What’s a JCRAR? (Hour 1)

Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.

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

Well, hey there, Wisconsin.

Good morning.

It is 6.06.

It's a Wednesday morning, July 9th, 2025, and it is another beautiful morning to have you here up north, live from Lake WSOTA.

From wherever you're spending your mornings listening across the Civic Media Radio Network,

or listening on a podcast or watching us on social media.

We thank you so much for getting your midweek started right here.

I got a question for you.

Do I sound a little different?

Do I sound better rested?

Do I sound like I'm going to get a big fat I told you so from Greg Bach when we talked to him on Friday?

Because I did not know that this morning was going to go like this.

I thought it was going to go completely the opposite.

as I finished my first night with a CPAP machine.

Yes.

You recall it well.

There's Parker and all the kids in the peanut gallery.

So happy.

Like, is he going to be a little less grouchy today?

Yes, perhaps so.

Perhaps so.

The brain fog of recent weeks has lifted and I did not feel like I was being squeezed to death by a robot or anything like that.

Yeah, I really thought this could go sideways.

That I'd be up all night, that I'd be struggling, claustrophobic, whatever the case may be, and instead, it went as well as could be expected.

So, Tony, right away up on YouTube, it's night and day of the difference.

You clearly are very well rested.

I feel very well rested.

I feel great.

Let's tell you what's coming up on the program today.

And first off, you've got a former state legislator here who was reading through a state Supreme Court decision all about a particular legislative committee.

So I have to give you the following warning.

Get in nerds.

We are taking a deep dive into how a bill becomes a law and how a law comes to life.

through rules.

The rulemaking process is boring and routine.

At least until Republicans in the legislature figured out a way to rig it.

Rig the process in a way that interferes with how the experts at state agencies make the law work for all of us.

We will explain the legislature, the committee with the longest name, the joint committee for the review of administrative rules.

You know, JCRAR for short.

and how the state supreme court yesterday called out GOP lawmakers for misusing it.

And so between that and some other recent decisions, remember gerrymandered maps and the governor's partial veto powers, it appears the liberal justices now in charge of the court seem to be making it harder for politicians of all stripes to push the envelope on rules.

And that is overall a good thing, even if you disagree with some of the decisions.

And I do, but in terms of what it is they seem to be looking to accomplish, so far they're setting the tone.

And we will talk to State Senator Keldoroy in our eight o'clock hour about that.

In our seven o'clock hour, there is no subtle way to put this.

Some of Governor Tony Evers biggest supporters are outraged.

They are...

furious about how little was done in the new state budget for their priority, high priority issues like childcare and public education.

Two of the biggest leaders in advocacy out there, Kareem Hendrickson for childcare, Heather Dubois-Bornan for public education, believed that more could have and should have been done for a budget that would not have passed without help from Democratic legislators.

So why wasn't there more in there for more Democrats to say yes to?

We'll talk to Karina and Heather about that.

We'll have climate check with Melissa Baldoff, it being Wednesday and all.

We'll check on Western Wisconsin News with James Kelly, as well as with Jimmy Cuskett.

Earl Ingram is launching his Civic Media podcast, so we will talk to him as well, and Melissa Kay, hopefully with a pigeon on her shoulder.

We'll see.

And a reminder that tomorrow at 7 30, we'll talk to Congressman Mark Bocan.

All right, along the way, of course, we'd love to have your texts and your comments to do that.

All you've got to do is head over to Facebook or YouTube and put some comments in the sections there, the up North news or the civic media, Facebook and YouTube pages.

And you can also text us through the civic media app.

and we may share those along the way as well.

Well, we could if I had it up on screen.

Let me let me go get that right now because who knows, somebody might have said something already.

There you go.

And of course, that's also where we will see any voice notes that you send us through the Civic Media app as well.

Tony tells us that if paint bucket isn't here today, I may lose it paint bucket being the name of the rescue pigeon that Melissa Kay is hopefully got by now and is looking to

probably give a new name.

Parker Olson, no, Parker Olson's not the name.

Parker Olson is standing by in Madison Studio A2.

How are you doing?

I'm doing pretty good.

I'm thinking, I'm considering now, if we were to name the pigeon Parker Olson.

Could we just call it PJ, Parker Jr.?

Parker Jr.?

Would that work?

I don't know, that makes you the pigeon daddy and that's just biologically something I don't want to go there.

I guess that's a lot of responsibility.

I'm probably not ready for it.

Yeah,

yeah, it's probably better that way.

Did you catch any of the Brewers Dodgers last night?

Oh, I did.

I did miss the top of the first inning.

But you

can't, you can't join the game late.

Shohei Otani

is the

leadoff hitter for the Dodgers and you're thinking, Jacob Mizorovsky, okay, this is going to be great.

He gets strike one, he gets strike two.

Here comes the O2 pitch from Mizorovsky and Shohei says, yeah, let me welcome you to the big leagues with this monster home run.

Dodgers go up one to nothing and then that.

That was pretty much it.

I mean, you

wrote.

Yeah.

Clay Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers, you know, he's not as young as he used to be.

He's he's kind of on the mortal side.

And I mean, he's still very good.

Oh, he was still very I'm just saying he was not, you know, again, this is not 2018 Clay Clayton Kershaw is what I'm saying.

So the Brewers beat the slumping Dodgers three to one.

The Dodgers have now lost five in a row.

But that first home run by Otadi 431 feet over the center field wall.

I'm just watching this thing going.

Yep.

Welcome to the Biggs, Jacob.

So that's all right.

You know what he did after that, after the home run?

He struck out the next five batters, yielding only four hits and one walk.

And then, get this, after Mizorowski left the game, in comes Jared Kenig and then Abner Uribe and then Trevor McGill to close things out.

None of them allowed a base runner over the last three innings.

And this is again, one of those weird baseball stats, you know, who tracks these things?

Somebody's got to track them.

But between those four Brewer pitchers, their average fastball was clocked at 99.3 miles an hour.

That is the highest average fastball speed in any single game by the pitchers on a team since they started tracking pitch speed.

Which I know hasn't been that long, but I also guarantee you Babe Ruth didn't throw it 100 miles an

hour.

Yeah, no, I think they track back to 2008.

I think yeah, so it is 100% the fastest game ever.

Oh, without a doubt.

And again, that that is nothing against, you know, sandy cofax and all the others.

It's just that they did not throw for velocity so consistently the way the pitchers do now.

Now, of course, their arms fall off after about an hour and a half of a career.

But now they rebuild them, you know, like Steve Austin.

It's like the bionic pitcher.

So brewers were winners and looking good.

And now you get a chance to do it again because they wrap up the series this afternoon.

That brewers put up left hander Jose Quintana for an afternoon game with the pregame that starts at 1235 on stations across the civic media radio network.

Will you be at that one, too?

I know you're at the last Wednesday afternoon game.

So

I will not.

I would.

I would.

Hey, I would love to.

But I'm not in any

way saying why wouldn't you go, but.

That is usually when we have our weekly show meetings, so you got to miss the last one.

And last week went fine.

You

know

what it did.

Why don't you go to the ball game this afternoon?

Yes, why don't you?

I'm out of here.

I'll see you later.

I mean, look,

baseball is all about superstition.

If it works, it works, you know, so.

Yeah.

All right, let's look at Brittany Merleau's forecast for the state today.

She notes that the cold front that sparked up some showers and storms has moved on and high pressure is building in for a couple of days and that could then be followed by some heavy rain potential for Friday for some spots.

But for today, partly sunny, less humid.

Seriously, less humid.

I opened up every window in the house this morning and it is glorious in here.

Highs today in the upper 70s, up north, low 80s south with a light north wind at 5 to 10 miles an hour for tonight.

Mostly clear and comfortably cool.

Areas of fog are possible.

50s for most across the state near 60 down close to the Illinois border with calm winds and Brittany will be here.

With all the forecast details coming up in just under an hour But it was one of those days where it is by and large beautiful But there are those puffy clouds and if you ever look at like a radar You don't see like the line of rain.

You see like little dots here and there Here's a little you know, just a little pop-up rain.

Is that what they call scattered?

Scattered that would be scattered.

There's

scattered clouds and every so often you'd look at a cloud and go

Well, that one looks like it's swelling up like, you know, a zit you're about to pop and it's going to rain on you.

Sorry about the analogy there.

That's a

visual.

But I say that as somebody who is noticing those clouds while driving in my Jeep, running errands down to Eau Claire.

Top

down.

And I'd just be looking at individual clouds that I was about to go under going, is this the one that's going to open up and rain on my open Jeep?

It was nerve wracking.

At the same time, it was beautiful.

But again,

I'm, I'm one of those people who, one of those, again, when you see a thunderstorm just pop up on the radar, that actually happened to me once and I ended up with two, three inches of water in the Jeep.

So I am, you know, which cleans up fine.

It's a Jeep,

you know, but

still it's, it's a, it's a little extra work and, and, uh, it's, you know,

It's a little embarrassing.

I get you.

Yeah, getting caught in the rain isn't the greatest thing in the world.

So

no, I was a little nervous about it, but it was it was just a lovely day and I love that it is.

You know, less human.

That's, that's the nice part.

From the text line, Jim and Brookfield, good morning, Pat.

You look and sound well rested.

My wife has been using CPAP for a few months now and all has gone well.

I'm surprised.

I'm surprised how quiet it is.

That is exactly what Sherry said when we woke up.

She's like, I couldn't believe how quiet it was.

And of course she meant my snoring, but which was non-existent, but also the, hey, he's not breathing.

which was also not an issue.

Your good night's sleep, Pat, is just in time to appreciate the fact that the subcommittee Joker has now been reigned in and the actions of a few will no longer be able to block laws for the common good.

Yes, Joker is another is an acronym for another one of those weird little legislative committees.

And so we're going to talk more about that at 630.

So look for that.

But thank you, Jim.

And yes, it was extremely quiet.

It was a little fidgety.

But, you know, we still managed to, you know, get a good night's

sleep in.

Describe this apparatus for me.

Is it literally just like a little mask over your nose and mouth?

Stay here.

I'll be right

back.

Oh, oh boy.

Pat's going on an adventure.

Okay, not that much of an adventure.

That's like within arms right length.

I don't have the whole thing.

It's like a headgear.

Okay.

And then it's almost not quite a scuba mask, but I brought the just the little piece that goes

on.

Okay, yeah.

So, you know, it's not it's not a pig snout.

It's like an oxygen

mask that you

see on like the

sideline of a football

game.

Yeah,

it's not the biggest one that you get then on the very front is where you would attach, you know, a little hose to the machine and the machine is just

crazy quiet, you know.

And it's, it's a, it's a difference maker, you know?

It's

a whole new ball game.

It's a whole new world.

It really is.

So it's, yeah, you're gonna, you're gonna have to get used to a pat with a little more pep here.

Peppy pat.

Here we go.

peppy pat it could be it could be a good thing for everybody right we can't have curmudgeonly pat all the time hey from the heart of america's up north live from lake wassota thank you for putting up with all this and making this the place to spend part of your mornings i'm pat quite low this is the civic media radio network

Hey, don't you forget that at Up North News, we have a daily newsletter, sign up for it, UpNorthNewsWI.com.

There's also a Sunday morning politics newsletter that we'd love to have you on board with.

In this week's issue, back on this past Sunday,

talked about the state budget and the federal budget plan being passed, being rushed through about Congressman Derek Van Orden trying to have it both ways on liking the bill and yet warning Governor Evers about something terrible that was in the bill.

And we also had a question of the week and wanting to know, will this be a typical midterm cycle in 2026?

where the party and power of the White House, Republicans in this case, will have a setback.

Or will they actually build on their majorities for whatever reason, either people like their ideas or they run, you know, the most fear mongering ads, whatever gets the job done for them.

What will 2026 be like?

Now, keep in mind that we don't know a few things about 2026 yet, like, you know, will Governor Tony Evers announced that he's running for a third term?

We do know, thanks to Molly Beck at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, that there is now officially a second candidate, Republican candidate, in the race for governor for next year.

So stating the obvious, the Republicans were never going to anoint one candidate and avoid the primary.

There was always going to be a primary, which will be in August of next year.

And we know that Josh Shulman, the Washington County executive, was the first Republican to officially declare.

And now Bill Barion, a businessman, a retired Navy SEAL, has officially entered the primary as well.

Earlier he had announced he was forming an exploratory committee.

But now, he, according to Molly Beck's story, has launched the campaign.

It says here, comparing himself to President Donald Trump as a political outsider.

Yeah, Donald Trump is an outsider.

Barron is the CEO of Pendle Global Precision and Liberty Precision in New Berlin.

And let's see, in a statement to the Milwaukee Journal, Sentinel Berion said, bureaucrats and politicians like Tony Evers have failed Wisconsin.

They sold our land to China, encouraged illegal immigration in our communities, welcomed boys into our daughters' sports and locker rooms.

The time for change is now.

A Navy SEAL is never out of the fight.

We've seen that fighting spirit from President Trump.

Notice he's not visiting mentioning Derek van Orden.

It takes the same fight to run a Wisconsin manufacturing business.

Barron Barion says in the new ad in the 2024 race for president, Barion spent more than $30,000 to support UN ambassador Nikki Haley against Donald Trump.

But of course, like every other Republican politician, they fold and take a knee and bow down to Donald Trump.

And I mean, look,

You're gonna say Tony Evers has failed Wisconsin when Wisconsin had one of the best state recoveries of the 50 states post pandemic because of his stewardship of what he did with federal pandemic relief Congress went home or not Congress the legislature went home for nine months at a time with a paid vacation Sold our land to China

hardly a top issue here in Wisconsin.

Encouraged illegal immigration.

No, we've encouraged immigration reform, but don't hear you talking about that.

And then if you're, if you're jumping right into, you know, welcoming boys into our daughter's locker rooms, I mean, honestly, that says it all.

Maybe you'll be campaigning next to Jimmy Swagger.

Oh wait, he died last week, you know, but I'm sure you'll find some other way to

Make this all about social issues when the people in Wisconsin want you to fight for them Okay, they want you focused on creating jobs They don't want you chasing jobs away because you don't like brown people Donald Trump So you got to round them all up and Bill Marion's over here saying yep, I'm with this guy all the way

If you want to be somebody that serves Wisconsin as a Republican in this day and age, take some free advice, yes, from a former Democratic legislator.

But how about you finally stand on the side of the people?

of all the people and the things that they want instead of just fear mongering about the trans community or about Hispanics or about people on Medicaid being lazy which takes me to the next topic because we'll quickly move on from Bill Barion and that is the Agriculture Secretary for the United States Brooke Rollins.

Somebody with little to no agricultural policy experience before Trump plucked her into the job.

And she indicated yesterday that she is all good with the ongoing mass deportations of migrant farm workers, knowing full well that President Trump has been trying to have it both ways on there.

But Secretary Rollins said she's not worried that the mass deportation of migrant farm workers will disrupt the U.S.

food supply.

She said there will be no amnesty for agricultural workers.

She said, we're gonna

We're going to instead use automation and 100% American participation, which she said could be provided by what she called the 34 million people able-bodied adults on Medicaid.

Good.

I'm glad you went there, Secretary Rollins.

I'm glad you went there.

You want to make it your policy as Trump's Agriculture Secretary to say,

I'm going to replace these people who actually want to work, who want to live in America, who want to earn a paycheck.

And I'm going to replace them with Lloyd and with Esther.

Because, you know, Lloyd's getting his, his Medicaid, but he's not completely disabled.

So yeah, he should be out there in the fields.

And Esther, she's watching her adult children's kids, her grandkids, so that her kid and her husband can stay in the labor force.

because we haven't done, you haven't done enough about childcare expenses.

But now you want Esther to jump out there and start milking the cows.

And I know you think that what you're actually going after is Yolanda and Dude Gamer69, who's on his couch, you know, surfing the internet and playing video games all day.

Here's the thing, Secretary Rollins and Derek Van Orden.

If those people are out there, it's time for you to name and shame.

And I don't mean one or two folks.

I mean, you better name and shame the 34 million bums that you say are out there.

Or otherwise, as usual, you're just making stuff up to afford a policy that is going to crash the American economy.

More after the Midwest Farm Report.

You're up north.

There is a lot still ahead on this morning's program.

State Senator Calderois will be along, Melissa Baldoff with Climate Check, Melissa Kay with Pigeon Quest, Jimmy Koska and James Kelly with Western Wisconsin News Updates, Earl Ingram talks about his new podcast.

And one hour from now, we'll talk to Heather Dubois-Bornan from the Wisconsin Public Education Network.

And Karine Hendrickson from WeCan, one of the childcare provider groups about their unhappiness with what is in the new state budget agreement.

They believe much more could have been done.

All right, there is the new edition of the Up North News Daily newsletter.

It includes an article about Brots.

And what it is about Wisconsin that makes them so unique to, uh, to brought, why do you find them here more than anyplace else?

And also Selena Heller's story about the state Supreme Court ruling that upholds abortion care access in Wisconsin.

So all of that in the newsletter, let's make sure that you get signed up for that over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

All right.

Here comes that nerd alert again.

I warned you.

It's coming.

It's, it's time.

Yep, there it is.

We need to explain some stuff from a state Supreme Court decision yesterday.

But most of the news reports will tell you that the story was about so-called conversion therapy, which is, you know, quackery disguised as torture for mostly young people.

who are having questions about their sexual identity and trying to, you know, essentially convince them that, you know, they are straight.

Sure.

So you may have heard the news story that the state Supreme Court made a ruling yesterday that said the Evers administration can go ahead with a ban on so-called conversion therapy.

Let me tell you the politics behind this case as a former member of the legislative committee that was involved.

It's got a long name.

It's called the Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules, or JCRER.

That's fine.

So JCRER, all about administrative rules.

So what are these rules?

Well, here's the thing.

When legislators or members of Congress, but we'll stick with legislators, when you write a bill, and that bill is going to become law, you can't possibly include in the bill everything that could come up.

when the new law is being implemented and put into effect.

There could be things like workplace safety rules, professional licensing in a way that doesn't get outdated, rules on how to register to vote, how to determine who will get these grants for new tourism centers, on and on and on and on.

So that's what executive branch agencies do.

So let me back up a bit.

The legislative branch passes a bill.

The governor

Over in the executive branch, signs it into law and the executive branch agencies, the Department of Natural Resources, the State Elections Commission, whatever, they write rules that help put that law into force and have it take effect.

So you may ask, okay, once the legislature sends a bill to the governor and he or she signs it into law, does the legislature have no more say into how it's interpreted through the rules process?

I mean, what if a legislator said, whoa, whoa, wait, that is not what I meant for that law to do?

Well, legislators have a process and it's that committee called JCRAR to review these administrative rules that are written by these agencies.

Now,

This has been around for a while, so what's different?

Why did the state supreme court feel the need to weigh in on this?

Well, to bring it back to, you know, Grand Patel and stories here, when I was in the legislature 15 years ago and served on JCRAR, that committee was a backstop.

Part of a system of checks and balances so that if, say, the DNR wrote up a rule that sounded way out of line with the law that we'd passed,

we could use JCRAR to temporarily, important word here, hold up the rule and maybe even ask the full legislature to weigh in on whether this rule is right or not.

But to do all that between the executive branch and the legislative branch and this rules committee, you had to have one thing.

You had to have trust.

This is a collaborative process.

writing these rules.

It has to be built on trust.

And sadly, that is not the era that we live in now.

In the 14 years that Republicans have controlled the Wisconsin legislature, a lot of things built on trust have been abused.

Exhibit A, gerrymandered maps.

Yes, I know Democrats in other states have committed gerrymandering as well doesn't make it right here in Wisconsin It was Republicans who did it in such a diabolical fashion in 2011 that it destroyed trust between the parties for a generation But there's also beyond the maps.

There's the confirmation process that has been misused and has led to a lack of trust

I mean, are you aware the state Senate is still sitting on well over 100 nominations from Governor Tony Evers for various agencies, boards, and departments?

Those are supposed to be done right away.

But of course, there's no rule that says it has to be done right away.

So that process is being abused.

What Republican legislators are doing is instead of confirming these nominees, they say, well, you go ahead and start your work.

And if we don't like the work you're doing, then we will schedule a vote on whether to confirm you.

And if we reject your confirmation, you're essentially fired.

That is not how the process is supposed to work, but Republicans found a way to abuse it, to use a loophole, however you want to put it, and that needs to be fixed.

Then there's the budget.

We talked about this one recently.

The legislature approves the funding.

The governor signs the bill and yet

The GOP sometimes uses the JFC, the Joint Finance Committee, to put a hold on funding some things that they don't like, even though the full legislature already proved it.

It's a weird form of double dipping.

And the state Supreme Court a little over a week ago said, no, that process is being abused.

You can't do it that way.

And now yesterday, they said the same thing about the rulemaking process, because it's one thing to put a hold

on a rule in order to review it.

It's another thing to claim that this committee can sit on the rule indefinitely, essentially blocking its implementation.

That's a legislative veto that the Wisconsin Constitution does not allow.

So look, if legislators want conversion therapy to continue torturing our young people, don't hide behind this obscure but powerful rulemaking committee.

Just come out and say it.

Say where you really stand, but don't abuse the separation of powers.

The people of Wisconsin elected a governor statewide and there are things a governor and the executive branch get to do on their own.

There are other things where it needs the legislative branch in order to pass laws or review rules, but don't misuse the process and blow up trust in the process.

And that, I believe, takes us back to this new liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, what I see them doing.

Here's the big picture.

They are slowly modernizing the rules of state government that reflect the times, including the way Republicans have been abusing this process.

But the thing is, again, they're being reform-minded, and that means they're making some decisions that the governor doesn't like either.

And that I didn't like.

Taking back to last week, I did not like that state Supreme Court decision that limited one particular way that Governor Evers was using his partial veto.

But if I'm going to give the liberal justices credit, it's that they are looking past one episode and they're looking at the partial veto overall.

What they're doing is, again,

modernizing rules that reflect the times that make it tougher for a politician of any political stripe to push the envelope on what you can do with a partial veto, what you can do with budget numbers and joint finance, what you can do with rules in JCRER.

Slowly but surely, we have reformists in Madison finally, and they're on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

And even though, like I said, I don't necessarily agree with a particular decision when you look at the long range impact and they seem to be, this appears to be the reform that we're looking for and a majority that ought to be protected.

So the result of all this is going to be less political mischief and that's great.

But I would also let folks know there is a faster way to get the job done on reform faster than waiting for cases to come up before the state Supreme Court.

And that is to take a good look at your own state senator or state assembly rep and see if maybe they're part of the problem when it comes to abusing things like map drawing and budgeting and rulemaking and that maybe

Maybe it's finally time to have a legislature that is more focused on service than on power trips.

And that's something that has to be decided every other November in our voting booths.

I mentioned earlier that there is a new entry into the governor's race and that would be Bill Barion.

His story was in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this morning.

Barion is 56 years old.

and does not again know if Evers will be running or not, but Bering already has an add out and targets Governor Tony Evers in it.

Bering joins the race after having raised $1.2 million since April through a pack that he launched earlier this year, a political action committee that he says is aimed at boosting Republican candidates in tough election cycles.

Now,

Baryon will not be the last Republican to get involved here.

It will not just be Josh Shoman versus Bill Baryon.

There is the potential that you will have heard of neither one of them by the time August of next year rolls around because there are also other folks who are considering bids.

There's Congressman Tom Tiffany, there's Tim Michaels, there's Eric Hovde, the state senate president, Maryfels Kowski from the Tomahawk area.

She is certainly sounding like somebody who wants to run for governor.

I saw another press release from state senator Eric Wimberger in the Green Bay area and maybe I'm just being too complimentary to him and his press team, but those press releases always look like somebody who's about to announce a run for governor.

He certainly put out one ripping into the University of Wisconsin system again yesterday that makes it sound like he could be positioning for a run.

And so Republicans are going to face a primary for sure.

And Democrats might if Governor Evers decides not to run for a third term, it's the field is going to get real crowded real quick.

And.

In all cases, I guess to Republicans right now and to Democrats later, if Governor Evers chooses not to run, I will give the same sage advice that I gave even when my hair wasn't getting this gray.

And that's to keep your powder dry unless you are absolutely certain this is your ride or die.

This is the candidate that you want.

And sometimes you want that in a race.

How do I know that?

because in the state Supreme Court race for next year, appeals court Judge Chris Taylor, likely taking on incumbent conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley, has just picked up a key endorsement, Senator Tammy Baldwin.

Now, Senator Baldwin is not the first high profile endorsement for Judge Chris Taylor.

She has four other key endorsements,

the four justices, while the three justices and one justice-elect, because Susan Crawford will take the position in a couple of weeks here.

But she's already got some pretty high-profile endorsements.

It's not the same as a gubernatorial primary, and Chris Taylor appears to be the person that progressives are putting their hopes in for a state supreme court that continues to be as reform-minded as the current court is making itself out to be.

Today's history lesson is coming up next as we do mornings here powered by up North news on the civic media radio network.

One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock, rock.

Five, six, seven o'clock, eight o'clock, rock.

Nine, ten, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock, rock.

We're gonna rock.

Around.

O'clock tonight.

What is your bad, bad start?

Welcome to today's history lesson.

Bill Haley and his comments with Rock Around the Clock became, on this day in 1955, 70 years ago today,

the first rock song to hit number one on the Billboard pop chart where it would stay for eight weeks.

So you could very well make the case that today is the 70th birthday of rock and roll, thanks to Bill Haley.

That was 1955.

The next day, 1956, the kids were really listening to their rock and roll, and that included a little show in Philadelphia called Bandstand, which was hosted by Bob Horn.

Yeah, Bob Horn.

But on this day in 1956, he was replaced by a guy named Dick Clark.

This was this day in 1956.

The show went national and Dick Clark hosted it until 1989.

All happened, again, 59 years ago today.

I'm sorry, 69 years ago today.

Lots of happy birthdays today.

Jack White from the White Stripes is 50 years old today.

Mark Allman, lead vocalist for Soft Cell, is 68 today.

I feel very 80s right now.

so 80s that I've got to bring in one of my favorite people to talk 80s music with.

Melissa K joins us as well from WFHR in Wisconsin Rapids.

How are you?

Good morning.

I'm good.

How are

you?

I'm good.

And you can just, you can tell the listeners out there are just like, what are you doing?

Get to the point.

Why?

You know why Melissa's here.

You know what?

Well, but I want to give enough time for that.

So we're actually kind of racing through today's history lesson here.

If you don't mind.

Let's fight.

It's like the big reveal is coming.

So happy birthday to Jim Kerr.

He is 65 years old, no, 66 years old today.

He is the lead singer of Simple Minds.

Feel like we're going with all 80s here Simple minds big hit of course from the breakfast club.

Don't you forget about me the late OJ Simpson born this day in 1947 South Carolina Senator Limsey Graham is 70 today Tom Hanks is 69 This one's gonna make you feel old Fred Savage from the Wonder Years that cute little kid.

He's 49 years old today and

Let's give you one more.

Two things that happened this day in 1977.

First, here's Alan O'Day, who hit number one in 1977.

And maybe it was because this song was on the radio, but on the same day in 1977, Elvis Costello quit his job at a cosmetics factory to pursue a music career.

I'd like to think he heard this song and said, I can do this.

And I'd never heard his last name.

The, uh, the Eleanor day or Elvis Costello Elvis Elvis Presley.

The 14th amendment guaranteeing due process.

Hey, remember that thing was ratified this day in 1868.

And, uh, let's see.

It's a national.

Don't put all your eggs in one omelet day and national sugar cookie day.

But.

None of that matters because for these for these for these next four minutes Oh, we're just skipping the last two.

Oh, absolutely.

We're jumping right into here's Melissa K and

I mean, we put so much into that jingle.

I had to use it one more time.

When last we left Melissa K two weeks ago, she was on the verge of collecting a rescue pigeon by the name of Paint Bucket.

It is time to turn to Melissa now who on her camera looks to be in a different room in her house.

I guess what HGTV calls the big reveal.

Melissa, what do you got in the house over there?

Well, if you if you'll follow me as I turn my

camera

pan over.

Look at that.

Is that a kennel?

It's a dog kennel.

Yeah,

it's a dog kennel that's been converted into a home

for a pigeon

pigeon palace.

And who is in the pigeon palace?

Well, I did bring home paint bucket, but now they have a longer name.

It is it is Leonardo Louise.

in honor of some famous artists.

And so, Lelu, for short.

Lelu.

Lelu, yep.

How do you spell that?

L-E, capital L-O-U.

L-E, capital L-O-U.

Okay, got it.

Just want to make sure I got the banner up on the screen just right there.

All right, there we go.

Yes, Leeloo is hiding right now because they're very shy and they're still getting used to their surroundings and their space.

Oh

yeah, suddenly got to get used to all this, you know.

banter that's going on here on a Wednesday morning is going, what the heck is this?

And the noises are different and the space is different.

So how was the pickup?

How was the journey?

It was very smooth.

I mean, a side of like really weird rain that I had to drive through all the way down and back, but they were quiet.

They had like an open-sided carrier.

I met a volunteer in Janesville.

And this gave

me the

the carrier and I drove back

and then came again then came the handoff and when you by the way when you hear her say they it's it's because we We haven't really unlike, you know, the Republican obsession with locker rooms We don't really know leeloo's gender yet.

No,

because you can't tell unless they lay an egg

That's a punch line I can use in other ways down the road in mind

Uh, so have you been, have you been happy so far since we came home?

Yes.

So they suggested I put a yoga mat in the bottom.

It's very easy to clean.

Um, and, and it gives them traction because they're a little wobbly on their feet.

A yoga mat.

Yes.

I

like it.

Something that you can, you can hose it down and yet they can get traction.

I feel like this really would have come in handy for a relative of mine back in the day who drank a lot, but it's, I digress.

So

you can tell they're right now.

I've got a little low dig in there.

It's it's bath time.

So if

they want to come out and bathe, they can.

But then yeah, they are shy.

Okay.

And the

most I've heard them coo a couple times twice.

They

usually do it in the early late afternoon.

But then if I get too close, they grunt at me.

Oh, there's pigeons grunt.

Yes.

See, look at the stuff we're learning here.

We are going to learn so much.

every Wednesday.

By next Wednesday, Leela is going to be doing tricks.

It's going to be great.

I'm going to have a little tiny hula hoop going around those pigeon pants.

For more, catch Melissa K at 97.5 WFHR105 WIRI.

Melissa, thank you.

You're the best.

Always good to see you.

Talk to you later.

Have much more coming up after the 7 o'clock news here on this Wednesday morning, powered by Up North News, live on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Cross Wisconsin on Civic Media.

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

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

a new and improved pack quite low apparently.

Good morning.

It's 7 0 6.

Nice to have you here up north on this Wednesday morning, July 9th, 2025.

Parker Olson standing by in Madison Studio A2.

Coming up later this hour, we will be talking to Heather Dubois-Bornan and Corrine Hendrickson and we'll be talking about childcare and we'll be talking about public education.

They both are leading advocates for those areas and they are not

happy with the results of the state budget.

And you may say, well, okay, if if there are people on both sides who are unhappy with what's in a state budget, then it must be a good bipartisan document, right?

No, no, not necessarily at all.

And you can count Heather and Corinne among them.

Karine will be talking to us all about how

what the shortcomings were for childcare in the budget, Heather, from a public education standpoint, like no increase in general state aides for schools and things like that.

And how does that carry over into next year when people are running for legislature and maybe even for governor?

So that's coming up a little after 730 today.

A little after 730 tomorrow, we'll be talking to Congressman Mark Bocan.

So stick around for that tomorrow.

And then back to today at 830, we'll be talking to State Senator Kelder Royce.

And talking about a state Supreme Court decision from yesterday that rains in one of the ways that Republicans were abusing their power in the majority in the state legislature.

But first, let's bring in meteorologist Brittany Merleau, who's just a little late today, wasn't in time for the great reveal on Pigeon Quest.

But in case you missed it, Brittany, up

on the screen

on social media.

There is the former paint bucket, uh, who now identifies as Lelu.

And Lelu is, uh, well, we get the photo because Lelu was, was lying low and a little shy.

But eventually I predict Lelu will be on, on Melissa K's shoulder, helping you read the forecast as if Lelu is a parrot.

You know, I don't, I don't think pigeons can recite things back, but.

You know, Melissa K is a good teacher.

You never

know.

You never know, right?

You never know.

Oh,

that is

so cute.

She's just

on the top of that whole thing in the castle of pigeons over there.

Gotta love

it.

That's what

she called it.

She called it the castle.

She called it the castle.

Not a dog kennel.

No, no, no, no, not a repurposed kennel.

It is a castle for a pigeon.

So we're very happy for her about that.

Absolutely.

And you know, spirits are a little upbeat here today because it's been such nice weather.

Yes, some places.

got rain, storms, whatnot, but wait.

Good day to be a

pigeon.

Good day to be a pigeon.

It's a good day to open up all the windows.

I've done that already today.

It feels amazing in here.

Not going to run up the electric bill today anyway with the air conditioner.

So does it stick around?

Oh, well, you know, it is nice to save a little bit of money, a little bit of energy today, because,

yes,

like

you

said, just today.

You let us down so gently on that.

I like that.

I know.

Got to break it easy.

The mugginess does move back in as soon as tomorrow.

We are looking at heavy rain and storms moving in on Friday, maybe a little comfortable break on Saturday, but more humidity spills in Sunday and into early next week.

So it's summer.

That's why the hair is curly.

There's no escaping it really.

It's only temporary day time.

As we go through today, we are looking at dense fog in places.

So there's a lot of sunshine west in the state and south.

A lot of fog far north into central areas and far south as well with a dense fog advisory for Bayfield, Ashland, Iron, and even south of Madison into Janesville.

So that will start to clear as we go through the next hour or two.

We do have a high pressure system in place all

day today and so that means somebody calm winds.

And that's why the fog is here.

So another chance for some fog overnight tonight and through tomorrow morning.

But otherwise, we're staying sunny and dry today, mostly dry tomorrow.

A few showers do want to spark up in the western parts of the state later in the afternoon and maybe some thunderstorms south.

But overall, most of the state sunny and dry for two days.

Today's highs mid eighties far south mid seventies far north.

And then tomorrow we'll all be in the low to mid 80s and again, more mugginess starting to move back in.

Very much, you know, a summer forecast.

Rob tells us from Tigerton, getting into the dog days of summer here.

Says, good morning from Tigerton, cloudy and 63, busy mowing lawn in the Tigerton area yesterday with the rain and the warmth and the humid weather.

Mowing has been a nonstop job, but I can't complain.

He says yesterday, Tigerton had 13, 107 inch of rain.

He's got six yards today to do in Tigerton, a doctor's appointment in Shawno.

He loved hearing Alan O'Day's undercover angel in our last segment.

popular back in the late 1970s.

He loves that old pop music from there.

And he says, talk about a happy H high pressure system.

Brittany's the very happy meteorologist, the best in media.

Well, yeah, when you bring us happy high pressure like this, this is lovely.

Right?

I could

stay for a whole week.

I'll work on it for I Know July or something.

I'll try my best.

But I

was thinking.

Rob's tan must be outrageous with how much he is outside and doing stuff

and cutting

the grass.

Good.

That's true.

And it's got to be that full on farmer's tan.

Yeah.

You know, where, you know, when he's, he's shirtless, you just see this red V, you know, down his neckline and then the very well defined where the short sleeves end.

Yeah.

I love it.

Lou doesn't love a good farmer's tan.

All right, Brittany, thank you.

We'll talk to you next hour.

Sounds good.

While we're doing comments online and you can make comments on Facebook or YouTube, go to the Up North News or Civic Media pages for Facebook or YouTube.

Last hour, we attempted to explain the state Supreme Court decision and it was on its surface about so-called conversion therapy, but it really got into the ways that Republicans have been abusing the legislative rulemaking process.

You are so good at explaining complicated democracy rules, and I hope the Democrats can find an advertising agency capable of condensing your words for a campaign message.

Democrats must be elected to see any forward progress.

All the people of Wisconsin must see how their own representatives are voting.

Thank you, Ardeth.

I appreciate the kind words very much, and we will talk about it again at 8.30 when we catch up with State Senator Kelder Royce to talk about that.

Looking at our 7.30 conversation,

with Heather Dubois-Bornan and Green Hendrickson.

Here's a comment on Facebook.

The Republican strategy is to threaten drastic cuts, even when we have a huge surplus.

Then Democrats pretend it's a win when the cuts don't happen or where there is a token increase.

That is not a compromise.

That's extortion at the expense of our kids and families.

And the thing I like about that comment is it's an equal opportunity thing.

It says that, you know, Democrats are accepting things as a win that aren't necessarily any kind of a big win, but that, you know, Republicans are essentially engaged in extortion and have not been adequately called out for it.

You know, at a time of a $4 billion state surplus for Republicans to talk like they did two weeks ago, that they would actually cut the UW system.

by $87 million rather than give it a funding increase.

I mean, it should have been just raining bricks on them for saying this is what you're gonna do when we finally have a surplus is you're gonna cut UW funding because you're so petty because you get your feelings hurt so easily.

And they didn't really get that.

I mean, why would they?

The state budget is not the kind of thing most people pay a lot of attention to.

but there wasn't nearly enough condemnation for it so that when they ultimately agreed with Governor Evers to a modest increase, it makes it look like a win for them when, you know, the win only comes after a certain degree of extortion.

And I know that our guests at 730 are gonna have some things to say about whether these are real wins in the childcare and education spheres.

And now to be fair, and I'm sure you'll hear this from me in the next half hour, is that

You know, we have divided government here.

We have Republicans running the legislature, a Democrat in the governor's office.

And, you know, so there's also that argument that says, you know, if you don't accept half a loaf, you're going to get no loaf at all.

And maybe this actually was the best compromise that could be achieved between the two sides.

I'm not going to tell you one side is right or the other.

I'm going to give them all a forum for them to present their points of view and then for you to ultimately make a decision.

But here's the thing, the decision you're ultimately making is a binary one.

Ultimately, whatever you think of whether Democrats did enough or not in this budget, there's going to be a Democrat on the ballot for your seat in the Assembly and for State Senate, and there's going to be a Republican on there.

And I can guarantee the Republican is not going to say, well, I always supported an increase for the UW system.

I always supported more money for childcare.

or if they do say that, well, there's a good chance they're fibbing.

They would have been very happy to go along with a budget that did not fund these things and they would have then talked all about fiscal conservatism and fiscal restraint and being good stewards of the tax dollar, even as more childcare centers close up and even as more public schools go to referendum.

So there can absolutely be dissatisfaction with.

the Democratic side of things, but if this carries over into 2026, there could be tremendous ramifications in the 2027 budget, because if there were to be a governor, Tom Tiffany, for example, and a Republican-led Assembly and Senate, the modest gains that were achieved this time around are going to look like, you know, a faraway fantasy for some future budget.

So

We're gonna let people you know express their dissatisfaction with how much better we could be doing But the only true way we're going to be doing better is if people next year do not sit out the process and get involved and Fight for the team that's fighting for them even if it doesn't always appear to be fighting as hard as you would like them to be I wish I had an easier answer for you, but that is help how politics work in a two-party system

And unfortunately, for a whole host of reasons, that's the one that we got with us right now.

Also in the news, there was an endorsement.

in the state Supreme Court race for next year.

Senator Tammy Baldwin endorsing Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor.

Again, it looks like Judge Chris Taylor will be going up against incumbent conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley next April.

Justice Bradley talking about wanting to serve another term, but I don't know that she's made the formal announcement of the campaign.

And Senator Baldwin already getting involved endorsing Judge Taylor, along with the three current liberal justices and Justice

elect Susan Crawford, who have all endorsed Judge Chris Taylor as well.

All right, let's turn to sports now at 718 because that was a fun one to watch last night.

Jacob Mizorowski back on the mound and starts off the game going two strikes to Shohei Otani.

Strike one, strike two.

Crowd's getting all jazzed up.

Here comes the third pitch and Shohei Otani sends it over the center field wall, 431 feet.

to give the Dodgers the early lead.

Did Mizorovsky get shaken up by this?

No, he struck out the next five Dodger batters and ended up yielding only four hits and one walk and he outdulled three times Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw.

As the Brewers pulled ahead by scoring two runs off Kershaw in the fourth inning and defeated the Dodgers last night by a score of three to one, the Dodgers have now lost four games in a row.

But Mizorowski did six strong innings followed by Jared Kinig, Abner Uribe, and Trevor McGill, and they did not allow a base runner over those last three innings.

The two teams wrap up their three game series this afternoon.

You can catch the pregame on several Civic Media stations.

including stations up north in Hayward and Park Falls, way down south in Racine, Kenosha, Oshkosh, Richland Center.

If you're anywhere there, tune into your local Civic Media station and hear the Brewers pregame coverage at 12.35 this afternoon.

Then the Brewers will be off tomorrow, but they stay home, and coming to town for the weekend will be the Washington Nationals.

They'll play those games over the weekend, and then it's time for the All-Star break.

already.

From the heart of America's Up North live from Lake Wissota, thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.

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

We have turned the Up North News daily newsletter over to Henry the intern for the summer.

and to see what he would put together for us.

And so his new edition of the newsletter is out now.

Sign up for it over at upnorthnewswi.com.

Let's see, he's put in a story from the website, things you probably don't know about Wisconsin Brots.

Sure, you know they were brought over by German immigrants, but there are other things that make Brots uniquely Wisconsin, and you can read about that in today's newsletter.

And also he's inserted Selena Heller's story about last week's

Supreme Court decision upholding abortion access and safeguarding women's health and also a link to one particular OBGYN's reaction to the decision.

I think you can probably guess who that OBGYN is.

But again, all of that is there and because Henry's a UW student, he's talking about how tonight there will again be concerts on the square down on the Capitol lawn.

And again, I know a lot of our listeners are not in Madison, but occasionally you may get down there.

And if you ever happen to be down in Madison on a summer Wednesday and can get down to the Capitol lawn.

And if you haven't been there, when I say Capitol Square, you know, the state Capitol is on a big old square of land in the middle of the isthmus there, a beautiful lawn, gorgeous trees.

And on Wednesdays, there are free live performances by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.

People come out and they spread their blankets and it's it's just when when the weather's just right There is nothing better to have that in your community and again Madison's not the only community that has music in the park on a summer evening and we'll talk about those as well But Henry mentioned that in today's newsletter So I wanted to pass it along that you could learn much more about that by heading over to up north news wi.com and Signing up for our newsletter there.

We'd love to have you as a subscriber

We were talking in the last hour about the ag secretary for Donald Trump, Brooke Rollins, saying that she as the agriculture secretary is not concerned about mass deportations of farm workers who may be undocumented.

In fact, welcomes it and says, you know, it is time to replace them with American workers and makes the

incredibly outrageous claim that somehow there are 34 million Americans on Medicaid who you would classify as bums and who should be on a farm working, which I'm not really sure how the mechanism of that works.

I mean, do you think if you just cut people's benefits enough that they'll just head down the road like something out of the Great Depression?

and eventually some farmer will need a worker because all of his workers had been deported and do you think productivity is gonna be the same if this is how it works?

The point that I wanted to make that

Brooke Rollins, the ag secretary needs to do or that Derek Van Orden needs to do when he claims nobody's getting their medicaid cut, that the only cuts are going to people who are bums, who are couch surfing or undocumented migrants or whatever, is show it.

Because I'm telling you it's the same thing as Doge when Elon Musk had that going and saying we're going after all the waste, fraud and abuse.

Waste, fraud, abuse, waste and fraud, fraud especially, fraud's illegal.

Where are the charges?

Where are the perp walks?

Where is this welfare queen who is gaming the system so much that we're gonna have a trial on par with coverage given to Diddy, you know?

Because we really want to get after these people who are defrauding the government.

Who are they, Derek Van Orden?

I mean, you don't have a problem insulting people online when they disagree with you.

You don't have a problem looking up people's employment and naming their employer in your social media feed.

So clearly naming and shaming is not something you shy away from.

So congressmen, and the same goes to the Agriculture Secretary, go there.

Go hold a press conference and say,

This person here is getting Medicaid benefits and here's why they don't deserve them.

And then let that person come out and tell their story.

And then let's figure out whether the one should have their benefits cut or if the other should have their government paycheck cut.

I know which one I'm likely to side with.

And that is not to say that there isn't waste fraud and abuse out there.

There is.

There always has been.

There always will be.

That is the human condition.

There are always going to be those folks.

That's why we have enforcement mechanisms so that we can cut those benefits or if it rises to a certain level, we can charge people with fraud.

The mechanism is out there, but if you're just going to continue to claim that there are 34 million couch surfers out there who are somehow going to be converted into cow Milkers That's silly it's reckless it has nothing to do with anything that's going to be beneficial toward the economy But we've already seen

the attitude of this administration about the economy.

I would point you to a story in the Washington Post the other day about all the various debtors who were called to stand before a judge because they were being sued by one of these subprime credit corporations that has filed hundreds of lawsuits against homeowners after making predatory loans.

And the Biden administration, through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,

Finally got serious about cracking down on these predatory lenders, and we were finally seeing some progress against it.

It's come to a halt.

Under Trump, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in April stopped its enforcement efforts and withdrew from a lawsuit against that particular predatory lender, the Credit Acceptance Corporation.

And it reflects, according to the Washington Post,

the agency's new approach to enforcement.

In other words, there won't be and people will continue to fall victim to predatory loans and a government that used to look out for them now looks out for the predatory lenders and thinks that if you happen to be poor or you must be a couch surfer and not deserving any help whatsoever, much less compassion.

We've got guests coming up right after this break on UpNorth News.

Oh, see?

Set UpNorth News Radio.

Look at that.

Mornings with Pat Kratlow.

Happens to us all, even when I'm well rested.

Back after this.

One hour from now, we will be talking to State Senator Kelder Royce.

24 hours from now, we will be talking to Congressman Mark Bocan here on the program, the program powered by Up North News, not called Up North News Radio anymore, but you know, even the host can still make bloopers from time to time.

It is a Wednesday morning, July 9th.

Nice to have you along and now two of our favorite guests and one of our most difficult topics.

in in a while.

Heather Dubob, born on from the Wisconsin Public Education Network and child care provider, Karine Hendrickson.

Nice to see you both ladies.

Good morning.

How are you?

Good morning.

Doing good.

I'm sorry.

I have the New Year's resolution to stop saying how are you?

It's just not a fair question this year, is it?

It's just not.

Karine, you were first out of the gate when the budget agreement was announced to take a look at it.

You were kind enough to review it quickly on our behalf.

And let us know at first blush that there were some good points, but there were definitely some shortcomings, especially the eight only being there for a year in a two-year budget cycle.

Now, some time having passed,

Uh, is there anything else you wanted to add in terms of your overall feeling on how this state budget agreement leaves the childcare industry in Wisconsin?

Yeah, so now that we've had a little bit of time to reflect, look over it and talk with others across the state to see how it's basically landing and what the plans are, is because of the spin that's been taken by the governor and the Democrats and the Republicans on how much of a win this is, our parents are very upset with us because our rates are still going up because they see that we got $330 million, and we asked for $480 million, so they're not able to understand that.

two different things we're talking about.

So the continuing funding was the $480 million that we were asking for.

And we received $110 million that gets us through to next June.

I am very happy that we were able to make sure that our federal ARPA interest money is going to be allocated in a good way.

However, it's going to be less than what we're getting right now.

And what we're getting right now is not allowing us to keep family child care solvent to keep teachers.

you know teaching to keep classrooms open and now we have very upset parents with us because they don't trust us and that what we're telling them is the truth and that's why we're raising our rates and that's why we're still closing and so really looking at this in the way we communicate to people how this is

actually impacting people in the real world.

And yes, the other funding that's coming through is funding that we have every single year, pretty much, that subsidy money is federal money.

It gets allocated every time.

That's a lot of it.

And again, looking at those harmful policies that were traded, it's just

it's immoral honestly to be saying that you know 16 year olds should be in charge of classrooms and counting ratios and to you know take our most vulnerable who are on subsidy and require if you want to participate in this pilot to get a little bit more money to have seven toddlers in a classroom instead of four and so it's not getting better.

No Heather same question to you again we talked a lot about the special education boost but there was also

to be honest, a lot not to like about this deal for education advocates.

In what ways?

Where were the shortfalls?

You want to start with general

aids?

Yeah, that's where that's where we got to start Pat.

And I mean, I don't I hate to come right out of the gate with a negative.

But the truth of the matter is, this budget really was kind of a staggeringly and shockingly betraying

move from from the state legislature that had signaled all along that it was going to move on both special education and kind of meeting minimum aid needs.

This is

unprecedented.

We have as far back as we've been able to track, never seen a state budget that failed to provide even a penny of new general aid in either year of the of the biennial budget.

So this fall and next fall, kids are going to be going back to school with zero dollars in new state aid.

And let's keep in mind anything less than inflation is a cut.

And so this is a

across the board to every single district in the state holding the line.

They still get that $325 in spending authority or revenue limit increase that the governor worked into his veto last time, but that's going to be made up at the local level by increasing property taxes.

And we predict that we're going to see tons more referenda around the state.

There were also some new aids.

We did increase special education reimbursement to the highest rate it's been in decades, and yet it's still woefully inadequate to meet needs.

and anticipated 42% and 45% reimbursement in years one and two.

Since they didn't allocate enough money to make sure that those percentages would be stable, they're not guaranteeing those percentage rate and we predict that it'll probably be lingering in the 30s still.

meaning that Wisconsin may get out of last place for worst nation, or worst state in the nation for how we do special ed, but we're still in the bottom tier.

And we're still facing about a one point, you know, something billion dollars funding gap across the state where districts are gonna have to take out of their general aid to cover, you know, the 60% of special ed costs that are going to remain unreimbursed.

So it's a crisis moment.

And like Karine said, who gets the blame for this?

With politicians taking a victory lap around a trash can right now, people are like, why are my taxes going up?

I thought we were investing historic amounts in public schools.

They're blaming their local boards.

They're blaming their superintendents.

They're mad about the right things, but they're mad at the wrong people.

And they need to follow the trail of crumbs back to the state house and say, we're not clapping for these.

We are demanding an adequate aid to actually meet the needs of our kids in our districts and this budget.

absolutely did not deliver for our kids.

Heather, let me start you on this one and then go to Karine and that is the prospect of if not this deal, then there would have been no new state budget at all and the old budget would have simply continued.

We've talked about the prospect that there were Republican lawmakers who wanted that and therefore weren't going to support anything.

And it's a tough call because you don't have a government shutdown here.

You just have the old budget continuing.

Was that a

a less attractive or more attractive option than what this new state budget ultimately turned out to be?

That's a false choice.

Those were not the only two choices our lawmakers had.

They had a third choice, which is be the grown-ups you were elected to be.

Go back to the drawing board and work it out.

Create a budget that actually meets our priority needs.

If the governor had called the bluff on this and said, absolutely not.

We are not sending our kids back to school with zero.

We are not letting childcare accounts expire.

We are going to invest in prioritizing the priority needs as the people of this state brought them to us throughout this entire

higher budget process, we could have had a different result.

I understand that the rhetoric wants us to say it was one or the other and it was all or nothing, but the fact is that's simply not true.

And if we had leaders who were more amenable to doing the right thing by their constituents, we might be having a totally different conversation right now.

Kareen, is that what you wanted to see from Democratic lawmakers and a Democratic governor?

Absolutely.

We didn't fight so hard to get people elected to then have them termed.

turncoat, basically, and vote against all the things that they said they were going to do.

And I agree.

They could have just done a Medicaid budget to make sure that we got that funding and then gone back and done separate bills.

I also feel like things are going to fall apart now when it's too late to fix it because they are going to devil out in March.

And while their campaigning is when these rural schools will be probably looking at consolidation, it's when the child cares will be absolutely falling apart.

And had it started already now,

it would have, there would have been time to do something because the consequences of their actions would have happened while they were still able to be held accountable to them.

So yeah, so Friday we're doing a time stuff rally with WPEN and multiple other partners at the state capitol.

930 State Street entrance is the press rally and

we are press conference and then we're doing a rally after and we are going to be talking about how this budget fails our children and at the federal level connecting all the harm that is coming down from the federal level and how our state is not even thinking about doing that.

And the child care specific we are going to be asking for a special session to finish the job for the 480 million dollars and we are talking with our partners to see if they want to add to that at all for their request is you know kind of

last minute with the whole like pivoting, but we're good at pivoting.

And the other thing I want to say is clearly in these budget negotiations, they need some teachers to help moderate the discussion and help them learn how to play in the sandbox together.

From David on Facebook, Heather and Karine are spot on.

This is a crisis moment.

Our kids, our families, and our communities are being left behind all over the state.

I just cheered as Heather declared this budget compromise as the result of a false choice.

It's now up to us to change how we organize in places like way up north where I am.

If the legislature can't get the work done, we need a new legislature.

From Eli, thank you, Heather and Karine.

Backbone is needed by a representation.

Backbone for the good, but I'll tee up the next question.

to you this way from Tony on YouTube.

Sadly, you can't make Republicans be responsible adults.

And I think this is the toughest question to the both of you is, to what degree you can be angry with Democrats?

And at what point does that anger take away from replacing the Republicans who put us in this position in the first place?

Heather, I'll start with you.

First of all, my anger is not partisan.

My anger is about the failure of the state to meet its constitutional responsibility to its children.

The fact that this has become a partisan battle makes me furious.

But that politics is our problem, not our fault.

And I think as long as we center that political division in our conversations about how

how we're going to change this, we're never going to have a solution.

And that's why our coalition was calling for the governor to just call it out and call a veto this year, because the status quo is not going to change itself.

We have seen this cycle again and again and again.

And until we do get a legislature where we can have nice things and use our record surplus to actually invest in meeting the needs of our communities, we're not going to get that kind of change.

And so, yeah, I think it's true that there are individuals who are digging their heels and there are party politics at play, but we need to rethink the way we do politics altogether in this state.

And that's going to take some serious organizing like the kind that David described in his comment, where we live, putting pressure on and making sure that our elected officials of all political stripes know that we are not going to tolerate behavior that sells us short.

Korean, just a little over a minute to ask you the same thing about holding Republicans accountable for the environment, but holding Democrats accountable for how much fight they bring into each budget debate.

And I think it goes back to what we've allowed to become partisan.

The issues we're talking about, our children, our families, our communities are not partisan, never have been partisan, but our elected leaders are.

treating them that way and we allow it.

And so it goes back to that organizing piece.

So the afternoon of our July 11th is actually us coming together because we'll have people from all over the state to talk about how we can get real people to run real campaigns with real people supporting them while they run for office.

But then also once they're in office, they have those real people then to come back to and talk about and the people that are good at and know a variety of issues because

one person who's elected is not going to be able to know, nor should they know everything about everything, but they should know the people, the real people to talk to, not the lobbyists, not the paid interests, not the comms people, but the real people that these policies will impact and how that will impact them so they can make a good solid decision with integrity and honesty.

And again, Korean really quick the the Friday X's and O's again at the Capitol 930 you said.

Yes, we're gathering at nine o'clock.

The press

conference

starts at 930 State Street entrance.

Then we'll do a march around the Capitol, deliver some letters to elected representatives.

So bring letters saying that you want them to finish the job and do it correctly.

And then we're lunches to be determined.

We're doing some fundraising for that.

And

then also then we'll have our discussion.

Kareen Hendrickson and Heather Dubob-Bornan, thank you so much for all you do.

We appreciate it so much.

And for taking a little time this morning, have a great day.

Thanks for having us.

Talk to you soon.

You bet.

You're very welcome.

A local update is next for some of you, for others at Wisconsin, Western Wisconsin Update, right here with Jimmy Cuska and in our 8 o'clock hour, Senator Kelder Royce.

I'm Pat Kraitland.

Let's see before we bring in Jimmy here from Tony.

I completely get being upset at everyone, but it sounds like they're getting mad that Democrats couldn't drag Republicans to more funding when they were the ones actively saying, I shouldn't have to pay for your kids.

And so you really do hear the exasperation on either side of this particular discussion point.

One that Jimmy Cusk is familiar with as well as a school board member himself.

He doesn't just do news and sports for civic media and coaching.

He's got school board duties as well.

So I do like when we have folks like Heather on, you're right there in the waiting room wanting to hear what's going on.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think the issues brought up with regards to school funding, it's not just an issue if you have kids in school districts.

These are issues that affect everybody who lives in a district because property taxes changes school districts and their ability to borrow changes as referendums come across on your ballots.

One thing this week that I was fascinated to learn is that where I live in Southwestern Wisconsin and covering some recent political announcements, Representative Jenna Jacobson announced to run

Senate District 17 which is the district that Howard Markline currently represents and she noted that in this Senate district there have been more school referendums than any other Senate district in the state in the last two years and you know it's a very rural district or you know Senate district in regards to school districts so these are issues that affect everybody and not just people with kids in school or people who have ties to their local school districts.

This stuff affects everybody so for me this is all very

fascinating to hear about and hear about all these statewide perspectives.

I think it's also fascinating that Jenna Jacobson is running for state senate down in southwest Wisconsin year in southwest Wisconsin.

And yet you're both alumni of the Lakeland Conference.

She's from Frederick.

You went to flambo.

You guys are mobile.

Yeah, for sure.

It was fun.

It was fun when I was at the event and talking to her about that because there's a lot of perspectives you can bring from multiple parts of the state.

I've lived everywhere from Tony in Sheldon, Wisconsin, up in the Flamable School District to Madison and near Milwaukee.

So for me, I've gotten to live in a lot of different parts of the state, now currently in the Driftlist area.

And there's a lot of different things you learn just by being in different parts of the state.

But I think overall,

you know, there's a reason why education has been one of the hot topics and the recent budget cycles.

And that's because it truly is an issue that affects everybody, regardless of whether or not you have kids in schools.

Yeah, exactly.

Jimmy Koska is with us right now.

And let's talk for a bit about UW System tuition.

And it looks like there may be a third straight year of tuition going up.

And folks are noticing that.

Yep, so in a release yesterday, universities of Wisconsin System President J. Rothman said that they are proposing a 4% tuition hike for UW campuses and in the release it noted that

Every campus except for two would be adding on the optional 1% increase on top of that for a 5% tuition hike.

The two campuses who aren't going along with that Green Bay is gonna stay at four, but River Falls is going all the way up to 5.8% to help fund some initiatives for student success.

So we're talking about a third straight year of it.

I noted in La Crosse that the tuition would go over 10 grand per year for an undergraduate student.

And also kind of funny,

same time, the University of Northern Iowa made a release yesterday saying they were offering in-state tuition rates to anybody in a bordering state of Iowa, including Wisconsin.

So Northern Iowa's undergrad tuition for a Wisconsin student would actually be less than UW La Crosse, which I found to be pretty fascinating.

But just looking at it...

you know, after 10 years of tuition freezes, just seeing three straight years, you know, 5%, 3.75%, and now 5% again this year in tuition Ike's, you know, all of a sudden 10 grand a year to get into UW.

That's that's a lot of money.

I mean, that's that's big for public school.

Yeah, I mean, it's going to make people want to make sure that that is the path that they indeed want to take.

You said in on Alaska, they just added a three year wheel tax as well.

Again, a lot of this to me, and again, just my opinion, but when you've got a state legislature that, you know, it chooses austerity rather than funding its local government, its local school districts, its UW system, you end up seeing local taxes go up in in on Alaska.

That's what they feel they've been forced to do with the wheel tax.

And this was a compromise too, because, you know, wheel taxes

typically don't have a cap on them.

On Alaska, put a three-year cap on theirs through 2028, which I found to be really interesting.

They were considering cost to other services, you know, closing a library or maybe the aquatic center, or maybe levying an additional tax on property owners.

So coming back to a wheel tax to help pay for some of the infrastructure needs, this was truly a compromise part to manage a $300,000 hole in their budget.

So Kudos to you on Alaska for, you know,

finding a way in the middle to not just have a perpetual wheel tax and give it a three-year run to help take care of a budget issue here in the near term.

Next door there is a big discussion on the La Crosse City Council agenda when it comes to downtown development and how they'll handle housing as a part of that, right?

Yeah, housing is a huge need in La Crosse.

Every single community survey from the past, I don't know, probably 10 years has talked about the need for housing.

It's a city that gets a lot of focus for its attention on policy in regards to the on-house population.

But they are working with developers.

There's a couple of big things.

One is that the former La Crosse Tribune building, that's actually on the agenda for tomorrow in La Crosse where they're proposing dozens of additional housing units and some mixed use space as well.

But there are multiple developments happening.