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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Crichtlow powered by Upnorth News.
Now, for my Lake Minnesota studio, here is the founding editor of Upnorth News, Pat Crichtlow.
Hey, good morning.
Welcome back.
Nice to have you here up north.
It's a Wednesday morning, November 5th.
Parker Olson producing things down in Madison Studio A2.
We will be talking to Upnorth News newsletter editor, Ellie Bordeaux, in literally seconds.
But I want to let you know that Congressman Mark Polkhan will be joining us 30 minutes from now.
to talk not just about the government shutdown, but last night's election results.
It was, I mean, Blue Wave is putting it mildly across the country, which is not a surprise.
This is what has happened every time in Donald Trump's first and second term when he's not on the ballot and running against a woman I had parenthetically.
In every other midterm election, special election that comes up,
people look at what is out there and and reject it and that was the case in several states and we'll talk to mark book hand about whether that might move republicans off the schnide because otherwise they risk being
Drag down in the 2026 midterms even worse than history would suggest they are already fall falling So we'll talk to the congressman about that and then at 835 we'll talk to pediatrician dr. Kelly snooks about her raising wisconsin video series specifically about
measles and measles outbreaks and how woefully unnecessary they are.
If you can't hang around, then follow us as a podcast.
Head to Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts and follow Mornings with Pat Crichtlow there.
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You can get my Sunday morning newsletter about Wisconsin politics, but more importantly, you can get our Monday through Friday morning edition that is written by Ellie Bordeaux, our newsletter editor at UpNorth News who joins us this week each time to tell us what she's been working on.
Ellie, good morning.
Good morning.
How are you guys?
Well, we're great.
It is good to see you.
How was your Halloween?
Did you go out and about?
My family is big on traditions.
every holiday, but Halloween is no different.
We have a big party at my house.
My whole family comes over.
My uncle has a DeLorean actually.
So we park the DeLorean in our driveway and everyone comes and take pictures with it.
It's so fun because people come by every year and they're like, Oh, it's the DeLorean house.
Like they know us at this point.
So it's super fun.
Yeah.
You're the DeLorean house.
That's cool.
No, it's good.
It's interesting to be known in the neighborhood that way.
So do you do you
Have you then portrayed like the same character or different characters to go along with the bit?
my
Okay.
Wow.
That's interesting.
Okay.
So we've been talking, you've had a lot of great photos in the newsletter about Halloween decorations, but also what fall colors.
There was another beautiful photo in there today.
People definitely love sharing their scenes.
The scenery around was
Council.
It's so fun to get those responses and all of the photos that I get are so incredible.
I had one, I think last week and it was a drone shot up.
I believe it was in Hayward.
I can't remember for sure, but all of the photos I get are just so incredible, so it's so fun to get those in and share them with everyone else.
Yeah.
And by the way, if you ever want to share photos with us, either for the newsletter, or maybe we put them up during, you know, during the radio show for folks watching us on Facebook or YouTube, our email address is radio at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
Or you can text us through the text line here, 857-5-CIVIC or through the Civic Media app.
Text us your photos.
I'll get those passed along to Ellie as well.
In the news, we've been talking, of course, about the government shutdown and the ending
of snap food benefits temporarily, and the ways that Wisconsinites are stepping up, either individually or in various groups, or even a grocery store chain like High V. What is it that they're doing?
Yeah, so we've been talking about this obviously for a very long time, and we had a story about it last week of different ways that people can step up and help their local food pantries because they're obviously in really high demand right now.
So High V is stepping up there.
offering free kids meals for I believe it was it's people or it's kids 12 and under and it's from November 3rd through November 7th from 4 p.m.
To 7 p.m.
And those meals are still offered at $3 outside of those times and for anyone above 12 and So they're offering that they also are offering different food donation bundles I you can get one for $5 or for $10 and there's they include things in the bundle that
food pantries really need right now, you know, because it's important to make sure you before donating to a food pantry, of course, you should donate, but also understand what they need right now, you know, because some places don't take produce, some people prefer non perishables, those kinds of things.
So, Hive is really stepping up right now, which is really great to see.
It really is.
You know, people love helping one another here in Wisconsin.
by and large, maybe not some elected officials, but otherwise people love to help one another.
And it's not just something that's restricted to our borders.
There is a candle company here that has helped with other worthy causes and the same goes for all the folks in the Caribbean who have suffered from Hurricane Melissa.
Tell us more about that.
Yeah.
So Dora County candle company is obviously a candle company in Dora County and they make candles to go towards different relief funds.
So they went
Hurricane Melissa made landfall on October 28th.
They made a candle to where 100% of the proceeds go towards or 100% of the profits go towards that relief fund.
And they've done with this with other natural disasters in the past.
They did one for the Texas floods.
They did one for
Hawaii, they've done a ton of these in the past, right?
Yep, they did one for Ukraine
as well.
Exactly.
I'm holding up for the camera for Ellie to see my, my Door County candle for, for Ukraine with the Ukrainian flag colors on there.
Yeah.
Ellie Bordeaux is here.
She's our newsletter editor at UpNorth News.
And to learn more and to subscribe, head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com, click subscribe up in the top banner there.
Ellie also has a new weekly series called the Civic Check-In.
And we're all about civic engagement at Courier Newsroom at UpNorth News.
And of course, through Civic Media as well.
It's right there in the name.
But to have
you know, increased civic engagement, it would help to know a little bit more about civics and in this case some of the terminology that's being thrown around up there, some of the, you know, the values that help, you know, democracy thrive and stand up to various threats.
So tell us about your latest installment of the civic check-in.
Yeah, so this week we talk about what democracy looks like in your community and the things you can do to participate in democracy.
So obviously going out to vote is
so important and volunteering at polling places those are so such important ways to participate in democracy in your community but there are also other ways that you can help supporting local food pantries which right now obviously is so important so volunteering donating those kinds of things helping with different community projects is a great way to help at parks libraries
other public spaces, those kinds of things.
You can also attend school board or city council meetings.
That's a great way to get involved in your local community.
You know, those are, everything starts local.
So it's important to know what's going on in your own community and then going to the broader scope as well.
And just having respectful conversations with people you might not agree with.
It's really important to.
understand different perspectives.
And I always think it's we're lucky to live in a place where we get to disagree, you know, and I think it's important to engage in those conversations where you can understand different perspectives and hear people out and maybe learn something you didn't necessarily know or gain a perspective that you didn't really think about.
So
those are all
So true.
Ellie Bordeaux, our Up North News newsletter editor is here with us.
And there's been a lot of feel good topics being covered.
Now it's time to make some trouble because Ellie has asked people in the past about your favorite burger joint about your favorite pizza place.
And now we're getting quintessentially Wisconsin.
And we're about to stir up some trouble in the area of Kurds.
So this on Friday, we have our Locals Love section where I ask you to
Send me your favorite pizza place or burger joint or whatever.
So last week I asked about what are the best ways to spend Halloween in Wisconsin.
Some people said local bars.
Paul Ellis said it's always fun to see people dressed up in costumes at the bars, including the bartenders.
I've gone to big Halloween events where costumes are very extravagant and intended for.
winning big prizes at the bar's costumes can be cheap and fun and people still cheer up and cheer for your costume.
Other people said carving pumpkins, which is really great.
I also asked about what you think the steak candy should be.
People said Snickers, gummy worms, cow pies, which are made in Wisconsin, and milky ways.
And so next week, I'm looking for the best cheese curd joint, which I think definitely is going to stir up some
Interesting responses, you know,
people are very
yes, I mean, look, I again, I don't have any, any ties to these folks, but, uh, Nathanville dairy, they've got that little yellow shack on highway 29, just before Curtis, just west of Abbotsford.
And I mean, that's, that's a must hit every time is to grab a bag of curds there.
But there are so many people that will point to Ellsworth as the cheese curd capital.
of the world.
And there are plenty of other places.
We asked this, I don't know, two, three years ago, maybe something like that, and got all kinds of great responses.
And so here we go, boys and girls, who makes the best cheese curd in Wisconsin?
It is time to pick a side and get those, get those examples sent in to Ellie.
So you want them responding to the newsletter?
Is that coming out this Friday?
You can send it to my direct email or you can send it to just the general Up North News email and I'll be sure to include it.
We're going to be taking a look at what everyone thinks and I was having a conversation with...
a co-worker who lives in Houston and she was like, what's a cheese curd?
And I was like, oh gosh, oh no.
Oh,
yeah.
I
But that is actually one of the great delights of living in Wisconsin is introducing visitors to cheese curds for the first time because they hear curd and of course they think curdle and oh, this is not going to be good.
And to watch their reaction and then they're like,
How have I never had this before?
Well, you got to have them when they're really fresh.
You know,
that's the
way.
John and Oshkosh putting on the text line right now, never met a cheese curd I didn't like.
So they're true.
But you have to be aware that not everything that's advertised as a cheese curd is a cheese curd.
There are some places that take shortcuts and they just like they'll deep fry a little cube of cheese.
Right.
That's that ain't it.
You want that globby fresh curd and let's oh look at Rob and Tigerton bless his heart.
Always going to represent Rachel's roadside barn grill off highway 29 says Ellie need to try the cheese curds at Rachel's roadside for excellent burgers and cheese curds.
Rob, consider it done.
We'll get in there and do that one of these times.
Yes.
Good to hear.
I actually had a exchange student from Costa Rica when I was in high school and I introduced her to cheese curds and she was like, this is life changing.
I need to have these all the time.
We sent like a little care package to her and included some cheese curds for her.
She loved them.
So it's really fun to introduce it to people.
And it's great to help people understand, you know, the fresh ones and then the hot ones.
The fresh ones that squeak when they're very
fresh.
They got just a little salty taste to them.
They're so delicious.
And then once they're past that two days, three days, something like that.
Instead, those are the ones you deep fry.
You see them in restaurants all the time.
And yeah, Wisconsin, we deep fry our cheese.
Go figure.
I don't know why we have an obesity problem in this state, but we are happy.
We are happy with our cheese curds.
Ellie Bordeaux put all this together in our newsletter.
Sign up at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
Thank you, Ellie.
All right.
Good to see you.
Coming up at 7.35, we will be talking to Congressman Mark Pokan.
Live from the lake, I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
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Last night's election results.
Is it a pivot point?
Is it going to help hasten the end of the government shutdown, or is it going to make the right wing dig in their heels even more?
We'll talk to Congressman Mark Pocan about that coming up in 12 minutes.
But you can weigh in on that right now, if you like, either by phone, by text.
You can send us a voice note through the Civic Media app as well.
Would love to have your thoughts on what does the election result mean.
Where do we go from here?
I'm gonna talk more about it in just a sec, but first a reminder that Monday marks the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald and as a result on Monday, we will play back our interview from over the summer with Tom Nelson, the out of gaming County executive who has written a fascinating new book about the Edmund Fitzgerald and not just the usual stuff that you'd hear in a Gordon Lightfoot song.
Okay, there's so much more beyond about the building of the ship, the maintenance of the ship, which wasn't ship shape, shall we say, and the real metaphor about the management of the American economy, where people back then in the late 60s and the mid to the mid 70s, thought that the post war boom was going to last forever.
And I mean, if we've learned anything over the years is that there are cycles, you know, we learned that with the housing bubble.
I remember at that point, or even before that, the tech bubble, the dot com bubble, where people said, Oh my gosh, we have figured out how to make the economy stay good forever.
And the same thing happened with the dot com bubble.
Then now it's happening to some people with the AI bubble, we can make no, there's a real lesson to be learned about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
on this as well from Tom Nelson's book.
And again, we will replay that interview Monday morning here on Mornings with Pat Kratlow, powered by Up North News on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Let's talk just a bit about election night results because by now I'm sure you've heard that it was essentially a clean sweep for Democrats and progressives and for democracy.
You had gubernatorial wins in New Jersey and Virginia.
You had a big win in New York City.
California's Prop 50, which helps offset the rigging of the maps being done by Republicans in Texas.
There's some things you might not have heard about.
In Maine, voters passed red flag laws to help increase gun safety.
They rejected measures designed to obstruct the right to vote.
In Colorado, two ballot measures passed that would fund free meals for all public school students, give raises to cafeteria workers, and provide grants to schools to purchase fresh ingredients from local farmers.
In Pennsylvania, the progressives have a five to two majority and all five progressive justices were up for reelection and all five won.
Voters got wise to the fact that it was basically one Pennsylvania billionaire who was trying to unseat them.
And voters like here in the last Wisconsin State Supreme Court election said, no, thanks.
We don't think that billionaires should be buying our elections.
So.
As we've talked about, what does all of this mean?
And I mentioned last hour, I said that, you know, Zaron Mamdani talking about free bus fares, that's not going to cripple New York City.
It's going to make the workforce more reliable.
Affordable education doesn't break the bank.
It creates the next wave of workers and creators and entrepreneurs.
Health care for everyone.
Is not going to bankrupt america what's bankrupting it are the tax breaks to billionaires that we've been passing you know since uh since the reagan years uh, tony mentions that the minnesota state senate remained under democratic control by one seat after two special elections That took place now, of course not not everybody is happy with this i've seen a few comments coming up that say for example You hear that sound?
That's the moving trucks lining up a new york city to move anyone sane
out?
No, I don't think so.
First off, I've met plenty of people who have made a good amount of money and understand that our taxes are the things that help pay for our schools and keep our roads from falling apart.
And they just want good management.
They want good tax policy.
There's other people that just want, you know, taxes to go away.
That's not how this works.
And if voters want to try what Mamdani is saying will help make New York City more affordable.
That's going to attract plenty of entrepreneurs as well.
But one more note here.
This isn't just a day of reckoning for Republicans.
And I want Democrats of a certain stripe and a certain age to listen up here.
Politics as usual is dead.
Pick a side and stand forthrightly with it.
You cannot work with people who would starve your constituents, force them off their health insurance,
make them pay taxes that the wealthy can just ignore, and also back the people who would rig elections.
Look, I was a centrist politician when it was possible to find people who were center right and wanted to work with those of us who were center left, but the center right has fallen in politics anyway.
The center right is still very, very real in your neighborhood.
The center right is real.
amongst your neighbors, your friends, your family.
It is okay for people to not want free bus rides for everybody or education or single-payer health care.
It's okay for them to insist that everybody pays at least a little something.
It's okay to debate that, which way you should go on that.
The problem is there aren't any center-right politicians
Right now, who would do that?
Right now, they all want the rich to get the freebies and then blame the others who can't afford private schools for basic groceries.
They can't afford a follow-up mammogram for a possible cancer diagnosis.
Oh, you want that?
You must be socialists is what they say.
Republicanism does not have to be dead.
Fiscal conservatism does not have to be dead.
But Reagan, Trump economics and the tactics they used to stay in power
have to be pushed off the American political stage if we are to ever rebuild our middle class and the jobs, education, healthcare, and infrastructure that will bring a new middle class to prosperity.
And that's not a given that these things will happen.
You gotta fight for it.
And the place to fight for it isn't necessarily in the streets, though the demonstrations are nice.
You gotta show up on election days.
In Wisconsin, you gotta show up one year from now.
minus a day.
And if you do that, as in these other states, we can turn a corner away from some of the ugly we have seen over the past nine months or so.
Congressman Mark Bocan is up next.
You're up.
Nice to have you back.
So what is the significance of Tuesday's elections in other states around the country?
We have reviewed the results.
You've gotten my two cents on it.
What do I know?
Let's ask a sitting member of Congress, Mark Pokan, who joins us now from the second congressional district.
And we'll talk a bit about the results and maybe how it moves things on the government shutdown front.
Congressman Pokan, good morning.
Hey, good morning, Pat.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, it's nice to have you here.
And let's just start with your general overview.
And I'll narrow it this way.
Whatever it was that voters said on Tuesday, does it help at all to break the log jam that we see right now in the nation's capital?
It could.
I saw a CNN reporter this morning, or maybe it was last night, tweeted out, actually, this morning, that Trump at his breakfast with Senate Republicans said he wanted to talk to them a little bit about last night.
And he said, I think
you read the pollsters the shutdown was a big factor negative for the republicans so you know hopefully they'll realize people like having health care and not going bankrupt in this country and why it mattered and why it was an important fight but that was interesting just from this morning and you know I think it's pretty obvious that the shutdown and from all the polling you know it shows that they they keep changing their message we've been having one message that we're fighting for people's health care and
And, you know, last night was a huge indication that between the tariffs and the fight on health care and taking food assistance away from kids and every crazy thing from tearing down parts of the White House, people have had it.
The thing is, and I'm not yelling at you, Congressman, but I feel like I'm yelling here.
They know this.
They know they Republicans, Donald Trump, others, they have never won.
a government shutdown.
It has always, like the Coyote and the Roadrunner cartoon, they learn that people actually like a functioning government, which is not by the way an endorsement of everything that Democrats do or say, but shutting down the government is something that they have never seen as a beneficial tool in the toolbox.
And so for President Trump to now say, well, maybe, I mean, he is really, is he the one that can
Say to congressional Republicans, all right, let's get a deal done.
Is it a matter of congressional Republicans are telling the president you got to get this done?
Does it even matter?
If Donald Trump tells them all to jump in the lake, we will have several hundred wet Congress people within an hour, right?
So that is what it will take.
But I mean, it's been ridiculous.
Seven weeks now, we've not been there.
I keep referring to it as a paid vacation because many members like Derek Van Orden in Wisconsin have barely done anything during the seven weeks besides being on Twitter.
And we should be passing a farm bill that's two years overdue.
We've got a lot of older Americans on reauthorization that's a year overdue.
We got a lot of stuff to do that's other than just the shutdown and health care.
And just having us not show up, I think has been a really awful strategy.
And I think it had a lot of legs yesterday in the election.
Congressman Mark Hocan is joining us talking about the shutdown.
And as long as you've mentioned Congressman Derek Van Orden from the adjoining third congressional district, Western Southwestern parts of Central Wisconsin, he was in La Crosse, once again, covered by local media, where he was allowed to again, give the usual talking point that somehow this is a democratic shutdown.
We don't need to debate that one.
I mean, clearly the polls indicate people understand otherwise.
But he was at the point where he was basically trying to act like a local elected official, waiting into a controversy, a zoning controversy with the Salvation Army.
And he said something in there.
And I think Parker might still have the audio.
But I think he was kind of telling on himself a little bit.
He thought he was talking about the La Crosse City Council.
But in this bite, I really think he should give a listen to himself when it comes to Congress.
Parker, can you play that?
You can't.
say that you're trying to help people and then not actually try to help them.
Are you are you are you
Mark O'Cann
and you approve this message?
Yeah.
Well, he also said back in December, they shouldn't be the majority if they have a shutdown because with having all breached as a government, they should be able to pass things.
And he also in that interview with the Milwaukee Journal of Sentinel when he was in La Crosse.
said that he won't even talk to Democrats so which is exactly the problem right people do expect us to talk to each other they do expect us to work they understand we may have differences but you know to be a complete
a hole about things, I think is the best way to say, which is what Derek does, you know, pretty much daily.
But to actually say that out loud, that he's not going to work with Democrats.
I mean, that is not in a swing district, in a swing state, not the messaging people want to hear.
They want to know you're trying to do something.
That's why we keep going back to Washington as often as we can, even though we know Republicans aren't there because we're trying to do something.
And, you know, Derek sits in the basement and has a pitcher of pina coladas, I
guess.
Again all the all the tweeting so so much social media
posting
but but again he he gets that from a president who is doing the same thing even while holding these you know glittery Ballroom functions and taking a wrecking ball to the White House at the same time it is a it is political timing of the worst sort in that
Again, history has shown us, unless Donald Trump was on the ballot running against a woman, every other midterm and special election in his first and second terms haven't gone his way.
Mark, why is that?
Because of what he's doing, especially this time, you know, he's doing things that he wishes he could have done in the first term.
But he had a few responsible people around him.
This time he brought in sycophants, right?
People just loyal to him who look good on video, right?
And that's his whole goal.
The problem is without that buffer to bounce things off of, you know, when you tear down the east wing of the Capitol, people might raise their eyebrows in places like Wisconsin, because that seems not normal.
Or when you take away healthcare for 15 million people.
raise all of our rates in the process, that's not normal.
When you take away food assistance from kids, that's not normal.
And I think all of this stuff is finally reaching that point of, I was told recently about a farmer who had a Trump flag up since the first Trump administration.
So for over a decade, just took it down because guess what?
He's a soybean farmer, and suddenly he realized he got affected personally, but a lot of people are being affected personally by Trump's tariff taxes, by all of his other actions.
We're talking to Congressman Mark Polkan, who once upon a time was seen as, you know, the epitome of the far left, or at least the group that you belong to, the Progressive Congressional Campaign Committee.
And yet now there's a new label that's out there, Democratic Socialist.
And we see it with the newly elected mayor of New York City, Zaron Mamdani.
We've talked to state representatives, Christian Phelps from Eau Claire and Francesca Hong of Madison.
I've given them ample opportunity to say, well, we didn't really mean it.
No, they do mean it.
And it's not.
It's not doing anything for conservatives other than lighting their hair on fire.
So can you explain why people who now bring in that label that's used in other countries around the world?
Why is that catching on with a new generation of voters?
What's the symbolism behind taking that label and saying we're actually going to take this flag and run with
it?
Well, I actually look at it a little differently.
I think what Mamdani talked about incredibly on message everywhere he went was about the cost of living in the cost of living in New York City is really expensive.
So whether it be groceries and he talked about a fix to that transportation.
He talked about a fix to that housing.
He talked about a fix to that.
And guess what?
We're finding the number one issue that's going against Donald Trump is his tariffs that are making us pay more for groceries and durable goods, paying more for energy because the big ugly law about to pay more for health care.
because the same law and housing has remained high.
So this is, you know, most people don't follow politics like you and I, Pat.
We're kind of unusual,
as you know.
Most people are worried about, can they afford their rent or mortgage?
Do they have healthcare for their family?
Can they take that family vacation?
And maybe.
the luxury of a snowmobile, a camper, a boat.
That's what they're talking about.
And if Donald Trump has taken more of their pocketbook every time they go get groceries or buy goods for the holidays, guess what?
That has an impact.
And we, again, saw that yesterday.
Yeah, it seems like Americans want two things.
They want results and they want affordability.
And so that's why they're they're looking at that.
And I again, I don't want to get too much in the weeds on history, but I feel like in Wisconsin, especially given our history of what was called the sewer socialism of Milwaukee in the early 20th century.
Again, that whole thing was noted on this isn't about socialism, the way that you think of it, it's about somebody actually wants to do things for the people like fix the sewers in Milwaukee.
And I feel like I'm seeing much more of a results.
lens for the voters than just what team
you're on.
Well, and are you listening to anything they're saying?
It was what they want to know, right?
And if you understand they're paying too much for groceries right now, then you're having a conversation with them.
If you are talking about invading Greenland, you're probably not having a conversation with them.
And I think that's the difference.
We actually are doing that.
The only thing Trump goes back to his some successes around the border, although he's got his biggest disconnect ever on immigration.
He just went way too far in on crime.
He thinks those are his safe places, so he kind of goes back to
But right now, what people are most concerned about is that they can't afford things like they used to.
They were promised a fix last November by Donald Trump.
A year later, he's building $300 million ballrooms at 10 times the cost of a per square foot of construction for a ballroom.
And somehow, you know, that doesn't connect with what they're looking for.
No, there's a there's a lot of Marie Antoinette going on here.
We're talking to Congressman Mark Polkan.
So let me ask this, then, as we start to wrap things up on the shutdown, a lot of which is centered on this notion of health insurance costs, the premium tax credits that are going away, that are making policies under the Affordable Care Act much more expensive.
Now, Republicans will say that, you know, Democrats voted for this for a plan that had those credits expire at the end of this year.
And that that's it that
that's something to support in it.
There's no, they're not cutting the benefits, they're just letting them expire as was planned.
What do you say in response to that?
Yeah, just about everything we do at the federal level or as you know at the state level You tweak along the way and when that was created it was a big thing right 20 million people had health care that didn't before but we realized some people Still couldn't get access to it So when that was changed a number of years about a half a dozen or five years ago Then we put those changes in place But you still sunset them to make sure you did it right and if they're done right then you continue them and guess what they were done Right more people got access to health care.
It's just
simple governing.
It's nothing else.
And quite honestly, you know, we have to reauthorize our national defense spending on a regular basis.
We reauthorize the Older Americans Act on a regular basis.
It's just what you do in government.
So again, one of their many arguments they've had during the shutdown has been this one, and it's another one that fell flat because there's nothing there.
Well, especially when you consider that their signature achievement this year has been renewing the 2017 tax cuts.
Yes, corporations in the
very rich.
They understood that those were expiring, but it was a priority for them.
So they fought for it.
Now we've got these premium tax credits for health insurance that are expiring.
And it's the kind of thing you're fighting for.
And I get the sense that even if you didn't get your way to get them all extended at 100% of what they are, you can at least negotiate something if somebody would come to the table and negotiate with you.
That and if they would show us it's been fifteen years and they still haven't had to be able to produce a health care plan i mean you can't take away health care before you have a plan to replace it for the people who should have it and the fact that they haven't again just makes all of their arguments ring so.
Absolutely hollow so you know we're fine work we know this is an issue that people care about we're gonna keep fighting on it and you know maybe out of all of this even comes a better health care options for people but right now we're fine.
to at least keep healthcare affordable for people, and that's what's at risk right now the most.
Yeah, I can't believe the concepts of a plan just isn't getting it
done.
I'd like them to try concepts of a white castle.
I don't think the president would like that.
No.
Congressman Mark Pocan, thank you so much as always for the update.
It's always great to visit with you.
Safe travels.
Take care.
Take care.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you so much.
Coming up in our next hour, we will be talking to Earl Ingraham about his what's going on podcast that you can hear through civic media.
Melissa Baldoff will have our climate check and Governor Evers traveling overseas to a climate conference.
And we'll talk to pediatrician Dr. Kelly Snooks about measles outbreaks.
They're unnecessary.
But what to look for and how to prevent them.
That's all on the way in our eight o'clock hour.
I'm Pat Krightlow from Up North News.
Follow what we do at UpNorthNewsWI.com
This is the Civic Media Radio
Network.
chapters around the state at 752 on this Wednesday morning range from 36 degrees way up in Solon Springs.
There are 50s still being reported at places like Racine Kenosha, Milwaukee, Fort McCoy and others.
A lot of 40s out there is 43 here in the Chippewa Valley.
It is 45 in Oshkosh.
It is 46 degrees in La Crosse.
Let's welcome in Civic Media Sports Director Jimmy Koska to talk more about
Well, let's start with the high school postseason because we've talked a bit about the high school football playoffs, but those of course are not the only fall sports and so the whole fall sports season is starting to wrap up.
What kinds of things are you following through the WIA?
So last week the cross-country state championships were wrapped up and it was as always it's like track and wrestling.
There's a lot of really cool things that happen with that.
Again, all these schools that kind of come into one spot kind of a
a melting pot if you will of all the high schools.
So that wrapped up last week.
We have volleyball and soccer this week.
So those are two, especially volleyball is one of the biggest state sports, I think, for team sports.
That's in Green Bay.
And they're actually announcing today that they're going to extend the volleyball and the girls basketball state tournaments this week in Green Bay at the rest center.
So big news coming this week for
that.
Yeah.
Oh, good.
And then, of course, you've got, what is this, level three now for the high school football playoffs for the 11-11 player?
Yeah, it's the state quarter final round.
So we are down to the final eight in each of the brackets for each division and then a player is in the semi-final round.
So we are getting to the end here at Falls Sports here in Wisconsin in high school, which is exciting because
now
we are, you know, and also we're also transitioning a bit to winter sports with practices getting underway in basketball and hockey with games coming here in just a couple of weeks in basketball already.
It's hard to believe, but we are we are quickly turning
our attention to winter
sports.
Yeah, well, the the weather's kind of doing the same thing here.
But we're talking to Jimmy Koska, Civic Media Sports Director.
And look, this probably comes up every high school postseason.
And I saw something on on social media somewhere that that made me want to ask you about it.
A lot of us remember the old Wissa, which was like the for it for independent schools, private schools, they were essentially folded into the WIA for all the
public schools and ever since then there's been this talk about whether
the private schools are competing in the proper division because, you know, they might have a small enrollment, but they have a small enrollment sometimes in a big city and that's different than a small enrollment in a rural school district when it comes to essentially your talent pool.
And I liked the explanation you gave to me about how they try to essentially make adjustments so that you have competition that is as level as possible.
So this has been really kind of a recurring issue in the WIAA with its membership.
And I don't think that it's any secret or anything new that schools have tried to.
kind of address what they perceive as inequity in this.
For years there were talks of having you know private school multipliers kind of mirroring what's happening in states like Illinois where you know you get a certain add-on to your enrollment based on whether or not you're in private school.
There was a plan that came out a few years ago which talked about breaking schools out into rural suburban urban
having multipliers based on that and where your school is located.
So there have been plans that have sought to sort of address this.
And the one that got through is what we have now, which is the tournament performance factor, which if you make it to the state tournament or win the state championship.
enough times in a short span in a three-year span, you accumulate points and that moves you up a division just automatically.
You can actually move up a couple of divisions if you win a lot of titles in a short amount of time.
So they've sought to address it.
This is what they've landed on here the last couple of years.
And you have to remember too, the WIAA is not like a monolith of executives.
It is school membership voting on these things.
So
it's a combination of all the public and private schools that are WIA members, and they come together and vote on these changes.
Now, the tournament performance factor has been applied in most sports.
There have been some exceptions carved out.
And I think that the early tweaks that you're seeing are in sports, like cross-country, for example, where there's only three divisions, and moving a school up from, say, D3 to D2 in cross-country, you're taking the smallest schools in the state and moving them into a pool
of schools if they were to go to state from D3 to D2, where they're competing now against schools with enrollments over a thousand.
So there are events and things that have come out and they've sought to address it through amendments and other WIA procedures, advisory committees, coaches committees.
They have definitely worked on some of those things, but that's the system we have in place right now.
And that is, I think that is how they have sought to address what they perceive in sports.
Cause I know when you look at the state field for volleyball, for example, it is about 50.
50 in public and private schools.
I know that from the outside, when you look at that, you say, oh, wow, maybe there should be something done.
Well, they have sought to address it with the membership.
And there are more public than private schools.
And this is what they voted on.
You know only the most cynical among us would say you know the way to fix this is Paying the kids will have name image and licensing deals and we'll have transfer portals that's guaranteed to clean things up in high school I don't think anybody is cynical enough
Well, maybe I said it out loud, but I don't think that anybody else necessarily would, but
well, there's open enrollment.
So I mean, this stuff is already happening even at public schools.
You know, this is something that, you know, I know that there's there's a lot of things you can say about the public versus private school debate.
I'll just say, you know, there's I can't I can't say that I pick aside on any of this stuff.
I just I think above all else, you're talking about kids, you know, and kids competing in a school activity.
So that's kind of where I draw the line is hey, we're talking
about kids.
That's what it is, you know?
There's definitely going to be student movement with open enrollment and all the other things you can do.
Open enrollment in Wisconsin, by the way, is not that it's completely unlimited.
There are some guardrails to it, like junior and senior year transfers.
If you change schools without your family relocating, you actually lose eligibility, things like that.
But the fact that you can pretty much enroll at any school you want in Wisconsin, I think that you're going to see student-athlete movement regardless.
Civic Media Sports Director Jimmy Kuska with a.
great explanation there.
Thank you so much for that.
Appreciate it very much.
We'll talk to you a little later.
We'll talk to you next week, man.
All right.
And by the way, there is the other extreme point of view of, you know, what are we even doing paying for all these sports?
Maybe they should just be private community clubs instead.
And schools could focus on academics.
We'll save that for another time.
Again, so much more to cover and including Dr. Kelly Snooks in our eight o'clock hour.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
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