You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
You're listening to Mornings with Pat Kratlow powered by Upnorth News.
Now for my Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of Upnorth News, Pat Kratlow.
Hey good morning, welcome back 806 now on a Wednesday morning, September 17th.
Nice to have you here up north from Lake WSOTA across the Civic Media Radio Network.
Earl Ingram is standing by to talk about
what he's had on the What's Going On podcast that you can get through Civic Media.
You can also get a new daily newsletter through Civic Media.
We will be telling you more about that this hour.
Even as I work in shameless promotions for our own newsletters over at Up North News.
And then we will have state representative Francesca Hong joining us.
That will be part of a very busy day for the representative from Madison who this morning announced she is running for governor.
and joining a now crowded field of Democratic candidates.
So all that and more still ahead.
But first, let's bring in meteorologist Brittany Merleau to talk more about one more summer-like day before we, well, it's not fall-like.
It's just less summer-like.
How's that?
Yeah.
Yeah.
A little
less.
Less summer-like.
It just rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it?
Oh, yes, it is.
I'm sorry, summer lovers, but fall does have to take over eventually.
It does, it does.
Yep, we've got a lot going on this morning.
Dense fog up north, especially by Lake Superior into Hayward's Superior itself, Ashland, even though Claire's still seeing that and some scattered showers across the state moving in towards La Crosse, even in towards Marinette Green Bay.
You could see a few and up north mainly.
As we go through the afternoon, though, those will dissipate.
The sun will dominate.
We will get warm again low to mid 80s statewide.
Some of us will reach the upper 80s nearing 90 again.
And then later this afternoon, we'll see in clouds increasing, maybe some light drizzle southwest in the state midday.
And then some small storms could spark again northeast earlier this evening.
Tomorrow, it's not too much cooler, but it does drop up north to the mid sixties down south.
You're still going to be hanging on to the low eighties.
And we do have scattered showers chances throughout the day, especially into the evening.
But Madison, Milwaukee, still staying sunny tomorrow.
Your rain holds off until Friday.
That's when this big low pressure system makes its way through.
Winds start to get a little bit breezier this weekend and we do have wet weather ahead.
It will pull our temperatures down Friday, Saturday and Sunday to the mid sixties up north to the mid seventies down south.
So not terrible, but just a little cooler.
Did I hear you say something that it will precipitate, but then the sun will dominate?
Did I probably did?
How are you so good at this vocabulary thing?
I
mean, I don't even
know it.
I'm glad there's a new daily newsletter.
We've got to give you a vehicle for writing this stuff out.
Thank you.
Fantastic.
Like
a poem, a
weather poem.
Exactly.
Now it's time for Pat's dumb question for Brittany.
See how observant
I
am.
You're wearing a lovely purple top, but I'm noticing the headphones are purple.
That's not.
Am I missing like different colored headphones for different things or is that just a nice coincidence today?
It's a nice coincidence, but
that would be
awesome.
I would
do
that, the kind
of
thing to
match the
headphones with outfits, but
my my.
my wife and others have those the glasses where you can like snap on different fronts of the the eyeglass frames, you
know, to
match your whatever.
So
I wouldn't put it past you to have you know, you open up one drawer and you know, there's tops and there's another drawer and there's jewelry.
Here's a drawer with all the different headphones that Brittany's gonna wear.
Click.
Yeah, click.
great idea.
Yeah.
Okay, well, you get to work on that.
We'll talk again tomorrow morning.
Thank you.
Sounds good.
Have a good day.
All right.
Again, more about newsletters coming up in just a bit.
But here's my daily reminder sign up for our newsletters at up with news wi.com.
Click subscribe in the banner up on top of the homepage.
And again, civic media now in the sub stack business.
We'll talk about that in just a little while.
But first, let's bring in our friend Earl Ingram from the What's going on podcast.
Again, you can find that at civic
media.us.
Earl, good morning.
How are you?
I'm doing fine, Pat.
How are you?
I'm doing all right.
Thanks.
It's always nice to connect with you and see the the topics and the insight that you're bringing to things.
Today, excuse me, today is Constitution Day.
And one particular group
also made this national DEI day.
And to celebrate that, you know, the signing of the Constitution and the ways we're always trying to be a more perfect union and celebrate, you know, diversity and bring true equality to people.
And so we are living in a time where certain people, and I will go ahead and say it, certain racists have truly declared war on DEI and they have completely
turned upside down the significance of diversity, equity and inclusion.
You have that subject on your show, one of your episodes of your podcast with Dr. Rob Baker from Milwaukee and talking all about the state of race relations in our nation.
Tell us more about what we hear on that episode.
So that's Dr. Professor Rob Beko Baker and he is a professor at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and
So we had a conversation long overdue about the impact of the removal of diversity, equity and inclusion and the long-term impact.
Not my generation, but the generations after me that are going to be impacted in horrific ways.
We don't live in a colorblind society and no matter how people want to say it.
It's not true.
It doesn't exist.
It never existed.
And so when you do opportunities for people who don't look the same, living society just made up of people from different uses and all of those things, it is my heart brings to me that people don't want to do this.
I know it brings out a lot.
certainly is getting worse.
It is, and our apologies for the listeners.
We had a little bit of an internet blip in there, but we've got you back and sounding nice and clear.
The insights that Dr. Baker shares include whether America is indeed advancing, are we reversing the progress that generations have struggled to achieve
I think that that answer is self-evident that we are moving backward, Earl, but I'm sure you get into, you know, how do you stop that reversal?
How do you, again, help people appreciate the need to provide more opportunities for diversity and inclusion?
Well, I would say you follow the Declaration of Independence to build the rights and the Constitution.
They should be more than just documents.
They should be living realities.
And, you know, for a period of time in my life, that was starting to take place.
But for heaven's sakes, to look at this for what it really is and the impact that it's going to have on my grandchildren and great-grandchildren, you know, I don't know.
As a matter of fact, I shouldn't say I don't know.
I do know.
The impact that that's going to have and I don't know how a nation such as this one the greatest nation on earth Can look itself in the mirror and think that this is all right It is absolutely untenable The fact and I still don't believe that it's taking place after the struggles of the 60s and the 70s and the 50s and all of that
that we've turned back the clock.
And I just wonder where there's gonna be a movement to bring it back.
I do also believe that each generation must fight for its own freedom.
And so what happened in my generation, the fights that we waged were not permanent.
And we see that.
And now the generations after us are gonna have to do the exact same thing.
Yeah, exactly.
Eli puts on Facebook, are we reversing or has it simply been re accepted that you can show these hateful thoughts?
And I've said many times, the times we live and now have emboldened people to crawl out from whatever rocks they've been under, where they harbor, you know, some of the viewpoints that you never thought you would hear publicly expressed again.
And now, of course, they feel emboldened because of the people who are in power right now.
I think both things can be true.
We can in fact be, you know,
and in part because it has been accepted.
But I think you hit the nail on the head, Earl.
It's every generation.
You can't take anything for granted.
We've learned we can't take democracy for granted either.
And that unplugging is not the way to go.
You have to be, you have to have some level of civic engagement and awareness and stop assuming that everybody else is gonna fight a battle for you.
Well, it's absolutely 100% correct.
Um, democracy is the exact same thing.
And if people don't organize and then get out on the street, the only way this is going to be, you know, eradicated is for people, uh, the American people to organize and say, we're not going to take it.
But, but if we sit back waiting on politicians or others to do this for us, it's not going to happen.
Yeah, we're talking with Earl Angram from the What's Going On podcast.
You can get that at civicmedia.us and it got time to hit on one more episode and that is a conversation with Dr. Howard Fuller again about reading in our schools and literacy.
Again, something we cannot take for granted.
We must always be looking at the ways we're teaching reading and literacy skills.
So tell us more about that conversation.
You know, I was reading something the other day, Pat, and
the reading abilities of the American children.
I mean, they're abysmal when you compare them to children of other nations.
And so that has a lot to do with the fact that, you know, we don't value education enough as a society.
I don't care what anybody says.
You know, you hear people saying, well, we're putting too much money into education.
You look at places like China and India and 60 years ago, those, those nations basically were not very literate, but they realized the importance of education and they put priority on education.
And now look, when we look at global, you know, realities that are happening, America is not where she once was.
She's lagging.
that behind those two nations.
And she's going to continue to lag until the American people realize that money spent on education is the best investment you can ever make.
It's so true.
And what we what we've seen in just say the past generation or show are people saying, Oh, my gosh, Wisconsin's in the top 10 for spending on schools.
And we we can't be one of the top 10 spenders.
Well, after years and years of austerity, we're now down to number 29.
And we're now to people saying, this is unacceptable.
We can't be in the middle of the pack.
We've got to value education more.
But unfortunately, that mindset really hasn't taken hold yet.
And it's certainly not reflected in election results, Earl.
Although from the candidates I'm hearing, I think we are going to hear more of what you have said about we got to value education once more in this country.
Well, you know, you can't look at your own, you know, family and say, well,
My family is doing fine.
My children are being educated.
They're literate.
And not look at all those around you because the nation is made up of more than you're in a circle.
And the nation is up against global technological education.
And so we no longer fighting state against state.
It's a global reality.
And so we can't go back.
And so with that in mind,
people need to focus on, hey, is my tax dollar better spent on making sure that there's a future, a bright future for this nation, and you can't have a bright future for the nation if the future of the young people who are going to be adults and running the nation in the future aren't as educated as they can be.
Exactly.
So hear more about that in that episode and more on what's going on with Earl Ingram.
Podcasts head to civicmedia.us.
Click on shows to learn more.
Earl, thank you again very much.
Hope you have a great day.
You as well.
All right.
Appreciate you very much.
Francesca Hong, State Representative and candidate for governor is coming up in 15 minutes.
I'm Pat Critello.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
Up North News is part of Courier Newsroom, a nationwide pro-democracy news network at couriernewsroom.com.
Plenty of state outlets and newsletters and podcasts.
One of the newsletters is called American Freak Show by Nina Burley.
It's a weekly newsletter keeping an eye on mega extremism and its absurdity.
This week's edition, The Big Chill, Using a Murder to Silence America.
And Nina writes in part,
I disagreed with most of what the martyred right-wing thought warrior said, referring to Charlie Kirk, but it would have been far better to have him alive today to argue with.
In a famous tract arguing against censorship, the English poet John Milton laid down the foundation of our concept of freedom of speech.
Milton's argument was that truth and falsehood should grapple in the public square because in the end, he writes, whoever knew truth put to the worse.
in a free and open encounter.
Nina goes on to say, what is an America where dissent is criminal, where every person must first test a thought or an idea against how the religious right or the government regime might respond?
We already live in an America, she writes, where it's legal to spread lies about public health and vaccines, where American history is being erased by executive order at the Smithsonian.
and the National Park Service.
We might not all like each other in this great American experiment of blended people and ideas, but to survive as a democracy, we agree to tolerate one another.
That's Nina Burley.
You can find her American Freak Show newsletter at couriernewsroom.com.
And that, of course, takes us to Derek Van Orden.
who is no longer working to be a congressman for all of the people in the Third Congressional District.
He is in fact running for Chief of Police, Chief of the Thought Police for the Third Congressional District.
He is continuing his online tirade now into its eighth day of highlighting people and organizations who have been using their freedom of expression to target them for firing or for cutting their funding.
And he hasn't let up.
He hasn't let up with the insults.
He hasn't let up with the obscenities.
He referenced a fellow member of Congress, Adam Schiff, saying that he needs to go to jail.
That's a member of Congress telling a member of the Senate he should go to jail.
He called Minnesota Governor Tim Walls the S-word, a piece of S-word in a tweet either last night or early today.
He reposted Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who again is threatening employees who in his view celebrate Charlie Kirk's murder.
Van Orden reposted that with a one word response, leadership.
That's not leadership.
That's big brother.
That's big government.
That's big hypocrite.
Derek Van Orden and Charlie Kirk and others would be the first to talk about how every idea should be welcome to be debated because otherwise they were getting short shrift and they were being subject to cancel culture.
And now they are reveling in it.
They're reveling in the hypocrisy of getting people fired or targeted or threatening funding because they don't like how other people have used their freedom of expression.
And, of course, nobody is immune to that.
That, of course, starts at the very top, and that would include President Donald Trump, who said Monday he would have ordered flags lowered to half staff after the assassination of a Minnesota legislator had he been asked by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
But again, the internet's forever, and our memories aren't that shallow to remind the president that
He refused to even call Governor Walls to express his condolences.
In fact, Trump went on to say it would only waste time.
Trump made those remarks at an Oval Office event defending his decision to lower US flags this week in honor of Charlie Kirk, something he did not do for Melissa Hortman, who was the former Minnesota Speaker of the House, who was assassinated over the summer.
Trump said the governor didn't ask me he said I wouldn't have thought of that meaning lowering the flags for a Melissa Hortman but I would have if somebody had asked me had the governor asked me I would have done that gladly that's not really how it worked at the time the president said
I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out, I'm not calling him.
Why would I call him?"
Trump told reporters in June aboard Air Force One.
He then said, this guy, Walsh, doesn't have a clue.
He's a mess.
So, you know, I could be nice and call him, but why waste time?
President Trump could not be bothered to show up for the funeral of Melissa Hortman and her husband.
He is planning to attend Charlie Kirk's funeral this weekend in Arizona and that he will likely have a speaking role Maybe his exact words were I guess I'll say a few words.
I don't know but I guess I will So it says a lot about a president's priorities when they decide For whom will they have the American flag lowered and for whose funeral will they grace with their attendance?
We already know how he treated one political assassination in this country, and we are now going to see the real divide.
We see it in his continued calls for vengeance, which were echoed yesterday by his vice president and continue to be echoed in an ongoing stream from Wisconsin congressman, Derek Van Orden.
Now as we talk about matters like that on this show and others across the civic media radio network, it's worth reminding you.
that Civic Media now has a new daily email newsletter.
It's called Civic Media Today.
It will have all kinds of Civic Media content delivered right to your inbox every weekday so that you can get links to new stories or to podcast feeds or to YouTube live streams of some of your favorite shows and more.
So head over to civicmediatoday.substack
dot com to sign up for a free subscription.
Again, that sub stack address is civic media today dot sub stack dot com.
And while you're over there, there's some courier newsroom newsletters and others that you could be subscribing to and learn more about your favorite shows and hosts and the stories that we are all following.
Gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hahn is coming up next.
You're up.
835 the time now.
Welcome back live from Lake WSOTA on the Civic Media Radio Network as we continue talking about the change in seasons.
Not fall, not back to school, not football, but campaigns.
You heard in the last hour, Karine Hendrickson announced her candidacy for State Senate in Southwest Wisconsin.
Tomorrow we will be talking with a candidate running in Southeast Wisconsin for State Senate in the Racine area.
We had a new gubernatorial candidate on Monday.
We have a new gubernatorial candidate today.
Democratic State Representative Francesca Hong from Madison announced her candidacy this morning and she joins us now to talk all about it Fran.
Good morning.
How are you?
Well, we've talked about how in 2025 there just is no yet a perfect answer for how you're doing.
But we're all looking for those little signs of hope.
We're all looking for those positive points wherever we can get them.
And I know a lot of people have been hoping that you would get into the race.
You're joining a now crowded field of candidates
governor in the state of Wisconsin and you know where I want to lead into this not just the usual why you're running I want to lead into this with if you go and find Francesca Hong's introductory video that she released this morning in running for governor and we have to be very careful here on the radio but Fran used to swear
as we like to say.
And there's a perfectly good reason, as she explains in the video.
So Fran, I want you to start from there.
In the video, you set something up about expectations, and then you say, you know what, that's bologna.
Let's use that word.
What is it that people should see as bologna?
And what is it that we can do about it?
So thank you for that, Pat.
In times of authoritarianism and fascism, one of the strategies that those in power try to deploy is to make it seem like we can't have a vision.
We can't imagine better.
We are living in fear.
And I think that we actually have an opportunity to meet this moment with the movement.
people have to be able to imagine better.
And I think when we've got bold policies and people who are not only willing to fight for a fight alongside folks, we recognize that what we're being told is baloney.
And we're talking to Fran Hong candidate for governor and about those expectations to say, well, you know, the system is too big.
And so you have to play it safe.
And you you used the word bold, which I know we've heard about other races as well for for president for mayor of New York City and for so many others that that progressives need to be bold and and not play it safe.
Can you talk more about that internal debate among progressives and why you're coming out on the side of bold rather than, you know, get along and going along?
And in this moment, incrementalism is irresponsible.
the need and urgency to meet the needs of working class people has to prioritize urgency and you achieve that you ensure people have basic needs met and that they can have access to
universal childcare and fully funded public schools guaranteed paid leave and cheaper healthcare.
These are transformative policies that I think are the responsible and practical ones where people will feel and they will know that this is what can improve their lives.
But it's also about
freedoms and having the freedom to be able to care for yourself, the people you love, your neighbors, and maybe even someone you don't know.
That comes not only with bold but transformative policies.
I feel like what I'm hearing here is stop selling yourself short, stop selling ourselves short.
We have been, again, conditioned to hear we can't afford this.
We can't afford healthy meals for every school kid.
We can't afford affordable daycare.
We can't afford health care.
And you're calling bull on it and rightly so.
But that's where I get into the, you know, the go along moderation is to say, Well, we'll take a little bit of this.
And I'm hearing a lot more voices saying, No, no, no.
We want the whole smear.
We actually do want, for example, every kid should be able to have a healthy meal without having to pay for it because we're already paying our taxes to educator kids.
That and many other examples, am I kind of hitting that right?
There's a danger to flat taxes.
I think people in Wisconsin, they work hard, they hustle.
They deserve a government that works hard and hustles.
And that requires establishing fairness.
And when you have fair taxation and when folks who are the wealthiest at the top tax bracket in this state pay their fair share, turns out that means more revenue for the state.
And so when we prioritize working class people and try to build working class power, it's going to need to come with resources that are
fully available out there.
And so it's why wouldn't somebody want every kid at every school here in our state to have a healthy breakfast and lunch at school?
I think this is going to come when we recognize that the system is rigged and it's unfair and it's time that we unrig it and ensure fairness for all working class people.
We're talking to State Representative Francesca Hong, newly announced candidate for governor.
As we look at these various issues that you're running on, we're hearing a lot of it coming from the standpoint of families.
You're a mom.
You're a working mom.
But you're also an entrepreneur.
You have been part of running a business.
And so for people who hear this and think, well, she just has no sympathy, no empathy for what it's like to run a business and have to employ people and all of that,
you actually have life experience that says otherwise.
So talk about your own entrepreneurial business viewpoint.
And how does that match up with being somebody running on the issues that you're running on?
We have a policy that would actually help small businesses, especially those who have fewer than 50 employees, use affordable tax, Affordable Care Act tax credits to be able to make it so that their employees have access to cheaper healthcare.
It was so difficult as a small business owner to guarantee healthcare and benefits for all of our staff.
And we did everything we can to ensure that.
Small businesses are also having to compete against larger corporations, chains who are not on the same playing field, have access to resources even though they're the ones who may not always be taking care of their employees.
And so fair universal policies where we guarantee cheaper healthcare for working class people is ultimately a small business issue as well.
And
there needs to be better access to capital, especially for our smallest businesses.
And that's something we can work towards achieving when we think about what North Dakota has with the public bank.
And so my experience of being a restaurant owner, and I will always be a service industry owner, makes me acutely aware that what is driving a lot of the hardships for small businesses are these corporate profits and corporate grids where larger business
make it harder for us to gain access to the resources we need to grow, expand our business, and take care of our workers.
We're talking to state representative Francesca Hong about her candidacy for governor announced this morning Let's go ahead and talk about the other s word this s word we can say socialists because as noted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article Opponents may seize on the fact that Hong is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and of the relatively new Assembly Socialist caucus and as I've told people earlier in the show I recently received an op-ed column from a fellow member of the Socialist caucus and that would be state representative
Christian Phelps of Eau Claire, who explains, you know, just beautifully in his words, why he chooses to embrace that label and how it holds him accountable to the positions that he takes.
And so now I want to put that to you as well.
You did not have to say, I'm going to be part of this socialist caucus.
Now you're doing that and running for governor.
So let me put it in a in a in a hostile way so that you really jump on this.
Fran, explain yourself.
As a single-bomb community organizer and a restaurant industry worker, I recognize that for working-class people, the system is rigged.
And as a democratic socialist who understands the importance and the need to ensure basic needs are met, this means that I'm somebody who cares deeply.
When we have a politics that is rooted in care, care for ourselves, care for our children, care for our workers, our small businesses, we can build communities that are not only strong, but people have what they need to make sure that not only can they get by, but they can build the lives for themselves that they want.
I think democratic socialism is about care.
It's about ensuring that you not only care for yourself and your loved ones, but again, I talk about caring for somebody you don't know.
And it's the policies that are rooted in care.
The way that democratic socialism holds me accountable is to always go back to that care for ourselves, for our neighbors, for somebody you might not know yet.
State Representative Francesca Hong is with us learn more about her campaign at Francesca Hong dot com again Francesca Hong dot com and if you go there if you go to the social media sites and some of them the handle is Francesca Hong W I in case you're searching but Set aside the fact that she's got to have this conversation with a boring radio host You look at the videos and you look at how in demand she is as a speaker is that you also
On these serious issues, you have a lot of fun.
You really get out there and you mix it up with people.
You talk about them.
You are very direct in your language, as we say, trying to be so safe here on the radio.
But, you know, can you talk more about that part of it that makes campaigning so, well, so fun?
I mean, I don't feel like I'm bringing it out, but I feel like there may be nobody who's going to have more fun running for governor than you.
I absolutely love this state.
I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
It's where I'm raising my child.
It's where my parents have called home for longer than anywhere else that they've lived in.
I am obsessed with cranberries right now and waiting into cranberry bogs.
But we always talk about meeting people where they are and where folks are at are a lot of places where they can experience joy, have fun, not think about the state of our world right now.
It's important that elected officials and candidates go meet those folks in the dive bars at the bowling alleys, maybe even a pro wrestling match.
Getting to know folks across the state has been an incredible privilege and honor for me as a state rep for Madison.
And it just motivates me more and it's what our campaign, you're absolutely right, it is going to be
fun, it's rooted in care.
We need to have joy because all these things is how we have a resistance and build a resistance and build working class power.
It's important to be able to relate and have fun with your neighbor, even if you may not always agree on the politics.
And that's just it.
And that's what we're looking in this next year is we're going to tackle all the issues, but we we are not going to be, you know, all doom and gloom during it.
We're going to have some fun.
I'm looking forward to talking to all of you as part of the gubernatorial primary that's coming up in August of next year, State Representative Francesca Hong.
Fran, it's always such a pleasure.
Thank you.
Have a great day.
Travel safe.
Thanks, Pat.
All right.
Appreciate it very much.
We'll have some final news and notes from Lake WSOTA coming up right after this.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Remember, you can stay up to date with our unabashedly Wisconsin news at Up North News by signing up for our newsletter, UpNorthNewsWI.com.
Today's edition includes a link to some of the best fall color drives and when you can expect peak colors to hit in autumn around Wisconsin.
So again, sign up over for that.
The Brewers are playing tonight on stations across the Civic Media Radio Network.
They are taking on the Los Angeles Angels pregame coverage begins at 6-0.
coming up Matt Nair on air in just a bit here and Jane and Greg will have as their guest Bennett Goldstein a reporter with Wisconsin Watch coming up at 9.35.
Maggie Dawn will have General Russell Honore discussing military presence in American cities coming up just after five o'clock and Night Light with Pete Schwabba has actor Mike McGill from Shaneless at 6.35 this evening.
Plenty of reasons to stay tuned to your favorite civic media
station and podcast the shows.
This one and the others just head over to Spotify and follow us and that way you can always pick up on an episode that you can't catch live.
All right, let's see.
We just had Francesca Hahn running for governor.
Kelda Roy's announced Monday she's running for governor.
Milwaukee County executive David Crawley is in the race.
Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez is running.
He puts James Kelly up on the screen for no connectivity.
James, you're not running for governor, are you?
Not to my knowledge now.
Okay.
All right.
I just I nowadays I got to go through and check off who's
Parker is not happy about this.
I thought he was going to run.
I thought we were on a streak here.
What the heck guys?
I know.
No, James is here covering news for Civic Media out of our Chippewa Falls newsroom.
And so James, I'm very sorry to hear that you were under the weather recently.
You look good.
Have you lost a few pounds?
Yes, yes, I did lose a few pounds.
Didn't have to exercise for it.
Didn't have to eat healthy.
You know, sometimes we just need the silver lining in
there.
Yeah, see, we're trying.
as best we can.
So all right, glad you are on the mend.
Let's look at stories that you're following here.
We talk a lot about affordable housing and housing stock.
It's one of those issues that kind of creeps up on people and then they realize, yeah, we do have a problem here.
We have, you know, like a lot of McMansions and we have some high density stuff, but we don't really have much in the way of affordable housing for people that want to own their own or who want to have a job.
St.
Croix County did a survey on
that, what they find
out.
Yeah, so they found a lot of the same issues that we've seen across northwest Wisconsin, but kind of with a different twist as far as population trends go.
A couple weeks ago we talked about the Washburn County Housing Study, where they have an aging population and the median age is about 12 years higher than the state average, and they're having trouble attracting those younger workers to the area to take all the open jobs.
The problem in St.
Croix County is that there are
Too many people coming into the region.
Population growth is projected to skyrocket, and they're now saying they need as many as 4,600 new units by 2050 to accommodate that.
The vacancy rate for rentals is down to 1.4%, which is well below the healthy range of 5 to 7.
And that's another issue in Eau Claire when we were talking about the unhoused population, which said the vacancy rate was about 4%, which is why housing prices continue to increase and the unhoused population continues.
to grow.
There's a lot of cost burdened renters and homeowners out there too, which is an economic issue because if these people are spending, you know, over 30% of their income just on housing, let alone cars, car insurance, student loans, they're not spending that money in the community.
No, they're not.
And so that's why you want to, you know, you want to right size your amount of affordable housing stock.
Whatever your circumstance in St.
Croix County definitely has a circumstance there where they have to look at it.
Meanwhile, up in Ashland, Northland College, of course, had to go out of business.
And so now we're continuing to see some of the follow ups there that include some of the facilities like athletic fields.
Yeah, I did like this story because the fields are still going to be used for like youth sports league.
in the area.
The baseball and softball fields at the college were sold to a non-profit which intends to continue using them for that purpose with the indoor practice and storage facilities.
They're still looking for a buyer for the entire campus.
We'll see when that comes to pass but at this time it's you know nice to see that these fields that have been used for youth sports leagues in the past the college was always really good about sharing that space are going to continue to be used for that purpose in the future.
All right.
We're talking to James Kelly covering civic media stories in western and northern Wisconsin.
And we're going to head to Spooner next.
The Emerald Ash Borer is, again, something, an issue that we've talked about here in our part of the state in the Chippewa Valley, but certainly statewide as well.
And it can be expensive to either treat or remove all these ash trees and the city of Spooner is dealing with that right now.
Yeah, now, Pat, I actually don't know if you recall this, but the last time we did this in person, I think it actually might have been Todd's show at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair.
This story had just come up that the city council was considering just treating five trees, period, five trees.
It was going to cost about $200 per tree, and they couldn't come to an agreement on that.
It was a split vote, so they didn't go forward with it.
Now they're planning to apply for a DNR urban forestry grant to treat 100 trees replaced.
another 30 and remove 30 more.
We're going to continue to see emerald ash borer spread across the region.
Wildlife experts say they could eventually kill 99% of the ash trees in the state.
So solutions.
Yeah, yeah.
And obviously it's something that any single community would have a tough time funding on their own.
And so why wouldn't you look for the grant funding?
And then finally, we'll end up here back in the Chippewa Valley where Marshfield Clinic is expanding its presence in both Eau Claire and Lake Halley, which sits between Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls.
Yeah, certainly something I wish I had access to last week.
They're planning to expand their facility at Marshfield Medical Center in Eau Claire to expand their emergency services.
And they're also planning to create a multi-specialty ambulatory hub in Lake Halley at a clinic that already exists there now.
The big problem for people from Chippewa Falls and North has been just how long is it going to take me to get to a hospital if I need emergency care?
You know, last week myself, I spent
near $70 just on Ubers down to Eau Claire because I'm up in Chippewa Falls.
So this will definitely be a big help to people up here to just kind of have a waypoint in the middle to say, can we treat you here?
Can we solve this here?
Otherwise, you know, we have professionals who can take you to the next place and we'll also have expanded services there.
James Kelly, sometimes getting the news firsthand as he explores these stories for you.
James, feel better.
We'll talk to you again soon.
Thanks, Pat.
All right.
And thanks to all of you for joining us here.
I'm Pat Crightlow, founding editor of Up North News, the Wisconsin Home for Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy newsroom.
Have a great rest of your Wednesday.
We'll see you tomorrow morning, 6 a.m., right back here, Up
North.
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.
