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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Upnorth News.
Now, for my Lake Minnesota studio, here is the founding editor of Upnorth News, Pat Craiglow.
Hey, good morning.
Welcome back.
7.06.
Nice to have you here Upnorth on this Tuesday morning, July 29th.
Parker Olson is here producing things in Madison Studio A2.
And coming up later this hour, we'll talk to
Lincoln County dairy farmer Hans Brighton Moser along with Sheila Everhart from the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association.
We'll talk about some fairs and festivals and farm shows but also some serious matters about state laws that should be changed to help farmers diversify and stay afloat from a business standpoint.
They've got business ideas and need state law to essentially keep up with the times in their view.
Also coming up a state representative Angela Stroud in our way up north segment.
We'll talk about her reaction to the state budget from her perspective in Ashland.
And next hour we'll talk to Dan Schaefer from the recombobulation area.
But first let's get a check on that forecast from meteorologist Brittany Merleau.
Brittany, good morning.
How are you?
Good morning.
I'm pretty fantastic.
How are you guys doing?
You sound fantastic.
It's nice to have you back in the home base after a fun week last week.
I have a radar question for you.
Okay.
Now, sometimes you see on the radar, you see kind of a green blob of, you know, light rain that's coming your way.
And then it never rains because the radar is catching the moisture, but it doesn't all necessarily hit the ground, right?
Yes,
that's correct.
So can the same thing be said about, I'll give this specific example.
Last night, you saw the radar had a big red blob on it and, you know, big red blob I associate with heavy rain.
But even though it went past us, and of course, it was a good garden variety thunderstorm, but I mean, quarter inch of rain total.
And I'm looking at Rob from Tigerton, who notes that good morning, he says it's partly cloudy, 68 degrees, picked up two tenths of an inch of rain overnight.
So again, when I see a big old red blob like that, I'm not thinking two tenths or a quarter inch of rain.
I'm thinking, you know, maybe we got a half inch coming.
But again, it's not just the light rain, but maybe the radar picks up stuff that isn't necessarily
as heavy as it appears it's going to be?
Yes, it absolutely can.
I mean those clouds can grow up there and not really produce what the radar is showing us and also when you got a storm moving at a decent speed, it's not going to seem as much rain and heavy in your area if it's moving.
We're so used to these storms kind of building and sitting over the same place and taking their time and
barely moving.
So I think that has a lot to do with it as well.
But also, yes, that radar.
And then if you've got dry air underneath, it's evaporating some of that rain out underneath it as well.
And we've got a lot of things going on today.
We've got multiple low pressure systems and a high pressure trying to build in.
So a lot of things battling each other right now.
A front is draped right through the middle of the state, but
just light, light sprinkles far down south by Madison, kind of dissipating right now as they move in towards Milwaukee.
So really, just the clouds down there at the moment, scattered clouds throughout the central parts of the state and a lot more sunshine farther north, but also areas of patchy fog.
We've got it all besides the S word, snow, right?
That's not too far away if it didn't give you a little blast to AC.
But today we're trying to cool things down.
It's not working too well.
We are still going to hit about 90 degrees far south towards Milwaukee, Madison area, about 80 degrees for the North woods today, and some more showers and storms are expected by tomorrow.
So after this morning, we're actually going to see more and more sunshine holding off till tomorrow.
Another system slides through about a good half of the state, the southern half of the state is going to see on and off showers and thunderstorms tomorrow, but it's going to be refreshing.
I am so excited.
upper 70s statewide.
And that is going to be the case from tomorrow through the rest of the week.
It is.
It sounds so refreshing.
It looks like it wants to be refreshing.
And we thought, oh, let's open up the windows this morning.
I mean, we stepped outside for a second.
Nope.
Nope.
There's
still like 99% humidity or something like that.
But we are getting there.
And again, thank you for the answer that question, which I
Again, you were so kind about it.
You could have just reminded me the whole thing of, you know, force is mass times acceleration.
And
if the
acceleration is really fast, it's not going to do as much damage, but I've.
I've forgotten so much over the years here.
Rob goes on to save from Tigerton.
He got an early start with his Wittenberg mowing jobs was done by noon before it got really hot.
Same here, Rob.
I did my mowing his release right after the show yesterday.
Yesterday went to Clintonville to run some errands, ate at the Clintonville A&W and took a ride on the back roads of the area.
uh says he remembers Mama Cass Elliott as a celebrity panelist on some game shows before she passed away and loves anytime Martina McBride is singing the national anthem at sports events and uh says I remember my Aunt Leah taking her kids myself and my sisters to the Shawnau Outdoor Theater when it came out in the summer of 1978.
Ah talking about Greece when I was 11 years old and Tony adds on YouTube, apprentice meteorologist Pat Crichtlow.
No, that would not necessarily say that.
And on the text line, Tom and Hartford, Brittany is so smart.
What a lady.
So thank
you, Tom.
You're so sweet.
You get up this early just for the fan mail because I mean, okay, good.
I mean, it's good that we pay for the weather stuff too.
But to get the comp complements doesn't hurt, you know.
All right, Brittany, we'll talk to you next hour.
Thank you so much.
Sounds good.
All right, let's talk about those brewers for a second here, Parker, because again, if you don't only watch the
first inning of the game, especially the first half inning of the game.
When Jacob Mizorowski, I mean, it had that look of the wheels coming off the bus and if I told you this morning, oh, Jacob Mizorowski pulled something in his arm and he's expected to never pitch again, you wouldn't have been surprised.
Last night to watch the way that he was giving up walks and a wild pitch and throwing wildly to first allowing a couple of runners to score I mean it was just and he was up to 30 pitches.
Wasn't it?
Yeah 40 40 pitches in the first any in the first inning.
Yeah And you're like he's not coming back out because wasn't it?
Was it a couple of weeks back?
We knocked out the Dodger starting pitcher after two-thirds of an inning.
right.
I
totally thought that was what was going to happen with Jacob Mizorowski.
It was
Yep, Dio Hall was up pitching and he did eventually come in and relieve Mizorowski, but not until the fifth because the second, the third and the fourth innings after facing eight batters in the first inning.
In the second, third and fourth, Mizorowski set the cubs down in order, one, two, three, and got the last 10 batters in a row out with seven strikeouts total.
So rough start, but again.
this kid's good.
That is exactly what Christian Yellich and I think Pat Murphy were saying the same thing.
Best outing, get shelled, get knocked around early in the game and how do you recover from it?
And you could see he was angry with himself.
Oh, he
was.
He was a little angry at the ump too.
Can we talk about home played umpires the past like, I don't know, three, four games with the Brewers?
I mean.
They're not my my bias is out there.
I'm ready for the robot umpires I really am so that's my bias But that's not helped when they miss so badly on some of these calls recently
pitch
framing pitches for those who don't know that let's see the catcher Yes catches that ball and and he knows it's just outside the strike zone But you very quickly when you catch the ball you move your mitt upward to get it into the frame and I always hear that and
I think we've made too much of it.
It's one thing to go.
Yes, he did it.
But now they're making it sound like a Rembrandt.
You know, he's painting the canvas every time now.
Yeah.
I give umpires a hard time, but they're not that fooled by framing.
But you see Contreras set up on like the inside edge and then Ms.
Might yank one and it'll hit the outside edge.
So Contreras has got to go across the plate completely.
Yep.
you're not getting that call a lot of the time because he missed his spot so bad it's still in the zone it should be a strike but he missed his spot so bad that the umpires get tricked by it that is what sucks that
is yes
yeah and there's again there's no excuse for that and i get it i i could not do this job i could not walk in and somebody throwing a ball 102 miles an hour at me and i've got a pinpoint where it went did it hit in this imaginary box just right
I get how hard it is, but if you've made it to the major league level, well, you should be able to do a little bit better than what we're seeing right now.
You would.
All right.
So there's our baseball whining segment, which is all to say, Hey, Pat, you told us how terrible the first inning was.
Uh, then what?
Well.
The Brewers bats came alive, including home runs from Andrew Vaughn, South Freilich, and a two run shot from Christian Yelich's 20th of the year.
That was the cherry on top, a very satisfying comeback win over the Cubs, eight to four.
One bit of bad news, Jackson Churio was not among last night's big hitters.
His hitting streak came to an end.
a 20 game hitting streak.
That's done.
I would have loved to have seen at least a couple of more out of there.
He he's tied for what fourth on on all the winning, uh, hitting streaks would have loved to have seen him, you know, maybe get to be number two on that list.
Yeah.
Halfway to my record.
Mm
What's that?
I'm basically still going.
Yes.
Yes.
So where do we go from here?
Well, we play again tonight.
Brewers versus the Cubs.
Pregame starts at 6.05 on several Civic Media stations around the network.
Head to the website to learn more.
It'll be Quinn Priester pitching for the Brewers and Colin Ray for the Cubs.
And tomorrow, that's an afternoon game.
The pregame will get started at 12.35 across the Civic Media radio network.
You're going to want to be turning in, tuning in for that.
There is a new challenge to Wisconsin's congressional maps that I want to share quickly, and this is reporting from WIS Politics.
And I don't know if this was JR Ross or one of the other writers.
I would love to give proper credit, but we'll just say we'll just have JR Ross as a stand-in for the whole team at WIS Politics.
And you'll recall that some Democrats had asked the State Supreme Court last month to
overturned Wisconsin's current gerrymandered congressional map the state supreme court said nope we are not going to take this up right away it's got to work its way through the lower courts but now those same democratic voters are trying a new approach they have filed a motion in dane county court looking to trigger a process that would direct supreme court justices to appoint a panel of three
county circuit court judges to hear the challenges to congressional or legislative districts.
And you're going, I've never heard of this.
You know what?
Cause I've never heard of it either.
It turns out it's a process that Republicans created in 2011 after they gerrymandered the congressional and the legislative maps.
They put in this way so that, you know, just one judge or one state Supreme court couldn't necessarily overrule their work.
They had to go to this three judge panel.
And so.
That's the process that they're going to try now, as well as a different suit, which is just following the traditional route of asking first, a Dane County court to throw out the congressional maps.
Why are we throwing out the congressional maps, you ask?
Because there's eight of them here.
Wisconsin is a 50-50 state by any measure.
If anything slightly democratic, when you look at statewide votes,
And yet, Democrats have 25% of the seats and Republicans have 75% of the seats.
And you can argue that it's all about distribution.
Sure, maybe it's not four and four, but six and two sound right to you.
And so I believe there is still going to be time.
I'm not predicting it'll happen, but there is still time where this Wisconsin Supreme Court
could look at the case in some way shape or form and say, yeah, these maps are gerrymandered.
This is not fair to the voters.
Let's start over.
But there's also every reason to believe that this could be dragged out in court long enough that it would not take effect in the 2026 election.
But there could still be a change for 2028.
And then guess what?
Come 2030, which is, you know, only five years from now, we're going to be doing this all over again with another census.
and new redistricting.
And it's why it is so important that in this next election in 2026, no matter what's happening in courts, that you're selecting legislators for the Assembly and the Senate who are just one simple thing when it comes to our maps.
Fair.
Just fair.
A local update is next for some of you.
And when we're all back together in 15 minutes, Hans Brighton Moser and Sheila Everhart, I'm Pat Crightlow.
You're up north.
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.
30 minutes from now, we will be talking to State Representative Angela Stroud from the Ashland area as part of our way up north segment that we started doing Thursday mornings at 7.50.
Would love to have you stick around for that.
And of course, in our eight o'clock hour, we'll talk to Dan Schaefer from the recombobulation area.
Normally, this is the part of the program where we would talk to Dan Hagen from WJFWTV News Watch 12.
He is on vacation this week, so we will check in with him next week.
But Parker, I did.
go check out the NewsWatch 12 site in Rhinelander and wanted to share one story from reporter Ryan Maranero that he's covering there.
And I love this so much about small market TV.
You know, having worked in Eau Claire TV for all those years, you know, that you get these occasional just wonderful little community stories to pass along.
And so the report says, what you see here is what you would call a short bus, you know, a school bus, a very, very
pretty light blue that it's been painted.
And it says what was once a broken down bus in a scrap yard has turned into the newest coffee shop in the Northwoods.
Says if you've driven down Highway 45 and Summit Lake over the past couple of months, you may have noticed a small blue bus on the side of the road.
But Megan Mischler and her family turned a once scrapped beat up broken bus into a drive through coffee shop.
She says, we threw around the idea of a coffee shop, but didn't want to do a brick and mortar.
We wanted to do something more unique.
And so we decided to do something mobile.
Michelur said they'd never worked at a coffee shop before, but said the idea to start the coffee bus.
I love that the coffee bus came to her about a year ago.
They found the bus at a scrapyard in Stevens Point and took it from there.
Michelur says they painted it this awful black and it took us probably about four months to get it completely off.
Megan's husband Austin is a mechanic and said it took a lot of work to fix the bus.
He said we had to put a new engine in it, take
all the
seats out, put new flooring in it.
Then we had to strip all the paint off and sand it down and repaint it all.
Megan says having a mobile coffee shop is cheaper.
She can take it to events on slower business days and it's a difference maker in the area.
She says it doesn't have to be big.
I think for this area, it's what it needs to be for right now.
Michler calls the bus stop, coffee shop, her own little experiment and says her family couldn't be more supportive of the business.
It's typically located on Highway 45 in Summit Lake.
So that again was from NewsWatch 12 up in Rhinelander and that was Ryan Maranero who put that report together that Dan would be telling us about if you were there.
And again, I'd recommend you head over to wjfw.com and take a look at it because it's adorable.
It's this cute little blue bus that goes around selling coffee.
I think that's great.
We hear all about the food trucks.
That's true.
Food trucks.
I mean, honestly, 10 years ago.
Was it 10 years ago?
So I'm right.
Yeah.
10 years ago or so.
10, 12 years ago, maybe one in a town and it was kind of this novel uniquely.
And
now in some communities, they're like everywhere.
There's like, you know, a park full of food trucks.
The Lion and Cougar Brewery here in Chippewa Falls, I think once a month or so in the summer, they'll have it where the parking lot is just filled with food trucks.
I
Uh, and when she, she said, uh, that they'd never been in the coffee business before, uh, it reminded me of a time when, when Sherry and I considered doing something like this, because right across the field from me, uh, on the other side along, uh, County Highway S is this little, what used to be a one room schoolhouse.
Oh yeah.
And at, at the time, I mean, now we're going back 30 years, but at the time it had been long abandoned.
And it sits there along the old Abe trail, which is now a bike trail.
And so when the old Abe trail was paved and so people started using it for bikes, it wasn't just like a convenient snowmobile route.
We thought somebody really ought to buy that little one room schoolhouse.
You could set up a great little coffee shop there and other refreshments or ice cream and people who are biking on the old Abe trail would stop there and have it.
And we talked about it for like a year.
We're like, Oh, wouldn't that be cool?
Wouldn't that be cool?
And one day we kind of got serious.
We're like,
you know, maybe that would be something for us to do.
And just as we were about to start looking into maybe buying it, looking at the remodel and everything else, there was a sold sign on it.
And it has been a real estate office ever since, which is perfectly fine.
I'm sure it's been a happy, healthy business for those folks.
But there's times I think, what if we'd have done that?
Yeah, a very different
I can hear Todd Alba right now who has been in the coffee business going, no, no, run away, run away.
It's one thing to like a coffee business.
It's another to own a coffee business.
It works for some people.
It doesn't work for other people.
I really hope that it works for the coffee bus up there in Summit Lake and Rhinelander.
Yeah,
that's
cool.
That.
just sounds adorable.
That's the kind of thing that we would be hearing from Dan and we'll talk to him more about that next week.
All right, looking at some of the popular stories from Up North News on our social media feeds, to nobody's surprise, the most engaged, most commented on stories involve Governor Tony Evers and his announcement not to run for re-election.
There was a lot of reaction to the initial announcement.
a lot of reaction to the follow-up announcement the next day from Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez that she is running for governor and Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez will be our guest here on Friday during the 8 a.m.
hour.
But among some of the other stories on Facebook, one of the more popular posts was a new wallet hub study that ranked Wisconsin in the top 10 in the nation for best school systems based on low dropout rates statewide, strong reading and math performances, and solid SAT-ACT scores.
There was also a top...
rated post on Instagram that talked about how a UW-Milwaukee research team was mapping how racial housing policies have shaped Milwaukee over the years, but the Trump administration has now pulled the plug on funding.
And finally, according to the Foodie website, Love Food, out of all the burrito joints in Wisconsin, their favorite, fully loaded, smothered in enchilada sauce burrito comes from Cafe Corazon with its three locations around Milwaukee, which led me to ask, where's your favorite?
Where's the best burritos in your hometown?
Put something in the comment section, send us an email, radio at UpNorthNewsWI.com, or send us a text using the Civic Media app.
Hans Brighton Moser and Sheila Everhart coming up after the Midwest Farm Report.
You're up north.
Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Gottluske will be Jane and Greg's guests just after 10 a.m.
Here on the Civic Media Radio Network Sarah Gottluske rumored to be a candidate for governor but now indicates she will not be one of the candidates for governor.
but perhaps Lieutenant Governor.
So learn more with Jane Mattenair and Greg Bach.
Mattenair on air coming up at nine o'clock.
All right, before we get to Hans Breitenmoser and Sheila Everhart, there are so many things that we want to talk about.
There's so much going on.
It includes fairs and festivals.
And I definitely want Sheila or Hans to weigh in on some of their favorites, but I just want to rattle through as many of these as possible because we are in the middle of summer and there is so much.
So give a listen.
Opening today.
the head of the Lake's Fair in Superior, the Jackson County Fair in Black River Falls, Wisconsin Valley Fair in Wausau.
That one ends on Saturday.
Tomorrow opens up the Ozaki County Fair in Cedarburg, the Buffalo Pepin County Fair in Mandovi, the Green Lake County Fair in Green Lake.
The Winnebago County Fair in Oshkosh, those all open on Thursday.
Buffalo Pepin, Green Lake and Winnebago.
And the Iron County Fair opens on Friday.
And of course, the big one is the Wisconsin State Fair in West Alice that opens up on Thursday.
Oh, those are just the county fairs.
There's a downtown Beloit street dance on Friday.
There's Jack Pine Savage days coming to Spooner, Blues on the Chippewa in Durand, Brought Days in Sheboygan, Goat Fest in Jefferson.
I could go on and on.
Goatfest.
Travelwisconsin.com would be one way for you to learn more about what's happening.
Or you could just listen to more from Sheila Everhart from the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association and Hans Brighton Moser, a dairy farmer from up in Lincoln County, to either second one of these.
or throw out some more of their own.
Han, Sheila, good morning.
Nice to see you both.
Good morning, Pat.
Lincoln County fairs, August 6th through the 10th.
There you go.
Will you be showing?
Will you be hurling on the rides?
What do you do at the fair there?
I plan to visit the beer tent.
Oh, you're
taking the Crite Law approach.
I see.
Yes.
That is exactly right.
You're my inspiration as usual and that's exactly where you'll find me.
Not, you know, before noon or anything weird like you might know, you know, in the evenings, in the evenings.
Come on.
It's like I say, you can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning.
So, Sheila, I know you've got, I mean, you've got so many there to list as well.
Not to mention, what is it for?
um farm technology days coming up before long
right so i'd like to talk about the rock county fair just concluded and that was a great event but jamesville and rock county is
famous because they hosted the first Wisconsin State Fair in 1851, 174 years ago.
And that first Wisconsin State Fair hosted about 13,000 people and they had a 200 pound squash that people were just excited about.
But today the Wisconsin State Fair is an 11 day event and it hosts over a million
people.
And it is a great economic impact for our state.
But I want to talk to you a little bit today about the farmers that are involved with the Wisconsin State Fair.
And there is something called the House of Moo.
And that is the place where you can get the best beverage at the state fair for only a dollar.
And you can get flavored milk that could be root beer is a new flavor.
your cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake, chocolate, cookies and cream.
So make sure that you have your dollars and get that best glass of milk that is fresh from the Cozy Nook Farms that is an agricultural tourism destination in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the Oberhaus and the Garrett's family, Milk 80 Swiss jerseys and Holstein cows.
to get you that farm fresh milk every day that is pasteurized with prairie farms and brought to you to the Wisconsin State Fair.
So that is just amazing.
But Pat, here's another something that most of our audience doesn't know.
The Wisconsin State Fair is actually governed by a foundation and a board.
And it's in our state statutes chapter 42.
And state statute 42 says other government agencies such as DADCAP and the Department of Tourism are encouraged and responsible for help supporting our Wisconsin State Fair.
Well, there you go.
I mean, it's solidified.
And so is the fun.
The fun is mandatory as well.
And so now once we get past the fairs and festivals, we've also got, coming up next week, Farm Technology Days, which is going to be in Bear Creek this time around.
Sheila, before you talk about specifically this event, Hans, I know that you've talked about Farm Technology Days, previously known as Farm Progress Days.
Yep.
Is there still value in that having these statewide shows where farmers can come and learn things and see things
that are
specific to farming that you can vouch for these?
Oh, absolutely.
Absolutely.
And I mean, I have a bias because I find them to be great fun.
Not only are they informational for me, but they're sort of entertainment.
Yeah, I mean, as the name states, it's technology.
You get to see all the new technology that's out there, um, kick tires and, and, you know, visit, you know, a lot, a lot of the fun is visiting with farmers that you haven't seen for a while that you bump into at farm tech days, uh, from different parts of the state where, you know, that you otherwise might not see.
So there's, you know, there's not that beer tent kind of vibe, but, but it's a different kind of fun.
Yeah.
A little bit more business like it'll be, uh, in Bear Creek at Clinton farms, just West Ohio.
way 45, August 5th, 6th and 7th.
Sheila, what else can you tell us about it?
Well, this is just an amazing story because the Clinton family is third and fourth generation of hosting farm technology days.
They hosted the
I think we might have Sheila.
Did we lose your audio there?
Oh,
there we go.
There you go.
You're back.
Oh, I'm
so sorry.
Let me speak a little louder.
I was saying about the Clinton family being absolutely amazing.
They hosted the farm technology days in 1978, the 25th.
And then they waited until the 50th show in 2003 and hosted farm technology days again.
And so then this year in 2025, they are hosting
farm technology days for the third time, and not only that, but they're bringing first, second, third, and fourth generation family members to be host of this three-day event, bringing thousands of people to Bear Creek.
And what's interesting about today, the farm now, milk 750 cows, and they will have a rotary parlor.
that people can view a 50-stall rotary milking parlor.
They will have harvesting demonstrations and much more.
What is also interesting about the Clinton farms is they raise 100 acres of cabbage.
And cabbage is a very important crop in Wisconsin.
especially yeah if you like your coleslaw or sauerkraut or any anything like that let's let's cover there's also going to be a lunch and learn with the wisconsin christmas tree producers in the maryl area august 15th uh so han's been a lookout for that you never know what kind of attendees will be coming by your place first but i i don't want to miss uh the some time to talk about some of the state laws and regulations that
you're looking at perhaps having addressed as well whether it's private event rental spaces on small family farms or allowing farm stays otherwise known as camping as ways to diversify the farm business model of Sheila.
So even though the state budget has passed us there are now standalone bills that legislators could work on to address these areas, correct?
Yes, and we're really looking for our Republican friends at Madison to help us bring forward a trailer bill to X73 so we can correct some of the difficult situations that the current language.
offers the working family farm so that they can continue to have that additional revenue stream by offering a rental of their space.
These farms do not want to be taverns.
They do not want to have a liquor license.
Currently, the law stated that if you have a private event invitation only event on private property, the couple could bring in
their beverages that would be gifted to their guest through an open bar and there was no need for a liquor license.
Now 99% of all of the
agricultural event venues, make sure that the couples hire licensed bartenders to make sure it's safe.
And they also ask them to have insurance policy for gifting alcohol to their guests, so that is purely safe and no issues.
Okay.
And, and Hans, you know, we've talked a bit about this if
It doesn't have to be one specific thing like, you know, camping or events, but this whole notion of the ability to diversify.
Sometimes it's different crops, but sometimes it's different things that are going on on the farm.
And farmers are looking what just for flexibility from the legislature.
Yeah, I think so.
I mean, Sheila knows more about these things than I do in terms of the legislative part of it.
But bottom line is these are dollars that get to bounce around in rural economies and they allow farmers to diversify.
And the other thing that I think is important sort of from a, I don't know, maybe nostalgia standpoint or what have you is that
A lot of these old two-story bank barns in my neighborhood have either burnt down over the years or just fallen in such disrepair because it costs a lot of money to keep one alive and it costs a lot of money to tear one down.
So a lot of people who own barns like this are kind of stuck and it sure would be nice to have some opportunities and some options and keeping these structures alive for the historical sense of it.
And maybe the way to do that for some people is to be able to host events in these beautiful structures.
And now Sheila has included a link to a site where you can sign a letter of support to legislators about changing the law.
It's a rather lengthy website.
And so Parker is going to put it in the show notes later, but you can click on it, read about it and perhaps sign it in support as well.
Sheila, that's what you're looking is that sign of support for legislators.
Yes, we would love for everyone to click on the Institute for Justice Quorum.
It'll send a letter right to your.
Senator and your representative by just placing your name.
And then we also have a petition on change.org so that we can offer farm stays.
Previously in 217, prior to that, there was no required campground license if you had zero to three sites, rustic campsite on property, private property, and then in 217 that law was changed.
and it was changed without a lot of information.
So we want to change back because
people want to stay overnight on a farm.
They want to have that experience.
They want to tour a farm.
They want to stay overnight.
They want to farm stay.
They want to pick up eggs in the morning and then have a farm breakfast.
Well, sure.
But Hans is also going to put you to work.
I mean, those cows aren't going to milk themselves.
I'm just kidding.
Definitely do this.
We will have again a link to that in the show notes.
Hans, appreciate you sticking around because you got to start third cutting of hay today, right?
That is correct.
We're going to start chopping our third crop today.
We got
little rain last night so that's gonna delay things a little bit but we should be able to get started
today.
Alright and learn more about what Sheila's telling you from the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association.
Sheila, thank you so much as always.
Great to see you.
Thank you for having me and get out there and experience your Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Adventure today.
Thanks
guys and have a great day.
Thanks Sheila and thank you Hans.
We'll be back with a local update for some of you for other state representative Angela Stroud.
You're up north.
You're listening to Civic Media.
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We have a weekday version one that our intern Henry is putting together for us.
race weekly and then I've got my Sunday morning one about Wisconsin politics, also a question of the week all the time.
And of course, I'm also working on a new website story, a headline, something along the lines of who's running for governor.
it may take less time to tell you who's not running for governor.
We go through at last count, I think 19 different names on there of people who may run for governor, who are running for governor, who have said they probably won't run for governor, including a couple of surprises.
I was asking around yesterday with folks and saying, you know, give me a long shot.
Give me a surprise that might be running and we just don't know about it yet.
And some interesting thoughts on that from folks.
So we've got a long way until nomination papers have to be taken out.
That's April 15th of next year.
They have to be turned in by June 1st if memory serves.
And so that's when we'll know who the official candidates are.
But from now until then, a lot of people making announcements one way or another.
So.
By all means, continue to follow what we're doing through our newsletter and on our website upnorthnewswi.com and in our social media feeds as well.
During the commercial break, I can confirm the breaking news that State Representative Angela Stroud of Ashland is not running for governor.
I found one who's not getting in the race to this point.
Representative Stroud, good morning.
How are you?
Good morning.
I'm well.
Thank you.
Well good.
It's part of our way up north segment that we're now doing in this time slot on Tuesdays.
It's great to get some perspective from much closer to Lake Superior where life is, this should be my new slogan, life is just a little cooler up there.
it's it's cool by
the lake and
it's usually it's just a cool place to be as well so you've you've come through the state budget process and of course the governor Evers announcement let's take them in a reverse order here let's start start with your reaction to the governor's announcement and then we're going to go back and talk a bit about the state budget and the issues with that whole process but first you take on the governor not running for a third term
I really didn't know in the days leading up whether he was going to run or not.
People said, what's your gut feeling?
And I'm like, ugh, don't have one.
I'm really 50-50 on it.
Tony Evers is a true public servant.
He's not one who was in this for ego, not one who had a really hard time letting go of power, I think.
And so he did this to serve.
He really served well.
He, you know, two terms is a lot for a governor.
It's a really hard job.
He deserves to spend time with his family.
He's a truly decent person who I think just wants to go back and be a grandpa and a husband and live life and enjoy it.
So I'm really happy for him that he gets to do that and grateful for his service.
And now we get into the mixed bag of politics and that is to be thankful for his service, but he has faced a fair share of criticism as have others who are part of the state budget process that it didn't turn out the way that perhaps it could have, depending on how people use their leverage or their negotiating skills or what have you and the, you know, you going through the state budget process for the first time, is it fair to say it wasn't.
It wasn't the most positive experience now that you've seen how the sausage is made firsthand?
That is very fair to say.
This is not how you should run a state.
And, you know, there are people involved in these negotiations who I would refer to them as lions, but that's an insult to lions.
They're willing to do whatever it takes to retain power, hold on to power, get what they want.
And so, you know, I said Tony versus a truly decent person That's not true of many of the people he's negotiating with and so it's it's a really really difficult thing to watch the budget process It is not good governance things thrown in at the last minute that could never pass if they had to go through the regular legislative process
It's disturbing.
It's not how I hope we do things in the future.
But if it is how we do things, then Democrats need to get really savvy about making it work for us and making the best choices we possibly can in a context where we don't always control the rules.
Yeah, especially when you consider that the state budget bill, that's the one bill that must pass, you know, theoretically.
And so it gets so much shoved into it that, like you say, would never pass as a standalone measure.
For me, the most obvious of those would be the voucher school program.
In 30 years until two years ago, it never was up as a standalone bill.
It was always crammed into a budget bill.
And that's how it got to be the behemoth that it is now.
So we have the model that we're going to have for a while yet, and it is a matter of, again, how you're using leverage and negotiations.
But now that that window is closed for this session, what are your priorities in terms of, you know, trailer bills, follow-up bills, or just, you know, separate legislation that you want to be working on?
There's so much.
I mean, there's big picture of stuff.
You know, a lot of what Democrats are doing right now is preparing to govern after the next election.
We know Robin Boss is not going to move any Democratic idea forward in the assembly.
That's just a fact.
He's made that very clear.
And so what we're doing now is setting the groundwork for when dynamics change.
I mean, we'll keep trying.
There's no quit in assembly Democrats, but...
And so for me, there are good governance issues to work on.
There are specific pieces of legislation around air quality and environmental issues.
There's specific legislation around the UW system.
And so I'm working on a range of things.
For me, it's always district specific.
And, you know, the 73rd has some problems to solve, and that's what I'm here for.
Well, yeah.
did not have a uh so we say a representative voice for a time because of gerrymandered maps because uh and now we have uh some leadership that is going into this thing and well as much as you want to be productive you know with the capital p sometimes a lot of it is just simply setting the table for next year and
letting
voters know well if democrats were in charge this is what we would do and so when people say why do you get do these things when you're in the minority you have to leave a record that's the whole point of what you're doing here it sounds like
Yeah.
Well, you've got to show voters what we could be doing, what's at stake.
And if voters understood what happens in Madison more, which is why I so appreciate what you're doing with civic media, if they understood it, Republicans wouldn't win another election in the state because they're not looking out for people.
And so what we're trying to do is make that contrast, make it clear what we would be doing, which is governing responsibly for the people of the state and accountably.
Like you said, vouchers could never pass openly.
And yet it's been one of the biggest priorities of that party.
That is not democratic.
It's irresponsible.
We're just very different.
From Alicia on YouTube.
I always love hearing from Representative Straut.
She gives such intelligent and well thought out answers.
And that's just some of the fan mail that we get here from State Representative Angela Straut from Ashland.
Thanks for visiting with us today.
Appreciate it so much.
Any time.
Thanks for having me.
All right.
Have a great day.
We'll have Dan Schaefer from the Reconpopulation Area coming up in the next hour of these mornings powered by Up North News on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pat Krightlum.
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