are funding public education, childcare, higher education, that we are not opening any new prisons.

I think it's important to continue the conversation about Green Bay.

Yes, our budget will the previous session budget will carry over if the budget is not signed as legislation by June 30th.

But I also think we have a responsibility to give the governor courage and support to reject a budget that refuses to that does not meet the needs of Wisconsinites.

I think especially with the impending federal cuts and what this big dumb bill that is being

worked on and that the Senate most likely will be voting on this week in the reconciliation bill.

It's imperative that the state do everything we can to ensure that communities have what they need to care of our constituents.

And so I think in addition to the fact that maybe Democrats and Republicans in the Senate are having conversations

a budget that is presented to the governor needs to be one that includes investments in childcare, K-12 education, higher education.

And even though we haven't seen the governor reject the budget in full, this is a much different political climate.

And I would hope we can continue to have that conversation about

how we need to fight for a budget that reflects the needs and meets the needs of Wisconsinites.

And now you see why people like Alicia have comments like Representative Hong has the patience of a saint.

Not the vocabulary necessarily, but the patience and that's the thing that's important.

Fran, thank you so much for taking time out for talking to us in the middle of a busy family day.

I really appreciate it.

Have a great day.

Always happy to be here.

Thanks so much, Pat.

All right, Jane McNair tells us what's coming up next on her program.

A local update for the rest of you, all here on our morning's powered by UpEarth

News on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Jane McNair is here now.

She's coming up next along with Greg Bach.

Matt Nair on air 9 to 11 here across the Civic Media Radio Network.

Jane, how are you?

I am good, Mr. Crite Low.

How about yourself?

I'm great.

Although it was funny.

I we we moved out of Milwaukee 34 years ago and yet you mentioned during the commercial break one of the stations you worked at and it's fun.

The stuff that you cannot control or delete out of your head is I'm still in the mix 99 FM, you know, jingle in my head.

Ah, yes.

I have the jingle in my head for my first, you know, radio job out of college at WAQ in Rice Lake.

I mean, you just, you hear those things over and over again and they just do not go away.

I was asking-

You

can't shake it.

Nope.

Asking Jane about whether she'd been at Summerfest and she reminded me just how much she was at Summerfest for that particular radio station year after year after year after year.

So do not necessarily be looking for, if you find Jane at Summerfest one of these times, you have found a unicorn.

Yeah, I got lost.

I somehow inadvertently wandered on and nothing against Summer Fest.

I think it's great.

It's wonderful for the city.

It's a fantastic festival.

I think it's unique in and of itself.

You get the volume discount.

You're like, okay.

I put in my time for at least 20, if not more years.

Not only did I do a show at that radio station in Morning Show, but then we would have to go down to Summerfest and introduce the Night Act.

And then get up at

three in the morning.

And then get up at three in the morning.

So yes, and oh, we gave away in a different radio station, we gave away rides on buses, on the shuttle buses.

So we would have to ride the buses back and forth to Summerfest and ride the buses back and forth to State Fair.

And yeah, I kind of put in my time.

Well, I mean, that that's why everybody thinks that, you know, their local radio personality, you do all this because I mean, for a seven figure salary, you you have

sacrifices

have to be made.

You know, it's it's the glamour.

We all do this because of the glamour and the incredible paychecks that we

can't tell you how many times and it's not a knock on folks.

They're not supposed to know how it is behind the scenes.

But how

So many folks asked me to give a message to Tom Brokaw, figuring he worked right down the hall from me.

Because you talk to him all the time.

Because

he's doing the news at 5.30.

I'm doing the news at 6.

So we must be right there.

We're all

in the same room.

Yeah, it does not work that way.

In fact, I remember as a weekend anchor once, remember for a time Keith Oberman was part of MSNBC?

I do.

one time, I think probably just one if they were smart, they let him fill in on a weekend edition of NBC Nightly News.

And so he did the 530, I come on, I do the six o'clock and a buddy of mine right away messages me, it's like, Keith Oberman and Pat Crichtlow, there was so much sarcasm on TV, my TV exploded, we just could not get past all of that.

And I think it worked for Oberman for a time.

It worked for me for a time, but that sounds fabulous.

All things must pass.

What do you have happening on the show this week?

We are very excited.

Obviously, we're going to talk about the U.S.

bombing Iran over the weekend, but we will talk about that in a little bit more depth.

Charlie Pittman, Civic Media's new news director is going to be joining us coming up after the 9 30 news.

So I'm really looking forward to talking to Charlie.

She hasn't been on the show yet.

So get to know her a little bit.

And all the incredible things that our civic media news team is doing, they're all around the state.

And if you haven't signed up yet for a newsletter, I would highly encourage you to do that.

You can go to civicmedia.us and sign up for our newsletter.

You can actually have it curated according to your interests.

So it's pretty fabulous.

Check that out.

And then in hour number two, PJ Leish, he is the bug guy.

He works for, he's an entomologist with UW Madison.

We've talked to him.

many, many times over the years.

PJ is going to be here after 10 o'clock.

Ticks are a bigger than normal problem this year.

Oh, yay.

Everyone says collectively.

And honeybees.

Okay.

We need honeybees.

Honeybees are really important.

Pollinators are very important.

And now there is a research project on honeybees that it looks like the Trump administration is going to kill.

So we'll talk about that, yeah.

Of course they are.

Of all the things that I've learned about, you know, a changing climate over the years, there are all these little things that we don't talk about as much.

And one of them I'd learned is that with drier conditions in many places, it makes it more likely that tick populations are going to go wild.

and that there's going to be even more tick-borne illnesses, Lyme disease, and things like that as just one of the many consequences of, you know, the planet's climate change.

So I think listening to PJ Lee should be very wise for folks to, you know, be safe.

What are the good critters and the bad ones?

Yeah.

Well, and I just wish, as far as when it comes to ticks, really the only thing you can do is either stay out, stay indoors, or essentially

We're a burka, you

know,

so, so they can't get to you because there just aren't a lot of good, you know, I don't know if any of the sprays are really that effective against ticks.

We will find out more when we talk to PJ Leish, UW Madison's bug guy.

All right.

So if you weren't at Summerfest, how, how, how did Jane beat the heat this weekend?

I went out and I watered my flowers and checked to make sure that they weren't all just expiring in the heat.

And yeah, and I spent, actually I went through this.

was really fun yesterday.

I spent several hours going through paperwork in my office.

It's like it's too hot to be outside, so I think I'll shred things.

I have my taxes going back to 1998.

Oh my.

I think that's too long.

It is.

I think you only have to save them for seven years, but here's the thing.

I mean, taxes to a degree, but we also, we throw receipts and warranty info in a box and that's a time capsule because

you're going

back and finding warranties or receipts for furniture you don't have anymore or small appliances you don't have anymore.

And I gotta tell you, sometimes that's a hoot when you realize this thing.

Oh, I forgot.

I forgot we even own this thing and we only paid this much for it.

compared

to now.

It's pretty amazing.

Yeah, it's pretty amazing.

But at some point, yeah, we have to get serious about that in our basement because otherwise, our kids are going to have to move it all someday.

We're gone and I don't want to put that on them.

So much paper.

Yes.

So much paper.

Yes.

So it was a really exciting afternoon at our house.

I was shredding.

Hey, maintenance has got to be

done.

So that's right.

All

right, Jane and Greg coming up right after the nine o'clock news here across the Civic Media Radio Network.

Thank you, Jane.

Have a great week.

Thank you, Pat.

We'll see you tomorrow.

All right, we'll see you.

I'll be making an appearance there and then making an appearance here tomorrow at 830 will be Dan Schaefer.

We will be talking to Chad Holmes as well.

I thank all of today's guests and to you for being part of today's festivities.

Up North News is part of Courier, a pro-democracy news network building a more informed, engaged, and representative America.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

We'll see you tomorrow morning.

Up North.

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