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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's 7 0 6.
Nice to have you along here up north on a Wednesday morning, June 25, 2025.
And we're happy to report out of Madison Studio A2 that Parker Olson is no longer flying blind.
We have restored all of his computer capabilities.
I have never been so happy to hear that intro in my life.
Folks who might have just tuned in late in the last hour.
Parker could not get to one of his computers.
The mouse just would not go there.
And during the commercial break had to call in Greg Bach, who joined us remotely.
And it was literally similar to the pilot has had a heart attack.
I don't know how to land this thing.
And Greg talking to him through all the control.
Okay, now try this.
Now do this.
And we got it.
and you're back and nobody ever has to again hear me sing the songs during the history lesson.
We have Kristen Lierly for that, but she's joining us only right now when we don't need her singing anymore.
Kristen, hello.
Hello?
I mean, I was just getting my coffee.
I could have jumped in a little sooner.
We were a little panic-stricken at the time.
I
may have been bouncing off the walls.
Uh, he, he was, he was, uh, but he's back.
He's back.
And that is the price he had to pay because he scored tickets to this afternoon's brewers game.
Yeah.
With, uh, um, Mizorovsky versus Skeens.
That is going to be a lot of fun and you're going to enjoy it even more so now.
Oh, yes, I am.
I earned these tickets.
Yes,
you
did.
Uh, Kristen is here because she was in Washington, DC yesterday marking the third anniversary of the Dobbs decision, the repeal of Roe v. Wade.
So we'll talk about.
some of what she experienced in Washington DC coming up in just a minute.
But first, let's get over to meteorologist Brittany Merleau for again, the mostly rainy weather that we're having to deal with.
So she has her I am the storm sweatshirt on.
She's got a hoodie, which tells you the, you know, triple digit heat, heat index readings are not going to be back anytime soon.
Nope.
Nope.
They're gone.
That front is actually sagged south of the state this morning.
It is away from us.
It's sitting over Chicago right now.
And so right now, temperature is where I'm at 63 degrees.
So I'm in a hoodie enjoying the crisp and comfortable cooler air right now.
We are looking at temperatures in the low 60s far northeast to low 70s southwest.
And of course, as we go through the day.
the rain headed back in.
So this low pressure system is starting to push towards us.
It's in Colorado.
It's going to be moving its way towards us and getting here tomorrow.
Before it gets here, it's going to be, of course, sending those waves of rain.
What we're going to see is light rain rolling in west, probably around 11 o'clock this morning.
It'll become more widespread through most of the state, especially the northern half.
I think Madison, Milwaukee, you might escape a little bit of this around two o'clock.
So widespread rain throughout the afternoon and then some stronger storms, maybe some heavy, heavy rainfall pushes in right around three to five that wants to start.
These are going to be isolated storms kind of on the southern edge of this rain.
And those, of course, could have some heavy winds and gusty, I'm sorry, gusty winds and heavy rainfall.
I got that backwards there.
But of course, that line then moves through.
We've got another line that wants to start tonight.
So waves, right?
So we've got the moderate widespread rain first.
Then we've got some storms in the afternoon.
And then we've got a line that wants to build starting in the cross, probably around.
10 or so moving in towards and then Milwaukee around that could also have some the main thing that we're looking today we could see anywhere
Twin Cities, Clare area, and just north of La Crosse.
So there's already flood watches going off for the Black River.
It could be up 15 feet by Friday, and also the Wisconsin River at Portage too.
So rivers are rising, streams are going to be doing the same.
We're looking at some heavy rains.
So don't forget the umbrella over the next two days.
Holy
cow.
I mean, when I got done using the pontoon the other day, I lifted it especially high in the boat lift, which turned out to be a very good idea.
I've done that wrong at times where you've left the boat sitting a little too low, the river rises, boats float away.
Don't want that.
So yeah, if you live on anything resembling a river, stream, creek, anything like that, be mindful.
Do these kinds of things.
Do all the Justin cases, shall we say?
Absolutely.
Do
that.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm looking at this radar now and I mean, it's all over all of southwestern Minnesota and northern Iowa.
It just looks like an invading army has amassed it on our doorstep here.
So
it does.
It does.
And we've got it going on again like tomorrow to waves tomorrow as well.
So it's not going to stop till Friday.
All right.
Thanks, Brittany.
We'll get an update next hour from you as well.
Sounds good.
All right.
Coming up later in this hour, we're going to be talking to some friends from the Wisconsin Public Education Network.
Their summer summit is coming up in Green Bay, their summer education conference.
We'll find out what all is going to be involved in that.
And then at 830, we're going to be talking to Joseph Pecky about the state budget and a process that is so broken that Republican members of the legislature, some of the more closer to moderate members, are
letting a couple of extremists drive the bus and drag down any progress on the budget, which is due next week.
We'll talk to Earl Ingram as well in our eight o'clock hour, but let's visit now with Dr. Lirely, freshly back from Washington, D.C.
Let's start with the the positive end of things first and we're gonna get into the seriousness of the Dobbs decision You know three years in but to be there to see folks who like you are in the trenches on the fight to restore reproductive health rights The the sense of you know camaraderie that was there Would you say that a trip like this was was a necessary to way to mark the three-year anniversary?
it was
so inspiring to be surrounded by so many storytellers, everybody who was there was there for a reason.
And I got to tell you, Wisconsin was really, really well represented.
There were just over 100 people.
Maybe 10 of us were from Wisconsin, medical students, me.
There was a preacher there, a Baptist minister giving his perspective.
It was really beautiful.
And during the summit, we got a surprise visit from Kamala Harris, who popped in to inspire us.
And we all had this collective sigh of relief.
There were tears.
She was joyful and amazing.
I left that summit yesterday feeling empowered, even though it's sad and these are dark times and it's really hard.
I really left feeling empowered and ready to continue fighting for my patients, which is exactly what I need to do.
Well, exactly because again, the legal landscape.
is so changed these past three years.
There have been some, you know, little victories along the way with individual states enshrining, you know, the right of women to seek the reproductive health care that they need best.
But we are now, as was intended by the radicals on the state Supreme Court, we are a checkerboard.
of reproductive health rights from state to state, where women have to be mindful of whose borders they're contained in.
And I don't think it's overselling it when you say that these are dark times, if not for all women, these are dark times for women's health care.
Absolutely.
I think the story that illustrates it the best for me, I got to meet
Amber Nicole Thurman's mother, Shannette Williams.
Amber Nicole Thurman was a woman from Georgia who died because she couldn't get the medical care she needed.
All she needed was a simple procedure to save her life.
But because of political interference, there were delays in her care and she got sick and she died.
And the conversation I had with Shannette was truly heartbreaking.
She asked me why.
She went through the whole scenario and she said, Kristin, I don't understand.
You're a doctor.
You took an oath to take care of your patients and your colleagues didn't do it.
They didn't do what they needed to do and they didn't say, I don't care what the law says or I don't care what I'm being told not to do.
I have a patient who's really sick and I didn't have an answer for her.
And that was a real moment.
I mean, I've been fighting this fight and working in Minnesota where I'm not restricted and I can provide the care that my patients need.
I don't have to deal with the political interference.
It just really brought home to me the dilemma that my colleagues are in, the lack of care that patients are getting as a result, and frankly, the lives lost as a result of this.
You know, one of our reporters, Selena Heller, is working on the story.
She couldn't join us today, but I asked her if she wanted to have me pass anything along.
And what she said was, we've talked a lot about the importance of people sharing their stories.
And you and I have talked about the importance of people sharing their stories.
But the way Selena wanted to put it is, how do you tell your story?
What is the way that you describe your story of why you're in this fight three years in?
Yeah, well, I mean,
I have a personal story.
I had a loss.
I couldn't get the care that I needed.
But for me, I carry so many other people's stories.
And it is that collection of the variety of stories, people seeking miscarriage care, people who don't want to get pregnant, people who desperately do want to get pregnant, people who have desired complicated pregnancies that they can't see through to the end.
All of those stories are in my heart.
And we all can't tell our stories.
So it's my obligation to speak on behalf of my patients and to speak on behalf of my colleagues who also can't tell their stories in many cases, but need to.
because they're suffering this incredible moral injury, not being able to take care of our patients the way that we know we need to, the way that we've been trained to, but because of political interference, because of politicians who just plain don't get it.
And frankly, if they and their loved ones need this care, they get it because they have privilege.
They have money.
They can travel.
They're empowered, but so many of us aren't.
So that's the thing that makes me.
push on.
And that's the reason why being with all of these incredible storytellers yesterday and the day before just filled my bucket and has encouraged me to continue telling these stories and helping helping my patients and my colleagues.
And so three years in to see a report that we saw this week that despite
all of these efforts by extremists to limit women's reproductive health rates, that the total number of abortions rose again in 2024 as women and their caregivers, you know, find ways to get them the care they need.
What does that mean in the minute that we have left here about extremists and their desire to control women's bodies?
It's not
It's not successful.
Should they be fighting even harder or should they understand where we are in the real world with women's health?
They just need to get out of my exam room.
They need to get out of our lives and they need to focus on their own lives.
I don't know why they are so obsessed with the reproductive lives and machinery of women.
But I think we all kind of do on one level or another.
I mean, this is about control.
This is not about babies.
This is not about families.
This is not about protecting women.
They use all of that language to trick us into thinking that they have our best interests.
in mind, but that is clearly not the case here.
So, fellas, please get out of our exam rooms, please get out of our lives, let us make our own health care decisions, and instead maybe focus on supporting families by ensuring that we have access to healthy food, walkable neighborhoods, education, childcare, all of the tenants that make it possible for us.
to have children, to raise them in an environment where we feel satisfied, comfortable, and well supported.
It is tough to say that somebody is pro family or pro women when they're attacking health care through Medicaid, food assistance through SNAP, not supporting affordable childcare, not supporting equity in women's sports.
The words ring hollow and people are finding that out.
A local update is next for some of you.
For others, we'll continue the conversation here.
And then in about 15 minutes, we will talk about the summer summit for the folks at the Wisconsin Public Education Network.
I'm Pat Crightlow.
This is the
You're
listening to Civic Media.
We will be talking in our homeroom segment coming up in just over 10 minutes about the Summer Summit by the Wisconsin Public Education Network, Kristen Lyrely with us.
Now, first a reminder, Brewers and Pirates, that game, pregame starts at 1235 on several civic media stations.
And that, again, will be the Brewers pitching rookie Jacob Mizorovsky, taking on Paul Skeens from the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Should be a great game.
Parker Olson's going to enjoy it so much after the crisis that he went through.
So
a
little bit earlier today.
He's gonna feel so much better.
But but there were folks that heard us during the history lesson and wanted to know why Kristen wasn't along to sing the songs.
Kristen could have sung.
Rob writes she's a talented person.
She's the best.
She just didn't know we did we we were a little too panic-stricken to reach out but but you
I'm definitely better after a drink or two.
Said the person who went clubbing in DC the other night.
You are
better or you think you're better.
Oh, no, she's better with Okay,
let's
establish that this is not something subjective here So you mentioned that the Wisconsin delegation was well represented out there in DC
it was
Wonderful to see especially the medical students like Pat McFarland was there.
She's a longtime advocate from southeastern Wisconsin She told her story about having had an illegal abortion in Mexico before Roe and it is the perspective there is like wow She can't believe she's fighting this fight again But then the medical students were there UW medical students students from the Medical College of Wisconsin the biggest the big schools here in the state
telling their personal stories, the reason that they want to go into providing health care for women.
Just giving me hope for the future of health care here in Wisconsin.
But the caution was this.
They're all concerned that if we can't change the climate here in the state for providers and for women, they don't know that they're going to get the training that they need to be able to provide comprehensive health care for women.
So they're really watching closely what the state legislature does and what happens with laws here.
to determine whether they're going to stay and train here and potentially practice here in the future.
And I'm not talking about people who are from Madison and Milwaukee.
I mean, two of these women were from Green Bay, one from Fond du Lac.
These are people who want to go back into these areas where we desperately need doctors.
But they are chilly about whether they'll be able to stay based on what happens with health policy.
And that's exactly the story that Selena Heller is working on, not just for Wisconsin, but also for our sister publication in Iowa, Iowa Starting Line, where they went from a
20 week abortion limit to a six week ban, which as, as she mentions in her story and as you've discussed a lot, a lot of women don't even know they're pregnant by the six week mark.
And she interviewed an OBGYN there who again said, they try to recruit for physicians.
I mean, rural medicine is hurting right now, but you, you reach these med students or residents talk about coming to Iowa and they hang up.
They say, no, I'm not going anywhere where there's a ban.
And.
It's an incredible training program, too, before this ban went into effect.
Those were the best trained residents in the Upper Midwest, in my opinion.
And Selena talked with Carla Solheim, who engineers a lot of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology stuff behind the scenes.
They do struggle to recruit.
They struggle to maintain.
OBGYNs are leaving Iowa in droves.
It's not as bad as it is in Idaho, where over a quarter of the OBGYNs have left
the state and they don't have any high risk pregnancy doctors anymore.
But doctors are leaving these states and it's taken a few years to really see what the impact is.
I think a lot of doctors were sticking around feeling hopeful that things might change, but they see the writing on the wall.
They see that things aren't changing and they've got to take care of themselves, their families, their patients.
They're leaving.
And we often hear from this group of extremists, you know, about the magic of the marketplace and that, you know, people will vote with their feet.
Well, they do.
And sometimes in ways that maybe you weren't expecting that maybe you got your abortion ban in place, but by all these doctors and other providers voting with their feet, you're missing out on all this other basic health care, you're harming your own constituents.
And again, from Selena's reporting and elsewhere.
you know, the bill being established or being considered in Congress right now that would cut off any remaining Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood.
None of that Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood is going to abortion.
None of it is.
It's all going to basic health care, Kristen, and all these other rural clinics and places, and that's what they're cutting.
They're cutting basic health care.
It's really important to note that Planned Parenthood, most of what they do is screening for sexually transmitted infections and providing contraception, preventing unplanned pregnancies.
They provide cancer screening.
They provide preventive health care to a population of people who otherwise don't get these services.
So if we cut that out, these people simply don't get care.
And that's one facet of it.
If we
Fail to provide Medicaid funding for our rural hospitals.
Rural hospitals depend on Medicaid.
Many of these hospitals will close and that means nobody in these rural communities get care.
Women, men, children, elderly, veterans, nobody gets care.
So this big beautiful bill is not beautiful.
Medicaid cuts will kneecap people who live in rural areas who will be harmed the most.
Dr. Kristen Lyrely, host of the Dr. Kristen Lyrely show.
I'll bet you have a show coming up this weekend.
It's gonna be so good.
We're about to go tape it.
Men for Choice.
I'm Alan Tipple, who is the Wisconsin youth organizing rep for Men for Choice.
It's gonna be there.
My son Abe is gonna be there.
My partner Craig, who's a police officer.
He's gonna be there.
We're gonna be talking about abortion with a very interesting crew.
It's gonna be a good one.
Catch that on our Green Bay station, our Oshkosh station, and of course on the Civic Media app.
And I'll bet by podcast as well.
Well, Dr. Lyle, we will see you Friday morning, 8.05.
If you're
willing to
have us again.
All right.
I'll be there.
Okay.
Do you like wine, by the way?
I do.
Okay.
Coming up in our newsletter today, all about the Great River Wine Trail.
Maybe we can do a road trip with Kristen here.
Over 100 miles of wineries in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa.
All that in today's newsletter.
Sign up at upnorthnewswi.com.
Our homeroom segment is coming up next, Europe North.
Just a note, you can follow me on social media on Facebook.
Go to facebook.com slash mornings with Pat Crichtlow and you can follow the show there.
A live video feed of the show can be seen there as well.
You can also email us.
The email address is radio at upnorthnewswi.com.
Don't forget the WI radio at upnorthnewswi.com.
From our Sunday morning newsletter where we ask a question of the week.
We ask about the the next state budget and support for the universities of Wisconsin system because Governor Evers is asking for a more than 800 million dollar boost in UW funding and There are Republicans who are talking about actually cutting funding for the UW system So we ask if you want to see that enhancement in funding
that cut in funding, keep it relatively the same.
You can sign up for that newsletter over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
And Parker won for you here off the text line from Jim in Brookfield.
Good morning.
Yes, Parker.
Watching behind the scenes shenanigans on the live stream is a lot of fun.
And thank you, Greg, from Jim in Brookfield.
Yeah, I also saw Tony on YouTube said, I think Parker just grew his first gray hairs.
I think you're right.
I can
see
them coming in right now.
Cover them up with the Brewer's Cap and go to that game this afternoon.
Good idea.
Yeah.
I think that's a great idea.
All right.
So again, we got, we got through a little technical troubles early on.
We're back and thankfully so because we've got a couple of great guests to introduce now.
Denise Gomer Hutchinson has been here before and Lori Blakesley from the Green Bay Area School District Public Relations Director join us to talk about the Public Education Network's summer summit that is coming up in Green Bay.
Denise and Lori, good morning.
How are you?
Morning.
Morning.
Nice to have you both here.
Denise, let's start with the summer summit overall.
We've talked about the Wisconsin Public Education Network many a time, the educators, the allies, the advocates, and now it's summer break.
And I've been to the summer summit before.
It moves to different cities all the time.
It's just this great opportunity for educators and their allies.
Tell us more about what the event typically does in the summertime.
Well, thanks, Pat.
Yeah, it's the 11th annual.
summer summit it's always held at a school, a public school district in the community that we go to and this year we're going to be at Preble High School in Green Bay which because of a referendum just has a brand new addition and upgrade and it's going to be really wonderful to showcase.
We love showcasing the great public schools that we go in when we go to the summit and this year the theme is
building community through thriving public schools.
And that's really the message because our public schools are serving over 800,000 kids a year all across the state of Wisconsin.
And this is an opportunity to let advocates see a different school than the ones that they're individually advocating for.
And it's also an opportunity to share what's working in our public schools, what's working for advocates of public schools in different parts of the state, and bring everybody together to have an opportunity to see that they're not
alone.
An occasion like this, I think being held in Green Bay has to be rather special for you, not just for the tangible things, you know, like what a referendum has done in terms of facilities, but the intangible things like the ideas and the advocacy that Green Bay educators have been on the front lines fighting for.
Yeah, it's an opportunity for us to showcase our district.
So it's very exciting.
As Denise mentioned, the trouble renovations are absolutely stunning.
And so it'll be exciting for people to be able to come in and see that as well as we're going to have an opportunity to have a couple of sessions to showcase some of the work that we've been doing.
So let's talk a bit.
We've mentioned this before in Green Bay, but Denise voucher transparency is something that's been a real key theme, especially right now with the state budget debate still going on.
It looks like it's going to go into overtime.
There won't be a new state budget ready by next week as it is due.
So Denise, is it fair to say that we are still very much in the advocacy window?
of asking legislators to try to provide better transparency for how their tax dollars are being used for education?
Yes, it is.
And it's really critical.
Yesterday, I was in the Fox Valley for an event that a group of Fox Valley administrators did with the Fox Valley advocates for public education to really tell the community and legislators the wonderful things that are happening in our public schools.
but also the amazing things that won't happen in our public schools with a zero, zero dollar increase to public school funding.
And Green Bay took a big step this last year.
The school board actually wrote a resolution and asked the mayor of Green Bay to put voucher transparency, meaning on the tax bill, how much are taxpayers paying
for money that's going out of school districts, public school districts, and going to pay for private schools.
And it's a big deal.
It is a big deal.
And so, Lori, forgive any exasperation you hear in my voice.
I think our listeners are used to hearing this by now.
But it is, it is exasperating.
It is amazing, not in a good way, that it has taken this long for
transparency about the cost of the so-called choice program to be reflected on local property tax bills.
It is something that some legislators have been fighting against for years and years.
So, Lori Desi in Green Bay, so much discussion on it, lead to a positive development in terms of transparency.
has to make you feel real good about the education and frankly taxpayer advocacy that you're seeing from your community members in the Green Bay area.
Yes, so I think for us what really prompted the continuing to want to be able to do this is then the last budget we saw significant increase in the amounts that voucher payments.
were increased to.
And so what this meant is that as a district where we've been very fiscally conservative, been very fiscally responsible, you know, we have been very fortunate that as we've gone to our front and we've been able to do so without impacting the tax rates for our.
property tax payers, but then instead we end up having our levy going up significantly because of the fact of having that paying out for those voucher payments.
And so it was important for us to be able to have a way to better explain to our property tax owners why the tax levy kept increasing when we kept saying that we weren't going to increase their tax rate with our referendums.
So take it back now, Denise, to the Summer Summit itself.
It's described as a three-day conference of sessions for administrators, community school coordinators, teachers, school staff, family engagement staff, nonprofit and community leaders, and funders all interested in exploring the work of the community school's strategy across our state.
And you mentioned earlier about building thriving communities.
people might be saying, well, why are you talking about this on the radio?
Isn't this just another teacher conference?
No, it's far from it.
Far from it.
And the first day on the 23rd is the community schools conference.
And those are a very specific designation of some schools across the state of Wisconsin.
that do a whole lot more community outreach.
It's a separate conference from ours, but they're a partner of ours.
And so their conference is the day before ours.
And then we have a reception on that evening on the 23rd to kick things off.
And then it starts at eight o'clock on the morning of the 24th.
where we will have the mayor of Green Bay doing a welcome along with the superintendent for the Green Bay area public schools and then we'll move right into sessions really talking to people about how do you advocate on whatever level that you're comfortable with for our public schools and really really for the kids in the state of Wisconsin.
And Laurie, can you talk about that from a community-wide standpoint of the notion that this isn't just a theme for educators and for parents who have their kids in school, but how an entire community is strengthened.
Whether you have kids in school or not, an entire community is strengthened when you support public schools.
Is that something that is still important to convey to folks across the state who may not necessarily have kids in school?
Oh, definitely.
I think that what people don't realize is that our Northeast Wisconsin public schools are really the drivers of our economy here in Northeast Wisconsin.
We know that our schools are very focused on not just preparing our students for college, but in Green Bay Public Schools.
We are very committed to having students prepared to enter the workforce with industry certifications and high demand jobs.
And so those things are critical to everybody in our community.
you can find out more about this at Wisconsinnetwork.org slash summit.
So again, you don't have to know Wisconsin public education network, you just have to know Wisconsin network, Wisconsinnetwork.org slash summer, I'm sorry, slash summit summit for the summer summit.
And Denise, I see there is a
tentative schedule at a glance on the website right now.
But the a lot of the specific breakout sessions are still being set up.
That at least I don't see those in front of me.
Can you talk just a bit more about the kinds of things that some of these breakout sessions might include and what might interest people?
Yes.
For example, Lori and her colleagues in Howard Swamako are going to be
doing a whole session on the value and importance of a leadership academy of finding leaders throughout their community that want to come in and go through a series of classes and information and workshops and learn how to be advocates for in business and industry about how important our public schools are and what they do.
an offer like Lori was talking about to the economic development of our community.
And in fact, Green Bay just graduated their first Academy class on Monday night.
And so people will hear all about that.
There'll be sessions on really integrating all communities within your community.
And so how do you reach out to different unique communities and
show them that they're part of this big microcosm of public education.
And I don't think I mentioned the dates.
Shame on me.
That would be Wednesday, July 23rd, and Thursday, July 24th.
And it all begins with a welcoming reception.
Folks from around the state will gather.
There will be some door prizes and special guests.
And Lori, you seem to have a place that lends itself well to these welcoming receptions.
What's the name of that?
Oh, Lambeau Field.
You've got a pretty good place to welcome people there, Lori.
That
we do.
That we do.
I mean, we're just getting over our, you know, the excitement of having the NFL draft here.
So Green Bay is an awesome place to come.
Lots to do.
So I hope many people from across the state will consider joining us for this event.
Okay.
And then one more time to learn more about it, head over to Wisconsinnetwork.org slash summit.
Denise, did I hit all the high points?
Was there anything we missed on what people need to know about the summer summit?
You get breakfast, you get lunch, you get interactions with a whole lot of people all over the state and great sessions and all for $40.
And so you get to, and you get to come to a really wonderful part of the state of Wisconsin.
And you get to learn how important it is even if you don't have kids to be engaged in your public schools.
There's Denise Comer Hutchison from the Wisconsin Public Education Network.
Lori Blakesley is the Public Relations Director for the Green Bay School District.
Lori and Denise, thank you so much for your time today.
I hope you have a great summit.
Thank
you.
All right, nice to have you here for being part of our weekly homeroom segment about public education in Wisconsin.
A local break is coming up for some of you.
For others, you'll join me and Jimmy Cusca as we talk about some of the stories being covered by Civic Media all around Wisconsin here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pat Crite.
We'll follow what we do at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
We'll be back with Earl Ingram in our eight o'clock hour here up north.
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And Jimmy Cusco follows a lot of that for Civic Media and joins us this morning, but also education stuff as a school board member, as a football coach and much more.
Jimmy, how are you this morning?
I'm doing great.
Yeah, I kind of cover all the all the areas,
right?
You got it all, man, including how much football practice did you do over the weekend with the triple digit heat index?
Oh my goodness.
So on Saturday, we joined a dozen other schools in Platteville for a seven on seven event.
We ended up playing five games in the heat, the 100 degree heat index on a turf field, which automatically increases the heat even more.
But we did a seven on seven on Saturday.
And then yesterday, for us, it's our two a day Tuesdays in the summer, where we do a five in the morning conditioning practice.
And then we do a positional skills session at
6.30 at night.
So we turn the lights on and have a little fun.
So in summer time, people say, you know, a football season is not till the fall.
Well, for a lot of teams, the summer is really where it begins.
And it's just great to be, you know, part of building a team and getting ready for a season again.
It's one of the reasons, you know, most people coach and then go into broadcasting.
I wasn't broadcasting and then went into coaching.
I did it backwards, but it's been extremely rewarding and just having the ability to work with young people and help them in one
you know, very small part of their lives, which is participating in a sport.
It's been extremely rewarding for me.
And we're just off the spring sport season that just ended last weekend, finally, with hundreds of events that civic media worked on all the various games and things.
And there is no rest for the weary because it's not just football, but preparations are underway for all the fall sports.
The high school sports are, you know, getting going in earnest, even here in late June.
Yeah, and, you know, Wisconsin administrators voted to approve expanded coaching contact in the summer.
So for the non-spring sports, for the fall and winter sports, now coaches are allowed to have more contact with student athletes.
And this was done largely because, you know, what happens with a lot of students is they had to find other ways.
If they wanted to get better in a sport, they were working with people outside of the school, not being able to work and organize sessions with their teams, not able to use school resources.
So it's a loud school.
the summer to have more opportunities.
Now none of it's mandated or anything like that, but it does allow if a student-athlete does want to get better, they can work with those specific.
you know, coaches and with their teammates.
So we've taken a bit of advantage.
We've just added some, like I said, some Tuesday sessions to help.
And then we have the normal, you know, we always used to be five days.
You have practices in the summer.
We still have that.
We're just just as a coaching staff at a very small school, just recognizing that there are kids that want to, you know, get some work in and have some fun in a sport.
And that's what we've tried to offer.
So, you know, we just noted in the last segment, the educators who are going to be going to the summer summit here and all of the prep work.
They do throughout the summer, fall sports.
That prep is already going on and just really puts to life the notion of, oh, everybody in education, you know, on Memorial Day, they just grab their beach bag and their paperback and they had to a lawn chair and they sit there for three months.
And there is so much more behind the scenes in the summertime that I really like helping people understand what goes on.
Yeah,
and this is actually one of the most critical times of the year, especially for school administrators, because the end of June is the end of the school year in terms of finances.
So this is actually an extremely important month, especially when it comes to how you budget for the following year.
And without a state budget this year, that's ready by next week.
It's made planning a lot more difficult because schools aren't
usually sure what they have at this point.
So, you know, that's why you're seeing a lot of talk about, you know, schools approving budgets this late in the game because, you know, they have to approve a budget so they can, you know, make sure they have the staff they need, make sure they have everything they need for the upcoming school year.
We're a smaller district, so our budgets aren't quite as big as some of, like, you know, when Madison comes out and says they've got a nine-figure budget, well, that makes sense.
They've got a lot more students at a lot more schools, a school the size of Boscobel, Wisconsin, the budget's in the $12 million rate.
So it's a little different here at a rural district.
And that's why the budget process in the state legislature matters so much for schools.
And this time of year, this is when finances really come into play.
You're going from one school year to another.
And a lot of decisions get made in the summer by administrators.
We are at the point now of people still absorbing the state Supreme Court decision from yesterday upholding the state's bills law.
Hopefully that provides.
a little more certainty and perhaps a little more progress on fighting PFAs contamination in our drinking water.
And I think of the La Crosse area, the town of Campbell.
I mean, there are several hotspots around the state, but perhaps none more so than the French Island town of Campbell area where this sadly, I mean, this story is going to go on for a while yet.
Well, I mean, just think of this.
Imagine that you've had to have bottled water as your drinking water source for five years.
That's half a decade.
That's the town of Campbell.
And it's to the point that they have filed to incorporate themselves so they can try to deal with things away from county and trying to find ways to do it.
They're drilling a new well.
So that's coming in the next few years.
But just the fact that
the Supreme Court in this decision, trying to find ways to kind of remediate some of the issues that you have with contamination.
Obviously here in Western Wisconsin, that's easily the most probably paid attention to area when it comes to this, just the extreme situation of having to be on bottled water for five years.
I mean, that's crazy, right?
And that they haven't found a better way to it, although they do have a new wellbeing drill, so that should help.
But the Supreme Court really does affect quite a few things.
And I guess the
packs of that won't really be felt for a bit, but I know that for those residents in western Wisconsin, they see this as a good thing.
Jimmy Koska, who like Parker Olson and a million other people present company included, are going to get next to no work done this afternoon for that Big Brewer's pitching matchup of Mizorowski versus Skeens.
Thank you for the update here and we'll look forward to talking more sports on Monday.
Hey, we have four breweries around the state.
I'm imagining that the radio waves will be much, much listened to today.
I
can't imagine what else we'd rather be doing today.
Thank you, Jimmy.
We'll talk to you later.
Earl Ingram is standing by right after the eight o'clock news.
We will visit with him.
And then Joseph Peck, he is coming up at eight 30 here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pat Crite.
We'll sign up for our newsletters over at UpNorthNewsWI.com back in a bit.
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