Please Snitch on Trump Critics. Really? (Hour 2)

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

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

Good morning, it is 7 0 6.

It is nice to have you here on this Tuesday morning, July 15th, 2025.

Parker Olson produces this fine show, and he is standing by in Madison Studio A2.

Meteorologist Brittany Merleau will be along in just a sec, followed by State Senator Jamie Wall from the Green Bay area.

We talked to State Representative Mod Rivera Wagner yesterday from the Green Bay area, and we talked about the state budget.

It was, of course, a very

bipartisan affair with Republicans and Democrats voting yes and no for various reasons.

Representative Rivera-Wagner was a no and explained why.

Senator Wall was a yes and tells us about the positive things that were in the budget.

That's coming up in just a bit.

But first, let's check in with meteorologist Brittany Merleau for what appears to be one very hot, sticky day.

This is like a Nashville

chicken hot honey kind of day.

It's that much heat and stickiness that we're bringing to the day, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I like the way you put it.

It's a little glaze to the situation.

Yeah.

Everybody's going to have a little glaze when they come in from outdoors.

Yeah.

Tasty.

Hopefully without the pickles.

I'm not a pickle.

I don't order the Nashville stuff because they throw pickles on it.

So just give me the, give me the hot honey chicken.

I don't, I don't need the pickles, but.

The pickles do throw it off just a little bit in my opinion

as

well.

I agree.

And frankly, if there were pickles in the weather, you know, that would be another thing too, but instead.

Oh, be terrifying.

It's, it, it would be terrifying instead.

Raining pickles.

It's raining pickles.

Hallelujah.

No, it's not like that at all.

It's just going to be steamy and sticky, Brittany.

It sure is.

Yes, a very, very hot one.

We're looking at temperatures pretty much near 90 across the state mid 80s.

Absolutely.

That's what you're hitting today.

Plus the humidity on top of that heat index is really going to be feeling more like those mid 90s for a lot of us.

low 90s for some of us.

I mean, this morning it's already 75 degrees in siren.

And then of course you go by Lake Superior.

It's about 63 degrees.

So we're already starting off with a mild morning.

We've got a ton of sunshine out there.

There's only a few clouds far, far northwest up towards Lake Superior area.

Those are going to start to build and spread a little bit more in towards the state, but staying into the northwestern ports of the corner because we've got up front that is just lining up there and stalling there.

But then by tomorrow, this low pressure system starts to push down south and it kind of swings some storms and some heavy rainfall as we go into our Wednesday for the rest of the state.

So we've got a wet section of the week ahead, but today is definitely going to be a hot and dry one.

Or as Rob puts it from Tigerton, Louisiana swamp weather in Wisconsin today.

Oh, yes.

Oh, sounds a brow break.

Sounds like

mosquitoes everywhere.

Yep.

Good morning from Tigerton, Rob says.

It's sunny, hazy, 68 yesterday.

I mowed four yards in the Wittenberg area.

Took an hour lunch at Brianna's in Wittenberg to enjoy the air conditioning.

Yeah.

Today I've got a mowing Tigerton.

I had to stock up on lots of Gatorade just to stay hydrated.

It's like Rob knows exactly what Brittany's going to say.

And Greg Bach would burst through that wall like the Kool-Aid man right now if he could.

Tell Rob to stay hydrated.

And Rob goes on to say, I really appreciate the people that work in the field to teach people with developmental disabilities because I was on the receiving end of their services and appreciated their help on this Developmentally Disabled Professionals Appreciation Day.

So again, thanks to all those folks for all that you do.

Absolutely.

Not as smoky, thankfully, from the Canadian wildfires.

The discomfort is just all ours.

It's just the natural discomfort that we feel instead in there.

Let's go from one to

the other, though.

But I was mentioning how yesterday it was hot and a lot of folks were on the lake.

Either they were vacationing or just some of the local kids on summer vacation.

But there are a lot of people that said, let's just get on the jet ski or any boat and anything that

gets the water churning and puts a little moisture up there.

Not the kind that you sweat in, but the kind that makes you feel better.

The

refreshing kind, yes.

The refreshing kind, yes.

The sprinkler.

I expect it's going to be another noisy one on the lake today.

Thank you, Brittany.

We'll check back with you in an hour.

Sounds good.

As always, a reminder that you can sign up for our daily newsletters at Up North News, a separate entity from Civic Media, but so happy to have this morning partnership every weekday from six to nine a.m.

You can sign up for our newsletter over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

Again, Up North News, WI.

Don't forget the WI.com, and we'd love to have you as a subscriber.

Among the things that we also have are a Sunday newsletter that I put together, Sunday mornings with Pat Rightlow, all about Wisconsin.

and politics, and I have to say that our question of the week has really tapped into something lately, and it isn't all about Zoran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee who is the next mayor apparent in New York City, but AOC from New York City, Bernie Sanders, certainly other folks that are people in our legislature now who describe themselves as Democratic socialists, and

For some people, that is really off-putting, feeling like they are going to turn off all the moderates and it's going to cost Democrats elections.

And there are plenty of others who go, no, no, no, this is what we needed.

This is a breath of fresh air.

No squeamish Democrats.

These are folks that are saying, look, these are our values.

This is what we absolutely want to do.

And then there are those in the middle that say, hey, there's room for both.

There's room for centrists.

There's room for people who describe themselves as democratic socialists or far left, whatever you want to call it.

And so we asked, what's your opinion on this?

Now, I haven't tallied up the results fully yet, but I bring this up because it really did bring in a lot of responses right away.

all over the place.

I mean, if you just go by the A, B, C, or D, and I'll tell you the D answer in a minute here, they are all over the place.

There is, here's Don here, who votes for the big 10th, there's room for all, where he says we need to have room for an open discussion of issues.

Let's see, there's one here that also says big 10th, but Liz says

Dems must have a coherent, simple, values-based message, not just anti-Trump.

After all, Mamdani won on the topic of affordable housing.

And then there's C, who says, nope, the option C is nope.

Don't go too far to the left.

Dawn says, let us not forget past losses due to far left idealism, aka Bernie Sanders.

And so on it goes.

So we'd love to know your opinion.

You can be a subscriber to our Sunday newsletter, simply by heading to UpNorthNewsWI.com and click Subscribe in the top banner.

Or if you just want to weigh in on this question, send us a note.

Radio at UpNorthNewsWI.com is our email address.

Again, radio at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

or, of course, if you're watching us on Facebook or YouTube, just put a little something in the comment section right there.

All right, State Senator Jamie Wall joins us now from the Green Bay Area.

We'll talk about the state budget and more.

Senator, good morning.

How are you?

Good morning.

Thanks for having me, Ben.

Hey, nice to have you here.

Let's just get right into the way that I started off the segment here, saying that for the state budget bill that passed last week, there were both Democratic and Republican votes, both for and against, for various reasons.

You came down on the side of voting yes, although you were quick to add in your statement that hardly makes this a perfect document.

Tell us why in the end you came down on the side of voting for it.

Sure well look this was not the budget I would have written but you don't get everything you want in life all the time and you know fundamentally if you want a budget that's going to reflect the priorities of the democratic party you need to have democrats and the majority in the legislature and we don't have that but uh

We found ourselves, or I found myself as a Democrat in the Senate with some unexpected leverage because it turns out that the Republicans in the Senate are internally divided and we're not able to come together around a plan of their own, okay?

So that left us with a couple options.

We could have thrown up our hands and walked away and said, this is not the budget we would have written or we could do what we did, which was come to the table and make it better.

One thing that really influenced my thinking was that the stake would have lost more than a billion dollars in federal Medicaid funding if we hadn't been able to beat the Trump budget to the punch.

That's why you saw Governor Evers signing the budget in the middle of the night.

And I've gotten an education in my brief time of the legislature for people with time in the Medicaid program.

I mean, it's not just folks that don't have a lot of means.

It's seniors in nursing homes who can hospital their other income.

It's kids with disabilities and their parents.

I mean, it's rare that I run into a family like that where one of them doesn't pull me aside and say, look, my

My kid is in Katie Beckett or some other Medicaid program.

And I really would appreciate it if you'd go to bat for us.

And I took that seriously.

So in my mind, the alternatives were worse.

It was either that we were going to walk away and have no budget at all, which is basically what we have minus the good things that we were able to get in there, or that they were going to the Republicans were going to get organized and pass some hard right.

document that catered to the most extreme numbers and neither of those were wins.

So I took the wins in front of us and I think that was the right thing to do.

Do you feel like without getting everything that you wanted because again, that's

Part of what politics is, and the governor certainly knows that as well.

Those things that didn't happen, do they basically just become the platform that Democrats run on in 2026 is to say, look, these things weren't in.

You vote for us.

This is what's going to come next time around.

Or do you look at other factors and you don't worry about what didn't make it into the budget?

Well, look, there were a lot of good things in the budget that we were able to improve.

I mean, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that we saved the state's child care industry from the crisis.

Governor Evers had used some federal money to help prop up our daycare centers

through the

pandemic.

Those funds were exploring.

We had surveys that told us that maybe a quarter of all the daycare centers in the state were going to go out of business and think of the impact that has on kids and their families, really in the Wisconsin workforce.

This is the best budget for the system in a generation.

And we were, you know, in the middle of conversations about whether we would need to.

closed four-year colleges.

Now we are emphatically not in that territory and that's a win for the students and again the future workforce of our state.

The one area in which I wish we could have done more was K-12 education.

We actually put record increases in special education funding in the budget because that's what every school district administrator in the state had told us to do.

But half a billion dollars doesn't go as far as you think across the states.

And some school boards are going to be facing tough choices as a result of this.

So that's at the top of my list for something we need to do better at next time.

By our kids and, you know, by our property taxpayers as well, because if districts go to referendum, what they're doing is transferring school funding down into the local property tax levy instead of onto the state, the state tax base, which is bigger and more diverse.

All right.

And then finally, now that the budget has passed, what else would you like to get accomplished in upcoming sessions, either this fall or early next year before the next round of elections?

Look, what I heard from my voters last year in the campaign in the last six months in office is that they're concerned about the cost of living.

So I'm focused, myself, on a number of bills that are going to help with that.

We'll be rolling out one in a couple of weeks now that is going to help school districts and their health insurance costs.

I've got several others that pertain to different ways to make housing more affordable.

My gosh, Green Bay is not Manhattan or even Madison in terms of housing costs, but we were I think seventh in the country last year and how much our costs increase here and people are sure noticed.

So there are different levers there with the building code, with zoning, with given local governments a few more tools that they can use to promote housing development.

So that's one area I'm focused on.

It's interesting that Josh Schoeman, the Washington County Executive Candidate for Governor, we played back an interview from him last hour and he too cited the cost of housing, so it's clearly something that everybody's aware of.

The solutions are another matter, and I'm sure there'll be differences when we talk about that next time around.

State Senator Jamie Wall from Green Bay.

Thank you so much for the visit and the update on the budget bill.

We appreciate it so much.

Hey, thanks for having

me,

Pat.

All right, Jamie.

Thank you again.

A local update is next for some of you.

Others will join me along with Dan Hagen from News Watch 12 in Rhinelander and later Hans Brighton Moser.

From the heart of America's up north, live from Lake Wissota, this is the Civic Media Radio Network.

I'm Pat Crichtman.

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Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.

Yeah, this was an interesting comment on the Josh Schoeman interview from Tony up in the Ashland area who said that as I just said before the break Josh Schoeman acknowledged housing costs but didn't really say what he wanted to do about it and now we to be fair also didn't ask him because again it was just a quick interview but much like he said about wanting to be bipartisan

It's one thing to say these things and say, well, I acknowledge that these are problems, but then what is it that you want to do about it?

And I'm sure we'll talk more about that with Dan Schaefer just over one hour from now from the Reconbobulation area.

But first, it is time to talk to Dan Hagen from NewsWatch12, WGFWTV and Rhinelander.

Fresh off the Hodag Country Music Festival.

Mr. Hagen, how are you?

Good morning.

I'm still recovering, but life is good.

Life is good.

How so?

I mean, was it late nights?

Too much dancing?

Too much ha-ha leads to boo-hoo?

What exactly are

you

recovering

from?

I haven't heard that one before.

No, it was just a couple nights of debauchery.

Oh, debauchery?

Okay, that's fair enough.

You know, 30,000 people around you is really fun in the moment, but it's, you know, tiring as well.

I only had one night of late night drinking, and then the rest I was just...

Downing waters like it was my job.

So I thought that was a good balance for me.

That's a good man.

And what what music acts stuck out for you?

Yeah, so, um, I saw three dog nights.

So you're probably, I'm sorry.

What?

They're not country at all.

No, no, they're not.

And they're, and they're still alive, which I know is the same thing I said a week ago

when

I saw, I saw Chicago and Milwaukee, but three dog night.

Yeah, they should be called one dog night because they got one of the three founding singers.

Okay.

And he was moving pretty slow.

He was moving kind of like Joe Biden was toward the end of his presidency.

He was playing a shuffle all along.

But he could still sing it.

He could still sing it.

And it was funny.

We saw one of the lead singers, I could just

see mouthing towards the end of the show.

Like, we'll play it.

We'll play it because someone had the nerve to ask, hey, are you going to play Joy to the World?

Like, of course, they're going to play Joy to the World.

Of

course.

Of course.

What else could he

do, right?

Yeah.

And of course, they're going to end with it as well.

So, yeah, they.

So Danny

Hutton is the only original member.

He is 82 years old.

He's 82 years old.

Yeah, that's

right.

How did he not take a nap in the middle of this?

I know Well, there was a musical interlude where he stepped off stage.

So maybe that was it But he was he could still sing it.

So good for him Yeah, it wasn't like it wasn't like hard to listen to like I saw Gordon lightfoot play maybe Jeez a decade and a half ago and it was

It was hard at points, you know, because he made it quite a thing.

Yeah.

Well, and I noted that I was at Summerfest when Fleetwood Mac was kind of winding down their very first, you know, incarnation, and then they broke up for a while and eventually came back.

But at that wind down, again, they didn't sound anything like what we'd been used to hearing, but clearly they picked it up.

Other folks, again, if you lose it, if you don't use it, you lose it.

And so if you can sing, keep singing.

If you can play, if your knees are still working, keep running.

That's all I'm gonna say about that.

Trust me, you miss your knees once they're gone.

But it was a good time for you.

You enjoyed.

everything

else about it?

No, it was a great time.

Um, a lot of people, I mean, everyone was in a good mood.

So it's, it's hard not to be in a good mood as well with that, but a lot of people.

It's a definitely a summertime thing.

And yet the one story I wanted to ask you about, uh, that you're covering up there at News Watch 12 in Rhinelander deals with ice damage.

Yeah.

And obviously there's, there's the, there's the damage.

There's the cleanup.

And then there's paying for the cleanup and getting help where you can.

And that's something that city leaders have been working on recently.

Yeah, that's right.

So in March, you may remember in northern Wisconsin had a really bad ice storm and it was, you know, pretty much once in a generation people that I talked to said they've never experienced anything like it before.

So right now you're, I had a big brunt to that.

You can remember the whole egg dome was punctured during that storm, but a lot of trees were lost.

So we just got a $44,000 grant from the DNR to replant a lot of trees as well as compensating all the work that went into all of cleanup.

So that's, uh, it's progress for the city.

Yeah.

because again these things can get to be real mother nature can be very expensive sometimes a very expensive I was gonna say roommate but she's basically the landlord

You know, we're the ones paying the rent here.

What was the story I saw about somebody going to especially speedy on their motorcycle?

Yeah, I was going to say, you know, it must I wonder how extensive that ticket is going 121 miles per hour.

So he was taking his motorcycle north.

This is a 19 year old from Mosini, Wisconsin, head north on Highway 51.

And he's going in between cars and.

they pull him over and they say, do you know, like how fast you're going?

And he says, you know, my speedometer is broken.

Like, well, you're going 121 miles per hour.

And he said, well, I thought I was only going 95 miles per hour.

I

thought he was only going 95.

Oh,

okay.

So, you know, just casually twice the speed limit of 65.

So I'm wondering how much he'll be paying for that.

I know this is a little dark, but there's a reason why the Flight for Life helicopter is nicknamed by a lot of people as Flight for Parts, because they're just going out there and they're scraping people up who make poor decisions, shall we say, and then become the organ donors that more responsible people sometimes need.

So I hope this is a life lesson.

I mean, he only got a ticket.

He didn't get a ride to the medical examiner.

this time.

How about you?

Are you a motorcycle rider at all?

Never.

I wouldn't touch the thing.

Too dangerous for me.

You're a

wise man.

I like my four walls of my my vehicle.

My my father, he had a motorcycle and he sold it to pay for my mother's engagement ring.

Isn't that isn't that nice?

Oh, that's romantical.

That's

that.

Did you ever get on a motorcycle?

Uh, yes, and was involved in a very minor crash, but you know, the bike fell on top of me.

I was a passenger and I was just like, yeah, I don't think I need to do this much anymore.

You know, uh, it just, it's, it's a no bueno for some of us.

Uh, Dan Hagen from news watch 12.

Thank you so much for the visit.

As always have a great day.

Thank you, Pat.

Good

ones.

All right.

Coming up in less than 30 minutes, Jeff Renneke from the Friends of the Apostle Islands on responses from the new signs the Trump administration is putting up about reporting anti-American history in our national parks.

But Hans Brighton Moser is next.

You're up north.

who is ready to do some road tripping with Matt and air on air and the Todd Alba show, they will be hitting the road starting tomorrow with stops in Oshkosh, Butternut and Hayward.

So join them, join Jane, Todd, Greg, all about sharing stories about what makes Wisconsin great.

So catch the special road trip additions of Matt and air on air and the Todd Alba show coming up starting tomorrow across the civic media radio network coming up.

on Todd's show today.

He's actually broadcasting from the studios in Racine, and he will have, let's see, he'll be talking to, well, I guess Aaron Zombers will be there as well, making a special appearance in Racine.

You're going to want to gather around, folks.

And then on Maggie Dawn, Jim Santel, former U.S.

Attorney, will be a guest co-host.

That's coming up at four o'clock this afternoon.

Let's see, the latest crop report or ag report, I guess you could call it, is in from the USDA for Wisconsin.

Clearly, there's no drought anywhere.

Nobody is reporting that they're very short on topsoil moisture.

In fact, 20% report surplus moisture.

Corn silking is at 13%.

Let's see, the soybeans are 44% blooming.

Oh, but why stats when we can just go right to the source?

We can go right to the farm up in Lincoln County.

Hans Bright and Moser are standing by.

He's got his corn, he's got his oats, he's got his soybeans, and he's got his cows.

Hans, good morning.

How are they all doing?

and I'm full of anecdotal evidence, so I don't have any actual facts and figures, but I can tell you what's going on up here and on my little

farm.

And going well so far?

Yeah, yep.

So we are, we are in fact, we're just going to start chopping our new seedings this morning.

So the and so in other words, the the hay ground that we seeded down this spring with with a nurse crop of four joats, mixed with alfalfa clover and some grasses that we we planted this spring, we are going to take a first cutting of that here today.

So that forges that I mean that that's a that's quite the combination there that sounds like, you know, like the ultimate trail mix if you're a cow.

That is

the ultimate trail mixer if you're a cow.

And if you can get it early enough and so forth, it's very digestible and has lots of protein and should make some milk for

us.

You ever mix peas in with your oats?

Yep, years ago we did that.

We haven't done that for several years.

But yeah, that's a forage crop that guys do, peas and oats.

The reason I ask is that my wife Sherry grew up on a farm and occasionally there'd be oats and peas and she'd talk about being able to go out into the field and get the peas right there out of the field.

And a couple years back now, now again, we're up to four grandkids now, but when we had our two grandsons,

She showed them one time how to go out into the field, you know, amongst the oats and the peas and where to get the peas.

And I tell you, every summer after that, when they'd go back to her parents' farm in Manitowoc County, they'd be like little piggies out there in the field, could not get enough of the fresh peas that were grown right there on the farm.

And again, I mean, these are kids that have never lived on a farm, but when they get there, it is just so fun to watch them go, wow.

These peas taste different than what comes in a can.

They are a little different, but the cows tend to like them as well.

Oh yeah, without a doubt.

Yeah, the rare times that the field across the street here has some peas and oats.

You might see Sherry sneaking over just to grab a little something here.

Let's talk about the state budget again for a second because, and again, the real theme here is that there's something for everybody to like and something that anybody cannot like.

And there is an article in the Wisconsin State Farmer from the, you know, Gannett USA Today Network.

Colleen Kotke wrote it and talked about the things that were in the state budget that agriculture advocates do like that are in there.

Clearly, there are things missing as well.

But Hans, as you were looking at that and thinking about what the legislature ended up doing, can we start by pointing to a couple of things that were

positive developments in the state budget bill?

Sure.

Yeah, I think the I think the $30 million to county conservation staff was a plus.

You know, I was on the county board here in Lincoln County for 10 years and and I was on the land services committee and and I know that the you know, that staff does good work.

It's important work.

It's the it's the kind of work that keeps our surface water and groundwater clean keeps erosion from happening as much and so forth.

So I think that that

will be for rural counties, that's going to be a real plus and a welcome addition.

I think also the three new staff for DabCap is a good thing as well, because again, you can have programs, but without staff, how do you implement them?

So those are things that I think were really important, and I'm glad they did get done.

So there were things that were in there, but you know, there was there was you know, there was a food security grant There was a CDL driver training grant program and things like that But I know Wisconsin Farmers Union also said that there were some missed opportunities like excluding a Wisconsin local food purchase assistance program from consideration in the budget Did you see as well things like that that?

Really could have should have been in the budget and didn't make the final cut.

Well, I think LFPA is the thing, right?

I mean that that was you know, that just makes sense it makes sense on all fronts it makes sense for you know dollar spent for Food security for people and money going straight to farmers.

So I'm really confused as to why that

didn't make it in there because it did seem to have some bipartisan support and so that was definitely a disappointment.

One thing that I don't know enough about that I probably should is that food security grant and what that's about because ten million dollars is not a small amount of money and so one wonders if that has the potential to make up some of the

you know, some of what we're losing with LFPA.

But, you know, it's also unfortunate too when you have a program that works and you have staff there, you know, doing it and so forth.

um, to get rid of it and start something different.

That's just perplexing to me.

It just doesn't make any sense.

Yeah.

And you know, what I would say to that, uh, first, I'm gonna, I'm gonna begin by saying this is speculative on my part.

But let's start with childcare.

We heard about how Republicans did not want to give governor Evers a win in terms of childcare.

Why?

I have no idea.

But they created a different way to fund childcare, which again, had some funding, but it wasn't the same.

And like you said,

you have to learn certain things.

And I'm seeing a parallel here in the LFPA, the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, that again is an opportunity to help strengthen local food sourcing.

And instead, this food security grant program is $10 million to provide grants to non-profit food banks in Wisconsin to buy locally grown and processed food for those in need.

So, like you said, it may be similar, but the LFPA was a known thing.

It was working.

And if the only reason they didn't fund it is because Governor Evers wanted it, that would

That would not be a good thing if that's

true.

Well, yeah, but that also wouldn't surprise me.

I mean politics.

But you know, at the risk of, you know, trotting out cliches, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

This was the thing that was not broke.

And so with this with this new program, I would say the devil's in the details.

And it'll be interesting to understand better, you know, like how

where that money is going to go because I feel like LFPA did a good job in getting

getting the dollars directly to farmers and getting the food directly from farmers to people, right?

So we, I mean, it was, it was straightforward.

It was efficient and it, and it checked all the boxes.

And so I'm, I'm cautiously optimistic.

And I don't, again, I don't know enough about this, this food grant security deal to, to poo poo at one way or the other.

But if it is a situation where a lot of dollars are going to go to some distributor who happens to be located in Wisconsin, but is getting food from

all over and whatever else, well, then it definitely misses the mark.

And we had a system that hit the mark real well.

So that's what's that's what's a little frustrating for me.

So it certainly makes me want to find out who put that language in, you know, who who was behind it?

What was their motivation?

And again, I'm going to try to keep an open mind.

But like you said, something was working already.

Yeah, there was another story coincidentally also done by a Colleen Kotke want to give her credit for this, which was about the

increasing number of farmers and farm workers who are suing Bayer, the maker of Monsanto, a widely used herbicide.

Obviously, there are a lot of cases of cancer and things happening with workers, with farmers, but Bayer, which makes Roundup, now facing more than 180,000 lawsuits around the country, has been pushing legislation at the state level that would shield the company from liability.

And they're claiming that it's not like blanket immunity, that it provides some clarity in what these lawsuits are suing for.

It certainly doesn't pass the smell test.

In other words, I don't want to smell this because I might get cancer.

Yeah.

No, that's dirty pool.

I mean, if you're producing a product and there's hazards with it, then you have to be able to step up and defend it.

But to try and change the rules on how the referee operates so that you don't have to defend it is total BS.

And we should be calling BS on that.

Roundup has been used for years and years and years.

It's used a lot now.

I think it's overused in my estimation.

It has become this tool that farmers use and and you know farmers are going to use the tools at their disposal because we're especially corn and beans They're you know, they're they're very thin margin crops and so forth.

So so, you know, it's a herbicide that works But I do feel like it's it's totally overused at this point and but beyond that, you know this issue has in my estimation as much to do with you know

big companies being able to write the rules to keep themselves protected as it does with this particular herbicide.

Right now, according to the article, the label on Roundup does not include warnings about

potential cancer-causing effects or requirements to use personal protective equipment beyond regular clothing.

And Bayer is saying, well, without this immunity, you know, they may stop producing it and that would impact crops.

But the article goes on to say, well, if Bayer stops making Roundup, what will happen is we'll just

we'll get this from China instead where you know worker safety is not a thing and we're basically just transferring you know our cancer we're outsourcing our cancer essentially is the way it sounds when it would just be easier to properly label your stuff.

Yes yeah no I think there's the truth in labeling is a good thing regardless if you're talking about you know cigarettes or glyphosate or any other product that's

that to me has, again, less to do with ag and more to do with just living in a free society where you can trust your government to do the right thing.

But I mean, at the risk of going down a rabbit trail, Pat, I think, again, this has to do with how our politics is driven.

And as long as it's driven by money, to the extent that it is, then that's when

lousy legislation is going to come about because it's coming from a bad place.

Yeah.

Again, just can be serve the people who voted for you, not the people who are giving to you.

I

know how we can make it any easier.

And it's it's it's difficult to say what we need are more Maverick Republicans who will stand up and say we should put the safety labels on when that shouldn't be Maverick behavior.

That should be as bipartisan as it gets.

Sadly.

Yeah, it is not.

Hans, Brighton, Moser, as always.

Thank you so much for these stories.

And for all you do, you got a busy day ahead of you.

Thanks so much for starting with us.

I shouldn't say start it with us.

You're like three hours into your day already, aren't you?

Yeah, it takes me a really long time to drink that first cup of coffee.

That's it,

yeah.

Silly city boy.

All right, Hans, thank you very much.

A local update is coming up next for some of you.

For others, we're going to have our new Way Up North segment Tuesday mornings at 7.50 and the folks who are living up along Lake Superior and we will be visiting with Jeff Renneke, Executive Director of the Friends of the Apostle Islands and talk about

Donald Trump's executive order attempting to whitewash the history of our national parks.

And when we're all back together in our eight o'clock hour, we'll be joined by Dan Schaefer and by Chad Holmes.

Remember, you can follow us at UpGorthNewsWI.com and of course right here mornings 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.

Welcome back at 7.52 to our way up north segment that we're doing now Tuesday mornings during this time period where we visit with some folks north of 29 north of 8

Some of them are even north of Highway 2 to tell us about life up along the Lake Superior Shore there in some of the wonderful communities up there and that would include of course the Apostle Islands and we're going to be talking to Jeff Renneke from Friends of the Apostle Islands in a second.

We're going to be talking about an executive order signed by President Donald Trump back in March.

Now this thing is given the ridiculous name the Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History Act.

And it says the reason for the executive order is to revitalize key cultural institutions, meaning bring back Confederate monuments, and reverse the spread of divisive ideology, meaning teaching an accurate and honest view of American history.

Well, that all would be fine, but it even got to the point, or has gotten to the point, where the Trump administration has had

some signs put up in national parks and other things like the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore that in so many words encourage you to snitch on your local park or people who might be teaching a part of history that hasn't been whitewashed enough.

And some folks are responding to that to the National Park Service and reminding us that there is still truth and sanity the real kind with

the bulk of the American people.

Jeff Renneke joins us now from Friends of the Apostle Islands.

Jeff, good morning.

How are you?

I'm doing very well.

Thank you for having me.

Oh, you bet.

I think, well, as Tony puts on YouTube, I like it.

We should focus more on people who live in and around Lake Superior, the real up north,

as Tony

likes to say.

So we appreciate that very much.

Jeff, before this came up, before there was, you know, everything that the Trump administration is doing as I make that wide sweeping gesture with my arm here, before all of this.

Tell me about Friends of the Apostle Islands and the kinds of things the group would be doing in normal times.

Friends of the Apostle Islands is in essence a support organization for the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

I like to quote that Beatles song, we help the park get by and get better with a little help from their friends.

So we pick special projects and we raise funds and awareness and volunteers and public support to help the park get better for all of us.

And so...

you've been doing that for the longest time ever since it became a national lakeshore and a lot of that dates way back to a visit from what President Kennedy by was a Gaylord Nelson who who brought Jack Kennedy up and helped convince him of of turning this into a national lakeshore which is not the same as a national park and that's a discussion that we'll have another time but now with the Trump administration and this executive order that included these these little signs

They have been seen up at the Apostle Islands.

Can you tell us a little bit about what it is that the sign says or what it's trying to get at?

Well, the sign says specifically three things.

One is to let them know if any areas need repair and that's normal.

Any services that need improvement and that's always good.

But the third one is the chilling one.

Any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans?

or that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur and abundance of landscapes and other features should be reported.

So, you know, let's not say anything bad about those people who, you know, owned enslaved people or who, you know, massacred an entire group of people for their land.

Let's just set that aside.

It would be enough just to

I don't know, do an eye roll at that, but people have been responding to the National Park Service.

What are you getting from some of those responses as far as what you're hearing?

Well, first of all, of course, we would never really know if it weren't for people who were paying close attention.

This has not been released by the administration, but it has been leaked by the Coalition for the Protection of American National Parks.

And they published a 69-page document which gave all 1600 responses to that sign through June 30th.

And as you might imagine, and as I think the administration didn't expect,

Response has been overwhelmingly supportive to the staff of our national parks and the purpose of our parks.

Most people are just glowing about the job that parks are doing under very divisive situations.

Let me give you quick examples of here in the Apostle Islands.

Very well maintained and helpful staff.

Little Sand Bay was phenomenal.

Staff matched the beautiful scenery.

One person was washing the visitor windows.

Both were knowledgeable and professional and friendly.

The NPS and Apostle Islands needs a larger budget and more staff.

And I love this one.

Some people are using it to display their sense of humor.

He says, I have seen these islands and they don't resemble the apostles.

They don't look.

like Peter or Paul they look more like rocks and should be renamed.

I mean you have to have a little tongue-in-cheek about this because again the attempt to whitewash history is what it is and yet under things like the National Historic Preservation Act the people at our national parks and other sites I mean they're they're basically charged with we want them to teach an honest view of American history right.

It is.

Our national parks have always done a fabulous job at interpreting the importance of human history in our landscapes and our national parks.

And as you mentioned, they are mandated by law to do so.

But I also think they see it's important.

Parks are more than just postcard scenery.

They're the story of America.

Wallace Stegner, the Pulitzer Prize winning author, said that

National Parks are America's best idea, reflecting us at our best, not our worst.

I would take a little different tact and I would say National Parks should reflect us at our most human.

And I think our signs in our National Parks are attempting to do that.

without a doubt, and the staff that is doing incredible work to do it in the face of budget cuts and just an overall tone from Washington that is not nearly as supportive as it used to be and as it really should be once again.

Jeff Reineke from Friends of the Apostle Islands.

Thank you for giving us a little bit of insight into what people are doing and saying about this.

We appreciate it so much, Jeff.

Have a great day.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Coming up in our eight o'clock hour, Chad Holmes, Dan Schaefer, an updated forecast from Brittany Merleau and more live on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I'm Pat Crightlow.

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