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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.
Good morning, it's 8.06.
It's nice to have you here up north for our eight o'clock hour on this Wednesday, July 30th.
Parker Olson produces us down in Madison in Studio A2 and meteorologist Brittany Merlot will be joining us in just a sec.
Coming up shortly, we'll be talking to Civic Media's Earl Ingram about his podcast, what's going on, including some of the guests and stories that they are telling.
Then in our next half hour.
is our weekly climate check where Melissa Baldoff and I talk about climate headlines.
Well, we're bringing in a little help this time around.
Melissa and I will be talking to former U.S.
Attorney Jim Santel.
You normally hear him Friday mornings and of course he has amicus, the show of his every Saturday and then replayed on Sunday mornings.
And we're going to talk about the climate crisis in court, courts around the world and here in the U.S.
and looking for other ways to prod along
the process of, you know, not killing our planet and seeing if we can get it done in courts instead of in Congress.
That's ahead in the next half hour.
But first, back to meteorologist Brittney Merleau, who is following some rain, essentially working its way from, what, Warsaw to not Warsaw.
Am I trying to say lacrosse to Steven's point to Appleton anywhere south of there?
You got a little busy radar except at first I was I thought there was something wrong with my radar that the screen was kind of like fuzzy then I zoomed out and I realized that's like Almost all of Wisconsin's covered in a in a watch box for air quality.
It's gonna be one of those days again today, Brittany
It really is.
I mean, it depends where you are in the state.
If you're up north, you're going to be battling the thicker wildfire smoke.
The air quality is unhealthy.
It is in the red levels right now, pretty much from Green Bay through Wausau into Eau Claire and north.
So those are the areas that have less likely chances of getting rain today.
Now a pop-up shower or storm is possible later this afternoon and into this evening.
A very, very small chance, like a 20% chance.
I'm throwing it out there just so it doesn't surprise you.
Also this morning up north,
foggy conditions, spots of some shine, but again those rain and storms pushing through the southern part of the state.
Right now it's pretty heavy right outside of Milwaukee.
In the next 30 to 40 minutes or so the heaviest of the rain will be over downtown and we are looking at anywhere from a half an inch to an inch and a quarter from this just little wave pushing through and we've more rain throughout the afternoon and it continues into this evening before it winds down far south.
overnight tonight.
So we could see some flooding potential.
There is a watch in northern Illinois.
We are kind of included that on the state line as well.
Now, the watch hasn't been issued, but I'm letting you know that the precipitation values are definitely there.
We could get up to two and a half possible.
So some gusty winds to up to 50 miles per hour have been seen early this morning.
Again, this is for far southern parts of the state today where you're seeing that system really track through up north.
We're seeing that Northwest freeze and that wildfire smoke, but highs all across the board today will be in the mid to upper 70s.
The further north you are, the warmer you're going to get further south, the more clouds and much cooler.
But overall tomorrow, the rain clears on out.
Wildfire smoke wants to stick around, but we stay crisp and comfortable.
I feel like, yes, you're getting it all out of your system.
You and Mother Nature are telling you all the stuff.
And then tomorrow it'll just be quiet.
Just be talking about.
More tranquil weather.
We won't need as many verbs and adjectives for it all.
I can't wait.
You've definitely earned it.
Thank you, Brittany.
Have a great day.
Thanks, you too.
All right.
Let's turn our attention now to Earl Ingram.
He's got the What's Going On podcast.
You can get it over at CivicMedia.us.
Click on shows where you can see not only all of the regular weekday shows, the weekend shows, but also special podcasts as well.
And we are very blessed to have Earl doing that for us.
Earl, joining us now to talk about what he's working on this week.
Earl, good morning.
How are you?
I'm doing fine.
How are you, Pat?
I'm doing all right.
Thanks.
Let's start by looking at the the podcast here that you're working on.
And the the working title here is Dreams Deferred.
And I want to hear more about the decades worth of community issues that you're looking at in the latest edition of your podcast.
So Dreams Deferred is a book that describes six decades.
of discrimination against African Americans in the trades, especially the construction trade industry.
And it certainly has been an area that, you know, has brought some alarms to people who've been talking about this for a long time.
The trades happen to be an area where there's a strong middle class
reality that is garnered from the trades, a steam, fitter, electrician, plumber, carpenter.
Those types of jobs are guaranteed strong middle class.
They don't require a college degree.
You don't have to go into debt to become a tradesperson.
And once you become a journeyman, tradesperson,
Like I always say they can never take that education away from you for life and the other aspect of this is while all other jobs seem to be endangered by AI the trades are one area that I'm ever going to be taken away by technology and so They've been able to find and track this and see that these trades have basically once you're in
Your children are in your grandchildren are in and this is passed down through families then Unfortunately like so many other things blacks weren't involved in it early on and so they're not involved in it now and Where this becomes a big issue is when there are contracts that are governmental contracts That and taxpayers that don't include people of color
Is it when you talk about, you know, the, it says here, the promise of a people is postponed, rejected or overlooked.
And you talk to a couple of NAACP members who authored the book, Dreams Deferred.
What is it specifically?
Because again, like you said, you can't take that education away.
Is the problem attaining the education or that once they have that education in in skilled trades, that it's hard to find work?
Well, so what actually happens is there are many people are qualified through the educational process what it is is once you You know once you get that education now you must go yourself and seek employment and There is no automatic in if you have it you have to go to some firm or some company and try to get in
And so that's where the problem lies.
There is no tracking of that.
And so, you know, it's between you and you brokering the deal yourself with whoever that company is, that construction company is, or whomever.
And so, you know, there is no tracking of that.
And that's where the problem lies.
Okay, we're talking to Earl Ingram and he's talking about his podcast.
What's going on?
You can get that at civicmedia.us slash shows or just go to the homepage and click on shows and dreams deferred includes the guests Frieda Web and Paul Blackman.
And that's one of the topics that you can find in Earl's podcast.
But Earl, I also want to ask you about an ongoing problem.
in Milwaukee that is so overdue to be addressed.
It gets talked about a lot.
And it's pedestrian deaths from reckless driving, but also from police chases.
And it just, again, seems like, I don't want to use the term, how is this a thing?
But I almost feel like, you know, the old style police chase is not something that is as necessary as it used to be.
So far over 10 years, I have been
outspoken about police chases.
I've never understood why with the new technology, police have to chase wayward guys in these cars who are running away from police.
I'm not supporting any criminal activities.
What I'm saying is why endanger the lives of innocent people because you want to make a collar.
and so now I think we're up to about seven here in Milwaukee already this year but this is again a national issue and the fact that you know there there are different ways you know that you can make this happen without chasing someone through a red light well I know the police say well we we saw that he was driving recklessly and we chased him and and we saw it
It looked like he was going to keep going and he's doing 80 miles an hour and now we finally called it off.
Well, you should have thought about that before you started chasing somebody in a heavy populated area at three in the afternoon where people are getting off worker or innocent citizens are crossing the streets.
And so this, again, is not a solely a Milwaukee problem.
This is a national problem.
And if anybody wants to look it up, it's been going on for a long, long time all over this nation.
And we're at a point where something has to be done.
And now there are people who support it until it's their loved one who has lost their life.
Well, yeah.
And again, you don't it's not.
Two wrongs don't make a right, is what I'm trying to say here.
You don't save lives by going after a reckless driver, by also engaging in reckless driving.
You're simply encouraging the problem when there are ways through, again, there's license plate cameras, there's all kinds of other tracking, there's drones especially, you name it, that we should be seeing a reduction in these kinds of episodes rather than an increase with such deadly results.
There's one more episode I wanted to ask you about.
You have your friend Dr. Omar on, the pharmacist occasionally, just talking about, you know, promoting good health practices.
And I always enjoy seeing that because again, we can talk about politics all day.
We can talk about the problems in our communities all day.
But every so often, we have to be reminded to take good care of ourselves.
And I always like that you make a little time for that as well.
So this episode is really an important episode.
Because what happens is there are people who are being turned down.
Doctor prescribes medication for you and Medicare or other insurance companies are the arbiters of whether or not you get that medication.
And so there's this situation that occurs where, okay, so the doctor prescribed the medication for you.
You're waiting to get the medication.
you go to the pharmacy, the pharmacist says, well, this hasn't been okay.
And so time goes on, weeks go on, you don't get the medication that was prescribed to you by your doctor.
And now you're caught in this black hole between the insurance company and the doctor.
And I'm sure many people in your listening audience have had to deal with this.
So we addressed that issue.
It is an ongoing problem, a major problem between the insurance company and the doctor on whether or not they're going to cover medications that are prescribed by the doctor.
Really important conversation that we had.
Okay, and that's the point is to be you sometimes you've got to be your own best healthcare Advocate and get that advice and that guidance from Dr. Omar the pharmacist and from Earl Ingram on the what's going on podcast head over to civicmedia.us Click on shows and look for it and subscribe there Earl as always I appreciate the chance to catch up.
Thank you very much.
Hope you have a great rest of your week out there
You
as well.
All right.
Thank you very much.
A local update is going to be coming up next for some of you.
And then when we're all back together in about 15 minutes or so, we'll have our climate check segment with Melissa Baldov, including a special guest this time around.
because we're going to talk about the ways that climate issues are finding their ways into courts increasingly, both here in the states and in other countries.
And even the world court is taking on the issue of a changing climate and what constitutes justice for people whose health is being imperiled by those who care less about our climate and our atmosphere than they should.
That's all ahead here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
How about those Brewers beaten up on the Cubs last night, nine to three, including a grand slam by Andrew Vaughn, who's only been in the big leagues for three weeks since the Brewers called him up.
He now has 21 RBIs.
The only hitter with more is the Phillies superstar Kyle Schwerber.
Vaughn had six runs batted in last night, four of them with one swing of the bat, a grand slam that sealed the deal for the Brewers to beat the Cubs nine to three.
Brewers are sitting on the best record in baseball.
They've won 15 out of their last 18 games, including that 11-game winning streak.
They're now two games up on the Cubs on top of the National League Central Division, and they are going to be going for the sweep this afternoon at American Family Field.
Pre-game coverage begins at 1235 on Civic Media Stations in Oshkosh, Racine Kenosha, Park Falls, Hayward, Richland Center, and
can't wait to talk about it tomorrow morning, hopefully with some good news to pass along.
Story that I didn't have time to cover with Earl here is coming out of the legislature and that is the notion of setting up a task force to study why black women and girls face a disproportionate likelihood of being murdered.
You might recall that in past legislative sessions, Representative Sheila Stubbs of Madison has introduced a bill to create a Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Task Force within the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
Now the Department of Justice already has as well a task force on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
But that was created by State Attorney General Josh Call.
And at the time, there was federal money available for that from the Federal Violence Against Women Act.
Because there is no such federal funding for doing this for black women, it would, Josh Call says, be better to have this created by an act of the legislature.
But in the last session, despite
bipartisan approval of creating such a task force, the bill didn't pass.
It was referred in the state senate to a committee that was chaired by now former state senator Dewey Strobel of Cedarburg and he said the bill was well intentioned but
In his words, I believe every person who is missing or murdered deserves equal justice under the law.
I have a difficult time legislating in a way that allows government to prioritize justice based on a victim's race or gender.
Perhaps the whitest thing that a white man could say in the Wisconsin legislature last year.
Because it's not a problem for his community.
It is the people who answer Black Lives Matter with, well, all lives matter.
without looking at the disproportionate amount of violence done to blacks through police violence and through actions that go beyond the scope of their training.
Similarly, you have a disproportionate number of African American women and girls who go missing or who end up being murdered.
and a task force would look at the reasons behind that violence and make recommendations to reduce that violence.
It would appropriate $80,000 for one full-time Department of Justice staff member who would oversee the initiative.
And if anything that they would work out in terms of recommendations could in any way lead to the saving of lives, how is that a bad thing?
So this time around, Representative Stubbs is going to try it again, and perhaps with Dewey Strobel no longer in the Wisconsin State Senate, this bipartisan bill may have a chance of passing this time around.
Jim Santel is a former U.S.
attorney.
He's going to join Melissa Boldoff in our next segment.
You talk about climate matters, but he's here now for a couple of minutes early.
Just talk about something else out of Washington, DC here.
Jim, good morning.
How are you?
The question I have for you here is the latest.
person associated affiliated with Donald Trump who now has a lifetime appointment as a federal judge despite whistleblowers and warning bells all about this person Amel Bovee or Bovee I'm not really sure but again a Trump loyalist now with a lifetime appeals federal appeals court judgeship
This did not come out of the blue.
There were people that warned that this is a guy who, correct me if I'm wrong, has been part of the purge of career prosecutors in the U.S.
Department of Justice.
not all of us, but many of us first witnessed him sitting next to Donald Trump.
He was one of Donald Trump's two principal attorneys in that Manhattan courtroom when he was charged with those 34 felonies for which he was convicted.
He was the former personal attorney, along with Todd Blanche, who is our deputy attorney general now, personal attorney's attorney-client relationship with
then private citizen Donald Trump now president.
He comes into the administration early on.
He is inside the office of the deputy attorney general.
Again, his boss, his colleague from back in Manhattan courtroom days.
And he is the one who very early on is the principal architect.
and a person who terminates many of the employees along the way under his tutelage, so to speak, under his supervision, terminating the employment of Assistant United States Attorneys.
who were responsible for the January 6th prosecution, more recently, also terminating the employees who worked with Jack Smith on those two cases involving Donald Trump, the Mar-a-Lago matter, the January 6th matter.
And he has also been an architect of many of the things inside the Department of Justice that changed dramatically, dramatically the relationship, number one, between the White House and the Department.
And also, Pat, all your listeners,
and the government because he has got a whole new set of principles contrary to the mores and principles of partner justices for years and years.
As you indicated, he is now going to be sworn in as an appeals court judge, the third circuit that's basically Pennsylvania, New Jersey, a few other states out there, Virgin Islands as well, and a lifetime tenure on the federal appeals court, one court below the United States Supreme Court.
And it does, again, it gets in the way of the traditional independence of the Justice Department and does again show the potential for politicization of court orders to advance what an incumbent president wants to do, not necessarily what the Constitution says.
Jim Santel will be back with us with Melissa Baldoff and we will have this week's climate check coming up next on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Quick reminder here that UpNorth News is a separate entity from our friends at Civic Media.
UpNorth News is part of Courier, a pro-democracy newsroom with outlets in several states, including Wisconsin, also affiliated with several newsletters, podcasts, video series.
Let me tell you about a couple of them really quick.
You know our friend Mark Jacob is here on Friday mornings.
He has a newsletter called Stop the Presses.
All about how right-wing extremism has exploited the weaknesses in American journalism and what we can do about it.
This week's issue is entitled Why the Washington Post is Dead to Me and Why I Haven't Cancelled the New York Times Despite Its Flaws.
And then there's Control Alt-Right Delete by Melissa Ryan, a weekly newsletter that is also devoted to covering the rise of far-right extremism, white nationalism, disinformation, and online toxicity.
and her newsletter this week is titled Swapping Satire for Substack.
Stephen Colbert is out and legacy media continues to erode.
So get those and all the other products that are put forth by Courier over at CourierNewsroom.com.
So we mentioned Mark Jacobs normally here on Fridays.
So is Jim Santel, a former U.S.
attorney, but he's with us right now, along with Melissa Baldoff for this week's climate check.
Melissa, good morning.
How are you?
good.
It's nice to introduce you to Jim here because We've been talking a lot about how since the Trump administration took office there.
There's it
We don't get to talk anymore about initiatives coming out of Washington, D.C., coming out of Congress.
And so instead, the battle for a better climate has moved to the courtrooms, and Jim's going to fill us in on cases across the U.S.
and, frankly, across the world.
But, Melissa, let's start with you, just to illustrate that, look, even when there's a hostile entity like a president or a Congress,
There are still different ways to do work.
We've said at the local level, for example, courts are another option.
There's always an opportunity to try to do better and try to have a better, I guess, planet for lack of a better term.
There are always opportunities.
You just look to the local and state governments that we see doing work.
You look at
neighborhoods and communities who are committed and who haven't given up and are continuing the fight and are not letting what's happening at the federal level stop them from continuing to move forward because what we can't afford to do is put
put our progress on hold for four years because we don't have partners in in dc anymore uh we know that's not what the rest of the world is doing um you know they're going to be uh you know leaving us behind um we're going to be outliers here again uh by not taking the climate crisis seriously and by um you know refusing to acknowledge it um and by you know uh in fact the trump administration yesterday um you know
moving to, you know, repeal the, you know, scientific declaration that acknowledges that humans are driving climate change.
You know, they don't want to acknowledge anymore the just basic science.
So, yeah, we are having to look to others.
to see that progress because we're not seeing it from the federal government.
Which really makes it an issue, Jim, of justice.
And so we can talk about the US cases in a sec, but you are the one that alerted me that even the world court is involved in the climate crisis to a degree.
Tell us what they have been doing and talking about there.
We sometimes call it the World Court.
It's at the Hague.
And just last week, a 15-member panel of the court, a unanimous court, basically said an awful lot of things in the legal sense that Melissa just commented about.
They find that the failure of nations, yes, that includes us, but failure of nations across the globe to take action to protect our climate system generally,
may constitute, as they said, an internationally wrongful act.
That's an awful lot, awful close to coming to describing that kind of conduct, because criminal also finds the production of the environment as a precondition for get this, ensuring human rights, and cited the support of by governments of fossil fuel production as a potential violation of human rights.
And again, this is the first time that the world court
This is a part of the United Nations, has spoken out about this.
It is a big deal, and it plainly sends a message that legitimate judicial people looking at this, they just roll out beds some morning, they conducted hearings, they had what we would call trials, and they come up with this conclusion not only about the obligation, but if you don't do this, what you're doing not only to the planet, which is number one, of course, derivatively us, and also to human rights, which is a fascinating way of looking at that,
as Melissa just said, then we've got juxtaposed to that, our Environmental Protection Agency here in this country going in just the opposite direction, rescinding this 2009 notion, um, endangerment finding.
It's the basis on which all of our attempts and our, uh, uh, undertakings to address greenhouse gases have proceeded.
It's basically that way of, of ensuring that tailpipe emissions are somewhat reduced.
That
The EPA is rescinding and for that reason the rules that would encourage electric cars and encourage a diminution of our air pollution that we're abandoning here in America.
Completely different approaches, one playing the completely wrong, one sending us some inspiration and some motivation to do something about this horrific problem.
And Melissa, when we talk about this from a human rights and a legal standpoint of other nations being wronged, there are different ways to come at this.
It's not just that in some other nations, smaller nations, that now their air is dirtier.
But frankly, I can say this from my short time living in the Cayman Islands and in other countries, they did not do anything to exacerbate the fact that sea levels are rising.
and endangering, you know, their very way of life, their very way of life.
And it's no longer like some incidental thing like, oh, we didn't understand that our smokestacks were going to cause problems for your countries.
they now know the science is there.
So I feel like there's for laymen like you and me, there is a strong underpinning for a case to be made in court about, you know, getting countries to be more responsible with their emissions with their output with their conduct overall.
This isn't a situation like you said, where we were not aware, you know, the US is one of the
We're one of the biggest polluters in the world and we are very aware of what we're doing.
The science is there, everyone, for the most part, maybe I guess not everyone, but most people are acknowledging that this is what is causing the emissions or what's causing climate change and causing these adverse health impacts that are leading to
adverse economic impacts.
And we're aware
of
There's no argument that anyone is presenting.
There's no serious fact-based, evidence-based arguments to the contrary to say that humans aren't driving climate change with our actions and what we're doing.
There's no...
No other fact-based evidence-based argument here that anyone is presenting.
So it is incredibly, I think, very selfish and irresponsible that we aren't taking any steps to mitigate this, not only for what we're doing to people in this country, but what we're doing to the rest of the world.
We have a responsibility to everybody.
It's kind of, to me, it's like...
what we know about smoking cigarettes now.
It's not just harming you.
It's harming everybody else.
If you're smoking cigarettes in a car with kids, that's not just harming the person that's smoking the cigarettes.
You are exposing the kids in that car to all that secondhand smoke, which is going to be dangerous to them too.
So I think we have to be really mindful of what our actions are in this country and how they are impacting
the rest of the world, because it's not, we're not isolated here.
What we do is impacting everybody else.
And Pat, if I could follow up on Melissa's comment about harm, it is stunning to hear that this administration is withdrawing what Melissa and I have talked about.
You've also commented about this rescission of the endangerment finding.
You know, are they justifying this?
They're saying that the present climate regulations that Melissa's talking about actually pose real harm to human health.
Why?
Because it will lead to higher prices and reduced consumer choices.
That's the basis upon which they're rescinding these regulations.
It's a stunning turning up on its head of the whole notion of harm beyond our borders and to other people.
Oh, it's I mean, it's it's Alice in Wonderland type stuff here, Jim.
So we've let's move from the world court to more traditional courts here in the States.
But I noticed that there was a similar case in in Italy.
But there are cases in in New York and in Hawaii.
And they're in court because you have what essentially a group of plaintiffs saying that these companies and or these governments again, know that there are dangers.
And yet they're, they're creating hazards anyway.
Congress won't do anything about it so we want this court to do something about it.
Is that kind of capturing what's happening in these state lawsuits?
That's
capturing it perfectly and thankfully our environmental laws in this country do give private parties, entities, individuals.
groups of people.
It's called a private right of action to bring these lawsuits.
All they need to show, of course, we've talked a lot about this, Pat, is standing, which means, have I been endangered?
Have I been damaged in some way?
And they plainly, in all those lawsuits you mentioned, say, yes, indeed, by virtue of what, and you fill in the blank, whether the defendants are the producers of the environmental harm, they are causing me harm, that's standing.
And now I am asking.
this judicial branch of our nation, different states to come in and direct these defendants to do all kinds of remedial things.
That's what the EPA standards have always traditionally been about.
That's the basis upon which the Congress has in prior years passed legislation, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, all those kinds of things.
That's the basis upon which these are proceeding.
We know as well that just in the last term, the previous term to this one,
The Supreme Court basically smacked down the Biden administration when it came to its good neighbors policy.
Again, following up on Melissa's point, this notion that there are portions of our nation, typically us Midwest, that produce these horrific gases in our airs.
They drift across the country, prevailing westerlies and affect other parts.
Supreme Court said last term, that's too much.
That's too big.
That's too novel.
The president can't do that.
Only Congress can do it.
Well, if that's the case, then Congress is not acting.
Private individuals have got to get into the fray here as they have been doing and attack this problem.
So final question and off the throat back at you, Jim, and because I'm sure Melissa is wondering this too.
I mean, we saw this happen with big tobacco that eventually it was courts that said you are liable and you need to fix this somehow.
Is that something we could eventually be seen with, you know, fossil fuel companies and or governments?
And especially if we get what's called discovery, and we find out in these civil cases, not criminal cases, civil cases, we get the emails back and forth, those memorandums that we've seen in those other cases that say, hey, we know we're doing this.
But again, money is our big factor.
We've got to supply revenues to our shareholders, that kind of motivation, that prompts courts.
Again, I'd like to believe even in America, the 2025 and beyond, to do things to enjoin to stop those companies from doing what they're
doing, subject to appeal, subject to review.
But that's the way that these matters are being handled again, especially since right now, as you said, our own administration not taking these important issues on.
Most I'm always glad to talk to you about climate issues.
But I'm kind of glad you and I decided to check in with it with an actual attorney on this one.
I feel sorry for it.
We can talk about these things all day long, but somebody's actually got legal underpinnings for a segment like this.
Jim, thank you very much for joining us.
I'll
talk to you on
Friday.
And Melissa, thank you.
We'll talk next week.
Great.
Thanks.
All right.
A local update is coming up next for some of you.
And if that's the case, I'll see you tomorrow morning, 6 a.m.
for the rest of you.
Some final news and notes from around Lake Wissota, including civic media's James Kelly.
After this, you're up north.
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.
We have a busy show planned for you tomorrow as well.
Here on these mornings, powered by Up on Earth News on the Civic Media Radio Network, we'll talk to the executive director of the group, More Perfect Union, running a billboard campaign calling attention to billionaire tax cuts.
Because there are still plenty of folks out there that are hearing all about these cuts to Medicaid and SNAP and other programs and thinking, good, that'll benefit me.
No, it won't.
not even a little bit.
A lot of folks don't know just how much of this is going to go toward tax cuts for billionaires.
So we'll talk to somebody from more perfect union about that.
Also, Sharita Booker, Chad Holmes, Sean O'Malley talking about your money in the markets, Joseph Pecky, all that coming up tomorrow.
But right now, let's check in with James Kelly in our Civic Media Newsroom in Chippewa Falls for some of the stories that he is following.
How are you doing today?
Good morning, Pat.
Speaking of those billboards, I believe the first one's going up in Eau Claire next week.
Oh, well, there you go.
So keep keeping out for that in the Chippewa Valley.
Let's look at some other Western Wisconsin headlines and the first couple of them actually come from Barron County, where we already have a West Nile virus rearing its head.
Once again, it's tiny, tiny head through the mosquitoes that are infecting humans.
Yeah, the first human case in the state this year usually there's around 18 to 20 in a given year in Wisconsin and they start to crop up around this time of year when it's warm and mosquitoes get more active.
Luckily it cannot spread from human to human, only mosquito to human.
So if you limit your time outdoors, long sleeves, long pants, insect repellent, you should probably be okay.
Well, I mean, but again, West Nile is nothing to sneeze at here.
So while it's not one of those human to human things, it's still not something you would want, kind of like Lyme's disease, you know, as well from the ticks.
And so, like you said, proper safeguards are definitely called for here.
Also in Barron County is where we had that recent bear attack and the effort to track down the culprit, as it were.
Yeah, it's been about two weeks since the attack occurred the woman who was attacked is out of the hospital They say she's recovering well.
So that is good news up in Comstock It's been two weeks They've captured six bears and none of the bears were the one that was involved in the attack and they haven't seen any sign of it near the property So they've decided to end their trapping efforts and they'll continue to monitor the area and see if it turns up But for now it looks like this bear probably has retreated into the wilderness
or
or is no more.
If memory serves, an officer that showed up took a shot at the bear when it was up in the tree and, I guess, winged it.
But the bear was able to get down and get away.
But for all we know, all we know is it hasn't been seen lately and hopefully won't be again.
Nor
has the Cubs since that incident.
Yeah.
We'll continue to follow and hope that there aren't any other headlines out of that neck of the woods because of that bear attack.
Let's go down to Dunn County now, which you say here is seeking a designation as a hub zone.
A hub zone of what?
Yeah, so this is a push by Governor Tony Evers in the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation in a few counties to either have them redesignated like Sawyer County would be redesignated as a hub zone under these formal petitions and Dunn County would get designated as one for the first time.
These designations allow these areas to compete for federal contracts that are set aside.
So it's kind of a jobs growth, new projects that maybe you wouldn't be able to fund otherwise.
Another place where they're trying to get a hub zone design.
is up in Douglas County to prepare for the Blatonic Bridge Reconstruction Project, expecting some economic turmoil in the meantime while that major transportation corridor is shut down.
So it's just one of those ways where you can maybe get a little bit more investment in an area that typically has not been fully taken advantage of.
And that seems to have been a theme here today as we've talked about Beaver Dam, as we've talked about Chippewa Falls with Chad Trowbridge in the last hour from the school district about the economic health of communities.
And, you know, the need to be proactive.
You can't just sit there and wait for the next business, you know, the big.
next big employer to come along.
You have to be a little bit more aggressive and not just the private sector, but government officials as well, where possible, and that's where this hub zone designation might come into play.
We've talked before about what's happening in Altoona, the new attraction there, a new little place for civic gathering, shall we say?
Let's talk about the yard in Altoona and what it is.
Yeah, they had their grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony over the weekend.
It was a great event, a little hot for my liking, but I don't do well in the heat generally.
I did find some nice shade to avoid getting sunburned though.
It's been a long time coming this project.
City officials say it's been three years.
There were a lot of issues with, you know, how do you make shipping containers ADA compliant?
That's kind of a difficult thing to figure out, but it's open now and they're hoping it's going to both revitalize the downtown area and kind of provide maybe a soft launching point.
for businesses, restaurants, kind of little shops, say, build your customer base up here, there's low overhead, it's a small space, and you know, if you end up being pretty popular in the community, maybe you can expand your business into a more permanent location, and we can use this shipping container for another new business.
Look, there's no guarantee, but it only takes one thing that takes a chance in an area that can spur other development.
You've seen it not far away from that site, the River Prairie development along the 53 Bypass in Altoona and Eau Claire.
In downtown Eau Claire itself, it was RCU, Royal Credit Union, putting a new headquarters building there.
many years ago and that neighborhood that I never thought was going to be revitalized has been completely revitalized.
And the same could be said for using, you know, these containers for, for this new place in Altoona, that again, all it takes is one for somebody to say, you know what, I'm going to put my restaurant there.
I'm going to put my coffee shop there.
I'm going to put my, you know, craft shop there, whatever the case may be.
And next thing you know, you're taken off, but, you know, no guarantee, but
at least they're trying, and that's what every community needs to have.
Yeah, and it is aesthetically a really nice space.
The containers are set up very well.
There's a little live stage area.
There's kind of this overwatch that is another container that's up a flight of stairs, but it's air conditioned in there, which is great for people like me who don't do well in the heat at all.
And you can kind of look out over the whole area.
There's green space.
It's honestly, it turned out very well.
We've established again that we need to start a GoFundMe for air conditioning for James Kelly.
He does not like this heat.
We're going to try to take care of him a little bit further throughout the rest of the summer.
James, keep cool.
Thanks for checking in.
Have a great day out there.
Thanks, Pat.
All right.
And my thanks to today's guests.
Boy, we had a lot of them.
Melissa Gay, more importantly, Lelu.
Parker Lelu came to life.
Lelu!
on our show.
Chad Schroebridge, Melissa Baldoff, Jim Santel, Earl Ingram, Jimmy Koska, James Kelly, Brittany Merleau, and you for being a part of the show.
I'm Pat Critello.
Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday.
We'll see you tomorrow morning here up north.
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