Small Biz. Big Healthcare Bills. (Hour 3)

All right, I know this is radio, but I gotta tell you about this photo and see if it entices you to sign up for our newsletter at upnorthnewswi.com.

Especially folks listening in the Chippewa Valley who know that here on Lake Wissoda, I'm way up at the north end, way down at the south end, there's this little island, little very small island, you know, created when they built the dam and, you know, the water's rose around some farmland here, and there was a hill in that.

top of that hill is now a little island and Barbara in Shipwell Falls sent us a photo that Ellie put at the top of this morning's newsletter and it is a bright beautiful full moon setting over the island which is covered in fog.

You can see the island clearly but the whole rest of the lake is just that smoke coming off the water on a cold morning.

Just a gorgeous picture in the section that Ellie calls your Wisconsin view And if you want to see those photos every day a different gorgeous photo from around Wisconsin now you can sign up at up north news wi.com Ellie also has

the Badger State Buzz, things that are happening in Wisconsin this week, including the holiday train is making its way through the state.

And let's see, we've also got the Wisconsin Farmer's Union Youth Convention in Wisconsin, Dells, and much more, plus ways that you can get a link to our giving guide, which also includes lots of links to organizations that you can help out.

kind of in the spirit of Giving Tuesday, something we will continue here as well in our next hour with our 12 days of community kindness.

But again, for our newsletter, sign up for that over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

All right, well, let's start that again, Pat.

The United States may be on the verge of losing the independent agencies that oversee consumer protection, worker protection,

environmental protection and more, replaced with nothing but lackeys of whichever politician has the most power.

See, a right-wing group that favors what's called unitary executive power, well, at least when a conservative is president, they're going to argue their case today before the US Supreme Court.

With the Chief Justice, John Roberts,

who has been pushing this idea behind the scenes for 40 years, dating back to his days working in the Reagan administration.

At issue is whether President Trump can fire supposedly independent board members of some of these agencies.

And it is something that was not necessarily restricted to one party until fairly recently.

Because frankly, for the entire breadth of our nation's history, we've had arguments back and forth about executive power.

We've actually been arguing about this since before we became a country.

America's first great debate was between what you would call monarchists, people who wanted the strength and security of a monarch, a king or a queen, and Republicans with a small r, who wanted democracy.

and wanted that democracy stabilized with checks and balances.

It's really interesting now that the capital R Republicans are now the monarchists amongst us.

Now they will say, as John Roberts did in a 2010 Supreme Court decision, that these independent agencies and boards, well they prevent a chief executive from being fully accountable for discharging his duties.

That's not what they actually mean.

when they say full accountability for a president, what they mean is they want the president to have full power.

The accountability doesn't come from having power.

The accountability comes from the series of checks and balances that we have set up over the years, including agencies that are created by Congress, which is a separate branch of government.

And these agencies were designed to have

independent boards to guard against corrupt political influence.

And that's why we have a Consumer Product Safety Commission, a National Labor Relations Board, a Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission, Federal Elections Commission, and a Federal Reserve Central Bank, and more.

And this is the part where people go, oh yeah, they're all bureaucrats.

This is all staff with nothing but bureaucrats.

If that's the outlook you want,

You can choose to have that.

What's supposed to be real is that each of these has some of the best and brightest people who are in those particular fields who are free from partisan political influence and can do the people's business without fear that they have to do whatever Barack Obama says or George W. Bush says or Donald Trump says.

Presidents of both parties.

and members of Congress in both parties will spar over individual nominations to all of these boards, but the larger goal remains of true public service that is less tainted by party politics.

But far-right conservatives know the only way they can ram through their extreme agenda is that when they get a little power, seize more by blowing up the very system that protects our country from extremism.

Is this a neat and tidy case of Republicans versus Democrats?

Not historically.

Presidents of both parties would love to remove impediments in those agencies.

Franklin Roosevelt tried to fire a federal trade commissioner who consistently voted to dismiss complaints against big companies.

When the U.S.

Supreme Court shot down FDR and stood up for the independent agencies, Roosevelt tried packing the Supreme Court but had to backtrack because fellow Democrats saw the move as unnecessary meddling.

But unnecessary meddling is in the DNA of today's GOP.

And so we're back at the point of undermining America's independent agencies to satisfy the far right's lust for power.

Other politicians in the past on the right side of the spectrum were too coy or too savvy to go along with such a brazen scheme.

Eventually they found a guy with no reservations about seeking a level of power preferred by monarchs or dictators or mob bosses.

And now that guy is back in the White House and it has activated the baser instincts of the six right-wing justices who today will hear a case that they have been hoping would come before them for a long time now.

So today, the monarchists will have their moment.

We may not get a ruling until next June and that might be fine.

The closer we get to the midterms for voters to see the perils of a monarchy, the better chance we might have to preserve democracy.

So stay tuned.

Today's history lesson is coming up next.

I'm Pat Crightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

It's time once again for today's history lesson on mornings with

Pat Cranklow.

To all who come to this happy place, welcome.

Ladies and gentlemen,

the Beatles!

That's one small step for man.

Well, I'm not a crook.

You believe in miracles yet?

You know, this depression is gonna be so great.

We'll be the ones eating the cats and the dogs.

That's gonna be fun.

Once again it is time to take another revealing peek back into history

We

have to start today's history lesson on a melancholy note that it was 45 years ago

Tonight, John Lennon was murdered outside his residence in New York City 45 years ago for a guy that had just turned 40 years old and left us with this holiday staple along with everything else that was done with the Beatles over the years.

Let's see, we've also got the anniversary today for the dissolution of the Soviet Union that happened this day in 1991.

Several more birthdays ahead.

So let's welcome into the program as we always do on Mondays.

Dr. Kristen Lyrely who has a little worried she might be horse from the game or something.

In fact, I haven't heard her speak yet.

Good morning, Dr. Lyrely.

How are you?

Good morning.

I spent a significant amount of time yesterday shouting at the television and it was

amazing.

I loved it.

I know, we were saying that it's the first time that there's been like a really exciting game, not just an exciting play here or there, but like the whole game was worth watching.

It was just so much fun and I loved how they kept talking about how cold it was because you know, we know how cold it was and we just, yeah.

Were you were were you game adjacent then or did you find a way in as you often seemed to?

No, I chose to stay home.

I had work to do.

Oh, OK.

Oh, my goodness.

See, it was cold out there.

It was cold out there.

She couldn't bike out there for that one this time.

And can I just say, way to open the show with some melancholy that got me a little choked up, John

Lennon, that whole

thing.

That was really instrumental in my life.

It

was

huge Beatles fan and

oh

yeah and recognizing what their impact was as individuals and as a group yeah that was a big day.

It was and I was you know in high school and I would I would have a radio next to the bed and I would listen to the radio before I fell asleep you know usually you know to some top 40 station and to have a DJ come in and share that news you know it made a little tougher to fall asleep that night you know just like

What the heck?

What's going on with this world?

And you're still asking questions like that all these years later.

All right, let's get some more birthdays for today.

This is the anniversary of the birth of Jim Morrison, born this day in 1943.

A

poet.

Yes,

and

also one gone way too soon.

In this case, it was 27 or 28 years old when he passed away in 1971, Jim Morrison.

27, Pat.

27

is the

magic number.

That's right.

Jimi

Hendrix,

Janice

Joplin.

Jim Morrison.

Greg Allman made it much later than that.

He was born this day in 1947 before passing away in 2017.

Greg Allman's birthday today.

I don't know if this is quite, quite true, but it seems to me when I think of celebrity news, you know, which wasn't as big back in the day.

But I mean, I remember when Greg Allman and Cher got married.

Yeah.

See, you remember too.

And everybody's like, really?

That's an interesting pair.

And interesting is the best way to put it.

They were they were a little volatile, you know.

Well,

they weren't as interesting as her first husband.

Right.

Greg Almond's no sunny bono.

Let's put it that way.

On this day in 2013, Metallica performed a concert in Antarctica in a dome making Metallica the first band to perform on all seven continents, which is cool.

It's

cold.

It's so cool.

It's cold.

All right, the anniversary of another artist gone too soon.

Dan Hartman was born this day in 1950.

Dan Hartman passed away in 1994 at the age of 43, age-related symptoms there.

He also co-wrote several other hits for the Edgar Winter Group.

He's the one that co-wrote Free Ride.

And for James Brown, my favorite James Brown son living in America.

You're kidding.

Dan Hartman was a co-writer of that.

Yes, exactly.

Let's see, Bertie Higgins, remember Key Largo?

Oh, so yes.

Yep, he is 81 years old today.

And Nicki Minaj is 43 years old today.

Looking at number one songs, on this day in 1979, Sticks had their only number one single here in the

States.

This was their only number one.

Yeah, that's so hard to believe

I know Again you go look at the charts and you go what is it that made them stop at number two or three or four or whatever and you look and go oh Why but you know people's listening habits were what they were at the time Let's see for example if I had told you But yeah, let me just give you this by year.

What year would you say was hauling oats is final number one song?

Of course, we always have to go back to Holland Oates.

It always comes back to Holland Oates,

of course.

1989.

Yeah,

I see you would have thought late 80s.

Nope.

It was 1984, this day, when Holland Oates had their sixth and final number one single.

Oh, yeah.

They were all part of that whole, like MTV, can we transition into this?

Are

we good

enough on video?

Things really changed after that.

They really did.

And they were among those who, and Billy Joel talks about this as well.

They all rolled their eyes.

They're like, I don't want to do this.

But the ones who buckled down and did it became superstars because of MTV, which again is in that category of things of, I can't believe it's not still a thing.

You had music videos on TV.

And they replaced it with reality shows.

This is like what we're dealing with now with the transition in media.

It's, you know, if you are thinking like FM radio is still your thing, but everybody's looking at video, like you're not going to survive.

If you are thinking that watching regular old broadcast TV is the thing, it's all moving in a different direction.

What

does the future look like?

I know.

It's all streaming.

I mean, come on.

It's Netflix buying HBO last week.

Oh

my gosh.

I know.

It's all about streaming.

So out of touch, number one song this day in 1984.

Let's go up a year.

40 years ago this week, 1985.

This was the number one song.

No, that is not it.

Somewhere in there should have been Mr. Mister's Broken Wings.

Do you want me to sing it?

Yeah, go ahead.

Take these broken wings.

Passionately and learn to fly again.

Come on Pat learn to live so free.

I'm having more fun watching Parker's shrimp figure this one out

I've got it.

I know what happened.

I just that's it shouldn't have done that.

All right.

Here listen to broken wings now.

Okay,

we will I can't tell the

difference I'm always here for you in a pitch

That would be funny also

available for karaoke.

Yep

So anyway, 40 years ago this week, Mr. Mr. You know what, while we got time for the music, do you want to hit that one again and I'll tell people why, what that tune is all about?

Oh sure, what the heck?

We've broken Parker already.

I haven't talked about this for a long time, but I finally got in touch with the Eau Claire bass band, the Jaggernauts, and this is the start of their song called Quite

Low.

I got such a nice email from them that I'll talk about later.

the story behind the title of the song, because I wanted to make sure, you know, before I go playing it, that they didn't name it after some serial killer, you know, named Crypo or whatever, you know.

That would

unroof a whole other thing.

Yeah, yeah.

But instead, they shocked me with the answer.

And I will share that with you a little after the seven o'clock news once Selena Heller is here.

Let's get back on track.

No, let's see what we've got on the National Day calendar today, Parker.

It is a very good day, Pat, because it is National Brownie Day.

I'm a big fan.

Yes,

yes, yes, yes.

Okay.

Who was I?

Oh, it was my daughter, my older daughter.

We're talking about the daughters over the weekend.

And, um, you know, so she and her boyfriend lived down in Dallas, and she's like, Oh, he made brownies for me.

And then I found out he put peanut butter in them.

And I mean this and we both were kind of joked like, yeah, we're gonna miss him.

He seemed like such a nice guy.

But I mean, you put peanut butter in the brownies.

It's one thing to have a brownie and put like a peanut butter frosting on it.

But the peanut butter was in the brown, it was a peanut butter brownie.

Did it like mess up the consistency?

I don't know.

I wasn't there.

But I just know that I don't think you're supposed to do that.

What if it tastes good?

That would be good.

then at least set us up for it.

Don't say here's a, you know, it'd be like handing somebody what you, you know, you've been handed a cookie, you're sure is chocolate chip because you don't look very closely and then you bite into it and it's oatmeal raisin.

I like

it.

You can like it, but not if you're expecting chocolate chip.

It's

like expectations.

This is about expectations.

Yes.

Yeah, because I feel like the brownie can be a base for anything.

Oh, chips, he like throw whatever you

want.

Oh, I had I had a great mint frosted brownie last week at an event.

Oh, yeah, it was it was great.

So hey, however you make them, they're great.

There's you know, they're aren't bad brownies.

Well, except with nuts.

They don't belong there.

I like

that.

No, that's an okay take.

I'm fine with that one.

That one messes with the texture.

Yeah, you got the texture of the brownie.

Again, unless you know going in, but it's a terrible surprise.

There should be like little signs on all the brownies.

Little like Brett like little for sale.

I think of Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker's listening Include a little sign that you can then put on top of the brownie pan that says you know peanuts or peanut butter or whatever Weird stuff you want to put in your brownies or just be pure and put chocolate chips in there

I'm looking at Parker's face and he's definite.

There's something going on in Parker's head right now like I know

I'm picturing

the little signs.

I'm

thinking

toothpick and I can't quite come up with what the sign part

is.

It's just a little thing.

A brownie sign.

Oh boy.

Pat's looking for something, folks.

Remember my little head on a stick?

Remember from my birthday cake?

Yes.

It's about that size.

Alicia writes peanut butter on brownies is on par with noodles and chili.

I like noodles and chili.

And some people say it's no longer chili, if you do that.

So it's just, it's a matter of being, you know, upfront, truth and advertising, shall we say, national brownie day.

And apparently it's national debate about brownies day.

So there we go.

What else is on the calendar today?

It is also

national blue collar day.

National Blue Collar Day.

Every day is National Blue Collar Day.

Absolutely, yep.

And again, we've had this discussion before of how it seemed like for the longest time people thought that everybody was being told to go to college and the trades were being kind of overlooked and now I hear all the time that college isn't for everybody and I'm glad that we're encouraging an education in the trades more than

ever.

But I also am here to guard against letting the pendulum swing too far in the other way.

We need people with liberal arts degrees and study the humanities and things like that as well.

We need it all.

There's got to be educational opportunity for everybody.

Yes.

Oh, look at this.

I got Rob is back.

I was a little worried about Rob and Tigerton.

I heard about, you know, he'd heard his knee or something.

And now he's back.

He's out plowing snow.

So we'll find out what he's had to say as well when we get past seven o'clock here.

But first, Selena Heller is going to join us from Up North News.

We'll find out some of the stories that she's been working on.

And so much more, including that keyword in your grown up gift list.

Text-to-Win Contest.

Stay tuned for that.

Get your Civic Media app ready and get set to download that app and get set to text us.

The keyword for the Grown-Up Giftless Contest.

That word coming up in just a bit.

I'm Pat Rightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

But not lately, so...

What was that?

What's the band's name again?

Um, it is the... Oh, it doesn't say.

What does it say?

What?

It doesn't matter.

Just sing the chorus.

The bears still suck.

The bears

still

suck.

When

I was

leaving the game in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh after we won, the fans started chanting the Bears stillsack.

They did again yesterday as well.

I saw a video of the whole concourse.

Fans are coming out of there and you just hear, the Bears stillsack.

The Bears stillsack.

But they played

the Bears yesterday.

They played Pittsburgh when I was there and they were saying the Bears stillsack.

Like that's how strong this rivalry is.

And in part thanks to that song by the Happy Schnapps Combo.

Yes.

Forgot about the name.

Happy schnapps.

Happy schnapps combo.

We are joined by Selena Heller from Up North Doos.

How are you, Selena?

Oh, very good.

Had a fun weekend, so nice

to meet you.

Yeah, you had the parade at Eau Claire on Friday night, right?

Yes, we walked in the Clearwater Winter Parade for the schools.

That's great.

Okay.

Yeah, it

was very fun.

Well, and very cold too.

Well, you know, I stayed warm.

Because the day before was very, very cold.

So it really seemed warm after coming from, you know, the day before where it was, you know, like zero.

So it seemed warm.

So it's all it's all a matter of comparison is what you're saying.

Yes.

Okay.

That's

fine.

Kristen, you didn't have any parades or anything this weekend, right?

You just know you said you had to work.

You had actual work to get done.

I did and I was in Minneapolis for the Minnesota meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists which was amazing and so good to just be reminded of how many wonderful people are there and all of the medical stuff we do.

So you had it you did a video with a whole bunch of docs and each one listed It was basically just a long list of things

that was some of those were some of the things that we talked about

right So can you so it was doctor by doctor by doctor by doctor looking at the at the camera and saying something Can you can you roll through like three or four of those things on the list?

Mm-hmm.

Hemorrhoid management Amniatic fluid embolism

one more

sepsis.

Okay, about that time, I'm looking at this video and I'm going, this is the worst list of potential band names ever.

And I was going to send that back to you, but I didn't want to marginalize what you're doing.

But let's give the punchline then at the end of the video, because that was the important part.

And there was a doc with you who basically delivered the line that tied it back to current events.

Do you remember what that was?

I do.

The amazing Erin Stevens.

She essentially said, if you don't know what these things are, how to treat them, you shouldn't be making laws about them.

Boom.

Yes.

If all these things sound like alien to you, then why are you trying to regulate them?

Maybe not.

Maybe not do that so much.

Maybe work with us.

Work with us, people.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Work

with the experts.

The experts.

Crazy thought.

Crazy thought.

Let's see what those partners found for some entertainment news to share with us.

Pat, it has been a really brutal, like, two, three months for the Louvre over in France, the art museum.

Famously,

famously, the jewel heist.

Still not found, and other jewels have since been moved to a bank in France to be safer.

Because apparently the wolf has a lot of problems.

They had a water leak, which damaged a bunch of scientific journals in the Egyptology section.

This was a known issue that they were going to repair next year.

We're going to get around to it.

We'll get there.

Yes.

We'll just leave these ancient manuscripts over here.

What could go wrong?

Yes.

Also.

In, uh, I believe it was October.

I didn't know about this.

There was a structural collapse in

the

Greek gallery.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, that sounds like, well, I mean, you got your Greek ruins.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah.

It's kind of on the

nose.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, that's, that's unfortunate.

So the Louvre is one of those institutions that has had some issues lately.

And then there's the other types of problems being faced by another institution and that one in the nation's capital.

Yes, this is true.

The Kennedy Center had their honors ceremony.

The Donald, the president guy, he's made himself in charge of that thing, so he's hosting it now.

It was recorded for later broadcast on December 23rd, so we don't entirely know how it went.

Oh,

I can guess.

Yeah,

you can really guess.

He spent a lot of time up on stage talking, which has never been done by a president before.

But of course, he said he was asked to take over it so that it would get better ratings.

And said he was trying to act like Johnny Carson while he was honoring, let's see, actor Michael Crawford, singer George Strait, the band Kiss and others.

He talked about how billions and billions of

people have watched them over the years and he you know made some comments again mostly about himself usually politics stays out of this but he of course couldn't resist he talked about the power of persistence he said oh many of you are persistent many of you are miserable horrible people but you are persistent you never give up sometimes I wish you'd give up but you don't

President of the United States talking to the Kennedy Center honorees.

It was a weird line about there's a lot of good people here, but there's also a lot of bad people here.

Yes.

Yeah.

So, well, it will, it will get ratings in the sense that, you know, A, he's got a base that will watch him and then there'll be people that just like to see a good old fashioned train wreck.

Although for that, I mean, just watch the cold opens to Saturday Night Live.

Those are, those are, those are more on par, you know, where they're now adding the part where he falls asleep all the time now too.

So sleep, sleepy Donna's back.

Real quick, Selena coming up after the news.

So you're working on a story we're going to hear from somebody there.

Yeah, local food for schools.

It was a federal program.

You would seemingly think that is good for everybody, but it was cut by the USDA.

So

yeah,

some schools.

Trump administration cut that.

And then, of course, there was the health department.

Robert Kennedy Jr.'

's group did something on recommendations for childhood vaccines, hepatitis B. And Dr. Lyrely is going to talk to us about that.

We're going to continue our 12 days of community kindness in our next hour as well.

And coming up right after the news, the latest keyword.

in the grownup gift list text to win contest.

I pack right low.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

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

Now, for my Lake Basota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.

Thank you, Don Rue.

Good morning.

It is 7 0 6.

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 is Kraitlo.

And I've never known why.

Yes.

It sounds so like 90s upper Midwestern rock.

It's so perfect.

It's uh, 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 some somebody brought it up to me like, you know What's what they're the song called quite long like I have no idea so I sent them an email through their band camp site some time ago and I finally heard back and

Because we also need their permission to play it and so they write back saying hello Pat sorry for the late response the Jaggernauts 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 Crite Low Catastrophe was the name of my college radio show.

Are you kidding?

Back in the early 1980s.

You

have no idea how you influence people until something like this happened decades later and you've suddenly realized, whoa, I had an impact.

Yeah.

So I love the riff at the start.

So we'll definitely make a lot of use of that.

lyrics again I'm not quite sure the influence of the great low catastrophe but you know the the lyrics go line in bed I try to sleep circling fingers cut me real deep paranoia blankets fear 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 Crete low piece.

I love I love the like I said, love the guitar in there.

So 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.

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Packers were big winners over the Bears, a very exciting

finish.

I don't know, Selina, if you were watching that, we all talked about shouting at the TV already yesterday.

Yes, we of course, we were watching, Emery has to watch.

Yeah, so we were high five egg and she's cheering and yeah, it's fun.

That's great.

All right.

And it ended with, you know, the the bears trying to score a touchdown to tie the game.

And Caleb Williams gets picked off in the end zone by Keisha 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's 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 they did and what this is going to impact because it's not great.

It's not great at all.

I'll give a little bit of background.

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.

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 can this blow be softened somewhat if if groups like the you know Academy of Pediatrics the American Medical Association and others as well as individual doctors Speak up and remind parents of you know the actual facts about vaccines

Yeah, that's a really important point and we are doing that a AP the American Academy of Pediatrics a cog my college We are putting out our own recommendations and those are very important and those are the things that your doctor

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, W-I-N-D is the keyword in our grownup gift list, text to win 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 local programs being cut that help farms provide lunches to

US Cross.

Yeah, Wisconsin was supposed to get nine million dollars Wisconsin schools were from the US Department of Agriculture program called local food for schools and They didn't because it was caught the program was cut so Caitlyn 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 is 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 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 Up North 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 Up North 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 low and 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 wi.com.

Click subscribe and the banner on top of the homepage.

Ellie Bordeaux 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 wi.

Dr. Kristen Lierly is here along with Celine Heller of North News Reporter and we were talking about Celine'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 Toman from Full Circle Community Farm in Seymour, which is on the eastern part of the state.

They have supplied organic produce and grass-fed meats.

to schools in 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

the investment 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 gonna provide more security for people.

And again, that was Heather Toman from Full Circle Farm.

Yes, Full Circle Community Farm.

And she also talks about the...

how it left them with the instability for themselves and how they have to kind of scramble to find more outlets.

It just means less sales and that we're going to 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 running as a business.

And that's the thing, you know, Selena, 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.

Oh, sure.

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 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 Pat Critelaw 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. Lairley is going to stick around.

We'll talk about our question of the week and what she's been covering on the Dr. Kristen Lairley show that you can catch weekends here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I'm Pat Krightlo 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.

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, 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.

taught, 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 if

we're going to get rid of that gerrymandered setup for Wisconsin's congressional maps in time for the next election.

I don't know that it's going to happen, but it's got to.

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, eight, five, five, seven, five, civic eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.

Um,

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 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 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 over-regulated 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 barns.

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, but 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 it's nicknamed.

Um, you 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

judging 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 para-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 Xs.

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'm feeling more boomer.

I'm feeling you're a little

more boomer.

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 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.

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 Michael Esco 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 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 an 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 it 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.

We do a reintroduction effort here in the state where we captivity 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 Michalescos here from the International Crane Foundation, and you can help them out at savingcranes.org.

Again, that's savingcranes.org.

Tell folks what the 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, you know, 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 near extinction 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 to help out saving cranes.

is the address, savingcranes.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, saving cranes.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.

All right, let's go to Civic Media Sports Director Jimmy Cuska 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 at 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 a game that was looking like it was coming down to the wire, the Bears were 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.

The Packers up came quite a bit to get to that point.

And 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.