Crowley Becomes a Candidate (Hour 3)

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

Now, from our Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglo.

Well, hey there, Wisconsin.

Good morning.

It is 606 on a Wednesday morning, September 10 2025.

It's another beautiful morning to have you here up north live from Lake Wissota from wherever you're listening across the civic media radio network through the app or on social media or by podcast.

We appreciate you starting your day right here.

I got a question for you.

Do you make a casserole with tater tots?

I mean, I've, I've made casseroles before, but I, I finally crossed a threshold in the use of tater tots and it, it has more to do with my love of my cast iron skillets than anything else, but we'll, we'll get into food talk coming up in just a bit, but I feel like I've either crossed some kind of a.

a boundary in my kitchen or with my age that I'm now using tater tots in my casserole.

All right and much more important news coming up later in the show we're going to talk live with Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley the most recent candidate to get into the 2026 race for Wisconsin governor.

We'll talk about his decision to run and what he wants voters to know about his experience and his positions as the field grows a little bit larger

and more candidates yet to be expected to run for the governor's post next year with Tony Evers not running for a third term.

In this hour, well, Derek Van Orden doing Derek Van Orden things.

It's already well documented that Derek Van Orden spends a lot of time scrolling and trolling through social media, but even by his standards, it was weird.

that he put a new comment on a photo from a post from two years ago.

Even weirder the photo he commented on shows him on the U.S.

Capitol grounds on January 6th, 2021 and the comment he put was hell yes.

Now Van Orden claims he did not take part in the domestic terrorism that followed on that fateful day but really

Is it that much better to simply be a spectator to a treasonous mob after deciding he would fly there to support a knowingly false claim about the 2020 election?

And don't wait, there's more.

Wait till you hear what he had to say yesterday about the Epstein Files case.

Also, I had one of the biggest billion dollar surprises in Wisconsin, I think, would be if you were to find out how many taxpayers have no idea

how much public tax money is going to the private school voucher scheme.

It's more than 700 million this year and it is getting close to that 10 digit annual payout.

And we'll tell you how a group is launching a transparency campaign to build public awareness before this program follows up more of the state budget and skims even more resources away from our neighborhood schools.

We'll have a guest from Clean Wisconsin on how all those massive new data centers are sucking up groundwater wherever they pop up.

That might be good for all these servers and their artificial intelligence, but not so good for the neighbors whose wells have run dry.

So all of that ahead between now and 9 a.m.

and if you can't stick around for all of it.

That's why we got a podcast version of this program as well.

You skip the commercials and everything else.

So head over to Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts and become a subscriber and catch everything that we are working on.

Let's look at the forecast from meteorologist Brittany Merleau who will be here less than an hour from now.

She says better weather is around the corner, cranking up the humidity and the temperatures for the weekend.

So summer will make a return.

And I guess you could say tomorrow roughly is when summer comes back for a spell.

I don't know how long it looks like, you know, a good week or so of summer like weather is coming back.

For today, however, isolated showers to start the day, then more spots of sun later on.

Highs will be in the upper 60s up north to the mid 70s south with a light southeasterly wind.

For tonight, mixed skies and mild, Brittany says, lows tonight around 50 up north, 55 to the south with a light wind out of the east.

Right now it is 59 degrees here in Chippewa Falls and just, just pleasant as all get out.

What do you say?

We check the conditions in Madison had down to Madison studio A2 at Civic Media's global HQ at the top of State Street one block off the Capitol Square where I Parker Olson's camouflage.

There's a Civic Media banner behind him.

I think that's a Civic Media t-shirt he's wearing.

I can't see him with all the Civic Media logos around.

I'm everywhere.

You can't find me.

Yeah, I can hear you though.

How are you this morning?

Doing pretty well, Pads.

Nice ish.

I think it felt nice when I walked out the door, but I was not out the door for very long because I woke up very late today and got up dressed and to work in about 25 minutes, half an hour.

Who doesn't love that routine when you wake up and realize, oh no,

it's

time for the speed round of getting ready.

I.

feel very fortunate and you know knock on some wood here I have not had to do that yet for this particular you know show but there have been plenty of times in the past where you just kind of open your eyes and especially if both spouses forget to set an alarm and eventually one wakes up and you hear the other one going oh no

And then you're shooting out of bed and flying around to get ready.

Uh, so, uh, Tony asks on YouTube, is it because you stayed up late listening to Stacy Abrams and Madison last night for cap times idea fest?

I should have.

That's a better idea than what I did because I just watched the brewers lose.

Oh yeah.

No, that wasn't pleasant at all.

We'll, we'll get to that in just a bit.

So, so what did, did the alarm go off or was the alarm just not set?

Oh, the alarm went off.

There's four alarms, Pat.

Oh, this is a four alarm job that you have.

This is great.

Yes.

Yes.

We, there are contingency plans and those contingencies did not work.

And thankfully I'm too anxious to miss work, to miss work.

See,

anxiety, you can use it to the good.

So yeah, you got that going.

Got

my stamp of approval,

which is nice.

Well, let's see.

I already connected with some folks here on YouTube.

Michael saying Tater Tot Casserole is the best.

I made it last night, he says.

Tony says, I love Tater Tot Casserole.

So there you go.

The story on that is there was a block party here, and then we did not know if we were going to go to it or not in our neighborhood.

And as you know, we ended up going out of town to visit some friends, but I had all the ingredients just in case.

And for this particular gathering,

I thought, well, let's make some kind of a casserole.

Then I realized I've, you know, when I make something, it's usually like, you know, like pasta based for, you know, like, like some elbow macaroni or noodles or whatever.

And the whole reason I've never used tater tots is because it sounds like too cliche, like that's what every Midwestern year does is they, they put the tater tots and then they put the green beans in there and all that.

I'm

just

like, it's, I don't want to do that.

It's very stereotypical.

I what I what I found was basically a cheesy, you know, cheeseburger casserole with tater tots.

So there was ground beef and cream of mushroom soup, and then just the right combination of spices, and then some sharp cheddar cheese that to me made all the difference.

And, and then throw the tater tots on top, throw it all in a big old cast iron skillet, and put that thing in the oven.

Oh, man, I when you think tater tot casserole, what do you think you think bland, right?

Yeah, I suppose.

Yeah.

This I mean, I'm not saying this was spicy.

I'm just saying it was the recipe I found online.

Sharp cheddar really got you.

The sharp cheddar really does it know that and the other the other spices.

Speaking of the skillet, Tony asks, did Pat make shepherd's pie last weekend?

No, I did not.

I know I said I was going to.

And like I said, plans changed.

But there there will be before

too long.

Roger on Facebook, writes from Steven's point, a tater tot casserole isn't a tater tot casserole until it includes the second ingredient, cream of mushroom soup.

Yes, that's very true.

So you passed.

So yeah, I had that I just went with the, you know, the ground beef and again, the extra sharp cheddar, the secret ingredient.

Very important.

I love that.

This is

This is also new to to Parker.

Like, oh, God, he's talking about cream of mushroom soup and tater tots.

I know there are other things I could be talking about.

This is true.

I would rather hear this than DV.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, we'll get to Derek van Orden and what all he had to say recently coming up before long.

But I suppose we better get back to the Brewers game from yesterday.

But let me take you all the way back to May 19th.

Oh, when Michael Hellman.

was just a sad little rookie who'd been put on waivers by Pittsburgh and picked up by the Texas Rangers.

Michael Hellman has found his groove in Arlington and he has made life miserable this week for the Milwaukee Brewers.

On Monday, he hit his first ever grand slam and had five RBIs total.

And then last night, Hellman hit a two-run homer and made a leaping backhanded catch over the fence and left center to Rob Bryce Terrang as the Rangers beat the Brewers again.

This time the score was five to four and the Cubs also won.

So the Brewers magic number to clinch a playoff spot remains at two to clinch the division 11 if I'm not mistaken.

So we move on from here.

We wrap up the series with a day game today.

It'll be Freddie Peralta going for his league leading 17th win.

If you were to get it today in game three of the series, the pregame will begin at one o'clock.

on several civic media stations and then day off tomorrow and it's back home for a weekend series with the St.

Louis Cardinals.

So it would be nice to have the Brewers get back to their winning ways, especially this afternoon, but certainly in time for a division series against the Cardinals.

Yeah, it'd be really nice if the Brewers could find a way to hit the ball where people aren't.

Oh my gosh, if they had a habit of that.

Yeah.

I don't know how many people have been watching these games instead of just listening on the radio.

And I'm sure it comes across on the radio too.

But my goodness.

Yeah, finding gloves like nobody else.

It's it's almost like, you know, the reverse method, like they're they're like, here are the outfielders hit the ball to the target.

And they did.

And I don't know if.

or how they would even track this.

But if there were a stat for hardest hit balls that were that were caught directly by the outfielder, that, you know, had they landed just a few feet, either side would have gone to the fence.

The Brewers got to be way up there on that.

I would think even an even infield, infield two, because there was the first baseman for the Rangers last night had like three, like, look what I found catches.

Yeah.

Yep.

Well, it happens.

All right.

Let's move over to football here where I just heard this from Mike Clemens and had to confirm it myself.

I had to see it to believe it.

Christian Watson signing a one year deal, an extension for his contract worth $13 million through 2026.

He is still recovering from an ACL injury.

And then I know he had some other injury before that.

So apparently he's supposed to be back later in the season or not.

You know, we'll see.

The thing is, again, he is clearly a talented receiver, very talented.

But I mean, he and Garrett Mitchell for the Brewers.

I mean,

you and Garrett Mitchell, man.

I mean, those two just cannot stay healthy for as much talent as they have.

And it's just very

Look, it's frustrating for the fans.

It's got to be massively frustrating for them.

Although for them, they still get these million dollar paychecks.

So maybe it is a little bit more frustrating for us.

True.

Nobody's giving us a million dollars for our frustration.

But the Packers are on a short week.

They're a little banged up.

This could make things difficult tomorrow.

Yes, I said tomorrow.

The Packers kick off week two of the football season, hosting the Washington Commander's coverage will begin tomorrow at 5pm.

on WRCO in Richland Center, WCQM in Park Falls, WRJN in Racine, WAUH in Wattoma.

And of course, the Wisconsin Badgers are playing at Alabama this Saturday.

Coverage begins at nine o'clock Saturday morning on stations in Richland Center, Amory, Wisconsin Rapids, and Ripon.

All right, well, when we come back, we will talk about Derek Van Orden and the way he just casually dismissed one of the latest things we've learned about the Epstein Files case.

From the heart of America's Up North, live from Lake Wissota, thanks for making this the place to spend a part of your mornings.

I'm Pat Krightlo, this is the Civic Media Radio Network.

I've got some interesting news for you today on this Wednesday morning as we close in on 6 23.

We have our new newsletter editor starting today.

That's right.

Ellie Bordo is the new newsletter editor for Up North News.

Born and raised in a condo walk and has called Wisconsin home her whole life and introduces herself in our daily newsletter today and

And then of course has all the usual great Wisconsin features and news stories, including a note here about Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley announcing that he's running for governor and he will be joining us at 8.52 this morning.

So get to know Ellie by signing up for our newsletter over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

UpNorth News is part of Courier Newsroom.

Courier has outlets in several states, newsletters, podcasts and more.

One of those newsletters by Melissa Ryan is called Control Alt Right Delete.

It's a weekly newsletter devoted to covering the rise of far right extremism, white nationalism, disinformation, and online toxicity.

And in this week's edition, Epstein survivors speak out and they've got the receipts.

Donald Trump's continued efforts to kill the public outrage about the Epstein scandal are not working.

It is one of the rare issues

that the vast majority of Americans can agree on, don't obstruct those victims who are seeking justice.

These women aren't going away, and the price of ignoring them is the ongoing speculation about just what is it that some powerful men are trying so hard to keep covered up?

Read all about it in Control Alt-Right Delete from Melissa Ryan.

Head over to couriernewsroom.com to learn more.

You want an example of that denial?

Give a listen to what Congressman Derek Van Orden said.

This is a clip from Fox News that somebody grabbed off of Twitter and put the clip up.

And he was asked about the newly released birthday card that was made for Jeffrey Epstein many years ago, including a note, a signed note by Donald Trump.

with essentially a crude drawing of a woman on it and Derrick Van Orden, who is apparently a handwriting expert, had this to say about it.

Well, clearly the birthday note for President Trump is a fallacy.

That's just, it's just not true.

And that's a leftist talking about it's horrible.

It's a fallacy?

And it's a leftist talking point.

No, it's evidence is what that is.

He's babbling.

And you could see it in the clip.

He's babbling.

He's struggling.

Everybody else who's working so hard to defend Donald Trump is doing this.

And I mean, to call this thing a fake,

Keep in mind this particular birthday card this note has been seen for years and years and years long before Donald Trump got into politics.

It was out there.

So for you to believe it was fake would be that would be a grand conspiracy to go back 20 years and say let's create this fake note because 20 years later this guy's gonna get elected president and then we're gonna nail him with this.

I mean

I don't like using the S word, but this isn't ridiculous.

It's stupid.

It's stupid to believe and to defend that.

Don't knee jerk defend something like this.

You should be asking questions and you should be saying those questions deserve answers.

But Derek Van Orden, like so many other people, Derek is convinced that Donald Trump has control over all just the right people.

Why?

Well, why wouldn't he believe that?

Look how long Trump has lasted, even after being convicted on 34 felonies.

The way somebody put it in Twitter world here, when you're in a cult, nothing matters more than protecting the leader.

Why?

Because your entire sense of self worth and your entire worldview are predicated on the leader's success.

If he goes down, you have nothing left, and that's what makes them so dangerous.

Oh, but wait, there's more.

Derek Van Orden loves his scrolling and trolling on social media.

So it was very interesting that he commented on a post, but not some recent post.

Somehow or another, he'd gone back two years at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin site and found a post from July 28th of 2023 with a photo of Derek Van Orden on the US Capitol grounds on January 6th, 2021.

The post from July of 2023 is in the wake of Derek Van Orden harassing those teenage pages at the US Capitol.

Remember late at night as they were in the Capitol rotunda and the state Democratic Party post put up the photo of Derek Van Orden from January 6th saying, let's not let anyone forget that Derek Van Orden crossed police lines taking selfies as a violent mob attacked the US Capitol.

All right so again that post was from July of 2023 but on Monday evening at 8 50 p.m Derek Van Orden put a comment under that and the comment read hell yes thank you for pointing out that I stand for voter integrity and respect our institutions to which the Democratic Party of Wisconsin quickly responded to his post with this saying

Did you really spend your Monday night scrolling back through over two years of Facebook posts to brag about a violent attack on law enforcement and an attempt to overturn the 2020 election?

Because that's exactly what it looks like, that this is somebody who will constantly search for himself on social media.

the kind of guy who googles himself and will go to every platform to see who's writing what about him and then respond to it.

And he does that.

He's in the comment sections everywhere, taking people down a notch for daring to criticize their member of Congress, who we expect to be better behaved, but when it starts by being on the Capitol grounds as a treasonous mob is around you, well, how could we set our sights much lower?

Hey, where else can you find Guns N' Roses and Chuck Berry?

Well, that'd be today's history lesson.

That's coming up live from the lake after the Midwest Farm Report here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I'm Pat Crichtlump.

Get ready, play your air drums.

Yeah, we know that one.

That Nirvana smells like Teen Spirit released as a single this day in 1991.

And I think I did this to pour Greg last year as well, because everybody loves the way those drums come in so much.

Do you mind stopping and starting that one again?

Really?

Did you do it?

Yeah, can you do that?

Oh, wow.

OK.

You know people love the air drums on

this.

I do, yeah.

All right, everybody.

One,

two,

three.

I firmly believe that people would wake up better if they did that first thing in the morning if that's what your alarm was.

I would have woken up on time, yeah.

You would have.

Absolutely.

So that from Nirvana was released as a single this day in 1991, kicking off today's history lesson.

We have an anniversary to celebrate out of Green Bay.

Fox 11 WLUK began broadcasting this day in 1954.

So happy 71st birthday to the folks at Fox 11.

At least I think they're still called Fox 11.

I haven't been there for a while.

So

may or may not have a friend that works.

I don't remember.

We have a few iconic song intros here, not just Nirvana.

It's always a tough one to go with, whether with that one or Guns N' Roses, but they're on the calendar because they opened up as the opening act for Aerosmith this week in 1988 and they hit number one with this.

I didn't want to step on anybody doing air guitar today.

It's just basically it's an air band day.

It's a very

fun history lesson.

Yeah.

Guitar hero, were you, did you play that much?

No,

I did.

He was

all the rage.

No.

I

didn't.

I knew I wouldn't be able to, but I always enjoyed watching other people trying to learn it.

Yes, yes.

Emphasis on trying.

Emphasis on

trying, yes.

We had a Whitewater radio station did a music festival.

Um, and one of the things that we did was we had air guitar, like between bands.

Oh, sure.

And, er, not air guitar, guitar hero.

And people went crazy on that thing.

There are people who know how to play.

Oh, no doubt.

I will say we did try it once.

We were at a house party or something and somebody had it.

And so everybody had to give it a try.

So nothing like making a fool of yourself in front of all of your friends.

But we all took a turn, so it's OK.

This week in 1991, the Senate Judiciary Committee began hearings on Clarence Thomas' nomination to the US Supreme Court.

Bad judgment, 34 years ago this week.

Let's see on this day in 1955 a Chuck Berry reached number five on the charts with his very first hit So why did Maybelline reach its peak at number five on the charts well, let's see who had the first

Who had the four spots ahead of him?

Pat Boone, again.

Mitch Miller, the Maguire sisters, and Tennessee Ernie Ford, who again I remind people played at my high school prom.

What?

I've told you that story.

Tennessee Ernie Ford and Florence Henderson were the entertainment at our high school prom.

That's crazy.

You had someone notable at your prom.

Wow.

They weren't really at our prom.

Our prom was at the old Carlton Celebrity Dinner Theater.

And we were in one of the other rooms, but you had to come in.

You had to come into the dinner theater to get your dinner.

and sit there and eat your dinner watching Florence Henderson and Tennessee Ernie Ford sing old songs.

And then you go back down the hall and we had some kind of a punk band or something for our for our actual prom.

OK,

that makes a lot of sense.

It makes much more sense now.

Yes.

Happy birthday to Jose Feliciano.

You know him for the Christmas classic Felice Navidad, but he had plenty of other hits in his years.

He turns 80 years old today.

This is just another great intro.

I don't think I've ever heard this is really good.

I suppose you might have only heard the doors singing like my fire, but give a listen as he picks this up.

You know that it would be untrue.

You know that I would be alive.

Just a really nice hit from Jose Feliciano, who turns 80 years old today.

Aerosmith's lead guitarist, Joe Perry, today is his 75th birthday.

I wonder if he can still play, you know, the way that he has all these years.

You know, like I said, I was watching the band Chicago.

Now, they were all playing their horns and keyboards as well as they ever did.

So I haven't heard Joe Perry lately, so I can say that with any certainty.

Actor Colin Firth is 65 years old today.

Alright, let's get to 1966.

I got the number one album and the number one single from this day 49 years ago 59 years ago, excuse me the number one album was revolver from the Beatles Another iconic intro

I mean, if you're going to highlight Revolver, where do you go?

You got Illinois Rigby.

You've got Taxman.

You've got Here, There, and Everywhere.

You've got Good Day Sunshine.

You've got Got to Get You Into My Life.

It's just definitely my favorite Beatles album.

Yeah, although that's saying something because there were a lot of good ones on either side of that as well.

But Revolver was the number one album this week in 1966.

The number one single was by this the preems where it would stay number one on the singles chart for two weeks Another big We could have condensed this entire segment into like 90 seconds just by playing those intros pretty much Yeah, what

I'm hearing Pat is that to make this show

really like Award-winning material that went sweeps everything as we just needed a better intro.

We needed an iconic intro.

We need that iconic intro?

Yeah,

so that's what I'm

here for this.

We'll get to work on that.

I actually might have one.

I've been saving this for a while.

There is a band based out of Eau Claire called the Jaggernauts.

Yeah.

I knew of them, but not much, and I thought the band had broken up.

It turns out that years and years ago on one of their albums is a song, and the title of the song is simply Crite Love.

Yeah.

And it's got a great intro.

The lyrics are a little dark, as are many things from the band.

And I've never...

Really found out why they gave it that name Was it was it a were they knocking me for some reason because I think I was still doing TV at the time or Or what do and I what are these days?

I'm gonna ask for their permission to use that for the show intro

I was gonna say do we have form of contact for them because I would love to get that

on the show Bring them

on the show.

They just got back together, and I think they're gonna be admit They're gonna be playing in Madison this week

really

Yeah, they played in Eau Claire last Friday at the mousetrap.

So they do still get back together.

So let's, if they come down to Madison, somebody ask them if the song would work or not.

Hey, Melissa K is here from WFHR, WIRI in beautiful Wisconsin Rapids, looking wonderful in that colorful shirt and that nice little, what kind of cap do we call those?

Page boy?

I don't know.

Page boy, engineers, cap, whatever.

Very nice.

How are you today?

Good morning.

I'm here and here.

Hello.

OK.

Nice.

You sound like Parker, who woke up really late today and got in just under the wire.

So we totally understand.

How are things in Rapids this week?

They're

good.

OK.

I know we've got some new faces at Civic Media.

I'm sure you're busy getting

to know them,

train them,

things

like that.

Yes, we have a new reporter in our Wasau station, which is right next door to us, Isabella Nieto.

Okay.

It would be good to welcome her and I know there's at least one other new reporter.

Connie in Green Bay.

I don't know her last name yet.

Ah,

yeah.

Gotcha.

So yeah, it'll keep somebody busy.

That's for sure.

All right.

Back to the history lesson here on this day in 1953, Swanson sold its first TV dinner, a turkey meal with cornbread, dressing peas and sweet potatoes.

Now there are a lot of frozen dinners out there nowadays.

I mean, there's no shortage of things, but the original TV dinner in the in the foil packaging

that had to have come and gone by the time.

I mean, have either one of you had like an old school TV dinner?

Yes,

you

have.

It was it was like a special, special treat.

No,

we only got we only got them like once in a really great while because they were far more expensive than they were, you know, making your own food.

Wait,

they were

good.

Um,

it used to be.

They were.

Yeah, I can't vouch for them nowadays.

But you know, you would as a kid, we you only get turkey on Thanksgiving.

And so

to get this sliced turkey in gravy, or of course, there was the Salisbury steak, which

I'm sure steak was my

favorite.

I'm still not sure what makes it Salisbury.

I've never I've never looked into what what exactly is it that makes where they made it.

Yeah, I guess.

Anyway, so the TV dinners were kind of a kind of a big deal for the for the baby boomers, as they were all watching their TV and want to eat in front of the TV.

So again, that dates back to 1953.

Alex

Yes, Alex Trebek hosted the first episode of Jeopardy as a syndicated game show on this day in 1984.

and I knew Alex Trebek at that point had been a game show host on multiple different game shows but within years there were basically only two game shows left Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy and he had he had one of them there and let's see we've got a another TV debut this one a show that debuted on NBC this day in 1990 35 years ago

today

There you go.

Apparently

he was just playing some basketball in West Philadelphia, born and raised.

Were you either one of you viewers of the Fresh Prince back in the day?

I got to see it a little bit, but we weren't really allowed to watch TV, so.

Yes, I know.

That really has gotten in the way of, you know, us bouncing cultural references off of each other.

That was just

pre-me a little.

Yeah, the show predates you, so I don't know if you've ever seen reruns of it or anything like that.

No,

I watched

a bit of Whole

House, but not French print.

Gotcha.

OK.

Uh, so did either one of you see like the more dramatic darker version that came out?

What it was at a year or two ago on Netflix?

Was it?

Oh, no.

Oh, I heard I know.

I didn't see it

though.

Yeah.

Kind of like.

Oh, yeah.

Quite quite dark and dramatic.

Kind of like what Riverdale did to the the Archie comics.

But anyway, let's let's check in with everybody's favorite pigeon.

How's Lelu doing this week?

Well, you know, we had a disrupted night.

Hence the hat.

Oh,

But not their fault.

I'm still fighting with the bed that I cut in half with a bread knife.

So I didn't tell you that story.

No.

And you got all the 20 seconds.

What can you tell

us?

Well, you know, sometimes when you have a full mattress, that's just too squishy.

You have to make it a little squishy.

So you cut in half with a bread knife.

That's a DIY hack I did not know about.

OK.

we will definitely explore that another time.

Melissa K, you can catch her on WFHR at Wisconsin Rapids, listen through the Civic Media app.

Melissa, thank you so much.

Good to see you.

You

too.

All right, have a great day.

Let's pause here.

And then in the seven o'clock hour, we'll talk about transparency for taxpayers on voucher schools.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media radio

network.

Coming up later today on the Civic Media Radio Network, Matt Nair on air follows this program, nine to 11 weekdays.

Greg Bacch is flying solo this week while Jane's off.

Coming up at 9.35, Greg will be talking to Andrew Watkins, New York Times bestselling author discussing Christian nationalism in the United States.

And then after 10 o'clock, economics professor Rick Reed will talk about the way that President Trump is putting pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.

for whatever reason.

Todd Alba, who shall is on from two to four today, keeps insisting on having me on on Wednesday afternoons.

And so you can catch me just after two o'clock along with Trig Vilsen from the Lincoln Project on the Todd Alba show coming up this afternoon across the Civic Media radio network.

All right, a few more notes from today's history lesson.

And you know, they're they're not all

happy, fun, music based or whatever entertainment based their occasional serious notes to put in there.

And so the reason I'm sharing one about something called the Latimer massacre, I'm sorry, let me try that again, the Latimer massacre of 1897 is to show the ways that we are still trying to evolve in this country and

live true to our ideals.

But on this day in 1897, in Latimer, Pennsylvania, a sheriff's posse killed 19 unarmed, striking immigrant minors.

It was an outrage that single handedly propelled the United Mine Workers Union in membership and in power, eventually leading to higher wages and safer conditions.

But sadly, it

just far too often takes tragedies like this to convince corporations to do better by their workers.

So again, that massacre of striking immigrant minors in Pennsylvania took place this day in 1897.

All right, a couple of sports notes for you now.

And I'm going to admit, Parker, that I did not know this until yesterday.

If you just told me the origin of the Rams, I would have said, well, they were the Los Angeles Rams, and then they were the St.

Louis Rams for a while.

And now they're the Los Angeles Rams again, right?

And

they actually started someplace else.

Did not know that.

But it was on this day in 1937 that the Cleveland Rams

played their first game as an NFL team.

The Rams played in Cleveland from 1936 to 1937 to 1945.

Now in 1945, the Cleveland Rams won the NFL Championship and then moved to Los Angeles, becoming the first of only two professional football teams to play the following season in another city.

And forever ruining football in Cleveland.

Yeah, forever.

Yeah, exactly.

And for folks who are saying, wait, there's another football champion team that left the city.

Yeah, this was in the old AFL, which is now the AFC conference in the NFL.

But at the time in 1962, the Dallas Texans, the 1962 version had won the AFL championship, but they really couldn't compete with the NFL's.

Dallas Cowboys.

And so the Dallas Texans relocated to Kansas City and rebranded themselves as the Kansas City Chiefs and have been there for good.

So there's your sports trivia for the day.

For folks who don't know why Dion Sanders is such a name, how do you get to be such a thing?

Is it just because he's a loudmouth and brash and everything else?

The fact of the matter is he got to where he was because he was a hell of an athlete.

And it was on this day in 1989 as a two-way player.

Five days after hitting a home run for the Yankees, he returned a punt 68 yards for a touchdown.

So, home run and a touchdown in the same week for Dion Sanders.

Oh, that's

such a

funny stat.

The guy was good.

Yeah,

I really wish

I got to see that, actually.

He again, he'd love to tell you that he was good.

Yeah,

but he

kind of earned it though.

Yeah, he did have the goods to back it up.

Let's see on this day in 2019, Donald Trump fired his National Security Advisor, John Bolton.

There's some foreshadowing for you.

And then finally, one year ago today, where the press was the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, it became

famous for various phrases of Trump's, for example, here he is acknowledging that he still has no plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.

Yes or no, you still do not have a plan.

I have concepts of a plan.

I'm not president right now.

But if we come up with something, I would only change it if we come up with something that's better and less expensive.

And there are concepts and options we have to do that.

And you'll be hearing about it in the not too distant future.

narrator.

We are now in the not too distant future and we're still hearing nothing.

It was in that same debate where there had been some racial unrest in Ohio and where Donald Trump famously blurted out this bit of, well, verbal diarrhea in it.

In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats, they're eating

They're eating the pets of the people that live there.

And this is what's happening in our country.

You can hear the laughter in the background of that.

I mean, probably camera operators and others that could not believe that this was being said by a former president and that he might actually have a chance to become president again.

And then he did, still with concepts of a plan.

So we got that going for us all all told by the way fact checkers found more than 30 different lies or misstatements from Donald Trump in that debate on the national gate a day calendar for today.

Today is national TV dinner day.

Of course, we mentioned what Swanson's did in 1953.

So why not celebrate and have some dinner in front of the TV today?

Oh wait, we pretty much all do now all the time.

Don't we?

And this is also anti junk light day.

And if you've ever flown at night, you understand what we're talking about here, where there's a, there's a lot of junk light that keeps people from seeing the stars, from enjoying the night sky.

And there's really been a movement for years to get people to make sure their outdoor lighting at night is more directional and, you know, allow us to enjoy.

but the celestial masterpieces that we have up above us.

Coming up at 707 meteorologist Brittany Merleau is going to talk about the return of summer weather.

We'll talk about voucher transparency in our next hour.

And at 852 Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, candidate for governor.

I'm Pat Crightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Thank you.

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

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

Good morning, 706.

Nice to have you back here up north on this Wednesday morning, September 10th, 2025.

Parker Olson producing things down in Madison Studio A2.

Meteorologist Brittany Merlot will be along shortly and later this hour, we will be talking about a new campaign to help taxpayers across Wisconsin understand just how much money the private school voucher scheme is costing them.

money coming out of their wallets, money that is leaving our neighborhood local schools and going to this private school voucher plan instead.

So again, that's coming up less than a half hour from now.

And then at 8.52 before we wrap things up here for the morning, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley will be dropping in to talk about his joining the race for governor.

He's made it official.

He and Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez, among others, will be seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in August of next year and running for governor next November.

So David Crawley will talk about.

what propelled him to decide to join the race for Wisconsin governor.

Again, that's coming up a little bit before nine o'clock before we wrap things up for today.

But we are still getting going just here on the seven o'clock hour, starting with the weather and the return of summer says meteorologist Brittany Merleau and I for one am here for it.

I can't wait.

I'm so looking forward to one last weekend of boating before we put things away for the weekend.

I'm sure other people who have made outdoor plans are almost giddy with the thought that things at the moment are looking pretty good.

Yes, they are, honestly.

Today, starting off damp and dreary, but...

Good things ahead.

Um, warm weekend, 80 degree temperatures, like you said, summer is coming back and it's falling on the weekend so it couldn't be any better.

This morning we do though have thick fog up north, northwest.

We are looking at a dense fog advisory from Ashland to Eau Claire and then northwest into Hayward and Superior.

Even Eagle River has less than a mile visibility right now and then middle of the state.

We're looking at scattered showers from Madison to Wausau.

the way over to Iron River.

Those are going to be working their way into the Fox Valley later this morning, maybe a sprinkle or two until Milwaukee by this afternoon, but nothing heavy.

All the heavy rain fell yesterday.

We're a good half an inch to an inch and a half up northwest where all that fog is sitting now.

So more clouds north today.

few sunspots down south before the system moves through high temperatures will reach the upper sixties up north to the low seventies down south today and we are looking at more fog pushing in overnight tonight.

Now tomorrow starts the warm up low to mid seventies statewide.

our south we could hit some eighties.

It'll be a partly sunny day.

Very comfortable out there.

And then the muggyness starts to seep in for Friday.

You'll start to feel like summer again.

It'll be partly sunny, much warmer highs will be in the mid to upper seventies far north to low eighties south.

And then Saturday and Sunday, we're all hitting 80 to 85 degrees.

We do have chances for scattered rain in the morning on Saturday and then maybe late Sunday night.

But otherwise, it looks rather dry for the entire weekend and warm too.

That is such good news for people who are planning all sorts of activities this weekend, which I'm going to tell you about in just a moment.

But first, I just wanted to

pass along a good morning from Rob and Tigerton, cloudy, a few rain showers, 58 degrees, did some work around the home and fixed the tire on his John Deere mower.

He says it's been fun working with Kristen Lyrely about cuts for people with disabilities and fighting back against wanting to put disabled people in institutions or in nursing homes.

He writes places north of Iron Mountain in the UP got over three inches of rain and says the leaves are starting to change color.

in the Tigerton area.

Oh, and from Tony, one little request for Brittany, could you not make it summer again?

No, Tony, I'm sorry, we should hit the delete button way too fast on that.

I'm so sorry.

I'll delete.

Exactly.

So this weekend, and the thing is with the Packers playing tomorrow night, you know, there's no packer game over the weekend.

So good weather, get to enjoy one of these things.

So

Parker guessing game for you.

Brittany is starting a long weekend tomorrow.

Let's see if we can guess no spoiler alerts.

Here are some options for her.

There's the Vernon County Fair, which starts today in Verroqua.

There's the Amory Fall Festival that begins tomorrow.

There's the Lake Geneva Taco Fest going

on

Friday and Saturday.

Yep.

There's Blues Fest in Theansville Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday and Sunday is also the Wappan Volksfest German Festival.

On Sunday is the 12th annual Beaver Dam Pepper Festival.

Also on Sunday is the Eau Claire Fall Festival.

Sunday is also the Stevens Point Celebration of India over at SPASH, the local high school.

Lakewood has its festival.

Get it?

Like festival, festival.

You'll see what they did there.

Yeah, that's on Sunday.

As is New London Fall Fest, the Hayward Lions Oktoberfest, and the Mineral Point Car Show.

All of these, oh wait, one more from Rob here says a Tigerton steak fry Saturday night.

So there you go.

So I don't know which of these you're going to here, but you won't lack for possibilities for things to do this weekend.

No, not at all.

Sounds like a good long weekend to take off.

My gosh, I have options.

I know.

So we're going to want to hear all about those when you're back next week, but we will get an updated forecast next hour as well.

Brittany, thank you so much.

Thank you.

All right.

Hey, we have a new newsletter editor at UpNorrent News who has put together her first edition.

Her name is Ellie Bordo, and we're going to let her get her feet wet a little bit before we

initiator here on the radio.

We can only do so much hazing at Up North News, but Ellie is an EconiWalk native, has been in Wisconsin her whole life, and is looking forward, as she says here, to talking about Wisconsin's true sense of community where people take pride in their roots.

She's got a photo of her and her dad at Lambeau Field at a Packer game here.

She went to UW Madison, has degrees in journalism and Spanish, wrote for the Daily Cardinal.

and discovered a passion for giving people a platform to share their stories.

And so again, I believe only the fourth newsletter editor we've had with Up North News over these past five and a half years.

Yours truly and then there was Christina and then there was Henry and now there is Ellie So give her a welcome by becoming a subscriber head over to up north news wi.com Click subscribe up there in the top banner and you will be part of the weekday newsletter that she works on as well as the Sunday morning newsletter that I put together Sunday mornings with Pat quite low Which includes a question of the week and this time around the question is

What caused Donald Trump's flip-flop on the Epstein files?

Is it that it turns out his name is in the files that much we know the Attorney General Pam Bondi Told Trump as much but we have no idea in what context whether it involves wrongdoing whether it involves cover-ups whether it's all I Don't know if innocence is the right word but does not involve criminal activity Maybe that's what it is or maybe he's

not releasing the files fully because he's covering up and protecting people who are listed, or to be a bit more sinister about it, maybe not protecting people, but maybe blackmailing people that are in the file and saying, I'll keep these files secret if you continue to do the things that I want you to do.

And then the fourth option, of course, is that it's all a hoax and that for, you know, 20 plus years, all of these victims of Jeffrey Epstein

Decided all those years ago to make things up because someday Donald Trump was going to be elected president like anybody would have believed that 20 years ago and That way we'll we'll be able to get him when the time is right I mean it seems to be what congressman Derek van Orden is thinking because asked yesterday about the crude birthday note that Donald Trump signed to Jeffrey Epstein about 20 years ago Derek van Orden called it a fallacy

It's not a fallacy.

And so you have Derek Van Orden and every other Wisconsin Republican in Congress has voted to basically stonewall the release of all of the Epstein files.

All six of Wisconsin's Republican congressmen have voted to not seek justice for the Epstein victims in

in a way that would be faster than continuing to sit on these files for no good reason whatsoever.

There are plenty of Republicans who have voted for or expressed support for getting on with this and not worrying about political protection, but you can't say the same.

for Wisconsin's six Republican House members.

And so again, these, these are stories that we are following, including our question of the week at our news and get our newsletter or Sunday morning one by heading to up north news wi.com.

Checking in on sports here, the brewers lost to the Texas Rangers last night, five to four.

Remember, they had lost five to nothing the night before.

And that was when

Texas's Michael Hellman, who has only been with the team since May 19th when he was picked up on waivers by Pittsburgh, hit his first ever grand slam and had five RBIs total on Monday.

Well, last night he hit a two run homer and made a leaping backhand and catch over the fence in left center field to Rob Bryce Turing and that again led to the Brewers losing five to four.

They will wrap up that three game series this afternoon.

Freddie Peralta will be on the mound going for what would be a league leading 17th win if you were to get it in Arlington this afternoon.

Coverage begins at one o'clock on Civic Media stations in Richland Center, Oshkosh, Racine, Park Falls and in Hayward.

The Packers on a short week, they play tomorrow night, hosting the Washington Commanders.

Coverage begins at five o'clock on several civic media stations.

Christian Watson signed a one-year, $13 million contract extension through the 2026 season, even though he is still out recovering from an ACL injury.

And the Wisconsin Badgers will play this Saturday at Alabama.

Coverage begins Saturday morning at 9 a.m.

on stations in Richland Center, Amory, Wisconsin Rapids.

and in ripping.

All right, one more football note, though, I mean, it's not football related, but it's a football guy letting us know what he thinks.

Brett Favre would like you to know that spreading the message to end racism is a bad thing and says it is, it is divisive.

The native of Kiel, Mississippi, spoke out in a story here on the Fox News website saying that

The messages such as and racism and it takes all of us and what else was on there choose love and Farve says those messages are counterproductive He says I feel like they're maintaining a divisive stance.

They may say well, we're trying to bring everyone together No, that's not bringing everyone together farve said on the sage steels show earlier this week There are a lot of things in this world in this country.

We can be better at

And I think we do continue to get better at certain things, Farve says, but you're creating more division by talking about a problem that I'm not saying it's, it isn't still a problem, racism, but I think you could do more by not talking about it.

Talk about unity and how far we've come.

There are those who say, I face this all the time and kudos to the NFL, he says, but I think most people are over and beyond that.

Yeah, I feel like the league is the league of divisiveness.

There might be no other way to say you're a white guy from Mississippi without saying you're a white guy from Mississippi than to say the things right there that Brett Farve just said that He's saying I'm not saying it is a problem which is right up there with your uncle saying I'm not a racist but and Saying that I think people are over that.

I think people are beyond that They are not which is why messages like these are more important than ever

And at some point, the people who think that something like this is divisive might finally have the epiphany that helps us make some progress in our country.

We will talk about the subject of taxpayer transparency for voucher schools 15 minutes away here.

I'm Pat Crite Lowly from Lake Wissota.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Up North News is part of Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy news network, and that includes our Washington D.C.

Daily newsletter below the Beltway.

You can subscribe to Cam Stevenson's newsletter at beltway.news or couriernewsroom.com for daily dispatches from Capitol Hill.

Nice to have you back here at exactly 7.23 on this Wednesday morning.

Some of the

Big stories that have been racking up eyeballs and comments and shares across social media from Up North News include on Facebook, Shatex Alan Kircher.

You might recall we heard from Alan through a report from Selena Heller on Monday.

Kirchner is winning awards for his ice cream from the World Dairy Expo and he talks about how what it is he does different.

at his little ice cream shop up in Chateau, which is going to only get more popular as word gets out about all of these many awards that he's winning for his chocolate peanut butter ice cream, his vanilla ice cream, and much more.

Let's see on Instagram.

One of the top stories is one that includes audio from inside the courtroom as a court commissioner expresses shock and outrage that an immigration arrest

is taking place in his courtroom and the officers refuse his demand to show their warrant.

And somehow it's the court commissioner who ends up losing his job as a result of this.

So again, a very popular post this past week on Instagram, along with one from Vice President J.D.

Vance's misinformation riddled message in La Crosse.

where we take five of the things that the vice president said, and basically set the record straight.

So again, find us on Instagram, on TikTok, on Facebook, we're also on Blue Sky, and even the Dumpster Fire, formerly known as Twitter, come and follow all that we do across social media and up North News.

Let's see, we just heard a bit ago a promo from the folks at the...

investigative journalism site Wisconsin watch.

And you know, not not everything is completely serious politics.

Parker, there's a story that went up last week, I believe it's called the future of work in Wisconsin in six charts.

The headline the subhead saying what are the fastest growing jobs in Wisconsin, which jobs are shrinking?

We break down the data on nurse practitioners data scientists when turbine techs and more.

Did you ever count on fastest growing jobs to determine what it was that you were going to do when you grew up as a young lad?

Um, let me think.

No.

No, no.

I don't either.

And the thing is that would be my advice to a lot of young people.

It would be, hey, you should see, you know, where the jobs of the future are.

Um, but I mean, a lot of us, we just, we want to follow our hearts instead.

I remember, yeah.

There is

a little something of that, like.

There were things that I wanted to learn because I thought they would be helpful because they were coming up.

Like I wanted

to

learn a little like computer coding stuff.

I didn't do that, but I wanted to because I knew that was becoming a thing that would be important.

I didn't want that career though.

Yeah, that's just it.

You start to study these things and say, well, they may be fast growing, but they're not necessarily for me.

I know that when now the baby boomers, they start turning 80 this year.

So we're going back.

Either 20 or 30 years and I recall back even you know 50 years ago when the baby boomers started turning 30 every one of these milestone years you'd see these articles about the future of the baby boomers when they were in their prime working years and then about you know the best retirement for baby boomers and and so forth and so on and I remember thinking like either 10 20 or 30 years ago boy if my generation and those people younger wanted job security

Get into some kind of work that takes care of these baby boomers as they're aging because we're gonna need more spot more people who work in nursing homes, you know occupational therapy Mortuary you know sad to say all of this, you know all these things and I joked the other day about just just specializing in 80th birthday parties You you could make a pretty good income just doing that But even 20 30 years ago, I thought that's just not

That's not where I feel myself being called is as a gerontologist, essentially.

And yet that that would be, you know, a fast growing career.

So getting back to the Wisconsin watch story.

Now, they do start with wind turbine service technicians.

And that field is projected to grow by 75% in Wisconsin between 2022 and 2032.

So

I think there now is to be a footnote on that since we have a president who is actively trying to undermine wind and solar power.

But by the same token, I don't think this industry is really going to, it's going to come back.

It will survive Donald Trump.

And so to be a technician on these wind turbines will, that'll be some job security if you can do that.

Oh yeah, for

sure.

You'd have to be able to go up on a very tall structure and that ain't happening.

Yeah, that's an acquired taste.

Yeah, you've got nurse practitioners projected to grow by 51%.

And again, with an aging population, you would not go wrong if you wanted to become a nurse practitioner.

Computer and information research scientists, you know, the little Parker Olsons that weren't to be, that job growth has grown by 44% within this decade.

And then there's data scientists projected to grow by 43%, which I'm not so sure about.

data scientists.

I mean, they have been essential in the past.

But you now have in Donald Trump and in Robert Kennedy and in Ron Johnson, data scientists, I mean, who are those liberal elites, you know, with their with their data, and their facts, and their science.

In other words, in other words, kids, if you want to become a data scientist,

There will be jobs out there.

But remember, it's more than just training your mind.

It's more about training your fingers to do all the calculations on keyboards.

You also have to train your forehead because you're constantly going to be wanting to put it against a brick wall when you hear what people in power have to say about science and data and facts.

Our homeroom segment talking about school about your transparency is coming up the Midwest Farm Report.

Before that, I'm Pat Crichtlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Welcome back on this Wednesday morning.

Time for our homeroom segment.

And before we get to our guest, a little history of the homeroom segment, especially appropriate for today's topic.

How did we come to do a weekly segment on public education in Wisconsin?

It started with my learning just how much money our tax dollars goes into the voucher school program.

And now this goes back.

at least a couple of years.

And I originally wanted to do just a short series, maybe a short series of videos, kind of like Schoolhouse Rock, but instead of how a bill becomes a law, it was, could we find a way to explain in plain English how the school funding system works in Wisconsin?

And in doing so, we would help people appreciate

how we fund our public schools, but also let people know how much money is skimmed away from that from a voucher program for private, often religious schools that started as this small experimental program in Milwaukee.

But with a lot of folks not knowing it has mushroomed into something massive.

And how do you go about sharing that message with folks?

Well,

The short video series is still a work in progress, but we did say, you know, we need to be talking about this on a more regular basis.

So along with a lot of other education topics, we started this homeroom segment along with some friends from the Wisconsin Public Education Network.

who have made it their mission as well in the support of public schools is to help increase taxpayer transparency about the voucher school program.

Well, they're taking this to the next level with a transparency project.

that the Wisconsin public education network is starting with a kickoff party and free training through zoom and a toolkit and more.

It's all starting next week.

And so to get back to basics on all this, Heather Dubois born on from the Wisconsin public education network is here today, Heather.

Good morning.

How are you?

Good morning, Pat.

I'm great.

Thanks for having me.

No, thank you.

You and Chris Hambock, well, you're basically the godmothers of this segment to help make sure that we're getting this kind of word out about supporting public schools and not undermining public schools through use of our property tax dollars, oftentimes unwittingly.

And so tell us in your own words what led to this transparency project, and then we'll get into what the transparency project is all about.

So thanks.

There's a lot to unpack here.

And I'm

just going to start by saying that question about how do I understand this in regular plain language is probably the one we get the most.

Most people know that Wisconsin taxpayers are subsidizing a secondary system of education that is not playing by the same set of rules.

We are funding private, mostly religious schools through taxpayer-funded vouchers.

funding independent charter schools, which are charter schools that are not run by your district or your locally elected board.

They're public schools in name, but they're independently run and they aren't subject to the same level of scrutiny, particularly that financial scrutiny that public schools are.

And so the question we get next is, well, why and how much do I find out these costs?

And Pat, you're a smart guy.

You used to be a state legislator.

You are a reporter.

You know how to dig into details.

How easy do you find it to find out how much vouchers are costing in your district?

Yeah, yeah, that kind of says it all right there is.

I have been working at this as a as a journalist and as a state senator and now as a radio host and it's still hard for me to wrap my head around how we get these costs and you know for folks who think well I'll just look at that line on my property tax bill that does not tell you the whole story.

Yeah, there's no line on your property tax bill.

There's no line that you can just go to and put in, here's my district, how much are vouchers costing in the state budget or on the state DPI website.

You have to dig.

into spreadsheets.

You have to know what those spreadsheets are called.

You have to search this information out yourself.

And then, worst of all, you have to do your own math to add up all the different programs and see how much they're all costing.

And so we have created a tool on our website, WisconsinNetwork.org, where you can go and we're going to update this by next week when we do our party with the numbers for this year.

So that's one way you can get the numbers right now.

There is also a fiscal

Bureau memo that gives us the grand total of the price tag, which by the way, for the next two years in this biennium is going to be $1,836,300.

Let me start over because I'm not very good at saying numbers this big, Pat.

$1,836,391,400.

We're approaching $2 billion in the biennium on voucher and independent charter spending.

And so the question is, how much is that costing in my district?

How much is that money siphoning away from the pot that's not going to my kids?

Because this is one of many reasons that districts have been forced to go to referenda so much over the over the past 15 years.

And so there are a lot of challenges facing public schools right now and hiding those challenges is a real problem.

And so we want to see more transparency, not in the service of expanding that program, but rather in the service of exposing what a scam it is and how much it is truly costing local kids.

And in the hopes that more people will turn their confusion into outrage and join us in demanding that we right this wrong and restore our commitment to fund

the public schools, our Constitution requires us to serve.

We're talking to Heather DuWauborn on from the Wisconsin Public Education Network.

And so now that we've set up the problem, let's talk about the new transparency project and the kickoff event next week.

What's that all about?

Yeah, so what can people do about it?

You can say I want this on my tax bill and people have said that around the state in Racine in Milwaukee in Madison in South Milwaukee There are there are a number of communities around the state where they already have what's called a tax insert It is a little slip of paper that comes with your tax bill that shows how much vouchers are our costing taxpayers and how much is being deducted from the aid for your district to cover these on account of

that's on your actual tax bill.

It's expensive to do inserts.

It's unnecessary.

It's confusing.

That should be a line item.

The same as any other school costs, just like our public school funding, which is funded by public dollars is exposed to taxpayers.

And so the good people of Green Bay took it into their own hands to approach their city and ask.

for that level of transparency and after a few months of discussion and debate and and consideration they passed it and this fall when those tax bills come out they're going to show taxpayers exactly how much that program is costing and add a layer of transparency that we've never been afforded before.

And I'll say this, we've tried at the state level.

There have been several bills circulated asking for a state law that requires those costs to be exposed.

Those bills have never seen a hearing.

We hope that bill will continue to come forward and that we could solve this problem in one fell swoop at the state house.

But there seems to be a real will for lack of transparency on behalf of the voucher lobby.

And so I think that should speak volumes in and of itself.

So we're going to give you all the tools you need to get to get this process started where you live.

It is not as hard as it might sound.

It's just a question of talking to the right people, following the right steps and setting the wheels in motion to find folks in your community who are invested in making sure that the kids in our public schools have the resources that they need to succeed, to thrive and to ensure that our schools are like.

well-equipped places of joy where we're really making sure that we're meeting the needs of every kid who walks through the door.

I think you really hit the nail on the head when you said it isn't that it's hard, it's just a matter of knowing the steps, getting the resources to tap into basically a toolkit and

That's the thing that you all have put together now because lacking a state solution because of the current legislature, this has to happen at the district by district level.

So if any one person hears this in a school district, it might sound rather daunting, but you get two, three, four people at a coffee clutch or a local meeting of some other group.

It sounds like the kind of thing that

this tool kit and this training would help them get some answers at the local district level.

Yeah and and who doesn't want that level of transparency and accountability?

I mean it is really basic and we're seeing strong bipartisan support for these efforts wherever they've been introduced because regardless of what your feelings are about the program we

over here at Wisconsin Public Education Network are strongly opposed to programs that siphon monies away from the public schools we are required to serve.

But we, whatever your feelings about that program, most people want transparency, they want accountability, they want to make sure that their tax dollars are being used in a way that ensures we're good stewards of our money.

And there's really nothing less

conservative about a taxpayer-funded voucher that's providing resources for private school students to attend the school they already attend, which has been the case for the vast majority of students, close to 80 percent of kids who are in the statewide voucher program, never attended a public school.

So as our

As our tax dollars increase to that program, it becomes increasingly unsustainable and that's the one of the things we want to expose to.

Most people don't know that there was a statute put into place about 10 years ago, well exactly 10 years ago next year, that every year a few more kids can enter the program from each district based on a certain

percentage until the year 2026 when the cap on enrollment will come off altogether.

Wisconsin is not prepared for that free for all.

And we need to make sure that we are ready to expose the cost to understand what they mean to local kids in our public schools that serve the vast majority of Wisconsin kids and really hold the line and demanding fair funding because Lord knows we did not get fair funding in the last state budget.

And if we're going to do better, it's going to start with us being better watchdogs where we

live.

Heather, the whole notion of transparency, I just find rich, no pun intended, from a lot of folks who love to talk about taxpayer transparency until it's something that's important to them.

And so now you have the potential for people to learn more about this.

And on our Facebook page, Chris Hambock Boyle has been putting in the exact web addresses that people can click on.

But really, if you go to Wisconsin Network,

Yes, thank you if you go to wisconsinnetwork.org slash events And even if you just go to wisconsinnetwork.org you'll go to events and then from there It'll be very clear to see the the go public transparency project It's it's on September 16th.

So that'd be Tuesday of next week 6 30 via zoom, but you do need people to pre-register I would assume

Yep, we need you to register in advance and once you do, we will send you the link to participate in the event.

You're going to get a toolkit.

You're going to get access to people like Chris who can do a one-on-one consultation with you, help you understand what specifically in your community you're going to need to do because this is a bit of a choose your own adventure.

No two municipalities do their tax bills exactly the same way.

So you're going to have to do a little bit of investigating to get started.

But again, it's not as hard as it sounds and we're here to make it fun.

but also to help you tap into some energy around making sure that local kids have what they need that you might not have known was going on around the state.

But let me tell you, it is, and people are ready to stand up for and defend their public schools.

And we hope you're one of them.

Heather Dubois born on from Wisconsin Public Education Network, Wisconsin Network.org.

Heather, thank you so much for all you do.

It's great to talk to you again.

Have a wonderful day.

Thanks.

It's always great to see you, Pat.

You bet.

Thanks.

Hope to see

everybody next week.

new bat.

So it's always good to connect with Heather.

And at one point, I want to underscore again, very quickly, is there's always been an enrollment cap on the program.

And that cap's about to be lifted.

And that can blow such a hole in the next state budget.

If this whole monster isn't addressed.

In our next hour, we're going to talk to David Crowley, Milwaukee County Executive and Candidate for Governor.

I'm Pat Crightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

you

We've got Earl Ingram coming up right after the eight o'clock news to talk about what's going on That's the name of his podcast that what's going on podcast with Earl Ingram We will also be talking with a guest from clean, Wisconsin about data centers and their growth But also the growth and how much water they're sucking out of the ground to keep all those servers cool And it's starting to impact the neighbors.

So that's coming up at 835 But then one hour from right now, we will be talking to Milwaukee County executive David Krupp

who has just announced his entry into the race for governor.

So he's making the rounds around the state, including La Crosse today.

And Jimmy Koska helps cover the La Crosse area and other parts of Southwest Wisconsin for civic media and joins us now as he always does Wednesdays at this point.

Jimmy, how are you doing today?

doing great.

It's neat that La Crosse is once again the center of Wisconsin's political universe today.

It has been for a long time.

Dating back to when Al Gore started his riverboat ride from La Crosse back in, oh, what year was that?

2000.

That's right.

How could I ever forget?

I got I got kidnapped on board that riverboat.

That's a story for another time.

Anyway, so as we talked about what's happening,

in the area there.

Not only David Crawley, but Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez, another candidate for governor.

I gather was in the area not long ago.

Yep.

So Rodriguez is on, well, what they're calling a 72 county tour around the state.

So La Crosse was a stop on Monday.

You know, excuse me, today's Monday.

My days are all mixed up with this weird week.

So here in Western Wisconsin, it's been really interesting.

Just the last.

five, six years where all of a sudden it's a competitive congressional district and you've got presidential candidates stopping here.

You've got the vice president here just a week or two ago.

And now you've had two of the prominent governor candidates that have had appearances here with David Crawley having an event this morning in La Crosse.

So there are no shortage of political events happening in and around the Cooley region.

And this week is just the latest example of what I think people around the state really view as an extremely competitive and important area politically because the Third Congressional District itself represents such a wide swath of interest in Wisconsin, everything from college towns and hospitals and manufacturing to obviously agriculture and tourism and all that.

So there's a lot of things here, a lot of different people, a really good mix of

representation here at Wisconsin.

So it's not surprising that not only is it competitive politically, but that people in politics take it seriously and spend their time and campaign over here.

The third congressional district, I mean, it sprawls.

It's built around three different population centers, the Eau Claire area, the La Crosse area, and the Stevens Point area in a weirdly shaped district that we'll get into that reason some other time.

But still, it's the La Crosse area that draws the most attention.

It's why the vice president, JD Vance, was there recently looking to

prop up Derek Van Orden in his run for a third term in office.

And so now you have David Crawley coming in talking about the run for governor.

And we most recently heard from him on the topic of affordable housing.

He was in the Eau Claire area week before last talking about affordable housing.

And I don't doubt that he'll be asked about it in La Crosse in part because of this new development with a couple of the public parks in La Crosse being closed and fenced off, which is said to be due to safety concerns, but it seems pretty clear to most that these

these are also issues involving what you could call the unsheltered community and this is a city that is still struggling to deal with affordable housing and homelessness.

You know, one of the hottest topics anytime we get on Al Gore's internet to talk about with the cross is, you know, the unhoused population, whether, you know, whether it was Huska Park and everything that was happening there, you know, some of the crime issues they were having there to the ordinances banning public camping, banning staying and parking ramps, banning that and then increasing the ban to, you know, to any, any city owned property.

So that includes

you know, parks and the parking ramps and things like that.

It ended up pushing people out to parks and to DNR land along the rivers that run through the cross.

And so now last week, it was announced that they were going to be closing both Cameron and Burns Park.

They put up fences this week to announce that they were deep cleaning these parks.

They're doing it in the interest of public safety, but a lot of people are looking at this as it's a thinly veiled, you know,

It's just the latest thing and how the city is aggressively dealing with unhoused people.

And an issue that has plagued La Crosse for several years.

And a lot of the policy and a lot of the work in what La Crosse is doing, a lot of the important work they're doing, the Pathways Home Program is a fantastic example of how they are trying to deal with this as a municipality, as a region, and trying to find better solutions of things.

you know it is it is a huge thing not just for lacrosse but for a lot of communities and you know lacrosse probably deserves a little credit for trying to come up with ways to to serve all interest with with how they're doing this but you know seeing fencing going up at public parks I mean that the optics are just not great for that and people are calling that out any anywhere you look online and lacrosse people are calling it out and

not enjoying the fact that this is a visual reminder of what the city is doing and addressing some of these issues.

And by the way, it cuts across different areas.

It's not just about affordable housing and the economy at large, but it's also about mental health issues and access to resources there, as opposed to people literally having to live on the streets for lack of these resources.

And so- Yeah, but very

quickly, because I know we're running out of time, that they are pushing to get mental health treatment centers, resources in the Coulee region, because right now-

everything is in southern and eastern Wisconsin.

There's nothing in western Wisconsin, so there is a push, a legislative push to bring some of those resources to western Wisconsin and specifically La Crosse.

Jimmy Koska, thank you so much as always.

Appreciate your coverage.