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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Critello, powered by Up North News.
Now, from our Lake Visota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Critello.
Hey, good morning.
Welcome back.
It's nice to have you here up north on a Tuesday morning, October 28th, 7.06 the time right now.
I'm here in Chippewa Falls.
Parker Olson is down in Madison Studio A2.
A little under the weather, but fighting through it, man.
And he's doing it without being powered by coffee.
I'm happy to report the single serving coffee maker did its trick.
I did not flood the kitchen.
I have an actual second cup of coffee.
Yeah, see little victories for folks who missed an hour ago.
I broke the coffee pot early this morning.
It happens.
It happens.
Yeah.
Yep.
So lucky to have the little, the dual thing.
I don't have any of the coffee pods, but was able to, I was able to measure it just right with the, the, the regular ground coffee and, and got it.
Actual.
Thank you, Tony.
Yes.
Success.
I will, I will absolutely claim that from Robin Tigerton.
Good morning.
It's clear 33 degrees in Tigerton.
A beautiful day yesterday.
Spent some time doing yard work and said,
He watched the 18 inning World Series game that lasted six hours and 39 minutes and lasted until after 1 a.m And he's still up with us on the radio this morning.
Thank you, Rob
that was a I obviously I didn't watch it I woke up to news that The game went until almost midnight out on the West Coast when Freddy Freeman hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 18th inning I mean, so that was like two games in one
Does that mean the Dodgers are up three games to one now?
Can you count that as two wins?
They
Yeah.
I mean, don't get me wrong.
I would love to be sitting here telling you, Oh, the Brewers won an epic game 18 innings and they're they're up three nothing on the verge of a sweep.
But that's a fantasy land that, you know, that bubble burst for us a long time ago.
So instead, we have to take what we've got here.
And what we've got here is, I mean, an instant classic in terms of World Series games.
I'm just
glad I didn't have to sit up for that.
That is that is impressive.
And I would love to know because I would love to have seen how many people hung around.
It's a World Series game.
Now it's not a deciding game.
I get that.
But still, it's a World Series game.
And so how many people were just like, No, no, it's the 14th inning.
I got to go or it's the 15th inning or the people who are like in the seventh or eighth inning.
Well, this is fun.
But you know, LA traffic, I got to beat it.
I got to go home.
like
Yep.
So yeah, there's your sports there.
I wish it was happier news from a brewer standpoint, but from a sports standpoint, that is mighty impressive stuff.
There are still plenty of sports to talk about.
The Milwaukee Bucks will be hosting the New York Knicks tonight.
Then there's the Packers.
They will be hosting the Carolina Panthers next Sunday.
And again, don't be alarmed, but the Packer game is Sunday at noon.
You know when football used to be played regularly no
prime
time game no Thursday game nothing like that That's just straight up Packers and Panthers coverage begins Sunday at 10 a.m.
On civic media stations in Richland Center Park Falls Racine and Wathoma
There is also a college men's basketball from the Badgers.
The Badgers have a preseason game against UW-Platteville tomorrow at the Cole Center.
The coverage begins at 6.30 on stations in Richland Center, Amory and Wisconsin Rapids.
And if you're familiar with Badger men's hockey
On the radio, you know that it is over at WFHR in Hayward that they carry the Badger men's hockey team and they will be playing against the Minnesota Gophers on Thursday.
Coverage will begin at 730 on Thursday at WFHR in Wisconsin Rapids.
Go to WFHR.com for more sports programs because they don't just have some Badger sports.
They have lots of Badger talk shows.
There's like the Greg Guard show and other shows that they have as well.
So head over to WFHR.
that and then of course there's the second round of the high school football playoffs and so they those games will be on select civic media stations as well I'm sure so turn to your local civic media station to learn more.
Did I mention the the Badger football team?
I didn't.
How utterly unforgettable.
I
Uh let me you know what I think you're you're right.
I think
playing.
That's you know what and that's why there wasn't a time because you're right It's actually not this weekend.
It's the following weekend November 8th at Camp Randall when they are playing the University of Washington So that's so nice.
That's so nice
first.
Maybe it's called a mercy rule.
Yeah, you're getting an extra bye week just because we can't stand to watch you.
Why don't
Yeah,
So again, we try not to get too deep in the weeds on sports talk, just enough for you to like engage in a conversation at work and sound a little bit like you know what's going on.
So
LSU Louisiana State University has been a bit.
Oh Parker Parker's about to give us a hot take on this LSU has been a football powerhouse for the longest time and they fired their coach Kelly.
I don't remember Brian Kelly.
Brian Kelly.
That's it.
And you know, he's not a terrible coach and that's not a terrible program but down there it's like when or else and he's only the latest in several
high-profile football coaching firings in mid-season, which used to not be a thing, but now in this NIL era where players are getting paid, there's so much more money swirling around the system, so much more pressure to perform that you have universities this year that have been firing coaches, owing them tens of millions of dollars and saying that that's less expensive than having a losing college football program.
That's weird.
That's that's there's too much money
and three.
Yeah.
Fire a very expensive coach
They're 11th place right now on the SEC.
So like, I guess there's an argument there.
Um, I would argue Brian Kelly should never have been hired and probably should have been fired from Notre Dame and probably shouldn't be allowed to coach after he basically killed the kid at Notre Dame, but
there is
But there's a but there is a celebrity culture to coaching in the college football ranks and he will end up somewhere else.
I mean, that's just how the cycle works till eventually he becomes a TV analyst or something like that.
Now, not everybody is into college football.
Some people are happy that the NBA season is underway.
Alicia puts on YouTube, I will be watching Detroit Red Wings tonight hockey is my jam,
which
is great.
Tonight, by the way,
Is one of those full schedule nights in the NHL all 32 teams 16 different hockey games to choose from tonight.
There will be baseball tonight It's and there was baseball last night.
What do they call it the sports solstice or something?
We're all four leagues are in action at the same time Yes, I think there's only one or two days a
Yes.
Yes.
So the I said Solstice.
No, it's the sports equinox is what's going on tonight.
But you get I mean, you get all the sports.
This is if you're if you're running like a sports bar or something, don't you like really play that up and say come on in for our, you know, chicken wings and things like that.
Tony says there's a word for it.
It's magical.
Yes.
It's a magical sports day.
It's a very big day.
It's
Yes.
Yeah.
We were talking in terms of news headlines earlier about how the costs for health insurance policies under the Affordable Care Act are about to skyrocket.
And we're learning details of the extent to which that is going to happen.
Again, Republicans shutting down the government to protect health insurance company profits.
Now, I know there are people that disagree.
There was there was a comment earlier that said something along the lines of
Pat, you have the stupidest take on everything.
Health insurance companies only started making record profits after Obamacare was signed into law because it enabled health insurance companies to skyrocket prices since the government is paying the money.
Well, that is an interesting take on how that all worked out.
To say that insurance companies weren't making record profits before the Affordable Care Act came in is, again, a case of amnesia in history that continues to be fuddle me.
that folks have forgotten just how horrible it was before the Affordable Care Act, where you'd pay premiums of your hard-earned money all your life, you'd get sick and they'd say, oh, wait, you had a hangnail at the same time.
Sorry, thanks for paying your premiums, but the insurance doesn't cover that anymore.
Instead, under the Affordable Care Act, it was, we're going to use your tax dollars to make your health insurance more affordable for everybody.
And health insurance companies have to take you on.
They can't deny you for preexisting conditions.
But as a result, they're also going to get more customers.
And yeah, they're going to make more money, but they're going to have to play by a tighter set of rules.
And at first people were like, I'm not so sure about this.
Now look at the polling for the Affordable Care Act.
It's off the charts because people understand how much better life is compared to then.
But it was not perfect and should have been tinkered along the way But rather than trying to make it better so that again health insurance is affordable for everybody and so that there aren't these junk plans out there Republicans just kept trying to kill it and now we're heading back to the days of junk plans That that's one where people go.
Hey, I never had a problem with health insurance Well, you never needed it or if you did it was for something kind of small and yeah, the health insurance company paid out for that
But again, there were plenty of junk plans that seemed affordable until you actually had to use them.
And so again, there are ways that we could be making health care more affordable.
And then there are ways we could be making health care more expensive.
Guess which way Republican politicians chose.
Now again, for people thinking that I'm being too mean and negative to Republicans, I simply ask this, what's the plan?
What's the plan?
What's the alternative?
I'm so damn sick of hearing repeal and replace, repeal and replace.
Where's the replacement?
Repeal and replace, repeal and replace.
Where's the replacement?
The market.
We saw what the market did.
The market took your money and then said, tough hop.
When you said, I've got this diagnosis and it's time for my health insurance to work.
These are the things we could be doing, but here's what's happening instead in the state of Wisconsin.
If you are 60 years old, if you're a couple and your income is about $85,000 a year and you live in La Crosse County, you are currently paying $606 a month for a silver plan.
I mean, that's still, you know, that's not a small chunk of change.
You're hanging on.
You got five more years till Medicare and Social Security check, you know, kick in $600 a month, $600 to be specific.
Starting Saturday, that same policy is going to cost $2,698.
Do you have an extra $2,100 a month lying around?
Because that's an extra $25,100 a year.
If you're just a 26 year old, and maybe you've seen that there's, you know, cancer in the family or something like that, so you don't want to think you're not young and bulletproof, you know you need coverage, okay?
You're in Eau Claire County.
You've been getting a silver plan policy for $219 a month starting Saturday.
It goes up to $386 a month.
That's $2,000 a year as a 26 year old making $48,000 a year.
You have an extra 2000 line around.
No, you don't.
So if Republicans don't like the way the benefits are set up right now, they could certainly work with Democrats to come up with something more affordable, but they're not choosing that.
They're choosing simply to let insurance companies jack these rates back up and let people flounder without any coverage, take a chance, and risk more medical bankruptcy.
Where is the public service in that?
We're going to be talking about the shutdown impact on national parks and the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore coming up.
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.
It is 38 degrees right now here in the Chippewa Valley.
Let's welcome in Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12, WJFWTV and Ryan Lander.
Mr. Hagen, how are you?
I am doing great, Pat.
Good morning, Vietnam.
I've always wanted to do that.
There you go.
It's been set.
Uh, how many days till the Berkey?
Were you telling me?
Yeah.
So 116, not that I have a calendar,
um, you know,
on my wall.
I
was
able to get out roller skiing this weekend.
I did eight miles Saturday, 12 miles Sunday.
And I'm actually going to go to a ski camp in British Columbia with my dad and my two brothers.
And we're going to ski if there's, well, there should be snow in late November.
So I'm really excited for that and just trying to get ready.
I would bet that there would be because I mean I I know there's snow at elevation like in Idaho because I got photos last week from my grandsons uh 19 and 11 years old and each of them got a big old mule deer and one of them got an elk and the photos are there you know they are they are in the snow covered mountaintops already so it's yeah
i'm feeling good
So can your son take me on hunting and maybe get me an elk or a deer?
The mule deer that he dropped, and I mean, this thing was big.
I didn't ask about weight.
But the 11-year-old got this from 327 yards away.
Wow.
Now his
dad,
to be fair, his dad is a professional hunting guide.
and fishing guides.
So they have had years of tips and advice.
They are, you know, they're learning from the best.
That's still really impressive for an 11-year-old.
My dad tried to take me hunting when I was 11 years old and I was invited to go back and wait in the truck.
So, you know, I'm very proud of the 11-year-old and the 19-year-old for being able to do that.
But we're still waiting on the big one for you this season, right?
Yeah, that's right, you know, I didn't get the benefit of my dad teaching me because my dad shot some pheasants for my for my mom on date number two or three
Mm-hmm,
and she was she did not like that
So that was the end of his hunting career.
Wow.
The things we do for love.
He
also sold his motorcycle for the engagement ring.
So my dad, I wish I could have met him back then.
And now you're doing ski camp with him?
And now I'm doing ski camp with him.
And now
he's
a boring, boring man doing Whirtle and the mini Crossford every morning.
And still kicking your butt, you know, in the, in the person.
Yeah.
And so, and yet you're, you, and I thought maybe you'd go to ski camp without him to try to, you know, learn from
him.
I play.
Okay.
Here's the truth about, you know, television.
And you know this, Pat, you
know,
we hammered up a little bit, right?
I hammered up a bit.
I, I.
My favorite thing to do is to ski with my dad, but the people seem to enjoy the rivalry, so
I
like to play it up.
Oh, no.
Of course, it's all in good fun.
Looking at some of the news you're covering here, and it is, there's never been an easy time to be a public library.
There's always budget pressures and things like that.
And there's one that is on the Marathon-Clarke County border that is facing its own unique situation.
What's the story out of Dorchester?
Yes, so I would invite anyone to look at a map of the Clark and Marathon County border and you'll find that there are four villages that exist in both counties and it's just kind of an anomaly, but unfortunately it's partly leading to the Dorchester library's potential closure because
more people from Marathon County come to the Dorchester Library than Clark County.
And this includes sending items, you know, to different libraries as well.
But the Clark County Board of Supervisors is going to stop reimbursing libraries from materials sent to Clark County.
And you might be wondering, well, why isn't Marathon County
doing this.
Well, it's also not to use the word again.
It's an anomaly as well.
Marathon County is not doing this reimbursement because Clark County and Marathon County made a deal in 2000 that they're just going to, they're about the same amount of people are using library materials from each other's counties.
So let's just zero it out.
But now that has become an imbalance with more and more people from Marathon County using Clark County materials.
So if the rule, this new rule was in place last year, Dorchester Library would have lost $16,000, so it's reasonable to think they're going to lose another around $16,000 this year.
all because of kind of this finicky rule and this finicky location of the library.
So the Dorchester librarian is trying to rally people to go to the next county board meeting and see if there can be a change for this.
Well, maybe so, but also what a what a stinging indictment for residents of Clark County.
Hey, Clark County folks, why don't you read more?
Well, you know, there's a population imbalance as well.
Okay.
But yeah, it's not just that it's something where you could again like anything else in politics We just talked about this with the affordable character and everything else you come back and revisit things you tinker with things you make things work That that's what government is supposed to do not just in Congress, but even at the county board level.
Yeah, we struck this deal in 2000.
Let's revisit it Let's see how it's working right now.
I mean you and I've covered enough of these things We know that there is a deal that can be made.
It's all a matter of
Will these particular people, in this case, in these county boards, will they figure it out?
And that's no doubt what you and your team are watching.
Yeah, and libraries, man, they're just an amazing thing, right?
You can
go
there.
There's no pressure of being sold something.
It's free and it's for everyone, so yeah.
important
resource.
Yeah.
And again, related to that would be my usual rant about shared revenue coming from the state legislature.
And again, you can go to any municipal official, any county official, and they will tell you about the impact of decreased shared revenue from this legislature, and the impact that it has on local property taxes, and then on local services.
And we'll certainly harp on that, you know, repeatedly at other times in the future.
But in our final few seconds here, you got how
Halloween coming up is Halloween a big deal for you.
It's on a Friday night.
Are you going to, are you a candy hand or outer?
Are you a party goer?
I
will be a party goer.
I don't know if you've seen Adventure Time, but I will be going as Ice King.
Ice King from Adventure Time.
You might want to look down on that pass.
I was going to say, you've lost me on all counts, but Parker liked it, so.
I have an image in my head of what I
All right, Dan Hagen, catch him on WJFW NewsWatch 12 out of Rhinelander, wjfw.com.
Thank you, Dan.
Appreciate it.
Bye everybody.
All right, have a great day and coming up next we'll talk to Jeff Renneke from Friends of the Apostle Islands, impact of the government shutdown up north and on national parks all around the country.
I'm Pat Crightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back at 735 on a Tuesday morning, October 28.
Nice to have you along.
Hey, get signed up for our UpNorth News daily newsletter.
Head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com.
Click subscribe and the banner at the top of the homepage.
Included in today's edition is a link to my story about the Trump administration giving a big old no.
to Wisconsin for some of the disaster relief that was applied for following massive flash flooding in August in southeast Wisconsin where some places got more than a foot of rain and there was all kinds of damage done to houses and so individual disaster relief had been approved.
But the Trump administration rejected Wisconsin's application on behalf of six counties for infrastructure damage that was caused to public buildings and roads and bridges and things like that.
And you might say, well, that's fine.
I mean, as long as the individuals got their disaster relief for their homes, who cares about the infrastructure stuff?
Well, it's still got to be fixed, which means that instead of it being, you know, helped.
instead of some of it being paid for in part by the federal government.
It means it's all gonna fall on local taxpayers or state and local taxpayers as the case may be.
So you can read more about that in our newsletter.
Again, sign up at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
All right, time to go way up north as we do this time every other Tuesday.
And this time around, we're getting to know our friend, Jeff Renneke, from Friends of the Apostle Islands to talk about the government shutdown and its impact on our national parks.
Jeff, good morning.
How are you?
Good morning, Pat.
Always good to be here.
I wish we'd have some good news
on
National Park some morning.
I really, you know, we're going to, we're going to get there again.
But right now we've been dealt this hand, which deals with a government shutdown and letting people know of the impact, you know, here in Wisconsin and beyond.
So I guess the best way just to start is to ask from a general standpoint, as you look at things across the country, how are our national parks faring during the shutdown so far?
Our national parks are a very diverse collection of landscapes, as you know, from mountain tops to deep canyons, from seashores to, you know, deserts.
And so it's not surprising.
I don't think that the impact of the shutdown is hitting different parks in different ways.
And it didn't help so much that the Department of Interior sent out kind of a confusing contingency plan for parks, literally only hours before the shutdown.
And in that contingency plan, they told parks that while the National Park Service will be conducting no park operations and offering no visitor services, the outdoor areas, trails, exhibits, and overlooks will remain generally accessible.
to visitors.
So in other words, most of the buildings in national parks are closed, visitor centers, museums, that sort of things.
You can still maybe get to the trails, bathrooms may be locked, trash pickup may not be happening.
In some parks, it's become really free for all because of the lack of emergency services and search and rescue.
In one park,
An American flag was hung upside down in the distress symbol of our national parks.
So not a good situation in our parks right now.
No, I mean, and it leads not only to maybe trash piling up and programs not being run, but safety concerns and also concerns about damage.
Have there been any reports of damage with the lack of rangers in the parks?
Unfortunately, yes.
I mean, you have to put it in perspective that...
some 9,000 national parks service employees have been laid off.
These are often the front line people that would be out there keeping an eye on things.
So there's examples like squatters coming into national park campgrounds, ignoring the time limits and just setting up home.
There's illegal base jumping going on in Yosemite, some off-roading situations in various national parks.
And the situation is expected only to get worse.
During the last extended shutdown, there were things like rock art panels that were vandalized at Big Bend.
Joshua trees were toppled in that park.
You know, our parks don't run themselves.
Leaving the gates open with no rangers inside is a very strange way to run a business.
When you think about it, the National Zoo is closed.
The Smithsonian Institute museums are closed, the Air and Space Museum.
And when you would ask why, they would probably say, well, there's nobody inside to protect the resources.
Well, there's nobody inside to protect the resources of our national parks either.
And that's a situation that could lead to
disaster.
And it's such a perfect way of looking at it.
I mean, you wouldn't leave the museums and things open and say, well, we just trust you to be good with the paintings and not let the trash cans overflow.
So has it led to any kind of formal call to close up some of these parks so that they stay protected?
You know, it's a difficult decision.
Everybody understands that.
People love our national parks, their economic engines.
Even this time of year, some parks like Shenandoah National Park, the Great Smokies and others, they get up to 25% of their visitation in October because people coming to check out the beautiful fall colors.
So it's a very difficult decision, but most people in the field say they should be closed when there aren't rangers.
There was recently a...
group of 40 national park former superintendents and directors who sent the letter to the secretary of interior asking that the parks be shut down and another letter by 450 former Rangers saying that this can't go on the parks are too fragile without the folks who are
hired to take care of the parks inside of them.
Our parks simply won't run themselves and some of the parks have shut down.
The iconic Carlsbad Caverns National Park, the caves there are protected, mirror woods, white sands.
They're pretty much shut down but in the meantime others remain open and therefore vulnerable.
So let's take it a little closer to home and we're talking to Jeff Renneke from Friends of the Apostle Islands and let's talk about the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore up north here.
And again, it's maybe not an apples to apples comparison with some of our national parks, but I have a feeling the shutdown still has impact.
Even at a place like that, that is a little more, you know, seasonal in its operations.
What's happening up there?
Yeah, that's a really good point.
You know, our park is very seasonal.
So if you were to come here as a visitor right now, you would find the visitor center in Bayfield closed, the visitor center at Little Sand Bay closed, but then they always closed.
It wasn't because of the shutdown.
It was because of the seasonal nature of visitation.
But that doesn't mean that things are fine in the park.
Think of all the things that go on behind the scenes in that visitor center.
There's no park planning.
going on.
There's no staff training.
There's no hiring going on.
There's no cataloging of artifacts.
There's no continuing wildlife research.
There's an awful lot that happens at our parks that people don't see to make them run as smoothly as they do when there are a lot of visitors there.
So just because a park isn't necessarily looking a lot different doesn't mean that there's not damage going on behind the scenes.
We need to get our parks.
open and funded or closing down.
Now, Jeff, there's a website, friendsoftheapostleislands.org, and you recently wrote a story for the website about the government shutdown and the things that you might or might not see at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, and you address the construction of a Myers Beach accessible walkway project.
What is happening with that?
Yeah, that's another good example.
So friends of the Apostle Islands with the help of more than 500 donors and sponsors raised almost $800,000 to
be part of our commitment to help the park be more accessible to all.
And so we got approval to replace the 45-step stairway down to the popular Myers Beach kayak launch with a all-accessible ramp.
It's all paid for.
It's all ready to go.
All we need is a rubber stamp from the park service.
Unfortunately, the park service is closed and so that rubber stamp won't happen.
until it reopens and up here we have a very short construction season so every day that goes by may limit our ability to get that done in one season so things don't stand still just because the park is closed.
So you'd wanted to start this next spring and finish it by next fall and... That would be the plan,
yeah.
And that's not gonna happen if we can't get it out to contractors for bids and have them poised to go as soon as the weather is decent.
Yeah, again, like in all these things that Jeff was pointing out, there are plenty of things that happen behind the scenes that aren't going on right now as well.
There's also the case where...
Again, because there's no staffing and people are still going into these areas, you know, they're not paying the fees that they would normally pay.
But there are some folks that still understand that without the fees, there won't be support for the upkeep, for the programs, for the maintenance and everything else.
So are there still ways that people could pay fees voluntarily if they choose to use or visit some parks?
Many parks do have internet accessible scanning of a QR code to pay.
And we would urge people to do that.
You can make a donation to groups like friendsoftheaposalallans.org, which might be equal to your entrance fee to help us support the parks.
And almost every park in the country has a friends group like ours.
So there's still a way to love your parks and help your parks, even if you're not paying those entrance fees.
And remember that that's losing money for the
Park.
80% of that money stays in the park that you're visiting.
The other 20% is spread out to parks like the Apostle Islands that don't have an entrance fee.
So when you don't pay your entrance fee, it hurts not only the park you're visiting, but all of our national parks.
So let's let's all help each other by making contributions in any way we can.
And can that still be done through the usual website recreation.gov?
That can be campsite fees as you pay through recreation.gov.
Each park, as I mentioned, is unique and different.
Look for a QR code or look for a friends of group and see if you make a donation that way.
Okay.
I'm sure you mentioned earlier, search and rescue operations, not even just the operations, but the training are emergency services being impacted by the shutdown.
Well, and also communication.
You know, one of the biggest things about staying safe in our national park is understanding what the threats are, what the weather is going to be, when it's safe to go to someplace, when someplace might be closed.
But the irony is at the time when park visitors need communication the most,
The entire communication staff of our parks has also been furloughed.
And so there's no one to ask, is it safe to go here?
If I need help, who do I contact?
Are the campgrounds open?
It's just radio silence from our national parks.
And that puts everyone in danger.
Yeah, and Jeff has talked about earlier again some of the other things that aren't being done like school programs, interpretive program preparations, cataloging of historical artifacts, but there are things that you know, you can do to be helpful.
And I took note of one that you said here, supporting local businesses, even if you can't or don't normally go into one of these areas, those local businesses would still appreciate some visitors.
Oh, absolutely.
Most national park units are economic engines.
People come here and they spend money.
They buy gas on the way here.
They stay at hotels.
They eat at restaurants.
They visit gift shops.
Without those visitors coming in, many of these national park related businesses.
have a difficult time.
It's a huge audience.
Our National Park Service budget here for our Lakeshore is about $3.4 million, and yet we return some $29 million to the local economy.
And so it's a real engine for our...
local businesses.
So come up here, enjoy Bayfield.
Enjoy the National Lakeshore parts that are open.
Do that responsibly.
Do that safely.
Come here prepared to be self-sufficient.
Practice low-impact camping and leave no trace principles.
And go visit some of the local shop owners.
They will really appreciate it.
And learn more at friendsoftheapostleislands.org.
Jeff Renneke, thank you so much.
Appreciate the update.
Thank you for the opportunity.
You bet.
Have a great day.
And coming up in our next hour, we'll talk to Cam Stephenson, live from Washington, DC, from Courier Newsroom, and then Ruth Conniff from the Wisconsin Examiner.
I'm Pat Krightloff.
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.
Still hanging at 38 degrees here in the Chippewa Valley where we are joined by James Kelly from the Civic Media Newsroom here in the Chippewa Valley with some of the news and notes that he's following across western and northern Wisconsin.
James, how are you?
I'm good.
The cold weather has officially said and not thrilled about that.
No, no, and it's
It's not good.
It only gets worse from here.
But someday, someday, James, you will be looking and going, remember when I was grousing and it was 38 degrees, wouldn't it be great if it was that warm again?
I
can't wait for
38.
Yes, I can't wait for it to be 38 degrees again.
We'll get to that before you know it.
All right, on that happy thought, let's see what you're covering here.
As we've been covering the health care crisis across this country, across rural Wisconsin, there's been a specific health care crisis in the Chippewa Valley after a couple of hospitals closed down.
It has made things much more expensive around here.
And so when the Office of Commissioner of Insurance through Governor Evers
responded to the potential of what could happen with the government shutdown.
It appears that the Chippewa Valley is kind of going to take it in the shorts here, and the governor made clear to make note of that in yesterday's release, James.
Yeah, the Chippewa Valley can't seem to catch a break when it comes to the health care field these days.
On top of the increased premiums, which I know you covered some of these stats earlier, but in Eau Claire family of four, the monthly premiums jumping $2,000 yearly, $24,000 for the silver plan for 60 year old couples.
It's 400 to 3100 a month for over $32,000 a year extra.
This is on top of the hospital closures, just the overall lack of access to things like delivery services, mental health services that's come in the wake of the HSHS closures.
We do have a lot of the new hospitals that are still in the works, but if they're opening up to a healthcare field that looks the way it does right now, they could run into some similar problems that HSHS ran into with inadequate reimbursements.
It is so odd.
I mean, kind of...
puzzling here in the Chippewa Valley because it has been a healthcare hub for the longest time that folks from all over, you know, Northwestern, the Northwestern quarter of Wisconsin would come to Eau Claire.
It's got, you know, it's got the school of nursing here.
It's got the hospitals that were here.
And yet now
This is a market that seems to be struggling, you know, perhaps more than the others and is going to struggle even more with these insurance premiums going up the way that they are if things stay the way that they are.
So it's no wonder the governor made sure to highlight Eau Claire County as seeing a particular impact because of the government shutdown.
Let's head over to Dunn County now and talk about a group that's looking to benefit from some donations around Thanksgiving time.
Yeah, to talk even more about the ongoing federal government shutdown, obviously the food share benefits are going to be hit or miss over the next few weeks.
We're still trying to figure out what we're going to do about that funding.
In the meantime, organizations like Stepping Stones of Dunn County, they're doing their usual Thanksgiving drives, collecting whole turkeys, mashed potatoes, stuff like that.
likely going to see an increase in demand in the area for food service, for food pantry services, things like that, with food share benefits going out the window.
So they're hoping to provide at least 600 households in the area with a hot Thanksgiving meal this year.
And we'll see what we're doing with the rest of the food industry here.
Do you know, is there a way for folks to help directly at this point?
Do we know how to?
Yes, they can send their donations directly to Stepping Stones of Dunn County or drop them off at their location on Stout Road in Menominee.
Gotcha.
Okay, sounds good.
And let's see, what do we got here?
Is this Healthy Washington County?
What is this?
Healthy Wash go Washburn.
Washburn.
I'm like, Washington County, wait a minute, we're getting way far away.
No, not
quite the right area.
This is Washburn
County.
Let's let's stick to this part of the state, Pat.
Okay, Healthy Washburn County go for it.
Yeah, they're gonna be hosting some mental health training sessions over the month of November.
The first one's gonna be next Saturday, November 7th, from 8 a.m.
to 4 p.m.
at the Washburn County Services Building.
That...
is more geared towards youth mental health training.
So they're looking for area of adults who work with kids, teachers, child care providers, stuff like that, to provide them with some additional training on how to respond to a child who's in a mental health crisis.
It's a very difficult thing to respond to, especially with children, maybe don't have the easiest time processing and explaining the emotions that they're going through in the time.
So being able to recognize those signs and being able to do something about it makes a really big difference.
Oh my goodness, yes, this sounds extremely valuable.
Again, at your fingertips, do you have a way for people to learn more about that?
They can email the...
people at the Healthy WashCo or Washburn County, or they can give them a call at Healthy WashCo.
Those numbers and emails are available online, and there's also going to be a second training later in November for adults who are having mental health crises.
OK, sounds good.
From Walt on Facebook, thanks for your work as one just can't find what's happening in the rural communities in the Northwest.
Keep up the great work.
That's awfully nice.
Thank you, Walt.
And I do appreciate that.
And if you want to follow what James is doing, you head over.
He covers this all on 90.
three, five, the tap here in the Chippewa Valley.
That's WCFWHD2.
And you can also see current headlines, weather, upcoming local sports and all of that at the tap.
so again for 93.5 the tap go to thetap.fm and find the local homepage for the station there and I will I will try to do a better job on the abbreviations here next time James because the funny thing is my first job out of college was a radio station in Rice Lake and so I abbreviated Washburn County as Washcoe and then I went to go work for a station in West Bend.
which is in Washington County.
And so I abbreviated that as WashCo.
And to this day, when I see BCO, I still think Barron County, because that's how I abbreviated Barron County in all my reporter notes all those years.
And I keep getting burned going, oh, no, no, that's Brown County.
Brown County likes to, you know, use BC as their abbreviations.
That's one of the benefits of not being from around the area.
I use the proper name for everything.
We don't want to make any mistakes.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, then your handwriting is a lot better than mine.
And that's much appreciated.
James Kelly, follow him at 93 five the tap the tap dot FM.
Thank you, James.
Very much appreciate it.
Have a great day.
All right.
Coming up in our next hour, we will of course talk to Cam Stevenson.
He's out there in the nation's capital.
And well, I mean, we're gonna ask if if he knows anything more about the shutdown.
or about the destruction of the White House because only one of those has clearly had any work done lately.
And then later, we'll talk to Ruth Conniff, editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Examiner, all that more coming up after your local news at the top of the hour.
I'm Pat Crightlow from Up North News.
You can follow what we're doing at UpNorthNewsWI.com and sign up for our newsletters there.
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