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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Kratlow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Wessota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Kratlow.
Hey, good morning.
It is 7 0 6.
It's nice to have you here up north on this Tuesday morning, September 9th.
Nice to have you up north here on Lake Wessota.
Then there's people like Jeff Renneke who go, you're not up north.
He's up north.
and we'll talk to him about Friends of the Apostle Islands and just basically what what is the state of our national parks and related areas as we are now seven eight months into the Trump administration's willful neglect of our national parks and other areas so Jeff Renneke coming up in just a bit and then a little later on this hour dairy farmer Hans Brighton Moser and Sheila Everhart of the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association will talk a bit more about the growth of tourism across rural
But first let's bring in meteorologist Brittany Merleau because speaking of the Ashland area, it looks on my radar view like they've been the unwitting victims of some training of some heavy rain that's just scrolling right across that northern edge of the state, Brittany.
Good morning.
How are things looking?
Good morning.
Yes, highway two looks pretty wet out there.
A flash flood warning is an effect pretty much that Ashland area off a highway to about an inch and a half to three inches have already fallen.
Thankfully, it's looking like it's easing up and starting to move out of the area.
But it doesn't mean you're done yet.
We're still looking at rain chances sparking up later this morning.
More numerous and starting to move towards central Wisconsin by this afternoon.
And then by this evening and tomorrow morning headed towards the Madison and Fox Valley area.
So a cloudier day today, we are looking at temperatures making it to the mid sixties up north where the clouds are going to be hanging out.
A little bit more spots of sunshine down south today.
Mid seventies are expected.
Same temperatures tomorrow, too, as the system continues to work through the state.
Tomorrow we'll see more sunshine further northwest, more of that rain starting to try to make its way towards Madison.
And like I said, the Fox Valley, but it does ease up and die out.
You're not looking at heavy rainfall.
amounts.
Well, today we still have that risk of a good one to three inches possible in parts of central Wisconsin.
So we could see more flash flood warnings going out throughout the day, but by Thursday and Friday and even into this weekend, we're looking at a major warmup.
By Friday, we're going to hit about 80 degrees throughout the state and we're going to hold on to that for the weekend and it's going to get a little bit muggy too.
So summer is back and it's around the corner.
Oh, okay.
Well, then yeah, so summer can come back for a little bit longer.
I don't mind that.
Yeah, this little taste of fall was fine.
Now again, we don't know where everything's going to develop exactly, but I will say that what's happening in northern Dunn County right now, because I looked at the windows like it's looking a little ominous here like it wants to rain.
And sure enough, on the radar, little something's forming in Dunn County, whether it's one of those scattered things that comes and goes
I don't know.
But some folks in the Chippewa Valley, it looks like we're about to get some sprinkles on our on our windshield, whether we like it or not.
But don't forget that
umbrella today.
Yeah, glad to hear about the the warmup that's on the way.
Let's see from Rob and Tiger 10 we get good morning.
It's partly cloudy 54 degrees yesterday was a very beautiful day.
Oh, was it ever?
I ditched the hoodie at 9am mode four yards in the Wittenberg area.
says he was on the homecoming court for Tigerton.
His senior year, one of the rewards of playing football for a small town football team back in 1985.
Said he loved watching the Vikings come from behind to beat the Bears last night.
Way back in 1961, the Minnesota Vikings first ever win was a 37-14 victory over the Bears and he says, I love going to parks for the fall colors.
We'll be talking about national parks in just a bit.
He says, I have to get my tire fixed on my John Deere.
It has a slow air leak and I've got to air it up once a week to get that problem solved.
I think we should look for a more permanent fix there, Rob.
Yeah, let's do that.
And Brittany is the best meteorologist, civic media should be honored to have the best meteorologist.
Tony notes that it has been raining in Ashland since last night and says yes, he thinks that they have a flood warning up there.
So that's, yeah, it looks like it's just going to be doing doing that thing for a while.
So it sure is.
That sure is.
Oh, yeah.
I
got a comment on last night's game.
That was fantastic because did you realize that the quarterback for the Vikings, right?
He's not only the youngest, he looks like a little baby.
He's so cute, right?
But he's from Chicago, so he beat Chicago there.
So at his
hometown and just that's cool to me.
I did not know that about JJ McCarthy.
I'm just glad somebody I'm thinking about somebody other than Mike McCarthy.
I'm glad that JJ McCarthy to look forward to now.
Yes.
got a
Yeah.
Okay.
So here's the thing for Mike McCarthy.
Yeah, we were happy to kind of boom when he was with Dallas and all that.
But he never trashed Green Bay.
And, you know, he never went the whole diva route.
And so, yeah, he comes back
in.
And yeah, compare that to two former quarterbacks and where the reception's been a little bit different.
So, you know, if you want to move on from Green Bay, that's fine.
Just don't be a diva.
That's all we asked.
Right.
Farf got
received
day.
Yes, he was.
Yes.
But in part, it was in part because we'd seen.
how well he did with the the Jetson and with the Vikings.
True.
That felt good.
It's like, see, buddy, see where the place you want to be.
This is it.
Yeah.
All right, Brittany.
Thank you so much.
We'll talk to you next hour.
Sounds good.
All right.
Again, you can sign up for our newsletter at Up North News.
Head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com.
We'd love to have you a subscriber there.
Also, let me tell you something.
Everybody loves a bargain.
Okay.
But
The kind of bargain you can get at our national parks right now, it's not necessarily a good one.
If you want to keep our parks healthy and if you want to keep them around in the future.
So now that it's Labor Day and beyond, it might be a good time to review how things have gone in our national parks generally and our National Lakeshore, the Apostle Island specifically.
And so let's bring in for our way up north segment, Jeff Renneke from Friends of the Apostle Islands.
Jeff, good morning.
How are you?
I'm doing fine.
Nice to join you from the wet shores of Lake Superior.
Yes, it most certainly is.
Now, you and I both had seen the same New York Times article about the impact that President Trump's willful neglect of our national parks has had.
There are 433 parks and about a quarter of them have been significantly strained and understaffed because of the cuts.
And then there's this whole notion when I talked about a bargain.
There's so understaffed that there's, in many cases, nobody collecting fees that you should be paying for the upkeep of our parks.
And so the trash is piling up and everything.
But again, with people not paying, it kind of becomes like a doom loop.
And Jeff, among the many things I'm sure you want to discuss, that has to be a very concerning one.
Oh, very much so.
The whole season has been concerning.
You know, going into your busy season with a 24% reduction in permanent staffing, a hiring freeze, only about half the seasonal workers you usually hire, you know, budget clampdowns, and frankly, historically low morale is not exactly a recipe for success.
But I do have to say that
Despite the dire predictions, the summer season in our national parks generally went off relatively successfully.
There were some closures and bumps in the road, sometimes literally because they didn't have any money to fix roads, but there were no major disasters.
And I think we should begin with a testament to the grit and the fortitude and the professionalism of our men and women of the National Park Service who went above and beyond the call of duty.
But as you hint at the warning signs are flashing red.
Yeah.
Well, without a doubt.
And again, despite the best efforts, you have people who, you know, go off trails like in Yellowstone and they get they get burned by some of the, you know, the thermal vents that are there.
You've always got the people who are trying to pet the fluffy cows.
Please leave the bison alone, boys and girls.
They're not it's not a petting zoo.
And I make light of what
could get to be a bad thing.
And again, I don't think either one of us is intentionally trying to be overly half full or half empty on this, except to say that there is an adequate staffing level.
There is an adequate revenue level to get the most out of our national parks.
And this administration, which has yet to nominate someone to run the National Park Service, does not appear to be interested in reaching that adequate staffing or funding level.
So, I mean,
It's gone great.
It's gone okay so far Jeff, but I guess what we're saying is you know, don't get complicit about don't get complacent about this
No, because some of
these
problems will be long term.
And some of them were pretty minor.
I mean, we mentioned the garbage pickup and the clean bathrooms, you know, those are inconveniences and they certainly they have no place in our national parks or crown jewels.
But as you hint that there's some very big concerns, things like in Voyager's National Park, for instance, they were down to four out of seven.
emergency response workers, and they had to limit their emergency responses to just four days a week out of the seven days.
In a place like Zion, another park in Utah, they get 500 emergency calls a summer season, and their staff for emergency response was down by 10%.
Now, luckily, there wasn't this year.
any major problems that they weren't able to deal with, but you know it's coming.
Sooner or later, there will be something that they're not quite able to stand up and make happen the way they should.
We are talking to Jeff Renneke from Friends of the Apostle Islands about some of the cuts to the National Park Service and the impact of them.
Lawmakers in Congress from both parties have been rather skeptical of the Trump cuts.
There is Senator Angus King, independent of Maine, who said
If the park service is overstaffed, if there's waste, show it to us, show us the data, show us the number of people, where they are, which positions you feel are unnecessary and shouldn't be funded, which is the kind of thing we've said.
at the whole general level about government, waste, fraud, and abuse.
I mean, show us.
Don't just point to a big number and say, gosh, that's a big number, but point to the specific thing that you think is waste or abuse and have to be able to defend that.
So you've got millions of people out there, Jeff, who love our national parks.
How can people help if they want to express their opinions?
Well, the next big challenge, of course, is the budget fight, which we all know is coming up.
before October 1st.
And I think there's a crack showing in the administration's attack on the parks.
The Trump administration's skinny budget suggested a $1.2 billion cut for the National Park Service budget.
That's 37%.
The House Committee on Public Land said, well, thank you very much, but they suggested a $176 million.
dollar cut, which is only 6%.
So there's a battle brewing, which makes it a perfect time for people who love our national parks to stand up, make their opinions heard by discussing this with their representatives, and joining groups like Friends of the Apostle Islands.org to try to make their voices heard for our crown jewels.
Very good.
And again, we did talk about some of the overarching problems at the National Parks.
I guess we'll end specifically about the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
Any impacts this year or any concerns for the future that you wanted to lay out there for our listeners?
Yeah, let me give you two very quickly.
First of all, it was a very successful season here, again, because of the great job of the Park Service people, a staff that was cut almost by two-thirds, including the loss of the
the chief ranger and our superintendent but so except for things like there was no ranger led tours at the michigan island lighthouse relatively small things it wasn't really visible to the general public but let me give you an example of the domino effect here we talked about those uncollected fees in places like xion national park well 80 of those fees you pay at a park like xion or the grand canon or yellowstone stay in the park
but that other 20% go into a pool, which is dispersed among parks like the Apostle Islands, Laish, and Lakeshore that doesn't have its own fee collection.
So it's a domino effect, hurting us here too.
Yeah.
And so even if you can bypass the fees, make a donation and show your support for our national parks.
Jeff Renneke with Friends of the Apostle Islands.
Thank you very much for all this background and helping to build support for our national parks.
We really appreciate it.
Have a great day.
Thanks for the opportunity.
You bet.
All right, still ahead, we'll be talking about rural tourism opportunities as we escape to Wisconsin, as the old bumper sticker used to say.
I'm Pat Critello.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
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722 right now on this Tuesday morning, September 9th, where it is 61 degrees here in the Chippewa Valley and 57 degrees at the Crimson Cafe in Rhinelander.
And we head to Rhinelander to bring in Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12, WJFWTV.
Mr. Hagen, how are you?
I'm doing well.
I have this morning routine from these fitness influencers where I go outside and get some natural light.
I don't know if we've heard about this phenomenon, but I've been doing it.
It's getting harder and harder to do it.
Yeah, earlier and earlier, it gets darker and darker.
So it does get a little tougher to get that natural light.
I can't do it anymore before the show.
In fact, today was the first day as Sherry was leaving for work a little after 5 30, where I had to again say, Okay, now when you're leaving in the dark, you know, do you want the garage lights on off?
You know, what's what's the routine here?
Because you're no longer leaving in the daylight for work.
And that's not depressing at all.
But, you know,
apparently
September, it loses like the most light, which I don't understand.
I
don't know why it's just equally, but it's like 90 minutes of light this month, unfortunately.
Yep.
It's that whole planet on an axis and wobbles and things like that.
So for you, that means what?
Pickleball and volleyball season starting to wrap up.
Yeah.
So my last week of beach volleyball season, saying volleyball season is this Thursday.
Um, big kerfuffle trying to reschedule it because the Packer game is Thursday and I do
not want to
miss that.
So we're trying to reschedule it.
Um, but yeah, pickleball, I got a tournament, uh, this coming weekend clash of the paddles in Rhinelander.
Um, so I'm can't wait to be crushed by some Septigenarian.
Yes.
Uh, yes.
Uh, look at you still always trying to beat up on the old people.
And sometimes it works, and sometimes it's quite embarrassing.
Most of the time, yeah.
Now, the thing about the sand volleyball, having taken part back when I was your age, is the two times of the season that are a little bit rougher.
One is when the sand is so hot because the sun is staying up late.
That one doesn't happen quite so often.
But what you get this time of year is where the sand is really starting to get cold.
And you're kind of like, let's get this game over with.
I want to put some shoes and socks back on here.
Yeah, we didn't have that too hot a part up in Rhinelander, but I wore wool socks
out on the sand volleyball court last Thursday to play for the first time.
And that was a strange experience.
Well, especially since doesn't the stand still find its way in any way through, you know, in between the fibers and eventually it's like you're wearing sandbags on your feet or you just pick better socks than I did.
Yeah, I think it works better.
I think you're probably going with the Haynes cotton.
I went
with a
smart wool and it worked out pretty well, even though I don't know if those socks will ever be clean again.
Right to see their game worn.
That means they're
worth more.
That's right.
Yeah, when you when you sell them at the day of jet WGFW souvenir shop, you know, people pay top dollar for that.
Let's look at some of the stories you're following.
And one is a very good poignant reminder that there there are there have been heroes among us.
And if you're ever in the Tomahawk area, you might see a name
that offers that reminder.
And you've got a particular anniversary this week for Inar Ingman.
Did I say that correctly?
That's
right.
Yeah, you did say it correctly.
So 10 years ago today.
Einer Eggman passed away.
He was one of five Medal of Honor recipients in the Korean War among Wisconsin service members.
He was the only one of those five to receive it, not to posthumously.
So the other four passed away and then received their medals.
And then he went on to live in the Tomahawk area for a long time.
And like I said, the VFW library are both named after him.
So you can catch that story on WJFW tonight if you're tuning in.
Oh, okay.
Very nice.
And I'm sure that we will find out probably a bit more about his life and the circumstances that led to him getting the Medal of Honor.
And let's see, just a quick look here.
So this was a Korean war action that he was an Army soldier for that he received the Medal of Honor.
And I'm sure there's some great stories about it.
Yep, that's correct.
Yeah, I can't remember off the top of my head is exact reasoning for the Medal of Honor.
But you know, that requires an insane sacrifice.
So good to remember him.
Yes.
Oh, without a doubt.
And let's see as I was looking about the other stories that you're working on.
What is this about?
I love this robotic decoys.
Yeah, so this man in Mosony, he owns a company, Custom Robotic Incorporated, and he makes animal decoys to catch poachers.
So this could be deer, this could be elk, this could be wolves, and he makes it so their ears move, their paws move, they can move around.
And the idea is he partners with kind of
game wardens across the country to catch poachers.
So pretty cool that that's that's made right here in Central Wisconsin.
That is extremely cool.
And I think of again, when we think of, you know, robotics and all the other applications for it, it just until you mentioned it just now didn't occur to me.
Yes, that's a perfect way to deal with the problem of poaching is to have these robotic decoys that are out there.
That's right, and that brings me to the topic of hunting.
I'm currently 0 for 4 on gun deer season here
in
northern Wisconsin But my friend and I we have purchased a crossbow together Not sure how that's gonna work, but we've purchased a crossbow together So my plan is to go crossbow hunting and hopefully get my first deer and I think the season opens pretty soon But I'll probably wait till October to really go for it.
Okay Well, I mean we wish y'all the best about that and you know, maybe maybe there's a rub
a robotic decoy that you could bring along.
Yeah, maybe a doe.
Put some scent on it as well.
A female deer?
Yeah.
You see what I did there.
That's fun.
Yeah.
Okay, so we've got the deer hunting, the pickle ball, the volleyball that are all happening.
Surely there's got to be Berkey training as well because you're always training for the next Berkabiner.
That's right.
So the Berkebinder will be the last week into February and I'm going for my 12th one and I need to beat my dad again.
So yeah, I've been roller skiing.
Oh, I signed myself up for a half marathon in October in three lakes, which I would never do, but it's just to make sure that I'm in better shape for, for when the snow hits.
For again, trying to beat up on the old people.
I get it.
Geez, there's a theme there.
Yep.
Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12 and Rhinelander.
Thank you, Dan, so much.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, Pat.
All right.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
Coming up, we'll be talking to Hans Breitenmoser and Sheila Everhart from the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association.
Live from the lake, thank you for spending some time here as part of your mornings powered by UpNorth News.
We will have more after the Midwest Farm Report here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pat Crichtlow.
You're UpNorth.
All right, as we do every other Tuesday here on mornings with Pack Right Low powered by Up North News, we visit with Lincoln County dairy farmer Hans Brighton Moser, who is quite frequently joined by Sheila Everhart of the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association.
And of course, the state assembly is coming back into session.
We don't know the status yet of the state senate and we'll get into that more an hour from now with Dan Schaefer from the Reconpopulation area.
But there are definitely bills that the legislature needs to be taking up and working on and Sheila's going to talk to us about a little bit of that coming up in just a sec.
But first as we check in with Hans, hey, good morning.
We know it's going to be that time of year harvesting things like that.
You're looking at the statewide conditions here and the
Fourth cutting of hay across the state is 65% complete, nine days ahead of last year, five days ahead of average.
Corn condition is rated 82% good to excellent corn for silage, 10% harvested.
I always say these things because Hans feels like it's a report card for how he's doing.
It is.
mentioned.
How are things looking otherwise?
We did harvest our fourth crop a week before last actually and then we hauled a bunch of manure this past week.
So this week we're thinking about getting ready for corn silage harvest.
We're a little ways off but today we're going to burn some corn down which means we take some stalks out of the fields that we intend to harvest for silage and we burn them down to basically we grind them up, burn them down is what they call it to get
all the moisture out to determine what in fact the moisture level of the pole plant is and that will drive our decision making on when we should start harvesting corn silage.
Of course there's plenty of other variables because the weather has to cooperate and custom guys have to cooperate and all the other things but we're looking to see what the moisture is now so we can sort of plan for when that corn might be chopped.
OK, all kinds of things that have to come together.
And let's bring in Sheila Everhart as well.
And Sheila, I know we're going to be talking about policy and tourism and things like that.
But we always talk about Hans' little farm.
I'm sure you're talking to folks as well and what kind of condition things have been in so far for harvest and field work.
How are you?
We're doing great.
So last week we did corn silage as well down on the farm here in Rock County, Wisconsin.
And we're just monitoring to see when our harvest will be starting.
And of course, about three weeks ago, we had our fourth cut of hay done.
Okay well let's turn to the legislative session now that the state budget is passed and summer break is over and so the assembly will be meeting shortly committees are meeting once again and so you've got some legislation that you're following and one of the first ones assembly bill 413 that's the one about camp camping regulations when it comes to farms correct?
Yes, that's farm stay, we call that.
With the ongoing changes in the farming industry, farmers face increasing challenges to operate.
Farm stays can provide additional opportunities for small farms to diversify their incomes, making their family farm solvent and supporting future generations on the farm.
This is agricultural tourism, which boosts tourism in our rural economies.
It brings economic growth to those rural areas and it educates the public on the importance of agriculture.
So this legislation would allow farmers to operate a campground on their farm without a campground license for the purpose of educating the public through on-farm experiences and providing opportunities to diversify the farm income.
To qualify, it must be on a working...
farm, you would be identified as one parcel and have no more than three sites.
So that is the Assembly Bill 413 that has been assigned to the Committee on Forest Parks and Recreation.
And I provided the link for you, Pat.
The Senate Bill on that is Senate Bill 415 that has been assigned to the Senate Committee on Egg and Revenue.
And then you're also looking as well to the legislature to continue working on a follow-up bill to the entire overhaul of liquor licensing and its impact on, you know, so-called wedding barns and other farm venues.
And you're still working to get that draft finished and get the bill assigned to a committee, is that right?
Yes, so there's been work on that.
We're really working hard to get it correct.
We need it numbered and assigned to a committee in the month of September.
Right now it's LRB 2567-P3 because it's had three revisions and I've also provided you Pat with a PDF of a loss of
tax revenue document that identifies that if this is not corrected, the state of Wisconsin will be losing a lot of tax revenue, especially in our room taxes of our hotels that are booked because of these on-farm weddings as well as sales tax revenue that will be lost.
So again, these are pieces of legislation that will help with expanding farm operations, ways to diversify their business model.
And all of that builds on what is already a growing agricultural.
agricultural tourism sector here in Wisconsin.
And I know that you attached as well a proclamation from the governor's office proclaiming that this is going to be Wisconsin agricultural tourism fall season.
And essentially, Sheila, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's basically saying, look, there's all the usual places you could go on a weekend road trip around Wisconsin, but consider expanding your horizons and looking for opportunities to engage in agricultural tourism, right?
Yes, we're so proud.
September 11th through November 2nd is Wisconsin's agricultural tourism fall season.
Pat, agricultural tourism is one of the fastest growing segments in both agriculture and tourism.
It's revitalizing our rural economies, preserving farmland, allowing families to keep their farm operational for generations.
But besides that,
plays a vital role in reconnecting people with agriculture.
Guests want to learn where their food comes from and why stewardship of the land matters and how our farmers are essential for everyday life.
So it's going to the apple orchard and getting fresh apple cider.
It's going to the pumpkin patches and picking your pumpkins.
It's attending a class on a farm.
to have some heritage cooking classes and maybe making some sourdough bread.
It's tasting farm-fresh ice cream made on a farm like Sassy Cow Creamery, Vesperman Farms, or Kelly's Country Creamery.
It's tasting fresh cheese curds at the Phelps Dairy Farm.
It's going out and experiencing life on a farm and being disconnected from your tablet.
it, however, or your iPhone.
But we also have Pat, what is really cool is the Wisconsin Maze Challenge, the Wisconsin Agricultural Maze Challenge, because we want you to get out in a cornfield and we want you to get lost, but then find your way out of that cornfield.
So we're having a contest.
We invite you to visit a family farm, experience a corn maze, use your navigational skills.
and find your way out.
Take a picture of your visit, post it to Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag WADAMAZE, W-A-T-A MAZE, and then we will have weekly winners of that WADAMAZE challenge.
The proclamation from the governor's office talks about along with everything that's done for food and feeding the state and feeding America and the millions of dollars generated for the tourism industry as well.
Farm to table events, corn mazes, pumpkin patches, harvest festivals, pick your own orchards, farmstays, scenic venues for weddings and celebrations and so much more.
It comes down to that diversification where not every farmer is going to be doing any one of these things.
the ones who want to, the opportunities are there to again, you know, maybe take a take a break from some of the, shall we say, cliche places to go and find some place new across, you know, rural Wisconsin.
happening.
I was gonna say, or rainy.
one thing I know for Marina from a farm girl is if she sees and she has seen cows out before.
And again, it's raining or close to dark.
They never pick Oh, it's a nice sunny day.
I'm gonna go I'm gonna break through the fence here.
No, no, it doesn't work that way at all.
If you've ever chased heifers through a cornfield in the middle of the night, that's an ag adventure right there.
But one thing we've had this conversation before as far as the economic impact I think is huge and that ability for people who are a few generations away from the farm to get reconnected with agriculture both in terms of modern agriculture and what's happening with ag right now, but also having that connection to our
our history and there's a lot of ag related history obviously in the state of Wisconsin.
So it's all good.
Yeah.
And then finally, the Wisconsin Farmers Union will have a fly in in Washington DC.
Sheila, are you taking that one or is Hans talking about what happens for the fly in?
Well, they're actually there now.
They're 16 to 20 farmers that are in Washington DC at the capital at the fly-in meeting with our elected officials there.
They're working through their special orders of business, which is working on climate change and farming, quality healthcare in Wisconsin, creating fair maps and concentration in the agricultural industry.
We're really proud of our farmers that took the time away from their farms to fly out to Washington D.C.
for a few days and meet with our elected officials in their offices in their...
uh
capital buildings and i mean hans you you've been to dc and madison right for for lobbying efforts and so you you know just what these folks are doing and uh sometimes it's an opportunity sometimes it's a challenge to talk to their elected officials well
i think it's both it's both but it's very important and my hat's off to the farmers who who've gone on these things and take the time away from their farms because it is it is tough to get away for for you know a few days like that and and sometimes uh feeling like you might
be talking to people who aren't maybe very receptive.
But it is a chance to have a seat at the table and talk with staff members and talk with your policy makers and so forth.
So it's very, very, very important.
And regardless of the topic, but of course, Farmers Union is bringing a lot of things to the table, a lot of issues to the table, a lot of the issues that we've talked about, climate change mitigation and antitrust legislation, things that are so important to our rural economies.
And so it's definitely very, very important.
important work.
And my hats off to the folks who took the time.
So again, to learn more head over to wiagtourism.com again wiagtourism.com to learn about the corn maze challenge and corn mazes, fairs and festivals.
Pick your own vineyards, farmstays and much more.
Sheila Everhart brings that to us from the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association.
Sheila, thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you, Pat.
We always appreciate your support of the agricultural tourism industry.
Absolutely, and Hans Bright and Moser Dairy Farmer up near Merrill.
Hans, good to talk to you as well.
Take care out there.
guys.
You bet.
Good to have both of you around again.
We talk to Hans every other week and we always appreciate when he brings Sheila Everhart around as well because there's so much more that we can be learning here.
Our Tuesday 1-2 political punch with Dan Schaeffer and Cam Stevenson live from Washington DC still on the way.
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.
752 the time now on this Tuesday.
It is 61 degrees here in Chippewa Falls.
It is 55 degrees at Michelangelo's Coffee House on State Street there in Madison, right near Parker Olson, and it's in Madison where we go to our next story about, well, the headline is from the isthmus down in Madison, but the story is about the Wisconsin State Journal, a reporter there.
And more importantly, it's about AI and newsrooms overall.
The headline from the Esma says Wisconsin State Journal reporter fired for AI misuse speaks out.
It says Audrey Court takes blame for what she calls the biggest mistake of her career, but also wants to set the record straight.
And so I'm just going to read a little bit from the story here from Judy Davidoff, the reporter, saying that Audrey Court had been with the state journal for just a couple of months when summer vacations in the newsroom started piling up.
Eager to be accommodating and productive, she agreed to cover a story for a colleague who was taking a mid-July break.
The assignment was to report on the proposals that had been submitted to the city of Madison for the development of a lot in the 300 block of East Washington Avenue.
The story that court ultimately submitted was published online and across the top of the front page of the Sunday, July 13th state journal.
It contained several factual errors and was ultimately pulled from the site.
A re-reported story was published on July 17th with an editor's note explaining that the original story, quote, contained incorrect information and quotes that were created by the unauthorized use of AI, which does not adhere to the Wisconsin State Journal's editorial or ethical standards end quote.
Court says she was fired the same day by her executive editor who called her on the phone along with someone from Human Resources on the line.
So the question becomes not just, you know, about the use of AI, but as the article notes, how it is that Court's story made it through the editing process because the reporter's stories
don't go right into a newspaper or right into a website.
There is still an editorial chain that is out there.
And Court says she takes full responsibility for the story's multiple factual inaccuracies, including a made up source, which she attributes to the use of a company installed AI program on her work computer.
But she says there is more to the story, including a breakdown of editorial oversight and an understaffed newsroom.
She said she was terminated without a formal investigation and was not given a chance to explain herself to her superiors or her colleagues.
She says, quote, I don't think the newspaper acted with fairness, transparency, accuracy or accountability.
That's why I'm here talking to the isthmus.
I'm trying to set the record straight.
I feel it is my duty as a journalist to provide answers.
Journalists don't take an oath of duty, she says, but I try to live my life as if I did.
And it notes that before joining the State Journal, court was the lone news reporter at the Chippewa Herald here in Chippewa Falls, where she wrote stories, took photos, created video and audio reports, producing between seven and 16 articles a week, she says.
My numbers were staggering.
And because her work was getting some attention, she did get an attractive offer to cover local government for the Wisconsin State Journal.
And then the article goes on to explain what all happened from there.
But it was noting that she was the lone news reporter at the Chippewa Herald that of course caught my eye.
Along with, again, she says it's staggering, the workload, and she's absolutely right.
The Chippewa Herald used to be a...
local newsroom with a whole bunch of reporters, as have been so many small newspapers, small TV stations, small radio stations, where it was pretty rare, especially in the case of a newspaper, for one person to essentially do it all.
Listen to what she said.
I wrote stories, took photos, created video and audio reports, producing between seven and 16 articles a week.
So now it's time for grandpa to give you a back in my day thing.
Okay, working for a small TV station in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
You picked out a story, some days two stories, but oftentimes it was your story of the day.
You'd make some phone calls, you do some research, and you'd go out and do an interview or two.
Not by yourself.
You would have a photographer with you, a professional who knew how to frame shots and get good video so that you could concentrate on doing the story.
You recall in the last hour, I talked about the fawning coverage of Derek Van Orden at a local event in Galesville, which again, I don't know for sure, but I would not be surprised to hear that it was a reporter who had to.
get the press release or find out about the event, go down there, talk to people, try to take notes while at the same time shooting some video and taking some photographs, turning things into a broadcast story for a newscast, but then into a website story as well, and then into a social media post.
Now this reporter's use of artificial intelligence or AI was not proper.
And I don't think she would disagree that there might be some level of discipline that's involved.
But
A case like this should not merely be judged on the use of AI, but put it in the context of the business model that TV, radio, newspapers, and digital media sites are putting their staffs through.
Where you're not working one story a day, you're doing multiple stories a day, and you're not doing the one duty of reporting.
You're a videographer, you're a video editor, you're a social media manager now at this point.
And while some people can do that to a certain degree, I mean, there's an amount of multitasking, we all do in our various jobs.
I think we all understand that.
But there comes a point in any given job at which you can only keep so many plates spinning at one time.
That leads to the temptation to take shortcuts.
And then when that particular plate can't keep spinning and comes crashing to the ground, it's the person who's being overworked.
who is held solely responsible for it.
And that's not right.
These places are businesses, they are looking to make a profit and not lose money, but they are also employers who have an obligation to their employees as well as to their audience to make sure that journalism is done as well as can be and not setting up the circumstances that tempt somebody to take shortcuts or worse to burn out.
which is why so many newsrooms just keep getting smaller and smaller.
Remember, you can follow my team all day at upnorthnewswi.com.
We'll be talking to Cam Stevenson from below the Beltway and from Courier Newsroom coming up next.
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