Rural Alarm Bells (Hour 3)

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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.

And he's got friends.

We've got Parker Olson, who's producing this shindig down in Madison Studio A2 and meteorologist Brittany Merleau here as well.

You would normally hear Dr. Kristen Leirle at this point.

called not long ago to say that she is camping and the receptionist body and could she get a pass?

No, I said, how dare you ask for that?

You've called in special from Lima, Peru.

You've called in special after being stranded in Atlanta.

I think you're entitled to actually enjoy a little camping trip.

So she'll be back with us next week.

Some very well-deserved time off.

And I don't begrudge her a bit, Brittany, because she's not camping in like 95 degree heat with 107% humidity.

So I'm betting this is much more enjoyable for her.

Absolutely.

This is great camping weather coming up.

I mean, being in a tent with that high heat and humidity, it just heats up so much faster.

So much, much better weather for her.

I'm excited.

It's gonna be feeling like fall this weekend, you guys.

Get ready, bust out the flannels.

It's just going to be gorgeous, honestly.

We are looking though at high gusty winds, which could spark a few scattered sprinkles tomorrow and potentially into our Sunday, especially far north.

Plus we've got this cold front that has to still move through the state.

It's sitting right now in northern Minnesota and draped into Canada with a low pressure system starting to push some rain into far western Minnesota.

So it is headed our way.

North parts of the state will see chances for heavier rain.

Maybe some storms mixed in there.

We could see some gusty winds or hail as well and up to an inch or so is possible.

But as this front moves southeast through the state late tonight and overnight, it's pretty much just going to bring more clouds to you.

So soak up the sunshine now.

It will get cloudier further south and you are looking at some scattered sprinkle chances possibly overnight and still through tomorrow.

Like I said, those winds whipping at 25 to 30 miles per hour out of the Northwest, pulling in this air mass, which is going to drop our highs from the upper 70s to nearly 80 degrees today.

down to about the mid sixties far north tomorrow to mid seventies far south.

And then we are looking at upper fifties north on Sunday to mid sixties south on Sunday.

And that holds into Monday and Tuesday next week as well before we start to warm things up again.

Trust me, summer weather is still around the corner, but it is a nice refreshing break.

You know what this is a perfect weekend for?

S'mores.

Yes.

campfires, fire pits in the backyard, s'mores a plenty this weekend.

So get to the grocery store early.

It's about to be a run on Hershey bars, graham crackers and marshmallows.

And there'll be a second wave later when people who didn't go go into the cupboard and realize that the bag of marshmallows that they thought they had, but they only taken a couple out of and resealed it is now just one big sticky marshmallow clump.

get that going to go work.

So you get you get to go buy yourself a fresh new bag of marshmallows, but get out there and enjoy it.

Brittany, enjoy your weekend.

We'll see you on Monday.

You too.

Thanks.

You bet.

Remember, you can sign up for our daily newsletter up north news wi.com.

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And again, to our weekend newsletter Sunday mornings with pack right low, a little story, a little newsletters about Wisconsin political stories of the past week.

And of course, our question of the week as well.

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You'll recall that a week before last we talked about how Pete Buttigieg the former transportation secretary and the former presidential candidate is Doing a video series has done several interviews with Americans about the current climate out there including of course things that are in the Trump slash Republican bill that

could cause tremendous harm to folks here in Wisconsin, especially in areas like rural health care.

And one of his recent interview subjects was a family practice physician from Toma, Dr. Jill McMullen.

You'll recall we played some of that interview back and we are pleased to be joined by Dr. McMullen this morning to talk a bit about, again, Medicaid cuts and her conversation with the former secretary.

Jill McMullen, good morning.

How are you?

Oh, great, Pat.

Thank you for having me.

Oh, it's so nice to have you here.

Thank you for taking part in the interview with Secretary Buttigieg.

Can we kind of talk about the ramping up to that first and then we'll get to the substance of what you had to say?

I mean, one day you're just kind of minding your own business, seeing patients, dictating charts, trying to make sure people in admin can't find you.

I'm sorry, I'm probably talking too much about my own wife and her circumstances.

You just want to do your job.

Anyway, so did you get a call or an email?

How did the interview come about?

Yeah, well, there's a group in the country that's trying to put together primary stories from people who might be affected by political decisions.

And I volunteered to be part of that group.

I wanted to not be an activist primarily, but more a doctor primarily, which then led me to quote,

unquote activism, which is meaning being able to speak the truth and trying to help people understand what's really happening.

So because of that connection, I had met with a couple of folks, and then they put me in touch with Pete's group, who we're just wonderful to work with.

I don't doubt that one moment.

And here's a topic that we go over quite frequently with Dr. Kristen Lierly, who I mentioned earlier, was going to be with us this morning, but had something else come up.

But I mean, she's talked at length about how

And it's not just healthcare providers.

You see this in all kinds of other careers, but healthcare providers who are notoriously camera shy many times are now in this day and age feel like they have to say something.

Now, they don't all have to, but you chose to.

What was it that made you say, I need to not be silent when somebody asks me what I think about the current political climate?

Yeah, I think it's watching people suffer and seeing what's on the horizon.

So we are scrupulously nonpartisan at work.

We are not trying to promote anyone idea necessarily.

And in fact, we can't advocate under our official role working for any health systems because of their not-for-profit status.

So I'm very much doing this as a private citizen.

But when I think back to when I first did my Hippocratic Oath at my medical school 30 years ago, one of the lines is working for social justice and greater peace in the world.

That is part of our role as physicians because people's health depends on the environment in which they live.

So while I don't have an interest to necessarily be on.

Billboards are looking for a lot of attention.

I can see that there's a disconnect between what the average person understands about how their healthcare works and the policies that are being put into place.

And I'm afraid we're gonna miss an opportunity to make a difference.

So I'd like the average person, patient, community member to be able to understand and then have good conversations with their representatives.

We're talking to Dr. Joe McMullen from TOMA.

And to get to the part about politics and partisanship,

In other words, at the risk of stating the obvious, it's not about whether somebody from this party or that party is slashing Medicaid.

It's that somebody is slashing Medicaid and the harm that is being done.

That's not partisan.

It's about cause and effect.

And that's what you've been talking to Secretary Buttigieg and others about is the effect of making these kinds of cuts to Medicaid.

How would you give us an overview of their impact?

I'll just step back a second and say that for the last 20, 30 years, we've recognized that things are not working well in healthcare.

We keep trying to have a fix to deliver better care to more people at a better price, the triple aim.

That's what we're looking for as a whole United States.

And both parties have had an opportunity to improve that, but they're not really delivering in terms of how it meets the end user, if you will, the patient in the clinic.

So unfortunately, we have our medical care tied to having

job in a lot of parts of the country.

And so I hear this clamor that able-bodied people should be able to work to get their healthcare and not be on Medicaid.

I think that's a misunderstanding about how many people are on Medicaid and the choices that families have to make about who's going to work, who's going to do childcare, who's going to take care of the disabled family member.

So when those cuts happen, there's not only the impact on the individual and their family, but also on their community and ultimately then the hospitals and

healthcare providers that are available to everyone else in the community.

Not to mention as well, when you talk about to the providers, these kinds of cuts to Medicaid then lead to an increase in uncompensated care, because it's not like you can ever say to a patient, Oh, you don't have Medicaid coverage anymore.

Well, you have to leave.

I'm not going to treat you.

It doesn't work that way.

Yeah, certainly not in the hospitals.

Unfortunately, that could happen in clinics and that would be a really sad day for healthcare if we turn people away.

But just as an example, the state of Wisconsin, very few dentists will accept Medicaid insurance for various reasons, including decreased reimbursement.

So I see a lot of people in the medical clinic who actually have dental problems because they're on Medicaid assurance and can't get the care they need.

So when they're in the clinic for their dental issue, that's a spot that I can't manage a medical issue.

with.

The medical person is now going to urgent care emergency room raises costs and if those are uncompensated costs it really takes a hit for that service provider for the emergency room for instance.

Yeah it's something that we all end up paying for.

It's the kind of thing that was being addressed by the Affordable Care Act again by providing these subsidies so that Americans could get coverage through.

private insurance companies rather than, you know, government issued health insurance.

But now it's not just the cuts to Medicaid, but now the subsidies.

This assistance to to purchase health insurance policies is being cut in this, you know, new Trump budget bill as well.

And so again, you're going to have more people who do not have insurance coverage.

And again,

What does that mean when you do finally see them after they've delayed care?

It's not just tougher on them.

Make your job a little tougher to make them better.

Oh, absolutely.

And our goal is to help people be the best that they can be and decide what their goals are, their values, and help them meet that.

But if they've already had some devastating effects over the years of not having insurance or being underinsured, then their disease state or their symptoms are much worse.

and you just are playing catch up all the time.

And forget the expense.

I mean, I do think the expense is important to address as a nation, but also that person's life may have real impacts for how they're able to care for their families or what they decide to do, whether they want to start a business or go back to school or get married or get divorced, whatever the situation is.

So in real terms, people can be sick enough that instead of an early antibiotic or a prescription for an inhaler, they now are going to the emergency room or to the hospital.

Unfortunately, I've taken care of people over the years where they have not been seen by anybody for 10 to 20 years.

And they finally come in.

And because they're finally there, we realize that they actually have a life-threatening illness.

And they may only have a few more months left to live.

So I've actually seen that happen within the last year.

And that's heartbreaking.

And again.

altogether unnecessary.

We're talking to Dr. Jill McMullen from TOMA about the impact of Medicaid cuts and we're going to continue the discussion and talk about rural health care and rural hospitals and the impact there.

That'll be coming up in just a bit.

A local update is next for some of you as well.

And one more reminder, it's Free Ticket Friday.

So if you want to be in the running for a set of four tickets to see the Brewers vs. Arizona next Thursday afternoon,

Use that Civic Media app and text us the keyword BAT, B-A-T, before nine o'clock.

From the heart of America's up north, live from Lake Wissota.

Thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.

I'm Pat Crightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

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We are less than 15 minutes away from our weekly visit with Mike Clements from Packer Training Camp to talk about the final preseason game coming up tomorrow afternoon against the Seattle Seahawks.

He'll also talk about the Brewers and getting out of the gauntlet of Wrigley Field five games over four days and winning yesterday.

to maintain that seven game lead in the National League Central Division.

Brewers are now back at home taking on the San Francisco Giants for the weekend.

Coverage of this evening begins at 6.35 on several civic media stations.

And one reminder, if you can't catch us live or you just want to listen back to something that we've done in the past, you can pod this program by heading over to Spotify and following the program that way or Apple or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

Continuing our conversation now with Dr. Jill McMullen.

out of Touma.

We were talking about her interview with Pete Buttigieg, and he used a phrase that you agreed with in talking about the crisis in rural health care, and it's essentially a death spiral.

And it's something that Dr. Lierly and I have spoken about repeatedly, that the cuts that are coming through

you know, the Trump budget are on top of what was already a crisis in health care related to demographics and to finances.

The bottom line being that rural hospitals, for example, clinics too, but rural hospitals, people aren't getting rich running hospitals in rural America right now.

So they were already on edge before everything that's happened this year, right?

That's right.

And I think a lot of businesses in healthcare would be very happy to run on a three to 5% margin.

That would be wonderful.

Just so we know in terms of the Affordable Care Act, a restriction was put on for-profit insurance companies that they couldn't make.

I believe it's more than 20% profit.

And so the rural public health network is barely hanging on in the best of times.

If we start cutting even fractions of their income, it's going to make a difference in terms of what services they can deliver.

And unfortunately, we're seeing hospitals deciding to close out in rural areas in other parts of the country.

I'm afraid that's going to happen here in Wisconsin.

And it doesn't always start with a hospital closing.

Dr. Lyrely's an OBGYN, my wife's an OBGYN, and we talk about how it often starts with they cut labor and delivery.

Or some of these other services that, again, for people who think, oh, none of this affects me, I'm not on Medicaid.

But it starts when the hospitals don't have that Medicaid revenue coming in for taking care of patients who don't have coverage.

They don't necessarily close the doors right away, but they do start by cutting programs that affect everybody in a community, right?

Yeah, or and or they have to then raise their prices for people with insurance in order to make up that gap So something many people won't be aware of is that there's a lot of cost-shifting in health care Medicare and Medicaid and general pay maybe 50 cents on the dollar for the true cost of a service Which means that people are on private insurance are actually getting charged much more

potentially than the actual cost in order to make up that gap.

So there's true expense, there's only so much money in the system and we can keep shifting around who's going to pay it, but eventually it all comes back to the rest of us and whether that's employers who can't offer other benefits because their premiums are up for the people they're trying to recruit and they need good healthcare coverage.

Another excellent point that you made in the interview for folks who missed it is that

when some of these rural hospitals close.

What it means to everybody in terms of emergency care.

And that's not just the residents.

That's, you know, people who just happen to be in any given area and where they used to see on the highway that blue sign with the big white H on it.

And that sign's not there anymore in times of crisis.

That's right.

I mean, I think about hospitals as infrastructure, just like our energy lines are, and our firefighters and police departments, where when we're in need, we want to be able to get what we need in that moment.

And especially for healthcare and the other emergencies, police and fire, we need a rapid response.

And the difference between driving 20 minutes versus driving an hour and a half could literally be life or death.

And that's not just the folks who live here.

That's the people on vacation, people going to Wisconsin Dells or up north by you or just heading out

out west.

So it's a silent infrastructure.

You hope you never need it.

But when you do need it, you don't have a chance to drive another hour.

Right, it starts with we use labor and delivery as an example.

And we're seeing more and more people have to make these hour plus long drives.

And that's a pretty tough thing to do if you've been in labor and you haven't been able to get in the car right away.

But now it's not just, you know, laboring women, it's now anybody with any kind of an emergency when their hometown hospital is suddenly not taking emergency care is closed its doors all the way.

So if I could

close on something that's hopefully a bit more hopeful.

The whole reason we're doing all of this, the whole reason we're talking about this, isn't to be negative about politics, but to say that there are still communities that deserve care and there are still dogs that need to be fed and there are still doctors who want to care for these folks and just deserve a fair shake to be able to provide that care.

That's right.

And as clinicians, whether you're a doctor, a nurse, behavioral health, you want to move to a thriving community with a vibrant hospital, not someplace that's in danger of closing.

That's where the death spiral can start to kick in, where you can't get people to actually come work in the small towns if the hospitals are not good, and then you can't have industry and you can't have new jobs.

Yeah.

And again, we've talked about that.

The recruiting is already tough to begin with and made worse in that day and age.

Dr. Jill McMullen is a family practice physician from the Touma area.

Dr. McMullen, it was great to talk to you.

Thank you very much for your advocacy.

And there is a puppy that needs your attention.

We are very pro dog on the show, by the way.

No, no, no.

We've got dogs and cats coming through here all the time and we look forward to chatting with you more and maybe getting to know your puppy next time as well.

Thank you, Jill.

Thanks, Pat.

All right, great to talk to you.

And again, if you look for the video series that Pete Buttigieg is doing, and he's got, again, millions of people watching on his YouTube channel, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, you name it, and you'll be able to see the interview there with Dr. McMullen and all the others that he's doing to simply, again, not make a lot of political speeches, but simply explain what is actually happening.

going beyond the political rhetoric, where we still have a congressman who represents the Tomah area who's saying nobody's benefits are going to get cut, who deserves them.

But as we've said repeatedly, there are all these backdoor ways that they are being cut because of that bill that Derek Van Orden voted for.

Mike Clemens has our Friday Sports coming up after this.

You're up north.

It's Free Ticket Friday, of course, and here's your keyword for from now until nine o'clock.

You've got till then to text us the keyword bat, B-A-T, like a baseball bat.

Use the Civic Media app to text that before 9 a.m.

and you will be in the drawing for Brewer's Tickets to see the Brewer's versus Arizona next Thursday afternoon for a great club level seat.

tickets are available, there'll be more chances for you to enter throughout the day, different keywords, and then at the end of the day, one lucky drawing will be, one lucky entry will be drawn rather to get those tickets on free, Ticket Friday again, BAT.

is the keyword there.

We'll get to more of the Brewers in just a bit, but Mike Clemens is standing by.

He's been at Packer Training Camp getting set for the Packers and Seahawks to play their final pre-season game tomorrow afternoon.

Mike, how are you this morning?

Pretty good.

A little tired.

Kind of a long day yesterday.

I'm calling you from Lambeau Field where Training Camp actually had their last practice yesterday, then tomorrow was their

final preseason game against the Seahawks, but I don't know if you heard it got a little rowdy here.

I've got a comment here on YouTube by Alicia saying, you guys going to talk about the fight between the Packers and Seahawks during joint practice?

Why?

Yes, Alicia.

Yes, we are.

Tell us more, Mike.

So Mike McDonald, the Seahawks head coach and LaFleur had a big joint huddle, both teams before the practice started with like, you know, rules of engagement and then they go on.

And so later on, by the way, they had a special

Just for Jordan Love, a seven-on-seven session where he got to go against the Seahawks secondary, no linemen, because he's recovering from surgery on his left hand, his thumb, and he didn't have a very good outing.

I mean, he had a lot of deflected passes.

It was only like three of 12 in that period.

Then they get into this 11-on-11 scrimmage, and Sam Dardell and the Seahawks offense is down a one end of the field going against Lucas Van Ness and those guys, and then it's

Malik Willis your backup quarterback running the first team offense of the Packers against the first team defense And so there there would be some plays like a running player or pass play and you know Matthew Golden makes some nice plays that through the rookie first-round pick at Y receiver and then a couple of times Play would be dead whistle blown and then you see guys kind of still pushing and shoving get a little chippy out there as they say

And finally, after one of these plays, Zach Tom, the right tackle, you just signed to a new four-year deal, number 50, he'd had enough, and he starts pushing back, and then they're pushing back, and then he starts throwing haymakers.

I mean, they're swinging punches, and now it's on, man.

And these dudes come running from all ends of the field and pile up, and there's guys in the ground, and even though you got a Helmetson,

and shoulder pads on, there's body punches and you know you could break your hand in these things, melees and everybody, even Christian Watson who's coming back from a torn ACL, no helmet, no pads, he's like, what are you doing out there?

So they separate them and then of course, tell Zach Tom, okay, you're done for the day, go over there on the bench.

So he gets replaced by Anthony Belton, second round pick, a rookie playing right tackle.

And about four or five plays later, here they are again.

Tucker Kraft, the tight end, he comes in there.

So after practice, we're in the field, and oh, when practice got over with, these guys got a talking to, and then they separated, and I'm standing there on the sidelines, behind the line where I'm supposed to be, but the Gatorade stations for the visiting team, the Seahawks was right there, and these Seahawks are coming, they're taking off their pads, they're hot and sweaty, getting some Gatorade, and also they, hey!

And then things I can't say and it's Elton Jenkins.

He's coming over after practice because he's not done yet, you know And the coaches come running to pull these guys apart like well, this should be you know interesting spectacle tomorrow so Zach Tom said listen it wasn't just the stuff after the whistle and these guys kept on going and pushing he goes one of some of these guys were coming into our huddle They were dipping or our huddle and saying stuff

He said, at some point, you've got to have some pride, right?

So it was some of the biggest campfights I've ever seen.

And again, if you're a coach, you're just thinking.

What are you thinking?

I mean, I'm thinking about when, who did Pat Murphy bench?

It was Ortiz for a spell and made it very public that he was bench numbing.

He wasn't being productive at the plate.

He sits them for two days.

He comes back better than ever.

It's probably apples and oranges here, but if you're LaFleur, I don't know how you don't make a public deal that you are not going to accept this kind of behavior from your team.

Well, and you know, the general managers are the ones that are nervous because like they know how much they're paying these guys It's like, you know, hey, you just got a brand new Lamborghini.

Why don't you go run it at the slinger Speedway this weekend?

That's the way they save it for the games boys save it for the games So there's that factor, but you know what one of the other players said to me he said, you know

We don't get signed for fighting in the preseason or a training camp.

You know, we

got to find that that only happens during the game.

So they get it all out of the system while they can in those joint practices.

I guess, I guess that's one way to do it.

Of course, the one thing you're looking to avoid, whether it's a fight or on the field or in practice is getting hurt.

And there's a former badger who, well, he got hurt and could not come at a worse time again before the season even gets going.

Yeah, Hunter Roller, who is from Wisconsin, grew up Wisconsin, played for the Badgers, gets drafted in the seventh round by the Colts, and he was out there against the Packers, the team he wants growing up as a kid.

Last Saturday, we were done in Indianapolis covering that game, and he left with a foot injury, did not return X-rays, list Frank Fracture in the foot, and so it's season-ending injury, so tough news for Badger fans for Hunter Roller.

Yeah, that is unfortunate.

So the you tell me that there were NFL referees that were at Packer training camp.

So what kinds of things were they telling players and coaches this week?

Yeah, Pat, I think the the NFL refs, they go on tour to the team so they can

uh... it would present to them any rule changes they do a little video presentation they can add that you know players and coaches in particular can ask questions about interpretations of things like that so i think when you've got we see that there's going to be the seahawks are in green bay early with the packers all it's let's let's make that our next destination as we tour the nfl so brad rogers is a head nfl or ref he brought his crew and and we got to talk to thirty minute meeting yesterday with the referees

So he said, that's the biggest thing you're going to emphasize is the kickoff return.

And you know how they've changed the formations on kickoffs.

They look kind of weird.

It's safety involved.

But now when the kicking team kicks the ball into what they call the landing zone, which is between the goal line and the 20 yard line, if it's out of that, then the receiving team will now get the ball in the 35 instead of the 30.

So that, you know,

That forces these kick teams to say, you know, put the ball in play because we want to see, we want to see returns.

So that'll, that'll be happening.

But I had, I had a question because in that game against the Colts last week, the Packers had 11 penalties in the first half.

I mean, they're calling everything, holding illegal formation.

Five of the calls were on Anthony Belton, their rookie offensive lineman for the, for the Packers.

And I said, what can a kid like that do?

And he said, would come to us during the two minute TV timeouts.

There's plenty of time, you know, during the game, you come on over and say, hey, why'd you call holding on me?

Or what are you looking for in terms of my alignment on formations?

You know, ask those questions.

And then I said, two other things, TV celebrations and taunting.

When do you call those?

And he said, we're in the entertainment business.

We love the TD celebrations, okay?

But the players need to understand, you have your touchdown, you do your little celebration or dance.

He says, I'm starting the 42nd clock.

So you better get that out of the way and you get your PAT team on the field before the 42nd is up, or that's when you're going to get delayed game.

And as for taunting, he said, I'm a former coach.

I'm all about big hits and football.

We don't want to take away the big hit.

It's just that after you make that big physical hit, go back and celebrate with your guys.

Not with your opposition don't get in their face.

Otherwise, you're gonna get flag.

Well, yeah I mean that's that's that's the obvious way to go about it and and the other you know to quote the legendary coach bud Grant look like you've been there before

It'll look like this is just another day at the office and treat it that way.

Let's go over to the the Brewers.

They've gone through what I've repeatedly described here as the gauntlet at Wrigley Field five games in four days.

They lost the three in the middle, but they got the opener.

They got the closer yesterday four to one.

They aren't going to get the season series tiebreaker, but they still come out seven games ahead.

So

all in

all, Mike, it's it is

I'm not going to say it was a successful, you know, trip to Chicago, but it, it wasn't unsuccessful by any stretch.

These, these are two really good teams who slugged it out.

Yeah.

Quinn priesthooded a nice job in the mall, although he walked several players.

Uh, the Brewers won four to one yesterday in Chicago.

So, uh, the Cubs won three of the five games.

They had that extra game because of a rain delay game back in July.

Uh, Bryce Terang gets a home run.

Drives in a run and then Isaac Collins who actually gone cold in the last couple outings He was all for three in the game.

He gets a clutch RBI double the scores two more runs for the Brewers one Yesterday four to one and then tonight they open up against the Giants three game series against San Francisco this weekend the return of William Domus and on Sunday Is their tribute before the game?

to Bob Euker and they put out a press release saying fans if you're coming to Sunday's game in the Euker thing, get in your seats by noon because we're going to start this thing about 1215.

Bob Costas will actually be there as the emcee and they promise

surprises and tributes uh marcia who the one played marcia or something like

that i lean graph yeah i lean graph who played his wife is going to do the national anthem uh

yeah the national anthem yeah so all kinds of surprises they're going to sell some euker memorabilia that will go to euker's favorite charities like cancer research make a wish for kids and al s he had a daughter that died of al s and you know one of the questions that came up with this past week that was

The difference in managing styles between Craig Council, now with the Cubs, and Pat Murphy, who took over with the Brewers.

And I said, you know, this is a great example, because people say, well, Murphy probably uses analytics like Council too.

I said, yeah, but here's the difference.

Last Saturday night, Brewers are playing the Reds, trying to keep that winning streak alive.

And then Andrew Monasterio, a backup infielder, comes in and pinch hits and gets a three-run homer.

Brewers win, I think it was six to three.

And after the game, this was the first time they had a pinch hit home run all year.

Monastereo said, you know what, Murph came to me like three or four times during the game.

He says, I might use you tonight.

I might use you tonight.

In the seventh inning, he came to him and said, are you ready for a great moment?

And he still held it, but he plants that seed and now it's the 11th inning.

And he sees just the opportunity that here's where I can spring a surprise.

You know, you can have a lineup at all these pre-planned things, but in the game, you can now commit that decision and say, well, here's someone you weren't counting on.

Montestario gets up there, hits the first pitch out of the park, free-run homer, they win the ball game.

That's how Murph is pushing buttons and motivating guys for greatness.

Oh my gosh.

And it works well.

That was such an electric moment.

And now you've got the Brewers as the first team in baseball to 80 wins 80 and 48 32 games above 500.

That is ridiculous and and still fun.

And I'm going to close on a somewhat, you know, I don't mean to embarrass the guy.

We talked about Isaac Collins had this great hit.

But he also got picked off second base.

And in a way that you just it makes you wins.

And as I'm watching the TV shot of him, jogging back to the dugout,

I mean, there's there's a lot of times you can make an error on the field and everything but getting picked off like that I thought that has to be the worst jog back to the dugout is You know, you don't want to look Murph in the eye or any of your other player.

I know it happens But boy at least my work day doesn't have moments like that

No, no, no.

So, you know in the meantime, he ends up being a hero at the end by those insurance runs and all that also

Maybe his mind has been elsewhere because I think he and his wife just had their first baby.

Oh, you know what?

I totally spaced on that.

And having been a new parent.

Yes, I'm giving him.

Yes, I take back everything I said.

Get some rest, young man.

Mike, thank you for your time.

Appreciate it.

Have a wonderful weekend.

You too, Pat.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Some final news and notes from Lake Wasota.

Coming up after this, I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

All right, welcome back.

It is 8.52 on this Friday morning.

It's August 22nd, 2025.

And let's just wrap up here with another reminder about the keyword.

for those Free Ticket Friday Brewer's Tickets against Arizona next Thursday afternoon.

You've only got about six more minutes to text us the word BAT, B-A-T, like a baseball bat.

And then throughout the course of the rest of the day, there will be different keywords to listen for.

So you can enter several times and in one of those entries could be pulled and you could be the one statewide winner to win those tickets for Free Ticket Friday.

That's a game for next week.

went in throughout the day here across the civic media radio network.

Well, with the cooler weather, of course, it's got some people thinking about high school football.

That's because high school football got started last night on some fields across the state of Wisconsin and across some civic media stations as well.

And there will be much more tonight.

Definitely looking forward to a lot of action, especially with the weather not being

oppressive, hot and humid and everything else.

Going to be a very nice to see the teams back on the field again.

Jimmy Cusco will be joining us on Monday morning to talk a bit about all the work that he'll be doing covering high school football games this weekend.

It is a very busy Monday that we have for you.

You'd better relax this weekend while you can because you're going to tune in Monday and you're just going to hear so much stuff.

Along with Jimmy talking high school football, we're going to have John and Gordy from our Madison Station visiting with us.

Selena Heller

reporter for Up North News about the stories that she's been working on.

Dr. Kristen Lyrely will be in probably talking about her weekend camping trip.

And then for guests, we have John Shelton, who's the president of AFT Wisconsin.

And as a teacher's union member and a strong union advocate, he wants to make sure that

the next Democratic candidate for governor is unabashedly pro labor pro union.

He signed a letter to that effect along with state Senator Chris Larson of Milwaukee, and they have been collecting co signers like gangbusters.

And so we're going to get into that discussion of, you know, who is it that maybe not the person, but the kind of person that they want to see as Wisconsin's next governor.

Another person who is

talked about that has been state representative Francesca Hong of the Madison area.

And she will be visiting with us as well on Monday.

Again, to have this discussion, kind of like what we talked about last hour with our weekend review panel about, you know, people want to see, you know, quote unquote, a fighter.

In other words, if there's one thing people are tired of, it's Chuck Schumer.

and strongly worded letters.

People are tired of strongly worded letters and strongly worded statements and they want to see or hear something else.

And the funny thing is, I mean, when you don't have the votes, when you're in the minority, there is only so much you can do

But now you see why the Texas Democrats got the accolades that they did because they could just stand there in the Texas legislature and they could say, we object to this and we're opposed to this.

No, for a couple of weeks there, they denied Republicans the quorum that they needed to engage in corrupt map making and called attention to it to the point where California voters may be coming to the rescue to offset the work being done in Texas.

It's that kind of fighter.

if you will, that people are looking for and not just position papers and things like that.

Now, can you take that too far?

Of course.

Look at the entire MAGA movement.

It's built on violent rhetoric and imagery and race-based policies where you're rounding up everybody who's dark-skinned rather than what you promised, which was to just go after the criminals who are undocumented immigrants.

And so you can take that passion and you can cross some kind of a line with it.

or you can simply engage in, again, that spirited policy-driven action that gets things done, but does not run counter to American values, which is what we're seeing under the current administration.

I mean, to the point where, again, the big breaking story today, this morning, is that the FBI is at the home of Trump's first term national security advisor, John Bolton.

allegedly looking for classified information that Bolton might have.

And I've already received some texts from people going, like what?

Like the Epstein files?

I don't know.

And it's not fun to engage in that kind of speculation.

And yet when you do something like this, when you raid the home of somebody who is now one of your critics who used to work for you,

As you are continuing to try to create diversions away from the Epstein case, you can't blame some people for wanting to see if those two dots are connected.

What is it that John Bolton knows?

What is it that he has?

Is it classified information that could conceivably damage the country?

No, that was Donald Trump with all those boxes of documents in the bathtub at Mar-a-Lago.

And so for him to be going after anybody claiming that they're mishandling classified records is is rich at at best But really it is just continually digging into the grave of irony and killing it over and over again But again listen for updates throughout the course of the day And I sense that some of our other civic media hosts will have a thing or two to say about this raid

Over the course of the day as they will I I expect as well about the case of the court commissioner in wallworth county who?

has lost his job because he had the audacity to ask deputies to show the warrant for an immigration arrest that they were looking to make.

Coming up next is Matt Nair on air.

Marine Boussoulaki will be the guest at 9.30 and then Dan Schaffer, Civic Media's political editor, will be joining Jane Matt Nair and Greg Bach just after 10 a.m.

Coming up on the Todd Alba Show at 2.30, Secretary of State Sarah Godluschi.

We had her on yesterday and she will be on with Todd Alba this afternoon at 2.35 to talk about her run for Lieutenant Governor.

And then on the Maggie Dawn Show between four and six, Jim Santel is back appearing just after four o'clock.

And then at 4.45, Terry bars what's good, what's local, but maybe overlooked a regular Friday feature of the Maggie Dawn Show.

I'm Pat Crite, the founding editor of Up North News.

Up North News is the Wisconsin outlet for Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy news network building a more informed, engaged, and representative America.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Enjoy it to its fullest.

We will see you right early here Monday morning, 6am across the Civic Media radio network.

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but it can be hard to find news about your local community.

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