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 Critello, powered by Up North News.
Now, from our Lake Wissota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Critello.
Good morning, 8.06.
Nice to have you back.
It's Friday morning, December 5th, 2025.
Parker Olson producing things in Madison Studio A2.
Mike Clemens is going to join us with sports at the bottom of the hour.
Dr. Kristen Lyrely is going to join us first.
She's on the road attending meetings, meeting people, getting things done, and still finds a little time for us here today.
Dr. Lyrely, how are you?
Good morning.
Happy Friday.
Happy Friday.
Hey, we're putting the word out for Rob from Tigerton because we don't see a weather report from him yet.
And I know he mentioned injuring his knee the other day.
So
Rob, if you're listening, we hope you're feeling better soon and give us an update on things.
Although again, don't try to be a copycat for Kristen.
Don't go seeking out a knee replacement.
That's it's not it's not for everybody.
You know,
it is not for everybody.
It is not for the yeah, for the faint of heart.
Let's look at the the mailbag here.
Alicia writes in we were talking about peanut butter balls in the last segment because Sherry makes a ton of them, you know, dips them in chocolate, freezes them.
Alicia says yeah, peanut butter balls would not make it beyond my house if I made them.
That's part of the reason we make so many.
It's the only way.
that we have enough to give out here.
Let's
see.
Pat, we make peanut butter balls too and I have to hide them in strategic places because the kids have gotten really smart about finding them and they never make it till Christmas and my kids are big now and they're big and smart so putting them in, I've gotten, I've resorted to putting them in like.
bags of because you want to keep them frozen because they're nice and cold.
Right.
So I'll buy like a giant bag of frozen peas and I'll embed them within the frozen peas.
It's gotten very strategic.
Wow.
I didn't know that that was that kind of a thing to happen.
Wow.
That's great.
You know what I what I did just as an experiment last weekend when she was making them was we still haven't put away a few things from summer, including first, there's the s'more basket.
And
I love chocolate dipped graham crackers.
And so I did a couple of those since she had some chocolate left over after doing all the peanut butter balls and then some of the marshmallows as well.
So basically I made chocolate dipped s'mores.
You know, I mean, in separate pieces.
But I thought now that after I had a good first run, I realized the next time I'm going to, because we saw some marshmallows left, I'm going to dip those in chocolate and then we'll roll them in some graham cracker crumbs.
And then you
truly have a s'more right there.
Oh, I think you should call it.
quite low.
You need to name it after yourself.
You
need to name it?
Okay.
Yes.
I'll work on that.
They say branding is also important.
Yeah.
So, so the s'more basket, we hadn't emptied that yet and I just realized during the the news break here as I I've walked past it, you know, a thousand times.
Another relic of summer is the boat bag.
The boat bag is still here for the pontoon.
uh-huh right next to you very handy very handy because you never
know when is the last boat ride and so
we've
got it's always got sunglasses the boat key it's got my jimmy buffet margaritaville with the little patch on it that says take life with a grain of salt and a slice of lime and a shot of tequila
that's a lot on a hat
Uh, yep, there's a,
there's a lot of, uh, canned cozies in here, including for crow's nest or one of our local bars up here in gym falls, not one, but two bottles of sunscreen,
which again, I
don't think I'm going to need those today.
So.
and more stuff.
So I guess I have to give it up.
Summer's done, right?
Yeah, I'm in Minneapolis and I'm looking out the window and summer is done.
Yeah, it's the light snow started here in the last half hour and we're going to get snow chances every other day for the next few days here.
And
it's cold.
And
it's
blowing.
I have to let it go.
I was asking earlier about wood paneled station wagons because Sean Duffy made a comment that said he hopes they make a comeback.
Roger writes in on Facebook, I had a 92 old station wagon with the fake wood paneling.
I survived that car for five years.
So
Yeah.
I remember
those.
Uh huh.
Yep.
Uh, Alicia, by the way, adds a good morning with a lot of emphasis and says that she is super chipper today.
So that's, that is
great.
Let's coffee for Alicia.
That's right.
Yeah, exactly.
Let's see, and oh, she also puts in now, okay, I know where to find the peanut butter balls at Dr. Lyrely's house.
Oh, you just try.
You just try.
I have, I pod them out, because I put them in different places, because if they find one, the whole treasure can't be in one spot.
It's become kind of like a scavenger.
Can't you just tell
them no?
I mean, you're the parent, right?
I
can.
I can tell them no.
Tell them Santa's
watching.
Yeah, I can tell them that too.
Yeah, okay.
That's that's a whole other story for another day Pat Are
you familiar with today's big controversy about the Brewer's uniform change?
I'm not are they see-through like last time?
No, no, they're
not they're
not
Yeah, that was a whole thing.
No, and I know this is not on my list of things that Mike Clemens sent in to talk about sports at 835, but I'm going to make him talk about it.
The the the uproar over the new uniforms introduced yesterday instead of the road grays, gray top, gray pants, the new tops are powder blue.
They're, they're bringing back powder blue tops for the road uniforms.
Great.
Just tops.
Just tops.
And I don't mean they're going without pants.
I mean, they're, they're keeping the gray pants and the internet has lost its dang mind over.
Oh, by the way, and that includes one Parker Olson.
He is really
worked up
about powder blue tops with gray pants and how goofy it looks.
Oh, it's so dumb.
It sounds terrible.
I'm gonna.
Yeah, you do.
You'll take a look.
So, all right.
So, Kristen does not join the outrage yet, but once she sees it, she might be doing that.
Now, you are in the cities here on business for ACOG, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and there's always so many issues to talk about because there's always, there's no end to the extremist politicians who want to
do as much as they can to take away women's health care rights.
And one of the more ludicrous events comes out of Texas, which, again, is using intimidation, fear mongering.
I mean, the word bounty is coming up.
Tell folks what the new Texas law is and what its status is.
So starting yesterday in Texas,
a new law has been enacted that allows anyone to sue, anyone who manufactures, sends supplies, just anybody who gives abortion medication to somebody in Texas, anybody can sue the person who has given them that medication.
Essentially what this is intended to do is stop people from ordering medication abortion from other states, which is...
how nearly two-thirds of abortions are delivered across the country these days just because of all of the abortion bans.
So other states, like Maryland, like Minnesota, where I am right now, these states have enacted shield laws to protect patients and doctors who provide and seek abortion care.
The Texas law is intended to break through those shield laws so that they can sue doctors in other states.
Like we've seen in Louisiana and Texas, there's a doctor in New York who provides medication abortion.
We've seen that doctor attacked by those two states.
So this is not a criminal penalty.
It's a civil penalty, which means there's a financial incentive or a bounty.
So Texas, thank you.
But this is not going to stop abortion providers.
Abortion providers are people who are providing this essential life-saving medication that we know is good.
We've had it for 12 or 25 years.
It's been FDA approved.
Abortion providers are steeled in their determination to make sure that our patients can get health care.
So we're determined.
People can still get the care that they need.
Texas, not so
good.
I totally get that.
But the problem is that there's still that intimidation.
There's
still
going to be the first wave of suits that are filed.
And it's all about costing people money.
That's why Trump does all of the things that he does is he knows he's not going to be successful.
But, you know, if he can make people afraid or make people rack up huge legal bills, that might deter some people.
And so, I mean, the best thing would be for courts to act quickly to slap down these kinds of things.
But until they do, that's why we put information out like this, is to let people know what is the state of the law and to let you know that people are fighting it, but it may take some time.
Yes, and I think to your point, Pat,
It's the chilling effect.
We saw this in Wisconsin as well after the Dobbs decision after Roe v. Wade.
Here in Wisconsin, people didn't know if it was safe or legal to get abortion care and doctors didn't know whether they could offer it or where to send their patients.
It's been back and forth in Wisconsin.
You'll remember that for a long time we didn't offer abortion care.
Then the Supreme Court said that we could.
Then Planned Parenthood said they weren't going to.
People are very confused about what they can access.
And this is already challenging health care to provide and receive.
This just adds one more barrier, one more layer that makes it harder for people to get the care that they need.
Yeah.
And, you know, it's also not help.
helpful when there are still laws on the books from the 1800s and not just the Wisconsin law that we've been talking about, but the Comstock Act from 1873 that, you know, anti-choice extremists want to use when the best solution overall would be to get government out of this business altogether.
Please say that again.
The
best thing would be to get
government out of this business altogether of trying to dictate what a woman can do with her body.
Period.
And that is the only thing.
that is going to lead to the kind of responsible healthcare that will minimize abortions because people will have access to birth control.
They'll have better education.
They'll have greater self-esteem that comes with better health education.
And the busybodies can, you know, go fight some other battle if we could just get government out of the business of its war on women's bodily autonomy.
Yes, and it's not just about abortion.
We know that they have a plan to take birth control away.
The Heritage Foundation has published this roadmap to take birth control away from us.
They've already questioned IUDs.
Now they're talking about hormonal methods.
Those of us who have been watching in Wisconsin saw the Republicans in Wisconsin circulate a bill.
to force women to use catch kits if they use medication abortion and catch the contents of their uterus in a container that I like to call a drill bag or a jock in the box.
Because I think that these catch kits should be named after the people who wrote this ridiculous legislation.
And they say that it's about clean water, that they don't want this material in the water.
But the truth is, this material has nothing to do with the water.
If you are serious about clean water, clean up the PFAS.
Clean up the lead pipes.
Do something actually serious.
Don't criminalize women for having a body that functions.
Say that again.
Don't criminalize women for having a body that functions.
There we go.
Dr. Kristen Lierly is with us, and then a little bit later on, we'll talk to Mike Clemens.
We'll do a little bit of sports here, but let me give you a couple of headlines quick.
Before the break, simply to let you know that there is some sports on the radio here across the Civic Media Radio Network, and that would include tonight, the Badger Men's Hockey Team is at Notre Dame.
Covers will begin at 5.30 on our station in Wisconsin Rapids.
And then the Badger Men's basketball team taking on Marquette at the Cole Center.
Tomorrow, coverage begins at one o'clock on stations in Wisconsin Rapids, Richland Center, and Ironwood, Michigan.
And of course, you got the Packers versus the Bears coverage beginning at one o'clock on several stations across the Civic Media Radio Network.
Kristen, you gonna be at the game?
I'm gonna...
be around the game.
Yeah, she's
always
around the game.
She's always packer adjacent.
I pack quite
a lot.
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.
about your first car and whether you'd go back to it, if that was the only car to go back to, because Sean Duffy was waxing nostalgic about wood-paneled station wagons as justification for getting rid of fuel mileage standards, or at least weakening them substantially.
Let's see, I believe it was Alicia that said on YouTube, yes, my first car was a cheap Chevy Malibu that I was scammed into paying way too much for at a dealership just off base.
So, yeah, not everybody has a great experience.
Roger told us earlier about his 92-olds station wagon with the fake wood paneling and having to survive that car for four years, five years.
Did you have anything like that?
My first car was shared.
It was my mom's car and it was her pride and joy.
It was a 67 Pontiac Le Mans.
It was
blue.
I loved that car.
I waxed it.
And when I got the wax in the insignia, because remember the insignia used to stick out, I would pick it out with a toothpick.
I loved that car so much.
And then I wrecked it.
Oh, I
know.
Oh, what
happened?
I was 16 and I just had a stupid accident, like 16 year olds do.
And I still
40 years later, I'm mourning that car because I loved it so much.
Oh my
gosh, it sounds like it.
Did you have between, you know, friends and others, did anybody have like, you know, they had the legendary beater car?
I know in my particular circle of friends, that was my car because it was
that
73 Fury.
You know, others had nice little hand-me-down cars, but mine was definitely the beater of the group.
Did you have somebody whose car you still remember?
Yeah, my high school boyfriend had like an old oldsmobile, but it was just a joke
It ran.
It got you from point A to point B. When you live in a small town, you don't have to worry about big city driving or highways.
You just need something to get you from one place to another.
Oh, yeah.
Tony says my 94 Chevy Lumina went from my dad to my sister to me.
And I loved it.
So you do see that more that cars, again, because they're built better, Sean Duffy, will go to two and sometimes three generations.
Unless you take really good care of them, it can go even deeper.
Our oldest grandson, who's 19, he is currently driving a 1994 Buick, a white Buick.
Four door with I believe it's like red, red cloth seats or something like that.
Nice.
But he got him from from like his, his grandparents, like a great uncle, you know, they, they're retired now, but they almost
It was basically a case of they drove the car to church on Sundays,
you know, and
that's about it.
The car is, it's not brand new, but he's definitely have to learn to do things like change out, you know, different, different pumps and things.
So it's a good learning experience actually.
But again, free car that was, that was taken care of, you know, before it started aging.
Whereas nowadays, again, don't forgive the old man rant, but you don't get an education about your car nowadays because it's all computers and everything else.
You, you can't.
You can't tinker with it.
It's too much.
It's high-tech.
And that white Buick with the red interior, I bet the ladies love that.
It's like a rolling Valentine.
Maybe.
I can't say that I've asked them about that.
You should get some of those like Valentine stickers the ones that aren't permanent You know you put them on your windows the window clings and just like decorate them all over the outside of the car Mostly just on the back in the passenger side so that when he gets in he doesn't know so he's driving down the street with this like heart that would be
So fun.
You're like a diabolical.
Sanctizing somebody's car with decorations.
We have a running joke in my car where we've got that like the student driver, please be patient, sticker, that magnet, and it gets like secretly passed on to the different cars.
See, see, now that's nice and subversive.
I like that.
Like you never know when you're going to, oh.
Tony why Tony's doing my dirty on on YouTube.
Oh, didn't you say you were anxious to be a great grandfather?
No No, no Why would you go there petrified my goodness?
Chris in Eau Claire writes a Ford Country Squire station wagon Oh bought it for a hundred dollars lots of rust, but it started all winter a
hundred dollars.
That's an a
hundred dollar station wagon
Okay, Chris, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to know your age.
Because you didn't give the year of the car or your age, but I don't know the last time somebody paid a hundred bucks for a station wagon, you know?
It
runs,
it gets you from point A to point B.
Yep, yep, exactly.
Let's end on the serious note that we started with simply because there is a question in here and I know it comes up a lot.
So, Kristen, let's address this question on birth control and abortion.
And it's from Tom and Hartford, who says, what percentage of abortions are done for convenience?
That's the word you always hear instead of saving the life of the mother.
And he goes on to say he's very pro birth control.
But we hear this a lot that it's it's about convenience.
And I do hear that question too about percentage of abortions done for convenience instead of some other reason.
I'm sure you've heard that too.
Oh, sure.
I mean, how do you define convenience?
Convenience for what reason?
Hey,
It is such a personal decision and it is so embedded in the context of why you're making this decision and how it all fits into your life.
We're not talking about whether or not to get a colonoscopy here.
We're talking about, you know,
potentially bringing a child into the world that completely changes the trajectory of not only your life but the life of all the people in your family and your surroundings.
So I don't know that convenience, there's no data on convenience because
nobody surveys
anybody on that.
That's just not how it is.
And I think anybody of the one in four women in this country who have had an abortion, for whatever their reason is, they'll have a reason.
And it's a reason that makes perfect sense to them.
So we have to trust women and we have to recognize that abortion is healthcare.
And by the way, it's not just the motivation for the answer, but the motivation for asking the question.
Why are you asking and why is it your business?
And
how about we make sure everybody can get birth control and health care?
Yeah, let's
do that.
Let's focus on that.
All
of that as one big old package.
Have a great time in the Twin Cities.
We'll talk to you on Monday morning.
Sounds great.
Thank you, Pat.
All right.
Thank you, Kristen.
Talk to you later.
Mike Clemens coming up with sports next.
I'm Pat Kratlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Let's get you into the weekend now with some sports and bring in Mike Clemens to talk all about that and see, here's the thing with Mike.
He works really hard, okay, to find the best sports stories and they involve, you know, everything that the Packers are doing on the field and off the field, you know, what the Bucks are doing, the Badgers, you got to follow it all.
and you never know which one that you think is the big sports story and it turns out to be something completely different.
And so let's welcome in Mike, just to say Mike, I never dreamed for a moment that the big hot story in sports this morning would be that the Brewers announced new road uniforms, powder blue tops, but because the pants don't match, because it's gray pants,
The comment section is going crazy with this.
I guess that means you and I might not be shelling out 100 bucks for a new powder blue uniform top.
I don't know.
Man, listen, I'm not crazy about a lot of these uniforms.
I'm not crazy about the all white packer uniforms and white helmets, which by the way, what they do is that they have the form up to your head.
They pull that out and they give you a different helmet.
You know, before, you used to have, you know, red baddie had to pull the decals off physically.
Now they got three or four different owns.
I, you know, to me, the average fan, boy, they save up this money.
They're buying $200 or more per ticket.
I want to see the team that I've been raised on watching since I was a kid.
You know, if I go to Boston and I see the Red Sox at Fenway,
I want to see a Boston Red Sox jersey, not that banana peel that they wear
sometimes on Friday night.
You know
that
one?
It's just
crazy.
So I haven't know, I missed this, but I heard that you jumped on it and people are going crazy about this story.
They are, which, and again, it's understandable that people go, okay, the shirt, the top and the bottoms don't.
match.
I just did not expect as I was scrolling through social media today.
I mean, the number of people that took the time to comment on that has me thinking they might rethink things.
We might see powder blue pants yet before opening day.
These are the weighty questions that Mike Clements is going to be asked to talk about when spring training gets underway.
Well, you know, so I went to my email, I found it, but it's like when I see it from the marketing department, I'll catch up on that over the weekend.
I'm looking to see if Freddie Peralta's been traded yet.
A
kid kind of has my attention right now for the brewers file.
I had no idea.
I knew they were coming out.
I saw that as well.
But it wasn't until I looked at a post and I saw like, you know, it said like 1,500 comments or something.
I'm like, well, I got to take a look at this and sure enough, you
know, it's the funniest things though that, you know, that tick these people off, you know, but, you know, something, you know, after talking to some players this week, you know, that's that's the thing that we forget about players.
You know, these players that stand out there in front of microphones like Caleb Williams.
Yeah.
we're we're blocking out the noise we're not listening to the noise
they
absolutely are okay which is why you got like your star basketball player you know so suddenly scrubbing his account of anything mentioning the box or the city of milwaukee or something or or matthew golden you know that couple weeks ago he blew up his instagram account
And then everybody gets upset about that.
Oh, the number one picked a rookie.
Maybe he's not, you know, he doesn't, he's not getting enough passes.
He's already going A.J.
Brown on you.
It's like, I can't pay attention to this stuff.
And then, and then what happens?
Then ESPN, you wake up Wednesday morning and, you know, you honestly, they won a game, then they lost a horrible game to the Wizards.
The Washington Wizards team Monday night in Washington.
They only had two and 16 and you lost to these knuckles.
Chris Middleton over there laughing.
And also here's another report from ESPN.
Giannis Stettacupo and his agent have now approached the Milwaukee Wax franchise about possibly exploring a trade somewhere down there in the future for Giannis.
Is that the next thing for him?
Is that maybe the best thing for him?
But listen, there's too much smoke in that story, in that saga.
And
it
starts with...
I mean, I've been around Yanis.
I've told you this story.
If I could take you along to a game, usually they bring in Yanis or their star player of the night, like into the press conference room.
But like one night they'll come to you and say, hey, Mike, listen, there's just a couple guys here.
And, you know, the other guys want to get going.
Come on, follow me.
I'll take you to the locker room.
So then you're standing there before Yanis and to the cupo.
And this was like last spring.
And there goes.
There goes Chris Milton with two bad ankles and he's putting on his coat and leaving already.
And there goes Damien Lillard waving goodbye after talking to us.
Giannis is there with both, with all these little kitchen timers and both feet and buckets of straight ice water for 20 minutes.
soak in these feet because that's what the trainers tell him to do.
He follows that to the tee.
That's how competitive this guy is.
And the timers are going off while you're talking to him.
You know, getting some radio clips.
And that's how dedicated it is.
But you know, he's
been
with these guys since he was 18.
He's almost like a TV child star.
And
in
some ways, you know, he pouts if he doesn't get his way.
And then you approach this latest wave of stories like, come on, man.
And now ESPN is naming the agent.
You know, this is very strong stuff.
And the coach goes, for the 50th time, the guy says he loves the Bucks, loves Milwaukee, okay?
And you know, these networks might have their sources.
I've got my source, all right?
It's the player.
It's the player.
He's never once ever said the word trade, at least to me, the head coach.
And so the saga continues.
And so it does and that, of course, will be discussed tonight as the Bucks host the 76ers at the Fiser Forum.
And then at the Cole Center tomorrow, we've got the Badger Men's basketball team.
They will be hosting Marquette after the Badgers beat Northwestern to open up the Big Ten season.
And so that, I mean, that always, no matter how the teams are doing, Mike, when the Badgers are playing Marquette, that always gets some good attention, a little cross-state rivalry.
Oh, and Marquette loves it if they can pull that upset.
Shaka Smart is a great coach.
Now, he lost a lot of his best players from last year, but he's got a couple guys that he can depend on, like Ben Gold and some others for top scores.
Up against Greg Gard, who's a really sharp coach, really experienced.
And with all the competition out there, he's still holding on to his program.
He's six and two.
Golden Eagles are five and four now after the win that they had the other night.
One o'clock.
at the Cole Center tomorrow and I believe it's going to be covered on your local Fox Sports Station.
Yep, and Civic Media stations in Wisconsin Rapids, Richland Center, and Ironwood, Michigan will have the game as well.
Then there's the Badger Men's Hockey team.
They are at Notre Dame tonight.
Coverage begins at 5.30 on our station in Wisconsin Rapids.
And one last badger note, the women are in the NCAA Volleyball Tournament.
They're hosting the first and second rounds, and in the first round they swept Eastern Illinois.
Advancing to the second round of the tournament for the 13th year in a row, the Badger women will face North Carolina
at 7 o'clock tonight at the Field House.
The winner moves on to Austin, Texas for the regional semi-finals.
So that
gets caught up on all the metrics.
Yeah, Coach Kelly Sheffield, he's so respected up there.
He's such a good guy to talk to, and that means just all about that volleyball program.
The players trust him.
They do some great recruiting.
It's one of the top programs.
in the country and so they're taking on yeah North Carolina Tar Heels I think that gets set for seven o'clock tonight if you've got ESPN plus you can stream that and you know they sell tickets to this thing UW field also be will be packed tonight hosting that NCAA regional tournament game
Yeah, and I know some people are extremely unhappy that the NCAA set up the deal where the first and second rounds are streaming only, you know, they're making the pitch that, hey, this, this is really catching on and there are viewers, there's ratings to be had.
So I won't be the least bit surprised if next year you see the tournament on, on, you know, regular TV from the first round onward.
But for, for the next round here for tonight, you're like, like Mike said, you're going to have to use the, the ESPN streaming service to get that.
Let's go ahead and look at that Packers Bears game, a 325 kickoff at Lambeau Field.
The coverage begins at one o'clock on Civic Media Stations in Richland Center, Park Falls Racine and Watoma.
Bears are in first place in the NFC North, but Mike, the NFC is really tight.
If I read it correctly, the Bears are the number one seed in the NFC right now, but by losing that game, they could tumble as far as a seven seed because things
are
so tight.
right now
that's true that's true and you know as they're going into this five-game winning streak but last friday night they went into philadelphia and they beat the eagles twenty four fifteen they ran the ball but they rushed for two hundred eighty one yards between daunry swift former eagle and then this kid kyle monogat who's uh... out of Rutgers he was like the leading rusher last year in the in the big ten uh... and he's got
nicked up a little bit, but he was able to practice yesterday.
281 yards rushing, kept the ball out of Jalen Hurts hands.
That defense of the Bears.
I was asking Christian Watson.
I said, what's the difference between this Bears team and the one that you guys faced like 10 months ago?
He said, defense.
He said, they're just better at assignments.
They're not making mistakes.
It's hard to catch them in a coverage mistake.
And I'm like, oh, you know why?
Because it's Dennis Allen.
That's the defensive coordinator that Ben Johnson hired Dennis is the guy that was Sean Payton's right-hand man when they were when the Saints were great and then Peyton got out of New Orleans, you know Drew Brees retired Dennis Allen was handed the keys, but he didn't have a quarterback So he struggled and maybe he's not a head coach material, but he's a darn good Detailed oriented defensive coordinator and now he's the Bears have 17 interceptions 17 they lead the league with 17 interceptions this season
kevin byer is their safety that was a good free agency pick up from ryan polls you know the floor even caught he never does it he complimented what the polls was done as a gm and and adding here and there you know some pieces to help improve their offensive line the back end of their of their secondary that guy's leading the league with six interceptions so those are the you know the the things that they're up against but right now packers are playing great on offense jordan love
four touchdowns passes against the lines named and it's the offensive player of the of the week also got the uh... walter payton award which is for his community service with his hand the love foundation got to talk to him about that you'll hear that in one of my updates here at the top of the hour for sports
Packers are in a good place.
They might, I think they might get Jayden Reed, the wide receiver
back.
You anticipated my next question, whether he was going to be back from both shoulder and foot surgeries and whether he's, I guess he's practicing in pads.
So in our last minute and a half here, do you think Jayden Reed comes back as early as this weekend?
They could be real careful and say one more or two padded practices next week against the Broncos, but
He looks pretty good right now.
He seems to be pretty confident.
So maybe he can get in that rotation for Sunday's game.
I don't think Dolman Cugold is going to play yet, because he's been very limited in his participation, still dealing with a wrist injury.
But Josh Jacobs got to talk to him for a long time.
And the big difference in this game is Micah Parsons.
He
is such an amazing athlete.
leader, competitor, thoughtful.
I'm already envisioning that name up in the ring, if these guys can win the Super Bowl in the Ring of Honor.
Micah Parsons is impressing me more each week.
Yeah, and boy, we would love for him to have a big game against the Bears now.
And again, less than two weeks later when they play on a Saturday night.
Mike Clemens, thank you so much for all of this.
We'll catch your updates at the top of the hour all across the Civic Media Radio Network.
Have a great weekend.
We'll talk to you again soon.
You too, Pat.
Thank you,
pal.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Again, Packers versus the Bears.
Coverage begins at one o'clock for a 325 kickoff on some of our Civic Media stations.
And yeah, as I was saying, again, 325 kickoff this Sunday.
And then less than two weeks later, they've got a Saturday game on December 20th, and that game will be in prime time with the 720 kickoff, I believe it is.
We will have some final news and notes from Lake Wissota.
Wrap up the week here.
Coming up next, I'm Pat Quitelow from UpNorth News.
Follow us at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
There it is, my walkoff music for Fridays.
giving me a chance to express my gratitude to all of this week's great guests.
So what, what a busy week we had.
I mean, just today, we had Kia Bequiel, of course, McCurrier Newsroom, Greg Bach joined us for history, Mark Jacob, Jennifer Scholesy, Jim Santel, Dr. Kristen Lierly, Mike Clemens there that you just heard, but I mean, we also had Brian Lemak from Defend the Vote, we had pediatrician Dr. Kelly Snookin, Greg Gilbert, long time writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, joining us to talk about 2026,
and how the environment is looking there.
We also heard from Dennis McBride, the mayor of Wauwatosa, who's got a new book out all about 2020.
His first year as mayor and everything that was going on.
Wauwatosa was truly a microcosm of the country and he's got a new book about it and we thank Dennis McBride.
for joining us along with his brother Pat McBride and a whole bunch of other folks who on Monday surprised Dr. Kristen Lierly with happy birthday greetings.
We also had of course Selena Heller from Up North News.
You can follow everything that she does by following us at upnorthnewswi.com or upnorthnewswi on all the socials.
We talked about wedding barns and what the legislature is and isn't doing about them with Jean Bond who is a wedding barn owner and also Sheila Everhart from the Wisconsin
Johnson Agricultural Tourism Association and of course our friend Hans Brighton Moser who is a dairy farmer from up in the Lincoln County area.
Dan Schaefer we talked to him from the Reconbobulation area all about former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes getting into the governor's race.
We also talked to political strategist Joseph Hecke about that and you know what is the shape of the race now that there are six
named Democrats running for governor, probably a seventh one about to get into the race as well.
Melissa Baldov had our climate check.
Sean O'Malley talked all about your money and the markets and the lack of trustworthy data from the U.S.
government now because of the way the Trump administration has handled data before, during and since the government shutdown.
And of course, all of our civic media friends like Chad Holmes, John and Gordy, Jane Mattenair, James Kelly, Jimmy Koska, and more.
Parker, I don't know how we kept track of it all.
I don't I don't know how we do it day
after day week after week.
I can't count the four right I don't know how I don't know how you did that
pass.
I you know you go back and look at all of this and and again it's nothing but straight up gratitude for folks who you know make the show what it is and and help it come together.
As I look ahead to you know the next week again we're
We're going to have just another good bunch of guests who are going to be on, including Richard Trent, who is the National Executive Director for Main Street Alliance.
We'll be joining us along with Ruth Conniff from the Wisconsin Examiner.
And that's all.
I just booked these people in YAP with them.
Parker over here is the one that's actually got to log it, tape it, get them set for the weekend best of shows.
Maybe one or two of these get submitted for a WBA award.
I
feel
like the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association should be on notice that Parker's about to flood the zone with entries from this little radio show.
I mean, I got plenty of work to do.
Frankly, Pat, I would appreciate it if you had a little worse of a show, so I didn't have so much
stuff to do.
I've tried to do my part, but, you know, mediocrity is just not in the blood here.
We have
to have excellence as much as possible.
I guess you can be really good.
Yeah.
This is where I'd normally tell you what's coming up next on Matt and Air on Air, but there is a big white
blank square on the, on the, on the calendar here because Jane, Jane, Matt and air is winding things down.
And so it's all about the surprises.
Exactly.
It's
a week full of surprises next week.
I think next week, Matt and air on air.
You have to listen.
You have no excuse not to listen.
usually don't have an excuse to
not change wrapping up a, you know, an 82 year career in broadcasting or however long it was.
She'll
love, she'll love hearing that because some days it does feel like it, but, uh, you know,
Jane, the woman, the myth, the legend is going to be wrapping things up.
So you're going to want to tune in from 9 to 11 all the way through.
So again, we'll have some great guests for you as well next week.
This weekend, the Christmas parties continue.
I mentioned that there was a clinic Christmas party for my wife's work yesterday.
There's a neighborhood one tonight that we've got to get planned for.
And then there's my old co-anchor Judy Clark has a retirement party this weekend.
This is definitely the season for season for
parties.
There's been a couple of places where we wanted to go to like grab a bite or something and forgot that that's the season and the place is like packed with all the various holiday parties that come together.
Yeah.
And I
don't
know about I don't know about you though because it's always been whitewater football.
What do what do what do you what do you do now?
So I wasn't rubbing it in.
I was I know you're not.
I'm just very
sad.
Honestly,
this is always the hardest time of year for me.
When the white water football goes away.
Not
necessarily that, but football in general just winds down now.
Yes, even though it's like getting really exciting because we're getting into conference championships and stuff.
But like,
yeah, it's
just, but you can also, you know, from a
college football standpoint in division one, I mean, what's that the playoffs,
you
know, are now what 12 teams, 12 teams, I think this year, you know, they're going to expand it to 16.
as soon as humanly possible, where once upon a time, it was just a national championship game.
And of course, I'm old enough to remember, well heck you are too, when there was no national championship game,
it was whatever the
AP writers said.
It was a poll that determined your national champion.
We've kind of evolved since then into all these games.
Are the games there to help determine a true national champion?
Nay-nay.
The
money.
The answer to all your questions is money.
So this is very true.
I sense you might speculate on this and other things on make the call tomorrow morning.
Yes, we will.
We'll be talking about plenty of stuff.
I imagine a little bit of Yanis talk will be in there.
Oh, gosh, for better or worse.
Yeah.
I mean, it's required at this point.
And I was glad to have Mike Clemens on just kind of essentially setting the record straight when you can go right to the horse's mouth or in this case, the superstar and his coach and, you know,
That's what they're gonna tell you, and if anything's gonna come, it's on a need-to-know basis.
And at the moment, we do not need to know.
At
least in their
estimation.
I would
like to know.
We would like to know, that's what we do here, is rampant speculation until we get confirmation.
So, Giannis, let's make it happen.
Let's just put your foot down and say this is it.
Parker,
have a great weekend.
Thank you so much for everything, and thanks to all of you for tuning in.
I am Pat Crite, low-founding editor of Up North News.
We are the Wisconsin Home for Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy news network building a more informed, engaged and representative America.
We'll see you Monday morning back here up north.
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.
