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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's 7 0 6.
Nice to have you here up north on this Tuesday morning, July 22nd.
Parker Olson produces this fine program down in Madison Studio A2.
Meteorologist Brittany Merlot will be joining us from the EAA Air Venture in Oshkosh in just a sec.
And then later this hour, we will talk about ways that some groups in Wisconsin are holding politicians accountable.
They may be about to go on their August recess, but that doesn't mean they won't still be held accountable for supporting a big bloated boondoggle of a budget bill in DC that's going to cause harm to a lot of folks in Wisconsin.
We'll talk about those efforts and a successful effort to set a world record by some folks up north.
who want to call attention to potentially dangerous oil and gas pipeline that's running through parts of northern Wisconsin.
So that and much more still ahead, but first let's head out to the EAA Air Venture where meteorologist Brittany Merleau has positioned herself to have the aura of her rising sun right behind her to tell us what's happening and she camps out at Air Venture in Oshkosh, Ms.
Merleau, good morning, how are you?
Good morning.
I'm doing pretty good.
You can see the sun is shining here.
It is so bright this morning.
I'm trying to block it out of the way, but you can't really get around it between the sounds of the Oshkosh and then the sun.
It is a beautiful morning, but I will say when the sun comes up every camper wakes up, right?
You can't beat the sun.
It wakes you up wide awake.
There's a lot of clouds though all across the state.
57 degrees right now.
A degree in Bay.
73 into La Crosse.
We are going to heat things up and the humidity is going to start to seep in as this warm front mirrors us today.
So we are climbing to the mid 80s statewide to near 90 degrees far west.
Those muggy humid conditions are already moving in.
Dew points are going to hit the low 70s today and then by tomorrow morning we are looking at some showers and storms definitely rolling through the area.
Looks like they start around 5 AM.
waves of them move through the state.
Another one again in the evening and into the night and that active pattern continues as that front sets up over northern Wisconsin and then drags itself through the rest of the state into Thursday.
So as this moves in and continues to push this hot human air in, we're going to hit the mid 90s down south tomorrow.
But then of course that rain going on up north, maybe some 70s up there, but it is going to be sticky.
It is going to be feeling like triple digits with the heat index.
And I am nervous with my tent.
I'm not gonna lie.
I've got a little fan.
It is solar powered and that is all I have.
I have no AC anywhere.
I mean, you're doing the whole roughen it thing here to see all that's going on at AirVenture.
Tell us some of the stuff you got to see yesterday that you enjoyed.
The blimp, the Goodyear blimp, there's multiple of them.
I thought it was going to be one.
No, there was three of them here.
They are massive.
It's cool to see them take off at like a 45 degree angle.
I can't imagine being in there.
It looked so much fun.
There is just a bunch of planes everywhere, lots of people everywhere.
It's hard to remember everything that happened yesterday because there's so many exhibits, speeches, things going on here that you can go and see.
I would honestly say it's just making new friends.
I've talked to a lot of volunteers here.
I talked to the staff, security staff, to see what was going on and how they kind of run the events and what do they do when severe weather happens?
How do you get them out of here?
What do they do?
How much morning do they have?
So I was gonna dig into some of that kind of stuff, but overall having fun.
Good.
Do you measure steps?
Do you know how
many
steps you put on yesterday?
Everybody was doing that yesterday.
That's so funny.
They're saying between 15 to 20,000 steps.
I didn't, I forgot to register mine.
So I'll do it today.
I'll let you know tomorrow.
You know what?
I'll take it on faith that you did 15,000 steps yesterday.
Yeah, feels like
it.
I am absolutely sure you did.
And I think it's great that you're asking these questions about, you know, what happens if stormy weather happens out there.
Obviously it's happened.
And, you know, folks are going to be
looking at you and going, is it here yet?
Is it coming yet?
As if you carry around a radar, you know, on your wristwatch all the time or something like that.
But
I wish I had it on the wristwatch.
That would be great.
I know.
The pocket.
But you mentioned that folks from NOAA and the National Weather Service are there as well.
So, I mean, they are definitely covered in terms of, you know, knowing what the weather is going to be like when it comes in.
Have you heard much chatter yet about the near miss in North Dakota between the B-52 bomber and the commercial jet that was trying to land in Minot?
Has that been a topic of conversation around there?
Ooh, not just yet.
I'm sure that sounds like it's going to be a topic today, though.
I'm
sure it will, in terms
of, yeah, who's got radar and who talks to who out there.
So just so much to see and do around the Oshkosh area, so Brittany, go enjoy it all.
Are we talking to you tomorrow?
Yes, you
are.
Depending on the weather, I suppose,
and your comfort
level.
All right, well, enjoy it and we'll talk to you next hour.
Sounds good.
All right, thanks, Brittany.
Hey, by the way, a reminder that if you missed any of our shows last hour or something, you know, yesterday or last week, and you want to catch up on it, you can head over to the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us, where every hour's
program of this show and all the others are listed, you know, hour by hour and you can go back and listen or you can subscribe as a podcast to catch us as well.
You just have to head over to Spotify or Apple and get yourself subscribed to this program.
All the others and you will never miss a thing again.
Let's check the mailbag here from Robin Tigerton.
Good morning.
Hazy sunshine 59 degrees yesterday with lawnmowing jobs in Wittenberg.
He had spaghetti for lunch at Brianna's in Wittenberg.
It was a very busy.
Most folks heading to the EAA.
Today's got lawnmowing jobs in Tigerton, getting them done before the heat, the humidity and the storms come in.
We played super tramp in our last segment.
and said, maybe there'll be a weather theme.
Maybe tomorrow we'll play Supertramps.
It's raining again, a song that they had back in 1982.
So we thank Rob for writing in and a reminder that you all can do the same thing here.
by getting on Facebook or YouTube jumping into the comment section like Roger did in Stevens Point to talk about how the Miz is on the hill tonight.
That, of course, would be Jacob Mizorovsky pitching for your first place Milwaukee Brewers.
Yeah, I said first place Milwaukee Brewers.
They were winners against the Seattle Mariners.
Yesterday, final score was six to nothing.
In fact,
While Brandon Woodruff went six strong innings, only gave up two singles, walked nobody.
The fact of the matter was Seattle's George Kirby had carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning.
But then the Brewers were able to bust things open.
They tagged him for four runs after sending eight men to the plate in the sixth, and six to nothing was the final there.
The Brewers now have won 11 in a row.
60 of their first 100 games.
That's the first time in team history.
And as we mentioned last hour, they're doing it with a different roster than the one that won the division last year.
I mean, no Willie Adamus, no Corbin Burns, no Devon Williams, but they're still getting things done.
And Jacob Mizorowski, one of those new faces, will be the pitcher tonight.
Pregame begins at 805 on several civic media stations.
Then they will play, they'll wrap up the series in Seattle tomorrow afternoon.
Tomorrow's pregame will start at 205 in the afternoon.
They are off on Thursday and then they come home for a weekend series against the Florida Marlins and then of course that really big series starting next Monday at home against the Chicago Cubs because with yesterday's win the Brewers moved into first place.
They're holding it down on their own for the first time since early to mid-April and so that Cubs series next week is just going to loom so much larger as we
really start to head into the, what, final third of the season happening before long.
Across the Civic Media Radio Network today, Jane Mattonair has Mattonair on air, along with Greg Bach, coming up from 9 to 11, following our festivities here.
Todd Alba will be joining Jane and Greg at 9.30.
And then on Todd's show, Todd Alder's show from two to four, you'll have Sirajita Patra of Wisconsin Watch talking about increasing suicide rates among senior Wisconsinites.
Then Maggie Dawn from four to six will have Angela Lange from Block in Milwaukee just after four o'clock and State Senator Kristen Dassler Alfheim just after five o'clock.
Again, all of that coming up here on the Civic Media Radio Network where there aren't just programs here.
There are also podcasts and that would include one called Wisconsin Forward with Matt Rothschild.
It's a weekly dive into a topic surrounding a current political problem in the state, a little background on how we got to where we are today and what some folks are working on now, possible ways forward.
It's a uniquely Wisconsin take on the big issues that are preventing progress and the people with ideas to move forward.
You can subscribe and download Wisconsin Forward on Spotify.
Apple or on the Civic Media website as well.
Every Tuesday or so we try to give you an idea of what some of the most popular stories are over on our social media sites.
If you search for Up North News or Up North News WI on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, you can see all the work that the rest of my team is doing throughout the course of the day.
And I can tell you, looking at some information that Sharita Booker, our social media manager, shared with us, a preview of the EAA air venture was among the top three stories on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter late last week.
In part because of the economic impact.
You see, the last time anyone tried to measure the economic impact of that week long fly in, it came to about $170 million.
But that
study was done several years ago and a new report is out and updates that figure, it is now a $257 million boost to the local economy.
Actually, the regional economy when you consider how far away you have to go to get a hotel room or a camping space when you have more than half a million folks coming to town for the event.
Over on Facebook, our most viewed story was about Piwaki's future NFL Hall of Famer JJ Watt.
He recently stopped by a Badger football practice in Madison and also had some thoughts on little brother TJ Watt's new contract extension that'll pay TJ over three years what JJ made in more than a decade in the NFL.
On Instagram, far and away, the post that was most viewed, most shared, and most commented on, dealt with the Trump administration trying to withhold nearly $7 billion from Wisconsin school kids and state Attorney General Josh Call's lawsuit to get those cuts restored.
It's one of about
Two dozen lawsuits that call and other attorneys general have filed as courts continue reminding President Trump that he's not a dictator, not yet anyway, and still has to follow the law, at least sometimes when it comes to providing the funds that Congress had already approved earlier.
And over on TikTok, our top post dealt with homelessness in rural Wisconsin.
It is very much a growing problem and rural communities, of course, are already facing
tough budgets when it comes to helping people who are just trying to keep a roof over their heads.
But while Governor Tony Evers proposed solutions, Republicans in the legislature, a great many of them from rural districts, removed any increase in state help before passing the new state budget.
And as always, you can read up about all of our latest posts on your favorite social media channel, plus our newsletter.
plus our website upnorthnewswi.com.
And in terms of Governor Evers.
and his state budget.
Of course, we're now waiting on him to tell us whether he'll be running for reelection.
Will he run for a third term next year or not?
We will be talking in just over an hour from the recombobulation area.
That would be Dan Schaefer because it's a quiet time in Wisconsin politics right now.
I know I've tried booking some legislators as guests.
We're going to have a couple coming on this week to talk about a bill that would
help regulate cryptocurrency in Wisconsin, make sure that there aren't scams that can rip people off, especially when you see these ATM looking things that let you deal in cryptocurrency, making sure that they really are worth something if you're going to try to do business here in Wisconsin.
So we'll have State Senator Kelder Royes and State Representative Ryan Spaudy on Thursday morning to talk about that.
But otherwise, things are a little quiet out there in politics land.
We'll talk to Dan Schaefer about that in an hour.
A local update is next for some of you.
Others will visit with Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12 in Rhinelander.
Live from the heart of America's up north here on Lake Wissota, thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings 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.
Nice to have you back on this Tuesday morning, July 22nd, 2025.
Let's bring in Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12, WJFWTV in Rhinelander.
Dan, how are you today?
I'm doing well.
Good morning from Rhinelander.
We got a pretty decent day
out
there with some cloud cover.
All right.
Are you still doing your roller skiing?
Kind of your well in advanced training for next year's Berkabinder?
Right.
We only have 211 days till the Berkabinder.
Just kidding.
I made that up.
I don't know.
Um, but yeah, I've been roller skiing and, uh, staying active.
I'll be going on a bike ride with my dad today is the plan.
Okay.
Wait, you know, your dad, who's one, you know, continues to beat you in most of these Berkabiners is the biking competitive as well.
Um, yeah, he is a beast.
Um, so, um, he, I only got half of his, of his athleticism.
My mom kind of, you know, washed it out a little bit with her lack of athleticism.
You're blaming mom.
Okay.
All right.
I didn't know I canceled out.
That's, yeah, I didn't know it worked that way.
That's awesome.
I don't have to make, I don't have to practice my mom's, look at her.
I mean, come on.
Uh, yeah.
Of course
I am just teasing.
I
know, I know.
But you have, you have another favorite athletic endeavor as well.
And it's.
It's not tennis.
It's using those things that used to be tennis courts.
Yeah.
So we're celebrating five years of the Rhineland or pickleball courts today.
There will be a little kind of game going on at 5.30pm this evening.
And it's kind of remarkable because there's a community just north of us, Eagle River.
They're still trying to get there first.
pickleball courts, but this craze is still kind of sweeping the nation pretty much every community has them.
And man, they are packed every day.
So good for them.
Okay.
I get okay.
So you play so you get it.
And it's it's a I'm gonna offend a bunch of people, but it's a legitimate sport to you the way that you're playing this is this is something you could play.
absolutely.
Okay.
Yeah, I'm I'm working up a sweat and it's a good combination of strategy and just sport, I would say.
There
you go.
There is a
professional thing.
I think of it too.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
It's going wild.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's over there on ESPN 8, the Ocho, you know, from the text line, Jim in Brookfield, Dan, if you are roller skiing in this heat for the Berkey, you are a true believer with Berkey Fever.
So, folks are noticing.
I'm
always
always got Berkey fever, you know, maybe not the month after the Berkey, but then it's going again, you know.
All right.
Stories that you're following up there on NewsWatch 12 include one that you had yesterday.
Tell folks a bit about, you know, the when we hear about what's happening in Washington DC and funding for like public broadcasting, I think a lot of folks don't realize that that hits close to home and that includes Rhinelander.
Yeah, so Rime Ladder doesn't have a lot of news.
We have WJFW, my TV station, and we have the local radio station.
And then we have some newspapers that are not as well staffed as they used to be.
So when you hit one of the media partners, it really impacts everyone.
And WXPR is a fantastic public radio station, and they recently lost.
$171,000 because of this Recissions package done by Congress to cut funding for PBS and public radio.
So I think we have a story from Ian that we can play.
On the evening of July 17th, the House of Representatives finalized a $1.1 billion cut for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, creating financial insecurity for local radio stations such as WXPR in Rhinelander.
Just because you live in a rural area does not mean that you shouldn't have access to information and news that's happening in your community or around the nation, around the world.
So that's an important piece that WXPR offers to the community.
In the Northwoods, many residents rely on WXPR's services, ranging from regular broadcasts to community outreach and emergency alerts.
But a 25% cut could put operations at risk.
I think it's easy to assume that everyone is connected and the internet can deliver everything.
But that's still not the case.
Radio is still needed.
Other forms of broadcasting are still needed in this area.
Over 50% of WXPR's annual budget comes from listeners.
But with the finalized cuts, that support is integral to help operations continue smoothly.
We have always really leaned on our listeners, not only for financial support, but also to tell us what they prioritize.
And so we will be leaning on them to say, what is it that you really value about the station?
Development director Phoebe Speer says that they try to build a culture of authenticity at WXPR, highlighting local events that would otherwise get ignored.
strengthening the community in the process.
People really value hearing something that's not an algorithm.
They value hearing from their neighbors, and that's what they get here at WXPR.
They value that, and that's what we offer.
WXPR is holding their annual summer pledge drive from July 18th to the 26th, and they're asking all their listeners for support.
Reporting in Rhinelander, Ian Ferris, News Watch 12.
Public broadcast.
So there you go.
The.
Again, it's a big chunk.
It's not everything.
There's still a lot of listener support that goes on there.
But it seems more than ever, we're now in this age, Dan, where if you want local news, you've got to find ways to outwardly support it.
You can't just turn a dial and expect that everything's going to be as it always has been.
Yeah, you're exactly right.
Quarter of their funding came from the federal government, $171,000.
And I liked what Phoebe said there at the end.
People don't want algorithms.
I fear that it's only going to get worse, you know, with news consumption and how it can be tailor-made and often AI-generated and often nefarious.
So, yeah, more important than ever to support your local broadcasters.
I mean, gosh, you say AI.
And I mean, that should make the case right there because the
the stuff that's going on out there, you know, it's referred to as slop.
but it can be serious stuff, and you think, well, it's just a national thing right now, but I mean, we're gonna be seeing stuff at the local level before you know it, and it's more important than ever to identify and support those trusted journalists like what you've got up there at the TV station.
So thanks for bringing us the attention to that matter, to a very valuable news outlet there, as is your own, WJFW.
Appreciate that, Dan.
Thanks, and keep cool out there on the pickleball courts and on the roller skis.
That's right.
I think I'm going to hit the bike ride today with dad and I got to keep up with him.
So thanks.
Oh man.
All
right.
Biking down the old man yet.
Got to catch him.
All right.
Thanks, Dan.
We'll talk to you later.
When we come back, we'll talk more about those federal budget cuts and ways that groups are calling attention to them.
Long after the ink has dried on the bill, the impact is going to be felt for a long time to come.
And we'll talk more about that in just a bit after the Midwest Farm Report here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Remember to stay up to date on our unabashedly Wisconsin news.
Sign up for our newsletters at upturnednewswi.com.
Click subscribe in the banner on top of our homepage.
That includes our weekend newsletter Sunday mornings with Pat Gritlow, where there is a question of the week that we like to share.
And this time around, it's about candidate for governor Bill Berrien already dropping $400,000 in advertising to build up his name ID.
because nobody knows Bill Barion outside of his friends and family in his Christmas card list.
So he's got to advertise, even though it's more than a year before the primary for Governor.
And without even knowing if Governor Tony Evers is running or not.
So our question of the week asks what you think of that.
Is it a case of A, you hate it.
In fact, you hate it so much you might even hold it against him for running ads this early.
What about option B, where it's, I don't like it, but I get it.
You know, you got to, you got to spend some money to get your name ID out there.
And we gave you an option C, you like it.
You actually like that a candidate shows some initiative and wants to talk to voters right away.
Well, Joe H probably sums it up best.
She didn't just put a she put like a string of them like a with an angry emoji face after that.
And Mary writes, I hate it in all caps.
Then she writes, sorry for the all caps.
Wishing there was a time limit as to when campaigns run, including all ads and mailings and social media.
Mary, how great would that be if we could just have everything limited to a very brief timeframe to get all the information out there, but not have it last for a year or four years or whatever?
Linda Z went with option B saying, I don't like it, but I get it.
and she too writes, I still think all campaigns should be limited to six months prior to voting day.
You know, that might actually make for a good follow-up question of the week is, you know, if you could limit campaigns and say, you know, they're gonna be announced here and the deadlines are here, the election day is here, how much should they be?
Because, you know, at some point, if an election campaign is too short,
You're not gonna be a very well-informed voter.
You may not learn everything about a candidate until after they've taken office.
We already know campaigns can be too long.
I'm just saying that they can be too short as well.
So Goldilocks, what's just right?
Is it two months?
Is it six months?
Something like that?
Again, I don't know that we could necessarily pull it off, but if you could, you and your magic wand.
What would it be?
You can always send us a note here.
Radio at upnorthnewswi.com is the email address radio at upnorthnewswi.com.
Let's do a follow up for something we talked about in May, and it's all about the Enbridge Line 5 oil and gas pipeline that is slated to be rerouted around the Bad River Tribal community, but still running through the Bad River watershed where it could pose a danger to Lake Superior.
And back in May, we heard from J. Dean Sonoda of the Sierra Club for Wisconsin and a project where they were trying to break the world record for the most origami fish collected and displayed.
Why collect origami fish and have them displayed?
As a way to show public opposition,
to line five, not just the reroute, but to the line existing entirely.
And it seemed rather ambitious.
They were going to have to
collect more than 18,303 origami fish, but they put up a website, fishforfuture.org.
And so here's a little bit of what Jadine Sonoda told us back on May 5th about the project, about the origami fish, about standing up to the Enbridge Line 5 project.
And I started by asking her about the Sierra Club here in Wisconsin.
Yeah, so the Wisconsin chapter, as you said, is part of the broader organization of Sierra Club, which operates across the nation.
We focus a lot on statewide issues.
So we've got members and volunteers really across the whole state working on a variety of issues, also focusing on local issues in particular areas.
But yeah, we're really looking at.
climate, conservation, and how all of these pieces intertwine with environmental justice.
And so, yeah, today I'm here to talk a little bit about one of our campaigns focused on line five.
And that that line five for folks that don't know the full background on it, it is a pipeline that has existed for decades, it's getting near the end of its natural lifespan.
And there's
certainly been dispute from the Bad River community and to the point where Enbridge is looking to reroute the line around the reservation community there, but even rerouting that line jading would not take it out of the potential to do immense harm to the Bad River and then, you know, flowing right into Lake Superior, not that far away.
Yeah, absolutely.
There's some incredible maps that look at the route that Enbridge, the pipeline company, is proposing to construct in.
And just the number of waterways that it cuts across, it's really scary to think about.
We've seen the impacts of Enbridge's construction, for example, with Line 3 in Minnesota a couple years ago, and just the devastation of punctured aquifers and frackouts of drilling fluid.
So there's a lot of worry that this construction
continued operation of the pipeline would result in damages both to the waterways and to especially the sluice in the area and Lake Superior.
And so wherever that line ends up going, it could be a potential threat.
We've certainly seen it spill in other places like Michigan.
Enbridge had a major spill there.
And so let's get into the project that is designed to demonstrate public opposition to, you know, that potential for an environmental disaster.
What is the world record that you're trying to set and how are you going about doing it?
Good question.
So, yeah, we're really looking for something fun and a way to talk about this.
that's positive and uplifting.
And we were thinking what better way than to try and set a world record.
We are gonna be attempting to break the world record for largest collection of origami fish.
The record is currently 18,303.
We are working our way up towards that number.
But the, yeah, the intention here is to really find a way to talk about line five and especially the importance of protecting the Great Leaks while we're debating
a fun activity, a way to like get people engaged from
all age spans from places that might not be interested
in
just like hearing about line five, but I think an art project is really cool.
It's been amazing.
I feel like people have been really excited about it.
And kind of like I had mentioned before, we've got a lot of new people who are learning about the importance of protecting the Great Lakes and how line five threatens the Great Lakes.
We've got a lot of schools who are participating.
I've heard of someone who is bringing this to a nursing home that they work in.
We've got
a lot of faith communities who are participating just in general.
I feel like it's been a really great opportunity to reach more people and find something that is really exciting and a way to uplift the positive pieces of protecting the water and the watersheds and the areas that we all live in.
So that was JD and Sonoda back on May 5th talking to us about the Sierra Club role in collecting the origami fish.
So here's the update as we got from Megan Whitman out at the Sierra Club.
Again the number that they had to break for collecting fish was 18,303.
The final total they've collected 86,000
262.
I mean, they smashed the world record.
That's like five times the amount that they were seeking to get, which again, they believe demonstrates tremendous opposition to the project.
They said they received fish from all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, and the Netherlands.
fish were made by more than 70 groups across the Great Lakes region, including religious organizations, schools, scouting groups, climate action organizations, and more.
So a successful effort to get a world record and call attention to a big environmental priority here up north.
Also taking place recently was a program put on by the Group Opportunity Wisconsin to highlight
Donald Trump's big bloated boondoggle of a budget bill and all of the cuts that are coming to regular middle-class Wisconsin families to help pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires and Opportunity Wisconsin paired up with a an ice cream parlor in Eau Claire to start a food drive
to call attention to the cuts to nutrition programs.
Now that's because Sunday was National Ice Cream Day and the owner of Ramon's Ice Cream Parlor in Eau Claire was part of a food drive that is going to help a local charity the community table and call attention to the cuts and food benefits being supported by their congressman Derek Van Orden.
So through the end of the month, anyone who brings in a non-perishable food item to Ramones and Eau Claire is going to get a certificate for a free cone or dish.
The folks at Opportunity Wisconsin noted that the Trump mega bill is going to cut food assistance for tens of thousands of Wisconsinites to pay for those tax breaks.
Blaine Midtune, the owner of Ramones, has done all kinds of cones for a cause efforts, raising more than $300,000 over the years for various concerns.
and he is understandably perplexed at how it's become a partisan thing, whether to give tax cuts to the rich or feed the poor.
Really, above everything, this should be a nonpartisan type issue at our local level, right here in the Chevalier, right here in Eau Claire.
You know, political parties have been founded on the belief that...
small government.
But then when small government is in place, that it is up to local community.
It's up to the churches, the spiritual institutions.
It's up to our neighbors.
It's up to our local officials, and it's up to each and every single one of us.
So when things are good, we have that opportunity to spread money around, invest in ourselves, invest in our children, that kind of thing.
But then we also have that opportunity to give back on a local level as well.
And that's where those dollars are really important.
That's where the community giving is really important.
And that's something that we've really kind of strived for with Ramon's in the last nine years since we opened in 2017 as we have a program called Cash for Cause.
And in the nine years that we've been open, we've raised and we've given back over $300,000 to local organizations and nonprofit institutions just like the community table many, many times over with the community table and other organizations here in the Chipp Valley that are helping residents right here in Eau Claire.
Because there are shortcomings.
That's plain mid-tune.
Again, the owner of Ramones and the food drive, like I said, will benefit the community table.
Executive Director T.J.
Atkins says about half the people they serve at the community table are currently unhoused, a stat that really jumped post-COVID.
And from Opportunity Wisconsin, here's Ethan Reid, who talks about how really what
Van Orden and Brian Stahl are doing amounts to a double whammy, not just the cuts in nutrition programs, but the increase in food prices from things like Donald Trump's trade war tariffs.
Just weeks ago, Congressman Derek Van Orden voted for the Republican tax law that cuts food assistance for Wisconsinites to pay for billionaire and corporate tax breaks.
State officials have warned that as many as 90,000 Wisconsinites could lose snap benefits because of this law.
At the same time, news reports show that tariffs are increasing the cost of food and other goods like the aluminum you see behind us.
Making it even harder for families to put food on the table, this is a double burden no family should have to bear.
No family should have to worry about where their next meal is coming from or how they'll afford groceries, yet that is the current reality for too many Wisconsinites.
Instead of alleviating this crisis,
Congressman Derek Van Orden and Republicans in Congress are taking food from their constituents and raising prices to give more tax breaks to the wealthy.
And so opportunity Wisconsin is again, bringing up the tariffs as well.
And he said the aluminum behind me, what he meant was all those canned goods.
They're an aluminum cans.
And so for everybody, whether their nutrition programs are being cut or not, they're going to face higher costs all because of the tariffs that the Trump administration has put into place.
All right, a local break is coming up next for some of you.
And for others, we continue with our new regional segment, Way Up North, where we're going to talk to folks who live up in the Bayfield, Ashland, Superior areas about issues that are important and far northwest Wisconsin.
All that just ahead here on the Civic Media Radio Network, I'm Pat Crichtlump.
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.
7.52 now on this Tuesday morning.
Time to go way up north and talk about issues up close to the communities on the Lake Superior shore and other areas of northwest Wisconsin.
And we have a rotating panel of guests who will be joining us Tuesdays at this time, including former legislator Fred Clark, who's along with us.
And in a moment, we'll be talking to Dr. Kate Stolp, the medical advisor for Bayfield County.
Fred, good morning.
How are you?
Oh Fred, I think you are either you're muted or yeah, you might be give that little button a push and tell me if you're still there.
I know I heard you a minute ago and now I'm not hearing about that.
There you go.
That's it.
See, I got it.
It's like the old antenna on our TV had to move the antenna just the right way with the rabbit ears.
Yeah, that's right.
And again, Dr. Kate Stulp is here as well.
Kate, good morning.
How are you?
Good morning.
It's great to be here.
All right.
Well, Fred, let's have you set this up to talk about a couple of different concerns up north, both tick-borne illnesses, which are being exacerbated by a changing climate, and measles cases, which are being exacerbated by people in Washington DC and elsewhere.
Fred, tell us a bit more about why this is such a concern for you and others up north.
Well, so here we are in the heart of the summer tourist season here in the Bayfield Peninsula and like many parts of the state, lots of visitors in the area right now from other states and other parts of the world.
It's a great time of year.
One climate issue we've been seeing, many of us have experienced a wildfire smoke from some of these massive fires in Canada that of course are highly disruptive to Canadians.
And we've seen the impacts of that here too with reduced visibility and some air quality problems.
But especially what was open to talk with Kate Stolp today, Kate's a friend and she's the medical director for Bayfield County.
And one of the things of course they're keeping an eye on is some of the infectious diseases that
we all need to be concerned about.
I learned a lot a few weeks ago talking about measles with Kate and her colleague, Dr. Ann Reitz, and that it might be valuable to hear from her today.
Oh, without a doubt, Dr. Stolt, tell us more about the rising concern about rising measles cases.
Well, first of all, let me say we haven't had any measles cases yet, but we have seen a big rise.
Everyone knows about Texas.
I think having quite a few measles cases this year, but Texas measles is in almost every state.
in the United States now, and we are surrounded by Michigan, Illinois, and Minnesota, all of whom have had measles cases, including in the upper peninsula.
There have been four cases.
And the issue is that I think because a lot of people thought measles was eradicated or there was fear of autism, which is an unfounded fear.
And we could get into that if we needed to.
But a lot of people quit vaccinating their kids.
And we only have 67% of our kindergartners vaccinated right now.
And so if we get measles, it could be bad.
And you have to realize that measles
hasn't been around for so many years that doctors haven't seen it.
Health providers haven't seen it.
And so if we get it, it could spread like wildfire, keeping people out of school and any of their activities.
Adults, infants, seniors are of course the most vulnerable and it's highly, highly contagious, far more contagious than COVID, for example.
And that's 67% of kindergarteners.
That is one of the lowest rates in the nation, right?
I mean, it is.
That is.
It is just an absolutely shameful figure.
And that's why the word is getting out about how bad measles is.
And a lot of people have just, frankly, forgotten about it.
Kate, can you tell us briefly as well about the concerns about tick-borne illnesses?
I know, as I was learning more about a changing climate, we think about so many of the big things.
We don't think about the little things and how drier, hotter conditions
allow ticks, allow their territory to spread and cause more issues.
Right, exactly.
And the biggest concern right now, I mean, we all know about Lyme disease and there are a number of tick-borne illnesses, but there's a new one on the horizon.
It's been around for a while, but now we're starting to see it.
And
we've had two cases this year in Bayfield County called Powassan, named after Powassan, Ontario, where it was first discovered.
And Powassan, the danger with this one is there's absolutely no treatment.
There's no doxycycline.
There's no antibiotic.
There's no viral treatment.
And 10% of people who get it will have either serious neurologic damage or die.
And there's nothing we can do for it.
And so being careful about
tucking your pants in your socks, using deet containing bug spray, mowing your lawns, all of those things, being, you know, taking a shower as soon as you come in from being out in the woods or the grass,
really
important.
And of course, then the last thing, and we've got just over a minute left to talk about that, would be the wildfire smoke.
And again, Dr. Kate Stulp is the Bayfield County Medical Advisor, a very genuine concern.
It's much more than just a nuisance for very vulnerable groups, right?
Yes, obviously.
We already know.
you know, many people, especially older people with lung conditions that can't even go outside.
But we do know that when we look at the increasing numbers of people with asthma that probably the number one cause of that is air pollution.
And the wildfires obviously are making that worse and exacerbating that.
Yeah.
And Fred, I can't imagine that that sternly worded letter from Tom Tiffany and others to Canada did a lot of good in that sense.
Maybe the time to pay attention was a generation earlier when we were talking about a changing climate.
I don't think it did much good at all other than put a stick in the eye of the Canadians who are well aware of the challenges that they face, many of which have been made worse by greenhouse gases emitted from US industries.
We need to be cooperating with the Canadians and not
sending them sternly worded letters about about fires.
No kidding.
Thankfully, they did respond with appreciation for the US based firefighters that are going up and helping being helpers, not just winers.
So Fred Clark, thank you for that.
Dr. Kate Stolp, a medical advisor for Bayfield County.
It was a pleasure talking with you.
Thank you for sharing some information with us, Kate.
Thank you very much.
I'm glad we had this chance.
Yes, thank you.
Fred, have a great day yourself.
All right.
Chad Holmes and Dan Schaefer coming up in the next hour here on these mornings powered by Up North News, live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
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