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Now, for my Lake Minnesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Crichtlow.
Hey, good morning.
7.06, nice to have you back here up north on a Thursday morning.
It's December 11th, 2025.
Parker Olson producing things down in Madison, Studio A2.
And we have candidate for Governor Joel Brennan standing by to talk about the campaign that he announced just this morning.
joining the field of Democratic candidates looking to succeed Governor Tony Evers in the 2026 campaign.
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From time from Rob in tiger tinny says good morning.
It's partly cloudy and nine degrees It is a rest day for me after a busy day of plowing snow He said yesterday after work I had a bowl of chicken noodle soup and it hit the spot It would have with me as well Rob But I think you probably did a better job taking care of your equipment than I did my snow snow blower kept sputtering out I am
Pretty sure I have a dirty carburetor, and so I have to finish the other half of it after I get that puppy all cleaned out.
So hopefully your day went a little bit easier.
Rob, take it easy on yourself.
Enjoy a little more chicken soup today, if you can.
I hear it's good for your soul.
7-0 is the time right now, and as noted, there is a new candidate for governor in the race.
Somebody
who is running with a whole bunch of private sector experience and a little public sector experience as one of the top officials in the Governor Tony Evers administration during the first term.
His name is Joel Brennan.
He's president of the Greater Milwaukee Committee and he joins us this morning.
Joel Brennan, good morning.
Pat, how you doing?
Very good.
Thanks.
Welcome to the race.
There's plenty of room.
Jump on in here.
I have
there you go.
OK, yes.
That sounds good.
Tony on YouTube says, is anyone else on the verge of announcing, and is their name Pat Krightlo?
No, Tony.
No.
There are at least seven people who are more qualified than I am, and this guy is one of them.
We've talked to some of the other six and we will throughout the course of the primary between now and August, but Joel is the newest entrance, entrance rather.
So Joel, apart from the 10 siblings, tell us more about your story and how you came to be a candidate for governor.
Well, my story is a, is really a Wisconsin story.
My parents, my dad was born in 1927 to a single mom in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
My mother was born actually this day in 1928 in Milwaukee, grew up in Milwaukee and East Troy.
And my dad had a half brother.
My mom was an only child.
They met after my dad was in the service and went to school in the G. K. University, having children.
One of my older siblings died.
They had a child who died of childhood cancer at about a year.
And so I grew up with 10 siblings.
And we didn't have a lot growing up.
My dad was involved in public relations and media and even some political stuff when I was growing up.
But he didn't do a lot of things that were very lucrative.
So we didn't have a lot.
And we all found a way mainly through education.
I worked my way through Marquette University.
And over the last 35 years, I've had positions
in and around public policy, really been a student of public policy that whole time.
I was the head of the Wisconsin's largest science museum discovery world for about 11 years in Milwaukee.
In 2018, when Tony Evers was elected governor, he asked me to serve as the secretary of the department of administration, which is the highest cabinet appointment in the state.
And I did that and was proud to serve with him for three years.
Did things like trying to
restore some of the things we had lost under Scott Walker and the right wing legislature.
By the time that I left after three years, we had a surplus of about $4 billion, a rainy day fund that had gone from a couple hundred million dollars to nearly $1.7 billion.
And it was a time that I was really proud of.
We also, during that time, had to deal with COVID and all the COVID relief dollars and getting resources out to families and farmers and small businesses in Wisconsin that absolutely needed it.
was some of the most gratifying work of my life.
And then about four years ago, just as Tony was heading into the reelection cycle, I left that job to come back to Milwaukee and run the Greater Milwaukee Committee, which is an organization, it's a membership organization that's about civic affairs and how do we...
bring together people from the civic community, the nonprofit community, higher ed, and work on the issues that are most important to southeastern Wisconsin.
I've been proud to do that.
It's a wonderful job.
But at some point, you've got to either be satisfied with the way things are, or you stand up and get in the game.
And people are angry and disappointed and frustrated in Wisconsin.
You see that from the other candidates.
And I think the executive experience that I've had over the last 25 years, the experience
I had in the Evers administration suits me well to be somebody who could not only fight and we all have to fight but get something done.
You know we're all angry at this point and sometimes when people get angry they want to get even.
When I get angry maybe because of the way I grew up and who I am I want to roll up my sleeves and get something done.
So that's part of the reason why I'm inspired to run for this job.
Well that you know getting something done would be you know remarkable in the state capital these days given what's going on but when you first came to it and you were not
to be Governor Evers' Secretary of Administration.
You were one of the few cabinet members unanimously confirmed by Senate Republicans, people pointing to your private sector experience.
Now, again, I'm not saying that there's gonna be bipartisan love now that you've announced that candidate for governor, but you've got that track record that you think is gonna bring people together.
Tell me more about your...
your lane of the campaign, I guess, is the way I'd put it, because we've got a state senator, we've got a state representative, we've got a county executive, we've got a former lieutenant governor, we've got the former head of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, all in this race, and the current lieutenant governor.
So when when when Democratic voters for the primary are looking at this whole field, what is it they see in you?
It's not going to be on the issues.
I doubt that there's a lot of space on the issues here.
So what is it that they're seeing in you in terms of both electability,
but then also what kind of a governor you would be.
Yeah.
And that's a great question.
And by the way, like, I know all the other candidates, we're all friends and I respect them.
I worked with a lot of them during the Evers administration.
And so, you know, I think if there's a, and I actually sometimes, well, political people are going to do this, I bristle a little bit at somebody saying, Hey, what's your lane?
You know, because I think when we reduce people to an ideological or geographical or demographic lane, we're kind of reducing the opportunities for the party as well.
I'm a proud Wisconsin progressive.
I'm a proud
The thing I'm going to lean into is I have had over the last 25 years a succession of executive experiences.
And I think executive experiences are different than being in the legislature.
They're different than some of the other experiences that people might bring to the job.
And it truly is about making those executive decisions.
Now, there's none of us who can lay claim to having been governor before.
And you only understand and know once you get the job.
But the opportunity that I had at the Department of Administration, and you worked in state government, and you're aware of what DOA does, sometimes they call it the Department of All, mainly because it has the ability there, it really is the one place where you work across the enterprise.
So whether it's the state budget, procurement,
information technology, all the real estate that gets done, the things like all the human resources across 35,000 people in the in state government.
You know, I had the ability to work on all of those things and work arm in arm with the governor on things like how do how could we kind of bring the state back and start to respect working people after eight years of Scott Walker and a right wing legislature.
And and I think we had some success with that.
And I think one of
One of the things that will be different for the next governor is with the fair maps that we have now and the opportunities that are there in the legislature, we truly have an opportunity to have a democratic majority in either one or both houses of the legislature, and that will afford us the chance to do something that is more on the offensive than we were able to do under Governor Evers.
He has done a terrific job with the decks stacked against him.
People sometimes, they think about this, the gerrymandering that's happening now.
or what Donald Trump is doing at the federal level, you know, just as you left the legislature, that's what the Republicans did in Wisconsin, and that's been the case for the last 15 years.
We finally have a chance with Fair Maps to...
kind of play on a level playing field.
And so I think there's opportunities we have in areas like healthcare, in childcare, in K-12 education, in reinvesting or investing again in the higher ed system in Wisconsin, which has always been the envy of the state and the envy of other places across the country.
And we have disinvested in it.
So I think there's opportunities there now.
And that's what I'm going to be leaning into as I go around the state and talk to people.
I'd like to think that
the upbringing that I had and kind of having to work four or five jobs to get myself through college, a series of the experiences that I have and the breadth of those experiences, those are the types of things I think that I'm going to try to appeal to people on.
And I want to, you know, if I've invested anything in the 35 year career that I have, whether it's the people in the Chippewa Valley or in southeastern Wisconsin or the Fox Valley, it's in relationships and the depth of those relationships.
And that's what I'm going to try to do when I go around the state and talk and listen to people.
Joe Brennan is a candidate for governor.
His website is Brennanforwi.com.
Brennan is B-R-E-N-N-A-N-F-O-R-W-I dot com.
And then of course all the social media sites that will be going up as well.
And just in the time we have left here, just a couple of minutes to talk about obviously the midterms.
That's when Wisconsin holds its gubernatorial elections.
It's also a referendum on the president.
You've worked with a lot of Republicans.
I've worked with a lot of Republicans and they don't want to say it out.
There are a lot of Republicans not really happy with Donald Trump.
Do you feel that, again, not to oversimplify things, but do you feel like you have more of an in there than maybe some of the other Democratic candidates do?
I think my opportunity is that there is frustration and anger regardless of party right now and regardless of where people are on the ideological spectrum.
People are hurting.
Within the next few weeks, you're going to have 200,000 plus people in Wisconsin who are going to lose their health care, tens of thousands more who are looking at doubling or tripling their premiums.
This year in 2025, we're going to have the first time home buyers now are the average ages 40 years old.
Five years ago, it was 33 years old.
In the Chippewa Valley, we're creating a society where we're all renters, where people can't be kind of achieving that American dream by being able to be homeowners and build wealth.
And we've got Donald Trump running around the country saying that affordability is a democratic hoax.
He wants us to believe it's the abominable snowman.
It's the wolf at the door for thousands of Wisconsin residents.
And we need to be able to articulate that, but also articulate
a vision for where we're going.
So that's what I'm going to do.
But the opportunity I think in Wisconsin is that it's not just along ideological lines anymore.
Everybody's frustrated, but they want to know who's going to roll up their sleeves and do something about it.
And I've got a career and a track record of doing that.
And you can learn more about it at Brennan4wi.com.
Joel Brennan is the newest entry this morning as a candidate for governor for the state of Wisconsin in 2026.
Joel, thanks for stopping in, letting the audience get a chance to meet with you.
I'm sure we'll be talking
again soon.
I look forward to it, Pat.
Thanks for having me today.
All right.
Thank you.
Have a great day.
Again, that is Joel Brennan, new candidate for governor.
And we'll talk a bit more about that with Joseph Pecky coming up in our eight o'clock hour as we look at some of the week's big state political headlines.
But we have much more ahead to hear on this Thursday morning edition of Mornings with Pat Crichtlow, powered by Up North News, here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Sean O'Malley talking about your money in the markets in just 15 minutes.
See you soon.
You're listening to Civic Media.
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Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
Nice to have you back on this Thursday morning.
It is December 11th.
We've got Sean O'Malley coming up in just a little bit to talk about your money and the markets and the whole notion of flying blind as we seem to be doing now with so many different government reports being just cancelled and just trust the AI bubble.
We've been told just do that instead.
Let's see what else is making news on this Thursday morning here.
I have noted with
with the interest that there has been another Sean Duffy citing in the news.
Apparently, he is now wanting to improve airports in many ways, and there are many ways you could, but that includes doing some workouts, play areas for kids, but also workout areas.
Duffy says a workout area
where people might get some blood flowing and doing some pull-ups and some step-ups at the airport, which has one of the Daily Show correspondents saying, you think people want to work out while they're at the airport?
Everyone at the airport is already exhausted from traveling, all right?
We can't even walk to the gate.
You had to invent floors that walk for us.
And this is the same guy in Sean Duffy who wants to dress up when we fly.
So what, now I'm doing pull-ups in a tuxedo?
before my 12-hour flight to Hawaii?
Why don't you just throw in a hot yoga room in the terminal so everyone really smells bad when they board the plane?
And Pete Buttigieg, the former Transportation Secretary in the Biden administration, also had a little fun with this, noting in a different talk show setting,
There are a lot of problems that we could be working on right now, that any transportation secretary could be working on right now.
Maybe fitness centers at the airport isn't where Sean Duffy should be spending most of his time.
But as somebody else noted about the U.S.
Transportation Department and some of the things that should be priorities, Duffy recently, right here on his Twitter feed says,
We've now knocked 9,500 truck drivers out of service for failing to speak our national language, English.
This administration will always put you and your family safety first.
Well, first off, Mr. Duffy, English is not our national language.
We don't have one.
We've been a melting pot since your relatives came here as well.
But it's an interesting flex for the Secretary of Transportation to be bragging about taking jobs away from nearly 10,000 workers.
in an already alien economy, and then figuring out how we're supposed to get goods to market.
But that's where Sean Duffy's priorities are right now.
Nobody has ever said that safety shouldn't be a concern with truck drivers and everybody else.
But again, it's this, it's, it's the mass deportations, it's the mass firings.
that are hitting people without any kind of due process or necessarily justification that really make this such this meat cleaver approach to government and to our economy so unhelpful.
And there are people who get impatient with scalpels, but totally understand that.
But sometimes a chainsaw is not necessarily the way that you want to come in there next.
And that's what we're seeing happen with both transportation as well as immigration and other matters as well.
But again, that's the that's the Sean Duffy approached all of this, and he's rightly getting an earful on it.
Republicans are also getting an earful this week on the vote that's going to be taken in the Senate, all about the
enhanced premium tax credits for affordable Care Act plans.
Now, again, that was a pandemic era subsidy that expired.
And that's been the Republican line.
Hey, they expired.
That's how this goes.
Well, yeah, but so did the 2017 Trump tax cuts for the wealthy.
And when Congress made it a priority to renew them, they did.
And Democrats wanted to be a priority, frankly, most American families wanted to be a priority, to also extend the enhanced tax credit that make health insurance more affordable in this country.
And as part of a deal to end the government shutdown, Republicans in the Senate said, fine, we will hold a standalone vote, an up or down vote on extending or restoring health insurance credits.
Republicans in this made no such promise.
And so this whole thing is looking, you know, much like political theater anyway.
But as you know, things are already not looking great for Republicans in the midterms in 2026.
That's, that's just par for the course.
party that holds the White House often finds itself on the defensive.
Well, even more so when everybody sees how much their health insurance costs have gone up.
So there have been some House Republicans, especially from districts that are, shall we say, quite purple to come up with something.
And
It only makes sense that they come up with something because this is the crowd that has always talked about repeal and replace.
They want to repeal the Affordable Care Act and then they want to replace it with something.
And there's never been a replacement plan that comes close to doing what the Affordable Care Act has been doing for people.
And frankly, as mentioned in an article in Politico, House Republican leaders
did not present any new firm plan on Tuesday and anxiety is rising in the House Republican ranks.
Speaker Mike Johnson told attendees of a closed-door conference there was a list of 10 possible policies that could get votes in the coming weeks or months according to five different Republicans who were in the meeting.
The list did not include an extension of the expiring tax credits which are going to impact 20 million Americans.
There was some talk of health savings accounts that that is the ever ready bunny of GOP health care is if we just they only say put the money back in the hands of Americans and let them make decisions for themselves.
That just takes us right back to where we were before the Affordable Care Act.
You have to have the money first off in a health savings account and then you have to get the insurance companies not to jerky around to the degree that they were before you had some of the requirements from the Affordable Care Act.
But there's also a plan that's that's called a pharmaceutical benefit manager oversight.
And one other bullet point wasn't quite a plan.
It simply said, innovation, which I guess is kind of like concepts of a plan.
But we still don't even know what the concepts are.
Sean O'Malley is next to talk about your money in the markets and we'll continue our 12 days of community kindness as well.
I'm Pac right low.
This is the Civic Media radio network.
Welcome back, it is 735.
I'm Pat Critello here in Chippewa Falls and Candy, C-A-N-D-Y.
Candy is the keyword this hour in Civic Media's grown-up gift list statewide text-to-win contest, a multi-station, multi-state game.
Every entry throughout the course of the day gets you in the running for a $200 cash prize.
And of course, one of three great grand prizes as well.
Head to civicmedia.us to learn more.
But until eight o'clock this morning, use the Civic Media app to text us the word candy, C-A-N-D-Y.
And then different keywords throughout the day, starting again at 9 a.m.
with Jane Matenair and Greg Bach for Matenair on Air.
We're going to be doing our 12 days of Christmas, sorry, our 12 days of community kindness coming up in less than 10 minutes.
and we'll be talking about Project Fire Buddies.
But first, it's time for our visit with Sean O'Malley to talk about your money and the markets.
Sean, good morning.
How are you?
Good morning, Pat.
How are you doing?
Well, I'm okay.
We certainly have 11 months now into Donald Trump's second term.
Um, I feel like what do you think
of it so far?
Are we winning yet?
I, uh, well, I feel like maybe we're past whatever statute of limitations there is for, for blaming the Biden administration.
But again, based on the lack of reports and everything, that still seems to be what I'm hearing the most when it comes to the economy.
It just, it just kind of feels like we're flying blind right now.
Yeah, we will pretty much I mean we'll get some data here actually in a few days But of course they didn't want all that data out before the Fed Open Market Committee meeting which closed out yesterday With a rate cut of 25 basis points Due to primarily softening job market You know Trump is still pushing the this isn't my economy.
It's all due to Biden majority of Americans do not agree with that
Well, because they heard him say, I will fix this on day one, prices will come down on day one.
Right.
Yeah.
Well, affordability went from being a talking point that he was running on as candidate Trump to now as President Trump.
It's a Democratic hoax.
So I don't know how that happened in 12 months, but we're 11 months or whatever.
But you know, that seems to be the story that they're trying to push out there, which isn't, you know,
Well, look,
there's not a lot of traction.
No, nobody's saying that he promised prosperity, but he did promise affordability.
And instead, what I'm hearing is, well, your kids don't need as many dolls and your kids don't need as many pencils and things like that.
It just doesn't.
Again, he's not going to give you the Bill Clinton, I feel your pain message, but it kind of feels like he's not even trying to get.
Oh, yeah.
No, no.
Empathy is something that Donald Trump has never felt in his life.
Believe me.
And it's weird that it's always dolls and pencils, isn't it?
I mean, those are the only two examples you don't need.
You need to make do with less is what he keeps saying now.
Okay, so that's the alternative.
That's the solution now, Mr. President.
Make do with less.
You don't need as many pencils.
You don't need as many dolls.
Okay.
Well, I guess we know what the Trump kids are getting for Christmas.
Good to know.
Thanks
for that.
I think that they'll still do all right here.
So what do we know about economic growth?
Because we've certainly talked about the potential for stagflation.
And in what data you are seeing, is that concern still warranted?
Yeah, I think the stagflation concern is definitely there.
We know that the job market is very soft.
That was the primary reason referenced by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell in yesterday's comments.
After the FOMC meeting, two cut interest rates are usually only cut interest rates when you see economic activity slowing down.
Inflation was the second reason, and he said prices are up.
in his comments after the decision for the rate cut.
And we haven't had any hard data on GDP, but all of the estimates from all of the Federal Reserve governors in the various 12 districts are definitely lower.
They're basically on an annualized rate between like 1.4 and 3%.
So we're definitely shifting downward.
in terms of economic activity, which really shouldn't come as a big surprise.
You know, the tariffs, especially those related to steel and aluminum, have had a huge impact on manufacturing.
I mean, I know Trump wanted to make manufacturing jobs a priority, but he basically sabotaged himself to make sure there was no way that that was possible to happen.
And so much of it is still tied up in courts and so much is still up for debate.
And then there are still the certainty of what's to come.
And those would be, you know, the cuts that are coming, the massive cuts that are coming in the big bloated boondoggle.
And I mean, again, some of it, quite a bit of it has been pushed off until after the 2026 elections.
But that doesn't mean that people won't make an issue out of all these looming cuts that are out there as well.
Exactly, Pat.
I mean, you were just talking about sort of, you know, what's happening with the ACA subsidies, right?
They're going away.
The Republicans don't want to do anything because, of course, dear leader doesn't want any sort of, you know, form of the ACA to continue even though he's had what?
nine years more to come up with some sort of plan.
And all we've heard is, you know, concepts of a plan.
That's not much of a plan, Mr. President.
So I think we'll stick with what we've got that's actually working.
But don't forget, those happen right now.
So we're seeing the price tag hit on those 20 million Americans are seeing the increase.
And as a double smack to farmers, since they're self employed, guess where they get their health insurance?
But
what we've heard, and I mentioned just a little bit ago from the House Republican Caucus, is coming back to a familiar chestnut, health savings accounts.
And of course, you have a lengthy career in finance and ways, you know, good ways to park your money and maybe bad ways to park your money.
Is health savings accounts an adequate replacement for the Affordable Care Act?
No, it's an excuse.
Health savings accounts are a way to save money pre-tax so that you can pay for either deductibles or health insurance.
So what the Republicans are trying to do, what they typically try to do is say, oh, you should just get some sort of catastrophic health insurance and then park money that you would have been using to pay for real health insurance into a health savings account so that you can pay for the deductibles should you have to use.
You know up to whatever the the self-insurance point is on your catastrophic health insurance Not a great plan A lot of I don't know any providers that will say okay.
Yeah, we'll take your you know health savings account as as insurance and look at your catastrophic insurance and say this doesn't really cover what you're trying to get you know done medically so
It's just sort of a non-starter that doesn't work in practical terms.
Yeah, I mean, it's just kind of in the same vein of everything.
The answer for everything is a tax credit, which again, just simply decreases revenue for all the things that you want to do as opposed to just actually providing
What it is that people want and the other thing I think people forget with the Affordable Care Act is it's not just You know the the premium support to make the insurance affordable But it was the the rules and requirements on health insurance companies So they they stopped jerking you around you you paid your premium year after year after year and then you'd get denied and the Affordable Care Act didn't end it but put a lot of limits to it and you blow those up
We just had right back for the battle days here.
Right, but that was part of the profitability for health insurance in the first place.
They had to make money in different ways.
They went for vertical integration, so now they are the pharmacy, they own the doctors, they own the clinics.
They own your insurance.
They own everything attached to your to your healthcare.
And they make money by denying you coverage, denying you insurability for services provided.
Sean O'Malley talks to us each week about your money in the markets.
We'll do it again next week.
Sean, thank you very much.
Have a great day.
Thanks, Pat.
Take care.
All right.
Time now at just about 744 for our 12 Days of Community Kindness where we have been looking all over Wisconsin in the spirit of Giving Tuesday and extending it for 11 more days because of all the
people and places and organizations that are doing some great things.
And this time around, we're going to talk about something called Project Fire Buddies with Kevin and Scott and Eric.
Let's see, it's Eric Krug, right?
Scott Dempster and Kevin Holdifer.
That's correct.
Hey, there we go.
Good guess on me.
Point for me.
Kevin, why don't we... You're the Chief Personnel Officer for Project Fire Buddies.
You want to kick things off and tell us a bit about what Project Fire Buddies is?
Yes, sir.
So we are a not-for-profit ran by firefighters and volunteers, but...
Started and ran by firefighters and what we do is we're trying to bring more positivity kids in our own neighborhoods.
Kids that are sick with cancer or critical illnesses constantly are battling.
going to the hospital, they're dealing with all kinds of medical emergencies, and we show up with our lights and sirens on those bad days, right?
So our goal is to make more good days by showing up with the lights and sirens.
But this time we come with gifts.
This time of year, we're showing up with Santa.
So I brought Eric and Scott, both our Wisconsin chapter presidents, to talk about their experiences as chapters in Wisconsin.
We started in Illinois, but we are now starting to blow up in Wisconsin.
We have four total chapters.
and another eight that are interested.
So,
all right.
And the website there is projectfirebuddies.org.
Let's let Eric and Scott come in and tell us a bit about the Plover and Bristol chapters.
Eric, we'll start with you and talk about, you know, what it is that made you want to get involved with this?
Yeah, actually, I saw an interview that Chris did on a podcast.
I can't even think of the name of it, but I was just right away moved by it.
I thought, what a great
thing that they're doing with these firefighters.
It's basically like Make-A-Wish, but with, you know, the firefighter addition.
We've had a couple pop-up rubber duct drops where we've dropped ducts from the lighter truck to just a 50-50 raffle to raise money for this project.
And then we're going to do some more, you know, we're just getting our name out there.
I think we've been in it for five, six months now.
We contacted the local Y.
And really it's just to get our name out there and the best part about project fire buddies is that even if we don't have a kid We know we're helping kids all over the place.
So I think it's just awesome that the money goes to all the kids It doesn't have to stay in your area.
So
yeah,
you can help out in any way
Scott you want to speak on behalf of Bristol and what made you want to get involved or the kind of things you guys have done already sure
So I found out about project fire buddies to a friend
Down in Illinois.
He's a chapter president in Lombard.
I believe So he was telling
me
about it one day and I decided after hearing about it I thought that would be a great resource to have available to our community So I brought it to our association.
We approved it right away started a chapter and we actually Just currently found out maybe last week that we have our first fire buddy.
So right now we're working on setting up that initial visit and
getting all their presents ordered, and everyone's very excited to make more good days for him.
Sounds like they would be.
Hey, Kevin, tell folks how they can either donate to Project Fire Buddies, or if they maybe want to apply to be a Fire Buddy, how should they go forward?
So everything's done through our website, www.projectfirebuddies.org.
You can donate there if you have a child.
would fit that cancer critical list diagnosis.
They can
be
nominated there.
They have to be nominated by the parents.
We also have a link to our store, which sells all of our t-shirts, all of our swag options, and all the money goes towards the kids.
Right now, we're operating at 89%, which is platinum standard across the nation.
not for profits.
So 89% so 89 cents of every dollar is going towards a kid with cancer critical illnesses.
I'm looking at the the shop right now here again you go to projectfirebuddies.org click on the shop button there's all kinds of great swag there more good days project fire buddies all about superheroes and you know Kevin that's got to make you guys feel good you have a very important and dangerous job as it is but now you get to kind of act as community ambassadors as well the kids really look up to you this has to give you a nice feeling.
Yes, firefighters were there to help people during their bad days.
We want to give those more good days.
But in all honesty, we're there to help the community in every way, not just when they have a house fire or if they have a medical emergency, we're there to help them in any way possible.
And that's what we're trying to do here.
That's great.
Kevin Holdifer is the chief personnel officer with Project Fire Buddies, again at projectfirebuddies.org.
Eric Krug and Scott Dempster represent the chapters in Plover and Bristol.
Gentlemen, thank you all very much for helping us spread the word about your great organization.
Have a great day.
All right.
Appreciate it very much.
All right.
Coming up yet in our eight o'clock hour, we will talk to Joseph Pecky about the entrance of a seventh Democrat in the governor's race and more.
That's after eight o'clock.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
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Here in Western Wisconsin, if you want to follow the news through Civic Media, James Kelly is the guy to see and you can catch his updates on 93.5 the TAP.
That's WCFWHD2 in the Chippewa Valley or on the website for 93.5 the TAP.
Their website is thetap.fm.
Again, thetap.fm.
James Kelly covering things in the Chippewa Valley Newsroom and joins us now, James.
Hello, how are you?
I'm good.
It's one of those mornings where you make yourself a coffee and you get ready to leave the house and then you get in the car and realize the coffee's still on the counter.
Oh, yes.
And then you got to go be cold again if you want to go get it.
So yeah, I told you.
We just admit that defeat.
I'll get it later.
No, I, oh you, okay, you will.
Um, yeah, I had, I had my own share of defeat yesterday as I, I mentioned briefly earlier where, uh, apparently I learned the hard way that there's a reason why you should put more, you know, use premium gas in your snow blowers and your lawn mowers and things like that.
Cause I got a, I got a carburetor that's all gunked up and I got, I got a friend that says, you know, uh, seafoam is the fuel additive that you want to get in there and that'll get her all cleaned up.
So.
That's my outdoor task because I couldn't take care of it when the weather was, what, 10 degrees warmer now that it's four.
It's four degrees out there.
We always wait just a
little too long.
Yes, so whether it's forgetting the coffee or having to do two days worth of snow blowing, it is that time of year for the little frustrations.
But, you know, we get through the malls best we can.
Let's get to the data center.
thing, I guess thing, because that's definitely one of the issues of the year in various communities around Wisconsin.
Menominee among them, what is new on that front?
Yeah, so as you know, they had the statewide protests last week speaking out against data centers just in general with all the issues they've had, you know, in Port Jefferson, in fact.
But out in the nominee, this has been going on for a few months now that they've been pushing back against this data center by balloonist LLC.
Again, this data center wouldn't have been.
constructed until at least 2027.
This is years off.
So the city is now looking at other options to kind of push back and maybe even get a little bit more of a negotiating footing for addressing some of the concerns of the community, specifically electricity and water usage.
So this week, the plan commission voted to recommend that the city council adopt a new ordinance, creating a new zoning district specifically for data centers that includes some of these more extreme.
you could say zoning regulations, you know, things like it has to be the setback has to be 400 feet instead of 50 feet and things like that.
Now, the important thing is that
It still gives the city the option to move forward with the data center in the future.
It just gives them a better way to negotiate the terms of that data center.
And it also gives residents a little bit more hope that the plans are being paused for now.
We are giving legitimate consideration to the downsides.
The data center, these projects are certainly much bigger than I think people were originally thinking.
I liken it to what I heard earlier in the Midwest Farm Report, somebody from the Farm Bureau saying, oh, well, these rules are trying to get rid of all farming in Polk County.
And my response would be, no, no, they're not.
They're trying to get rid of the factory farming because there's farming and then there's factory farms.
There's data centers.
And then there's these massive data centers.
It's like the difference between a warehouse and an Amazon warehouse.
And if the folks in Menominee are trying to right size their rules for these large data centers, I mean, that that kind of dialogue is only
to be helpful in the long run, I would think.
Yeah, and before this ordinance, one of the key things is that technically data centers would be zoned as warehousing under the current zoning code, so there's really not a whole lot that the city can do.
They have to accommodate the legal land use.
Yeah, exactly.
All right, let's head over to Chippewa Falls, where the governor has signed a multi-million dollar bill to help out with behavioral health.
Yeah, if you remember about a month ago, the Chippewa Falls City Council officially approved the plans for this hospital, the Rogers Behavioral Health Hospital.
It's going to be out by Highway 178 and with Soda Green Boulevard along the Old A bike trail.
It's going to have enough room for 14 beds for inpatient care, 24 beds for longer term residential stay and some outpatient care.
And there was legislation proposed by State Senator Jesse James and Representative Clint Moses for $10 million to help fund this.
It's meant to address kind of that loss of
behavioral health beds at HSH Sacred Heart.
So Governor Evers signed that bill into law this week.
That funding is ready to go and they're getting ready to start construction this spring, could open by spring 2027.
Got it.
Okay.
And let's stay in Chippewa Falls where look, you hear about lead service lines for water in the first place you think of is Milwaukee because there is a massive problem there.
But as we've said several times on this program, lead service lines need to be replaced in all kinds of communities around the state.
Yeah, there's the safe drinking water loan fund program Chippewa Falls is gonna get over 1.9 million dollars through that now about 957,000 is just through principal forgiveness So they're just gonna get that money the rest of that funding is gonna come through a loan with a point two five percent interest rate So really just trying to make it a little more affordable for these smaller cities smaller communities like Chippewa Falls like rice lake and the city of Thorpe Which also got funding through this round.
I was a total of 159 million
and for 29 municipalities through this round of funding.
So just trying to get a little bit more affordability for replacing those lead service lines, which can have a lot of negative health impacts on people.
Absolutely.
Yep.
And well, we started the segment talking about how cold it is.
Let's let's end on that note because the the ice rinks and hopefully the warming shelters as well are going to get going in Eau Claire before too long here.
Yeah, the city of Eau Claire announced last week that the Pinehurst Warming Shelter is planning to open on Monday, December 15th.
A couple weeks after that, December 26th, the ice rinks around the city are gonna be opening up.
I just gotta wait for it to get cold enough for long enough so that they can flood the ice rinks and actually have ice there and not worry about, oh well is this gonna melt if we have one warm day?
Yeah, right.
No, you don't because
then the ice gets just all lumpy bumpy when it refreezes.
Yeah, no one wants that.
No, I haven't gone ice skating for a long time.
But as a kid, I loved when our local ice rink was open and gave you something.
I've never been ice
skating before, even
on a rink.
There we go.
There we go.
Parker, add that to his list.
Yeah, there you go.
A
lot of people went ice skating out on this pond back where I was from.
And I always thought, well, you know, the water's down there still.
I know it's
there, so I'm
not interested.
You are a wise man.
which is why you are our newsman in the Chippewa Valley.
Catch them on 93.5 The TAP and the TAP.FM.
James, thank you so much.
Have a great day.
Have a good one, guys.
All right.
Coming up, we're going to be talking to Chad Holmes from our station in Wasaw and Joseph Pecky as well as we roll on on this Thursday morning edition of these mornings with Pat Krightlow powered by Up North News on the Civic Media Radio Network.
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