What's the Deal with the Hop, Getting Rural Students to College, Top Chef Tourism Success

Today on Spanning the State Kristin Brey and Brian Noonan talk to 620WTMJ’s Jeff Sherwin host of “The Upswing” about the status of Milwaukee’s controversial public transportation, The Hop. Jeff Sherwin shares the origins of the transportation, what is going to happen with it moving forward, the overall opinion of it by Milwaukee citizens and more. Then food deserts and Child Care deserts have been plaguing the state but now there is an education desert, Jennifer Blazek a leader for the College for Rural Wisconsin talks to Kristin and Brian about how the college has launched a program through UW-Madison to help provide rural students improved access to higher education. Blazek shares, how the program measures success, what type of assistance is needed for rural students to transition to college and how access to higher education differs for rural students and urban or Suburban students. Later Top Chef has successfully exceeded the $1.2 million investment Wisconsin contributed to have the show here and grow tourism. Kristin and Brian discuss their success in comparison to the other summer events like the RNC and Summerfest that brought big tourism to the state and Milwaukee.