Mornings with Pat Kreitlow

For many, it’s little more than a lost freighter at the bottom of Lake Superior, but author and former legislator Tom Nelson sees the Edmund Fitzgerald as perhaps the most apt metaphor of the late 20th century — an economy that put shareholder profits ahead of workers’ prosperity, and empty populist promises from candidates in both parties. We’ll talk to him about his new book that draws those par...

It was creepy when he said it and not too surprising that President Trump broke his promise to be the “fertilization president” and labeled himself the “Father of IVF.” We’ll ask Dr. Kristin Lyerly about reports the White House has no intention of fulfilling Trump’s campaign promise that “the government is going to pay for it, or we’ll mandate your insurance company to pay for it.” We’ll also reme...

Gubernatorial candidate Bill Berrien seems to be “buryin’” his campaign hopes each time he’s asked questions about his positions or his history. It took four tries, but a reporter finally got the wealthy businessman to claim he regrets supporting Nikki Haley in the last GOP presidential primary. And he didn’t have a very convincing answer to what separates him from Eric Hovde and Tim Michels, two...

A new ruling from a federal judge in Wisconsin may lead to a big setback in Indian sovereignty across the country. The Lac du Flambeau Reservation is one of many that were made into checkerboards of tribal and non-tribal lands because of racist policies in the 19th century. The boards were further locked into place by this week’s ruling. Plus other headlines from our Week In Review panel. Mornings...

A western Wisconsin doctor is part of an online video series with Pete Buttigieg, talking about how President Trump’s Medicaid cuts put rural health care into a death spiral. Also: Trump’s disdain of the US Constitution was on display this week in his insistence that a new census be taken that only counts citizens. That is not how a census works, unless of course you’re into people being invisible...

We’ll talk to Trygve Olson, senior advisor to the Lincoln Project, live from Lithuania. Trygve is a River Falls native who has worked all over the globe promoting democracy. Now he spends much of his time helping to defend democracy in, of all places, the United States of America. We’ll catch up with Sean O’Malley and ask if the instability over President Trump’s trade war is still causing concern...

Congressman Bryan Steil is getting compliments for having an in-person town hall, something Republican leaders are expressly discouraging—because it only lets Americans complain about the cuts Republicans are making to essential programs. But Steil’s “bravery” only lasts as long as he’s willing to be truthful to his audience. After that, it’s just political theater. LuAnn Bird weighs in. Mornings...

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is loosening rules on drones to allow more of them to fly beyond the operator’s line of sight. Good for delivering Amazon packages and Starbucks coffee, but bad for safety? And some Wisconsin Republicans are spending their week yelling at Milwaukee, yelling at Canada, or — in Derrick Van Orden’s case — putting up posts of a naked man. Will the weirdness never en...

Donald Trump’s Environmental “Protection” Agency has rescinded a landmark policy acknowledgement that manmade pollution from fossil fuels is a danger to human health—and has rolled back vehicle pollution standards as a result, posing a big threat to health, jobs, and the economy. In our Climate Check segment, Melissa Baldauff is joined by Casey Hicks of Wisconsin Conservation Voters. We’ll also ch...

In our Homeroom segment, we’ll talk to leaders in Green Bay about how you can follow their lead in your own hometown and push for better taxpayer transparency when it comes to the true cost of voucher schools and your property tax bill. We’ll also touch base with Civic Media’s Jimmie Kaska about the drinking fountains in La Crosse and what it means for the issue of homelessness. Mornings with Pat...

What Ed Prehn, Scott Walker, and legislative Republicans did to sabotage the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board a couple of years ago wasn’t “politics as usual,” it was conduct that should disqualify people from ever being entrusted by voters with elected or appointed offices. We have an update on a lawsuit over text messages that led some of Walker’s appointees to stay in place after their terms h...

Last month, America marked 60 years of Medicare and Medicaid as a lifeline for the elderly and vulnerable. Not long after that, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to ensure racial discrimination would find no place in America’s elections. But it’s back, thanks to a politicized US Supreme Court and an all-out assault by a sitting president on anything resembling racial ju...

It has taken a while due to restrictions from a Republican-led Legislature, but progress is being made in Wisconsin communities that want to create a local network to ensure access to high-speed internet service. We’ll talk to Superior Mayor Jim Paine about the latest hometown to get a project started. We’ll also review the latest talk among progressive insiders over next year’s Democratic primary...

The case of Texas legislators leaving the state in order to delay rigged Republican congressional maps evokes memories of what happened before Act 10 in Wisconsin in 2011. But the similarity goes deeper than that. States are in these positions of corrupt cartography because right wing justices on the US Supreme Court wouldn’t step in when Wisconsin Republicans rigged our own maps during former Gov...

Small business owners are going public over the struggle to access health care, deal with rising tariffs, and meet the needs of their employees when it comes to childcare and more. We’ll catch up with Shawn Phetteplace from Main Street Alliance about their local meetings with small business owners across the country who look out for the employees who power their productivity. We’ll also check in w...

It’s the goal of many non-profits and other organizations: create something so popular that it practically funds everything else you do. The folks at the Jackson County Fair figured that out a few years ago when they took the usual demolition derby, traded out cars, and crashed old farm combines! UpNorthNews reporter Salina Heller shares some insight from her hometown fair. We’ll also check in wit...

Wisconsin two active sports teams put on two different types of fireworks displays over the weekend. For the Green Bay Packers, it was the literal kind—a show in the skies to wrap up another successful Family Night practice. For the Brewers, the fireworks came from the bats—setting a record for the number of hits in a three-game series as they pounded the Nationals in Washington, and manager Pat M...

We’re talking live with Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, the first announced candidate in next year’s race for Wisconsin governor. She’ll talk about her background as a nurse and healthcare leader, what prompted her to run for a seat in the Legislature before becoming the state’s second highest executive, and what she wants to do if elected to succeed Tony Evers in November 2026. Dr. Kristin Lyerly joins...

Brittney Merlot warns of incredibly poor air quality. We’ll review the top stories of the past few days with our Week In Review panel—including this morning’s newly announced tariffs from President Trump that make little sense and will only increase prices further for American consumers. Plus: A discussion about the national news outlets that are worth the subscription price and the ones that have...

Imagine living in a country where the leadership is so corrupt it can demand that lawmakers in one of its areas redraw the maps as a way to stay in power, no matter what the voters might think. The country is right here and the area is Texas—with legislators coming into special session to redraw maps mid-decade just because Donald Trump told them to rig the lines to add five more Republicans in Co...

Wall Street finance and compliance expert Sean O’Malley gives us his Wisconsin common sense take on the latest economic news—raw numbers that suggest things aren’t as bad as people feared they might be, but there’s no clear path out of the current sluggishness. And it goes without saying, the sluggishness wasn’t inevitable, since we were enjoying a resurging economy when it was under adult supervi...

For people who follow the news regularly, there’s no surprise in what billboards are saying about the Trump megabill. But there are still plenty of people in Wisconsin and elsewhere who aren’t aware that the massive cuts in vital programs aren’t saving them a dime—it’s all going to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and others in the highest tax brackets. We’ll talk to the head of a national group...

Well, that didn’t take long. The 2026 race for Wisconsin governor already has its first smear campaign—and it was as predictable as it is tiring. Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez met her husband at a salsa dancing class and they’ve been married nearly 20 years. He’s an IT network engineer, a naturalized citizen, and they’re raising two teenagers. Naturally, the first whisper campaigns of his immigration st...