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Now, for my Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Crichtlow.
Good morning.
It is 8.06.
Nice to have you back.
It's a Wednesday morning, August 27th, that much closer to Labor Day weekend.
And we're going to talk a bit about labor with our friend Earl Ingram in just a bit and the reward.
that should come after a lifetime of labor.
It used to be a pension.
Now it's a casino ticket in many ways.
So that conversations coming up, along with Sean O'Malley talking about your money and the markets and Joseph Pecky as well, talking about the political headlines of the week.
But first, let's go to meteorologist Brittany Merleau, who's again, telling us how the the hoodie weather is nice.
there might be the need for what a windbreaker or rain slicker or something, something other than a hoodie.
And we're not quite ready to go just back to tank tops and shorts just yet.
Not that
anybody wants to see me in a tank top and shorts, but I mean other other people
could get on the pontoon this weekend.
I understand you want to play in the leg.
Exactly.
Right.
I
don't don't want to wind chill if I don't have to.
But again, better than better than a washout of a holiday weekend.
We're
not
looking at that.
Are we?
No, we're not.
So it's pretty cool actually both temperature wise and the fact that this high pressure system is going to sit over us.
block all the other systems and keep us dry for Labor Day weekend.
So it's going to hold off the rain into Iowa and Minnesota, and it's going to keep us nice out here the entire weekend.
In fact, we don't even look at rain chances after tonight, pushing back in until middle of next week, really.
So fantastic, gorgeous weekend.
I know it's a little bit crisper than a lot of us want, but still off to the West, we could still see some mid to upper seventies.
Friday and Saturday, we are still looking at mid to upper seventies on Monday and especially as we go into early next week, but it is going to be cooler tomorrow and also Friday and a little bit into Saturday too.
So what we're looking at is a cold front moving through tonight.
That means today mixed skies, comfortable temperatures, pretty much mid seventies all across the state.
A little bit of showers and clouds starting to roll through north off of Lake Superior and along into the north woods kind of towards Green Bay as well.
You could see some chances for showers this evening.
Then by tonight we're all going to see some light rain, rumbles of thunder, pretty much late tonight overnight.
Waking up tomorrow, a little bit of rain could linger far southeast.
Maybe some rumbles of thunder into Madison and Milwaukee area, but otherwise it is gone by lunch tomorrow.
We'll be sitting in the mid to low sixties on the eastern side of the state, then mid seventies to the western side of the state.
We'll sit cool for Friday and slowly start to warm things up into the weekend and staying dry.
I think it's great.
It does sound very pleasant.
Absolutely.
Could it be warmer?
Sure.
But, but I'm going to take pleasant every time.
I'll take pleasant and a little cooler.
That works out just great.
So plan accordingly for the weekend, folks.
Brittany, thank you very much.
We'll talk to you tomorrow morning as well.
Sounds good.
Have a good day.
All right.
A reminder, you can sign up for our daily newsletter up north news wi.com.
There's one article in there about a boost in some funding for the old paps brewery.
in Milwaukee as they continue to renovate what once was one of America's big time breweries into all kinds of other space, offices, restaurants, shops, things like that.
I worked at the brewery for a very short time while Sherry was attending med school, so it's got kind of a special place in my heart as well.
And a lot of folks there who worked there over the years who I'm sure relied on a pension to get them through into retirement and we're gonna talk a bit about that with Earl Ingram as well who himself he's got Decades of experience in the auto industry where again there was you know, there were pensions before there were
you know, these 401ks.
Earl, good morning.
It is such a change for the American worker.
They used to get a promise and now they get, you know, essentially a scratch off ticket.
Oh, good morning to you, Pat.
I will say that I walked into an automobile plant in Milwaukee at the ripe old age of 18.
and and I left it at the age of 54 and I didn't think much about the pension as a you know snotty nose 18 year old kid but the first pension check I received is when I realized the value of what the pension was and that that amount of money that was siphoned
all from our weekly checks and then what the company matched was a lifeline that along with Social Security guaranteed that and if you didn't do the right things with your money through that 30 year period that you wouldn't ever go hungry that you could always keep a roof over your head and that if the evil consequences of time you know captured your life
your loved one would then receive the pension.
It was a lifeline.
And when the 401k came into vogue, you know, I was right there.
It happened right at the time towards the end of my time at this company.
And, you know, we got excited.
We started putting all this money in the 401k to maximum.
and not knowing anything about the stock market and many lost just about everything they had.
And those who came after us who didn't get the pensions.
Yeah, I mean, there's a term in Wall Street that says never try to catch a falling knife.
And that's exactly what it feels like with these 401ks and other related things.
And look, if somebody wants to take the opportunity to invest, I mean, nobody's going to stop them from doing it.
the point that I think we're making here is we went from an era of what was once called defined benefits.
You work for us, this is the benefit you're going to get.
Now it's called defined contribution, meaning you're going to take like, you know, 4% of your paycheck, you know, pre-tax and put it into this 401k, but
Again, you're catching a falling knife.
You're trying to figure out what to invest in, where, and do you get out at the right time?
If you get out too soon, you missed out on some opportunity.
And Earl, you and I both have seen our share of people who, you know, at first, they're kind of happy about retiring.
They're kind of excited.
And then all they do now is they watch the stock market and their emotions ride it with every up and down.
That's a hell of a way to spend your retirement after decades of working.
Well, you know what I said Pat at the time and I'll say again When when they excluded police and fire They let them keep their pensions They didn't put them in a situation that they were forced to do the 401k So they knew something
Uh, because they would have included everyone, including police and fire, but they chose not to include police and fire.
And so they didn't have to play Russian roulette.
They still get their pensions.
Uh, but the rest of the American people have to go through what I think is, is horrible.
Cause I'll tell you, man, I'm thankful for my, uh, my check once a month.
Yeah.
And look, nobody's saying that that we're going to revert back to primarily pension plans anytime soon.
But the reason I bring it up is because there is still a pension plan out there of sorts for America's retiring workers called Social Security.
And people said, Well, they're never going to go after Roe v. Wade.
And then they did.
Well, they're never going to go after Medicaid.
And now they just did.
They're never going to go after Medicare.
Well, now they are trying it.
And Social Security, that's the next domino to fall in the increasing insecurity that all Americans feel.
And it's not right.
And if people at least know that these threats are coming to Medicare and Social Security, they'll stop buying the BS from candidates that just want to talk about transgender sports or whatever side issue is meant to distract them one way while they're getting their pocket picked.
Well,
you know, Apache, you mentioned Social Security.
I also receive Social Security.
I'm 10 years older than you, and I'm right there at the end of the rainbow of all those promised dreams that were promised to us.
But I asked the question.
They're talking about those who come after and retirement being moved to 67 years old.
They're betting that people are going to die before they can recoup those dollars.
And this last thing, Pat, Social Security, they're saying they're not going to have those younger people.
You're not going to get what we got.
My generation got.
I asked the question, why are they continuing then to pay into Social Security if they aren't going to be guaranteed the outcome at the end like we are?
Why shouldn't somebody be talking about, hey, why are you still taking money from these young people knowing that they're not going to get it in the end?
Yeah and it only it only grows the cynicism that people feel about their government which then leads people to make crazy choices like the ones they made last November.
The last couple minutes here I know there's
two new episodes of the what's going on podcast what's going on with Earl Ingram find it at civicmedia.us click on shows and you've got episodes there church leadership in the community with Deacon Brown and also talking with Robert Miranda about fresh water for life you want to quickly highlight one or both of those
well um the focus with Robert Miranda
was not about fresh water for life.
What it was, was about what is happening in this nation right now.
You know, North Carolina Technical College has done away with diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as many other universities.
And the fact that that is happening and that they're being forced to do this is, is actually a colony.
And, and.
what is taking place in this country is totally unacceptable as the clock is being turned backwards.
And so people who go to Milwaukee Air Technical College and other universities, not just blacks, but people from different nations who go to these universities and those diversity, equity and inclusion and those kinds of things offer a respite.
for people who are in a different nation where they can feel comfortable.
All of these things have been taken away and I think many people in this country don't know the impact of it.
it is absolutely unconscionable what is transpired and what is transpiring under the Trump leadership and the damage that is being done that a pat I think may not be corrected until long after my generation is gone.
Yeah, and that's the, again, it comes back to that notion of cynicism and what a self-fulfilling prophecy it's been.
And look, I know it's always been invoked to pick on politicians and to say that, you know, to be sarcastic or cynical about getting things done.
But I feel like we've taken it to such an extreme now that people just assume that, you know, leaders are never going to look out for them.
And then it makes it tough for them to come vote.
When you actually have good candidates, when you actually have people who are engaged in service, it makes our job tougher.
You and I, as people that want to encourage others to participate, vote, increase your civic engagement.
But again, whether I'm getting a pension check or not, it's something I feel like I've always got to keep doing, and I hope you keep doing it as well.
Uh, no, no, no question.
Uh, we have a responsibility and, um, and we're thankful that we have an opportunity to even add a discussion.
That's right.
Earl Ingram catch the what's going on podcast, specific media dot us.
Earl, thank you so much as always.
Have a great day.
You as well.
All right, and let me make a quick correction.
I mentioned that uh, Joseph Pecky.
No, Joseph Pecky's tomorrow.
Today's Wednesday.
Lost track of the days.
Melissa Baldoff is coming up next with our climate check.
Some of you will be getting a local update and then we'll be talking to uh, Sean O'Malley.
No, Sean O'Malley is tomorrow as well.
Why I really
got the days in the
stuff.
Lock in that.
I know author Laura Bird is going to be here and we're going to be talking about book bands coming up in 15 minutes.
I'm Pat Crite low.
I think I am on the civic radio.
Civic
radio.
Oh, boy.
See, we shouldn't have gone with the iPad.
Bring back the real guy.
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For the second day in a row, the Brewers staked out a 6-0 lead and then turned the game into a nail biter.
But once again, coming out on the winning side, 9-8 over Arizona.
They will play game three of the series this evening.
Pre-game starts at 6-0-5 on several civic media stations.
Melissa Baldoff is going to join us in just a sec here with this week's climate check.
But I'm going to start this time, not just referencing an article by Laura Schulte of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, but I'm just going to read the lead because it's written very well, just says it all.
A group of Wisconsin youth has filed a lawsuit against the state's utility regulators, alleging that the continued use of fossil fuels in energy generation is harming their basic constitutional rights and creating an unstable future.
Now, that's a first for Wisconsin, but it's something that we've seen in other states as well.
It's a topic we've talked about here on Climate Check previously, but now with it happening in Wisconsin, let's revisit it with Melissa Baldoff and see why this is a potentially workable avenue.
Melissa, good morning.
How are you?
I'm doing well.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
Thanks.
The lawsuit was for these young people was filed by Midwest environmental advocates, which is a Wisconsin based advocacy law firm.
And our children's trust, which is a law firm behind similar cases in the state.
And so Melissa, I guess we should have seen that it would be coming here, but we have talked about it in other states.
What's your own overview as to, you know, the logic behind this and, you know,
what's the best case scenario
So for one, I think this is fantastic.
It is amazing to see young people engaged around issues that are important and that are impacting their lives.
And so often young people might feel like they don't have a voice.
They don't have a say, you know, when they're not 18 yet, because they don't get to vote.
And this is a way that
these young people are able to have their voices be heard and potentially make a very, very lasting and significant difference not only for themselves, but for everybody to benefit everybody.
And what they're doing is going to help not just the people who, the majority, and let me just be clear,
the overwhelming majority of people who believe in science and believe that climate change is real.
But it will help everybody, even the people who don't believe in climate change and believe that the science is real.
So the people who have been impacted by the devastating floods that are happening, those 500-year, 1,000-year floods that are happening every 10 years now, the people who are
missing out on recreational opportunities because of the impact of climate change.
The people who are suffering really significant profound health impacts that we've seen just as an example all summer long from the wildfire smoke coming down from Canada.
That's something that was an impact in my house and definitely engaged.
One of my young people, my 16-year-old son, was
six several times.
And when we went to the doctor thinking he had strep throat, they said, nope, this seems to be irritation caused by the smoke.
And you're not the first case we've seen of this.
So, you know, I think this is a really incredible way for young people to be engaged and to make their voices heard.
And I'm just so, so proud.
that we're seeing young people come together and lift their voices.
And I thought it was really, I really appreciated the reasons here that so many of these young people, the plaintiffs, have given.
And to talk about this, one of the plaintiffs, Ted Schultz-Becker, really hit the nail in the head about why the plaintiffs are doing it.
Here's the quote from him in a press release.
He said, these laws force my government to ignore science and pollution that's wrong and unconstitutional.
Young people have power even when we can't vote.
Our voices matter and we trust our constitution and courts to protect us.
Yeah, and in Montana the Supreme Court there last year upheld a district court ruling that the young plaintiffs in that case have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment and a lot of this is being sparked by Republicans who are you know making changes to laws that impede any progress in moving toward cleaner energy sources and so it makes sense that you would move to courtrooms to try to keep those kind of you know
pro fossil fuel laws and rules from taking shape.
Now, tomorrow in the lacrosse area, we're going to see Vice President JD Vance coming in in theory to prop up the, you know, the big bloated boondoggle and all the cuts that come from it.
It can be argued as well that he's there to prop up a vulnerable incumbent in Derek Van Orden.
What's your own take on the vice president's trip to lacrosse tomorrow?
I think it's both of those things exactly like you said.
I think that it is definitely to prop up a vulnerable incumbent and it is quite frankly to lie about the big ugly bill.
We know that the third congressional district is going to be harmed significantly by this bill.
Billions of dollars investment investments are at risk.
Thousands of good paying jobs are going to be on the chopping block.
And we also know just from experience and seeing what's happened that those areas have been impacted very heavily.
by flooding and by other natural disasters.
So this is an area that's gonna be really uniquely harmed by this bill.
So of course it makes sense that the vice president is gonna come here to lie about it, distract and try to get people to believe anything other than the truth about what's gonna actually happen and what the real consequences are of this bill.
Melissa Baldoff has our climate check for this week, and needless to say, some aggressive fact checking of JD Vance is going to be coming tomorrow as part of his La Crosse visit.
Melissa, thank you so much.
Have a great day.
All right.
When we come back, and I've double checked this time, the calendar now says Laura Bird, and we'll be talking about book bands and much more ahead here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pac Rightlaw.
You know, there are some things in life that you can count on even if you don't necessarily want to count on them.
You know, like the buzzards returning to Hinckley, Ohio every March 15th or the arrival of another infestation of cicadas.
Similarly, when the school year gets going, we can count on the arrival of a new round of attempts to ban books from our school libraries or our public libraries.
And so I wanted to talk to somebody who
feels rather passionate about book bans, the talking points that surround them, and what it means to those of us that might see that type of action happen in our own local school districts or our own local public libraries.
And so author Laura Bird joins us down in Madison Studio A2.
This time, not so much to recommend, you know, a book reading list, but to talk to us about book bans and specific actions that we can take.
Laura Bird, good morning.
How are you?
I'm great.
How are you?
I'm very good.
Thanks.
Thank you for wanting to talk about this.
It's not always the easiest subject to tackle, but do you want to give us a little book banning 101 here?
I'm ready for it.
And like you said, with the start of the new school year, I feel like it's the right time for us to talk about this issue of book censoring so that listeners can understand what's at stake and how we can help keep books in the hands of the students, adults, and communities who need them because it is, after all, our First Amendment right to read what we want.
So before we jump in, I just wanted to say that book banning has been a part of American society.
forever.
Yes, even before MAGA.
I'm thinking of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, which I'm sure many people out there have read, that was both banned and even burned in 1851 because it exposed the horrors of slavery.
But
If it feels to you like book banning has become especially bad lately, you aren't imagining that.
The American Library Association reports that there was a record-breaking number of attempts to ban books in 2023, which was up 65% from 2022,
which itself was a record-breaking year.
So we'll talk more about the specific numbers in just a minute.
I want to kind of cite my sources here for this book banning 101 for your listeners.
You know, I'm an author and I'm also a huge public library champion.
And there are four places I typically go for my information about book banning.
And they have great resources.
They do a lot for advocacy.
So anyone can check out these websites.
So I go to Penn America, Authors Against Book Bans.
the American Booksellers Association and the American Library Association.
So I just wanted to mention those because these groups and a slew of others are really working hard behind the scenes to help protect free expression and to champion access to books because
we all suffer when the freedom to read is challenged and taken away.
Right.
So before we jump into it, for those groups that she cited, here are the web addresses for Penn America.
It's pen, P-E-N dot org.
You can find authors against book bans at authorsagainstbookbans.com.
The American Booksellers Association is at bookweb.org.
Again, bookweb.org.
And the American Library Association is ALA.org.
Let's start.
somewhat simple, basic here.
What exactly is book banning or book challenging and who's doing it by and large?
Okay, so you might have heard the terms book banning and book challenging used interchangeably, but they're actually different things.
So this is a good place to start.
So a book challenge is an attempt to remove, restrict, or relocate materials based upon the objections of a person or a group.
a book ban is the actual removal of those materials.
So Pat, lest you think that book challenges aren't so bad, in many instances, school districts are actually forced to pull books off the shelves while they are being challenged, like, you know, until the fate of the book is decided one way or another.
So
guilty until proven innocent, basically.
Yeah.
In some, some districts, that's how it is.
And so it's still preventing access to those titles.
Um,
As for who is doing the book banning, this is interesting.
So according to research from the Every Library Institute, most Americans do not want book bans.
Specifically, 92% of parents, grandparents, and guardians trust librarians to curate appropriate books and materials for their children.
Having said that, the people that are making the biggest stink, it's a very small but very vocal and passionate minority.
So book challenges can come from parents, community members, school administration, groups like Moms for Liberty.
and also government officials.
And these efforts happen at the local level at public schools and at public libraries.
They all have their processes in place by which they handle complaints about books.
So depending on where you live, it's going to look a little bit different.
I just want to say here, I'm going to kind of climb on my soapbox, libraries
whether school or public, they all have content development policies that they rely on when they're adding titles to their shelves, right?
So this is not happening in a vacuum.
Plus, librarians are formally trained to know which titles are relevant, engaging, and appropriate for readers.
So they are very capable of not only purchasing, but also shelving books in the right places in the library.
So I just want people to understand that because, you know, if you're going to the library to read Green Eggs and Ham with your toddler, you're not going to be, you know, tripping over a book on sexuality written for teenagers.
They're in different parts of the
library.
It's not, it's not this willy nilly thing of, oh, somebody sent me this book.
I'll just put it up on the shelf.
Exactly.
There's there are standards.
Exactly.
Wisconsin fit into this in terms of what do we see here in Wisconsin?
Okay, so pen and
America tracked book bans in public school districts over a two-year period from summer of 2021 to summer of 2023.
They recorded nearly 6,000 instances of book banning across 41 states and 247 public school districts.
Any guesses, Pat, as to the two worst offenders, which two states had the most book bans?
See I would go with you know like Mississippi in Alabama or something like that.
Okay kind of close Florida came in with 2000 almost 2000 and Texas came in with nearly 1500 So do you have any guesses about
Wisconsin?
I would say it's a small fraction of that, but definitely not zero.
Okay, you're right.
So Wisconsin, in that two-year period, had nearly 72 instances of book banning, not nearly 72, instances of book banning, which is not terrible when you compare us to Florida or Texas, but when you compare us to our neighbor to the south, Illinois, Illinois only had five.
And in 2023, Illinois became the first state to pass an anti-book ban law.
So I feel like we've got some room to grow here.
We've got...
Oh, definitely.
I know I've talked to the state representative Jody Emerson and others who basically have legislation that would ban the ban.
that would ban, you know, book banning and call for a more transparent process here.
So in general, what kinds of books are being challenged and banned?
Do you have any specific examples?
Oh, yeah.
So in general, books that are under attack usually feature characters of color or characters from LGBTQ plus backgrounds.
They center on themes or ideas around race or matters of sexuality.
They contain what book banners deem offensive language, and my favorite here, they contain uncomfortable topics, and I'm saying that in quotation marks with my fingers, like sexual well-being, violence, abuse, grief, and death.
I would argue that all of us have to deal with things like that sooner or
later in our
lives.
The majority of books, 58%, in fact, are young adult books, and these are books that are written for 13 to 18 year olds.
As for some specific examples, you know I came ready to share some.
As always.
Yes.
So Gender Queer is the most frequently banned book nationwide.
It's by Maya Kobabe, and it's a beautiful memoir about understanding gender identity and sexuality.
The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas.
This is a super popular book, Beloved by Many People.
It's a novel about a black teenager who witnesses a police shooting.
The Kite Runner, perhaps you've read it by Haled Hosseini, a novel about two young men growing up in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion and rise of the Taliban.
And this one's really gonna knock your socks off.
The Diary of Anne Frank, which
of course is Anne
Frank's account of going into hiding with her Jewish family, you know, during the Nazi occupation in the Netherlands.
I've read three out of four of these books.
They are...
incredible books right and i'm gonna get in my soapbox again it infuriates me that they're being banned because i feel like stories have immense power to build compassion and overcome prejudice and i think that we need more books not fewer about people on the margins because when we're deeming certain voices as
dangerous or un-American, that becomes a stigma.
And we're essentially communicating that some experiences are allowed to be normalized while others aren't.
And of course, that's detrimental to all of us.
We are talking to author Laura Bird.
We're talking about book bans and book challenges.
And next, we're going to look at arguments that book banners like to use.
Let me run through the list
real
quick and then we'll see what we can
do
in the three plus minutes we
got left
here.
Argument one is we're just trying to protect children argument two is parents should have control over what their kids read Three is books are indoctrinating kids with political or woke agendas
Four is these books contain pornographic or obscene material.
Five is there are other books to read.
Why does it matter if we remove a few?
There are plenty of others.
Six is the First Amendment doesn't apply to schools.
And seven, these books confuse kids about their identity.
I'll let you take as many as we've got time for in whatever order you
choose.
Perfect.
You just keep me posted on how much time I have.
So argument number one, we're just trying to protect children.
So people believe that removing the books, like I just mentioned,
is a form of protection, not censorship.
And of course, I disagree.
I think that protecting children doesn't mean shielding them from reality.
It means giving them the tools to understand that.
And that might include having some difficult conversations with your kids about what they're reading, but that's our job as parents.
I would say that kids are going to seek out information wherever they can find it.
And I think that books and libraries provide care and context and support.
like that social media and Google do not.
So that's the first argument.
Let's talk about parents should have control over what their kids read.
Absolutely.
Parental rights matter.
But public resources must serve all families.
So if you don't want your child to read a book, that's your choice.
But please don't take that choice away from others.
I would also say that library systems in schools have tools in place that invite parental input.
So use those tools.
But to remove a book for everybody removes that choice like from parents like me who do want their kids to have access to titles and stretch their minds and learn from them.
Argument number three, books are indoctrinating kids with political or woke agendas.
This might be my favorite one.
Books are not political just because they reflect the lives of people outside the majority.
Diverse stories are not agendas.
They are literature.
They build empathy and they provide windows into the human experience, which of course is diverse and rich.
These books contain pornographic or obscene material.
That's another one we hear a lot.
Pornography is about intent.
So by definition, it's material intended to sexually arouse.
In general, libraries, school, and public do not contain pornography on the shelves.
I would argue that a book that explores identity, love, and trauma or abuse, you know, through a character's emotional journey with a plot line and compelling themes is not pornography.
its literature, and also book banners are really good at reading certain passages or pages from books out of context selected for shock value.
So rarely do they read the entire book and understand the scope and importance of the story.
we have already seen that just in the comments section during this segment of people who are jumping right into the, you know, that this is all pornography, and you have a perfect explanation on the difference that
I hope
more people take to heart.
Those organizations, again, are penamerica, pen.org, the American Booksellers Association at bookweb.org, authorsagainstbookbands.com, and the American Library Association is ala.org.
Laura,
Bird is always a great discussion.
I'm sure we will continue it down the road.
You have a wonderful Labor
Day weekend.
You
too.
All right.
We will be back with James Kelly reporting from the Civic Media Newsroom in Chippewa Falls right after this.
You're up north.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
This is the part of the program where I tell you who's coming up tomorrow.
Although I feel like I already did a couple of times thinking they were coming up today.
But they're not.
Sean O'Malley will be on tomorrow talking about your money and the markets.
Joseph Becky will be on tomorrow talking about some of Wisconsin's political headlines, Chad Holmes tomorrow, Todd Alba, and also Kate Felton, who is from Eau Claire and has written a column for Dan Schafer's Reconbobulation Area about what it means to her
that Derek Van Orden has supported these cuts to Medicaid and to SNAP.
And of course, Sharita Booker will get us set up on all the big events coming up this Labor Day weekend across Wisconsin.
All that tomorrow right here on the program.
But before we wrap things up today, we welcome in James Kelly from our Chippewa Falls newsroom to tell us some of the stories that he's following.
James, good morning to you.
Good morning to you.
And I was gonna tell you that today, I've mentioned a couple times, we've got daughters and grandkids coming in.
And I believe one of the plans for today or tomorrow is to explore that new container park in Altoona that you told us about.
So expect a full report card from us next week.
Yeah, I'm sure you will not be disappointed.
It was very nice.
All right, sounds good.
All right, so as we look ahead to what you're working on these days, let's start with Menominee.
and where residents there have been organizing against a proposed data center.
Again, this is a very new topic in a lot of places where data centers could be the future, could be creating jobs of the future.
The question is, can you do it while properly planning for like use of resources or are these not going to be good for the community?
And James, there are very clearly people that feel like a data center proposed from a nominee would not be a good thing.
Yeah, that is always the question with these projects, isn't it?
How do you balance the environmental concerns with the job creation potential of a center like this?
Now, the Menominee City Council voted to annex and rezone this land from the town of Red Cedar a couple weeks ago, but we're clear that they're not definitely going to be putting this data center there.
It was proposed by a company called Balloonist LLC, which wants to use the land for a data center.
And over the weekend, this group that's kind of fighting against that data center held their first meeting at a
unexpectedly attended by Mayor Randy Knack, who agreed with them that maybe the city council had made a mistake in pursuing this project.
Their environmental concerns are the same as many other data centers, specifically with water usage.
This facility would use the fifth most water of any facility in Wisconsin at 75,000 gallons a day per on average.
So that would be quite a lot, but it would also create a lot of
jobs.
ostensibly, especially in construction.
Once they're built, they don't need quite so many jobs there, but it is a lot of construction jobs that are getting created.
And I'm going to say for the purposes of full disclosure, I guess I consider myself on the fence on data centers in that I understand they are big users of water.
I guess I want to learn more about
Can you set up a cycle where you're essentially, you know, recycling that water for use?
I mean, it comes in cool because you got to, you know, cool off those rooms with all those servers in it.
And of course that heats up the water.
Is that a thing?
If it's not a thing, then I'd certainly have a different opinion on how much water is needed.
That and other things, I'm definitely in the category, I feel like I need to learn a lot more.
And so I'm sure we'll reach out to those monomony residents and
get
their point of view on this as well.
It's funny you mentioned that there actually was talk at this meeting about a closed loop system to kind of minimize the amount of water that needs to be used and some residents expressed concerns over whether or not that would actually be effective.
Yeah, so again, I'm willing to learn given what we know about these things so far that there's still more to be said and that we shouldn't be jumping the gun until we learn more.
Up in Washburn County, folks have been asked about a land purchase for a potential new jail.
Where are they coming down on this?
Yeah, last week, the County Board voted against purchasing a piece of land from the town of Bashar.
Right now, the Washburn County Jail doesn't meet all of the housing requirements from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, so they've had to transport some inmates to other facilities in the area.
The vote failed 11 to 10, which is close.
And they're looking at another site in Shell Lake now that they would have to pay pretty high over market value for because somebody currently lives there.
So, you know, they need their mortgage paid off and they need to have money to move somewhere else.
And it's it's a lot of money.
So at this county board meeting, a lot of residents were kind of doing the math and saying, well,
isn't it just kind of cheaper to continue to transport some of these inmates to other areas or maybe work on like a multiple county solution where we kind of share a facility?
So still a lot of questions to be answered there in the near future.
Okay, so I'm sure that there were folks who, again, they put a lot of work into this and believe that that was the way to go.
But again, much like the last subject, if people want to learn a few more options first that might reduce their costs, I guess that's what it's there for.
Let's talk about, you know, Claire, what the health department is
about the ongoing problem of overdoses.
Yeah, we're holding an opioid overdose workshop this week.
It's going to be tomorrow from 5.30pm to 7pm at the Ellie Phillips Memorial Library.
There's going to be kind of an overall presentation on the effects of opioids, how to respond to an overdose, how to administer Narcan and use fentanyl test strips, and everyone who attends will be able to take home Narcan or fentanyl test strips or items like that for free.
So, you know, just kind of one of those things, like I think of it as like CPR certification.
It's good to have, it's good to know how to do this, and you hope you never have to.
Yeah, exactly.
And then finally, let's go up to Ashland, where this this is sounds weird.
Some EV charging stations have been deemed obsolete by a new state law and can't be used right now.
Why?
Yeah, so these are two EV charging stations across the street from City Hall.
They were initially installed in 2023.
And the idea was that, you know, people come, they charge their electric vehicle and they can kind of explore downtown Ashland while they're waiting.
Wisconsin Act 121 went into effect last year, March 20 of 2024.
And that means that a municipality cannot own and operate level one and level two charging stations after that date unless they charge a reasonable fee.
If they were installed before then, like the Ashland one, it can't charge a fee at all.
So currently those electric vehicle charging stations aren't allowed to actually charge for the electricity that they're using.
So they're essentially out of order.
That sounds like something that needs to be fixed and I'm sure James will be following it continuously as he does for all these stories all across Northwest Wisconsin.
James, thank you so much.
Hope you have a great day.
You too.
Thanks, Pat.
All right.
And thanks to all of you for joining us as well.
Thanks to our guests, Randy Weingarten, Laura Bird, Melissa Kay, Earl Ingram, Melissa Baldoff, Brittany Merleau, and Parker Olson and you for being here as well.
Up North News is the Wisconsin outlet for Courier, a pro-democracy news network.
Have a great Wednesday.
We'll see you bright and early 6 a.m.
tomorrow here up
north.
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