Cross Wisconsin on Civic Media.
You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglo powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglo.
Good morning, it is 7 0 6 and it's nice to have you back here up north on a Tuesday morning, October 21st.
2025.
Parker Olson is producing things down in Madison Studio A2 and in just a few minutes we will be hearing from State Representative Francesca Hong, a candidate for governor.
Fran was passing through the Chippewa Valley on Sunday and so I got a chance to interview her and take a look at the crowd that had joined her to learn more about her running for governor.
What it is that
she thinks sets her out from the rest of the field, so I'll be listening for that in just a couple of minutes.
Then later this hour at 7.35, Steve Bow from the group Farmed Power, a group touting the growth of wind and solar power all across rural Wisconsin.
And so let me set that up by teasing you with this little factoid.
How much capital investment?
has already been made in wind, solar, and battery power capture across Wisconsin.
Is it $100 million?
Is it $500 million?
Is it $5 billion?
How much capital investment has already been made across Wisconsin in wind, solar, and battery power capture?
We will talk to Steve Bowe about that later this hour.
We'll also be we'll also be talking to Dan Schaefer from the recombobulation area coming up at 835 And he too will be talking about the Wisconsin race for governor Dan Hagen from News Watch 12 is on the way as well And you can join us too at 855-75 Civic 855-752-4842 You can use that civic media app to call us or text us or to send us a voice note
Let's see, we've got from Robin Tigerton.
He says, good morning.
It is partly cloudy, 39 degrees in Tigerton and also picked up a quarter inch of rain overnight and said the fall colors are just past peak basically throughout Sean O'County.
He writes tonight with the start of the NBA season, NBC returns to the NBA for the first time since the 2002 NBA Finals and that means hearing round ball rock.
That must be the John Tesh composed theme that would go the NBA on NBC, which I was anchoring back in 2002 when NBC still had the NBA.
And there were a lot of newscasts.
We had to wait, then wait, and wait for triple overtime right now.
Oh, great.
Can't wait to do the news right after this thrilling contest between Cleveland and the Bland.
There.
Yeah.
the NBA on NBC.
Thank you, Marv.
Let's see, Tigerton moving up because they started building a Dollar General hoping to be opened in the spring of 2026.
Well, there you go.
Times are a change in there in Tigerton.
Oh, and Tony fills me in.
I was blanking at the very end there.
The heist movie with Pierce Brosnan and Renee Russo was the Thomas Crown affair.
which actually is a remake that was a, that was 1999, a remake of a 1968 film that starred Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway.
So if you need a good heist movie, there you go.
Thomas Cron affair one or or both versions.
Compare, get back to me.
And then we'll cast who's going to do the next remake of it because that's how this works, right?
They're making the same
movies.
Over and over again.
Yeah, exactly.
All right.
Well, let's hear now more from State Representative Francesca Hong of Madison.
Fran Hong is one of about a half a dozen Democratic candidates for governor hoping to succeed Tony Evers next year.
And like the other candidates, she is spending a lot of time on the road.
I mean, it's not like the Republican leadership in the legislature is doing anything to keep her busy.
They do love their paid vacations.
But anyway, on Sunday Fran was in Eau Claire in the busy meeting room of a local coffee house where folks wanted to hear more from someone who they see as part of a new generation of progressives who are
less willing to play the go along to get along game.
They want action on big issues, which means not being afraid to say some bold things about what a functional government should be doing for all the people.
not just those with connections or money.
And after her remarks to the crowd, she sat down with me for about five minutes, where we started with the reaction she's getting to her campaign so
far.
It is so rad.
I mean, it's been a whirlwind.
I feel I was very overwhelmed, kind of still am, but to see and feel the community support has kept me level has kept me grounded.
Why do you feel it takes a movement?
And how is that the answer to, you know, division?
We have so many folks who are disengaging, are overwhelmed with the state of the world.
It is hard to literally exist right now, but when you don't feel as isolated, when you feel like you're a part of something and you want to make a difference, you join a movement.
And it might take folks different times that they might not be sure exactly how they can contribute, but...
Reminding folks that this work is going to take a movement and they can participate in however way they want is going to get folks more engaged, want to be in the fight and make sure that we have a state and the communities that are supporting one another.
What was the positive impact of yesterday's rallies across the country?
People feel like they're less alone.
I met a lot of folks who this was their first rally and so it means that people who weren't as engaged or weren't quite like just interested in what was going on with politics and they're coming out and they're trying to figure out what they can do and they care.
I mean, Lake Mills, there was an amazing EMS worker.
She said this was her first rally.
It turns out she kind of like was trying to pay attention to make sure that folks were being safe, but got really emotional when we talked about how a lot of folks feel like they were robbed.
And they're in a system that robs folks of their compassion, of their empathy, and their way of, you know,
believing that we need each other.
We have to care for one another and that we deserve a state that's going to fight to unreg a system that works against working class people.
You had a good turnout for a Sunday morning here.
How do you tell them what's your lane?
There's a lot of different gubernatorial candidates out there.
What's the lane you occupy?
They're calling me the wild card.
And I think if you think about the own Uno wild card, it kind of helps steer the game differently.
And sometimes you have more winners, I think.
My lane in this race is to be relentless in bold policies that...
We build a coalition of folks who are independents, maybe further left, centrist, moderates, even a couple of Republicans who are curious about this campaign of a working class candidate fighting for working class people.
the energy, the social media presence.
I've got folks coming in just because they saw me on TikTok and they're curious.
And we need more campaigns that draw in curiosity, creativity, and folks from all different backgrounds to build a coalition for a movement.
I'm not trying to put a divide in Democratic voters.
People already know it's out there.
The people who are thinking that too much of the party, the establishment party, is too quick to be
conciliatory, if you will, and that they're looking for something different.
You feel like you're giving that something different.
People are ready for change.
They want to take on the establishment.
You know, the policies that have gotten us here, the complacency, the lack of imagination.
And so I want to counter all of that.
But most importantly, I want to make sure that we're bringing folks along in the process.
And I think the more people we have engaging in politics, changing the conversation around who deserves power, who does that power serve, and getting folks, you know, involved, like that, that's going to go beyond 2026 election.
We need folks to stay.
engaged to stay fighting and know that they deserve a better world.
I asked this a senator Kelderoy's last week when she was on the show that this is going to be a campaign of primaries here in the Third Congressional District for the governor's race of course and for others legislative seats included and
What does it mean for you as a candidate to know that in all these different races, you're asking voters to do a little extra work, a little work that's a little earlier, you know, look at everybody and show up in August?
A lot of people, when I ask them, you know, not specifically on an issue, but what they're caring about, why they showed up to know Kings is they want to save democracy and primaries are...
It's a place for more debate and conversations and I think that in order for us to make sure folks are staying engaged and getting a little bit more information about the candidates, we have to make sure to be...
creative and aggressive on some of the digital platforms, do things that engage folks, whether it's me juggling a soccer ball and having my kiddo in the background, talking about the importance of small-dollar donations, or doing more videos around policy, and going into spaces where politicians don't often go, and talking about the issues, whether it's a dive bar or a bowling alley, maybe a cranberry festival, we can't just do things for the photo ops.
and cutting the ribbons.
We got to start talking to folks and centering them and and talking about what they deserve and what's important to them.
Francesca Hong, candidate for governor, thank you so much.
Thanks so much Pat.
I got to talk with her on Sunday morning as she was passing through the Chippewa Valley again on the road to to hither and yawn and every other corner of Wisconsin there as part of her campaign and I wanted to emphasize again one of the points there
is about primaries obviously there will be a primary for both democrats and republicans for the governor's race and between again the legislative races the congressional races and more for all this focus on november and yes it is going to be important for people to vote in november of 2026 but it's that august election that determines who's going to be on the ballot come november in a lot of these races and so that's august 11th
of next year, August 11th, and Tuesday in the middle of summer break for everybody.
And, you know, that's, it's not the heaviest lift.
Obviously, we think that people should be voting in every election.
But the August primary is still not one that's on everybody's radar.
And so I just want to make sure that people are aware that we'll be talking about that August 11th date repeatedly and asking you to check out the candidates and then to do your part to learn more and help determine what is going to be on your ballot in November of next year.
And again, my thanks to Fran Hong and we'll be talking to other candidates for governor as they're able to come on the show or
through our neck of the woods here.
We'll talk to them and pass it all on to you.
The Up North News Daily newsletter is put together by Ellie Bordeaux and she's going to be joining us tomorrow and you can sign up for the newsletter over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
In there today she talks about getting past the false fall that's out there that it is definitely
cooling down now and she's asking people to send in what the fall colors look like in your neck of the woods and we'd love to get some of those photos up in the newsletter and maybe post them on social media as well.
She's asking about people decorating for Halloween.
I think we've all noticed a trend.
Whether it's weather related or just the availability of decorations, Halloween house decorating has
I'm not going to say it's surpassed Christmas decorating but I mean just amazing almost explosive growth in some communities where people are putting up the giant skeletons and you know getting more elaborate with things because they can again because it's you know not in the middle of December so again if you want to send some of the house
decorating that you've seen or that you've done in your neighborhood, by all means, feel free to do that and send your note as well.
Sign up again for the newsletter up north news wi.com.
Now coming in along in 15 minutes here, we're going to tell you about here's that number.
$5 billion worth of capital investments in wind and solar and battery power capture all across Wisconsin.
Steve Bow will be our guest to discuss that just a little bit later on.
And then Dan Schaefer from the Reconpopulation Area at 835.
I'm Pat Critewell.
You're listening to the Civic Media Radio Network.
Well, Tuesday mornings mean we're joined by our friend Dan Hagen from News Watch 12, WJFWTV up in Rhinelander.
How's Mr. Hagen today?
Yeah,
Dan is doing pretty well.
I don't know why I'm doing third person, but yeah, I'm doing pretty well.
And I was at my dear stand the other day and I was able to catch a frog.
So, you know, not going to get skunked this year.
How are the legs?
I assume you had those.
I did not consume the toad.
I thought you were listening to our discussion last hour where we talked about frog legs and
does
anybody ever eat those things, you know?
Yeah, man, I had them in the restaurant as like a kid, but not since then.
Do you remember anything about liking them, not liking them?
I mean, I think it just tasted like chicken.
Only there was about a tenth of the meat.
Yeah, that's the main review.
Yeah, that seems to be it.
So there's a lot to see in terms of what Dan and his team are working on up at NewsWatch 12.
But it wasn't until yesterday that as I went up just to see what kind of stories you guys have been working on, we'll get some of the stories in a minute.
But didn't realize that I hadn't looked at the bio pages of the team members.
And there's there's this nugget along with Dan likes to hunt and he plays sports and he skis and you know, he's a Renaissance man.
I think is what they said in there.
It also says
Dan is also passionate about music.
He knows perhaps too much about the Beatles and was even in a Beatles cover band in college.
He plays guitar, piano, ukulele, and started writing music.
Dan released his first solo album, Stranded, in February 2019.
Dan, has somebody pirated your page or are these things true about you?
You know, this is this is all true.
All true.
I, I love this.
I love learning these new things here.
How, how was the album?
Was it like upbeat?
Was it, was it, you know, a whole bunch of, uh, as Taylor likes to say, bangers, or was this
all, uh,
slow?
Was it melodic?
Were they waltzes?
What do
you got?
Yeah, they're pretty slow.
I would say the Beatles inspired, uh, for sure, as that's my favorite band.
And, um,
Yeah, when I was working in corporate America, I was I had some had some time to myself.
Yes, you know, yeah, maybe wasn't the most diligent employee every single day.
I like that it describes you working in corporate America and then decided to chase your real passion of journalism.
That's right, which is such a nice way of saying, you know,
I like paychecks, but I like actually enjoying my work more than I like a paycheck.
So I'm going to go into radio and TV because, you know, the paychecks may or may not eventually come, but you're doing what you love and you
are.
Yeah, no, I mean, it was definitely worth it.
And yeah, I was able to finish that album the day before I started at Newswatch 12.
So kind of a nice handoff moment.
Okay, so this was this was six years ago now.
Has there
has
there been any any work on a follow up?
Recording an album is incredibly tedious.
I don't know if you've talked to anyone about it.
No, but there you just it's it's really tedious.
So I've written more songs.
I've not recorded them, but maybe one day there'll be one day.
Well, you know, there's a difference between sprinters.
and marathon runners.
And they're both, you know, good at their own particular thing.
I think you and I share this love of, I guess the critics would call it instant gratification.
We want to write something really well and get it out there.
And people go, Pat, why haven't you ever written a book?
Same reason with the album, tedious.
You want me to take the same thing and write it and then rewrite it and then tear it all down and then rewrite it and then modify it.
Whereas if I can write a really good story today.
and get that out the door and then I get to work on something new tomorrow.
That's the sprinter in me.
That's what I find satisfying.
And that's that's what I'm hearing in you as well.
No, I mean, that's completely true.
That's why I do like being an anchor because you kind of are preparing all day for this one performance.
Yeah, then you do it.
And it's out of your mind.
Yeah, man, I even even though I did have a bad mistake yesterday.
We just we survive.
You want you want to cop up to it?
Well, all I said was
Don't know in the teleprompter it said the oh, it's been going on for 20 years or sorry.
Oh my gosh.
I made another mistake It's the government shutdown has been going on for 20 20 days
And I just said two days, and I didn't even realize I said two days.
And then someone told me I said two days.
I was like, there's no way I said two days.
And then I went back and listened to it.
And I said two days, even though there's 20 days.
You told the people of San Diego to do what?
No.
It happens.
We all misread things.
I mean, I do it.
I feel like every day on my notes here on the show.
So I mean, hardly the end of the world.
But I know what you're talking about.
Well, let's talk about the stories that are out there.
What was the?
What was the state of the No Kings rallies this weekend?
I know they were everywhere, including up in your neck of the woods.
Yeah, so we had at least three in the Northwoods, but we went to three as a news organization.
There's probably around 1,000 people at Rhineland or at its peak, which is more than I've ever seen.
We also attended the Minakwa and Eagle River.
um, no kings parades.
Um, so, uh, and they were, they were massive.
So I think it's probably true what people are saying.
This is like one of the big progress was one of the biggest protest days into modern American history.
Yeah, and it reminds us of, you know, when people say we're a 5050 state and but in other places, they're so red.
Think of up north or so blue.
Think of Madison and things like that.
But even in those areas, there are a lot of people who belong to what would be the minority in that area.
I always blow people away when I say, you know, what what county has the third highest number of Democrats?
And they they just like
What do you mean?
It's Waukesha.
It's Waukesha.
Yeah, it's, you know, mostly Red County, but there's a whole lot of people there.
And you definitely learn that when you're up north is that, yeah, while the majority votes Republican, it is not a small number of people who in this case on Saturday wanted to say, Hey, we're here too.
And we just want to say we're not happy with the state of things.
Yeah, I mean, it's really like 6040, maybe 6535.
So it's there's a lot of Democrats up here.
And I think, I think Milwaukee County has the second most Republicans just to kind of bolster your
point.
Yes, yeah, that's exactly it.
And so you don't, you don't take any of these things for granted, including when people are out there speaking their minds.
And I'm happy to note that there were no, no real problems at any of these, no troubles.
And so again, they were covered everywhere, including what Dan and his team were doing at NewsWatch 12 and Rhinelander.
Appreciate hearing more about
you, Dan.
Thanks so much.
Hope you have a great day.
Always fun, Pat.
See you guys.
All right.
We'll be talking to Steve Bo coming up next all about green energy and job growth in rural Wisconsin next.
You're up north.
Nice to have you back here on this Monday or Monday, Tuesday morning.
I'm Pat Kratlow.
Welcome to mornings with Pat Kratlow powered by Up North News across the Civic Media Radio Network 735 on this Tuesday morning, where normally we would be talking to Hans Brighton Moser.
You'll recall that we last spoke to him.
He was getting set to do field work.
all kinds of field work.
The weather was perfect and there is work to be done.
And he begged offer today and we're like, absolutely.
He helped arrange our upcoming guest here, Steve Bode, talk about green energy across rural Wisconsin.
And we'll get to that in a minute.
But I can't let this segment go without making mention again of what you might have just heard in the Midwest Farm Report, that President Donald Trump
who was already getting into some hot water with many farmers for starting a trade war with China.
China went from buying $12 billion worth of soybeans to $0, which is impacting soybean farmers across Wisconsin.
And China is now getting its soybeans from Argentina.
That Trump yesterday said as a way to fight food inflation,
and help with consumer prices, maybe we need to buy beef from Argentina.
The headlines are
full of farmers, beef farmers, and others here in the United States of America who are saying words that I cannot say on the radio.
But in much the same way last hour we talked about how Trump promised that the new ballroom would not damage the White House and yesterday he brought in a demolition crew and they tore down the East facade of the White House.
Well, similarly,
There are a whole lot of farmers who are hearing Trump say, let's get our beef from Argentina, who are going, huh, imagine that.
Also happening across rural Wisconsin is an ongoing wave of new jobs, a new bumper crop of jobs in new greener, cleaner energies.
wind, solar, battery, power capture systems, and more.
And one of the groups that is touting it, advocating for it all across Wisconsin is a group that Steve Bow is joining us to represent right now called Farm2Power.
Join them at farm2power.org.
Steve, good morning.
How are you?
Good morning Pat.
Happy to be here with you this morning.
Nice to see you here as well.
It's been a while since we've talked and now you're working with Farm2Power.
Let's get right to what the group is, what it does, what it's advocating for.
Tell us more about Farm2Power.
Yeah, so Farm to Power is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works with farmers who are supportive, interested, or that actually have renewable energy on their land.
And we work to support them and to elevate their voices in this renewable energy conversation.
So a lot of times we'll try to connect a farmer who's maybe interested in it with another farmer who has gone through that process before.
And then we also try to tell their stories of how incorporating renewable energy has had a positive impact on them, their family, their farm, and also their community.
Why do you feel like there is a need for a group of advocates like this on behalf of farmers when talking about clean energy?
So often the farmer story has been lost in this renewable energy story.
What we aim to provide is that outlet for farmers to be able to talk about the impact, that bringing renewable energy, and we mainly focused on utility scale wind and solar, what that's done for them.
A good number of the farmers that have gone through the process of getting a contract, either through solar or wind, they're not putting their entire farm into renewable energies, they're putting a segment of farm.
And as we've talked about,
you know farmers have always had to ride the waves of up and up and downs in regards to commodity prices while incorporating renewable energy is an outlet for farmers where they can rely on steady and consistent financial income that can help them ride those up and down waves of farm commodities.
What kind of potential are we talking about here?
Because we mentioned before the break that on your website it says that already there's been some five billion dollars worth of capital investments made across Wisconsin, not necessarily all on farms, but what kind of potential are we talking about for Wisconsin farmers and rural landowners?
Well, when we look at what the potential is for a farmer, obviously there are stages in the process of renewable energy, everything from just a commitment to kind of reserve that land for leasing all the way up to when they're actually production.
And so those price points vary depending on what process you are in.
But when it's a production, it's not unheard of to hear of contracts that are in that 1,000 to $1,500 range.
And I can tell you, there's not really a whole lot of commodities in which you are producing anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 plus per acre on your land.
And so like I said, for a lot of farmers, they're not putting the entire farm into it, but they're putting a segment of their farm into renewable energy that allows them to sustain
stain that farm for future generations?
We're talking to Steve bow from the group farm to power.org advocating for cleaner greener energy generation across rural Wisconsin, including on our farms.
And here's a point that I've made previously and want to get again out there that while I am an unapologetic cheerleader for such things as wind and solar and other things that wean us off of fossil fuels, it must be said that you know, somebody needs to be
advocate for the landowners, for the farmers.
Just because you favor
a particular type of energy does not mean that they would all treat every farmer or landowner the same.
In other words, one company might come in and promise a farmer X, another company might come in and promise Y. And one of them is realistic.
And one of them is very not realistic.
And a farmer or a landowner is wondering which end is up because we're essentially in a brave new world here.
So this is just my way of saying, Steve, that farmers and landowners shouldn't just necessarily
you know, sign on the dotted line the first time they're approached.
That first contract is a starting point, not an endpoint.
And what we always try to advocate with farmers is for them to understand their negotiating power.
Obviously, developers always going to try to get the maximum that they can for a contract.
Well, you should be doing the same.
So a lot of the questions that we talk with farmers about it,
What are your short-term, long-term needs of your farm and for that land?
You do need easement access to other land.
We really try to have a conversation with farmers to see, are you interested in incorporating agriculture with these renewable energy projects, particularly Lewis Solar?
Like, are you interested in grazing sheep?
Are you interested in honeybees and apiaries?
you know, are you interested in incorporating some aspect of agriculture with these projects because those are things that need to be negotiated within that contract.
And agrivoltaics is something that has actually really blossomed not only here in Wisconsin, but also with renewable energy and generally across the country.
Well, that gets me to the point of either misinformation or confusion that is out there.
And so I want to have you tackle a few of those points with me.
One of them is that, well, if you go with solar or something, you know, you're taking perfectly good functioning farmland out of circulation.
And that's not necessarily the case, Steve.
Well, for a lot of instances, we're just shifting from one form of energy to another, because what a lot of people don't realize is farmers have been involved in renewable energy production for many, many years.
We have got over a million acres of corn that go to corn for ethanol.
And so for a lot of times, you're just shifting one form of energy to another, whether it's corn ethanol or energy production.
And so you have to you get that talking point about, you know, energy production and, you know, versus land production.
But then you get I certainly know every time that
uh any particular group comes in you see the the signs go up saying no to solar or no to wind because and I can also attest to this as a former legislator you hear all kinds of things about what these wind turbines do and I don't know Steve tell me more about wind turbine cancer or you know whatever the other arguments that are made out there.
We definitely hear it all.
And that's also part of what we try to do is to have those community conversations, to really get some information, concrete facts out there about what are the real key pieces of information, not only in regards to some of the things we hear in regards to solar and wind, but then also in regards to talking about what it means for their local units of government and that utility aid that comes in both at the town level and the county level.
level.
It's a, you know, over 50 megawatts.
It's $5, that's divvied between t
Well, that's another good point is that not only do you have the farmers, the landowners out there, but you also have some of those folks serve on their town board or they serve on their county board.
And again, they may think, well, we're there to talk about filling potholes on the roads and things.
And then next thing you know, here comes this big proposal to do something in their township.
And I'm sure, again, the Wisconsin Towns Association and the Wisconsin Counties Association, I've worked with them for years and years.
They are very good people.
but you probably can't have enough resources for people at the local level of government to learn more about the potential for these projects.
Well, and that's why when you get to projects that are over 100 megawatts, that's an automatic through the PSC.
And so town and county governments, in essence, don't have...
major impact in regards to that because those bigger projects go through a state-affiliated agency to really do the environmental impacts and the types of studies that local units of government don't necessarily have the financial resources to do.
We're talking to Steve Bowe from Farm2Power.
The website is farm2power.org.
There are obviously all these investments being made, and there was so much that was in the Inflation Reduction Act to make a generational investment in green energy sources.
And yet all we hear about now in 2025 is the number of projects that are being cut, slashed, federal money is being clawed back, et cetera.
To what degree is that already happening versus there's been a lot of talk about it, but there are still resources to carry these projects forward.
Yeah, there's still financial resources for a little time period forward.
And so that's where you're seeing a lot of these projects, honestly, being ramped up a little bit to still qualify for those credits.
What we're also seeing is that even without the credits, renewable energy is still one of the most cost-effective forms of energy production.
And so while it may pause things temporarily, that is still a very bright future for investment.
Yeah, it's something we've discussed on our climate check segment plenty of times that, yeah, things are just going in a different direction.
The emphasis is coming maybe from state governments or from other sources.
And so despite having a president who is very much an oil and coal fan, you're saying that the work is still going to go on and that there are ways for people to learn more about the potential for future projects.
Yep, the work is still moving forward in regards to renewable wind and solar.
You know, us as an organization, we're not here to save
that renewable wind and solar is the end all be all.
We believe that we are a part of the energy pie.
And so we're just making sure that we advocate for a farmer's right to be able to be a part of that pie.
that they have the opportunity to be able to put renewable wind and solar on their land.
If that's what's right for them, their family and their farm.
Steve Bow from Farm2Power, that's at farm2power.org.
Steve, it was great to catch up with you.
Thank you very much for your time.
Yes, it
was
great to chat with you too, Pat.
All right, take care.
All right, coming up in our eight o'clock hour, we'll be talking to Cam Stevenson, live from Washington, D.C., for Courier Newsroom, and Dan Schaefer from the Recon Population Area.
I'm Pat Crightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
you
Temperatures are starting to pick up across the state that not everybody is in the thirties.
There's still 34 in Eagle River, Arbivita, Manitouish Waters, all still in the mid thirties, but it is 43 in Oshkosh, 43 in Amory, La Crosse coming in at 45, and it is 43 degrees here in the Chippewa Valley where James Kelly is standing by at the Civic Media Newsroom in Chippewa Falls.
James, good morning.
How are you?
Good morning.
Starting to get a little cold on my morning walks in.
I was gonna say, yeah, it's definitely hoodie weather.
Not Parker.
He's still got the, you know, the little going summer work on here.
Just with the sweater.
It's got a little more classy style than I do.
Well, it's Madison.
They'll be he'll be in Jim Shorts and then a winter coat before long.
It's like the official dress code for college towns.
So there were, you know, we were talking about the
No Kings rallies around the Rhinelander area that we're getting covered over the weekend with Dan Hagen.
You are certainly doing the same thing around the Chippewa Valley, which thankfully was made easier because Eau Claire did theirs in the morning and Chippewa did theirs in the late afternoon, but that did make for a bit of a longer Saturday for you covering all these various rallies.
Oh, yeah, at least it's something to do on a Saturday instead
of just hanging around the house.
What do you do?
Watch a magic football team?
Yeah, come on, please.
Yeah, come on.
So, you know, when we talked to Cindy Greening, one of the organizers for the Eau Claire event last week, she talked about how
And you know, one route, one parade route in June was so bottlenecked because so many people wanted to show up that they created four routes for the one that took place this past weekend because they were expecting that many more people.
So you were down there and taking a look at it, how would you control it?
Would you call it controlled chaos?
Or how would you assess how things went from a, you know, logistic standpoint?
I'd call it pretty well-controlled chaos, honestly.
There was definitely the four routes which were necessary because there were over 6,000 people in attendance at this
one
compared to around 2,000, maybe 2,100 at the last No Kings rally in Eau Claire.
There weren't really issues with kind of the protest group running into each other again.
There's that little downtown loop there.
You got to come back over the same bridge.
So the first time I was walking back over the bridge while people were still walking down into the
downtown area.
Oh boy.
Yeah, so you see why the the wisdom of having four different routes came into play there.
How was the turnout in Chippewa?
Honestly, the turnout in Chippewa impressed me even a little bit more.
There were around 550 people at that one.
Certainly smaller than the over 6000 in Eau Claire, but Chippewa obviously a smaller city, maybe a little more of a red area than Eau Claire.
Still to have over 550 people there, they really packed out that little roundabout entering the downtown Chippewa Falls area.
I actually had a hard time just kind of navigating through the crowd to talk to people.
Yeah, without a doubt.
I mean, that that area that basically the gateway into downtown, they also call it the peace circle because there have been demonstrations for peace going on there dating back to the Iraq war days.
And so people definitely knew where to gather.
And that's rather encouraging to hear that that many hundreds of people in Chippewa wanted to turn up for an event like that.
Let's look at some of the other headlines you've been following up at Northwood Technical College.
They have a new mobile dental lab.
Tell us more about that.
Yeah, this was an interesting story.
It got funding through the Wisconsin Technical College System and Delta Dental for around $350,000.
This mobile dental lab is going to operate out of all four of Northwood Technical College's campuses.
That's in Superior, Rice Lake, Hashland, and New Richmond.
And the mobile lab will stay at each of those locations for two years.
Students will come.
They'll get some hands-on training experience, helping people in the community who may not have access to dental care through their insurance or maybe
maybe they don't have any insurance at all.
Obviously, with the way that Medicaid is going right now, there might be a few more people who are going to need these services.
So it's a cool project that gives students a reason to get some more hands-on experience, maybe some encouragement to stay in the region after they graduate.
There is a workforce shortage specifically in health care areas up there.
So pretty cool project overall.
Well, without a doubt, because again, that's the way that you kind of will prevent the loss of any of a particular type of services.
You at least
do it through an educational institution like this.
And yeah, perhaps some of the graduates will decide that they want to stay on board there.
So it is a real shot in the arm to all four of those locations, especially the three that are farther away from the Twin Cities metro area.
And when you mention plans are changing, that's something that I'm looking for a guest to get into next week, because we're now an open enrollment season.
And there are places, there are states that are no longer carrying certain insurance
insurance plans, and a whole lot of people are having to make new decisions on their Medicare plans.
And I know this because I'm helping a parent with that right now, and it's a jungle out there.
And so to know that there are options that include, you know, mobile dental labs like this in parts of Wisconsin is rather encouraging.
All right.
And then finally, let's go talk about the Ice Age Trail, which runs all through the state of Wisconsin.
Some of it more developed than others, but a little bit of it is a little bit more developed now.
Yeah so until recently there was about a mile stretch of this trail up in Polk County that ran along State Highway 48 which pretty well traveled road and you know there's the aspect of if you're hiking the trail you don't really want to walk along the highway for
safety
reasons and also just for aesthetic reasons it kind of
kills the vibe of a nature walk when you're being passed by 18 wheelers.
Exactly.
So over the course of just five days, almost 90 volunteers built a footbridge going over the Strait River.
It's over 3,100 hours of volunteer service over those five days, which is really impressive.
They also added over 4,000 feet of just new trail tread.
So that reroutes that area of the trail across the river instead of along the highway and just creates another
or mile or so of the trail that's actually in the woods where you want to be if you're taking a nice nature hike.
Well, exactly.
No, that's a fantastic project.
And what I've known of people who are volunteers for the Ice Age Trail, they are so many.
very there's many of them and they're very committed.
Yeah, this has been such an incredible project these past however many years that work has really gone on to make this even more of an attraction for people that you know want to do a little get back to nature.
It's it's a very long trail.
You'd be hard pressed to walk the whole thing but you know you go find a couple of favorite segments and it becomes you know your new favorite weekend getaway spot especially with new trail development like this and so James Kelly is following that and you can
follow what he does here at the tap.fm for our WCFW HD2 station, 93-5 the tap.
Thank you, James.
Appreciate it.
Have a good one, guys.
All right.
Coming up next, we'll be talking to Dan Schaefer from the Recombobulation Area, but first, Courier Newsroom's Cam Stevenson, live from the nation's capital.
I'm Pat Crightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
