☀️ Good morning!

It’s Sunday, August 10, 2025

There’s so much noise about election integrity these days — usually accompanied by false claims about discrepancies — that it’s deeply refreshing to cast a spotlight on a news story you probably missed, because it was simply affirmation that the system in Wisconsin works as intended.

Ever so quietly, the Wisconsin Elections Commission recently removed 192,369 individuals from the voter rolls. 

But wait, you might say, aren’t we the folks who went ballistic the last time there was a push to delete voter registrations? Yes. And that’s why it’s important to note the difference between routine maintenance vs. voter suppression. 

What happened last month has happened before—and went off according to plan. By law, the commission has a process for identifying people who haven’t voted over the previous four years. They are sent a mailing, and those who don’t respond are deactivated. There were 9,501 voters who responded and are still on the rolls. If someone was dropped and wants to vote again, they have to re-register.

It is far more suspicious when an outside group tries to use our courts to force voters’ files to be deleted using a different, less trustworthy process. Thankfully, that tactic has failed here, but that won’t stop future efforts to suppress or intimidate voters—so we must remain vigilant.

Enjoy your day. And, as always, if news breaks while you’re out and about, you can stay up to date with our weekday newsletter, our social media posts, and our morning radio show.

⏮️ Last Week: Texas Republicans are trying to rig their congressional maps. It’s led to talk that solid “blue” states should respond by artificially adding more Democratic congressional districts to offset the GOP chicanery. 

What do you think is the proper blue state response to “gerrymandering gone wild” in red states? Should Democrats adjust their own maps to balance out Republican actions?

🄰  Do it, according to 79% of respondents.

🄱  Don’t sink to their level, said the other 21%.

Lori H. said: “I hate to say this, but we have to go with A. Democrats have always tried to take the high road, but I just don’t think that’s an option with Trump and his MAGA at the helm. We have to fight back, however we can, as our democracy is at risk.”

Don G. went the other way: “Democrats do not need to lower themselves to meet their goals.”

🧌

⏭️ This Week: We need to talk about Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden and his behavior on social media.

Not the Van Orden who local TV stations like to cover because farm tours give them easy, visual stories. Like this one.

And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. 

The real Van Orden is, to put it kindly, pugnacious and arguably the busiest internet troll in Congress, with hundreds of posts each month on what used to be Twitter — hurling insults and putting his unique spin on the issues.  

But this past week represented a new low: repeatedly tweeting a photo of a naked man in a ski mask with a sex toy and joking (we assume) that it’s Rep. Mark Pocan, who has done more town halls than Van Orden… in Van Orden’s district — and frequently counters or corrects Van Orden’s claims. Are these kinds of posts acceptable for a member of Congress? Of course not. They wouldn’t be acceptable for middle schoolers.

Our question deals with politicians’ personal social media feeds. Staffers often take care of social media accounts for official offices and for election campaigns. Thanks to Trump, however, we’ve seen how low in the gutter politicians’ personal accounts can go. Or maybe you disagree? Which statement is closest to how you feel?

🄰  Keep on tweeting. It bypasses the official posts and gets right to the heart of what an elected official is thinking. If it makes them look back, that’s on them.

🄱  Delete your account. Your focus needs to be on the job we pay you to do. You have a communications staff who should know better than to spend endless hours tweeting. If you want to share what you think, maybe hold some listening sessions?

To answer this week’s question or to suggest a different answer, hit reply or email me directly at pat@couriernewsroom.com, and we may share it in a future newsletter or on our radio show.

(Photo of Aspirus Wausau Hospital via Shutterstock)

The cuts coming to Medicaid are going to have ripple effects that do serious damage to rural health care, according to a family practice physician from Tomah speaking to former US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as part of his series of conversations on YouTube, Substack, Facebook, TikTok and other platforms.

With an online audience of millions, Buttigieg has been sharing stories of Americans facing the consequences of cuts to vital services coming from President Donald Trump and Republicans controlling Congress. Buttigieg’s latest episode features Dr. Jill McMullen of Tomah discussing her concerns for the deterioration of rural health care as hospitals see their revenues plunge and they begin cutting services like delivering babies. Eventually, some hospitals will close their doors entirely.

“I want people to understand,” McMullen said, “that our rural hospitals are infrastructure, every 30 to 40 miles in general. And so you’re driving on vacation with your family, you have an incident, heart attack, car accident. If there is no rural hospital, that golden hour has now evaporated. Trying to get you someplace to keep you alive.”

UpNorthNews was given the first opportunity to broadcast excerpts from the interview on our Friday radio show, “Mornings with Pat Kreitlow.” 

Read the full story about the interview on our website.

1️⃣ No blockades on reservation roads – A federal judge for the western district of Wisconsin ruled this week that the Lac du Flambeau tribe of Lake Superior Chippewa may not block access to non-tribal members who own property within the reservation boundaries. The tribe pointed to decades-long easements that had expired and said the nearby non-tribal town of Lac du Flambeau (or the state or federal governments) need to reach an agreement to pay for their renewal. Judge William Conley said the non-tribal landowners are allowed access via roads that have long been maintained by the town. Former US Attorney Jim Santelle told us the judge’s ruling indicates a negotiated settlement is still possible, but not for the $20 million demanded by the tribe. 

2️⃣ Berrien burying his disagreements with Trump – Gubernatorial Republican candidate Bill Berrien needed four attempts, but he finally answered a reporter’s question about his decision last year to support Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign rather than President Donald Trump’s. Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said the businessman’s efforts to avoid a direct response finally ended with, “Why don’t you go ahead and say I regret those donations?” Perhaps — but Berrien is now comparing himself to Trump and seeking his endorsement.

3️⃣ You can increase taxpayer transparency – Each Wednesday morning, our radio show has a “Homeroom” segment about public education. We recently talked to Laura McCoy of the Green Bay school board, Alyssa Proffitt of the Green Bay city council, and Denise Gaumer Hutchison of the Wisconsin Public Education Network about how they worked to ensure property tax bills are upfront about the true cost of voucher schools, rather than lumping it into the number for the public school district. Now they’re offering to help people in other districts get that same level of transparency for their neighbors.

Catch our radio show weekdays from 6-9 a.m. on our Facebook and YouTube pages as well as stations across Wisconsin thanks to our friends at Civic Media. If you can’t listen live, listen on-demand by subscribing on Spotify.

📱 And stay up to date all day with all of our team’s work through our social media feeds, including Instagram and TikTok.

🏁 Thanks for reading today’s update.

Have a great week.