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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow, powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Minnesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat
Craiglow.
Hey, good morning.
It's Friday.
You can tell because he's got the Roy Kent mug, as always, on Fridays for the coffee.
806, nice to have you here up north on this Friday.
It is July 11th.
We're hoping to hear from Dr. Kristen Lierly, who's out in Washington, DC.
for a meeting of a national group out there.
We'll hear what they're saying about the state of health care in America, especially after the passage of Trump's big bloated boondoggle of a budget bill, official name.
It's trademarked.
You can't copy it.
And then in our 830 half hour, we'll talk to Mike Clemens about the brewers and just the amazing climb that they've made from
you know, earlier in the season when it looked like they were going to be struggling with injuries throughout the course of the year, the bats were not scoring runners in scoring position, and now things are coming together very nicely.
No guarantees, but why is that so?
We'll talk to Mike Clemens about that coming up.
I also mentioned earlier that there was going to be a rally at the capitol today with folks upset about the state budget and the lack of support for childcare, for K-12 education and more.
I mentioned that it would be at the state street entrance to the capitol, but the weather could also be inclement and we just received an update that says if it is raining too hard, they will start in the rotunda of the state capitol.
And also they have a meeting room reserved as well, if need be.
So even if the weather isn't great, there's still a chance for people who want to come and express their displeasure and want the legislature to do more.
I mean, now that the state budget is done, it's not like they don't have to do any more work.
They still get a paycheck.
There's still expectations of them.
They can still pass other bills that can help fund things, but there has to be the will to do it.
Some of them are demanding a special session of the legislature to work on things like child care and increasing general school aides and those and other topics will be discussed this morning along with how else to keep these topics in the forefront of public discussion and not simply accept what they believe are crumbs and walk away.
For them, there's more work to do and that work is going to be done today at the state capitol, Rain or Shine.
and it's the rain or shine part that brings in meteorologists, Brittany Merleau, to get us started on a weekend where you need to be aware of the rain part of it.
We'll
hope for the
shine, but...
The shine will be here on Sunday and Monday.
Before that, yeah.
Okay, good, because right now, I mean, how real is the threat of getting soaked in Madison this morning, for example?
Yeah, so this morning we've got a little bit of light rain trying to move its way into far, far southwest portions, but it's very light.
They are light sprinkles and nothing really too crazy with those at the moment.
What we're looking at is that front, though, that is sitting in northern Illinois.
That downpour on them last night, obviously us too, but not nearly as bad.
That thing is going to start to lift north, unfortunately.
As it does so, as the heat and the peak of the day go on, we're going to start to see these storms firing up along that front.
So it's going to go from Iowa, stretching all the way up towards Green Bay.
I mean, we're going to still see a cold front behind that and instability, sparking storms as far north as superior Wisconsin.
So we're all in a risk today.
The biggest risk for strong to severe storms that are going to pack maybe a tornado and rotation, maybe some large hail or gusty.
that could knock down trees.
The storm prediction center has a slight risk pretty much from I would say Richland center area through just south of Madison and in towards Milwaukee.
So those places along the state line very far south need to stay very weather savvy.
especially by four o'clock.
I think that's when those are going to start to push in towards us.
Six o'clock, it kind of looks like it's towards Madison and shortly after into Milwaukee.
And those continue through the evening, unfortunately.
And like Pat had said, very heavy rainfall is possible.
I'd say expect at least a half an inch.
but obviously up to three inches could fall.
It's going to be packing a punch.
Flash flooding is a big concern, especially on city streets.
Rivers could be rising.
If you're in a flood plain, just take the precautions you can now.
This is a very slow moving front and it's going to have a big punch with it.
So there's a lot of instability and moisture that it can work with and why that's such a risk and so much rain is falling with these.
And it's not just south.
I want to make that very clear.
Up north, even central Wisconsin,
bay, for instance, you could still get a storm that could dump one to three inches on you.
That can create flooding very fast.
So stay weather savvy.
Make sure you have a plan.
Don't drive through flooded roads.
Don't, don't, don't do it.
It tends to wash out a lot of roads when this happens.
And you don't know if there are roads underneath you.
So
play it safe today.
We do have chances for showers and storms sparking up again tomorrow afternoon too.
But most of the day actually looks mainly dry.
So those are just the pesky evening summer storms as that cold front moves through.
It shouldn't be too bad, hopefully.
But then afterwards as we go into Sunday, things calm down.
The sun will be out.
Temperatures actually comfortable in the low 80s with no humidity.
Nice, relaxing day to end the weekend.
for the heat cranks back up and the storms start to move back in early next week.
Yep, more heat on the way.
Robin Tigerton says when Brittany says weather savvy, it means the weather is very serious with heavy rains.
We've got a decoder ring for Brittany Merleau
now.
I
love that.
And Rob asks, will I get my two mowing jobs in the Tigerton area today after the grass dries?
And he's asking that on behalf of everybody with a lawn mower because there's that window, you know, the grass isn't dry yet.
Okay, the grass is dry enough, but oh no.
Here comes the rain, and that might be a narrow to non-existent window in some places.
It's pretty narrow.
Further north you are, you've got a little bit more time.
And the latest model data is pushing this a little bit back.
Just an hour ago, I was saying this is all going to start at three.
Now I'm saying four.
So there is a chance that you can squeeze this in.
And of course, up north, widely scattered storms.
So better chance for you.
Well, you know what, if you can't get the mowing in today, may I suggest making a lasagna?
Tony
asks
us on YouTube, are you aware of lasagna?
Well, yes we are Tony, because this is July, and July is Lasagna Awareness Month.
Yes, it's back.
So be
aware that if you can't mow your lawn, if it's a little wet out there, it might be lasagna making weather as part of Lasagna Awareness Month.
I
never dreamed I would turn this into a bit, but
I can't believe we've kept it up this long
It's just so stupid.
It
deserves to be elevated to the level of mockery.
And we're there for that.
Especially
since it keeps reminding me, I really ought to make a lasagna one of these times.
It's pretty good.
It's
a good day
for cooking indoors if you can't get out there.
Brittany, thank you so much.
Have a great weekend.
Thanks, you too.
All right.
Time to give away some brewer's tickets or at least we hope to give them away to you, but it's going to start with you.
Texting us a keyword as part of our free ticket Friday.
The keyword today is ball B-A-L-L.
You have to text that word in before 9 a.m.
on the Civic Media app, and you'll be in the running in a statewide contest for four great tickets to Sunday afternoon's game against the Washington Nationals.
If you don't have the Civic Media app, come on.
Get over to the Apple Store, Google Store, and then get that app downloaded.
Find your station, use the text button to text ball to be entered into this contest, and then there will be other chances to win throughout the day.
Jane and Greg.
Tom Hartman, Todd Alba, Maggie Dawn, all part of Free Ticket Friday.
And for Todd Alba, he'll be doing that from the Northern Wisconsin State Fair, where he and I broadcast yesterday afternoon.
And we'll do so again today from two to four.
during his show.
And then we had a really nice time over at one of the beer gardens for a bit.
Again, it was a little bit of rain.
So you get this big old pavilion that you can sit underneath and have some conversations.
No lasagna there at the fair, as far as I can tell.
Although Rob Chimes said now that he bought his lasagna at Charlie's Country Market in Shawna on Wednesday.
Parker, we're making a difference.
People are buying lasagnas in July.
You know, it's moments like this that really make me think, wow, maybe what I am is really adding value to the world when people buy lasagna.
I believe that you do add value.
I'm not like the
show, Pat.
As a whole.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
All right.
We're again dealing with naughty people in the sandbox of comment sections today.
We have a little have a little fun with them.
So I mentioned that Todd will be at the fair today, so be sure you check that out.
I'm sure you heard me a few minutes ago mentioned that Jim Santel will be a guest co-host for the Maggie Dawn show starting at four o'clock.
Later on Maggie's show, right around 5.50 or so, will be Terry Barr with What's Good Local and Overlooked.
Terry has news of some libraries being built despite budget cuts and also where you can see the only circus bell wagon in the world in Wisconsin in the summertime.
So that's part of the Maggie Dawn show.
And of course, following this program is, you know, the the one, the only Matt and air on air with the one, the only Greg Bach and Jane Matt and air Greg was on earlier.
We were talking about, you know, CPAP machines and anybody who listens regularly knows.
that Greg started therapy on a CPAP machine a couple of months back and was not going to let me, you know, skate through all of this without having my own sleep apnea addressed.
And so that started this week.
So Greg was in earlier today to take a victory lap on that.
And you can hear more from Greg and Jane.
Following this program from nine to 11, Dan Schaefer from the recombobulation area will be joining.
Jane and Greg this morning, just after the 10 o'clock news.
And then Jane and Todd are hitting the road together next week.
You've got Todd up here in Chippewa Falls right now, but Todd and Jane and Greg will be on the road next week with stops that include Oshkosh.
Butternut and Hayward for some big events that are going on around the state and they're going to go over and take a look at them and talk to people who might be attending some of these events.
And so you'll want to tune in to both Matt and Aaron Eyre and the Todd Alba show next week with all kinds of I'm sure stories of travel.
that they're gonna wanna share the logistics of planning the lugging of equipment and bodies to get to all of these places.
Also from Civic Media, the Wisconsin Forward podcast with Matt Rothschild.
It is a weekly dive into a topic surrounding a current political problem in our state, some background.
on how we got where we are today, what some folks are working on now, and possible ways forward.
In one recent episode, for example, there was bridging the urban rural divide, where Matt talked to Professor Kathy Kramer, author of the Wisconsin Classic, The Politics of Resentment.
In another episode, Matt gave a history of conservation in Wisconsin, what was once universally a bipartisan value.
and he interviewed Tia Nelson, daughter of the late Senator and Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson.
So you can get a uniquely Wisconsin take on the big issues that are preventing progress and the people with the ideas to move us forward.
So you can subscribe and download to Wisconsin Forward on Spotify, on Apple, and on the Civic Media website, which leads me into this shameless plug.
You can podcast this show.
as well on Spotify or Apple or through the Civic Media website where we are all the time playing uh having back episodes if you missed a guest if you missed a topic if you go back long enough to figure out how the heck did they start with this lasagna awareness month thing and why
Well, you can go back and listen to those back episodes and find out a bit more.
Again, subscribe on Spotify, Apple or at the Civic Media website.
And one more note, of course, is our Sunday morning politics newsletter that I'll be writing up starting today for Sunday morning to keep people updated on what all happened this week.
One of the big stories, of course, has been the reaction to the state budget that passed last week, as well as the Trump big bloated boondoggle as more people are learning just.
What's in that turkey that passed in Washington DC?
What's in the bill that passed in Madison and what's missing from the bill?
So I'll be writing some of that up and you can become a subscriber to Sunday mornings with Pat Critello by heading over to upnorthnewswi.com.
We will continue with mornings with Pat Critello with a local update for some of you.
And then in our 8.30 half hour, we will talk to Mike Clemens and we will talk brewers and more sports.
That's all ahead 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.
Welcome back.
It is a Friday morning, July 11th.
Nice to have you along here live from Lake Basota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
We have talked a lot about instances where usually it's the Trump administration, sometimes Republicans in Congress doing things that you feel need to be called out.
And I know I hear people, you know, out there saying, well, you know, what about Democrats when they do this?
Well, look, we've, we've talked about the instances of Democratic gerrymandering.
and it's just not a case of two wrongs make a right.
You need to call those things out and you try to have a reform agenda that moves away from those kinds of things.
Similarly, there was an instance in Madison that needs to be talked about so that it does not impact elections elsewhere in the future.
A top elections official in Madison
according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, acted unlawfully when she failed to ensure that nearly 200 absentee ballots were counted in the last presidential election.
This from a story by Molly Beck and Hope Carnop of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, noting how now former Madison Clerk, Mary Beth Whistlebell, refused to acknowledge significant errors in how the absentee ballots were handled.
and then did not take any action after learning that 193 ballots went uncounted, and instead, she went on vacation.
A letter from the members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission says, quote, this profound failure.
undermines public confidence in elections.
It is essential that every voter knows that their properly cast ballot will be counted.
It was the job of the city clerk to immediately take action once notified about the found ballots and she did nothing.
It was the responsibility of the deputy clerk to take action in her absence and he did nothing.
These ballots were treated as unimportant and a reconciliation nuisance
rather than as the essential part of our democracy that they represent.
This was the first time as the article notes that the Elections Commission has used its investigative authority.
Ann Jacobs is the Democratic Chair of the Commission.
Don Mills is the Republican-appointed Commissioner and both are attorneys and conducted the depositions in this case.
Folks like to note that because this happened in the city of Madison, these 198 ballots that went uncounted, they were lost and then found, did not have any noticeable impact on the election results.
That doesn't matter.
These were 193 people still whose votes did not count.
These are 193 ballots, the oversight of which damaged the integrity of elections in Wisconsin.
And so it does not matter if it's in a deep blue city or a deep red county or anything like that.
This kind of investigation shows the Wisconsin elections commission and its team at its best.
And it is a commission that has its share of partisan squabbles, to be sure, and disagreements on how things should be run.
But here's what you didn't see or hear as part of this.
At no point did you have Democrats on the commission or Democrats writ large saying, this is a wild goose chase.
This is a witch hunt.
This is all politically motivated.
This is partisan.
As we often hear with another group of people who, when they are caught with their hand in the cookie jar, like to lash out instead at whoever it was that caught them.
You know, the same can be said about the birthright citizenship case that we talked about earlier in the day.
Again, there's no legal grounds on which to base any claim that birthright citizenship is not a valid part of the Constitution.
And instead, what the Trump administration has done is attack the federal judge who this week turned that lawsuit into a class action matter.
And again, couldn't talk about the merits of the case.
In the case of these ballots in Madison, there was no circling of the wagons by Democrats or others in the city of Madison.
This was so clearly wrong.
And in this case, nobody tried to make it a case of partisanship, said let's do the investigation, let's do the depositions, and then let's put out the results.
Now let's put out the results so that, again, nobody thinks that they can get away with this in the future.
This is why I'm still very upset at what's happening in Warsaw or rather what's not happening in Warsaw where unless I have missed something there have still been no consequences for a mayor who just up on his own removed an absentee ballot drop box.
Now, one that wasn't being used yet, one that wasn't even finished being set up yet, but because he didn't like the idea of the absentee ballot box being there, he just up and took it back to his office.
And here's, I can tell, they're still squabbling in the in the city of Warsaw about whether there will be an elections board examination of this.
I still haven't heard boo on whether any
charges will ever be brought at a county or a state level.
And again, I don't care if it's a $5 fine.
I really don't.
I do care if it's $0.
I care if there is no record because otherwise there will again be somebody that will take it upon themselves to either act outside the law or in the case of the Madison City Clerk to neglect the law.
and say, well, that's no big deal.
Consequences doesn't have to mean the electric chair, okay?
Consequences just sometimes has to mean making it clear that you got caught, this is wrong, and let everybody know that something like this should not be happening again.
That's what the Wisconsin Elections Commission did in this case in a bipartisan manner, in a place where ballots didn't get counted and it didn't have an impact on the results here.
But you really want to protect the integrity of making sure every ballot is counted in the future because somewhere else in so many close elections around this state, it can make a world of difference.
So I really want to applaud the elections commission for going forward on this one and making the record clear.
We are going to be talking about sports with my Clemens coming up in just a bit and wrapping up our discussions here live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network for this Friday morning, July 11th.
Back in a bit.
Why yes, it is Free Ticket Friday.
Why do you ask?
It's July 11th.
It's a Friday Free Ticket Friday, which means that if you are able to go to Sunday afternoon's game Brewers against the Washington Nationals at American Family Field and you want to be in the running for four great club level seats to see the game on Sunday Well, we've got the thing for you a statewide contest Free Ticket Friday where you use that civic media app Call up one of the stations
Use the text button for that station and text the keyword for our show this morning, which is ball.
B-A-L-L.
You got to text it before nine o'clock, before the end of the show, and you are in the running then for those tickets for Sunday Afternoons Game, and there will be more chances to win throughout the course of the day here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
So be listening in for those brewers who are, I mean,
Red Hot is a cliche.
Getting out the brooms for a sweep, that's a cliche.
But you know what?
They apply because of what the Brewers did to the LA Dodgers.
So let's bring in Mike Lemons with more about that.
Mike, could there be a more pleasant surprise this week than what we saw from the Brewers?
No, a tremendous growth period.
Teaching moments for the young Brewers team.
And by the way, you win those tickets, you get to see Freddie Peralta start on Sunday for the Brewers.
It starts with things like this.
It starts with this Pat Murphy as a manager, as a guy who's pushing all the buttons of the people in there.
Reese Hoskins jacks up his right hand.
His left hand now is in a big black, you know, one of those elastic casts because of his sprained thumb and he will peel be out now to like August.
So do I put in Jake Bauer or we got that Andrew Vaughn guy.
We picked up from the White Sox who kind of went into a slump and
And we got him in the trade for Aaron Savalli.
The guy didn't want to go to the bullpen.
And so let's bring him in from Nashville.
And then Pat decides, you know what?
Even though he got in here on the plane from Nashville at 12.30 last night, he probably is not even really thinking about the Dodgers.
Let's just put him in the game.
And he ends up in the three-run homer.
to get things started.
It was
electric.
Against the Dodgers.
Yeah, you know, and Yamamoto, you know, asked to exit after two outs, one of their top pitchers.
And then, and then the big billing on TBS, on Network TV, Jacob Mizorowski, the Miz, the 23 year old against the veteran Clayton Kershaw.
And after he gives up that, that opening home run to Shohei Otani, the 700 million dollar player.
By the way, that's a big dude.
He's like six four.
210 he looks like an NFL quarterback.
After that the kid settles down and strikes out 12 Dodgers and you see him start to see him fist pump after each inning you know good till he gets to the sixth inning just incredible momentum and then the veteran Quintana goes in there and and locates that ball gets through six innings and the Brewer bats come in so the one thing Pat is still great for me
and covering baseball is the access and you walk into that Dodgers clubhouse and that's more like walking into the Packers locker room.
I
mean
those are some big dudes and a lot of them like you know in their 30s or so um like like the Tyler Glass now who started for them was a Wednesday.
He's just coming back from a shoulder injury and you know the Dodgers bullpen has been you know messed up they've had a lot of injuries so that's one thing that's hurting them and in this slump.
But then you can go right into the manager's office.
And so we're sitting down there with Dave Roberts, who, by the way, he said, you know, I'm not going back with a team.
I'm going to stay in Wisconsin.
I've got an invite to go golfing tomorrow.
So he went golfing and took a private flight to San Francisco last night where they're going to open up.
It's a giant.
And I asked him after getting just swept by the Brewers on Wednesday, what he thought about the Brewers Club.
Dave was Milwaukee, one of the more aggressive teams.
face this year on the base pass?
They are.
They are.
It's a team that prevents runs really well.
They play defense really well, and offensively, they just create havoc.
They steal, they bun, they hit and run, they don't strike out much.
There's going to be balls in play.
Pat does a good job with the roster as far as trying to maximize and create offense with that ball club.
I like that.
And I like that he, he decided to stick around and play a little golf in Wisconsin.
That was a nice commercial, not just for the brewers that he just did, but for, you know, spending your off days here instead of jumping right back into the pressure cooker in San Francisco.
Yeah.
And, and, you know, I mean, you get these honest moments too, where he's like, hang on a second before those guys come in, he just takes the cap off and he's kind of massaging his scalp.
Like, you know, no.
I get swept at home by the Astros and now this you know and I need a break here but and you know here's another thing I mean Pat Murphy went into this week like you know what extra drills this week
But how come?
Because you know something?
I've been doing this long enough, and it's like these guys, they already start planning their vacations for the All-Star break.
What are we doing?
Their mind, their focus goes elsewhere.
So he made them take extra drills in the field before those first two or three games in Milwaukee this week.
Because he's such, you know, this guy is so good at pushing the buttons, you know, Pat Murphy.
And there's no question about it, Pat.
When you go through that press box,
When you go through that brewer clubhouse before a game, you know the the void left by Bob Uker who was going around all that experience, you know kind of the grandfather role making guys laugh and joking all that and there's a void there and just by just by being himself Murph has filled that I mean, he's the boss now don't screw up Joey Ortiz and take make bad decisions or you'll get benched for two days and then he'll tell the press.
Yeah, he PO the manager
And he was not afraid to say that and you really have to appreciate somebody of that caliber in look in any kind of a workplace I when I started in a newsroom a channel 13 in Eau Claire all the reporters are fresh out of school They're all 20 something but there was always that one guy and for us it was Dave Carlson the outdoors reporter so this old crusty guy and He didn't say much and that was okay You knew that he didn't look at you as a young screw-up if he paid you a compliment
And you wanted to earn that compliment, and I am positive that's how a lot of the Brewers players feel about Murph.
Right, and they look at a guy like, you know, I want a lifetime in baseball too, and this is a guy who's done it all, who's seen it all, and also has got a pretty good sense of humor, but he keeps it honest too.
And I just found that, and I said, you know what, that void is being filled just naturally.
It's not like Murph changed.
It's just he's kind of stepped into that role, because like you asked him about Trevor McGill.
who's now going to get to go to the All-Star Games since they're going to run Peralta on Sunday, and here's McGill.
I mean, a kid who had to leave high school early, finished at a charter school, had Tommy John surgery as a kid, you know, into college, got drafted, bounced around the league, and the Brewers give him a second chance after his time with the Cubs at three years old.
Devin Williams has an injury.
He gets a chance to be a closer and now he's going to the All-Star game, which he is so excited about.
He said, that was my personal goal this year at 31 years old.
And then you ask Murphy, you know, McGill's kind of a tough guy, straightforward kind of a jock competitor.
But you know, what's McGill like around the clubhouse, Murph?
You know what, he's given to the team.
He's
If you don't know him, he's a tremendous giver, you know what I mean?
He gives a lot of himself and he's got his ways about him and it takes a while to get to know him.
He's been through a lot in life.
He's way more mature than you give a normal kid his age credit and he really just loves being part of something and being an important piece of something.
And now that he's found this home, last year some, you know, he was a big part of it, but this year a lot.
And he's given that responsibility.
He loves it.
So he's very, very grateful, very, very thankful.
Yeah, I'm pumped for him.
Really pumped for him.
There's a lot of deserving guys, you know, on our team in my opinion.
But I don't put the chess pieces together on who fits and who doesn't and who has voted.
I don't even know how it works.
I don't want to know.
You know what I mean?
It's like, it's a great honor, but it doesn't define you in any way.
I like that.
I don't want to know.
Just know that it's there.
And Trevor McGill now becomes part of essentially now a lineage of Brewer's relievers who have made it to the All-Star game.
I mean, the team is just well known for that.
And we get to see him again now hopefully playing in the All-Star game coming up next week.
Yeah, like five or six in a row that the closers from Milwaukee that have gone to the mid-summer classic.
So yeah, just there was a lot to learn this week.
There's like to compare
the Dodgers performance at catcher like Will Smith and the other guy and like that one mistake where he tried to throw out a guy at third over through the third baseman and you know Freelick scores whereas Contreras just with a gun you know so at the end of the day you know this young Brewers club and we've been seeing this for 20 years Brewers can get hot they have these streaks in the spring
Then the all-star break happens and then a veteran team like the Dodgers, you know, they put their head down and they just start mowing people over in August and September and they go, so that could happen, you know, that could probably happen again.
But it's just between Pat Murphy, Pat Murphy getting everything he get out of this young ball club and Matt Arnold, where does that GM keep on getting these guys from?
You know, it's just.
Suddenly, you know, they're backed up at pitcher.
It's just amazing that these guys that they pick up or, or, you know, pick up like Andrew Vaughn, you know, that's what I
wanted to ask you about is, is here's, here's Savali, who's like, well, I don't want to go to the bullpen.
So trade me and.
In what other world would a team call up the White Sox and say, here, we're going to ship this malcontent to the White Sox, who you got for us and who they send us is ready from his first plate appearance?
Yeah, and last night, the White Sox, like a two hour delay, then they call it because it's a rain delay.
You know, they're the crummy last place team, and that's where Savali's sitting right now.
Hope you're enjoying your starting rotation job.
You could be up here, you know.
being a part of the team to just beat the Dodgers and Shohei Otani, who's a big dude, man.
He looks like a NFL quarterback, six foot four, 209, 700 million dollars.
But you know, the Brewers, they've got close to 200 people in their organization.
They spend all their money on scouts to get these young players as opposed to paying one guy 700 million.
That's part of the reason that you keep on seeing these hot young 25 year olds at the plate.
Yeah.
I do have to kind of tweak Craig Council a bit though.
And maybe he would have said it differently.
But when he was asked about his team, the Cubs having the third best ERA, his quote was, I don't know that I've ever been able to manage a bullpen like this.
And I love that people kind of jumped on it.
It's like, Hello, Corbin Burns, Brandon Woodruff, Josh Hader, Devin Williams.
You kind of had a little amnesia there, forgetting what it is that he left here in Milwaukee.
That's true.
That would
be
true.
That's all right.
Now, it's not the only thing that's happening here.
Now, we're not going to get into football training camp yet.
Don't get me wrong, but we are going to talk a little NBA here because there is a summer league.
And of course, all the offseason chatter that comes along with it.
What's happening with the Bucks?
Well, we've been waiting all week to talk to John Horst, member I was kind of complaining about the press conference during the draft gets canceled last minute.
And the Bucks last night, they won a game over the Nuggets with a buzzer beater 90 to 89 with the young players out there.
But about 7 o'clock last night, we got a press release.
Hey, we're going to introduce Miles Turner, that guy we picked up from the Pacers and Free Agency that we surprised everybody about.
And you'll get a chance to talk to John Hearst and Doc Rivers here in Las Vegas.
We get to notice it's 7 o'clock last night.
I got brewers to cover this weekend.
And you had to RSVP by 10 o'clock this morning.
So I haven't called Civic Media to see if we've got our company Learjet all fired up for me to run out
there.
I believe Mathers
is using it.
But
yeah, we can maybe you can tag along on something like that.
Well, that's a little mysterious.
So there might be two guys out there from the papers or the wires that can ask the questions.
But we'll be listening back here at home on the network as we get ready for baseball.
But they are going to introduce Miles Turner.
And then obviously somebody out there, for me, as being what I was going to say, and what does Giannis feel about all your moves?
Of course.
Of course.
We've got to keep, you know, a grist for the mill.
Got to keep that going as well.
So I think we'll have stuff to talk about next Friday as well.
Mike Clemens, thank you so much as always.
Have a great weekend.
Thanks,
Pat.
All right, good to talk to you, man.
We're going to have a local break for some of you here.
Others are going to come on back here for some final news and notes from Lake Wissota.
And one more reminder for Free Ticket Friday.
The keyword detects us as ball BALL being the running for four tickets for the Brewers game on Sunday afternoon.
Back in a bit on the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Here it is, last call for free ticket Friday.
This hour's keyword is ball, B-A-L-L.
You get yourself about six minutes to text that to us through the Civic Media app.
Be in the running in this statewide contest for four great tickets to Sunday afternoon's game Brewers against the Washington Nationals.
That series begins this evening and you can catch it on several Civic Media radio stations.
Pre-game coverage begins at 6.35 this evening.
Got a text from Dr. Kristen Lierly apologizing for not being able to break out of meetings in Washington DC.
There's never an apology needed for that.
Uh, I love the fact that she's, she's out there, you know, she's only trying to like save women's health, trying to save rural health care, you know, and I'm like, uh, no, come, come to our little radio show.
I think
she
might have something better to do.
I wouldn't say better to do.
Oh, yeah, we, yes.
Yes, I would.
Yeah, I would say it was better to do.
I would say it was better.
But hopefully we'll, we'll talk to her Monday at 6 30.
This from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in the meantime, this economy walk school was converted into 55 apartment units with historic preservation.
Parker, I don't know if you've seen apartments like this, but I remember seeing some in Madison as well, where they take an old school.
They converted into apartment buildings, complete with, you know, the hallway still has the lockers going down
the hallway.
Oh,
yeah.
And in one of the units, well, no, two of the units, I think, you know, they took a gym and they basically divided it and each, each half had like a loft, but then down below your living room floor was the gym floor and the basketball hoop is still up there.
It's just it's so funny.
That's I think my aunt lived in a
School at one point.
Thank you.
I converted into apartments.
Um, yeah There's there's there's blackboards in some of them still I didn't think it'd be that like lazy I thought they'd kind of strip it all and it was just like the building not
don't don't get me wrong The apartments are nice, you know that with all the new appliances
and
they do put in cabinetry and calendar tops and everything and so I mean it's new apartments, but with
with parts of the old school building that are still there.
I would love to get into one of those.
That sounds actually really cool.
It was.
It was weird to tour it and go, OK, this is interesting, but would I want to live here?
And it's one thing, if somebody invited you to their place, they had a party there.
That sounds like one of those hotels that you do for the weekend and just go, this has got some
novelty.
Sure.
Yes.
but this would be your house all the time, your place to live.
But anyway, in the Journal Sentinel, you can check that out and maybe let us know if you have something similar to that in your community as well.
As I was talking to Todd Alba yesterday over dinner, it reminded me of a story as we had talking about media and politics and how we all ended up in the places where we are now.
And I...
was in journalism for the longest time, political journalism, before making the decision to run for office.
And this was back in 2005, 2006.
And I came back to a conversation from the fall of 1982, my freshman year in college at UW Eau Claire, that helped, as Brittany Merleau likes to say, helped spark this decision.
And it was meeting with an advisor.
I was undeclared because I could not decide.
between political science or journalism.
Which one did I want to pursue?
Which one did I want to major in?
And of course, they assign you an advisor.
Well, my faculty advisor was a political science instructor, professor.
I think he later went on to become a chair of the political science department.
But at the time I was taking a political science course with him, I'm sure it was PolySci 101.
He did a great job of setting me down and saying, well, you know, tell me about yourself.
Tell me what you want to do.
Tell, you know, tell me how you approach things and everything.
And he listened to me.
And at the end, I thought he would say, well, okay, good luck with your decision.
And instead, he says, you need to go into journalism, not politics.
He said, the reason why is it's very clear from listening to you, you know, you want to see both sides or all sides of every story.
And that's what journalism is, is, you know, asking questions and figuring out the whole well roundedness of any given story.
Whereas in politics, you know, you got to pick a path and you stick with that path and it's all or nothing.
And you got to, you know, dedicate yourself to that.
And I thought, okay, that makes sense.
And I pursued it.
And thanks to great instructors like Henry Lippold and others, I went on to have a nice little career in radio and then TV.
But at some point as I was watching the political scene, I got to thinking about what he said about being single-minded versus seeing all sides.
And I thought, well, what the heck is wrong with that in politics?
Why wouldn't you want somebody who wants to look at all sides and then try to find the, you know, the best path forward?
And I had no idea if somebody who'd only worked in a newsroom could go into electoral politics.
I mean, others have, don't get me wrong, but I didn't know if it was going to work for me.
Well, it did.
It led to a state senate campaign and winning that race narrowly and being a state senator for four years.
and it was four of the greatest years, most professional enjoyment that I got.
And in large part, it was because you can still have your principles, you can still have your values, which in my case are left of center, but you can talk to people who are right of center and you can find that common ground where you know, well, we're not going to agree on this, but if we both agree to go down this path,
We can maybe make things a little bit better.
We can create some jobs or we can provide some tax relief or whatever the case may be.
The biggest one for the session, my first session there, was the smoking ban debate.
and whether to have a smoking ban or not.
And again, it was a matter of that was not a Democratic or a Republican issue.
It was hearing all sides from small business, from health advocates and finding the right path forward.
Some people wanted to do it in like four weeks.
We ended up doing it like a like an 18 month phase in or something like that so that it was fair to the small businesses that wanted to make adjustments.
I think we need more of that.
We need more of these well-rounded conversations and so I'm glad I made the jump from journalism into politics and now back to political journalism and I hope other people thinking about 2026 will consider that as well as they look for maybe giving us the next generation of leaders here in Wisconsin.
My thanks to all of today's guests, of course, and to Parker Olson and Brittany Merlot and you for being here today.
I'm Pat Cratlow, founding editor of Up North News, part of Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy news network.
Have a great weekend.
We'll see you back here Monday morning, 6 a.m.
here up north.
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