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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.
Now, from our Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Hey, good morning.
It is 7 0 6.
Welcome back.
Nice to have you here up north on this Thursday morning, July 17, 2025.
It's a
busy weekend.
I mean, last hour we talked about, you know, Country Jam here in Eau Claire Bastille Days in the Milwaukee area, the Hayward Lumberjack Festival.
I listed all the various county fairs that are going on as well.
And we're still not done.
Robin Tigerton reminds us that Pulaski Polka Days is starting.
Roger on Facebook tells us the Portage County Fair begins today.
Alicia says it's paper fest this weekend in Kimberley.
So there's just a lot to do here.
Rob goes on to say good morning from Tigerton.
It's cloudy and 54, got nine tenths of an inch of rain.
Severe weather was mostly south of me.
Watoma had more than three and a half inches.
Highway 21 was flooded on the east side.
He says I have an eye appointment today in Wittenberg, probably a candidate to wear glasses and then three yards to mow in the Tigerton area this afternoon.
He says, I think the meteorologist like Brittany and all in the media did an excellent job with severe weather coverage.
It brings back memories of tracking storms on my roadmaps when I was a kid.
Let's see, and he goes on to talk about Nicolette Larson being an awesome singer, also with the nitty gritty dirt band.
And he says, have a fun time, Brittany at EAA.
I hope and pray you have nice weather there.
And that takes me over to, oh, wait a minute, we've got Alicia saying.
My oldest and I are going to EAA schedule last night, planning our day's air venture is almost here.
And on the text line, Jim and Brookfield, have a great time at EAA next week, Brittany.
I hope the weather cooperates.
I remember flying there from the Waukesha Airport in a four-seater piper.
With all the spotters on the ground communicating with us along our flight path We never had to say a word on the radio until we landed This
is
this is contagious stuff
the way that
people feel about air venture and count Brittany among them
I am definitely one of those.
I had no idea what it was the first year that I went, and all it took was one day, and I was hooked, honestly.
I'll suggest if you want to go on a day, and you're wondering which one, because there's just so many.
Wednesday and Saturday, they have a night air show, and it is one of the biggest that I have ever seen, and they've got the drones doing their things.
They have a special ending with some explosions.
It's amazing.
The good
kind.
Yes, yes, the good kind, the plans kind.
So it is just a super fun time.
Lots of people, good people, you'll learn so much.
The technology that goes on with these airplanes is outrageous and it goes beyond that too.
So I'm so excited.
Camping is gonna be so much fun.
Just the fact that I have no...
power, though, is going to be very, very interesting.
This is dry camping.
You truly
rough it.
You really rough it for this.
Every single one of us.
There's only a few power sites.
So we're all, we're out there for the good.
So
Brittany will be off tomorrow getting ready for that.
Hopefully, hopefully we'll be able to hear from you at a couple of points along the way next week as you
enjoy it
all.
And before we get into today's weather, just letting folks know that Korean Hendrickson is standing by.
We'll talk to her in just a couple of moments.
State Senator Jeff Smith at the bottom of the hour.
But as mentioned by Robin Tigerton, you y'all were busy yesterday tracking something like what, 10 or 12 different possible tornadic systems out there.
What's the report by the time we get to this morning looking back at yesterday?
Yeah, yesterday was.
wild.
It started earlier than we had thought.
Right around noon in Dodgeville, we saw a funnel cloud and a tornado touchdown that continued into Sock City, Fall River, Beaver Dam, Fox Lake area into Fond du Lac, even funnel clouds being reported.
That was around 3 30 in the afternoon, also into Hustisford, Lemon Wire.
many, many places dealing with possible tornado that touched down there.
Lots of video, lots of pictures out there of proof.
Also winds clocked 50 to 60 miles per hour, knocking down trees scattered throughout the southern half of the state, and then flooding towards the Fox Valley.
On Alaska, got 1.63 inches in one hour, just one hour.
So from La Crosse to the Fox Valley, about two and a half to three and a half inches were reported there.
Madison area about an inch to an inch and a half, but with Tomah,
Cars were reported stalled with water over the hoods.
Highway 21 was impassable between Kaloma and Watoma, and also Nina.
Creaks were overflowing, water going into backyards and basements.
Same thing into Oshkosh.
The EAA grounds are flooded, but they have really good draining systems, but Fond du Lac, Stockbridge, Manitouac, all flooding situations there.
We're drying things out today.
Thank goodness.
We need it.
Fog still in places like Hayward and Ashland.
It's about 41 degrees up north, 64 degrees into Racine.
It feels like fall.
That's going to be the case today.
Very crisp, upper 60s to low 70s, lots of sunshine.
And we are looking at tall waves on Lake Michigan.
So a beach hazard statement out there.
Be careful of rip currents.
Otherwise tomorrow, another little system wants to start bringing rain possible far, far north tomorrow afternoon.
And then that line could build.
and swing south through the state as we go through the late afternoon.
Otherwise, a little bit of rain chance does linger, maybe mostly south on Saturday.
Sunday, we are looking at a little bit of rain possible south, but northern parts of the state.
We're dry all weekend and we're a little bit warmer, upper 70s to low 80s.
All right.
Well, Brittany, have a great early start to the weekend.
Wonderful time setting up at EAA.
Thank you.
Hopefully we'll get a chance to check in with you a couple of times here.
I can't wait.
Talk to you guys then.
All right, sounds good.
Let's visit now with Karine Hendrickson.
We've talked to her several times before about the crisis of affordable childcare in Wisconsin.
Governor Tony Evers tried to, well, he first did use a lot of federal pandemic relief funding to help keep the childcare industry from collapsing.
He also proposed something in the state budget, but the resulting deal between Evers and Republicans in the legislature fell short.
in some areas, for example, childcare.
And in our next half hour, we'll talk to State Senator Jeff Smith about where the budget fell short in terms of homeless care for veterans.
But let's stick to childcare now and bring Karine in right now because Karine says she finds herself at a professional crossroads, essentially, as a result of what is and what is not in the final state budget.
Karine Hendrickson, good morning.
How are you?
Good morning.
I'm all right.
I'm enjoying the cooler weather.
Yes, there's definitely a big relief compared to, you know, feeling like the mid 90s or triple digits or anything like that, especially if you're watching a bunch of kiddos all day.
Yeah, we're outside.
We're at the park for swimming lessons and it's been hot.
So today now those poor kids are going to freeze.
Yes.
Well, look, it's it is mostly thankless work.
Thankfully, there there are enough other parents and folks in the public who are becoming increasingly aware of
you know, the value of this industry and how it is in real crisis right now.
But you talked to us, you know, last week about the state budget bill and, you know, how it only provides one year of partial relief compared to the governor's original proposal.
So now you've had a chance to evaluate things further.
And so you were nice enough to come back after having thoroughly reviewed things to tell us what you think it all means for, you know, childcare on the whole in Wisconsin and what it means for you personally.
Yeah, so thanks for having me on.
What what it means for all of us in child care and the families that we care for and educate and their employers who have those parents employed is it's still going to be a disaster.
Cindy, who's up in Green Bay is one of our weekend members and they're calling this program a bridge.
First off, it's a bridge to where to nowhere.
But she actually said it's a plank in a pond payment because it's not a bridge.
It's just one lonely board floating in uncertainty.
And that really hit because
It's not what Governor Evers is saying.
He keeps saying in these press releases that, you know, this is going to make childcare more affordable.
It's not.
We are raising our rates.
I sat down and did my math.
And in order for me not to take a $15,000 pay cut due to ages and the loss of 20% a month.
I had to raise my rate $60 a week, which would be $350 for children under two and $320 for two and up.
And in New Jersey, it's not tenable.
I've lost three children so far due to rates.
Two of them were on subsidy.
And so last year I struggled to fill my three spots and it was September.
I was starting to think I might have to close and I couldn't do it again.
So I talked to my parents this last week, let them know that I'm not going to be able to, I will not be able to morally try to open it.
stay open and try to...
fill three spots with parents that I'm like, yeah, if I'm still open, you can have a spot.
How do I do that to them?
How do I do that to their employers?
They think they have a spot, but they're not sure they're going to keep looking as they should.
And so I made the difficult decision that August 29th is my last day.
I was able to get the kids that I have here into another group center because at that time that's when they have turnover and that's when they have openings.
So my four kids are probably going to stay together and they're going to be able to stay go there.
But I am now trying to figure
what I'm going to do.
One of my kids on Monday, she looked at me, she was green.
Why don't you get to be a teacher anymore?
And that just about broke my heart because that's what I do.
And then another parent asked me, they're like, oh, we're all going to the same place.
And then they're like, what are you going to do?
And I said, you know what?
I haven't figured that out yet.
So that's the way that all of us in this field work.
We think about the children and families and then we think about ourselves.
And so now I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do next.
I my heart is breaking for you and for these kids and for these families and it's not it's not just you you're not the only provider who's looking at this and making a rather difficult decision and look even even if there's follow-up legislation because we talked about how the funding is really only there for one year but as you've mentioned before that's a lack of security that
You can no longer live with and who knows how many more are only going to be in business for one more year.
Right.
And that's the other thing is people, all the providers I'm talking to across the state, they're looking at raising their rates $10, $15 a week, maybe more now to try and keep the teachers they have or the family child care providers.
They're looking for second jobs so they can stay open.
That is not okay.
We work 50 hours with kids already.
And then we're supposed to go and work somewhere else so the parents can afford us.
This is not okay.
And our state should not be making these decisions if they actually cared about kids.
They wouldn't do that.
And so yes, we are still fighting.
And I'm not leaving the advocacy world.
I actually will have more time.
So that could get fun.
But we're working on, there's standalone legislation, SB 222 and AB 317.
It's the standalone for $480 million to make us whole again.
Had we gotten that whole $480 million,
I wouldn't have had to raise my rates at all because it would have covered all of that.
And so we're still fighting for that.
We're still saying it.
And now what we want is our providers, our parents, and our employers to call Governor Evers and call their Dem in Republican representatives and tell them every time, my rates just went up 20 bucks.
I just lost an employee because their rates went up because that's what it's going to take is.
Until they see it and feel it they don't understand and they don't have the empathy and they don't have the imagination and that's not okay either so That's where I'm at
you You've been asked You know to consider I mean you're already way out there visible on this issue But to consider you know ramping things up further and I know I've seen people this happen with people all the time You're an advocate for something and people say you should keep being an advocate maybe on you know even an elected level is that one of the options
Yeah, actually, I am one of the now, I think we're down to four potential Senate candidates in SD 17, which is Mark Lines District.
I am thinking about it.
I am pursuing a potential run and I participated in a forum last week and will be participating in more forums throughout this area of the state that the counties are putting on.
And I'm excited that real people are interested in running because we do need real people who actually have conversations, meaningful conversations and relationships
with actual people instead of staying in their bubble and listening to what all the experts are saying that is what we need and what we want.
And that's how you end up with what we got.
There was no transparency.
None of us were at the table to say these policies are terrible.
They're awful.
And do not harm the children.
Do not do this to the children.
Don't put us in these situations.
And for what?
A plank and a pond?
You can't run a business that way.
And on top of everything that's happening at the federal level, this is only going to just
continue to make us descend into despair almost.
And part of what I like is the hope of working towards something else.
And that's, I don't doubt you'll do that in some way, shape, or form.
And please keep in touch on what those plans would be.
Kareen Hendrickson, child care provider, soon to be former child care provider in New Galeris.
Kareen, thank you.
Hope you have a good day.
Thanks.
We appreciate your time so very much.
A local update is coming up next for some of you.
And then coming up at the bottom of the hour, State Senator Jeff Smith about something else missing from the state budget bill.
That's all coming up live from Lake WSOTA on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pac Wright Long.
You're listening to Civic Media.
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One more day until the Major League Baseball schedule is back operating at full steam, including the Milwaukee Brewers.
They will be in Los Angeles taking on the Dodgers for a weekend series.
So we got a couple of nights of late night West Coast baseball starting at 8.35 tomorrow.
Pregame coverage begins on several civic media stations for the Brewers and Dodgers series and getting that second half of the season rolling.
You may have heard us talking to new state Democratic Party chair Devin Remaker about a town hall event scheduled for last night in La Crosse.
Because of the bad weather, it was postponed for a night.
It will now be held tonight.
It's a town hall designed to let residents in La Crosse and frankly all over the third congressional district weigh in on what's going to happen because of that Trump mega bill supported by Congressman Derrick Van Orden.
Who we heard from in the last hour having quite the verbal altercation outside the US Capitol with Congressman Mark Pokan as Derek van Orden was doing Derek van Orden things I doubt that he's gonna be at the town hall tonight
but several other officials will be there, including Tara Johnson, State Senator Brad Paff and others.
And so if you want to learn more about it, head to mobilize.us.
That's mobilize, M-O-B-I-L-I-Z-E, mobilize.us, search for lacrosse in order to learn more and to register.
Meanwhile, up in the Wausau area, the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition is going to hold a forum tonight.
They held one last night in Green Bay.
You can see it on YouTube.
Look up the League of Women Voters of Greater Green Bay and find out what the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition is doing with this statewide tour.
Green Bay last night, Wausau this evening.
Because here's the thing, they will give a presentation on Fair Maps, but they also have an outline for a proposal.
for an independent redistricting commission, taking it out of the hands of partisan politicians.
Because if that doesn't happen, it is quite possible that the fairer maps that we have now will simply be a temporary and distant memory unless something is put into legislation ahead of the 2030 census.
That's actually not that much time to act.
And otherwise, we go back to a system where the politicians
pick their voters instead of voters picking their representatives.
So this will all be at the public library in Wausau tonight, 301st Street from six to eight.
If you want to learn more, go to fairmapswi.com, fairmapswi.com to register or learn more.
The group is also scheduling a forum for next Wednesday in Waukesha.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from this morning,
a story here that says the Wisconsin legislature has now spent $26 million in taxpayer money on private attorneys since 2017.
Because we've got a Democratic governor and a Democratic state attorney general, Republican legislators have often sought outside counsel at your expense to represent the legislature
And what they describe as a wide range of high-profile legal battles, including redistricting, you know, fair maps, you had to pay, you had to pay for the lawyers for the legislature to defend their gerrymandered maps.
There were the laws that were passed during the 2018 lame duck session, things where they took away powers from the governor after Tony Evers beat Scott Walker.
Again, just a partisan power grab you paid for their private lawyers to defend that kind of conduct And of course Michael Gabelman the former state Supreme Court Justice his failed quote-unquote investigation into the 2020 election again legislative Republicans hired private attorneys and you paid for them to defend that kind of conduct a lot of the spending
came after Tony Evers and Josh Call won their races in November of 2018, defeating former Governor Scott Walker and then Attorney General Brad Schimmel.
And again, it's involved all of these various court cases because as Assembly Speaker Robin Voss says, they feel like they don't trust that Attorney General Call a Democrat will defend Republican-backed laws that were passed before Evers took office.
Well, yeah, maybe because there were constitutional questions about it.
Evers has spent about $1.7 million on legal fees, a much smaller amount because he is able to rely on the US Department of Justice to represent him in office.
So again, there's something to be said about divided government in terms of checks and balances.
We are definitely not overwhelmingly blue.
We are not overwhelmingly red.
The legislature was overwhelmingly read, but only because of the aforementioned gerrymandered maps, that again, they've had to defend in court year after year, and you've paid for that.
And one way to avoid having that happen in the future would be different election results, of course, in 2026, but also to insist that whoever's in charge, Democrats or Republicans, put an independent redistricting commission into place.
And I say that as a former legislator and I contended during my time in the legislature that you know We should elect good people to office and good fair-minded people can write fair maps That's what used to happen in the state.
You had a Republican Congressman Tom Petra and a Democrat Congressman Dave Obey They would work together with folks from either side of the aisle to come up with maps that were fair
and competitive because they respected the voters.
The Republicans in 2011 and beyond who designed these maps that they're making you pay for that made the legislature overwhelmingly Republican when we are not an overwhelmingly Republican state, do not respect the voters.
They do not respect the taxpayers of Wisconsin.
It's anything for power.
And now this latest tally
shows that you have spent $26 million helping Republicans defend these actions that they would not have to do if they had more respect for the voters and if they were better stewards of the Wisconsin tax dollar.
Republicans also put no money into the state budget for helping homeless veterans.
We're going to talk to State Senator Jeff Smith about that coming up.
Live from Lake Wissota here on the Civic Media Radio Network, I'm Pat Kratlow.
Oh, forget you can sign up for our newsletters.
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All right, we've had a lot to say about the state budget.
A lot of it about what's in it.
A lot about what's not in it.
You heard from Kareen Hendrickson in our last half hour that what's not in it is enough childcare relief to keep her in business and probably a lot of other folks as well.
There's something else not in the budget that caught a lot of people off guard and that was help for homeless veterans.
Seems like rather a slam dunk for Republican lawmakers who are all the time wrapping themselves in the flag but took Governor Evers request and turned it to zero dollars and never
Did anything else about it?
Did they forget?
Was it just out of partisan spite?
Can this be fixed?
Let's find out by checking in with State Senator Jeff Smith from the Eau Claire County Town of Brunswick, where he joins us now.
Senator Smith, good morning.
How are you?
Thank you, Senator Kratlow.
It's good to see you today.
I love the fact that now that you're in the Senate instead of the Assembly, that you use the courtesy titles because you understand Senateude.
You know,
it's really actually very, very rare, but for you, I know how important it
is.
Yeah, so very important.
It's more important for me to be a, you know, a captain of the pontoon than it is any other title here.
Jeff, I don't know how to start on this because I can ask you all the background about how this got missed from the budget, but maybe maybe we'd better start with explaining what it is that we're talking about here.
What is the program or what
was the program that was helping homeless veterans.
So it's the Veterans Housing and Recovery Program.
I got a couple things here just to read what their goal is to help veterans achieve stability, increase their skill levels and or income, and obtain greater self-determination to reintegrate back to the community.
As we know when veterans
um struggle with uh whatever they've been through whether it be uh overseas or in battle or whatever fatigue um you know we we owe them um whatever we can to uh help them re reintegrate back into society and have uh a comfortable life just like anyone else
and so what had been what had the governor proposed what had been going on you know up until this state budget
Right.
So we have three facilities in the state right now.
I believe one is Mount Hurab, the others are Green Bay and Chippewa Falls.
And in Chippewa Falls, actually, the facility actually is the largest.
And actually, what do I want to say?
They have 70% of the population of those three facilities are in Chippewa Falls.
and that and Green Bay are the ones that will be closing because of the lack of oversight by the Republican Joint Finance Committee.
So the governor proposed how much to put in the state budget for this?
Oh, I'm sorry.
Yeah, he proposed 1.9 million to be in the budget to keep those facilities going at full speed and they zeroed that out like they did so many things and I don't want to
You know, I don't want to be too harsh.
Maybe they overlooked it.
Maybe they didn't realize when they were just zeroing everything out that that was going to, but we gave them an opportunity on the floor.
I introduced an amendment on the floor to bring that amount back, but I still think that they were in this giddy,
We're doing this to the governor and we're taking everything out and I don't, they weren't really listening.
I guess, I don't know.
They totally dismissed that one.
But there was like one Republican senator who voted for your amendment to fund the homeless veterans.
And that's right.
That's Andre Jacques because it affected his district as well in Green Bay.
Okay.
But every other Republican voted against it.
That's right.
And...
if there was, the reason I come at it like this is that, look, this is out of spite and for no other reason.
This is why they zero out the things that Governor Evers proposes and then they have come back in and either put a lower amount in or they've reconfigured things.
Like the childcare funding is a classic example.
They just did not want to put
anything into childcare counts because that was Governor Evers' baby.
So they and the governor eventually agreed on some other funding mechanism and they put the funding in there.
It wouldn't seem like this needed that.
So yeah, it was either an oversight or it was just, I mean...
They just blatantly did not feel like these homeless veterans deserve care anymore.
Have you heard any kind of feedback first hand, second hand from your Republican colleagues?
Or is this a big old oops, and they're going to rush to support some kind of a trailer bill with funding?
It's actually kind of pathetic.
We have heard from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
that claiming that, well, there was a 15% increase to the DVA, the Department of Veterans.
And that was their 15% increase for the agency as a whole.
That was not for that program, but that's what they're using as well.
We increased by 15%.
And then at least one of the talking points that I heard was this was just part of a wish list by the governor.
I think that is so pathetic and so embarrassing that they would consider what we want to do to help veterans as a wish list.
Well, and especially here's the thing that that gives it away that that that that's not that's not true.
They say, oh, we put 15% over on the budget.
The record is clear that they love to they live to micromanage and
They will get right down into the line items and say you can do this, but you can't do that We've seen it in the literacy programs and so many other things and it sure sounds rather Convenient that they can say well in this instance.
We actually didn't want to micromanage We just gave you a big pile of money and you do whatever you want with it said no Republican ever in the budget process until this Got caught That's a good point.
Yeah, it's it's
excuses making excuses that which I think is on which is dumb because in a sense they're saying oh yeah we knew about it but we thought this 15% was going to cover it that's basically what they're saying instead of saying oops that 1.9 million was overshadowed by the negotiations we that took place with our
Our Senate leader Diane Hesselbein and the governor's office that brought back funding for our universities, brought back half the money we needed for our childcare facilities and brought back or actually raised the special education funding, which was desperately needed for our public schools.
We didn't get everything we wanted, but we got that, but that all overshadowed 1.9 million.
that they seem to want to ignore now
and make excuses for it seems so you you've alluded to this the fact that they needed democratic votes to pass a budget and so there was this agreement made but as no doubt you are hearing well you heard from the very beginning some of your colleagues you know voted no saying look
There's just there's not enough there and now of course we're hearing pushback from the child care sector from the education sector from from everything else Now that you've looked at it all and you've taken in all of the reaction Looking at your minority status and what the governor is dealing with with Republican leadership in the legislature Was this the best that could be hoped for when you have a bipartisan vote on a budget?
This was the best we could hope for just just to Matt.
Just think about this
They came to us finally, kind of an 11th hour, as we know, because with the Trump bill looming overhead that he was going to sign and remove any chance for us to capture a billion dollars more in Medicaid funding, we were in a bind that which they put us in, the Republicans put us in, certainly.
But with the chance to come to the table, because this is what I need to imagine, and I know, Pat, you can.
that they were going to make it even worse, to satisfy the worst of their caucus.
There were five members of their caucus, which they often call the terrorists, were holding them hostage and saying they wanted even more cuts.
They were going to cut $87 million from the university system already, which would have closed campuses.
That was already in the works of closing campuses, if that happened.
They zeroed out childcare.
They were not going to increase special ed funding for public schools, even though they were paying 90% to voucher schools.
Those are the biggies that we came to the table with, along with more.
We asked for more than that, but there was negotiations, as you know, and compromise in politics these days is rare.
But it happened.
And we got that compromise and the deal was if we can get certain things and make this better instead of worse.
We can find five votes in our Senate caucus and help you pass this bill.
We made that arrangement and the leader, Diane Hessebein and myself, assistant leader, were two of the five votes and then we had to find three more.
And I feel very confident that it was the right thing to do because it would have been much, much worse if they would have had to go the other route and make it...
get all their Republican votes.
Coming back to the micromanaging that Republicans were doing in the last budget, it included $15 million to help the Chippewa Valley after two hospitals and several clinics closed abruptly, and yet the Joint Finance Committee refused to release the money, having a temper tantrum about some of Governor Evers' line-ed and vetoes.
Was that $15 million put into this new budget or is it now gone forever?
That is like a puff of smoke.
Pat is just gone.
They refused.
I was another amendment on the floor that I introduced.
I even lowered it to 10 million.
I said, you know, I even, you know, on the floor said, hey, I'm trying to negotiate right here on the floor with you, you know, but we've got to have some help.
And they just weren't interested.
Every Republican chose not to support that.
State Senator Jeff Smith is with us from the Eau Claire County town of Brunswick.
So with the state budget behind us Obviously, there's still a fall session.
There'll be some in the spring as well next year before everybody goes back to campaign What kind of priorities do you have when the legislature gets back in action?
Well right now that client hall and Green Bay facility have taken a high level of
a priority because they will close at the end of September, apparently, if we don't get the funding.
So I've introduced a bill as of yesterday to bring that money back and give us another chance to do this, to do the right thing.
So hopefully that'll.
be pushed through fast if we get we're right now in the process of gathering sponsorships and hopefully we get sponsorships in both sides of the aisle so that's that is an immediate urgent issue right now and we'll come back and hopefully be able to do something right away on that otherwise it's it's back to trying to make sure that we
support our Chippa Valley hospitals and medical facilities here and also to, because of what happened in Washington, we're going to have real threats of other rural hospitals closing across the state.
Now, as we warned after the Chippa Valley crisis that that could happen.
And so we're all gonna, I think we all got to pull together on both sides of the aisle all across the state to ensure that people are able to access healthcare.
State Senator Jeff Smith from the Eau Claire town of Brunswick.
Thank you, Jeff.
Good to talk to you as always.
Great to have you out there.
Have a good one.
Yep.
We'll catch you later.
One quick note on our website upnorthnewswi.com.
A lot of new feature stories get put up there.
One I want to tell you about 10 Wisconsin breweries making a difference.
Little breweries that start their own grant programs, host fundraising events.
They place an emphasis on sustainability, reduce their carbon footprints, even giving to groups that help abandon pets and animal sanctuaries.
Imagine drinking beer to do good works.
10 breweries that make a difference.
Look for that on our website upnorthnewswi.com.
Local update next for some of you the rest come back here live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media radio network
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I love this part.
This is the part where Todd goes on the road and finds all those things that makes Wisconsin great and he's brought a hostage.
Jane McNair is along as well and allegedly Greg Buck.
Is Greg Buck, did he make the trip?
Greg did make the trip.
He's
saying hello to the friendly faces here in Butternut, Wisconsin.
Jane doesn't have a mic, but for those watching on the stream, you can see her.
She is thrilled.
This was on Jane's bucket list.
Last year it was Amory.
This year it was Butternut.
And my goal for the entire year for my job is complete because I have made Jane's dreams come true.
I wish we could hear it through the airpods there, but she's...
Unfortunately, all you can hear is my voice, but you can see Jane.
She's thrilled, she said.
She's thrilled to be here very, very happy.
And she's
already got a postcard that said to her husband back in Milwaukee.
That's awesome.
It's really great.
Butternut is just a northwest there of Park Falls where we have a fine civic media station, the one in Hayward is not far away.
And you're going to be talking about those great civic media stations today between your two shows.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, Jane and Greg start to across the network at 9 o'clock until until 11.
They're going to be talking to is the fanatical fish.
But now fanatical fish art gallery here is absolutely beautiful.
They're going to have a proprietor on their show just after 9 o'clock in their first hour.
They're going to do later on their audio Sorbet, which lightens things up.
And of course, they end it with this shouldn't be a thing.
And let me tell you, after hanging out with me for a couple of days, Jane and Greg.
say Todd should travel with Todd.
It should not
be a thing.
No, no, no, no, no.
You are the travel agent that gets this all done.
How did things go in Oshkosh yesterday?
It was great meeting Jane and Greg interview people at the EAA air museum.
They could not have been better hosts nicer people and thanks to Todd Michaels and DeLuke matters able to get a lot of guests on both of our shows talking about and so many things I think that we didn't know at least I didn't the education program they have it's not just going and watching planes which is cool enough but they have programs to bring used into it if you want to learn to be a pilot you can bring people that will come on for
You know, not necessarily like free, but scholarships to learn how to fly.
So that's fantastic as well.
All right.
And then tomorrow is Hayward, right?
And tomorrow is Hayward.
We're going back to Hayward, of course, home of the Birkenbeiner.
And during the summer, it's home to the World Championship Lumberjack Festival.
I've learned one thing, Greg can kick my posterior when it comes to picking up large logs.
So that'll be a lot of fun.
And the American powwow going on, you can join Jane and Greg at 9 to 11, me for two to four, at a place called The Lot.
Not Big Lots, but The Lot.
We're along with Big G. So we got The Lot.
with Benji tomorrow in Hayward, right across the Muskie 101, our sister music station here in Northern Wisconsin.
Yes, and WBZH is up there, the newest Milwaukee Brewers affiliate.
And that's where you'll catch the Dodger series over the weekend here.
And then what do you get to?
I know I heard Jane say the other day during a staff meeting, she said, we're not coming back.
because
they were not coming back.
Pat, so you heard you say at the staff meeting, we're not coming back.
No, we're never going.
Never coming home.
We're gonna, we may well just set up camp here down there butternut or maybe just start doing our shows and lead us.
Yeah, lead us the proprietor.
There's, there's Lake Wasota right here.
You can start, you can bring next week's shows down here, you know?
Well, Greg said, but we should divert over to, uh, to paths as we're going, uh, as we're crossing highway 29 going further north.
I don't know why you wouldn't.
You, you're, you guys are very welcome to come down this way and do that.
So, uh, look, there, there's so, so.
much that's in the news, a lot of heavy stuff that we've had to get into and we will.
But one of the things I really appreciated about your show being at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair is that there was so much more to talk about so much about community and the festivals and everything.
I know we took a break to talk to Josh Shulman, candidate for governor who happened to be at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair.
But by and large, you know, it really is
We talk about balance all the time.
You can't be all politics all the time, but you also can't avoid politics 100%.
That's not a responsible thing either.
You guys are truly bringing balance to the things that we can talk about on the radio day after day.
Yeah, funny you say that.
That's how we ended our show yesterday with Jane and Greg, and I just had that same conversation.
And I think we were talking, Jane and Greg touched on little politics at the start of their show, at least current events, maybe it's a fair way to say it.
But then the majority of the show was just talking about all the great things happening at the EAA.
And you're exactly right, Pat.
We've had that discussion, the three of us, as we've been traveling around.
And yeah, we can't ignore the news, the important things, but there are these great
Under-cold or untold stories of our small entrepreneurs like the one we're here at the Fanatical Fish Art Gallery The events like the EAA and those are the things I know our friend Trigme Olsen says this all the time But it's true people and these kind of events they don't care whether you wear a red hat or a blue hat It's about wearing a green and gold hat and Jane and I got the munchies
only because we were hungry and had anything to eat all day.
And
so we searched.
So what was the place called Jemos?
Captain Nemo's, uh, drill and bar, and they served it.
So whatever it was, 10 o'clock, 10 30 last night, and we really appreciated that.
So a shout out to Nemo's and the sandwiches were great.
Yeah, it was really, really good.
So you find good people up here as you do all over Wisconsin.
We started in Racine at the studios down there, went to Oshkosh, now we're up here in the Northwoods.
And there are so many things that bind us and weave us together as Wisconsinites.
Oh, yeah.
And look, I'm not saying that there shouldn't be, you know, chains, chain restaurants, chain hotels, all that.
I'm not saying they shouldn't be there.
The fact that there are still locally run places, coffee shops, diners, taverns, you know, other other attractions.
I think we have that here.
like in many other states.
And I'm just glad you got to go out and see it.
So we'll see this all again coming up.
Well, she's just over an hour away.
Jane looks like she's getting ready.
I hope Greg wakes up in time for the show too.
He's
away.
He's helping set up this stuff.
Yeah, 9 to 11 Matt there on air that we're there two to four here at Fanatical Fish Art Gallery in beautiful butternut.
Yeah, stop by and see us.
We got coffee from Wonder State.
We got cringles from O and H and Racine and just
good people as well.
All right.
Have a lot of fun.
It looks great.
You guys look great.
Travel safe and we'll look forward to hearing from you today.
On behalf of Jane and Greg, we'll see you on the road, as Charles Crowell used to say.
Charles Crowell, not a good example to cite.
Come on.
We bought a station over in Elie, Minnesota for goodness sake.
But with one way for the other wife.
Anyway, we're going to take a break for the news back after this on the Civic Media Radio Network.
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