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Now, for my Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Crichtlow.
Hey,
good morning.
It is 7.06.
Nice to have you back here up north on a Thursday morning, October 30th.
2025, Parker Olson producing things down in Madison Studio A2.
Coming up, we will have an expert on Medicare Advantage plans.
It might not be for you, but it might be for an aging parent who's considering one of the so-called Medicare Advantage plans as opposed to traditional Medicare.
Oh, is there a difference?
You might want to get a little...
educated on that.
We're going to try to do that for you coming up at the bottom of the hour.
We will talk about some new extensive polling through the Marquette poll, not your usual horse race numbers about candidates, but more about what people in Wisconsin think about the issues.
And at some point, we'll talk about the UW Eau Claire College Republicans and a stunt they pulled.
And just how sick I am of the feigned outrage when racist activity gets called out, you know, it's
It used to be just your crazy uncle, or I'm sorry, your eccentric uncle, who would start everything with, I'm not a racist, but, and then they'd go on and on and on.
That seems to have infected a larger part of society, like, oh, it's not racist to, you know, dress up as an ice officer, and then somebody else dresses up as a, as a Mexican woman, and you're arresting this person.
There's nothing racist about that.
Please tell me you don't really believe that.
Anyway, 855-75-CIVIC is the number 855-752-4842.
You can use the Civic Media app as well.
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if you're old fashioned like that radio at up north news wi.com.
In sports, we had the Wisconsin badger men's basketball team Parker defeating Plattville last tune up before the regular season began 69 53 was the final.
You were saying that the badger men didn't look as dominant as you you thought they might have going up against a yx school.
Um,
But but there are no schleps.
I mean, they're they're they're capable of providing at least a little bit of a fight.
And so I think I think when we refer to this as a final tune up before the regular season, I think that's the right way to put it.
They've they see this team and go, All right, well, before we take on fellow Division one teams like the fight and camels of Campbell University next Monday, we better get ourselves ready.
So it looks like they finally did.
And in the World Series,
the toronto blue jays beat the los angeles dodgers six to one to lead the world series three games to two so the world series goes back to toronto for game six tomorrow where toronto could seal the deal or if the dodgers win there will be a deciding seventh game i'm assuming on saturday as well and then that will wrap up the baseball season for 2025 now we can get into anticipating 2026 which is is part happiness and part
Which players are we going to lose for agency and things like that?
Well, I sure hope so.
I don't want to hear, you know, the rebuilding thing rebuilding now that nobody rebuilds, you know, you either either have the right people or you don't.
And sometimes they're because of a heavy payroll with a lot of experience.
And sometimes they're young and just really good because you did a good job of scouting.
And hopefully that's where the brewers are on that.
But first, we got to get through the rest of the World Series, Friday, and perhaps Saturday as well.
All right, there's a new Marquette pullout.
And as you know, during
you know, the the height of election campaigns, I tend to not get too worked up over polling because polling can be all over the place.
Again, a good reputable, let me try that again, a good reputable polling company works hard to have a representative sample, a good cross section of the public.
But even then, it's sometimes tough to match with how the results are going to turn out on election day.
So I don't emphasize it as much there.
But in this case, I mean, we are so far away from the election that it's a lot about familiarity with candidates and familiarity with issues that I thought some of these were interesting enough to share.
The Marquette poll interviewed 846 Wisconsin registered voters from October 15th to the 22nd and a margin of error of four and a half percentage points.
And I'm going to stop right there just to say this is how much polling has changed now from the olden days.
In the olden days, you would do a poll in one night and you would get that representative sample because everybody had landlines, everybody answered their phone.
And you know, a lot of people talk to that now nobody answers their phone if they don't know who it is.
And that's why it took a week just to get 846 registered voters in Wisconsin to answer the phone.
and answer these poll questions.
So the margin of error four and a half percentage points seems a little broad, but that's kind of the nature of polling these days in the cell phone era.
Anyway, this new poll finds that a large majority of both Democrats and Republicans have not decided on a favorite candidate for governor for next year.
No big surprise.
In fact, only 6% say they have heard a lot about the 2026 campaigns for governor.
I would include every one of you listening right now.
You're probably hearing more about the 2026 governor's race than almost anybody else, including some of the people who were running for governor.
But you, you are familiar.
You've heard all of these names that I'm going to be talking about.
And as far as recognition goes, now this is recognition, not support.
In terms of recognition, Milwaukee County Executive David Crawley is tops on the list at 26%.
Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez at 25%.
State Representative Francesca Hong at 22%, State Senator Keldoroy is at 17%.
Now these all make sense because they're from the Milwaukee or the Madison areas.
Then you've got a lawyer, Missy Hughes at 16% and others lower than that.
But now you ask them, well, do you have a favorite?
Do you have a candidate you would vote for next August in the primary for governor?
Well, among the Democratic voters, 81% said no, four out of five said no.
We're practically a year away from the primary.
What are we talking about?
However, of those that do have a preference, well, if you get the emails from State Representative Francesca Hong, you've seen the subject line, Francesca Hong in first place in polling for governor at 6%.
And Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez at 4%.
David Crawley at 3%, Senator Calderoy's at 3%, Missy Hughes at 2%.
But again, 81% are undecided.
So if you're Francesca Hong, you take the little victories where you can because you have both recognition and support from people.
And if you're some of those other candidates, Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez, Milwaukee County Executive David Crawley, State Senator Calderoy's,
You know that you got a little bit more work to do to build your recognition and build people who will actually commit to say, this is my person for next August.
There will, of course, be a Wisconsin State Supreme Court race in April 1st next year.
And the two candidates there have very little name recognition.
There's Waukesha Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar, who has 15% name recognition, mostly among conservatives, I would imagine.
and Madison Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor, 16% public recognition, again, I would assume mostly by liberals and progressives.
However, despite the lack of knowledge about the candidates, seven out of 10 voters said they are absolutely certain to vote in April when that Supreme Court seat will be on the ballot.
When people say, why do you love living in Wisconsin?
Well, I mean, it's the fall colors.
It's the lakes.
It's all the sites.
It's the cheese.
It's the old fashions.
But it's also the fact that we have people all around us who will tell you, I don't know much about the state Supreme Court race yet.
But I know it's important enough that I'm going to vote.
I'm going to learn about the candidates as we get closer to election.
And I'm going to vote that is a that is a level of civic engagement that you do not find in all 50 states.
And I
love that about this state, that people actually do care.
They care enough to want to learn about the issues in the candidates and go vote.
They don't all do it, and I don't agree with all of them, but they at least take the time to do it.
On national issues, will President Donald Trump's policies increase inflation?
57% say yes.
While 30% say his policies will decrease inflation.
Okay.
And 12% say they'll have no impact.
There are, of course, substantial partisan differences.
60% of Republicans say Trump's policies will decrease inflation, which again tells you there is a very broad and effective right wing media bubble in this country.
Meanwhile, obviously 96% of Democrats think his policies will increase inflation, but what about independence?
69%.
7 out of 10 independents look at what the president's doing and understand that it is increasing inflation.
Now Trump does have his supporters.
There are 33% out there who say the tariffs will help the economy.
55% say it will hurt the economy.
And once again, you've got a majority of independents who say, no, tariffs hurt the economy.
Asked if tariffs are helping or hurting Wisconsin farmers.
Well, 16% say they are helping Wisconsin farmers.
That is truly Donald Trump's base right there.
The 16% who say that tariffs are helping the farmers.
62% understand that they are hurting farmers.
Overall voters are evenly divided over which party is most responsible for the shutdown of the federal government, which again tells you that right wing messaging is effective.
I'm not really happy with the wording of the response here by the market poll people because they lead saying 33% say it's the Democrats.
But it's 38% who say the Republicans.
So I don't know why the Republicans weren't listed first.
38% Republican, 33% Democrat, 28% saying both parties are equally responsible.
Now, at the heart of the shutdown, should the increased tax credits that help pay for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace be extended?
58% of respondents in Wisconsin say yes.
It's basically a 60-40 split.
Obviously, more Republicans believe the credits for health insurance should expire.
These are also folks who have not
yet had to go through what so many others have gone through and understand the importance of having these premium tax credits continue to keep health insurance affordable.
We will talk more about the affordability of health insurance with an expert about Medicare Advantage plans coming up in 15 minutes.
From the heart of America's Up North, live from Lake Wissota, thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.
I'm Pat Crightlow.
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.
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It's not just chilly.
It's cold out there right now 23 degrees up in Merrill right now 25 here in the Chippewa Valley La Crosse is at 36 degrees Oshkosh here at 39 right now It's 34 in Wasaw.
So while it's that cold out here to remind you that hockey season is underway and you can follow every game from the Wisconsin Badger men's hockey team They are taking on the the Minnesota Gophers tonight coverage begins at 730
on WFHR in Wisconsin Rapids.
And if memory serves, I believe Jimmy Cusco was telling us all about how Civic Media has recently expanded and has added some stations in the Michigan Upper Peninsula.
So if you're up in the UP close to Ironwood, it turns out that WJMS in Ironwood is now a member of the Civic Media family.
And they too will be covering all the Badger sports, including the Badger men's hockey game come Thursday.
Packers by the way play on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers.
That's a noon kickoff So the pregame coverage begins at 10 a.m.
On civic media stations in Ritzland Center Park Falls Watoma and Racine head over to civicmedia.us to learn more Well as mentioned at UW Eau Claire the College Republicans recently put on a Halloween costume contest which
Again, it seems like every Halloween, there's somebody that does, you know, something in blackface or something where they go, wait, what do you mean?
These are folks that watched way too much and listened to way too much.
Meg and Kelly, you know, the one who told you that, of course, Jesus Christ and Santa Claus are white men and don't see anything wrong with positions like that or
costumes like the one that they posted on Instagram of one student dressed as an ice agent and is seen arresting a woman dressed as a stereotypical Latino immigrant with a handcuffing her with her hands behind her back.
Needless to say that there are people upset about trivializing what has really turned out to be
a series of unlawful arrests and detentions and conduct that is way beyond the scope of typical law enforcement in terms of arresting people without cause, without warrants, arresting them violently, without cause, arresting citizens, detaining them, racial profiling, none of these things should be celebrated.
But
Of course, they are being celebrated by a certain faction of the population.
And that's a little unfortunate.
UW Eau Claire unfortunately put out a rather vanilla statement saying UW Eau Claire is aware of the incident that occurred Monday evening that involved Halloween costumes worn by individuals at a student organization meeting on campus.
The event was not organized by the university.
Yeah, we know.
We're not expecting that the university instructed the college Republicans to engage in, you know, race-baiting photographs.
You could still condemn it just the same.
But, you know, to be fair, I'll read you the statement from Fred Kappus, chair of the Eau Claire County Republican Party, who called it feigned outrage.
He said, what I saw an experience was this group of responsible college students having a good time.
There was no hateful and unsafe rhetoric displayed by the college Republicans.
He says, the motivation by Democrats, of course, is to smear, besmirch, and portray these conservative students as racists.
A typical Democrat tactic, your feigned outrage is very transparent.
Here's the thing.
You can you can feign outrage at being accused of racism.
It doesn't make the look any better for the things that you engage in.
Look, if you want to celebrate what people in your political party are doing, if you want to wave like at the convention last year, if you want to all wave the same sign that says mass deportations now,
that's your prerogative.
It's also the prerogative of pretty much every other right thinking American to look at thousands of people waving signs that say mass deportations now and say, we got a race problem in this country, a racism problem in this country, that we're looking to just racially profile people and mock them with Halloween costumes as well.
Because again, it was the people waving the sign saying mass deportations now.
That have told us the problem is border security and the problem is immigrant the immigration system To which everybody else independence Democrats said yeah, let's fix that let's fix this problem because we actually need and value immigrants in this country our economy needs immigrant labor
Our future needs immigrant labor as the baby boomers continue to exit the stage And y'all said no said no we don't we don't want to fix immigration We want to round up as many brown skinned people as we can now at the in the beginning We're gonna tell you we're gonna tell you that it's all about getting the terrorists and getting the the narco dealers and getting the fentanyl but once again, we're going after Maria from housekeeping and we're gonna celebrate that and
You know, maybe she's got kids who were born in this country and we're still going to ship them out of the country despite them being citizens.
You can celebrate that all you want, but the record is clear.
We could have fixed the system and you said no.
You elected somebody who vowed not to fix the system, who is moving all kinds of our tax dollars away from fighting violent crime to simply rounding up people.
based on race and skin color and either harassing them, detaining them, and even sending them out of the country, not necessarily to the country where they came from, which in and of itself is cruel and barbaric.
So if folks get a little unhappy that you decide to celebrate that with a little bit of a racist play with Halloween costumes, you'll have to understand that maybe you can go back to
you know, some other kinds of ghosts and goblins and skeletons and the things that are a bit more traditional toward Halloween.
Keep your race-baiting politics out of this, please.
When we come back, we're going to talk about Medicare Advantage plans and what people need to know if they're looking for plans for themselves or if they're caregivers or adult children for aging parents.
That's coming up.
And then in our next hour, Sean O'Malley, Joseph Peck, you chat homes and more.
I'm Pat Crightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back at 735 on this Thursday.
Remember, you can sign up for our daily newsletter.
Head over to upnorthnewswi.com.
In today's edition, it includes more of your favorite photos of Halloween decorations.
We talk about your favorite Halloween candy.
There's also a link where you can help with food banks that need to stock their shelves with snap benefits running dry during the government shutdown.
And there's an article there today on Wisconsin Farms where you can spend the night as part of agritourism.
Again, for that and more, subscribe to our newsletters.
Head over to upnorthnewswi.com to learn more about the weekday newsletters and our weekend newsletter as well.
All right, let's talk health care policy.
Okay, I heard everybody going for the radio dial.
Don't do that yet.
When we talk about health care policy, making sure that you can afford to get sick, we want to make sure we draw a distinction of what we're talking about here.
Medicare
which is for seniors by and large versus the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, which is the health insurance coverage that you can buy through the marketplace.
That's kind of at the heart of the government shutdown.
And we've covered that before and we'll come back to it.
But this is primarily about Medicare.
So there is also an open enrollment period going on right now for Medicare, especially for people who instead of being part of original Medicare,
want to purchase health insurance through a private insurance company through something called Medicare Advantage, which says it covers a few more things than it might, but there are also other things to be mindful of when you're comparing these Medicare Advantage plans to traditional Medicare, either for yourself or maybe for an aging parent or somebody that you're a caregiver for.
And this time of year, there's always people who are either choosing a plan for the first time.
Or they've been on a plan and that plan is being dropped or modified and they want to compare plans again.
And they don't want to get ripped off in the process because there are also scammers out there.
And so to that end, we wanted to find somebody that could tell us about, you know, the best way to go about all of these things.
And that's where we found Ingrid Cunninger, who is a fraud and abuse programs manager for the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources, and also something called the Senior Medicare Patrol.
And she joins us this morning.
Ingrid, good morning.
Good morning.
Thank you for being here.
Good morning.
Thanks so much for having me.
Yeah, it's a pleasure having you here to talk more about this because it can be, I mean, so very confusing.
You know this firsthand.
hesitate to wonder how many people have just given you that look like, just please help me pick something.
It is so convoluted.
So let's start at the very beginning here before we can get into Medicare Advantage.
Do you want to add anything to my distinction between original Medicare versus these Medicare Advantage plans?
No, I think you did a great job of outlining that.
It's really important for people to understand that they do have a choice and there is a difference oftentimes when we're talking to people.
who are already enrolled in either original Medicare or have a Medicare Advantage plan.
They're not even really sure what plan they chose or what's going on.
Just like you said, it's complex.
There's a lot of ins and outs about that.
And it's not always easy to understand.
So it's just really important for people to take the time to learn more about all of their options.
And right now is a great time to do that.
In people who are first eligible for Medicare, they hear about, you know, traditional Medicare or original Medicare, and there's a lot that it covers, but there are also significant things that it doesn't cover because, I mean, like prescription drugs, there are a lot more prescription drugs now than there were 60 years ago when this all first guard started.
When prescription drug costs, they weren't nearly the same concern 60 years ago, were they?
No, absolutely.
You're absolutely right.
There are definitely a lot more medications as well as diagnoses that people have that require additional treatment and therapies that, you know, Medicare, original Medicare or traditional Medicare may or may not cover.
And so that's what led to the creation of Medicare Part D to help cover these things.
But there was also then the creation of, you know, so-called Medicare Advantage for these private insurance companies to bring plans in.
What are the kinds of things, you know, on the pro side of the ledger?
What are the things that they tout as reasons why you might pick a Medicare Advantage policy over original Medicare?
Sure, I think some of the things that they tout are things that you mentioned.
You know, Medicare, original Medicare doesn't cover certain things and Medicare Advantage plans because they're able to privatize that are able to offer additional benefits.
So oftentimes, you know, dental insurance might be an additional benefit in a Medicare Advantage plan or hearing aids, you know, those sorts of things that
impact older adults or that older adults are often looking for or needing assistance with.
And sometimes those Medicare Advantage plans do offer those additional benefits.
Yeah, there's there's there's there's vision.
There are sometimes, you know, discounts for, you know, fitness programs and gym memberships.
I mean, there's a lot of commercials out there on the TV this time of year anger touting, all the all the things that make their plans, you know, so wonderful and so worthy of choosing.
But of course,
what they're not going to put in the commercials is that there's also on the other side of the ledger, there may be certain restrictions.
What are the things that people should be most cautious of or do their homework about when it comes to the things they don't talk about on the TV commercials?
Absolutely.
We always say if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
So as all of these television commercials are touting,
all of these great benefits.
There's also teeny tiny fine print scrolling at the bottom that outlines a lot of things that aren't covered or outlines additional eligibility requirements that people might not be aware of while they're considering that plan.
So it is really important to
read the fine print or get more information about those plans that kind of pique your interest or seem to have some benefits that you think would be beneficial to you and your health care in the coming year.
And just to be really careful about those things because oftentimes people don't read the fine print or don't realize that.
And if you're working with, you know, a large insurance broker from who knows where, not anyone local, they may or may not have your best interest in mind and they may not
point out to you that you'll have to choose a different network of doctors or the medications that you're currently taking won't be covered or will be more expensive to you in the coming year.
And oftentimes people don't realize that until they go to the doctor for the first time in the next year or go to the pharmacy to get prescriptions refilled and suddenly are stuck with bills that they weren't anticipating and hadn't planned to have to pay.
We are talking to Ingrid Cunninger from the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources and the Senior Medicare Patrol.
And I'm going to sound like such a weirdo here.
Ask 100 other people, what was the new story that most shocked them this year?
And they'll tell you a lot of the usual suspects.
But for me, it was this story that I saw a few months back.
The amount of senior citizen medical debt is soaring.
And that doesn't make sense at first blush because you think, well, wait, Medicare.
I paid my taxes all my life.
I've got Medicare.
It's going to cover things.
I'm going to get a Part D drug plan, and that's going to cover most of the things.
How can this be?
And you read deeper into the article.
And it's all kinds of folks on these Medicare Advantage plans who, between the deductibles and the copay, are deciding to go without because of previous denials of care.
they're suddenly racking up all this Medicare or medical debt that is extremely shocking to me to see that happen to
the senior citizens of the United States.
So to me, it was just a very cautionary tale, not only to pay attention to what the private health insurance companies are saying, but also I would assume the potential for scammers and others who want to take advantage of people in the system as well.
And as the fraud and abuse programs manager, that's something I'm sure you're watching closer than anybody else.
Absolutely.
The amount of
Medicare-related fraud, errors, and abuse is astounding.
With the Senior Medicare Patrol, we focus primarily on educating Medicare beneficiaries, as well as their advocates about how they can protect themselves from Medicare-related fraud and scams, as well as how they can detect and report that.
And the estimate right now is between $60 and $100 billion per year is just
the Medicare system.
So to answer your question, absolutely, there are a lot of bad actors out there looking to take advantage, not only of older adults, but of a program that older adults really rely on to provide their health insurance coverage.
Is how did the scammers tend to do is is it like a phone thing where they're calling people and making some kind of a hard sell on them?
Yeah, primarily the the scammers do operate via telephone and it looks if there's a couple of different ways that they do that The first thing is that they're looking for people's Medicare numbers So they may call and say that they're calling on behalf of Medicare and they just want to make sure that You've received your new Medicare card Well, if you didn't receive a new Medicare card recently you might be caught off guard and think
I didn't know I needed one.
And then that person on the phone is going to be so happy that they called you today because they're going to be able to take care of that.
They just need to, here comes the catch, verify that information and they'll go ahead and get that new Medicare card issued.
Well, here's the thing.
There's not a new Medicare card.
And Medicare is not calling people.
that's something for people to remember.
Not a new Medicare card, Medicare is not going to call you.
So what happens then is that the people that have gotten that Medicare number share it with other Medicare suppliers or equipment suppliers, anyone who's willing to make suspicious or fraudulent claims to Medicare on your behalf.
So then what happens is
that you receive your Medicare summary notice and you notice that Medicare has paid thousands of dollars for orthotic braces or catheter supplies, a bunch of things that you didn't receive were not ordered by your healthcare provider and now Medicare has made payment for.
And that's where the billions and billions of dollars rack up.
We are talking to Ingrid Cunninger from the Senior Medicare Patrol, Senior Medicare Patrol, smpwi.org is the website.
And you've got some articles in there about how this is really the time to double check your plan, even if you're happy with it, so that you can compare, you know, apples to apples.
So between that website, smpwi.org for Senior Medicare Patrol, Wisconsin.org, and Medicare.gov.
How important is it to be proactive?
rather than wait for somebody to ring your phone.
It's very important to be proactive and as you mentioned earlier this is right now we are in Medicare's open enrollment period so every year between October 15th and December 7th Medicare beneficiaries have the opportunity to as you said review their plans for this year see what changes their plan might have
in the works for next year and then look at other options.
That's a great benefit that people have the opportunity right now to review plans and see if there might be something out there that is
more beneficial to you.
Maybe there's additional benefits.
Maybe the cost is different.
Maybe your health situation has changed and you need more coverage or less coverage.
And so now is a great time to do that.
And I would really encourage people to, I know I said it goes until December 7th, but don't wait until December 7th, especially
if
you're looking to connect with some of the unbiased resources that might be available in your community to kind of help you sift through all those things.
They get really busy.
right now with helping other people so please don't wait and if you do get a phone call and someone is starting to
pressure you about making a decision right now or offering extra benefits.
If you sign up today on the phone, take a deep breath, hang up the phone and find someone who can help you not feel pressured into making those decisions.
Cause that's a big decision to make.
And you want to
make sure that you've, you know, done your research, asked the questions that you wanted to ask and feel confident, not pressured in the choice that you make for your healthcare coverage for next
year.
fraud and abuse programs manager for the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources and the Senior Medicare Patrol.
Ingrid, thank you so much for all this valuable information.
I really appreciate it.
Have a great day.
Thank you, you too.
All right.
Still ahead, we're going to be talking to Sean O'Malley about a potential big bubble in the markets all around artificial intelligence.
Stick around for that.
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.
Also in the Up North News daily newsletter, sign up for it at UpNorthNewsWI.com, a link to this article from our website.
Robert Kennedy Jr.
ignores more than 100 studies to push an abortion pill ban.
This is the Mipha Pristone explainer you need.
Again, that's in our newsletter and on our website upnorthnewswi.com.
Let's turn now to James Kelly over in our newsroom here in the Chippewa Valley for Civic Media, talking about the stories that he is following for us this week.
James, how you doing?
I'm good.
How you doing?
Good.
Good.
Let's see.
We're starting with
Hunting season and bear hunting, and that is something that neither you nor I can claim to be.
Yes,
no, I'm definitely not a bear hunter.
No, like
I
said, I might be
hunted by bears someday, but never a
hunter.
Some days, yeah, you could get that feeling out there, but no, it's bear hunting season is going on.
And so what are some of the latest numbers here?
Yeah, the Department of Natural Resources released their preliminary results for this bear hunting season.
It was a 35-day season.
The Northwest Wisconsin usually does have the highest numbers out of the bear season.
This year, the Northern Wisconsin Hunting Zone A was the only zone that actually exceeded its harvest target quota, a little bit of a down year this year.
In Hunting Zone D, they fell about 200 bears short.
That's more Western Wisconsin than Northern Wisconsin.
Overall, much
more disappointing bear hunting season than the last year where they saw almost 4,300 bears harvested.
This year it was under 3,800, which is also the five-year average.
Okay, and we've certainly talked about the pursuit of cleaner and greener energy generation in Wisconsin, and there's some news to report from Dunn County.
Yeah, the Done Energy Cooperative held a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new solar array project this week.
It's a small project, but it is their fourth one that they've done, so they are kind of adding these.
This is a 15 acre project with solar panels about 5,200.
So they're adding a lot of these smaller areas with solar panels to kind of diversify the energy production in the region.
It's only going to produce about 2.5 megawatts of power, which is
5 million kilowatts of the 220 million kilowatts that they offer for Dunn County residents, but it is going to be around for 30 years.
So this is going to be a long-term project.
There's probably going to be a little bit of upkeep on it, but it's not a huge footprint.
It's not a huge inconvenience for farmers or anything and just kind of a good way to diversify your energy production.
Yeah, and that's the thing.
Diversity is, you know, a diverse portfolio of energy sources is a good thing, something that we've been pursuing in the state for a long time and certainly now on the local level as well.
We are coming up on the 50th anniversary of a milestone tragedy in the Great Lakes and it's going to be commemorated up north coming up this weekend.
Yeah, the Edmund Fitzgerald sunk 50 years ago as of what is it November 10th this weekend?
There's gonna be a dedication ceremony for a new statue along Lake Superior It's in the town of Washburn not the county the town and it's an interesting project It's a pretty big statue, but all of the statue is made up of things that are significant to the shipwreck itself The base of the tower is part of the Ashland ore dock
and
at the top there is a
working weather vane that's going to be shaped like the Edmund Fitzgerald.
And there's a taconite pellets involved in there too, which is actually the cargo that the ship was carrying when it sunk.
Okay.
Yeah, there's going to be a lot to be said about this over the next couple of weeks.
I can definitely see us replaying our interview with Tom Nelson, who has written a book about the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
And so now there will be this statue up there as well.
A lot to be said about
Again, just a terrible tragedy.
And as we've learned from Tom Nelson's book, we've learned a bit more about the possible causes of this huge freighter breaking up and sinking during a storm on Lake Superior.
Definitely something that we'll be wanting to talk about for such a big anniversary celebration.
Yeah, so that'll be at the Washburn Marina on Saturday.
And there's also going to be some statements read from crew names and statements from family members and the community overall.
you know, a pretty significant occurrence in 50 years is a pretty significant milestone.
So everyone's going to be out for this one.
Okay.
Let's see.
Oh, so, so Tony writes in on on YouTube, and he knows that I've occasionally you mentioned that Washburn is not in
Washburn County and Wisconsin has a lot of those and Tony very quickly put together a list The town of Washburn is not in Washburn County.
It's in Bayfield County Yep, the town of Adams is not in Adams County.
It's in Jackson County The town of Jackson is not in Jackson County.
It's in Washington County The town of Grant is not in Grant County There's a town of Grant in Portage County and in Dunn County.
There's the town of Douglas
That's not in Douglas County.
That's located in Marquette County.
Let's see.
There's the town of Polk, which is not in Polk County.
It's in Washington County.
The town of Lincoln, not in Lincoln County.
Believe it or not, it's located in Trumplow County.
And finally, there's the town of Monroe.
Not in Monroe County.
It's in Green County.
You know, you
could live your whole life here and not really...
get that whole geographical sense.
You think you're talking about one place, you're actually talking about another place.
It's perfectly non-confusing.
Perfectly, yes.
I mean, we always, when people move here to cover news or anything else, we talk about the pronunciation conundrum that comes up with some place names.
But this is another one of them, thinking that, oh, well, if I'm going to, you know, Washburn, I'm clearly going to Washburn County.
No, you're not.
I listened to a lot of local news reports when I first moved here trying to make sure I get all the pronunciations right because there's nothing worse than showing up to an event out in public and someone's like, oh, by the way, you mispronounced the name of this town you cover.
Everybody
knows you're
now from here now
or or or Governor Tony Evers or something like that Yeah, it's it's it's it's tough to be an instant local But we're working on it and with James you can follow what he's doing for us in the Chippewa Valley at 93 5 the tap that's WCFW HD 2 in the Chippewa Valley or on the civic media app
And to see some of the current headlines and weather and upcoming local sports, head over to the station's website, thetap.fm, that's thetap.fm, or just go to civicmedia.us, click through the stations.
And when you click on the station, it'll take you right there to the station homepage where you see some of the news that James Kelly is putting together.
And let me know if I mispronounce anything.
Yes, absolutely.
We want to know that we want to get better all the time present present company included believe me.
All right, James.
Thank you very much.
Appreciate it.
Thanks guys.
All right.
Coming up.
Chad Holmes will be here from 98 nine WXCO in Warsaw.
Sean O'Malley on your money in the markets and Joseph Becky and Todd Alba all in the eight o'clock hour.
I'm Pac right now.
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