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Lake Rosota Studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Cranklow.
Hey, good morning.
Nice to have you back here up north.
It's 7 0 6 on a Thursday morning, October 16th.
Parker Olson producing things down in Madison Studio A2 coming up in our next half hour.
We're going to be talking to Cindy Greening, who is one of the organizers of the many No Kings protests that will be taking place around Wisconsin in nearly 100 locations on Saturday.
And then there will be millions of people
around the country, who are protesting as well, the things that the Trump administration has been doing for the past nine months here.
Rob from Tigerton says good morning from Tigerton, cloudy and 46 degrees with a beautiful sunrise.
I'm gonna have to take your word for it, Rob, because you're a little farther to the east than we are.
So I haven't seen that sunrise yet, but it should be more to it.
We also talked to conversation, all kinds of folks, including
candidates who are going to be part of next year's race and
Now, we try to let them know that this is a place where they can come in anytime, say hello, let us know what kind of things they're up to on their many campaigns.
There are several candidates, for example, for governor, and it's always nice when one of them is able to drop in and give us an update on their race.
And that is the case right now with State Senator Kelder Royce from Madison, who is running for governor and is in the, was in the Chippewa Valley overnight and joins us from Eau Claire this morning.
Kelder, good morning.
How are you?
It's good to see you as well.
I know you've had a long busy day of travel.
Yeah, no doubt.
Meeting a lot of folks.
And of course, having to find time to make those phone calls as well that every candidate has to do.
Talk about some of your recent travels.
Yesterday, we were in Jackson County, talked to about two dozen very, very enthusiastic Democrats and
then went to the People's Protest in Eau Claire.
And they've been continuously protesting for every week since Trump was inaugurated.
That was really inspiring to see the community support.
I was able to stop into the Eau Claire leader telegram and have an interview with Marshall Baumann there.
And today I'll be at the coffee class in Eau Claire and then later on to Chippewa Falls meeting with some union folks and
finishing the night at Rusk County's pizza and politics.
So it's a great fun itinerary.
And you can hear I'm a little horse because all I do is talk on the phone while we're in the car.
Absolutely you do.
I this is very reminiscent for me of 2018, when I was helping out my friend Dana walks when he was running for governor, you are just on the road constantly, you're all the time talking to people and making new friends, finding new donors, telling people about your positions and
especially in a multiple candidate field, what
it
is about you that stands out.
As far as the trip that you've been making right now, again, you're used to people knowing you around Madison.
You do have some statewide name ID, but there's always new people to meet out there.
So tell folks that you're going to meet some people for the first time today at the Eau Claire Democratic Party Coffee Clutch, something they do every week.
It's a great little informal conversation.
I've been there a few times myself.
So you want to give us your opening remarks to the people in that room that aren't familiar with you?
I'm Kel DeRoyce.
I'm a Democratic candidate for governor and I've been serving in the state senate since 2020.
I previously served two terms in the assembly, but more importantly, I'm a small business owner, mom and stepmom of five.
I'm an attorney by trading and I've been on the front lines in every progressive fight for about 25 years.
So whatever our legislative situation is,
in 2027, we're going to need a governor who's capable of thinking is done.
And I have spent my professional life doing that in all kinds of tough situations.
I'm really passionate about public education, about economic opportunity, raising wages and lowering costs for things like housing and childcare, and making sure that every Wisconsinite has health care.
And these are going to be big, big fights that we're going to be up against in the next couple of years.
We also need a governor who's going to stand up to Trump.
and be unequivocal and honest about what he is doing to our country and our freedoms.
We're talking to State Senator Kelder Royce, Democratic candidate for governor who's visiting through the Chippewa Valley right now.
And let's talk about the field in the race and how things were changed last week with the decision by Attorney General Josh Call not to join the race for governor, but instead to run for a third term as State Attorney General.
Now there are impacts there not only on the governor's race on you and everybody else who'd already announced, but
Frankly, what it means for the state that Josh Call has decided to run for a third term and perhaps serve as Attorney General for another four years.
What in your mind overall is the big impact of Josh Call deciding what he decided?
Well, the biggest impact is that Josh Call, who has been a great Attorney General for us and especially in this really dangerous Trump era, is going to be able to continue doing that.
I think
he understands more than anyone, what is at stake and why we need a Democratic attorney general.
And at the end of the day, he is excellent at his job and he did not want to leave Wisconsin in a position where we'd be struggling to elect a new governor and a new attorney general at the same time, just because it is so essential that we have a Democratic governor to protect us from the harms of the Republican regime in Washington.
This is also why political predictions are dangerous and why we appreciate people listening to this show.
But don't ever wage your money based on the things that I say, because
I would not have
been surprised if Josh Call had gotten into the governor's race.
And what I told people when we'd have these conversations, my responses was, and then Kelderoy's is going to be a slam dunk attorney general, you know, for the state.
But again, it all depends on what, you know, people make their decisions the way that they do.
And so now, with you running for governor, I mean, there's still
One or two question marks out there, people looking at whether former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes will be getting into the race.
You get the rumors about everybody, about Ron kind and everybody else.
But from a broad standpoint, looking at this field, I notice a lot of similarities to 2018.
Lots of candidates.
And frankly, as much as you want to stand out, but talking about the field, there's not a
There's not a bad choice in the bunch.
This is a nice problem for voters to have to get to know you and everybody else in the race.
A lot of these folks are friends of mine.
They're people that I've worked with in recent years.
folks I've mentored and so that's a great choice.
I mean there definitely are some issue areas where there's differences between the candidates among the candidates and we'll certainly I'm sure be talking about those as the race continues but yes I mean we do want to have robust primaries because I think it helps make our candidates stronger.
I will say I'm the only candidate in the race that's been through a primary before and so to have
had the opportunity as I have to travel throughout the state of Wisconsin, not just in 2018, but over the last five years in the state Senate.
And even beyond that, when I was the head of NREL Pro Choice Wisconsin, I've always made it a priority to get out of Madison, get out of Milwaukee and really connect with people around the state.
I think that's really, really important for our next governor.
And it's certainly going to be important for voters all around the state who are going to be participating in this primary.
You know, there is one candidate who's running ads already that we can hear on our radio network, and we're not going to get into the particulars of every candidate.
But when candidate Ryan Sternad is running commercial saying, you know, basically running as the blue collar candidate, he's a beer vendor, you know, at American Family Field and has, you know, the dirt under the fingernails aspect to it.
It always kind of hits me because as somebody who has served in elected office and has covered elected officials for all these years, it's not not work to have to do what you and other people do.
The work of representation, the work of legislating is very much a real job that requires real experience to do.
I've run a successful small business for 13 years that I founded.
I'm an attorney by training.
I ran a statewide nonprofit focused on reproductive rights for four years.
But I do think that the most difficult things that I have learned over 25 years are how to get things done with people whom you don't agree with all the time.
And in Wisconsin, we are a purple state.
Everyone has good ideas.
Everyone has something to offer.
Not every idea is good.
But what I have learned is that if you are willing and capable of digging into the details, building relationships, and listening to people, you actually can get a lot done, even in situations that might seem politically very difficult.
I've had some of my biggest political victories on passing bills and policies.
in Republican legislatures.
And I think people would be surprised.
They'd say, oh, Kelda Roy, she's from Madison.
She's, you know, she's a Democrat.
She's liberal.
She's an abortion rights supporter.
And they would be surprised to learn that I helped pass the first pro-choice law in 30 years.
through an anti-choice Republican assembly before I was even ever elected to anything.
And you do, you learn, you kind of get bruises and scars from these battles and you learn and you become better and you mature.
And I think, you know, my hope is that I'm always going to continue learning and becoming better.
But I feel like, yes, it is, there are fundamental skill sets that you
learn over time doing this work.
And those are going to be really important as we think about who's going to lead the state in the coming years.
Senator Kelder, Royce candidate for governor is our guest.
Now contrast what you just said about your experience and having to work across the aisle to potentially get things done.
Contrast that with one.
potential opponent.
And that would be Congressman Tom Tiffany on the Republican side and running for governor.
And where again, he'll say, well, I was in the state Senate and now I've served in Congress.
But where do you think the differences end when it comes to your level of experience versus his?
In fact, I wonder, you know, whether he's even holding regular town halls in his district.
I think
One thing that's been really disappointing about Tom Tiffany is that he's willing to just do whatever Trump wants, whether it's good for Wisconsin or not.
And I think that's hard because we deserve here in Wisconsin leaders of any party.
who will think for themselves, who will be their own men and women, and not be beholden to what some party boss or special interest or corporate overlord tells them.
And I think if you look at Tom Tiffany's voting record, that's the most disappointing thing about it.
Whatever Trump wants, he's the rubber stamp.
He's the yes man.
Of course, he's voted for some heinous things.
He's voted for a complete abortion ban at six weeks before most people even know they're pregnant.
That's the kind of ban that are killing women in states that have
implemented them since the DoB's decision.
He's voted to throw hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites off their health insurance and cause our premiums to skyrocket.
That's not the kind of leadership Wisconsinites want.
No, and I also noticed he tried to have it both ways on abortion when he got into the race and was asked about it and said, well, I support state law as it is right now.
me
This is the guy that spent his whole career grandstanding on this issue.
And now like so many other Republicans wants to run away from it now that it's unpopular.
But, you know, I think about his approach to lawmaking versus what I've spent the last
few years doing, where I've worked closely with Republican colleagues in the legislature to try to expand access to nurse practitioners.
We've got a huge healthcare workforce and healthcare provider shortage across the state.
And for many years, I was the only Democrat on that bill.
Actually, my own Democratic governor had vetoed it several times, but we compromised, we made changes.
We worked with stakeholders, including physicians and nurses.
And finally, we're able to get that bill done.
And that's going to have a positive impact.
in terms of people's ability to get health care, especially in rural areas of the state.
That's the work of being governor.
That's leadership.
Our guest is Senator Kelder Royce from Madison, candidate for governor, reporting in from the Chippewa Valley where she's been touring throughout the state and is on her way to Russ County later on today to continue her campaign, getting to meet people.
She'll be at the Eau Claire Democratic Party Coffee Clutch at their headquarters a little bit later on this morning.
Still ahead, we'll be talking to Cindy Greening who's organizing some of the No Kings protest rallies that'll be held in nearly a hundred places around Wisconsin coming up on Saturday.
From the heart of America's
up north live from Lake Wissota.
Thank you for making this a 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.
All right, well, the brewers have done the charitable thing here.
They have spotted the Dodgers two games and now can begin their roar back in Los Angeles.
Starting this afternoon, pregame begins at 430 on Civic Media stations in Richland Center, Oshkosh, Racine, Perk Falls and Hayward.
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Let's continue our conversation now with State Senator Kel DeRoy's Democratic candidate for governor, who's joining us as she's traveling through the Chippewa Valley this morning.
But Senator Roy's, there was a Senate session the other day.
We had Senator Chris Larson on yesterday talking a bit about it.
Along with all the other business, there was this notion of a resolution to honor the murdered right wing act.
of us Charlie Kurt and it it evolved in ways that were not entirely
unexpected.
For example, Senator Larson was, you know, gaveled out and had his mic cut off when he was trying to make sure we tell the full story of Charlie Kirk's life.
It's reminiscent of the whole CRT thing where people don't like it when you teach a full honest version of, you know, American history.
But for all to talk about bipartisanship, but there are definitely these moments where it's quite ironic that people that champion free speech are not necessarily rushing to embrace free
speech when it comes to resolutions like that.
It wasn't one of the finest moments on the Senate floor.
Yeah, it's been disappointing to see those instances where people who have a right under the rules to be talking and what forum is more important to be having free speech than in the halls where our elected representatives meet to debate ideas.
You know, this resolution, it's
It doesn't have any function.
It doesn't change any laws.
And so what is the harm of letting Democrats who oppose it have our say?
And what was striking to me about the resolution was not having one that related to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, but what was in it and what was not.
It was all about what a great guy he was and how courageous and all of the wonderful things that he supposedly did.
And not one word.
about political violence or condemning the increase in violent rhetoric or protecting all Americans and our right to express ourselves without fear of being harmed.
And to me, that is the most salient point.
We are living through a time where people feel that it's scary to speak out and say the truth.
And that is why I am more committed than ever.
to making sure that I tell the truth about what this Republican regime is doing and how they are shredding our Constitution and attacking our rights and freedoms.
We have to be honest about it and we need our political leaders to stand up and have the courage to do that even though it's scary.
We just had legislators in our neighboring state of Minnesota assassinated in their homes in the middle of the night and it is
a scary time, but the Republicans didn't want to focus on that.
Instead, they wanted to shove it down people's throats that Charlie Kirk was such a great guy, when in fact, so much of the rhetoric that he himself used was very divisive and was bigoted and really hurtful to people in this country, including and especially black people and people of color and women.
and trying to make sure the record reflects that apparently is too much for some people here.
Some of those same people who have a tough time believing that millions of people are going to be in the streets on Saturday all across this country, including nearly 100 locations across Wisconsin in these No Kings Rally.
You have, for example, Sean Duffy, former congressman from up north, now the transportation secretary, among others saying that, well, those are nothing more than paid agitators and antifa.
check, Sean.
Yep, exactly.
I'm like, well, I'll ask Cindy Greening this in our next break, too.
I don't know what those Antifa meetings are like, Kelda, or those massive George Soros checks that you're cashing.
But yeah,
meetings.
I know.
And so I think maybe there's a different point of view to have on why you think so many people are going to be in the streets on Saturday.
You know,
One of the things I'm proud of is I've got Republicans supporting my campaign because they want someone who is going to have a spine of steel to stand up when this president hurts Wisconsinites.
Yesterday at the People's protest in Eau Claire, I met with a woman, a disabled veteran.
Her name is Sergeant Schultz.
We had a great conversation.
She talked about how proud she was to serve this country, including a tour in Afghanistan.
And the very things that she fought for, for freedom, for our rights to speak out.
to organize, to protest, are under attack by this administration.
And so she felt it was really another way that she's serving this country and doing her duty to this country to stand up and say this is wrong.
I fought for our rights once and now here I'm going to do it back at home as a civilian.
And that really, really was powerful.
You're not only running for governor, but as a state senator, you know that there are state Senate districts that were newly drawn that weren't up two years ago, but because they're four year terms, they're now up this year.
So talk about what it would mean to not only have you elected governor, but what if for the first time in, you know, 15 years, you would have a Democratic Assembly and Senate and what kind of progress could be made in Wisconsin if that were to all happen?
We are going to have a Democratic Senate in 2027.
It's going to be transformational for the state.
We have not had an opportunity like this since 2009, the last time that we had Democratic control of the legislature and the governor's office.
And even if the assembly, that's going to be a tougher thing, but it'll be close either way.
And we can maneuver in that environment as long as we have strong leadership and deep knowledge from the governor's office.
in the last six, seven years, unfortunately, all Governor Evers has been able to do, for the most part, is veto bad legislation.
And we are so grateful that he's been able to do that.
But now we're gonna be going into a new era where it is possible to actually change the trajectory of our state.
And that's why it matters which Democrat, who is governor, who's got the knowledge, the skills, the experience to be able to do that, especially when so much of the legislature is new.
A lot of these folks have been elected since COVID, they're brand new.
And so they're still
getting their feet under them, learning the issues.
And, you know, we've got some really incredible, bright, talented people in the legislature.
But we do have to have that leadership from the governor's office if we're going to get things done in that short window of time.
State Senator Kelder Royce, candidate for governor.
Senator, drop in anytime.
It's great to see you and safe travels to you today.
All right.
When we come back, we'll talk to Cindy Greening and talk more about those No Kings protests all around Wisconsin coming up this Saturday.
From the heart of America's Up North, live from Lake Wissota, I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Before we visit with Cindy Greening to talk about the No Kings rally, a reminder that you can get our newsletter over at UpNorthNewsWI.com and in there this morning, Ellie writes a note to remind us that on Fridays, she's looking to highlight local businesses and sometimes it's local businesses overall.
But this time around this week, it's much more specific.
It is local pizza places.
She calls them pizza places I call them pizza joints.
But if you got a favorite local pizza joint, send in a note to her tell her about it maybe send a photo as well what makes the pizza so good or give us a website so we can link to it.
And she's going to put some of those in tomorrow morning's newsletter and certainly in future newsletters as well.
So again, click subscribe in the banner at the top of our at the top of our homepage up north news wi.com.
Cindy Greening is with Chippewa Valley Indivisible one of many groups planning rallies in
Last I counted 85 places around Wisconsin coming up this weekend, it probably is more by now.
And so not just the big cities, all kinds of small communities where people want to get out and make a statement about what they're seeing under the current administration.
And Cindy Greening joins us now to tell us more about it.
Cindy, good morning.
How are you?
97.
There you go.
Oh my goodness, we I read through every one of them on air yesterday and was amazed at the places, you know, like Eagle Rivers and Eagle
River,
Antigo, Marinette, Menominee, you know, Prescott, little Juddville in Door County, all of these places are holding rallies on Saturday.
Now they're all at various times.
Some might be as early as 930, some might be noon, there might be some in the afternoon.
So what you want to do is you want to head to the website, nokings.org.
to learn more.
There's a big map on there.
You can zoom in.
You can click on the dot of the place that interests you.
Cindy, why?
Because you did this in June as well with a big turnout.
Why do it again?
Why is there that appetite out there to again have protests across the nation?
Indivisible is guessing we might double.
We had 4,500 in Eau Claire, so the doubles will have 9,000.
Big numbers are easy for Eau Claire because, you know, it's a very democratic area.
But like in Little Bitty Chippewa, we had 362.
And the number of signups in Chippewa are already well over double that.
So I assume that's why a lot of the small towns are getting in.
I think a lot of the folks are getting upset with what they're seeing in Chicago, in Portland, this thing about sending troops to, you know, abduct our neighbors.
But I also think it's economic issues, the things that are going on with soybeans.
and like how much groceries cost.
I think people who maybe may not have been paying attention because they don't use news sources that cover it are starting to feel it.
And so what's happening is people are seeing they need to get out in the streets.
Plus, you know, the congressional folks, especially on the Republican side are not holding strong and we have a few of those as you know.
And so the Democratic folks, you know,
they can't hold it alone and they need us to come and get their back.
We got to hold, you know, we got to cover their back for them and start to stand up so that people know we think this is a democracy and that the United States is by for and of the people and we really lean into
Our government should work for us.
Everyone included and no one left out.
And our money should help us and not just the billionaires and the millionaires and all the folks who are getting rich off this administration.
We're talking to Cindy Greening from Chippewa Valley Indivisible about the No Kings rallies coming up this weekend.
And yesterday I went back and looked at your interview with Selena Heller about the event in June.
And the joy on your face when you realize that
This crowd was not only filled with everyday Americans who are progressive in nature, but moderate in nature, or even Republican in nature who, to them, I mean, they feel politically homeless right now because they don't want this degree of authoritarianism.
But talk about, you know, the happiness that these are folks who could have just stayed home, but they want their voices to be heard as well.
You know, I have members of my family who voted for the other side, and we are seeing shifts in our family, in our community.
We have people coming forward and talking about the big ugly bill, talking about what's going on with health care.
There have been a lot of health care stories lately about, you know, the thing, you know, ABC News covered it, and then last night, WAU, so there's been a lot of coverage about how we're struggling because our hospitals have closed, and they'll always say on the end, yeah, they're opening a new one, but that's
2028 that's a long time for people to get take care of so I think people want to come out and we just sing and we walk we march we don't we don't do a lot of you know political speeches or so at our at our events at our no kings we march to the community we care signs we're going to be wearing inflatables we've got some we got folks wearing crazy things like dinosaurs and and
and stuff like that, chickens.
And then we've got folks who are just, you know, carrying signs.
We also have an activist band.
We've got an empty bucket drum band that's going to play in March with people.
So we've got every, we'll have.
four lines going out of Owen Park at Eau Claire.
Chippa will be one March, but people will just be singing and chanting and having a good time and they love to have clever costumes.
I mean like Portland's leading the way, let's be honest.
The Frog Brigade is killer, but even like what they're doing down in Chicago is really helping with just showing up.
And that's the biggest thing we see is that when people show up and say, like, this is our country and we want to stand for it and we want to bring back the values where everyone is taken care of and included, then we see that people want to be here and they want to have a good time.
And a part of the point of the costumes and things is again to attack this ridiculous notion that these are, you know, people from who are domestic terrorists who are prone to violence and things like that when, you know, the fact of the matter is I'm not aware.
Maybe I missed the meeting notices.
Have you been to these Antifa meetings and did you get your George Soros check and I just missed it somehow?
I get this is more like regular Americans than paid agitators.
I wish some of
to have them reach out to because none of us get paid.
We have been rallying in Eau Claire and Chippewa for six months now every week.
And a lot of the folks are 65 plus because they can get out during the day.
But now we're having college students show up.
We have high school students who are joining us.
And so nobody's getting paid.
They're there out of their commitment and love for this country.
Now, by the way, because, and we don't know if or when anything untoward might happen, but there is the possibility, given the climate on the political right right now, that there may be people that try to, you know, heckle or worse.
And I know that what I've seen is a real forceful set of instructions about essentially not taking the.
Don't take the bait and stay focused on what it is that you're there to do, the message you're there to deliver.
You know that we are seeing, I will be honest to tell you, I am seeing escalating trolls on the indivisible page.
Mostly it's always white men.
It's always white.
It is.
But what I've noticed, they really react to the no king signs or any of the protest signs.
And it's escalating right now.
So the other side is doing a good job of making people be afraid of us, which is crazy.
But what we do is we tell people, don't feed the trolls.
They're not going to change our mind.
We're not going to change theirs.
We stand for their right to free speech.
If they want to stand on a corner and heckle us.
just walk on by.
We all get to be out and say our piece and so we're all just marching together.
We have trained our folks.
We have over 75 folks that are acting as event marshals.
They've been trained in de-escalation how to handle it.
We have a good relationship with both Eau Claire and Chippewa Police Departments so they know what you know they know what the route plans are.
We have you know direct contacts there.
They stay in touch with us and plan so that everything stays safe.
So we have the
things in place.
So I'm expecting a little heckling.
We had it last week at the rally.
And sometimes, you know, when people drive by at the rally, they honk and wave, but then there's the other group that gives us the half a peace sign.
You know?
And that, I mean, that's America.
If you keep it at that point, if you keep it above board that way, I was interested.
You talked about four different lines going out, so there's not a single
for protesters who want to do some parading and it really shows how things have kind of become a bit more sophisticated.
You've taken the lessons that you learned from June in order to make these protests more effective.
Someone was running a camera when it happened and you could hear the roar coming from the crowd because they were excited.
There were so many of them.
So if it doubles this time, we've created four possible routes.
We've reached out to UWEC to the students there.
So we have a route that goes over there.
We have a route, the same route that goes down to Phoenix Park.
We have another one that goes over two bridges for the people who want to be real visible.
The people who don't want to be visible at all, we march them around the community down Water Street and then Lake.
So we've created four routes and more.
We also have a low mobility route, which is basically in front of Owen Park.
So for the folks that want to come out, because we've heard there are a lot, I don't know if you're familiar with the classics, we've heard there are a lot of folks, 92, 91, we got a 91 year old coming, you know, she's here with her daughter from Tennessee.
She's like, can I come?
Is there a place for me?
And it's like, absolutely.
In Owen Park, we have a small route in there.
So just showing up to stand for our country and how much they love it and want to protect it.
We got a good spot for them too.
We are talking to Cindy Greening from Chippewa Valley Indivisible, and if you want to learn more about where there is a No Kings rally in your community, go to nokings.org.
It frankly, Cindy, might be easier to describe where there isn't going to be a rally this weekend.
And I mean having lived or having worked in West Bend and other places that are heavily Republican and yet there are going to be rallies there because last time around they were well attended as well.
There will be rallies in Brookfield and Waukesha, Muskego, Union Grove, as well as Racine Kenosha, but also Shorewood.
Just no shortage of communities so that nobody will have to go far to be part of one of these events.
and I just continue to be amazed at just all of the different areas you talked about.
It can be just frustration overall, but it could be economic.
It could be about healthcare.
It could be about the military being sent to American streets.
Everybody's got some kind of reason to attend and just stand for their particular part of the political spectrum.
And what we say to people is, you know, America's under attack, it's time to stand up and help and protect her.
So pick your area, pick your line, get involved and just, you know, we're stronger together.
Let's, I just got to say, let's not leave out monomony.
No, French Monomony.
OK, I didn't say that.
It's like, wait a minute, Monomony.
We didn't say Monomony.
OK, sorry.
You're such a good Chippewa Valley person.
We've got to include Monomony if you're going to mention Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, but look.
Lady Smith, Amory, you know, have them, Phillips and Rhinelander, all of these places that you can find over at nokings.org and put them all together.
We are looking forward to seeing the video later of the turnout in all of these many places.
And again, it is really something that you've got 75 people that are helping organize this just for the Eau Claire one alone, which again is at Owen Park, 10am Saturday.
Again, check the website for the exact time and location near you.
and degreaning from Chippewa Valley Indivisible.
Thank you so very much.
All right.
Good to see you and good luck.
Hope everything goes well tomorrow.
All right.
Coming up in our eight o'clock hour, we'll talk to Chad Holmes from 98.9 WXCO.
See what stories he's following in the Wausau area.
We'll talk to Sean O'Malley about your money and the markets.
And Joseph Pecky will be joining us as well.
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.
Hey, you like sports?
We got we got sports, not just the Brewers.
They play the Dodgers this afternoon, of course, pregame starts at 430.
But then on Saturday, you've got the Badgers taking on Ohio State.
The coverage there begins at 1230 on some civic media stations.
And then on Sunday, you've got the Green Bay Packers in Arizona to take on the Cardinals.
That's a 325 kickoff.
So pregame coverage on your radio begins at one o'clock on some stations across civic media head to civic media.
dot US to learn more.
Let's bring in James Kelly now, reporter with Civic Media from the newsroom here in beautiful Chippewauffles to tell us more about the stuff that he is working on.
James, good morning.
How are you?
I don't know if I've ever heard you say Chippewaffles before.
Really?
Oh,
yeah.
Maybe I just
didn't register it.
I used to use it a lot more and maybe I've just kind of backed off it.
But Chippewaffles is also my handle for some social media accounts.
And it's also the greatest breakfast in the world.
It's how when my daughters would have sleepovers and when we would have company, everybody'd be like, are you going to make your Chippewaffles?
Yes, I am.
And I would always make waffles with a little bit of cinnamon.
a little bit of mini chocolate chips, hence the chips in the chip of waffles.
And yeah, I'll make those for you sometime, James.
Yeah, I'll be interested.
I love waffles.
The syrup just gets right in the little crevices.
It's perfect.
Yeah, see, they're like the perfect breakfast food.
Now the chicken and waffles, I'm not I'm not so sure about that.
That's a southern thing that I'm still, I don't know about that.
But yeah,
to
northern.
I might be a little too northern for that.
Let's look at the things that you're following.
Obviously, you're going to be covering the No Kings rallies, Eau Claire and Chippewa because they are different times.
The Chippewa one is kind of later in the afternoon compared to the Eau Claire one.
So you've got those to cover, but you're covering other things as well.
There is still the government shutdown that's going on.
There is still a healthcare crisis here in the Chippewa Valley.
And Senator Tammy Baldwin is involved with some of that here recently.
Yeah, she held the virtual town hall sort of deal with a bunch of community leaders, kind of Julia Banker from Miss Julia Schoolia on childcare, some local nonprofit organizers with Jonah and the general manager of the Menominee Market Food Co-op, just kind of talking about how these ACA tax credits that are at the center of the government shutdown, if they lose these credits.
It's not just about health care.
It's about local businesses.
It's about whether families can still afford to send their kids to child care and whether those child care providers can still afford to remain open.
There's not a whole lot of money in kind of that small scale.
in your own home childcare.
So losing these tax credits is going to go a really long way for just them being able to remain operational.
And you talk about labor and delivery services and mental health services.
Senator Baldwin mentioned those are usually the first things to go when hospital systems are looking at things to cut to keep the budget afloat.
There's one of the things that you always notice about Tammy Baldwin when she goes on the road around Wisconsin.
She doesn't do it alone.
It's not Tammy Baldwin's coming to town and is going to stand in front of some microphones and so you should cover her.
It's almost always involving some real folks from the area.
who are feeling the impact of something that is happening in the news that day.
So I mean, you look at the names that you dropped there, just of people in the Chippewa Valley that she was talking to, and that's what happens on a regular basis when she's trying to put a human face on the government shutdown and on what it would mean to lose those ACA tax credits.
So you can follow what James is doing on the local civic media news pages for that.
Another thing that is not relegated to the Chippewa Valley, I know for example the Eau Claire school district is looking at the potential of having to close a couple of schools.
You're also covering things in Hudson where again school closures are on the potential to-do list here.
Yeah, on Monday the school board in Hudson voted six to one to close Willow River Elementary School and Holton Elementary School.
There was a lot of
pushback from parents on that at a meeting last month there were over 200 people in attendance for that meeting arguing mostly against doing this because nobody nobody wants to see their schools closed they like their smaller classes they like their communities the district says this is going to save 3.3 million dollars only closing one of them would have been around 1.6 to 2 million so that's a big savings in the budget there and they also noted that while class sizes will get bigger they are still within the set district guidelines for how big class
sizes can be.
So they are still within those boundaries.
This will go into effect next school year as long as they can do all the boundary lines redrawing those and kind of making the staffing changes they need to make to make sure that they have a full staff.
the remaining schools.
Well,
we're going to talk to chat homes after the news here.
And I remember a year ago, we were having these conversations about the Wausau School District.
And so I'll try to remember to follow up with him and see how that shook out where again, you had the district, you know, almost waffling, no pun intended, back and forth on school closure plans.
And it's always just a tough thing in any given community when you're looking at that happening with your school.
What is this note you've handed me about a particular
research group that has, in your words here, literally moved a creek?
What?
Yeah, this was fascinating to me.
This is the Berks Center for Ecosystem Research.
If you remember, they were actually affiliated sort of with Northland College before it closed, and they're just kind of continuing on now.
They've done five major projects along the Fish Creek, because apparently the Fish Creek is one of the biggest sediment contributors to Lake Superior and Shawamgon Bay.
So this project is
going to end up removing 2,800 tons of sediments from those waterways.
They moved the creek about 50 yards, a section of the North Fish Creek.
It's a 500 foot section.
They found out that a lot of the sediments were coming from this bluff that was along that section.
So normal people like me would say, OK, well, how do we build some kind of barrier or something to keep the sediments out of the creek?
They took a different approach.
They moved it about 50 yards away.
I'm looking at the photo now at one of the local news stations up there.
And yeah, it's a helicopter or drone shot where they've basically just, yeah, shifted the creek.
Like you said, 50 feet to create basically a berm so that more sediment doesn't wash in and then wash into Lake Superior.
That is fascinating.
Yeah, it's not something I would have even thought to do.
It's just not, you know, how do you
even think like, what if we just take the creek and move it somewhere else?
Well, when you think about it, you think about it for nefarious purposes, like how they rerouted the Chicago River back in the day, you know, and it was not necessarily for purposes that were good for nature.
Anyway,
James Kelly has all these Chippewa Valley updates on 93.5, the TAP.
That's WCFW's HD2 channel.
And you can hear it on the Civic Media app, or you can read more on the station's website, thetap.fm.
Thank you, James.
Appreciate
it.
Thanks, guys.
All right, we've got Joseph Pecky and more.
Coming up after the 8 o'clock news, I'm Pat Breitlo.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
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