Pushing Back Against a Big Oil & Coal President (Hour 2)

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

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

Well, hey there, Wisconsin.

Good morning.

It is 606 on a Monday morning, September 15th, 2025.

It's another beautiful morning to have you here up north, live from Lake Wissota, from wherever you're spending your mornings, listening across the Civic Media radio network.

And whether it's on the radio or by a podcast or with a website, social media, we appreciate you getting your week started right here.

I got a question for you.

Should I question whether I even own a TV or if it is some other kind of weird device?

I mean to watch the Emmys last night and all the shows I have never heard of win awards Maybe my TV is some kind of relic Or maybe I'm the relic.

I'm not sure we'll talk about that Including however one particular moment during the Emmys was it was emblematic of how TV is different now

compared to when TV used to bring us all together.

And we got that moment in a single song that we'll talk about later this hour.

Also coming up the candidate list for 2026 for the election.

It's growing longer.

Just this morning, about an hour ago, we got the email with confirmation from State Senator Kelder Royce.

She is now a candidate for governor.

She made the announcement early this morning saying, quote, with everything on the line, Wisconsin needs a governor who's been training for this moment her whole career and knows how to deliver.

We can't afford to wait no matter who you are or where you're from.

You deserve the freedom to thrive.

right now.

Again, that's Kelda Roy's announcing this morning that she's running for governor.

Let's see, of course, this all started with Governor Tony Evers deciding not to run for a third term.

So, Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez is also a candidate for governor.

Now, that leaves the lieutenant governor spot open in 2026.

Current Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godluschi is now running for the LG Post

opening up the Secretary of State role, and that leads us into today's show where we will talk live with Milwaukee City Councilmember Jocasta Zamiripa, a former legislator who is now running for Wisconsin Secretary of State.

And of course, we may have other candidate announcements even right here on the show in the coming days.

So stay tuned for all of that.

But again, Kelderoy is in the race for governor, along with Lieutenant Governor Sir Rodriguez and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, all on the Democratic side, Washington County Executive Josh Schoeman, along with businessman Bill Barion on the Republican side for a primary election that will take place 11 months from now.

Also this morning, we're going to be talking about how

far right provocateur Charlie Kirk symbolized the fight over free speech as universities faced pressure to cancel his appearances, but they also faced pressure not to give in to so-called cancel culture.

And that makes it really ironic that the most tangible activity in the country in the days after Charlie Kirk's murder has been a wave of firings of people.

for expressing their own points of view and threats of firings from people like a member of Congress from Western Wisconsin who we did talk about a bit on Friday to answer the question from Tony on YouTube.

I wonder who we're going to talk about today.

He says I have one one guess.

Yeah, the guess is Derek Van Orden because when we mentioned him late last week,

He had posted dozens of times with emotional reactions to Charlie Kirk's murder and the reactions to that killing.

Dozens of times.

It is now in the hundreds.

He has posted hundreds.

He has been on a stream of posting all weekend long on what used to be known Twitter, mostly threatening to cut off federal funding for people or groups or now entire cities.

entire cities.

The entire city of Ellsworth, he says, is in my district, but I'm going to cut funding to them because I didn't like how one city employee reacted to Charlie Kirk's death.

The entire Mayo Clinic system, he's threatening to cut off federal funding for the entire mail.

He can't do that.

He doesn't have the time to do that.

He's wasting our time and resources, but he's also giving off a vibe that should genuinely concern his family and loved ones.

So we'll get into all of that.

Also, the current president and his party may be shamelessly trying to drag America back to the days of coal and oil generating most of our power and pollution, but plenty of other people are pushing back against that.

And we're going to talk to Robert Craig from Citizen Action Wisconsin about the ways they're making sure lawmakers are aware of the direction being demanded by most Americans.

And it does not involve being dragged back to the past.

and ignoring the problems of a changing climate.

So that and oh my goodness, so much more.

We've got Jimmy Koska talking about sports.

I think Jane Matten there's back from vacation.

Brittany Merlot is still on hers and so she'll be back tomorrow.

John and Gordy from our Madison station.

And if you can't stick around for all of this and you know, you probably have jobs and things like that.

But we always want to make sure that you have this program as an option any old time.

Get over to Spotify.

and sign up to be a follower of this show.

Subscribe to it on Spotify or Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and take us along with you so that you can listen on demand.

Okay, I mentioned Brittany Merleau coming back tomorrow.

Where am I next on the list?

Oh, I got, I got food and I got weekend stuff.

I'm going to need somebody to help me out with this.

Parker Olson is standing by.

There he is now in Madison Studio A2 as I learned which buttons to push to bring him up.

Mr. Olson, how are you?

I am good.

You have piqued my interest because you said that you had food to talk about and weekends to

talk about.

Those are two things I'm

a fan

of.

The Crite Low Kitchen was a busy one yesterday.

Well, once again from neighbors who shared, you know, what, what they pulled off their apple tree.

And so once again from Sherry, another delicious batch of apple crisp and some apple sauce as well.

So very good.

And then

This one sounds a little odd, but we we went for comfort food as well.

Yeah.

In part because I said on the radio, I think a week before last, was it like National Shepherd's Pie Day or something?

That sounds

like I said, I'm gonna make that and people say, Have you made it yet?

No, it's summer.

It's hot.

But I got the ingredients.

Yeah.

Look, let's do that.

So I got out the big cast iron pan and I put together another shepherd's pie after Sherry made the apple crisp.

So it was a little hot in the kitchen yesterday on a hot day.

But you know what to have comfort food like that like shepherd's pie and like apple crisp.

I mean, I got the leftovers now for the next couple of days on the shepherd's pie.

You know what I had for breakfast this morning?

Apple crisp.

No, I'm not a savage.

No,

obviously,

I got that going for me right.

It was and it was good.

It was there was the fall festival in Eau Claire downtown Eau Claire.

And that that goes on for many blocks of booths and exhibits and entertainment.

And it was a perfect Saturday morning to do that.

We did the last pontoon ride of the season, we think, because of the dates that we've set up to have the boat taken out and put the dock up, you know, before winter and all that.

We've got other plans and things.

So, you know, and the weather was perfect when we did this on Saturday.

So we're like, yeah, let's, let's call this one good.

Let's make sure we end on a high note.

So one last boat ride.

And then from my point of view, getting in the hammock one more time for an extended period, I'm getting better at that.

I have to admit, I haven't mentioned this for a while now, but a couple years back, I would talk about being in the hammock and I could barely stay in there 60 seconds.

Because as soon as I would start to relax, my mind would start to go to all the things I could be doing right now.

I should be cleaning the garage or I should be doing this and I'd feel guilty and I'd eventually get out of the hammock and I'd start working again and get tired again.

And I'm definitely better now of like, look, if I'm getting in that hammock, my butt is staying right here for a while.

So.

It's a good place to be.

Yeah.

Uh, let's see, from Tony here, I was watching the kids this weekend, trying to figure out what to make for dinner, then saw your post about shepherd's pie and said, that's what I should make.

The kids loved it.

Thanks for the idea.

Well, all right, Tony.

Look at you, Pat, making a

positive influence on the world.

I know.

Well, I and I also I may have posted I'm not one of those people that posts a lot of food pictures.

I was especially proud of this post.

And so Alicia puts up on YouTube.

I saw it.

It looked so good.

Well, there you go.

Oh, yeah.

So little shepherd's pie.

And I know I know I don't want to get I don't want to get the note like it's not shepherd's pie.

You know, shepherd's pie is made with veal or whatever.

And apparently, if it's made with ground beef, it's called something else.

No, that may, maybe, maybe back in the mother country, you know, you, you, you know, and the Brits want to talk that way.

That's fine.

But we don't need veal, we don't need mincemeat.

This America, we got ground beef here.

We got lots of ground beef.

And that's how we make our shepherd's pie.

So there you go.

Luke Mathers on the text line.

Pat Crichtlow food influencer.

Well, I mean, I influenced Tony.

I don't know that that makes me an influencer yet, but I'll take it.

And you might have made Alicia hungry

too,

so.

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

So two people being

influenced.

Tony, it's called better, I believe.

Yes, when we make it, we make it better.

And of course, there was plenty of sports to watch.

And granted, the Brewers couldn't come back yesterday.

They did fall short to the Cardinals three to two, so they couldn't quite pull off the sweep.

But great victories on Friday, and then again on Saturday.

And that's Saturday night one.

I tell you, that was an amazing comeback.

I feel bad for anybody who gave up on the Brewer Saturday when they were down in like the sixth inning and said, nope, it's time to go to bed.

Anybody like that is me because that's what I did.

And woke up early Sunday morning and looked at my phone.

I was like, what?

called up the highlights where the brewers tied it in the bottom of the ninth, then they fell behind in the top of the tenth, then they tied it in the tenth, and then they won it in the tenth.

And it was, if you don't, if you go back and look at the game highlights, don't worry about yesterday's game.

Go to Saturday's Brewer's Cardinals game.

That was a fun looking comeback.

As for yesterday, again, losing three to two, the Brewers could only muster a pair of solo home runs by Caleb Durbin and Danny Janssen.

The Cubs won as well, so the Brewers magic number to clinch the central division stands at eight.

But let's not bury the lead here.

That's the magic number to clinch the division.

Over the weekend, the Brewers did, in fact, clinch a playoff berth, meaning conceivably they could lose every game for the rest of the season.

They would still make the playoffs.

That's not going to happen.

But they're in.

There's going to be October baseball.

Very,

very excited.

That's

seven out of

eight years now.

Yes.

And it wasn't the one year we didn't make it.

Wasn't it just by like a game?

We missed it.

I don't think it was a particularly bad year, but I don't think

so either.

I could be wrong.

Anyway, the Brewer's Homestand continues.

The Cardinals have left town, but today is an off day as the, what are we calling them now?

The Los Angeles Angels?

Yeah, as the, as the Angels of Anaheim in Los Angeles County, come to town Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

night.

If you translate it to English, it's the Angels Angels.

That's right.

I think we should go with that

for the rest of

the week.

I would be fine with that.

So again, off today, but brewers and angels coverage begins tomorrow at 605 on several civic media radio stations.

That again, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, night games, all of them.

And then they travel to St.

Louis to play the Cardinals again.

next weekend.

Of course the Packers won back on Thursday against the Washington Commanders and so now they are off until next Sunday.

They will play Cleveland at noon next Sunday.

And the Badgers were simply no match for the Crimson Tide, Alabama overpowered Wisconsin, 38 to 14.

Up next for the Badgers, they opened the Big Ten part of their schedule, and that will be this coming Saturday, hosting Maryland, and that will include a 9 a.m.

kickoff on several civic media stations.

We'll get you updated on all that throughout the course of the week.

Coming up, Derek Van Orden has crossed a line, several actually, politically, professionally, and perhaps the state of mind or his health.

We'll get into that right after this.

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

I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Remember, you can stay up to date with our unabashedly Wisconsin news by signing up for our newsletters over at UpGrowthNewsWI.com.

Click subscribe up in the top banner.

Today's edition from Ellie includes how to apply for FEMA flood relief and also a timely reminder from her that tomorrow is National Voter Registration Day.

reminder to check your voter registration status and maybe make updates if you've moved and encourage other family and friends to register.

Don't wait till everything gets busy next week.

And in our Sunday edition from yesterday, I unfortunately, I think I broke our readers.

And I didn't mean to, but I

I passed along that Ron Johnson last week on the 9-11 anniversary was again sharing a conspiracy theory about the World Trade Center and that maybe there were explosives in the basement of Building 7 or just something ridiculous.

My question to the readers yesterday was, if you could get Ron Johnson to stop talking forever about one conspiracy, which would it be?

Would it be the World Trade Center one?

Would it be the COVID one?

Would it be

2016 was was actually a job by Ukraine and not Russia.

Was it that 2020 was irregular?

And I did not leave an option for all of the above.

And that's what everybody demanded from all of there were so many emails.

How could you not give us an all of the above?

Well, because I want to know which which if you could get rid of one of them.

But what's the most disturbing conspiracy theory?

Yes, what's the most disturbing of these?

And so people gave it their best guess.

If you'd like to be first to see our question of the week, sign up for our newsletters up North News W I dot com.

All right.

There seems to be a free speech issue, causing a serious case of irony when it comes to discussing Charlie Kirk, both the murder and the legacy of his own speech during his life.

There appears to be basically a growing trend that could be summed up as free speech for Charlie Kirk, but not free speech about Charlie Kirk.

The far right provocateur symbolized the fights over political free speech, especially on our college campuses because

Kirk would be booked for certain engagements on universities and then they would face pressure to cancel his appearances knowing the hateful things he was about to say, but then they would also face pressure from others not to give in to so-called cancel culture.

That's what makes it so ironic that the most tangible activity in this country in the days following Charlie Kirk's murder has been the wave of firings of people for expressing

their own points of view and threats of firings coming from people, including members of Congress, who would normally be the first to defend Charlie Kirk's right to speak out.

There are members of Congress like Derek Van Ord, and yes, we have to talk about him again.

It was one thing for him to be emotional about Charlie Kirk's murder and tweet more than 80 times in the first 24 hours after his death.

Then on Friday, he tweeted another 161 times and he is now well into the hundreds of tweets, many of them with insults and profanity, but that's simply the nature of the man.

He lacks the emotional maturity to be an effective public official.

The more troubling tweets are the ones that call for people to be fired or for federal funding to be cut simply because he doesn't like how they reacted to Charlie Kirk's murder and or his legacy.

On the federal funding alone, this needs to be said.

If Van Orden actually tried to follow through on the many, many tweets, he would have a full-time job just doing that, having to look up each person, each institution, each item in the budget of the United States government and try to get that number changed to zero.

He's now threatening to do it with the city of Ellsworth in his district because he didn't like what an employee had to say.

He's threatened to do it for the entire Mayo Clinic because he didn't like what somebody posted on there.

He can't do all that.

He doesn't have time to do all that.

And even if he did, he'd be wasting his time, which means he's wasting our money that we pay him to do a job other than scrolling and trolling on Twitter.

I mean, if nothing else, maybe the Congressman could travel his district a little bit more and notice all the soybean fields.

The crop's looking good out there.

But as we learned last week, China purchased more than $12 billion in soybeans from the US last year, but thanks to Trump's made up trade war, they have so far purchased no US soybeans.

So maybe Van Orden and Trump think it'll be enough to simply send support checks to farmers, but you won't be able to escape the image of soybeans piled up and rotting.

So maybe he could work on that for his district instead of tweeting.

But let's get back to what he is doing on Twitter.

There's the firings as we've seen in around the country.

We've seen it on TV.

We've seen it nationally.

There's no shortage of examples, including here in Wisconsin.

It's just rich that these demands for firings from Van Orden and other Republicans come from people who love to claim that they've been persecuted for the things that they want to say.

I mean, if anyone should be a champion for these newly jobless folks, it should be the Derrick Van Orden's out there.

But like I said, free speech for Charlie Kirk apparently was on a higher plane than free speech about Charlie Kirk.

Now, don't get me wrong, we all have freedom of speech, but

We are also subject to the consequences of what we say.

This show, for example, could be canceled with one phone call.

If someone heard me say something that they thought brought shame or damage to the business, that's how it goes.

But this isn't about the consequences coming from employers who bow to pressure from customers or advertisers or politicians.

It's about the politicians demanding those consequences.

The First Amendment doesn't protect you or me from employers who are angry or afraid, but it is supposed to protect us from the government infringing on our freedom to express ourselves.

And Derek Van Orden right now is part of the government.

And he and Donald Trump and so many of Charlie Kirk supporters would love to infringe on the free speech of anyone whose speech they don't like.

That's not how the First Amendment is supposed to work.

but I guess I shouldn't be surprised that if they're not being true to the First Amendment, it's in line with how they have muddled up the Second Amendment and things like that, but that's a question for another day.

In conclusion, this should be a time of unity, all of us together acknowledging that political violence has no place in a civil society.

But that's not where we are right now, with a congressman whose obsession with tweeting threats and insults right now should be truly concerning.

to the people who care about him.

Today's history lesson is coming up next.

You're up north.

Welcome to today's history lesson where on this day in 1949 the Lone Ranger appeared and premiered on ABC.

They do love their gunfire in shows like this.

I

had a little cap gun.

Did you have a cap gun when you were little?

Of course, yep.

Yeah, and we used to like go on the couch on the edges of the couch.

My sister and I would hold on to the arms and we would gallop.

like by bouncing up and down on the couch while we were watching The Lone Rangers.

That's a fond memory for me.

Okay, well, there you go.

Lone Ranger premiered this day in 1949.

Let's go way up to 1986.

We're doing like the season premiere series premiere thing, of course, because it's that time of year.

In 1986, this show premiered on NBC.

Can you guess the show by the theme song?

Hit it.

Kristen does not have it.

I don't have it.

You're not supposed to have it.

It's like Law and Order or

LA Law.

LA Law.

It was the first of the Law Shows.

Yes, and it was created by Stephen Bochko.

The ensemble cast included Corbin Bernsons, Jolycan Berry, Susan Day, Harry Hamlin, and of course that sax in the beginning, which was on anything made of the 80s.

Everything in the 80s had that sax

in some

way, shape, or form.

That's why I played the sax.

Oh, did you?

For like one year.

I wasn't good.

All

right.

Well, there it is again.

Yep.

Mike Post.

Mike Post, who did like 500 different TV themes, did that one for LA Law.

Let's see the number one song this week in 1962 was by Frankie Valley in the Four Seasons.

Is this a special song in your house?

It is not.

Hard no somebody somebody does not like that song.

I love this song

Apparently it was sung to her a lot as a kid.

So It's kind of it's it's worn out its usefulness same goes by the way with Steve Perry's Oshari from the from the 80s Also, she's just not one of those doesn't want songs about her.

Do you have a song about you Pat?

Uh, do I have a song about me?

I don't know.

Muskrat Love, maybe?

Juggernaut.

One.

Oh, the Juggernaut song.

Yeah.

I'm still trying to figure out if that was... Oh!

You actually have a real song that's actually about you

and

yourself.

No,

no,

no, no, no, no, no.

The song's title is quite low, but

it's

a very disturbing

song

about something or another, and I have no idea how they came to call it that.

And one

of these days, I'm going to work up the courage to reach out to the band and say, what the heck was that about?

Or since they're an Eau Claire bass band, we send Selena Heller who joins us now from Up North News.

Ms.

Heller, how are you?

Good.

Good morning.

There's a song that's Selena and there's a local band from the nominee.

Really?

Yeah.

I took Emery and I'm like, and I got a hold of the people like, can you sing the song?

So Emery hears and she's like, what?

Whatever,

nice.

Alright, let's get back to our history lesson.

Helen Reddy had the number one song this week in 1973.

Whose

version of this song was bigger, hers or Tanya Tucker?

Good question.

Definitely Helen Reddy on the Hot 100, Tanya Tucker on the Country Charts.

had really good short performance with it.

Prince Harry has a birthday today.

Little Prince Harry is not Little Prince Harry anymore.

He's 41 years old today.

Actor Tommy Lee Jones is 79 years old today.

So many, he is so good.

There's been so many good movies with Tommy Lee Jones and yet you cannot mark his birthday without playing one clip in particular from the fugitive.

of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, or doghouse in that area.

Checkpoints go up to 15 miles.

Your fugitive's name is Dr. Richard

Kimball.

He's just so good.

I really

like him.

79 years old today, former roommate of Al Gore.

back in college.

Oliver Stone is also 79 years old today, former NFL quarterback Dan Marino from the Miami Dolphins, 64 today.

On this day in 1983, one of those early 80s albums that I wore out was released on what is the September 15th, 1983.

That would be Huey Lewis in the News and the album was Sports.

There were

five hits off that album.

I want a new drug walking on a thin line heart and soul If this is it and of course the heart of rock and roll the album would sell more than seven million copies on this day in 1982 the first issue of USA Today was put out by Gannett and everybody thought that was gonna save newspapers because it was all colorful You know and had just the four same sections every day and it was it was a big deal for the longest time When was the last time you bought a newspaper?

Period, you know, I've never bought a paper in my life.

There's the line.

Yeah.

If you're ever looking for the generational lines, like if you're digging through sediment and you get to a line and go, wow, there must have been like a doomsday event here.

That's marker was born and then nobody bought newspapers anymore

after that.

It's my fault, guys.

This week in 1990, the number one hit was by the group Wilson Phillips.

Oh dear.

My apology.

Yes, this has released me.

I meant to get you somewhere up in the chorus rather than the intro, but they do have some good harmony here in the beginning.

Wilson Phillips was made up of sisters, Kearney and Wendy Wilson, the daughters of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and China Phillips, the daughter of John and Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas.

And this song released me was their second single.

and their second number one hit.

Their first single, Hold On, also went to number one a couple of months earlier.

I always wondered, like, did they play together when they were little kids?

Is that how they knew each other?

Yep, they are childhood friends.

Exactly how it worked.

All right, so let me...

Ask you now, Kristen, you did not watch the Emmys last night at all?

I did not.

Okay.

I knew I should have sent you a homework assignment.

Selena, do you catch

the Emmys at all?

I am not an Emmy watcher.

I'm not surprised for this reason.

there's 9,000 networks out there.

I mean, they made a joke yesterday in one of the categories about how, you know, just these five women are up for these awards when, I mean, how many actresses would be eligible for it?

And, you know, you'd think it's maybe, whatever it is, they joke that it was 25,000.

And it feels like that.

It feels like there's 25,000 potential shows or actors or actresses.

But there was a moment that unified them all that I want to talk to you about in just a minute.

But first off,

The show was hosted by Nate Bargatze.

And where are we on Nate?

Everybody likes Nate.

Doesn't like Nate.

Don't know.

Don't care.

I think he's funny.

I vaguely

remember the name.

Oh, OK.

All right.

Got

nothing here.

Oh, there's a Saturday Night Live bucket about measurement that you really need to see.

Yes.

And that's how he opened the show.

He opened the show as the inventor of TV, Philo T. Farnsworth, and all the other guys in the lab who also worked from Saturday Night Live last night.

we're asking him questions about it like you know we will have channels like oh what's one that does it now cable news network that does news what about one called the learning channel nope that will just be shows about something else what about the history channel oh that will be shows about aliens

you know music

television is no longer about music or anything like that he pulled it off far better than I'm describing but he also had this stick to try to keep people

to 45 seconds or less in their acceptance speeches?

Starting off by saying he was going to donate $100,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of America, but he was going to take $1,000 off for each second

that

anybody went over 45 seconds.

Wow, that could be a horrible person if you want to say

it.

Yes, some people's speeches were like, come on, sit down already.

You're doing it for, think of the kids.

And then other people, like one time when John Oliver got up, he gave the fastest, like, I'm going to thank this person, this person, this person.

All right, pay up, Nate.

And then you rush off stage.

And then you'd have to put $1,000 back on for every second.

But in the end, the windbags won.

And so the money was essentially wiped out, which, and then Nate Bargazzi said, no, no,

we're going to keep

the money and add to it.

And actually $350,000 was donated total.

So that was nice.

But I did.

I really was wondering if I owned a TV based on the show.

I've never seen the White Lotus.

I've never seen Severance.

I've never seen Seth Rogen's The Studio.

And the studio was like the big winner yesterday.

It set some kind of a record for Emmy wins.

13 total Emmys.

Has anybody here

seen Seth Rogen's The Studio on Apple TV?

No, but I'll tell you because I've been laid up for a couple weeks.

And so I've been doing some channel flipping, which is unusual for me.

And it's overwhelming the number of shows that are out there and the way that they're trying to convince you to watch all the different shows.

I just didn't ever know what to pick.

So I ended up not watching anything.

See, that's what you're

opening

up

all the time.

Yes.

Well, here's one I think you would be watching.

Noah Wiley has a narrative that just can't be denied.

He got five nominations.

for ER a quarter century ago and never won.

30 years later, he puts on scrubs and he last night won his first Emmy for playing another emergency doctor on the show, The Pit.

That's nice.

Yeah.

So

I'm an ER person.

I did watch that back then, but I have not watched The Pit.

But although my doctor friends who tend to be pretty critical about doctor shows, tell me it's actually quite good.

Oh.

Well, and as evidenced by the awards that it's been

nine out of

10 doctors approved for that show.

I cannot verify those statistics.

Yes, that seems about right.

So let me say this about the way that TV's all fragmented and everybody's off watching their their own thing.

There was a moment when they paid tribute to another show that had premiered 40 years ago this week.

So if I were to say the first line from the theme song,

Would you be able to fill in the next line from Golden Girls?

If I said, thank you for being a friend, you'd sing what?

Travel down the

road and back again.

Yeah, why?

And you know what?

The whole audience was singing it.

The whole audience was like moving to the song and like, you know, digging on the Golden Girls, they put up clips and Sherry put it perfectly.

She's like.

That's when TV was what we thought it would be.

Is it brought us all together?

Everybody watch Golden Girls because there were only three or four channels on your TV, not 7000.

And maybe we need more of that of shows that we all want to watch that aren't just called the Super Bowl.

I

remember, I remember Dallas when JR got shot and the whole country was wondering who shot

JR

and they kept us in suspense for an entire

summer.

I mean, I was a little kid at the time, but that was like a huge cultural thing.

We don't have that anymore.

My friend and I were just having a conversation and he was like, you know, there's nothing good prime time show that you want to watch every week on a network.

Like there used to be there used to be friends and all of that.

And you know, there's just not that anymore.

No.

And frankly, I think part of the part of the reason we watch reruns of the Big Bang Theory so much is it might have been like the last show that got that many millions of viewers at once on network TV.

And now, correct me if I'm wrong, but Abbott Elementary on ABC.

Was that the only broadcast network show that was even up for Emmys?

I think so.

Shout out to one of my neighbors up in Dorkani who actually developed that show.

So there's a Wisconsin connection there and she has an Emmy for Avid Elementary.

Oh, well, that's great.

Write that down, Kristen.

Yeah, that's going to be a good story for you in the future.

Yeah, and we're going to hear more from Selena on stories that she's working on, including an unusual demonstration that was held last week against budget cuts and health care cuts, complete with a movie theme and costumes.

Selena's

going to

tell us all about that coming up after the news.

And we'll talk to Robert Craig from Citizen Action.

pushing back against Donald Trump and others trying to drag us back to the days when your cell phone was powered by shoveling coal into it and other things that big oil would love to have us be doing going ahead and continuing to just tear up the climate.

A lot of people would like to say no thank you to all that.

Alive from the lake, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Kratlow powered by Up North News here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Welcome back at 652.

It is 66 degrees here in the Chippewa Valley.

La Crosse coming in at 68.

Amory at 69 over in Oshkosh.

It is 60 degrees right now.

And in the Green Bay area at the Kovarna coffee shop, it is 54 degrees.

And they are trying to figure out why Kristen isn't there.

Getting her mocha, latte, macchiato thingy.

What is your go-to drink there?

I am a black coffee kind of gal.

Of

course you

are.

But they have

great, it's like a sip of black coffee and one of their amazing treats.

Oh, they're fantastic.

Should every coffee shop like basically be a bakery because some have really nice treats and others, you can tell it was totally an afterthought.

We're a coffee shop.

You know, here's a brick cleverly disguised as a blueberry muffin, you know, I'm just

going to speak on behalf of my partner, Craig, who I do believe is listening and he is a police officer.

And the answer is yes.

And there must be donuts.

Craig, you are welcome.

What?

Oh boy.

Why are you being the stereotype that way?

I don't understand.

This is true.

For Craig, it's true.

Well, in that case, then never mind.

I retract all that.

Kristen, what was on the Dr. Kristen Leighly show last week and what do you got next?

Oh, it was so good.

I just sat down with my friend representative, Ahmaud Rivera-Wagner, who is a delightful person who loves Green Bay.

And we talked about all things Green Bay and Wisconsin and his vision for the future of the state and the area.

And then this week is going to be really spicy.

We're taping it tonight.

We're talking about the Charlie Kirk assassination and we're talking with

former Republican leaders and getting just a broad overview of what happened, where we are now, and what do we need to do as we move forward?

It's gonna be very engaging and interesting.

I had a couple of different conversations, run-ins with people that I knew, like one was at the International or at the Fall Festival in downtown Eau Claire.

Another was up in Chippewa over the weekend.

Again, just having conversation with folks who I know we don't

always agree politically on things and those conversations I think were very emblematic of what you were hearing around the country of saying, you know, we really should be able to all come together on political violence is wrong and that your reaction to the political violence should also be in the vein of taking the temperature down rather than

talking all about retribution, which of course, when I first started, you know, counting Derek Van Orden's tweets, it was a little concerning when I got to 60 and then I got to 80.

And then the next day when I got to 161, and then I hadn't looked back until last night or early this morning.

I mean, there are just literally hundreds of these things ramping up.

the violent rhetoric and the threats to fire people and the cut off the federal funding.

And it is so nowhere near what I think most people who would consider themselves, you know, that they knew Charlie Kirk and, you know, might call them fans, or at least they'd say, well, I agreed with him on several things.

I don't think they'd necessarily be with the the Derek Van Orden's right now and saying, oh, yeah, let's let's get out there and threaten revolution.

Besides the volume of those tweets, the content of the tweets are really interesting because they're all quote tweets.

So it's clearly he's spending all day long scrolling and then just reposting these tweets with his little comments.

He has a real job, right?

Allegedly.

Yes.

I mean, and like I said, in the newsletter and earlier this morning, if he chose just to actually follow through on these these cuts to federal funding, that would be more than a full time job in and of itself.

So he's saying, you know, we're going to cut their funding, we're going to cut their funding, we're going to cut their funding.

No, you don't nobody has enough time to do all that.

You know, plus you got things to do, like, you know, find a market for that soybean crop that's going to start rotting, you know,

Things are about to get very real.

I think for the Republicans who voted for the big, beautiful bill as people start to realize what the no tax on tips and no tax on like all

of the little either one of them are anything like they're being advertised.

Correct.

They're not.

And when people start to see prices rising, you know, there are a lot of consumers out there who are looking at the stock market and saying, but the stock market is still rising.

Yeah.

But most of us are actually really struggling to pay our bills.

So that's going to head home sooner than later.

And that's going to feel very real to people like Derek Van Orden, who are

going to be

held accountable.

A lot of the stock price is going up because these corporations are understanding that even with the tariffs and inflation, I mean, grocery prices are more insane than last year.

They realize, well, people are still going to pay for the stuff that they need.

So they may be struggling, but we, the corporation, we're going to be OK.

Oh, and there goes Pat's mic.

And wealthy people are still spending.

And that is what is really buoying the economy right now.

But people who don't have a lot of extra are starting to pinch pennies.

So the longer this goes on, I think the more our purse strings are going to be tightened and the more our representatives are going to feel it.

Did you, Selena, get to the fall festival this year in downtown Eau Claire?

I did.

That was an event that I used to organize.

So it was our first one.

And Sherry suggested going there.

I said, well, we've never suggested going there before.

Yeah, but Sherita made it sound fun.

Because Sherita Booker talked about it last week.

And I kind of just gave her a look like

Sharita's never been there.

She was just reading through the things.

Yeah, but she made it sound fun.

Sharita makes everything sound fun.

She's like, that's my favorite segment of the week, which is interesting because she's married to like the host.

But yes.

So Sharita made it look good.

And it was good.

It basically was a great way of taking an entire town, in this case, the city of Eau Claire, and saying, okay, I know you're all over the place with your stores and your shops and everything.

But you're all going to come down to downtown, you're all going to get one

and the entire population is gonna walk past you.

And it was great.

It was very well organized, we had a lot of fun.

Yeah, and that was my job before is getting everybody downtown either to live, work, or have some fun and frequent those businesses downtown because they're vital to the community.

See, look at that.

Now you're here with us, some charitas here with us, making all these things sound fun.

We went to the drag

show.

One of the biggest attended events at the fall festival for the last couple of years now is the drag show.

It wasn't the firehouse where they were serving the beer.

I would have sworn that was with the Badger game on TV.

All right.

Well, more after the seven o'clock news, I'm Pat Crightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

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

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

Hey, good morning.

It is 706.

Nice to have you back here up north on this Monday morning, September 15th, 2025.

A joint is always on Mondays by Dr. Kristen Lierly and by Uptown News reporter Selena Heller.

Selena will tell us in just a couple of minutes about.

and unusual, more colorful, not your typical protest that took place in the Chippewa Valley last week.

That's on the way.

Brittany should be back tomorrow to give us all the weather news, but you of course can catch the forecast throughout the day on your local civic media station.

But in the meantime, Rob doesn't take a day off out in Tigerton where he says good morning.

It's fair and 54 degrees.

It was really a very beautiful weekend.

Saturday had a mowing job and went to the Tigerton Lions Club steak fry.

It was excellent with great steak Sunday, watched some football, then took around the countryside seeing the changing colors of the leaves and took some pictures from my social media and for my friends.

We are definitely getting to that time of year.

with the leaves are like right there just about to pop depending on what part of the state you're in.

I posted one of Rob's pictures.

They are absolutely beautiful.

And Rob also sent me an article about some disability benefits that are in danger right now because of the Trump administration.

So I'll be making a little TikTok video about that later today.

Thank

you.

You have been a TikTok machine recently.

Well, there's a

lot of information that people need to know and it's great to be able to put it into a bite size.

you know, clump and let people have a conversation about it.

I wouldn't call your videos a clump.

Yeah, very nice.

Rob also notes last night I saw the Northern Lights.

I was going to say that.

Yeah, Northern Lights were out last night.

A lot

of

Wisconsin it seems.

Yeah, I saw one picture I'm sure by now social media is full of them but very early this morning somebody put one up and I was like, wow, is that what they looked like last night?

So that's great.

Some people got

Got a very nice view.

I'll be looking at that.

In the history section I neglected to mention today is National Google Day because that's when they claimed the domain this day in 1997.

It is World Engineers Day and it's Double Cheeseburger Day and it is the start of Hispanic Heritage Month.

People go, well, wait, it's the middle of the month.

Well, yeah, Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15th to October 15th, because several countries today mark September 15th as their Independence Day, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, all declaring independence from Spain on this particular day.

So yes, again, happy Hispanic Heritage Month, folks.

And, yeah, double cheeseburger, I don't know, might be a bit much for me.

I'm more of a sliders guy, you know.

Oh, I do love a good double cheeseburger.

Maxi Burger from Dick's Drive-In in Cacana any day.

We did, after we did the Fall Festival, we headed up to Amber Inn, up at the top of the hill there in Eau Claire, above the Yield Uniro factory.

It's just some of the best burgers.

ever, you know, on a griddle that I'm convinced dates back to the Warren Harding administration.

And

shall we say

maybe it hasn't.

Yeah, right.

It's properly seasoned.

Shall we say

that's

what

gets its special flavor.

That's right.

So while we're talking about things, actually, before Selena, we get to the Eau Claire story.

I do want to mention the other news from this morning.

State Senator Kelda Roy's announcing that she is jumping into the governor's race, making her candidacy official today.

So I'm sure we'll be talking to her a lot in the coming 11 months between now and the primary election.

And Kristen, you saw Kelda recently.

Yeah, I got to spend some time with Kelda.

Actually, she gave me and the president of ACOG, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the chair of the OBGYN department down at UW Madison and a bunch of students and residents, a little tour of the Capitol during our big meeting over the weekend.

You know, Senator Rice has been a huge champion for women's health and abortion rights for a very long time.

So I'm really excited to see what she brings to the table as a candidate for governor.

Yes, she gets in a race that also includes Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez with Sarah Rodriguez running for governor that opens up that spot.

And so you've got Sarah Godluschi, the current Secretary of State now running for Lieutenant Governor.

which means there's an opening for Secretary of State.

And in that post, you have Milwaukee Common Council member and former legislator, Jocasta Zamiripa, running for Wisconsin Secretary of State.

And Jocasta Zamiripa will be our guest here live just over an hour from now.

So a lot to cover just today alone on the things that are going on.

Selena, you were covering a recent protest in Eau Claire about budget cuts.

And it wasn't your typical, you know, just carry some signs and, you know, chance some some things, which is fine.

I mean, everybody should be able to protest something they feel strongly about.

But if you can add a little splash of color or character, especially the characters, well, that's what you find in Eau Claire last week, right?

Yep, Wizard of Oz themed it was because they called it, Toto, we're not in America anymore.

It definitely feels that way to some folks.

And so people got into the theme, didn't they?

Well, yes, they were wearing lion costumes, dorthies and witches and even houses.

Like, I mean, they had to spend a lot of time on these.

Oh, these were very creative.

My favorite was that my fear was somebody put their little dog in a basket, you know, like Toto and the sign around the basket said, nobody's coming to eat me.

They're eating the dogs.

Yes, I did see one person dressed as a house.

They basically built a house costume around themselves.

Is that who you talked to?

That is who I talked to.

Amy Holden, she's from Chippewa Falls and she

talked about kind of why she was there.

And they have these rallies, Triple Valley Indivisible hosts these rallies every week.

So they marked the sixth anniversary, sixth month anniversary of having these rallies.

And that's why they kind of did something a little bit different and more colorful.

So this is Amy Holzen, Holzen of Triple Falls talking about why she was there.

I'm here because I strongly believe in preserving our democracy.

And I'm just astounded at what has happened to our country in the last six months.

So I'm here to show support and get others to rally as well.

And I'm hoping for a blue wave in 2026.

What

are the things that affect you the most or that you're the most surprised about?

Oh boy.

So rule of law is really important to me.

My father was a police officer and I'm just appalled at the pardons that Trump has given to criminals and what he's doing to immigrants that are not criminals.

So, you know, I just feel strongly in the rule of law that's what makes our country great.

You know, it's what provides stability and makes people trust our country.

And without it, you know, I think we're in tough shape.

Well, that's Amy Holzen of Chippewa Falls.

And I like that she emphasized something beyond just the budget cuts.

And believe me, the budget cuts are plenty of the protest, people's health care, people's nutrition benefits.

But here in her case, she's actually looking out for others, for law and order, for the criminals being let loose and the immigrants who are being treated as criminals.

And I'm sure

You saw that kind of selflessness in other folks in the crowd as well, Selena.

We're always told, oh, democracy is not the number one issue.

People are worried about their wallets and everything.

You know, it's still kind of important.

Well, and that was the thing too, because...

along with the Wizard of Oz theme, it was, you know, the words of Glinda the Good Witch still hold true today.

And that was kind of the sentiment that because Glinda said, and it was, you know, the rally is talking about coming together to fight for each other.

And so Glinda says, you've always had the power, you've had it all along, my dear.

And so that was kind of the theme of helping each other out and banding together to kind of come together to fight all of these things.

Krista is our representative, Glinda.

You can concur with those remarks.

You talk to people who it's about the budget cuts for some people, but it's about taking care of each other for other people.

I think that for most people...

They are tired of politics.

They are tired of the rhetoric.

They just want to live their lives.

And that's why they're worried about the cost of goods and services because that is real for them.

And the whole democracy thing seems very tied up with politics.

But the truth is, all of that political stuff is what makes prices higher, is what makes it harder to find a job, is what makes it more challenging to get an education.

So it is important to engage in whatever way you can.

And it's delightful to see things like this happening where people don't have to be

They can be creative and fun, but still acknowledge, hey, this isn't what we have, what we want to see for the future of our country.

Well, especially when you consider that people look at others who protest and think, oh, they're just always angry about something and that anger is the fuel for protests and demonstrations.

And that's not necessarily so, that these are friends and neighbors who still have a sense of humor about things, but want to express a particular point of view.

This isn't the only example of that.

There's also the example in, was it Superior?

Was it Superior or Wausau?

Gosh, I lost track now for Congressman Tom Tiffany's office, where they tend to turn the lawn sprinklers at the office building for Tom Tiffany's office just coincidentally seem to come on when there are protesters.

outside of Tiffany's office and so one day they showed up and in when the sprinklers came on they they took off their top layer and they're there they were in swimsuits and flippers and snorkels and things like that and turned it into a beach party because you gotta have a sense of humor about

the music yeah they played huge beach music had umbrellas and they were ready and they were dancing around

yeah art and joy and music will save us trust me lean into it

yeah

along with compassion and empathy, we were reminded many times in the past few days that somebody referred to empathy as like some kind of a new age made up term.

And I think that that really didn't set well with people who are looking at the reactions of the past few days since the Charlie Kirk assassination and saying, you know, actually it's right that we have empathy for one another.

And that includes being against political violence, even against somebody that you didn't agree with.

There's a lot that could be learned if empathy was a bit more of a quality of the people who are in power right now.

And it's right that we talk about it.

I think a lot of us are feeling very afraid to say anything because we're afraid to say the wrong things, but the truth is we have to have these conversations and they have to be from the heart and we have to listen to each other or we will not come to a place where there is a shared understanding.

That's right.

Excellent.

Go

ahead.

Well, I was going to say, you know, it's

That that word I remember putting I think on last year's sheet on the the Meet the Teacher Day Like what do you want just to make sure Emery, you know learns this year or whatever and one of those things that I put on there was empathy and you know to look out for others and think about other people and and and I hope that's what they're kind of kind of relaying in school also

Hope they do as well.

Yeah, it's in it's in shorter supply than it needs to be in this country these days That's for sure.

Let's take a look at sports here at seven

2018 you had the Brewers playing the St.

Louis Cardinals over the weekend and they did clinch a place in the playoffs So there will be postseason baseball for the Brewers, but there's still plenty to play for Because if they they're currently you know best record in baseball the top two records Get a buy in the first round and as we know the Brewers have not done well in the first round of the playoffs So if they could skip that wild card series and get right to the divisional series that would be a good thing So the magic number still stands at eight to clinch the central division, but the Brewers

are in the playoffs, they fell short yesterday three to two against the Cardinals, but they did win on Friday and Saturday.

But as for yesterday, a couple of solo home runs by Caleb Durbin and Danny Janssen were all that they could muster.

The Brewers are off today, and they will be hosting the Los Angeles Angels coming up on Tuesday.

Coverage begins tomorrow at 6.05 on several civic media stations.

Head over to the website to learn more.

Of course, the Packers were off yesterday because they'd won on Thursday.

Their next game is next Sunday, September 21st at noon at Cleveland.

And the Badgers were, well, they were wallowed by Alabama 38 to 14, and they will next open the Big Ten.

season this coming Saturday, hosting Maryland.

You'll hear that on several Civic Media stations as well.

I'm Pat Krightlo.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

you

Welcome back just about 723 right now.

And again, you can keep up to date on what UpNorth News is doing by signing up for our newsletters.

UpNorthNewsWI.com.

Click subscribe up in the top banner.

And this morning's edition of story about how the Wisconsin Beef Council in partnership with Gather Wisconsin is excited to announce the Prime Rib Trail, a statewide guide to restaurants serving up perfectly prepared prime rib.

I saw that.

I shared that to my friends.

Well, there you go.

Official carnivore of the show, Selena Heller will tell us more.

Well, you know, you could do that with fish fries.

People have certainly done it with cheese and wine and breweries.

And so yeah, all of it makes perfect sense.

Why?

Why wouldn't you have that?

So

yes, that is what I say.

There's yeah, it goes.

throughout the state.

There's, you know, in every kind of region.

So there are plenty more stops to be had, but it mentions a few.

I will definitely on a Friday, I'll be thinking, okay, it's Friday, it's fish fry, where do I want to go for fish fry?

And a lot of places they'll have a fish fry.

on that day.

And then they'll have a prime rib special on Saturday.

Thursday and

Saturday is prime

or Thursday and Saturday.

Yes, well, and I have to admit that off the top of my head, there's not a place where I'd be like, Oh, yeah, because I don't think that I'm going out for prime rib tonight.

It's I'm out for dinner.

And I see it on the menu and I

either do or don't want at that particular night, but maybe other people use a little bit more forethought in their prime rib.

Kristen, is that a dining priority for you?

I am not at all a prime rib person, so I cannot speak to that, but...

I can speak to the supper club book that I know you have spoken with the

author and I

cannot think of his name off the top of my head.

But we actually have that book and we will choose a supper club based on that and then we'll bring it and show it to them and have them like write a little note in it.

And it's adorable because so many of these supper clubs are, you know, they're family owned and they're proud of it and it creates a conversation and it becomes a really nice fun experience.

And if you go to Plover and I cannot think of the.

of the supper club in Plover, but I will.

You can actually buy a little cone that looks like a hazard cone in the road and a little orange cone and you pay for like $4 for it.

and you put it on your table so people know that you are a supper club enthusiast, so they'll stop by your table and have a

conversation

with you about supper clubs that you've gone to.

It's so cute.

So it's

kind of in the same vein as the prime rib thing.

You know, it's something to bring people together and have an experience and have a conversation.

Ron Feola.

Yes,

thank you.

Does all the separate club books.

Yes.

Yes.

And the it's been a while since I've talked to him and he was working on like a fourth edition or something like that.

So we really should find out the latest on that.

These things change all the time.

Go ahead, Selena.

I have a plug for a prime rib buffet.

Yeah,

Essel Hill Supper Club in Maryland, kind of back home in my neck of the woods.

And it is coming up because they have special ones throughout the year.

Like one is during Cranberry Festival for those people going to Warrens and staying around the area and deer hunting time.

Prime rib buffet.

What?

That's amazing.

I'm in.

I'm sold.

Me too.

It's around my birthday.

So I couple it with my birthday and it's the

Florence cranberry festival one,

which by the way is coming up September 26 27 28 Yeah, I mean if you are if you're a lot of people driving the interstate and they're they're you know, just what is that just north of Black River fault or just north of Tomah Yeah, between Black River and Tomah and in the middle of nowhere suddenly traffic has stopped and you realize it's all the traffic on 994

getting set to get off in Warren's to take part in this massive festival in this teeny tiny town.

And by the way, the same thing happens a little further to the north up in Stone Lake for their cranberry festival as well.

Yeah.

I have an important update on the coffee and donuts claim that I made earlier.

Yeah, I did text Craig and he said now he needs to stop a quick trip to get a donut.

See, like just the mention of it just sets him off.

I love that he just leans right into it.

He doesn't fight the stereotype.

He's like, oh, no, no, no, I eat only healthy foods.

No.

My favorite thing is El Tuna Police Department.

They're one of their therapy dogs is named Donut.

They actually do a fundraiser in Green Bay that's called Cop on a Rooftop and it's at Duncan Donut.

And they put a cop on top of Duncan Donut's rooftop and they raise a bunch of money for some charity.

It's cute.

Oh, that's

awesome.

Stone Lake Cranberry Festival, by the way, is the following weekend, October 4th.

just the one day only Saturday, October 4th up there in Stone Lake.

So we're getting to that season now where we don't have the, there are no more county fairs, county fair season is done.

And now we're just getting into that fall festival where you either have like the.

perfect weather or the oh my god is it winter already you know with the sleek coming sideways and hopefully it's it's the first and not the second Rob quick on the here to remind us Tigerton Apple Fest is on September 27th.

And Alicia noting they do cop on the roof in Darboy as well.

a lot of sounds here in Eau Claire too.

Yeah.

And Tony reminding us who doesn't lean into donuts.

Exactly.

I'm getting angry myself.

I was gonna say at the at the fall festival was one of the one of the food trucks was their specialty was flavored mini donuts.

So you get a basket of like eight different mini donuts, each one is made up with different types of frosting, you know, your apple cinnamon and your sprinkles and your butters, you know, butterscotch candies and things like that.

So

How am I doing for build a better breakfast month, Parker?

Oh,

you're doing awesome.

Hey, it did not say build a healthy breakfast.

No, it said build a better breakfast.

And it

didn't say how it's supposed to be better.

So that's a great, great point.

You got to find better.

And so as somebody who built a better breakfast this morning with just apple crisp.

I am not gonna, you know, rain on anybody's parade.

If donuts is the way you want to go.

Catch the Dr. Kristen Lirely show again this weekend, head over to Civic Media or wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe.

Selena Heller continues to have all kinds of coverage through us at upnorthnewswi.com and on socials.

Kristen and Selena, thank you very much.

Have a great start to the week.

Right

back

at you brother.

All right thanks so much for helping us kick things off as always and when we come back we're going to talk to Robert Craig from Citizen Action about climate issues and more right after this on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Welcome back on this Monday morning, September 15th.

Nice to have you here across the Civic Media Radio Network.

We were mentioning earlier the Prime Rib Trail story about that in this morning's newsletter.

You can be sure to check that one out.

There's also a story in there on how to apply

for FEMA flood relief if you're in southeast wisconsin now that that disaster aid has been released and a reminder that tomorrow is national voter registration day so it is a good reminder to maybe go check your own status at myvote.wi.gov there's no election anytime soon which means now you've got the time to get registered without all the pressure

double check your registration because sometimes voter files, you know, get cleaned up or modified.

So Voter Registration Day is tomorrow.

That reminder coming from our newsletter at upnorthnewswi.com.

One group that is especially good at reminding you to get registered to vote and get up on the issues is Citizen Action and Robert Craig is the Executive Director for Citizen Action of Wisconsin.

CitizenActionwi.org.

Robert Craig, good morning.

How are you?

I'm good under the circumstances.

Always great to be with you, Pat.

I was gonna say, that's kind of the evergreen answer since January.

We completely understand that.

And we, as part of our movement Mondays, where we try to get in touch with all kinds of groups that are working to defend and enhance democracy and focus on all kinds of issues.

I mean, exhibit A has to be citizen action in terms of choosing those high priority issues

and educating voters about them.

There is let's start with climate because you actually have an event coming up that's related to the climate, which to me seems quite appropriate given that if there's been one, well, there have been many themes from the current administration, but one of them is certainly dealing with not just denying that we have a changing climate, but being hostile to it and doing everything possible to kill the march toward

a new generation of jobs and clean energy and instead go back to as much, you know, coal and oil and fossil fuels as possible.

And citizen action is among the groups saying, you know, on behalf of a majority of Americans, not so fast.

So what's going on?

Well, their mobilizations all over the country actually, some are calling it Sunday.

So you're absolutely right.

The science doesn't change and this is a super majority position.

Most people think that there is a climate crisis and believe we should do something and take the action directed.

Though the small group that is very loud, climate deniers and then you have a government currently at the federal level which is completely captive to the fossil fuel interests and seems to think somehow that

making America great again means going to a dirty, more expensive fossil fuel economy that is increasingly outmoded.

There's not only the question of we need to reduce emissions in order to create a world that is livable for our children and where the beautiful environment we love in Wisconsin is preserved.

But frankly, solar energy in particular has become so inexpensive and is exploding so much all over the world.

what this administration is actually doing is doing something more expensive, also causes a lot of pollution that causes a lot of health problems, lung cancer and asthma, and will increasingly increase people's utility bills that are increasingly unaffordable.

That's why you saw Excel Energy in the western part of the state asking for a 19% increase from the Public Service Commission.

And so the Wisconsin Climate March

is on September 30th.

We're part of a large coalition of environmental groups.

They're pushing it.

It's not only SysNaction's initiative.