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Now, from our Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Hey, good morning at 7.06.
It's nice to have you back here up north on this Tuesday morning, September 23rd, 2025.
Parker Olson is our producer down in Madison Studio A2.
Meteorologist Brittany Merleau is standing by with the forecast.
And then we're going to be talking to congressional candidate Laura Benjamin from Eau Claire, who's running in the third congressional district, former Eau Claire City Council member.
And we're going to talk about last night's Eau Claire City Council meeting.
The first one, since a couple of council members found themselves in hot water for the crime of expressing a point of view on the Charlie Kirk killing.
And we'll talk about, you know, who showed up for last night's council meeting and what they had to say.
about the potential efforts to curtail the freedom of speech of a couple of elected officials in the city of Eau Claire.
But before we get to all of that, it is contest time again, time for the day's first round of the go for the green and gold text to win contest.
Parker, there are so there are just so many
Um, there's fine print to read in this.
There's rules.
It's like something else.
We're going to need a proper, a proper music bed for this.
Okay.
Yeah.
We got to work.
Do we either with either the game show one or because it's for it's go for the green and gold.
No, we can't use that song.
We can't say that because we're not allowed to say
word.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, so we'll work on that.
So anyway, you you
you listen to all of this.
by the end, you're going to know exactly what kind of music bed we're going to need for tomorrow.
Okay, I'm just that good.
That's it.
Okay, so give a listen and we'll see how this works out Alright time for the day's first round of the go for the green and gold text to win contest Yes, green and gold as in gold and jewelry Here's how to play the texting is done through the civic media app Look for a station use the text button for the 7 a.m.
Hour you have to text us this hour's keyword before 8 a.m There will be seven chances to enter throughout the day different keywords each time of all the day's entries in this multi
Multi-State game, one lucky winner will get $200 cash and a gold plated chain, C, green and gold.
Then one really lucky winner for the whole two week contest will win the grand prize to club level indoor seats to see a Green Bay versus Minnesota football game, a Green Bay home game on November 23rd at noon, plus a gas card to get you to the game.
Total value of the grand prize is more than $1,500.
Remember, each entry will get a return message giving you a way to earn another entry linked to a specific activity such as signing up for a newsletter.
Each activity can only be done once full contest rules at the civic media website, civicmedia.us.
Here we go.
The key word to text us before eight a.m.
is rival as in Green Bay and Minnesota.
Minnesota is a rival, R-I-V-A-L, R-I-V-A-L, text rival before eight o'clock.
And then your next chance to enter will be during the nine o'clock hour of matinee on air to go for the green and gold.
Let's bring in meteorologist Brittany Merleau now to get the forecast on a day that is starting really foggy here on Lake Wissota, very gray, very dreary.
Is this something that's going to be sticking around today, Brittany?
No, thankfully.
So we're just starting off.
Ugly, right?
We've got a lot of clouds sitting on the ground right now.
Dense fog, thick in many, many places with less than a mile visibility.
So a little rough commute this morning.
I know a lot of us have some headaches from driving through that, but otherwise it will clear from between now to about 10 a.m.
It should all lift and be gone.
After that, we are gonna see more clouds hanging out down south, more sunspots trying to peek through up north, and we're actually looking at a rather dry day today.
The only chance for precipitation
is a little bit of sprinkles pretty much north in the state.
Kind of sparking maybe this afternoon, but.
That's not even a trace of rain, so that is barely much at all.
Down south, that look front is parked from about Racine and it's dipping into Illinois now and it's going to stay south.
So a lot of the rain and the showers and the storms are going to be away from us.
A much drier day expected and then we've got a high pressure system building in as we go into the rest of the week.
So highs today will hit the mid 60s to mid 70s across the state.
Tomorrow we will get slightly cooler.
All of us fall to about the 60s throughout Wisconsin.
mixed skies, mainly dry.
The only chance for sprinkles this time tomorrow will be southeast in the state, kind of by Lake Michigan, although one or two could hit Madison as those winds from this departing system go across Lake Michigan.
So that's it.
Afterwards, high pressure system takes over on Thursday into the weekend, into next week as well.
Temperatures will be sitting anywhere from about 70 to 80 degrees across the state.
Dry conditions couldn't ask for anything better.
All right, Brittany Merleau.
Thank you so much for that.
Appreciate it.
We'll talk to you next hour as well.
Sounds good.
Okay.
Like I said before, it was a busy Eau Claire City Council meeting yesterday.
People anticipating what might be coming up after two council members reacted to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in ways that
Charlie Kirk supporters did not like and called for some kind of action, resignations or recall, whatever the case may be.
And this last night was the first city council meeting since that time and since that time because of that backlash, because of things that Congressman Derrick Van Orden has been saying.
In fact, hundreds of times he's been saying and expressing his willingness to infringe on the free speech of others.
We wanted to see if that sentiment carried over into last night's city council meeting.
It did not, based on coverage from channel 13 in Eau Claire and channel 18 as well.
The speakers who showed up for last night's public part of the speaking.
all spoke in favor of protecting freedom of expression.
Laura Benjamin is a former Eau Claire City Council member.
She is now one of three Democrats running for Congress in the third congressional district, hoping to take on Derek Van Orden in November of 2026.
And Laura is with us right now.
Laura Benjamin, good morning.
How are you?
You bet.
Well so there you were once again in touch with the city council that you had belonged to and again to see the reports it looks like if there was going to be a mob with torches and pitchforks they didn't show up last night.
We went over the decorum rules and all that again and but the people that spoke there were very much in favor of the free speech of our council and they saw what was happening with
Derek Van Horten's willingness to attempt to withhold funds from our community as more of an attack on our community and these council members free speech rights than anything else.
Well, and then I think maybe started what I guess you could call the backlash to the backlash.
It's one thing that people might have been angry at what other people said about Charlie Kirk.
It's another to say you're going to withhold federal funding from one of the largest cities in your community.
Now,
Well, let's just start with that again, as somebody who's been on the city council and knows the role of federal funds in the operation of the city, the health and well-being of its residents, and now with you as a candidate, hoping to run against that very same congressman, what'd you think when you heard that threat the first time from Derek Van Orden?
it's it's it's law it's it's done it's a done deal these funds are promised to Eau Claire we make decisions based on those funds uh we expect that to to happen regardless of what a member of the the leadership says so when even if the Eau Claire city council member says something that's unpopular or that one side of the aisle thinks is unpopular it doesn't it doesn't matter frankly the the decision's been made the laws have been signed the budget is set and we expect that that is carried through
And so what does it tell you and what do you think it should be telling people?
Not just in the city of Eau Claire, but throughout the third congressional district about, you know, the temperament or the emotional maturity or the leadership qualities of Derek van Orden and whether he deserves a third term or not.
We certainly had an opportunity where.
folks on both sides of the aisle to come together and say, you know what, we're both going to condemn political violence.
Well, I think we heard that from some people, but for Derek Van Orden and President Trump and others on the Republican Party, we heard, no, we're going to use this as an opportunity to ignite.
bigger fires.
If you watched any of the coverage of Charlie Kirk's funeral on Sunday, if you watched what what Derek Van Rood had to say here on our local media, it was attack, attack, attack.
It was it's all the left spot.
We have no culpability in this.
And here it is, you know, he's written out this short bill that says if an individual condones or celebrates violence, federal funding for that entity will be withheld.
So they're not making a law restricting the speech.
They're doing that workaround that they try to do where they're going to restrict funding based on the speech that's made.
Well, the thing is I mean with what we're not clear on who who determines that who determines that somebody has condoned You know political violence and what do they mean by you know political violence because again a lot of the comments in return
We're not advocating for political violence.
They were either quoting Charlie Kirk's words or talking about his life and legacy, which is hardly the same thing, that same kind of equating that comes in there.
So Laura, and we're talking to Laura Benjamin, candidate for Congress in the Third Congressional District, one of three Democrats hoping to unseat Derek Van Orden.
But in the Eau Claire part of the district, again, it's a sprawling district.
passed lacrosse down to Prairie Duchenne and then up through into parts of Central Wisconsin as well.
So as you've been getting around the district introducing yourself to people, yeah, there's a lot of people that want to talk about Derrick Van Orden and the things that he's done or hasn't done or things like that.
But you're also looking to stand out from a current three candidate primary field.
So
In light of recent events, what is it that you tell people about your own leadership or management style that you think would serve them better as a member of Congress?
Okay.
So I think that there's a couple of pieces to that question.
And the first piece is what do we do now?
And the second piece is what do we do later?
Right now, I've been encouraging people to vote with their wallet.
This is one of the things that we just saw when Jimmy Kimmel was pulled off the air.
People reacted to that by discontinuing their Disney Plus subscriptions or Hulu subscriptions.
And that shows that in a lot of ways, corporations treat money as a vote, as speech.
And so we can have an impact and actually shape some of the narrative and some of the decisions that are being made by leadership and by large corporations by voting with our money.
this kind of solidarity can be really impactful in the meanwhile while we're working to regain some level of formal leadership in Washington.
When it comes to my policies, I look at my policies as more what do we do for people moving forward so that
folks feel comfortable living in this country.
Again, they feel like it's an affordable place.
They feel like they have access to things.
So most of my messaging has been around Medicare for all living wages, not a minimum wage increase, but actually a living wage that's indexed to the cost of living in communities and to make sure that our human rights are protected so that, you know, no matter whether you're, you know,
black or white, indigenous, your LGBTQ, that you have, you understand you belong in this country and frankly that your freedom of speech and your freedom of expression are protected.
And along with all of this, which we won't have time to cover now, but there is the threat of a potential government shutdown next week based on votes that Derek Van Orden and other Republicans in Congress have taken.
If that comes to pass, there are gonna be impacts, not just in Eau Claire, but throughout the third congressional district.
And no doubt we will be having that conversation as well, if and when that time comes next week.
Laura Benjamin, again, is a candidate for Congress in the third congressional district.
Her website is Laura Benjamin for Congress.
Facebook would be Laura for WI, L-A-U-R-A, F-O-R-W-I, and Instagram, Laura for Congress.
Laura Benjamin, great to talk to you again.
Thank you so much for the visit and for the reaction to current events.
Have a great day.
All right.
And again, we've been talking as we're able to with Emily Berge.
We talked to her last night, or I'm sorry, last week, current president of the Eau Claire City Council on Derek Van Orden.
Becca Cook has been turning down interview requests recently, but we will continue to reach out and hopefully be able to talk to her as well.
Again, three candidates right now on the race for third congressional district and a primary that will be held in August of next year.
Coming up.
Jerry Farmer Hans Brighton Moser, and then Sheila Everhart of the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association.
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 Quitelow, this is the Civic Media Radio
Network.
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.
All right, welcome back.
It is a Tuesday morning, September 23rd, 2025, just about 7.23 right now up here on Lake La Sota.
And we had a little hiccup here online with the platform that we use.
Hopefully it's working okay now as we bring in Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12, WJFWTV in Rhinelander.
Mr. Hagen, triple falls to Rhinelander.
Come in, Rhinelander.
Are you there, Dan?
That was great.
He's not hearing us.
I talked to him right before you.
I can't.
I can't.
We can hear you.
We can hear you.
Say hello.
Say hello to everybody.
I can't hear.
Um,
that's okay.
Uh, you guys hear me?
Yes, we can.
Yeah.
Yep.
So, uh, let's, let's do that.
Oh, this is fun.
Uh, this makes for great radio.
Tell us what I heard earlier in your world.
Oh boy.
Here we go.
Let's see.
Let's see if you can see the chats.
Tell
us what's new
in your world.
So I went to the Boundary Waters.
I just returned from the Boundary Waters last night.
So what on a four day trip there with some college friends?
Got some fish paddled.
Okay, well, that's that's great then and I wish you could hear me talk about that But I'm gonna try this one more time because it's kind of It's kind of fun.
So let's let's ask him what kind of stories you're working on up there at news watch 12 I'm able to okay stories.
So
here's the deal with stories is I've been out of the office for for four days.
Okay
So I don't
think I will provide the best
news.
That's okay.
Um, any, any other highlights from your vacation there, Dan, don't you want to, you want to tell us about
highlights from vacation?
Yeah.
Um, are we on, are we on the radio right now?
Uh, yes.
Yes, we are.
Yes.
Oh, okay.
Cool.
Whoa.
So highlights from vacation so if you haven't been to the Boundary Waters before I would highly recommend it.
It is my favorite place Favorite place to go it's good to get away from civilization There is no light pollution so the stars are great and no sounds sound pollution either
All right, I'm asking you now if you're challenging any old men.
So yeah, we went to this outfitter,
La Terrells.
I met my friends there.
They all came from the Twin Cities.
And we paddled and portaged.
So portaging means picking up the canoe, putting it on your shoulders, and carrying it to, and carrying it over lands, you know, to the next lake or stream.
And I'm just
getting some questions from Pat here.
No old men in the canoe races.
So a good good little bit there.
We're gonna continue And I do canoe here in Rhinelander as well But there are some places like the Boundary Waters there I believe Sylvania wilderness in Northeast Wisconsin as well as
The Brawl River I've paddled the Wisconsin River before so the Wisconsin River starts in Lackview-des-Aire You may know Lackview-des-Aire Resort Casino, so that's where you get it from That's a Native American tribe up there, and I paddled that to Eagle River before so
Yeah, all right.
Well, that's good.
That's my life
Well, Dan, sounds
good.
Good, good.
This
was a very interesting conversation.
Yeah, that we have.
All right, Dan, thank you very much.
Yeah.
So what happened during the commercial break was I mentioned the platform was being a little janky
it came on with like 10 seconds to spare.
And I could hear me and I could hear him and I'm like, okay, Dan, here we go.
And Dan was like shaking his head.
I'm like, okay, it'll come.
And I
talked to Dan
about 15 seconds before you came in.
So, well, I'll tell you what, from Tony on YouTube.
Hello, WBA.
I'd like to make a submission.
No, no, no, no.
This one's not going to the Wisconsin broadcasters.
No, that
was handled incredibly
well.
Yeah.
Is it?
Are you going to hear this segment in some best of shows?
Oh, you absolutely will.
We tried so hard to do this in a way that almost was like, you know,
Dan could speak a foreign language, but I had to type in English and he would give the answers back.
And it almost worked.
It almost worked.
Yeah.
It wasn't awful.
It could have been significantly worse.
Yes.
Yes.
My favorite was when I typed very quickly, well, tell us what stories you're working on.
I was on vacation.
Cool.
And I did, I did ask again, thank goodness I'm a fast typer.
kidding.
You know how he talks about always trying to beat his old man at the Berkebeiner.
Oh yeah.
Playing old people in pickleball.
And I was trying to ask like, were you challenging any old men to canoe races up in the boundary waters?
But I think that one just missed.
So just missed the mark.
And so we don't know if this is because of the platform issue we were having or if he was having an audio connection.
Anyway, he was a really good sport.
And you all are really good sports for playing along with that.
Cause we really do want to hear from Danny.
He does.
He covers a lot of good stories.
He tells a lot of good stories and it just, uh, it just wasn't in the cards this week.
Guess not.
That's making me, now it's making me wonder, cause I'm going to be coming down there to do, you know, shows from Madison later in the week here.
Uh, and anytime we break the normal routine, I always get a little bit nervous.
I'm like, we're, you know, is this thing going to work?
But I'm going
there before it, it's fine.
Tell me it's going to be fine.
I said tell me it's going to be fine.
Oh great.
Now he can't hear me all of a sudden about that one.
It'll be fine.
It'll be fine.
Yes, of course it will.
All right, getting getting back to the the program at hand here and at this point we got no place else to go.
It took 11 innings but the Padres beat the Brewers last night five to four.
Again, 11 innings when
Freddy Furman singled in the automatic runner Bryce Johnson on the first pitch from reliever Grant Anderson with one out in the bottom of the 11th for a walk-off win So the two teams will play again tonight 805 will be the start time for the pregame on civic media stations in Richland Center Oshkosh Racine Kenosha Park Falls and Hayward
All right, we're gonna regroup.
We're gonna re-gather.
Hopefully Sheila Everhart and Hans Brighton Moser will be hearing me just fine.
We'll talk a little farm news with Hans.
We'll talk a little ag tourism with Sheila Everhart about pumpkin patches and corn mazes, all happening right after the Midwest Farm Report.
I'm Pat Crichtlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Hey Matt and Aaron, Greg Bach are coming up after this fine program.
There's begins at nine o'clock, runs from nine to 11.
And during the nine o'clock hour, they too will have a keyword as part of the go for the green and gold text to win contest.
We've got one of those going on this hour right now.
And the word that you have to text us before eight o'clock this morning is rival.
R-I-V-A-L.
Rival.
Text that using the Civic Media app to be in the running for a daily prize that includes cash and a gold-plated chain to see the green and the gold.
And then the grand prize tickets to see Green Bay versus Minnesota, a game in Green Bay in November.
Again, we had details a little earlier this hour, details again at the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
But again, to be
In the running for the daily prize, as well as that big grand prize, you've got to text us rival, R-I-V-A-L, on the Civic Media app before eight o'clock.
Sign up for our daily newsletters at upnorthnewswi.com.
That includes our question of the week and who is to blame if there's a government shutdown next week when the new fiscal year begins.
Is it Democrats who should just let majority Republicans, you know, do what they want?
Is it Republicans who know they need Democratic votes to pass a budget?
Is it President Trump who should be rising above the party politics and crafting a deal so there's not a government shutdown?
Whatever your thoughts of it to answer the question of the
week.
And to see it first on Sunday mornings, sign up for our newsletter at up north news wi.com.
Oh, when I mentioned Jane McNair is coming up next, not only will she have another keyword to win, but at 10 o'clock, she's going to have Dr. David Drake, a UW professor and extension wildlife specialist.
That will be her guest along with me at 9 30.
If she'll still have me
Well, we'll see, you know, it's always either I click the button, I show up in the studio or I find out it doesn't work anymore.
You know who it still works for here?
It works for Sheila Averhart and it works for Hans Breitenmoser.
Hans is a dairy farmer from Lincoln County up near Merrill and Sheila is with the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association.
And we love talking to them every other Tuesday about farm and egg tourism issues.
Good morning to both of you.
Hope you're doing
well.
And I'm sure it's nothing personal.
I'm sure it's not.
Yes.
And Sheila, you doing well?
Good morning.
Thank you for having us.
Absolutely.
Hans, I always like to start just a little bit with what's what's happening in farm news.
And the thing that certainly is sticking out for me is soybeans, where again, we, we should be shipping about $12 billion worth of soybeans China.
They haven't purchased a single bean yet.
They have been getting their soybeans from Brazil, and based on yesterday's headlines, probably will be getting more from Argentina because of Donald Trump's tariffs.
I know you don't know the answer to this, but boy, at what point is there any sense of, is panic the wrong word for people who are depending on having a good harvest and finding a market for those beans?
Well, I think banning is probably a reasonable word for the cash crop farmers.
I mean, we have a dairy farm.
We grow a little tiny bit of soybeans.
This year, we grew 100 acres of soybeans for the non-GMO edible soybean market.
And a lot of those will go to Asia.
So that market is...
you know, not great.
But yeah, I mean, we're a commodity exporting country, and when your trade relationships with other countries aren't spectacular, that tends to push commodity prices down, and we can only use so much of those beans ourselves.
Other countries know how to grow stuff, and they certainly will, and economies like Argentina and Brazil, of course, they rely on their ag exports as well, so they're very happy when we make core trade deals.
and they become the preferred supplier.
Yeah.
And again, this all relates to the government shutdown that could potentially happen next week in this way.
This should be one of the things Congress is working on right now is whether this particular trade war is in the nation's best interest or should they
have some more oversight over what the president is doing.
But we can't even get to that point if they can't even keep the government open.
So that that's where the two things are connected.
And again, we'll continue to follow this story.
And of course, on the Midwest Farm Report early mornings on many of these civic media stations.
Now, Hans and I have spoken repeatedly about diversity in Wisconsin farming that also includes a tourism component.
It might just be, you know, local visitors coming to a dinner, it might be people
coming from far away to see pumpkin patches and corn mazes.
That's the kind of thing we have this time of year and Sheila Everhart is watching all that for us from the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association.
Sheila, this strikes me as prime time for farmers that want to have corn mazes or pumpkin patches and the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association is all over promoting that kind of stuff, right?
Absolutely.
I just shake my head Pat.
You know, the USDA has confirmed that we're looking at double digit income loss again.
Not only is it our soybeans, but it's also our corn commodity prices are not good.
So what is good for farmers to help make that ends meet is agricultural tourism.
Our farmers are innovative and they're great at growing crops, but right now they're focusing on growing the corn for corn maze to allow
guests that are many generations removed from a family farm to go out and walk through the corn, learn about how to grow corn, what it looks like to be in a corn field, and have an experience in a corn maze.
And most importantly, they're willing to pay for that experience that gives that farmer an additional revenue stream.
And why do parents like corn mazes?
Because it's actually
learning, it's encouraging problem solving, building communication skills and cooperation, promoting being outdoors and promoting exercise and encouraging language development.
And it's a time for families to be together to explore, to learn, to have fun and to support our local farmers.
And you know, Sheila, thanks to technology, making these corn mazes used to be a lot harder.
And now the technology GPS, I assume, is what makes these mazes much more interesting, much more intricate, right?
Well, we have some farmers that are using technology to the highest degree.
They even have developed apps for smartphones so you can pull up.
You can scan the QR code.
It goes right to the corn maze app.
It gives you clue.
You can track your your distance and what clues you've obtained.
And it leads you to an even an escape room that is right within the corn maze.
It all depends on the farmer.
There are many farmers that are still doing the corn mazes the old fashioned way with the grid paper and designing it and going out.
and cutting it with their mowers.
It just depends on the farm.
A lot of farms are having trivia.
How many gallons of milk does it take to make a pound of butter?
Or how many gallons of milk does it take to make a gallon of ice cream?
So that our guests are learning something within the maze.
So it just depends on the farm itself because every one of our farms is
unique and offers different experiences whether you are in a very ink very specific design maze to look like something that is so beautiful that you see the design from the sky or from a drone footage or if it's just a design that was cut by the farmer and includes trivia so
It's a great opportunity for families to get out and enjoy our fall season.
We're talking to Sheila Everhart from the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association and Hans Breitenmoser, Derry Farmer up in the Merrill area and Hans the corn maze aspect of it and using GPS technology.
If you could go back, I mean, there's been a lot of changes in farming in 40 to 50 years.
But what what GPS has enabled farmers to do in terms of what planting, harvesting, yield, all of that, but then to also have a little bit of fun with the GPS.
I think that anybody's farm grandparents or great grandparents would just would just be tickled at at both aspects of what you can do with satellites now.
Well, and it's a generational thing, you know I'm I'm too young to be a curmudgeon but just you know my again my experience with the corn mazes when they have first get out and and in the middle of the night I have to chase him through the corn my son on the other hand was packing corn silage yesterday because we started chopping yesterday and He pushed the right buttons on the GPS on one of the pack tractors, so he didn't even have to steer on the bunker silo It just moved him over 50 inches every past so
that's that's the difference in in in the generations
for sure.
Absolutely.
And it's not just the corn by the way, I think I think I've told the story before about on our street and we're going back 20 plus years now.
There were these triplets and the triplets were like three or four years old.
And the sun was going down and we were just talking with the neighbors.
And next thing we know the triplets are gone.
And they thought we were playing hide and seek.
So even though we're calling for them in the cornfield,
they're not calling back.
And that was a crazy 20 minutes, a fearful 20 minutes with the sun going down till we found them.
these, I like these organized mazes much, much better.
And Sheila, to that end, the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association has a maze challenge where you can visit a maze between September 11 and November 2.
For a chance to win prizes, you go to wiagtourism.com.
And involves taking a photo.
put it on social media, use the tag Watamaze, and why that I mean W-A-T-A for Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association, W-A-T-A-Maze, M-A-Z-E, and then random winners will be selected.
You guys have found a way to mix farm tourism and photography and social media to make this a fun event.
Yep, we want everyone highly engaged.
And I will say, Pat, our farmers really make sure that the corn mazes are safe
everyone goes in, comes out.
They have a corn maze checklist and they are ready for our guests to come out and enjoy the corn maze this fall and go to the pumpkin patches and pick their pumpkins and just enjoy farm fresh food while they're on the farm.
You took me right to our final point here, and that was pumpkin patches.
Again, a big popular thing coming up this time of year.
And I have to admit, I know very little about.
pumpkin growth in Wisconsin on farms, how much of it is done like for income versus as kind of a more of a hobby.
But this is again, prime season for farmers who've been working on growing pumpkins to have visitors come in.
And I would imagine at the website, people can learn more about that as well.
Yes, and we do have some podcasts that are on wiatourism.com and we have pumpkin farmers talk exactly what it means to be a pumpkin farmer, how they grow their pumpkins and how they sell and market their pumpkins.
And really a pumpkin and a sweet corn stand are the easiest to end the corn maze.
Those are the three easiest ways for people to start with agricultural tourism.
We have a lot of young farmers
that are in high school, that are starting their pumpkin patches and their pumpkin wagons, and then they continue to grow as they learn the process of growing and harvesting pumpkins.
And then it becomes a family affair.
And often these pumpkin sails help to put our young farmers through college.
Yeah, and I and again, I can testify now having four grandkids that as as each one has come up in age and get to what would be a prime age for corn mazes and pumpkin patches and rolling around in whatever you'd call them the the the corn pits.
It's not a ball pit.
It's a corn pit just filled with with dried corn.
The kids love that.
And all the other things that you can do for family friendly ag tourism, go to wiagtourism.com.
Sheila Everhart, thank you so much as always and Hans
Brighton Moser, Dairy Farmer up in Lincoln County.
Always great to connect with you as well.
Thanks for joining us.
Have a wonderful day.
Thanks, Pat.
Thank you
very much, and thank you for supporting Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism and our small to medium family farms.
You bet.
Thank you very much.
It's always good to see you all.
And we'll have our tag team duo of Cam Stevenson from Washington, D.C.
and Dan Schaefer from the Recombobulation Area talking politics in the next hour.
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.
Coming up after the eight o'clock news, we will be hearing again from meteorologist Brittany Merleau, who says,
This is this great dreariness that we have here in the Chippewa Valley is going to brighten up as the day goes on.
So we'll get the details and also get the latest from Robin Tigerton who I've got his updates.
I just hadn't passed them along yet.
So we've got that all ahead of Cam Stevenson from the nation's capital and then Dan Schaefer coming up at 8.35.
A lot still to cover here on this Tuesday morning.
And again the go for the green and gold contest text to win you have to buy eight o'clock So you only got the six minutes here text in the word rival RIVAL You'll be in the running for a daily prize as well as the grand prize of tickets to see the game between Green Bay and Minnesota in Green Bay in November So I mentioned with Hans Brighton Moser there
the whole notion of a government shutdown and it getting in the way of the trade war and markets for farmers, that's not the only way that farmers and the food supply will be impacted.
And in fact, I've put together on our website, upnorthnewswi.com, an article all about the ways that people in Wisconsin would be affected by a government shutdown.
Now, it's not a done deal yet that there will be a shutdown.
There could still be a budget deal, but here's the problem.
Congress is off all this week for Rosh Hashanah for the Jewish New Year.
They'll pick up again on Monday, but they've got till Tuesday night at midnight to reach a deal either on a budget or a continuing resolution to, again, just keep treading water while they work out more of a permanent budget solution.
But the way that Republicans and Democrats are talking even though there've been just a series of continuing resolutions for the past two plus years Basically since the time that Republicans took control of the House of Representatives But it does not sound like that's gonna happen this time that Republicans will be content to let the government shut down because they don't want to negotiate with Democrats even though
They can't pass a budget without Democratic votes.
They don't have enough unity amongst themselves because some of the Republicans want even more cuts.
They want things even more drastic and there are enough Republicans who say, well, no, we're good with some cuts, but that's too far for us and we are in vulnerable seats.
And so we can't go as far as you want.
But of course other Republicans say, nope, you're not going far enough.
and they seriously cannot agree amongst themselves most of the time.
And so that's why they need a handful of Democratic votes to get something done, but they don't wanna negotiate with Democrats for it.
In other words, they're betting on pain.
They're almost wishing for pain, that with a shutdown, enough Americans will feel it and put pressure on Democrats to say, you know what, just go along with whatever cuts they want.
And Democrats, since they're the ones that typically want a functional government and don't want people to be hurt, have oftentimes gone along.
Not always.
And frankly, every time there has been an actual shutdown of the government, it has always blown up in the faces of the Republicans who are pushing for it.
The public sees this.
The public knows that a government shutdown is not necessary.
That in every other aspect of our lives,
We have to compromise.
We have to negotiate with each other.
We have to reach deals.
And why can't you guys, just because you're politicians, doesn't make you immune to compromise and dealmaking?
And in the same way, back to my article, we are not immune to a government shutdown.
For example, maybe you eat.
It's not just farmers.
that are impacted in the global markets, but they will have to wait for maybe crop subsidy payments or loans.
Food safety inspections may come to a halt.
Farmers are going to lose access to data that can plan, help them plan their harvests and their plantings.
The Environmental Protection Agency may halt or slow inspections of drinking water and chemical facilities.
Maybe you travel, and it doesn't matter whether you fly out of a big airport like Mitchell in Milwaukee or a little one like Eau Claire or Mozanie, workers with the Transportation Safety Administration, the TSA, they will be forced to work without pay.
A lot of federal employees will be sent home and not get paid.
Others will have to work and not get paid.
until the shutdown is over.
And are those folks and air traffic controllers and others, are they willing to pick up extra shifts?
Because, you know, they're stretched thin already.
If they're not going to get paid at all?
No, they're not.
And so travel delays are almost a certainty.
The men and women who serve our country in uniform, in our armed forces, will not get paid.
And they, in many cases, are thousands of miles away from their families.
and now cannot financially support them.
They're far from home and not getting paid.
That doesn't sit well with a lot of folks.
Now, the mail will still be delivered because the post office, you know, pays for itself through postage and other things.
Social security payments will continue to go out, but other activities will be halted because all the workers at social security offices throughout Wisconsin and the rest of the country, they will be furloughed.
So there will not be the start of
payments for new recipients.
There will not be benefit verifications.
Maybe you need a mortgage, but you need the IRS to verify income and social security numbers.
Well, that won't happen because again, the workers who do that are going to be sent home without pay.
Maybe you have a kid that uses Head Start.
There are 16,000 Wisconsin children who rely on Head Start services, but childcare centers won't get the federal grants they need to stay open.
if the Department of Health and Human Services is temporarily shut down.
Of course, there's national parks, scenic trails, lakeshores, scenic riverways.
Some will be closed, others will be open, but trash won't get picked up.
There won't be anybody doing customer service and so forth.
I've got all that and more in an article at our website upnorthnewswi.com.
If you want to learn more about the Wisconsin impact of a potential government shutdown, and if you want to hear the latest of what's happening right now in Washington, DC, well stick around.
Cam Stevenson from Below the Beltway and Courier Newsroom is standing by live from the nation's capital with the latest.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
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