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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.
Hey, good morning.
It is 7.06, and it is nice to have you back here up north on this August 25th, 2025.
Parker Olsen is our producer down in Madison Studio A2.
Dr. Kristen Lierly is here.
Selena Heller from Up North News is here, as is meteorologist Brittany Merlot.
Coming up this hour, we're going to be talking to John Shelton, the professor at UWGB, who's also the head of AFT Wisconsin, about the qualities that Wisconsin's looking for in a governor next year.
And in our eight o'clock hour, same topic, but with state representative Francesca Hong of Madison, who has been spending a lot of time outside of Madison.
which of course fuels all that speculation about what does Fran Hong want to do in 2026.
So we'll talk to her coming up in our eight o'clock hour.
On the text line from Jim in Brookfield, good morning Pat, currently 52 in Brookfield attended the Indy car race at State Fair Park yesterday for the most part good weather.
However, one yellow caution due to a light sprinkle of rain from one dark cloud, a good race overall.
And that'd go to Jim from Brookfield.
So thanks for sending that in.
And Brittany Merleau is here right now.
We talked an hour ago, Brittany, about basically yesterday was just gross
up this
way.
Dark overcast all day.
It was a wind chill, basically.
And then almost like a squall when it would come down.
I thought that
was cool.
I
don't know.
It was refreshing.
It was
cool.
Refreshing?
Cool.
I
didn't feel the windows open, that breeze going through the house.
Oh my gosh, I haven't had that all summer.
How could you hear the breeze over all the swearing from people who were camping?
and stuck in this 40 degree weather, 40 some degree weather.
I mean, it's still what 49 degrees here in the Chippewa Valley.
Is this is this the new normal for the rest of our quote unquote summer?
No, no way.
Get out of here.
That's
not the
case.
It was just a
little little tease of fall to get us excited for what's ahead, I guess.
But hey, word right now, they're nearly freezing 37 degrees right now.
in Hayward.
So I don't know.
We have to ask them how they're feeling right now, but everybody else, we are looking at upper 40s to mid 50s out there this morning.
It's going to be a bright, beautiful, crisp day once again.
Yeah, those winds are still going to be whipping still out of the Northwest feeling like fall today.
It's going to be highs in the low to mid 60s pretty much across the state.
So this is 15 degrees below where we should be because we should be in those mid 70s to low 80s.
And of course, overnight again tonight, we are looking at dropping back down to the mid forties to about 50 degrees.
So another cool one.
I suggest opening the windows, going for a nice hike, enjoying the crisp, comfortable weather.
We are going to stay in the low to mid sixties tomorrow and some seventies off west.
And we start to warm things up on Wednesday, but we're also looking at a chance of showers and storms Wednesday night.
Otherwise dry all week.
So dry start, dry end.
do have some shower chances that want to move in on Labor Day weekend, but also temperatures warming too back to those mid 70s.
So it's still looking good ahead, but comfortable and calm.
comfortable.
I guess that's the word for this.
I have this weird feeling on my skin now.
It's called it's called sleeves and
pants.
I know I haven't been in in a you know, I've been in short sleeves for weeks, shorts much of the time.
And today it's it's flannel and it's actual socks and it doesn't feel weird.
It
does.
Okay, you're still going with refreshing, aren't you?
I still like it, but it does feel a little weird to have these extra clothes on.
Rob says good
morning.
After Labor Day.
Yes, exactly.
You know, otherwise you have to, can you wear your white flannel before labor?
Anyway, good morning from Tigerton.
It's sunny and 48 feels like 45.
I love this weather, he says, for working outside, had a busy weekend.
was at Tigerton Lumberjack days, filled up at the corn roast as well.
Let's see, what else did he say here?
There was also the Strong Person Contest in Lifting Split Rock Stones.
The champion was his regular Dr. Elizabeth.
Let's see, he also wanted, he also talked about taking pictures from Kristen's event in Neopitt.
So we got to ask you about that as well, Kristen, and that there was a downpour during the Tigerton Parade.
He says, I have knee problems.
I hurt my knee playing football.
And Tony says about the weather that it just, it feels right.
Yeah.
Of
course, he lives way up north.
Well, yeah, that's the thing.
He's up there, you know, in the Ashland area.
He says it's great for campfires and things like that.
Let's see.
Alicia was telling us that she was at the Bart Starr Plaza raffling a jersey for disabled American veterans and they had a forget-me-not drive over the weekend as well.
And also says that we talked about June Simmons' birthday.
Alicia says, that's one of my odd talents.
I can touch my nose with my
tongue.
Now we need the photo.
I know, right?
Exactly.
Brittany, thank you so much.
We, we, we appreciate the forecast.
Thank you.
Maybe not the cold temperatures, but that's, again, refreshing.
We'll see you next hour.
Thank you, Brittany.
Remember, you can sign up for our newsletters, up North News W I dot com.
We've got our weekday one that's put together by Henry.
And I got to tell you, I haven't even glanced at it yet to tell you what to look for here.
So we should.
Oh, of course, it's, it's hummingbird migration time where you can see.
Yeah.
Also a
story.
little John there when you said that, yeah.
A lot of the birds migrated back over the weekend because they're so cold.
It's a good point that we've confused them all.
We've just we've nature has confused the birds.
And also a story about Milwaukee beginning this recovery after historic floods.
Again, all that and more in our newsletter sign up for it at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
All right.
So Selena was
Well, you worked over the weekend.
There was a visit by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
It was by and large for Rebecca Cook, candidate for Congress.
But along with Senator Sanders, there was Darren Von Ruden, who is president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union.
And so we wanted to find out what all you heard from them as part of Senator Sanders' trip to Wisconsin.
Oh, yes.
Well, Kiana, she's our video correspondent.
She was there.
So she was giving me all sorts of reports back and she was driving out on this gravel road because it was out in a rural area at the Pierce Hill Performing Arts Center in Verroqua in Vernon County.
And it was a packed house, reports up to like a thousand people who's pretty full.
The barn, it was an open venue of a barn, an open barn.
So there were seats inside and all the way outside.
And so it was kind of a packed house.
And the rural setting, they talked a lot about rural issues.
Of course, Rebecca Cook grew up in the dairy farm in Eau Claire.
So a lot of talk about rural issues.
And Darren Badroun was there, president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, like you said.
And he kind of talked a lot about tariffs and what is going on in food prices with local farmers.
And here's what he had to say.
One of the things.
The future does not look bright in farm country right now.
You look at corn and soybean prices are dropping.
Certainly if tariffs go into effect at the rates that they're going to be with some of our biggest trading partners, that just means more corn and soybeans are going to end up staying here in the United States, which depresses our prices.
When was the last time anybody's grocery bill went down?
farmers prices dropped and you guys don't see that it's very frustrating as a farmer to have to do that.
That's why we need good people in DC that are going to go out there to fight for
us.
And then we heard from Senator Sanders as well.
Yes, he talked a lot about he focused on the supporting different groups of people educators and groups like that just lots of groups and so this is just him talking about the fight for local farmers.
Family farmers under tremendous pressure all over this country.
Well, you know what we believe coming from rural communities is a rural way of life.
It's a good way of life, right?
How many people I have talked to, including back in New Baroque on a farm, right?
It is a good way of life.
We're losing that.
There's no reason why we need good quality food produced in this country.
There is no reason why we should not, instead of supporting the big aqua business guys, support local farmers all across the country.
So there again, Bernie Sins.
Big crowd he said that was there.
So these are folks who, they've watched these past seven months, then they are not just sitting at home and taking it.
They want to take part in events like these.
Well, and that was the big talk too is kind of how to be a part of everything.
So we'll talk about that more a little bit later, but it was like, get out of your comfort zone.
You are democracy.
They talked about and just kind of you're going to have to kind of take part in all of this to kind of make changes.
All right.
Kristen, how did the Dr. Kristen Lyley show turn out this past weekend?
And what are we coming up in our in our next episode?
Last weekend, we talked about Alzheimer's disease.
There's a big Alzheimer's walk coming up and Alzheimer's in Green Bay.
Actually, there are walks all across the state.
So we really focused on what is it like to live with Alzheimer's and to support somebody who has Alzheimer's and the impact on caregivers.
And now you don't have to do this alone.
They offer incredible resources.
all funded by us, those of us who step up to help.
So that was last week.
This week we're getting super spicy.
I have a very conservative CEO, a moderate person in the middle CEO, and a kind of liberal CEO talking about tariffs.
and sharing their perspectives on what's happening in Northeast Wisconsin, what's happening across the country with regards to tariffs and their businesses and the economy as a whole and your own pocketbook.
It's going to be an interesting conversation because these folks have some pretty big ideas and they do not share the same philosophy.
So I'm very much looking forward to that conversation.
How do people get the Dr. Kristen Lierley show?
You can find it on civicmedia.us, also anywhere where you get your podcasts.
Yes, all the places, Spotify, Apple, all of that.
Come find that there as well.
That's right.
You know, we got to start doing this with Selena.
She's talking to enough people here.
We got to get her a podcast just for all these clips, you know.
YouTube shorts.
She's got to look like, do you know how big my to-do list is right
now?
We're not adding anything else to it.
No, I get that.
And so before I turn to the sports and the brewers yesterday, Kristen was at the the Bob Euker tribute there.
Did you have any, did you have a favorite moment or favorite memory that was shared?
I did.
They had an event, a whole program, an hour before the show, where Bob Costas was sitting behind a desk on the field, like Johnny Carson.
And then he had this lineup of guests, including George Brett and Christian Yelik and Robin Yount.
And my favorite moment was they went to Robin Yount, and he's a guy who doesn't do a lot of media.
He's pretty quiet.
But when they went to him towards the end for a comment, he had the mic upside down and started talking into the bottom of the mic.
And the crowd was like, oh no.
And then he laughed and said,
Yook taught me that one.
And he went on to say that he had actually talked with Yooker about what was happening.
You know, he'd been dealing with a cancer diagnosis and treatment.
And he asked Yooker if he was afraid of dying.
And Yook said, I'm not afraid of dying.
I just don't want to be there when it happens.
I love that.
Yook, it's the biggest laugh, even when he's not there.
And it comes from Robin Yao, too, is not a big personality.
It
was delightful.
The whole family came out, the family went out to the mound to do
the first pitch and the team all went with them.
So the whole Brewer squad was there on the mound.
I mean, literally we were all
like
It was a moment everybody with you.
You kind of back of their uniforms there as well.
Unfortunately, the brewers ended up losing that game to run single by the Giants in the bottom of the ninth four to three was the final score there 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 Pac right low.
This is the Civic Media radio network.
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Pat Crightlose, Alina Heller, Dr. Kristen Lierly, Parker Olson all here on this Monday morning, August 25th, getting your work week going.
And we've still been remembering the tributes to Bob Uker that took place at American Family Field yesterday.
And again, there were a lot of heartfelt memories, a lot of reasons why, you know, somebody might get a little teared up.
And for me, it was the opening and closing shots, drone shot,
coming over Wood National Cemetery where Bob Euker's laid to rest, which is literally across the street from the ballpark.
You can't really tell because of all the trees there.
But from the drone shot, you're just coming over the cemetery and in the stadium.
And then they did that again at the end, coming from the stadium to the cemetery.
And it was incredibly touching, reminding us that Bob Euker also served our country in that way.
Didn't just make us laugh and was a consummate professional like we heard in the Bob Costas quote Even if he'd never cracked a single joke.
He was still a really good baseball announcer Especially all those years when the Brewers weren't chasing division titles Kristen.
He got us through a lot of stinker games
There were a lot of stinker games, but you know
I think we all took him for granted in a way because we grew up with him and he was always there and he was always entertaining the number of Brewer games that I listened to on the radio and how he just brought it to life because with TV you see it but with radio somebody has to create it in your mind for you and that was such a gift so it is just hearing so many of those calls and you know hearing Bob Costas who is the.
the goat of all broadcasting, acknowledge how their relationship and how great Euker was.
It was a really special moment.
It was, it was just lovely.
Let's turn back to one of the other stories we're following here and that's Selena is the visit by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to Western Wisconsin to campaign for Rebecca Cook, one of the candidates running the third congressional district, but sharing some of the other comments that he made as well as Darren Von Ruden, who's the president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union.
And Selena, let's start with what Darren von Ruden had to say, a particular program among the many, many, many that were cut in Trump's big bloated boondoggle.
Help us lead into that particular program.
Yeah, completely cut local food purchasing assistance program was cut and that's helps farmers distribute their
fresh and local food to underserved local communities.
And, you know, I've been talking to farmers kind of all over.
Last week I talked to Iowa farmers about that and how they were kind of hurting that they had this program cut from them.
And so Darren von Ruden talked about how Wisconsin farmers here locally are hurting from that program being cut.
The local foods purchasing assistance program, or LFPA, is what you maybe have heard it as, was a program that helped 189 farmers in the state of Wisconsin connect to the final consumer through less channels than what we most likely will have to do.
President Trump cut that program.
There's no more funding.
Those 189 farmers this spring had to find new markets, some of which still have not found new markets for the produce, the fish, the meats, the dairy products that they were producing because of that action that was taken by the president.
We need to make sure that we have common sense in D.C.
I hear it all the time from Republicans that there is common sense out there.
When somebody calls you a liar to your face, but he believes everything that Donald Trump says when the facts are not that, you would think that he would start to believe his own words, which he told me in a meeting in DC, and I'm talking about representing Derek Van Orden.
He called me a liar to my face and I asked him, do you believe everything Donald Trump says?
And he did answer it exactly right away, but he did say, yes, I do.
About 30 seconds later.
So we had to think about it, which means that there's problems there.
That's certainly one way of putting it, that there's a problem there.
So what do we do about something like that?
And Senator Sanders, I believe he had some advice for the crowd rather than just booing, right?
Right.
And they took questions, you know, after Rebecca Cook talked and Bernie Sanders talked, they took questions from the crowd and anything from ranging from affordable housing, student loans and immigration enforcement.
And one was about, how do we, how do we get involved?
And this was Senator
Sanders.
We were utterly amazed.
We've got 7,000 people.
7,000.
Well, right now, is that our question?
7,000 people who are now on the going training to how to run for local and state office.
Here is the simple truth that you all know to be true.
Democracy
is not a spectator of the sport.
This is not, I know you all love the Green Bay Tigers.
But the same day, it's not a football game, and it's not a beauty pageant, and it's not a great concert.
You are democracy.
And nobody
knows
better
than you what you need in your whole life.
And it's not a reality show.
And that means that you gotta get out of your comfort zone.
There was a good advice and Dr. Larley, I think that's the perfect segue to you about people who might hear all this and they're interested in running for office.
I think you'd take their call.
Absolutely.
Run for office.
Get involved with helping somebody run for office.
Join one of the local community groups that's doing community support, whether it's bringing people food or just spending time with people who are struggling to get through these difficult times.
If you've never heard Bernie Sanders speak, he speaks to real people about real topics, regardless of where you land on the political spectrum.
Just listen to his words because he is talking to each and every one of us and his words ring true, true or now, I think, than ever before.
He's
very
inspiring too.
When he came
here five months ago, it was a big crowd and they were just cheering.
You understand why.
Selena Heller, thank you very much.
Dr. Lylee, hope to talk to you on Friday.
Good luck this week with everything.
We'll see how things
go.
All
right.
Stay in touch.
We'll talk to John Shelton from AFT Wisconsin.
Coming up next, you're up north.
All right, we're back now and we're visiting with AFT Wisconsin president, Professor John Shelton, and a column that he wrote, looking ahead toward the 2026 governor's race, the column is entitled, The Candidate We Need and Deserve for Governor in 2026.
It was actually kind of a joint project with State Senator Chris Larson.
John Shelton's here with us now.
John, how are you?
I'm doing
great today, Pat.
How are you
doing?
I'm good, thank you.
Appreciate you visiting with us to talk about this.
Obviously, the thing that gets talked about most is the who.
Who's gonna run for governor?
And, you know, we've got some people throwing their hats in the ring for that, for other offices as well.
This gets more into the what, doesn't it?
It's like, what kind of a person would you wanna see as a governor, rather than, you know, recruiting any single person?
You're looking, what would you call this?
Characteristics, values, positions.
Really, we're looking at who is going to build the kind of relationships with social movements, labor unions that are going to be necessary to actually defend democracy in this country and build the kind of state that we all deserve.
You know, I started thinking about this, you know, I'm president of AFT Wisconsin.
We have local unions in Tech College, K-12, the UW system, state employees, public defenders are actually affiliated with AFT Wisconsin.
So we have this very broad constituency of different unions.
And actually a couple of weeks before Governor Evers announced that he wasn't going to run again,
Chris Larson, Senator Chris Larson, who I'm sure many of your listeners know from the Milwaukee area.
He and I were just sort of texting about it, right?
I mean, there was all this chatter about what Evers was going to do.
Was he going to run?
Was he not going to run?
And I remember I was in Woodmans, you know, listeners know Woodmans, right?
It's kind of cavernous.
And texting the whole time I was there.
And so it ended up keeping me at Woodman's for like three hours.
Just stopping and texting.
And we were like, you know, whether it's Evers or it's somebody else, we really need some transformative kind of politics.
And so that prompted us to work with a group of other folks in the state.
some legislators but also a lot of other Educator Union leaders in particular signed on to this kind of statement that we wrote and it just so happened to come out the day before Evers announced he wasn't running again and Again, it wasn't about you know putting anybody on blast It was it was just saying like we have an incredible opportunity in 2026 and whether it's Evers or somebody else We have to have somebody commit to the idea that you have to work with
social movements.
You have to work with labor unions to not just show up, but like make their fight your fight.
And that's what we have to have in 2026.
So, you know, I've kind of been breeding that drum since then.
And I think this letter is all the more important since Evers announced he's not running and now we're going to have an open primary.
And so what I've been encouraging people to do, I think a lot of times labor unions and other progressive groups have this kind of idea that like, well, let's let's
Let's get down to brass tacks and look at all these different policy positions and figure out which candidate is going to be the right candidate.
And of course, you should look at those things.
But in AF2 Wisconsin, we're really looking at this as an opportunity to have the conversation on a state level that we didn't really have at the national level in 2024 about who is going to be a winning candidate, who is going to fight for the values that we know that we need to build the democracy we deserve.
you know, what I've been saying is like any candidate who wants to get in front of our members, we're going to do that.
We want to give them that opportunity.
You know, like I'll go to campaign events, even though our union maybe hasn't endorsed anybody yet, I'll go to campaign events and stand with these candidates on the Democratic side because, you know, frankly, I think it's a really good opportunity for us to have the kind of open
conversation about where we want our party to go and we've got already a couple of good candidates who have announced and I think there'll be a lot more and we're just really looking forward to seeing who's going to stand with us.
John how did we get to a place where if somebody is pegged as you know the quote unquote the union candidate that that just does not go over well with people to the the center right of the spectrum here and why you see not nearly enough Democrats willing to embrace that they are
pro-union.
They're not just pro-worker, but that they believe in labor unions and that frankly, labor unions becoming weaker in this era of what I still refer to as Reaganism is part of why the American worker has fallen so much further behind, you know, the people in the executive suite.
How do you overcome decades of that kind of characterization or mischaracterization of liberal politicians?
Well, Pat, I could go into a really long history lesson here that your listeners probably don't want to hear unless they want to take one of my classes.
But the short answer to that is, starting about 50 years ago, activists within the Democratic Party pushed away from
labor unions and actually civil rights too you know sort of saying that these are special interests right that somehow don't reflect the the center of American politics you know people like Bill Clinton and the Democratic leadership council starting in the 80s and that really kind of trickled down I think to a lot of state parties I really do think that in Wisconsin we're starting to see more and more really really good
Democrats who who who understand the relationship between not just being pro worker but pro union.
There's a lot I could point to hopefully you know some of the folks I'm going to point to here in just a second like other folks who maybe I don't mention don't don't feel left out but like you know people like Chris Larson Francesca Hong in Madison up in Green Bay a moderate vera Wagner
Greta Neubauer, the minority leader in the assembly has been very pro worker, very pro union has always showed up for us when we needed something in AFT Wisconsin.
So there's lots of others, but those are a few I could think of off the top of my head that I think are great.
And it's not a surprise that most of those folks are relatively new to the legislature, right?
So we are seeing more and more of those folks at the state level.
That's really exciting.
But to me, a more interesting question is, why isn't every single Democrat in the state embracing that?
And you look at these sort of ideas, and people see them as being far left or something.
But they're really just common sense, right?
I mean, most people want universal health care in this country.
In Wisconsin, in this country more broadly,
public opinion polls are supporting labor unions in insanely high numbers, right?
We have the highest public approval for labor unions since the 1950s when you had like 35% of workers who were in unions.
And among young people, it's even higher, right?
polling, there'll be new polling that comes out this Labor Day.
But polling that just came out last Labor Day said that among people under the age of 30, labor unions poll at 87% public approval.
And among people under the age of 30, the idea of striking polls at about 90% public approval.
You have a growing amount of people in the state of Wisconsin who are living with
Massive amounts of income inequality can't find great jobs can't find good housing are getting nickel and dime by health insurance if they if they even have it and These are the issues that like they're common sense and so
every Democrat in this state should be unapologetically talking about strengthening labor, not just because it's good morally, but because it's good politically and it's good institutionally, right?
Democrats have been at their strongest in this country when they have been backed by a really strong labor movement.
Republicans understood this.
This is why they went after Act 10 and why they made Wisconsin into a right to work for less state.
So, you know, we...
It's in their interest to do it as well.
I'm really encouraged to see more and more Dems doing that and I think it's going to continue.
We're talking to John Shelton.
He's president of AFT Wisconsin and what kind of values and qualities.
He'd like to see in a candidate for governor in 2026.
There is a group, the Fighting Oligarchy Coalition, that backs an economic justice bill of rights.
You have hit on many of the points here, not just support for unions, health care, public education and child care, the environment, a justice system that is fair.
But I want to get to this particular point because
it isn't all about unions and workers.
There is a point here that I think is very important.
Equitable access to capital, investments, financial institutions, retirement, and yeah there are things for individuals in there but what that tells me when I see equitable access to capital is it says to the small business entrepreneurs of Wisconsin that we see
the struggles that you face to create jobs in this state as well, again, having to compete with the big boys at the corporate level.
Yeah, no, no, 100%.
And, you know, the first thing I want to just make sure listeners are aware of is AFT Wisconsin was the first union to officially sign up to be part of the fighting oligarchy coalition.
We're really proud of that.
There's a number of other really good progressive groups involved.
You know, and, and all those are the rights that you mentioned are important.
But certainly, the idea of having the right to capital, the right to equitable ability to earn a living as a small business person, that goes back actually to the economic bill of rights that FDR pushed for in the 1940s.
And so you think about it, we have a progressive tradition of this country of being able to facilitate that, helping small business owners at the expense of capital.
And you look at North Dakota, for example, which has a weird state to have this, but state-owned grain shelters, grain storages, and a state-owned bank.
Imagine if, instead of having to rely on the big banking companies, there was a state-owned bank in Wisconsin that could provide
loans to small businesses to help them thrive in the face of capital, right?
It also, I mean, it fits into everything else on the list of economic rates as well.
I mean, the idea of, you know, if you want to support small farmers in the state, you've got to do something to regulate
these large agribusinesses that put their thumb on the scale of our politics.
So it's all related, and you're absolutely right.
There's most definitely a place for small business owners to thrive in an equitable and democratic economy.
It is a good reminder that the progressive traditions that we know, a lot of people think they all came off of factory floors and strike breakers, but no, there was very much
out on the prairies this sense from from farmers that again they were going up against the big boys and somebody needed to stand with them so this crosses rural and urban lines it involves you know small businesses as well as the employees who are in it so you're making the case that there is a much larger coalition out there then maybe people want to appreciate so to wrap this up going forward now that you've explained some of what you really want to look for in a candidate
What next steps are you taking or are you asking people to take as we start finding out who all wants to be governor next year?
Yeah, that's a great question Pat and you know I'll just say first and foremost like I like the way that you're thought talking about the urban rural stuff because We had a union leadership Institute this this summer if he was constant it and we had it in your neck of the woods in Chippewa Falls at the Wisconsin Farmers Union building there, right beautiful beautiful building for folks who don't know it So we're totally invested in doing that
Here's what I think people should do.
Get these candidates in front of your communities and your members.
We're going to be asking any candidate who wants to come.
And if you're a listener to this and you're a candidate or you're thinking about being a candidate, let me know because I'm going to get you in front of our members at back to school events.
We're going to be having a big demonstration on September 18th for the UW system.
We would love to have candidates there.
Show us that you're going to show up for us and fight with us.
And anybody who's not, say, a member of a union, invite people to come to community gatherings, local town halls, local city council, coffee clutches, that kind of thing.
Get them in front of you.
See who shows up.
Those are the people that you should support.
This primary is going to take a long time.
It's going to give candidates every opportunity to show that they're going to show up.
And that's the candidate who should be our governor.
John Shelton is president of the AFT Wisconsin.
John, it's great to catch up with you as always.
I know how busy you've been.
I appreciate you spending a few minutes with us today.
Absolutely, my brother.
Still to come, an updated forecast for this Monday from meteorologist Brittany Merlot and an 830 state representative Francesca Hong.
Live from the lake, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Krightlow powered by Up North News.
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7.52 now on this Monday morning, August 25th.
It is 49 degrees here in the Chippewa Valley, La Crosse.
You're at 52 right now.
Oshkosh 50 and in front of the Amory Family Restaurant.
It is 50 degrees as well as we bring in Jimmy Koska from Bosqueville.
Let's talk about week one of high school football and the Brewers and the Packers.
Even the Badgers, they open up the season.
It's Thursday hosting Miami of Ohio Thursday night, 8 o'clock at Camp Randall.
So
I guess the temperature, you know, gives it all the way.
It's football season, Jimmy.
I know throwing the windows open this weekend has been amazing.
I mean, 40 degrees overnight, even here in the valley in southwestern Wisconsin.
I mean, this is great.
Definitely it's football season.
And I think week one of high school football, you know, really, really kind of led into that.
And then you get to, you know, the Badgers this week, the Packers having, you know, the roster stuff happening this week in the first game coming up.
It's a fantastic time of year.
Love
it.
How did things go for you in week one for your team?
Well, basketball is young, 22 of 34 are freshman and sophomores.
We did fall, but it's going to be that way for a young team this year.
It's going to improve week to week and have fun with that.
But week one brought a lot of really interesting matchups.
Week one in high school football is always kind of a
Even in broadcasting, I like to set it up by saying, you know, what happens in week one doesn't necessarily matter the rest of the way because it's kind of your, well, let's see what we got and then adjust from there.
Well, now this year with the new playoff matrix.
every single game matters.
So week one, you can't just say, well, you know, we tried week one, we scheduled a hard opponent and it didn't go well, but we have all these things we work on, a lot of fumbles, penalties, et cetera, to work out.
Well, now it all matters.
And we got to see some really great matchups.
There are three of the 14 state finalists last year that actually lost their opener.
But when you look at the matchups, you're like, okay, there's a reason why that happened.
Stratford's won three straight state titles and they play a rival in Mozane, right?
Great central was gone.
matchup.
Mohseny got the win on Friday.
Catholic Memorial, which is in Waukesha, they always, they play up every year as a Division III, Division IV-sized school.
They actually played for a long time at a conference that was pretty much just D1 and D2 schools.
And they took on, they took on Notre Dame in the Division III title game.
They played Franklin, a D1 team of the opener, and Franklin was able to win that one.
So you just look around the state at some of these weekend matchups and
And they're entertaining.
They're fantastic for fans, observers, everything.
But these week one games, when you get to later in the year, you look back on these and say, well, boy, the team looks a lot different than week ones where you try things out and see what works and what doesn't.
Well, it works that way all the way through.
I mean, when we get to baseball, the Brewers, the first couple of weeks, we're nothing like what we've got now, not just the results, but the roster as well.
But let's stick with football.
And speaking of rosters, the Packers.
has won their final preseason game on Saturday against Seattle, 20-7.
A little bit of a limited practice from Jordan Love after having a surgery on that non-throwing thumb.
The season opener is September 7th at Lambo against the Detroit Lions, a 325 start when we get started there.
But, you know, training camp, what do we got coming here?
More roster moves?
Yeah.
So today is going to be really interesting.
Mike Clemens and I was actually just talking earlier this morning.
We were talking about, you know, what might happen today.
For what it's worth, Mike is the guy who is following the Packers.
He's the one in Green Bay at training camp.
And he just left me a note this morning saying, like, you know, I don't think anything crazy is going to happen today.
but be ready just in case something does.
So he's not expecting a whole lot of drama today.
The Packers made a trade for a Lyman from Philadelphia between yesterday and today, but he's not expecting a whole lot of drama in the final roster cuts that come today for the Packers.
Packers, by the way, you look at pre-season games and you think, okay, well, this is definitely gonna be the precursor to how things all look, but I don't know.
much you could read into the free season for the Packers
other
than they like the team that I coach are a very young team again this year and they certainly have some capable playmakers but if you're if you're following along with Mike Clemens he's not expecting anything too dramatic to come in the way of roster cuts.
All right from the Brewer standpoint again falling again to the San Francisco Giants Trevor McGill blowing another save two in the row
Brewers are up three to two in the bottom of the ninth with two outs when McGill gave up a two-run shot, two-run single, final score.
Brewers lose four to three.
But Willie Adamus, he had a good return back to American Family Field.
Nice welcome.
Yeah, you got some cheers, got some booze.
Well, when you hit the first pitch out of the park, you get that mixed thing of, I'm giving you a standing ovation as I'm booing you at the same time.
I mean, that's love.
Yeah, you know what I'm thinking about.
Willie is that what was great was seeing the cleatsy war for yesterday because yesterday was the Bob and it was funny We got the email last week as a as affiliates, you know here on the civic media network We get the email saying by the way affiliates, we're gonna have a special
10 minute extended free game across the network for this Bob Euker tribute while we're sitting here an hour later.
Yeah.
The free game show hasn't even started and we're still doing the tribute to Bob Euker.
Well, Adamus had the cleats, the special custom cleats, all the brewers players at you.
Uh, everything right down to the, the, the balls and strikes counter on the video board had a microphone, little
microphones.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was, it was really, really cool to see what a great day.
I mean, the brewers didn't win.
That's the part that sucks, but.
everything else about it was so wonderful.
So what a great way to attribute one of baseball is the greatest.
You know, but Kristen Lyrely said it kind of is in keeping because we've been spoiled lately with the Brewers, but for a big chunk of Yook's career, there were games like this.
So it's all it's almost in keeping Brewers play Arizona.
They come to town for a four game homestand coverage begins at 605 this evening on some civic media stations.
And one final note here, I think you'll find interesting for the first time in four years.
Major League Baseball is returning to Iowa.
the Field of Dreams game in a new different site, but it will feature the Minnesota Twins playing the Phillies in a regular season game sometime in August of next year.
It will count as a home game for the Twins.
Major League Baseball will reveal its 2026 schedule tomorrow.
That would be a fun game to go to.
Yeah, you know what?
In Field of Dreams, I was just there last summer, actually, for a youth baseball tournament.
It's a cool trip to make once, and it's not that far into Iowa.
So if you haven't been there, I think it's worth going just once to go check out and see what that's about.
That's pretty fun.
Civic Media Sports Director Jimmy Koska.
Jimmy, thank you so much.
We'll see you on Wednesday.
Thank you.
Coming up in our eight o'clock hour, we will be talking to State Representative Francesca Hong from Madison about her travels around the state.
and find out what she's planning to do next year.
I'm Pat Crightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
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