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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 is 8.06.
Nice to have you here up north on this Wednesday morning.
July 9th, Parker Olson in Madison Studio A2 meteorologist Brittany Merlot and Earl Ingram all standing by here.
Coming up.
tomorrow in our eight o'clock hour, we'll be talking to Congressman Mark Pocan.
Coming up later today in this eight o'clock hour, we will be talking to State Senator Kel DeRoy's.
We will also have Melissa Baldoff here with this week's climate check and James Kelly with an update on some of the stories he's following in Western Wisconsin.
But first, let's bring in meteorologist Brittany Merleau with that update on the forecast because it is just, is it gorgeous everywhere or is it just me?
Is it just
The CPAP machine, I'm getting enough oxygen now.
I just had a great night's sleep.
Is there only gorgeous weather here?
Am I that, you know, rose-colored glasses?
Or everybody else getting this, too?
It's mostly you.
I mean, Western parts and Southern parts.
So you are in the good spot right now.
So this is good for you, Pat.
How was last night?
Just amazing.
I feel so much better.
I mean.
Honestly, I thought it was gonna go the other way.
I would be like draggy and I couldn't get used to the machine.
It was noisy and it was strangling me and instead it was exactly as everybody told me it would be.
That you feel better, you feel refreshed.
Sherry, instead of being concerned that she wasn't hearing me breathe, it was now off-putting that there was no snoring.
that it was so quiet.
And that's a better problem to have.
I think we all agree.
So absolutely.
I'm so
guys.
Oh, I'm I'm no no regrets about this decision whatsoever.
So yes, it is gorgeous here.
And I hope it spreads to others.
Tell us whether it will or not.
Yes, Pat's joy will spread to the entire state.
The sunshine will make it to every single person today.
But there are some feisty clouds still sticking around, especially in the central parts and northern parts of the state.
We are still looking at dense fog in places too, especially in Mosany, Juneau and Bosquebell, even into Siren, Wisconsin.
So, patchy fog out there, a dense fog advisory, still in effect until 10 a.m.
for Bayfield, Ashland and Iron Counties.
But of course, that high pressure system is going to dominate today and most of tomorrow.
So plenty of sunshine on tap.
Highs today will rise to the mid 80s for a lot of us south and west for the north and east mid 70s today.
We are going to stay sunny and dry.
Like I said, tomorrow too, it's going to get a little bit more muggy, though, especially into the western areas and down south in the state.
It's going to start to feel humid mid 80s statewide tomorrow.
And then we are looking at some showers and storms moving in possibly tomorrow afternoon in the southern half of the state and then taking over for Friday.
And it could be pretty heavy at times.
There are places that could see two inches of rain, maybe more.
And of course, these storms are kind of packing a punch with some heavy brief downpours where even yesterday we saw an inch and a half into Waukesha area and creating some issues out there too.
So be careful out there and don't let those highway puddles pull you in.
No, not at all.
All right.
Brittany, thank you very much.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
You too.
All right.
Reminder, you can always follow what we do at Up North News by signing up for our daily newsletter.
Head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com.
Click subscribe up there in the top banner for our weekday newsletters and my Sunday morning one that focuses on Wisconsin politics.
All right, let's visit with Earl Ingram a couple of different things going on as he covers matters in Southeast Wisconsin for civic media, not the least of which is a podcast series that we haven't talked about for a while.
that we will kind of get promoted here in the next few minutes, but more importantly, we were talking last week, Earl was getting set for working a football camp with Gilbert Brown, and the weather's been nice.
Earl, good morning, did you get the camp underway?
Yeah, we kicked it off yesterday with over 220 young people ages six to about 20 years old, two separate camps, both four hours apiece, starting at 8 a.m.
and the first one to 12 and then we take a two-hour break and then those from 13 through 20.
2 o'clock until 6 o'clock.
And so we were we're honored to have the Hall of Fame Green Bay Packet Leroy Butler show up yesterday and and just really give a monstrous speech along with the mayor, the chief of police and other dignitaries who grace us every day.
You know, I'm painting with a bit of a broad brush here, but I hope folks get the main point.
There are pro athletes who are real divas.
They are really full of themselves and they don't do a lot for others.
There are other pro athletes who never forgot
were their roots.
They never forgot how much work it was to get where they are.
And you sometimes wonder at these motivational conferences, why are there so many athletes there?
Because there are certain athletes who are just that way.
They've taken all that they've done, and now they're ready to channel it into motivating others.
And that certainly sounds like what Leroy Butler was doing yesterday.
Well, people may not know it, but Leroy Butler is from Jacksonville, Florida.
Gilbert Brown is from Detroit, and their connection to the city of Milwaukee is unbelievable.
Green Bay Packers aren't situated in Milwaukee, but the two of them have made a signature commitment to the city of Milwaukee and the Central City children and families every since they were Green Bay Packers.
So they've left an indelible footprint.
uh, in our communities and we have better, uh, having Leroy Butler, Gilbert Brown, uh, do the things that they've been doing now for the past 15 years in our community.
So what did you enjoy most about having the camp get fired up again and having all those kids, uh, getting busy?
What, uh, what, what was the best part of your day?
Well, it brought me back to, I'm a guy who ran the largest youth tackle football program in the state for 20 years.
And here in the city of Milwaukee, uh, children ages six to 14, we had four young guys move on to play pro football and countless numbers of them play in major universities and state universities across the state.
Um, and so missing that, I've been away from it for four years in five years and just being back on the football field around, uh, football and fraternity.
that football is and so just being back around it is enough for me.
I can totally see that as well and I think we may have touched on this last week but I definitely want to hit it again and that is the whole notion of these kinds of organized programs, the structure, the activities that you do together and that is not
you know, something that's isolated to, say, a place like Milwaukee.
I think of my own grandsons who have not been part of team sports and how much more, you know, they could get if they were on a team and get that kind of structured activity.
It's not for every kid, don't get me wrong, but Earl, I'm betting that it was kind of the dawning of a new realization for some of those kids yesterday that, you know, they want to do something that involves teams like this.
Well, I'll tell you it's it's what really is critically important about what you just said is the person who runs the organization and There clearly are some people who don't understand that it's about children and not about them and And so I realized that in the 20 years that I ran my league that it was about children
and that we had to focus on children and not the adults, the parents and the coaches who sometimes would become wayward.
But the lessons that I learned in sports go far beyond me and what I've been doing in your lifespan and my lifespan.
It can go back, you know, centuries, the importance of organized activities for young people.
We're talking to Earl Ingram, who also, along with the football camp and all that he does, also has a podcast series here on Civic Media.
The podcast is called What's Going On with Earl Ingram.
And it was Luke Mathers who pointed out to me the other day that there is a dedicated page to the podcast at the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
You can just click shows in the top banner or go to civicmedia.us slash shows.
And at this point, I think
I see six episodes of the podcast that have gone up so far.
I know we talked very early on about the one which is an interview with Dr. Howard Fuller, but can you tell us just a bit about a couple of these other episodes and why you decided to do them?
Well, you know, I'm kind of in a partnership with the Medical College of Wisconsin.
And I think it's critically important that having these platforms, that especially many of the people who listen, have physical ailments.
And so I had one podcast that I brought on, especially as we talked about high blood pressure and stroke and May was.
High blood pressure and stroke month yesterday.
I did a podcast with a urologist who it's not up yet, but there'll be up soon with a urologist who talks about prostate cancer.
And so we really get into those things more so than what people normally hear in passing, but these are critical issues.
People are dying and then they need to understand that there's prevention.
but there's also the earlier you catch something that more likely it is in today's science and in advancements in health care that you can prolong your life if you're just aware of it.
So a lot of what I'm going to be doing is dealing with the Medical College of Wisconsin and all the myriad of doctors and specialists that they have.
I'm also going to deal with
some politics or excuse me politics also going to be dealing, you know, with with some very dedicated people who have dedicated their lives to serving others.
Yeah, we definitely see that through an episode on walking into black history with the NAACP.
And, you know, also on the lighter side, Milwaukee in the movie scene is one of your more recent episodes that you did as well.
Oh, absolutely.
I'll tell you, there's some coming up where there's some young men who, through just great philanthropic commitment by the Daniels family, just a tremendous family that I'm going to do a series on.
And they have taken somewhere over the last 25 years, I'd say at least 500 young boys from the city of Milwaukee traveled the world.
and they've become just outstanding ambassadors all over this country.
They've gone to major universities and they've made a commitment to come back to the city of Milwaukee and dedicate their lives to making things better.
I'm really excited about that podcast and the stories.
that that are happening with those young men, what they've done.
It's really should be a national story.
I want to make sure that we capture that.
That's awesome.
And again, you can catch that in Earl's podcast.
What's going on with Earl Ingram and head over to the Civic Media website to learn more about that.
Earl, it's always a pleasure.
Thanks for the visit this week.
All right.
I'm on my way to City Grave Digger.
All right.
Good luck.
Have a have a great time with the camp.
Always a pleasure.
So all right, he has a lot of fun.
Let me answer a question about that because we got it on the text line about the show about Earl's show from John and Oshkosh says, is there a link on the app?
Not a link to that specific podcast.
But if you're using the civic media app, here's how to go about doing it down in the lower right corner.
Down at the bottom says home and my station because you can pick a home station and more click on the more button.
And then one of the options is about civic media.
And when you click about Civic Media, it takes you to the website.
From there, go to the main menu, click on shows, and you will see Earl's podcast and all the others that Civic Media provides to us as well.
A local update is next for some of you.
Others will talk to Melissa Baldoff in climate check, and then Senator Kelder Roy's coming up in 15 minutes.
Live from Lake Wissota here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
Brewers were winners over the Dodgers 3-1.
Jacob Mizorowski just a wonderful six innings pitched and the Brewers were able to get to Clayton Kershaw early and they will wrap up that three game series this afternoon at American Family Field.
You can catch the pregame starting at 12.35 on several civic media stations or you can ring up Melissa Baldoff.
She'll probably be sitting out there somewhere in the stands catching today's game.
Melissa, good morning.
Your game bound, aren't you?
it.
Oh, yeah And as well you should it's a like I said beautiful day for a ball game We're gonna start with the you know the the sad and tragic news out of Texas Only only in this vain Melissa and this is not
I don't want this to be misconstrued.
This is not like some kind of an I told you so on the backs of what might be, you know, 200 dead in this.
But this is what I just, I don't want people using those terms anymore, 100 year flood, 500 year flood, you know, unprecedented.
It's pretty clear by now, Melissa, that
That's not the time we live in anymore.
And whatever you're feeling, and again, it's your feeling, whatever your feeling is on climate change.
The record's pretty clear on how our storms are getting to be heavier.
The rain is falling harder.
The droughts are getting more severe.
And if you might be in harm's way, you got to mitigate that.
I mean, this is just absolutely
devastating.
And it's one of those moments to me that, you know, feels like it should be a turning point.
And I, I hope it is for people to start paying attention and doing something.
It is undeniable that these extreme weather incidents are
being exacerbated by climate change that we have to do something about it that the recent Policy changes at the federal level are going to make things like this worse both because we are not investing in our clean energy future and resilience efforts and all of the ways that we can help to reduce The impact and the likelihood of these kinds of events, but we are also taking away resources from
the National Weather Service from, you know, local communities, state communities, you know, states to be able to respond to tragedies like this.
It is only going to make not only the events worse, but the outcomes from them worse.
So to me, this really feels like a turning point and opportunity.
It, to me, almost feels like, like, to liken it to the gun violence epidemic, it feels like Sandy Hook.
And, you know, obviously our country
didn't do what it should have at that moment.
And I hope we do what we should do at this moment, where we have this just catastrophic loss of life.
And I hope that this is a wake up call for people.
I hope so.
Let's take the politics out of it and let's stick to the science because as the atmosphere warms and it has been warming, whatever you think is the cause, but it has been warming.
And the New York Times quotes are some pathic who's the director of adaptation and coastal resilience at the National Wildlife Federation.
He says the atmosphere is like a giant sponge as the air gets warmer.
which is what has been happening because of a changing climate, the sponge can hold a lot more water.
And when there's a storm, the sponge can squeeze out way more water than it used to.
I thought that was just a very perfect, basic, but concise way to capture where we are right now in terms of, in this case, the storms that are happening and
For all the times my heart has broken lately when I heard people say, well, we thought about putting in a better warning system, but we decided it would be too expensive.
Now you know why the Biden administration, why the Evers administration and others have been talking about grants to help with resilience.
In other words, early warning systems, these are investments that will literally save lives.
You know, this is
I don't know very many other parents who haven't sent their kid to a summer camp or had an opportunity for their family to get away somewhere more rural or maybe they live just somewhere more rural where these kinds of incidents are
more likely to happen.
But I can't imagine the what these families are going through.
You know, somebody who sent my kids to camp, I'm sure you probably have to, you know, you know, to just have your kids go away for what you think is going to be a whole lot of fun with their friends in the summer, and they don't come back.
And there's no there's no price tag you can put on that.
No, absolutely not.
And let's close with one one quick thing about UPS truck drivers.
For years, they've been asking for better air conditioning in those big old brown vans, but the company resisted.
And it's worth noting that the person that many UPS drivers blame, David Keeling, is the former health and safety executive at UPS, and he is President Trump's nominee to lead the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA.
whose nominations is now before the Senate.
I have no question to ask you about that, Melissa, other than to say you can't make this stuff up.
I mean, every single it's like every single Trump appointee, you look in their background and they are like the architect of some dumb and or dangerous thing.
And that just seems like it to the extent that the Trump administration did any vetting for any of these people.
it's almost like they screened for what are the worst things that these people could do in their line of work.
Let's pick them if they did it.
They screened.
it's
Only cartoon villains need apply for having an OSHA, which, you know, you want to carry forward with their first rules to provide mandatory water and rest breaks.
probably can't count on them now with with these two guys in Washington D.C.
Melissa Baldoff.
Thank you so much.
I always appreciate it.
Certain sweet today.
We're going to get the state Senator Calderois and talk more about that state Supreme Court decision from yesterday after this.
You're up north.
All right, it is time to continue the longest running fight here at Civic Media.
The Civic Media folks, we're buddies, we're pals, we all get along.
But there are some fights, and the current fight between me and Todd Alba is which one can have Senator Keldor Royz on as a co-host, you know, most often in the future when she decides she doesn't want to keep doing this politics thing all the time because she's so good at explaining the news to us all.
Senator Keldor Royz, good morning, how are you?
Can I say
I understand.
Yep.
Yep.
So, Jan with Todd the other day.
By the way, Todd and I will be together at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair for his show, 2 to 4 p.m.
Thursday and Friday.
So, if you're in the Chippewa County area, come on out to the fairgrounds of the Northern Wisconsin State Fair and see us Thursday and Friday from 2 to 4
at the fair.
So you've been with Todd and you've put out a statement as well on, you know, the most recent Supreme Court decision.
We're going to get to the state budget matter in just a moment here.
But I, of course, as you know, have been fascinated by yesterday's Supreme Court decision because of all the nerd stuff behind it.
Yes, it is about, you know, the decision was about, you know, the so-called conversion therapy.
And there's a lot that can be said about the ways that that is used to essentially terrorize, you know, young people and the LGBTQ community.
But the reason for it, the reason for that decision
is one of several instances where Republicans have abused trust in the legislature.
There was gerrymandering the maps.
There's holding up all the nominations.
There's abusing the joint finance committee to hold back money that was already approved.
And then there's this one that's a bit more obscure, but a bill becomes a law, but a law only becomes the law through the rules that are written to enforce the law.
And Kelda, you know firsthand, we both have worked with that particular administrative rules committee.
committee is not the backstop that it used to be for the few times that a rule maybe was, you know, out of line.
Republicans are using that committee in a far different way now, aren't they?
I mean, it's yet another example of how Republicans have been using their ill-gotten gerrymandered power to unconstitutionally put themselves not just in the legislative branch, but to try to override what
the governor and the executive branch are charged with doing.
And so the court's decision, well, it has the effect of clearing the way to make sure that young people are not subjected to these abusive practices like conversion therapy.
The mechanism is that the legislature doesn't get to have the final say.
The governor is the one who decides whether to sign laws or veto them.
It's not the legislature.
I love the fact too that as Republicans are catarwaling about this they're again saying oh Tony Evers wants to make himself a king and they'd say the same thing about the the partial veto powers and everything when it actually is the legislature that has tried to turn into a de facto monarchy by saying nope we're
gonna
take
budget power away from the governor.
And, you know, even if we don't have the votes to override his veto, we're going to find other ways to sabotage what he is otherwise legally able to do.
This is a party that's run the legislature for 14 years that is long overdue for some some reform, even if it has to come from a state Supreme Court.
And to be clear, like this, you know, the court decisions that have been smacking down the legislature have
not just been the liberals on the court, right?
A lot of these decisions have been 7061.
And yesterday's decision is another victory for Wisconsinites who want to have a government that is responsive to their needs, right, to us as the people and not just to the right wing special interests that would love to see, you know, the most extreme elements of the Republican Party controlling everything.
And I think, as I mentioned earlier, looking back at these past few decisions here, and I have been clear, I did not necessarily, I did not agree with the Supreme Court's reasoning on limiting the partial veto powers, but I get it.
I understand what they were saying, but here's my larger point.
I think that ruling, I think yesterday's ruling on the rulemaking process, the, you know,
unrigging the gerrymandered maps.
I feel like now with this progressive majority, and yeah, sometimes it's actually more than four to three.
Sometimes it's five to two.
Sometimes it's seven, nothing.
But I feel like this progressive majority on the court is actually leading Wisconsin state government down a path of reform that you can't abuse the rules process and that a governor can't, you know, push the envelope on veto powers.
This seems like the most fair-minded court we've
had in
my memory.
Yeah, it's it's really heartening to see You know, I remember when I was growing up and when I was a law student the Wisconsin Supreme Court was really held in very very high regard and it was it was looked at as even on par with the US Supreme Court in terms of the quality of the reasoning and that was Shirley Abrahamson and Ann Walsh Bradley You know who were really intellectual lights on that court and it's it is gratifying to see that this court is
Helping to make Wisconsin a place where everyone can thrive and they really are they're not a rubber stamp for one side or the other And I think that's very healthy.
That's
That's what we ultimately want to have in a democracy.
Yeah, we talked in the last hour with Heather Dubois born on from the Wisconsin Public Education Network and Karine Hendrickson about their unhappiness with what was in the state budget agreement in terms of public education, in terms of childcare, all of that is well known.
You have explained your reasons for your vote on the bill as well.
So I don't want to dwell on it too much longer.
But I knew you were the right person to help us pivot from here because
You can be against this budget, but you can also understand why some of your Democratic colleagues supported it.
And so how
do you go forward in helping voters understand that there is frustration among the progressive community right now, including with each other to a degree, but that that's not those aren't the people you should be taking your frustrations out on next year.
And in fact, I think to be fair, it isn't just progressives who are frustrated, right?
Education, public school funding has been the number one issue that we've heard about for many years on the on the budget committee.
And it's been a long standing, you know, for the last 15 years, our kids have not gotten an inflationary increase in schools.
And when inflation goes up and you don't get an increase, that's a cut.
In addition to, of course, the devastating cuts of the Walker year.
So our kids have really been getting shortchanged.
And
people have every right to be angry and frustrated about that.
I'm angry and frustrated about that.
That said, it is better than no budget at all.
And the slight increase in special education funding is going to be helpful to many school districts.
It will help offset the no increase in general aids, which is going to be devastating.
You know, two thirds of districts are going to have less money than they had last year because of the
general school aid being held flat.
But I think that we have to look beyond.
If we want things to change, then we cannot continue to empower Robin Boss and the extreme Republican Party.
We have got to have a democratic trifecta, and that's really what I'm going to be focusing on and working towards.
Ultimately, we can fund our schools appropriately.
Our kids deserve better schools, but that's only going to happen if we have a democratic trifecta.
And so our guest last hour talked about a rally that will be held at the Capitol a little after 9am this Friday, day after tomorrow.
You're going to be there as well.
Child care is something I'm really passionate about, not just because it's important for our workforce and economy, but because every single kid deserves the best possible start in life.
That's when so much brain development happens.
And it shouldn't be rationed based on how much money your parents have.
Senator Calderois is our guest here and let's turn to where the legislature goes from here.
The budget's passed, that's the one bill that theoretically always has to pass and then everything is extra.
I noticed yesterday it was like somebody unloaded a dump truck of bill introductions.
Now that the budget's done, everybody is circulating ideas for new bills.
So there's some, there'll be some time in the fall and the next spring before everybody goes out to campaign again.
Are there,
Are there things that you think now beyond the state budget that are going to get done, which obviously would have to be done in a bipartisan fashion?
Or is it more the pessimistic view that very little is going to get done for the rest of this session?
Well, I always try to be optimistic because I think it's important if you're going to work in politics, you have to hope is really what drives you.
But I think realistically it's going to be very difficult.
The Republicans are in disarray.
They are unable to govern with these narrow majorities and they see the writing on the wall that they are very likely to be in the minority in the next session.
And I think that's exacerbated some of the conflicts between different members of the Republican caucus.
That said, there are a lot of big issues that I'm working on that I think should and could have bipartisan support.
I think about
you know, regulating AI.
This is a huge emerging issue that a lot of state legislators are not paying attention to yet, and it's already transforming our society.
We really need to be thinking about this.
Things like data privacy, right?
At a time when the federal government is abusing our data and really weaponizing forces in the government against our own people, we need to be very careful about what data is accessible.
I think a cell phone ban, I would love to see a bell to bell cell phone ban in schools.
I think there's a lot of bipartisan support for that.
Regulating social media and the way that social media can influence and harm our kids.
So there are housing issues.
There's a lot that I'm passionate about where I think we can have hopefully some bipartisan cooperation.
Here's one that won't happen, but it should.
And that would be the Medicaid expansion, given what the Trump administration and Congress just decided to do the Medicaid.
But
I
vented on this yesterday.
So I just want to give you the chance to vent as well, except I can vent at one of your colleagues.
Maybe you don't want to.
But I read this from the Channel 13 website yesterday.
I'm going to read it again.
State Senator Jesse James, Republican of Thorpe, said the biggest ticket item was increasing the hospital assessment and access payments to the federal maximum.
and reinvesting that money back into the hospitals.
This untapped federal money is an additional pathway to help support our hospitals, to which I add rhetorically, well, Senator, what the hell do you think the Medicaid expansion was?
Exactly, I mean, honest to God, I don't know how Republicans get away with calling themselves fiscally responsible, when for years they have rejected hundreds of millions of dollars coming into the state every year, Wisconsin taxpayers could pay less.
to cover more people and instead we are paying to cover people in Illinois and California and all these red states that have expanded Medicaid.
All of our health insurance costs go up when we have more uninsured people.
Our rural hospitals and care centers struggle nursing homes close because we're not able to get them the revenue they need.
They have too much uncompensated care when people are uninsured or underinsured.
And Republicans have rejected over and over.
And that means that about 90,000 Wisconsinites have gone without the health care that they need.
It's bad for our economy.
It's bad for our state budget.
And it's, of course, bad for our health.
And then finally, how much on pins and needles do you feel, and not just you, all kinds of folks in the legislature, folks outside of the legislature, as you wait for
things to happen, obviously starting with Governor Evers making a decision on running, but there's congressional seats, there's assembly reps running for state Senate, which opens up an assembly race to happen.
And what does that feel like knowing that while you think about your own future, whether you want to stay in the state Senate or do something else, do you feel stuck in political limbo right now?
I mean, I think
You know, the governor should take the time that he and Kathy need to think about this and make a decision.
It's a really momentous one, right?
2026 is going to be, I think, a huge year for Democrats.
It's a big, big opportunity.
So if he decides it's the right time to pass the torch, I have no doubt that we will be able to hold the governor's office.
But that's his decision to make.
And I think I'm just really excited because I am working on having a Democratic trifecta.
We had the launch of a great State Senate candidate, Jenna Jacobson.
This week, I think we'll have more in the coming weeks, and I'm focused on helping them win.
Tri-facto.
Get used to hearing that word a lot and the importance of it here in Wisconsin.
Senator Kelder-Royce, it's always great.
Thank you so much.
Have a wonderful day.
you.
All right.
A local update is next.
For some of you others, we'll have some final news and notes from Lake Wissota, including James Kelly in the Civic Media Newsroom in Chippewa Falls.
All coming up next, you're up north.
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James Kelly joins us now from the Civic Media Newsroom in Chippewauffles.
And James, how are you?
Do you have a good fourth weekend?
I did have a good fourth weekend.
Did you say chip of waffles?
Chip of waffles.
I've been saying for 40 years here.
So in fact, my world famous waffle recipe, they are known as chip of waffles because you put little chocolate chips in them.
There you go.
That's good branding.
We, thank you.
Yeah, the girls when they were younger all the time, they'd have sleepovers and they probably had more than most kids because
They're friends.
They love them waffles in the morning.
So I've still got two of them.
I never, I don't need to make, you know, two waffle irons worth anymore for, you know, a whole parcel of kids.
But one of these days, what we're going to open up the Kraitlo bed and breakfast and the, uh, the chip of waffles are going to be the hit.
Trust me.
Uh, so let's get to what you've been covering lately here.
And we've, we've had a lot to say about governor Evers and the budget and of course childcare funding.
And he talked about it at the YMCA in Eau Claire recently.
Yeah, he was here on Monday kind of taking the victory tour of we did get funding for childcare.
It wasn't quite as much as he had originally proposed, but that's how a bipartisan budget ends up working in the end.
He's still hoping that this is going to be enough to get through the next two years until the next biennial budget as far as child care funding goes.
It's $360 million over 360 with about a third going to direct payments to providers.
I'm not sure how potential federal funding cuts could affect these plans going forward, but for the time being, there is state funding for child care centers to remain
open.
You know, let me let me interrupt before we do our next story here James because I'm noticing something behind you here in Parker I believe you can help us with this the chip will falls newsroom is looking a little sparse there Parker in the back.
Don't you?
Ah, this is a familiar issue.
I've heard before
yes, but but did you see how Parker fixed that in Madison studio a2 with that that little banner?
Yeah, as it just so happens.
Oh boy.
I've got
I've got this Up North News sign from back when we had that Supreme Court forum, you know, in Madison, and I got no place to put it.
So maybe we could put this in a Linie's poster.
Yeah.
And maybe I
just took all the banners and stuff down to the fairgrounds yesterday.
Oh, of course.
Of course.
That's fairground.
Well, you know what?
When you're all done, maybe if the Madison folk folks bring it up, here's Tony going, we need a Luke portrait.
Supreme Leader Luke.
It has to be
present in every camera shot.
Yeah, I'll just do
all the news with Luke watching over me.
Well, we all are, trust me.
But anyway, I noticed, OK, it's for the fair.
You got to go to the fair.
And James, you're going to be at the fair this week, I'm sure.
Oh,
yeah, I'll be there on Friday.
And who knows?
Maybe I'll stop by on Saturday.
It's not like it's particularly far from our downtown Chippewa Falls office.
No, not at all.
And it's, again, if you've never been to the northern Wisconsin State Fair, it's awesome.
It's just it's really nice.
It's not just not too big.
It's definitely not too.
small so come on come on down it's getting it start today.
All right back to the serious news that James is following out there and talking about the National Guard Armory building in Rice Lake and it's going to have a new owner.
Yeah, it was officially put up for sale a few months ago by the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs.
It was appraised at $550,000.
They offered the city of Rice Lake and Barron County the right of first refusal for it.
The county just declined outright.
The city of Rice Lake apparently made a couple of offers for under what the asking price was, and last week they officially sold it to the World Harvest Church where they're gonna build a new church at that site and likely sell the current site that they have up there in Rice Lake.
Interesting way for this to end, Rice Lake had actually put quite a bit of effort into pursuing this purchase.
They had put out public input surveys.
What would you want to see us do with this land?
But unfortunately, they were not able to come up with an agreement.
It's interesting that the city made a couple of offers, but for lower than the asking price.
And again, fiscal conservatism
can only get you so far sometimes if you're in a competitive bidding situation here and in this case with a church.
So when you say that they're going to put, are they going to put their church in the Armory building or are they talking about building new on that site?
I'm not
sure.
I'm sure there will be some renovation work to go.
They are going
to be
keeping things like there's a playground nearby.
They're going to be keeping that green space open to public use.
Gotcha.
Okay.
And then finally, let's we mentioned a couple weeks back, I think, that a container park in Altoona was coming together using those, you know, those freight containers that you see on cargo ships and on the railroads.
And more of them are being used for housing and now for essentially a little bit of retail area, right?
Yeah, so my personal background is actually in city planning before I got into journalism.
So
when I
see projects like this where it's just this creative use of what do we have?
What do we have open space wise?
Like let's make something out of this.
It's a really good idea.
I like it.
There's going to be retail space.
Their official grand opening is going to be on July 26th.
There's going to be some live music.
I believe a cornhole tournament as well.
I've heard cornhole is pretty big in the Midwest.
It is.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You've heard correctly.
Yes.
Yeah.
So it
should be.
It should be pretty cool.
Have
you
have you been out to
this
site
yet?
I have not been, but I will be out there for the grand
opening.
I haven't either.
And I forgot.
I thought what I heard was it was not far from.
where the railroad depot is or used to be in Altoona.
I clearly haven't been out there for a while.
I used to go to the depot there for a lot when my dad was working on the Chicago Northwestern.
He'd run the route from Altoona to St.
Paul.
So there was a lot of times we'd take him to work over there.
And of course, there's a couple of good watering holes there as well.
But now Altoona is going to have this container park, which is going to be very interesting, very trendy.
And like I said, same as you, I love when cities develop and use a little creativity in the process.
Yeah, it's just interesting at the least and at best it creates this new community hub where people want to go and want to spend money in the local community and help local suppliers.
Or it, you know, James talks civic media into buying space in there and it becomes his new newsroom.
with
that portrait.
Well, I don't know if I'd like that so much during the summer months doing the news in 100 degree weather.
Well, we'd get you an air conditioner or at least a good fan, I think we could.
Or you could fan yourself with that portrait of Luke.
There you go.
That's true.
Yeah.
All right.
Thank you, James.
Appreciate it.
Have a great day.
Have a good one.
All right, Matt Nair on air is coming up next year across the Civic Media Radio Network.
My thanks to you for joining us.
I'm Pat Cradle, a founding editor of Up North News, part of Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy news network.
Have a great Wednesday.
We'll see you 6 a.m.
tomorrow here up north.
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