Sunlight as a Disinfectant (Hour 2)

Transcript

Sunlight as a Disinfectant (Hour 2)

Mornings with Pat Kreitlow · Wed Dec 3, 2025

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.

Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.

Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Gritlow, powered by Up North News.

Now, from our Lake Wissota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Gritlow.

Pat Kreitlow

Hey, good morning.

706.

Nice to have you back here up north on a Wednesday morning.

It's December 3rd.

Parker Olson producing things down in Madison Studio A2 coming up Elie Bordeaux.

Also our homeroom segment on taxpayer transparency so that property taxpayers know the actual cost of the voucher school program that is growing like a cancer on the Wisconsin state budget.

We also have Dr. Kelly Snooks coming up at 8.30 to talk about the misinformation being spread about children and Tylenol.

Our question of the day is asking what is your musical guilty pleasure?

And Walter tells us that growing up in the mid 80s and still Bobby Vinton.

That is a classic answer to a musical guilty pleasure.

We were talking about that in light of the Neil Diamond tribute band movie based out of Milwaukee song sung blue that's going to premiere on Christmas Day.

And actor Hugh Jackman is in it along with Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman was in Milwaukee yesterday and last night for the premiere.

So we'd love to know your own musical guilty pleasure as well.

Before we get to Ellie, it's time to tell you about our grown up

gift list text to win contest.

Right on cue.

This is a multi-station multi-state text to win giveaway where there's a daily prize of $200 and three grand prize winners who will choose from a brand new snowblower, a portable air conditioner or a stainless steel cookware set.

And just remember that to do this, you need the Civic Media app.

And you use the text feature to text us the key word that I'm about to give you until eight o'clock.

And then there'll be another chance to win in the nine o'clock hour and then 11, one, three, five and seven.

And each entry has you in the running so you can enter several times a day and be in the running for the daily $200 prize and the grand prize drawings as well.

This hour's word is bell, B-E-L-L.

And you have until eight o'clock, eight o'clock this morning to text us bell, B-E-L-L.

for your chance to win in our grown-up gift list contest.

All right, time to catch up now with the Oracle of Economy Walk.

Ellie Bordeaux, newsletter editor for Up North News.

Sign up for that newsletter over at Up North News, wi.com.

Ellie, good morning.

How are you?

I'm great.

How are you guys?

Uh, we're great.

Thank you.

Do you have a good Thanksgiving weekend?

I did.

It was lovely.

It was very busy.

I feel like I never was able to just like sit down and relax, but we had a great time.

We went over to my grandma's had all my family over.

It was super nice.

Watched the Packer game.

Um, it was very fun.

We had a good time.

Pat Kreitlow

Okay.

Uh, did you do cooking or was just all just being social and eating?

I actually was the bartender.

I was in charge.

You were the

Pat Kreitlow

bartender.

Yes.

I bartended for a very long time.

I started bartending when I was 18 at my local dive bar and then continued while I was in college.

And then I, yeah, my grandma was like, can you make everyone old fashions?

I was like, yeah, for sure.

So I was in charge of the bar.

Pat Kreitlow

I had no idea about all this.

I

had no

Pat Kreitlow

idea that you were

a bartender.

Yes.

Yeah.

Pat Kreitlow

All right.

So.

Tell me about your old fashion making.

Which is very

important to Pat.

You

have

to make sure that you nail this.

Well, do you want me to go through my whole step by step?

Pat Kreitlow

Absolutely.

Yes, I mean, because why can't you talk about booze at 7 10 on a Wednesday morning?

This is, you

know, these are

Pat Kreitlow

life skills clearly in a conwalk.

So what

do you

Pat Kreitlow

tell us?

Walk us through it.

So you start with orange slice, half.

a half an orange slice and then well it kind of depends on whatever one likes I like or what the size of it but I do half an orange slice two maraschino cherries seven dashes of bitters if you're doing sweet you add a sugar cube if not you don't do any of that and you don't even muddle all that but you muddle all that and then ice brandy and then seven up if you're doing

Some people prefer a press.

Some people don't prefer it as sweet.

If they don't prefer it as sweet, you do club soda, a press, you do half club soda, half seven up.

If you just want full sweet, you do seven up.

That's my process.

Pat Kreitlow

She's totally not faking us on this.

She's done this.

I have done.

I was waiting for a

Pat Kreitlow

moment for imposter syndrome

to

Pat Kreitlow

kick in and for to go, okay, I just throw some premixed stuff in here.

No, no.

You got

the real deal.

No, I don't mess around with it.

Yeah, I make a mean old fashioned.

I like to say so.

That is

Pat Kreitlow

okay.

Well, needless to say, the next up north new staff retreat is we've got, you know, somebody filling that role.

So that's great.

Yes.

All right.

Well, let's get to your day job then.

And that

Kathryn Lake

of course

Pat Kreitlow

would be working on the newsletter for us over at Up North News.

And I've

I've bragged about this before, but now I love that you want to brag on it as well.

And that is the photos that all of our readers are sending in to share at the top of each day's edition.

Something we did, you know, five, six years ago, when we first started the newsletter, we kind of fell out of that habit.

You've brought it back.

And these are just spectacular images, Ellie.

They really are.

Yeah, it's so great.

So it actually kind of it's a little bit funny.

It started with Halloween because I was asking people to send in their Halloween decorations or their costumes.

And then it just kind of never stopped.

People just kept sending in their fall views, now their winter views, all the snow, all those things.

And so it's so great.

I get so many photos from our readers.

every day, every morning.

And it's so hard to choose which one I'm going to feature.

And I mean, it's so great because I will never run out of them because I already have so many in the bank, but it's so great.

And some of our readers take such incredible photos.

It's so cool to feature and it's so great to feature their work and that kind of thing.

So it's really great.

Pat Kreitlow

It's funny that you say not about not running out because I still get a regular notice from Dropbox, a cloud storage thing that says your Dropbox is full.

It's out of storage space.

And I know that part of it is that it is so full of reader photos.

And one of these days, we got to talk to the bosses about doing some kind of a calendar book.

or something because we I think we're at 365 photos easily at this point and we could do a photo book just from

listeners

Pat Kreitlow

sending in and readers sending in things because they're amazing

absolutely yeah it's the same with this it's I feel like I get like at least 20 photos a morning which I also

for my own sake, love to go through them.

I think they're so great and so cool.

So it's super fun.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah, it has been.

So we're talking to Ellie Bordeaux newsletter editor at UpNorth News.

You can sign up at upnorthnewswi.com.

Yesterday was Giving Tuesday.

And so there were all kinds of things that happened here at Civic Media and of course through UpNorth News.

So I'm sure you've got a lot of satisfying feedback on that as well.

Yes, absolutely.

So we did a story about Giving Tuesday and ways to give back in Wisconsin.

So Giving Tuesday launched in 2012, and it's a global movement to encourage generosity the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

So we did a story on different ways that you can give back in Wisconsin.

And these aren't obviously just exclusive to Giving Tuesday.

They were just running Giving Tuesday campaigns.

You can give to these campaigns at any time.

And we encourage that, of course.

But some of the places we had was Renew Wisconsin.

with the donation goal of $15,000, the hunger task force, which is especially important right now as food pantries face a lot of...

a lot of need right now.

And so they had all of their donations will be matched up to $100,000 to feed and end hunger in the community.

The Wisconsin Humane Society, Freighter in the Medical College of Wisconsin was having a campaign, Gathering Waters, Mom's Mental Health Institute, and Special Olympics Wisconsin.

We have so many campaigns that are giving Tuesday.

And it's super great to see people give back and give to these places.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah, it's just becoming more popular and more organizations than ever, including here on this fine program, where yesterday we kicked off 12 days of community kindness on Giving Tuesday, and we will have our next group to spotlight for you exactly 30 minutes from now at 7.45.

We'll tell you more about how you can help out another group that's making a difference in our hometowns.

But back to the newsletter, we also have our series, Civic Check-In.

And our latest addition that you've put together for us is really about what's at the heart.

What's the DNA of Up North News?

And that is increasing your civic engagement.

Right, exactly.

And I wanted to go through different ways that people don't necessarily always realize the ways that they can get involved in their community and the impact that it has on a broader scale.

And so I wanted to put together some ways that people can get involved at the local level that they may not necessarily know.

the impacts of.

So we talked about attending public meetings, city councils, village boards, county boards, school boards, all of those hold regular meetings where you can learn about what's going on in the community, what's going to be at stake, those kinds of things.

get different perspectives from the leaders or the people in the community that you know.

And then we also have connecting with your municipal clerk.

Clerks are a really great way to get involved and understand what's happening at a local level.

Participating in local elections, which obviously we know is really important, but especially in local elections, that sets things up for you.

directly your community.

So and serving on committees or commissions and engaging with neighborhood associations or community groups are all really great ways to get involved in your community and see.

What's happening around you?

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah, there is no shortage of ways that you can get more involved in your community at a civic level.

We will mention in passing here another section of the newsletter, the Badger State Buzz, mostly because that's a lot of events going on that Sharita Booker tells us about on Thursday mornings at 6.

20, about the goings on throughout the coming weekend.

But along with Sharita telling us about it on the radio on Thursdays, you've also got it as a regular feature of the newsletter.

Yes, exactly, and we started this section because we wanted to have something I got feedback from from some of our readers was we they wanted to know what

events were happening in the state.

And so I wanted to do a roundup of different things you can do throughout the week.

And I've gotten great responses from it.

Someone reached out to me and said, I'm brand new to Wisconsin, so this is super great to get me involved in my community or know what's going on around the state.

So we just list out a bunch of different events that are happening throughout the state, throughout the weekend, throughout the week, different ways you can volunteer, different ways you can give back just.

Fun events, Christmas markets, Christmas is coming up.

There's no shortage of Christmas markets, that's for sure.

And all

Pat Kreitlow

the parades, we listed all the holiday parades that are coming up around Wisconsin,

including

Pat Kreitlow

Chippewa Falls this coming Saturday evening.

So just so much that you can see there in that section of the newsletter, the Badger State Buzz.

And finally, looking ahead, you're putting together another special edition of the newsletter.

Yes, so this will come out on December 6th, and it is our giving guide.

So we...

In lieu of Giving Tuesday, we wanted to do an edition that talks about giving back in Wisconsin.

And so we have four different sections.

We're going to talk about different organizations you can give back to in Wisconsin.

And we're also featuring some of our readers, some of the ways our readers give back in their communities, whether that's donating to food pantries, volunteering, those kinds of things.

And then we have a section about Wisconsin conservation and different conservation efforts going on in the state.

And then we also have just as a little

round up some winter wellness tips, just a reminder of

How to stay safe this winter, different tactics to make sure you're staying safe and staying safe in the cold.

Pat Kreitlow

Exactly.

Yes.

So look for that special edition coming up.

And of course, for all of the weekday newsletters and the Sunday morning newsletter with an emphasis on Wisconsin politics, you just have to head over to upnorthnewswi.com.

Click subscribe in the banner up at the top of the homepage and get on board.

Everything that we put forward, much of it from Ellie Bordeaux.

Ellie, thank you so much.

Great to see you.

We'll talk to you a little later on.

Yeah, sounds good.

Thank you.

Pat Kreitlow

All right.

Thank you very much.

And let's check a little sports here at 719 because if you missed it from Mike Lemons a little bit earlier, little concern with the Bucks now that Yanis has scrubbed his social media accounts of most mentions of the Bucks organization.

We're hoping that does not, that's only out of frustration or motivation and not a preview of coming attractions.

And again, the Packers Bears, that game has been flexed this Sunday to 325 and the next Packers Bears game on Saturday, December 20th has now been flexed to 720 p.m.

Live from the lake, I'm Pat Crightlow from Open North News.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network, our homeroom section on transparency for property taxpayers is coming up.

Kathryn Lake

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.

Pat Kreitlow

Got a few other sports notes to tell you about as we sneak up on 723 here on a Wednesday morning, December 3rd, starting tonight with Badger Men's Basketball Big 10 Play.

Getting going, we're at that part of the season already.

Badger's taking on Northwestern, hosting Northwestern at the Cole Center, and coverage begins tonight at 730 on some of the stations of the Civic Media Radio Network.

Then on Friday, there's Badger Men's Hockey at Notre Dame.

Coverage will begin at 530.

on our stations in Wisconsin Rapids and in Ironwood, Michigan.

And again, from a radio standpoint, you can catch the Packers Bears game this Sunday.

Coverage begins at one o'clock for a 325 kickoff this Sunday.

So again, if you were looking at a schedule and thinking Packers Bears was at noon on Sunday, no, no, no, no.

It's been flexed.

That's a fancy way of the NFL saying we can do whatever we want and you're going to have to live with it.

So the Packers Bears game has been moved to 325 this Sunday and then as I said before to clarify the Packers Bears play again in less than two weeks after that game.

They play on Saturday, December 20th in Chicago, and that December 20th game has now been flexed as well.

It is now a prime time game.

Kickoff at 7.20 for the Packers Bears on December 20th.

But back to the Sunday's game, coverage begins at one o'clock on several Civic Media stations.

Head over to civicmedia.us to learn more.

Here is a story about the power of patience.

Parker Olson, our producer in Madison is not a homeowner yet.

So I feel like I can pass along these, these friendly tips because in this day and age, when young people can't afford their first home until well, you'll be 50 by about the time that happens.

So maybe these lessons will be completely lost on you, but we'll, we will see.

I've been very, we've been very lucky.

Our house has had the same furnace and the same central air conditioner for 30 years that we've been here.

And so that makes the home 31 years old.

And

They've had their hiccups from time to time.

Sure.

But when they do, you know, we have called the same company, you know, off and on over 30 years to come out and do things.

Sometimes it's been a mouse has chewed the wires as

Kathryn Lake

well as the

Pat Kreitlow

case with the air conditioning unit outside.

Other times like a relay died or a, you know, a blower motor needed to be replaced, little things like that.

Not all the time, but just often enough.

And we'd always called the same company.

So we have an issue now with the furnace, it's getting a little old and and occasionally it just doesn't light, you know, it's and it's not spreading gas or anything.

I don't want to alarm anybody.

But you hear the blower motor come on, but the gas units never actually fire up, you know, something about the ignition of it.

I don't know exactly what it is.

So we go to call at that same company that we've used for 30 years and they say, I'm sorry, we're not taking on any new customers right now.

They're like,

What do you mean?

We've been using you for 30 years.

Well, but you haven't for a few years now.

And so, you know, we're not we're not taking out any new customers.

I'm like, I'm not

a new customer.

Well, you would be because we haven't used you for a certain number of years and we can only do so much business.

Your service is a very infrequently needed thing.

Pat Kreitlow

Right.

So we're being penalized for them actually doing their job and keeping our furnace running.

And I'm like, you know, we're actually looking at replacing this thing now after 30 years.

You'd be in line to get a big chunk of business to replace the furnace and maybe replace the air conditioner.

Sorry, there's really nothing we can do.

Did you tell them that you're a radio host?

Pat Kreitlow

No, no, no, I don't.

I don't.

I don't.

Big time.

I'm like that.

Um, and I don't think it would have gotten anywhere anyway, but I was just, I was, I was really taken aback by that.

Yeah.

But that's only the first half of the story.

Of course.

Second half of the story is I did ask friends for recommendations and I got a lot of really good recommendations.

I'm really appreciative for that.

And so I did call one of them and the repair tech showed up yesterday.

Now.

You can imagine what happened next because we've all been in that position with a car or something like that.

You take it to the mechanic.

It's making this weird noise and then it doesn't.

Well, yeah.

Pat Kreitlow

And so sure enough, he gets there and now for hours, I've had a hoodie on and we're in shoes in the house because it's getting cold in the house.

Yeah.

He's there.

He looks at it.

It fires right up.

Of course it does.

And what I had seen from the previous company that no longer wanted us is that the tech would be like, well, nothing to see here.

Call us when it's doing it again and hopefully it'll be doing it when we get here.

Okay, thanks.

Not this guy.

This guy just

sat

Pat Kreitlow

there.

He just sat there and waited.

I mean, he tinkered around with a few other things.

He kind of poked around.

And I was getting a little concerned.

But and it took took a good hour or so and then he came upstairs with a part Well, actually I he went to his truck and he came back on the eventually came upstairs with a part and he said I had to wait a while But eventually after it's starting to stop and starts it did refuse to fire up.

I have found the issue It was this part.

It's replaced the parts replaced now You don't have to replace your furnace right away in the middle of winter when the prices are sky-high.

Yeah

you know, um, instead we'll wait till spring and probably replace it and the central air conditioning unit.

And you know, who's going to get our business probably that company with the guy that wanted the business and the guy that was willing to be patient and wait to see the, he didn't like not believe us.

He's like, okay, if this is happening, let's wait and actually see it happening.

So I am.

I am over the moon about that.

No, I have not seen the invoice yet.

So let's keep in mind the story may not have a totally happy ending, but I'm always willing to pay for good service and for quality.

And in this case, for patience.

And so I'm very thankful for that.

So y'all keep that in mind.

I think on the text line as well.

Michael in Pleasant Prairie.

Here's a book recommendation for Parker and others.

Homebuying for dummies.

It prevented me from making many expensive mistakes.

Mike in Pleasant Prairie.

I appreciate that very much.

And you know what, the dummies books, properly named as I've learned myself on many occasions, but they're good books.

Are they?

Are they actually that

helpful?

Pat Kreitlow

Yes, they really are.

I can't say that about all of them, but they definitely have been.

So a home ownership, there ain't no money pit like a home money pit.

That's for sure.

Coming up next, we have our homeroom segment and also we'll continue our 12 days of community kindness.

First, the Midwest Farm Report.

I'm Pat Critello.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

7.35 now welcome back on a Wednesday morning December 3rd and it's time for another reminder of the keyword send us this hour at least I think so let me wait for that that audio cue to remind me that I got to give that keyword oh there it is okay

Just like we did in rehearsal.

Bell, B-E-L-L.

You've got until eight o'clock to use your Civic Media app and text us the word Bell, B-E-L-L to be in the running for a daily prize and for the grand prizes as well.

If you missed it at the top of the hour.

There are chances throughout the day to win different keywords each time and you have until the end of that particular hour to text it in on the civic media app every entry so you can enter multiple times a day every entry puts you in the running for that $200 daily prize as well as those great grand prizes as well.

Get your details at civicmedia.us.

I should also mention as well that the first time you enter you're going to get an automatic message giving you a chance for more entries via

a link to do something specific.

It might be follow our newsletter.

Maybe it's, you know, share your name in hometown, something like that.

Each action is done only the one time, but it gets you another entry.

And again, full rules at civicmedia.us.

Coming up in just a bit, we're going to have our second installment of our 12 Days of Community Kindness.

And we'll be talking to Donna Ambrose of The Neighbor's Place in the Wausau area coming up.

But first, it's time for our homeroom segment with our friend Chris Hamburg Boyle from the Wisconsin Public Education

network, which you can learn more about at WisconsinNetwork.org.

We don't make you put Wisconsin Public Education Network, just WisconsinNetwork.org.

We'll get you there.

Chris Hamburg Boyle and I talk a lot about helping shine a light on the true cost to taxpayers of the voucher school program that

Many taxpayers don't know they're now paying for two school systems in Wisconsin and again the usual caveat This is not to say there shouldn't be private schools.

It is to say that public dollars should go to our public schools and The voucher program should not be siphoning money right off the top before our public schools get any help whatsoever and yet that

Chris Hamburgboil is exactly what's happening.

And in Green Bay, they started to do something about it.

And you and others have started a movement that is spreading to other cities.

Chris, good morning.

How's that feel?

Oh, we got you.

Have I got you muted here?

Let's get you unmuted so we can hear from you.

Are you there now?

Gosh, you were there.

And now I'm not hearing you all of a sudden.

Let me let me do that.

and see if you've got your microphone back yet.

I'll tell you what I'll let you I'll let you exit the the studio and then come back in.

I'm not sure if it's like our my furnace technician would have said is turn it off and turn it on again.

So we'll have her exit out and then click the link and come back in.

Now thankfully Donna Ambrose is standing by so we can get right into other things here talking about the neighbor's place and the 12 days of community kindness.

We'll talk about that for a few minutes here.

And then we'll join Chris Handbook Boyle again.

Donna good morning.

How are you?

Good morning.

I'm wonderful.

How are you today, Pat?

Pat Kreitlow

It's great.

Thank you.

Thank you for your flexibility and for being here with us so we can talk a bit more about different organizations all around the state that are helping out.

And that includes the neighbor's place talking about ways to provide some food and basic necessities and others.

Tell us more about the neighbor's place.

Sure.

So we are primarily known as a food pantry.

So we address food insecurity in a couple of different ways.

We have

food pantry called The Market, and we also operate a diaper bank called The Baby's Place.

And it's an organization that has been in the Greater Wausau area for many years.

And we serve primarily the Greater Wausau area, all of Marathon County and beyond.

So we have a pretty big reach up in North Central Wisconsin.

And, you know, we just really enjoy what we do in giving, you know, folks in our community the opportunity to give back.

Pat Kreitlow

Well, and you know, it says right in the mission that it's about providing food, basic necessities, education, connecting clients with services and treating people with dignity and respect.

And so the connecting clients with services I know is also important because there's folks who think, well, you know, this is just some kind of a charity, you know, flop house or whatever.

And as I've learned from working with Hope Village in Chippewa Falls,

It really is making that connection with resources

that makes a

Pat Kreitlow

difference to your clients.

Tell us how you go about doing that.

Sure.

So we have a program that we're really proud of called More Than Food.

And the way that works is we have two community coaches on our staff that meet our guests where they're at.

So we know obviously if you're visiting us for

basic needs like our groceries in the market, you probably have other needs that we can assist you with as well.

So it's really our way of addressing food insecurity upstream.

So what our coaches do is they are very well versed in all of the other resources in our community and they help our guests with setting goals, achieving goals.

giving them those warm referrals to agencies that can assist them.

So it might be a financial goal.

It might be a health and wellness goal.

And really just, you know, instead of like it traditionally in a year's pass, it was easy for nonprofits and groups to give somebody a brochure, for example, and go, well, we can't help you with that, but here's who can.

But what we do instead is we really prepare our guests for those visits, follow up with them, making sure that they're getting the answers they need, and really making those strong connections.

Pat Kreitlow

We're talking to Donna Ambrose from The Neighbor's Place.

You can learn more at neighborsplace.org in the Wausau area.

Have you seen the need for your services increase over the past year?

Absolutely.

You know, prior to the federal government shutdown, our numbers were already rising because of the basic, you know, the rising cost of living.

And then with the snap crisis, which thankfully was averted for a moment, but with that came a lot of fear and anxiety and our numbers rose.

And we were prepared for it.

We tried to do our best to be proactive.

And the good side, the good news, I would say, might sound a little odd, but the good news is we're really happy that folks have found us.

People that probably should have used our resources previously and not.

had to undo, you know, go through all that stress.

We're here, we're available, we're a community resource.

If you need a little extra help, absolutely come by and see us.

And so when we have new guests, you know, we're really, we're really excited to welcome them into our family and let them know that we're here for them.

Pat Kreitlow

Can you tell us how you help prioritize healthier food options over maybe some of the traditional staples that you see

on pantry shelves?

Absolutely.

So at the neighbor's place, we adopt a framework called SWAP.

which stands for supporting wellness at pantries.

And everything in our pantry is color-coded, green, yellow, or red.

So green meeting chews often, which are the healthier options like produce, for example, healthy proteins, things of that nature.

Yellow chews in moderation and red rarely because everyone deserves treats and everything is good in moderation.

So we really want to give our families the opportunity to have access to those healthier options, which for many are just unaffordable at the grocery store.

And that's where we run into challenges with people buying cheaper, highly processed food, which leads to all types of health disparities.

And we want folks to have access to healthier food so they can live healthier lives.

Pat Kreitlow

Donna Ambrose is here from the neighbor's place and quickly here to wrap things up.

Can people get involved beyond donations?

Oh, absolutely.

On our website, neighborsplace.org, we're always looking for volunteers.

We have a wonderful group of volunteers, so we'd love for you to join us.

We're always looking for folks to meet with our guest shop in the market with them.

Our baby's place always looks for help for diapers.

We have wrapping parties.

We have a lot of fun activities, but there's lots of ways people can get involved, whether it's individually.

or if a group, you know, maybe it's a church group, an employee group, families.

So yeah, absolutely.

Check on our website.

Pat Kreitlow

And there's a very prominent donate button right in the top right corner.

If you go to neighborsplace.org to help mount that way as well.

Donna Ambrose, Executive Director.

Thank you very much for being part of our 12 Days of Community Kindness.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday

season.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

Pat Kreitlow

All right.

Thank you, Donna Ambrose.

Let's see if Chris Hamburg-Boyle is back with us now.

Chris, can you hear us?

Oh my gosh, we still can't hear you.

What I always hear you.

I heard you during the commercial break and now I'm not hearing you for some reason.

Oh my goodness.

All right.

Well, Chris, I'll have you take a look at those settings that little cog wheel down below and then the audio tab and make sure that your microphone is selected.

And if not, give us a call on the line 855-75 Civic 855-752-4842 and we'll get you on the phone if need be because that's that's what we do here is do the backup system.

It's nice to be able to see the guests when they join us through a video link.

But at heart, we are a radio show.

And so if need be, we do the telephone as necessary.

I'll give you just a preview of hopefully what Chris will be able to join us and talk about.

you've heard us mention in this segment about the push for taxpayer transparency and making sure that the real cost of the voucher school program is reflected on on property tax bills because right now it looks like you see a line for your public school district and you see that number and you think all of that money is going to the public school district and it's not.

Some of it is being skimmed off the top first and going to the voucher school program.

Well, in Green Bay, they have taken the initiative to make sure that you break out what the voucher school cost is.

And so that's going to be happening in Green Bay.

But you see the state legislature, which has been run by Republicans here for, you know, 15 years now, has rejected over and over again ways to break out that cost.

on your local property tax bill.

So the locals have to do it.

It has to happen at the local level where it's the school board and it's the local city council that have to work together or the other taxing entity that have to bring it together here for us.

Chris, you want to give that another go?

Are we hearing you that way?

Hear me now.

Pat Kreitlow

I hear you now.

Just great.

Yes.

Thank you.

Yeah, no worries,

you

Pat Kreitlow

know, technology ain't nothing like it.

So

what's

Pat Kreitlow

happened?

So Green Bay went first.

What's what's happening in Ashland?

There's some momentum there.

Well, there's been momentum across the state and we're really excited and thanks to you too for keeping this out there for us to talk about because that helps greatly for us as well.

I'm working right now with five districts that have called in that have really, you know, gone through the referendum saga, you know,

Kathryn Lake

one after

the other and

they have just decided to find their voice and things happening in Green Bay was kind of the impetus for them to say hey we could do that too.

So there's some really nice connection now between public school districts and city council but most of all it's the community people that were plugged into these little groups that have to get together outside of the districts because they can't

you know promote their their referendums in a way that tells people how to vote it's those of us in the community that band together to try to tell this story and so that's what's happening these community groups are really becoming

prolific.

Pat Kreitlow

Well, they're helping people connect the dots.

Why are all these referendums here?

And it's not because the public school board suddenly got greedy.

It's because they're seeing money literally being sucked away because of the way the taxpayers are now paying for two separate school systems.

So Ashland is getting a step closer.

How close are they in the process?

Well, their superintendent Rob Prater went to the city council

you know, last week or whatever really.

Well, it was, it might have been a little bit, maybe two weeks ago.

And then I got contacted by the newspaper up there, which also owns the newspaper in Eau Claire, you know, they've got quite a conglomerate of papers.

And so that story got out quite prolifically across the state.

And

They just went to talk about the fact that they promised in this last referendum, which was a do or die referendum for them,

Kathryn Lake

that

they were going to be extremely transparent with their community.

So they knew exactly where this money went to.

And part of it was this story about the over $800,000 that is going from their budget for the privatization piece in our state.

Pat Kreitlow

And that's the part that's most important, that most people didn't know.

$800,000 isn't going to the Ashland Public Schools.

It's going into this voucher program instead.

And thanks to you and others, this movement is gaining speed in Superior, Washburn, Eau Claire, Racine, South Milwaukee, and others.

And we're going to keep updating it in this particular segment every single week.

Chris Handbuck Boyle, thank you very much.

We'll connect again real soon.

Thanks, Pat.

Kathryn Lake

Be clear.

Pat Kreitlow

You betcha.

Coming up in our eight o'clock hour, pediatrician Dr. Kelly Snooks talking about kids and Tylenol beyond the misinformation.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

You're up north.

Kathryn Lake

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.

Pat Kreitlow

All right, you got yourself less than seven minutes to text the word Bell, B-E-L-L, using the Civic Media app as part of our grown-up gift list text-to-win contest.

From our last segment, one more time, our guests there.

There was neighborsplace.org again neighborsplace.org which helps out folks in the Wausau area and Chris Hambock Boyle joined us from the Wisconsin Public Education Network Wisconsin Network.org Civic Media Sports Director Jimmy Koska joins us now and we're gonna start by see look at he's tweeting out already he's got his phone right there in front of him.

Dan Shafer

Oh no I'm getting my keyword in because I have a big list of things on my wishlist which includes some shooting help for Yanis and Tatecunbo.

Pat Kreitlow

Oh please.

Let's start.

Start with some wild and reckless speculation about a guy who has scrubbed nearly all of the mentions of the Milwaukee Bucks off of his social media site.

Just there for motivation or start waving some red flags.

Dan Shafer

Yeah, I think the fact that they're not even in the playoff picture right now is a big red flag.

They're losing to Washington, a team that had two wins going in.

The way they did it, coming back to win that game.

I even, I'm not a hot take machine.

I think you guys know this.

Parker, I think definitely knows this.

I'm not a hot take machine most of the time.

This is where, it's probably about as spicy as I get with a take, but I really feel like at this point, the writing's kind of on the wall with the bucks.

They've done everything they can.

No mistake of the bucks.

They've done everything they can.

to try to jam this championship window open to keep Giannis placated.

They signed two of his brothers.

I mean, two of his

Kathryn Lake

brothers

Dan Shafer

are under contract with the box.

They've done everything they possibly can do.

But I think we've got to start accepting the fact that we got the championship.

That's what we're going to get.

And unfortunately for Giannis, because of his contract, because of the way the NBA works, he's perpetually locked into the cycle of whatever team he's at next, there is going to be another team.

There's another team he's going to be to next.

I don't know if it's going to be this year or next year or what, but whatever team he goes to next is going to be the same exact predicament.

How do you build in the NBA around the massive contracts that superstars command?

Get to a point where you're competitive to win the title.

The nice thing is, is that having a superstar like Yadis automatically makes you a contender.

Yadis is easily superstar, top three in the NBA, right?

He makes you a championship contender, but the bucks don't have enough.

They don't have it.

The guys they brought in.

are just not going to get them to that point.

And unfortunately, it's been a string of bad luck and just bad circumstances.

A lack of playoff performance, the Damian Lillian injury, the Chris Middleton injury.

By the way, those three played together all of what?

About 13 seconds in the time that they were together as boxers.

So these are all things that I think you just look at the box in Yannison.

You honestly just feel bad for the guy.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah, I mean, the baseball analogy would be Mike Trout, who is just one of the best players, but it was playing on an Anaheim Angels team that was just, you know, in the dumpster.

And he's just one of many examples who said, you know, I've been a good foot soldier as long as I can be, but it's time to go play for a contender.

Dan Shafer

Yeah, and that's the thing.

The Bucks got their title.

Bucks fans, you know, it's been several years, right?

It's been a long time since that title.

There's just not a path to it now thought with the ease for all the injuries that maybe that window is open a little bit But the bucks just don't have it without Yana's the bucks are really really bad

Pat Kreitlow

They just are yeah Jimmy Cuzco's with us now and the the bucks next game is Get a scroll here tonight that home against the Detroit Pistons, but again not 9 and 13 is not

Not what any of us would have thought for the Bucks.

Yeah,

Dan Shafer

Detroit is why they've won something like 100 or their last 101.

They're number one in the East.

Yeah, this is about the worst possible time You're coming off the loss to Washington who's at the bottom of the standings now you get the team at the top of the standings not a good timing

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah, again, the the lowly Washington wizards if we had relegation in the NBA They they would be not kind of they'd be D3 right now if we had something like that Meanwhile, you've got the badger men who are taking on Northwestern tonight coverage begins at 730 on several civic media stations and so it it caught

Parker and me off guard that were already in the big 10 part of the season But you reminded us over the commercial break that the big 10 now is it's not 10 teams anymore.

I believe it's 114 and so you got to start that conference part of the schedule earlier

Dan Shafer

Yeah, it's quite a few teams and they they started doing this to try to capitalize on some of the

the TV games you get in December, because December features a lot of mismatches, you know, a lot of buy games, things like that.

And obviously at the holiday schedule, there just aren't as many games period in the month of December.

So this is a way for the big tent to capitalize on some of that in a way.

The bachelors do have an interesting week coming up though.

I mean, because after this big Saturday game against Marquette, that

game

Pat Kreitlow

is

Dan Shafer

always fun.

I personally, that one I circle over here because it doesn't matter what the records are, that's always, that's a banger.

So.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah.

Yep.

And also coming up on Friday, the Badger men's hockey team will be at Notre Dame.

Coverage begins Friday at 530 on stations in Wisconsin Rapids and Ironwood, Michigan.

You've got the Badger women's volleyball team in the NCAA tournament.

They host the first and second rounds first round against Eastern Illinois tomorrow.

So we'll see if the and they come in as a three seed into the tournament there.

And then finally, the Packers and I always feel like I got

to repeat myself a few times here because we're talking about both Packers Bears games have been flexed as they like to say.

So the one this Sunday has been moved from noon to 325.

Coverage is gonna begin at one o'clock on several civic media stations.

But then we play them again less than two weeks later on Saturday, December 20th in Chicago.

And that is now a prime time game.

So a little Saturday night football in Chicago for what could be, you know, again.

The NFC race is amazingly tight.

Did I read right that the Bears are the number one seed right now, but if they lose to the Packers this weekend, they drop to a seven seed?

Dan Shafer

Yeah, right now, every team one through seven, what nine wins is what gets you in there.

So yeah, the Packers control their own destiny.

The second Bears game, by the way, was either going to be a 330 or 720 game.

So not technically a flex, just kind of a TBA, just like the final two Packers games, which we won't find out the times for until the TV network say we all deserve to know what that is.

Pat Kreitlow

So is it just the times or is it the day as well?

It might be a Saturday or Sunday.

It

Dan Shafer

was always going to be the Saturday.

Pat Kreitlow

OK,

Dan Shafer

OK.

But the next two after.

that our Saturday, Sunday TVAs.

Pat Kreitlow

Unbelievable.

All right.

Jimmy Koska, thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Have a great day.

All right.

When we come back, we will be talking about Dr. Kelly Snooks about kids and measles or the flu and Tylenol and more.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Kathryn Lake

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