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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Crichtlow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Minnesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat
Crichtlow.
Thank you, Don.
Real good morning.
It is 7.06.
Ooh, what's that?
Oh, yeah.
Kristen Lyrely is here.
Selena Heller as well.
And a song I've been waiting to play for forever by a local band, the Jaggernauts.
The song's name was Crichtlow.
And I've never known why.
Yes.
It sounds so like 90s upper Midwestern rock.
It's so perfect.
It is.
Yeah.
It's really cool.
I just had, I remember seeing, now the Jaggernauts have been around since I think 2006.
And we, you know, we've, I knew of them.
But it wasn't until somebody brought it up to me, like, you know, what's the song called?
I'm like, I have no idea.
So I sent them an email through their band camp site some time ago, and I finally heard back.
Because we also need their permission to play it and so they write back saying hello Pat Sorry for the late response the Jagger knots would love to have the Crichtlow music be associated with your radio program The song is about being young and seeking answers in a confusing world The lyrics were influenced by the time our band founder Noel Hansen listened to your show the Crichtlow Catastrophe while growing up the Crichtlow Catastrophe was the name of my college radio show
Well, you
have no idea how you influence people until something like this happened decades later and you've suddenly realized, whoa.
I know an
impact.
Yeah.
So I love the riff at the start.
So we're definitely, you know, make a lot of use of that.
It's just the lyrics.
Again, I'm not quite sure the influence of the great low catastrophe.
But you know, the lyrics go line in bed, I try to sleep circling fingers cut me real deep paranoia blanket sphere that will walk down the hall, independent thoughts will shake the foundation and fall.
I've been scratching I've been buried away but not alone buried away but I'm not alone.
And it goes
Threshing in bed, stuck in a dream.
I hear your voice familiar, it seems.
Promises unmade by the actions of someone in love.
Creatures escort my flesh to the one-way road.
I will trod.
And I've been buried, but not alone.
And on and on it goes.
So we love the riff at the start.
I'm not sure the others is morning radio stuff,
but.
And I'm still not sure of the influence because the, the, the quite low catastrophe played a lot of, uh, soft rock music.
I had the adult contemporary shift on the college
radio
station,
a lot of
hollow notes in there.
And that's just it.
Maybe hollow notes will make some people.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think
you need to leave the lyrics alone and just focus on the tune because how often do you sing a song for a long time, years, maybe, and then you see the lyrics and you realize suddenly.
Oh, that's not what I thought it was.
Or those words are
what
I thought they were.
Leave the lyrics alone.
Just focus on the Creight Low
piece.
I love I love the like I said, love the guitar in there.
So you'll you'll hear that every so often.
Anyway, we'll get back to psychoanalyzing my impact on song
lyrics coming up in just a
bit.
But first, it's time for the grown up gift list text to win contest, a multi station multi state game from Civic Media, with a daily prize of $200 and three grand prize winners.
There's a brand new snow blower.
There's a portable air conditioner.
There's a stainless steel cookware set.
To learn more about the prizes, head to civicmedia.us.
You have until eight o'clock to send in this hour's keyword, and then you'll have other chances to win at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., and then 1, 3, 5, and 7 p.m.
And so this hour's keyword is wind.
WIND.
You have until eight o'clock to text that in using the Civic Media app.
Entrance will receive an automatic message after each entry, giving you a chance for more entries via a link to complete a specific activity, such as following a newsletter.
So again, full rules at the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
WIND is the word to send that in.
Packers were big winners over the Bears, a very exciting
I don't know, Celine, if you were watching that, we all talked about shouting at the TV already yesterday.
That's great.
All right.
And it ended with, you know, the Bears trying to score a touchdown to tie the game, and Caleb Williams gets picked off in the end zone by Keyshawn Nixon sealing
the
deal.
28-21, the Packers have won four in a row now, including three against Division Foes and are now atop the NFC Norris Division, as we like to call it.
They will next play Sunday at 325 in Denver.
And then six days later, they play the Bears again on Saturday, December 20th at Chicago.
That's a night game on Saturday, December 20th.
And of course, you can catch the game on Civic Media Stations across the network.
Head to the website to learn more.
Selena is going to tell us about a story that she's been working on for Up North News dealing with a program that helps local farmers supply food to local schools.
I mean, it is the very definition of a win-win program.
But, you know, those tax cuts for billionaires aren't going to pay for themselves.
And so good programs like that have to be shot down.
And Selena will tell us more about that.
But while we've got Dr. Lierly, I also want to get to
a particular vaccine panel through the U.S.
Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control all influenced by Robert Kennedy Jr.
noted quack.
This is about hepatitis B vaccine and Kristen you just set it up what what they did and you know what what this is what this is going to impact because it's it's not great.
It's not great at all I'll give a little bit of background so
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
has a board of folks who are experts, supposed to be experts, when it comes to vaccines.
They take into account all the latest data and information, and they make recommendations about which vaccines we should receive.
Well, he replaced most of those experts, maybe even all of those experts, with
political appointees.
And recently they've been making some really non-medically oriented decisions.
The latest is the hepatitis B vaccine.
They have decided not to give newborns hepatitis B vaccine.
Here's why this is important.
Hepatitis B
can be transmitted at the time of birth.
And we may not, somebody who has it may not even know that they have it.
We test for it, but they may not know that they have it.
So an infant, a newborn, can get hepatitis B at the time of birth.
And this is something that we can completely prevent this newborn from growing up with.
Hepatitis B can cause liver diseases in the future.
Lots of chronic health problems.
Unfortunately, because they made this decision, it is likely that the larger FDA will choose not to promote these in the future.
And that means that a lot of babies are not going to get vaccinated.
And that means that we're going to see more liver disease in the future, more entirely preventable.
liver disease, unfortunately.
Do we think it then, because if it's not on the recommendation list, will insurance companies stop covering it if parents say, hey, I want this anyway?
We hope so.
But the problem with vaccines is that how often do you think about the vaccines that you get?
We don't seek out vaccines.
This is the public health piece of this.
Vaccines are one of the greatest public health achievements in the last century.
Because these recommendations are made by experts.
You go see your doctor and you do the preventive care piece.
And that includes vaccines.
Your doctor advises you, this is what we recommend.
They give you the basic information.
You don't go to your doctor and say, I want to be vaccinated.
it against these things.
So because this has been, this will likely be removed, it will impact how many children will receive this vaccine.
And this is really, this is devastating, definitely for newborns, but certainly for all of our health moving forward.
I mean, this has been a vaccine that we have used for over three decades.
And we've seen a significant change in the amount of liver disease in
in adults now at this stage in the game.
So this is a huge step backwards in public health, but it's aligned with so many other steps backwards that we've taken or that we've seen under the Robert F. Kennedy Junior regime.
Can this blow be softened somewhat if groups like the Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and others, as well as individual doctors speak up and remind parents of the actual facts about vaccines?
Yeah,
that's a really important point.
And we are doing that.
AAP, the American Academy of Pediatrics, ACOG, my college, we are putting out our own recommendations.
And those are very important.
And those are the things that your doctors generally are offering.
But the advantage to having the national organization supporting this is it shows a unified front.
And it is so much easier to coordinate all of that information and make sure that we are all offering the same recommendations.
So yes, we will.
continue to do that but again as I said we are taking a huge step.
backwards in public health again here in the United States.
All right.
Dr. Kristen Lyle is here along with Selena Heller.
And after a few days absence, we get updates on YouTube once again in the comment section from Rob from Tigerton who says good morning.
It's cloudy and five degrees below zero says I've been busy plowing snow and I will be busy again this week.
There is a winter storm watch for Central and Northeastern Wisconsin Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday morning.
He then gives us the update last Wednesday.
I was in a car accident along 29 between Wittenberg and Shawna.
A semi truck side swiped me.
The driver who hit me, it was his first accident with more than a million miles of experience.
And since his accident, he's been laying low.
He says, Kristen saw my totaled car sitting on the shoulder of 29 as
she
was headed to Minnesota.
And so,
Rob, we're glad you're okay.
And we're very sorry to hear about.
the accident and reminder to everybody don't let anything from slippery roads to sun glare to anything else get in the way and keep it between the lines on there.
That's right.
Really scary experience.
Yeah.
So Robert, we're glad that that you're okay.
And you're back online checking in with us.
And everybody else can feel free to in Facebook or YouTube comment sections as well.
If you missed it a few minutes ago, wind WIND is the keyword in our grown up gift list, text the wind contest.
Selena, I think we've got time to get to one of the tapes that you want to play from people you talk to about the, you know, local programs being cut that help farms provide lunches to
us course.
Department of Agriculture program called local food for schools and They didn't because it was caught the program was cut so Caitlin Teranian from she is the child nutrition coordinator from the ashwabanan school district But she is also president of the Wisconsin school nutrition Association and she's a big big advocate for kind of sourcing local food first for all schools
and just this local farmers, pairing up local farmers in schools, you know, get food right down the road.
It seems pretty, what makes a lot of sense, right?
It's logical.
So this Caitlin.
It's been fantastic.
It's been very well received.
We are using something that's literally getting processed an hour down the street from us versus, you know, not knowing where in the country these items are coming from.
And it's very fresh.
It's just been a really wonderful product to work with.
Again, it's just the ultimate win-win kind of program.
for local school districts that want to feed their kids and for local farmers looking for a market.
If you want to follow Selena's full report, you can head over to UpNorth News and follow it through the website or through our social media sites as well.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok if you're not already.
Just search for UpNorth News WI to learn more.
We mentioned in sports, of course, the Packers were winners over the Bears and they will play in Denver next time around.
Let's see the Badger men's basketball team over the weekend trounced Marquette and will next play Wednesday night at Nebraska.
And you can hear that game Wednesday night starting at 730 on several civic media stations.
And then you've got the Badger women's volleyball team that swept in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament.
They advanced to the regional semifinals in Austin, Texas and will play a two seed Stanford on Friday afternoon.
So much more still ahead here on these mornings powered by up north news.
on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pat Crite.
Well, then you're up north.
Once again, a WIND, W-I-N-D, is the Grown-Up Gift List text-to-wind contest keyword for this hour.
You've got until eight o'clock to text in the word wind.
you can stay up to date on unabashedly wisconsin news from up north news by heading to up north news w i dot com click subscribe in the banner on top of the home page uh ellie bordo put together a special edition of the newsletter recently with a giving guide kind of in the spirit of giving tuesday all kinds of groups out there that are doing good works all around wisconsin and would benefit from your generosity and so to get that and much more be a subscriber over at up north news w i
Dr. Kristen Lyrely is here, along with Selina Heller, Up North News Reporter, and we were talking about Selina's story about the local food for schools program that the Trump administration has cut in order to pay for tax cuts for very rich people.
And obviously, we heard from a school district standpoint how beneficial it was.
Folks who were supplying some of the food, some of these Wisconsin farmers,
We've heard from them and first off, they're very perplexed.
Like what did they do to get, you know, this program cut?
What did they do to get these tariffs slapped on their products?
What did they do to see their health insurance costs go up?
But Selena, in terms of this particular program, I mean, local farmers are feeling an impact.
They sure are so after I talked with Caitlin and they asked Robin on school district and about the program I talked with the one of the farmers who provides the school that school district in particular some of their Food for their school lunch program and they have Heather tolman from full circle community farm in Seymour, which is on the western part of this or the eastern part of the state They have supplied organic produce and grass-fed grass-fed meats to schools in West
Wisconsin as part of the local food for schools program.
And Heather talks about, you know, this was kind of put in place during the pandemic because of the breakdown of the unknowns of what was going to happen with kind of moving food around.
And so it was important to them and it's important now.
So here's Heather from Full Circle Community Farm.
It was encouraging to see the investment of the
of the government in supporting local food to schools and to the community and building, you know, there were, you know, local infrastructure grants, just it looked like there was actually starting to be money going into building the local food system, which brings that resiliency, you know, as far as
viability of the local economy and then also just having food available if something breaks down in the system of like moving food from California or Mexico or whatever, then that is, you know, a potential risk to people being able to have food in general.
So if there are more
local food systems that can operate independently from the national system that just is going to provide more security for people.
Again, that was Heather Toman from Full Circle Farm.
It just means
less sales and that we're gonna have to scramble to find other avenues to sell to keep the farm going.
Which we do anyway, but yeah, just having a stable place to be able to sell our product through is really...
very helpful to the farms, you know, long-term viability, ability to keep, keep running as a business.
And that's the thing, you know, Selina, you're not just hurting like a farm family.
You're hurting a small business.
You're hurting multiple small businesses around the state when you take away another one of the markets for their products.
And then all of the, I mean, local farms are the kind of just,
help the whole community, the whole community's economy.
I go out to all these farms every day, not every day, no, all the time.
And that's what they talk about, just keeping the stability of the community because they're such an integral part of it.
And I
think in our minds, we think, well, the farms make the food, and then it just goes to the people.
There's a huge network in between the farms.
and the people and taking away this grant has destabilized this network.
It's left the farms with too much stuff and the people with not enough stuff.
Right.
And things, again, these things just pile up, you know, whether it's soybeans or any other commodities.
I mean, it's been a long time since we've seen things like, you know, milk dumps, but
you can't rule out anything given the instability of this administration and really a devil may carry attitude toward farmers in Wisconsin and all around the state.
So Selena Heller will continue following that story for us.
Again, you can follow her stories over at Up North News on social media and on our website, UpNorthNewsWI.com.
Now, while you're there, you can also subscribe to our weekend newsletter.
And in there, we have a question of the week.
And my question from
yesterday is all about alcohol rules on wedding barns.
Now you know we've had guests in here previously talking about the wedding barn venues which again are small rural businesses dotted across Wisconsin and whether the the change in alcohol rules around the state has
become too strict for small businesses like that?
Or are they supposed to play by the same rules as bars and banquet halls?
Are they are they competitors or not?
So we're going to get into that in our next segment coming up here.
So the phone lines will be open at 85575 Civic 8557524842.
And if you want to be among the first to see our question of the week, get our newsletter Sunday mornings with pack right low by heading over to the website and subscribing.
in the top banner.
Just hit subscribe up there on top.
Selina Heller.
Thank you so much.
Have a good start to your week.
You too.
All right.
Appreciate it.
And Dr. Lyrely is going to stick around.
We'll talk about our question of the week and what she's been covering on the Dr. Kristen Lyrely show that you can catch weekends here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pat Krightlow from Up North News.
We'll be back again.
Our keyword for this hour is wind.
W-I-N-D.
Text that in to win.
It's time to start watching these things.
The only thing I've
seen on, yeah, the only thing I've seen on TV so far is Elf.
I mean, I know all the movies have been on.
I just haven't sat and watched them yet.
Yeah.
And Christmas vacation, of course, has to be up there.
I watched Charlie Brown last night.
Did you?
Oh, yeah.
Kind
of.
I was doing yoga.
It was on TV.
And then there was, I still got to get them up at Christmas Carol, which is my favorite of the season.
Of course it
is.
And then, of course, you know, White Christmas, all the old movies and things too.
It's a
wonderful life.
Yep, perfect time of year for watching all these good shows.
There's never a bad time to listen to the Dr. Kristen Lyrely show.
You can catch it Saturdays at noon across the Civic Media Radio Network, replayed on Sundays, or you can catch it in the, by the way, our keyword here is wind, W-I-N-D, texted before eight o'clock.
The windy city of Chicago, the Dr. Kristen Lyrely show, is there now.
And that just got its start, didn't it?
Wow, you did that.
That was a good.
Yeah.
Yeah, we debuted on WCPT AM820 in Chicago, where you can listen at five o'clock on Saturdays.
But our show last week, Pat, was so good.
I talked with Mark Gaber.
He's the senior director for redistricting for the Campaign Legal Center.
We talked all about gerrymandering.
This is the guy who argued the case that got us fair maps.
So that was a huge like Wisconsin.
And he's also argued the case in Texas, in Utah.
He knows gerrymandering, and he loves it, and he talks about it gleefully.
So it's a fun conversation and a very informative conversation.
Yeah.
And again, given what's been taking place at the US Supreme Court with the maps in Texas and everything, I mean, it is not too soon.
In fact, the Wisconsin congressional maps, that case has got to get on a pretty fast schedule.
we're going to get rid of that gerrymandered setup for Wisconsin's congressional maps in time for the next election.
I don't I don't know that it's going to happen, but it's got to, you
know.
Yeah, it sure does.
I mean, our state ledge maps are are finally figured out.
And that's really exciting, because for the first time in over a decade, it feels like our votes actually matter.
And that is inspirational.
That's right.
Let's see, Bob.
So again, listen to the Dr. Kristen Lairley show on the weekends here.
Tony and Ashlyn puts up on YouTube back to Christmas movies and shows.
We've been watching our box set of the claymation Christmas movies.
The kids love them.
Alicia says, I watched the clauses, a two season spin off of the Santa Claus movies.
I didn't know there'd been a spin off of that.
Interesting.
Tom and Hartford says, try Christmas in Connecticut with Barbara Stanwyck.
We're really going old school here, not just white Christmas.
Yeah.
We're Holiday Inn or some of those other holiday classics.
So a lot of things to watch for the season.
Sound of music.
Oh, of course, sound of music.
Yes.
And of course, that ultimate Christmas movie, Die Hard.
I'm totally kidding.
Well, mostly.
What's that?
Depending on how you look at it.
Uh, yeah, you can either look at it right or wrong.
And if you want to be wrong, you can call it a Christmas movie.
Sure.
there's something out there for everyone.
Yes, absolutely.
Yes, that's right.
I was mentioning before that our question of the week for our Sunday morning newsletter at Up North News deals with wedding barns.
I wanted to share a couple of responses here that have already come in by email and get your thoughts as well.
If you'd like to share them 855-75 Civic 855-752-4842.
And so again, if you if you missed some of the setup of it.
When liquor laws were overhauled in the last session of the legislature a couple years back It made things a lot easier for for brewers distillers distributors and retailers like bars, you know taverns things like that but
the operators of these uh you know so-called wedding barns felt like they got squeezed out and they now have to play under much tighter rules that govern and severely limit how many days they can be open in any given month or any given season.
There's a lot of paperwork to fill out and and so on and they're saying that they need some kind of legislation to correct that and I asked in the newsletter
whether there should be more to accommodate these wedding barns because they are small local businesses that don't need to be overregulated or should they be treated just like the bars and banquet halls that might be considered competitors, at least for a few days a year.
From Sharon, she went with option A to accommodate the wedding barn.
She says the Tavern League Lobby has done a lot to stifle new business competition.
Pat S says definitely A. Farms are struggling enough as it is.
Any help for them is a positive move.
What's disappointing is from my understanding the rural legislators aren't backing them.
Who are they representing?
Lawrence goes the other way and says B.
They should just abide by current laws.
So a family run tavern shouldn't need a license either.
Zoning should be enforced, he writes, and since the barn and parking areas aren't being used for ag purposes, they should be properly taxed too.
Should we think about septic needs as well?
It's a business and the owners need to meet the same requirement as any other business.
And then Julie says, I don't know enough to make a choice, but I think that wedding barns should be able to operate more days than the current new restrictions that are in the law.
I add parenthetically.
These barns are beautiful and preserve our heritage.
Owners put a lot of labor and finances into them.
The result is a unique setting for weddings.
And Kristen is somebody who has run for seat in the legislature and for somebody like me that has served.
This is very reminiscent of the smoking ban.
in the sense that it is, it is one of those issues that has no party label attachment to it.
It is, it's basically a jump ball.
Every legislator is going to go with, you know, what they believe is best for their district, which again, doesn't, doesn't make the problem any less real, but is almost refreshing that something doesn't cut right across.
It
is so refreshing and I love hearing all of this input because people have thoughts about what is best.
And it may be that this needs to be a regional thing because what works in Taylor County may not work in Marathon County.
Who knows?
But just this engagement that we're seeing, that's democracy.
And to see people wanting to step up and share their opinions, fantastic.
Keep it coming.
Yeah, so we appreciate the the input that's already come in there.
And again, you can add it to it in our comment sections on Facebook or YouTube.
Or again, you can also email us radio at up North news wi.com or best of all, subscribe to the newsletter and you can see that question of the week early on and be able to respond that way as well.
One last thing I wanted to hit with you, Kristen here, the dealt with generations.
And I've always felt like, you know, I wasn't I'm too
I'm too young to be a baby boomer.
Are you?
And I'm too old to be Generation X. Because not everybody was in a neat, tidy box.
My parents were born in 1945, so they weren't post-war babies.
They were both born while the war was still going on.
So we're kind of in that weird little niche.
There's an article out there now titled...
Too young to be a boomer too old to be Gen X meet the unique and competitive Generation Jones.
I don't know how Nickname You've got George Clooney in there Michelle Obama Kamala Harris plenty of others who were born in that area that feels like they've got
in some ways, both the best and the worst of both worlds.
Are
we dodging this by when our parents were born?
I thought it was by when we were born.
No, it's by when we were born.
I was just explaining how, you know, my parents were not exactly baby boomers and I'm not exactly falling neat and tidy into one of those as well.
It's described in Politico as filling the space between Woodstock and Lollapalooza.
Between the pair of student riots and the anti-globalization protests.
Between Dylan going electric and Nirvana going unplugged.
They have a unique identity separate from boomers and Gen X's.
An avalanche of attitudinal and behavioral data corroborates this distinction.
Yeah, we want everything to fit into a neat box, but let's be honest, everything is a continuum.
So where do you feel like you fit?
If I was thinking about you, Pat, I think I'm feeling more boomer.
I'm feeling you're
a little more younger.
I'm a
little more Gen X.
I'm definitely, I would say elder Gen X, you know.
So in other words, in other words, totally the big brother, you know, who's like always the rule follower and then those, those young Gen Xers.
Well,
I tell you,
that's, I mean, they, they scream like that cat of yours.
I can hear in the background
over there.
Just always, always looking
for attention.
I know.
Dr. Kristen Lyrely, thanks for hanging around.
I appreciate it.
Have a good start to the week.
I love starting my week with you.
Thanks.
Thank
you, Pat.
All right, we'll talk to you later.
It's time to continue our 12 days of community kindness, your chance to hear more about some of the good works done by organizations all throughout the state of Wisconsin.
Ryan Michalesco is going to join us today, and we're going to be talking a bit about the International Crane Foundation.
Ryan, good morning.
How are you?
Hey, Pat.
Thanks for having me on.
I'm doing great.
Yeah, it's a pleasure having you here.
Tell us more about the International Crane Foundation.
I'll just get her started here knowing that it was founded in Baraboo.
It dates back to 1971.
Tell us more about the International Crane Foundation mission.
Yeah, you know, it's really an extraordinary story.
And it's a Wisconsin story at heart.
ICF works worldwide to conserve cranes, but also crane habitats, like the grasslands and wetlands that they rely on, but also that all of us rely on.
And we were founded in 1973 by two Cornell graduate students, Dr. George Archibald, Dr. Ron Sawie.
And they discovered they loved cranes and wanted to figure out how to conserve them and save them.
found the ICF and it was established right in Baraboo where Ron's family owned a horse farm and leased it to them for a dollar a year.
Okay and again the headquarters are in Baraboo and can you talk a bit about the role that cranes play in Wisconsin's ecosystem?
Yeah, you know, we're really fortunate we have both of North America's crane species the sandhill crane which is the most abundant crane species and the whooping crane which is Highly endangered very rare really is the polar bear of the bird world so to speak and we have them right here in our own backyard and The international crane foundation works really hard to conserve both of those species But especially the whooping crane, you know, we do a reintroduction effort here in the state where we Captively rear these birds and release them into the wild to try to build up that population that was
nearly lost less than a century ago.
Ryan Michalesco is here from the International Crane Foundation and you can help them out at savingcranes.org.
Again, that's savingcranes.org.
Tell folks what any donations that you receive go toward doing.
Yeah, you know, we have a really great staff all around the world, but especially here in Wisconsin at our headquarters.
So our North America team here in Wisconsin works with the sandhill and whooping crane.
We've been monitoring and researching sandhill and whooping cranes for more than 30 years here in the States.
So donations go straight towards that work.
It also goes towards running our crane discovery center, which is a really extraordinary place for folks to visit.
It's the only place in the world right here in Baraboo, where you can see all 15 species of cranes.
around the world, 10 of which are endangered or threatened.
And you get something like, what do I see here, 25,000 people a year
visit?
Yeah, you know, we have a really great opportunity being right next to Wisconsin Dells that we have a lot of folks come in to learn about cranes, but it's not a far drive from Madison or the surrounding area.
So we always urge people to come in.
It's open seasonally May through October, but it's a great place.
Yeah, I mean, we've got four miles of nature trails, it says here, a research library, the Welcome Center, as you mentioned.
Would you say that there's any other particular facts about cranes that a lot of people don't know that they're surprised to learn when they come visit or read about you online?
Yeah, you know, I think one of the big things that people don't don't know is that there are fewer than a thousand birds whooping cranes in the wild.
There's only about 700.
They are extraordinarily endangered and rare and we're doing work right here in Wisconsin to bring that population back from the New York distinction they faced a century ago.
And we're leading that work all around the world working with communities to bring people together around cranes as cranes are hugely culturally significant around the world.
All right.
And again, for the International Crane Foundation,
help out saving cranes.org is the address saving cranes.org.
Ryan, Michael, let's go joining us as part of our 12 days of community kindness.
Ryan, thank you so much for the background on all of this.
I hope we were able to help your efforts a little bit and that you have a great start to the new year.
Yeah, thanks, Pat.
Thanks for having me on.
All right, Ryan, thank you very much.
Again, savingcranes.org is the best thing you can do to help with the International Crane Foundation and the great works that they're doing.
Coming up in our next hour, we will be talking to John and Gordy from our Madison radio station and from afternoons here on the network as well.
And then later in next hour, Richard Trent, the national president of the Main Street Alliance, about helping save small employers who have high costs for health insurance.
I'm Pat Krightloff.
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.
All right, let's go to Civic Media sports director Jimmy Cusca to find out a bit more about things that happened over the weekend and sports beyond of course And we'll get to the college football playoffs.
Maybe if we've got a little time But let's start with professional football Jimmy.
Good morning.
How nice did that feel the end of that Packer game against the Bears?
Yeah, I think for Packers fans, it feels pretty good.
It was pretty stressful there in the second half and
You know game that was I was looking like it was coming down to the wire The Bears are driving and then all of a sudden there's a game ceiling picked by a guy who was kind of picked on earlier in the game You know overcame the you know the Packers overcame quite a bit to get to that point and
You know, just in the NFC, you see how one result can change things.
All of a sudden, Chicago goes from the top seed to the seventh seed.
The Packers go from seven to two.
And oh, by the way, the Packers' reward for this victory is they have to play the number one seed in the AFC this week.
So then they'll see the Bears again.
on that Saturday next week.
So there's a lot of moving yet to be done in the NFL in the standings and the Packers are right in the middle of it.
Yeah.
I mean, nobody said it was going to be a cupcake schedule going forward.
That's for sure.
Because even after you've got the Broncos next Sunday and then the Bears the following Saturday, you've got the Baltimore Ravens and then the Minnesota Vikings to wrap up the season.
Now the Vikings, you know, they've had a year, but thank they got the cupcake schedule beating up on the Washington commanders over the weekend here.
Yeah.
And keep in mind that a lot can change between the time that the Packers play the Ravens of the Vikings who are both currently outside of the playoff picture.
But if there's any chance for either of them to play in to it, those games become essentially playoff games for them.
So there is a lot.
to come yet for the Packers in the back part of the schedule.
Yeah, exactly.
Again, final score was 28-21.
Packers over the Bears, and that's their fourth straight win for the Packers, winning three straight divisional games.
And that's not bad, 4-0 against the division after going 1-5 against the division last season.
They've definitely figured out the games they have to win.
Yep.
And sweeping the NFC North in the span of, you know, what, a week and a half?
I guess that's, that's, or two weeks.
I mean, that's, that's got to make you feel good too.
Cause you know, you look at this back part of the schedule and you're thinking optimistically with five divisional games and seven to go at the end of the year, five out of the seven are divisional.
You're thinking, okay, if you can go three and two against that slate, you're feeling okay.
Well, they've got the three.
So how do you feel pretty good right now?
Yeah, absolutely.
So again, Packers go to Denver next week, three, 25 kickoff coverage begins at one o'clock.
on several stations of the Civic Media Radio Network.
Now we go to college football after that, and we've already had a little fun at Notre Dame.
At Notre Dame's expense, right, Parker?
He's so happy.
Yes, I'm very happy.
I do not
like Notre Dame.
He does not like Notre Dame.
And so they ended up on the outside looking in so that you could fit in places like, you know, Scott Highland's middle school football team out of, you know, Tigerton, or I don't know who else.
What was it?
James Madison and Tulane instead of Notre Dame?
Heck of a system there, Jimmy.
I hear the thing though.
I mean, with Notre Dame left out, it's just in declining the bowl game.
very smart on their part.
They have to face the Wisconsin Badgers in the season opener at Lambeau Field in September.
So they've given themselves a little additional prep time for Wisconsin.
So that's the way I look at that.
But there's, there's something to be said about the playoff system, including two group of five teams.
And I think for years, the complaint was that the system is not open to all of these teams outside of the power four.
Like, why would we even have
uh, all these additional teams playing an FBS football where they can't get into the playoffs, right?
Why, why, what's the point?
Why are we moving these teams up from division two or FCS to play in this setup if they're not going to have a shot at the national championship?
So the fact that two of them get in, I think is going to, um, you know, at least temporarily kind of call that for a bit and just give those teams that aren't in.
one of the power four conferences, a little hope that, you know, hey, if things go our way throughout the year, we win enough games that we can still be there in the end.
I know that there's people who aren't going to like it, but I think for the viability of having one division of football, where you essentially have all these teams competing for a title, having those two teams in it probably helps that a bit because otherwise, you know,
a lot of the prognostication before the years, maybe the FBS splits and we've got just the power for and then everybody else has their own thing.
Well, now you've got five divisions of college football and that's a lot.
Okay, but I'll play devil's advocate and say like for James Madison, there already is a path that's called, you know, put Alabama or Georgia on your regular schedule and beat them.
I agree.
I, you know, honestly, I think this system is supposed to pick the 12 best teams.
And if you're going to leave it to people, you got to pick the best 12.
So even people, they're going to do things like we're going to get two group of five teams in this thing.
Somehow make them with the lowest seeds.
And then, you know, half of our games now are going to get, you know, the television executives are going to look at it like, well, why are we doing this?
So that's, that's the mistake in that part of the process.
I think is the human element, but, um, this is what everybody agreed to at the beginning of the year.
So here we are.
Well, they're trying to replicate, you know, March Madness, which is a lot different because you can put 64 teams in there.
You know, if you try to college football play and with 64 teams, you've got a chance for a smaller school to have that Cinderella story.
We've seen
Cinderella stories,
but you can't.
Right.
You can't.
James Madison would have to go through four rounds of this to win.
So I just I don't know that they should.
And when one player can impact
basketball.
way more than one player can impact a football game.
I mean, there's, that's the beauty of having the NCAA term, which is why they constantly keep trying to expand it.
Cause now they're talking about moving it to 76 teams from the 68 it's currently at.
So, you know, they're constantly trying to find ways to, like you said, replicate this magic of March madness.
But, you know, when you dilute a product enough, it's just going to make people not want to take part in it,
you know, or
watch it.
Right.
Again, you've got just over a minute to text in wind.
WIND is part of our grown-up gift list text to win contest.
Back to college basketball.
I was mentioning March Madness.
It's always off yet, but the Badgers off to a nice start.
They are in Nebraska Wednesday of this week.
7.30 is when coverage begins there.
And that was quite the nice 20-point win over Marquette over the weekend, Jimmy.
I think that's going to make you feel pretty good going into this part of the schedule.
The big 10 season awaits.
It could be a battle.
Nebraska, of course, part of that.
But I mean, we're talking the meat of the schedule.
The conference has always looks extremely loaded.
And this just helps and get ready for
it.
Jimmy Cusk, Civic Media Sports Director.
Thank you as always.
We'll talk to you on Wednesday.
As we talked about, hey, hockey is number one in both wins and women's.
That's right.
You're so
good.
It's
all good.
Big wins for the Badger men and women.
Now they're off for a couple of weeks here for the holidays.
John and Gordy and Richard Trent from the National Main Street Alliance, all still ahead.
I'm Pat Critello from Up North News on the Civic Media radio network.
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