The Rich Get Richer (Hour 3)

Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by UpNorth News.

Now, for my Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of UpNorth News, Pat Craiglow.

Well, hey there, Wisconsin.

Good morning.

It is 6.06 on this November 6th.

2025, it's a Thursday morning.

Another beautiful morning to have you here up north.

Live from Lake WSOTA, from wherever you're spending your mornings listening across the Civic Media radio network.

or listening or watching us and all those, all those many other platforms that are out there.

We appreciate you being right here.

I got a question for you.

What do you think the economy will be one year from now?

Actually a little less than a year from now, right before the midterm elections.

in Wisconsin that are now under one year away.

Will voters head to the polls in any economy that is better than where we are now creating lots of jobs and middle class pay hikes and lower inflation?

Maybe it'll be about the same kind of a slog, not a full blown recession, but no big improvements either.

Or next year around this time, are you thinking or trying not to think about a recession?

that has seemed to be right around the corner all year long.

Which way do you think things will go in 2026?

That's our question of the week in our Sunday morning newsletter, conveniently named Sunday Mornings with Pat Critello.

You can sign up for it at upnorthnewswi.com.

But we'll also make it, we'll take that question of the week on Sundays.

And we'll turn it into our question of the day on Thursdays because then on Friday I total it all up for the next Sunday newsletter to give the answers and ask another question because the cycle just repeats itself.

So here it is.

It's Thursday.

That's our question of the day.

Where's the economy going to be a year from now?

better, the same or worse.

I want to know your thoughts at 855-75CIVIC-855-7524842.

You can also use the Civic Media app to call us, to text us, to leave a voice note, or you can use the comment sections for the Up North News or the Civic Media, YouTube or Facebook pages.

And in a couple of minutes, I'm going to share my thoughts on a new bill that got a hearing yesterday in the state capital.

It's a bill we've discussed previously about micromanaging women's health care right down to the specific procedures that these politicians consider to be illegal abortions versus the ones that they say are okey-dokey with them.

Why?

Why are they in the exam rooms that way?

We'll talk more about that very shortly.

First, let you know what else is coming up for today, State Representative Greta Neubauer.

The Assembly Democratic Leader will be joining us at the top of our seven o'clock hour to talk about the government shutdown, the impact on Wisconsin families, of the loss of SNAP benefits, the likely hike in health insurance costs.

And what are the things that they can do about it?

I'll also ask her about the controversy at the Department of Public Instruction about investigating teacher misconduct and what the state superintendent would like to do versus what Republican politicians would like to do.

And can we try to find a non-political answer that puts the children first?

First, I'll let you know that you can sign up for our daily newsletter at UpNorth News.

Again, same address, UpNorthNewsWI.com.

And Ellie Bordeaux puts that together for us, of course, every weekday morning and has all kinds of news and features.

And then tomorrow, you know, we had her on the show yesterday.

And so she was already previewing what she's going to be asking in tomorrow's newsletter.

And it's all about cheese curds.

And so I think we're gonna, that's probably tomorrow's question of the day is where do you get the best cheese curds?

I know we've done that question sometime way in the past, but that'll be in tomorrow's newsletter.

Today's newsletter includes an article about how Bikes for Kids Wisconsin is launching a grocery delivery program.

You can learn all about that and more in our newsletter.

Sign up for it at Up North News, WI.

Dot com producing this fine program is one Parker Olson who is standing by in Madison studio a to where I I don't want to I don't want to raise any static here Parker.

Oh boy.

Um, that's about to start a riot.

No, do you have static?

I can I can calmly but annoyingly report that we're now at the point where when I stand up and touch something you get that shock and it's gonna that's how things are going to be.

for about the next six months.

Have you noticed it yet?

I don't think I

have noticed it yet.

No,

I'm lucky.

I will say I've had some bad experiences with Static Pat.

You've had bad experiences?

Yes, there are there in Whitewater.

There was a set of tennis courts there.

OK.

And they were like plastic.

It was really weird.

They were like this waffle tile thing instead of concrete.

Sure.

And.

you would run on it and rub your feet on it all unintentionally, and then you might just accidentally hit the net or the fence.

All the fence, yeah.

And that's not static electricity.

That's, that's, that's Parkinson's recreation trying to kill you.

That's what I think.

That's, that's electrocution.

Yeah, it was messed up.

I mean, I know static electricity can be bad.

I mean, Tony mentions on YouTube just now from up in Ashland.

I shocked my dog last night.

I remember that.

You can go to jail for that.

Don't do that.

Dog, which is, you know, flinch away.

Like, why are you using your magical powers on me?

Like, what was it me?

I'm not actually a wizard, you know?

But yeah, we're getting to that time of year.

We're for the whole rest of like the next six months, there's a there's a

a floor and ceiling lamp kind of just off here.

And that's the first thing I got to touch because if I wait and touch something else, like, sherry comes up and I hold her hand or whatever, boom, but no, good.

So your love is

electric

pad.

Yes, I know.

Alicia saying I noticed sparks of static just this morning.

Yep, that's the other thing.

If you're the first one to wake up, and you're the first one, it's still dark and you touch the

the door knob to go into the bathroom or wherever.

And you see that all light up and you're like, okay, that's, that's not fun.

You know, thank goodness it's only a little tiny spark.

So we just wanted to establish that.

Yeah, it's getting to be that time of year.

Temperatures certainly indicated it is 18 degrees right now in Merrill.

There's a lot of 19s out there.

Hayward's at 19 degrees right now.

In the Chippewa Valley, it's 25, 25 as well in Wasaw and in Wisconsin Rapids.

La Crosse is at 32 right now, Richland Center 27.

And it's 30 degrees in Oshkosh.

Also coming up on the program today, we will be talking to an economic support specialist from the Dane County area, somebody who's right on the front lines of getting people signed up for, you know, SNAP benefits when they first realize that they need a lifeline in order to avoid eviction and afford groceries and daycare and they need help.

and we'll talk to a guest who helps people understand what it is they're signing up for and she's going to take you point by point through the verification process because there continues to be this talking point that somehow the welfare roles are filled with people who are there for 10 years living a life of leisure with three cell phones and they go on vacations and I can tell you as somebody who grew up

in a family you know on food stamps nothing could be further from the truth but it sure makes for a convenient talking point and we're going to hear more about what it is really like when somebody has to go on public assistance for a time until they can get their financial bearings under them once again so we will have that coming up but uh let's

Let's first turn to a little bit of sports.

There was nothing that was happening last night, but I wanted to make sure I didn't forget to preview some of what's coming up across the civic media radio network here.

Of course, come Friday, tomorrow, we've got more high school football playoffs.

And so some of our civic media stations will be following their hometown teams as they hope to move on.

And also tomorrow, the Badger Men's basketball team.

We'll host Northern Illinois.

Coverage will begin at seven o'clock tomorrow on stations in Wisconsin Rapids, Amory, Richland Center, and up in Ironwood, Michigan.

You've got the Badger football team that will host Washington on Saturday, and let's update that time.

The actual coverage time is now 130.

Saturday afternoon.

That's different than what we were told originally, but it's 1 30 Saturday afternoon.

The pregame begins on several civic media stations.

And then of course, normally we tell you to listen to civic media for the Packer game on Sunday, but you can't do that because they're playing Monday.

Monday night football hosting the Philadelphia Eagles at Lambeau Field.

Coverage begins at five o'clock Monday on several civic media stations.

Go over to the civic media website to learn more.

Badger men's hockey will not be on the radio this weekend because of the Badger men's basketball game Friday and then the football game on Saturday.

But I will let you know that the 10th ranked Badger men's hockey team, they will be heading to Ann Arbor.

They will be taking on second ranked Michigan.

The Badgers are again 10th ranked in the nation.

Michigan number two in the country and they will be playing Friday and Saturday evenings.

The Badger women's hockey team, the women are off this weekend.

The Badger women's volleyball team 11th ranked in the country.

They defeated the Minnesota Gophers last night three to one at the field house and they will play at the field house again on Sunday afternoon hosting 18th ranked Indiana.

And the Milwaukee Bucks, they are back in action tomorrow at the Pfizer Forum, where they will host the Chicago Bulls.

It's 616 right now.

And let's turn back to news coming out of the state capitol, where legislators held a hearing Wednesday on a bill that represents the latest effort by right wing politicians to insert themselves into the medical decisions that are being made by women and should be left to women.

and their doctors.

The authors claim that the bill addresses situations where abortions are necessary to save the life of the mother, but the bill goes even further than that to define a fertilized egg as a person.

And we've talked about this in the past with Dr. Kirsten Lierly and OBGYN about this bill being an answer in search of a problem.

doctors already work with their patients, they already know all the procedures that need to be done for a healthy pregnancy.

And that not every pregnancy is a healthy one.

It's, it's not, there's nothing Norman Rockwell about pregnancy.

Things happen, heartbreaking things happen.

And sometimes that has to include a procedure that is classified as an abortion.

Because it is.

I don't know how to put this, except to say we need to normalize abortion.

It's a part of health care.

Abortion is health care.

Now there are some situations that some people don't like.

It's also none of their business.

But this notion of micromanaging, what is an ectopic pregnancy and what is this procedure and what is that procedure and questioning the motive.

If the motive it says in the bill, you know, is about

not intending to kill the fetus, but to save the life of the mother?

Well, says who?

Seriously?

I mean, do we really want politicians doing that kind of micro management about health care?

Maybe we could instead of trying to do a whole list of medical procedures that you would then always have to update, you know, what's legal, what's not.

Maybe we could get politicians to finally understand that

Abortion is a normal part of health care needed for a variety of reasons.

But none of them being the business of anyone but a woman and her doctor.

Come up with one medical procedure that a man can have or seek that politicians can regulate.

It doesn't work that way.

So let's stop doing that to women because they go through enough heartache and enough

medical crises.

And now, since the Dobs decision, deaths, that maybe it's about time we stop trying to micromanage.

There are too many other things in the state capital, our politicians could be working on.

All right, when we come back, we're going to talk to Up North News social media manager, Sharita Booker, she's going to tell us about some of the things you could be doing around Wisconsin this weekend with just a little bit of gas, go on a weekend road trip and go have some fun.

From the heart of America is up north, live from Lake Wissota.

Thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.

I'm Pat Critello.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

It is a Thursday morning, so it is time once again to look ahead to the weekend.

Up North News' social media manager, Sharita Booker, takes a look at the calendar of events and highlights a few things for us.

Hey, Sharita, how are you?

I'm doing good, Pat.

How are you?

I'm good, thanks.

Now, we have established previously, and yes, at this hour of the morning, we're going to be talking about alcoholic beverages here, but we have established you're kind of a tequila girl, right?

Tequila only.

Tequila only, okay.

And I remember I mentioned the tequila old fashions that we'd have down in the Caribbean.

Yes.

Yeah.

Well, I don't know if we're going to see any of these, but the first thing that you're going to highlight for us is essentially an old fashioned

What tastings or contest what's it all about?

Yeah, and I like to mention first that I chose this event specifically with you in mind.

I appreciate that.

So if you love a good Wisconsin old fashioned like Pat, this one is for you.

This Saturday, Eagle Rivers Eagle Waters Resort is hosting a tasting event dedicated to what many call our states unofficial cocktail, the old fashioned and.

Local Northwood's bartenders will be going head-to-head in an old-fashioned competition, each bringing up two recipes of their best work.

You'll get to sample, compare, and vote for your favorite, and the tasty runs from 6 to 8 p.m.

with people-choiced winners announced at 8.30.

There'll be plenty of appetizers, music, and time to just relax and mingle.

Tickets are $110.

It must be purchased online in advance and you must be 21 and older to attend.

And make sure you get your tickets right away because I saw that they were selling out even the VIP tickets are sold out right now.

So yeah,

this is still going to be a lot of fun.

I mean, people who maybe aren't old fashioned drinkers going, wait a minute, there's there's more than one kind.

Oh, yeah, you know, there's bourbon, there's brandy, there's tequila, as I mentioned before, they're sweet, they're sour.

And they're they're all kind of in the

family but you know there is no there is no single way to do it and you find out what you like best you know there's there's a couple of supper clubs up here up north that I love the way they make their old fashions I like the way I make mine at home which is a little bit different and then if you ever get an old-fashioned that isn't

quite right.

In fact, if it tastes more like a Manhattan, ask the bartender where they're from.

Pretty good chance they say Minnesota.

It's tough to get an old fashioned, you know, done properly outside the state.

But I love the idea of a tastings like that.

That's pretty cool.

So again, Eagle Waters Resort.

And where can they go get more information?

They can get more information at eagleriver.org.

eagleriver.org.

Okay, sounds good.

All right, let's move on to our next event.

It's going to be in Milwaukee, and it is another, it's a sign of the season, a holiday that takes place, you know, right, right around and shortly after Halloween, right?

Yep.

So the organizers of Mexican Fiesta are inviting the community to a two-day, day-a-day Los Muertos celebration Friday and Saturday from 1pm to 10pm at their offices on South 20th Street in Milwaukee.

This free public event honors loved ones who have passed through music, dance, storytelling, and ceremony.

A community altar will be open both days and you're welcome to bring a photo or small of a friend to add in remembrance.

And an of a friend is an offering, so bring something like candles, flowers, personal items, food, or drink, or other decor.

Friday evening features an ancestral connection ceremony, candlelight and pre-Hispanic dance, and a theatrical performance from Mexico.

There's also a paint and sip workshop but registration is required for that one.

On Saturday you'll find additional performances, a cultural talk on the history and the meaning of Dia de los Muertos, and the closing candlelight ceremony.

More details and workshop registration are available at MexicanFiesta.org

That is very cool and just a nice thing to do to remember loved ones who have passed.

All right, let's see.

What do we got left here?

Oh, we're going to the dog park to the dog park.

Well, I guess a dog fair, right?

Yeah.

So if you have dogs or you're thinking about getting one, the Wisconsin dog fair is coming to the Alliance Energy Center in Madison this Sunday from 10 a.m.

to 4 p.m.

You'll see live demonstrations in agility, obedience, serrally and confirmation.

Plus, you can meet and learn about over 100 different breeds and talk directly with knowledgeable owners and breeders about what fits your lifestyle.

If adoption is on your mind, local rescue organizations will also be there.

And there are also a vendor market with quality pet products, treats, training tools, accessories, and plenty of unique finds for dog lovers.

Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, $5 for youth, and kids to five and under get in free.

And you can get your tickets and more information at wi-dog-fair.com.

Wait a minute.

Are you trying to tell me that you can get a dog this way and you don't have to be like Tom Brady and clone your dead dog to create a new dog?

Really?

Yeah, like let's adopt people.

Instead of instead of cloning dogs, I think there's plenty that are out there for for adoption.

That's that's wild.

So again, we've got that to attend.

Three great ideas.

There's others over at travelwisconsin.com.

Sherita Booker tracks all these four.

So we hope you gave you some great weekend events here.

Sherita, thanks so much.

Have a good weekend.

You too, Pat.

And by the way, getting back to the old fashioned tasting for just a moment, we have to make sure that Tony gets his vote in bourbon is the best old fashioned.

It just is is ready.

What he writes there on YouTube.

And I, again, I can't argue there's there's one kind of brandy old fashioned.

They're like, what kind of brandy?

It's called jba va.

And it's not a commercial.

They're not paying me for this.

I don't even know where it's made.

But I've tried a bunch of other brandies.

I have a favorite.

But there are several different bourbons that

would work perfectly fine.

Other people, you know, use Southern Comfort or other kinds of whiskey.

There's just all these varieties.

So let's turn to an old fashioned expert Parker Olson now and find out what he what he prefers in an old fashioned or shall we say whether he's had an old fashioned ever because he's only been legal for like six months.

Well, yeah, I have had an old fashioned before.

I'm not a fan of them to be perfectly honest with you.

So, you know, that makes sense because, again, it's got the bitters in it.

It's got a bit of a bite to it.

And one of the things I've noticed about, you know, getting older, the things that I would turn my nose up at before, like blue cheese, actually almost, you'd

do

almost any stinky cheese.

There's a whole lot of things where it's like coffee, frankly.

There's just the way your taste buds change over time is really noteworthy.

So I can get that, you know, I wasn't an old fashioned drinker at your age.

I thought that you were gonna like chastise me for this.

Wow.

No, no, no, no.

Tony will Tony writes.

It just doesn't have that flavorful taste of water.

That's

true.

Okay.

Coming up next, we've got today's history lesson.

What is in today's history lesson?

I got one word for you.

Cowbell.

Thank you for spending some time with us up here as part of your mornings powered by up North News.

We'll have more live from Chippewa Falls after the Midwest Farm report here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I'm back right now.

Glenn Fry kicks off today's history lesson.

77

years ago, Glenn Fry was born, passed away in 2016 at the age of 67.

He formed the Eagles along with Don Henley, Bernie Ledin and Randy Meisner.

and gone way too soon.

Glenn Fry born this day in 1948.

This is a big day in electoral history of course because it's one of those days that could be an election day and has been over time so I could rattle through all the people who have won presidential elections on this day but I'll just mention a couple of election winners and losers.

This day in 2012 Tammy Baldwin won election to the United States Senate for the first time.

She also became the first openly gay politician elected to the U.S.

Senate.

On that same day in 2012, Barack Obama won reelection over Mitt Romney to win a second term.

It was a big day for Democrats, for Tammy Baldwin, for Barack Obama.

On that same election day in 2012, in the 7th District of Wisconsin, Pat Crichtlow lost his election to Congress to Sean Duffy.

So two out of three ain't bad.

You take what you can get.

Take me.

All right.

All right.

Let's go to 1976 now.

And the biggest hit from BlueEister Cult, it peaked at number 12.

Why are we playing a song that only peaked at number 12?

Because it's part of culture today, thanks to Saturday Night Live.

It's hit.

Admit it, you're playing a little cowboy there

in your

head, Bob, in your head.

That's right.

You just got to have your little half t-shirt on when you do it as well.

Yes, blue oyster cults.

Don't fear the reaper.

Peaked at number 12 this day in, yeah, 1976.

That's how far back that song goes.

So, okay, if they were number 12, could we at least talk about the number one song that day in 1976?

Sure we could, because it was by the Steve Miller Band.

I'll tell you what, while we wait for them to sing a little bit of rock and meet, we'll tell you that Sally Field is 79 years old today.

Actress Emma Stone is 37, and Saturday Night Live's Bo and Yang turns 35 years old today on this November 6th.

Here we

go, going back 49

years to the number one song by the Steve Miller band.

All right, another birthday today.

Composer John Philip Sousa was born this day in 1854, gave us some marches we still hear today, like the Stars and Stripes Forever.

This is also the anniversary of the birth of James Naysmith in 1861.

Now, I know you have the notes in front of you, Parker, but if I would have said James Naysmith, would you know your sports trivia and know his claim to fame?

Yeah, I think I would have known that he was... I don't know about THE inventor of basketball, but like...

a core member of basketball

and that one he actually gets the full credit for you know a lot of people talk about Abner double day you know inventing baseball but frankly there were a lot of different people who were working on that game at the time the game of basketball is directly taken back to James Naismith who is looking for some kind of a summertime indoor activity and figured out these 13 rules

and some peach baskets.

Originally he wanted boxes just nailed to the wall.

All the janitor could find at the gym were peach baskets.

So that was true.

Okay.

And thus basketball was born.

On this day in 1928, a patent was issued to Colonel Jacob Schick for a shaving implement that later became the first electric razor.

So that's where Schick comes from.

you know, chic razor blades and things like that.

So was Gillette must have been a real person too, because it's always Gillette or chic, right?

And yeah, he was a Colonel.

Colonel Jacob Schick patented what would become the first electric razor this day in 1928.

The number one song 60 years ago today this week in 1965 was by the Rolling Stones.

On this day in 1947 was the debut of NBC's Meet the Press, which is now the longest running TV show in the United States.

This is especially noteworthy here.

On this day in 1986, whenever we talk about undocumented immigrants and border security and everything else, it was on this day that in 1986 that President Ronald Reagan signed landmark immigration reform.

He was a bill

that along with a lot of other immigration reform, it did a couple of key things.

It legalized most undocumented immigrants who'd arrived in the country prior to January 1st of 1982.

And then here's the other important part.

It altered immigration law by making it illegal to knowingly hire immigrants and establishing

financial penalties for companies that employed illegal immigrants.

In other words, the whole purpose of bipartisan immigration reform back in 1986 was to put the onus on the employer.

And yet, what do we see today?

We see secret masked police on the streets of the United States rounding up

mothers and fathers and other people trying to make a life for themselves who can't navigate a system that hasn't been fixed since 1986.

When if we had stayed with the original intent of the law and simply cracked down on the employers, we might be seeing a better and better reformed immigration system because business would put the pressure on politicians to fix the problem.

But instead corporations were essentially able to buy their way out of this.

They've got enough friends and buddies in Congress that all of the enforcement takes place on folks who are just trying to make a better life for themselves.

We actually don't really need comprehensive immigration reform if we would just follow the letter of the law of what exists on the books right now dating back to this day in 1986.

Let's move to 1982 where the number one song was from the film and officer and a gentleman.

It was done by Joe Cocker and Jennifer

Warrens.

That was one of the movies, one of Richard Gere's very early movies.

It wasn't like his first big one, but he really kind of became known at that point, Deborah Winger, in that movie as well.

And who knew at that time that Joe Cocker could sing a love song?

And it wasn't just a screaming rock and roller, but he was able to do that with Jennifer Warren this day in 1982.

And in 1993, the number one hit was by Mr. Loaf.

You know, Meat Loaf.

This song doesn't give me the vibes of being written by a man named Meat Loaf.

Well, no.

But it worked for him.

And of course, that was the great Jimmy Steinman who wrote and I believe produced it as well.

And the question continues to this day.

What were they talking about?

What is it that he wouldn't do?

He'd do anything for love, but he won't do that.

He never quite tells you what he would do or wouldn't do for love.

I don't know.

Maybe we need to make that our question of the day one of these days.

There you go.

All right.

What's on the national day calendar for today?

It is Talk Money Week, and folks, it is a good thing.

We have Sean O'Malley coming on later.

Yes, we do.

822.

Sean will be along.

And by the way, Sean, by his own admission, we're kind of flying blind here.

We're in new territory in that we don't get the government data because of the shutdown.

So we're relying on data from other sources.

But it's still not great.

You can hide the official data if you want.

But there's still other ways to show how things are working out.

And they're working out really good if you're a really big company, not a small business.

And you've got a really big bank account and not a small one for everybody else.

A little dicey.

But we're going to talk money with Sean O'Malley about your money in the markets coming up at 8.22 this morning.

What else do we have on the calendar?

We've got a dog film fest today because Pat, I know we need more dog days on the National Day calendar.

Well, again, that's by just National Dog Day.

At least give us a little something.

So dog film fest.

Yes.

Like Air Bud and Benji and I suppose.

Yeah.

I mean, that kind of films that center on dogs.

Yeah.

Yeah,

the buddies

films that kind of stuff.

Yeah.

Okay.

Old Yeller.

Maybe maybe old Yeller is not the best example of a dog.

Didn't end well for him.

But for other dogs, it would work out just fine.

All right.

I believe this next one's fairly obvious.

Yeah, it's basketball day.

We already talked about that.

Let's just let's just roll to the next one.

It's

National

Nachos Day.

Nachos Day.

Okay, let's get into that for a second here.

Because I mean, some people like it very, very basic.

And you can probably throw me in that mix.

I feel like we've now we're now dumping a garbage can of stuff

on a

pile of chips.

Yeah.

And like, half of the chips are dry because they the mountain is so big, they don't get any cheese on it.

The whole platform of nachos is is chips with cheese melted on there.

Then you can put the other stuff on.

But I've never understood these restaurants that that bring in

You know, this thing that is the size of a beaver dam, I wouldn't be surprised if critters crawled out of it.

And yeah, it's just a pile of dried chips and then like a pot of chili on top of it or something.

So now that I've groused about nachos, maybe just maybe somebody would like to write in or text in or call in.

And give us an example of a place that makes outstanding nachos.

Where do you like to have nachos when you're out?

Or if you're like us, do you feel like you make the best nachos at home?

You make them the way that you want to make them.

Here's some cheese.

Here's some taco meat.

Here's some lettuce and tomato.

And call it good.

I feel like nachos are at the point where people do so much with them.

You could open a whole restaurant that's just build your own nachos.

Oh, I totally believe.

Yeah.

You know, a nacho bar, something like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Tony, of course, going for the for the easy one.

What kind of chips are those nacho chips?

Okay, thank you.

All

right.

Okay.

All right.

So we'd like to know what what kind of nachos do work?

What recipes are are are the kind that you like or the restaurants that serve good ones 85575 civic 85575 to 4842.

And talk it up.

Well, we're talking up.

Cheesy nachos, same goes for cheese curds.

That's going to be tomorrow's question of the day.

So get ready to put in a plug for your favorites.

What else we got on the calendar today?

It is team manager day.

If you are like I was a manager for a sports team back in high school.

OK, now we need to redefine manager here.

But this definition is not the manager.

Not baseball manager.

Like the equivalent of a head coach.

Yeah, no, no,

no.

Not that kind of manager.

No,

it's like helping with

a couple of equipment, that kind of stuff.

The daily operations.

So team grunt.

This one's for all the grunts on the team.

Okay, I guess you could call me that.

Sure,

yes.

I mean that lovingly, you know.

It was for the other, it was for the girls team.

It wasn't my seasons.

No, no, no, that's what I'm saying is there are a lot of young women who are managers on guy sports and vice versa, and it's very essential.

It is.

Don't, the term is endearing.

We need our grunts out there.

I don't, it doesn't sound endearing.

That's why we gave it a great name.

Manager.

You're the manager.

You're, you know, you're, you're the Craig Council of the team.

If it makes you feel, I would rather

be the pat Murphy of the team

as well.

You should.

That's exactly how, how it is supposed to work.

Yes.

All right.

Uh, still ahead.

We've got a busy day ahead yet.

Like I mentioned, we're going to be talking about your money in the markets with Sean O'Malley.

We're going to be talking to Assembly Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer coming up right after the 7 o'clock news.

I'm Pat Crightlow from Up North News and this is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Welcome back, it is 6.52 on a Thursday morning, November 6th.

Phone lines are 855-75 Civic, 855-752-4842.

Open for your input, especially in our question of the day, which is also our newsletter question of the week.

Will the economy be better?

be worse or the same a year from now.

Why do you think so?

We'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

You can also use the Civic Media app, not just to call us, but also to text us or to send us a voice note as well.

Speaking of which, I have a mailbag that I have to clear out here.

Several messages that I didn't get to yesterday, but definitely wanted to pass along the input from some of our friends, like Jim and Brookfield, who wrote yesterday.

With all the right-wing knee-jerk reactions to the Mamdani election in New York City, people need to know socialism is not communism and that the city of Milwaukee elected three different socialist mayors who over the course of 38 years in the early 20th century successfully ran the city and completed major infrastructure projects that are still in use today.

And I got to admit that last night, I used my friend chat GPT.

That's my new friend, my new buddy.

And I looked for the times when you could refer to communist and socialist as the same thing and when you couldn't, you know, the difference between state owned and dictated versus, you know, collectively owned and all that.

And you can get really deep in the weeds on all of it.

The fact of the matter is,

None of that describes Zoran Mamdani.

Anybody else who describes themselves as a democratic socialist is not the same as socialism.

It's really about saying, how about if capitalism as a focus on people, all the people, not just the ones who collect the most money along the way and extract it from all the rest of us.

Great discussion that we'll have on another day, but continuing to go through the mailbag here.

About election results and people still backing Donald Trump day from New Berlin writes in when President Trump points to Clifford the big red dog and says that damn dog is blue Without hesitation his followers respond.

Yes, sir.

He is sir.

Thank you for straightening me out On cheese curds John from Oshkosh says on the text line never met a cheese curd.

I didn't like so there's that

which is true, although I would add again, cheese curds, not the cheese cubes that you bread and deep fry.

That's not the same thing.

Lenin Madison on the healthcare system in the US, he says it borders on the ultimate extortion, literally your money or your life.

And that too gets us back to the whole thing at the middle of the government shutdown here, is that President Trump and congressional Republicans want these big price hikes to kick in.

because they want to claim the Affordable Care Act doesn't work.

The thing is, they say, well, we don't have the money for these tax subsidies and then they keep proving over and over again.

Yeah, we actually do.

We have all paid our taxes.

The money is there.

You've just decided to take our tax dollars and give them to billionaires through massive tax cuts or to propose more drilling for oil and gas and other things that

people actually don't want, they want affordable health care.

And what Trump and congressional Republicans are trying to do is simply crush you trying to crush everybody's spirits by not giving in by inflicting maximum pain, because people aren't getting their food assistance.

There are air traffic controllers now who aren't showing up for work, not not just because they're not getting paid, but because they don't have childcare.

They're not getting paid so they can't pay childcare.

So childcare is not an option for them.

So they have to stay at home.

And Trump and Republicans, they want all this pain so that they'll say, Democrat, you got to cave in.

We'll just take the big price hikes for health insurance.

We'll grouse about, you know, Obamacare and, you know, we'll take it out on Republicans next year.

No, they won't because by that time next year, Republicans will have billionaires helping them run all kinds of ads, getting people scared about transgender athletes or something else out there and try to make you forget all of this pain that they're putting you through.

If you're frustrated by what's going on, if you've got a trip coming up and that flight is one of the many that are about to get canceled, you call Derek Van Orden, you call Tom Tiffany, you call Ron Johnson, and you let them know, maybe don't jack up our health insurance prices, maybe at least sit down at the table and negotiate with Democrats.

How about that?

Also on the text line Ronnie from Horicon texted in yesterday while Earl Ingram was on saying so good to hear from the wonderful Earl and we do we talk to him every Wednesday in our eight o'clock hour and Let's see what one more here or is there two more here it is These are both these are both for Parker and the way that the way that you make people feel Oh

is Roger in Stevens Point, who says I was a team statistician for baseball two years and basketball for three years in high school.

I earned two varsity letters from the experience.

Again, support none of these no team does anything without its support staff.

That includes the folks behind the scenes here at Civic Media behind the scenes at Courier Newsroom parent company of Up North News.

We need every one of them.

And we're all we've all been grunts at one time or another.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

And then there's Laura from Wisconsin Rapids saying, Parker, making me feel genuinely ancient over here, which I believe had something to do with a movie yesterday that you hadn't seen where again, we understand there's there's there's but there's a line somewhere where how have you still not seen that particular movie?

Whatever it is.

Yeah.

I am very willing to admit that I am undercultured.

Undercultured.

Undercultured.

I am fully aware I have not seen as many of the things that I should have seen.

Um, and that's on me.

You know what?

I'll take the bullet for that one.

Yeah.

But you know what?

You, you watched, you watched something, was it last weekend for us that you didn't want to watch?

It was something

a little bit older.

I watched, uh, what was it?

the one of the James Bond films.

Oh, yeah.

Casino Royale or Royale or whatever.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Casino

Royale.

But now, when we start talking about James Bond films, at least at some point when we talk about Daniel Craig, you can be like, Oh, yeah, there was Casino Royale.

And you no longer have to just go, I didn't see it.

Now you can say I saw it.

It was me.

Yeah.

Yeah,

that's okay.

That's perfectly fair.

Because then we get to go to the we get to ask the next generational question of, Okay, who should the next James Bond be?

Who in today's generation of actors of young actors would make a great James Bond?

I want an older version of James Bond and I want it to be you, Pat Critewell.

Okay, that's the easy way out because he knows I'm just I'm not in training for that.

But I guess I could try.

Stay representative Greta Neumauer, the Assembly Democratic leader coming up after the news.

I'm Pat Critewell.

Live, across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglo powered by Up North News.

Now, from our Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglo.

Hey, good morning.

It is 706.

It is nice to have you back here up north on a Thursday morning.

It is November 6, 2025.

Assembly Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer is standing by.

We will talk about things happening at the state capitol, things not happening because of the government shutdown, and much more coming up over the course of this next half hour.

And then following that, we're going to be talking to an economic support specialist.

who is right there on the front lines of people who have to sign up for snap or food share and rely on those benefits to avoid you know eviction and be able to afford groceries and she'll talk about the safeguards in place to guard against that.

tired old talking point about all the fraud that is, you know, they love to think is happening out there.

So that's coming up in our next half hour.

Parker Olson is producing things in Madison Studio A2 and Parker, I did make the one mistake.

When I was listening to Mike Clemens do sports just now and we have to put it on our to-do list He mentioned that the bucks are playing the bowls tomorrow night at the Pfizer forum.

That's fine perfectly fine regular season game But to get us care to get us to care about the regular season games or maybe make the players care about regular season games We have this thing called the NBA Cup The in season tournament is back

And at some point I'm going to explain to you how the NBA Cup tournament works.

And when that happens, that's when you'll know Pat has run out of things to say, but it's coming.

So at some point we'll have to explain why, why, why tomorrow's game is different.

Can I just say, I don't care about the competition in the middle of the season.

I don't, I don't care at all about that, but it just looks ugly.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, that's right.

They got the different colored courts that are trying to be all funky,

you know,

like they're like the city connect jerseys and all of that.

So yeah, things look a little different on your your favorite NBA teams court and the uniforms and everything else.

Yeah, that's exactly what it's like.

Rob says good morning from Tigerton.

It is clear and 23 degrees.

Last night, I was in Wasaw for a Highway 29 meeting for a future repaving project from Wasaw to Ringle in Marathon County.

He said, I learned Highway 29 has to compete with the interstate and other major four four lane highways for state funding for projects.

Yes, that is very true.

And finally, he says that last night I saw the Northern Lights.

I did not, but I woke up this morning.

First off, notice just how amazingly bright this particular moon is, because it's particularly close to Earth, very, very bright, but also the Northern Lights.

People were putting up social media posts overnight that were just stunning.

And we always appreciate that people with actual photography skills are willing to share those kinds of things.

So thanks to everybody.

For your phone calls, your texts, your voice notes, 8-5-5-7-5-CIVIC is how to reach us.

Let's turn now to State Assembly Representative Greta Neubauer, Democrat from Racine, who is the Assembly Minority Leader as well.

Joining us from Racine this morning, Representative Neubauer, good morning, how are you?

It is good to see you, Pat.

Sounds like you got a good night of sleep if you missed the

Northern Lights, huh?

Yeah, see, that's key.

Better to be well rested than to have stayed up too late for Northern Lights or weak packer victories or losses, whatever the case may be.

It's all about proper time and body management.

Now, Racine, we've got the fall session of the legislature going there.

We've talked already in the last hour about a committee hearing on a particular bill that would micromanage women.

health care for example but I mean the real focus there rightfully so is the federal government shutdown and its impact on on your constituents and on people throughout Wisconsin and I've noticed that Democrats are particularly active in saying well well we want to keep the pressure on politically we have people in the here and now who are

of course, suffering and need assistance.

I've noticed just a plethora of food drives and support for food banks going on.

Is that a fairly organized campaign?

Yeah, I appreciate you raising this.

So of course, we all need the federal government to get their act together.

Trump and Republicans control the White House, the Senate and the House.

And it is their responsibility to get food out to people who need it and who are going to struggle this month.

We're entering the holiday season.

It's a horrible situation, one in eight people, of course, in Wisconsin, who use food share.

We also know that people are struggling now, right?

This started at the beginning of the month, the SNAP benefits not going out or going out at lower rates.

And so our members have been

Really active, we've had at least 12 emergency food drives and events across the state.

Our members are volunteering, stocking shelves, loading trucks, organizing food collection and drop-offs.

We know that we have to do everything we can in this moment to ensure that our constituents do not go hungry.

Yeah, and it's not just legislators.

Sometimes it's potential candidates.

We talked to Emily Sefos last week, a state Senate candidate who has just been nonstop collecting food all throughout the Fox Valley area to support pantries out there.

We did see, you know, legislators like here in the Chippewa Valley, we had State Representative Jody Amerson and State Senator Jeff Smith speaking out along with the folks from the community table.

And they were surrounded at that function by a whole bunch of

of real normal folks.

And I think that's what this comes down to is the people who want to just play politics with this and aren't looking at the people who it actually helps and the people that they are really hurting right now.

And it just looks more like you're putting a human face on the political games that they are playing.

Yeah, I mean, that's absolutely right.

The reality here is that we're talking about people going hungry in our state.

out 260,000 kids who are not going to have access to the SNAP benefits and the food that they rely on.

And that really is just completely unacceptable.

We know that Democrats are fighting hard in Washington because people's premiums are also going up in astronomical numbers.

And then we see the Trump administration focused on, I don't know, building a new ballroom, a gilded ballroom.

I mean, people see what's going on and they're not happy about it.

The most basic need, right, is access to food.

And that being cut off for folks in our state is just totally unacceptable.

And so we're going to do everything we can.

We sent a letter to the secretary of the USDA urging those contingency funds be released.

We've got

some bills, right?

We would love the Republicans to take up here in Wisconsin, like healthy school meals for all and a food security grant program that supports our local food banks.

But we cannot entirely fix this problem at the state level, right?

We really do need Republicans at the federal level to be addressing this issue, reopening the government and making sure that people have what they need to get by.

We're talking to a state assembly Democratic leader Greta Neubauer from the Racine area about the federal government shutdown and then also things that are happening more in the state capital.

But before we turn to that, you know, just one more thing on the shutdown here and you've alluded to it about health insurance costs.

And again, you have a

If I'm not mistaken, a record number of people in Wisconsin used the Affordable Care marketplace to get health care coverage in the past year.

And Governor Evers and the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance, a week before last, put out very specific county specific numbers on just how high these premiums would go up.

So I can only imagine that before we even got to the snap cutoff, you were already hearing from constituents wondering

why they're seeing these premium increases that are so much higher than last

year.

Yeah, so more than 270,000 people in Wisconsin qualified for the ACA's premium enhanced tax credit last year.

And they saved an average of $664 a month.

Most people do not have an extra $664 a month to put towards their health care premiums.

And then of course, there are these

Really dramatic cases that we're now hearing about, some senior couples in certain counties could see premium hikes of more than $30,000.

I mean, people cannot afford that.

And so they will lose health insurance.

And that will have real consequences for them and their families.

This, of course, is essential health care that people need and have come to count on.

And so I'm glad to see that Democrats are sticking to their promises to follow.

through and make sure that people do not have to get these hits.

Republicans are giving tax cuts to the wealthiest people in our country and taking people's health care away.

This is very clear.

It is very stark.

And I just hope that people know that this is what their Republican Congress people in Trump are doing in Washington.

And there are things that that can be done even say by the governor's office, you know, could apply for rural health transformation program funds.

And in fact, Congressman Derek Van Orden sent a letter to Governor Evers office on Tuesday, calling on him to apply for these funds, saying, quote, if his administration fails to submit an

application, that would be an unacceptable failure of leadership.

The problem was Evers office had already sent in the application the day before.

It just kind of feels like Congressman Van Orden and Brian style and others could be doing things other than trying to dictate to the governor and legislators and city councils what to do.

My gosh, they're just looking around for anybody to blame.

That's not them, the people who voted for the removal of these tax credits.

And I do think that people are going to see through that.

Yeah, we're talking to Representative Greta Neubauer, the Assembly Democratic Leader.

Let's switch gears, talk briefly about the Department of Public Instruction and the matter of how it investigates and handles the licensing of teachers who are accused of improper conduct.

State Superintendent Jill Underly has outlined what she would like to see to bring more clarity to the system.

Republicans have introduced their own legislation about this and from your standpoint as Assembly Democratic

leader, do you feel like there is a bipartisan path forward toward getting these definitions of grooming more transparency to licensing?

Or are we going to get caught up in another political spin cycle from people who don't really want to solve problems?

Well, it's a good question and it remains to be seen, but I think we all saw the story highlighting the cases of sexual misconduct in the process around licensure of teachers and were troubled by that, of course.

All of us want our kids to be safe.

It is our number one priority.

Everyone should feel safe when they go to school and every parent should feel confident that their kids are being well taken care of.

So I am hopeful that we are going to be able to make some improvements to this process.

As you mentioned, Superintendent Underly.

is interested in working on some more transparency for how those license removal processes work and then the outcomes of those processes.

We also know that even if you lose your license to teach in a public school in Wisconsin, you can go teach in a private school.

It doesn't require a license, and that's a problem too.

And then of course, we've seen Republicans and Democrats interested in addressing the definition of grooming.

This is not something that's really covered in our statutes, but we know that there are educators who have

you know, exchanged messages with students that while not maybe explicitly sexual in nature are problematic and are clearly moving towards a certain kind of outcome.

And so we are working to tighten up those definitions to ensure that we don't have any inappropriate behavior between teachers and students.

And so I'm hopeful that that is going to be a bipartisan bill.

We're in ongoing conversations with Republicans about that.

That's something our caucus has been interested in for quite some time.

And so it's good to see that there is some bipartisan interest.

rest.

Representative Greta Neubauer, the Assembly Democratic Leader is our guest.

And before we take a break here, just to let you know that coming up in our next half hour, we're going to be talking to an economic support specialist with AFSCME who helps people who first need food share and badger care and other lifelines to escape the cycle of poverty and get back on track to self-sufficiency.

So stick around for that as well, coming up about 15 minutes away.

And then in our eight o'clock hour, we will be talking to Sean O'Malley about your money.

and the markets and the lack of government data to talk to us about the economy.

From the heart of America's up North, live from Lake Wissota, I'm Pat Critello.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Nice to have you back just about 7.23 on this Thursday morning.

We'll continue our conversation with State Representative Greta Neubauer in just a moment.

First, the shameless plug for the Up North News Daily newsletter.

Sign up at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

Now, people did not vote in Wisconsin yesterday.

I will tell you a few people, just a few, called their town clerks or their city clerks and asked if the polls were open.

They've been hearing about the elections in New York City and California and want to make sure they weren't missing anything here.

They were not.

There was nothing going on here, but it's now, you know, a year away.

And in today's newsletter is an outline of the election dates for 2026.

You know, there's a general election in April for state Supreme Court and other local nonpartisan races.

The primary for that would be in February.

There, of course, is the November general election next year, but very important primary for governor, for Congress, for legislative seats that will be held in August.

Get the exact dates by getting signed up to our newsletter over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

State Representative Greta Neubauer, the Assembly Democratic Leader is with us now.

And Greta, I was mentioning Jody Emerson's name.

We talked to Representative Emerson from Eau Claire.

I want to say a week before last, as she was unveiling a package of bills to support higher education in Wisconsin.

And it just reminds me that in this current fall session of the legislature, there could be a lot of things that are getting done, and a lot of them are on your to-do list.

So while you don't have the means right now to drive the entire legislative agenda, you've got the stuff you'd want to get done if you could.

Tell us a bit about what your priorities are this fall.

Yes, that is absolutely right.

We know that the people of Wisconsin want to see their legislators working hard on their behalf.

And so we are in Madison and in our districts working on the issues that we know are impacting Wisconsinites the most.

And of course, really at the top of that list is costs.

We know people are going to be especially squeezed, given what's going on at the federal government and the tariffs.

And so we are working every day.

to address the costs of education, including higher education and career training, housing, groceries with our healthy school meals for all bill, prescription drugs and health care.

We know that there's a lot that we can do at the state level.

And so we've got a number of bills that we've rolled out already.

I would say some of those key bills focused on K-12 education.

We know that people's property taxes have had to go up because they've passed local referendums to support their schools.

Been put in a terrible position, right?

The state has failed to adequately fund our schools.

And so local folks then have to ask, am I going to raise my own taxes or am I going to let my school

fall into disrepair.

Many of those referendums, of course, passing, but it really should not be on local folks and property taxes to fund education in the way that it does.

So we've got a general school aids bill that would really help there, put some more money into schools, keep those property taxes from going up.

We've got a number of bills focused on

creating good jobs in Wisconsin and supporting workers, repealing some of those Scott Walker era policies like right to work and reinstating prevailing wage.

We've got a number of bills coming still on public safety.

We all deserve to feel safe in the communities that we live and work and welcome the environment and health care.

So we've got a lot going on.

We're working closely with our Senate Democratic caucuses and partners across the state to ensure that the people of Wisconsin can see that life would be different if Democrats were in control here in Wisconsin.

And yet, as we talked to State Representative Greta Neubauer, the Assembly Minority Leader, what we have on the agenda, we've talked about a bill that would try to micromanage women's healthcare, like ectopic pregnancies and things like that.

There is now a bill formally introduced to ban absentee ballot drop boxes in Wisconsin, which of course would never get passed.

Neither of these would get passed a veto from the governor.

And yet those are the things being pushed.

How would you...

generalize what actually is making the agenda for these committees and the full assembly and senate in this session.

Yeah, Republicans are doing culture wars.

There is a hearing this week to entirely ban, you know, hemp products, THC products in Wisconsin.

They're continuing to attack the LGBTQ community.

Frankly, Republicans know that they do not have a leg to stand on when it comes to the issues that Wisconsinites really care about, which are costs and having a good life in a safe community for them and their kids.

And so they're going to continue to try to drum up, you know, the culture wars just like President

Trump who seems to keep pivoting when asked about people's costs.

So I don't think it's going to work.

Again, I think the voters see what's going on.

They see that Republicans are not interested in addressing the challenges that are really facing them and their families, and I think they're going to want something different.

So they're going to look next year at the candidates that are running.

And obviously, as we've seen in the race for governor, about a half a dozen Democrats in there already, you've got Democratic primaries in congressional seats, no doubt for some legislative seats as well.

So along with emphasizing the importance of people showing up next August 11th for that primary.

What is it that you want voters and frankly your own local county parties and things like that?

What do you want them to know and to do and to keep in mind as we head into what are going to be a series of Democratic primaries all around the state next year?

Yeah, well, I think what we saw in the elections this week is that there is room for all of us in the Democratic Party.

We saw some real progressives winning like Soran Mamdani in New York City.

We saw some more moderate Democrats winning in Virginia and New Jersey and

There's room for all of us because we all believe that Wisconsinites here and people across the country deserve better.

We believe that Trump is a threat to our well-being and to our democracy.

And so it'll be really interesting to see how these primaries play out.

And then, of course, we all got to stay focused on what comes after the primary, which is the general election.

And we, for the first time in 15 years, have the real opportunity to win a Democratic trifecta in Wisconsin and to really change the trajectory of this state to invest

in the people who make Wisconsin the great state that it is and chart a new path forward.

And so we're so excited about that opportunity next year.

State Assembly Representative Greta Neubauer, Assembly Democratic Leader Greta, always nice to catch up with you.

Thank you so much for your time today.

Thank you for having me.

All right.

And when we come back again, we'll talk to somebody on the front lines of making sure that people have the lifeline they need that other people are trying to cut out from underneath them.

I'll be back.

I'm back right now.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

talking with Misha, Dancing Waters, Economic Support Specialist, a member of AFSCME Council 32 as well.

And you've spent just about nine years now helping Wisconsin families navigate some of these programs.

So Misha, let me start by asking you in your own words, what is it that you do?

What is it that you help families do when they come to you?

We can help them in a number of ways.

We do of course offer benefits like badger care for health insurance coverage, SNAP benefits to help with food, childcare assistance for working families that need some help to cover the costs of daycare for their children so that they can work.

There's also a number of other federally and state funded programs around Medicare and other things that we do.

So how does somebody get to you in the beginning or where is it that they go or call first and then they are set up to meet with you?

So the state of Wisconsin uses a consortia system and all of this counties are broken up into groups and my I work out of the capital consortium which has eight counties.

near and around Dane and Madison, some of the farther out, even Richland Center, Sheboygan, so it's a pretty large area.

And often people are referred to us by a friend or family member, organizations in the community, food banks often have that information available.

People hear by word of mouth, you know, go to the job center.

to, you know, or call this number and apply for whatever it is that you might be eligible for.

So that's often, you know, people's first point of service with us is either coming into the lobby in person or calling us on the phone.

So when they sit down with you for the first time, what kind of information are you looking for from them to ensure that they do qualify for certain types of support?

Absolutely.

There's a lot of measures that are taken to avoid fraud and to make sure that the people that are getting benefits are truly eligible.

Before I did this job, I had no idea of the complexity and the intensity involved in verifying someone's citizenship identity, their employment history.

There's a lot of information that gets pulled into our system from other data exchanges given

our computer age.

So there are many, many ways that we're checking to see that things line up.

We're checking with other organizations.

Is this the same information that you have on your end?

And it's all feeding back to our system, letting us know, you know, this is verified.

This is correct.

This is who this person says they are.

You know, this is how much they're earning.

So there's a fraud department that deals with anything that

we find suspicious or think should be looked in on and so they take it from there.

So I truly feel that our programs are very heavily, there's a great deal of integrity in the work.

Most of the people that I work with very much want to help people.

We very much want to assure that the work we're doing is correct.

So that's,

how I feel about the position and what I see on a daily basis is those the fraud isn't isn't happening the way that people say that it is people that are getting benefits are truly eligible and truly it's based on the poverty limits.

So if they truly are in the income range, then they are eligible to get these benefits.

So you're asking for verification and information from folks and and

It's a general question, overly general, but how are they doing?

What are what are folks like when they first, when you first get to meet with them to talk about this matter?

Well, if they're new to things, it can be a little overwhelming.

There's a lot of questions we ask that can get kind of personal.

And like I said, we're really delving in to make sure that things are correct.

But often after talking a little bit,

the workers are able to really help somebody tune into some other resources, find out what they may be eligible for with us, how we can help, just sort of helping in a lot of ways.

I feel like on the phones a lot of times we're serving more than just the eligibility determination piece.

We're listening to people's stories.

We're trying to help them connect to things in the community that they need, trying to help them.

figure out how to piece it all together because that's really where people are right now is literally trying to piece life together.

How is it from your own personal standpoint?

How do you want them to feel when they're done having that first conversation with you?

Because I have a feeling they enter feeling overwhelmed.

Absolutely.

I come from a background of

doing teaching and training.

So I love to give people information so that they can feel empowered when they leave that situation, that they're more able to feel like there are things that they can access, that they're able to do that on their own.

They have a better idea of what that's going to look like for them.

So I think it puts them at ease often to get a little bit of information from us and understand more how all of these things work.

Do you get from a lot of them that they do want to work but they're in particular dire straits right now and so they're looking both at the very short term, you know, food and rent, but that they are looking for some direction in how to find employment after that?

Well, first I would say that most of our recipients do work.

People that get food share may be a two-parent family that they're both working.

It may be a single parent who's working two or three jobs, and they're still eligible for food share because the wages are so low.

So that's something I've heard a lot lately.

This thinking that people aren't working is truly not the case.

It's just that families, even working families, aren't able to make it right now.

And with food share, there is a work requirement.

unless you have some sort of exemption.

So someone who is disabled, for example, wouldn't be held to the work requirement.

But Food Share requires participants to work 80 hours a month.

And if they aren't working 80 hours a month or participating in a program that we have accessible where they can have help finding a job or training to get a job, that would satisfy the work requirement.

They only can get three months worth of benefits and then it ends.

until at this point the end of December of 2027.

So there is something in place for people that are just not working and it doesn't allow them to just continuously get benefits without actually working or being in a program that's helping them find a job.

We're talking with Misha Dancing Waters.

She's an economic support specialist who helps families navigate through some of these programs like SNAP and access to healthcare and childcare assistance.

So let's turn our attention to the current situation because of the shutdown and with SNAP benefits being taken away at this point, and we don't know yet for how long, but...

What is happening out there with a lot of these families?

What are you hearing?

What are the situations that they're facing?

It's very scary for families right now.

This is the first month where the benefits won't be received.

So we're pretty early on in the month.

I'm certain that as this progresses and the longer it goes on, families are going to get more and more desperate.

Even before

their future benefits were taken away or delayed for the month.

People were struggling to even pay rent and even do the basics.

You know, it's right now it's hard to pay the electric bill and eat or do I pay, they're having to choose what do I pay for, what do I wait on.

they, they aren't able to cover all of the needs.

And so that's where they're coming to us also looking for other resources in the community, like potentially energy assistance, which also is currently delayed.

So, you know, people

are getting into this situation that's really scary.

Where am I going to get my electric cutoff?

Am I going to lose my housing?

You know, which of these things is just falling out from under me right now?

And how do I try to pull it together?

Misha, how about from your standpoint?

And I'm not

I'm not asking you, you know, about politics, but just as somebody who has watched these families and is now watching what they're going through and obviously thinking about the work that you do and how you feel about all of this happening as part of this political battle.

I'm I'm sickened by how we're using the most vulnerable people in our society as pawns right now in a political game.

It's not okay.

These are just safety nets just to keep those that are most at risk in our country from completely going under.

So I don't

know how we change the issues of inflation and rising costs of everything, including rent, including food.

Just the basics for life are what people are struggling with right now.

And we need to end the shutdown.

We need to get our food share restored so that people can eat.

But we also absolutely have to do something about the cost of health care.

both for badger care recipients for people that are getting their coverage to the marketplace that are no longer going to have any sort of subsidies.

And we also work somewhat with that process.

We process some of those federally funded marketplace or ACA applications for healthcare.

And if they're eligible for badger care, they stay with us.

If they're not, they go back and they buy a plan.

People are looking at those plans costing three times more all of a sudden with no raise from work, no change in or deduction from anything else.

And even me in my county job right now, we are looking at staggering increases for the coming year for the cost of insurance.

And it's horrifying right now.

that it's getting to the point where things are costing so much that no typical American person can afford it.

Amisha Dancing Waters is an economic support specialist who we're talking to about healthcare and SNAP and other things that have been cut off or jeopardized because of the government shutdown.

Last question is about

what I hope you're seeing in terms of success stories and listeners here know I've shared my story a few times, you know, being raised by a mom newly single four kids.

This is the mid 1970s having to stand in line with her to get your little coupon book of food stamps.

But after a few years when the kids were all in school, me and my younger siblings, she took, you know, third shift at a truck stop waiting tables, and then got a better waitressing job and then a better job after that.

And has more than

pay back the benefits that got her those years when the kids were really little.

Now, that's my story.

I'm hoping I'm expecting that you have heard similar stories.

The people that you, you know, once saw very early on in a time of crisis in their lives have have become much more self-sufficient, but might not have were it not for this aid.

It's not a place where most people are getting food share benefits for a long, long time.

They graduate out.

Their income goes up when they get a new job, and they move on to their employer's insurance.

And it's definitely used as a stepping stone for people.

I also grew up in those times of the 70s.

And I do remember the times where back then, my dad worked at a factory and just he made enough money.

for the whole family to survive.

That's no longer the case.

Economic Support Specialist Misha Dancing Waters joining us this morning.

Misha, thank you very much for your time and for all that you do.

Thank you for spending some time with us today.

Thank you so much.

And Misha, by the way, was speaking in her capacity as a member of the AFSCME Public Employees Union, not for any employer.

And we appreciate that very much.

Joseph Peckie in our next hour, along with Sean O'Malley and Chad Holmes.

I'm Pat Critello.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

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James Kelly is here as well from our newsroom in the Chippewa Valley.

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You can also go to the website, thetap.fm for headlines, weather, upcoming local sports and more.

James Kelly, how are you?

I was good until you mentioned all the cool kids were on substack.

I don't think I'm on substack, so that probably means I'm not one

of the cool kids.

I am definitely not.

Well, I'm worse than I'm a cool kid would want to be.

Whereas I have created a sub stack, but you won't find anything I've written there in well over a year.

So you got to embrace the nerd.

Yeah, I've got well, it's gathering dust.

And as as Dan Schaffer has learned when he helped start up civic media today, when you start something like this, there's there's a saying, you've got to feed the beast.

Yep.

And now it's it's mandatory and radio.

I mean, this show starts at 6am ready or not.

And we got to fill three hours, we got to feed that beast every day.

on something like a sub-stack, you don't have to.

Like I haven't for over a year, but if you want it to be consistent, if you want to get readers, you got to feed the beast every day.

You got to put something in there.

And, you know, some days it's harder than others.

Yeah, well, you got to get after it.

That's what we do here.

Yeah, that's exactly it.

So, you know, the ones where you really got to do it, you're here ready or not, would be like talk shows or like a newscast.

And these are the things that you put together, but you

carry a lot of good news as well, including just down the road here, the old St.

Joseph's Hospital in Chippewa Falls, which has been mothballed for a year and a half now, finally has a little bit of life again.

Yeah, the Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative purchased the site over the summer, planning to reopen it partially just to kind of act as a bridge before they can get their new hospital in Lake Halley opened.

But they opened up the Cancer Center this week.

They started medical oncology treatments on Monday, which is a huge step here because

Patients were driving an hour, an hour and a half to other facilities around the region.

So this is a really big difference for the area.

They're doing medical oncology and infusion therapy.

They have radiation therapy fast-tracked for 2026.

And they're working on getting some other services ready to go for next year, like inpatient care, emergency surgery, labor and delivery.

These are all things that people in Chippewa Falls specifically have really missed since losing St.

Joseph's because there's no other hospital here.

You got to go all the way down to Eau Claire.

Yeah, and even there, you've got the, you know, one of the hospitals in Eau Claire also belong to HSHS.

And that's sitting there empty right now as well.

So it's nice to see that some health care services are slowly making a return here.

Also out of Eau Claire, out of the Chippewa Valley, you've got a museum there that is aware of the crisis that is affecting lower income families affected by the government shutdown and is doing a little something nice about that.

Yeah, the Children's Museum of Eau Claire is offering free admission throughout November for families who use snapper wick benefits to take advantage of it.

All you have to do is show your snapper wick card, your your benefits that you get them.

Usually those families only pay about four dollars per visit, so it's not, you know, breaking the bank for them.

But it is a nice way to just make sure that their kids have a place to go after school, just kind of learn, play, be in a safe environment.

I used to go to the Children's Museum back home all the time.

I loved they had some some contra...

where they'd put you in a little circle and they'd bring a giant bubble around you.

And I was like, that is so cool.

I love being inside the bubble.

No, that's the good kind of bubble.

Nowadays, everybody's in like a political or media bubble.

Yeah, those are the bad bubbles.

Yeah, you want to embrace the good ones there.