Another Birthday, Another Death Watch (Hour 3)

Live, across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Kratlow powered by Up North News.

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

Well, hey there, Wisconsin.

Good morning.

It is 6 0 6 on this Tuesday morning.

It's August 5th.

Another beautiful morning to have you here up north live from Lake Wissota from wherever you're spending your mornings listening across the civic media radio network or on the app or catching us on social media.

Later by podcast on Spotify or Apple.

We're very happy that you've started your Tuesday right here.

I got a question for you.

Did you miss Parker Olson?

Don't worry.

He came back.

after an extended weekend.

He's down there in Madison Studio A2.

Welcome back, Mr. Olson.

It wasn't much of a vacation.

I mean, you were listening to the show yesterday morning.

I was listening.

Yeah.

I mean, I wouldn't listen to me if I didn't have to, but it's the sound that comes out of my pie hole here.

So, I mean, I've got to, whereas you did it by choice.

I was here to listen

to Greg and Dom more than anything, really.

I just wanted to see how they did.

Thanks.

Don't

worry.

I'm not here for you.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, great.

Very nice.

What did you do?

You had some extended family time?

A little bit, yeah.

So my, I believe it's my aunt's work.

My dad, my uncle, and my cousin that were in a golf outing yesterday at the WEA.

I think it's the members board foundation had a golf outing that we got to be a part of and it was a really good time.

We had a ton

of fun.

Oh,

that's right.

It was a golf outing.

How did you do?

Um as far as I know pretty good as far as you know Yeah, so here do you keep score or so here's the thing.

It's scramble so you all four you hit you play the best ball Okay, we I think we shot four under Which is like you did pretty fun.

We know I know we did I know we shot four under

okay,

but I don't know is when they announced to one They didn't say what the score was

So, we don't know if we lost by one or if we lost by like seven, we have no idea.

Okay.

And just the way you said that, I mean, you probably have no idea who Jack Benny is, much less watch any of his stuff, old-timey comedian, but he just has.

They don't even know if we won or lost.

It's great.

Perfect timing here.

Alicia thought that you were working, noting that you were commenting during the show.

She was on YouTube.

I swear he was working.

Tony posts up from Ashland.

Oh, thank goodness.

That replacement guy clearly had no idea what he was doing.

Greg, I think his name was.

Complete amateur.

Great.

We kid because we kid because we care.

It was nice to see Greg yesterday.

I had a great

time seeing him on the show.

Thank him and Dom for filling in and glad you made it back with absolutely.

No idea of how you actually did.

Thank you.

But it's that you had fun and that's that's what counts, right?

It was a very good.

It was genuinely it was So much more fun than I thought it was gonna be

it was

as good as we could have hoped for we had a really

good time

That's

really what I say anytime about golf is that it my only hope is that it turns out more fun than I hope it'll be Yeah, cuz I'm not a golfer

well when you're playing best ball before guys

Hopefully there's a good shot.

You would hope.

Okay.

Here's what's coming up on the program today.

The case of Texas legislators leaving the state in order to delay rigged Republican congressional maps is evoking memories of what happened here before Act 10 took, uh, took hold in 2011.

But the similarity actually goes a little deeper than that.

States are in these positions of what I call corrupt cartography.

because right-wing justices on the US Supreme Court a few years back would not step in when Wisconsin Republicans rigged our own maps right here during the Scott Walker administration.

You have to wonder if there is a path forward that doesn't involve a race to the bottom when it comes to politicians trampling on the rights of voters who, I mean, all they want is fair elections.

That's seriously all it is.

It's part of our question of the week in our Sunday newsletter.

Should blue states match red states to offset gerrymandering?

You can sign up for our Sunday morning newsletter over at upnorthnewswi.com.

Also, some progress is being made in Wisconsin communities that want to create a local network to ensure access to high speed internet service.

It's taken a little time because of restrictions from a Republican led legislature.

But in our seven o'clock hour, we're going to talk to the mayor of Superior, Jim Payne, the latest hometown to get a project started.

Also, last month, America marked 60 years of Medicare and Medicaid as a lifeline for the elderly and vulnerable.

And then not long after that, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

to ensure racial discrimination would find no place in the future of America's elections.

And yet, here we are in the future and racism in elections is back thanks to a politicized U.S.

Supreme Court and an all-out assault by a sitting president on anything resembling racial justice.

We're going to talk to Civic Media News Director Shaly Pittman to find out how recent events play a role in Wisconsin's elections too.

as we watch the slow dismantling of the Voting Rights Act.

Chad Holmes will be along from 98.9 WXCO in Warsaw.

Dan Hagen will be joining us from NewsWatch 12 and Rhinelander as well.

All that coming up throughout the course of the day.

And of course, you can join us as well.

If you're watching us on social media, on Facebook or YouTube, you can just put a little something in the comment section there.

We'll see it and maybe pop it up on screen here like we did for Alicia and Tony.

You can also use the Civic Media app.

just go to one of the stations where you're hearing us and click on the text button here and you can send us a note that way.

You can also use the voice note feature and record a little message to us as well.

You can also email us the radio, the email address is radio at upnorthnewswi.com.

From meteorologist Brittany Merleau, our state forecast, she says high pressure is still in place, but

The jet stream is shifting.

It's shifting our winds to kick up from the south and that's going to kick out a lot of the wildfire smoke.

Hallelujah!

However, those south winds are going to start turning things hot and humid for the second half of the week.

Partly sunny is the forecast for the state today.

Highs in the low 80s.

A southeast wind at 5 to 10.

partly cloudy tonight lows in the upper fifties to low sixties a light easterly wind just all in all a really nice not perfect summer forecast you know what with the smoke and everything but this is mighty darn close to it this is really a great time to you know do your your golfing parker camping biking whatever the case may be it's all good out there this time of year

and it's it's very nice so yesterday was really perfect it was

that smoke is so close to being gone.

It's, I can just, I can, my fingers are tingling, Pat.

I can sense it's almost gone and I'm almost far happier.

See, now when you said tingling, I thought you were thinking about the Brewers, watching them in Atlanta last night.

I'm talking because of

the Brewers.

That was fun.

Quinn Priestor surrendered a first pitch home run and you're thinking, oh, well, well, maybe, maybe it was a good run while it lasted.

No, no.

After that.

He allowed just one other hit and Isaac Collins hit a three run homer.

That was the difference as the Brewers beat Atlanta three to one on Monday night.

All-star Trevor McGill picked up his 25th save of the season for the Brewers after pitching a perfect ninth inning.

A Quinn Priester struck out four, walked two, throwing 90 pitches as the Brewers improved to a Major League Best 68 and 44.

That is 10 wins in a row for Quinn Priester.

Yeah, that's somebody who if you'd have told me when the start of the season started that a guy named Quinn Priester would be one of the heroes of the team and pitch 10 wins in a row, I would not have believed you.

No, and especially since he wasn't really somebody, no, if that's Quinn Priester, he's not really somebody that I think we wanted.

He was more

of

someone we needed to fill a spot.

at

the

time because we had so many injuries at the start of

the year.

That's exactly what it was.

But but he and all these others, Isaac Collins, rookie of the month, you know, that they just they've they've all stepped up.

Yeah, as they got here.

We've made them feel good.

We've made them feel welcome.

Maybe it was the pocket pancakes.

I don't know.

The TV, the TV guys were making note of that yesterday and saying, you know, what about waffles?

Wallet waffles.

Where does this go from here?

It was something like roll.

Brewers were played Atlanta again this evening and then again tomorrow evening 540 both evenings.

The pregame will get started on Civic Media stations in Hayward and Park Falls.

We're seeing Kenosha, Oshkosh and Richland Center.

I also noted from a couple of different places the the delight that Brewers fans are taking in the way the Chicago White Sox are picking up like as many former Brewers as they can.

JR Radcliffe writes this in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The Milwaukee Brewers have been the best team in baseball for more than two months.

The Chicago White Sox have not, though they're trying to capture some of Milwaukee's magic by acquiring everybody leaving Milwaukee.

The latest move was to claim both of the Brewers relievers who were designated for assignment shortly after the trade deadline left hander Brian Hudson and right hander Elvis Pagaro.

The White Sox have rostered six other players with recent Brewer's Ties, and J.R.

Redcliff writes, not since Bud Selig tried to buy the White Sox and move them to Milwaukee in 1969, has there been this much of a pipeline between the two organizations?

And in my mind, it predates this, but in my mind, it is all about Aaron Savalli.

saying, I don't want it.

If you're going to put me in the bullpen, you got to trade me.

I don't want to be here anymore.

Send me somewhere else.

Fine, buddy.

Go to the White Sox.

We'll get Andrew Vaughn and suddenly he'll kick it into gear.

But it's funny how this is tending to happen with Wisconsin sports.

And I know that this is entirely different circumstance, but Aaron Rodgers did the same thing with the Jets.

You

brought over like four Packers.

Yep.

And it ain't working.

It ain't working.

It works here.

Other former Brewers now with the White Sox include Adrian Hauser, Tyler Alexander, Bryce Wilson, Vinnie Capra.

So hey, if you're missing any of these players, you know, you just have to head down the road now and you can still see them with a team that's not.

doing so great.

Yeah, you know what?

Maybe Dom really is a Brewers fan because he's a White Sox fan.

So maybe he is a Brewers fan, actually.

Maybe.

Maybe they're hoping some of that Pope magic will sprinkle on them.

Tony writes, if you can't create chemistry, just import it from the best team in baseball.

Very typical Chicago, he writes.

Roger on Facebook says the White Sox have already surpassed their win total for last year.

So hey, they got that going for them.

Yeah, you know, they're doing way better.

The White Sox actually, I think the Brewers, the White Sox and the Marlins coming into yesterday, we're tied for the best records since the All-Star break.

Look, I'm again, I'm just enjoying the ride because I want to put this one caveat in here.

It's great.

But

You know, all the national talk is, oh, I guess we have to take the brewers seriously.

Here come the brewers.

And it's great and everything.

But I just want to get out of the first round of the playoffs first before I get any sense of giddiness over here.

I

was

thinking this morning, I really hope that the brewers start to scuffle a little bit soon because I don't want them to be ridiculously hot for too long as they have been, I think now.

And then totally go dead bats, nothing to do when they get to the postseason.

I'm really hoping they can get hot again during the postseason.

Yeah.

I just want to see how they, you know, we saw how they bounced back when they had a rough, you know, first month or so of the season.

And I just want to know that they still have it in them given how many roster changes have come since that time.

But in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the victories.

Don't don't get me wrong.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

So there will be a lot to talk about throughout the the rest of the show today.

Of course, we've got today's history lesson coming up where we wish a fond farewell to Lonnie Anderson from WKRP that and the rest of today's music history news and notes coming up as well.

And we are followed later by Matt Nair on air Todd Alba.

Host of the conveniently named Todd Alba Show will be joining Jane and Greg at 9.30 this morning.

From the heart of America's Up North Live from Lake Wissota, thank you for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.

Powered by Up North News, I'm Pat Crichtlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

On the text line from Jim in Brookfield saying good morning Patton Parker.

My wife and I had a nice day at the State Fair yesterday outside of the Expo building we ran into of all people Congressman Tom Tiffany.

I recognized him because of an aide who had a team Tiffany t-shirt.

When I asked if he was going to run, ostensibly for governor here, he said, I'm thinking about it as he extended his hand for me to shake.

When I told him that I do fist bumps, he told me that Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio also does fist bumps.

I was not pleased to learn that I had something in common with Jim Jordan, again, from Jim and Brookfield.

Don't worry, Jim and Brookfield, you have a lot less in common with Jim Jordan than a lot of folks.

would like to think.

Jim Jordan is, you don't want certain things in common with him.

There's a part of me that still believes there is justice for people like Jim Jordan.

But for now, they're sure enjoying the, you know, the ride on the Maggar roller coaster while they can.

Up North News is a part of Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy newsroom with outlets in several states, including Up North News here in Wisconsin, podcasts, video series, go to couriernewsroom.com to learn much more.

Let me tell you just a bit about this week's new series from

courier newsroom.

There is the video production with Akilah Hughes called How Is This Better?

And this week it's called Trump's media takeover is happening and it's happening at an alarming rate.

Akilah and her guests will break down.

A chilling wave of corporate capitulation to Trump, including CBS and ABC with multi-million dollar settlements, the abrupt cancellation of Stephen Colbert's late show, part of Paramount being on their best behavior ahead of the now approved by Trump's FCC major merger.

Akilah Hughes' guests on this latest edition of How Is This Better are Tara McGowan.

courier founder and publisher and our friend longtime journalist Mark Jacob.

They will explore the failures of corporate media to stand up to Trump and why Americans are increasingly split into the informed and the manipulated.

You can subscribe now and follow the show on YouTube.

Just go to YouTube at How Is This Better for more new content before brand new fall episodes come out later this year.

So watch How Is This Better on YouTube.

You can also watch or listen on Spotify.

You can listen on Apple or you can watch it right from the Courier website and that would be couriernewsroom.com.

The other day I was talking to...

I want to say it was Key of the Keel or maybe it was our Week in Review panel.

We were discussing familiar names in the news and we talked about Beto O'Rourke when we were talking about the Texas redistricting and I suppose that means Beto O'Rourke is going to start making appearances again.

Well, it turned out he was making one right in Wisconsin.

He was in Wisconsin last Saturday holding a town hall at the Washington Park Senior Center in Milwaukee.

part of a series of community conversations around the country held by Beto O'Rourke's voter organization group, Powered by People.

Speakers last Saturday included Devin Remaker, the new chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, and former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes.

A lot being said there about the direction that the Democratic Party needs to go in.

And as I mentioned before,

Part of that direction is determining if, in heavily democratic states, they need to sink to the Republican level in engaging in gerrymandering to offset the corrupt maps that are being considered right now in Texas.

And we'll talk a bit more about that in our next segment.

We're also going to continue our discussions throughout this morning and throughout the weeks and months ahead about

who Wisconsin's next governor should be and the qualities that make up that governor.

But before we get there, there are still plenty that is being said about the current governor, Tony Evers.

And whether he, you know, fought hard enough for Wisconsin, for progressive values, for things like that, there was a column by a Monaco Brewing Company owner Kirk Bangstead recently.

that was titled Governor Tony Evers, Wisconsin's savior who refused to lead and why Democrats can't choose the most inoffensive candidate again in 2026.

Now anybody that knows Kirk Bankstead knows that he does not have any problem whatsoever attacking Democrats as well as Republicans if they do not meet a certain benchmark the way that he sees it.

and he has repeatedly called out Governor Evers.

He has repeatedly called out Democratic Attorney General Josh Call and others.

He has certainly called out Democratic legislators.

Let's just say there's a reason he doesn't appear at Democratic conventions and things like that.

He is an equal opportunity offender.

There's a lot of times when his heart is in the right place, when he's fighting for the right cause.

But it's the manner in which he does it that rubs some people the wrong way and this latest essay about Tony Evers You really saw that reflected in the comment section on Facebook now again Bankstead has his fans and supporters, but there are also plenty of people this time around Who said you lost me on this one or who said, you know, I'm still a supporter, but you're completely off base on this one There was much less

Yay, you go Kirk in this one.

And much more pushback from people that said, what do you want from a guy who's got a gerrymandered legislature dominated by Republicans?

For most of his time in office, he had a state Supreme Court that was dominated by right wing justices.

And sure, you can speak up more loudly on behalf of progressive causes, but in terms of actual action.

There are a lot of people that think the best thing that Governor Tony Evers did was what he could do.

And that was use his veto pen, essentially as a goalie stick in hockey and prevent some truly awful things from taking place in Wisconsin that are taking place in plenty of other states.

And that, yes, perhaps the next governor needs to be of a different brand, maybe more of a fire brand, maybe a bit more forceful.

But as we've discussed here, that may also mean that that particular candidate may turn off enough moderate voters and hand the governorship to the Republican Party.

The upshot of it seems to be that people do appreciate Tony Evers.

He's never been a political animal.

But for what we needed, somebody that could beat Scott Walker and then fend off the worst Republican traits, mission accomplished.

The Midwest Farm Report is next here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Tomorrow, of course, we'll have our weekly homeroom segment and we'll be talking to Denise Gomer Hutchison of the Wisconsin Public Education Network, Laura McCoy of the Green Bay School Board and Green Bay City Council member, Alyssa Prophet.

on how you can follow their lead right in your own hometown and push for better taxpayer transparency when it comes to the true cost of voucher schools and your property tax bill.

So be listening for that.

It's 7 30 tomorrow.

Tony reminds us on YouTube this comment.

Bernie Sanders would win more moderates and non-voters than the average Democrat is his claim.

He says it's not about where you are on the spectrum.

It's how you will impact voters lives and if you will fight for them.

And Tony believes that's what people are seeing in folks like Bernie Sanders and others.

So again, your point of view always welcome on Facebook or YouTube.

Or again, use the Civic Media app to text us your thoughts as well.

All right, for folks who might have missed it in our last hour or 8 a.m.

hour yesterday, Monday, we talked a bit with Sean Fetaplace from Main Street Alliance.

That's the small business group that advocates for better public policy for Wisconsin entrepreneurs.

We talked a bit about our mutual friend, Karine Hendrickson, as a symbol, as she's closing her childcare center, of the struggles facing entrepreneurs in our state and small businesses overall.

And I started by asking him to simply affirm that this has not been an easy first six months of the new administration for small businesses in our state.

That's right.

On January 20th, the day after the Office of Management and Budget dropped a bomb, which was that they were cutting grant programs all across the country.

That impacted folks to our head start here in Dane County.

It would have impacted a thousand families actually.

But we also have a lot of members who were part of programs that benefited from government funding.

And so that's been huge.

We actually have now sued the administration seven times because they keep breaking the law, whether it's federal layoffs.

They've laid off huge amounts of the SBA staff.

They're gutting our civil society.

And we're fighting back our organization, our members like Kareen, who thank you for all you've done to highlight her story.

really are working to make sure that we're holding the administration accountable and we're holding elected officials like Derek Van Orden and Brian Steele accountable as well.

Yeah because again for folks that haven't we haven't talked about Main Street Alliance for a while here but you know this is not your big business agenda here and between you know a lack of access to health care, the child care crisis, rising tariffs,

A lot of what's happening through the Trump administration may be good for, say, a Fortune 100 company, but their view of their workers and of what they need from government is not the same as what businesses on Main Street need.

And that's a big part of Main Street Alliance's role is reminding state and federal lawmakers that you've got a whole bunch of members that have a different mindset than the big boys on Wall Street.

That's right.

And, you know, it wasn't small business owners standing behind the president like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk at others during the inauguration.

Apparently, our pocketbooks aren't big enough to be able to do that.

And so our membership, we have about 2,000 members in Wisconsin.

And they're being absolutely decimated right now, whether it's the tariffs or something that your listeners really need to be aware of is that

A lot of the bad stuff and the big ugly law that passed, they essentially put the goodies on the front end, like the cuts and then getting rid of benefits and stuff later on.

Medicaid, for example, is one of those programs.

However, the enhanced tax credits and the Affordable Care Act marketplace where tens of millions of people get insurance in this country, those cuts are going to affect open enrollments in November and the actual cuts go into effect in January.

And for many, many folks in the state, that's going to raise their premiums by as much as 97%.

It's going to mean tens of thousands of people in our state losing coverage.

And we're going to make sure that people know who's responsible for making that happen.

And it's good that you raise that point that everything in the Trump mega bill is on its own different timeline when these cuts happen, when all these things unfold.

there will be ways throughout the coming years that will point back to this Trump mega bill as having that kind of an impact on them.

And so that explains why you've been convening, you know, these, uh, forums across the country with small business owners, with advocates as well, to tell them what that the, you know, the mega bill may have been signed and everything, but that's, that's no reason to just say, well, I guess that's that and walk away.

There, there's always action to be done either to undo this or to fight for something else.

Right.

Yeah.

I think that the first thing is that the Republicans, when they come back from their August vacation to, um, DC.

There are again cold feet on some of these cuts on the Affordable Care Act marketplace because they realize that if tens of thousands of people lose coverage in their districts or if their coverage goes up by twice what it cost before, it's going to be very easy to point out who did that.

Derek von Orden is a perfect example.

Because of the way the marketplace is done, more rural areas tend to get more generous subsidies for technical reasons.

And so you could see folks see the premiums go up per year in this district by between $2,000 and $4,000 a year.

And that is real money.

That is money that folks will not be able to afford.

And so looking ahead, I mean, that's going to be something that we're really going to pound the payment on.

We've been organizing folks, not just in Wisconsin, but we recently went to Iowa, went to Minnesota.

We have folks from Virginia and North Carolina and Michigan through our 1000 Main Streets program to bring people together to learn about this stuff.

So we're working to make sure that folks are aware of what's happening and they know how to contact and impact their lawmakers.

While those voices are small, there are so many more.

small businesses then there are the big ones and it really is just a matter of helping all of these entrepreneurs understand that putting their voices together they can fight for these things that should be higher priorities in in Madison and in Washington.

So you've talked about at the federal level

holding Brian Stiles and Derek Van Orden, you know, to account for them.

Does that include, I mean, will there be like public events or is it more just outreach and asking people to, you know, write to their member of Congress and let them know their dissatisfaction with what's happening?

Yeah, so I would say, I'm not on you, right?

Okay.

What I would say is for the two of them,

To Brian's credit, he did hold a town hall.

He got a year full the other day, but at least he held one Derek is in is what might as well and be the witness protection program.

He doesn't show up for anything and so Yeah, I definitely show up when people have public events right op-ed right LTE Talk to the local media about how you're being impacted If you get connected to us we get our website and sign up.

We've been really at the forefront

of the fight against the tariffs and against the healthcare cuts.

Our members have been featured and seen by over 15 million people in the last a couple months across the country on these issues.

And so getting into the press, getting into be able to talk to them directly and then getting involved in local elections.

We're talking to Sean Fetaplace from Main Street Alliance.

You can learn more at MainStreetAlliance.org.

one of the discoveries that small businesses are making some some of them who had been say Trump supporters was thinking that everything that they were saying about tariffs was somehow going to be good news for them because they're a small business and if they if more people buy American because of the tariffs it would be good for them and I'm picking on one particular business the Montana Knife Company because their CEO was so I think illustrative of where we're at right now

taking that view of oh yeah the tariffs are going to be great for small businesses till you realize he's got a he's an American manufacturer yeah but he's got to import the steel that he's using to make these knives and suddenly realizing oh wait a minute these tariffs are going to hit everybody in some way shape or form.

Yeah he also asked for special treatment for his business which I thought was pretty interesting considering that you know you look at smooth holly which caused arguably helped push us into depression

you look at these current tariffs.

One thing that was extremely frustrating for me in the early days of like post-liberation day and the sort of very chaotic, you know, very, I would say, impulsive announcements that have been made ever since with Besant and hard luck in cheerleading the president's economical literacy is that the way this is being done is really dumb.

These tariffs, like there's a time and place for tariffs for national security reasons.

China is a bad actor and they've done a lot of things that

that's stealing intellectual property or other things.

And there needs to be some accountability there.

However, doing a carte blanche 30%, 50% tariff, a lot of profit margins, if you look at Walmart as an example, which is a very big business, right?

They have huge production, huge scale.

Their profitability is around six or 7%.

And that has to be disclosed to shareholders.

And so if they're only that profitable and you look at 30% tariffs,

that the math doesn't math and so what's been happening is that people have been selling the existing inventory and so they haven't had her jackup prices yet and they're also in a wait and see period and if you look at the jobs report that just got released last week it showed essentially that part of the reason why the jobs data was not good is because so many businesses closed and didn't respond to the survey um you and so that

shows that this is having a huge impact.

It's starting to show them the data and it's only going to get worse as we head towards the

holiday

season.

Sean fed a place from Main Street Alliance.

Great to catch up with you, Sean.

Thank you so much.

I'm glad you were free today.

Alright, thanks, Pat.

Take care.

All right, let's talk about what's happening in Texas now where Democratic legislators have left the state for a time to call national attention to the corruption coming out of their state capital as Republicans on the demand of President Donald Trump try to rig their congressional map further to squeeze out more Republican districts in a bare-knuckle effort to win control of Congress, not based on whether the voters like them or not, but on how they can move lines the way that Donald Trump uses a Sharpie on a hurricane map.

The fact of the matter is this all comes back to Scott Walker as so many things too when you had a series of corrupt Republicans running our state right after the 2010 elections.

And let me explain how.

Look, gerrymandering has been a thing for a long time in this country.

Jess Bidgood has a good article about it in the New York Times and notes that last year just 8% of congressional races were decided by five points or less.

But she also notes that a key moment came in 2019 when the U.S.

Supreme Court ruled that federal courts were powerless to hear cases about partisan gerrymandering.

Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged that the results of excessive partisanship reasonably seem unjust, but that ultimately the issue was political and not constitutional.

The court washed its hands of the issue and left it to states.

The dissenting justices warned

that the consequences for democracy could be dire.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote, the practices challenged in these cases, imperil our system of government.

But with the federal courts now taken out of the business of reviewing partisan gerrymandering, it was up to state laws and state courts to determine what was allowed.

And there, Republicans had an advantage.

And how did they get that advantage in large part?

Yeah, through gerrymandering.

So by the 2022 redistricting cycle, Republicans controlled congressional mapmaking in 19 states, while Democrats did so in just seven, according to a 2022 analysis by the Brennan Center.

Now, Democrats did aggressively gerrymander in a couple of states, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, but in several other states where Democrats are in a position of power, including Arizona, California, Colorado, and Michigan, voters have established independent commissions to draw fair maps, which will make it harder to try to cancel out Texas's gains by drawing new maps elsewhere.

And that is the sad lesson that we must learn for all of that.

For all of the times that

Democrats played by the rules and did the things that voters were expected.

Folks like Scott Walker, Donald Trump, Republican legislators, Republican members of Congress took advantage of that fairness, took advantage of the playing field and said, well, gosh, if we cheat, we can win this game.

And if we convince just enough voters that we're the tough guys in doing this on their behalf, we'll win.

And it's worked right up until the moment of say, you pass some kind of a big bloated boondoggle of a budget bill.

And those voters start to realize that for all your bluster, you were never on their side in the first place.

And maybe that's why all this will perhaps come back and bite Republicans in the butt next year.

Today's history lesson is up next.

You're up north.

Today is kind of a bittersweet history lesson that we bring you today.

Today would have been Lonnie Anderson's 80th birthday.

The mainstay of the 70s sitcom WKRP and Cincinnati died on Sunday at the age of 79 after what the family said was a long illness.

She played receptionist Jennifer Marlowe on the series and the one who was really running things behind the scenes rather than her bumbling boss Mr. Carlson.

The show only ran for what three, four seasons but was it made an impression on an entire generation of idiots who went into radio.

like me, not Parker so much.

You did you even do you even know what it is?

Did you?

I know you haven't seen it because it never ran in reruns or anything.

I've only ever seen from W.K.R.P.

The only clip I've ever seen.

Of course.

Thanks.

Was the Thanksgiving turkey.

The turkey drop, which is which is, of course, a landmark TV episode.

And one of those when when we're watching it live for the first time, you think you're going to wet yourself.

You're like because you don't expect.

them to take the tragedy of the Hindenburg and turn it into a failed radio contest promotion.

And not only do we not see reruns because most shows have to run like about five seasons before they show up in reruns, but also the original series, they played

you know, the actual music of the time that was on the radio, music rights, as we've talked about on this program are expensive as they're just crazy expensive.

Yeah.

And so you could not possibly pay for the music rights to run all of this, which is a darn shame.

So if folks ever, you know, do get a chance just to

catch clips on YouTube or TikTok or whatever.

It's worth your while.

It was a nice series and happy trails to Lonnie Anderson.

Let's go to 1957.

It was on this day that American Bandstand, a local Philadelphia program, went national when it aired for the first time on ABC.

Hi, Corpino 19.

Thank

you, Pat.

Eileen Wallis, 20.

Thank you, Eileen.

I

think that's the clip you're working for there.

It'll get there.

Yeah,

that's not what we're going to do.

Oh, no.

No.

What?

No, I had a 1962 show intro queued up and had it started at the very familiar theme.

Well, again, familiar to geezers like me that understand the American Bandstand theme.

But, you know, what are you going to do?

It was a local Philadelphia show.

It would run for five years and then head to Hollywood.

And it would stay there until 1987.

But on that first afternoon, the first song the kids danced to that day was That'll Be the Day by Buddy Holly.

All right, on this day in 1884, the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid at what is now known as Liberty Island in New York Harbor.

The first electric traffic light was installed in Cleveland on this day in 1914.

And this is the anniversary of the birth of rock and roller Rick Derringer.

Rick Derringer, somebody else that we just lost recently.

May 26th, he passed away.

Of course, his big hit, Rock and Roll Huchiku, was from 1970.

Prior to that, he got started in the music business early.

He was the leader of a band at age 17 that was brought in at the last minute to re-record the lead on what would become the 1965 hit, Hang on Sluppy.

On this day in 1972, music mogul Clive Davis happened to catch Aerosmith.

A nice young band that was playing at Max's Kansas City restaurant in New York on this day in 1972 and immediately signed them with CBS Records.

On this day in 1975, Stevie Wonder signed a record deal for what was then the largest contract for a single artist, $13 million.

That's a big chunk of change in 1975.

to serve 70 years and seven albums with Motown and Tamela Records.

The number one song this week in 1978 was by the Rolling Stones.

On this day in 1962, Nelson Mandela was jailed by the apartheid government in South Africa for being a political opponent.

He would not be released for another 28 years until 1990.

Think it can't happen here?

Look at this week's headline that the Trump administration is now investigating former special counsel Jack Smith.

On this day in 2012, the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting took place in Oak Creek.

After killing six victims of the perpetrator,

then committed suicide after being wounded by police.

Happy birthday to singer Samantha Sang.

She is 72 years old today.

Her big hit Emotion with the Bee Gees came in the mid 70s.

She's a native of Melbourne, Australia.

Her birth name was Cheryl Sang.

Marcia Brady, Marine McCormick is 68 years old today.

Country singer Terry Clark is 57 years old today.

Oh, let me fix that math on there.

Marine McCormick is 59.

Oh my gosh, Marcia Brady is almost 70 years old.

That's crazy.

Let's see.

It is National Oyster Day.

Which got me thinking okay.

There's oysters.

There's clams.

There's mussels They're all kind of in that mollusk section of the menu.

I love mussels I do when they're made up in a you know fried up in just the right way and like a Wine sauce or whatever garlic and butter so good oysters and clams I'm gonna pass on those.

I've

never

had any of these

I suppose not here in the Midwest.

They're not Yeah, you don't you don't find them anywhere.

You know, and if you do you might be worried

Yeah, yeah, you might be so okay Well, maybe folks will have their own opinion on whether I know are they are they an oyster person a clam person a muscle person?

What is it?

And of course it's national night out so there will be events in your communities like Selena Heller talked about in Eau Claire There's something going on at Carson Park this evening so much more ahead for two more hours as we do on these Tuesday mornings powered by up north news here on the civic media radio network We'll have Brittany Merlot's forecast and much more after the seven o'clock news hang around

and follow what we do over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

I'm Pat Critello.

Live, across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.

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

Hey, good morning.

It is 706 on this Tuesday morning, August 5th.

Nice to have you here up north.

Parker Olson is our producer down in Madison at Studio A2 meteorologist, Brittany Merlot, joining us as well on what it is.

It's still a little hazy out there, but not nearly as smoky around here on Lake Wissota, Brittany.

And I sense that is going to become a trend everywhere.

Eventually a welcome, welcome trend.

How are you today?

I'm doing pretty good.

You know, I was looking at these trends thinking this has got to be the longest period consecutive that we have had this air quality alert in effect.

And it is.

I

thought so because when it was particularly bad in 2023 and it was but it was it definitely felt like it had a shorter duration.

Two day waves.

That's all it was.

It was June 27 through 29.

Then it was July 14 through the 16th.

We have had this ongoing since

July 29th, a week now.

Yeah, this is...

It's sad, of course.

It's tragic for the folks up north, compounded by certain people trying to politicize all of this.

But needless to say, yes, the lingering impact, it's the whole difference of, you know, being around a heavy chain smoker for two days versus somebody who, you know, only smokes half a pack, but for 10 years, there's a big difference in exposure here.

And it's not good for people.

In fact, let me jump over to comments online from Rob and Tiger Tim.

He says good morning from Tigerton partly cloudy 57 yesterday had mowing jobs in Wittenberg the shifter on my lawnmower popped out and I had to push it on to a trailer and Take it to John Deere and Marion finally got it fixed then back to Wittenberg But he also writes here.

I got bothered by that smoke yesterday I felt dizzy and tired and now he's got more mowing jobs in Tigerton today

and I

can affirm again I don't have any respiratory issues or anything like that, but it

It really gets people feeling draggy after a while or headache or, you know, your eyes burn, whatever the case is.

Yeah.

I mean, you think about this is burning particles of whatever's in that forest, whatever it's burning and it's making its way here.

It's, it's inflaming, you know, while you're ingesting that.

So.

Be careful.

Take it easy.

Stay inside if you can.

I know it's summer.

It is the worst thing to hear.

Stay inside, especially when it's so dry and nice and comfortable out there.

Temperatures right now 52 degrees in Watoma, 66 in superior and Racine.

So those lakes are holding on to some heat.

You're warmer if you are by a great lake right now this morning.

We're also seeing patchy dense fog in places.

So be careful out there driving that visibility will clear in about an hour or two.

But the air quality alerts.

still in effect until noon.

They keep renewing it at noon.

I have a feeling it might be extended until tomorrow in certain places of the state.

Maybe they'll let it expire in spots.

It is starting to swing much further off to the east.

The high pressure system that brought it here is now moving off to the east and it's really hanging over New York right now.

So we're really seeing the tail end of it.

But all of Michigan, parts of Minnesota and Indiana, and of course, all of us here in Wisconsin are still in that alert until at least noon today.

So as the high pressure continues to move, another low pressure system is building off in towards Wyoming and Colorado.

It is going to send a warm front our way, which means more clouds headed our way, more mugginess and humidity and also more thunderstorm action, especially as we push into the end of the week and into the weekend.

So it's going to turn hot and humid.

These are the final few days of.

if you decided to open your window with this air quality alert that you can do that.

Of course today we're going to hit highs in the upper 70s to low 80s.

We're pretty much going to put that on repeat for tomorrow too.

We do a small chance of spotty sprinkles far north again late tonight.

Otherwise tomorrow we're looking at some light showers and storms possibly west in the state in the morning and then more are going to start later on in the evening.

We'll tell you more about that tomorrow.

All right.

I was deciding whether to finally open up the house a little bit.

And I thought, well, I can do it for, like you said, a couple of hours, but then as soon

as

the temperature gets to a certain level where your air conditioner would kick in anyway, you know.

Is

it is it even worth it?

I don't know.

We'll see.

Alicia puts up on YouTube.

I've had headaches for a week straight.

I've started

having a, you know, a hard time breathing.

Rob adds looking forward to winds from the south to get the smoke out of here.

So, I mean, we're we're all anticipating there's still time.

There's still time to save summer.

The middle of summer, it's been it's almost like, you know, it's been raining all the time.

Not going to wash out, but like a smoke out.

It just hasn't been the same, but there are still, there's still people going, oh, Zoomer's almost over.

Now it's August 5th, kids.

We got, we got a little time yet.

We have about a month.

Yes, so we can do this.

Brittany, thanks so much.

We'll talk to you next hour.

Sounds good.

Quick reminder, there's so much more coming up on Civic Media today.

Certainly we've talked about Matt Nair on air with Jane and Greg following this program from nine to 11.

And then after Tom Hartman is the Todd Alba show from two to four.

And at two 30, Todd's going to be talking to Kyle LeFond.

He's the founder, president and CEO of natural contract manufacturing and American Providence.

He is a member of Main Street Alliance and he is going to be talking about tariffs.

just as we did with Sean Fetaplace from Main Street Alliance as well, that these tariffs are catching on with other Americans in the sense that they're saying, oh wait, this isn't just hurting.

You know, other countries, this isn't hurting foreign companies.

This is hurting everybody.

Consumers, small businesses, small manufacturers that need to import some of their materials to make the things that they make.

This is having a wide-ranging impact and Todd will be talking to his guest Kyle LaFond about that later this afternoon.

And then Matt Rothschild is guest host on the Maggie Don Show from four until six today across the Civic Media radio network.

Up North News is part of Courier Newsroom.

Learn more over at couriernewsroom.com.

Plenty of newsletters and video series and things like that, including a newsletter called a newsletter called Control Alt Right Delete by Melissa Ryan.

A new edition is out called the Media Capitulation Index.

It's a tracker that rates media conglomerates on a scale from independent to vulnerable to compromising.

to capitulating, to obeying, to propaganda.

The group Free Press has also released a companion report to the tracker called A More Perfect Media with deeper analysis.

And here's some of what they found in evaluating 35 different media companies.

Free Press found that media owners capitulated to the Trump White House in four main ways, one through payments to Trump in the form of legal settlements,

production contracts, campaign contributions, and other donations.

Second, by rolling back their commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion practices when it comes to hiring and community outreach.

Third, through editorial manipulation and censorship, pressuring their newsrooms to soften criticism of the administration, firing staff, even pulling content that might anger the president.

Have you noticed by chance the articles that look at Fox News Channel and how if you watch that channel, there basically isn't a Jeffrey Epstein case anymore.

There used to be, but it's mysteriously disappeared.

And then fourth, media companies are attempting to curry favor with the president during ceremonies like the inauguration, private dinners at Mar-a-Lago, meetings in the White House,

as Melissa Ryan puts in her newsletter, as consumers, we have economic power.

Trackers like this one help us use it.

We can choose what media companies we support with our wallets, with our ears, with our eyes.

And so for all of that, you're going to want to look at Melissa Ryan's newsletter, Control Alt Right Delete, and you can get a link to it over at couriernewsroom.com to learn more.

It's a 714 right now.

The Milwaukee Brewers have just been on a tear.

What is it?

Four in a row now, Parker, after beating Atlanta last night.

Final score there was three to one.

The three coming from Isaac Collins, a three-run homer.

Quinn Priester surrendered a first pitch of the game home run, but after that, allowed just one other hit.

And that's how you ended up with a three to one win over Atlanta.

Trevor McGill pitched a perfect ninth inning to get his 25th save of the season.

Freddie Peralta is pitching this evening.

Pre-game coverage begins at 540 on several civic media stations.

It's just fun to watch.

That should be their new memo.

It's just fun to watch.

Yeah, that's true.

It is very fun to watch.

It's kind of funny.

It seems like the one thing that gets a lot of the starting pitchers is the home run ball, and that's about it.

Like it's really like a homer, maybe two in a game, and that's maybe one more hit.

And I could be wrong.

It almost feels like we must be way up there in the number of homeruns given up on the first pitch of the game.

I feel like we've done three, four of those.

It wouldn't surprise me if it was five, actually.

But then things settle down after that.

And it's been a beautiful thing.

It is.

So much so.

Who knew the sports are more fun when you're winning?

I did.

I did.

Yes,

I had a sense that was the case anyway.

Of all the recent headlines here that we're still playing catch up on, for example, there's a new state Supreme Court justice.

Did you know that?

Yeah, Justice Susan Crawford.

And you'll go, wait, wait, wait, the election was back in April.

Yeah.

but she wasn't inaugurated until August 1st.

That's when Supreme Court justices begin their new terms.

And so it was only this past Friday that Justice Susan Crawford took the oath of office for a 10-year term, keeping the court under a 4-3 progressive majority with the retirement of Justice Ann Walsh Bradley.

And so now the next few elections feature a conservative justice defending their seat.

There are no liberal leaning justices up for election until April of 2028.

So throughout this period here, the next.

two and a half years, three years basically, the court will be under progressive control barring, you know, some kind of personnel change amongst the progressive justices that are already there.

Crawford is a former Dane County circuit court judge.

This all took place in what's called an investiture ceremony.

That's what they call the oath of office when given to judges held in the rotunda of the Wisconsin Capitol.

Quoted here in an article from Spectrum News, Crawford said, quote, I'm proud to take my seat on this court.

I'm ready to meet this moment.

And most of all, I'm ready to get the work for the people of our great state.

You will recall that in April, she defeated Waukesha County judge and former state attorney general Brad Schimmel by 10 points.

And if you noticed anything in your social media feed, if it's got any kind of a political flavor to it,

There was a lot said Friday, Saturday about the way that Justice Susan Crawford beat the world's richest man, Elon Musk, and beat him soundly for the tens of millions of dollars that he spent in a race that topped the $100 million mark.

The world's richest man could not buy a state Supreme Court seat here in Wisconsin.

uh again the the spending there topping more than a hundred million dollars uh and Crawford went on to say I just promised to uphold two constitutions the U.S.

Constitution and the Wisconsin Constitution even when the issues are politically charged deeply divisive or hard to untangle that's always been the job so congratulations again to the new Supreme Court Justice Susan Crawford who is now officially on the court after that swearing in back on Friday.

We got plenty to cover yet this hour.

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

For others, we will be visiting with Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12, WJFWTV and Rhinelander.

Talk about his vacation.

He's back after taking a little bit of time off.

And then later in the hour, we will be talking to Jim Payne, the mayor of Superior.

They are kicking off a new network so that folks in the city, small now, but eventually growing to the whole city, can have better access to high speed broadband internet.

Private companies aren't necessarily willing to serve every corner of Wisconsin.

And so in some cases, there are local governments that are stepping in and helping make networks more possible so that we can enjoy high speed internet throughout the state.

despite Republican restrictions that were put in place years ago.

That's coming up.

Live from the heart of America's Up North from Lake Wissota, thanks for making this a place to spend part of your mornings.

Powered by Up North News, I'm Pat right now.

722 on this Tuesday morning and happy to welcome back to the program.

Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12, WJFWTV in Rhinelander.

After a little time off, Mr. Hagen, good morning and welcome back.

How was your vacation?

Good morning, Pat.

Yeah, it was incredible.

I went up to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the upper peninsula.

I'd recommend that anyone go.

There are these huge rock cliffs basically along the shore of Lake Superior in this special spot and different

um metals basically in the groundwater there leak out onto these cliffs and they form different colored rock faces and it's uh it's really beautiful

i i'm gonna admit i had not heard of this at all pictured rocks and now as i'm looking it up it is just it's gorgeous

yeah i was shocked i hadn't heard of it either um i bet

If this was in the east coast or the west coast, people would be all over this thing, but it's here and it's a hidden treasure, I

think.

Yeah, I mean, we've heard, yeah, everybody's seen the caves up at the Apostle Islands, but there's sea caves there and rock arches and geeshaw, all manner of things.

And really, I mean, the Great Lakes overall is...

I'm gonna go ahead and say it's underappreciated as a tourism destination.

I mean, maybe people have one place they like to go, Ashland, Bayfield, Superior, Mackinac Island, something like that.

But you could do worse than making pretty much a circle tour around the Great Lakes.

There is so much to see.

That is a fantastic idea.

There's a lot more I could see too.

And yeah, Lake Superior, it's a special reservoir.

I think it's got like 10% of the...

world's fresh water right there, you know, um, so we're lucky to have it.

Yeah.

So you left the, uh, the, the folks back there at news watch 12, they, they kept the place running without you.

Just fine.

And, uh, I was looking at some of the stories that have been covered and it appears we've been on animal watch lately here.

And, uh, where do you want, you want to start with the bear?

Yeah, let's start with Jughead.

Um, Jughead.

Jughead.

Uh-huh.

So Jughead, this is a bear that was found in Bayfield County just by a person who saw a bear with a jug.

On its head, clear jug.

You'll have to see the pictures.

And it took about a week for another person to call it in on your cable, Wisconsin.

And they called the USDA Wildlife Services.

They came, removed the jug, and tranquilized the bear, removed the jug, released the bear in a new location.

And they think it'll be fine.

Lost a lot of weight.

It was able to drink water by fully submerging its jug head.

in water.

There are some holes in the jug, which allowed it to breathe as well.

But hopefully it should get some food and some water and be ready for winter.

We'll see you.

Good.

Well, we started on the lighter side, but there's also some serious stories in there.

And again, people who are hunting and

either being very neglectful or at the very least not paying attention to what it is that they're killing and that always can cause an issue for people that are tracking wildlife.

Yeah, some tragic stories here.

A swan was illegally shot in Lang Laid County.

So it reached out to the DNR about that.

They're investigating it.

They didn't want to give any more details.

And then a loon was hit in Hayward and in Annago, Wisconsin.

There is an animal, really it's called raptor education group, and they usually deal with birds.

So that loon, that baby loon was taken to raptor education group.

An air sack was punctured because of a

possibly being hit by a boat, so they're going to do what they can to restore that lune to full health and then release it into the wild.

And again, all we can tell people is just to be careful with your hunting, recreation, whatever the case may be.

And now we'll come to the...

unexpected, fun, technical part of the show because it turns out the listeners are picking up on it.

Adam, noting on YouTube, Dan's mic has turned him into Barry White for some reason.

This

is a girl.

That

was

perfect.

That was really well done.

I and I can't take credit for this.

It's not me playing a prank, but Dan is on a new headset.

mic thing that I sent him.

You'll recall the day that I was stranded in Canada when my flight was canceled and we continued to do the show on a Monday morning so I had to race out and find a microphone and I found this headset microphone, sent it to Dan while he was away but apparently it's it's got a either a pitch or a synchronization problem or something and you've got this little berry white thing going on over here.

Um, yeah, I can kind of overcompensate if you want me to, to get rid of it, talk a little higher, but, uh, I think it's, uh, just my dulcet tones are coming through finally.

Uh, no, it, it, it happens regardless.

And they said, I, it could be the headset.

It could be the settings.

It could be the wifi.

Uh, and in fact, if you want to unplug this and talk to your, to your computer, Mike, we can certainly test that out and test

out that

theory or not.

So let's, let's do this live radio.

Okay.

How do I sound?

Do I sound a little tinier?

Oh, no, it's it's not the headset.

Yeah, it's actually you're you do sound a little tinier obviously that's a good microphone But yeah, I think there's something in the in the Wi-Fi there and it's funny because that we were just talking about how in superior Mayor Jim Payne's gonna be on in a half hour less than a half hour now to talk about getting broadband service We've covered this in Boulder Junction previously You know high-speed internet service is important everywhere Rhinelander included and it's something

We in big cities might take for granted, but it's something you guys really need up there, don't you?

Yeah, we got a lot of rural areas that do not have broadband access.

And you've probably heard that a lot of the kind of funding has been clawed back a little bit because of new initiatives from the federal government.

So they're basically trying to do the cheapest option possible.

You know, Knight of County leaders have wanted

you know, fiber optic cable stuff in the ground, but they'd have to opt for like a satellite service because it's cheaper, which some people here are pretty upset about.

Yeah.

How do you like that?

We finally send him a good microphone and now it's his own local internet service that trips him up.

And so no, Tony, I did not send him the trick candle of microphones.

We will be, we'll be just fine.

We'll address it and have better connections on the way.

We're just happy that you're back, that you had a wonderful time up there.

I'm happy to learn more about a new potential destination in the Great Lakes.

So again, you can catch what Dan's doing over at NewsWatch 12 in Rhinelander and

right here with us on Tuesday mornings.

Thank you, sir.

Great to have you back.

Thank you, Pat, and everyone have a good day from very white.

That's good to say.

Thank you, ladies.

Thank you, ladies.

All right.

All right.

We will talk more about what might make up the next, the qualities in the next Wisconsin governor that's coming up next here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

The Midwest Farm Report is up next.

Remember, you can stay up to date on what we're doing at UpNorth News by heading to UpNorthNewsWI.com.

And while you're there, sign up for our daily newsletters.

We've got a weekday issue.

We've got our Sunday mornings with Pat Krightlow, Politics Newsletter, that also includes our question of the week.

And the question that we asked this past Sunday deals with what is now happening in Texas, where Republicans are, again, looking to rig their congressional maps further to

put Democratic representation in the single digits in Texas, along with dozens of Republican members of Congress from Texas.

Texas is a red state, but it ain't that imbalanced.

But that's how they want to make the maps.

Democratic legislators are saying, you know what?

Before you ram this through, we're going to deny you a quorum for a time.

Leave the state and call national attention to this because it is what it is.

It's corruption.

is what it is, and call attention to it.

Now, folks in some blue states are saying, hey, two can play at that game.

Maybe in California, they'll redraw the congressional map and, you know, get five more Democratic seats to offset five more Republican seats in Texas.

The question is, should they?

Is it the case of, you know, two wrongs don't make a right?

Or is it a case of you got to do this because otherwise it's bringing a rubber band to a gunfight?

What do you think?

A lot of responses coming in already to our Question of the Week in our newsletter.

Sign up for it over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

There's a lot that's going to be said between now and next August about the Democratic primary for governor and who would be the strongest candidate.

And should that candidate be

you know, a fire-breathing liberal?

Should it be somebody who is extremely moderate and hits a lot of bipartisan tones?

Will a democratic primary be a healthy part of that process or will it lead to a party that is fractured by those who want to go more to the left and those who want to go more to the center?

There's no shortage of discussion about it.

Certainly over the weekend some of that talk was being heard in Milwaukee where former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke held a town hall at the Washington Park Senior Center in Milwaukee.

O'Rourke now has a voter organization group called Powered by People that is putting on these community conversations in spots all over the country.

speakers this past weekend included Devin Remaker, the new chair of the state Democratic Party.

Former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes and others also spoke at this.

And again, the talk turns to whether Democrats have been too conciliatory.

Have they been too willing to play by the rules?

What is it that's going to go into making the next

nominee for Wisconsin governor on the Democratic side as strong as possible.

Well, to hear State Senator Kelder Royce talk about it in the Cap Times, there's so much conversation about it that she's wearing out her AirPods because of all the phone calls that she's been taking with friends and family and strategists and consultants and colleagues and donors.

And she talked to the Cap Times newspaper in Madison all about it lately, including this line.

I would say I'm very likely to run.

I've had so many encouraging conversations with folks all around the state and that's been really exciting and gratifying Roy's said.

Now that was not a full-fledged commitment but it does take a lot to say I would say I'm very likely to run especially when you consider there's already Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez who's in the race

Milwaukee County Executive David Crawley says he's going to announce that he's in the race.

And for Kelda Royes, this would be her second time running for governor.

The last time she ran was among nearly a dozen Democratic candidates in 2018 when that primary produced Tony Evers as the nominee who beat Scott Walker and then served in another term as well.

But at this point, again, we don't have 12 Democratic candidates in the race yet.

But we might and Kelda Roy says she's not gonna rush into making a decision or an announcement She told the cap times quote.

I don't think anybody needs a 13 month primary.

We're gonna have a robust crowded primary We have a lot of good people interested in running and I think that's great But I wouldn't be surprised if the field isn't even settled until the end of the year which I

Let me have one observation on that.

And that's waiting till the end of the year.

And again, it's all about the money.

Part of the reason that candidates are urged to get in earlier and earlier is the need for donations, the need for these multi, multi-million dollar races that are run.

And if you wait too long, the donors are going to be happy with somebody else.

It shouldn't necessarily be this way.

Because let me explain the timetable for you real quick here.

Nominating papers aren't even due until June 1 of next year.

It's on June 1 of next year that we'll find out how many people turned in nominating petitions with enough signatures from voters that they qualify to be on the August primary ballot.

June 1.

So theoretically somebody could announce their candidate in mid-May and for two weeks collect a ton of signatures and get on the ballot.

But it doesn't work that way anymore because again people need those donations and so they try to get in as early as possible.

But Senator Keldoroy is saying look it doesn't have to be next week.

And Joseph Pecky told us as much last week when I told him, hey, I thought we'd have a lot more candidates for governor in this first week after Governor Evers announcing he wasn't going to run for a third term.

And Joseph Pecky said, no, no, once once you've got the first one or two candidates in there really isn't any value in being, you know, say the third candidate in the race.

Just announce when you think the time is right.

Once you've got all your ducks in a row and you're ready to start asking donors and voters for their support.

So back to what Kelda Royce had to say to the Cap Times, she said, you have this kind of dichotomy between how horrible things are at the federal level and the way the states are under attack by the Republican regime.

We have an incredibly dangerous and authoritarian government in charge in Washington, DC.

But we are also at a point of incredible hope in Wisconsin, where for the first time in a generation, we could have a democratic trifecta.

We just can't afford to waste that.

And I, of course, take interest in that being a member of the last Democratic trifecta, which happened in 2009.

After the 2008 elections, when Barack Obama was elected president, you had Jim Doyle as governor, you had a Democratic State Senate that I was in, a Democratic State Assembly, but...

At the same time, you also had the great recession kicking off thanks to a whole lot of factors from outside the state of Wisconsin.

So it's been a long time since Wisconsin's had a democratic trifecta where the economy also hadn't been previously tanked by right-wing policies.

But as a result of that potential for a democratic trifecta, you've got people like Kilda Roy's and everybody else who might enter the race.

wanting to be extremely careful and plot out your moves carefully and think about your words carefully.

But in that same CapTimes newspaper, there's also an editorial that notes that the 2026 gubernatorial nominee, in their opinion, must embody progressive values with Republicans veering toward

pro-Donald Trump cultishness, the Cap Times writes, the Democratic nominee in 2026 can unite voters on behalf of economic, social, and racial justice, and a climate agenda that creates jobs while saving the planet.

The Cap Times writes that in past elections, we've endorsed many of the prospective 2026 contenders.

As the race heats up,

We'll be looking in particular for a Democrat who is ready to run a winning progressive campaign and once elected to serve boldly.

They talked to State Representative Francesca Hong, a Madison Progressive, whose endorsement has been enthusiastically pursued by many Democratic gubernatorial prospects, and she describes such an agenda well when she says, quote,

With Governor Evers opting not to run for a third term, Wisconsin is headed for a crowded Democratic primary.

There's a real opportunity here, not just to hold onto the governorship, but to reimagine what kind of a state that we want to be.

She said, we can learn a lot from candidates like New York City Democratic mayoral nominee, Zoran Mamdani, who ran on a bold vision built on grassroots power and grounded in care.

She said, we need a candidate who understands the power of building a diverse and radically welcoming coalition.

How do you like that phrase?

A radically welcoming coalition.

We need someone ready to lead with a vision that puts people first, starting with what working class people are actually facing every day.

That means real affordability and long-term care, childcare.

and health care.

That means protecting public education, investing in affordable housing, and finally advancing progressive taxation rooted in our state's history.

And it means being willing to name who's been hoarding power and who's been left out for far too long.

Again, that's all from Fran Hong, Democratic Assembly member from the Madison area.

And the thing is, the things that she's talking about, affordability in long term care.

Affordable childcare, affordable health care, protecting public education, and having progressive taxation, you know, where all the special favors in the tax code don't go to the wealthiest taxpayers?

How the heck did that become a partisan agenda?

There was once a time when Republicans fought for those things too.

They simply differed with Democrats on the degree.

of which to go there, the methods in which to go there, but Republicans used to consistently fight for things like affordable health care and education and things like that.

So will a primary be good or bad?

Well, coincidentally, one more article to share from the Cap Times, it's a column by John Nichols, the associate editor, who writes a column saying primaries are good for Dems.

And again, that's not a universal thought that's out there.

But John Nichols writes, there's an ocean among many political consultants and pollsters that crowded primaries only cause frustrations for the eventual nominee and the party.

They tell us if partisans could just coalesce early around a single candidate for a top post, it will be easier to focus the message of party nominees, build campaign war chests, and take on November rivals.

But with Evers deciding not to seek a third term, Democrats are all but certain to see a multi-candidate primary that will feature many of the most prominent figures on the party's crowded bench competing with one another.

But the fact that there will be a number of Democratic primary candidates is not a problem.

It's a measure of the party's renewal in recent years, and it's a strength going into the 2026 race.

And he writes, it's also very much in keeping with the party history over the past five decades.

And he goes on to list things like how Patrick Lucy came out of a primary in 1970, how in 1982, Tony Earl came out of a very tough three-way primary with Marty Schreiber and former Lucy aide Jim Wood.

In 1992, there was Russ Feingold coming out of a three-way primary and then defeating Republican Senator Robert

Robert Casten, Jim Doyle himself, back in 2002, became the nominee only after a primary that included Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and Milwaukee Congressman and future mayor Tom Barrett.

So, John Nichols writes, Democrats who win competitive primaries do not always go on to beat Republicans in November, but primaries have rarely, if ever, been an impediment to party prospects.

So, I would conclude by simply saying,

We're going to have a large field.

Embrace it.

The same goes for Republicans.

You're going to have a large field.

Embrace it.

Talk about the issues.

Talk about not just who espouses your principles, but also who can win.

Way at all.

Come up with the best nominee possible and show Wisconsin how you would best take care of them.

A local update is next.

With others, we'll talk to Superior Mayor Jim Payne about expanding broadband service up in Northwest Wisconsin.

I'm Pat Crightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

752, we're back now.

Up North News is part of Courier Newsroom and our new DC correspondent, Cam Stevenson, has a DC newsletter called Below the Beltway.

You can read it at beltway.news or through couriernewsroom.com and his latest column is about what's happening in Texas.

Texas tries to oust elected officials through legal gerrymandering and illegal schemes, again, below the Beltway from Cam Stevenson of Courier Newsroom.

All right, let's let's turn to our way up north segment and talk to Jim Payne again mayor of Superior all about what's happening in the northwestern corner of the state and this time around we're going to be talking about high speed internet and the things that local governments can do rather than simply sitting around and waiting for the private sector to discover that you're there.

Mayor Jim Payne, good morning.

How are you?

Good morning.

I'm doing well.

How are you, Pat?

I'm great.

It's so nice to see you here.

I know that Superior is not the first, but definitely the latest in communities that have been looking for ways to kind of move the process along of making sure that your residents have access to broadband, which is the term for high speed internet.

So what is happening right there right now?

What is it that you're kicking off?

Well, we're certainly not the first to recognize the need for high speed, reliable and affordable access to the internet, but we're the first

city in Wisconsin the first community of any kind to create a publicly owned.

Open access broadband network there is no other network of our kind in Wisconsin and it's a unique public private partnership where we own the actual network the physical network.

And we sell internet access to private internet service providers who in turn sell it to customers so they compete.

freely on our network the same way multiple delivery services UPS FedEx U.S.

Postal Service compete on the roads that the city builds.

So it combines public infrastructure with private competition.

And that I'm glad to hear that explanation because when I first heard about it it made me wonder about a law that the Republican led legislature passed several years ago that essentially was a ban on

municipal networks, especially Wi-Fi networks, again, not wanting, you know, the public sector to compete with the private sector.

A lot of people were upset by that saying, hey, look in some of these smaller communities, the private sector isn't coming up here anytime soon.

They're only going to want to serve the big cities.

So why block local units of government that want to provide this kind of service?

It sounds like you have found the right path through of you're not the internet provider, but you have made it easier for the private sectors to come up here and extend service that they otherwise wouldn't do on their own.

Does that sound about right?

Almost.

The biggest difference is people don't have to come here to provide the internet.

People are already here that can provide the internet.

So because all we require people to do is be an ISP, they don't have to own this gigantic physical network, a multi-million dollar investment.

That allows small businesses to go into business selling the internet to customers.

So one of our first ISPs came from Duluth, Minnesota right next door and is now headquartered in Superior.

It's a really small

They only serve this community on our network.

So what we did is rather than have a giant monopoly, which was what almost every city in the country has, selling us internet at whatever price they want, our monopoly spectrum, they actually raised the price of the internet.

during the pandemic.

That was a kind of, we just saw that as unconscionable.

How can you exploit people that way?

So what we did is we combined what I thought is the best of the political philosophies on the left and the right.

We believe in private sector competition to lower prices and increase innovation, but the public should own infrastructure.

We shouldn't allow the private sector to control infrastructure that is vital to modern life.

And so that's what we did.

We just combined the two and we're two weeks in and it's already a hit.

And is it a network that is accessible to everybody in the superior area now, or is it starting in one area and building out?

We started in a pilot area, one neighborhood.

It's actually my neighborhood.

I'm talking to you on it right now.

So it was meant to show skeptics that this could actually work.

One of the early successes, though, is our construction costs actually came in so far under budget that we're building out much faster than we had originally planned.

So we will be lighting up the next neighborhood already this fall.

And how is it that the city was able to afford to do its part of this public-private partnership?

Joe Biden, really.

The ARPA dollars that came to every community in the country.

What a lot of people forget is that

the ARPA dollars which have been used for so many different things across the country were primarily meant for utility infrastructure and the first utility described in that law is access to broadband.

And so we just took them at their word and we used it to build a network.

And so the first five million dollars plus of this network was covered by that bill.

So President Biden had this American recovery plan and had a mission for it.

And you took that literally and seriously and made it work.

It sounds like perhaps the most textbook case of ARPA funds doing what they were intended to do at the time.

Exactly.

In fact, we've been trying to build this network.

since before the pandemic.

But the pandemic proved every single argument we made correct.

When we had to send people home from work, send children home from school, and they did not have access to the internet, that meant they didn't go to school, Pat.

That's what it meant.

And people are still trying to pretend like that didn't happen.

We lost a generation of kids that should have been educated and weren't because they didn't have access to this vital public infrastructure.

The Biden administration gave us money to solve that problem, make sure that never happened again, and that's what we spent it on.

That's incredible.

And you said another neighbor is coming.

How long do you think it might take for most if not all of the city to be served?

That's a political question.

You asked me.

I'd like to get it done in the next two years.

But, you know, we have to prove that it's a success.

I think we're already doing that.

Like I said,

We need to get to a 10% take rate.

10% of the area should be customers by the end of the year.

I think we're going to cross that in the next month.

And if we can show real success by the fall of next year, I think we'll have justified moving quite a bit faster than our original forecast of five to seven years.

Superior

Mayor Jim Payne with a great update from way up north.

Jim, thank you so much.

Good to talk to you again, Mr. Mayor.

Have a wonderful day.

Always fun.

Thanks, Pat.

All right, coming up in our next hour, we'll be talking to Chad Holmes from 98.9, WXCO, about the stories that he's following there.

And then later, Civic Media news director, Shaly Pittman will join us and we'll talk about the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and what the attacks on it could mean for voting in Wisconsin as well.

I'm Pat Crightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Live, across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglo powered by Up North News.

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

And welcome back.

It is 806 on a Tuesday morning.

It's August 5th, 8, 525.

And coming up, we will be talking to Chad Holmes from 989 WXCO about stories he's following in the Wausau area.

And in our 830 half hour, we'll be talking to Shaly Pittman, news director at Civic Media about the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.

I know it seems like we just talked about the 60th anniversary of Medicare Medicaid.

It was a busy time in the summer of 65.

Making things happen that would be good for the nation as a whole Obviously those things have been under assault ever since then from a segment of the population Trying to convince another segment of the population that the things that are good for them are actually bad for them When they're not they only help the small set of the population But before I lose you we will be talking all about what the attacks on the Voting Rights Act mean

even here in Wisconsin with Charlie Pittman coming up and just a bit.

But first, let's get that updated forecast from meteorologist Brittney Merleau.

Parker Olson is here as well producing this fine shindig from Madison Studio A2 where if he had a window looking outside, and he does not, but he'd see the smoke beginning to dissipate out there.

Brittney, what is your situation?

I think I see something coming from your right that appears to be sunlight out a window, or is that...

I can I can see half and half I can see the smoke kind of sitting there lower and then I can see a blue sky if I look straight up Now I've got better air quality than a lot of cities in Wisconsin right now.

I'm at a moderate Even Eau Claire Green Bay and Milwaukee are now at unhealthy for sensitive levels So you're pushing that 100 to 150 aqi.

It's starting to go up as we move into our afternoon