Dobbs at Three (Hour 2)

Cross Wisconsin on Civic Media.

You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglo powered by UpMorth News.

Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of UpMorth News, Pat Craiglo.

Well, hey there, Wisconsin.

Good morning.

It is 6 0 6 on this Wednesday morning, June 25th, 2025, 6 25 25.

And it's another beautiful morning to have you here up north live from Lake Wissota.

For more every year spending your mornings listening across the civic media radio network or listening or even watching us on all the different platforms out there.

We appreciate you getting your day started right here.

Coming up on the program today, you know, for the better part of 15 years, it would not have been a surprise to report that the Wisconsin Supreme Court then under conservative control.

was considering a rollback of clean water regulations.

But now with a progressive majority in place, the court on Tuesday upheld the state's spills law that ensures faster cleanup and accountability when it comes to things like industrial PFAS chemicals in our drinking water.

We'll talk about that decision that came out yesterday.

In our second hour, we will visit right after the seven o'clock news with Dr. Kristen Lyrely.

She was in Washington, D.C.

yesterday marking the three-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision when right-wing Supreme Court justices repealed women's health care rights that had been protected for nearly 50 years by Roe v. Wade.

Also at 7.30, members of the Wisconsin Public Education Network will talk about plans for this year's Summer Summit.

It'll be held in Green Bay this year.

It's an annual education conference dedicated to new skills, fresh information, making connections and more.

Coming up in our eight o'clock hour, we will talk to Earl Ingram about some of the stories he's covering across Southeast Wisconsin.

We'll talk to James Kelly about some of the stories he's covering across Northwest Wisconsin.

We'll talk to Jimmy Koska about things going on in Western Wisconsin.

And we will talk to Joseph Pecky with an update on state budget negotiations at the Capitol.

And we'll ask about how it is that our politics is so broken that otherwise moderate legislators

at least moderate by comparison, have to let the most extreme members of their caucus drag down progress rather than work across the aisle to do things in the state budget they know would do the most good.

We'll spell out some of the extremist demands that are going to prevent a state budget from being done on time.

Now we've got all that and so much more and along the way, you can join us by sending us a text message or a comment.

You can send that comment as a text message to 855-75-CIVIC or use the Civic Media app.

You can also put a comment on any of the Facebook or YouTube pages where you find us.

There are five of them.

By the way, I mean, if you actually want to watch us, there's almost no excuse not to the YouTube pages for up north news and for civic media, the Facebook pages for up north news and civic media.

And then there's my own Facebook page as well.

You go to facebook.com slash mornings with Pat Crichtlow.

And that's where you can follow me throughout the course of the day for all of the the wisdom and whimsy.

that I feel like putting up on social media.

I would love to have you along as a follower with that as well.

And of course, there are the newsletters.

We put them out one every day, including this morning's edition from Christina Laurie that talks about, are you familiar with the Great River Road?

Well, maybe you are.

Let's let's ask somebody who maybe does not live on the Mississippi River.

Parker Olson is standing by in Madison Studio A2.

Mr. Olson, good morning.

How are you?

Doing pretty good.

I'm wondering what the, what was it, the Great River Road?

The

Great River Road, have you ever heard of it?

I've never heard of that, no.

If you've ever been anywhere along the Mississippi River, on one side or the other, you may notice a highway sign that's there, and it's green and white, and the green kind of looks like, you know, the

the paddle boat, the steering wheel on the old ships, you know, and it says Great River Road.

And it's basically the Mississippi River is a long national parkway from, you know, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa on down to the Gulf of Mexico.

Yeah,

I

know scandalous, huh?

As a

legislator, I served on the Great River Road Commission to help make sure that there was marketing and enhancements being done all along the river out in Wisconsin.

And they're all kinds of great.

It's a great way to spend a weekend is going up and down the river to all kinds of different things.

Well, in the newsletter today,

is a discussion on what's called the Great River Wine Trail.

For over 100 miles between Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, there are nearly a dozen wineries that you can hop over to and try try some of the things that are sort of looking for.

They're not wines aren't brewed.

They're not distilled.

No, they're

percolated.

Are they

crushed?

They're

crushed.

They're created.

I don't know.

You know what we should do?

Made.

We're making wine.

We're making wine.

We should make an awesome promo for this.

We should find some kind of relationship with this for Brittany Merleau.

Brittany Merleau.

She'd be all

over

that.

She would be.

I think she'd go for that.

All right, we'll ask her that in the next hour.

So that's in the newsletter today and more that we'll tell you about throughout the course of the show here.

But again, sign up at upworthnewswi.com.

Parker's here.

Parker is resplendent in Brewer's Regalia because there's there's there's plenty of work to be done around the radio station.

There's plenty of work to be done, you know, almost anywhere in Wisconsin at any given day.

And it's not going to get done today because

Mr. Olson, trying to squeeze his brewers cap over his headphones, has plans for a little baseball game that's going to be happening this afternoon.

I expect nothing short of a no-hitter today, Pat.

A double no-hitter.

Possibly a double no-hitter.

I expect the brewers to win on five consecutive walks.

That's what

I'm expecting today.

It's going to be a big deal.

kids, it's just going to be, it's Jacob Mizorowski versus Paul Skeens, the ace for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

And yes, it has happened before that two pitchers have taken no hitters and extra innings.

That'd be

pretty cool.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

And it would be fun.

But, you know, first things first, you have to win to get there.

And the Brewers did that last night beating the Pirates by a score of nine to three.

Joey Ortiz with two home runs, Caleb Durbin with a three run home run.

So again, just another nice round of bats there.

But now, of course, the big thing is whether Mizorowski, the rookie can keep up with the skeins.

Is this skeins a second year?

Yes, it is.

Was he a

rookie phenom last year?

He was a rookie last year, yeah, because he won a national championship, but I don't see it with the year before.

Okay, he is four and six.

So I mean he has kind of come back to earth that way No, he hasn't the pirates.

Okay.

The

pirates are

okay The pirates bats are that bad so we can hope for that today Anyway, so that will be taking place today And if you can't make it to the game, I mean you can call up Parker.

Maybe he's got an extra ticket,

you know, I was telling you I couldn't go to our meeting if you really want me to

Uh, yeah, you and 40,000 close friends, you know, can just call in from the parking lot.

But if you can't make the game, you can catch it on several civic media radio stations, brewers and pirates.

Coverage begins at 1235 this afternoon.

And if you are in the Richland center area or Oshkosh or Racine Kenosha, Park Falls, Hayward, you should be listening to your local civic media station and you can catch the game that way.

Uh, another way to catch a game

in the future would be part of free ticket Friday.

I think we're doing that this weekend.

Are we not?

We are doing that this weekend.

Okay.

Well, how convenient for me that that's happening there.

Those

notes up.

I know it's it.

Bring these up on screen for a reason.

So on Friday, we'll give you a keyword.

You use the civic media app to text it in and you are in the running for four seats to a specific brewers game.

We'll tell you which one it is on Friday morning.

So if you can go to it and you want to win the tickets, you text us the keyword.

If we

pull your name, your entry, you'll be going free ticket Fridays throughout the course of the summer here on Civic Media.

You can hear them through on all of our talk shows throughout the course of the day.

You have not been to a Brewer's game this year yet, right?

Not using our tickets.

I have been to one Brewer game.

Oh, OK.

I believe we saw the twins beat us and we were in the left field bleachers and.

Spirits were very high because we tailgated and then spirits were very Lowering Shall we say yes a little bit of a crash out

was it a was it a sunny day?

It was a night game that we went

Oh, it was okay

good.

The reason I

ask is you as soon as you said left field

I

know that that left field by the foul pole there if it's a sunny day You know those bleachers are that's a frying pan.

Yeah,

you know

there was

a

There was a guy in front of us who had lost his fantasy football pool and was wearing a clown suit.

It was very, very entertained by that.

That kept the spirits as high as they could be for the rest of that game.

Oh my.

Okay.

Well, that's not happening to you.

You guys are, I mean, do you.

Because I know the station has a certain number of tickets.

I mean, do you are you going with anybody else?

Do you know who else is going?

I

have I'm bringing a friend of mine Who is driving separately from me because he has to work the Mallards game tonight and

might

have to leave a little earlier than I want to leave.

Oh Yeah, yeah

You get you're both just gonna do the parking lot then.

Yeah, I think we're both gonna

head over

And hopefully find each other without having to swim through a crowd of 40,000 people.

Yeah.

I mean, it's a little easier now in the cell phone era.

You know, it's like, look at me.

I'm waving my arm at you right now, you know, compared to, you know, the pay phones and the smoke signals that we had to use when we were a lot younger for these things.

Is that where you're doing smoke

signals, Pat?

Yes.

Tony on YouTube.

Wait, the guy was wearing a bear's jersey?

How embarrassing for that guy.

I thought you said a clown, right?

I see what you did there, Tony.

Really good.

OK, so you got to drive out separately.

You got to fight the traffic and everything.

And so does your friend.

And get back for the Mallards game in time.

He

does.

I don't.

This is a commitment, you know, to

go to

a game like this.

Let's just say, let's hope it lives up to expectations.

If it doesn't, Pat, I'm going to be so upset tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow morning, I might crash out.

Who knew that Mizorovsky's arm would just fall off like that?

It was amazing.

I guess he threw it too

hard after all.

Don't say that, because the birds just got the news that Garrett Mitchell, like, unscrewed the screws that he got and has to redo the surgery.

And I expect Mizorovsky to trip down the stairs on the way into the dugout

today.

Mitchell does say he's going to seek a second opinion.

And the other opinion from the other doc is going to be, yes, you need the surgery.

And here's my second opinion.

You're stupid for sliding into the base so hard that you knocked your shoulder screws out.

You know, that's impressive, actually.

Yeah.

So he, uh, he's going to miss another eight to 10 weeks, it looks like.

And this was, you know, he was coming back not from the original shoulder issue, but from an injured oblique that he tore up back in late April.

So he was just on the verge of coming back from that and has now blown out that shoulder again.

Aren't

you so excited?

Aren't you so excited to be a Brewer fan?

I feel so snake bit to be a brewer fan.

And I understand these things come and go.

I mean, you can't, you can't control them unless of course you do things like, you know, slide too hard into a base.

But I just hope that when this is all said and done, he, he comes back basically bionic.

I hope he's just, you know, just got so, so many, so much hardware in him that he's going to be an even better player.

And by the

way.

By the way, credit to Tyrese Halliburton.

I read he put up a really long message from his hospital bed.

And, you know, it was quite honest about, look, this really stinks.

I'm glad you all aren't here to see me cry.

But I'm going to come back from this.

I promise I'm going to work really hard.

And that's all you could want.

And I know Halliburton is, you know, doesn't have a lot of fans among the Bucks contingent.

No, no, no.

But

But for the Oshkosh kid, you know, I appreciate his words and hope that he works his tail off at it and, you know, then loses to the Bucks the first possible opportunity.

All right, more coming up in a bit from the heart of America's Up North live from Lake Wissoda.

Thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.

I'm Pac Rightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

We're going to hear a bit from Dan Schaefer from the Reconpopulation area coming up in, well, just about 15 minutes or so here, just under 15 minutes.

Here on these mornings, powered by Up North News, across the Civic Media Radio Network.

Coming up on Matt and Air on Air this morning at 9.30, Lisa Schiller from the Better Business Bureau will join Jane Matt and Air and Greg Bach.

You can hear Matt and Air on Air from 9 to 11.

Todd Alba has got his show from two to four this afternoon.

I'll join him just after two o'clock, along with Trig V. Olsen from the Lincoln Project.

And on the Maggie Dawn show, the aforementioned Mr. Schaefer will join Maggie at four o'clock and then she'll be joined at 430 by Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway.

A reminder that if you can't catch us live, catch us as a podcast, even if you listen to us live most of the time, once you head over to Spotify or Apple, if that's your platform and subscribe to the show.

And that way it's there.

If you miss one, if you hear about an episode, if you want to listen back to something, it is right there on your device.

So head over to Spotify or Apple and subscribe to us that way.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is under progressive control now, ever since the Janet Protosewitz victory a couple of years ago.

But a lot of folks did not follow the court that closely for the 15 years prior and probably aren't aware that

for the better part of that 15 years of conservative control, it would be fair in my view to claim that the court was a wholly owned subsidiary of Wisconsin manufacturers and commerce.

It was a group where WMC would bring all kinds of challenges to things that were designed to deal with the environment or with workplace rights or consumer rights.

And you could always count on the Wisconsin Supreme Court to do the wrong thing.

And that changed.

with a couple of elections.

And it's a good thing because now instead of once again telling you that clean water regulations are being rolled back in the state of Wisconsin, I can tell you instead that yesterday the Wisconsin Supreme Court delivered a victory for environmentalists over those forever chemicals known as PFAS, a ruling that environmental advocates say will hold polluters accountable.

You've heard PFAS a lot of times if you need a refresher,

P-F-A-S.

It is the acronym for a very long chemical name and it describes literally thousands of man-made chemicals, all these different compounds that do everything from firefighting foam to non-stick cookware and waterproof fabrics and all kinds of other substances.

And they're called forever chemicals because while they are a miracle of man-made chemistry,

In all the cool things that they do, they make all these things stronger, but as a result, they don't break down naturally.

the way that, you know, traditional chemical compounds do.

Certainly not in our lifetimes, by the time they would break down.

So these chemicals, as they are getting either spilled or dumped or disposed of, are finding their way into the water supply, and it's being discovered that many of these PFAs are not good for human health.

You know, there's no reason why.

You wore protection in factories when these things were being made.

But now it's in our drinking water and it's expensive to get it out and it's dangerous.

And there needs to be, you know, some kind of a remedy when a spill is discovered.

There need to be resources to go track down these spills.

And there needs to be accountability where possible.

If the people who through recklessness or negligence cause these chemicals to be spilled, they should have to help foot the bill for the cleanup.

Well, enter WMC, Wisconsin Manufacturers in Commerce, which was looking for a court order that would say, no, not really.

What needs to happen here is that you have to have a clear rulemaking process for each chemical, because that's the thing that's most fair to the companies that potentially dumped these things.

But environmentalists rightly pointed out that this was a smoke screen or a delay tactic, whatever you want to call it.

Because again, like I said, these are thousands of chemicals, thousands of different types of chemicals.

And industrial groups wanted a rule-making process to be created for each individual compound when we already know that under the PFAS family, these types of man-made compounds

are already pollution.

They are already hazards to human health.

And so as much as, you know, WMC did not want the state to enforce these regulations on these substances, this year's long battle has now been resolved with the court saying that our state's so-called Spills Law

which is more than 50 years old, is adequate to the test.

It is up to the conditions that we have today of being able to ensure that polluters are held responsible and that taxpayers aren't footing the bill for the whole thing.

Now there's still more room to be done in terms of determining standards for things like, you know, drinking water.

There's still things to be done

like helping municipalities get PFAs out of their water supply.

You have a Wisconsin legislature that has a state budget that's about to expire.

Okay, the current state budget is going to expire in what, five days.

And during this time, there's been all this money, something like $100 million, designed to clean up PFAs that Republican legislators approved.

They sent to Governor Evers,

He signed it.

He put some partial vetoes in there because the legislators wanted to micromanage how the funds are being used.

The Republican legislators stamped their feet, had a little tantrum, and said, fine, we won't release the money.

We approved the money, but we won't release the money.

And they did the same with hospital money for the Chippewa Valley and for literacy program money.

They didn't like that the governor used his line-up in veto, which he gets to do.

He's the governor.

And so part of the delay in passing a new budget, the reason it's not going to be passed next year on time, or next week rather, on time, is Republicans say they have trust issues with the governor because of his vetoes.

Again, I remind them.

It's a veto that he gets to use.

There's not a trust issue in him using the veto.

There's a trust issue in Republicans not following the rules, not following the process.

and accepting that they have a chance to override a veto, but if they can't do it, then they should release the money in the way it can do the most good.

Dan Schaffer is coming up next.

We'll have more right after the Midwest Farm Report here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I'm giving you the music here.

Okay, see ya.

Now allegedly you're hearing some kind of music right now for folks coming back from the break is Parker looks looks puzzled at the computer monitor in front of him here.

It's

yeah, I'm very I can't so here's the setup here folks.

I have four computers.

He does.

I mean, it's a sports bar it is and Pat is on this one.

Yes, here I am

sound stuff I play sound off of is this one here sure okay I

can't get on to this one here right now you do you have like your mouse can move from one screen to the other my mouse get to that screen my mouse moves to three

of the four computers I have

somebody built a wall and he built that wall the most important one I can't get to

Alright, are we able to listen to Dan Schaefer from yesterday?

We are able to listen to Dan Schaefer.

Okay, let me tell folks first then because I was in such a hurry to get to the Brewers Pirates game this afternoon that I neglected to share Brittany Merleau's state forecast for today where she says another low pressure is heading towards the state buckling the front that is parked over the state.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms are expected over the next 48 hours.

So for today, cloudy and cooler, occasional showers,

possibly a thunderstorm high today in the upper sixties up north upper seventies south and east wind at 10 to 15 for tonight rain heavy at times embedded thunderstorms and fog also likely tonight lows in the fifties up north sixties south and east wind at 5 to 10 miles an hour.

All right, I had Dan Schaefer on as always Tuesday mornings at 8 30 and it stretched over into the local break where some stations Cut away and catch some local news Dan and I just kind of continue the conversation for anybody hanging around online And so I wanted to share some of that where I started by asking Dan a

about reports over the weekend that state Republican Party Chair Brian Shimming may be on the verge of being forced out of his post such a contrast from Democrats having a successful transition to a new state party chair.

But it is very interesting that like Shimming is it does seem to be facing a whole lot of controversy.

You know, I guess like they can go back to the fact that

Trump won Wisconsin last fall, so a big part of his job was getting that, working to achieve that very result.

So I think that is probably a sign that he's going to remain in leadership.

And whether there is an actual ability for this executive team to oust him, who knows.

But I think it just goes to show that there are, you know,

There does seem to be some under the surface in fighting at large for the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

Maybe they can agree to get on board for Trump in the general election against Kamala Harris.

But beyond that, not so sure if they have really a clear direction, if their fundraising is at the level that they want it to be.

I know you had a conversation about this with a guest yesterday on the show as well.

I don't know if he seems to be pulling together the various coalitions that make up the Republican Party in ways that some of his membership might want to see.

Well, you know, the running joke is, is the phrase Democrats in disarray.

And I'm not saying it's not true, but I'm saying that right now the disarray is decidedly on the Republican side.

And you can see it, you know, issue by issue, like the conversation we had earlier today on childcare accounts, that you have pro business Republicans that

see the wisdom in having a healthy, affordable child care sector, but you have social conservatives who are not at all shy about saying, why do we even have child care?

You know, a parent, usually the mom should stay home.

And you've got those two factions just on that issue alone.

Then you throw in, you know, a host of others, and now you throw in potential war with Iran.

And you've got conservatives who are unhappy that the president is once again working the same path that other past Republican presidents have done.

potentially dragging us into a protracted war in the Middle East.

Ron Johnson was asked about that and said, you know, does this change anything?

And his answer to Maria Bartiromo was, yeah, it means we really gotta get going and cut Medicaid and cut those 10 million Americans off of Medicaid.

War gets him excited for Medicaid cuts.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is your senior senator, as you pointed out yesterday, Dan.

Our senior senator Ron Johnson.

Yep asked on Fox news on I believe it was one of the Sunday morning shows if if what's happening in world affairs with happening with the the strikes on Iran the military action there if that changes anything for

How we look at the big beautiful bill and I think Ron Johnson is and I'll quote him directly It says no if anything it just strengthens my resolve How do we expect to defend this nation if we're if we're mortgaging its future if we're bankrupting it?

Once again Ron Johnson's concerns about bankrupting the nation for the future seemed to overlook the fact that he Was played a central role in the Trump tax cuts which

exploded the deficit.

But not only that, just like, doesn't it get back to like the, you know, every caricature that you might have of the Republican Party of kicking people off of health care in order to start unnecessary, expensive foreign wars?

Is it 2003 all over again?

And for Ron Johnson, it's just so on brand like, how have we not closed all the orphanages yet?

When can we bring back debtors prison?

I mean, the guy is just a dickens.

character and you you talk about the prospect of war in the Middle East and he's coming right back to now we got to rip health care away from people that's the way that we get this done.

Any chance you were as surprised as I was in my case it was a pleasant surprise but a surprise nonetheless that Governor Tony Evers just came right out and said it said if there's not money in this next state budget bill for child care accounts I'm not signing this budget.

And I think I get why, because you can partially veto a lot of things, but you can't partially veto a zero.

But what were your thoughts when you heard that he had actually put that line in the sand?

Yeah, I was I was encouraged by it I think that's a that's the type of moves that the governor should be making right now You know, we are now less than a week away from the budget deadline And it does not seem like we are particularly close to getting that budget completed in in really any way But I think you know, there's the difficult part of what evers is putting forth here saying that he won't sign a state budget That does not extend childcare accounts payments.

Well, there's two things one is what?

Level of payment is he going to see as an acceptable level to sign the budget because we know Republicans are not going to go all the way to the what is it 400 some million 450 million that the governor has proposed for childcare accounts again a program that has been successful in keeping costs manageable for families keeping centers open and keeping providers paid and

has, again, has proven to be effective.

So, you know, it's something that the Republicans are really arguing with results by denying funding to this program.

But I do think it's interesting, but I don't know if there is that much incentive for Republicans to really do anything here, because if Governor Evers were to veto a budget, it would just go back to

the base levels of funding that we've seen from the last two years, which would include nothing allocated for childcare because that has all been funded through what Evers has been redirecting through federal funds.

Well,

that

gets me to the question of whether all of this is just posturing, is this one big head fake when you've got a couple of senators, state senators saying, well, they're not going to support what comes out of the Joint Finance Committee.

And, you know, is that division within the Republican ranks?

Or is that simply the means to an end to not pass a budget?

And I talked about that on Monday with state representative Francesca Hong.

And I said, am I overthinking this?

And her answer was, yeah, Pat, you're overthinking it.

But but I I still think that that may be very much in the, you know, Robin Voss, Devin Lemahue playbook of we're going to say all kinds of things.

But really, when all is said and done,

we have no interest in passing a budget and we think we can run with that.

I think there's a couple different things with this.

I do think that they will pass a budget and kind of dare Evers to veto it because we've talked about and you know Todd Alba was all over this last week on civic media with the potential cuts to the UW system.

I think that would be more of a situation that could set up you know a potential scenario where Evers would veto the entire budget because if they're going to cut

$90 million from the UW system at a time when we have a $4 billion surplus, going back to those base levels of funding would mean not having a nearly $90 million cut to the system.

And I think there's going to be some mounting pressure on this, too, because there are a number of groups, Citizen Action of Wisconsin being one.

There are a few that are part of this coalition that has

been encouraging Evers to veto the entire budget if it doesn't include adequate levels of funding for things like K-12 education, or childcare, or Medicaid expansion.

So I do think those calls from the left, from Democrats, are going to ramp up.

And I think, you know, Evers has a challenging political moment ahead of him, that's for sure.

For more from Dan, you've got to subscribe to the newsletter.

Head over to therecombobulationarea.news and Dan's on the radio throughout the course of the week on Civic Media.

And I always post a roundup of all of my radio appearances from across the Civic Media Network at the end of the week at the Recombobulation Area.

So subscribe to get that delivered straight to your inbox too.

All right.

Well, you heard the man.

Well, you heard the man if you were on the radio for a social media audience was stuck watching me play like, you know, a little puppet show over here on the screen.

But you can get Dan Jafer's newsletter head over to therecombobulationarea.news.

Again, the recombobulationarea.news for what Dan is writing about from things in the state capital and elsewhere.

Let's do a mental health check in now on Parker Olson and Madison Studio A2.

How you doing, buddy?

No bueno.

Well, you were struggling with that.

I found out that if you Google the phrase, why won't my mouse move to my second monitor?

Yeah.

There's a lot of info.

This happens to a lot of people.

And it just brings up something that I mention a lot of times is that

Pick a time, maybe 50 years in the future, 100 years in the future.

People are gonna look back at this and go, wait, there were a time when computers didn't work right, like your mouse wouldn't move from one screen to the other.

That's crazy.

How would that be?

We sometimes forget for all the advances we've made, we really are still in the dark ages, the beginning times of the information era.

I mean, the internet's only been around for 30 years.

Yeah.

That's not much.

No.

And we don't live in the time of the Jetsons just yet.

But again, uh, this is going to work out really well.

How's that history lesson looking, you know, in about five minutes here.

We have to play clip after clip.

Is it would be better if I stopped talking to you so that you could keep getting all these clips ready so that they maybe play in some other monitor?

Is that what you're saying?

They're

going to be played.

You're just not going to be able to hear them.

Actually, no one in stream art is going to be.

I.

It'll go over the airwaves.

Well, I mean, we are a radio show, so I guess sacrifices have to be made.

Yeah.

I don't think there's going to be a way for

me to do that, like, well at all.

You know what?

I'm just going to play it in my head.

I might actually sing a couple of the songs to the social media audience while the radio audience is hearing it.

It's not like we're going to have to pay extra for the licensing, you know?

The

music's going to go out.

This all goes to just, again, state that no good deed goes unpunished.

And the good deed is that we're letting Parker go to a brewers game this afternoon.

Free tickets from the station.

It's going to be a great time.

In fact, I predict he might have an extra bottle of water.

He might really whoop it up at the game tonight.

I'm losing my mind, Pat.

This is not good.

Oh, I can't even play pigeon

quest.

Oh, no.

Oh, no, I just saw Melissa K step into the on-deck circle here We can't play pigeon quest when she gets here for the history lesson.

I don't think unless I can find it somehow I did send it to a mate.

Maybe I just I don't think you'll be able to hear it no matter what but

maybe you're gonna You're gonna want to stick around after this little break here because we're gonna have today's history lesson It might feature me singing it might feature Melissa K joining me for duets So their social media audience can hear some of the tunes because they may not hear pigeon quest

That's all coming up.

Stick around here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I have no idea if I'm in sync with the radio song because again, it was decent.

We can't hear it here, but that for the radio audience, they're hearing Chicago's 25 or six to four.

They released that song, one of their first big hits on this day in 1970.

Welcome to today's history lesson.

Today's music free history lesson for our social media audience.

where Melissa K joins us as well from Wisconsin Rapids, hanging out at 97.5 WFHR, 105.5 WIRI, and Melissa.

Maybe, Parker, maybe Melissa is the one that broke your computer.

Or it was paint bucket.

With it's like that, or it was paint bucket, because that computer is where we would normally, and Parker we gotta get this in sync, where we would normally play

Pigeon Kwa!

Hey, nice job.

I think you're actually more in sync than the first time you did it.

Probably, which, again, it's lovely though.

We thought that there was a chance that Paint Bucket would be on your shoulder already.

Well, see, there was a shipping delay because of the hot weather.

They couldn't ship her

because of the weather.

Okay, so the delay is in the process of shipping Paint Bucket isn't in a warehouse someplace.

No, that's

why they didn't because it's too hot.

for them to be in the truck.

And so, yeah, there's a delay.

Next possible option is the seventh.

Okay.

All right.

Because of the fourth holiday weekend and, you know,

I might

be driving down to meet a volunteer halfway.

We'll see.

Okay.

All right.

We'll keep our fingers crossed.

It's still a quest.

Our little pigeon toes crossed as the case may be.

Hey, are we still, is the radio audience still hearing 25 or 6 to 4 in the background?

Oh, yeah.

All this time?

Oh, yeah.

Okay, I just want to see if I get the solo right.

Am I at all insane?

Probably not.

All right.

Here come some birthdays.

Anybody remember Lassie?

the early days TV show with the with the dog.

June Lockhart, the mom on there.

June Lockhart, the actress is 100 years old today.

Oh

wow.

June Lockhart from Lassie and lost in space turns 100 today.

Ricky Gervais, happy birthday, 64 today.

Then a few sad notes here.

Anthony Bourdain was born 69 years ago today, but of course we lost him a few years back at the age of 61.

It was on this day in 2000.

In 2009, Michael Jackson was found dead in his Los Angeles rented mansion at the age of 50.

And the late George Michael was born this day in 1963, but again, was lost way too early back when he was 53 years old in 2016.

I swear music is

playing.

You know, maybe if you could hear the music, Parker, then it seems like you're the one that should be singing along with it so that- Wow!

I

did

do choir.

I was an advanced choir, actually.

However, I don't think that needs to go on YouTube anymore than it already

is.

Cause you gotta have faith, faith,

faith.

Anyway, on this day in 1978, the rainbow flag representing Gay Pride was flown for the first time in the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade.

Happy birthday to singer Carly Simon.

She is 82 years old today.

And

theoretically,

the radio audience is hearing her sing, I haven't got time for the pain.

Haven't got room for the pain.

having a need for the pain.

Okay, more birthdays now.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor is 71 years old today.

So is David Page, the co-founder of Toto and John McCrae from Cake the Band is 61 years old today.

Oh, I'm sorry I'm gonna miss this next one because it was on this day in 1993 that Nora Efron's romantic comedy, Sleepless in Seattle, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan opened in theaters with songs like this one from Louis Armstrong.

And this is where social media audience were hearing him saying,

Give me a kiss to build a dream on in my imagination.

Net King Cole, Harry Connick Jr.

The soundtrack was a big hit.

I still love that soundtrack.

Highly recommend.

You don't have to see the movie to appreciate the soundtrack.

But the movie said to.

Oh, the movie's super good.

Yeah.

I would dare say Sleepless in Seattle was the first what you would call a rom-com that I was truly a fan of.

Really good.

Really good.

Tony on YouTube.

I love that song.

How do you know, Tony?

You can't hear it.

Well, you're saying enough of it that we know what it is.

Happy anniversary to Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman.

They married this day in 2006.

So today is their 19th wedding anniversary.

Wow.

Is that like the longest celebrity relationship?

It's just the might.

Dolly Parton

and her husband.

Might be.

Let's see.

And on this day in 1967,

The Beatles premiered a song to a worldwide TV audience of 400 million people and it started with a flourish of trumpets and then they sang, all you need is love.

Doesn't it feel like there's like a musician strike going on right now?

to fill in the gaps for the missing music.

Meanwhile, the radio audience is like, would you please stop trying to sing over the songs?

Folks that might have tuned in in the past couple of minutes here, we have a computer issue.

First time ever, where the radio audience is hearing stuff coming off of Parker's computer, but the social media audience.

It's not it, Tony.

I suddenly like that song a little less.

Yes, I understand.

totally get how that would happen.

Let's see, and on this day in 1988, 17-year-old Debbie Gibson hit number one with Foolish Beat, making her at the time the youngest artist to top the charts with a song that was written and performed and produced all by herself.

Again, that was Debbie Gibson back in 1988.

Alright, so paint so the delivery of paint bucket has been delayed a bit

been delayed because of the heat.

Yep Okay,

and and and you dealt with the heat all right yourself.

Did you?

I

survived it.

Yeah,

but you said you put in your own window unit air conditioner

Well, you know the the forecast that Brittany shared with us was just so awful.

I was like, you know

Yeah,

I was and then

And then I fought until I won, and now I have air conditioning in my bedroom.

Melissa K, thank you so much.

And we'll have more paint bucket and pigeon quest next week.

You take care.

You too.

All right, two more hours to go with or without music on one of these Wednesday mornings powered by Up North News.

I'm Pat Rightlow, and this is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Live, across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Kratlow powered by Up North News.

Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Kratlow.

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 Lyrely 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 triple digit heat index readings are not going to be back anytime soon.

No, no, 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 temperatures 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 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

media radio network.

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 12.35 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 Olsen'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 the long 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 go ahead and

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 healthcare for women, just giving me hope for the future of healthcare 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, uh, 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, uh, 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, Dr. Lyle, we will see you Friday morning, 8 0 5.

Have a great

day.

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 Kristin 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 next state budget and support for the universities of Wisconsin system, because Governor Evers is asking for a more than $800 million 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, one 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 I think you're right.

I can see them coming in right now.

Cover them up with a Burr'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 Gommer 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, Laurie, 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 is 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 re...

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.

So

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, again, 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 and offer like Laurie was talking about to the.

economic development of our community.

And in fact, Green Bay just graduated their first Academy class on Monday night.