Showgirls and Safety Buoys (Hour 1)

Cross 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.

Well, hey there, Wisconsin.

Good morning.

It is a Wednesday morning, August 13, 2025.

And it's 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 catching us on the app, watching us on social media, listening later by podcast.

We appreciate you starting your day right here.

I got a question for you.

What's the mathematical equation for calculating baseball's magic number?

And I know Parker was told there would be no math or quizzes as part of this radio show, but we'll try one today to come up with the mathematical equation for baseball's magic number, which is a thing now because the Brewers have now won their 11th game in a row.

Parker Olson is producing this little shindig down in Madison Studio A2.

Can you taste the free hamburgers yet?

Or will our hopes be dashed on the rocks like the last 11 game winning streak, Mr. Olson?

Surely it can't happen twice at 11 games, right?

Like,

that's just terrible luck.

They can.

They just have to, they would have to lose this afternoon.

Given what they did to the Pirates last night, winning 14 to nothing, feeling pretty good about those burgers from George Webb.

Yeah.

If I was close to a George Webb, I would be pretty close to getting in line right now,

yeah.

Mm-hmm, yeah.

Yes, the Brewers were winners by two touchdowns over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Over Paul Skeens, one of the best pitchers in baseball, and for the second straight time at American Family Field, the Brewers chased him after four innings.

Yeah, and they got

to

him right away.

Oh, yeah, another leadoff home run by Sal Freelike.

I don't even know how many that is now, but he's just, I mean, they're tearing the cover off the ball.

There were five home runs yesterday.

This was allegedly not a home run winning, a home run hitting team.

Turns out they do.

They go through their waves of it.

Every now and then.

They do.

Yes, they've had that eight game winning streak, the 11 game winning streak, now another 11 game winning streak.

So this is pretty fun.

It is.

And it's only something like the third team since 1936, I think I saw that's had two double digit win streaks in a season.

And it says actually what it is is the Brewers.

And if you look at just the National League, the Brewers are the first team in the National League with multiple winning streaks of at least 11 games in a season since the 1935 Chicago Cubs.

So these guys are pretty good.

the Brewers lead the major leagues with home runs since the start of August, 23 home runs since the start of August.

Just remember, the Brewers are undefeated in the month of August at this point.

Okay, but that's wild.

They haven't lost a game since last month.

And that includes six home runs this month by Bryce Terrang alone, three more by Andrew Vaughn, who

Did not join the Brewers until July 7th after coming our way from the Chicago White Sox.

Thank you again, Aaron Savali, for demanding that trade very, very much.

Couldn't appreciate it more.

Might put up a statue for you

after

that.

Andrew Vaughn got here July 7th.

He has 32 RBIs since then.

That's an insane pace.

That's an insane pace.

It's so much.

What's funny is I think he slowed down a little too.

Yeah.

Yeah, so they'll do this again this afternoon to wrap up the three game series at American Family Field.

Coverage begins at 12.35 this afternoon on some of your favorite civic media radio stations all around Wisconsin.

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

Well, probably more Brewer's Chat because it's just so exciting.

Also,

Naturally, the headline writers, they have to be brief.

They might leave out some context.

And so you may have seen the headline, Evers vetoes portable benefits for delivery drivers.

Well, the real story is how the governor vetoed a bill that would preserve the ongoing imbalance between how corporations treat their workers and abusing the loophole with gig workers, independent contractors,

part timers.

We're going to talk to former state representative Dana walks, who has a lot of experience as a trial attorney in worker misclassification.

And we'll also talk to him about another bill that he worked on when he was in the legislature about bringing greater transparency to property tax bills about the true cost of voucher schools.

It's something that's now happening in Green Bay.

It could eventually happen in other local school districts, but it should have happened statewide a long time ago.

But Republicans did not get on board Dana's bill and continue to try to obfuscate the taxpayer cost of voucher schools.

We have this week's climate check with Melissa Baldoff.

Wisconsin was the first state in the country to use President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act as a way to put money back in people's pockets for projects that made their homes more energy efficient.

Well, two years later, it has paid out millions in rebates.

And we'll talk to Melissa about the program's success compared with what the current administration is trying to do to shift all that money back to company executives involved in oil.

gas and coal.

We'll check in with Civic Media's Jimmy Koska and Civic Media reporter James Kelly in the Chippewa Valley as well.

Brittany Merlot is off today, so stay tuned to your local Civic Media station for the local forecast here.

Though, Parker, I do have to say that a little bit before the show, I had to swap out shorts for jeans.

This is the first time I've had jeans on in a while.

It's a 57 right now here on Lake Wissoda.

That's all chilly.

Still gonna get up to 79, 80 degrees over here, which is just downright pleasant.

I can keep the top down on the Jeep for at least, you know, another day, but no longer oppressive.

Although I guess, I guess the smoke is supposed to start rolling back in again from Canada.

I know.

Yeah, so at some point may have to close the windows and turn on the air conditioner again, just not quite yet.

I want to let you know as well that on social media, Up North News can be found many different ways, not just our website, not just our newsletter, not not only this fine radio show, but also plenty of places like Instagram and Twitter and TikTok and now Blue Sky.

There have been folks who gave up Twitter a long time ago when Elon Musk turned it into a dumpster fire and filled it with Nazis and all kinds of stuff that you didn't ask to see.

There's still people who feel like they have to be on there because there's just enough Other information on there, but they're always looking for an alternative blue sky has become that alternative for many folks and up north news now has a blue sky account as well So if you're on blue sky look for up north news give us a follow

And, you know, we'd love to have you seeing what we're doing throughout the course of the day.

And you can follow me on social media as well.

Head to Facebook and look up mornings with Pat Kraitlo.

And I'll be posting things throughout the course of the day there.

Some things that we're doing and other things that we're noticing, you know, throughout the news world and the politics world there as well.

I was going to tell you about a...

project that I was working on in the garage here, but it actually dovetails into a side project that I had to do in the garage.

I created a puzzle for myself, a puzzle, nearly 30 years in the making.

Yeah, it seems

right.

I finally had to work on it.

In my garage, there's an old five gallon bucket.

And it's I mean, it's it's a metal bucket.

So it's it's a it's a rust bucket, quite literally.

And

Over time, it had collected, let's just say leftover hardware.

Let's say you're putting something together and then there's some extra odds and ends, nuts, bolts, screws, whatever the case may be.

It just gets tossed in there and I always said, you know, I'll get around to it.

I'll get around to sorting this thing.

I'll get to it.

Well, you see these lights Parker on the shelf behind me?

Remember my mentioning?

Oh, Ikea gave you the option of using tape

or

these little teeny tiny screws.

And I went with their adhesive strips, which were not adhesive, not nearly enough.

And so a couple of different times, these little spotlights hanging above the bookshelf came crashing down.

And I knew it was going to be time to eventually screw those little buggers in.

Yeah.

I could not find the little screws.

I just could not.

I looked in, I looked in the places where you should put them.

You know, I've got these little tiny drawers, you know, almost like a fishing tackle situation.

Oh yeah.

And all kinds of organized nuts and bolts and screws.

And I just wasn't seeing it.

And so out of the corner of my eye, I see the rust bucket and I think, did I really toss them in there?

But I do such a thing.

And I think what I do such a thing and then I

I said yes, I would because I didn't want to do the little teeny tiny screws, you know, that's that's annoying.

So I'm sure I just let I'm never going to use these.

Yeah.

And so the time had finally come.

And I had no other way to do this is just to turn it upside down and empty it all out on the garage floor, get on my hands and knees and start sorting.

So the job that I'd been putting off for about 25 years

Finally, that was how I spent my Sunday afternoon, was getting all of those things in order, in the workbench, in the places where they belong.

And it was such a pleasant day, and the beers were on the radio and everything, that it actually wasn't a hardship.

But this should be a story of shame on you, that'll learn you.

But I was putting off something I did not want to do until the time was right, the time was right.

in the midst of all that debris, so much of it that got thrown away.

And I don't know why it didn't go to the trash can in the first place.

Were these eight teeny tiny screws, which finally got up on the step ladder.

And I feel like I need a nice pack on my shoulder because, you know, you're just wrenching these things in there.

It's not like there's a pilot hole or anything in there, but they're in.

They're in.

And I say that

now.

Because, thank you, yeah, I think they look all right.

But I say that now because if and when the crash comes again and we hear it all coming down, we'll know that the Ikea folks made those teeny tiny screws a little too teeny tiny and that they did not get the work done, but at this point it appears that they do.

I'm

upset that this hasn't led to content.

I

want this on video.

Oh gosh, I thought about it.

And then I realized I, I engage in enough self-deprecation, you know, as it is already.

And that's

fine.

I, you know, I don't mind.

But sometimes you have to draw limits and go, okay, this is, this is a bridge too far.

I will tell people about the rush bucket.

Maybe I'll take a picture later.

All right, here's your answer.

To calculate the magic number of a baseball team, you add up the number of wins for the first place team and the number of losses by the second place team.

And then you subtract that total from 163 because that's one more than the number of games that there are in a season.

So for the Brewers, you're now at 75 wins.

And then you're at 51 Cubs losses.

And so that's 126.

You subtract that to 160.

Oh, look who did the work already.

Roger did on Facebook and Stevens Point.

75 wins, 51 Cubs losses.

Add those together, subtract it from 163 and you've got a magic number of 37.

So any combination of 37 Brewers wins and Cubs losses,

will give the Brewers the National League Central Division title, which I hasten to add is not guaranteed.

There is still plenty of time for the Cubs.

They are seven and a half games back, but guess what?

We were six games back at one point.

And that worked out pretty well for us.

So.

We're having a good time.

Yeah, we'll keep trackin' that magic number as long as we can make it last.

Let's enjoy the ride, kids.

Live from the heart of America's Up North, thanks for making this the place that's been part of your mornings.

I'm Pat Crightlow here on Lake Wasota.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Back on this Wednesday morning August 13th live from Lake Wissota.

I'm Pat Crite low from up north news on the civic media radio network Marker according to Roger He says that as of this morning according to tankathon Whatever that is the brewer still have the fifth toughest schedule remaining the cubs have the third Easiest schedule remaining so take nothing for granted or as Cassandra puts it on YouTube.

Whoa.

We're already looking at that

Well, yes, we are.

We're having fun with it.

I'm impressed that the Cubs have the thirties easiest schedule because they have to play us five times by their own making.

Well, there is that and the Brewers continue to be severely underrated.

Somebody pointed to an article somewhere that said, how's this?

The Brewers have the best record in baseball and yet

have no players on the current list of the 100 best players in Major League Baseball.

I saw that.

I thought that was a little odd.

That seems a little odd, yes.

Uh, 624 the time right now.

Do you have Hulu?

Do you have the Hulu?

I do have Hulu,

yeah.

Do you have to?

I guess it'll be time to say goodbye to it.

pretty soon.

Oh yeah it's combining with Disney Plus.

As Disney rolls it into Disney Plus and I was going to share with you a very interesting article that I found online about it about what what does this mean for streaming as some of these other streaming services you know they started as one thing but then through corporate changes you know they they belonged to other companies and then they're combining their packaging here all this bundling you know.

Yeah.

And I would have loved to have shared this article.

It was in the Houston Chronicle.

And then I went to go look at it again.

Well, you want to look at it again, it's gonna cost you.

Dear Houston Chronicle, I'm not subscribing to your paper to read one article.

Maybe make it available someplace else.

And by the way, I'm the guy that tells people subscribe to newspaper, subscribe to the New York Times or the Milwaukee Journal or the Wisconsin State Journal or the Eau Claire Leader Telegram or whatever.

But when you get these far flung places and you see a story and you want to share a little bit about it, then you can't.

It's like, well, you've really kind of limited your audience here, you know?

It is always upsetting when you run into a paywall, especially when it's like something like that, but you literally just want to read one article and you're never going to come back to them again.

And it's what I said years and years ago, and that was that when...

When Apple figured out iTunes and to charge 99 cents for a song, you could have done something very similar, you know, 25 cents to read this newspaper article or something.

And people at the time said, Oh, no, no, that's just that.

That's too small and never make money off it.

Apple did fine.

Yeah.

Meanwhile, all these newspapers are going out of business.

So the announcement by Taylor Swift then so we'll just have to switch gears and say RIP Hulu.

Taylor Swift announcing this new album on on Travis and Jason Kelsey's podcast announcing that it's coming has has the world of Twitter.

No pun intended there.

That woman has mastered album anticipation.

Has she not?

I mean, I feel like anything she does at this point has major anticipation.

I think that's kind of her life at this point.

it is but you know I've I've heard her talk about it about the the notion of building anticipation and putting what are called Easter eggs

you

know little coded messages and things to build up suspense and then to you know make the announcement and the thing is she did all she announced was the title of the album she didn't give her release date we don't have any like samples of the songs or anything like that you know

but it raises raises this point.

Okay, so Taylor Swift, she has nailed album anticipation.

Have there been other albums in history that

have also had a high level of anticipation.

Now, that's different than an album that becomes a juggernaut, okay?

Fleetwood Max rumors, for example, just took off Michael Jackson's thriller.

I mean, everybody knew Michael Jackson was talented, but nobody knew that that album was going to do what it did.

Jagged Little Pill or 21 by Adele, they all took off, but they weren't necessarily anticipated.

And so I want people to get in the comment sections on Facebook or YouTube or email us, radio at upnorthnewswi.com, use the Civic Media app to send us a text message, use the voice note feature.

Was there an album that you anticipated highly before it came out?

Near as I can, just a couple examples would be, for example, Van Halen, when David Lee Roth left and Sammy Hagar was coming in, so 5150.

That was pretty well anticipated.

Nevermind by Nirvana was another one was going to be their their follow up their second album.

For Fleetwood Mac, everybody I was anticipating Tusk, which was the follow up to Rumors.

But near as I can tell from what little research I've done, prior to Taylor Swift, I don't know if anything, no, any album was more anticipated than

The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

And again, that even predates me.

I was three years old at the time, okay?

But what about you?

Were there albums that...

you couldn't wait to get.

And by the way, for the really younger members of our audience, an album is a collection of

tunes.

Hang on.

We know what an album

is.

On this 12-inch vinyl disc or an eight-track cassette that you would clunk into this player in your car.

I will not

put

up with the slender.

I know

an album.

Now, wait, is that an EP?

Is that an LP?

What is that?

It's a collection.

What have you anticipated from somebody that you could not wait for?

it to come out.

Yes, Cassandra nailed it here, Adele's 25.

And then she ended up seeing her in concert for that tour.

That would have been the only other one I would have added to this list was 25.

And then everything else that she did from there.

Roger and Steven's Point in 1984, the Jackson's had the overhyped victory album.

and the Victory Tour.

Yes, that was very anticipated.

And yes, it very much was over hyped.

Keep those suggestions coming in as we talk about highly anticipated albums.

But coming up next, we're going to play back a segment you might have missed yesterday, Jeff Renneke from the Friends of the Apostle Islands, about boys out there on Lake Superior, a little network of them to make for safer boating.

After the Midwest Farm Report, here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

you

More of your nominees for most anticipated album coming up in just a bit first in today's newsletter.

Sign up for it at upnorthnewswi.com.

There's a story about a couple of new full-time staffers at American Family Children's Hospital in Madison.

And these two new staffers have tails that they love to wag.

There's Jimmy the Labrador, a Labrador Retriever mix who works with kids in neurology and orthopedics.

Cash is part golden retriever, part poodle, supports nutrition patients.

His presence makes it easier for staff to have conversations about complex topics like moving from feeding tubes to solid food.

It's all part of the hospital's canine health and medical pals program.

Again, canine health and medical pals.

That's the acronym is champs.

And they now have five dogs there have had five dogs since 2021 at American Family Children's Hospital in Madison.

So to learn more about that.

Head over to our website up northnewswi.com, click subscribe and the banner at the top of the homepage and subscribe to our newsletter.

Tomorrow on the program we have another new candidate for Wisconsin State Senate.

There are going to be a lot of legislative races next year and that includes Democrats pushing to take control of the state Senate.

Democrats have not controlled the Senate or the Assembly since 2010.

and are anticipating with new and fairer maps a chance to do that.

And so as candidates have been declaring, a lot of them have approached us about coming on and telling people about their new candidacies.

And we will have one of those candidates for you tomorrow morning.

As well, we'll be talking to Sharita Booker about some of the big events happening around Wisconsin this coming weekend.

Todd Alba will be joining us, Joseph Peckie, Chad Holmes from 98.9 WXCO in Warsaw, and Sean O'Malley will be talking about your money and the markets.

That is all coming up here on our mornings powered by Up North News on the Civic Media Radio Network.

All right, so for most anticipated albums here, Roger notes that Bruce Springsteen's born in the U.S.

say, I guess we could say yeah, that was pretty well anticipated.

That was 1984.

It was, it was a bit of a departure.

You know, he was he moved more into top 40 territory and nailed it completely.

And let's see, he also but he also had, I saw somewhere in Rolling Stone, a list of the the greatest second albums of all time.

because you know there's there's that thing called the sophomore jinx or some people

you

know hooting hooting the blowfish always comes to mind who uh a lannis morse set they could not get that same magic with their second album but uh springsteens uh and the name of it escapes me it's it's got the east street shuffle in the title was also very um anticipated and popular uh and then we get from adam here limp biscuits chocolate starfish and the hotdog flavored water

and says, just kidding.

He always thought that was a strange album title, to which, of course, Parker and I, who are so tied into pop culture,

I

mean, limp biscuit fans, all the way through.

But we had to double check.

And of course, Parker took all the abuse from Adam.

Well,

I wasn't even sure limp biscuit was a thing.

YouTube, oh Lord,

Parker is a baby.

We need to do some education there.

So

you have

to brush up on your limp biscuit.

Sorry, guys.

I am both young and out of touch.

Who

knew?

Let's see.

Thomas Newberlin said ACDC's Back in Black was widely anticipated.

From David Newberlin, he also puts Back in Black by ACDC, third stage from Boston, walk on from Boston, and adrenaline by Def Leppard.

All very good nominees for anticipated albums.

And again, I don't think any of them were of the level of, you know, what

Taylor Swift does, but we're also in this internet social media era where you can build up so much more anticipation.

You can make things buzz worthy where it was very tough to get buzz back when, you know, you had three stations on your TV and one of them was playing Entertainment Tonight updates by Rona Barrett in Hollywood.

Okay, it was really tough for a new band to compete with a Hollywood gossip columnist.

But we definitely want to know what your thoughts were on that.

And I've also put out a little note on my own Facebook here asking for nominees and seeing what people think.

And so from Joel, a friend of mine here on Facebook says, in the New York City area where I grew up, Springsteen's darkness at the edge of town was eagerly awaited.

There was a three-year gap between born to run and darkness, and folks were getting really antsy waiting for the new record.

which reminds me there is another album that is highly anticipated and has been anticipated for years and years and years and that is whatever the heck Rihanna is gonna do next because I guess it's one of those where they keep saying she's gonna make another album and instead she makes another baby and then they go okay no she's pregnant again not that you can't make an album but

Obviously, she's got her priorities right now.

Yeah, she's a little more busy with

that.

A new album is not one of those things, at least not at the moment.

So her fans just continue to have to wait.

And Dave corrects the Deaf Leopard one, Adrenalize, said his phone auto corrected, which is good because that phone auto correct, who knows what that album could have entitled otherwise.

In our way up north segment yesterday, in case you missed it, we talked to Jeff Renneke from Friends of the Apostle Islands and

We learned about a system of boys that are out on Lake Superior near the Apostle Islands, their usefulness for safety, and so much more.

Jeff Renneke, how are ya?

I'm doing well, Pat.

Thank you.

I'd rather be out boating, but I'm glad to be here talking about

it.

Exactly.

If it helps other people to boat safely, then that's just fine.

So the WaveWatch Boys are a joint project between UW Madison, the Friends of the Apostle Islands, and the National Park Service.

And so tell us about these five different data boys deployed in strategic places around the island.

What is it that they do and how do we benefit from them?

Well first maybe a little background.

I always chuckle when I see that Minnesota license plate boast about 10,000 lakes because Wisconsin actually has 15,074 and we border the two of the Great Lakes and so we have some of the greatest boating in the world.

But with that, of course, come some dangers.

In 2023, Wisconsin unfortunately set a record with 28 boating fatalities.

We average about 19.

And so the WaveWatch Buoy Project is a way to show folks that safe boating is informed of boating.

And with the buoys, we can help people make better decisions as you were talking about a moment ago.

And so you do that in these boys that tell you about the things that they measure.

Sure.

So there's five boys out there in strategic places that are important to boaters in the Apostle Islands.

Every 30 minutes they send back information on wave height.

wave frequency, which is the time period between the crests of the waves, the wave direction, and water temperature.

And then it's refreshed every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the entire boating season.

So it's not a forecast.

It's even more important.

It's real time information right for where the boaters are going, right at their fingertips.

So this is information at your fingertips.

Is there like any kind of a charge to access this information?

I don't think boating safety should have a price.

And so use of our WaveWatch program is free.

People can just go to our website at friendsofdeposal islands.org and ask us to send them a QR code.

And what I do as a boater myself is part of my preparation process in my boat is before I slip the lines, I take my phone, I scan the QR code and I check conditions to where I'm going.

So the use of it is free.

Now, of course, there is a cost in the process.

And so we appreciate donations to try to keep this project going.

And those donations as well can be made at our website.

But safety should be for all of us and it should be free.

Yes, because as noted, it's a roughly $17,000 a year contract with UW Madison.

So sponsorships are greatly appreciated.

Are there also ramifications when it comes to, you know, measuring our changing climate with these boys?

Yeah, very much so.

Lake Superior is the largest lake in the world by surface area, as many people know.

And so it's very, very fragile to the changes in climate because it has such an incredibly large surface area.

And also, like all lakes, of course, it goes through what they call upwelling or flipping.

And so the recording of temperatures, surface temperatures, can be very important.

We had an event last year

with the buoy out by Myers Beach, which is near the sea caves, where the temperature literally dropped something on the order of

25 or 30 degrees in a matter of a very short period of time when the lake flipped.

Now that information is not only important to boaters because of course cold water can be a very dangerous situation if you're not prepared, but it's also important to climate change researchers to understand how our lake is reacting to the changes in water temperature and the extreme conditions that climate change can bring about.

And then finally, how's been the reaction to it, to having this kind of a rather sophisticated safety program out there on the water?

People love it.

They call it, if for some reason we've had 98.7% connectivity on the buoys, which is incredible because if I was floating around in Lake Superior from Memorial Day to Labor Day, I wouldn't have 97, 8% connectivity.

But as soon as it goes down, my phone starts ringing.

People are using it.

We've had more than 30,000 hits on our website last year for this and people

are getting used to it.

They're checking it.

It's even become kind of a recreational thing.

People who are not even going boating that day sometimes wisely because of strong winds will check on the buoy in a place like...

the flats near Long Island or Devil's Islands just to ooh and ah about the size of the waves.

So it's become a very important tool for safe boating in the Apostle Islands.

Oh it sounds like it and again to learn more head to friendsoftheapostleislands.org and learn more about the WaveWatch Boys and much more about the group as well.

Jeff Renneke representing it for us on our weekly Way Up North segment.

Hey it was great to talk to you again Jeff.

Thank you so much for the time.

You're welcome.

Let's all be safe out there.

We appreciate that.

You can catch our way up north segment on Tuesdays at seven fifty two here on our mornings powered by up north news on the civic media radio network from David New Berlin also hell freezes over by the Eagles was kind of a big deal.

Yeah, that's that's that's putting it mildly.

That's

when the Eagles got back together after

14 14 year break.

they were on a break, you know.

And yes, that album, especially the new version of Hotel California was outstanding.

My great thanks to my friend Chris Earl, who's down in Kansas now, and mentions this list, third stage by Boston, he adds, hysteria by Def Leppard.

He says, bad by Michael Jackson should be listed as one of the most anticipated.

And then he totally reminds me of one of my own.

I was a big Huey Lewis and the news fan back in the day.

And four was I believe the follow up to sports and everybody was waiting for that one as well.

I thought you meant that you had an album coming out that was anticipated.

Right.

Some of my greatest karaoke hits.

So my my album of hit for that one karaoke song I sang that one time.

But it was Frank Sinatra and it was good.

And as they like to say in the news stories about, you know, fatal wrecks, alcohol may have been a factor.

in all of that.

So tell you what, instead of having to even think about me singing any karaoke tunes here, why don't we pause and listen to some real music coming up next in today's history lesson.

And then in our next hour, we'll be talking to former state representative Dana walks in our homeroom segment about transparency on property tax bills about the cost of voucher schools, and also the intentional misclassification of workers and how that carries over into today's gig economy.

That's all

ahead here on these mornings live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I know what you're thinking.

Is he really gonna just play Free Bird here?

Yes, we're just gonna go out for breakfast and let this thing run.

Because Leonard Skinner released their debut album, pronounced Leonard Skinner this day in 1973, a rather impressive set with Simple Man, Tuesday's Gone, and oh yeah, Free Bird.

We're not playing Free Bird, we're not playing the album.

We've got...

big, more important things to handle like a visit from our friend Melissa K at WFHR in Wisconsin Rapids.

Melissa, how are you?

I'm good.

Good morning.

I'm good.

You know, it's so great that normally we ask you what's new in Wisconsin Rapids.

Do you have anything going on there?

And for once, I get to be the one to make a big announcement about

Wisconsin Rapids.

Because you're having

like this 85th anniversary parking lot party next week,

aren't you?

Yes.

Yes, we are.

Okay.

August 20th.

Yeah, and guess what?

This show will be broadcasting live from WFHR next Wednesday morning at 6 to 9 in the morning as part of the shindig.

Cool.

That's

awesome.

Wait, did we, did we not get the memo to you?

No.

Okay,

surprise

memo sent memos.

I'll put the memo at the bottom of Lulu's cage and Yep, Lulu told us what they thought of that.

I have some exciting news about Lulu too.

Oh my goodness go on So, you know, I've created this little pigeon playpen over here for them Yes, and I've started just leaving their door open in the morning and they flew out by themselves

Wow, we're getting

adventurous three times

See this is this is great.

Roger gives

us a

big woohoo on Facebook there.

I'm telling you we're getting close.

Do you have the pirate hat yet?

Get the pirate hat because I'm telling you the day will come and I'll bet it's on this segment where Lidl who just flies around lands on your shoulder and looks perfect there with the pirate hat.

Hmm.

Well, they can't really fly fly yet, but they're getting stronger.

So maybe maybe someday.

I just say never never say never exactly.

All right, let's get back to today's history lesson.

The number one song this week in 1966 was by the Lovin' Spoonfuls.

On this day in 1964, Diana Ross and the Supremes walked into a record studio at Motown Studios, recorded a little song called Baby Love.

It did all right.

See, we mentioned the Beatles before.

This week in 1965, they released Help.

Along with the title track, it included Ticket to Ride.

On this day in 1889, William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut is granted a patent for a coin-controlled apparatus for telephones.

In other words, the pay phone was patented this day in 1889.

Do you ever think we'd see the day where

There weren't pay phones on, like, every corner

anymore.

There's, like, one left,

I think.

Yeah.

And now it's...

I don't know if

any.

You probably have never used a pay phone, Parker.

No, I haven't.

I can't even picture where one would be in Madison, honestly.

Oh, they were everywhere.

Absolutely, yeah.

Happy birthday to Danny Bonaducci.

He's 65 years old today.

Do

you think there's still a copy right on that song?

Can we, like, use that as our theme song instead, tell everybody to get happy in the morning, Melissa?

I don't know.

You just look it

up.

It seems like the kind of thing that you'd have on a show.

It's just very happy stuff, you know?

We were all swaying to the music.

Yeah, we were.

Yeah, exactly.

Let's see.

The late Dan Fogelberg was born in Pura, Illinois, this day in 1951.

That's Dan Fogelberg's hard to say that he's going to come in on here in a second.

I passed away in 2007 of cancer at the age of 56.

All right, I've got one more here that I know I play every year and that's because I just think that she deserves her due.

Her name is Willie May Thornton and on this day in 1952 she walked into a studio in Los Angeles and recorded the original Houndog.

It was a big hit that summer.

But then, three years later, Elvis Presley covered it, and he had his own big hit in July of 1956.

And then finally, Beyoncé's album Break My Soul, or I'm sorry, her album Renaissance, went to number one this day in 2002 with a single, including

Melissa, what am I trying to say here?

You can do it.

You can do it.

I can

read it too.

Do you want me to read it?

I got it here.

Beyonce's album Renaissance goes to number one, including the single Break My Soul, with the footnote that her follow-up album, Cowboy Carter, her eighth album, also debuted at number one.

Today is National Left-Hander's Day.

This is Filet Mignon Day.

It's Prosecco Day.

And it's World Calligraphy Day.

Are

there people that

do calligraphy?

I tried it for a little while.

I had a book and everything.

Yeah.

It is for those who can do it, but I mean, they don't even, I hate to say, I don't mean to blank, I have a big blank.

I think, do they, do they teach cursive writing anymore?

And-

Yes, they do, they're bringing it back.

Oh, are they?

That's good.

Yes, they are, because it's proven that you learn things better if you write them down.

Now that makes sense, you know, and some of us could really use some help with our handwriting.

me

yeah yeah

it's really kind of so yeah anyway uh melissa any other quick announcements from wisconsin rapids other than the big party

excited see you at the party that's gonna be fun it's gonna be a busy day

it is next wednesday so be looking for that you

can catch melissa katey cruz is gonna be there too i heard

who

katey cruz

Oh,

and so it's Todd Alba.

This star studded is the term you're looking for.

Thank you, Melissa.

We'll talk to you later.

Bye.

All right.

Much more ahead.

Two more hours ahead on these mornings, powered by Up North News, live from Lake Wissota.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

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

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

Good morning.

Welcome back at 706.

Nice to have you here up north on this Wednesday, August 13th.

Parker Olson is our producer down in Madison Studio A2 and coming up later this hour.

My friend and former state assembly representative Dana Walks.

He'll be appearing in our 735 segment.

That's usually our homeroom segment where we talk about public schools in Wisconsin.

And so we'll start off by talking about

his efforts years ago in the legislature to help taxpayers understand the true cost of the voucher school program in Wisconsin and how his bill was never taken up by Republicans running the legislature.

So now folks at the local level have taken it upon themselves to increase transparency on your property tax bills, but he'll talk about the fight for that at the statewide level coming up.

We'll also talk to him about worker misclassification.

That's because Governor Evers recently vetoed a bill.

that supporters said would bring more benefits to gig workers like delivery drivers.

But the governor vetoed it and Dana Wax will help us explain why and what needs to happen to truly be more responsible to gig workers who do so much in our modern economy.

So that's coming up a little bit later on.

Brittany Merleau is off.

We'll be listening to your Civic Media station throughout the course of the day for your forecast.

the text line from Jim and Brookfield.

Good morning Pat finally a bright and sunny morning in southeast, Wisconsin Flooded low line areas are starting to recede.

Hopefully the area will have a chance to dry out Yes, I'm starting to see that in some of the photos here of how high though the waters were after that flash flooding over the weekend and that they are now starting to recede but Goodness, there's gonna be a lot of clean up ahead.

So I'm glad the weather is a decent today to get that started

Also in the mailbag, let's head over to YouTube.

Good morning from Tigerton, writes Rob.

It's sunny and 58 degrees.

I mowed three yards in Tigerton.

I helped my nephews cut down some trees at my place, then went to Clintonville to get some lawn mower parts.

I've got four lawns to mow in Tigerton today.

At the gas station in Tigerton, they have a pay phone.

And they have, I'm sorry, they have a pay phone booth frame without the pay phone.

Yes, that, that makes much more sense there.

And he says yesterday, going to Clintonville, I noticed at the top of the hill, looking down the hazy smoke in the valley.

It was like being in Los Angeles.

And yes, that I completely understand.

One of our earlier topics in our last hour, and if you ever miss an hour, head over to civicmedia.us or subscribe to us as a podcast by getting on Spotify and following us there.

we were talking about some of the most anticipated albums of all time, given the way that Taylor Swift has essentially perfected the move with her new album that's going to be coming out the life of a showgirl.

But as we talked about other heavily anticipated albums in history from, you know, Bruce Springsteen, ACDC, the Eagles and all of that, Adam writes on YouTube.

a reminder that Cheryl Crowe guaranteed us a major Milwaukee Bucks ballot if they won the championship in six games back in 2021, still waiting for that one.

And that didn't really ring a bell to me.

And I looked and sure enough, I found one article from WTMJ Radio down in Milwaukee that said, if the Bucks win in six, Cheryl Crowe vows to write a Bucks anthem.

She says, if they win it in six, I'm gonna write the biggest, baddest Milwaukee Bucks anthem you've ever heard.

They gotta take it in six.

I don't think I can take a game seven.

She was among many celebrities who were in town for game four at the Pfizer Forum that night when the Bucks did indeed win the championship.

And yet, Parker, I see no follow-up.

It's like she made that.

Adam remembered.

But it sounds like nobody else did, including Cheryl Crow.

So I'm still waiting on that big, bad bucks anthem that she promised.

We need more music about our sports teams.

I think that is an underused genre.

Oh, I agree.

I mean, there's something nostalgic about playing back some of the jingles from, you know, olden times and some some songs still hang around.

How many times do you have to hear bear down Chicago Bears, for example, when they come to town?

But it would be nice to get some modern tunes as well.

Some contemporary tunes about our favorite sports teams there.

So maybe Cheryl Crow will finally get the message and get something written for us in time for the season.

I mentioned that in the daily newsletter that you can sign up for at UpNorthNewsWI.com that a couple of new pups are on duty.

at a hospital in Madison and I hear from Sean Fetaplace with Main Street Alliance and he said you know we were talking about uh let's see where the dog's here there's uh cash and there's Jimmy cash is part golden retriever part poodle this is at American Family Children's Hospital in Madison and Sean Fetaplace writes insane uh hi Pat so cash is our dog my wife is his handler and he's a very good boy

Aw.

So there you go.

Of course he's a good boy.

A little six degrees of separation here on the morning show.

Hearing from our friend Sean about that.

So that was very nice.

Coming up later today across the Civic Media Radio Network, of course, following this fine program, we've got Matt and Air on air coming up and on there.

Just after 9.30, Jane and Greg will be talking to Andrew Watkins, a best-selling author.

just talking about Christian nationalism in the United States and its ongoing growth.

Coming up at 10.05, they will be talking to Robert Pilat, the host of Native Roots Radio.

On the Todd Alba show coming up at two o'clock, I'll be joining him along with Trig Vilsen, Senior Advisor to the Lincoln Project.

Maggie Dawn coming up at four o'clock is going to have Ruth Conniff, the Editor-in-Chief of the Wisconsin Examiner, discussing her latest article on gerrymandering.

She'll also be talking to State Representative Ann Rowe.

And then later on Nightlife with Pete Schwabba, Nightlife beginning at six o'clock there, and it will include Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Enter

entertainment reporter, Chris Ferran.

So a lot of ground to cover today across the Civic Media radio network.

May I suggest just welding your radio dial right there and sticking around throughout the course of the day or take us along on the Civic Media app.

If you need to take a break at all from it, just head over to Up North News and see some of our latest headlines there.

In the headlines, of course, we did have this terrible flash flooding in the Milwaukee area.

And we now also have word from Congressman Scott Fitzgerald, who was the former state Senate Republican leader when I was in the state Senate as well.

So I've known Scott for a long time.

He's now a member of Congress.

And according to this article from Anna Kleiber in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Congressman Fitzgerald is going to ask the Trump administration to make an emergency declaration in response to floods.

In a letter to FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Fitzgerald asks for an emergency declaration to be made to ensure Wisconsin communities have access to the recovery resources they need while a full assessment of the damages remains underway.

parts of Milwaukee County, Waukesha, Washington, Ozaki were hit with massive volumes of rain on Saturday and Sunday, more than 10 inches of rain, which is classified as a once in a thousand year flood event.

Governor Tony Evers has already declared a state of emergency following the storms.

Now, this is where it gets a little tricky.

because in the past that would normally lead to presidential emergency declarations so that agencies like FEMA could step in and allocate resources that are needed.

However, FEMA's under new management now and it has already been shown that President Donald Trump is willing to play politics with people's lives when they've been impacted by a disaster.

Recall that hurricane that came up through North Carolina.

They're still waiting on Stormade there.

California, after its wildfires, they're still waiting on federal assistance there.

But after the recent flash flooding in Texas, which was a red state, Trump declared an emergency and freed up federal resources to go there.

So when Congressman Fitzgerald

says he's asking President Trump to declare a disaster.

I guess he'll have to include that Wisconsin went for Trump in the election because that's how you predicate disaster relief, apparently, in Donald Trump's eyes.

And I don't doubt for a moment, I don't doubt for a moment that Donald Trump would declare

and emergency and free up resources, but specifically exclude Milwaukee County and make up some lame line about, you know, they don't deserve it.

They have plenty of funds.

They can take care of themselves, which is all just shorthand for those people in those quote unquote urban areas didn't vote for me.

And so I'm not going to provide federal aid there.

So

Put a marker down on this episode right here.

I may be wrong, but if I'm right, you'll be able to track it right here and see that this is who he is.

And this is what all of America has to deal with when it comes to disaster.

The first thing you have to ask yourself.

after your house blows down or whatever the case may be is, huh, do I live in a red state or a blue state?

Because my tax money will only go to people who voted for Trump.

Is that the kind of world that we want to live in?

Well, it must be because, again, just look at some of the recent headlines.

You've got a president who...

fired the person who put out the unemployment numbers and is replacing them with a loyalist who is now casting doubt on the validity of any numbers that come out of the Trump administration.

Then there's this story.

The White House plans to conduct a far-reaching review of Smithsonian Museum exhibitions, materials, and operations ahead of America's 250th anniversary to ensure the museums align with President Trump's interpretation of American history.

So he's already tainting America's 250th celebration that's going to be coming next year.

Oh wait, there's this out of Louisiana.

A lawsuit has now been filed by the family of a four-year-old boy, an American citizen whose stage four cancer treatments were disrupted when ICE kidnapped his mother along with his seven-year-old sister who is also an American citizen and sent them all to Honduras back in April without a whiff of due process.

Nothing in the courts that would

give the family the option of letting the children stay.

But I mean, hey, thank God those terrorists, that mom and those two kids aren't on the streets, right?

And by the way, forgive the strong language, but if you have no compassion for her, for the mom and say, well, she's an illegal and she shouldn't be here anyway, if you want to mock her status and her struggle and her child who has cancer, I have no idea.

how to tell you that you might not ever get back to a normal life.

That as dead as some people are on the inside right now, it may never get better if that's the way you want to react to a mom with a child with cancer.

May I consider asking people to pray for you if that's where your heart is right now.

But that's what we have for a presidency that fires people for putting out true job statistics that is going to

rig museum exhibits to comport with their interpretation of history.

And so, do I think that this president will play politics with disaster relief for the Milwaukee area?

Oh, heck yeah.

A local update is next for some of you, Representative Dana Walks joining us in about 15 minutes.

I'm Pat Crightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

You can sign up for our weekend newsletter by heading over to UpNorthNewsWI.com.

Click subscribe in the top banner and that can include our Sunday morning politics newsletter Sunday mornings with Pat Krightlow including our question of the week and this week we're asking about politicians personal social media accounts and whether they're helpful or if they need to be deleted.

Yes, politicians are people too.

I've said that before.

They're real people.

They're allowed to have human emotions and things like that.

And it gives their staff, whether it's their campaign staff or their official staff, it gives them real heartburn when there's no filter for a politician to show off that humanity in some way, shape, or form.

And of course, given what a dumpster or fire social media has become, it's not like...

A lot of people are using their personal social media accounts to spread warm, fluffy feelings, especially somebody like Derek Van Orden.

And after just a long string of embarrassing or insulting posts, it prompts the question of whether politician personal social media accounts should be deleted.

or if they just help you see the person that they are.

And if maybe they're not the kind of person they like to portray in their campaign ads.

So again, that's our question of the week.

Head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com and subscribe there.

If you missed it earlier, if you're waking up a little late here, the Brewers did win their 11th in a row, a two touchdown shutout of the Pittsburgh Pirates 14 to nothing.

It's the second time in a row at American Family Field that Pittsburgh's ace Paul Skeens was chased out after just four innings.

South Freelick greeted Skeens right out of the gate with another leadoff home run.

So the Brewers become the first team in the National League with multiple winning streaks of at least 11 games since the 1935 Chicago Cubs.

Milwaukee leads the league with 23 home runs so far this month.

And I, again, stress the Brewers are undefeated in the month of August so far.

The series does continue now this afternoon.

Final game of the series against the Pirates.

The pregame begins at 1235 on several civic media stations across the state.

Head over to civicmedia.us to learn more.

Then after this afternoon's game, the Brewers are off.

this Thursday they'll be traveling to Cincinnati for a weekend series but it's not just that they're starting a weekend series it's that they're starting a run of 18 days without a day off and they're going to play 19 games in those 18 days starting with three in Cincinnati

and then there's gonna be five at Wrigley Field in Chicago next week.

It was supposed to be a four game series, but they're making up one that was canceled earlier in the season because of rain.

So five games at Wrigley next week.

So for all the anticipation about potentially winning 12 in a row this afternoon and the free burgers from George Webb and everything else, comes the temperate expectations given that you've got five games against a division rival, the Cubs are not having a bad year.

Not by any stretch.

The brewers are just, they're on a magic carpet ride right now, and we'll just see how long it lasts and hope for all the best here.

If you didn't catch it in the news, I wanted to pass along that Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Call, along with attorneys general from the entire country, from 50 other jurisdictions, have all filed letters of complaint about robo calls.

Now I get junk texts like crazy Parker I don't I don't know what you get for Robo calls or things like that because I just don't answer them if it's and if it's somebody I don't recognize and they leave a message I'll call them back right away, but I don't Clearly it's a problem because Americans receive four and a half billion Robo calls per month.

That's crazy

that somebody calls I only get like one a week for calls I get a fair number of texts that are spam

texts like crazy but again I can filter those out you know the ones that are from my contacts and the ones that are not but 37 different telecom companies received warnings from this group of attorneys general as part of what's called Operation Robocall Roundup

The Attorney's General from 50 states and the District of Columbia demanded that phone providers take steps to mitigate the use of robocalling on their networks, that in an article from Wisconsin Public Radio.

The task force launched in 2022 with the goal to take legal action against the perpetrators of robocalls and providers that don't take steps to remove those bad actors from their system.

Now some of these robocalls, they're actually rather, as the article says, mundane or necessary, that you'll get a call from your dentist office reminding you that you have an appointment tomorrow.

But the overwhelming majority are these kinds of promotions that could be scammers, that could cross the line into being illegal, they could be spoof calls that are designed to trick you and separate you from your money.

I mean, I have to be honest.

I know that it's complex.

I know that these bad actors are often calling from overseas where, you know, they're outside of legal jurisdictions.

But still, having said that, I'm still surprised that it's grown to this level that there are more than four and a half billion robocalls a month that are being made.

And I can only assume that it has something to do with that one

Troublesome vein of American politics and that is to lit corporations self-police in the name of you know deregulation and in the name of you know, not cutting red tape is that we're we're trusting these companies But thankfully you now have attorneys general Josh call and others who are saying It really is past time to bring the hammer down.

We're paying these phone bills and we're not paying for this

So I wish them luck in that crackdown.

I think every one of our telephones would appreciate getting a little breather.

All right, we'll talk to former state representative Dana Wachs coming up right after the Midwest Farm Report.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

All right, I have to tell you a story first before we bring on former state assembly rep Dana walks here Dana of course ran for governor in 2017 2018 along with 205 other people and One of the mementos that I have of helping my friend Dana is that you know

It's very common now to have backdrops.

They're very easy to make.

They print them on vinyl.

They put them on a frame back there.

And so somewhere in my garage, I still have that vinyl backdrop.

I thought about getting it out, but I couldn't find it in time with all the logos on there that say Dana walks for governor.

I was going to put it up there and see if Dana wanted to, if it inspired him to make any announcement.

Well, I don't have the backdrop.

But I have the guy, Dana walks joining us now from Eau Claire.

Dana, any any declarations you'd like to make for me today?

Absolutely, positively.

You know, I got my hands full.

I've got a lot of stuff going on in my case, my case load.

And it was a wonderful experience.

I enjoyed it very much.

It makes me a better person to have done that.

It also

You know now I'm in a position where I can stand up in a heartbeat and give a speech to thousands of people and not Give any thought to it.

It's it's a good experience.

It's a good learning experience So I recommend that all six million Wisconsinites run for governor

Really will be 2018 all over again.

I tell you

But it was a lot of fun.

It was a great experience.

You were an amazing candidate and obviously served with a lot of distinction in the assembly and then as a member of the Board of Regents before you got caught up in more Republican political shenanigans there.

But your work as a legislator and as a trial attorney inspired me to ask you to come on to talk about

two different things.

And we're going to talk about gig workers in just a minute here.

But this segment is normally the one each week where we spend a little time talking about public education in Wisconsin.

And we have spoken recently with some folks in Green Bay.

who kind of got the ball rolling on local efforts to increase transparency on property tax bills so that people know when they look at the property tax bill and they see a line there for the Green Bay School District and they see that dollar amount and they think, wow, that's a lot of money going to Green Bay.

Well, it's not.

Some of it's being skimmed off the top and going to the voucher school program.

And that's something that could have been done on property tax bills statewide.

a long, long time ago because you had the bill to do that back when you were in the legislature.

Tell folks more about it.

Yeah, well, there was a constituent who brought this to my attention that wouldn't it be a good idea?

It's Chris Humbuck Boyle, actually.

Rockstar,

yes.

Yeah, she's an education advocate, par excellence, and she she brought this idea up.

Wouldn't it be nice on your tax forms when you get the bill?

to see how much money is actually going into this private school voucher system.

I think it's only fair that the taxpayers understand what the true cost of this subsidy for the private schools is.

It's not fair to not do this.

So you had the you had the bill that would call for that and You know, I know you you're you're on friendly terms with a lot of folks doesn't matter their party affiliation Was there any traction among any Republican legislators to say, you know, I'm all for the voucher schools But I'm also for transparency and I can see this or were you met with complete silence from the other side of the aisle

Complete silence as far as I can recall.

I don't recall a single Republican

willing to support this.

They've got very strong leadership and it's lockstep only over on that side of the aisle.

And they didn't have permission to support this, although it makes perfect sense.

I think a couple of them kind of privately approached me and said, you know, that's a pretty good idea, but their leadership wouldn't let them do it.

And it's just unbelievable.

It's complete opposite of what you'd expect.

Yeah, and so I know that you and many others as you would talk to people about this they'd say really they had no idea about how the system works that you know there's this pool of money that goes to schools and then Whatever the legislature decides to fund the voucher school program at that is skimmed off the top first and Then what's left goes to public schools, but you'd never know that by looking at property tax pills and so finally

The good folks in Green Bay got the ball rolling between the city council and the school board and the school district.

They're having it done.

We had them on last week to try to encourage other communities to start that same initiative.

So there might be this obstruction in the legislature, but what do you think of the folks in Green Bay bringing some local accountability to this matter?

It's fantastic.

And their mayor, Eric Engrich, he was one of the sponsors of this bill.

if I remember correctly.

And he served in the

legislature with you before he became mayor,

right?

Yeah.

I'm confident that he must have been heavily involved in getting that through the city council over there.

It makes perfect sense.

People need to know what the cost of various elements of their government is.

And it's consistent with the morals and goals of our constitutional founders.

We should have transparency in government.

not sneaking around in the middle of the night passing things, which was the MO for some of the Republican folks.

Oh my goodness, the whole program started and was maintained over the years by being rolled into the state budget time after time after time because if it ever had to be a standalone bill, if people had to take a vote on it and vote for two parallel school systems that now account for approaching a billion dollars a year, it would never fly.

So of course there had to be this obfuscation.

So it's good to see that it's starting to happen on the local level and we wanted to let folks know.

that you tried to get the ball rolling on this a long time ago.

All right, so let's pivot over to gig workers for a sec here because, again, I've seen the headlines and I'm not faulting the headline writers, but, you know, all they see is Governor Evers vetoes a bill for portable benefits for delivery drivers.

And then you see something like we talked about yesterday on the program that DoorDash spent like a million dollars lobbying.

for this bill to pass in the Wisconsin legislature, which again, that should be a red flag, which Governor Evers pointed out in his veto message.

His message was that I'm not vetoing this because I don't think gig workers, you know, don't deserve benefits.

I'm vetoing it because it was a completely one sided bill was kind of what I got out of his veto message.

You've had a chance to look at the bill.

What did you think?

Well, I think Governor Evers for doing the right thing and vetoing this.

You know, the thing about this, I've got two Labradors, Artie and Earl.

And if it gets real quiet in the kitchen, I get up and go in the kitchen and see what the heck is going on.

And they're usually into something.

Well, I liken them to WMC because the way they put this bill together, the Wisconsin manufacturers and commerce lobby, I'm sure was behind this.

And while it gets real quiet in the kitchen, when you take a look at the rest of this bill,

a terrible bill for all Wisconsinites.

And here's why.

Number one, these benefits are at the discretion of the employer.

So Uber or whoever would be the employer here, who knows.

But it's up to them to decide whether or not to provide these benefits.

But one of the worst things about this bill as far as I see it is that

It adds four more requirements for there to be respondent superior or employee or liability.

Now, let me tell you a story.

I've represented a lot of people in the last 41 years and injured folks that had nothing to do with employer-employee relationships.

They're just going down the highway and all of a sudden the car runs into them.

And they try to bring suit to get compensation.

Some of these people are paralyzed.

And they bring a lawsuit to get compensation from the mega huge corporation that has hired these people and declared them to be independent contractors.

So an independent contractor of mega corporation.

can hire people, they get in an accident and mega corporation isn't responsible for it.

I had a case a few years ago where it took us four years and complicated discovery to find out that the independent contractor who was actually killed in this crash, the independent contractor had received a telephone call from the mega corporation that hired him.

telling them to go to a specific address.

It sold four years into this case.

I was able to prove that that person was an entity and that there wasn't $25,000 of insurance coverage or millions of dollars in insurance coverage, but they were hiding it.

So these outfits hide behind independent contractor, quote unquote.

They hire people and say, we're just going to

You are not an employee of ours.

You're an independent contractor and they're running all over our highways and they're trying to escape liability and doing the right thing through this.

So this bill adds four more safeguards for the employer so that they're not deemed an employer, but actually the contractor with an independent contractor.

It's a terrible bill.

We're talking to former state assembly representative Dana Wachs of Eau Claire, who's a trial attorney and has worked on cases that involve what is commonly referred to as employee misclassification, which predates the gig economy, Dana.

It's the kind of thing where they'll limit hours and still classify you as part time to avoid paying benefits, but somehow they managed to squeeze full time work out of you anyway.

And so now you have this bill that was a stencil.

supposed to be this positive thing about providing benefits.

But like you said, it grows that divide where a company is able to say, well, we're not actually their employer, when in fact they are, they're doing work for them.

So the governor had pointed out saying, hey, I'm all for benefits for gay workers.

Let's let labor come to the table.

Let's let workers come to the table and let's work out something together.

do you feel putting your former legislator hat on that there there is a bill that could be written in some way that says that people who who do want that sense of independence but they are still working for you know mega corporation that there is a way for them to get benefits like health insurance and things like that

yeah well i think it's an easy bill to write and i think it could be done it should have been done longer ago but

But the way it is with the lobbying efforts of these outfits, the way it is now, you're not an employee of mega corporation until they call you and specifically tell you to go pick up XYZ.

They're adding these additional requirements to further help themselves with insurance costs in these circumstances.

So it's a terrible bill.

I'm really glad that Tony Evers, as always, Tony does the right thing.

It's very common for him to do the right thing.

And the right thing here was to absolutely get labor to the table and talk this through in great detail.

And folks in the legal world should be involved in the crafting of something like this.

Because while there may be times that independent contracting is a good thing, it often isn't.

And we've got to have these safeguards to have a society that functions.

Yeah, exactly.

And that's, you know, why we turn to experts like you Dana walks trial attorney, former state assembly representative from the Eau Claire area, and future candidate for something else not next year.

But I mean, Dana, you and I were not done yet.

It might be a candidate for, you know, fishing up at your cabin real soon.

But

There'll be something down the line here.

Dana, thanks so much.

Have a great day.

Thanks for

visiting with us.

You

too.

Thanks, Patrick.

All right.

Great to talk with you.

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

Others will visit with Jimmy Koska and see what he's covering as part of the Civic Media Radio Network.

And then in our next hour, after the eight o'clock news, we'll be talking to Earl Ingram, who has learned all too personally some of the damage that this flash flooding has done in Milwaukee.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Got some matinee baseball for you this afternoon.

The Brewers and Pirates wrap up their three game series.

Pre game begins at 1235 on Civic Media Stations up in Hayward at WBZH.

Park Falls, Racine Kenosha, Oshkosh, Richland Center, and everybody will be watching and listening to see if the Brewers get to 12 in a row.

And that's where we bring in Jimmy Koska, Civic Media Sports Director to talk a bit about this.

Jimmy, how are you?

I'm doing pretty good.

Office productivity today this afternoon.

I

would

expect record high

levels.

Please, if you're in a position to cancel a meeting at your workplace, just cancel it.

Just let it go.

I mean, look, it's not the World Series, but it's a 12-game winning streak on the line here.

And

also on the line, if you're in Southeastern Wisconsin, are the George Webb burgers.

So there's a lot at stake today.

So again, for folks that are catching us in the Oshkosh area, in the Waukesha area, obviously,

They know what we're talking about.

George Webb is a little regional string of diners there.

For folks that are listening on the western side of the state, you probably hear this every so often to go, what is a George Webb?

And it's a little chain that long ago, one of their advertising promotions, and this chain dates back to 1948.

And back in the 1940s, when Milwaukee only had a minor league team,

George Webb would predict that the local team would win a specific number of games and then that would lead to free burgers.

Well there was nothing like that until 1987 and I remember it well when that team won 13 straight and then it didn't happen again until 2018 when they won 12 games and in each case we're talking hundreds of thousands of free burgers for folks who might

might not otherwise go to a George Webb.

What I would really like to see is some other businesses around Wisconsin jump on this too.

Look how much promotion this one little hamburger chain has gotten for a prediction that was made, you know, 80 years ago for goodness sakes.

Yeah, it'd be great if somebody in Western Wisconsin would jump on it too, because I would love to get in on any kind of brewers related promotion.

But it is so cool that we're here again, what, 38 days since the last time they had an 11 game win streak.

The brewers are doing incredibly well.

And you know, what's funny is when I was talking about this with Mike Clemens, I just asked him, like, do you think the brewers are peaking too early, maybe?

Because we're looking forward to the postseason.

But you know, without these win streaks, the brewers wouldn't be in the position they're in, which, you know,

massive lead in the division where a month ago, a little over a month ago, it were trailing by, you know, several games.

Now they're leading by a whole bunch of games.

It has been a remarkable story here in the middle of the season for the Brewers.

A team, by the way, that started out, you know, 0 and 4, the minus 32 run differential.

Now they have the best record of baseball, the best run differential.

It is remarkable what is happening right now with Brewers.

They are still undefeated in the month of August.

They have more home runs than any other team in the

month of August and it has never been like a single person and it's just been this wonderful amalgamation of

chemistry and coaching and, I don't know, grit, whatever it is that you want to call it.

And it's, you know, I say all the time, it's been fun to watch because it is, we don't put everything on, like when they were really coming up in 2018, for example, everything was on Ryan Braun's shoulders, you know, going, Oh, this, this guy is going to carry us and maybe a couple of others.

But here there's like, I mean, we've got Christian Yelich, but we also know, you know, he's a little long in the tooth here.

And that, again, not all the pressure's on him.

It is definitely a team-wide thing.

You know, it's amazing.

There's a couple of amazing stats of the team.

Obviously, I think everybody's pointing to the Aaron Savalli trade to get Andrew Vaughn, the Vaughn mower.

He's in and he's just breaking right now.

I had a three-run blast yesterday.

I just, just ridiculous stuff.

I mean, that is an amazing trade.

And the Brewers had a couple of these, right?

But I think the other thing that's really interesting is that when you look back to the beginning of the year, when they had all the issues at the beginning of the year with their pitching staff and giving up all these runs and whatever,

All those pictures are gone.

None of them are with the Brewers anymore.

They have retooled on the fly this year, dealing with things like the trade demand by Savali to get a 27-year-old outfielder from AAA.

And all of a sudden, he is one of the centerpieces to this amazing ride that the Brewers have been on the last couple of months.

I got to tell you, the front office for the Brewers

Literally unmatched right now they the Brewers wanted every single level in baseball yesterday every minor league level and at the MLB level yesterday Right now things things couldn't be better for the Brewers.

I I'm personally just enjoying the ride that we're on with them

Well, especially when you consider

the payrolls that they're going up against from the Dodgers from the Yankees from the Mets uh and other well almost everybody else it seems but the Brewers I don't know the current Brewers ranking in terms of payroll but it's nothing like theirs and again there's there's a lot to be said for

chemistry.

There's a lot to be said for injuries.

Again, like you said, there were a lot of injuries on the pitching staff earlier in the year.

And again, you know, knock on wood here that, you know, we, again, was it Ryan Braun with the busted kneecap?

Or was that Yellich?

I forget now.

That was Yellich.

You know, there's always the inopportune injury.

And so I think much as I've said in past seasons, I'm not putting on the pressure that you got to like win it all.

We definitely got to get past the first round of the playoffs.

That would be just soul crushing if we lose out in the wild card round again.

But you just got to have fun with it.

I, for one, am having a lot of fun with it.

The Brewers do have some injuries they're dealing with too right now, which is making this even more amazing that.

They've got some big time guys that are sitting on the injured list right now and they're still finding a way to get it done.

You know, I think even like just today, like yesterday with the Pirates, you know, seeing Paul Skeens again and for the second time this year rocking him and, you know, blowing out the Pirates last night, I just, I really want to stress that like we, we're in the football season, right?

And normally this time of year, even though it's practice, the Packers are.

dominating everybody's thought.

We're just close to college football.

But the Brewers being as relevant as they are and as good as they are, they have completely dominated the sports conversations here in Wisconsin.

And it's extended this love of baseball for at least a little while here.

I know the Packers will probably take that crown here soon enough.

But for now, I personally am just enjoying the fact that we've got relevant, awesome baseball to cheer for.

And the Brewers are doing an incredible job this

season.

Exactly.

Jimmy Koska, thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Have a great day.

Thank you.

All right.

From Jim in Brookfield on the text line, George Webb is known for having two large side by side clocks.

And when the when you order chili, the waitress, if you if you order chili, the waitress says, do you want one handful or two?

No, that's funny.

Earl Angrum is going to be coming up after the eight o'clock news more about the terrible flash flooding in the Milwaukee area.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Cross Wisconsin on Civic Media.