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Good morning, 7.06.
It's a Wednesday Thanksgiving Eve, November 26th, 2025.
Nice to have you here back up north live from Lake Wissota.
A snowy Lake Wissota.
I got up at 3.30, it was still raining.
It started changing over to snow at 4am.
There was a dusting.
Now it's definitely a coating.
We're closing in on at least a quarter inch, maybe close to a half inch of snow in spots.
And because it was rain at first, I got to think roads are slick out there, so please be careful.
I mean, it's a character builder everywhere, driving wise, and especially more so up north.
Also includes places like Tigerton, where we hear from Rob.
Good morning from Tigerton.
It's cloudy and windy, 33 degrees, picked up four tenths of an inch of rain overnight.
Said yesterday he got some garages cleaned out, got the lawn mower put away and made some room for the car and the truck.
Got some salt from Wittenberg.
He's ready for winter work.
Rob writes the Copper Country in Upper Michigan is going to get snowstorms Thanksgiving weekend measured by feet.
another snowstorm coming for Saturday, early Sunday.
He says, I always remember years ago getting snowstorms on Thanksgiving weekend and that Packer games would be played after snowstorms, 1977 versus the Vikings, 1985 versus Tampa Bay were played at Lambeau Field on Thanksgiving weekend snowstorms.
Yes.
It just has, I don't want to romanticize the past year, but yeah, it definitely has that feel like there were these, there were a lot of these Blizzard type games that were played back in the day.
We've got Ellie Bordeaux standing by our newsletter editor at Up North News.
Then later this hour, we're going to be talking to State Representative Christian Phelps and State Senator Jeff Smith in our homeroom segment.
We talked to a couple of members of a special Blue Ribbon Commission last week.
that commission met in 2017-2018 and talked about ways to reform school funding, and the legislature has done Jack Squat with that stuff ever since, and Senator Smith and Representative Phelps are going to talk a bit more about how these solutions can still be put in place if you have the right people in the right places to get the job done.
By the way, one more note about the weather here.
There is a Blizzard warning for Ashland and Iron Counties until 6 a.m.
tomorrow.
Some places there are going to get two feet of snow from this current storm.
So if you're heading farther up north, please take note of that and know the conditions before you go.
All right, let's bring in Ellie Bordeaux, my colleague at Up North News.
She puts together our newsletter that you can subscribe to by heading over to Up North News, wi.com.
Ellie, good morning.
How are you?
I'm great.
How are you guys?
I'm good.
I'm good.
What's the plan for tomorrow?
Well, my grandma always hosts, she actually just moved this year, so it'll be a little different, but going over to my grandma's, doing the whole shebang, my close family comes and some of my extended family, we have a very fun day and we'll watch the Packers hang out, that whole thing, so.
That's great.
Do
you have a
favorite dish that either you can't wait to dive into or one that you make?
I, my favorite, and I think this is a little bit of a hot take.
I think people either really love this or really hate it, but I love sweet potato casserole with the marshmallows on top.
That is my pride and joy, my favorite.
Don't skimp on the marshmallows.
Yeah, no, do
not.
Gotcha.
All right.
So we've got a lot of Thanksgiving on the brain here.
But we spent a lot of time talking about fish fries last week as part of the locals love section that Ellie has put into our newsletter.
So that you can talk about your favorite local this, local that.
And so we were talking about local fish fries.
And again, I know we're going to talk all about it again in February when we get to Lent and it's fish fry season, but there's never a bad time for a fish fry.
So tell me about the response that you got.
Right.
Yeah, so we I love getting these responses.
I got so many about fish fries One of them is on the house in Sheboygan Beth Oh says my sister-in-law owns a bar called on the house pun intended and folks say it's the best fish fry in town We've got another one Fibers bar and restaurant in St.
Germain Old fashions are a great accompaniment is what Nancy V says they've got Perch walleye all sorts of different kind of fish wait, and it's
it's named Fibbers
Yes, right.
I love it.
I think I know their customer base there.
Well done.
Right.
Enough said.
Well played, guys.
All right.
What else you
got?
We got Appleton beer factory.
Josh G says, if you ever make a stop to Appleton, this is the place to be for a fish fry.
It is seasoned well and reasonably priced.
And then we've got Elroy eatery.
Filets are large and fried to perfection.
It was voted best of...
best of for South Central Wisconsin.
Um, so we got a bunch of different responses and it's super great to see that people love their first for us.
You know, it's such a Wisconsin thing.
So it's super fun.
Oh yeah.
And we got into like, you know, the things that accompany it, you know, uh, you know, who's got the best coleslaw and things like that.
And like I said, that's
That's kind of those evergreen topics.
We'll bring it back again, but we appreciate all the response that came in for it.
Well, now I want to ask about a story that was in yesterday's newsletter.
And again, subscribe to our website up North News W I dot com.
And it's a map that's called for better the for better map ahead of small business Saturday.
Tell us more about what what it is these small businesses are being recognized for and why customers should then reward them.
Yeah, so I wanted to include this in the newsletter ahead of Small Business Saturday because so the For Better Project launched a, it's called the For Better Map, like you said, and it's an interactive tool that showcases small businesses that have signed a pledge to invest in strategies to improve safety and connection within their communities.
The map allows users to see shops and businesses that have signed the pledge across Wisconsin, and they also have maps in Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
Some of the small businesses included is we've got Ethical Trade Company in Madison.
We've got Vintage Rose Bakery and Sandwich Shop in Depeer.
And so this pledge has research-based strategies that these companies put into place.
And it ranges from deterring harassment and reducing weapon carrying to supporting civic groups and neighborhood connection efforts.
This is just a great thing for people to see small businesses that are committed to fostering connection in their communities and all that kind of thing.
So it's really great.
Yeah, and I mean, look, anybody can, you know, put out their shingle and, you know, make sales and pocket the profits and call it good.
It's another thing to actually want to be, you know, a member of the community and be involved and care about, you know, its safety and, you know, other aspects of making a community welcoming.
And it's nice that there are groups out there that are recognizing these kinds of things now.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's really great.
And businesses can join the initiative or community members can nominate businesses to be added to the map all on the four better project website.
And community organizers can reach out to them via email.
But it's just such a great initiative.
It's super great to see that these businesses are committed to doing these things and fostering these different types of relationships with their community and all that kind of stuff.
So
it's great.
Ellie Bordeaux is here, our newsletter editor at UpNorth News.
You can sign up for our newsletters at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
Of course, with Thanksgiving tomorrow, there will be people who may not have family and they may not have much for resources and are looking for ways to have an affordable Thanksgiving meal, something that you put in the newsletter last week, but definitely bears repeating one more time before the holiday.
Right, absolutely.
And especially during the government shutdown and the lack of SNAP funding, it caused a big surge in food pantries across Wisconsin.
And so restaurants and organizations across the state are
working to make sure that no one goes hungry this Thanksgiving day.
And it's a really great, we put together a really great list.
We've got some in Iron River, we've got Eagle River, Fitchburg, Superior, all of these different restaurants or churches or organizations are putting together free meals for their community.
And this is by no means everything that's happening in Wisconsin.
There are plenty more, but this is just a great list that kind of encompasses a good amount of the whole state, you know?
So I've got some in Managua, Milton,
all over Wisconsin so it's really great.
All right nice article that was in there as well and finally I mean we've talked about the the local's love section but then every so often there's a special edition of the newsletter and it sounds like you have another one in the works.
Yeah so we um on this upcoming Friday we are not
this Friday, but next Friday.
We will have our special edition and it's our giving edition.
So the whole theme is volunteering and giving back in your communities and across the state.
So we're really excited to showcase different things that have to do with volunteering, different organizations that are that have great different motivations and missions.
And so we have four different sections will be including Wisconsin in action.
So these are different organizations that you should donate to her.
volunteer with those kinds of things.
We've got Faces of Service will be highlighting some of our readers actions, the ways they're giving back this season.
We've got some conservation efforts that are going on in Wisconsin, and then we just have a general winter wellness in Wisconsin section where how to be safe in the winter, especially with it starting to get cold, the snow's on the ground now, you know, so it's really great to just have a reminder of the things you need to do to be safe in the winter.
All
Yeah, I try not to embarrass you so much,
We're ruining the experience.
We need like a keyword, like knucklehead or something like that.
Anyway,
I was saying,
so that would be, did you say Friday of next week?
Yes, correct.
Friday of next week.
Look for that special edition.
Again, sign up for it at uppermostnewswi.com all to get you into the holiday season.
Ellie, thank you very much.
Oh, hey, before I forget, you and Parker, you're in the youth's category compared to fossils like me.
So the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
is often known as a time where especially, you know, young adults will gather with like high school friends or, you know, childhood friends that they haven't seen while they've been away at college or away, you know, as young adults living in another place.
I know we used to do that a lot, but I'm going back, you know, almost 40 years here.
Is that something for either one of you two?
Is the Wednesday of Thanksgiving a social day?
For me, at least, yes, definitely.
Okonomak has their German Christmas market, so they've got it.
Big beer tent, everyone goes.
I see all of my friends' families, all that kind of stuff.
So it's a very fun day.
It's a very fun night.
But yeah, we do it for sure.
OK.
So you sound really fun and social, Parker.
OK.
No, like I said, I have, you know, Sherry comes from a small town, you know, group on a farm there.
And so, yeah, they would all get together at the same, you know, watering hole there and gather.
It happened to be the, you know, day before Thanksgiving before you got to hang out with family.
Tony puts up on YouTube, youths these days, rabble, rabble, rabble.
But clearly, I mean, Ellie gets it.
She gets the significance of the day and Parker, well, you know.
What's new?
That's why we lock in a closet.
So anyway,
the
Oracle of Economa Walk, Ellie Bordeaux, thank you for your time as always.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Yes, happy Thanksgiving to you guys.
All right, take care.
We'll talk to you a little later on.
Also, now she mentioned the holiday season and of course we've got Giving Tuesday is coming up and that includes a here at Civic Media.
where they are celebrating what has become a global movement celebrating the power of generosity every act of giving of course matters and so stations all across the civic media radio network will be highlighting and raising money for local organizations and making a real difference and that includes this program right here tune in starting on Tuesday giving Tuesday to learn about more that we're gonna do we're gonna we're gonna do 12 days worth
Our spirit of Giving Tuesday is so big we can't contain it to one day.
So we're going to do 12 days of community kindness here starting on Giving Tuesday on these mornings with Pat Krightlow powered by Up North News.
Still ahead, State Senator Jeff Smith and State Representative Christian Phelps are here.
We're going to be talking in our homeroom segment about how to fix our convoluted education funding system.
There are answers out there.
They've just been sitting on a shelf for
years now.
What do we got to do to finally make these things happen and help out taxpayers as well as educators and kids?
We'll talk all about it coming up this hour.
I'm Pat Crichtlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
Nice to have you back just about 7.23 now on this Wednesday morning, November 26th.
Question of the day is whether you still do any of your shopping out of catalogs.
I've been showing off the growing stack of catalogs that we seem to get every holiday season and there are one or two maybe three that we order out of which I think that
you're then rewarded exponentially by all the other companies that somehow know that and send you catalogs.
So I'd love to know if you're still a catalog shopper.
And if so, what do you do?
Are you getting things for yourself?
Or is that a way for you to send gifts to people, you know, around the country, maybe around the world for all I know.
So 855-75-CIVIC, 855-752-4842.
You can call or text, use the Civic Media app to call us or text us or leave us a voice note.
And a voice note can really come in handy.
For example, this is a little behind the scenes thing here.
But during the commercial breaks, I'm sometimes yapping it up with our guests, like the guests you're going to hear in just a moment here.
And Parker always has to remind us when there's 30 seconds left in the break.
Well, I've decided to outsource that.
So Tony was nice enough to make a voice note with one of his kids.
And so now this is what shuts me up 30 seconds before we come back from
adorable is that?
I mean that might actually talk you out of leaving a voice note because you can't compete with that level of cuteness.
But you can try.
So again, use that Civic Media app and you can leave us a voice note that way as well.
So again, there's our question of the day and the phone number in case you want to talk to us about any little thing that comes up, especially with our guests, State Senator Jeff Smith and State Representative Christian Phelps, both from the Eau Claire area.
And in a little bit, we'll be getting more into our homeroom segment and the Blue Ribbon Commission and school funding.
But we did just come off a fall session for the assembly and Senate and we wanted to talk a bit about that gentlemen.
Good morning.
Morning.
Nice to have you both here.
Jeff, being the gentleman farmer that you are, how early did you get up and what all have you done for chores already?
fill
water.
the town of Brunswick outside of Eau Claire.
Let's now go to City Kid Christian Phelps for an opposing viewpoint.
Christian, feed any animals this morning yet?
No, but in my defense, I
I'm one of those people who identifies as very productive at night.
Ah, yes, yes.
See, that makes sense as Jeff and I can attest with the gray on our heads.
We're much more in the early riser category of things here.
But you all got to do the work in the Capitol whenever there's work to be done.
And at least you guys are trying to do some work there.
And that leads me into my question about the fall sessions of the Senate and the Assembly.
And let's give it a grade.
in terms of, you know, the output, the productivity, the living up to its potential.
Senator, we'll go with you because as a former senator myself, I mean, you have to.
That's that's hashtag senitude.
Jeff, how do you rate the fall session?
But just to be nice, we'll say D minus to
give them credit for a couple of things that were passed.
But there is no real effort here, Pat, to get things done in the state legislature.
And there's even been rumors, and Christian and I were just talking about that recently, about rumors of just ending this thing, putting it out of its misery by the end of the year rather than waiting until spring.
But that's just rumors, but the Republicans are up.
the backs against the wall, they know that, but yet at the same time they're still afraid to do anything that is actually helping people.
Yeah, especially given, I mean, 2026 was going to be Republicans facing headwinds anyway.
And I mean, just imagine going into that and actually calling an end to the session and deciding to do even less work than what you're already doing.
Christian, same for you for the assembly, the fall session, how would you rate the work that got done?
Yeah, I think I would give it the same grade.
It's a little hard to, I mean, it's my first year, so I'm experiencing it from the inside for the first time.
And I'd say, you know, there are a lot of good ideas proposed.
A lot of them come from our side.
Sometimes there are bipartisan things proposed, but overall this year, the Assembly's been a little busier technically than the Senate.
We've been meeting more often, but it isn't necessarily to pass things that are actually going to become law or...
Are the results of any kind of meaningful compromise, you know, we just pass a ton of bills that come from one party the majority and Many of them pass on party line votes and a lot of the time they even pass things They know the governor is gonna veto which kind of begs the question.
Are you just kind of
crisis actors here or do you really have any interest in governing?
Yeah, I mean it's a fair question and Jeff there have been a couple of things that were glaring omissions shall we say.
Maybe later we'll cover the extending Medicaid to women one year postpartum instead of 60 days where one of only two states that does that.
But the other one of course is helping homeless veterans after a facility closed in Chippewa Falls and
You've had to deal with the down is up kind of logic coming from the other side of the aisle about whose fault it is.
The thing is, Jeff, I mean, we've only got a minute left to answer this, but it shouldn't take long.
There was every potential there for bipartisan compromise in this fall session.
Who's in charge?
I'm tired of Republicans having this ability, the magical wand that they are able to cast a spell on our voters and say, oh, look at those Democrats, they don't get anything done.
If they need to understand or voters need to understand that the only way things get done is through the majority.
And that's who's held the majority for 30 out of 32 years, including this year.
And for them to
pretend like it's someone else's fault that those shelters closed or those recovery centers closed or our hospitals didn't get any support from them.
is really shameful and they ought to take some responsibility.
Imagine if they took the time that all that time they take to write press releases and actually turned it into writing proposals that could pass, the things that could get done.
We're talking to State Senator Jeff Smith and State Representative Christian Phelps and we will continue this conversation coming up on the other side of the Midwest Farm Report and more.
I'm Pat Critello from Up North News.
Follow us at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Alright, so while you're having Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and packing away will be the leftovers We will have some of the best kind of leftovers here tomorrow morning so that you know yours truly can sleep in a little bit So some of our best segments over the past few weeks here that you can listen back to maybe something that you missed And then we've got all new talk all new conversations coming up
for Black Friday, so we'd love to have you following us so long.
By the way, if you're listening to the radio tomorrow, Packers at the Lions coverage begins at 10 a.m.
on stations in Richland Center, Park Falls Racine and Watoma, and that'll be followed on other stations by Badger Men's Basketball versus Providence.
That pregame will start at 2.30.
Head over to the Civic Media website for more details.
Let's see from the mail bag.
I wanted to From Dave in New Berlin.
Good morning, Pat.
Quick question.
We've got company over company coming over tomorrow Should I dress to impress business casual like at work or should I wear my eaten britches and a t-shirt?
You know the answer to that Dave.
We have to ask Sean Duffy
the secretary of transportation who is now apparently in charge of the the dress code for flying and maybe for Thanksgiving dinner as well.
Time for our homeroom segment as we do every Wednesday at this time and let's bring in our guest state senator Jeff Smith and state representative Christian Phelps both from the Eau Claire area.
Gentlemen, good morning.
Let's jump right into it because last week we had on former state representative Sonny Pope and Julie Underwood, former dean of the UW Madison School of Education.
They were members of a blue ribbon commission
in 2017, 2018 about fixing our convoluted school funding system.
At the time, everybody said, finally, we are taking this issue seriously.
They put out their recommendations and a big fat nothing burger has resulted from it.
Jeff, you've got a little bit more experience with hearing about this blue ribbon commission and how the legislature works.
What happened?
Pat,
That was another false flag.
Let's make it look like we really care about public education.
We're going to do something about it.
I think to put it in perspective, once they.
started, they realized, oh, geez, they're actually going to come up with some ideas that we don't want to do.
So we better cover this up as fast as we can as soon as it's done.
But it looked good at the beginning.
It reminds me of 22 years ago when I was appointed to the task force on education by Governor Doyle when I was
involved with our schools pretty deeply in the state.
And we came up with some of the similar ideas at the time.
That's how long this has been going on.
Much further actually goes way back 30 some years.
But it's so obvious that the Republican Party's goal is to diminish public education and continue to raise private funded buildings and education for those who can afford it.
And Christian Phelps, I mean, you've got experience with the Wisconsin Public Education Network in terms of education advocacy.
How much more can you add to what Senator Smith said other than ditto?
Yeah, exactly.
I can add that now I'm on the legislative committee.
I'm on the assembly education committee.
And so in addition to the guests you had last week, one of the members actually co-chairs of the Blue Ribbon Commission
on school funding is the current chair of the Assembly Education Committee, Rep Kitchens.
And it's been so interesting to me how infrequently the majority party mentions that commission, even after they spend all that time hearing from people around the state and developing a document with really concrete, common sense, good ideas about how to fix what we kind of all agree is a broken school funding formula.
If I had chaired that commission I'd be really proud of its work and I would want to talk about it and we almost never hear about it from the majority.
There are good ideas on the table that they helped develop because they heard from constituents that many years ago but instead we've just seen
what is basically a school closure agenda from them instead.
Yeah, and we'll get to that in just a second, but Christian and we're talking to Representative Christian Phelps and State Senator Jeff Smith.
But Christian, for people that missed it last week, let's kind of review what were some of those potential solutions, some of those potential reforms, starting with this, of everything they did.
Can you pluck out one thing?
It may not be the best, most effective one of all the recommendations, but can you start with one that
just seems like it should be able to come up for a bipartisan vote.
If you were doing the low hanging fruit from this blue ribbon commission, where would you start?
I've never met anybody that disagrees with me that kids with disabilities need more support and special ed.
And one of the things that commission recommended was instead of funding special ed through a fixed pot of money that doesn't change whether inflation goes up, costs go up, needs go up.
they should fund it at a promised reimbursement rate.
Republicans have never since then passed a budget that actually did that.
We're seeing that now that they haven't taken that recommendation up.
A lot of the districts that have gone to referendum in recent years are asking taxpayers to fill gaps in their budget that basically match the amount of money they aren't getting from the state for special ed.
So
seems like a no brain or keep property taxes down, support the kids who need the most support.
I've never met anybody that disagrees with that as a premise and the commission recommended it, but Republicans have not put it into law.
No, and again, the difference between some certain and some sufficient is that, you know, you can promise, what was it?
What was promised in the budget, Jeff, like 42% and the actual number for reimbursement to special education is seriously lower than that because they're not allocating the dollars for it.
So either pick up on that or another recommendation that you just feel is common sense that you and your Republican colleague should be able to come together on.
Well, you know, they do care about their voucher schools because they did set that at a 90% 90% Pat.
So that because they were they were tired of being accused of not taking special ed students, you know, and sending them back to public schools.
And so they thought, well, we'll give them all the money so that they can do that.
We don't have to hear that anymore.
But you're right, Pat, this we were all
I've taken it back in the past week to find out that there was a misguided assumption that inflation would only go up 4% or costs were only going to go up 4% on special ed.
And so that number was set in the budget.
that was going to bring us up to that 42% margin or 45% in the next couple of years.
But as it turns out, it went up 9% more than double the increase in costs.
And so it's just kept us down at that low 30% level.
And it's really, it's embarrassing.
I'm sorry that I have to explain that to people when that budget that we already passed is not going to live up to expectations.
And I guess we all should be kind of used to that with Republican budgets now.
I guess so.
We're talking to Senator Jeff Smith and State Representative Christian Phelps about school funding coming off that blue ribbon commission that's there.
So, I mean, Jeff, the obvious.
political question when you say well what can we do about this I will again give the answer that that I give so often and I'm never going to get tired of giving it is say yes to the referendums say no to the people who put us in a position to need all these referendums maybe you want to phrase it differently as far as how we fix things in the long run.
is a lack of courage by legislators.
They've been in this mode for 40 some years about, oh, we can't raise people's taxes.
So we got to pass it on to the local boards.
And then we got to point fingers and blame people and say, look at those terrible boards.
So then they limit the boards.
It just goes round and round and round and it's just.
it's what are we electing people for, right?
So you're exactly right, Pat.
Put the right people in the right place.
The Republicans have held a majority in, they've held the majority in the assembly, 30 out of those 32 years.
They've held a Senate majority for 26 of those 32 years.
And yet somehow they keep getting reelected.
And yet when I go to the doors in small districts,
One of the first things people say to me before I even talk to them is make you got to save our schools.
It is the backbone of their community is something they don't want to lose.
They do not want consolidation.
They like the rivalry with their neighboring district.
You know, that's that's that's the joy of.
of being autonomous and having something to brag about.
So it's just exactly what you say.
We're very close, Pat.
We're very close.
I don't know.
Well, I'm at home using my private computer, so I can say anything I want.
We're only.
two flips away from getting the majority right now.
We think we're going to get that, but we've got to hang on to our seats.
And that is exactly why the Republicans actually have placed an incumbent, Jesse James, running against me and my district so that they can try to flip this seat so that they don't lose the majority.
And we're going to do everything in our power to make sure that this time we get it done.
And the assembly, I think if we get
If everything falls right, I think the assembly can also.
be flipped.
By the way, our friend Chris Handbook Boyle, if you head over to the show Facebook page, so on Facebook, look up Mornings with Pat Crichtlow.
She has put in the comment section, a link to the Blue Ribbon Commission Report if you'd like to learn more.
And then finally, Christian, in terms of what can we do from here?
Obviously, there's the electoral path next year, but there's also the thing we've talked about before, and that is greater transparency of current costs, transparency of voucher costs,
and it started in Green Bay, but it sounds like the dominoes are gonna start falling soon in terms of people at the local level working with their school boards and city councils to put the amount of money that goes to voucher schools directly on the property tax bill and not hide it behind public school numbers.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
I think people are starting to connect the dots, and part of it is that we are so close to having that majority.
We have these close margins in the Senate and the Assembly, and people in urban, suburban, and rural communities are more represented by folks in our party that are telling them the truth about how these things work.
And sometimes people will say, well, why would we focus on funding that instead of lowering my
taxes and my costs.
And it gives us an opportunity to explain actually funding public schools at the state level is exactly what will keep your property taxes down and lower your cost of living.
And the interesting thing is that the majority party has never really had to defend why they want to waste people's public dollars on private schools instead.
It's
always folded into like a state budget debate, by and large, and it never is a standalone policy.
So in the minute or so that I've got left, Christian, and again, we've discussed this, but once again, Cassandra asking on YouTube, how do we request that for our community?
In other words, how do you get the ball rolling for voucher school cost transparency on your local property tax bills?
Who should they reach out to first?
They can reach out to any of their local officials.
Any municipality can do that and put into property tax bills and insert explaining how many of the public dollars are going to private schools.
Also though,
We have bills in the legislature that Democrats have introduced, and we introduced one of them as an amendment last week on the floor.
I
believe some of that Jeff Smith's
name on them, right?
Absolutely.
And every Republican in the Assembly voted against that tax transparency.
They
don't want to
have to defend this to their constituents.
That's right.
Yeah, Jeff, you've been about this for a long, long time.
Our hair was so much darker back in
We are thrilled to have him there as well.
Representative Christian Phelps and State Senator Jeff Smith.
Guys, thank you very much for spending some extra time with us.
Happy Thanksgiving to you.
us.
Thank you very much.
We'll talk to you again real soon.
All right.
Still ahead, Earl Ingram is going to talk about the what's going on podcast that you can hear on Civic Media, that and so much more.
I'm Pat Critello.
You're up north.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Just about 753 on this Thanksgiving Eve Wednesday morning pack right over here in Chippewa Falls.
Parker Olson producing things down in Madison A2 and what a blustery morning we've got right now.
Let's start in La Crosse where it's 28 degrees.
The wind is out of the Northwest sustained at 25 with gusts to 40.
It's not that much different here in the Chippewa Valley, 27 degrees.
The Northwest wind at 22, gusting to 37.
Amery, you're at 25.
Oshkosh, you're at 34 degrees right now.
And again, blowing snow throughout the course of the day.
Much worse up north, parts of Ashland and Iron Counties under a blizzard warning until six o'clock tomorrow morning.
So again all the all the things when it comes to winter driving safety do not leave that garage So you make sure you've got all of your winter supplies in there.
It is time for those already Normally Jimmy Cuskas in here.
He's got the day off.
So we hope he has a good Thanksgiving So let's just go over a few sports headlines here.
We've got the Milwaukee Bucks
Parker, prepare the Vuvuzelias.
Here we go.
The Milwaukee Bucks take their five game losing streak into Miami tonight, but this is where it's all gonna get snapped and get back in their winning ways because tonight's game in Miami is part of the NBA Cup!
I'm feeling better about it.
People are almost starting to buy this, right?
Yeah, the horse help.
Yeah, they do.
They do.
Whatever it takes, really.
So it's a cup game tonight.
I don't know who was playing the game last night.
You know, NBC now has the NBA on Tuesday nights.
And I don't know what game they're putting on, but it's another one of those godawful courts with the, you know,
like a.
A box of crayons got dropped onto the court and melted and pressed into place, and it's just a train wreck.
That sounds more artistic than what it is, Pat.
True.
So tune in tonight to see what the floor looks like in Miami for tonight's game as part of the NBA Cup and the Bucks.
hoping to break a five game losing streak.
And we'll see if Giannis Antocupo is back in after missing the past three games here.
Of course, we've got the Packers playing in Detroit tomorrow for the Thanksgiving Thanksgiving game.
Coverage begins at 10 a.m.
on some civic media stations.
There's Badger Men's Basketball tomorrow, pregame at 2.30 on some civic media stations.
You've got the Badgers playing at Minnesota against the Gophers on Saturday.
12.30 is when the pregame gets started on there.
Let's see, the Badger Women's Volleyball team, they are playing tonight at Northwestern, and that's kind of a rundown on all of your sports.
It's Thanksgiving weekend, so are we gonna have a special Thanksgiving weekend edition of Make the Call, or are you guys taking a break this weekend?
Jimmy
A Jimmy
yes.
Okay.
Well, then it's a good thing we're letting him sleep in this morning.
quite
That's okay.
It's, uh, it's on par with, with Chad Holmes with his big high school sports show.
Sometimes it's, it's one guy is, is the whole extravaganza.
Yeah.
You just never know.
So tune in for that on Saturday.
Also, we have our question of the week in our Sunday morning newsletter conveniently named Sunday mornings with Pat Crichtlow.
And this week we ask about AI, which is just has exploded on the scene in 2025 and whether you're feeling optimistic or pessimistic about it overall.
Like you feel, you know, it's it's gonna do a good job of processing information faster coming up with ideas, you know, I don't know curing cancer You know, there will be job losses, but there will also be jobs created because of the things that it's able to do Or are you more of a glass hemp half empty person when it comes to AI that we're gonna see more job losses than expected and that
AI can process things faster, but that doesn't mean it's going to be correct.
Are we going to have a problem with misinformation?
And is that misinformation going to lead to some?
poor outcomes.
What are your feelings on all that?
A lot of folks get that in our Sunday morning newsletter, then they right away hit reply and send in some great responses.
We continue collecting those, and then we put them in the following Sunday's edition.
So if you'd like to be part of that whole cycle, then you can sign up for Sunday mornings with Pat Crichtlow.
The best way to do that.
Would be to head over to our special website just for for all the morning stuff up north news wi.com slash mornings Where at that site you can sign up for a newsletter.
You can subscribe to the show as a podcast You can get a link to our YouTube channel and you can read all of the latest stories that I've put on the website over at up north news wi.com slash mornings Not the least of which is a new series that I've started just getting ready for 2026
And the first edition of that is a simple one.
Who represents me in Madison?
How to find your state legislators.
And so you go to up north news wi.com or up north news wi.com slash mornings.
And you'll see the answers there on a couple of databases, where all you have to do is put in your street address.
You don't have put in any other identifying information, your name or birth date or any of that stuff.
Just put put that in right there.
and you'll be able to see who is your state senator, who is your state assembly rep.
One of those sites will give you the whole smear.
You know, who's on your school board, who's on your town board representing you, who's on the city council, who's the appeals court judge in your area.
So to learn more head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com slash mornings.
Cassandra writes on YouTube.
We're already starting to see mistakes in medical interpretations for AI, like in radiology.
I worry about harassment with deep fakes or whatever they're called.
Yeah, deep fakes is it.
And that's a very sincere concern, especially photos and video.
And it's just easier than ever to make them look so frighteningly realistic.
And what is that going to do?
to our ability to trust, you know, news sources going forward.
It just puts, it puts so much pressure on journalists to get it right.
Because if you put up something that you think is real and it turns out to be AI, how is your viewer, your reader, your listener going to trust you?
And so people like to rush to be first.
Boy, don't rush to be first when you see something and you can't verify the source of it, or you just blow up your credibility in the process way to sink your newsroom.
Don't let that happen to you.
Earl Ingram is standing by.
Then Tom Nelson to talk about shipbuilding.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
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