☀️ Good morning, Brewers fans!

It’s Sunday, October 12, 2025

🍾 The magic ride continues! The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-1, on Saturday night in the deciding 5th game of the National League Division Series and move on to the National League Championship Series, for a chance to play in baseball’s World Series.

🅻 Yes, that photo is exactly what it appears to be. It is an image we will be sharing with our many Cubs fan friends who enjoy texting us a “Fly the W” gif whenever they beat the Brewers. During the postgame team photo, Trevor McGill — the former Cubs pitcher who started Game 5 for Milwaukee — took great pleasure in hoisting the L flag to celebrate defeating a division rival, one now managed by former Brewers skipper Craig Counsell.

⚾️ The celebration won’t last long. There’s redemption to be claimed — a chance to beat back the demons that have haunted the Brewers’ postseason dreams since 2018. Once again, the Brewers will face the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team that beat Milwaukee in an epic seven-game NLCS seven years ago. Game 1 is tomorrow (Monday), 7:08pm at American Family Field. 

Get ready!

🏈 And of course: Go Packers! They host the Cincinnati Bengals at 3:25 this afternoon. Enjoy your Sunday. And stay up to date with our weekday newsletter, our social media posts, and our morning radio show.

PS: We need to drop this hint occasionally because our newsletters sometimes run longer than your email program wants to display. Just click on the line at the top of this newsletter “View email in browser” and the full version will open up in a new window. 

⏮️ Last Week:  Ope! Our first-ever “way too early” preference poll of candidates for governor went off the rails less than 48 hours after it started, after Josh Kaul said he would run for a third term as state attorney general rather than for governor. Apologies to those who said nice things about a preferred candidate who decided not to be a candidate after all. Maybe we need to use ranked choice voting next time!

Herb E. – “I think the Democrats have a wealth of candidates for Governor out there but my way-too-early pick would be Kelda Roys.”

Russ K. – “I think Missy Hughes could make some waves.  I have worked with her at WEDC and have found her to be very competent and effective.”

Jeanette K. – “I would vote for Sara Rodriguez.  She is thoughtful, articulate and smart.  I think she would be a strong governor.”

Paul & Dian – “State Rep. Francesca Hong. We need a progressive at the helm.”

Pat S. – “Barnes has the best chance.”

Pat F. – “David Crowley”

Lisa H. – “My pick for governor is Ryan Strnad! Not a politician or a white collar businessman. I think he’s probably got some honest dirt under those fingernails. Sadly, you didn’t even include him in the poll, only some long-term politicians who would bring more of the same to Madison.”

👉🏼 Remember: There is nothing scientific about this survey. And we’ll do a Republican poll once we see if the field of candidates grows beyond the current two.

⏭️ This Week: We don’t normally believe there are zombies in Wisconsin, but every few years some new company pops up and makes noise about drilling for gold and other minerals in the northwoods. They have their supporters, like US Rep. Tom Tiffany, who would have pockmarked the landscape many times over by now, buying into a promise of job creation and economic riches. It was Tiffany who, in 2017, led the way in repealing a state law that required potential mining companies to prove they had already operated and sealed a previous mine with no environmental damage. (What a crazy concept, huh?)

Now comes word that the latest company to do test drilling near Medford sees potential in mining someday for copper, gold, and tellurium, used in solar panels. (Gotta love that convenient inclusion of a mineral used in clean energy.) However, even the test drilling created problems with sediment washing into a wetland and a borehole left unfilled, creating a potential for cross-contamination between aquifers.

Where are you when it comes to mining up north?

🄰  Nope. Don’t need it. Don’t want it. Not worth the risk.

🄱  Open to it. The minerals we use every day have to come from somewhere, so let’s put some firm safeguards in place and keep a sharp eye on mining operations.

🄲  Drill, baby, drill. Mining companies know it’s in their best interests to operate responsibly. Wisconsin has a long history of mining and we should be a leader again, without rigid corporate regulations.

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

Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Black Earth) was on our radio show this past week, sharing a simple message for his Republican colleagues, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and President Donald Trump: Folks aren’t buying their distractions. They know this is all about the many different kinds of GOP cuts to health care.

“Whether it’s the half-trillion in cuts to Medicare, whether it’s everyone’s [health insurance] rates going up, whether it’s the people who are going to be kicked off of Medicaid after the election next year, or the very real effects over the next couple of weeks for people on the Affordable Care Act, people get what’s a priority: It’s their health care. It’s not whatever game it is that Mike Johnson and Donald Trump are trying to play.”

Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. But they need at least seven Democratic votes to pass a spending bill in the Senate — and Democrats say they’ll go along if Americans can avoid the upcoming massive spike in health insurance premiums by making permanent the 2021 enhanced tax credits for plans in the Affordable Care Act marketplace. 

Trump’s response has been to make the shutdown worse by playing politics with spending cuts, putting partisan propaganda on official government websites and airport videos, and announcing unnecessary firings — including more than 1,000 staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including those who help respond to outbreaks of Ebola, mpox, and other diseases abroad, as well as the growing number of measles cases here at home. 

Pocan has held a number of town halls in the neighboring district of US Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Prairie du Chien), who has followed Speaker Johnson’s advice to not take public comment on the healthcare cuts.

“If he [Van Orden] really believed he did a good thing with the ‘big ugly law’ and this is such a good fight over the showdown, you’d want to go to every county in your district and brag about what you did,” Pocan said. “But instead of doing that, you’re hiding in your basement.”

1️⃣  Cutting funds for deaf-blind education — The Trump administration’s onslaught against programs promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has endangered a program that helps educate Wisconsin children who are deaf and blind. The US Department of Education pulled back several years of future grants for the Wisconsin Deaf-Blind Technical Assistance Program, which serves 170 families. It later restored funding for one year, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The administration did not like that the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction said grant money used for serving deaf and blind children should consider applicants from businesses owned by women, minorities, veterans, and the disabled communities.

2️⃣  Regulations… or protections? — Republican legislators are moving forward with a package of bills they claim would reduce burdensome regulations, but regulations can also be thought of as protections for the environment, for consumers, and for workers. The GOP measures would force state taxpayers to pay people who successfully win rollbacks of those protections — and require more paperwork before other protections could be put into effect. Protections (or regulations) would also automatically disappear after seven years unless a state agency restarted the process to keep them in place.

“I like air and water, specifically breathable air,” said Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee). “And I don’t know what the price tag is on that.”

3️⃣  Shouldn’t you live in your district? — This story is about Rep. Dave Murphy (R-Greenville), or it might be Rep. Dave Murphy (R-Grand Chute), depending on where he lives. It’s not a minor matter since one of those communities is not inside Assembly District 56, which Murphy is supposed to represent. The Appleton Post Crescent reported on the discrepancy after Murphy claimed his new address in Grand Chute is in his district, when it is not. Following the report, Murphy reported a new in-district address in the village of Greenville.

Democrat Emily Tseffos has announced she would run again for the seat so that it could be represented by an unquestioned full-time resident. 

📻 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 our update.

Have a great week!