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We're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by UpMorth News.
Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of UpMorth News, Pat Craiglow.
Well, hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It is 6 0 6 now on a Wednesday morning, September 24.
2025.
It's another beautiful morning to have you here up north live from Lake Rosota from wherever you're spending your mornings listening across the civic media radio network or catching us on all the many ways that you can listen to us live from 69am weekdays or on demand all through the rest of the day.
We appreciate you starting your day right here.
I got a question for you.
Do you think Donald Trump watched Jimmy Kimmel last night?
I mean, he couldn't resist, right?
I mean,
What would a narcissist be if you can't help yourself and have to turn on the guy who showed you thought you had canceled, but due to popular uprising from not just liberals, not just moderates, but from a lot of conservatives who appreciate the First Amendment?
having that full range of people demanding that Jimmy Kimmel be returned to the air, and he did, so we will play a couple of clips about that.
Coming up, oh, in about 15 minutes or so, so stick around for that.
Of course, did you watch?
Did you have any impressions on what Jimmy Kimmel said about his return or anything else that you have for questions or comments along the way here?
Just a reminder, you can get into the comment sections of
Facebook and YouTube for up north news or civic media.
Best of all use the civic media app to text us and I believe the phones are working again.
So we're going to really start plugging the phones next week because tomorrow and Friday the show will be on the road.
But when things when things get back normal here next week is going to be a lot of fun.
Tony says on YouTube I tried to watch Kimmel but it's on so late.
Yeah, same.
Same goes for the Brewers when they're on the West Coast.
Again, I missed nothing.
They lost seven to nothing.
However, their magic number is two to get the best record throughout and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Coming up this morning, we're going to be talking to State Superintendent of Public Education, Jill Underly.
That's at about 735.
Late last week, she delivered her annual State of Education address in the State Capitol Rotunda.
And Jill Underly, especially having been
freshly reelected earlier this year to a new four-year term, does not have to hold back.
And, you know, we'll tell you what she really thinks, especially of efforts to, you know, shovel more of your tax dollars into private school vouchers.
And so we'll talk to her about that and many other things along the way.
Of course, you know, part of the real meat and potatoes of having this show is, is not for, you know, Pat Kraitlota, yeah, but to talk up up North news and especially the many products that we have here, including a newsletter that you can sign up for.
Head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com, click subscribe in the banner on top of our homepage and get to be a subscriber.
Today, for example, I got to bring in Parker Olson, who's producing this little party down in Madison studio A2.
How are you this morning?
I'm doing good.
I'm doing better after I saw the newsletter this morning.
Ellie is our new newsletter editor.
You know, because of my advanced age, Ellie appears to be 11 years old, but I know that she's older than that because I mean, you, you appear to be 13, but I know that they wouldn't let you have this job as a 13 year
Oh God, how can she be younger than me, Pat?
You'll see.
You'll see.
Next week, she's going to start making regular appearances.
And here's why.
Here's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to it.
So I opened up this morning's newsletter.
And she writes, this summer, my boyfriend and I went to see Styx, the Kevin Cronin band of REO Speedwagon fame, and Don Felder of the Eagles.
I also saw the Doobie Brothers with my mom and my grandma, three generations who enjoy the same music.
This fall, the Eagles and the Doobie Brothers have been two main bands in my music rotation.
Well, either she likes the old guy music or she's working a little too hard to, you know,
it in good stead with the radio show host here.
And I don't think it's that because, you know, I'm not her boss.
So she doesn't have to do that.
But I just think that she's already demonstrating great taste in music.
So there
That's good.
had to write.
She also reminds us that the there's a special fall edition of the newsletter coming out on Friday, all about fall festivals around Wisconsin, October Fests, spooky sights as we get closer to Halloween and more.
So if you want to see that in your inbox on Friday, get over to UpNorthNewsWI.com and sign up for that.
So did you try to stay up and watch the Brewers again out in San Diego?
to stay up.
Good.
Good.
Yeah, like I said, it appears you missed nothing, seven, nothing, the brewer's lost.
But again, these are in football, you refer to this as garbage time.
Yeah, you don't want to get hurt.
And you don't want to get in such a funk, you know, that you
you know, hobbling to the postseason.
You don't I
fear there was another another new pitcher for the Brewers yesterday and I spent the whole first part of the season learning new pitchers names.
Yeah, I'm not gonna get to know these names because they're not going to be on the playoff roster.
And so the Brewers they wrap up the series in San Diego with a day game and
Of course, out here for us, that's mid-afternoon by the time they get started out in Southern California.
So the pregame will begin at 2.35 this afternoon on stations in Richland Center, Oshkosh, Racine, Park Falls, and Hayward.
Then the Brewers are off tomorrow and then begin that final home stand of the series against the Cincinnati Reds at American Family Field.
By the way, Quinn Priester is pitching
in this afternoon's tilt against the Padres.
Yes.
Yeah.
Now Bruce Zimmerman.
Don't know not Bruce Zimmerman, which I thought was a made up name with is that a pseudonym of some sort?
It could be.
But yeah, he gave up a grand slam in the first inning.
Oh, did he?
Nice.
So yeah, so again, don't don't get used to him.
Excellent.
I
I have neglected to mention we've been so busy with the Packers season started and the Brewers and Badger football and I've lost sight and I will not make that mistake going forward that the UW Badgers women's volleyball team is ranked seventh in the country and they beat 15th ranked Florida over the weekend in front of 12,000 people at the Cole Center.
The Badgers are seven and one on the season, and they will open the Big Ten season this Friday at the Field House against Rutgers.
So again, a good solid start for Badger Volleyball
Yes, clearly 12,000 people at the Cole Center thought so over the weekend, too.
And I just expect a really great year out of them once again.
Tony on YouTube.
I only had the youth and energy of Parker.
He says, see, Tony's got a connection to Cleveland.
So he said he did stay up to watch the Cleveland Guardians complete their amazing streak to take the division lead over Detroit after being 15 games back.
Not that long ago.
Oh,
the tiger dude.
This is quite a collapse by Detroit.
That's happening right now.
We haven't talked about it at all.
But every so often I look out the corner of my eye, I'm like, Detroit had this thing sewn up.
they were
think.
Yeah.
And now they're they're in a real fight for these last few days.
Oh, and by the way, we mentioned Tony all the time, but to your point about what was the pitcher's name, Bruce Zimmerman.
Bruce Zimmerman.
Yes.
Yeah, he says.
He says can't trust those Zimmerman says Tony Zimmerman on there.
Roger pops up on Facebook right now to say if there is a team going to garbage, it's the Detroit Tigers.
The Guardians have tied the Tigers and the Guardians hold the tiebreaker.
Whoa.
So yeah, we've got we've got something fun to watch for the final weekend of the season here.
So there you go.
All right, so we'll get back to Jimmy Kimmel's return to ABC coming up after, well, in about seven minutes or so.
But let me start by mentioning here closer to home that there is this governor's race here with Tony Evers not running for a third term.
And on the Republican side, there is finally somebody with some widespread name ID as Congressman Tom Tiffany.
gives the Republicans somebody with some recognition.
Now again, it's not huge recognition, but the seventh congressional district that Tom Tiffany represents, I mean, that is basically the northern third of Wisconsin.
And he was in the legislature for about seven years prior to being in Congress.
Tiffany made his announcement on a right wing radio show.
And he said, I give us the best chance to win in 2026.
He says, I will not allow our state to be dragged down that woke and broke road.
And that that really is top Tiffany stock and trade has been going back to his days in the legislature is just, you know, the, the, the cliches of, of Republican right wing conservative talk radio.
So you're going to hear about, you know, going woke and all kinds of things that have nothing to do with the actual issues that affect your daily lives and mine.
and that's really reflected in his record.
I mean, he is not exactly putting together a record that's going to win over moderate voters.
Tiffany has won in solidly Republican districts, and he's been able to do that with positions that are against women's reproductive health care rights in favor of potentially allowing open pit mining in northern Wisconsin, hostile to workers' rights,
opposed to affordable health care, dismissive of gun safety proposals.
And to me, I mean, the thing that was a real deal breaker was his vote against accepting some state's electoral votes back on January 6, 2021, going along with Donald Trump's plans to steal an American election.
But he also is in favor of what Donald Trump is doing right now with all these tariffs and the way they're hiking consumers bills.
Well, in fact, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin gave us the first look at an ad that's going to start running today.
Let's give a listen to the State Democratic Party welcoming Tom Tiffany into the race.
Tariff lover Tom Tiffney is raising your cost of living.
Tariffs that are being done are really good things.
In Congress, he voted to protect the tariffs that are forcing you to pay more for nearly everything you buy.
Tariff Tom raised grocery prices.
Higher tariffs.
Prescription drugs and tools.
Higher tariffs.
He raised school supply costs.
Higher tariffs.
It
even costs more now to wipe your a**.
There
you see one part of what's going to be a multi-faceted approach to tackle Tom Tiffany, because at this point, you know, he will be the Republican frontrunner.
The one thing that he does not have coming into the race, which was a bit surprising, is an endorsement from Donald Trump.
And what I mean by that is, look, last year in the eighth congressional district in northeast Wisconsin, Tony Weed got Donald Trump's endorsement right away.
So right away that we were like, who's Tony Weed?
He hadn't even announced yet and Trump had endorsed him, which was, you know, great communication by those two.
But again, Tony Weed started the race, a guy who was an unknown with Trump's endorsement.
Tom Tiffany and Donald Trump are indistinguishable and yet when Tiffany approached Trump to say he was gonna be running He did not come out of that conversation with Trump's endorsement now.
I'm I'm quite confident he he will get it but It's it's a little bit unusual that somebody who is such a
I guess we'll be kind and say a loyalist to Donald Trump is still lacking that endorsement, but there he is with the endorsement for governor on the Republican side and then four or five other candidates joining on the Democratic side.
The primary will be next August for the general election next November to be Wisconsin's next governor.
We will talk about the return of Jimmy Kimmel to the airways next.
First, from the heart of America's up north, live from Lake Wissoda.
Thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
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.
Also coming up on the program today, we'll be talking at 835 to Kathy Hampstead.
She's a national health policy expert with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
She'll be talking about the impact of Congress and the president killing tax credits that have made health insurance more affordable to Americans over the past four years.
Restoring those credits to make health insurance affordable is truly at the heart of the fight in Washington.
that could result in a government shutdown next week.
And that's actually the focus of our question of the week, which folks are getting on Sunday mornings by signing up for our weekend politics newsletter Sunday mornings with Pat Crichtlow over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
The question of the week is, who's to blame if there's another government shutdown?
Is it republicans who have the majority in the house and the senate and they hold the white house and yet they can't agree among themselves on a new federal budget?
Is it Democrats were to blame because most Republicans know what they want but they need a handful of Democratic votes and so the Democrats just go along or Does most of the fault lie with President Trump, you know, mr. Art of the deal Who can't seem to cobble a deal that would you know be good for most Americans?
So again, that's our question of the week sign up in our newsletter up north news wi.com Civic media has a new daily newsletter as well filled with all kinds of
links, show highlights, little news blurbs, and more.
You'll find it through Substack.
So to get Civic Media's new daily newsletter, here's the address.
Go to civicmediatoday.substack.com.
Again, civicmediatoday.substack.com.
One more thing that's coming up in our next hour.
It's the it's day three of our go for the green and gold text to win contest will give you a keyword just after the seven o'clock news you'll have until eight o'clock to use the civic media app to text us that keyword to be in the running for a daily prize.
and then also a grand prize, which is tickets to a Minnesota versus Green Bay game in Green Bay in November to watch a little football action.
So stick around for that keyword in the next hour.
All right, well again Jimmy Kimmel returned to his late night show.
This is the most I've ever talked about Jimmy Kimmel probably more than I've actually watched it Probably more of a Stephen Colbert guy though.
I haven't seen late night TV in forever with this early radio show I have nothing against Jimmy Kimmel But it's surprising that we're all talking about him right now But it was his show and it was a very flimsy context that was put over some of his words
That led disney abc to say last week that they were suspending him indefinitely Because of the way that he reacted to the charlie kirk murder When of course anybody could look closely at the words and see that they were positively tame by comparison And did not justify being removed indefinitely and of course that indefinitely only lasted about six days before a whole lot of people spoke up
Yeah, including people who don't normally agree with Jimmy Kimmel on the issues, but did stick up for our First Amendment rights to free speech and expression without undue government coercion.
And so here are a few clips from Jimmy Kimmel from last night here.
There is, for example, I want to see if I can introduce these right.
Nope.
And in fact, let's just, here he is talking about being back on air and really what President Trump tried to do to push him off air.
I am a tiny part of the Disney Corporation.
They welcomed me back on the air, and I thank them for that.
And I think unjustly, this puts them at risk.
The president of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs.
Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can't take a joke.
He was... I mean, that's really what it comes down to.
He can't take a joke, right?
And so one thing you didn't hear in there...
was an apology.
Jim from Brookfield on our text line summed it up well saying, good morning, Pat.
My wife and I stayed up to watch Jimmy Kimmel and thought he did a very good job spot on.
We noticed he never said he was sorry, but his message was remorseful to anyone who may have been offended.
We feel his emotions were sincere.
Here's a little bit more of Jimmy Kimmel talking about that.
He's gunning for our journalists, too.
He's suing them.
He's bullying them over the weekend.
His Foxy friend Pete Hegseth announced a new policy that requires journalists with Pentagon press credentials to sign a pledge, promising not to report information that hasn't been explicitly authorized for release.
That includes unclassified information.
They want to pick and choose what the news is.
I know that's not as interesting as muzzling a comedian, but it's so important to have a f***ing
free press, and it is nuts that we aren't paying more attention to it.
Walter Cronkite must be spinning in his grave right now.
He's dead, right?
Yes, yes.
And yes, would be spinning in his grave at this.
And so, again, I'm so much
I'm so happy to hear that Kimmel was much more on offense and defending free speech and in no way appeared to be cow-towed.
Here's one more clip to show that he's making the corner and turning back into comedy at the president, which is fair game in this country.
He tried his best to cancel me.
Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show.
That backfired bigly.
He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now.
So there we go.
Again, to the degree that it may have been just a big old distraction is a possibility.
And Trump, of course, couldn't help himself.
He had to comment on this.
So he took to his tiny social media feed, and he basically provided a confession.
that he, the president of the United States, had tried to remove Jimmy Kimmel and have the show canceled.
Lots of insults in his tweet.
He says, I think we're gonna test ABC out on this.
Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 million.
This one sounds even more lucrative.
Again, this is the president of the United States saying he's gonna be going after networks and owners to do whatever it is that he says, including canceling comedians who tell jokes about him.
That in itself is a joke and the joke we need to keep telling because we have the freedom to do that in America.
Today's history lesson is next.
You're up north.
They're staying as part of today's history lesson for the September 24th, 2025, releasing his sixth solo album, Brand New Day, on this day in 1999.
Way back in the history books here on this day in 1789, the first United States Congress passed the Judiciary Act, which creates the office of Attorney General and the federal judiciary system, including the formation of a Supreme Court.
So a free independent court system dates back to this date in 1789.
This is the anniversary of the birth in 1942 of the late Jerry Marsden.
He's the front man and the namesake of Jerry and the
pacemakers.
Now
I had considered from Jerry and the pacemakers playing their other one of their other big hits you'll never walk alone, which of course is still the song used by the Liverpool football club.
But I don't know the extent to which Parker pays attention to Premier League soccer and would have known that connection of Liverpool and their son.
No, I had
all.
OK, all right.
Uh, the needless to say, the liver pudleons out there in the audience are very disappointed in you and in me for not playing that song.
Liver puddleons?
Liver puddleons are what they are called.
Yes.
You're serious?
That's what it is.
It got to the point, yes.
It got to the point, uh, when we, when we lived in a British territory, we lived on Grand Cayman for those three years.
And when we first got there, you know, it's like, we were the ones with the funny accent because
there
aren't that many.
Everybody thought we were Canadian.
because our accident, we're close enough to Canada, but we don't say sorry.
We don't say a boot, you know.
But by the time it was done, not only could I tell the difference in accents between Caymanian, Jamaican, and Trini, but
I
could get to, I could tell which folks were from Liverpool versus London.
And of course,
cities up to the north and Scotland.
Scotland, you could tell because you couldn't understand a damn thing they were saying.
You know, rocks in their mouth.
Scotland
sounds
like that.
But yeah, Liverpool has its own distinct accent.
While we're speaking of things British, it was on this day in 1954 that the iconic London double decker bus was introduced.
The AEC Routemaster was the name of it.
double beat.
Yeah, yeah, some kind of a make and model of something.
So yeah, the EC route master.
There was one of them in Eau Claire for the longest time.
There's a mall that's not there anymore, London Square Mall.
Okay.
And they had one of these double decker buses as their shuttle bus.
It would come around the college campus and other parts of town.
And you could just hop on and get a free ride to to the mall.
I like it.
And I, I don't, I don't know, frankly, why more places don't do that.
Yeah.
And say, you know, it doesn't have to be a double decker bus, but something unique and say, Hey, you, you want to come on here?
Free ride.
Cause we know you're going to spend money.
I don't think there's a lot of passenger capacity, but yeah, I could see something like that working out.
Let's see.
So that was 1954 in 1966.
The number one song was Cherish by the Association.
In 1979, the Eagles released their sixth album, The Long Run, with the lead single being Heartache Tonight, a song written, co-written by Bob Seeger.
Then we move up to 1983.
The number one hit was by Billy Joel.
Listen,
boy, I don't wanna see you let a good thing slip away.
the juggernaut of an album.
Tony says, not a bad thing to be mistaken for a Canadian in today's world.
Yes.
Absolutely true.
Yeah.
On this day in 1988, here was the new number one song.
It was the first ever acapella song to hit number one.
A little song I wrote.
You might want to sing it note for note.
Don't worry.
to be happy.
First, not guitar song.
It kind of surprised me that that it took till 1988 for that to happen.
And again, time does what it does to various songs.
Some age well, some don't.
I'm sure a lot of people hear this now and they think that it's very cliche.
And I just
Like to remind people that when this song was fresh and first out it was so different and unique and novel and most importantly happy Lord we we needed happy days back then in 1988 just as we do now and it was
Well sure, why not?
It's an easy one for the kids, you know?
You don't have to do any sensory or anything like that.
Let's move up to 1991 with Nirvana's breakthrough album, Never Mind, being released on this day 34 years
ago.
On that very same day in 1991, the Red Hot Chili Peppers released Blood Sugar Sex Magic containing the hits Under the Bridge and Give It Away.
That album would sell over 10 million copies worldwide.
Up to 1996, and this is the title track to a musical film that was directed by and starring Tom Hanks.
thing you do is one of those, I think, underappreciated pieces.
I'm going to bet, Parker, you have not seen that thing you do.
no.
It was a bit of a takeoff on, say, the Beatles, again, back in that era, trying to create boy bands.
And put a group together.
Now, this one wasn't all random guys.
They knew each other.
And it talks about how hard they worked.
But then you get a little bit of fame.
Fame does what fame does to some people.
You end
lake.
If you just live, you know, you just never leave your house.
You're just an absolute shut-in.
That track, by the way, written by Adam Schlesinger, it's like Trump's saying to see the benefit.
Base player for Fountains of Wayne.
This is also the anniversary of the date of Richard Bond.
And now, again, because of the name bong, you know, a lot of people like a lot of jokes when they see the bong bridge or the bong memorial or all the other things.
Parker's trying.
Parker's not even trying to stifle his laugh.
to be honest.
Oh, no, no, no.
Because I like, again, Richard bong was born this day in 1920.
and he's a Medal of Honor recipient from Northern Wisconsin.
And so I just wanted to share that story real quick.
Richard Bong was one of the most decorated American fighter pilots and our country's top flying ace in the war.
He's credited with shooting down 40 Japanese aircraft with his Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
He grew up on a farm in Poplar where he became interested in aircraft.
while watching planes flying over the farm that were carrying the daily mail for President Calvin Coolidge, whose summer White House was in superior.
You might not have known that little historical nugget, either, that Calvin Coolidge's summer White House was in superior.
And so Richard Bong became, again, a decorated fighter pilot.
He died in 1945 at the age of 24 in California while testing a new jet fighter, the Lockheed P-80, shortly after the war ended.
But Richard Bong, a Medal of Honor recipient from Wisconsin, was born this day in 1920.
One more birthday to pass along again the late great puppeteer Muppeteer Jim Henson But did you know that Jim Henson and the Muppets actually had two songs that charted on the billboard hot 100?
There was I'm sure a lot of you your first gas would be rainbow connection by Kermit the Frog And yes, it hit number 25 in 1979 on the charts, but before that the Muppets actually hit the charts
in 1970 with this little nugget from Ernie.
Oh,
rubber
ducky, you're the one.
You make bath time lots of fun.
Rubber ducky, I'm awfully fond of you.
And then we can get into the whole, you know, pert and Ernie living together thing and rubber duckies and everything else.
But let's just keep it for what it is, the sweetness of a man loving his rubber ducky.
Nothing wrong
with
that.
Yeah, nothing wrong with that at all.
Today is Women's Health and Fitness Day.
It is National Punctuation Day.
Sorry, no, National Punctuation Day.
I had the wrong one on there.
Let's see, birthdays include F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Oh, and this is National Cherry's Jubilee Day.
I believe Cherry's Jubilee is at the one you pour some brandy on and you set it on fire.
Oh, is that what that is?
believe it is and I have had that once in a restaurant and you never forget it in part because your eyebrows get a little singed but yeah it was one of the best desserts ever so so get out there and set fire to some cherries today kids and celebrate cherries jubilee day I
would
star that
Okay, well, now I gotta run to Google after the show and check that one out.
Just add a
drop in.
birthday to Ben Platt.
All right.
What else you got for entertainment news this morning?
excited
that.
Wait.
So Bill Nye did not like predate you that much.
You actually know Bill Nye.
Oh yeah.
use
I was going to say yes, probably as classroom videos rather than being a new TV show.
But when when his show when he was first doing the show, it was very much a again, it was novel, it was unique.
Somebody was using, you know, quick cuts and camera shots and animation and everything else to make science cool.
And so now he gets a star on the Walk of Fame.
So that's cool.
Oh, it was a little edgy for its time.
Again, for talking about science.
So, um, yeah.
What's, what's the, the, the new rules here for the voice that you've got?
The
And I'm not familiar with this show.
Apparently the host of the show.
Carson daily.
Yeah.
is going to have a card that if no coaches turn their chair, he can make them get a second audition, which is specified as being blind, which I thought was the point of the show was that it was
blind.
It is the point of the show.
But
thought that
pique
All right.
I'm more interested in what happened to the friend of Joe Exotic.
during an animal show, it's a terrible tragedy, but you want to see my shocked face.
It, uh, that one of Joe, because Alex, uh, buddies was killed by a tiger.
All right.
Uh, there's today's history lesson.
We're talking to state superintendent Jill under Lee in the next hour.
I'm packed right low.
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.
6.52, welcome back on this Wednesday morning.
Coming up later today on the Maggie Dawn Show, an interesting pair of guests, there's Judge John Daniel Tinder, formerly of the U.S.
District Court for the Southern District of Indiana and the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, a Reagan and Bush appointee, and Judge Diane Wood, formerly of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, appointed by former President Bill Clinton.
The judges are appearing with Megidon as part of the Keep Our Republics Article III coalition.
In other words, they will be discussing a letter signed for the recent Constitution Day holiday by more than 40 retired judges representing both political parties.
The judges will reflect on the vital role of the judiciary in light of rising attacks on judges and also the disinformation that's out there, the erosion of public trust and more.
So again, a couple of retired U.S.
Court of Appeals judges appearing with Maggie Dawn to talk about the attacks on a free and independent judiciary and the necessity to pay attention to that and to stand up against it.
Stop me if you're noticing a familiar theme here, where we're standing up for the freedom of our courts.
We're standing up for freedom of speech and things like that.
So again, Maggie Dawn has that and more coming up this afternoon.
Looking at some headlines from Western Wisconsin, I took note the other day that we've been talking about data centers a lot.
There's a big data center being proposed for Port Washington.
There's a big one going up in Beaver Dam.
There's certainly big plans by Microsoft and South East Wisconsin.
There had also been plans for a data center in the Menominee area.
About a $1.6 billion project is what they were told, but during the Menominee City Council meeting earlier this week, the mayor there said he's drafting a memo.
to the company behind the proposed data center saying that the city is no longer interested in pursuing the project.
That came after a whole lot of people in Menominee and parts around Dunn County said they just don't know enough.
There hasn't been enough transparency about what this company is, what the data center would do, and what would the impact be?
of a data center.
Now the the main impact from what we've been led to understand for these data centers is water use.
That when you're putting that many computer servers in a building, you could air condition them, which would cost a lot more money than it would to simply run water through pipes, get it out of the ground or a nearby body of water where it's cool, and then it'll cool off the building and could potentially be recycled as well.
But how much water would be needed and what would the electric use be like in there?
We had a guest on from Clean, Wisconsin.
You'll recall about a week ago talking about enough electricity is needed to power all these servers to power just thousands upon thousands of homes.
So these things don't exist in a vacuum.
They don't exist in a cloud.
They are very quiet beasts.
that just sit there, but they don't just sit there, they take up resources.
And it's not to say that these shouldn't exist.
Maybe there are probably the right places for these things to be.
There are probably wrong places for these things to be in terms of access to affordable electricity and access to water.
That does not say drain the water table for nearby residents and things like that.
So in every one of these cases, you want as much
transparency, want as much homework to be done as possible.
People around Menominee did not think that that due diligence had been done yet.
So for now, at least, the city is saying that they are no longer interested in that proposed data center.
I'm seeing details here from mildstationweau.com if you want to learn more.
And while I was there, I took note of a story from yesterday that says the Lady Smith City Administrator
and his sibling are accused of trying to record the closed session of the county board.
According to the Russ County Sheriff's Office, 37-year-old Alan Christensen and 34-year-old Stephanie Christensen were arrested on suspicion of intentionally using, attempting to use or procure any people to use and attempt to use, well, that's a big mouthful, electrical, mechanical, or other devices to intercept oral communications.
basically trying to secretly record a closed session of the county board back in August at some point.
Now, it's not clear because it was a closed session what it was about, but these closed sessions usually have to do with some kind of personnel information.
So it could be that somebody was in trouble.
According to the criminal complaint, the sheriff's office said there was a woman in the law enforcement lobby that had used her cell phone to record a closed session meeting.
woman was identified as Stephanie Christensen.
Video footage showed that a closed session place card was on the door of the county boardroom.
Video footage shows Stephanie placing her phone up to the door to hear.
Video footage also shows her putting her ear close to the door and typing on her cell phone.
In the criminal complaint Stephanie said she sat through the whole closed session and was trying to hear but it was hard to hear because of a nearby soda machine so she was using her phone to enhance the audio.
the Russ County government website lists Alan Christensen as City of Lady Smith Administrator.
And so the incident is under investigation.
Again, more questions and answers on that.
But again, if you're having a closed session, because I did see some comments online about this thing, well, why are they even having a closed session in the first place?
That that sounded suspicious.
Closed sessions in and of themselves are not suspicious.
There are times when you need to discuss sensitive matters or personal matters.
Close sessions can be abused.
Don't get me wrong.
But by and large, if they're about fairly routine matters, then they should not be recorded.
And if that is the case for whatever intentions,
It could be that the Lady Smith City Administrator and a sibling may be in some trouble there.
Now, again, coming up a little bit later, we're going to talk to Dr. Jill Underly, the state superintendent of public instruction.
That will be at 7.35 and then at 8.35.
We are going to be talking to Kathy Hempstead, a national health policy expert with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation about the health care tax credits that Congress and the president have killed that Democrats want to restore
and how that could lead to a government shutdown fight as early as the middle of next week.
Plus our new keyword in the go for the green and gold text to win contest.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
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